notes.jays.net

Dungeons & Dragons

2026-03-26T00:00:00Z

[ Written by our DM, not Jay. ]

DISCLAIMER: I'm doing this entirely from memory, so there's a good chance I'll miss stuff. If I spell anything wrong, misstate a detail of the adventure, or anything else, let me know. This is intended as a tool to be referenced later when we have forgotten all of this and I want it to be as accurate as possible.

Death House

We entered the scene in a quaint little tavern on the outskirts of a quaint little village. Our heroes had settled here for the evening after some time adventuring together. Indigo, Willam, and Musu have recently been joined by Sabine—a tall, serious paladin of Tyr who never takes her armor off and who claims to have been raised by a cult in a walled monastery—and have welcomed her into their little cadre. Indigo describes himself as a "dirty hippie" with a penchant for pipeweed, which he and his twenty siblings grow on their family farm. He is a staunch defender of nature and has given hints that this may have caused him some trouble in the past. Willam has seen many things in his time. He served as a wartime medic for his homeland in his younger days, but his side was defeated and he returned home to find that his family had been slaughtered, his home burnt. He seeks now only to heal people in need where he can. Musu is a warrior. More on that later.

As our heroes relaxed and enjoyed their evening mead, they were approached by an olive skinned man with long curly black hair and an excessive amount of jewelry. He wore vibrant yellow robes with intricate crimson filigree and carried a carved elderwood cane, studded with several gemstones on the head. He introduced himself as Grigori (That was his name from the beginning. If you remember otherwise, you are mistaken 😅) and asked for your assistance. He said that he was a merchant and that two of his caravans had been sent to the valley of Barovia to attempt to open trade and neither had returned. It had been several months at that point and he was worried. You all agreed to investigate and set out the next day at dawn towards the forest just outside of town.

As you walked through the forest, you were slowly surrounded by a thick ominous cloud of fog, and a creeping darkness that followed you all the way into the valley and ushered you towards the small village of Barovia, nestled in a clearing in the woods. As you entered the village, the apparitions of two scared children appeared and asked for your help with a monster in the basement of their house. You entered the Durst manor and began to explore.

You discovered a well maintained, richly decorated, but strangely empty manor. As you made your way through you had several encounters, including with a spectre. You later discovered this was the spirit of the nanny to the Durst children and the mother of Gustav's youngest child, Walter. She was murdered by Gustav's wife Elizabeth as part of a series of cult sacrifices which culminated in the sacrifice of baby Walter. This sacrifice appeased the dark power that their cult worshipped and he awakened a great beast, Lorghoth the decayer, which was made of refuse and the remains of the cult's sacrifices. The beast hungered and eventually every member of the cult was sacrificed to appease it, and in a final desperate act, Gustav killed his wife Elizabeth and then hanged himself. In his madness, he forgot that he had locked his two elder children in their room—for their safety—and they tragically starved to death.

The party made its way into the depths of the cellar where the cult had been housed, fighting off many creatures, including the corpses of Gustav and Elizabeth Durst, and collecting several items, including a mysterious black crystal orb. Finally our heroes descended to the lowest level of the cellar where the beast slept. They were called to sacrifice one individual and when they refused, the beast attacked. Willam was engulfed by the monster and as the rest of the team tried to find some way of destroying it from the outside, Willam was able to locate the small body of Walter Durst still contained at its heart. He said a prayer and a burst of radiant energy shot from his outstretched hand and destroyed the tiny corpse. Lorghoth the Decayer was vanquished and the party gathered the remains of the various Dursts and laid them to rest. Except for the nanny. Whose body is still stuffed inside a trunk in the attic. You said your final goodbyes to Rosevald and Thornbolt Durst and emerged from the house, seeing that the dense fog had receded.

Image via D&D Beyond (spoilers)

The Village of Barovia

With the fog cleared away the party was able to see that the village was nestled at the head of a valley created by Mount Baratok to the North and Mount Ghakis to the Southwest. Just to the Northwest of the village sits an impressive looking castle with high walls and several tall turrets with conical roofs. The imposing structure sits atop a tall cliff face which descends about 1000 feet to the edge of town where a small chapel rests.

You all walked into the street where you encountered a sweet old lady with a pastry cart who introduced herself as "Granny." You bought 6 of her dream pastries and she directed you towards the Blood on the Vine tavern in the middle of town where you could find several Vistani women to question.

You entered the tavern and spoke with a middle aged Vistani woman named Alenka while her two compatriots sat behind her whispering and giggling. Alenka indicated that they no longer counted themselves among the Vistani and preferred the ownership of the tavern over a life of wandering. When asked about Grigori, the merchant who sent you into Barovia, Alenka told you that he was a liar and a scoundrel. She had not heard of any trading caravans being lost in Barovia.

After Alenka tired of your group, the young man sitting alone at the back of the tavern introduced himself as Ismark the Lesser, the burgomeister of the village. He told you that his father, the previous burgomeister, passed away from apparent stress 3 days previously after a vicious siege on his house by the minions of "The Devil Strahd." He asked for your assistance and you agreed to accompany him to the burgomeister's mansion.

Before meeting him there, you briefly stopped into Bildrath's Mercantile where a small balding man with thick glasses offered you a measly 13g for all of the loot you had acquired in the Durst Manor. His prices seemed incredibly inflated due to his shop being the only one in the village. His hulking assistant, Parriwhimple made a brief appearance to see you all off, making it very clear that Blidrath was not someone to be provoked.

Arriving at the burgomeister's mansion, you found Ismark waiting over the body of his deceased father, Kolyan Indirovitch. He asked you to help him give his father a proper burial as no one else in town would risk angering Strahd, to which you all agreed. Ismark was also visited by a woman dubbed "Mad Mary" by the townsfolk. She was distraught over the disappearance of her daughter, Gertruda, ten days ago. Apparently Gertruda ran away into the woods and hasn't been seen since. After reassuring Mary that you would all try to help find her daughter and ushering her out, Ismark indicated to you all that there was very little chance of helping the girl. She was very likely, he said, either dead or under the control of Strahd, who occasionally would take a consort for his own pleasure.

You all decided to get some rest for the night and to bury Kolyan in the morning. You each ate one dream pastry before bed and slept soundly through the night. Indigo and Willam experienced vibrant dreams of happy times, while Sabine experienced a peaceful solitude that she had not felt in years. Waking up the next morning was less pleasant as you were all brought back to the dreary reality of the world you had entered. Despite the delicious breakfast of burgers made by the "burger-master", you all started the day wishing just a little bit that you were back in your dreams.

After breakfast you set out with the casket of Ismark's father and made the short journey through town to the small chapel on the hill. Upon arriving you encountered a haggard and confused priest, Father Donavitch. He was engrossed in prayer and when the party finally got his attention, it was clear that he was not entirely there. He was distraught over the "loss" of his son, but as he talked you could hear the screams from below you of a young man pleading to be let out and fed. After interrogating him and Ismark, you discovered that Doru, the priest's son was lured to Strahd almost 10 years previously and turned into one of his consorts. When Doru returned, his father, seeing that he had been changed by Strahd, trapped him in the basement and began praying to the Morninglord for aid. Doru has been locked there ever since, never having his hunger satiated, and father Donavitch has lost himself in his grief and desperation, not realizing the amount of time that has passed.

After performing the funeral rites and burial for Ismark's father, you went back to the chapel to try and help Doru. Sabine descended the stairs first and attempted to assess the situation. Doru was desperately hungry to the point that it was all he could think or talk about. He looked like he wanted to escape, but the party was able to keep him contained in the basement and beat a hasty retreat when it became clear there was nothing that could be done for the young man right now. You left the chapel, promising father Donavitch that you would find a way to help his son. Ismark, however, indicated that this was not likely.

The Village of Barovia - Part 2

You all emerged from the small chapel around noon feeling quite dour. Sabine, Indigo and Musu took a few deep breaths and each recovered in their turn. Willem began to hyperventilate and as he tried to catch his breath, he suddenly found himself eating a dream pastry. He immediately began to feel better and joined the rest of the party, who were all eyeing him suspiciously.

You decided that you needed to gather more information from the Vistani at the tavern and Musu volunteered to go in and act as the infiltrator, as he was...away...the last time you visited. He quickly and inadvertently attracted the attention of the three Vistana women, who were all looking over at him while exchanging excited whispers. After finding out that you were looking for information on Grigori, she “invited” you to buy her and the other girls a drink in exchange for what they knew.

You found out from them that Grigori is a known associate of Strahd and the he was probably promised some kind of reward for bringing the party to Barovia. You also learn that the three women have been cast out of the Vistani community, though you do not know why. (I don’t remember if they told you anything else. Anyone remember?)

As the party waited just out of sight of the tavern, Granny wheeled her cart past and you now noticed that it was adorned with a small windmill insignia. You talked with Granny for a little bit and ascertained that she and her two sisters live in a windmill to the west of the village - the same windmill granted by the deed in your party’s possession. Granny seemed very distressed when presented with this information, thinking that you were going to make her and her sisters leave their home, but you reassured her that that would not happen. Before leaving, she slipped Willem an extra dream pie (There was a reason, I don’t remember it, but I know it happened).

After leaving you, Granny went to the house you saw her visit yesterday and the man came out looking almost frantic. Granny gave him his dream pastries, seemingly collecting no payment, and went off down the street. When you investigated the house, you were able to see through the window into a one room cottage, neither filthy nor clean, where the man you had just seen was lying asleep in the bed. On the far wall you noticed a small pair of overalls - a child’s overalls - hanging by the back door. You attempted several times to wake the man, all to no avail. You left without investigating further.

After this, you went to see Mad Mary in her secluded manor, just up the road from the Burgomaster’s mansion. Mary greeted you enthusiastically and welcomed your assistance in finding her daughter. She allowed you into her house and led you up the stairs and down a narrow hallway to a locked door at the very end. Her daughter, Gertruda’s, bedroom was kept in pristine condition for the most part. As you all searched the room, you found that there were markings on the stone sill just outside her garden window that looked similar to some of the claw marks you saw at Ismark’s mansion. You also discovered a small drop of blood on the carpet right at the head of the bed that Mary dismissed as having come from a nose bleed. As the group pushed her on this, Mary became more and more distressed until she finally forced you all out.

Emerging onto the street once more, you all decided there was nothing more to be done here and so you opted to move out of town in search of the Vistani camp to the West of the village. You had walked about an hour towards the ever growing line of trees when you came to the river that you had followed into the valley. Indigo smelled a horrible stench as you neared the bridge that crossed over and he went to investigate. About 50 feet from the bridge on the near side of the river was the mangled, partially decomposed body of a young man. Tied up just 10 feet away was a small rowboat. You searched the body and discovered a note written by Kolyan Indirovich asking for aid - from whom, you do not know. It appears that this young man was about to set out down the river to the West.

Deciding to avoid crossing the bridge, you instead opted to use the small rowboat to travel downstream. You traveled several hours this way, passing into the dark forest with its towering conifers. As nighttime approached, you came across a place where the river seemed to converge with a path along the hill to the south. You all decided to find camp here.

Musu and Indigo took the first watch while Sabine and Willem slept. Indigo sensed the sounds of his howling brethren change about an hour after darkness fell and knew they were coming for the party. He and Musu roused Sabine and attempted to wake Willem, to no avail. The rest of the party hoisted Willem into a nearby tree, high enough to be safe from the wolves, and lashed him there.

As you finished securing Willem, six wolves emerged from the darkness and attacked. Indigo attempted to talk them down, but they did not respond to his overtures. After a quick fight, four wolves were down and the other two retreated as a dark shadow coalesced in the clearing by the campfire. Strahd von Zarovich greeted the party, welcoming them to Barovia. He apologized for his wolves and told the party they would not be a problem tonight.

The party noticed a figure stooping behind Strahd in the darkness and recognized it as Duro, the poor wretch from the chapel cellar. His face and shirt were covered in dark blood and when questioned, he hid behind his master who stated that he couldn’t be blamed for what he was driven in his hunger to do. After extending to the party an invitation to visit him in his castle, Ravenloft, he bid the party farewell and they melted into a swarm of bats (I know I said just one, but this makes more sense) and flew away.

The Old Svalich Road

The party resumed their normal watch after the Departure of Strahd and his minions. Willem woke up about halfway through the night and completed the second watch with Sabine while Indigo and Musu tossed and turned, each experiencing nightmares the whole night through.

