Brian thankfully skipped the long search through the mansion and just declared nothing was found.  So, the wine wizard family returned and we were treated to a celebration.  During that, a couple of things were revealed.  The head guy confided that they were anti Stradhanya and while not fighters, have been using their travels to gather information.  Information they were willing to share.  Loki asked about the immediate problem about the Druids but he said he had given everything he knew already.  (Which would turn out to be untrue.)  He also gave us a (i.e. 1) limited edition wine goblet that when presented at an establishment that serve their wine, would entitle the bearer to unlimited wine.  We thought that ought to go to the native Barbarian.  However, he also revealed that it’s magical and would not cause impairment, no matter how much was consumed.  We then thought it should go to someone with a low CON, but the lowest CON in the group, and the most popular, was 14.  I’m not sure where it ended up.  It was also noticed that the folks seemed to be wary of Lord Q.  When we tried to inquire about that, we were told it was a night of celebration and not questions.  So, we went to bed.  And had more dreams.

Brian put a lot of work into the words of these dreams which I cannot possibly recall.  I’ll do my best to recall the gist, as best I can and the meaning, as best we could figure.  Ezra dreamed about saving a noble woman from Stradhanya, using the power of the Morning Lord.  There were a lot of details that the rest of us didn’t get but Andy said it was very illuminating to him.  Kaladin dreamed of his dragon father who urged him to prove his worthiness for greater power by killing one of his companions.  And soon or else he’ll take away the powers he already has.  He didn’t talk much about that dream.  Ambrus dreamed again of avenging the female dark elves by killing Stradhanya with this magic dagger.  There were also some ties to a human woman who, once reminded, was the operator of the magic store outside of the city of Valockia.  Lord Q had a dream of his patron, the Raven Queen, trying to tell him something however Stradhanya was blocking most of the transmission.  The next morning, he sent his messenger mephit to ask the Raven Queen to resend the message.  The response back was something like “Nice try, S”.  What implications this may have to his patron driven powers, remains to be seen.  Loki had a nightmare about the bones again.  His sentient animal friends asking him why he’s eating them.  In his dream, he wretched them all up.  He woke, sick, on the floor but with a bag full of bones.  Lovely.  Lastly was a 2-line clue that was meant for Lady Petrina but since Brian didn’t attend, it came to the NPC instead.  Ironically, I think we spent more time debating this one than the rest.  The first line was about chopping the branch but the trunk remains.  The Daves took it metaphorically, assuming it meant we’d accomplished something but there was more to do.  Andy and Jon instead started thinking about actual trees.  The tree on Hester Hill or the tree in his character history, respectively.  We shall see.  The second line was even more cryptic.  Taking action quickly?

The next morning, Brian split us into 3 groups around the winery and imparted more information of us.  As we had surmised, it is difficult to grow things in this land and they are using magic to do so.  What they revealed was that the 3 Druid gods gave their ancestors 3 gems which were place around the area.  One was taken generations ago.  One was taken fairly recently by Baba Someoneorother and taken to a ruined village nearby.  That is the village we were supposed to go to next to rescue the sister of the magic shop lady.  The last was taken after they got taken over by these Druids.  They assume they took it back to Hester Hill.  They said that if they didn’t get at least 1 gem back within a day or two, all the vines would die.  And this valley would become that much darker.  So that’s the plan.  Hester Hill.  We also dug into their aversion to Lord Q.  They felt that his bird cage was slightly evil.  They asked if he was evil or been known to kill birds, ravens in particular.  We said no.  Remember that there were a lot of ravens in the area and that they came to our aid.  He then asked Ezra directly if he had detected evil or him or his cage.  He didn’t recall doing that specifically but certainly hadn’t noticed.  Ezra did reveal that he was convinced that all of these heritage items were cursed.  (That seems more and more likely as we’ve gone along.)  He does not use the powers of his Morning Lord shield and in fact covers it in prayers to keep its curse at bay.  He had already warned Kharn that his item isn’t doing what he thinks it is.  We were reminded by one of these Vistani seers that she thought these items are what have brought us to this place and marked us for ridding the land of her.  

About then, Stradhanya’s black carriage arrived.  She and her grumpy elf chamberlain got out.  She wanted to know why we hadn’t made good on her dinner invitation.  Loki said we’ve been busy, trying to ease the suffering of all her subjects.  She decided to take the Vistani girl we had rescued from the Balrog as a means to ensure our prompt attendance.  Ezra interposed.  Loki tried in vain to defuse the confrontation.  When the elf grabbed her, Ezra attacked.  He did a bunch of damage with a smite.  Kaladin attacked him as well.  Loki tried in vain to break her free.  Ambrus joined the fray but Lord Q continued to drink his morning tea upstairs.  Using a legendary action, she grabbed Ezra and tossed him 30 feet.  The elf had an evil whispers AOE that did 4-5d10, save for half.  A round later, after we were all bloodied, she put up a wall of ice, the elf drug the girl in and the drove away.  (So, a waste of time but within character, especially for Ezra.  And I suppose if we’re supposed to kill her someday, knowing some of the things she can do is worth something.)  As she rode away, we heard the girl say, “She’s got …” whatever than means.  And she tossed that accountant that gave us that book on vampires out the door.  So, an NPC trade.  He said she invited him into the carriage this morning in Valaki and you really couldn’t say no.  He was surprised to find himself all the way here in such a short time but we know about travel time.  Ezra greeted him with great suspicion but I guess he’s with us now.

