We started with a series of “but firsts”. We wanted to head back to the winery with the recovered gem but first we wanted to check out the grove of trees nearby. But first we wanted to take a short rest. But first we wanted to search the bodies of the fallen Druids. But first the unholy aura of this place seemed to be tapping into the feral nature of Loki and Kharn. Loki felt the urge to take a small bite out of one of his friends. Just a nibble, they won’t mind. He turned into a rat and tried to bite Ezra who looked more appetizing that Lady Katrina. Luckily, he missed because Ezra only had 1 hit point. Ezra grabbed him and he came to his senses. Kharn felt compelled to feast on the blood his fallen foes. He turned into a wolf but manage to resist the urge to actually dig in. The bodies were searched but nothing was found. Druids and barbarians are much for stuff and we didn’t really kill that many of them. Ezra did a sense evil and determined that outside the walls was less evil than inside so we decided to do a quick bandage but put off the short rest until we reached the trees. Everyone’s heritage artifact was giving off a faint evil vibe, by the way. Visili did not although Ezra, in particular, did not trust him. Luckily the surviving Druids had all fled because we were in no shape to face them.
In the trees was an old black gnarled oak with a small tunnel under its roots. There was an inscription that was in Druidic. Lady Katrina cast a ritual Comp Languages and it said something about the unworthy being smited if they dared to enter. Loki vaguely remembered the area from his time in captivity but could recall nothing useful. We took a short rest and debated our options. Visili caused some trouble, asking questions. He talked to Loki about his artifact and questioned whether it was safe to use, given the bite he tried to give Ezra. He talked to Kharn about his curse. Both probably told him too much. While talking to Kharn, Kharn sort of drifted out. When he regained his thoughts, Stradhanya was on his mind and he tasted cherries. Visili then stated that he did not intend to go into the cave and advised Ireena to do the same. More suspicions, questioning and skills rolled but nothing much came of it. He stayed but she went. Loki felt the cave was the way to go so eventually, we went.
The entrance was tight and all had to crawl to get in. With Loki leading the way, it was a series of tunnels dug out of the dirt and roots. We found the body of the Vistani girl that Stradhanya took. Loki thought it very unlikely that she would have killed her and put her down here and was going to pass it by but someone had to look for a cause of death and it turned into 4 swarms of Rot Grubs. That fight was its usual annoying with half damage but not hard. I don’t think anyone got hit. There was no actual body. We found a room full of Stirigs, seeming to be feeding from the black roots. They didn’t seem to notice us but we went another way. The body of Zolton was found and again, we could not leave well enough alone. More Rot Grubs. We fought them a little better this time, using hit and run tactics to avoid getting attacked. More Stirigs which were avoided again. Another body which we finally let lie. We also found a talisman in a wall, an adventurer’s pack with a potion in it and a tarot card.
The last room, assuming we didn’t miss anything along the way, was a large chamber with holes in the floor. It was pretty obvious something or somethings lived in here. Loki successfully snuck halfway across and readied his guns. Ambrus went next and his 20 stealth was not good enough. A huge Remoraz appeared. I was tough. High AC, immune to fire and cold and a long reach. However, it’s most devastating power was that any melee attackers took 2d6 of fire damage from the heat of its body. No to hit and no save. Since we heavy with melee characters and did 2-3 or more attacks per round, that 2d6 really added up fast. Our usual advantage of multiple attackers and attacks was working against us. Some were taking more damage than they gave. Loki, with his ranged pistols was doing well, but then the Remoraz tunneled into the ground, appeared 20 feet away and attempted to swallow him. That attack did 50+ points and Loki was knocked out in one blow. Luckily, with all the other attackers, it was too distracted to swallow him.