Upon waking, the party noticed activity on the eastward path, back towards the village. You all packed up camp and attempted to sneak over to investigate the other occupants of the road. You were quickly spotted, however, by Grigori, the weathered but good natured Vistana who had first commissioned you to come into Barovia under apparently false pretenses. You confronted him about this and he was very up front about his trick. He revealed that he was asked to perform this service for Strahd in exchange for being granted passage out of Barovia. The party did not take this well, but Grigori happily paid the remainder of his original offer which helped to quell the concerns of the more…fiscally minded party members.

Grigori said he was going to the Vistani encampment and invited the players to accompany him, which you all agreed to. As you made your way through the forest, you all noticed you were being tailed by an unkindness or ravens (yes, that is what it’s called). Indigo attempted to ask them what they were doing, but they seemed rather tight-beaked.

After a bit you came to a crossroads where a small gallows and a graveyard had been erected. Grigori indicated to you that the right path would lead to Tser pool where the Vistani were camped. As you walked on, Indigo turned back and noticed a body hanging from the gallows where none had existed before. As the rope twisted the body turned to reveal Indigo’s own face staring back at him. He turned to the party to tell them, but when everyone looked back, there was nothing there.

You all made your way down into the forest and eventually came to a clearing where the river settled into an eddying pool about 100 feet wide. At the edge of the pool, right by the road, was a lively camp of Vistani. When they spotted Grigori, there was a flurry to welcome him back. It was revealed to you all that when a Vistana leaves the group it is as if they have died, so Grigori’s return was cause for much celebration.

You were invited to sit down to eat and drink by a Vistana woman named Helvia and her friend Milosh. The two were also taking care of a very drunk gentleman named Laszlo. They told you of the Vistani and how long ago, when Strahd first came to this land, the Vistani who helped him when he was sorely in need. He now honors this debt by allowing the Vistani to live in—and sometimes even depart from—Barovia in peace. Because of this unspoken agreement, the Vistani will not act openly against Strahd. You also learned of the three Vistani, or rather Mortu, women who lived in the village of Barovia. They were cast out from the Vistani several years ago because of the part they played in the assault of a younger Vistana girl.

You were also directed to Madame Eva, the wise old Vistana woman who called this camp home. She supposedly has an uncommon gift, even among the Vistani, for reading the threads of fate. When you entered her tent, she greeted each of you by name. She was a darker skinned old woman with two milky white eyes and long white hair braided with dozens of black feathers. She offered to read your fortunes and brought out a deck of cards. The reading, she said, would aid in your struggle against Strahd, should you choose that path. The clues she gave were as follows:

Rogue, Master of Coins

This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancients will help you better understand your enemy.
I see a nest of ravens. There you will find the prize.

The Avenger, 1 of Swords

This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope.
The treasure lies in a dragon’s house, in hands once clean and now corrupted.

The Bishop, 8 of Glyphs

This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight.
What you seek lies in a pile of treasure, beyond a set of amber doors.

The Mists, Queen of Spades

This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness.
A Vistana wanders this land alone, searching for her mentor. She does not stay in one place for long. Seek her out at Saint Markovia’s abbey, near the mists.

The Innocent, Queen of Hearts

Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him.
He dwells with the one whose blood sealed his doom, a brother of light snuffed out too soon.

She also gave each of you your own reading, giving you advice for how to reach your true goals.

The group stayed the evening at the Vistani camp and were not disturbed. Willem spent the night in the ecstatic haze of his dream world, unable to be roused. The rest of the party slept soundly and awoke feeling rested.

Heading out from the pool in the morning, the party followed the course of the river until their path met back up with the southern leg of the road. You all crossed the bridge spanning Tser Falls and then wound your way down the hillside to the base of the waterfall where you found a smaller pool, filled with mist and the roar of millions of gallons of falling water. Indigo decided to turn into a spider and crawl along the walls into the small cavern behind the waterfall. There he found the long abandoned remains of a camp with several smudged notes. Sabine was able to make out a couple of words that looked like “fanes” and “consecra”.

After returning to the road, the party trekked for a couple more hours before arriving at another crossroads. The left path led West through a large wrought iron gate, that very closely resembled the gates at the entrance to the Village of Barovia, before heading into another towering, dark forest. The right path went North and then hooked to the East, winding slowly up a great hill capped by the same castle you observed towering over Father Donovan’s chapel.

At the head of this second path was a black carriage and two large black draft horses. Indigo went to speak to the horses who seemed only able to respond with “We do as we are told.” Eventually you are able to convince one horse to go back to the castle, and then you simply removed the harness from the other horse. Indigo transformed into a draft horse and after getting hooked up, the rest of the party loaded into the carriage and headed towards the gate to the West.

The Road to Vallaki

After commandeering the carriage that Strahd left to bring the party up to Castle Ravenloft, you all headed through the large wrought iron gate. As you passed between the two headless statues standing guard on either side of the gate, you felt an icy chill creep into the back of each of your minds.

Beyond the gate, you see two burned out farmhouses on either side of the road, one with a small field left to go fallow, and an old broken-down wagon covered in weeds. In the field were several scarecrows stuffed with a mix of straw and what looked like black feathers. As Indigo approached them, he noticed one lurch forward and called out for help. Indigo transformed first into a rhino and then into a unicorn… er… horse.

A fight broke out and after a mad flurry of straw and feathers, you had reduced the scarecrows to scraps. As you were dusting yourselves off, the rest of the party notices Willem finishing one of his dream pies. Indigo retrieved some feathers and offered them to one of the ravens, who accepted and nodded respectfully. The party then searched the area finding mostly weather damaged household items, but you did locate a small, sealed chest in the wagon containing a few silver pieces, a deck of cards, a pair of dice, and a ragdoll.

You all decided to burn the carriage - 300 yards from where you stole it - and head into the forest to the west. As the road grew dark and a mist settled into the forest floor, you came across several different people. There was a small Vistani caravan who greeted you and offered you wine and a man named Dmitri and his little girl Anastasia. Dmitri told you of the “troubles” in Vallaki between the burgomaster, Baron Vargas Vallakovich, and a powerful woman named Lady Wachter. He and Anastasia had left for Barovia where he had family living. Indigo gifted the little girl the ragdoll he had found, and the party continued on.

As you neared the end of this branch of the Svalich Wood and the trees started to thin, you heard several strange noises on both sides of the road. Strange giggles from up in the trees and the sounds of several different things moving nearby. A group of men emerged from the trees, all with longbows trained on you. They questioned you about your motives and on realizing you were not agents of Strahd, they relaxed and began talking with you.

You learned that one among them was the young man, Luvash, who had assaulted the Vistana girl, Olivetta, and had been expelled from the ranks of the Vistani. He said he was making amends for his crimes and the other scouts vouched for him, saying he was a good man. They told you they were vampire hunters and had been plotting against Strahd, looking for clues about the Fanes of Barovia.

The Fanes, they said, were ancient spirits that embodied the very heart of this valley long before it was ever called Barovia. The Seeker of the Forest was a spirit who sought the future and was ever looking forward. The Weaver of the Swamp preserved what had come to pass, weaving all things into the threads of fate. And the Huntress of the Mountain dwelt always on the dark underside of the weave, providing rest to the weary departed.

As you were talking, one of the scouts suddenly cried out from up in the tree. You all looked up to see a figure holding the limp body of the scouting and gorging itself on his blood. A fight erupted and the party jumped into action to chase down the monster. Sabine cast a spell on her sword which illuminated the entire area and you all see that the creature was Doru, the young man who had been locked in the basement of the chapel in Barovia.

Sabine searched the other side of the road for the source of the giggling you had all heard and discovered a young girl crouched on a branch about 10 feet off the ground, her front covered in blood as well. She ran up to the tree, scaled the 10 feet to the lower branch and engaged the girl she guessed to be the missing Gertruda.

Meanwhile, Indigo, Musu, Willem and all of the scouts - well, four of the scouts anyway - pursued Doru. Indigo transformed first into a massive spider and later into a hulking bear to pursue Doru up into the trees. Willem shot out flashes of radiant energy to keep the vampires from healing. Musu threw his javelin and then got his axe back out and ran to help Sabine. And the scouts fought, and died (mostly), valiantly. The vampires both realized they were outmatched early on and tried to flee, but ultimately the party was able to chase them through the trees, bring them down to the ground, and beat the absolute shit out of them. Doru ended up in a crumpled heap after a 90 foot fall from the treetops (just now realizing I probably should have had everyone on the ground make dex saves to avoid the 30 foot section of tree crashing to the ground), and Gertruda met her end as a bloody pile of gore after Indigo ripped her to shreds.

The “Old” Windmill

After the carnage from the fight with two vampire spawn subsided, the party regrouped and welcomed a new face into the fold. Allysia, the lone surviving scout among the group you all witnessed get slaughtered, is a half-elf monk born in Vallaki but ostracized early in her life for her mixed heritage. Since then she has grown up in the wilds of Barovia making friends, or at least contacts, among the less civilized inhabitants of the valley.

The party decided to burn the bodies of the two vampires and stay the night under the cover of the trees. In the morning, the party began their westward trek once more. Emerging from the forest, they found themselves descending into a valley within the valley. The road wound around rolling hills toward a tattered looking windmill in the distance at the foot of the wooded foothills beneath Mount Baratok.

The windmill stood on a small hill at the very bottom of the valley. You came first to a rickety picket fence gate with a small sign that was hanging by only one chain. The words had been scratched out, but Indigo though he could make out the word “Old”. One of the ravens perched on the fence nearby warned you to leave and go to Vallaki, but the party did not listen.

Approaching the windmill, you all saw 4 stones standing vertically in a circle about 30 yards to the southwest of the windmill. Upon investigation, you could see that they were all very old and covered in moss and each one had a distinct symbol carved into the top.

Approaching the windmill, you could hear a faint rumbling, grinding noise coming from the open window on the second story. Indigo and Allysia decided to investigate, using the scaffolding encircling the windmill up to the second floor. They saw an older woman working a grinding stone and several bags of a white powdery substance.

Allysia attempted to ride Indigo, in the shape of a massive spider, up to the third floor window, but unfortunately it was too gross, and she fell and landed with a crash on the scaffolding. The old woman was alerted and came to the door to see who was there.

When the door opened, you were all greeted by a woman calling herself Bella and invited into the cramped first floor of the windmill. You noticed a stone oven on one wall with several dozen pies baking inside, lots of bags and containers of various ingredients, a small rack of chicken cages, and a large barrel of viscous black liquid sitting next to the kitchen table in the center of the room. Indigo, using detect magic, could sense divination magic coming from the barrel.

Bella told you about her and her sisters’ pie baking venture—how she and her sister Ofalia baked the pies and Morgantha (Granny) sold them in Barovia—and she also mentioned some troubles with an orphanage in Vallaki that had been weighing on them. She asked your assistance in checking on the orphanage and, if possible, bringing some of the orphans back to the windmill to be taken care of. She said she worried that if Morgantha got back and they still hadn’t heard from their friend, Vasili, that she would go herself, which would be far too dangerous a journey for an old woman like her.

The party asked to see the rest of the windmill and Bella took you all up to the second floor where the grinding wheel was located. You saw a box full of bones on the ground and when asked about it, Bella said they grind the animal bones they have leftover and scatter the powder in the garden to help the soil health. Allysia attempted to sneak up the stairs to the third floor, but Bella noticed her and beckoned her back downstairs, worried that the characters would see her “Granny Panties”.

The party all said goodbye to Bella—after taking several of the pies she offered—and went outside. After Allysia shared what she saw with Musu, saying that she didn’t recognize some of the bones, he charged back to the house and demanded to see the bones himself. Bella took him back upstairs where he examined the box, but he was unable to identify any of the bones as human. He apologized and left with the rest of the group.

Indigo, ever suspicious, transformed into a tiny spider and crawled once more up to the third floor window to see what he could find. He looked in on, presumably, the sisters’ bedroom. Against the far wall, he spotted two small crates, each containing a child locked behind a set of bars.

He guided the party down the road, out of view of the windmill, before suggesting the group take a short rest. After resting, indigo shared what he had seen. Musu immediately went stomping back towards the windmill to free the children and deal with Bella and her sister, followed hurriedly by the rest of the party. Indigo opted to scale the windmill once more to look in on the children while the rest of the party charged the front door. Upon realizing she was under attack, Bella’s façade melted away, revealing a bent old crone with a hooked nose, long tangled hair, woven with animal bones and feathers, and a string of small skulls draped around her waist.

Indigo saw through the third floor window that the crates with the children had been moved somewhere. He saw Bella rush up the stairs to call for her sister, before seeing him (giant spider) outside the window and running back downstairs. A moment later, a second old crone emerged from the trapdoor in the attic. She swiped at Indigo through the window and then she also fled down the stairs.

