On one hand, I'm sorry the man's dead. On the other hand... death by a thousand papercuts would be awful, and I'm glad it wasn't us. Shortly after starting out after breakfast, we found a body on the side of the road. (Road Corpse Count in Barovia is surprisingly high for having such a low population.) The man appeared to have been attacked by 200 diminutive vampires that had exsanguinated him -- or the swarm of bats that had been watching us sleep. He had a note clutched in his hand, telling him to come to Vallaki because it was safe there. Probably shouldn't have been travelling alone if he wanted to get somewhere safely, because apparently even large numbers don't ensure safety here.

Around midday, we were about to pass a little offshoot from the road, leading up to a windmill. Presumably the Durst windmill talked about in the family's will. I suggested that it might be a good place to rest briefly, take some lunch before travelling on, and ensure there are no other creepy, dead children in need of burial there. It seemed like a good idea. From the exterior of it, I wasn't expecting anyone to be residing inside; however, as we approached, there was a pen with a couple of pigs and a curious little gathering of stones to the side like some sort of monument.

We knocked on the door, and an old lady answered. She introduced herself as Morgantha and invited us all in. She very politely offered us all a sample of her goods, but honestly, looking around her kitchen, it was clearly not up to code. She said that she and her daughters would take their pies into Vallaki to sell -- long story short, they were hoping that we would help them get more of the special ingredient that makes them some delicious.

It wasn't cinnamon.

When they said that they had a couple of children upstairs waiting to be baked into pies, I knew we weren't going anywhere. Even as everything descended into utter chaos, we did better than I thought we would holding a line against a coven of hags. Are hags still a coven, or is that only witches? Regardless, they set about beating us down hard. Ireena ran upstairs to rescue the children, and the hags started yelling about knowing who she was and how they should go get her.

Like we were going to let that happen. So Allynia and I positioned ourselves in front of the stairs. At least they'd be slowed down climbing over our dead bodies. But I have to say, I have truly fallen in love with my shield. Not once, not twice, three times I managed to duck down behind it sufficiently not to have died from all the lightning flying around in that tiny room! It's a good shield, a pretty shield, and I'mma polish it up really nice when we get a proper rest. Allynia needs a shield, 'cause she dropped like a rock beside me. The others were flinging spells back and forth, and it didn't seem to be getting us anywhere.

In the end, we were able to convince Faerxan that a strategic advance to the rear was the order of the day. People diving down stairs and out windows. Avery dropped a magnificently timed Silence spell. I managed to heal Allynia enough to get her back on her feet before running upstairs to help Ireena with the children. Apparently, I make a good cushion for chucking children onto when tossing them out a second story window. Fortunately, Allynia's raven friends came swooping into the mill and managed to make quite the distraction.

I wish I could say that our story ended with us all having made it to the wagon and hustling out of there. They kept firing spells at us, even as the wagon sped away. Thankfully, the wagon held together, and the horses weren't injured! However, almost everyone else was. Cassandra, Faerxan, and Avery all went down under the onslaught of their magical volleys. Allynia managed to get our other cleric and dragon friend back up on their feet, but Cassandra was too injured by that final attack.

Refusing to let this be the end of our story together, Avery cast Gentle Repose on her, and we sped away towards Vallaki where we can hopefully find a cleric able to Revivify her.