The big news was the welcomed return of Andy.  He replaced his Wizard with a Human heavily armored, sword and shield, classic Holy Paladin named Ezra.  (That’s not right.  It started with an E and was Biblical but I can’t remember.)  Several theories were offered up as to the reason for the change before he returned from dinner.  Andy stated that the Wizard “wasn’t working as he’d hoped”.  In particular, the subclass power tree, while powerful, was completely negated if the target made that first save.  Regardless, it was good to have him back and a Paladin will certainly be useful in this place.

The snow finally abated and we start back on the road to Valackea.  As agreed, Kharn took the wagon over to the Vastini camp and would make his way into the city via another gate.  Good thing, since the entrance criteria was extensive.  First, we had to swear we were not Vastini and were not under the influence of the Devil.  Only then, would they open the gate to really start the process.  (I’m sure I’ll forget some.)  We had to jump over a waterskin, allow a silver piece to be placed on our forehead and touch the wooden threshold.  We had to answer some questions for their records.  Point of origin was a little tricky for some of us but the guard didn’t really care as long as he got something on the form.  They stopped short of a full search but all weapons had to be declared and recorded.  That included Loki’s claws and Kaladin’s teeth.  Lastly, we were given an extensive list of rules.  It was mostly the usual, don’t make trouble, ones but with a couple of unique ones.  The Devil’s true name could not be mentioned.  Everyone must participate in the weekly festivals.  And everyone must be happy at all times.  Even after all that, we were not invited in.  Only allowed to enter.

Our destination church was on the other side of the city so we went through the heart.  Of note, this city was a bit more lively than the boarded-up ghost town we came from.  There were actual shops with actual goods although we didn’t stop at them.  We watched a puppet show put on by a half-elf that the kids particularly enjoyed.  A passerby bid Ambrus a GOOD DAY with a forced smile which we took as an encouragement to stay happy.  Loki remarked that perhaps they think the happiness will keep you know who at bay.  The half-elf noted that it was working.  We made it to the church without issue.  As we entered, any always-on magic we had, turned off.  E.g. Lord Q’s servants popped out of their cage, Loki’s claws got smaller, Zolton’s eyes looked normal (for him), etc.  We could hear the priest telling a sick-looking young man to go home and rest.  Like the rest of the city, the church was in good shape.  We got to business, with Zolton doing much of the talking.  We need to drop off the kids.  There’s an orphanage next door.  Our NPC needs sanctuary.  She can stay in the woman’s dorm room that is currently unused.  We dropped her stuff there but she agreed to stay with us until the kids were seen to.  The bad news about the priest in Barovia.  He’d contact the bishop.  How did he die? Er…  uhm…  There was a vampire spawn in the church that we took care of.  Meanwhile, Ambrus searched around the church, missing stealth rolls as he went.  When he found no chained undead, he declared that he had a good feeling about it.  The priest asked a Paladin by the name of Ezra to show us to the orphanage and help us get settled into the city.

At the orphanage, we met the stern tired-looking headmistress.  She was accepting a small coffin.  Evidently, a child had fallen from a 2^nd story window.  That, of course, triggered our paranoia.  Which in this place, is just good common sense.  Ambrus questioned a couple of kids.  They seemed happy enough.  We filled out some paperwork while Ambrus went upstairs.  He ended up in the attic where he found an odd child, whittling.  We got a bunch of plot threads which lead to some investigations.  It was the usual chaos as different groups of characters went in different directions and then intersected randomly.  The dead kid was new and had a silver locket.  When examined, it had an X scratched onto it.  Zolton did a detect magic and then an identify.  It was some sort of vessel to hold an extra-dimensional creature.  Now empty.  We found evil runes, carved into the beds of some of the children.  Some kids had recently run away.  Ambrus and Loki re-questioned that kid upstairs.  He managed to out intimidate Ambrus, mostly bad rolls, but the fact that an 8-year-old boy could even try was noteworthy.  The sick grave digger from the church lived here.  He was very sick and had runes on his bed.  Several of the girls seemed to recognize the NPC.  When questioned by Loki, one of the dolls in the dollhouse looked like her.  A search also found one that looked like Kharn.  Evidently, it was a standard doll in this city, on sale at the toy store.  Eventually, we decided to get everyone out of the house and into the church, hoping whoever was possessed would be revealed.  However, when Lord Q went ahead to give the priest a heads up, he found that the protections had stopped.  The altar boy had recently told the gravedigger of the sacred bones that were interned under the altar.  They were now, gone.

We still moved everyone over but then Loki noticed the odd boy was not there.  We left Zolton’s familiar at the church and searched the house.  The bones were not in the coffin nor the gravedigger’s room.  Nothing was found until we got to the attic where first in line Ezra saw a shadow demon emerging from the boy.  Initiative.  The attic was bigger than we thought and Ezra could not move and attack so he empowered his Sacred Weapon.  Ambrus moved and delayed.  Unfortunately, the demon then crawled onto the high ceiling and advanced out of everyone’s reach.  That was going to be a problem with our hand-to-hand heavy group.  Loki got up there and started blasting away with his guns and did very well.  Kaladin flew up but kept missing.  Jon reasoned that there must be supporting rafters to hold up the roof.  Brian agreed so Ambrus climbed up and attacked but missed.  Ezra only managed a hand axe throw.  Lord Q cast his own spider climb.  But ultimately, the demon missed a bunch.  It was attacking with 10-foot reach claws and a mind-control magic but didn’t hit.  Ezra tried to use Protection from Evil to break the connection to the kid which didn’t work however Zolton did manage to break it and the PfE kept him from repossessing him.  About then, it was vanquished and went back to its home plane.

The kid didn’t remember anything.  The gravedigger regained consciousness.  Under the authoritative glare of the Paladin, he confessed to stealing the bones and selling them to the coffin maker in order to pay someone to search for the lost kids. We decided to leave those loose ends until next time as we’re sure they’ll lead to more quests.  We’re still 4^th although Brian said we’d probably make 5^th next time.