Ambrus managed to use his cunning action to grab him and get him out of harm’s way. A good berry later he was ready to start shooting again. Meanwhile, things were getting dicey. Kharn was also hit with that massive attack but manage to stay conscious due to his rage induced half damage. But he was restrained in its maw and wouldn’t last long. But Lord Q managed to finish it off in the nick of time. No treasure was found. We discussed fleeing at this point and facing an “I told you so” from Visili however the GM nudged us to keep going one more room. The last room had talisman hanging from the ceiling. There was a burned-out fire pit and carvings all over the walls. And another even smaller tunnel exiting. With the help of another Comp Languages, the carvings were goodly Druid stuff about the century old role of this tree in spreading life throughout the land and such. It seemed like this was a rite of passage room that predates the rise of Stradhanya and the corruption of the Druids. Over the tunnel was something about the worthy passing through the challenge ahead. But it seemed like a safe place for a long rest. With a couple torches for fuel, we started the fire. The items were identified. A Potion of Climbing, a talisman that allowed the holder to understand Druidic for an hour once a day and the finder of the tarot card (Lady Patrina) gets a free death save success on her next attempt. The talisman went to the Druidish Loki. I think Lady Patrina held onto the potion?
It was late at that point but we decided to press forward a bit more and tackle the always contentious skill challenge that awaited us at the next tunnel. So, it was to be a Dex check to squeeze through. The predetermined DC depended on the size, armor and gear of the character. Loki had it easiest, being small. Ezra had it worse with his heavy armor. Next was a bunch of debates about what would help and not help in this challenge. Removing armor, gear, oiling up, who had oil, would acrobatics help, can one help another, one at time, how about this spell or that spell, etc. Sadly, Loki who could only miss with an automatic miss 1 was the only one that had to use an inspiration die. A couple got stuck but we managed to work around it. Loki discovered that it ended at the top of a vast chamber with water 60 feet below. Kharn managed to lower him on a 50 rope, only because he was small and we stopped there. And no one’s Darkvision was working. Not Loki’s subclass enhanced or Lady Patrina’s feat driven devil sight. So, will it be more skills or more fights or both? Tune in next time.
Advanced D&D- Game 4- 08/20/2021 - A Drop In the Ocean
Written by David Green
We started, still at the Trent glade. The Druid wanted to cast a Ceremony spell to ease the passing of the dead Trents. Unfortunately, he did not have it memorized so we’d have to overnight there. However, unlike other games, we do not own that river boat. It seemed unlikely the captain or the merchant would be willing to wait another day. Time is money, after all. While the Druid desire was reasonable and Dave’s roleplaying was applauded, it just didn’t seem practical. DG pointed out that before the invention of the Unearthed Arcana book, we would have just said we do so. Why couldn’t we just do that? Jon ended the discussion by saying that the Ceremony spell could be cast like a ritual a la 5e. So that was done after which the Druid was given the bowl from last time. Once on the boat, the Cleric gave thanks to Thor for their victorious battle. We never did attempt to do an Identify on the bowl or the ring but the Paladin who had the ring didn’t show so we sort of forgot about it. Identify in 1e is problematic, evidently.
We continued down the river. The weather continued to be poor. The Cleric had a dream about being underwater, almost drowning and following a light all during a terrible lightning storm. He awoke to a terrible lightning storm. This was very similar to his near-death experience in his tragic backstory so he took it as a message from Thor. That’s what Cleric do. The captain became worried about the storm and made for the center of the river to ride it out. Suddenly grappling hooks on ropes appeared from under the water. About 4 per side. Characters with edge weapons rush to cut the lines. Those without, the Cleric and Monk, ready ranged weapons. The next round, lizard men started boarding. Attacks were made. It wasn’t too tough although the merchant ended up in the wrong place and was dropped. There was one that was different, at the back of the boat but the Cleric hit him with a Hold Person. The next round, the eventual Bard killed it automatically. Two more like it surfaced and started to cast spells. But we won initiative and our Cleric got them into a Silence spell before theirs went off. At this point, the lizard men fled but with the harsh disengage rules, I think they were all cut down. The two casters did get back under however. The Cleric was told he felt he needed to go under the water so he shed his shield and war hammer and dove in. Much to the surprise of the rest.
The eventual Bard and the Monk followed him. The players were then reminded that we had gotten a potion of Water Breathing from the last night. However, we remembered that the missing Paladin had it. Jon said that the attending Paladin had it. She took a swig, handed it to the Wizard and went in in her heavy armor. The Wizard took a pull and started to dive in as well. The Druid elected to stay behind and save the lives of the merchant and a sell sword. Meanwhile, under the water, we saw a sunken column on which the ropes that had tried to secure the boat were tied. The two casters we fleeing to a cave entrance. The fast-moving Monk closed but when they turned and started doing claw claw tail attacks, he quickly started to fall back. The eventual Bard was next but she got grabbed and was running out of air. The Cleric surfaced, took the potion from the Wizard as he dove in, and swam back to the eventual Bard. The Paladin finish off the grappler so she headed to the surface and drank the last dose of potion. It was just the two monsters so other than the lack of air, it wasn’t too tough. The Cleric lead the way into the cave but the Monk had to turn back as he (and the Druid) were the odd men out on the potion.