Unable to enter the third floor window, Indigo went back to the second floor, turned back into a human and entered to join the fray. Bella took several hits and was knocked prone by Sabine’s thunderous smite, but as the party closed in on her, she vanished. Several attempts were made to attack the spot where she had been, but none successfully hit. Ofalia engaged the party at the top of the stairs and was quickly flanked by Indigo from behind, and the rest of the party in front of her. She retreated behind the grinding stone on the second floor.

The Three Sisters

The remaining battle was a flurry of cramped fighting, trickery, and confusion. Shortly after the disappearance of Bella, a younger girl came running down from the third floor, crying for help. Indigo stopped her, preventing her from running through his moonbeam, and ushered her downstairs after repositioning his spell. Sabine and Willem were on the first floor trying to locate Bella when the girl ran downstairs and hid behind the table. Willem cast detect magic, but his attention was focused out the front door. He watched a small spec of light at the forest edge, about 30 feet up in the trees, for several seconds before turning back to the chaos inside.

Musu and Allysia ran past the girl and engaged Ofalia in combat. After taking some damage, Ofalia managed to slip past all three of her pursuers and ascended the stairs to her bedroom. Willem, turning to run upstairs, glanced towards the table and saw the young girl, wreathed in a blue haze of what was clearly transmutation magic. He cried out a warning as the girl walked forward and placed her hands on the barrel of thick, black goop, calling forth a hairless, long eared creature that walked with the help of two massive arms.

Indigo repositioned his moonbeam to the first floor, forcing Bella out of her guise as a little girl, and joined Sabine and Willem in fighting her. At the same time, Musu and Allysia chased Ofalia up and up, catching her, only for her to slip away again into the attic. Not wanting the children to come to any harm, they pursued her as fast as they could. But when cornered in the attic it became clear that her sole priority was to escape at any cost. She vanished, just as Musu was beginning to attack.

Bella, sensing that she, too, was outmatched by the trio downstairs, also vanished. The party spent several minutes freeing the children and searching the house for any sign that the hags were still around, but found nothing. As Indigo was passing the second floor window, he noticed three figures in the distance, one pushing a small cart, meet on the road, stop, and then disappear behind a hill about a half mile away.

It was decided that the windmill and all of the hag’s property should be destroyed—save for some costume jewelry that Indigo found and the 8 chickens that the hags had in cages in the kitchen. While everyone else was distracted, Willem gave in to his temptation yet again and pilfered 3 pies directly from the oven where they had just finished cooking. Sabine then threw a large amount of flour into the air, vacated the room, and then threw a torch inside. There was a large fireball and the party could see that the wooden supports inside had begun to burn.

As the party was leaving the windmill, Willem noticed the small speck of magical aura at the forest edge moving up and away before being swallowed by the fog to the west.

The party learned that the boy (7) was named Freek and the girl (5) was named Myrtle. Freek hardly spoke except to say his name and to mumble things to Myrtle that she seemed to understand. Myrtle was not able to tell the party much, other than that she and Freek were from Barovia and had been given to the hags by their parents. The party suspected that Freek was the child of the man in town who had been desperate for more pies from Granny.

The 8 chickens were reluctant to accompany the party and it seems that they bore no ill will toward the hags, but eventually Indigo was able to convince them to join, if only until they could find better accommodations.

The party spent much of the rest of the day on the road towards Vallaki, which wound northward up into the foothills of mount Baratok before turning westwards and plunging into yet another thick forest. About an hour into the forest, the party heard the sound of approaching hoof falls and decided to hide, just off the road. From the trees, you watched as a skeletal rider and horse slowed and came to a stop right on the road where you all had just been. It looked directly toward you briefly before turning back to the road and proceeding onwards.

A little farther down the road, you encountered a Vistana named Arrigal. He was quite a bit less immediately amicable than the Vistani that you have already encountered, but he nonetheless offered to accompany you to the gates of Vallaki. Though he said he would not be able to enter the city with you. Vallaki’s policy on Vistani was less than welcoming. Because of that point, he asked you to do him a small favor. To visit the toy shop of the “famous” Blinsky, and retrieve a doll for his niece. He directed you to meet him at his encampment just south of the walls of Vallaki once you had secured the doll. As the walls of the city came into view, he bid you farewell and made his way to the south through the forest.

The Gates of Vallaki

The party approached the wrought iron gate, set into the 10 foot tall wall made of large wooden piles, driven side by side into the ground, each sharpened to a point at the top. Behind the wall, several guards could be seen patrolling the ramparts with several more standing behind the gates. Additionally, there seemed to be more than a dozen wolf heads on pikes displayed across the top of the wall. At your approach, you were greeted with a barrage of questions about who you were, where you were from, what your business was in Vallaki, and most importantly, how you felt about “The Devil.”

After reassuring the guards that you intended to make no trouble for the city, you were admitted through the gate. You were received by a large group of guards who insisted you all remove your armor and weapons so that you could be searched for contraband or anything dangerous. Sabine refused at first, protesting that a lady would never “disrobe” in public like that. However, eventually she consented to be led into one of the guard houses by two female guards to be searched more privately.

After cataloging all of your gear, the party was questioned more thoroughly by the guards regarding the children that were accompanying them. During this exchange, the party noticed that all of the guards, despite being rather unfriendly, were smiling almost unceasingly. When questioned, the guards simply stated that everyone in Vallaki was happy because “Vallaki is the safest city in all of Barovia!”

Once they were satisfied that you meant no harm, the guards pointed you in the direction of the Arasek Stockyard where they said you could keep your chickens. You made your way into a clearing off the main road that contained a few empty pens and a brightly colored, dilapidated carnival wagon off to one side. On one side of the yard lay the entrance to the coffin maker’s shop, and on the other lay a general store from which an older gentleman came out to greet you.

He agreed to purchase your chickens for 3g, and the chickens agreed to stay here for the time being, provided the party come back to check on them in a few days to ensure they were happy. Making your way out of the stockyard, Indigo spotted two guards walking back to their post who had taken an interest in his pipe weed during the search. He befriended them and asked if they would care to share a smoke. They gladly accepted and said they would meet him at the Blue Water Inn after their shift.

The party continued on into the main square, where they had been told they would need to gather in three days time for the Festival of the Blazing Sun. The square was still decorated with streamers and posters advertising for the Wolf’s Head Festival which had been a few days ago, and after talking to some people, you discovered that the Baron threw weekly festivals as a way of raising the spirits of the people of Vallaki. In the middle of the square was a large raised platform upon which sat about a half dozen stocks, one of which was occupied by a smiling middle aged man. Behind him, towered a solitary gallows.

The party approached the man and was able to gather that he had been locked there because he wasn’t happy enough. But he insisted that that was in the past and he was now incredibly happy, because the Baron would take care of all Vallakians. Indigo gave the man some water and a goodberry before he was shooed away by some guards.

Eventually the party made their way to the Blue Water Inn where they found a table and met Danika, the barmaid. She fetched them some drinks and food, and was in the middle of negotiating for lodging when a jovial voice called from the kitchen not to charge for the room. She sighed, but seemed unwilling to challenge the voice, who the party learned belonged to Urwin, Danika’s husband and owner of the Blue Water Inn. Two young boys ran around the room, hanging off the banisters and trying to spy on patrons. These were Danika and Urwin’s children.

After a little bit, the two guards came in looking for Indigo, and while the rest of the party enjoyed their drinks and the warmth of the fire, Indigo attempted to get whatever information he could out of the guards. From them, he was able to glean that everybody in Vallaki was happy—presumably by compulsion—and that the Baron threw weekly festivals where all citizens were expected to attend. He learned that law and order are very important to the Baron and any malfeasance would be dealt with strictly. He had initially thought they may have been charmed, but after interrogating them, it seemed that this was no magical compulsion. He also found out that Vallaki was a place where outsiders may be tolerated but they were rarely trust. At least, by most.

After Indigo returned, the party decided to go to bed, and they all collectively hauled Willem (who had already passed out) up the stairs to the bedroom. Freek and Myrtle took the room next door for themselves.

Vallaki – “The Safest City in All of Barovia”

The party spent an uneventful night at the Blue Water Inn, with Sabine watching over the two kids in the other room. In the morning, before heading downstairs, she informed the rest of the party that when she had been searched separately the previous day, the two female guards had told her that she bears a striking resemblance to Tatyana, a girl famous in Barovian folklore.

It is said that Tatyana was a peasant girl living in the valley when Strahd von Zarovich first arrived to conquer. He fell in love with her, but she hated him for his brutality and instead fell in love with his brother Sergei. In his jealousy, Strahd killed his brother—an act which was said to have sealed his fate as a Vampire lord—and pursued Tatyana. Stricken with grief and fear of her lover’s killer, Tatyana threw herself from the cliffs on which castle Ravenloft rests. Barovian folklore holds, however, that no souls may depart the valley while it remains the domain of the Devil Strahd, and so occasionally the souls of long past residents of Barovia will reemerge. When Strahd learns of a new reincarnation of Tatyana, he will stop at nothing to make her his.

The two guards recommended that Sabine keep this a secret and remain covered up whenever possible. They also told her to seek out Father Lucian at St. Andral’s Church, implying that he could provide her with some measure of protection.

When the party went down for breakfast, they were joined by Urwin Martikov who brought everyone a huge plate of eggs. He talked to you a little about the town and his position in it. He and his family seem happy here in Vallaki, but theirs are some of the only smiles in the city that seem genuine. He mentions that his father runs the winery to the west.

As the party was leaving, they met Ernst Larnak, a somewhat weasely looking little man, who invited them to the house of his mistress, Lady Fiona Wachter. The party decided to honor the request and went to meet with her right away. She lives in a stately manor house on the east side of town with several servants and her three children. While there, the party learned that Lady Wachter is not a fan of the Baron and that she is organizing some kind of resistance to him, although she was not forthcoming with the details of this.

The party learned that Lady Wachter had an encounter with Strahd when she was younger that left her doubting the malevolence which has been ascribed to him by the Vallakovich’s. She thinks the true evil in the valley is the Baron and the constant state of paranoia which he has forced upon the citizens. She also mentioned that on her way back from her meeting with Strahd, she visited Madam Eva who read her fortune which stated that the coming of an outsider to Vallaki would mark a new era. They would bring great ruin—“a purge like no other”—but when all was done, the sun would once again shine on the people of Vallaki.

While at the Wachter Manor, the party also meets Fiona’s youngest daughter, Stella, who has been afflicted with a condition that makes her act like a cat. Indigo attempted communication in cat speak, but this did not yield any productive results.

After trying, and mostly failing, to gain access to other parts of the manor, the party left and headed to Blinsky’s Toys. You were met by a large, jovial man in full court jester regalia and his small pet monkey, Piccolo, whom he had dressed in a pink tutu. The party bought several toys including one of the Tatyana dolls that bore a striking resemblance to Sabine, a Strahd ventriloquist dummy, and a small figurine that Musu swears looks just like he did when he was younger. This last doll had been a special order from the captain of the guard, Izelka Strazni.

After leaving Blinsky’s, the party conned their way into the Baron’s mansion by claiming they were the Mertzt family. After being kept waiting nearly a half hour, the Baron finally admitted you to his library. He spoke to you for several minutes during which it became increasingly clear that he was not entirely sane. He insisted on the city always being happy in order to keep “the devil” away. He touted the weekly festivals as a huge success and one of the main reasons for Strahd’s absence in Vallaki for the past hundred years. He also keeps two large mastiffs with him at all times. As you are leaving the house, you noticed that the room across from the library is labeled “Izelka.”

The party then made their way to St. Andral’s where they briefly spoke with Father Lucian. When asked about “amber doors” he said there was a temple far to the southwest that he thought had something to do with amber, but he had never been there. You learned from him that the Abbot in Krezk was supposedly a powerful healer, but Lucian said that he had not heard from him in years. You also asked about a nest of ravens and he pointed you towards a nest he had seen at the edge of the woods the prior day. You investigated, but only found the eggs of several other birds. Around this time, Wilem attempted to sneak a dream pie, but discovered his three remaining pies were no longer in his bag. Disheartened, he fell into a depressive state which gives him disadvantage on all ability checks.

Upon returning to the city, Indigo noticed that there seemed to be lots of ravens circling the center of the town. He transformed into a monkey and began running across the roofs to investigate, discovering that the central point of focus seemed to be the Blue Water Inn. The players made their way back to the Inn where Indigo spotted Rictavio, the old circus master, sneaking around the back of the stables. The party followed him and, after a quick confrontation, talked to him for a bit. You learned among other things that Rictavio is traveling through Barovia searching for circus performers to join his show. You each “auditioned” but nobody impressed him enough to get an offer.

