Party 4

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Rubbing his eyes, Beldur had to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Did that girl really just run off into the town? he thought quizzically. Rather impetuous of her, who knows what kind of dangers are lurking about in there, he continued to think as he just watched Juniper disappear into the distance.

As he was about to open his mouth to repeat his thoughts audibly to his remaining companions, Dess yelled out first. He definitely sensed some sarcasm in her words, but as Dess moves after Juniper, Beldar simply shrugs and follows on.

"I guess if trouble is going to find us, makes more sense for us to be together when it does.", he spoke, hopefully loud enough for Dess ahead and Ash behind to hear him, as he trundled off down the block.

As he starts to make ground on Juniper, he sees her stop and begin to approach the door. As she begins to enter the house, Beldar yells out, "Wait, Don't Go In..." but before he finishes he sees her enter the home, clearly not able, or willing, to hear him from this distance. Meeting up with Dess, still a bit from the house Juniper entered, he looks towards her. "Should we follow her in? I think we should follow her in. Let's follow her in!," he rambles, not giving time for anyone to provide actual feedback, and continues up to the now open doorway.
 
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Ash raises her eyebrows in surprise when Juniper takes off, wondering what has her so worked up. She nods to the others in agreement and starts a quick jog. When they catch up to the house, she doesn't hesitate to head straight inside after Juniper, coming up behind her as Belder finishes his rambling query, and Juniper calls up the stairs. She pauses for a moment, instinctively glancing around the house, before quietly approaching the stairs.

"Ten? That's a bit of an exaggeration." Ash smiles good-naturedly at Juniper, before gazing up the stairs. She expects Juniper to go up first, if whoever is up there doesn't come down.
 
As she reaches the door, Dess frowns at the sound of the sobbing, looking around at the creepiness of the town around them. Something is just wrong here. She steps into the doorway and stops, shivering as the crawling between her shoulders sending a chill down her spine. Leaving the door only slightly open, she leans against the door frame, looking up and down the street, her hand wrapped tight around the hilt of the knife at her side.

"I think I'll keep an eye out front. Let me know if you guys need a hand up there. I don't trust this place. It just feels horribly wrong."
 
Juniper clears her throat. She looks at the woman, "umm ma'am." Juniper cautiously walks in eye sight of the woman and squats. "Yes, I am here to help." Juniper examines the doll the woman is holding. She notices that the doll resembles a little girl. As she looks more closely at the sackcloth dress she sees a tag stiched in the hem of the dress."Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky", Juniper says puzzeled filling the silents in the room. "Is this Gertruda?" Juniper says gesturing toward the peculiar doll the woman is holding. Juniper shuffles foward closing some distance between her and the woman.
 
After following Ash up the stairs, Beldar stood quiet outside the door, watching as Juniper approached the woman sobbing on the floor.

Hearing Dess mention that she would stand watch outside, Beldar took a few steps back to nod at her from up the stairs, and then slid back to his position outside the room. Both impressed and shocked, Beldar watched as Juniper attempted to speak with the woman. Wanting to step forward and pull Juniper back the potential of harm, Beldar forced himself to stand firm. Is curiosity of Juniper or of this woman on the floor getting the better of my judgement for the safety of us? he wondered.

As the woman stood up, Beldar stepped into the room quickly, heading towards Juniper as if he could stop whatever malicious act the woman had in store. But as the woman stands and he get's a better look at her face, he sees the tears and realizes that perhaps this woman truly is in distress. Slowing his approach, he comes to stand near Juniper as the woman tells her story of her daughter.

As he finally makes it to Juniper's side, he smiles down at her and then looks back towards Mary."Who is Strahd, and what does he want with your daughter", Beldar inquired with a knurled brow.
 
Juniper stands up, "Mad Mary? What an odd nickname. I personally prefer Mary if that's all right", Juniper says with a kind smile. Startled by Beldar's presence she looks up to receive a smile. She tries to return it but it falls short.

A vampire! In all of the birds in the forest... her words must be lies. Maybe she was just so devastated with the loss of her daughter she is going mad... Mad Mary.
Barovia? So that is what this horrible place is. Now I know why this place feels like it is sucking the life out of me...vampires.