The cave led to a series of chambers that eventually ended in a room with air. We found a ton of copper and some gems. On the far wall was a constructed wall with a Thorish symbol on it however there was a locked gate. Unfortunately, the Open Locks characters did not come down and the Wizard did not have his Knock memorized. The 4 that did, tried to bend the bars but failed. The eventual Bard went back for the lizard bodies, since evidently, we forgot to search them. Someone else got the thieves. They had a dicey moment or two when they ran out of air but managed to get into the chamber. Before trying to open the lock, the Monk tried to bend the bars and made a 7% roll. Evidently the 18/00 Paladin had loosened them. He then opened the lock for good measure and then the Druid closed it for practice. Eventually the eventual Bard got back and one of them had the key. It also had 5 rings on one hand and 5 rings on its tail. When removed from the tail, they magically resized. Once the gate was open, the Cleric placed his hand of the symbol and a secret door was opened to the last chamber.
In there was a human body with its head crushed by a war hammer with a symbol of Thor on it. The hammer was still there, in his skull. The odd thing was that the body was in good shape, i.e. fresh but there was no blood from the wound so not fresh. On the far wall was a large circular carving. There were 12 sectors around the rim, each with what looked like a button. No one knew the language but those that knew Dwarvish, thought it might be some sort of ancient Dwarvish. Attention then turned to the body however several players continued to puzzle on the graphic Jon provided. I think Paul realized that the marks were sort of words that corresponded to places on the continent. It helped if you’ve play in this world before. I think eventually, each sector was associated with a city or keep or such. However, this particular place was in the middle of no where so if this was a portal network as was suspected, where were we? And it was noted that the Citadel of the Monk was identified by its original name which places this portal as being very old. Meanwhile, back on the body. It had nothing identifying on it. Only that it wore what would be under heavy armor. Eventually the Cleric of Thor could not resist the Hammer of Thor and picked it up. The human instantly regenerated and stood up.
“Wait wait wait. What’s going on”. What followed was a couple hours of questioning. I’ll try to summarize what we learned eventually. The year he remembered was around 300 hundred years ago. Despite his repeated denials, everyone assumed he was a vampire, however his reflection showed in the Monk’s mirror. He did admit that he was “not dead” but did not like the term “undead”. The Paladin said that he rated “off the scale” in evil. The Wizard tried to Web him but he had Spell Resistance. He said his name was Casey and worked for the Order of the Keys. Neither of which meant anything to anyone. He did seem to recognize our Paladin. Odd, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul’s back history went back 300 years. He said the order gathered information and sold it. I think he admitted the portal was a portal. He had a shadowy tattoo(?) of a key on his hand. He wanted to just leave but we could not allow such a big evil loose so eventually we attacked him. That was pretty futile however the Monk stunned him at which point everyone piled on and he was killed again. The hammer was placed on his head and stopped his regeneration. Now what?
Through experimentation, we discovered that the magic sword would also work so the Druid sacrificed his. We tried to cut off his head but it started to grow back. We simply didn’t know what to do. We decided to put his body in a crate with a sword in him and take him back to the boat. Eventually take it back to Stormgiant and hand the problem over to top men. Unfortunately, we were currently heading the opposite direction so it’ll be a while. We did discover that the “key” could be transfer from him to one of us. The Wizard volunteered to try to open the portal to the place we were heading. When he got close, the “key” became an actual key and the button was a keyhole. When a purplish glow lit up, he stepped through. And never returned. Hopefully he’ll be waiting for us there. Assuming he doesn’t go back 300 years or was disintegrated because he didn’t say the magic words. The rest went back to the boat. Through experimentation, we learned that the hammer was +2 and would return if thrown. The 10 rings would give a hand-to-hand fighter magic hands of a yet to be determined bonus. It’s pretty obvious who got them. 3000 experience was granted.