After Rictavio left, you all noticed there were lots of ravens occupying the loft area of this stable. Indigo spoke with one raven and was able to discern that there was a small box in the loft that the ravens stashed things. He also noticed one raven that would not talk to him and that flew out the window when pressed.

Allysia decided to try and sneak up into the loft to investigate the box, but when she opened the lid, she was immediately attacked by several dozen birds. The party was able to calm them down and Indigo facilitated an exchange, in which the party was able to acquire several potions, a decent amount of platinum, and a mysterious leather bag that appears to be empty, and the ravens gained a much more diverse collection of shinies.

After wrapping up your trade session, you decided to look for Izelka. You were told by a few passing guards that she could be anywhere but that you might check the reformation center. You stopped by the reformation center and convinced the guards to let you in. The main entryway was essentially a big courtroom with several rows of benches two tables and what looked like a mix between a throne and a bench at the head of the room. The guards searched around for several minutes, but eventually came back and told you that Izelka was not there at the moment. As you were leaving, you heard the faint cries of someone upstairs who was clearly in a lot of pain.

Cast Out of Eden

The party turned as you heard the cry and saw a robed figure emerge from the western door of the courtroom. The tall hooded man introduced himself as Ilimir, one of the three reformers that runs the reformation center. He apologized for Izelka’s absence, noting that she rarely comes to the reformation center except to bring in new detractors for reeducation. He also offered to give a tour of the center.

He led the party through a large holding and processing room with a large cell and three gaurds, then into the central hall with a large staircase in the center leading to the second story. There were several rooms that looked to be serving as barracks, a large mess hall, and an entrance to the large turret at the back of the building which served as a training facility. There was another heavy iron door on the east wall of this room that was barred and locked.

The second story contained a large room of much smaller, individual cells. Several more guards patrolled this room and the second floor landing. Allysia, sensing that one of the prisoners was in distress, tried to stealthily drop her knife for him to grab. But when he saw it he began to scream for the guards, not wanting to be punished for having contraband. Allysia managed to play it off as an accident, but the party was ushered out of the room.

At the opposite end of the landing was another door that appeared to be locked and as the party came out of the room with the small cells, they heard muffled cries of terror coming from behind the door. Ilimir said that someone was being “reeducated” inside and unfortunately he would not be able to show that room at the moment.

As he was leading you all back downstairs, you heard a commotion in the courtroom and hurried in to find several guards escorting a tall, dark-haired woman into the courtroom, closely followed by the baron and his two mastiffs. The woman was accused of horse thievery and of being Vistani, as evidenced by the bandana that had been found on her person. The baron pronounced the woman guilty and sentenced her to death. He then left the courtroom and the guards began leading the woman out, towards the gallows at the center of town.

The party leapt into action and attacked the guards flanking the young woman who was able to slip away in the chaos. The attack attracted the attention of many of the guards nearby and soon the party was quickly overwhelmed. Additionally, it attracted the attention of the elusive Izelka, who came running from the direction of the town square when she heard the fight start. The party took out a good number of guards but there were several close calls including Allysia getting knocked out temporarily. But, eventually you managed to rally and make your retreat through the western gates, stealing 2 horses and fleeing into the woods.

After escaping, the party searched the woods for a while, but was unable to locate the Vistana woman. Eventually you decided to head toward the Vistani encampment you had heard about to the south of the city.

After making your way through the woods for about half an hour, you came to a large hill with some small houses surrounding the middle and a large tent encircled by Vistani tents at the top. You were stopped and briefly questioned by a guard posted at the westernmost house, who appears to be at least part elf. When he learned who you were looking for, he took you to the tent where Arrigal and his brother were talking with several other Vistani.

He explained that his niece, Arrabelle—the one for whom he had requisitioned the toy—had disappeared earlier in the day while out with the young boy, Alexei, who was seated in the tent looking distraught. Alexei mentioned that she talked about going to Lake Zarovich sometimes, but said she knew how dangerous it was for them to go near the city. Nonetheless, they all describe Arrabelle as a very headstrong girl.

Arrigal said that many in the camp were already searching the woods but he would appreciate any help you could give. As you were all talking, a commotion could be heard outside and one of the guards ran in to tell Luvash that there might be trouble. You all peaked out to see an angry mob emerging from the woods to the north with torches and pitchforks—among them, a good number of angry looking guards.

Arrigal quickly asked why they were there and after explaining what happened, he called you fools and directed you to leave out the south side of the tent. After a few fortuitous stealth checks, you were all able to sneak back to the cover of the trees where you turned back to the north. You made your way back towards the road just west of Vallaki in order to circle around the city and go north to the lake.

After successfully crossing the road, the party was waylaid by a very unfortunate group of bandits who did not quite understand what they were getting themselves into. Only one walked away, and that was only after being robbed—twice—by Allysia. By the time you were done searching the bodies, the sun had begun to set and you decided to camp for the night in the woods.

During the night, Allysia, Musu, and Indigo all had unsettling nightmares where they were trapped in their own body with a demon sitting on their chest. Willem, who had taken the first watch, watched them tossing and turning for about an hour, but eventually they stopped. When Willem took his turn for sleep, he had flashes of visions dominated by a vague visage telling him to “HELP THEM.”

At first, he thought he was dreaming of when he was back in the military, but quickly he realized the scenes and the people were unfamiliar. He saw flashes from one battle to the next. His group of comrades in shining silver scale armor defeating the forces of evil in one battle after another. But each battle brought losses to his side as well. Until, eventually, his comrades were mostly gone. He saw a flash of a great enemy force looming on the hill above his bloodied friends. Then a flash of a large fortress, crumbling on one side, the statue of a dragon out front draped with the bodies of several slain defenders. Then once again, “HELP THEM.”

The Search for Arabelle

After waking from a somewhat restless sleep, the party set out toward the lake north of Vallaki. After a short time, the party was waylaid by Szoldar and Yevgeny, the two hunters you had spotted at the Blue Water Inn. They caught you in an ambush, but seemed to be more interested in the sport of the hunt than in doing any harm. You questioned them about Arabelle and the mysterious Vistana you had rescued from town, but they did not know anything of either. They did mention, however, that the town drunk, Bluto recently went missing after having been chased from town by the guards for certain “infractions” against the baron.

After leaving the two hunters behind, the party continued northward again. As you walked through the woods, a voice called out to you from above. A tall, thin figure, shaded and obscured by the branches among which he stood, looked down on you. He appeared to be wearing a cloak covered in black feathers and a beaked mask of some kind. He called you all fools for your part in the escape of the Vistana criminal, but said that his employer was impressed and wished to speak with you. He directed you to meet back at the Blue Water Inn that night before disappearing into the forest canopy.

Meeting no further interruptions, the party eventually came to the banks of Lake Zarovich, nestled at the foot of Mount Baratok and surrounded by dense forest. On the lake not far from where you emerged from the trees was a small rowboat with a balding, drunk looking man. Ask the party watched, he raised up a large burlap sack in his arms, poised to throw it into the lake. You noticed the bag squirming and heard the distinct cry of a female voice coming from inside.

As the man tossed the bag overboard, the party sprang into action. Indigo transformed into a crocodile (alligator?) and swam out to grab her, while the other members of the party attempted to capture the man. After rescuing the girl and hauling both her and the man back to shore, you questioned them, finding out that the girl was, in fact, the lost Arabelle that the Vistani had been searching for and that the obviously drunk man was Bluto, whom Szoldar and Yevgeny had asked after.

Arabelle didn’t seem bothered much by the circumstances. Indigo told her of the gift her uncle had asked to get her and she excitedly chose the Strahd dummy, immediately adopting a mock voice for her new toy to crack jokes with.

Bluto was extremely drunk and the party was only able to get from him that he was trying to make a sacrifice to the lake in order to catch more fish, despite telling you all that he wasn’t sure if he had ever caught a fish in the lake before. After sobering Bluto up a bit with a lesser restoration spell and getting little more information from him, the party decided to haul him back to the hunters so they could deal with him. Before leaving the lake, Indigo spotted the large glowing form of what looked like an elk on the other side of the lake, which Arabelle said was probably the “Mad Mage.”

Walking back through the forest, the party eventually came across a trail of dead or dying animals. Following the trail you eventually found Szoldar and Yevgeny. They seemed excited to have Bluto back and thanked the party. When asked about the various animals they had left behind, they reassured you that they would be back for them. They indicated that they were “headed west” but gave no clue as to what exactly they were doing.

On the way back to the Vistani camp, Arabelle took you through her favorite scenic parts of the forests surrounding Vallaki and entertained you with impressions of Strahd using her new toy. Upon arriving back at the camp, the party was hailed as heroes for returning Arabelle and a great feast was arranged. During the gathering, the party also talked with Kasimir—one of the dusk elves that lived among these Vistani—and learned that he had made an enemy of Strahd by killing his own sister before she could be turned into one of his consorts. In retribution Strahd slaughtered all of the female dusk elves in Barovia, leaving the men alone and unable to reproduce. He also cut off Kasimir’s ears as revenge (forgot to mention that).

After the feast, the party headed back toward Vallaki to try and sneak in. With Arrigal and the other Vistani helping to provide a distraction, the party was able to sneak over the northwest wall, only being spotted by a single guard. Indigo summoned several massive snakes to chase him away which allowed the party to disappear into the city without being seen by anyone else.

You went straight to the Blue Water Inn where you were greeted by a tall, thin man with a hooked nose who directed you into the back door leading to the kitchen where Urwin Martikov was working over a large pot of stew. From Urwin you learned that Sabine’s secret had been compromised and that Strahd would likely know before long. He suggested going to father Lucien for protection, implying that St. Andral’s church may have some power to protect against Strahd.

Danika Martikov joined the party after a little while and grilled you all on where your loyalties lie. After satisfying herself that you were not in league with Strahd, she pressed Urwin to ask you all to travel to the Wizard of Wines Winery to figure out why they had not gotten their shipment of wine. They indicated that they have eyes and ears around Barovia and that there is some kind of trouble there, but considering Urwin’s relationship with the owner—his father—he didn’t want to go himself. They both indicated that if the party helped in this matter, it would gain their confidence and possibly their assistance against Strahd.

At the party’s request, Urwin fetched Rictavio, the circus master, who was able to provide the party with disguise kits to aid in their clandestine movements through Vallaki. Afterwards, Urwin gave him the standard paper bag with two apples and a raw steak and he left.

The party went straight to St. Andral’s to meet with Father Lucien. After some convincing—including Sabine revealing her face to the priest—he agreed to help. He told of the history of the church and how it was consecrated through the selfless acts of its namesake in sheltering the enemies of Strahd until the end of his life. Unfortunately, the bones of St. Andral have recently been stolen and without them, he says, the power of the church has faded.

He indicated that Milivoj, the 19 year old grave digger hasn’t been seen for several days, and while he is a “good boy,” he seemed like his greatest suspicion lay there. He directed the party to the orphanage nextdoor where Milivoj helped take care of the younger orphans. He also warned that there have been strange rumors coming from some of the children, fueled in part by the death of one of the younger boys last month.

Nextdoor, the party first visited the headmistress, Claudia Belasco, who was a very serious woman, who nonetheless seemed to care for the children under her charge. When asked about the letter from the hags, she sounded offended at the suggestion that she would just give HER children away to just anyone. She gave the party permission to talk with some of the children, including “that lazy boy, Milivoj” and then waved the party out so she could continue her work.

The party walked through the crowded common area where children of all ages were entertaining themselves and were directed to the door in the back corner for Milivoj. Entering his room, you discovered a very sick young man, covered in sweat, and tossing and turning in a state of delirium. He did not respond to attempts to wake him. Upon inspection, Wilem was able to discern that he was affected by a magical ailment that was not contagious. He could also tell that it did not appear to be vampirism, nor did he think it could have been caused solely by the removal of the bones from the church. Searching the room, the party was unable to find the bones, although there was a dirt covered shovel in the corner of the room.

The Demon of the Orphange

Having come up empty with Milivoj, the party decided to talk to some of the children in the common area. While Musu went out to the backyard, Indigo stayed inside to listen to the girl telling a story to the children about an evil witch. After the story, Indigo asked her some questions and learned that the children are all afraid of Felix, the new boy, and there are suspicions about his involvement in Cedrik’s death.

Outside, Musu investigated the yard and the well, but found nothing particularly interesting. He had just begun talking with the two girls outside when Indigo and Adelaida, the young storyteller, came out and the party talked with all three girls. You learned that odd things had been happening at the orphanage ever since Felix arrived, and you learned that the three boys who ran away had been roommates with Felix and Cedrik. The girls told you that lots of kids at the orphanage had been having nightmares. The party also noticed a large red rash on Adelaida’s back with an inhuman bite mark in the middle. She didn’t remember when or how she got it.

