We started encamped on the road between the Old Mill where we had killed the dream pastry peddling Granny Momo and our destination city of Volockea. In the middle of the 3rd watch, the log Zolton was sitting on (it had to be Brian) suddenly rose up and reveal itself as a Yeti. Not a normal 9-foot Yeti but a legendary one. Initiative. Since Zolton and the missing Ambrus were on watch, they were the only ones awake. Brian allowed everyone to roll into action pretty fast (I don’t think anyone sleeps soundly in this land anymore) but those with armor beyond leather were deemed unarmored. I think that only affected Lord Q though. Luckily the fast-acting Yeti merely roared on his first action. Everyone else charged into action, guns a blazing. As is typically the case, its AC was low but its to-hit, damage, and hit points were high. He got 2 claws and a chilling stare that, on a failed save, did a lot of damage and cause frozen paralysis. Someone got hit with that early but I can’t remember who (Dan: The monk was first. One-shotted again. His fiery fists caught his attention. Fortunately he wasn't flying when he was paralyzed.). It did not like fire but didn’t seem to be taking any extra damage from it (Dan: it caused it to attack with disadvantage but with a +11 to hit this wasn't that much of a hindrance. It was the raccoon ranger who made a very high survival/monster lore roll to identify this weakness). It merely targeted those who were wielding it. As an added complication, it rose up next to the horses who started to drag the wagon into the forest (Dan: The children were in the wagon and got mildly tenderized).
So as usual, things were looking pretty dire. Then Zolton hit it with a Whispers spell which caused it to run away. As it left, Lord Q crit it with an opportunity attack and hit a ton of damage. He had his hex blade and a hex going. So, it was now pretty damaged. Next to go was Loki but it ran so fast, it was no longer in 'long range' of his pistols. So, he started to unload the tent in case it came back. The enraged werewolf Kharn charged after it, pulling out a longbow. Lord Q did the same. With its next round, it saved and started coming back. It critted Kaladin with a claw, then finished him off with another. And it icy stared Zolton at long range and paralyzed him and knocked him out. The next round, it took out Kharn. Somewhere in there it also did a cold breath weapon. Luckily that never recharged. The upshot was that we went from having it on the ropes to having 3 players out. However, the NPC aided Zolton, Loki got Kharn a good berry and then Kharn got one to Kaladin. Armed with 1 hit point, they continued the attacks and it was taken out. All told, it took 6 rounds. Loki skinned it as we figured it might be worth something. We took a short rest, since we had just had a long rest, and pressed on into the snow.
During that journey, the NPC cried out and started talking about returning to Barovia. She had been talking to her brother via the Sending Stones. Evidently, the whole town was hooked on those pastries. We sorted of knew that since the kid’s parents had sold them to get more. However, beyond everyone getting sick, evidently, people were rioting, searching for any remaining pastries (Dan: Out of the 3 sisters in the tavern only one is known to have survived. No one cared, even Karn who spent the night with them). The NPC blamed herself for not foreseeing this and at least warning her brother. Those damn pastries. (Dan: She noticed that Brian was a cleric and started confession. The book Brian had read 'The Cleric's Correspondence School of hard Knocks' had covered this so he faked his way through as she confessed her guilt over the situation. Then he blew it all by interrogating the girl about exactly what a priest/cleric was and how they were different than a wizard. It was awkward.) A couple of skill rolls and mentioning the kids we had in our care managed to get her back on track. Lord Q explained what happened (i.e. children’s bones et al) via the stones and Ismark said he’d try to get the situation under control there. We pressed on (Dan: Despite blowing all our heals, spells, and recovery dice because we had just had a long rest) however the snow got worse. And then a half dozen dire wolves attacked. They had their pack tactics and free trips however it wasn’t too tough. Towards the end, one tried to grab the prone Lord Q but only came away with a boot. With that, it headed into the woods and the others followed. That struck us as odd but we could not stop it before it disappeared into the mist. We took out the rest. Kharn, who can evidently understand wolf, said it was evident from their talking that they were on a mission to get a possession from one of us. A high arcana roll by Zolton confirmed what the players suspected. It would aid any scrying attempts. But we can’t go into the mist so that was that.
The snow was so bad, we had to stop. We began to think that someone didn’t want us to get to this city. The NPC asked Zolton to hear her secrets (i.e. confessions) since he was a priest. That didn’t really reveal anything but it allowed him to pursue his wizard vs cleric backstory some more. That night, we all got another disturbing dream. They seem to tie into our backstories, sort of, but it was hard enough to figure out our own, let alone understand everyone else’s. Kharn had one about going a picnic with his twin sister, the NPC, and an older brother neither of them remembered. Paul roleplayed some discussions with her, trying to get more meaning out of it. To no real avail. Zolton’s was about his Mind Flayer storyline. We talked some about that but since we’re not high enough level to stop it or reverse it, it’s pretty much going to happen or not. Short of killing him. We stopped there, still on the road to the city.