We arrived a Yester Hill. We were short firepower with the absence of Kaladin, Ambrus and Lady Petrina although Brian showed up before any real action. (Note from Dan: Jon's game was canceled and they sent the last minute invite to the wrong e-mail address.) We debated briefly possible avenues of approach however the cliffs were too tall and numerous to realistically climb so it pretty much had to be up the main road. Since there was little cover, sneaking seemed unlikely but Brian said he’d do that with a couple of group stealth checks. So, we did that. People rolled well enough to get to near the top. When there, we heard a voice. Basically, a warrior from the past was looking for a worthy champion to take possession of his magic spear. And evidently, Lord Q fit the bill. So, we found a cave in which were the bones of a warrior and a magic spear. Lord Q said a few words of reverence and we moved on before the patrol came around again. We didn’t have time to Identify it, and Lady Petrina was late arriving anyway, but I think Brian let Dave attune to it while we snuck so that he could use it as his pact weapon in the upcoming fight. If it does anything more amazing that be magical, we did not discover it.
When we got to the highest tier, we saw and heard a bunch of stuff. There was a high stone wall around the whole area with occasional lightning strikes from the brewing storm touching down on the tops of it. We could also see the top of a huge statue made out of wood, sticks, leaves and mud in the shape of a female with fangs. We could see something glowing in its chest. So, we figured that this was what these Druids wanted from the winery. The magic gem from the old Druid gods to power their new idol of Stradhanya. We could also hear chanting and although no one could understand it, its intent seemed pretty clear. The clock was ticking. We circled around to the back door. Lady Petrina sent her flying invisible Sprite over the wall and it was instantly vaporized by a lightning bolt. Evidently Brian missed the lightning threat part of the description. Basically, it was a ring of chanting Druids around the idol and then a ring of berserking barbarians around them, guarding. And a lot of both. We started to discuss a plan of action however when Brian had us roll initiative, it was pretty much every man for himself.
Ireena went first and peaked around the corner. Brian had turned on the POV so the map was troublesome. Loki went next and turned into a squirrel. He figured an innocent squirrel running along the rocks that formed the wall in the middle of the forest would not be noticed. He was instantly noticed and a couple barbarians started his way. Evidently, they had orders to keep anything and everything away from the idol. Even squirrels. Lady Petrina went next and used Disguise Self to turn into the Druid we killed at the winery. She ordered the barbarians to leave her animal servant alone. All the barbarians instantly saw through that deception (no rolls needed) and started to charge her. It was all downhill from there. The barbarians pretty much bottled up the party at the entrance through the walls. Off the path, it was difficult terrain (i.e. half movement). The squirrel got hit but for some reason Brian said that it had Loki hit points all be it squirrel AC. When DG realized that his Goblin feat transferred, namely the bonus action disengage, he decided to double down on his foolish plan and keep heading to the idol.
The barbarians were formidable and Ezra and Kharn were losing hit points fast. Lord Q was helping and Ireena and Visilli were helping a bit but they were having trouble getting past. Lady Patrina tried to help Loki from a far and successfully Held one barbarian but another couple took his place. Loki was doing pretty well, moving and dodging and disengaging and actually managed to get onto the statue. Some of the Druids stopped chanting to fire spells at him. When the head Druid cast the dreaded Plant Growth spell and everyone’s movement went to ¼, we all wept. We kept hoping something would disrupt the chanting. Lady Patrina hit them with a Slow but that didn’t do it. She hit them with a Fireball and that didn’t do it. Plus, all of Loki’s distractions. Finally, Brian had enough of us asking and said that as long as one Druid kept going, nothing would stop. I.e. you’ll have to kill them all. Crap. The squirrel was finally hit with a Thorn Whip and pulled off the statue, with the gem almost within reach. The head Druid then put up a Wall of Fire, trapping him and a couple of Druid between it and stone wall. Meanwhile, the rest were still pretty much bottled up (not that they could cover any distance regardless) and hadn’t really made any progress against the barbarians. It was looking bleak.
