The party meets up for breakfast and swaps stories from the night before as well as discuss what they want their next move to be. They eventually land their sights on Fidatov Manor.
They know that the manor is about half a dayās journey from the settlement, and they are also concerned about their two lycanthropes. They donāt want to be caught in the middle of a quest when the full moon rises. This quest seems doable within that timeframe.Ā
They set off into the dark Svalich Woods. They could only bring what they could carry with them since the path there was so overgrown and unused. The wagon and horses wouldnāt make the journey.
They ran into a pack of wolves, Jander used one of his abilities to command as many wolves he could to leave and the party swiftly dealt with the rest.Ā
They saw what looked like dancing lights off in the distance. They speculated for a bit what it might be: a magic user trying to jump or trap them, a will-o-wisp or some other horrible creature meaning to do them harm. Whatever it is, they concluded, it canāt be good. So they decide to investigate it further. They approach it, noticing it is a disembodied light. They follow it to an abandoned, dilapidated house where they can hear snarling and groaning of undead nearby. They are able to make it away unscathed.Ā
After a while of traveling, they finally break through the treeline and find the Fidatov property. They were super surprised to see it bustling with life. People were working out in the fields, tending to the animals in the stalls, moving in and out of the various buildings spanning the numerous acres.
They targeted the nearest stable boy and began harassing the hell out of him, as they do. They find out from him that Lady Fidatov is the owner of the estate, she is holding one of her parties tonight so sheās very busy, and she doesnāt take kindly to solicitors or merchants, but if they really wanted to buy a chicken, they would need to ask her. Bedlam.
They knock on the front door and are greeted by the steward of the house Davorā¦ He might have been the butler actually. I donāt remember. Itās been a minute. ANYWAY. They successfully convince him that they are guests here for the party and are guided to a parlor where they wait for their hostess. They stuff their faces at the refreshments table, and while doing so, notice the Champaign du le Stomp. They are immediately curious since that wine hasnāt been available in so long.Ā
They speculate as to what the twist might be since this place is way more lived in than they were expecting. Is it ghosts? Is it cannibals? They just know that they need more information.
Jander, prodded by Sergei, asks Vel if he would keep his eye out for a new poetry book, heās had the same one for far too long. Vel says āI got u famā but you knowā¦ more like how Vel would say it.
Finally, Lady Fidatov makes her grand entrance. Bedlam already has an upperclass partygirl in his life, so he is super not impressed with Merilena Fidatov. She greets them and makes polite conversation with them and invites them along for a tour of her glorious home, they accept cus why not?
She takes them room from room, showing them the study, the library, the ballroom, and the garden. The party took note in the library when Marilena spoke so fondly about the books on her family history. They were interested once again in the garden when Marilena told them about the family crypt in the middle of the hedge maze. They were feeling glad they opted to take the tour, the party felt like some of this information would be relevant later.
While chatting on the terrace, Bedlam brings up the chickens again. She politely declines, but Bedlam keeps pressing. She tells him that she would consider it after her party, he says āfair.ā
The party attendsā¦ the party. It definitely isnāt an Anastrasya party, but it isnāt bad. They have a nice time socializing, dancing, and eating. The party was so distraught that Lancelot would have to wait outside, so Jander charmed some guys to get him in.Ā
Bedlam finds Lady Fidatov lounging on a fainting couch, reading a romance novel. He negs her into dancing and chatting with him. He asks her if she gets out to Krezk often and she tells him āOh, no, we donāt go to Krezk much after my fallout with Ivan- Iād rather not talk about it at my party.āĀ Understanding, and out of respect for the vibe, Bedlam does not push it.
The party reconvenes and talks about what they heard and think. They conclude that these people are obviously not squatters since their family crypt has at least seven generations in it. Bedlam gripes about chickens and Ireena has to set him straight. He explains that heās having a hard time regulating his emotions without Sergei possessing him.Ā
A glass shatters on the ground. Lady Fidatov sways and nearly collapses, she is taken to another room. The butler busts out of the doors proclaiming she had been poisoned before falling to the ground himself. Suddenly screams rip through the night air as guests begin retching and collapsing on the ground or panicking and running for the exits.
The party stands there confused. The players are asking me, timidly, if they need to make any con saves and I tell them āNo, you feel fine, you think.āĀ
And thatās where we called it for that session!
I procrastinated BAD on doing these session write ups so now Iām trying to get caught up.
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Curse of Strahd spoilies lie within. Read at your own risk!!1!
Take Me Out
They begin at the gates of Krezk. The guards see them approach and meet them in front of the large wooden doors to the community. They explain that they brought Ilya home and would like entry pleeeaaase. The guards thank them for bringing their kid back and call for the knife to commence the hand slicing test while quickly ushering Ilya through the door. The party is like āWhoa, whoa, whoa, hold up man!ā because they were really hoping to avoid that whole thing.