So, we bandaged and headed out to Hester Hill.  Ezra tried to get any information out of these guys about what we were walking into but got not much of anything in return.  Something about berserkers? The next day, we were attacked by some zombie’s that all looked surprisingly like Kharn.  They weren’t much of a threat however they were annoying.  Whenever they were killed, they got a save based on their negative value and if they made it, they had 1 hit point.  The point being, we had to kill them multiple times.  It was a grind but we hardly took any damage.  We burned the bodies.  By the way, the doll that looked like Kharn that Ambrus took from the Druid at the winery, talked.  It said “Get up, get up” every morning, “to Barovia and beyond” from time to time and other stuff.  The perfect item for a guy who sneaks around for a living.  He left it in the wagon but when it annoyed Lord Q, he tossed it into the fire.  If we had a wizard, maybe he could have Identified it.  Evidently it could have been programed to say things at certain trigger points.  However, it’s only real use was to annoy the players and amuse the GM.  We ended, pulling up to the hill.  It is immense and tall with no cover.  It looks like it’ll be up the main road but we can debate that next time.  Still 5^th.  Jon’s AD&D next time.     

We took a step back to Castle Stormgiant.  First of all, Jon allowed us to “train in advance” so that we could level up “in the field”.  With the rapid advancement and everyone on different charts, we just could not work with the standard advancement rules.  Next, we were re-assigned our mission by the Gardener.  The city in the northwest corner of the map was having troubles.  He wanted us to look into it and help if we can however since they were not part of our kingdom, we had to do it clandestinely.  Or at least unofficially.  He had booked us passage on a boat going down river and given us a name of a former operative of his that now lived there.  We asked some questions.  There is active trade between the two cities, mostly fish and coastal products in exchange for farm goods such as grains, fruits, etc.  When we realized the river was called the Alerun, we decided to pose as beer merchants.  In order to avoid having to carry a barge worth of beer, we’d be advance salesmen, looking to establish a market for a new brand.  The Gardener gave us a couple of pony kegs and any reasonable equipment we needed.  With that, we set out.

The road to the river was well traveled so we had no problems there.  We had a wait a bit for the boat.  The Waterlog.  An actual merchant and his guards showed up with passage on the same.  He traded in fine furs.  The captain had a couple of mates.  We took off.  There was some card playing but it turned out our Monk was just as skilled as their top man.  There were some conversations but nothing too important.  The weather was poor with off and on rain.  The captain was cautious, especially for attacks from shore.  We anchored each night in the river.  A couple days out, we saw smoke from the shore.  We could see something very large (8-10 feet tall) on fire and running through the forest.  (Trent) And other big things (Ogres), chasing it with oil and torches to keep it from the river.  The captain and the merchant wanted to avoid getting involved but most of the players voted for taking action.  Unfortunately, there was too much cover for bow fire so we’d have to disembark to get involved more directly.  The captain agreed to let us off and then get back to the center while we did what we could.  So, we charged into the forest.

There it was relatively straight forward except that we still struggled to remember/figure out the AD&D rules.  Basic stuff like is it half move and attack or full move and attack? So, all those “discussions” really bogged down the action.  First it was two Ogres which we engaged as we could.  It was rough going for our Rogue and heroic Paladin as they couldn’t seem to hit.  When 2 more showed up, the Druid hit them with an Entangle (after 30 minutes of arguing on how the spell could be targeted).  They both failed to save and were stuck for rounds.  The other two were finished off as the Trent made it to the river.  The Entangled two were finished off with bow fire although gunning down a helpless, all be it evil, opponent did not sit well with the Paladin and the Monk.  They went back to the river to check on the Trent and were hit with a Sleep spell from a flying invisible Ogre (Magi).  Both were affected but the Paladin’s goodly aura fought his off.  However, it promptly went invisible again.  The Trent was anguishing about his family.  When asked, he said his glade was just past the next clearing.

So, we charged off into the forest again.  There were another 4 Ogres plus a spell casting one.  That one attempted a charm on our eventually Bard but it’s hard to charm a half elf.  He didn’t last long, drawing a lot of the fire as spell casters often do.  The flying one showed up as well but they were all defeated.  The last one ran into the forest.  The Trent family was all dead.  Chopped to pieces.  He was understandably distraught but when asked for a reason for the attack, he had none.  The Cleric did notice that the Ogres had a black dragon tattoo which will probably mean something later.  The Ogres had some gold and the leader had some potions and a ring.  The Paladin grabbed the ring and put it on.  That prompted a discussion about treasure distribution.  The Wizard asked if we were going to be a “everyone grab whatever they want” group.  All agreed, including the Paladin, that we were not.  He’ll do an Identify the next morning but the Paladin is wearing it for now.  The potions were labeled and Jon allowed the Wizard’s magically training as justification for looking up their functions in the DMG.  Invulnerability went to the Wizard, Heroism went to the Cleric, Super Heroism went to the eventual Bard.  Those all could only be used by Fighter types.  There was a Water Breathing with 4 uses which went to the boat anchor Paladin and the 2 potions of Treasure Finding that went to the Thief.  But those are more like party items.  I think that was it.  The Trent formed a wooden bowl from his limbs and presented it to the Druid to thank us for our efforts.  He said something cryptic like “drink from it in times of need”.  We made it back to the boat and healed up the next morning.  4k experience was awarded.  The eventual Bard, the Cleric and the Druid/Thief leveled up, I think.                    