One of the trapped Druids, went over the wall, saved for half on the lightning and was never seen again. Loki, thinking out the box, changed into a Loki, then changed into a badger and then tunneled under the Fire Wall. Lord Q put up a damaging darkness field near the idol and then one of the Druids put up a Fog Cloud over on the players. It was a mess and hard to keep track of. Kharn sort of broke free and added a bit of movement by leaping over the overgrown plants. The badger was hit with an Erupting Earth and knocked into a Loki. Evidently that form worked like a Druid. It was a big confusion but he had most of his hit points. However, he really hadn’t done anything other than distract some bad guys so it was about a wash. Loki managed to climb into the idol, weaving through the lattice work with a barbarian right behind him. On his next turn, he could grab the gem. But 8 rounds were up and the statue turned into a huge evil Trent thing. He and the barbarian were expelled and were left hanging on the outside. By this point, Brian was sick of having to deal with all these zones and declared that the burst of magic that animated the monster, cleared out all of them. He then stated that the Druids and Barbarians, having completed their mission and released their rampaging beast, started to flee the area. There were some parting attacks of opportunity but soon enough it was just the Trent and the players. All total, I think we took out maybe 3 barbarians and 1 Druid using most of Lord Qs and Lady Petrina’s spells and most of Ezera’s and Kharn’s hit points.
So, the Trent got two reach attacks and two grapple attacks per round. If you started your turn grappled by its roots, you took automatic damage and it took your whole round to try to get free with another save. At least you could still fight while grappled. Its AC was low but it’s hit points were huge as is typical with a big boss. The two NPCs contributed pretty well. Ireena proving adept at getting people un-grappled and Visilli doing some actual damage. Of course, they weren’t being targeted. But quickly Ezera and Kharn were out. Kharn, in particular, was in big trouble because he was still in the grapple and was taking damage (and a death save failure) each round. The NPC got them both a Goodberry to keep them alive. Then Loki and Lord Q were on the ropes. At the end, those two were grappled and one round from going out. But Loki managed to take its last handful of hit points and kill it. We stopped there, being 2 AM, but we did recover the gem from its body. Brian says there’s some clean up to do here. There are still barbarians and Druids fleeing but our 4 fighter types probably have maybe 10 hit point between them. So, a short rest is on the top of our list. Still 5th but maybe we’ll be 6th next time, depending on what we do.
Ravenloft Game 24 - 08/06/21 - Spitting In Strahd's Face
Written by David Green
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 5th. Jon’s AD&D next time.
Advanced D&D- Game 3- 07/30/2021 - Too Many Ogres
Written by David Green
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.
Ravenloft Game 22 - 07/09/21 - The Woods in the Winery
Written by David Green
We started, still in the encampment of the former residents of the winery. The head guy provided a sketch of the outside of the one building, surrounded by grape vineyards. There were several entrances but only one road. We attempted to get more information out of him (secret underground tunnels? (Plants have dark vision?, other roads?, numbers?, etc) but got nothing of any value beyond the map. We also grilled him for potential motivations for these Druids. Evidently, they had been harassing them for months but a week ago, they just attacked and took over. Questions about whether there were any druid ruins under this place or near the area again came to naught. Motivation was a reasonable line of questioning given that the Druid we fought last time seemed to return to his normal self before he died. So, we were thinking maybe if we could figure out why they were corrupted, maybe we could fix that and therefore save them. We also revisited Loki’s back story during that. He remembered that Stradhanya had somehow captured/corrupted/banished the 3 gods of the Druids so now they must worship her. (Not quite the backstory DG wrote but whatever.) Loki’s destiny was to free the 3 gods or some such. But ultimately, we ended up back at the “attack the winery” adventure as it was our only lead. At the very least, we needed information.
In the middle of all this, Lady Petrina did a tarot reading on Loki to try to get more information out of him. Again, we got nothing new. But while that was happening, the NPC started asking questions about this Petrina behind her back. I mean we didn’t really know anything about her other than she was a player character. But that’s true of all of us really. Anyone of us could be a spy. That launched a big discussion about her backstory and the backstory of the Dusk elves. Some of this was rehash for Andy who missed last time. She didn’t seem to eat or sleep. Someone with that name was stoned 200 years ago. How do we know she wasn’t a vampire? (She a Reborn.) She did have a reflection in a mirror. Ambrus tried to unlock her memories with his tattoo. But ultimately, we ended up back where we started.
