As band of adventurers begin to gather themselves for the journey to Vallaki, Vachir takes a moment to slip away on a quick personal errand, saying that he would meet them on the way shortly. Before they left, they were warned by the Vistani to stay away from the old windmill on the way to Vallaki. As our heroes set out, they discover a set of tracks that breaks off from the path and leads further into the ominous woods. As a group, they determined that from the gait of the steps and the size of the prints, that the tracks belonged to their fighter. Noting that at this point Vachir had been gone for quite some time, Lucian, Azalea and Malchior decided to follow the trail. What they discovered was a grizzly scene, a pit of spikes and the decomposing impaled corpse of what looked to be their comrade. Confused by the gruesome occurance, the adventurers wondered who it was they had been travelling with if the body had been left long enough to show advanced signs of decomposition. With a little assistance, Azalea managed to salvage a note that was clenched in Vachir's fist as well as some of his belongings, such as the unique horsehead violin he possessed. It was then, that Vachir appeared to them in the form of an apparition, informing them that he had used the last of his strength to guide them thus far. A mournful lullaby was passed on from Vachir to Azalea, as well as his imploring them to burn his body and free the land from Strahds' grasp. After a small ceremony, they honored Vachirs request and set his body aflame before continuing on their way to Vallaki. Near the windmill of which they were warned against approaching, they found a High Elf Paladin of Lathander watching the mill. he mentioned that he had been tracking an old crone who kidnapped a child and brought them here. With a short introduction, Valarith the Paladin as well as the remaining heroes agreed that they had a duty to save the child. As such they marched forth quietly in the cover of the tall grass where they were greeted by a wereraven at the door of the mill. The raven warned them that the crone was a hag, a monstrous creature that should not be trifled with. Instead the wereraven lured the hag out of the mill using mimicry of a child's voice while the party quickly infiltrated the windmill, searched for clues as to the purpose of the hag as well as set three kidnapped children free. Unfortunately the hag grew weary of the deception and had begun to make their way back to the mill alongside two additional hags. With some quick thinking, the heroes managed to set a trap for the hags, setting the mill and the hags aflame. Unfortunately the hags proved much too powerful to be felled by simple fire and managed to turn invisible before landing several magical blows against Valarith. Making the wise choice to escape through a combination of deception and clever usage of spells by Azalea and Vachir, the party managed to halt the hags from giving chase and ride towards Vallaki. Will our heroes be able to recover from the loss of their comrade? Have they truely escaped from the clutches of the hags? Only time will tell...