We started in the cold basement.  We searched the Druid but he had nothing of note.  Lady Petrina started a Detect Magic ritual and eventually found nothing.  We assumed the ramp on the far side went back up to the vat room however there was a door down here.  It was examined but it was not the source of the cold.  Ambrus did manage to find the source, a crack in the wall between to two rooms.  An investigation discovered a secret door.  When opened, it was a short hallway that ended in some sort of room.  It was very cold in there and there was brown mold on the walls.  The last mold we encountered was vulnerable to fire so Lady Petrina fired a Fire Bolt down there.  The mold grew.  We debated and concluded that cold would be the best bet.  Kaladin was talked into using his cold breath weapon and that killed off some.  Unfortunately, he took cold damage when he moved into the room.  More debate.  Lady Petrina had a Dragon’s Breath spell that could last for 10 rounds.  More debate and eventually cold resistant Kaladin volunteered to go back in and clear out the mold.  He took damage once more but saved this time for minimal. (Dan: After using an inspiration)  Unfortunately, the hall was a dead end and had nothing of worth.  It was simply a means to keep the wine cold down here.  So all and all, a waste of time but we didn’t know that going in.  (Dan: Our epic fight against the fridge monster.) About this time, we started to hear load noises from somewhere in the building.

We opened the door which had stairs going up into a glass bottle workshop.  There were a couple of windows to the outside and another door.  Ezera opened it and saw a Druid and an army of the small Twig Blights.  Rather than charge them all, he closed the door.  Unfortunately, she spotted him.  We barred the door and went back down.  There was much debate and indecision at this point.  Eventually, we headed up the ramp but ran into a Twig.  Ezera managed to kill it and close the door.  There was a hallway beyond it that seemed to go outside.  Ambrus was eager to flee but was reminded that the outside was full of the big Needle Blights.  Our plan was to find who was controlling them in here.  We started up the ramp, hoping to avoid the army, and get to the controlling Druid without having to fight them.  That lead to a hallway which ended in a room where wine barrels were loaded into a wagon below through a hole in the floor.  In there was the head Druid, Needle and Twig Blights as well as some new Vine Blights.

The Druid recognized Loki and demanded the return of his heritage Bag of Bones.  Evidently, these Druids had lost their connection with the animal kingdom and could no longer turn into animals.  They had been harvesting the bones of animals to allow them to do so however for some reason, they had to be sentient animals.  So, this guy claims the only reason Loki and the rest had been given the gift of intelligence is to fill the bag he stole.  That bag, which had finally allowed him to escape successfully, represents years of their evil efforts.  And they wanted it back.  (That’s not quite the backstory DG wrote but compelling.  Assuming this guy isn’t lying like these Druids have been doing to Loki since day one.)  So, after some clever banter between them, it was back to kill or be killed.

We had all kinds of technical difficulties at this point.  The Twig army was not visible to the players on the combat tracker.  The more advanced head Druid Brian had created seemed to have been lost.  Eventually we rebooted.  Brian declared that the door Ezera was holding, in fact had a bar on it, which would hold them at bay long enough such that he did not reload that room and lessen the burden on Fantasy Grounds and his PC.  Loki was attack by a Vine Blight that had reach, grab, squeeze and could move people towards them.  It held him over the hole.  Lady Patrina could get them all in a Fireball, including Loki unfortunately.  He had a +8 save but could not and took 24 ish however it did a ton of total damage to the 7 villains in the room.  That really softened them up but Loki then fell through the hole.  As usual, the spell caster was the real threat, even if he was a Druid, although those Vine Blights were a pain.  Despite several others being dropped into the hole and much damage dished include a heat metal on Ezera, we took them out.  Towards the end, the Druid from the other room showed up, damaged, but quickly fled.  Evidently the friendly Ravens had taken out the Twigs.  When she was run down, it was over.

We haven’t searched the rest of the house but it was quiet.  The Druid indeed have that magic staff.  Lady Petrina did an Identify on it.  It could do a Vampiric Strike and Summon these various Blights.  Perhaps it could control them with more research.  However, it looked and felt evil.  It attuned itself to her by growing tendrils into her flesh, for example.  When the Paladin said it was indeed emitting a big evil aura, we agreed to destroy it.  People started to log off but Brian cut some debate short and said we threw it in to the glass blower’s furnace and after a brief show, turned to ash.  And all the Blights disappeared.  He revealed that the longer we waited, the more dire the consequences for those that handled it.  Not that we needed more convincing.  He also gave us a short rest and an Identify on the cloak.  It granted, to a Druid or Ranger, the ability to do a Hide action as a bonus action while in light cover.  Unfortunately, Loki already got this from his Goblin race although this allowed him to do so while being observed so maybe it’ll be of use.  Until we get a Druid, he’ll take it.  We stopped there.  We’ll need to do a quick search of the house and then bring the wine makers back in.  So far, we haven’t seen a link to Loki’s “save the Druids 3 times” destiny but we think we’ve moved Ezera’s and Patrina’s a bit.  Next week will be Jon’s first edition AD&D and then back to this in two weeks.      

Jon logged off at this point but we pressed on a bit.  Before we got to the winery, we were signaled by a guy in the woods.  He and his family were the displaced residents of the winery, distance descendants of the wizard founder.  The patriarch told us that the place had been overrun by Druids and their minions.  Those minions sounded a lot like bigger versions of the twigs we just fought.  He recommended we sneak past the minions and get to the Druids in the house as a frontal assault through the blight creatures would surely fail.  We asked him to draw us a map of the compound so we could plan our attack however Brian could not get the draw function to work in FGU.  Rather than watch him fart around with it, we called it a night.  We’ll debate our plan for hours next time.