We finally got back to assault plans. Loki offered to do some recon as a squirrel but Petrina revealed her undead sprite familiar. It could fly invisible so Mr. Grey was sent, looking for the best approach path. It seemed an impossible task but then Wade announced it was to be a skill challenge so all these discussions were mostly for naught. The first challenge was an Investigation roll to find the optimal path so he gave that to us based on Mr. Grey. Next was an Animal Handling to understand what the ravens flying above were up to. Kharn thought they were sort of leading the way along the best path. (More fuel for the “not all the druids are evil” notion.) Near the end of the fields was a Stealth check to stay ahead of the closing Thorn Blights. Ambrus rolled that, assisted by Ezra who he had turned invisible in hopes of helping him sneak. Then an Acrobatic dash into a store room which dog Loki lead. Then an Athletics roll to lock the door behind us which Ezra did. I think Ambrus took a couple points from thorn fire but all and all, it was a success.
The storeroom was more of a closet but the next room was 2-3 stories high to hold big vats of wine. There were stairs up to a catwalk above and lots of doors. Kharn went first and spotted a fur clad Druid pouring some thick liquid into a vat. He raged, wolfed and charged up to her. There were also around 6 of the small Twig Blights. Combat ensued. Neither were much of a threat. The Druid did manage one Thunder Wave but hopefully it was dismissed as part of the rain storm outside. Loki used a short sword to stay quiet. Ambrus got knocked into a wine vat. About the only complication was that after most had finally hacked their way through the minions and got up to where the Druid was, Lord Q pulled her down with a cantrip. And she tried to make a getaway. There were some contentious discussions amongst the rule lawyers about how that movement all worked. She did manage to get through a door. Patrina was not able to best her strength to open it but Kharn had no trouble. She was finally cut down. Nothing was learned or earned and no short rest needed. Lord Q questions the ravens in the rafters but they had nothing very useful to say.
After some discussion about what to do next, we went through the door she was trying to go through. It led to stairs going down to a cool basement. We all headed down, in initiative order. It was a wine storage room. The first half, the racks were empty but the second half had wine bottles. Wade pulled us out of initiative order but the next action, Kharn and Loki found another Druid and 4-5 big Thorn Blights in the second area. The Druid cast Entangle but only Loki failed his save. These Blights were much tougher and had range attacks that did like 3d6. Kharn recklessly pursued the Druid, taking several opportunity attacks and got beat up pretty good. The Druid wasn’t too effective but had a lot of hit points. The Blights were tough. When the Druid was dropped at 1AM, the chronicler went to bed. I assume the remaining Blights were finished off and they stopped there. Assuming another encounter doesn’t come down here, we were much louder this time, it’ll be the short rest or press on discussion next time. It appears to be another one of those “fight in every room” type maps.
Ravenloft Game 21 - 06/25/21 - The Woods Are Alive
Written by David Green
We started with the aftermath of the Balrog battle. Brian seemed to be playing the young girl who was being sacrificed that we rescued. She was in fact a teen and claimed to be now teeming with sorcerous energy. She wanted her parents buried and we did so, away from this unholy ground. But the most pressing issue was the burning urn. One was damaged, causing its fire elemental to return to its plane and its urn to stop burning but the other still burning. If we messed with it, would a fire elemental come out and kill us all? Or another Balrog? We couldn’t just leave it here for the next passersby to stumble upon. After much debate, we decided to take a short rest and then strike the urn, figuring we could take a fire elemental at that point. But it did not happen. We tossed the remaining golden slag into sacks and got back on the road. With the teen in tow. An hour later, it was sunset and we made camp. We survived and got a long rest.
The next day about the only thing that happened was that Kharn and Loki spotted a big black dog-like thing in the woods. It rattled their souls. We pressed on however some skill rolls were made and it was revealed that these things put some sort of curse onto those who met its gaze. So, it was said. But we figured we wouldn’t be able to find it again anyway so kept going. What’s one more curse. That night, they had bad dreams. The next day we made it to the town. The abbey was on a steep hill, within the city walls. Once again, the city guards were jerks. They would not let us in, despite our name dropping. We lamented that Ezra had PMS but I don’t think it would have helped. After some pointless roleplaying, the local leader told us we had to do them a small task to prove our worthiness before gaining entrance. What is this, Oz? Ironically, it was to go to the wizard winery and figure out why they had stopped shipping wine here as well. He also requested/insisted that we take the monster/bride along with us. Out came Brian’s true new character.
