[Curse of Strahd] Session VI

Checking the remains of the undead horde for items of value, but long before they had a chance for an actual rest, a raven with blue-tipped wings swoops in to get their attention. They follow its lead to the well where Timmy got stuck  center of town where they find a battered Ismark, a lone bulwark between huddled children & an ogre-sized brute of a zombie. They join in the battle to take it down, allowing Ismark to not be taken down like many other guards. This succeeds in about two rounds, saving the children & elderly.

In the lull, Echo moves around to recover various downed NPCs who can be restored. It's during this time, a very spooky dusk elf mounted on a skeletal horse, flanked by a dozen shambling zombies. This figure, whom will someday be revealed as Rahadin, pulls out a scroll.

Thirteen score & thirteen days past, this people rose in unlawful rebellion against Count of Barovia, Strahd von Zarovich, Master of Castle Ravenloft, Protector of the Balinok Mountains. For this treason, this settlement has been met with righteous punishment, so that its inhabitants might learn the weight of their defiance.
Witnessed by the eyes of the dead and damned, this price has been extracted in blood, common and noble alike. Let it be known that on this day, the mercy of Strahd von Zarovich extends once more unto those who return to their fief and field—while those who continue in their folly shall be swept away as chaff before the wind.

Rahadin gives both his congratulations & condolences to Ismark, the Burgomaster. This makes him run in a panic for the family mansion, the party following while Rahadin calmly turns around to head out. At the mansion, they find Ismark cradling the head of his dead father & Ireena unconscious from a bite mark.

They stay the night in the family manor with Ismark & Ireena. Awakening to cold breakfast, they're asked for help carrying the coffin of the former Burgomaster to the church for burial. At the place, the priest states he's unable to perform the full ceremony because he's lost his connection to the Morning Lord; some social pushing revealing that his son, Doru (the guy who started the rebellion nine months ago), returned some time ago as a vampire spawn, and the priest locked him in the cellar.

He refused to let them downstairs for fear of killing his son, whom he is certain is still somewhere inside the monster. After intimidation & lies, they get inside to speak with Doru, who isn't attacking them on sight. He wants to prove he can control his urges, but gets bullied by more intimidation to give the party his father's holy symbol before he tries his 'experiment' of being exposed to blood to see if he can hold back his urge to violently feed (with permission to strike him down if he tries, not that the party would've cared about needing such). Doru succeeds!

They have the ceremony, leave Doru & his priestly father (renewed in faith that his son can be saved), & make their trek back the manor. It was the crack of dawn, which they noticed a humanoid figure in the distance moving toward them, as well a pack of wolves & swarms of bats. Running, they bolt themselves inside the manor just barely as the beasts clamour against the walls.

There is silence, followed by a gentle knock, which they ignore. A voice rings out from behind the door, wishing for Tatyana to return to him, and that he holds patience for his wife to be. Coswald has taken the time to run upstairs to the window overlooking the front door to see the very Devil himself standing there, Strahd!

Coswald blasts him with burning hands. With a casual look, the vampire lord looks up as the flames are extinguished within inches from a counterspell. He then stares at Coswald, dominates him with a glare, and says "You're nerves are clearly shot. You should go lay down & take a short rest."

Strahd then shouts back that he will always find Tatyana, then turns into bats and leaves.

[Curse of Strahd] Session V

 Following Ismark, he gets approached by some villagers who need to talk to him about stuff. He asks them to wait. During this time, the party sees an old woman selling pies, who has a short conversation with them. Granny offers each a free one, "because you must be so tired after such a journey, dearies." They each pick a different flavour of her three options; meat, maple nut, & bread. After a short bit of gossip regarding the town, Ismark returns & they resume their trip to the tavern Blood on the Vine; during which they notice a raven with blue-tipped wings following them.

At the tavern, they hear of the story of the village, of which they're inadvertently a part of. About nine months prior, Doru (son of the village priest) gathered up a dozen men to fight back against Strahd; but never returned. Shortly after, an elf approached the village, announcing that Strahd would give them nine months to put their affairs in order before he punished the entire village. Since then, much of the village had left for the other two settlements; those that remain include those too old & young to travel, as well those convinced by Ismark that it's better to stay & fight. Undead have laid siege to the town for almost a week now, every night breaking themselves against the barricades.