We took a late morning in the barn.  Ramadan, the female human Paladin showed up as our reinforcements.  We debated what to do and concluded that we would heal up faster here than the time it would take to get back to the castle.  The Cleric and Druid used their spells to heal people up getting them up to around half.  The Paladin kicked 6 more.  We figured we wouldn’t be able to survive the same battle, but maybe we could survive half a battle.  Although once we saw what Ramadan could do, maybe the wasn’t true.  There was some debate about our charmed goblin but we’d given our word to let him go.  The Paladin agreed with honoring one’s word.  The Druid, the Monk and the eventual Bard followed the tracks of the goblins back into the hills.  However, that was a day’s journey so they had to turn back to get back to the farm by nightfall.  The Wizard stayed at the farm and helped clean up.  The Cleric and Paladin searched around the neighboring farms.  Nobody found anything of interest however having a Paladin “on the case” seemed to raise the morale of the farmers.  We posted guards that night but thankfully no attack came.  The next morning, another batch of healing got us close to full.  (Jon also allowed a hit point for the rest although as per the rules it would require 24 hours of complete rest.) 

We decided to head into the hills, getting an early start in hopes of maximizing our daylight.  Once into the hills, we could sense someone watching us.  The Druid and Monk hung back in the shadows while the rest moved forward.  They sported some well-equipped orcs in hills.  Were they here looking for goblins or us?  Regardless, they were watching us now.  The rest of the party came to a goblin camp but it was abandoned.  The sneakers caught up and we discussed.  Since it was almost evening, we decided to camp here.  It was defensible and there were some lean-tos.  We also found a sapling of the plant creatures.  It appeared that there was once a whole patch of them here but this one was left behind.  It was crying.  The eventual Bard transplanted it into a bucket and soothed it with song.  We decided to parley with the orcs, figuring they already knew we were here.  Maybe we could live and let live and trade information on the goblins.  Some had reservations on this plan but as it was debated, the orcs attacked.

So, there were like 5 orcs with spears and 5 tough orcs with swords, one of which was slightly bigger.  The Paladin charged that one.  Unfortunately, on his warhorse, he moved 24” while the rest of us moved 12” or 9”.  He killed that guy in a round but was then quickly surrounded.  Some advanced on the rest of the party who moved up as they could.  Remember that its half move and attack so we were really moving 6” and 4”.  They were engaged.  The Cleric did a Hold Person on two of the regular orcs but the tough one saved.  Held meant automatic hit, max damage, and double attacks.  Brutal.  They didn’t last long but the tough one did.  The Druid tried to shoot his bow into the Paladin’s melee but he hit the Paladin as well.  Speaking of the Paladin, she was awesome.  But then she missed a couple of times and they hit a couple of times.  Despite the contribution of her horse, she was knocked out.  But evidently, Cavaliers can still function at negative hit points, but not attack.  The disengage rules are suicidal so after she did lay on hands to keep from bleeding out, all she could do was stay on her horse and wait for the killing blow.

The eventual Bard managed to get down there and engage one of the 4 remaining.  The Monk and the Wizard had the last of the others engaged so the Cleric was able to disengage, move to within 6” and cast another Hold Person, getting two of them.  The Wizard disengaged and enjoyed the free-to-hit and max damage on a held one.  The Druid took his place on the one.  The eventual Bard’s dropped the one she was on and the one that had been beating on the Paladin asked for a parley.  Too late! The Cleric finished him off and the last one was finally disarmed by the Monk.  After that, he was beaten to death.  The Cleric did some bandaging and use his last cure to get the Paladin above 0.  The leader had a scroll of Ice Storm in a case.  (Welcome to random treasure in 1e.)  They also had 4 elven swords that turned out to be +1 and would shed light in their name was said in elvish.  And some coins and armor.  It started to rain, ruining any chances of following the tracks of the orcs or the goblins. 

We camped overnight and went back to the castle to report, by way of the farm.  The Gardner said the swords were standard issue for elvin infantry 100+ years ago and the orcs likely found them in a cache.  The Odorous Oak was consulted about the plant.  He didn’t know anything but suggested it be raised.  Perhaps for goodness and niceness. The Druid took that on.  We then leveled up although Jon didn’t give us anything for the fight, figuring the night was not over.  The Gardener gave us another mission.  Travel to a city to the northwest that seemed to be having trouble.  They were not part of this kingdom so we had to be subtle (I’m looking at you Paladin.) but he didn’t want trouble on our boarders.  We traveled without a random encounter.  We got as far as walking into town but BTO had to sign off.  Andy also had to go so it was an early night.  4000 exp was awarded and those that leveled up, were allowed to do so despite not being in the castle.  That whole process is still being worked out.  Jon will go back to Blades next time so it’ll be at least a month before we play this again.

While they waited for the rest of the group to trickle into the Vistani camp, Ambrus and Kharn went to talk to the dusk elves.  It was clear that they recognized Ambrus although he recognized none of them.  Evidently, he’d been missing for a year.  Eventually, he was directed to the king who lived in a hobbit hole-like home that was slightly less grubby than the rest.  (Brian reminded Jon that Strahd had bragged to Ambrus that Strahd had killed all the female dusk elves in the land as a demonstration of power.)  The king gave him some tidbits of information one of which was that he had had a dagger in his procession that he thought could actually kill the vampire.  He doesn’t have it now.  And that he hung out with a former Vistani (i.e. one that is passing for a non Vistani) by the name of Esmeralda.  When asked about his heirloom tattoos, he said it looked like dwarf work, not elf and he should talk to the Vistani potion maker. 