After talking with the girls, the party decided to find Felix and ask him a few questions. You headed upstairs and, after not finding Felix in his dorm, ascended to the attic. Here you found a young boy in a musty armchair, carving a small figurine with a knife. You talked to him for several minutes, but his answers were both unsettling and unhelpful. At one point, he made a cut across the palm of his hand so he could watch the blood flow out.

Eventually, Indigo decided to tell Felix that the party was going to kill him, and he didn’t like this. A great shadowy demon emerged from his form and began clawing away at the party. Alyssia was immediately incapacitated before he fled to the ceiling and spawned another malevolent shadow.

The fight looked rough for a minute, but with some clever use of moonbeam and a VERY well timed divine smite critical, the party destroyed the demon and his minions. Alyssia, having been revived, rushed to care for Felix, who looked weak, but alive.

The Bones of St. Andral

After destroying the demon of the orphanage, the party set out to discover what had happened. You all questioned Felix and were able to discern that he had been possessed by the demon and forced to watch helplessly as it committed its evils. He was a witness and unwilling participant in the murder of both his parents and Cedrik. He also told you all that the demon had inscribed runes into the beds of all the children in the orphanage. Upon inspection, the party concluded that the runes were a way for the demon to torment the children in their dreams. Felix told you that this all began when he found and opened a strange silver locket.

A cry came from downstairs as the party was talking with Felix and they went down to find that Headmistress Belasco had thrown a drawer of her desk into the middle of the room after it had apparently burst into flames. In the smoldering wreckage, you all saw many burnt pieces of paper and a charred silver locket. Allysia hit it immediately with her staff, breaking it apart, but on further inspection, the party decided that purging the demon had likely caused the destruction of the artifact. After settling Felix into the room of the previous caretaker, the party went to interrogate Milivoj, who they discovered awake on his bed. Although he was quite defensive at first, eventually Milivoj began to open up about what had been going on. He was raised at the orphanage and even though he is old enough to leave on his own, he has stayed on to help fill the duties of the recently deceased caretaker. He works as a gravedigger for the church next door in order to earn money to support his brothers and sisters at the orphanage.

When he started to get sick a couple weeks ago, he wasn’t able to work as regularly and didn’t have any other way to make money. After the three boys who shared a room with Felix ran away, he gave in to desperation and agreed to steal the bones in exchange for a reward big enough to hire Yevgeny and Szoldar to find them. He sold them to Henrik the coffin maker for 30gp. He did not know what Henrik wanted with them.

After satisfying yourselves that the threat at the orphanage had been dealt with and after donating a generous 50gp to the Headmistress (with the assumption she would use it for the benefit of the children), you headed out to deal with Henrik. On the way, however, Indigo insisted on a detour to the blacksmith’s shop to buy some armor. There they met a grizzled old man (whose name you never asked) who inquired about their allegiance to the Burgomaster. After assuring him that you were not fans of the Baron, he became more genial and happily fitted Indigo for a new set of scale armor.

After this, the party continued sneaking toward the coffin shop on the other end of town. Halfway there, several members of the party were spotted and attracted the attention of a nearby guard, who ran off to get help. Taking advantage of the excitement of the day, the party quickly dispersed into the crowd and were able to avoid further detection.

Upon entering the coffin maker’s shop, you were all met by a very gruff looking silver fox. I mean, older man. He was extremely evasive and even rude but Indigo, impatient and annoyed, took him by surprise and knocked him out cold. The party tied him up and did a quick but fruitless search of the workshop room you met him in. When he awoke a few minutes later you began interrogating him, making excellent use of Sabine’s zone of truth. You learned that he was in league with Strahd, though he knew him only as his alter ego, Vasili von Holtz, a wealthy noble. By his request, Henrik was holding 6 crates in his upstairs supply room, but he indicated that there were monsters in the crates and he wouldn’t go up. He also revealed that he had hired Milivoj to steal the bones on orders from Holtz. He said he did not know the purpose of either of those things.

The party decided to ascend the stairs. Choosing the door to the right first, you found Henrik’s kitchen and quarters. There was a heavy layer of dust on everything up here as if no one had been up in months. Indigo discovered a bag in the wardrobe in the back room containing what sounded like bones. He took the bag and you all went to explore the other room and potentially deal with the “monsters.”

The storage room was scattered with junk and several large boxes. Indigo approached the closest box and lifted the lid. The lid lifted to reveal a pale young man resting on a bed of dirt. The creature immediately leapt toward Indigo while five more emerged from the boxes scattered around the room. As this was happening, the party looked outside and saw the sky darkening in the east—an ominous billowing storm marching steadily toward the city—Castle Ravenloft framed by lightning in the distance.

The Siege on Vallaki

[ Written by player Haiwee ]

The strange dark clouds over the so-called safest city in Barovia loomed, ever threatening as the undead creatures, assumed to be vampires - began to wreak havoc on the town. The party began their attack against the undead assailants. Thankfully, some of the guards of Vallaki were able to jump in and help defend the townspeople, giving the party the opportunity to race towards St. Andral's church. Fortunately, some guards were able to gauge that the threat of the vampires heavily outweighed the threat of the wanted criminals, and fought the vampires alongside the group. Unfortunately, the guard captain, Izelka, made an appearance and was out for blood.

Sabine, atop a lion-shapeshifted Indigo, made great haste through the sea of battle, barely avoiding Izelka and her elite guard. To everyone's surprise, down the road there was a foreboding figure awaiting them - a ghost of their past, banging a large metal pot.

Trailing behind Indigo and Sabine, the rest of the party faced their own conflicts. Musu fought his way through vampires, swinging his mighty battleaxe, ironically ending up briefly fighting side by side with Izelka. Allysia successfully thwarted off a duo of vampires’ meager attempts to charm her, and Willem carried up the rear, shooting a particularly effective Sacred Flame to singe the hair off of his undead pursuer. In the chaos, he noticed a few raven-like humanoids jumping into the fray, causing a great deal of the vampires to flee.

Up ahead, Sabine prepared to command the menacing pot-banger, and was able to stop his attack by compelling him to undress in the midst of the confrontation. Little did she and Indigo know, two guards flanking him had set up a trap, pulling a rope taut and sending the two flying prone to the ground. They were able to scramble back up in time and continue on to the church without any further hindrance.

While the pot-banger hurriedly undressed, and then started to frantically redress himself, the other two guards displayed the full range of what the Vallaki's guard regimen had to offer; one by tripping over his own rope and falling prone, and the other by deftly gouging a hole in Musu's side. Thankfully, he was able to escape their clutches and make his way towards the church. Allysia offered a wave to a very confused and alarmed pot-banger as she sped past him.

Finally reaching the church, Indigo and Sabine initially discovered that the doors were locked. A hatch slid open, revealing the face of a very worried Father Lucien, who immediately relaxed upon seeing the duo. He opened the door for them, requesting that they give him the bones at once.

Indigo refused, retaining his lion form as he tried to go directly to the altar to return the bones himself. He didn’t make it far, as he was roughly grabbed and grappled in place. Sabine went sailing to the floor, prone. The face of Father Lucien slowly melted away before their eyes, until Strahd von Zarovich himself stood in his place, decorated in embellished war armor, as well as a pair of assless chaps. He gripped Indigo by the scruff of his chest roughly, remarking that it was great to see him again. Indigo took this opportunity to shapeshift into his bear form, escaping the clutches of Strahd and dashing to the altar.

The vampire lord quickly thwarted the druid's plans, appearing beside him in an instant and attacking him fatally. Indigo was forced out of his wild shape as he was downed, but Sabine quickly ran to his aid and healed him to the best of her ability. Strahd wasted no time in snatching up St. Andral's bones, triumphantly declaring victory and revealing that he sees everything. He looked to Sabine and addressed her as Tatyana, indicating that he knew her secret. At that moment, everyone was surprised by Allysia bursting through the open door, notably still dressed in her disguise as a pregnant woman, exclaiming “THE BABY IS COMING!”. The outburst surprised even Strahd, who appeared to be stunned into silence. While he was distracted, Indigo took the opportunity to slide open the door to the altar and slash at the bag holding the bones, sending a few of them clattering to the floor. It seemed that there was a chance, after all.

To everyone's frustration, Strahd sent the still-wailing Allysia flying through the doors with a flick of his wrist, sealing it shut, and was able to set all of the bones aflame, reducing them to ashes before their eyes. He reached for Sabine, declaring his intentions to have her rule over Barovia by his side, but she only withdrew in disgust. In an act of defiance, she drew her sword and held it against her neck. Strahd withdrew, advising her to not be hasty. He told her he could give her whatever she wants, but she defiantly said that what she wants is to be in a world without him in it, with the freedom to return to Faerun with her friends, and for the people of Barovia to live without a monster ruling over them.

Unphased, Strahd gave Sabine a golden pendant with a remarkable resemblance to the sigil of an eye carved into her forehead, saying that he was returning something that once belonged to her. At that moment, he tore away a section of the roof, and summoned a large, flaming horse and rode off into the sunset. Reluctantly, everyone admitted it was unfortunately badass.

After he left, the rest of the party was able to enter the church. They hurried over to Father Lucien's office, ensuring that he wasn't in critical condition and settling him into bed, where they noticed there were two puncture wounds in the side of his neck. Without many other options, they left the church and went back out into the city.

The silence was deafening. No villagers screamed or cried, there was only quiet. The vampires were nowhere to be seen, and the ugly black clouds in the sky began to dissipate. All that was left was for the citizens to pick up the pieces of their once 'safe' city.

The party decided to return to the Inn, stopping to help those affected by the siege along the way. No guards bothered to stop the group; they had much bigger things to worry about.

When reaching the Inn, Danica appeared to be in the midst of the fallout, frantically handling affairs and reparations. The group went to go and see the ravens, where even the ramifications of Strahd's appearance seemed to reach. Indigo spoke with the Ravens, thanking them for their help in fighting back against the undead, and Allysia offered an apology for her earlier actions. They were met with forgiveness and regards. The raven with the top hat that they encountered previously flew to Indigo's shoulder, speaking plainly for the first time and offering him their respect.

Indigo asked the raven to join the group on their adventures, to which he readily accepted. When asked about the golden pendant, the bird recoiled. Upon further inspection, the pendant appeared to have magical properties associated with the school of Divination. Ultimately, despite the potential implication that the pendant was being used to spy on the party, they decided to keep it just in case.

Indigo asked the Raven for his name, to which he responded that he didn't have one. He asked Indigo to give him a name, which the druid said he would have to think of a suitable one.

As for exactly where the party will go next, it is unclear. They still must resolve the issue of their haunted dreams, but clues have alluded that they may find more answers on their cursed situation in Tserpool, a small town marked by a disturbingly familiar sigil of an eye...

Vallaki – “The Bloodiest City in All of Barovia”

The next morning, the players were met by a familiar face—the mysterious Vistana woman, Esemerelda d’Avenir—who informed you of strange goings on at the Wachter Manor. She told of kidnappings in the night and hooded people being brought to her basement, never to be heard from again. The party agreed to investigate the most recent kidnapping, which you were told happened mere hours before.

Upon arriving at the manor, the party found the cellar door unlocked. Descending the stone stairs, you found yourselves in a dimly lit root cellar with dirt floors, several cots on one side of the room, another flight of stone steps leading up into the house, and a series of footprints leading, seemingly, to the wall on the far side of the room.

As you stepped foot on the ground, several skeletons emerged from beneath the dirt and attacked. Fighting erupted and the noise alerted the cultists sequestered in the adjacent room. The wall slid open to reveal a ceremonial chamber, several cultists, Lady Wachter, and a victim lying prostrate on the floor.

The cultists immediately joined the battle, but it quickly became clear they were outmatched. The three cultists, as well as the small imp that Lady Wachter kept, were all slaughtered in short order along with the eight skeletons.

The party interrogated Lady Wachter and discovered that she had been orchestrating ritual sacrifices for years in her basement in the hopes of bringing about the prophesied destruction and the coming of the sun to Vallaki. She insisted that her “victims” were all evil nobles who had allied themselves with the Baron and that she was simply performing a service for the town. She also hinted that her plan for Vallaki was already in motion and that the party couldn’t stop it.

Upon leaving the Wachter Manor, you observed the town guards gathering everyone up for the (rescheduled) Festival of the Blazing Sun. You were ushered towards the town square, where the Baron was preparing a large wicker effigy of the sun to be burned. As the festival began, Lady Wachter emerged to speak to the people and urge them to arms against the Baron and his corrupt government. Several of her cultists seized the Baron, his family, and Izelka, but Victor, their son, managed to break away from the guards and unleashed a powerful blast of cold, obliterating two guards and injuring two of the cultists.

