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.)

We started at breakfast at the Blue Water Inn.  There was only one other patron who seemed to be watching us.  Given our species makeup, you can’t really blame him.  As Loki mixed some gunpowder, a finely dressed young man entered.  He was the local accountant who helps many of the local merchants keep on top of their tax responsibilities.  He offered his services to us however since no one ever pays us to all these good deeds we do, accounting for our profits has not been an issue.  We asked him a few questions about the local merchants but nothing much came of it.  We all agreed that returning the Saint bones to the church and restoring its protections was top on our list.  However, Zolton wanted to visit the armorer next door first.  He commissioned a shield/book and a chain shirt that opened like a vest so that it might not look so much like armor.  We were all confused by his descriptions.  Basically, he wants to look like an unarmed Wizard but still have the AC afforded a dexy Cleric.  He had the half-up front money but will have to borrow to finish the work.  Ambrus went to the local leatherworker to commission a holster for his Immovable Rod.  (Insert 10 minutes of “rod” jokes here.)  It wouldn’t be a problem.  There were other shopping and miscellaneous city tasks to do but we managed to get back on track and head to the coffin maker.

He lived in the poor part of town.  His house/shop was all boarded up and closed.  After knocking, we were told to go away.  After trying to convince him, Ambrus picked the lock with ease and we entered.  Basically, Ezera used his holy stink eye to get him to confess.  Some woman whose name I can’t recall hired him to get the bones.  They were upstairs in his bedroom, awaiting pick up.  However, she left several vampire spawn up there to guard them.  He was scared out of his wits.  Most believed him although Lord Q believes nothing.  Zolton had started casting Detect Magic during the interrogation, hoping the bones were magical, and when we went upstairs, he could see magical wards on the doors.  We attempted to avoid them by coming in through the windows but they were warded as well.  We decided to use the carpentry tools to cut a hole in the ceiling.  Unfortunately, the rattled coffin maker blew his spacial awareness roll and told us to cut in the wrong place in his own house.  When the hole was big enough for Kharn to see several feet watching his progress, one of the spawn attacked, free grappled, and pulled him up the hole.  He turned into a werewolf, managed to free himself (with an inspiration die) and jump back down.  One came after followed by several others.  They were tough.  They got a claw with a free grapple and a bite with a free hit point drain.  That drain not only reduced your max hit points (and thus your current hit points) but healed them as well.  It was looking very dire.  We faced one spawn in Barovia in the church 1 level ago and it was dicey.  Now we’ve got 5?

A couple of rounds later, several of us were hurting and only one of them was damaged much at all.  Despite some fun shield bashing from Ezra.  It became clear this was yet another fight we couldn’t possibly win.  Brian said as much however it was clear their intention was to grab the bones and run.  And there wasn’t much we could do about it.  Except for our invisible wild card, Ambrus.  He had Misty Stepped up the hole on round one.  He managed to follow the lead spawn and could see him about to jump out the window with a sack of bones.  He delayed and used his invisible mage hand sleight of hand skill to swipe the bones as it jumped.  A moment of glory that took advantage followed by 3 inspiration dice to get a roll above a 5.  But he had the bones.  Except that the spawn just Spider Climbed back up that same round.  Two others surrounded him including one Zolton had turned downstairs.  Ambrus managed to beat a grab with a nimble acrobatics roll and when his turn finally came, he Misty Stepped out the window and started running to the church.

We then transferred to another skill-based chase scene.  Brian had set up 3 challenges from here to the church, each of which could be bested by one of 3 skill checks of 15 or 12.  Along with the usual arguments about using powers instead.  It was easy for some and not so easy for others but we all ended up at the church with two spawns on our heels.  (By the way, we could hear the city folk panicking from the spawn running amok.  50 years, vampire-free and we show up and the next day, vampire attack.  Sorry.)  Combat restarted but again there was no real point to it.  The head vampire lady (i.e. the devil herself) crashed through the ceiling, grabbed the priest, and demanded the bones.  Her appearance ended the possibility of winning via combat and put us back to winning via plot.  Ambrus ignored her, ran the bones into their camber thus restoring the protections.  She killed the priest, tossed him aside, and fled.  The 2 spawn in the church turned to dust and we won.  Sort of.  There are probably spawn still on the loose since the protections end at the church door.  We also sort of left the coffin maker’s house on fire due to a Flaming Sphere.  So, plenty to do.  We think the hit point maximums will recover with a long rest, whenever we’ll get one of those.  We made 5^th.  And destroyed the city.  