And then Zolton asked around about his heirloom pocket watch.  He had become convinced that it was not in fact from his grandfather nor the Morning Lord and had evil intent.  He was advised to break the connection as soon as possible.  One time when Ambrus handled it, he could feel the connection lessen so he decided to try that again.  After getting away from the camp for fear of mishap, Ambrus did manage to break the connection.  His key tattoo glowed with power.  When he touched the key to the lock tattoo on his head, he gained the knowledge on how to destroy it.  Take it to holy ground and do an 8-hour ceremony spell.  We knew the church was holy ground and knew that spell so it seemed doable.  Ambrus cautioned that it must be done carefully and not interrupted.  Zolton wanted to know if the Mind Flayer worm was still inside.  After more precautions, it was determined that it did not.

Next, we went to the potion maker who lived in the ruins of the city outside of the wall.  She had some actual potions for sale and several bought some healing ones.  More questions were asked about the watch and the tattoos but no extra information was revealed.  Kharn was looking to sell the Yeti skin, worth 2000 gp, and buy the Frostbrand greatsword in one of the shops in town since he had given his Holy Avenger sword to the Paladin.  She would not give him the full value in gold, only trade, but he did commission her to act as an intermediary between the two.  That way we wouldn’t have to sneak back in and then back out again.  That worked although we had to wait until the next day.  Her price was for us to free her sister from a hag in a village to the south.  It wasn’t really on the way but we could do a monastery, winery, village swing, and return here, hopefully with the sister. 

Zolton also commissioned her to pick up his book and armor when it was ready.  I believe his words were, “I may not return as the road is dangerous, and I want to make sure the craftsmen are paid for their work.”  And Kaladin was finally able to buy his alchemy kit.  By the way, Loki noticed he had two new large bones in his bag.  When he consumed one, he turned into a medium-sized two head wolf.  Much more substantial than the forest creatures he’s had access to so far.  However, he also heard a voice in his head saying “Good boy”.  Not sure what that meant but it didn’t sound good.  No boon in this place comes without a price or at least a risk.  It was not the voice of Strahd or the Druid who uplifted him, he thought.

We finally made it on the road.  At the first crossroad, we had the option to go by a tower that neither native knew anything about.  But we elected to stay on the road to the monastery.  Assuming the map was accurate.  About dusk we came upon a wrecked Vistani wagon and two bodies on the road.  We advanced with caution and eventually noticed to the south, a small body (child) on a sacrifice stone in the middle of a Stonehenge-like circle of stones.  There were also two burning urns.  When the invisible Ambrus, who took Brian at his word and was ignoring the movement rates, approached the stone, two Fire Elementals appeared from the urns.  Unfortunately, since they couldn’t see Ambrus, they attacked the nearest foe, Kaladin.  A fight ensued.  Once again, we faced a foe that was resistant to non-magical weapons. (Dan: Kaladin found they took normal damage versus cold.  Yay, his level 5 ability allows him to reroll 1's with cold damage.) If they hit, the person was lit on fire, taking 1d10 of damage until he spent an action to put himself out.  As we saw in the Elemental Evil game, there’s no point in doing that since you’ll likely be lit up again next round.  There were a couple of ponds that if you could get to, would reduce it to a bonus action.  It was a pretty even match.  Ambrus decided to attack the urn, hoping their presence in this dimension was somehow linked to it.  The first blow did very little damage but the Elemental certainly noticed.  Lord Q put up a Wall of Water in there somewhere.  But when Ambrus went again, he scored a good hit and one of the Elementals disappeared.  Hurray.

And in its place arose a Balrog (Dan: Balor per D&D.  The DM admitted that the elementals weren't giving us the challenge he wanted so at 11:30 PM he pulled a Balor out of his ass.).  Boo.  That is a greater demon and well above our pay grade.  We had faced foes that we were not expected to possibly defeat several times before and I think we assumed this was another one.  However, because we were in difficult terrain, it had wings and as it turns out could teleport at will and appeared right in the middle of the current fight, there was really no hope of getting away.  So, its to-hit was so high, it could hardly miss.  It had a 5d6+8 whip and a 3d8 sword.  Anyone that started near it took fire damage.  Its saves were high and it had advantage on all of them so spells weren’t going to much use.  And it was resistant to lots of stuff including, of course, nonmagical weapons again.  (Dan: He was resistant to cold but not acid.  Kaladin can't rerol 1's on acid so he was bummed out.)  We were in for the fight of our lives.  However, once the last fire Elemental was killed, it was all of us against it.

So, there were two things that saved us.  One was that we rolled extremely well with lots of crits.  This was helped greatly by the fact that now that we were 5^th, everyone was getting multiple attacks and therefore multiple chances to crit.  And Kharn was giving all the meleers advantage which also boosted the odds.  Ezera’s crits were critical.  With his Holy Avenger sword and his smites, all of that got doubled on a crit.  He did 85 points in one round and was routinely doing 30-40+ on normal hits.  Ambrus did a crit backstab and Lord Q had all his hex dice all of which were doubled as well.  We were dishing out a ton of damage.  The other thing was that Brian misread one of its powers.  It was supposed to do 3d6 of fire each time it was hit with a melee attack but Brian played it as each time it hit.  Despite the fact that it never missed and did tons of damage, it only got 2 hits a round.  But on our side, we were hitting multiple times per character.  If we took damage each time, we would have been dead pretty quick.  We joked that Kaladin would have been taking more damage than he was doing. 

