---

---

The Devil Strahd pulled his teeth from Thomasin’s neck, licked her bright-red blood from his lips, and looked directly at Viktor. “Nothing like it. Fresh, sweet, clean.”

Zane cried out in horror and vaulted over the palisade, rolling sweetly to his feet and sprinting in blind fury toward Strahd’s gathering. Garn and Xarann followed in quick succession (albeit not quite as athletically), and Zandeyr trained his bows and spells from the guardhouse. Bannor, soloing outside, worked his way to the back of the undead horde, hoping to get the drop on Strahd or one of his minions.

Viktor’s face turned deathly pale, and a cold cold fury rose in his eyes. A tear rolled down his face as he turned his head to the heavens, hands reaching out in desperate supplication. When he spoke, his voice was like thunder rolling through the air, such was the power of his emotion.

“Lord, hear me now. Hear me and answer. Let your light be known, let your power be felt, let your servants worship you. Save Thomasin. Save her from this Devil. Bring her to safety, I beseech you. Save her.”

And, against all expectation, the Morninglord answered Viktor’s plea.

Strahd turned his head to the sky. The clouds directly above begun coalescing into a point of brilliant light, and with a crack of deafening thunder a beam of pure radiance shot down toward Strahd’s gathering.

“No!”, Strahd yelled, and thrust his hands up as if to hold back the bolt of holy light by will alone. And for a moment he did, a seething circle of pure pitch black forming a barrier that blocked the incoming beam, the opposing forces fighting and sparking in the sky high above.

But the light would not be refused. It shattered Strahd’s defence and rocketed down onto Thomasin, flooding her in a golden light. Before Strahd could react, both the beam and Thomasin vanished.

---

In a fury, Strahd leapt onto his flaming mount, rose into the sky and flew directly toward Viktor.

His consort moved determinedly toward Zane, Xarann, and Garn, while the zombie horde behind lumbered into action.

---

Zane reached the vampire spawn first, and started cutting into them with hot fury, his emotions tangled by his mother’s sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance.

Xarann reached into his belt pouch and scattered 10 miniature stick figures over the ground in front of the incoming force. Each tiny creature suddenly sprung to life and swarmed onto the nearest vampire consort, covering her and attacking in furious unison.

Two of the vampires launched into Xarann, the other two concentrated on Zane, and soon the zombies arrived to create an enormous melee. Garn arrived late, but made up for that with huge swings of his axe and defensive wards with his new shield.

Bannor appeared behind the swarming zombies and made short work of several, his dagger flashing and cutting deeply. He was frustrated by the sheer numbers though, and couldn’t easily reach the higher value targets.

Zandeyr, back on the battlement, fired spells and arrows into the swarm, concentrating on the more skilled opponents first. He also summoned his hounds into action. Xarann retrained his stickmen on a new target, and deployed a cone of freezing cold that took out several zombies and a spawn.

Rahadin sensed Xarann was the most dangerous foe and laid into him with fierce swings of his scimitar, cutting him deeply each time.

---

Strahd meanwhile had reached Viktor and spoke briefly to him. “You have overstepped your mark one time too many. Returning your god to my land, desecrating it with his presence. You will suffer as a result. You all will suffer.”

He flew over the palisade and directly to the church, landing in the graveyard at the back of the building. He stared to pull several creatures from the graves, their clawing hands emerging from the soil. With a sinking feeling Viktor and Zandeyr realised that your forces were too spread to be able to stop him

Realising the urgency, Viktor unleashed his wings and followed Strahd toward the Church. The vampire lord turned and attempted to buffet Viktor away with a blast of cyclonic wind, but Viktor was able to navigate the swirling currents.

Zandeyr gathered his old bones and rushed toward the church too. As he ran he pulled out and donned his crown and sceptre, preparing to confront Strahd King-to-King. The wolves had all started to gather at the old building, circling it like they had the village. Zandeyr conjured his own wall of wind, and destroyed a pack of wolves by crushing them into a nearby wall.

Strahd called out toward the church in a voice that resonated with irresistible invitation. “Ireena. Come to me. Join with me, finally, after all these centuries. Search your feelings, you know it to be true. Obey me now, this one last time, and come.”