She was a dusk elf although a bit pale. She seemed to be wearing a wedding gown that looked shabby for a second but then looked normal-ish. It was pointed out that all the female dusk elves were supposedly killed by Stradhanya. Evidently, she had been serving as the abbot’s scholar and bookkeeper although her memory was a bit fuzzy past a couple of years. She and Ambrus had a lot in common. They continued to talk. (Dan: Mostly mentioning how little they remembered) The name Lady Petrina sounded vaguely familiar to him. He leafed through his history book and discovered that Lady Petrina was the one that the dusk elves refused to hand over to Stradhanya, choosing to stone her to death instead. This caused the vampire to kill all the female elves in the land. But that’s just a coincidence in names, I’m sure. We debated breaking into the town but Lady Petrina advised against that. She said that the abbot was very busy and had been very distracted of late. Even if we could get to him, he wouldn’t be much help. However, if we brought him some wine, it might go better. They refused to take the teen off our hands. Besides she wanted to be reunited with someone from her family or at least some Vistani. On the road, Lady Patrina overheard the conversations about the Death Dog. According to something she had read, they did indeed curse people. However, she cast a Remove Curse the next morning. The first removed the curse on Loki and the second on Kharn although she felt there was a deeper curse still in play. Unfortunately, this used up her two third-level spells for the day. Brian revealed that the curse would have resulted in fatigue the next day and unconsciousness the next. The moral of that story is to avoid making perception rolls.
Eventually, the road became more of a path which was difficult terrain. Loki, who was walking point as usual, spotted some strange twig like creatures running through the forest. In their midst, was a crazed Druid fey feral thing that vaguely looked like a Druid Loki once knew. Combat was started. Loki and then others tried to talk to the Druid but he was not hearing it. The twigs were weak but there were a lot of them. So much so that it bogged down Brian’s computer so badly that he had to reboot, mid fight. Kaladin’s breath weapon had recently improved and he was doing pretty good with 2 AOEs a round. It didn’t do a ton of damage but enough to be killing 3-4 a round. Others followed suit as best they could. The Druid cast a couple of Thunder Waves and an Entangle but it was over pretty quick. Kharn had grappled the Druid, hoping we could figure out how to help him but Ambrus ran him through with a critical backstab. As he died, his eyes cleared briefly, and said:
Loki...<hack>...<cough>...Is that you?
Our way has become...<cough>...corrupt...
We cannot reach...<cough>...<hack>... the Ladies through Stradhanya.
Find...<wheeze>...the 3 Ladies: The Weaver, The Seeker, The Huntress
Restore their Fanes and return their stolen power!
Find Jenny Grrr...<cough>...<hack>...<death rattle>...
So, then Loki revealed some of his tragic backstory to explain that. (Although it’s really Brian shoehorning his backstory into the module plotlines.) Basically, he and his family had been captured by some Druids. They were attempting to build an army by uplifting animals into soldiers/servants/slaves in order to marshal forces to defeat some “great evil in the land”. He was one of the few to survive the process, most ending in death or twisted abominations. As a survivor, he was subjected to further experimentations, both physically and mentally. He attempted to escape multiple times, finally succeeding with the help of his artifact item. He didn’t see much beyond the Druid encampment but has come to realize that the great evil was likely Stradhanya and the land was likely this accursed place. It’s not hard to imagine that these twig blights are an extension of those uplift experiments. Although he didn’t say this out loud, his greatest fear is falling into the hands of his tormentors once again. And now he is tasked to somehow save them? Or maybe not. The 3 ladies are the gods they worship and a Fane we think is a temple of some sort. No idea who Jenny Grrr… is. Maybe she can be found at Castle Argg…
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.
Jon has started a 1st edition D&D campaign after having a bout of nostalgia. Hello and welcome! Brian has had an unfortunate case of death, brought on by a virulent bout of Balorism. Goodbye!
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 5th, 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.
More...
Ravenloft Game 19 - 05/29/21 - The Solution is More Demons
Written by David Green
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.
Ravenloft Game 18 - 05/22/21 - An Unholy Betrayal
Written by Daniel Ruth
Our trusty raccoon-shaped plucky hero went to Disneyland, so the half-dragon is narrating the night events. As is typical, when a player is missing we enter an alternate reality where they never existed. We really missed the berries and the gunpowder.