There's a big argument between Ismark & Bildrath, the town merchant only staying because his nephew was convinced by Ismark's rallying cry, clearly upset (Bildrath's sister died in one of the attacks). After that scene, they head up to the Burgomaster mansion to meet Ismark's father & his sister, Ireena. There's debate of what to do next, & the Burgomaster explains that the party is trapped until the siege ends; as literal thousands of undead wander the forests surrounding the village, inexplicably sending but a tiny fraction to attack at night. They're assigned to the Western Barricade, and wait.

It's a rough fight, bringing Soorsha to ~3HP, as they fight multiple waves of zombies, a couple ghouls, a wight, & even a hulking undead with virulent miasma streaming from its mouth. Ultimately, they prevail with only a minor breach in the barricade, of which none of the undead manage to actually cross.

[Curse of Strahd] Session IV

It's a rough and tumble fight with the mass of flesh, pustules & muscular tendrils flailing about. Eventually, they carve out enough to reveal a ghostly infant in the center, umbilical cord tied to the mound & partially shielded by something akin to a rib cage. This horror of the remains of Walter bounces around, smacking & getting stabbed, until it's finally defeated.

A spectre of Mrs. Durst appears, swearing to tear down the entire building down upon them before dissipating. As collapsing begins, they run into the ghost of Gustav, who meekly asks them to stay because that's the only way to keep her calm - to which they just blast him with radiant weapons & swords. Upon reaching the surface, they jump out the window, willing to risk the mist; but find that it's receded & they are safe outside as the building is consumed by the earth.

Bebriska, Nyanka, & Viggo come out of the stables nearby, saying that the mist enveloped the building right after they entered. They were too scared to venture far, even though they lost track of the children. At this line, the children reappeared as ghosts themselves to thank the party for putting Walter to rest, at which point they passed on.

Heading for the gates into Barovia, the mist following them close behind. They eerily open before them, welcoming newcomers & closing behind them as they walk down the path. A mile later, they come upon the remains of someone just off the road. Viggo recognizes it as another member of their group that tried to leave, who was supposed to bring a horse, but never met up with them; so they supposed he had gotten cold feet. There was an arrow (& 13 tally marks) carved into the tree right next to the corpse, following an animal trail. Checking along it, they found the corpse of a horse next to another tree with an arrow (& tally marks) leading deeper into the woods. This third tree had the same markings, but no additional corpse was to be found, & the path lead into a wall of mist. Rather than investigate, they retraced their steps, noticing a complete absence of either corpse (not even indents in the earth where they had laid).

As they approached the village of Barovia, they noticed it was set up for defense. Outer buildings were abandoned. Barricades were set up. A blonde fellow in armor was organizing a major barricade for repairs. This blonde calmed down the two armed rooftop villagers who got very accusative of the party being undead. With introductions over (blonde being Ismark Kolyana, son of the Burgomaster), they are asked to join for additional conversation while he has a moment. Ariadne attempts to help with barricade repairs, but the villagers aggressively avoid her - being a stranger w/white hair, traveling with what seems to be monsters, setting them off according to Ismark.

[Curse of Strahd] Session III

 As they delve down into the web-filled spiral staircase, they reach an equally cramped hall dug through the earth. With walls 4' apart & a ceiling only 7' high, larger PCs would feel claustrophobic. Distant, unintelligible chanting doesn't help one feel at home. Neither do the empty crypts they find, each carved with names of the Durst family. To call them empty is a misnomer, though. Elisabeth's coffin explodes with a swarm of biting insects that burrow painfully into Sorshaa's fur before they're sufficiently mushed. The 'queen' still in the coffin, a disgusting vermin nearly half a foot long w/parts seeming to be undead, is saved & stored in a jar by Ariadne.

