Goodbye Yevgeni en Szoldar - The Fading 19th - 1503

We set up camp outside the stone circle. Muriel turns raven and flies of. Yevgeni and Szoldar start hunting for food and return with a deer which is barbequed over the fire. We discuss our plans for the next day and decide we'll head out of the swamp and then go for the wizards tower on the peninsula in lake Baratok.
The next day we leave and the trappers guide us out of the swamp. All of a sudden we see a battle between misty figures in front of us. I'm getting tired of all this magic ghostly stuff going on and decide to move on. As I'm crossing the battlefield a misty dragon swoops down and manages to startle me. The battle then subdues. Through the fog we see something like a castle. They explain to us its Argynvosthold, but other than the name they know nothing about it. Eventually we reach the end of the swamp. Yevgeni and Szoldar point north towards lake Barathok and then say their farewell and head the other way.

The tower - The Fading 20th - 1503

We follow the road to the north when all of a sudden Dunstan notices a body beside it. He runs to check it out. As we approach it, we only see some skeletal remains. Another burial to take care of, it happens quite often around here.
We continue and eventually reach a white trail leading out of the forest towards the tower. The mist is again setting the scene above the lake.
A purple, with gold rimmed wheels, Vistani wagon is parked beside the tower. Dunstan walks up to the tower and knocks on the door which is coverd with a large round plaque with some dancing stick figures and a weird star shape conencting them. As he knocks lightning starts to surround the tower and zaps Dunstan senseless. I think the pattern is a way to walk atround the tower to open the door. Ulf and Urgoth meanwhile do a silly dance acting like the stick figures in random order. As they do so a young blue dragon comes swooping down to attack them. Some try to run, lucky for us, Iolas figures out the pattern indicates an order for the dancemoves and thus manages to open the door. Lowna, Urgoth and I flee into the the tower and try to distract the dragon who meanwhile is attacking the others. It tries to bite us but luckilly doesn't manage to enter the tower. Eventually it gets bored of trying and flies of, leaving haf the party for death outside and us still shaking a bit inside.
We get everybody inside to be patched up. The door closes automatically behind us after a few minutes. Inside the tower we see four clay figurines standing beside four chains leading up to the attic. Someone says "up please" and all of a sudden the clay figures come to life and start hoisting the chains, making a platform go up. After some playing around we all get up the platform and go to the topfloor which seems to be recently inhabited. I smell lavender coming from a chest. It turns out to contain a head. a big suit of armor is occuping another part of this attic. Iolas pushed against the armor but it doesn't fall apart as if it is kept together by magic. urgoth drags the armor outside to examine it better. Dunstan then says 'Khazan' and the suit of armor comes to life. He then tells it to "bring us your sword". It enters the tower, goes up to the attic to open a secret compartment in the wall where he gets hold of an ornate hilt, which he then gives to Dunstan. Dunstan starts to talk to the sword somehow, which introduces itself as the sword of Sergei von Zarovich.
Meanwhile I'm downstairs wondering why there's a big sign "stay out" on the Vistani wagon and I decide to have a look inside. The lock isn;t a problem for my nimble hans, but as I open the door I feel some resistance. I hear an orb drop on the floor and before I can get away the wagon is nlown to smithereens in a green explosion. I'm blown back a few yards and it hurts, badly!

Esmeralda D'avinir - The Fading 21st - 1503