As the woman begins to cry again, Juniper places a warm comforting hand on Mary. "Let's dry these tears Mary." Juniper glances at Beldar with a distraught look on her face.
 
A Vampire! the thought burns into his mind. Vampires, Barovia, missing girls....what have you got yourself into this time?

Beldar had to force his mouth closed after realizing it was hanging open after the explanation from Mary. Meeting Juniper's glance after she spoke her comforting words to Mary, he forced a smile, although his eyes did not have a hint of joy in them.

"Yes," he says firmly as he turns towards Mary, "This is not the time for sorrow, something has brought us here, to this place, and perhaps its the gods will that we aid you," pausing only a breath, "in whatever way we can."

Maybe this is a test from Chauntea, to show my devotion to life and the preservation of it, he thought as he waited for the others to approve or refute.
 
Juniper can see right through Beldar's smile. She wanted to give him some type of reassurance that things will be okay but couldn't.

" I agree, we should probably head downstairs and inform Dess on the situation."
 
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As she keeps an eye on the street, Dess feels a chill run down her spine at the creepy atmosphere of the town. She leans against the door frame, wrapping her arms around herself, fingers tapping at her elbow as she pulls her cloak tighter about herself, muttering quietly.

"This place is going to make it hard to rest comfortably. Gotta set alarms everywhere. Goddess, I was just looking forward to a good night's rest, and what do I get? Whisked off to who knows where, into the middle of who knows what."

She waits quietly as the others talk upstairs, not hearing anything more than the murmur of conversation occurring while she watches the street. As the others come down the stairs, she turns to look, greeting them, and introducing herself to Mary, before settling in to listen to Juniper's summary of what's occurred. A moment of consternation crosses her face as she doesn't recognize 'Barovia' as any location she's heard of, but that's wiped away a moment later as she goes pale at the mention of a vampire.

"A vampire? Strong enough to be hunting openly without reprisal? What are you thinking we could possibly do against that? Why hasn't one of the churches put an end to this?"
 
Looking around, Beldar speaks up apprehensively, looking towards Mary, "Is there even a Church in this town?" Sighing slightly, he continues, "No disrespect but it would seem that the gods have left this place long ago."

Beldar continues to look around as you see him holding a wooden amulet around his next, quietly speaking what seems to be a prayer to himself.
 
Peering in the direction Mary points, Beldar looks at the less than well kept building the town calls a church. Seeing some flickering light from inside was oddly comforting, despite not knowing the source of the light.

"Very well then," Beldar says with a renewed since of purpose, "let's go see what the local clergy has to say about the situation."
 
As she waited for the stranger to reply to her, Arinthia felt something cold and damp forming against her skin, seeming to rise up from the floor. Glancing down, Arinthia saw a thick mist swirling up from the floor around her feet, thick enough that she couldn’t even see her own leather boots. Her limbs felt heavy, the most Arinthia could do was lift her head and try to call out. No sound left her mouth as the mist swirled up, enveloping the red headed tiefling completely.

Cold, biting winds surrounded Arinthia as she felt herself hurtling downward. All she could see was white mist swirling ever faster around her, though she did notice that her limbs were no longer frozen and the mist was around her instead of blanketing her so she could see her legs and her bag. Arinthia had no idea what was happening, she only wished it would be over soon, the fall was making her feel nauseous and she prayed to whatever gods happened to be listening that she wasn’t about to just slam into the ground and die.

The air felt heavier, making it hard for Arinthia to take more than the most shallow of breaths. She felt light headed, and closed her eyes, praying that she would be able to reopen them again.

As she opened her eyes, Arinthia saw a town ahead of her. Glancing around frantically, she found she was leaning against a large boulder that at one point had had writing on it but was now too faded for her to read. Checking that she still had all of her belongings, Arinthia decided to wander into the town.

Hearing the sound of a sudden, shrill scream, Arinthia’s senses picked up. Running in the direction of the sound, Arinthia kept her eyes and ears open for the signs of other people. While she was worried about whoever had let out that awful scream she wasn’t about to get herself killed rushing in without seeing if there were other people around who could help in case she was attacked, even if the only help they could give was to go fetch a guard. Running as fast as she could, the young tiefling darted around a corner almost losing her footing on the cobblestones but managing to regain it. Still silence, by which point Arinthia realised that she couldn’t tell exactly where the scream had come from. All she could do was glance around the streets as she tried to catch her breath, her tail lashing against the back of her left boot and the ground. As she looked around, Arinthia saw she was near a building with a tall bell tower.
 