Izelka was unmasked by the cultists and Musu immediately recognized her from his distant past. She was older with more battle scars and her face was cold as iron—much different from the smiling girl of his youth—but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was Sara [SAW-ra], his long lost older sister. He called out her name and rushed forward, removing his helmet. There was a touching, if quick, reunion between the two before Izelka (Sara) ran to try and put down the uprising, Musu following close behind.

As the chaos escalated, a sudden stupor fell over a large portion of the mob, including the two cultists that had been moving through the crowd. Sara rushed one of the cultists and slaughtered him where he stood while Musu attacked the other, maiming him and sending him to the ground begging for his life.

Sabine rushed to intercept Victor, commanding him to focus on her. Indigo transformed into a lion and rushed him, raking his claws at the young caster. He was hurt, but managed to disappear before he could be taken out.

Allysia pushed away from two of the guards, knocking one to the ground. With the help of the chaos and the bloodshed caused by her compatriots she managed to scare away the remaining guards around the group.

Willem attempted to reach the stage where the cultists had tied the Baron, but he was engaged by a hulking elite guard who delayed him on his way.

At the far end of the square, three tall robed figures emerged and targeted Sabine with a barrage of magic missiles. The party recognized the center figure as Ilimir, the reformer who had taken them through the reformation center.

Indigo decided that the best way to put an end to the chaos was to quickly put an end to the Baron. He charged the stage and before anyone could do anything, he ripped the Baron’s head clean from his body. Transforming back into a halfling, he tossed the head into the mass of guards and villagers and yelled for everyone to surrender or face his wrath.

Seeing his father killed, Victor reappeared and conjured a massive ice storm centered on the stage, injuring not only Indigo, but the remaining cultist and his mother as well, but extinguishing the fire that was threatening to consume her (and the headless corpse of her husband).

Sabine took the opportunity then to move behind Victor and take a mighty swing, caving in the back of his skull and sending pieces of brain and skull fragments flying. At this, Ilimir held up his hands and called for everyone to stop fighting. The remaining guards and mob, deeply shaken by the sudden escalation in violence, complied readily and the party assented as well. Izelka, having just seen her adopted father murdered, marched toward Indigo for revenge. But at Musu’s urging, she finally relented, settling on a deep hatred rather than bloody revenge.

Lady Wachter waded out among the field of bodies and (perhaps a little too gleefully) began conferring with the reformers about a new system of governance. One, presumably, with her at its head.

Musu talked with Sara and discovered that their mother may still be alive, but was taken long ago to Castle Ravenloft. Musu asked her to come with, but she insisted that Vallaki was her home now and that she needed to stay to help rebuild it.

With the final release of the pent up political tension in Vallaki, the party found themselves free to pursue their own goals once again.

Player characters

Musu: Human Fighter (Psi Warrior)

Alignment: Lawful Neutral. I obey laws, traditions, or my own strict code to promote order and society above all else.
Soldier Background
- Feature: Military Rank
- Traits: Fought as a gladiator for years. Seeks to dominate similar rival.
- Ideal: Only combat proves worth.
- Bond: Serves with childhood rival.
- Flaw: Traumatized by battle magic.
Human traits: 36 years old, medium size (6' 1", 178 lbs.) Reminiscent of years of military service, Musu is clean shaven (no beard, head hair) when he has time for grooming. A large scar arcing the left side of his head mars his left eyebrow, ear, and scalp (flail injury many years ago). His eyes are a light grey with a tingle of blue.
Fighter Class Features:
- Fighting Style: Defense

Musu was born in a small fishing village and has pleasant memories of childhood until the slavers came when he was 8. They killed his father (Elaiden el-AY-den), chained him, his mother, and his one older sister (Sara SAW-ra 10 years old). Musu was sold into conscripted military service (ages 8-18), rose through the ranks under promises that his mother and sister were being supported as long as he continued to serve and win battles.

Eventually, Musu discovered the lies: according to a superior his mother was dead and his sister was missing. Musu killed that commander and was sent to the gladiator pits. He fought for years (ages 18-26), eventually gaining his freedom through combat and the timely death of specific pit bosses during a raid + slave revolt.

Musu searched for his mother (deceased?) and sister for years (ages 27-36), but information is hard to come by.

At age 36 Musu found his sister (Sara SAW-ra) in Vallaki!! In Vallaki, she is known as "Izelka," Captain of the Guard, and was raised by The Baron. Sara (SAW-ra) has brown hair, close-cut for her military service. She has a scar through her left eyebrow.

The Baron passed peacefully when a random tiger unrelated to the party's adventuring was a bit peckish. Sara was briefly shaken by his passing, but no one can blame the natural behavior of local wildlife.

"AI" for computer programming

2026-01-19T00:00:00Z

Experience: 30 years of computer programming. In 2023 my career veered off of large scale back-end development (DBs, APIs, etc.) and into "DevOps" (gluing dataflow tools together w/o building large bespoke ones in house). My title is "Data Engineer" but I wouldn't say I'm doing much of that.

2026-01-19

It now appears that Claude Sonnet 4.5 (in VSCode) is stunningly stronger (faster) at many of the processes I've been doing manually for 30 years. With a low mistake / disastrous suggestion rate. I've gotten pretty good at harnessing Claude for my tasks.

Overall, in the domain I'm working in (AWS cloud monkey), I may or may not be more productive than other humans.

But it's becoming inarguable, it seems to me, that a human with my level of experience doing my specific job w/ Claude Sonnet 4.5 can be (note: is not guaranteed to be) more productive than a human w/o Claude or equivalent.

My professional experience now includes many months of harnessing "AI" tools.

Presumably in the next 1-5 years, the licensing costs of the tools my job is using will skyrocket as those companies eventually have to stop losing tens / hundreds of billions of dollars every year?

Side-note: For 25 years I'd use Perl to do little one-off things. They'd take me 20-90 minutes. Now Claude writes that thing for me from scratch in Python faster than I can write good prompts. This makes my old programmer brain sad. But my get shit done brain is happy the shit got done.

On Mastodon, someone asked:

Oh FFS, why is it so hard for people to understand that LLMs/genAI don't THINK?! 💀

Doing my specific job, at this point, I don't know how a blind Turing test would / could prove I "think" about problems more than Claude Sonnet 4.5 does.

Could you detect it was Claude? Absolutely.

Claude isn't just a one-time word salad generator anymore. It generates deep trees of hypothesis and conclusions only partially based on LLM predictions. It's "logical" "grounding" in technical specs / docs is... I didn't think it was going to be possible for at least 10 more years.

Or I'm a sucker / stupid / tricked. I dropped out of my Philosophy major decades ago, so maybe my thinking about thinking is weak. 🙂

2025-07-09

I cancelled all my personal "AI" subscriptions because my new job is flooded with those tools. By policy I'm not supposed to use those tools for personal use. I'm not making enough time for my hobbies to "need" "AI" for them anyway. My hobbies are shifting from software to physical.

2025-05-11

I'm often very impressed with ChatGPT 4o in specific situations. When I have no idea how to do X, ChatGPT is often excellent at quickly putting me in a functional ballpark of one way to start. Saving me 10-90 minutes of trying to find good docs / a single working example.

So I always have a ChatGPT 4o browser tab open. I go back and forth between command-line docs, web reference docs, Kagi searches, and asking ChatGPT 4o.

I've also been playing with Cursor for small hobby projects. It seems excellent at "writing things for me" and "explaining" what it's doing, how it works, and why to do those things. I've paid $0 for Cursor so far. The free tier is 125 whatevers/month, which I haven't hit yet.

e.g. It's been years since I've attempted any NLP (Natural Language Processing), so I had ChatGPT 4o sketch out some code for me in whatever language / libraries it recommend. I've had Cursor refining it for me. I'm still doing a lot of it manually myself, but from a tool-assisted initial scaffolding. I have to understand the new code myself before I accept anything the tools spit out. I commit each step to git manually after I understand what it did.

I've been very surprised that I can ask it questions about non-obvious, mildly janky code I wrote and it explains what I wrote in 3 seconds in very well written docs. If asked to document what I wrote, I probably would have written similar (or slightly worse?) docs of that thing, and it would have taken me 30 minutes.

I haven't attempted any AI integrations into large scale real-world contexts. I assume that if, a few months ago, I had attempted to have Cursor help me with the ~30K lines of Terraform configuration I was working on, that maybe that would have been useful? At the time I wasn't using Cursor yet, so I didn't try. Cursor is apparently super great at feeding your code context to it. It manipulates your code in-line inside a VSCode fork. Very fancy. I have no idea how well it scales.

I'm a baby "AI" tool user, not a power user (so far). Everything I've done is the intro stuff. I've been very impressed recently. It also kicks out total nightmare code occassionally. Or completely non-functional nonsense. But not very often in my recent experience.

2024 - early 2025

All these "AIs" (LLMs) are pretty much crap as far as I can tell. But I feel professional pressure to have one available to me, so apparently I've been personally paying OpenAI $20/month. Just to have a browser tab available in case it happens to be useful occasionally. Sometimes to be able to say "ya, I tried that, but it sucked at that."

As a consultant, it appears to me you always have to be open to at least trying new tech. Blanket refusal to even try something is frowned upon. If my $20/month destroys the entire planet / humanity, that's my bad. I don't feel massively complicit (yet?), I believe they're losing money on my usage? (Burn that venture capitol, burn. 🔥) If the price increases much (even enough to cover their costs?) I predict I'll drop my subscription.

Earl C. Humphrey

2026-01-07T00:00:00Z

Via scuba diving, I collected things about my grandfather here.

Via genealogy, I collected things about my grandfather here.

On Earl's birthday (he would have turned 106 today) Mom asked me to tell her a story about grandpa. Some candidates:

Some memories of the farm in SE Iowa:

Playing croquet in the yard, hammering those wooden balls through the stakes. The big trees, the walnut tree.
The water well. The huge concrete lid. (That puts water in the house? How?)
The old grape vines down the yard.
Chopping a Christmas tree and hauling it back and setting it up.
Exploring the old barns. The old hay. The old big tractors.
The old clothes line. The close fencing. The tall corn.
Cats, kittens everywhere.
Endless trips to the close pond.
"Big" trips to the far pond.
Fireflies.
Frogs and countless bugs everywhere.
Wading the creek (grandpa barefoot). Looking for turtles. I don't think we found one?
Plinking milk jugs full of water on the old fences with the 22 rifle.
Driving "into town" in the newer car or the old pickup.
Rides on the lawn mower.
"Look at this caterpillar."
Infinite stacks of National Geographic.
The old globe. The old coffee grinder. The clock grandpa made.
The fancy doilies on the tables.
Dad and grandpa word working in the basement. Endless discussions of the best natural varnishes.
Farm dogs. "Stupid" chasing cars. Others?
The old rotating antennae on the roof. The controller making a click click click sound as the motor tried to point at the best tower for that TV channel. "For channel 6 you have to point towards Burlington, which is east." Some list like that. Magic.
"Teaching me how to drive" the old pickup. The old tractor.
The photo of grandpa standing on his war ship. "Which one is you?" "I don't know."
Hundreds of old tools on the walls of the garage.

Health

2025-12-19T00:00:00Z

2025-08 (bacterial sinus infection?)

Aug 6

Normal 6-month dental cleaning, w/ x-rays. No problems, x-rays look good.

Aug 10-14

Scuba diving in the Cayman Islands I got a few headaches at depth. Not unprecedented. 10 years ago my ENT doctor told me for deep diving:

Double my 20' safety stops (3 -> 6 minutes)
Use Oxymetazoline HCI 0.05% over-the-counter nasal spray before first deep dive.

And that worked fine for ~10 years. Not so much on this trip. Bummer.

I switched regulators, skipped a few deep dives, various things seemed to work, then didn't? Quite mysterious. Do I have a sinus infection but I can't tell? Zero symptoms above water.

Tue Aug 26 - Thu Aug 28 (day 1-3)

Back home. Whoah. Weird. Headache. Ear pressure. Sinus pressure. All symptoms on right side of head. Some mild tooth pain. Everything fine for ~6 hour blocks sometimes, then I got hit by a truck of sinus-style pain. Sleep difficult, sometimes only possible on one or the other side. I'll see how I feel in the morning. If whatever this is isn't gone, it's doctor time tomorrow.

Fri Aug 29 (day 4)

Ya, I don't feel good. Definitely need to see a doctor before the long weekend starts. Got my ass kicked in one morning meeting. 15 minutes later I feel totally fine, like nothing was ever wrong with me.