The night starts with Iribella (bratty seer kid) talking to Zoltan about the link of the amulet to the plane. He further talks about his dreams in regards to the tadpole in the amulet. Using his racial fear resistance he looks inside amulet and sees the tadpole he dreamed about. Yay, at least his dream made some sense. Shuts the lid of the amulet quickly, so the tadpole doesn't escape. Zoltan wanted to break the bond to the item but Jon's character, who started to do so previously, is not there. PMS, Player Missing Syndrome. Afterward, Paul talks about his desire to kill the humans in his dreams and the little seer clarifies how the amulet restricts it.
With the other part of the group, Bray(the child) told Ezera that the guards are looking for Zoltan and Lord Q at the Bluewater Inn. Our paladin casts Gentle Repose and wakes the party. Ernst and Riktavio come to discuss 'donations' for 'clothing' and invites him to discuss what Lady Watcher (Fiona) can do for him and the church. They dress Lord Q in a disguise and Kaladin as well. Meanwhile, Karn wanders over to the church since we never showed up. The sword from the huntress of the Ogre magi reacts as he comes into the church. Ezera realizes it was the sword of his fiancee and Karn and him swap weapons. One of Fiona’s servants goes to get (and disguise) Zoltan so he can join us with the meeting.
We discuss an alliance against the government(Revolution) because Fiona’s daughter, Stella, was driven mad. She now acts like a cat. Zoltan tried to use detect thoughts but found nothing. Karn attempted to communicate with animals and did not get anything either. The brilliant plan is to create a disturbance to “show the town how it really is”, however, the party needs to go to the Abbey before they commit. It's so stupid it just might work! Or not.
During the meeting, a servant ran in to get us. One of the servants was wounded and the Father’s body was stolen. Karne was able to start tracking the scent of the dead body. We trailed behind with a pathetic attempt not to be seen together. We tracked the body back at the church. People dressed “like us”, as in people trying to be incognito, had taken his body and run back through the church to the crypt. Lord Q, who had stayed behind with Fiona, eventually wandered lazily through town with an escort. When we finally break into the crypt Lord Q finds his way there, despite doing his best to avoid going there.
After putzing around for an hour in the crypt(this was the DM delaying things rather than the players), we finally pushed the sarcophagus aside and found a hole under it with a rope ladder leading to a large cavern. We found a stairway down and a stone table where Father Lucian’s body was. Ezera sensed evil so we determined we were too late. He had been turned into a monster in the hour or so it took to catch up to him. When we tried to put him to rest (kill him) 6 wights flew out of the ground. One jumped up and hit Kaladin. Apparently, wight guys CAN jump. After a round Ezera did a critical smite on the dormant Father and did 86 points of damage... it only did moderate damage. His eyes did open though. On his action, he leaped onto the ceiling, only to be grappled on pulled off the ceiling on Karne’s action. Despite being a Legendary creature Karne rolled a natural 20 (30 modified) and Father Lucian rolled a natural 1(modified 5). He did make up for it by biting Karne and healing a little. He then turned into a bat to escape, then summoned 8 swarms of bats.
Zoltan was irritated by this, so he dropped a fireball on EVERYONE. 22 points to everything in the room... almost. The paladin had his aura from the holy sword up which gave everyone an advantage on saves and a few had resistances (Kaladin took 5 points) so it worked out. Father died... but used a Legendary action to make his save. Then immediately died again but used ANOTHER Legendary action to turn into a mist. Kaladin did his breath weapon twice and took a few bats out as well as Zoltan. We had no healing berries, so the paladin had to heal him. Then Karn went down, and Zoltan healed him. We finally got rid of the wights.
At this point, it was 1:30. So we storyboarded Ireena using her vampire lore book to inform us that the misty vampire was using the desecrated table/altar to heal. The solution was to have the cleric and paladin consecrate the altar so he couldn’t recover. Brian gave Ireena the kill. “Well done, Ireena Kolyana that’s the deadliest thing you’ve put down in your adventuring career.” Kaladin’s deadliest enemy is a swarm of bats... ouch.
Ravenloft Game 17 - 05/07/21 - Looked In the Window
Written by David Green
We started with people finishing off their leveling up to 5th. 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 5th 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 5th. And destroyed the city.
