Curse of Strahd Solo Run (IC)

[RandomWombat]

The elf follows behind him, stepping into the foyer and watching through the mahogany doors as he investigates.

With lamp in hand, held by a brass handle that allows it to hang as a lantern, Kellon steps through. He finds himself in the main hall, running the width of the house. Contrary to the exterior, everything in here looks much fairer, better maintained, and newer. Just to his left is an unlit black marble fireplace, with logs and kindling inside a small metal grate. Above the mantle is a longsword mounted on the wall, and much like the shield it possesses a windmill cameo worked into the hilt. In front of the fireplace, a few paces away, is a trophy rug made from a whole wolf's hide, head and all. To the right, across the room, is a red marble staircase that curves around, leading to the second floor. The wood panel walls and the railings of the staircase are decorated with imagery of vines and flowers, and a sculpture of a frolicking nymph and satyr decorates the room as a centerpiece.

There are several other doors, leading elsewhere in the house, but no sign of a basement staircase yet. As Kellon is about to begin searching further, the elf behind him gasps. She's turned around to call the children in, but when Kellon looks past her he can see them both standing calmly with the Mist at their backs, weaving its way through their bodies with white tendrils as if they were not there. Where it passes through them, their forms shimmer and drift apart like smoke and mirrors. Before they fade, consumed by the fog entirely, Kellon can see the older sister mouth two words with a desperate look in her eyes.

Spoiler: Insight

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For the sake of narrative, I have rolled an Insight check to try and read her lips, but Kellon was unable to make out what she was saying.

As the elf is running for the door to close it before the Mist can come in, she jumps - a figure dashes around the corner of the portico and she nearly decks him in the face before he backs away and holds up his hands. "Wh- hey hey hey!" It is a bespectacled human man with a fuller complexion than the locals, and strange outlandish garb. He is dressed in a fine leather coat with a blue shirt underneath, and a pair of tailored trousers, leading down to equally fine leather shoes. His spectacles are even gilded with gold - or a good fake.

"Who are you? Where are the children?!"

"Chil...dren?" the man looks behind himself at the creeping mist, streaks of white already creeping around his heels like fungal hyphae. "Didn't see any children, nope. May I please take shelter in your house? I'm really terribly lost, and the Mist, and..." he pulls out a handkerchief and dabs sweat from his forehead.