---

In the field outside Vallaki, death was in the air. Zane sliced and diced his way through minion after minion in a trance-like combat dance. In blunt contrast, Garn destroyed everything in his path with brute force. Zandeyr’s hell hounds arrived and started savaging a zombie near Zane, much to the young man’s fear - though he had to accept that any help was good help at this stage. Everyone was wounded and the horde of foes didn’t seem to be thinning.

Xarann started to falter under the barrage of blows. There were too many of them, and too many of their blows were telling. Bannor saw this and rushed toward the swarming enemies, taking opportunistic counterattacks in his stride. Garn too realised what was happening and pushed hard toward his sorcerer friend.

It was too late. Xarann, with a final cry, fell to the ground under the zombie blows, dead.

---

Viktor called down a flaming strike from above, roasting the undead creatures arising from the graves. Strahd merely pushed the light aside, and looked toward the church.

The doors opened, and Ireena stood there, her face drawn in mental anguish. Lucian tried desperately to hold her, but the elderly priest’s strength was no match for her own. Somehow she managed not to step over the threshold, but the strain of Strahd’s summons was almost too much to bear.

Viktor cried out for her to stop, but his words were futile in the face of Strahd’s compulsion. Strahd smiled and trotted over to her, reaching down to lift her into the saddle. And this time it was Strahd and Ireena that disappeared, vanishing before Viktor’s eyes. Two could play this game, it seemed. Zandeyr arrived just too late, bathing the entire church in a flood of light as he rushed in.

Lucian looked at his empty hands in horror. Behind him, Viktor saw the only thing that could possibly make any of this seem worthwhile. Thomasin stood inside the church, standing weakly and supported by Ezmerelda. It had worked. The Morninglord had heard his prayer. Viktor locked eyes with Thomasin, drew strength from her, and promised to return - before ordering Lucian to secure the church with Zandeyr, and flying back toward the fray.

---

Thanks to Bannor’s swathe of shivs, Garn was able to reach the fallen Xarann, and dived down to apply his healing hands. Xarann jolted back to life, sucking in a deep breath, just as Garn was swamped by a bunch of swarming zombies and hauled away.

Zane was working hard, drawing vampire and zombie to him before dispatching them under his blades. A pile of bodies lay around him, and it seemed that you were finally getting on top.

But the four zombies that had felled Xarann the first time saw that he was raised again, and instantly attacked him. The prone and barely breathing Xarann stood no chance, and once again he was sent to visit the Dark Powers.

Bannor swore under his breath and drove his knife deep into the last remaining vampire spawn, leaving only Strahd’s consigliere and the still numerous zombies. Rahadin glanced up at the sky briefly and nodded, before turning back to the body of Xarann and brutally slicing him thrice with his blade.

Garn yelled out in outrage at this cowardly act. He drew the Sunsword from his belt and lit the battlefield up with the glow of pure radiant sunlight. The nearest vampire spawn instantly fell burning under the light, and Garn stormed toward Rahadin sword raised for retribution. As he attacked his shield whispered a warning ‘There is another!’, and his two swings seemed to somehow be misdirected as the sword cried out ‘Burn him!!’. The reason quickly became clear.

On the crest of a hill to the South, the Devil Strahd reappeared. Ireena was slumped before him in the saddle. He looked impassively down at the battleground, before unleashing a fireball into the midst of the chaos. To your relief the explosion seemed to deal more damage to his own zombies than it did any of you, dropping half of the remaining enemies.

Strahd galloped down to Rahadin, pausing with surprise and disquiet when he saw Garn wielding the Sunblade. He growled an quiet curse, grabbed Rahadin, and all three vanished.

---

Viktor landed at Xarann’s side, shrugging off the attention of the remaining zombies before turning them. He called once again on the healing power of the Morninglord, and Xarann returned to life for the second time in as many minutes.

You looked around at the carnage. Four dead vampire spawn, twenty zombies. Wolves lay frozen and smashed in Vallaki. Each of you bleeding and hurting from the fray. And Xarann, no doubt, newly cursed. Strahd had escaped your grasp, and he had Ireena.

And yet.
And yet.

You had Thomasin. You had frustrated Strahd’s carefully laid plans. He had retreated. And you stood victorious.

Maybe you were finally ready to meet the Devil in his lair.

---

Session played: 25 May, 2020