Bedlam nudges Jander and quietly asks him to charm the guard so they can get through. Jander obliges and hops down from the wagon. The guard fails his roll against Janderās (vampiric) charming personality and is super jazzed to see him again. They step away from the cart and speak with each other hushedly, glancing back at the wagon a couple times during their conversation. The party waits with bated breath until the guard calls over āMiss Kolyana! You two have been granted entry." She hands the reins over to Vondal and says āGood luck, Iāll see you guys inside!ā and hops off the wagon and walks with Jander through the doors. Jander looks back at the party and says āGet sucked.ā
The party was caught between laughing and panicking, in and out of character.Ā
A guard from inside swings the wooden doors wide open, instead of presenting a dagger, motions for the party to enter. They were hella relieved. They entered the community and found Jander and Ireena waiting for them. Jander thought it was hilarious.Ā
āOf course he does!ā huffs Bedlamās player.
They decided to stop by Dimitri Krezkovās home in hopes of some reward for returning Ilya. Jander decides to wait outside. Heās worried the party is going to oust him as a vampire and doesnāt want to be there if they do.Ā
The Baronās home is a cottage, so the room they were in had two chairs and was kind of small. The players joked about the silly ways they were sitting in the seats and Bedlamās player said they were going to refer to Vel as āmy clientā during this interaction.
Dimitri explains that as far as heās concerned the party has earned their keep. They have full access to the community and what it has to offer. (So they donāt have to work to earn their stay) They will be given a home to use while they are here. (This does not work like their home in Vallaki. Itās more of a vacation home or a timeshare.) Dimitri also recommended utilizing the services of Iosef Moldovar, an exquisite tailor. (They get to design a new āwinterā outfit for their character using Heroforge.) He also recommended Gerta van der Knupple if they wanted a great meal.
He says to them that he doesnāt want to ask anything of them but they have more than proven themselves capable of dealing withā¦ well anything really.Ā
They are gaining quite the reputation between this and restoring the winery
ANYWAY, he explains that they are experiencing a food shortage. They have been getting ransacked and robbed. Both in Krezk and on the road near Tsolenka Pass. He also offhandedly mentions that theyāve been grave robbed a lot recently as well. They assume itās the werewolves. He explains that they have found evidence of wolf prints near the crime scenes. Well, there were other animal prints too- and feathers and scales, but there were definitely wolf prints. The party suspects the folks in the abbey because the werewolves are also experiencing a food shortage.
Dimitri explains that he doesnāt really care whoās doing it, he just needs it fixed. While rifling through some old papers, he found some records of an estate about half a dayās journey from Krezk. He tells the party that if that land can be used as farmland for Krezk, they would have more than enough food to go around. The only issue is that he doesnāt know the state of the property, but if the party can go check it out and remove any squatters, they would be welcome to whatever fortunes lie in the vault of the wealthy family.
The party agrees to take on the request. They also get to talking about lycanthropy. Bedlam mentions that Ilya destroyed one of their couches one night and Dimitri seemed embarrassed and apologized profusely. Bedlam assured him itās all good, but asks for some advice on handling lycanthropy. Dimitri makes some inquiries and Bedlam explains that Vondal has been afflicted and the full moon is in like two nights. He didnāt mention Ireena, even though she was standing there with them, and I forgot to ask the player if that was on purpose or not. Not that it matters, Iām just curious.
The Baron tells them that they thought the cellar and silver manacle combination was fool-proof but alas, they are the fools. Up until now though it had been working. Bedlam asks if Dimitri has any spares that they could have or borrow. Dimitri says heāll dig around and see what he can find.
The party leaves the house with two sets of silver manacles. Using two sets on a lycanthrope will incapacitate them, while using one set will restrain the lycanthrope. While restrained with one set, the lycanthrope has disadvantage on strength rolls to escape.
They decide to leave and consider their options since Bedlam has plans at night. While they are toddling around town, they notice Ismark with a tall buff guy. Ismark is holding a paper and motioning to it and talking to a lady.
Bedlam shouts and calls him over. He happily rushes over, limping and leaning on a cane. He greets everyone warmly and is so happy to see that Ireena is alright. Everyone asks what happened.
He explains that Doru escaped the basement of the church and attacked the town. He also says that a monster of a woman with a platinum skull mask sliced his leg really bad and injured him, seemingly permanently. He never would have survived if Parriwimple here hadnāt been there. The big man nods.
āAnd what does Parriwimple sound like?ā asks Bedlamās player.
āParriwimple doesnāt talk.ā
Anyway, Ismark describes the village to look like a scene out of a zombie movie- erā¦ play. Dead bodies in the street, houses boarded up, screaming and all that stuff. You know. Like normal but worse. He tells them that he is in need of more guardspeople and that Vargas rejected his request. If he canāt get guards from Dimitri he might have to travel south. They try to convince him to come to the abbey to ask some of the folk up there to go be guards. They were snickering and giggling while saying this, so I think they just wanted to see his reactionā¦ and honestly I think it would be worth seeing.Ā
He tells them that he would love to go, but heās starving and in need of a hot meal. The blue Water Inn wasnāt open when they were in Vallaki and heās really bummed that he missed out on an Urwin meal. At the reminder of food, Vondal is now also focusing on food and only food.
