Chapter 25

The Festival of the Blazing Sun

The party of adventurers trudged back to the Blue Water Inn and laid their heads down to rest, their bodies weary from battle and their hearts heavy with young Cedric and Felix's passing. There they rested for the remainder of the day, hoping to recuperate in time for tomorrow's festival. Once they expected the festival to be the staging ground for Fiona's grand coup, but with her in hiding and vampire's loose within the city walls, uncertainty surrounded the affair. They awoke the following morning to the same chill, sunless sky, the night's mist slowly rising off the streets and alleyways. A brief breakfast was had before they joined the growing number of citizens making their way to the town center. Excitement and indifference mingled within the crowd. Either the news of the vampires wasn't widely spread or wasn't widely believed, but in any case it appeared that nearly every Vallakian guard stood on high alert along the edges of the square. The large gallows that punctuated the square had been refitted for the event, nooses removed and drapped with a heavy red curtain, and the Baron stood atop it, boisterously welcoming everyone to the festival of the blazing sun he was flanked by Izek and two armed men.

Before long a guard stopped the group and asked that they follow him to the front where the Baron had requested they stand. Reluctantly they followed to within a few dozen feet of the stage, but readied themselves for trouble. When everyone had gathered the Baron launched into a long-winded and rambling speech about unity, safety, and the destruction of the Evil Ones poison with general civil happiness. Despite few matching the Baron's fervor the words seemed generally well-received, cheers and applause rippling through the crowd, but from the group's view many seemed unmoved, even bored, and it seemed to suggest that this wasn't the first of the weekly festivals to begin this way. The speech was made more bearable for the group when Erros disguised himself as an old man and slipped from his spot in the crowd to track down a goat and nut vender, as the skies grew darker with the threat of a brewing storm. But finally after an hour and a half of promises of protection and strong-man-posturing, the Baron shifted the crowd's attention to a parade that began pushing through the center of the square. Makeshift wagon floats fashioned after golden suns, pulled by farmer and pony alike, passed through the square, throwing treats to the children as they passed. Rictavio pushed his box of puppets and danced them about whimsically, and Blinksy handed out small wooden soldiers that looked like the Baron and evil straw witches for them to fight. For a moment the whole occasion felt almost normal, genuine cheer and light-hearted amusement filled the square in a glimmer of light the group had yet to see in the long fortnight within Barovia, and it felt as though the clouds above thinned and a glimmer of the sun pierced through, but as the final cart pulled back into the street and a light misting of rain fell the moment passed.

With a bellow the Baron pulled the attention back to the stage and announced the festival's main entertainment. He stepped down as the curtain behind him was pulled aside and a woman stepped forward. She was clad in an exaggerated red dress, oversized pewter jewelry, and villainous theatre makeup. Silence fell over the crowd and the actor clearly portraying Fiona began pacing the stage, loudly plotting the destruction of Vallaki. She explained her plans to betray the people and open their gates to the Devil and his beasts, then feed their children to the monsters and raize the city to the ground. The people booed her and threw dirt across the stage, but she continued, proclaiming the Baron to know of her vile plans but praising her ability to trick the people to her side and thwarting his efforts to save them. The crowd yelled curses and spit at her name and she just smiled, lording over them all. From stage right emerged another actor, a third, then a whole troupe. A strange smattering of characters, six in all, joined Fiona on the stage and demanded she turn herself in. One wore a frivolous tunic, another had whiskers painted on his face, the next waddled about on his knees, and another sulked in the corner behind a young girl holding carrots out like magic wands, while the last wagged her finger behind a thick wooden shield. From the audience the party looked at one another as it dawned on them who these caricature's were meant to represent. The Fiona character merely laughed and commanded her undead army to kill the fools. More actors dressed like skeletons came from stage right, and engaged the six in play combat as the crowd cheered. But the tide quickly turned and the six were beaten back. The short one was pushed over and made a show of not being able to get back up, as the whiskered one shrieked and slunk away like a feral cat. When a sword slash cut free the gaudy characters pants, and the crowd burst into laughter, the joke became clear, and in fury Fabian and Erros pushed through the crowd to the front. As the rest of the party followed, the curtains on stage parted and a commanding "halt this nonsense" quieted the crowd. It was the Baron, the real Baron, now in glimmering silver breastplate, live steel raised with Izek in tow. The party stopped at the foot of the stage as Fiona cowered in fear and the skeletons and adventurers scurried away. A roar filled the air and the crowd shouted for her head. Slowly, the Baron raised his sword, vowing to defend his people from the Devil's evil deeds with his very life, as the actor begged and pleaded. At the moment he looked to lower his sword with all his might, Erros whispered a dark arcane command, and a crown of iron thorns emerged from the Baron's head as he instead pivoted and swung his blade into Izek. The steel caught his scaly shoulder and dug deep, but he pulled it clean and hacked again, this time ringing against a knife in Izek's offhand. He swung again and again, beating back his captain of the guard who looked even more confused than the audience, before Fabian cast sleep over the man and dropped him flat to his stomach. Bleeding Izek and several guards pulled the sleeping Baron out of view and a stunned silence remained.