So, after the first round, it attempted to gate in help and thankfully it missed that roll.  After the second round, Ezera had been dropped however Zolton poured a cure potion down him and he was up in time for his next holy swing.  After 3 rounds, it was dropped.  However, as a parting shot, it exploded for 69 points of damage.  Everyone but the NPC was within that 30 area.  Kharn and Kaladin saved (Dan: Kaladin did not save but takes half damage from fire and cold. After 24 points he had 14 left.  I think that the highest in the group) and with their fire resistance, managed to stay up.  The rest were knocked out if they saved or killed instantly if they did not.  (If you go negative your max hit points in one blow, you are killed instantly.)  I think that was Ambrus, Lord Q, Ezera and Zolton.  However, upon recalculations...  We had to add the Paladin’s save bonuses.  Ezera had his shield feat which if he could make a dex roll, took none.  We used all our inspirations.  (Tragically we had “wasted” a bunch of inspiration dice on skill challenges last time trying to get out of the city.)  When the dust settled, only Zolton was left on the dead list.  He missed his save reroll and there were no inspirations left.  So, Brian said that he had heroically placed himself in front of the NPC and the rescued child.  And was disintegrated.  The optimistic can hope that he returned to his home plain.  (Dan: The DM said that he expected this to be a party wipe and us having to use the time reset.  Kind of annoying since it was just spontaneously tossed at us but typical Cthulu/Ravenloft I guess.  Zolton was given the option to have us pay to resurrect him or accept permadeath with heroism.  I think he was getting frustrated by being hunted by the city, so he will be making a new character, hopefully, one not having to skulk through the city). By then it was after 1AM and we called it a night.  I guess we’ll short rest and then long rest since it was sunset.  And hope we live until morning.            

Uko Saknusson

My people are from the northern hinterlands, worshipers of the Norse pantheon.  They have been employed as mercenaries at Castle Stormgiant for generations and have established an enclave in the city.  Apart but accepted.  He is from a family well known for their military service and success.  More of foot soldiers, fighters, and sergeants than noble generals and knights.  He was serving the army when there was an attempt to clear out some undead infestation of the dwarven underground that had started leaking into Castle Stormgiant’s lands.  A division of troops went in.  Uko’s company (~40 guys?) got cut off and were just hanging on when some great undead shadow demon swept in.  The survivors were killed and all were drained.  When the pale bodies were found, they were burned.  But miraculously Uko was not quite dead.  He was returned to Castle Stormgiant with little hope of recovery.  When he regained consciousness, he recalled seeing a gleaming light and had concentrated on that.  Obviously, he was distraught to learn that all his comrades were dead.  Survivor’s guilt.  Why me? For some reason, Lady Chevra took an interest in his case and when he had recovered enough, she suggested Uko work in the garden as therapy to recover his body and spirit.  The Gardener would check on him from time to time.  Eventually, he recovered, weaker in body but wiser from the experience.  However, the army wasn’t sure what to do with him.  Would you want a guy whose whole company was killed in your company? When the gardener started a new troubleshooting squad, Uko was added, on extended leave from the army.  Recently he’s come to realize that he must have survived for a reason.  And it is to serve Thor, smite evil and destroy undead. 

The characters

Gilda Tor, a half elf Fighter with intentions of becoming a Bard eventually played by Brian O’Neill

The Burning Man, a half elf Rogue/Druid played by Dave Shimota

Hawhtorne Wells, a human Wizard with a couple of dual classed levels in Ranger played by Andy

Aoexan Bronte, a human Monk with intentions of dual classing into Wizard eventually

Uko Saknusson, a human Cleric with a couple of dual classed levels in Fighter played by David Green

Thing 1, a human Paladin with maybe intentions of dual classing into Cleric eventually played by Paul

Thing 2, a human Paladin played by Kevin

Game 1 – 6/4

The Gardner sends the player into the farmland to quietly investigate what is happening to the crops.  Because they do not what cause a panic that the cities food source might be at risk.  They discover many destroyed fields.  At each field, there was a detonation place with what looked to be a destroyed pod at its center.  Each night brought more destroyed fields. 

The players are directed to a farm in the middle of the problem.  They staked out the farm and in the middle of the night the watch spotted some warg carrying goblins, creeping around in the dark.   There are 4 wargs and goblin riders that were taken out.  In pursuit of the last warg, they ran into 4 more pairs and some sort plant person half-buried in the field.  This second battle was tougher and the damage was adding up.  The Monk attempts to get to the plant thing but was entangled by its roots.  Players started to drop.  The Wizard’s Shield spell expired and at AC 10, despite his Ranger hit points, was knocked out.  The eventual Bard and the Druid soon followed, both bleeding out.  The Monk and the Cleric were down to a handful of hit points but they took out the last of the wargs although I think one ran off.  While the Cleric bandaged the bleeding, the Monk retrieve some oil and lit up the plant.  It went up quickly and exploded in a cloud of this damaging pollen.  The newly conscious Druid had a Precipitation spell ready which seemed to do some good. 

They questioned a Goblin.  Basically, the plan was to take over the kingdom by ruining the crops.  That seemed ambitious but it was a Goblin plan.  After some lies eventually, he confessed to there being a camp in the nearby hills.  Eventually, the Druid charmed him.    So, what to do.  It will take days to recover the hit points lost via cure lights from the Cleric and Druid.  The castle was 4 days away so that healing should probably be done here.  Hopefully, the two Paladins are on their way.  We were given enough experience to level up but that takes training back at the castle and will take weeks.  So, what do we do? Welcome to 1e vs 5e.