āOkay, okay, letās go check out this nipple lady.ā sigh the other players who were desperate for hooks just a moment ago.
I describe a town square-esq location where all the people with specialties live, like smiths and carvers and such. A place for people to bring their excess supplies and things. One of the places looks more like a makeshift cafe with an open, community kitchen, though one woman seems to be making all the food and handing it out.Ā
She tells them that they get whatever she serves them because thatās what she has the ingredients for. Which is fine because it was delicious. She ends up mentioning to the party that her good-for-nothing son Gojko lives across the street and unrightfully gets more visitors than her because he stole her cookbook. She says that she can cook a meal twice as good as this one if they can get the book back for her. They agree and immediately begin coming up with ideas to heist the book out of there. Vondal gets up from the table and begins marching over there to just take it from the guy.
She stops him and mentions that there are far too many people in there during the day to steal it, and that she recommends going there under the cover of the night. This prompts a discussion of how they are going to spend the rest of the day and evening. After a lot of debating and considering and DM intervention, they had their plans formed.
They go to the Abbey to check in on Evelyn and decide this time they were going to explore the place. The party wanders into the garden, scare away some rabbits and then they hear the horrible chorus of laughing and wailing. They debate on what to do. First they decide to go in there and kill whatever monsters lie withinā¦ then they decide āWell Evelyn has all kinds of weird projects going on here, maybe we should check in with her first before we go crazy.ā and with that they decided they moved along to the courtyard. They were surrounded by locked sheds full of sounds of screaming and laughing. Vondal opened the lid of the well to see what was inside and found a beastfolk skittering up the cobblestone toward him. I let him roll to see if he could close and secure the lid in time, and he was successful. After that, I think they were done exploring the Abbey because it was way too unsettling for them.
They find Velās mom moping at the table in the main Hall, pieces of Vasilika I scattered on the floor. They ask Evelyn if sheās okay and have a short conversation. She begs Veledrel not to get caught up in this mess and to please let her handle it. She is confident that if she can make a perfect bride for Strahd, she can get everyone out of here safely. Vel is extremely skeptical and doesnāt trust Strahd.
They get around to asking her about all the screaming and wailing, she tells them that some of the beastfolk are sick in a way that renders her unable to cure them. She tries her best to help them, but with the Vasilika Project, she has been unable to give them much attention so she created some babysitters to take care of them. They seemed pleased with that answer and didnāt push it more. I cannot express to you how unsettled they were by this place.
They skedaddle back to their place. They come back to their warm little vacation home. Jander has a lovely smelling simmer pot bubbling away on the stove, a fire crackling in the fireplace. Jander is sitting at the table whittling with Lancelot sleeping at his feet. Okrin sits at the table with him tending to his collection of weapons. Ireena was out with Ismark and they all expected Jander to be moping
We joke about how Jander was working happily until the party enters loudly and abruptly, it startles him and he ruins his craft, grumbling and tossing it into the fireplace, and returning to his normal, broody disposition.
Bedlam spends some time getting ready for his date, fretting about his lack of outfits to wear. Ireena offers to stitch up any holes in their clothes for them and they take her up on the offer. Not only does she mend them, but she embellished them with embroidery! Also Jander heckled Bedlam for not having anything to gift to Anastrasya.
āI am the gift, baby!ā he says with a wink and a smile.
They also exchange custody of Sergei because Bedlam wants to do a debauchery and doesnāt want Sergei to have to see that. Itās a dramatic experience for both of them, but Sergei is super happy to be with his buddy Jander.Ā
Night falls and Bedlam waltzes out to meet his date. He finds her hanging out at the front gates talking to the guards and laughing as they try to impress her. Bedlam shows up and convinces them to leave via deception roll regarding an illegally parked wagon. Once alone, they discuss their plans for the evening. She tells him that she wants to go dancing and that she knows a little place as long as heās not afraid of horses. Tch, of course he isnāt.
She uses Phantom Steed to summon her personalized misty skeletal horse with gaudy reins, saddles, and whatnot. Beautiful long wavy mane and tail that end in wisps of mist pooling on the ground that only seems corporeal because there are red ribbons braided throughout. Bedlam tried to not act too impressed, but he was really impressed.
They both hop on and ride into the night at breakneck speeds. Bedlam had to make a few rolls to hang on and to avoid taking damage from surrounding trees. He successfully stayed on the horse and took no damage all the way to the graveyard.
Meanwhile, Vondal and Veledrel enlist Jander to help them break into Gojkoās place. Of course he doesnāt want to, but he eventually relents, though I think he was hoping Ireena would be strong armed into it but she wasnāt. She stayed at the cottage with Okrin because his player was gone this session.