Fabian was the first to move, hoisting herself atop the stage, she drew her sword and held it high. She pleaded to the citizens of Vallaki to abandon their mindless ruler and seek self-governance if they so desired and bolstered by Erros's old man disguise shouting encouragement from amongst the people, the crowd seemed intrigued enough to listen. The Baron charged back out, having been quickly awoken, and denounced the evil she spoke, saying that his possession which they all just witnessed was proof enough that he was the only one that could save the city and the Devil knew it. Fabian retorted with understanding and compassion as she looked out from face to face, each eye more weary and saddened than the rest though it was hidden behind smile or blank stare. Her heart went out to the exhausted people of the city and in her words her compassion seemed felt, beginning to turn the crowd entire. The Baron whispered a curse under his breath and a sideways glance of hatred to Fabian, before raising his hands and declaring that her words had no actions, while his had nothing but. He signaled to someone behind the stage and the centerpiece of the festival was wheeled out in full view of the stirring masses. It was a massive wicker sphere, fashioned into the shape of a sun, and within it was the bound and beaten forms of Karl and Nikolai Wachter. The crowd shouted for death to the traitors and the Baron's face pulled into a smile of victory, before the cries morphed into all the traitors, burn the baron, burn them all. He paled and looked out amidst his people and saw in their faces the mistrust and anger that Fabian had awakened, and he ran. Citizens clambered onto the stage, but already he was away, as a retinue of city guard followed closely behind.

The cheers and raucous chaos of the crowd was deafening, but above it all a shrill scream seemed to rise. It grew and multiplied, and the energy of the people seemed suddenly to focus to a single stampeding force. As people ran and clawed and climbed over each other, three small clearings formed and it became clear to the party what was happening amidst the proceedings. A man slumped to the ground lifeless and towered over by a vampire spawn, licking the blood from it's lips before lunging to another victim. The three that escaped Henrik's shop must have remained in the city, and found their best opportunity to strike. The people ran in all directions like cornered sheep, as the party leapt to action pushing through the wall of terrified faces fleeing the carnage. A crack of thunder split open the sky releasing heavy rain, as the first of the party reached their foes. Eliza fired a shot and dozens ducked, Dyson swung his hammer and luckily didn't hit any bystanders, as Athrin turned beast, sending a fresh batch of citizens fleeing from him as well. A second crack filled the air with light and hung for a moment in a ball of fire fifty feet above the square. It caught the eye of the party as it came into focus through the rain, a single black horse had appeared snorting and pawing the air as it hovered above their heads, a thick mane of red flame flickering along it's back, red eyes filled with malice. A rider called out from it's back, Ludmilla Vilisevic, first wife of Strahd himself, admiring the chaos below she taunted "You have certainly ruined my plans, but I've chosen the high road, and I'd hate to ruin your festival. What did you call it, the Festival of the Blazing Sun?" and with that she lifted her finger and pointed to the wicker sun. A soft hiss and sucking of air preceded an explosion of flame that ignited the sun in a brilliant light, as the two imprisoned within added their screams to the masses.