The Seduction of Strahd

"Crap!" I say out loud, grabbing both sides of my head as I wake up. The pain is sharp and intense.

This is it, my head is finally going to literally explode. I always knew it would come to this.

I try to focus and look around. It's hard to see, there is very little light. I'm in a room? No, more like a dark damp cell in a dungeon. I can hear a sound, like a slow water drip, plopping over and over. It seems to echo. My body aches like I haven't moved in a while.

What the Hell is going on?

Ok,do not freak out!

Too late!

Where the Hell am I?

"I" ? Don't you mean "we"?

All right everyone, shut up! I'm in charge and I need silence to think.

Fine.  See where you get without us.

          I waited, listening to my own mind. Damn!  It worked, all was quiet. Everything is fuzzy. It is an unusual sensation for me. Because of my little problem, one of us always notices everything. Normally, I am constantly on high alert. With an unknown number of different voices, all with their own personalities in my mind, arguing with myself is normal. Not knowing what is going on, is not.

       I can't remember a time that I was ever alone in my own mind. They have always been with me. What they are or where they come from I have no idea. They seem to know things that I don't and have helped save my life more then once.

      When I was young, I once tried to talk to my mother about them, but that went very badly. All I found out was that painful things were done to people who heard voices that seemed to live in them.

     I feel a part of me is missing. I close my eyes and reach out of myself with my mind, searching for a familiar touch. I do not feel anything. Now I'm angry! Someone might have to die.

So help me if Rashka is hurt or worse, someone will be in for a lot of pain.

I hate to be a bother, but the cell door seems to be opened and we might want to move before someone decides to come back and lock it. Just saying.  We can think and walk at the same time you know.

     Looking up I see the opening. Must have noticed it before, but was not paying attention. I hate when they do that to me. I get up and move to the doorway.

     As I navigate down the dark dusty hallway, I see spiders scuttle up the walls and across the ceiling. There are cobwebs everywhere. Damp wet cobblestone on the floor beneath my feet.

     I keep trying to think. I have faint memories, glimpses of going in and out, being carted unconscious through Barovia. I seem to remember several encampment sites and a large impressive corridor that could be in a castle.

      I feel like I haven't eaten in days, it actually feels like I've been injected with the bare minimum of nourishment to keep me alive.

     Ever since finding myself in this Goddess-forsaken land, my life has been nothing but pain and frustration. One minute we are sleeping under the stars, next thing I know this thick fog comes along and everything changes.