They sneak out and find the target destination. First they try to lure Gojko out with Dancing Lights, but when that doesnāt work out, Vondal decides to break a window, turn into a rat, and climb through. Veledrel followed, inviting Jander in as he went. Jander turns into a mist and moves past him, reforming inside the main room of the establishment. Veledrel marvels at the fact that he isnāt wet for the Jander mist.
They eventually find a hatch door that leads them to a basement corridor with a door to the right, left, and before them.Ā
Anastrasya raises an undead orchestra and complains about the low number of music players. Bedlam inquires and she explains that this graveyard is full of great musicians and was one of the few that hadnāt been ransacked by Escher. While Anastrasya preened herself, Bedlam took a loot around the cemetery.
He didnāt bother to open the mausoleum, but he did look at the headstones. None of them were names he recognized, except for his own- though when he did a double take it was another name. He also noticed that some of the gravedirt looked slightly churned, and there were spots where the ground felt like a mole trail.Ā
Anastrasya announced over the music that she was ready to dance, and dance they did! With the help of some excellent performance rolls, they had a wonderful time dancing into the night. They hardly noticed the ground shaking. Something was tunneling under the ground at them, displacing gravestones as it approached. A big, gross Otyugh erupted from the ground.
Veledrel opens one of the doors and finds a storage room, the door of which is flanked by two golden statues. Vondal and Vel start digging through the boxes and only find meager baking ingredients. Their snooping caused the statues by the door to animate and attack. This is where they find out the statues are actually butter. A fight ensues and eventually, the boys are able to take down the butter golems. Now covered in greasy butter, they make their way to the next room.
They approach the door and spot a tripwire. I honestly donāt remember if they just stepped around it or if Vel used a fire spell to trigger it safely, but they were able to avoid the trap in the hallway.
They open the door to find a messy kitchen and a man chanting an incantation in front of a huge oven. They can easily spot the family cookbook resting on the counter. Gojko looks over his shoulder at them and says āYouāre too late, happy birthday to ME!ā and a large cake monster bursts from the fiery oven. My description was āHuge man-shaped Muk (Pokemon) looking creature, made of icing that is constantly rolling down its body, and he has like 30 something to 40 something candles on his head.ā I also described how Gojko bolted out of the room with the family cookbook.
āUhā¦ Happy Birthday!ā says Vondal.
We run probably one of the most ambitious combats I have undertaken and it went so smoothly. I had them roll initiative and then chose initiative for the enemies and npcs based off of the partyās. Veledrel, Vondal, Jander, and Cake Boss were at the beginning of the combat, while Bedlam, Anastrasya, and the Otyugh were the second, lower half of combat.
By the end of the fight with the cake monster, Vel, Vondal, and Jander were covered in buttercream barf and singed from itās candle attack. But they defeated it! They were able to track down Gojko who was hiding under his bed. Vondal grabbed him by the foot and yoinked him out. He was cowardly and terrified of them and offered them anything if they spared his life. They snatched the book and told him to get along with his mom better.
Bedlam and Anastrasya had a great time fighting together as well as having some great banter. He was impressed with her spectral flying swords she could summon, and while the orchestra played, they got a +1d4 to their rolls. After they beat the horrible creature Anastrasya told him that the vibe was totally ruined here and that they should go back to her crypt or his. He directs her to the tower on the lake since the Krezk cottage is a cottage, and the house in Vallaki usually has a lot of people there. They go and have a fade-to-black, he also takes damage from her bite and one slashing attack.
In the morning Vondal and Vel return the book to Gerta who tells them that she knows all the recipes because she wrote the book. She doesnāt need it, she just didnāt want her son to have it. She offers to let the party keep the cookbook, which they do.
Itās an item that may be attuned that gives the benefits of the Chef feat without the ability score increase!
Thatās pretty much where we decided to end the session. We decided that Bedlam would be returning to the party when we picked up next time!
I used this adventure when creating this session for my players. I changed what I needed to in order to make it fit the setting of Krezk but kept the overall structure of the adventure. I also scaled the monsters way down and removed a few things from their statblocks as they were presented in the homebrew adventure. Iād be happy to go on about it but this post is long enough. Feel free to send me an ask if you wanna know more about the changes I made.
If you read all this, wow, thank you so much! You get inspiration!
There be Curse of Strahd spoilers here... probably
On The Road Again
When we begin the session, we immediately go into more discussion about the deities and I/Arabelle offer them some information to give the party an idea of what we are working with.
The Lady of the Forest, also known as The Seeker, was commonly associated with things like Divination, past, future, fate, flowers, vegetation, wildlife, life cycle. Out of character I gave the examples of the Three fates and Persephone so my players could understand the vibes I was aiming for. Her symbols include antlers, ravens / raven wings, wreaths of flowers. Her domains would have been Nature, Life.
The Lady of the Swamp, also known as The Weaver, commonly was associated with Connection to The Weave, Magic, Water in all its forms, dreams, nightmares. The examples I gave were Hecate, Mystra, and Eldath. Her symbols were usually spiders, snakes, boar tusks, reeds. Her domains were Knowledge and Trickery.