Juniper wonders what the church could possibly do about Strahd. The closes deity she has ever come close to worshipping was Garl The Watchful Protector. She notices Beldar holding a wooden amulet around his neck. "Well let us not be empty boxes." Juniper grabs Beldar's hand and looks at Dess, hesitates and grabs her hand as well and heads towards the church.
 
Dess flinches slightly as Juniper grabs her, but follows along behind her quickly. The mess of everything is starting to wear on her mind, and her eyes don't really take in the town as they pass through it. For some reason the thought of a church that's allowed this mess to stand is less than reassuring, and at the sound of Ash's scream, she halts for a moment, her hand going to her throat and clasping the holy symbol under her shirt as she hurries to catch back up with the others. Near panic works its way into her voice as she speaks, mostly to herself as they approach the church, not hysterical, but like she doesn't want to believe the reality she's encountering.

"Everything is wrong here. It's like the whole place is a giant predator. Waiting to pounce. How can such a horrible place exist?"
 
Juniper walks up to the wooden doors of the church. “Wow look at these.” She begins to trace the claw marks with her fingers. “Looks like some big wild animal made these but I can’t really tell what kind of animal." Juniper pauses, "this place is getting weirder and weirder.”

Juniper examines to claw marks and commits them to memory.

What could possibly make these marks and why on the church doors? Isn’t it supposed to be sacred? Maybe whatever was trying to get in couldn’t because this is a holy place. With such a large creature prowling around, we should probably find some shelter.

Juniper begins to knock on the door.
 
Having regained her breath from the sudden sprint, Arinthia decided to head towards the building with the bell tower. Walking around it, Arinthia spotted a few people near what she assumed was the entrance.

A sense of deja vu hit Arinthia hard. She pushed it away. Thinking about how she’d woken up late and gone sneaking into the keep following a group of interesting individuals after dashing through Daggerford wasn’t going to help her at all. Instead Arinthia decided to approach, figuring that perhaps they had heard the scream as she had and had come to investigate as well.

“Hello there,” Arinthia called out, “Did you hear-” Arinthia didn’t get to finish her sentence before another scream came from within the building. Arinthia’s eyes opened wider. ‘What the hells is going on around here?’ Arinthia thought to herself. “-a scream?”
 
Before Juniper could get a chance to wrap her mind over the destruction of the chapel she heard a soft prayer interrupted by an inhuman scream that pierced Juniper's ears like knives. She immediately closes the door and stares wide-eyed at her companions. Juniper was so intrigued by what was inside the ominous Church she did not notice the Tiefling greeting her party. Once Juniper closed the door abruptly is when she noticed. Juniper opens her mouth in motion to say something but closes it almost too slowly. With one hand still on the door Juniper scratches her head feeling unpleasant by the situation placed in front of her.
 
Dess closes her eyes at the scream, and rocks her head back towards the ceiling, grasping her forehead in exasperation as she sighs.

"I don't know what I expected. Last bastion of the light struggling against vampires openly taking people off the streets? Of course a church that doesn't do anything about it is going to be a mess, so they're just hosting a ritual sacrifice in the catacombs or something? Community potluck-and-filet-an-annoying-neighbor night?"

She pulls her head back down in resignation, checking her dagger on her leg, her spell components, and such, then looks back up as the tiefling approaches and greets them. The effect of having their after-dinner hike mysteriously extended by getting dropped in the middle of a creepy, disturbing town is obviously wearing on Dess, and her reply is a little on the caustic side.

"Nope. The church does sound like it has quite a talented soloist in the choir though."
 
Looking sidelong at Dess, Is this really a good time to joke? Beldar thinks to himself. The scream from inside the Church had shaken him inside, but he hoped that he gave no notice of it externally. Besides, they had something that needed more immediate attention outside the Church.

Turning his attention back towards the newcomer, a puzzled looks appears on his face at who this Tiefling is and whether she is friend or foe. An unholy town with unholy sounds from its Church, I should have expected to find a demon spawn here, he thinks as he slowly moves towards Juniper with his hand on the hilt of his sickle.