Bolstered by a Protection from Evil, Loki made his save.  Ezera used his lay on hands to cure the disease.  We delivered the teen back to the camp outside of the city.  They were grateful but had nothing of worth to reward us with.  Kharn did inquire about a strength bow that Brian said was possible but he needed time to think about it.  We snuck back into the city and finally went to bed and got a long rest.  Brian then delivered to each, another dream sequence.  They seem to be getting a little more defined.  A little more linkable to our various backstories.  We’re still 4^th, awaiting resolution of the bones storyline.  Assuming we don’t get waylaid by something else

The big news was the welcomed return of Andy.  He replaced his Wizard with a Human heavily armored, sword and shield, classic Holy Paladin named Ezra.  (That’s not right.  It started with an E and was Biblical but I can’t remember.)  Several theories were offered up as to the reason for the change before he returned from dinner.  Andy stated that the Wizard “wasn’t working as he’d hoped”.  In particular, the subclass power tree, while powerful, was completely negated if the target made that first save.  Regardless, it was good to have him back and a Paladin will certainly be useful in this place.

The snow finally abated and we start back on the road to Valackea.  As agreed, Kharn took the wagon over to the Vastini camp and would make his way into the city via another gate.  Good thing, since the entrance criteria was extensive.  First, we had to swear we were not Vastini and were not under the influence of the Devil.  Only then, would they open the gate to really start the process.  (I’m sure I’ll forget some.)  We had to jump over a waterskin, allow a silver piece to be placed on our forehead and touch the wooden threshold.  We had to answer some questions for their records.  Point of origin was a little tricky for some of us but the guard didn’t really care as long as he got something on the form.  They stopped short of a full search but all weapons had to be declared and recorded.  That included Loki’s claws and Kaladin’s teeth.  Lastly, we were given an extensive list of rules.  It was mostly the usual, don’t make trouble, ones but with a couple of unique ones.  The Devil’s true name could not be mentioned.  Everyone must participate in the weekly festivals.  And everyone must be happy at all times.  Even after all that, we were not invited in.  Only allowed to enter.

Our destination church was on the other side of the city so we went through the heart.  Of note, this city was a bit more lively than the boarded-up ghost town we came from.  There were actual shops with actual goods although we didn’t stop at them.  We watched a puppet show put on by a half-elf that the kids particularly enjoyed.  A passerby bid Ambrus a GOOD DAY with a forced smile which we took as an encouragement to stay happy.  Loki remarked that perhaps they think the happiness will keep you know who at bay.  The half-elf noted that it was working.  We made it to the church without issue.  As we entered, any always-on magic we had, turned off.  E.g. Lord Q’s servants popped out of their cage, Loki’s claws got smaller, Zolton’s eyes looked normal (for him), etc.  We could hear the priest telling a sick-looking young man to go home and rest.  Like the rest of the city, the church was in good shape.  We got to business, with Zolton doing much of the talking.  We need to drop off the kids.  There’s an orphanage next door.  Our NPC needs sanctuary.  She can stay in the woman’s dorm room that is currently unused.  We dropped her stuff there but she agreed to stay with us until the kids were seen to.  The bad news about the priest in Barovia.  He’d contact the bishop.  How did he die? Er…  uhm…  There was a vampire spawn in the church that we took care of.  Meanwhile, Ambrus searched around the church, missing stealth rolls as he went.  When he found no chained undead, he declared that he had a good feeling about it.  The priest asked a Paladin by the name of Ezra to show us to the orphanage and help us get settled into the city.

At the orphanage, we met the stern tired-looking headmistress.  She was accepting a small coffin.  Evidently, a child had fallen from a 2^nd story window.  That, of course, triggered our paranoia.  Which in this place, is just good common sense.  Ambrus questioned a couple of kids.  They seemed happy enough.  We filled out some paperwork while Ambrus went upstairs.  He ended up in the attic where he found an odd child, whittling.  We got a bunch of plot threads which lead to some investigations.  It was the usual chaos as different groups of characters went in different directions and then intersected randomly.  The dead kid was new and had a silver locket.  When examined, it had an X scratched onto it.  Zolton did a detect magic and then an identify.  It was some sort of vessel to hold an extra-dimensional creature.  Now empty.  We found evil runes, carved into the beds of some of the children.  Some kids had recently run away.  Ambrus and Loki re-questioned that kid upstairs.  He managed to out intimidate Ambrus, mostly bad rolls, but the fact that an 8-year-old boy could even try was noteworthy.  The sick grave digger from the church lived here.  He was very sick and had runes on his bed.  Several of the girls seemed to recognize the NPC.  When questioned by Loki, one of the dolls in the dollhouse looked like her.  A search also found one that looked like Kharn.  Evidently, it was a standard doll in this city, on sale at the toy store.  Eventually, we decided to get everyone out of the house and into the church, hoping whoever was possessed would be revealed.  However, when Lord Q went ahead to give the priest a heads up, he found that the protections had stopped.  The altar boy had recently told the gravedigger of the sacred bones that were interned under the altar.  They were now, gone.