The Lady of the Mountain was also known as The Huntress. Her usual associations were death, Afterlife, precious stones, ores, and metals, lightning and thunder. I described her as having big Pluto vibes. Her symbols were a wolf head with ram horns, ram horns alone, and gemstones. Her domains would have been Death and Tempest. She also gets a little extra bit of lore: She is a grim reaper-like character, or rather a grim hunter. With a pack of wolves at her heels she hunts for those whose time has come to an end, never missing with her spear.
They go back to their home for the rest of the day to discuss this heap of information. They also spitball ideas as to who might make good champions. Vondal thinks Jander and Ireena, Bedlam thinks Victor and Stella.
Sergei says that he thinks Okrin and Jander would make good guardians while Ireena would make a good priestess. He knows that Okrin and Jander have zealous faith for their deities and sees that as an ideal quality. He also feels that they would be fully capable of preserving the longevity of the shrines. He also feels like the position of priestess is not unlike the position she would have had in the Church of Saint Alexei, had she stayed there. Heās also hoping, maybe a little selfishly, that some divine protection would aid her in the fight against Strahd.
For the first time, the spirit of the previous owner of Okrinās cursed spear speaks to him from the weapon. Kavan also pushes for Okrin to take one of the positions of guardian. If he were not worthy to, he would not have been granted the benefits of the spear.Ā
Okrin seems flattered but mentions he wasnāt really planning on sticking around after all this was over and done with. Jander says it sounds like a dream but he doesnāt know if heād be accepted by followers of the Ladies since heās a vampire. This is where Kavan chimes in and tells Okrin that Jander needs to stop whining, when Kavan was alive he was known as the Living Vampire because he drank blood. Jander is still skeptical and says times have changed a great deal. āLetās cross that bridge when we get to it, shall we?ā
They suspect that if Ireena takes the priestess position, she can still get her lycanthropy cured that way. āDoes she even want her lycanthropy cured?ā Bedlamās player thinks to ask. I tell them that I and she donāt really know. She doesnāt like the pain of transforming, but she likes the power and freedom that come with her forms. I think the thought of trying to tame her lycanthropic nature has crossed her mind.
Ireena and Vondal take their wolfsbane tinctures and everyone turns in for the night. Except, they find out Ilya is a born werewolf. They are able to safely lock him in the wine cellar, though one of their couches is destroyed in the process. In the morning they find out from him that his lycanthropic nature just started showing itself not too long ago, some nights he can control it better than others, but heās still learning. He tells them normally the Krezkov children get restrained in the cellar of the house. One of the nights Ilya wanted to prove himself and snuck out of the basement and ended up getting snagged by the werewolf pack.Ā
Ilya doesnāt know that his twin Peitra was killed in the werewolf raid that night, nor does he know Peitra was brought back by the Abbess.
Around 10 am, the party leaves Vallaki for Krezk on a mission to deliver Ilya to his family. They decided to bring Ireena, Jander, and Lancelot with them this time.
They Let Ireena drive the cart this time with Jander sitting up front with her. Vondal, Bedlam, Ilya, and Lancelot hang out inside the cabin while Veledrel and Okrin sit on the roof of the wagon.
Okrin notices a foot trail branching from the main road. They pull over to investigate and find a spike pit without falling into it. At the bottom of it lie spikes and several skeletons, animal and human. Veledrel shoots some fire bolts into the pit to destroy the spikes and hopefully save someone in the future. On the way back to the wagon they muse and wonder whoās trap that might be.
They reach a point where the road branches off in several directions and resting near the signpost is a wagon and a family tending to the horses. After talking to them the party found out they are leaving Zeidenburg because a manās head spontaneously exploded and they were afraid to live there after that. The party quietly suspected Lyssa as they boarded their own wagon again and headed on their way.
After a while of travel, the sound of a herd of goats comes from the woods. Bedlam is curious and has the wagon stopped and goes to investigate with Okrin, Veledrel says ālet me know if you need anything burned!ā and stays with the wagon and everyone else. In the woods, they find basically a gibbering mouther but made out of goats. Bedlam quickly calls for the rest of the party, and Vel because this definitely needs to be burned. They all fight the horrible creature and kill it after a few rounds and move on down the road.
They have a few encounters they avoid by helping Ireena make the animal handling checks to maneuver past them.
At one point the fog thickens and they see bodies hanging from the trees, all of them the same classes as the players. They are thoroughly creeped out by this but they carry on.
It starts getting dark and they decide to pull over and spend a night in the Tower on the Lake. It's like a second home at this point. They deal with their lycanthropic companions accordingly and have a decent night together.
They waste no time in the morning getting back on the road to Krezk. Jander takes some time to sleep in the wagon.
One of the notable interactions they had was at the next crossroads. They could see someone wearing a long red cloak followed by a carriage coming from Tsolenka Pass. They hear a familiar laugh and debate whether or not they should engage with Anastrasya, but they ultimately decide to see whatās up.