"I don't mean to be blunt, but if you mean us harm we will defend ourselves. We are not from here and are not looking for trouble, so I pray that you are looking for none as well," he says to the Tiefling, ending with a questioning tone.
 
Did Dess just make a joke? Or did the scream of whatever was in that church mess up my hearing.

As she watches Beldar move towards her, Juniper's hand gravitates to the handaxe on her side. She still was unsure if the Tiefling was a threat or not but sensing Beldar's uneasiness she didn't want to take a chance.

Juniper's free hand remained on the church door. Even though Dess joked about what was going on inside, she wasn't ready to meet "it" face to face.
 
Arinthia decided to make it obvious she wasn’t a threat by holding her hands up, level with her shoulders.

“I promise I don’t mean you any harm,” Arinthia said, “I’m not from here either. I-” Arinthia stopped suddenly, trying to work out exactly how to explain what had happened to her. She didn’t know how to explain falling through mist and didn’t think a group of strangers would believe such a thing anyway.

“I came to just outside town.” Arinthia continued after a brief pause, “I wandered into town, heard a scream, went running through the streets in the direction of the scream until I ran out of breath and had to stop.”

Arinthia took a second to look at each person in turn before continuing, “I figured the building with the bell tower would be a good place to start looking so I walked around the building until I came to the door.”

Continuing to keep her hands up by her shoulders, Arinthia looked towards the man who had spoken the most, “You said you weren’t from around here and I’m not from around here either. What would you think of working together? You know, safety in numbers?”
 
Moving his hand from his sickle, back to his amulet, Beldar smiled, as decent as a smile as he could muster considering the situation. You should know better than to judge someone simply by their appearance, especially after the many folks you have run into in your travels.

"I apologize for our defensive nature, this was not were we thought we would end up tonight, we have already lost one of our companions and what we hoped would be a sanctuary in this Church...," Beldar pauses for a moment as he looks towards the ruined door of the Church, "Well let's just say that its not quite the sanctuary we hoped it be."

Composing himself a little more, Beldar continued wit h a slight bow, "I am Beldar Tallwood. I personally would not mind additional company if your intentions are true. So long as my companions feel similarly," as he looks at both Juniper and Dess. "And your name would be?", looking back to the Tiefling.
 
Watching Beldar remove his hand from his sickle, Juniper loosens the grip on her handaxe. As Beldar speaks to the Tiefling, Juniper contemplates getting another peek inside the church but quickly puts the thought aside as Beldar glances at her.

"Hiya, I am Juniper Redwood. You can call me Juniper, June, Red...really anything to an extent. Oh and this Monte." Juniper pulls out a tiny flying squirrel from the hood of her cloak. She strokes the sleeping rodents. You can see her eyes light up at the sight of him. She slowly puts him back undisturbed.
Juniper looks at Beldar, her eyes still showing an inkling of light. "The more the merrier! The more allies we have the less likely we will all be condemned, right?" A grin crosses Junipers face.

Juniper finally takes her hand off the church doors. She slumps to the ground. "So long beans, what are we gonna do about all this?"
She waves her hands in the air gesturing to their surroundings.
 
Dess lets out a short sigh, and looks back out at the town, obviously unhappy, before she turns back to the group and nods politely to the newcomer. Her ire isn't directed at the tiefling, but at the whole town.

"Call me Dess. You're welcome to come along, at this point I'll take any help we can get in this ridiculous situation. We've been here for all of what, half an hour at most, and it's already going round the bend from weird to corner of a mad god's mind crazy. And I'm betting that whatever ineffable malevolence dropped us here in the first place means that if we just try to walk out of town, we'll find ourselves stumbling out of a fog bank and back into the outskirts of the same damned place."

She runs a hand over her hair as she shifts in place, trying to get a grasp of things, and getting more and more distressed as the situation simply doesn't fit into how her mind is telling her things should be. A slight smile crosses her face as Juniper's introduction of Monte lifts her mood slightly, but the uncomfortable wrongness just keeps eating away at her.

"I have no damned idea right now. The one place I'd hoped would be some sort of point of clarity sounds like it's got either a torture chamber or a banshee in the basement. If the town church is that far gone, I'm at a loss."
 
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