🧾 Curse of Strahd – Session 9: The Night Barovia Held Its Breath

🌙 The night began with unease.

At the first camp, Vess dreamed. In the vision, hands closed around her throat from behind, terrifyingly certain. Panic gave way to clarity at the exact moment it mattered. The knowledge came fully formed, unquestionable, as if the dream itself demanded to be remembered. Vess woke shaken, her throat still burning, her neck marked with blood.

Loki’s vampire curse surged with violent hunger. Resistance nearly failed entirely. He held back—but not without cost. When the others slept, Loki slipped into the forest.

The group later reached the Morninglord’s ruined ritual site, once holy, now hollow. Broken stone, fractured mirrors, and the remains of old devotion stood silent. No ritual awaited them. No power answered their presence.

The party then entered the hag’s domain, and the world itself seemed to shift.

Time stopped. Birds hung motionless in the air. Insects froze mid-flight. The forest did not breathe. And Vess froze. That unnatural stillness was used by the hag to perform a ritual with the soulbag holding Corvin’s soul. The truth became undeniable: through intent, fear, hunger, and will, Corvin was reshaped. His soul was bound to Vess, his body claimed by Loki, and his will laid beneath Myra.

When the ritual ended and time began to move again, the party fell upon the hag and killed her. The witch of the Old Windmill was dead — the deed Vallaki's guards had demanded. Her house above remained, and what lay beneath it was still unexplored.