Chapter 24

Ludmilla’s Locket

Dyson lifted his head to look upon his friends, each guessing at what the other had seen. His brush with vampires marked the third time one of their own had been saved from death by an ominous and unknown entity, so any elation at Dyson's miraculous return turned instead to dread and the party's attention was captured by the now engulfed coffin-maker's shop and the citizen fire brigade that had sprung into action. A line had formed connecting the well to the fire, and a train of buckets were being carried between the two. Fabian squeezed into the line to add her hands, but it was quickly clear to all that the building was lost, and the brigade's efforts seemed spent on preventing further spread. Erros walked up to two onlooking guardsmen, covered in burns and bleeding wounds, prompting them to ask what had happened and if anyone else was inside. He began his brief but riveting tale of vampires hidden away in the coffins, ambushing the party and starting the fire themselves in an attempt to burn them all alive. General disbelief by the guards was roughly dismissed when Erros peeled back his ripped tunic to reveal two puncture wounds in his neck, still coursing with black necrotic tendrils through his skin, his eyes sunken and almost milky white. One guard ran to fetch Izek, while the other, with some suggestion from Erros, aided the brigade. The final section of wall collapsed into the blaze and a mile high column of smoke now signaled everyone in the city, and perhaps everyone in the valley, to the fire, as the party awaited Izek's arrival and plotted their next move. They assumed the bones were held elsewhere, perhaps still with the young boy Milvoj, and they agreed that their only chance of securing the bones would be in his survival. Erros again voiced his somewhat sympathetic view of Strahd and his vampires in light of all they'd experienced lately of curses, cults, and dark powers, which was again not openly shared by the rest of the party. But what everyone did agree upon was that their time in Vallaki, at least for now, was drawing to a close. With the church unconsecrated, Fiona deposed and in hiding, Rictavio and the Keepers of the Feather watching out for the townsfolk, and Ireena safe under the protection of Vasilli, matters beyond the walls of the city seemed now in higher priority. They agreed to depart after seeing Milvoj's curse to it's hopefully positive conclusion, just as Izek arrived on the scene with the Baron Vallakovich in tow.

Izek quickly jumped into action to help secure the fire, after scolding the group for the trouble they caused the past few days, and turning them over to the Baron for a full report. Vargas's skin paled and his characteristic smile faded at what they told him. He demanded to know every detail of their encounter with the vampires, and upon being told that three had managed to escape, admonished the party for their failure to protect the city. The gears in his head went into full whirl as he muttered under his breath about preparations and plans before bellowing out an announcement to the group of less than eager onlookers. He proclaimed that all would indeed be well, and that the Festival of the Blazing Sun, which was to be held in three days time, must be immediately pushed to the following afternoon. The city needed his protection now more than ever, and a festival to the devil's worst enemy was sure to drive the monsters from their walls. A few citizens grumbled at the prospect of working all night to prepare but made no objections, lest Izek's wrath befall them. The Baron then turned to the party and demanded their attendance, warning that failure to protect the festival and find the fiends would mean banishment from the city. As he turned to depart, Fabian waved her hand in a subtle incantation and the Baron dropped like a bag of rocks into the dirt, fast asleep. Izek pulled him to his feet bristled and red with embarrassment, but the townsfolk didn't dare say a word, and the party left to tend to Milvoj at the church. As they traveled through the city however, they couldn’t help but feel a tension about them, as many glaring eyes and whispered gossip trailed them through the streets. It seemed more and more that they'd built a bit of a reputation for trouble and mistrust appeared to follow them as they went.

They found Milvoj in the care of Father Petrovich, though his condition seemed not to have changed. Fabian looked on caringly and tried another healing spell to no success and for a moment the group stood silent over the boy deep in thought. With Hendrik the Coffin-Maker gone they felt their leads were exhausted, but Petrovich broke the silence to inquire more about the locket they'd hoped to find on Milvoj's person. He noted that Milvoj loved and looked out for the children of the orphanage and gave a good deal of his earnings to their care. If he'd had a locket, he'd have pawned it or given it as a gift to the kids to be certain. Pieron thanked the father for the insight and together with her companions made her way to the orphanage. They found Mistress Claudia quickly enough and asked that she round up the children for a quick question. When she'd finished nearly twenty children stood in the common room before Erros, who held aloft a gold coin and offered to reward it to whomever could produce a locket from their pocket. At once every hand was in ever trouser, pulling out lint, string, buttons, half-eaten food, and hand-me-down toys and clambering to give them to Erros as he fought them off. Just when it seemed to be another dead end, Fabian spotted a young girl tugging on Claudia's sleeve and whispering something in her ear. In curiosity, she caught the headmistress's eye. The young girl had apparently seen a locket in Felix's position, a shy boy of 8 who only got along with Milvoj and the late Cedric. He was not amidst the rabble in the common room, and Claudia explained that he often played alone in the attic. Smitten by the overwhelmingly positive attention he was receiving, Erros broke into song and dance to entertain the poor orphans, lucky as they were to be gifted so royally by his impeccable tenor and perfect pitch, as the rest of the group made their way to the attic.