11am: Priority Care doctor is surprised that he's not seeing obvious sinus infection in his examination. My blood pressure and everything else are normal. Prescribes:

fluticasone propionate 50 mcg/actuation nasal spray. 2 sprays each nostril, once daily.
oxymetazoline 0.05% nasal spray. The same stuff as my scuba diving. Use no more than 3 days to avoid rebound congestion.
amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet. 1 tablet twice daily for 7 days.

Notes:

The sprays are for generally fighting sinus. Yes, do the netti-pot, that's always good for sinuses.
The tablet is for fighting bacterial infection. But they don't recommend starting that until day 10.
If viral infection they don't do anything about it. If viral, it should clear by day 3-7.

Sat Aug 30 (day 5)

2am: oh no. So much tooth pain! Impossible to sleep. Suddenly I've gone from "sinus infection?" to "holy shit I'm in a dental emergency?"

6am: Reached out to my normal dentist in emergency mode. He calls me back an hour later. I tell him the whole story, he reviews a bunch of stuff, tells me without a physical trauma it's almost impossible I've developed a cavity or other structural problem that quickly after my set of x-rays less than a month ago.

Dentist recommends starting my amox tablet prescription immediately, because that's the same prescription he would have called in for me this morning. Says in 1-2 tablets it should knock out any bacterial thing I've got going on.

9am: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #1

9pm: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #2

Sun Aug 31 (day 6)

3am: I think those tablets are indeed, my salvation. Crazy to me that the first advice was to wait until day 10 when it's a miracle drug in my case? Slept a bunch yesterday, netti-potted, ibuprofen for pain, but generally feeling like we've whipped this problem and I'm well on my way back to normal.

9am: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #3

4pm: All my other symptoms are gone. Now it's only lower right tooth pain, "managed" with maximum doctor-allowed Ibuprofen: 3,200 mg / 24 hours.

covid-19 test: negative.

8pm: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #4

11pm: Very desperate against chronic pain, mental / emotional health completely shot (pain + lack of / poor sleep). Trying ice packs for the first time. The pain of the ice pack seems to replace the tooth pain, and when the ice pain fades I have some tooth pain relief... for an hour or so?

Mon Sep 1 (day 7)

Dentist says if the tablets work, there should be no dental work to do. Come in any time during normal business hours, he can run tests ("abundance of caution"), otherwise he'll see me in 5 months.

0400: Feeling OK right now, got 3(?) hours of interrupted sleep since 11pm.
0500: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (400/3200 total for today)
0730: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #5
- 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (800/3200 total for today)
1130: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (1200/3200 total for today)
- You're in pain. 4 hours was too long. Try 3.
1430: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (1600/3200 total for today)
1730: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (2000/3200 total for today)
1930: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #6
2030: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (2400/3200 total for today)
2200: 2 Tylenol = 1300 mg (1300/4000 total for today)

Tue Sep 2 (day 8)

0300: Feeling OK right now! Oh, wow, those were big Tylenol pills... they last a lot longer? Tylenol works better? Slept 5 hours almost solid?
0545: 2 Tylenol = 1300 mg (1300/4000 total for today)

Jordan Nielsen:

Sorry to hear that Jay- I’m not a doctor, but you might want to check up with an allergist about sargassum and jellyfish. Decomposing sargassum in the water releases sulfides and often contains jellyfish larvae. You could have gotten hit with it if you swam through a concentration. Sargassum Inundation Events (SIEs): Impacts on Human Health

🤯 The entire eastern edge of Cayman Islands is covered in sargassum. The resort tractors it off the beaches twice a day every day. And I dove / snorkeled in it daily. No one has ever mentioned any possible problem to me...

0800: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #7
1215: 2 Tylenol = 1000 mg (2300/4000 total for today)
1430: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (400/3200 total for today)
2000: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #8
2200: 2 Tylenol = 1000 mg (3300/4000 total for today)

Well, shit. Once again I was feeling great (normal. remember normal? Pepperidge Farm remembers) so was getting all cocky in the late afternoon / evening like I had whipped this thing. Until about 10pm when the tooth pain came back. A lot less bad, but still. Sad boy. Humbling. Used the huge ice pack for a deep face freeze, slept good until 3am.

General note: Eating hurts. Not because biting or food on the right side hurts, but because trying to open my mouth wide enough to bite things, my jaw aches. Then I floss and brush with zero pain. Neck soreness on the right side. I ice that too, which helps.

Wed Sep 3 (day 9)

0300: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (400/3200 total for today)
0830: 2 Tylenol = 1000 mg (1000/4000 total for today)
amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #9
Feeling good, barely a twinge, took Tylenol proactively ("you gotta stay ahead of the pain"). Just a little congestion, not uncommon for me when I wake up.
1230: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (800/3200 total for today)
1700: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (1200/3200 total for today)
2200: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #10
2330: 2 Tylenol = 1000 mg (2000/4000 total for today)

Thu Sep 4 (day 10)

0700: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #11
Mild headache (always right side)
2 Tylenol = 1000 mg (1000/4000 total for today)
1230: 2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (400/3200 total for today)
2145: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #12
2 Ibuprofen = 400 mg (800/3200 total for today)

Fri Sep 5 (day 11)

Hey!! umm... I think I'm declaring success? Yesterday very few pain meds. I'm not 100% yet, but close, and ... if I'm whittling down to zero pain meds today / next couple of days, then the tablets worked? Eating should be back to normal... soon? All better? Fin? 🇫🇷

amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #13
amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 mg tablet #14 (prescription finished)

Thu Dec 18

Uh-oh. Bit into a slice of pizza on my right side and thought I cracked a tooth! That's never happened to me before. Carefully swallowed, checked. Huh. no pain, really, just a mild pressure sensation right where the above sinus infection(?) got me... Can floss and brush and push on all teeth without pain.

Next morning I can still feel a hint of the sensation. Still flossing, brushing, no pain. Fluke red pepper flake wedged between molars temporarily? It'll be an interesting story to tell at my next regular cleaning appointment in Feb.

Epilogue

Doctor says everything is going to be OK. Chase squirrels, lots of naps, snacks.

Omaha documentaries

2025-10-25T00:00:00Z

The filmmaker and Q&A at the sold out premier of "My Omaha" Oct 14 2025:

"My Omaha" trailer:

"My Omaha" made many references to another Omaha documentary: A Time For Burning (1966). And interviewed that filmmaker.

"A Time For Burning" is not fucking around. No punches pulled. "My Omaha" is much softer in tone, even while much of the foundational content hasn't changed over those 59 years?

If you're confused about "white fragility," check out the last 10 minutes of "A Time For Burning."

Proposal: White Lutherans could meet (black) Lutherans in their homes.

Pastor fired.

Oof.

Mom was especially struck by the final song in the film. So I used YTMP3 to rip the audio of that YouTube video down and clip it for her:

Mom wanted to buy that song, so I tried like hell to find it for her. In 2013 others were trying to find that song too and failed:

I found the original song for the film written by Tom Paxton, arranged by B.G. Kornfeld, and sung by Ronnie Gilbert to be uplifting and I wish there was more information so I could find a copy to purchase.

Discussion thread on Mastodon

a god of fallen leaves

2025-10-25T00:00:00Z

[ writing-prompt-s ]

Temples are built for gods. Knowing this a farmer builds a small temple to see what kind of god turns up.

sadoeuphemist

Arepo built a temple in his field, a humble thing, some stones stacked up to make a cairn, and two days later a god moved in.

“Hope you’re a harvest god,” Arepo said, and set up an altar and burnt two stalks of wheat. “It’d be nice, you know.” He looked down at the ash smeared on the stone, the rocks all laid askew, and coughed and scratched his head. “I know it’s not much,” he said, his straw hat in his hands. “But - I’ll do what I can. It’d be nice to think there’s a god looking after me.”

The next day he left a pair of figs, the day after that he spent ten minutes of his morning seated by the temple in prayer. On the third day, the god spoke up.

“You should go to a temple in the city,” the god said. Its voice was like the rustling of the wheat, like the squeaks of fieldmice running through the grass. “A real temple. A good one. Get some real gods to bless you. I’m no one much myself, but I might be able to put in a good word?” It plucked a leaf from a tree and sighed. “I mean, not to be rude. I like this temple. It’s cozy enough. The worship’s been nice. But you can’t honestly believe that any of this is going to bring you anything.”

“This is more than I was expecting when I built it,” Arepo said, laying down his scythe and lowering himself to the ground. “Tell me, what sort of god are you anyway?”

“I’m of the fallen leaves,” it said. “The worms that churn beneath the earth. The boundary of forest and of field. The first hint of frost before the first snow falls. The skin of an apple as it yields beneath your teeth. I’m a god of a dozen different nothings, scraps that lead to rot, momentary glimpses. A change in the air, and then it’s gone.”

The god heaved another sigh. “There’s no point in worship in that, not like War, or the Harvest, or the Storm. Save your prayers for the things beyond your control, good farmer. You’re so tiny in the world. So vulnerable. Best to pray to a greater thing than me.”

Arepo plucked a stalk of wheat and flattened it between his teeth. “I like this sort of worship fine,” he said. “So if you don’t mind, I think I’ll continue.”

“Do what you will,” said the god, and withdrew deeper into the stones. “But don’t say I never warned you otherwise.”

Arepo would say a prayer before the morning’s work, and he and the god contemplated the trees in silence. Days passed like that, and weeks, and then the Storm rolled in, black and bold and blustering. It flooded Arepo’s fields, shook the tiles from his roof, smote his olive tree and set it to cinder. The next day, Arepo and his sons walked among the wheat, salvaging what they could. The little temple had been strewn across the field, and so when the work was done for the day, Arepo gathered the stones and pieced them back together.

“Useless work,” the god whispered, but came creeping back inside the temple regardless. “There wasn’t a thing I could do to spare you this.”

“We’ll be fine,” Arepo said. “The storm’s blown over. We’ll rebuild. Don’t have much of an offering for today,” he said, and laid down some ruined wheat, “but I think I’ll shore up this thing’s foundations tomorrow, how about that?”

The god rattled around in the temple and sighed.

A year passed, and then another. The temple had layered walls of stones, a roof of woven twigs. Arepo’s neighbors chuckled as they passed it. Some of their children left fruit and flowers. And then the Harvest failed, the gods withdrew their bounty. In Arepo’s field the wheat sprouted thin and brittle. People wailed and tore their robes, slaughtered lambs and spilled their blood, looked upon the ground with haunted eyes and went to bed hungry. Arepo came and sat by the temple, the flowers wilted now, the fruit shriveled nubs, Arepo’s ribs showing through his chest, his hands still shaking, and murmured out a prayer.

“There is nothing here for you,” said the god, hudding in the dark. “There is nothing I can do. There is nothing to be done.” It shivered, and spat out its words. “What is this temple but another burden to you?”

“We -” Arepo said, and his voice wavered. “So it’s a lean year,” he said. “We’ve gone through this before, we’ll get through this again. So we’re hungry,” he said. “We’ve still got each other, don’t we? And a lot of people prayed to other gods, but it didn’t protect them from this. No,” he said, and shook his head, and laid down some shriveled weeds on the altar. “No, I think I like our arrangement fine.”

“There will come worse,” said the god, from the hollows of the stone. “And there will be nothing I can do to save you.”

The years passed. Arepo rested a wrinkled hand upon the temple of stone and some days spent an hour there, lost in contemplation with the god.

And one fateful day, from across the wine-dark seas, came War.

Arepo came stumbling to his temple now, his hand pressed against his gut, anointing the holy site with his blood. Behind him, his wheat fields burned, and the bones burned black in them. He came crawling on his knees to a temple of hewed stone, and the god rushed out to meet him.

“I could not save them,” said the god, its voice a low wail. “I am sorry. I am sorry. I am so so sorry.” The leaves fell burning from the trees, a soft slow rain of ash. “I have done nothing! All these years, and I have done nothing for you!”

“Shush,” Arepo said, tasting his own blood, his vision blurring. He propped himself up against the temple, forehead pressed against the stone in prayer. “Tell me,” he mumbled. “Tell me again. What sort of god are you?”

“I -” said the god, and reached out, cradling Arepo’s head, and closed its eyes and spoke.

“I’m of the fallen leaves,” it said, and conjured up the image of them. “The worms that churn beneath the earth. The boundary of forest and of field. The first hint of frost before the first snow falls. The skin of an apple as it yields beneath your teeth.” Arepo’s lips parted in a smile.

“I am the god of a dozen different nothings,” it said. “The petals in bloom that lead to rot, the momentary glimpses. A change in the air -” Its voice broke, and it wept. “Before it’s gone.”