She rides up on an undead warhorse and heckles them. Bedlam inquires as to what brings her to these parts and she explains that she was in Ziedenburg inducting Bugomistress Wachter and sheās also now tasked with bringing this gift back to Castle Ravenloft. As it turns out, the gift is a young girl, and sheās part of a monthly tithe to Count Strahd.
Bedlam heckles her about Strahd running an orphanage with Gertruda being there too. Anastraya says theyāll probably just toss this new girl in the woods and let Volenta hunt her for sport, āat least that would be entertaining!ā she laughs. She also mentions to them that Ludmilla fed some lady to her pet Hugo- some little pet the abbott was working on? Tore her to pieces like she was nothing.Ā
Rahadin, on his own undead warhorse from behind the carriage, clears his throat, signaling to Anastrasya to get moving. Bedlam goes to pet her warhorse and casts dispel magic, causing her to fall to the ground. He laughs and she snarls, picking herself up. She swings at him with her claw attack, landing one and dealing 11 damage. She also shoves him prone and laughs at him. He picks himself up, his chest bleeding and his shirt ripped, he climbs up on the wagon and says āOkay guys enough messing around, letās goā and they get moving. Anastrasya looks back at Bedlam and casts Message, saying āTell me where I can find you tonight,ā
To which he replies, āMeet me outside Krezk after nightfall, if you can sneak away that long." Once Bedlam was certain he was out of her sight, he let Veledrel heal him.
After driving on the road for a while, they notice the flickering of a campfire and the sound of a kerfuffle. The party pulls over to investigate and all roll amazing stealth. They approach the scene to find three beastfolk from the Abbey. After listening to them for a minute, they gather that the beastfolk have left the Abbey and are struggling to survive on their own in the woods. They were currently arguing over starting a campfire. The party didnāt really feel comfortable revealing themselves, so Veledrel ended up firebolting the fire into existence timed with the beastfolk striking the flint. They let the folk celebrate amongst themselves as they snuck back to the wagon and went along their merry way.
They rattle down the road for a bit longer and can see the Krezk junction just up ahead. We thought that was a perfect place to end the session for the day!
May contain spoilers for the dnd campaign Curse of Strahd, read at your own risk!
Ghostbusters
We begin in the study. There is a lot of table talk about what the next move is. Bedlam is hoping that they can use the lightning rail carriage to zip around barovia to do some tasks really quick. They consider whether or not they should start working on the ritual to cure Vondal and Ireenaās lycanthropy. They decide to take the conversation to the comfort of the guest lounge.
Bedlam took some time to attune the very cool lute Veledrel had found. He decided to name it Dorfinya. Okrin handed off the newly acquired glowing sword to Ireena. They check on Janderās status and find heās still resting. Kasimir is lounging and reading.Ā
Bedlam steps out into the portrait hall and calls for Helga who eerily appears out of the shadows of the stairwell. He asks her if it would be okay if they used the carriage to run some errands, to which she tells him āNo.ā He asks if there are any Vistani staying here in the castle and Helga explains that āMs Ludmilla is the only Vistana staying in the castle currently.ā He asks if he might be able to speak to Ludmilla, and she tells him āNo, she and the others are resting right now, and I would really rather not wake them. You can find her reading in the Kingās Hall after sundown.ā Bedlam, irritated that the interaction didnāt go as planned, asks for some food. She tells him sheāll send some up. Not long after, several unseen servants bring silver platters of warm, delicious, meats, cheeses, and breads. After their meal, they decided to go back to the crypts to investigate Piddlwickās crypt, and well, the rest of them.
They made their way back into the dungeon. A series of rolls were made to avoid the traps in the hallway. Bedlam and Veledrel failed the first round and were teleported into a prison cell. Bedlam was able to pick the lock and release them. On the second round of rolls, Veledrel and Ireena failed and were teleported into cells, which Bedlam was kind enough to release them from.
They notice that all the doors are once again locked. They weigh the pros and cons of this: on one hand, maybe that covers their tracks, on the other, they sure hated this song and dance.
They made their way through the torture chamber again and into the room behind the curtain containing the brazier with colorful stones.
They unlock the door to the long, dark hallway and cautiously make their way to the end, rolling perception frequently since they are expecting the chute trap to have reset. They were correct, though they were able to locate it before falling victim to it.
They spill out of the tunnel into the familiar catacombs. They want to explore as many crypts as possible, though they know that sundown will be upon them soon. They want to speak with each of the brides, hoping that they each might have a request for the party. They are very keen to attend whatever Anastrasya has going on in the Audience Hall. The party was also very concerned about getting caught where they shouldnāt be. They know theyāve been very fortunate thus far, and arenāt sure when to stop pushing their luck. We decide what time it is in-game and that each crypt will take 30 minutes to explore for the sake of tracking time. They get to it.