The first order of business was this gaseous vampire.  Zolton was keeping it in that form by hitting it with radiant damage (cantrip) every minute.  Research in the book the NPC got revealed that only had to happen every hour.  Holy water could not kill it, however, it could do the equivalent to the cantrip.  The Holy Avenger could not since it was incorporeal.  As for finally killing it, a Ceremony spell could do it but neither Ezera nor Zolton had it memorized.  Unlike Wizards and their spellbooks, divine casters have to have ritual spells memorized, and casting it as a ritual simply saved them a spell slot.  So, we needed a long rest however it was only 1 PM and Brian said we couldn’t go to sleep yet.  So, we decided to hang out down here, with Zolton zapping it every hour.  Loki and Kharn went up to cover our tracks.  And we needed 250 silver pieces worth of silver dust to do the ritual.  We successfully argued that between Loki’s gunsmith kit and Kaladin’s alchemy skills (we still haven’t found him a kit), we could create it from silver pieces (Dan: Whoot!  Finally was able to use this skill in-game.  So happy!).

In the meantime, armed with a short rest, we’d explore the lower chamber of the crypt.  Down the stairs was a corridor that opened into a large chamber.  There were pictures of subjugated demons on the walls and a scroll in a recess in the far wall.  As Ezera approached it, two invisible demons attacked with surprise.  One hit Kharn and one hit Kaladin as they walked towards the chains in the corners of the room.  They did a claw, claw, bite(Dan: A classic!) and were resistant to various things including necrotic (Dan: My monk can use all the elemental energies and tried them one by one.  All of them did half damage.  I almost didn't try the last one because I was distracted for a moment but my final attack with an acid fist did full damage.  My massive 10 points of unresisted damage was clearly the deciding factor.).  We concentrate fire on one, Ezera doing most the damage since they were fiends, dropping it in one round.  The other gated in a third and a will o wisp also appeared.  They did some significant damage but it was all over in a couple rounds.  The wisp went invisible and various people tried various things to track it down.  But to no avail.  Secret doors were searched for since it seemed to end here.  Eventually, the scroll was read by the draconic-speaking Kaladin.  Something the greatness of demon summoners or some such.  Once done, we heard stone grinding on stone.

Loki ended up nearest the door that opened and looked in.  He found an ancient study with rotting books.  At the desk was a skeleton.  And then a Specter rose and demanded to know who had disturbed his studies.  Loki claimed to be a lost woodland creature and apologized for disturbing him.  I think a talking raccoon threw him off a bit.  He demanded to know what year it was and was angered that no one from his Valki family had been down here in hundreds of years to consult with him.  Loki played on this knowledge angle and asked his advice on dealing with vampires.  He correctly concluded that Strahd was still in charge.  He said that she had made a deal with a “dark power” and was now immortal.  Lord Q asked for advice on how to kill her and his response was to summon an even bigger demon(Dan: When asked how we would get rid of this demon he responded that you would summon a bigger demon.  We dropped that line of questioning as unproductive.).  Still, he was impressed that we had taken out his guards and declared that we’d earned a boon.  We could take any one item from his desk.  We took that meant Loki.  Zolton cast a quick Detect magic.  There was a ring, a wand, an amulet, and a scroll.  Loki took the ring, hoping it would be the most versatile choice.  Lord Q asked a few more questions as he eyed the other items.  (Get the sword.)  But the Specter grew tired of the audience and slammed the door shut.  Ezera was itching to vanquish the evil undead thing but we successfully argued that he was down here, not a threat and that we should concentrate our efforts on the undead that were roaming the streets.

An Identify revealed that it was a Ring of Spell Storing which could hold 5 levels of spells.  It currently had a Web and a Counterspell.  It could be reloaded by any spell caster and used by anyone.  Pretty good.  There was some debate as to who should get it but we ended up with the Warlock who gets so few spells a day (Dan: No one disagreed but it occurs to me that my monk gets even fewer spells a day;).  We took our long rest, cast the Ceremony, and put the Father to rest.  That put us back to what to do next.  More debate and we ended up with getting out of town and still going to the abbey.  We wanted to get a new priest in place.  This was made more complicated by the fact that it was festival day.  Ezera would talk to the junior church guy and give him a note for Lady Watcher.  The rest would sneak out of town asap.  Loki decided to turn into a dog and stick with Ezera, figuring it’s always better to have 2 characters.  The first group got out okay.  Unfortunately, it was another skill challenge and without Ambrus, Kharn, Ezera, or Loki, they were short on skills.  They managed, using an inspiration to get past one roll and Spider Climb spell.  Andy had assumed he could leave through the gate since he wasn’t wanted but the gate was closed for the festival.  So, he and dog Loki had to sneak as well.  That did not go so well.  Loki could not roll a 10 or better on a perception roll.  First with advantage then with his inspiration, then Ezera’s.  He rolled a 2, 3, 1 and 5 or some such.  Ezera pretended to be chasing Loki over the walls and the guards we too confused to do anything.  Comical but I think everyone made it to the Vistani camp outside the walls.      