We still moved everyone over but then Loki noticed the odd boy was not there.  We left Zolton’s familiar at the church and searched the house.  The bones were not in the coffin nor the gravedigger’s room.  Nothing was found until we got to the attic where first in line Ezra saw a shadow demon emerging from the boy.  Initiative.  The attic was bigger than we thought and Ezra could not move and attack so he empowered his Sacred Weapon.  Ambrus moved and delayed.  Unfortunately, the demon then crawled onto the high ceiling and advanced out of everyone’s reach.  That was going to be a problem with our hand-to-hand heavy group.  Loki got up there and started blasting away with his guns and did very well.  Kaladin flew up but kept missing.  Jon reasoned that there must be supporting rafters to hold up the roof.  Brian agreed so Ambrus climbed up and attacked but missed.  Ezra only managed a hand axe throw.  Lord Q cast his own spider climb.  But ultimately, the demon missed a bunch.  It was attacking with 10-foot reach claws and a mind-control magic but didn’t hit.  Ezra tried to use Protection from Evil to break the connection to the kid which didn’t work however Zolton did manage to break it and the PfE kept him from repossessing him.  About then, it was vanquished and went back to its home plane.

The kid didn’t remember anything.  The gravedigger regained consciousness.  Under the authoritative glare of the Paladin, he confessed to stealing the bones and selling them to the coffin maker in order to pay someone to search for the lost kids. We decided to leave those loose ends until next time as we’re sure they’ll lead to more quests.  We’re still 4^th although Brian said we’d probably make 5^th next time. 

We started encamped on the road between the Old Mill where we had killed the dream pastry peddling Granny Momo and our destination city of Volockea.  In the middle of the 3^rd watch, the log Zolton was sitting on (it had to be Brian) suddenly rose up and reveal itself as a Yeti.  Not a normal 9-foot Yeti but a legendary one.  Initiative.  Since Zolton and the missing Ambrus were on watch, they were the only ones awake.  Brian allowed everyone to roll into action pretty fast (I don’t think anyone sleeps soundly in this land anymore) but those with armor beyond leather were deemed unarmored.  I think that only affected Lord Q though.  Luckily the fast-acting Yeti merely roared on his first action.  Everyone else charged into action, guns a blazing.  As is typically the case, its AC was low but its to-hit, damage, and hit points were high.  He got 2 claws and a chilling stare that, on a failed save, did a lot of damage and cause frozen paralysis.  Someone got hit with that early but I can’t remember who (Dan: The monk was first.  One-shotted again.  His fiery fists caught his attention.  Fortunately he wasn't flying when he was paralyzed.).  It did not like fire but didn’t seem to be taking any extra damage from it (Dan: it caused it to attack with disadvantage but with a +11 to hit this wasn't that much of a hindrance.  It was the raccoon ranger who made a very high survival/monster lore roll to identify this weakness).  It merely targeted those who were wielding it.  As an added complication, it rose up next to the horses who started to drag the wagon into the forest (Dan: The children were in the wagon and got mildly tenderized).

So as usual, things were looking pretty dire.  Then Zolton hit it with a Whispers spell which caused it to run away.  As it left, Lord Q crit it with an opportunity attack and hit a ton of damage.  He had his hex blade and a hex going.  So, it was now pretty damaged.  Next to go was Loki but it ran so fast, it was no longer in 'long range' of his pistols.  So, he started to unload the tent in case it came back.  The enraged werewolf Kharn charged after it, pulling out a longbow.  Lord Q did the same.  With its next round, it saved and started coming back.  It critted Kaladin with a claw, then finished him off with another.  And it icy stared Zolton at long range and paralyzed him and knocked him out.  The next round, it took out Kharn.  Somewhere in there it also did a cold breath weapon.  Luckily that never recharged.  The upshot was that we went from having it on the ropes to having 3 players out.  However, the NPC aided Zolton, Loki got Kharn a good berry and then Kharn got one to Kaladin.  Armed with 1 hit point, they continued the attacks and it was taken out.  All told, it took 6 rounds.  Loki skinned it as we figured it might be worth something.  We took a short rest, since we had just had a long rest, and pressed on into the snow.