They start off with the ones that stuck out to them. Piddlewickās crypt revealed a deck of illusions. The party also wanted to visit the crypt that housed the remains of a Barovian Navy Admiral. Inside that one, they found a boat, taking up so much space that it was lodged in the room at a diagonal. The remains were resting in the boat. There was little of value in this crypt, other than the laughs we had imagining the boat jammed into that small space.
They found paints and brushes, a whole bunch of antiques (hilarious considering one of my players used to work in an antique store), and wine bottles.
They removed the heavy stone slab of one of the crypts and found the wild looking ghost of a large man with some kind of wing contraption on his back. Okrin and Vondal moved the slab back in an effort to avoid conflict. The spirit phased through the wall and disappeared right before their eyes as it possessed Vondal.Ā
I messaged Vondalās player, telling him that the ghost possessing him want to run up the nearby stairs to the peak of the tower and throw himself off in an attempt to fly. I showed him where on the map he was and where he was trying to get to. The player thought it was really funny and said that if this was how he was gonna die, he was more than fine with that.
Vondal made an attempt to run. Okrin and Bedlam see this and try to trip him to knock him prone. They roll and succeed. They move on to the next crypt as Vondal picks himself up and bolts away from the group.
Okrin tries to grapple him but Vondal is able to avoid it. He uses the dash action to get as far away as possible. Bedlam asks Sergei the parameters of ghostly possession. He finds out that they donāt have the appropriate spells to evict the ghost, so they just have to use brute force to drop Vondal to 0 hp. He starts slinging spells. Veledrel readies an action and Ireena runs to try and catch up to Vondal. A mist begins coalescing on the ground near the party, making them all nervous.
There is a lot of talk out of character and speculation as to what is happening, or what is trying to happen. Vondalās player wonāt tell the group until the issue is resolved, so all they can really do is guess. They suspect that the ghost is going to explode Vondal like a Left 4 Dead Boomer. We all laughed at the thought of them trying to explain to Strahd why everyone was crying and covered in Vondal bits.
Okrin throws his spear, and it lands in the ground before Vondal, the ensnaring strike splintering from it and incapacitating him. While he is trapped, they all take turns hacking away at his health. He breaks free the next round and once again, bolts toward the staircase. They lob ranged attacks. The mist at their feet forms into a golden wolf they recognize as Jander and he dashes within reach of Vondal. They hurl a slew of attacks at Vondal until they nonlethally knock him to 0 hit points.
It is now at this point that the ghost is ejected from Vondalās body. They focus their attacks on the spirit, and Veledrel ends up finishing off its last 35 hit points with a delicious 38 damage from his scorching ray. As soon as the ghost disintegrates, everyone is utilizing every healing spell available to get Vondal some hp. Before too long they get him back on his feet and they make the decision to press on.
The next crypt belonged to Lady Ilona, who they recognized from the Tome. They removed the slab and found a single thigh bone resting on the marble slab inside. There was a lot of discussion about what to do. Since it was just the thigh bone, they probably wouldnāt be able to bring her back, nor would they be able to use Speak with Dead on her. Bedlam ultimately decided to go for it and take the bone. He reasoned that it seems like a lot of the people here in these crypts donāt actually want to be here.
As he entered the crypt, he was hit with three poison darts. This guy and poison darts, I swear. After calculating a ridiculous amount of damage, Bedlam is still standing. He goes to take the bone and he is visited by a vision of Lady Ilona who tells him that whoever can best her in battle may use her as a weapon against the vampire.
I explain to them that this is a 1v1 encounter and that it doesnāt have to happen right now. So Bedlam passed the bone over to Vondal and told him he could do that whenever he felt like it.
We decided that would be a good place to end the session for the night!
Obligatory āThis may contain spoilers for the Dungeons and Dragons campaign Curse of Strahd so read at your own riskā warning.
Jailhouse Rock
The party leaves the north wing of the dungeon, heading further down the hall towards unexplored territory.
They walk down the hallway, trudging through the murky water when traps get triggered. Veledrel suddenly falls and finds himself standing in a cell of the dungeon wing they just left, as does Okrin, and Vondal who was swimming as an octopus next to Okrin at the time.
Bedlam hears the noise of water spraying and splashing and turns to see that his friends are gone. He calls out for them and they answer back wearily.
The new prisoners all ask to roll perception. Okrin doesnāt notice anything strange, though Vondal, in the same cell, notices what appears to be a square seam in the wall, maybe implying a hidden door. He suction-cup climbs up Okrin to try to get closer. Okrin, however, decides to misty step out of the cell, leaving Vondal to splash into the water. He leaves the seam alone and swims out of the cell through the bars.
Veledrel feels the ground shifting under him and that freaked him out quite a bit. He called out for Bedlam to assist in picking the lock and he happily obliged. It was a difficult lock to pick, Okrin made a few attempts to break the door but it was also difficult. Eventually, the lock clicked open and Vel was free.Ā
They move back out into the hallway, Bedlam in the lead again. After a little ways into the hallway, Bedlam falls and finds himself in one of the cells. Groaning and griping, he picks the lock after a few failures, growing more and more frantic with each as the party moves down the hall away from him.