“Beautiful,” Arepo said, his blood staining the stones, seeping into the earth. “All of them. They were all so beautiful.”

And as the fields burned and the smoke blotted out the sun, as men were trodden in the press and bloody War raged on, as the heavens let loose their wrath upon the earth, Arepo the sower lay down in his humble temple, his head sheltered by the stones, and returned home to his god.

[ ciiriianan ]

Sora found the temple with the bones within it, the roof falling in upon them.

“Oh, poor god,” she said, “With no-one to bury your last priest.” Then she paused, because she was from far away. “Or is this how the dead are honored here?” The god roused from its contemplation.

“His name was Arepo,” it said, “He was a sower.”

Sora startled, a little, because she had never before heard the voice of a god. “How can I honor him?” She asked.

“Bury him,” the god said, “Beneath my altar.”

“All right,” Sora said, and went to fetch her shovel.

“Wait,” the god said when she got back and began collecting the bones from among the broken twigs and fallen leaves. She laid them out on a roll of undyed wool, the only cloth she had. “Wait,” the god said, “I cannot do anything for you. I am not a god of anything useful.”

Sora sat back on her heels and looked at the altar to listen to the god.

“When the Storm came and destroyed his wheat, I could not save it,” the god said, “When the Harvest failed and he was hungry, I could not feed him. When War came,” the god’s voice faltered. “When War came, I could not protect him. He came bleeding from the battle to die in my arms.” Sora looked down again at the bones.

“I think you are the god of something very useful,” she said.

“What?” the god asked.

Sora carefully lifted the skull onto the cloth. “You are the god of Arepo.”

stu-pot

Generations passed. The village recovered from its tragedies—homes rebuilt, gardens re-planted, wounds healed. The old man who once lived on the hill and spoke to stone and rubble had long since been forgotten, but the temple stood in his name. Most believed it to empty, as the god who resided there long ago had fallen silent. Yet, any who passed the decaying shrine felt an ache in their hearts, as though mourning for a lost friend. The cold that seeped from the temple entrance laid their spirits low, and warded off any potential visitors, save for the rare and especially oblivious children who would leave tiny clusters of pink and white flowers that they picked from the surrounding meadow.

The god sat in his peaceful home, staring out at the distant road, to pedestrians, workhorses, and carriages, raining leaves that swirled around bustling feet. How long had it been? The world had progressed without him, for he knew there was no help to be given. The world must be a cruel place, that even the useful gods have abandoned, if farms can flood, harvests can run barren, and homes can burn, he thought.

He had come to understand that humans are senseless creatures, who would pray to a god that cannot grant wishes or bless upon them good fortune. Who would maintain a temple and bring offerings with nothing in return. Who would share their company and meditate with such a fruitless deity. Who would bury a stranger without the hope for profit. What bizarre, futile kindness they had wasted on him. What wonderful, foolish, virtuous, hopeless creatures, humans were.

So he painted the sunset with yellow leaves, enticed the worms to dance in their soil, flourished the boundary between forest and field with blossoms and berries, christened the air with a biting cold before winter came, ripened the apples with crisp, red freckles to break under sinking teeth, and a dozen other nothings, in memory of the man who once praised the god’s work on his dying breath.

“Hello, God of Every Humble Beauty in the World,” called a familiar voice.

The squinting corners of the god’s eyes wept down onto curled lips. “Arepo,” he whispered, for his voice was hoarse from its hundred-year mutism.

“I am the god of devotion, of small kindnesses, of unbreakable bonds. I am the god of selfless, unconditional love, of everlasting friendships, and trust,” Arepo avowed, soothing the other with every word.

“That’s wonderful, Arepo,” he responded between tears, “I’m so happy for you—such a powerful figure will certainly need a grand temple. Will you leave to the city to gather more worshippers? You’ll be adored by all.”

“No,” Arepo smiled.

“Farther than that, to the capitol, then? Thank you for visiting here before your departure.”

“No, I will not go there, either,” Arepo shook his head and chuckled.

“Farther still? What ambitious goals, you must have. There is no doubt in my mind that you will succeed, though,” the elder god continued.

“Actually,” interrupted Arepo, “I’d like to stay here, if you’ll have me.”

The other god was struck speechless. “…. Why would you want to live here?”

“I am the god of unbreakable bonds and everlasting friendships. And you are the god of Arepo.”

Ben Rogers

2025-10-25T00:00:00Z

I don't remember buying this album. It was playing on rotation and the lyrics grabbed me.

Stunned I couldn't find the lyrics anywhere, I transcribed them myself below.

"Sinners" from album "The Bloodred Yonder" (2015)

The Bloodred Yonder by Ben Rogers

Somebody just called me a fag
For picking flowers from a chainlink fence
On jetlagged widows and jigsaw women
I spent my father's inheritance

Now the Bible read [?] them all on the corner
He holds a cardboard sign
It reads "I can accept failure, and cash credit, or check"
I laugh and I toss him a dime

Well, God spoke to me last night
I told him I don't talk to strangers
The guardian angel of death
Watches over the sinners

Now the spit valve serenades on Wall Street
The trumpets like the drone of flies
Well fruit has its seasons
It rots and it dies
But the whiskey is always right

And if I had a dollar for every time
You said you loved me, well I'd still be poor
But I'd give every penny in my pocket tonight
To hear you say you love me once more

One shot to steady the nerves
And twelve more to kill them

The guardian angel of death
Watches over of the sinners

Terraform Lifecycles (Airflow + DBT)

2025-10-12T00:00:00Z

Terraform is neato. You change stuff locally (or wherever), and Terraform will go apply those changes to your infrastructure. I'm working in an AWS shop, but it could be Azure cloud or Google cloud, bare metal, wherever.

Easy. But I hit a problem. We use Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow (MWAA) for orchestration. Airflow has a very special script called startup.sh that runs to provision your Airflow Worker nodes.

(e.g. We're using DBT as our ETL engine. And we want Airflow to run our DBT transformations. And DBT needs a bunch of Python dependencies. We use startup.sh to install all those Python dependencies into our Airflow Workers so they can run dbt.)

No sweat! Our startup.sh is already Terraform managed! We change it however we want, and Terraform installs those changes out to AWS (S3) for us.

But wait... Our Airflow Workers still can't run dbt. What the heck?

Oh... So our problem is that simply replacing startup.sh out in AWS doesn't restart our Airflow environment. So our Airflow Workers are still their old selves, not their new Python phat selves so they can run dbt. Oh dear.

If, in AWS Console, we shut down our Airflow environment, and restart it, then our new startup.sh IS used to build new Workers. That's good. (It takes ~an hour, which isn't great, but there's no getting around that, that's just AWS being AWS.)

So Terraform diligently swapping out startup.sh isn't sufficient. We need to also force a spin down and spin up of the Airflow environment.

How can we do that? Enter Terraform Lifecycles, which has a replace_triggered_by feature. First we'll explicitly capture an MD5 hash of our startup.sh so we can use that elsewhere:

+++ b/terraform/main.tf
module "mwaa" {
     source      = "./modules/applications/utilities/mwaa"
     ...
+   startup_script_hash  = filemd5("${path.root}/../mwaa/mwaa_env/startup.sh")
}

Now we can define a lifecycle { } in our aws_mwaa_environment:

+++ b/terraform/modules/applications/utilities/mwaa/main.tf
+# This null resource will be replaced whenever startup script changes
+resource "null_resource" "startup_script_trigger" {
+    triggers = {
+        startup_script_hash = var.startup_script_hash
+    }
+}
+
resource "aws_mwaa_environment" "elt_environment" {
     name = local.mwaa_environment_name
     ...
+   lifecycle {
+       replace_triggered_by = [
+           # Force replacement when startup script content changes
+           null_resource.startup_script_trigger
+       ]
+   }
+
     tags = {
         Environment = var.environment,
         Name        = local.mwaa_environment_name,
+       startup_script_hash = var.startup_script_hash  # Track changes but force replacement via lifecycle
     }
}

+++ b/terraform/modules/applications/utilities/mwaa/variables.tf
+variable "startup_script_hash" {
+    description = "Hash of the startup script content - used to trigger MWAA redeployment when startup script changes"
+    type        = string
+}

And joy of joys, now when we change startup.sh Terraform destroys Airflow and creates it again. 🎉 Which seems extreme, but is the only way I'm aware of to get Airflow to restart.

Now that one .sh script in your Terraform is so special and sensitive, you might want to add a big warning to it:

startup.sh:
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# WARNING: Try not to make trivial no-op changes to this file.
# Every change to this file will cause the MWAA environment to be DESTROYED and RE-CREATED.
# Which takes ~1 hour, and locks Terraform for all users during that time.
#   Uses Terraform Lifecycles "replace_triggered_by" to force replacement of MWAA env.
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All done! Enjoy!

🤔 Perhaps there's an AWS CLI command we could have had Terraform issue instead? Either way, we're still waiting an hour for AWS to do it, so even if that's possible it's no better? (Other than maybe Terraform wouldn't be locked? Would that be a feature or a bug? If that AWS CLI command is async, and fails... what then?)

Nebraska Housing Rights

2025-09-21T00:00:00Z

2024 LB840

"Adopt the Poverty Elimination Action Plan Act and change provisions of the Middle Income Workforce Housing Investment Act and the Nebraska Housing Agency Act"

Applies to public housing only.

Nebraska Revised Statute 71-15,139 is amended to read:

... Page 11: (2)(b) If the premises is located in a city of the metropolitan class, the notice shall contain a statement in substantially the following form: "You have the right to representation by an attorney. This right applies to eviction proceedings before a court and in any hearing to contest termination of your tenancy before the [name of housing agency]. An attorney will be appointed to represent you, at no cost to you, at the beginning of such proceedings or hearing.
... Page 13: (5)(b) If the resident requests a hearing by the housing agency to contest the termination, counsel shall be appointed for the resident prior to such hearing unless the resident is already represented by counsel. The housing agency shall file an application with the county court or district court of the county in which the premises is located. The court shall appoint counsel to represent the resident in the hearing and in any related action for recovery of possession of the premises.

Other:

OHA is required by law to publish a budget, but hasn't in 2 years?
For $100/year you can have up to 10 accounts accessing public records: State of Nebraska Judicial Branch

Omaha City Council

Agenda Sep 23 2025
- ORD. 44395 – An ordinance to add Sections 20-165, 20-165.01, 20-165.02, 20-165.03, and 20-165.04 entitled “Unauthorized Encampments on Public Property” to Chapter 20 of the Omaha Municipal Code; to provide for rules and regulations for addressing unauthorized encampments on public property; to create penalties for non-compliance – (First Reading August 26, 2025; Second Reading and Public Hearing September 23, 2025; Third Reading September 30, 2025) – see attached. (PUBLIC HEARING TODAY)

Notes Jay tried to take:

Nebraska has sub-standard tenants rights for all other renters.
Legal Aid of Nebraska
Omaha Housing Authority (OHA) suing: Sep 16th 2025 at first hearing OHA did not bring any lawyers specific to convictions. Suing state and not a legal SME. They have to sue the SME not the state.
- The Redress Movement - Omaha: Clarice Dombeck says OHA lawsuit is not going well for OHA.

Legal case search

State of Nebraska Judicial Branch - For $100/year you can have up to 10 accounts accessing public records
- JUSTICE Search - $15 per search.
PACER - federal search. How to use PACER.
- RECAP - "tens of millions" of previously paid for/searched PACER docs, legal opinions, and scanned PDFs.
  - CourtListener - alternate, advanced RECAP search.

Organizations

National Low Income Housing Coalition: Nebraska
Omaha Foundation: Housing Affordability in the Omaha and Council Bluffs Area
Threshold CoC (Continuum of Care): runs 211? Printable flyers listing services. "Coordinated Entry System (CES) and Access Points connect our neighbors facing housing instability with available resources across Douglas, Sarpy, and Pottawattamie counties."
Together: Food, Housing, Advocacy. In 2020 was working with Open/Nebraska on eviction justice.

Poker

2025-09-13T00:00:00Z

Nickel / dime games with my friends. On Android I started using Pokerbase to track my "career." Can I quit my day job yet?

2025-09-12

Short stack villain all in pre-flop. Call w/ JK off.

	blind	vision
Pre-flop	59% win 2% tie	24% win 1% tie
Flop	78% win 2% tie	8% win 2% tie
Turn	77% win 3% tie	5% win 9% tie
River	97% win 0% tie	💥🥇

Big pot. Trapping villain w/ JA suited?

	blind	vision
Pre-flop	64% win 2% tie	33% win 2% tie
Flop	80% win 1% tie	2% win
Turn	83% win 1% tie	☠️
River	87% win 1% tie	☠️