Amidst the storage chests and broken furniture the attic was mostly bare with low rafters and a lone window at the far end casting long shadows through the dust. Seated in front of the window in a rickety chair was a little boy, eyes peering out at the yard below, not turning around as the group walked up behind him. Athrin reached out and placed an arm on the boy's shoulder then spoke his name, prompting him to turn his head slowly and rise from his seat. He was Felix, but not the same boy they'd briefly met a day ago. His skin sagged and wrinkled, thin enough to see spidery blue veins beneath, as rotting teeth creeped out from behind cracked lips as he smiled. Athrin took a step back and punched him in the face. The group gasped and moved in closer before observing Felix's rotten state and the locket hanging from his neck. Felix seemed unfazed from the blow despite it's nose now hanging limp from its face. They lobbied questions and it rebuked them with confusing answers and maniacal taunts. Felix is gone, it told them, and the boy was delicious. They asked after the locket and it said it wouldn't go back in, they asked who it worked for and it said only hunger. When they mentioned Milvoj the creature smiled, and weighing each up and down it boasted of it's new strength, and stood tall shrinking off the decaying skin of the young boy and unfolding to a towering skeletal form with a ghoulish yellow face and demonic hollow eyes. Hands on their blades Fabian drew and pressed the attack, Pieron readied a spell and Eliza leveled her pistol. The crack of her powder startled the musical performance below and Erros charged through the children to the attic ladder above. When he arrived the creature was slashing wildly in the corner, arrogant and rash, as the group beat him back and burned him with powerful arcane spells. Erros joined the battle and in a few short moments it had turned, the creature's proud ego dashed as it pleaded for it's life. It offered to let Milvoj go and scuttle out of town. Athrin gripped the hilt of his sword tight and looked about to his companions as they began weighing the options, then in a moment of decision Athrin ran the blade through the beats neck spraying black blood across the floorboards. It was finished.

Pieron picked up the strange locket from the corpse which had begun to rapidly decompose into grey sludge and bile, and opened it's clasp to find a small clear crystal gemstone fixed in a setting. She recognized it at once to be a soul stone, inert and empty, but capable of housing the soul and even physical essence of a creature in a pocket dimension. The technique to create such a device is complicated and arduous, not to mention the feat of finding such a creature as this to be captured in the first place. But the release mechanism of such an object is far simpler, be it a word or event or simple time delay. And while it seemed that a few more pieces of the mystery had fallen into place, it only left larger questions on the table. Together the group rushed to the church to check on the boy.

When they arrived Milvoj had awoken and much color had returned to his cheeks. A thick blanket was wrapped around him as he shivered so, and Father Petrovich was in the process of brewing up some tea. They explained to the boy who they were and what they had discovered, speaking of the fire and vampires but not of poor Felix's fate. Milvoj did his best to fill in the gaps. He told them that Henrik had asked him to steal the bones for him, offering a locket and a bag of gold coins. It didn't feel right but the bag was heavy and he'd known Henrik all his life. He did as asked, gave the locket to young Felix because he liked the color, and the following day met with the Krushkin brothers, offering to pay them a handsome sum of his new earnings to track down a few boys who'd gone missing in the western woods. Then after Cedric's funeral he went home and didn't wake up. He seemed ashamed, but Fabian assured him it was alright, and that the evil of the locket seemed to be vanquished. Though she didn't mention it to the recovering child, the maker of the devlish locket remained unknown, and the fact that 3 vampire spawn now possibly roamed the streets sat uneasy with the rest of the group. Leaving Milvoj in the father's care, they stood and left the church.