During that journey, the NPC cried out and started talking about returning to Barovia.  She had been talking to her brother via the Sending Stones.  Evidently, the whole town was hooked on those pastries.  We sorted of knew that since the kid’s parents had sold them to get more.  However, beyond everyone getting sick, evidently, people were rioting, searching for any remaining pastries (Dan: Out of the 3 sisters in the tavern only one is known to have survived.  No one cared, even Karn who spent the night with them).  The NPC blamed herself for not foreseeing this and at least warning her brother.  Those damn pastries. (Dan: She noticed that Brian was a cleric and started confession.  The book Brian had read 'The Cleric's Correspondence School of hard Knocks' had covered this so he faked his way through as she confessed her guilt over the situation.  Then he blew it all by interrogating the girl about exactly what a priest/cleric was and how they were different than a wizard.  It was awkward.)  A couple of skill rolls and mentioning the kids we had in our care managed to get her back on track.  Lord Q explained what happened (i.e. children’s bones et al) via the stones and Ismark said he’d try to get the situation under control there.  We pressed on (Dan: Despite blowing all our heals, spells, and recovery dice because we had just had a long rest) however the snow got worse.  And then a half dozen dire wolves attacked.  They had their pack tactics and free trips however it wasn’t too tough.  Towards the end, one tried to grab the prone Lord Q but only came away with a boot.  With that, it headed into the woods and the others followed.  That struck us as odd but we could not stop it before it disappeared into the mist.  We took out the rest.  Kharn, who can evidently understand wolf, said it was evident from their talking that they were on a mission to get a possession from one of us.  A high arcana roll by Zolton confirmed what the players suspected.  It would aid any scrying attempts.  But we can’t go into the mist so that was that.

The snow was so bad, we had to stop.  We began to think that someone didn’t want us to get to this city.  The NPC asked Zolton to hear her secrets (i.e. confessions) since he was a priest.  That didn’t really reveal anything but it allowed him to pursue his wizard vs cleric backstory some more.  That night, we all got another disturbing dream.  They seem to tie into our backstories, sort of, but it was hard enough to figure out our own, let alone understand everyone else’s.  Kharn had one about going a picnic with his twin sister, the NPC, and an older brother neither of them remembered.  Paul roleplayed some discussions with her, trying to get more meaning out of it.  To no real avail.  Zolton’s was about his Mind Flayer storyline.  We talked some about that but since we’re not high enough level to stop it or reverse it, it’s pretty much going to happen or not.  Short of killing him.  We stopped there, still on the road to the city. 

The next morning, we cleared some brush so that we wouldn’t burn down the whole forest when we lite it up.  But first, we all had dreams.  But first were the saves from the dream pastries.  Unbelievably, some are still afflicted.  (Dan: Cry.  Between this and death house the party spends more time with disadvantage than not.  Once we are done with the withdraw we'll doubtless feel we are too OP when we roll normally... until the next time we are all with disadvantage due to some weird mechanics.) Brian wrote a dream for each but it was Zolton’s and Ambrus’s dreams that got the attention.  It was becoming evident that they were linked somehow.  Once the Mind Flayer was fully described, Zolton realized it was the image of the hated foe of the Gith.  (Will his character risk using that power again?) Evidently, MF's are created by getting others to eat larvae.  (Dan: The process of changing into a mind flayer is only a few days.  So we'll know soon if Brian is going that route or it's a weird hybrid thing where he needs to eat multiple times.) Ambrus asked to examine his pocket watch and he could feel its power in his key tattoo? But Zolton could feel his link to the watch shifting so he snatched it back.  It was all very complicated and I’m sure I’m missing stuff.  We did burn down the mill and got on the road a bit late.  A couple of hours later we saw a demon talking to a skeleton but since they seemed happy enough with each other, we decided to leave it alone.  (Dan: Another DM plot thread successfully avoided.  Yay.)  We stopped to camp on the road in the snow.  Evidently during watch 3, a Yeti? noticed our presence and the log Zolton was sitting on stood up.  We stopped there.  (Dan: I am still not sure what happened but I'm sure it will work itself out.)