There's some heavy debate on how exactly the party will handle Merlin; whether to leave him upstairs, what kind of leash to use. It's ultimately decided that they'll use some of the curtain ropes as a makeshift, adjustable leash that they'll use to lead him from behind. Echo will keep a lantern, as will Sorshaa, to allow the latter to be able to see & for Oswald's Investigation to operate without penalty.

Continuing exploration reveals a series of long-abandoned, yet clearly used, chambers of a bloody cult that lived & operated in. Some gemstones survived, as well as a set of studded leather armor from another traveling adventurer caught some time ago. They even manage to barely evade a pit trap.

This series of ominous, yet uneventful, rooms is broken up by a hallway intersection where a pair of ghouls burst out of the walls to reach for fresh flesh. This is a rough fight, where Oswald takes some solid damage, but they otherwise overcome it.

Deeper down, they find Gustav's corpse hanging from rope (which Ariadne takes for their equipment, because it's something that's not rotted through) along with a suicide note. Along this area's wall is a hidden door that reveals the ceremonial room where a dagger waits, the chanting that had gotten clear (He is Ancient. He is the Land.) instantly stopping as they enter, & a long tendril of flesh leading to a hole in the wall. They debate some while Sorshaa adds the rusty dagger of sacrifice to her collection, before they set their weapons to aim at the wall of pulsing flesh.

[Curse of Strahd] Session II

Our intrepid adventurers enter the house of Durst, but through the windows in the back into the dining room where they heard the sound of a party. Cracking it open & parting the curtains, the sound disappears, the lights go out, but the warmth & scent of a feast within remains. Once the last member of the group climbs in, the window slams shut, a clock somewhere in the house strikes six, & blood weeps from the painting over the empty hearth.

Beneath this dwelling lurks a beast
Who hungers for a bloody feast.
He sleeps until the midnight chime
Then wakes to feed his dark design.
If morsels seek to flee their doom,
Then bring toward his secret room
A gift to soothe his savage mood
But mind the servants of his brood.

Some checking reveals that mist has moved up to the window, which means they’re trapped based on their understanding of what walking through the mist will do (thanks to Viggo’s testimony). Barefoot, only one of them even wearing regular clothes, they make their way to the central room & up the stairs. Finding several suits of breastplate armour on display, Ariadne & Cotswold suit up, the former grabbing a Durst family longsword above the mantle. This is helpful when the very fancy suit of animated full-plate attacks them as they reach the third floor.

Other than that one fight, they avoid everything creepy & even potentially hazardous, including the movement out of the corners of their eyes coming from the mirror in the room adjacent to the nursery. They open the door with a weapon, seeing dried blood marking infernal circles around a crib w/the sound of a cooing baby coming within. With incredible caution, they find a woman’s finger under the crib & the crib itself is empty (the sound disappears as they looked). At this point, they go to the mirror in the last room, where the reflection shows a fair maiden in servant’s clothes standing next to them; her eyes sewn shut, her fingers gone as well as her nose & ears & lips & teeth. Still able to hear, but clearly unable to speak, they learn that the baby is downstairs. Asking for how to get there, she steps out of view from the reflection’s PoV as the mirror swings open to reveal stairs leading to the attic.

Up the stairs, they begin looking with intent rather than making a beeline, grabbing what may be of value to toss out the window if not of immediate use (figuring the mist won’t destroy it & they can examine in greater depth if they escape). Echo has a pact weapon that he summons to use as the de facto tool for touching anything they investigate. It’s when they pick a padlock to what is revealed to be the bedroom for Rose & Thorn, their skeletons lying in rest at the centre of the room, that their ghosts appear to answer questions. Rose asks them to go to the basement, where they’re certain their mother took their baby brother, & where the monster is. Their dollhouse is a perfect model of the house they’re in, & they use this to pre-check hidden rooms & possible valuables to investigate the place.

They find a collection of (study reveals them to be high-quality shams) ritual books in the library, as well as a halfling corpse w/armour that Echo can wear. Spending some time, they learn more of Gustav’s poorly hidden affair w/the nursemaid, Elisabeth’s anger, & Walter’s bastard heritage. At the conservatory, they find a stray dog (a chocolate Carpathian shepherd dog) whose collar says Merlin, whom they adopt.

