>>5195347>>5195354You look fondly at Joannus's journal. It's full of idle fancies, a young adult's thoughts on travel and adventure. She romanticized heroism, citing the legendary exploits of drow adventurer Drizzt Do'Urden, or the chronicles of travelling scholars like Volothamp Geddarm. A few months before she was taken, she was talking about backpacking out on her own, uncovering treasures across the coast, facing unknown dangers, making a name for herself. This wanderlust is something you always admired about her, but didn't have in common with her growing up. If she could see you now...
The final pages contain some shorthand notes about the price of adventuring gear, followed by sketches of tents and wagons, then nothing. The last pages have been instrumental in helping you track down Barovia, as innkeepers and bards you've sought advice from all over the world have oft claimed that the tents depicted belong to the travelling merchants Joannus was hanging out with before she vanished.
The mist begins to encroach, and you pace quickens. There is something unnatural about this fog; it's almost as though it's following you. That seems like a crazy notion, but when you look the way you came, the fog is thicker, obscuring the way back toward the gates. It opens up ahead of you, allowing you to see the muddy read, which seems to continue endlessly.
Eventually, the fog reveals tall shapes looming in the distance. Your heart quickens as the tall shapes become recognizable as village dwellings. The valley seems to open up as you step out of the Svalich woods atop the hill, hundreds of miles of valley land sprawling before you.
You have a pretty good look from here. The village is at the foot of an impossibly steep cliff. Thousands of feet above the village, you can just make out the silhouette of a castle that overlooks the whole valley.
It also begins to rain. From what you can see from here, the buildings down there wouldn't provide very good protection from the elements.
Still, some shelter is better than none.
(cont.)
