| Invitation to Count Demetrius’s Party | 0825-10-31 | ☐ | The black, wax-sealed invitations arrived, summoning the party to Count Demetrius’s castle. |
| The Escape from Ravenloft | 0825-11-01 | ☐ | Early morning. After the twelve bells, the fight with the corrupted Sister Geraldine, the river crossing and Christine’s hunt through the woods, the party rode into the Mists and woke at the crossroads with the bent signpost — out of Ravenloft, back in the Gloaming, and stripped of every vampiric power the castle gave them. All five survived: Brielle, Randoah, Enki, Ivek and Ulfgar. |
| Return to Marin’s Hold & the night at the Crayfish | 0825-11-08 | ☐ | A week has passed in the Gloaming since the escape from Ravenloft. The party reaches the poisoned farms at dawn (~5am), fights the ooze-risen rats and wolf, burns the carcasses (~7am), and arrives at the closed gates and refugee camp. Meets Inquisitor Morvath, sells loot to Finch, visits the smith. Feast and carousing at the Crayfish that night. Session 4. |
| Enki and Ulfgar in the stocks | 0825-11-09 → 0825-11-10 | ☐ | Enki and Ulfgar wake in the stocks in the main square as arsonists after burning down a house testing fire arrows; held two days. Randoah wakes in a gutter. Session 4. |
| Preparations for the Schola expedition | 0825-11-11 | ☐ | Released from the stocks in the morning. Egrid’s vision; the Reeve’s half-reward; Castellan Vane’s Bittermold job; Ysolde’s request; Morvath’s lead coffer; Mathilda’s cottage and the route to the place of learning; supplies. Night by the Crayfish fire; the party sets out along the Fairy Path next morning. Session 4. |
| Over the Old Bridge to the Spider Woods | 0825-11-12 | ☐ | Session 5, day 1. Grey dawn departure; freezing drizzle at the old stone bridge. River-folk shrine under the arch: Ivek prays and leaves a ration, Ulfgar pours a drink; fair weather the rest of the day and night. Fairy Path picked up NW of the bridge; spider webs across it. CAMP: hidden nook in the deadfall near the spider woods (set by Ivek: hidden, provident). Brielle can line; Ulfgar snares. Supper: Gor’s burnt stew, topped up with jerky. Night bright and cold, uneventful. |
| Around the Spider Woods; Wolves in the Night | 0825-11-13 | ☐ | Session 5, day 2. Snares yield three hares. Detour north around the webs through deep, hilly forest; clear and cold. CAMP: inside a huge hollow tree, warm with rot (set by Ulfgar: sheltered). Gor dresses the hares (3 poor summer pelts); Ivek’s stew underdone; Brielle’s can line. Night: moon gone, damp; cans ring, Brielle slides into five wolves. Two killed, three flee; Ulfgar nearly killed. No rest. |
| Camp Day: Wolf Meat and a Moose | 0825-11-14 | ☐ | Session 5, day 3. Drizzle at dawn; the party stays put. CAMP moved to a hidden thicket (Ivek: hidden, sheltered); Brielle re-hangs cans. Gor dresses the wolves (alpha’s white winter pelt) and makes pemmican; Ulfgar poultices his bites and cooks the wolf-and-berry stew; Brielle forages beech nuts. Ivek spots the Hangman’s Tree. Evening tales of the Count; Gor kills a bull moose. Clear cold night, full rest. |
| The Hangman’s Tree | 0825-11-15 | ☐ | Session 5, day 4. Gor butchers the moose; half left as an offering to the Spider Queen. Brielle’s tales of the Fairy Path; Ulfgar marks the trail. Afternoon march back onto the Fairy Path to the Hangman’s Tree; party retrieves its red apple, leaves the tree standing. Fairy Path lost beyond the clearing. CAMP: defensible rock hollow up a hillside, reached by rope (Ulfgar: defensible, sheltered). Half the moose goes mouldy in preserving; Ivek’s good stew. Fog in the night, quiet. |
| The Giant’s Playground | 0825-11-16 | ☐ | Session 5, day 5. South through deepening woods; Brielle lost (burrs) then down a mudslide by a river. Box canyon of strange granite stones: the Giant’s Playground. CAMP: open clearing in the tree line above the canyon (Gor’s camp-setting fell short, no qualities); cold drizzle that stops by bedtime. Ulfgar forages hazelnuts and blackberries; Brielle serves rations garnished with grass. Quiet night. |
| The Blood Falls | 0825-11-17 | ☑ | Session 5, day 6 (current day). Around the canyon SW to the river, then west along it. Webbed footprints both ways along the bank; a rolled barrel’s track. Brielle swept downriver on a log, hauled in by Gor’s rope-arrow. Afternoon: the Blood Falls — water runs red over the cliff, smell of blood, girls singing. No camp set yet. |