It’s at this point, they ascend to the secret entrance in the attic, which is a spiral staircase that will take them to the basement.

[Curse of Strahd] Session I

We begin with everyone introducing their characters, who are all coincidentally traveling together on a merchant caravan.

• Ariadne Weaver ♀ Dhampir half-elf fighter, rat-catcher extraordinaire w/partially sundered & patchwork soul (hence dhampir nature) due to a run in with a phase spider
• Spindle ♀ familiar. Remnants of original phase spider, otherwise a blue-white tarantula
• Coswald ♂ High elf wizard, a historian who has decided to expand into arcane lore
• Echo Silence ♂ Kobold paladin, protector of the oppressed & lover of dragons
• Sorshaa ♀ Harengon rogue, dagger-loving thug that understands friendship

Sleep in the colourful forest of Rotak is fitful, eventually waking to an exceedingly dim dawn. The camp is gone. Their packs are missing. All each of them have is their bedroll and what they were wearing that night (dagger for the rogue, 150gp for Echo’s “bed”, and that’s it); as it happens, Spindle was sleeping on Coswald’s spellbook that night, so it came with them.

They’re not in Rotak anymore, but some dim, dun forest of thick fog. Searching the immediate area doesn’t pull up any information as to where they are beyond “not home.” They forage some makeshift clubs & staves. Eventually, they find a twisted, winding road that should hopefully lead to civilization. It’s slow-going, but by mid-day, they see lights off the side of the road; three drab, scared humans with pitchforks & torches.

• Bebriska [40, ♀ human] Anxious, hands randomly grip & grasp the air in a tic, very flat affect
• Nyanka [20, ♀ human] Stressed, premature grey, presumptive widow of a lost wizard husband
• Viggo [22, ♂ human] Riddled with rickets, very knowledgeable of Barovia’s flora

There’s some back-and-forth before productive dialogue begins, as they initially think Echo to be some kind of fiend, Sorshaa to be a beast, Ariadne an ill omen, & Coswald an unsettling fellow. Honestly, them all being in their bedclothes helps them in this instance. The humans are locals who got desperate & decided to try to leave the land & its curse, but can’t make any further progress without the Mist stopping them. Some Persuasion later, they agree to act as guides back to civilization in exchange for protection, the three having given up hope of escaping.

It’s during the rest of the day & into the night for their camp that they learn some of the lay of the land; its ruler, their woes, some Vistani slurs, etc. Sometime during the next day of travel, they come upon a ruined ‘hamlet’ (like six buildings along the road. The tallest building, a three-story brickwork affair, has two crying children in front. They speak of their parents fighting a monster in the basement, of how they forgot their baby brother in the nursery.

[Petals & Thrones] Session 21: Death of the Stabsman

Session XXI

Deciding things were getting pretty heavy, our heroes retreat to the surface to take an extra long short rest, including Thoradin doing a 10min healing spell. This gives Tarmont time to reorganize the remaining undead, but since they don't find the PCs, they don't congregate.

Taking out a couple patrols on the way, they manage to get the attention of Tarmont's scout due to Ribbles's familiar. Alerting the entire dungeon, ghouls & zombies begin to swarm upon them. Their combat is pretty decent, but several critical hits along with poor saves against ghoulish paralysis (Tarmont's fireball didn't help either) leads to a very poor situation. It's when Morluck falls to Tarmont's magic missile that they decide to flee, but not before Thoradin is ripped to shreds by ghouls.

It's at this point we have a conversation as to the trajectory of the campaign due to half of the party dying in the sewers. Ultimately, they decided to put the campaign on hiatus. We'll be playing Ars Magica in the interim, maybe returning to this module sometime in the future.

Commentary

While it wasn't an issue in this dungeon, the players largely felt that the module's five-minute short rest mechanic was a trap, as it tempted them to use it at risk (which really hurt them in the goblin cave & the Great Hive).