We started with people finishing off their leveling up to 5^th.  Mostly picking new spells.  It was pretty well agreed that we needed a short rest before we could venture out of the church but everyone had things they wanted to do first.  Brian added some descriptions from the aftermath of last time including getting Dan caught back up with the rest of the group.  Zolton wanted to do an Identify on Kharn’s sword that seemed to be vibrating in this church.  The 'identify' revealed nothing beyond +1 sword.  Ambrus could hear someone talking in his head, but only when outside of the church.  Ezera realized the Ceremony spell he happened to have memorized would prevent someone from becoming a vampire for a week.  But it would take an hour to cast.  He started it.  No one was sure how long it would take for the father to rise, if it was possible inside this holy church, but it was agreed that the characters would have no idea on such things.  Part of the problem was that while some had their max hit points reduced from the drains, only Kharn was really down significant hit points.  So only he would benefit from the short rest which meant everyone else was looking for something else they could do in that time.  Eventually, the 15 minutes was spent.  When Zolton started to cast another 10-minute 'Identify' ritual, Kharn and Loki revolted and declared their intent to go back into the city to rescue the NPC, put out the fire, and kill more spawn.  All but Ezera agreed to go.  That was the right decision for his character but would leave him out of any action.

So, we retraced our steps towards the fire.  When we got to the town square, we found two vampire spawn feasting on the city folk in the stocks and cages.  Initiative.  Ezera was allowed to join us after a “feeling” was sent to him by the Morning Lord.  Armed with the 5^th level power increase, we thought we could take out 2 spawn.  But then Zolton’s upcast Bless was Counterspelled by a vampire atop a statue that we hadn’t noticed.  And she had a junior vampire with her.  Fire was concentrated on one spawn and it was out soon enough.  The Vampire cast Blindness which got Loki and Lord Q.  The downed spawn rose a round later.  The good news was that Brian realized we should have been getting a CON save against that level drain.  But after a couple of rounds, the junior vampire was on the ropes so the vampire flew down, grabbed her hand, and teleported away.  The last spawn was scared off by Zolton and with that head start, got away too.  So, we only managed to kill one of them but did save some townsfolk at least.

At the coffin makers shop, we found the building a raging fire from the fire spells Zolton cast last time.  It hadn’t spread to the nearby buildings yet.  No sign of the NPC.  That became another skill challenge. (Dan: Yay.  I can't say I am a fan of these.  Powers like flying over to rescue a child, using the ability to breathe underwater or swim as fast as you can fly, using draconic charisma to intimidate, or ice breath to subdue a flame aren't allowed because they aren't skills.  It gets to feel pretty contrived.)  Lord Q put on the guise of a city official and ordered the crowd to form a bucket brigade.  Kharn saved a kid in the nearby building with an enraged Athletics check.  Zolton missed an Animal Handling roll, tripped up by more chickens.  Kharn was the only one with that skill but he had gone already.  Ezera made another Athletics check, making sure the water kept coming.  And finally, Loki missed a Survival check but that was 3 over 2 and the city was saved. 

Around then, one of Lord Q’s minions returned, stating that the NPC had taken the coffin maker to the prison.  We headed over to make sure she was okay.  That turned into a big thing.  Brian was playing up the totalitarian regime aspects and our talkers were asking what we thought were reasonable questions.  (Dan:  Lord Q may have been muted or he might have been first to be arrested)  Somehow Zolton managed to piss off the guards, what was actually said will be debated through the ages, and arrested.  (Dan: Zolton was very aggressive in wanting to talk to Ireena and although Zoltan doesn't remember doing it, most people remember him trying to walk in past the guards to ask her if she was okay.  Zoltan only remembers looking in the window, seeing she was there, asking about her, and then being arrested.  The conversation was a bit heated but the DM did give many clues that these guys didn't accept anyone talking back). Brian spent a bunch of time populating the arraignment center with guys to impress upon us that we wouldn’t be able to fight our way out of this.  (Not that anyone was planning to.)  (Dan: Originally it looked empty so it's a good thing he mentioned that or we may have tried something stupid)  Eventually, initiative was rolled.  Zolton managed to talk to the NPC and determine that she was okay.  He then used a Misty Step to escape the building.  (Dan: Zoltan massively misread the situation because as soon as he escaped he walked back to the front door with the guards as if nothing had happened.  The guards recognized him immediately and called out that the escaped prisoner was here).  With no one willing to start fighting, it turned into a chase scene for him.  He managed to pull together just enough skills to getaway.  (Dan: Zoltan was worried that he had no skills but handily beat the target skill rolls each time).  He used his last Misty Step to get over the wall and ended up at the Vistania camp.  Kharn also ended up there, wanting nothing to do with a city guard in a city that hated Vistania. 

The rest went back to the church.  Ezera finished his spell and I think we took a long rest.  I assume the hit point maxs recovered? The NPC showed up eventually.  She said that the accountant had shown up and helped her.  He happened to have a Vampire Lore book that he lent her.  One of the kids said the guards came by the Blue Water Inn, looking for Zolton.  Now a wanted man.  They also wanted Lord Q for impersonating a city official.  That’s gratitude for you.  And looking for the rest of us for questioning.  But we knew we would run afoul of the government eventually.  I just didn’t think it would happen after saving the city multiple times.  It’s not like we’re going to be able to blend in so I think the plan was to get out of town and take the Father’s body to the head Abbey.  Hopefully, if they can’t raise him, they can keep him from becoming a vampire.  And then swing by the Wizard Winery.  (Dan: I had the DM verify that the guards really do protect against vampire spawn.  Apparently, they do.  If they didn't protect the people I would be all for a guerrilla war to eliminate all the guards.  Since they do help it would likely do more harm than good.  However, we may have to eliminate pockets of guards if they keep hunting us.  As player characters, it may be hard to resist doing more if they keep poking us and our pride/anger gets involved.  Zoltan already wants to kill them all... and he's the cleric.  Admittedly the cleric of some kind of mindflayer god but he _thinks_ he's good.  The spirit of the murder hobo may be instilled upon us.)