Vondal rolls perception under the murky water and is able to spot where the next traps are. He sticks one tentacle on Okrin and holds one up out of the water so he can be seen and leads the party forward.
They enter a huge, dark, flooded room with a balcony overlooking the space. Okrin uses Detect Magic and Divine Sense. After a lot of googling, searching, and some executive decisions* I decided he didnāt see or smell anything. As they make their way into the room, six zombies emerge from the water.Ā
*I wasnāt sure if a Zombie would register under a Detect Magic Spell. After searching around it seemed that the answer was generally āNoā. I also wasnāt sure if they had total cover while under the brackish, murky water, which, after searching around, I ruled that they did.
Zombies move in and so do my players. Veledrel uses fireball, heās able to hit 3 or 4 zombies without hitting Okrin as well. Okrin casts moonbeam on one of the Zombies and Vondal decides to grapple the Zombie to hold it there. We realized that it would cause him to revert back into his normal form and take some damage, he said he was fine with that and ate the damage. Iām pretty sure he only had 1 hit point left as an octopus anyway. Bedlam uses some smarmy bard spell and damages and frightens the zombie nearest to him.Ā
It didnāt take long for them to defeat them all since they left most of the zombies with 14 or less hp after the first round. They realized that they were fighting Strahd zombies when some of their melee attacks caused limbs of the creatures to fall off into the water, but the zombies were dead-dead before it became an issue.
They were left standing in the Zombie soup water and finally have a better chance to look at the room. They notice that there is old, water-logged torgure equipment throughout the room, and two thrones seated atop the balcony with a red velvet curtain behind them. They took a moment to discuss the implications and how fucked up that is. Bedlam also takes this time to use the Sending Stone to say "Hey Jander, you missed a super fun fight, hope you're having as much fun!" And got no immediate answer.
After asking some questions about the exact height of the balcony, Okrin decides to Misty Step up to the top. I allow everyone to make athletics or acrobatics checks with advantage if they are getting some help from either Okrin pulling them up or Vodal boosting them.Ā
Once everyone was on the balcony, they investigated and looked around. When they didn't find anything of interest they decided to commit acts of property damage and vandalism, tossing the thrones over the edge of the balcony and into the waters below. They shattered and splintered cathartically.Ā
Okrin investigates behind the curtain and finds a door. At this point in time, his player needed to leave for the evening, but the rest of us were going to keep playing for a while. We decided Okrin would head back to the room and we would work out the reason and the details depending on where we stopped the session.
Vondal pushes the door open- well, tries to. Itās locked. Bedlam picks the lock after a few failed attempts and comments on how difficult the locks are in this area. Hm, its almost like this area is off limits.
In this room they see a brazier with a fire burning in it and 7 different colored stones set into the rim, an hourglass hangs above it with the sand motionless in the top portion. There is an alcove in the east and west wall where statues of knights mounted on horses sit, staring across from each other over this brazier. An inscription can be read at the base:
Cast a stone into the fire
Red if lore is what you desire
Orange soars to castleās peakĀ
Yellow to the mountainās bleak
Green is home to loyal tiesĀ
Blue is bound to false alliesĀ
Indigo burns upon ancient tombsĀ
Violet visits an ancient doom
Black lies atop the ravenās mound
White burns where love is found
There was then a lot of discussion about what they might be looking at. A puzzle to be solved? A howlās Moving Castle teleporter? A scrying device? After a little bit of investigating, they find out that the fire emits no warmth and the stones easily come out of where they are set into the rim.
Some jokes about Harry putting his name into the Goblet of Fire are made, and then Bedlam casts the first stone. The flames flare violet and the sands begin to fall into the bottom chamber of the hour glass. They wait for anything to happen. Nothing. They check the door they came through to see if the location changed. Nope, it was still the balcony overlooking the torture chamber. After five minutes, the sand stops falling. The hourglass resets itself so the sand waits in the top half, and the violet fire returns to normal. They realize, whatever it does, they have five minutes to do something.
Veledrel is mulling this over while Bedlam and Vondal go investigate the statues. They were both surprised when I described them again, they didnāt hear the part about the knights riding the horses, which I found to be both on brand and hilarious. Bedlam and Vondal gave their respective horses a pat and a āthatās a good horse right there.ā
They approach the three doors on the north wall to see if maybe the doors lead to differing locations based on the stones that were tossed into the flames. They each chose a door, gripped the handles, braced themselves and opened on the count of 3. Well, they tried to. The doors were locked.Ā
After Bedlam unlocked all three doors, they opened them to see what was behind. The first door had a long staircase that ascended into the darkness several, several feet. The second door were stairs that went up several feet and stopped at what looked like a landing with a light fog rolling down. The third door led to a spiral staircase that seemed similarly modeled as the one they came down to get into the flooded dungeon hallway.
Ā Bedlam decides to investigate what lies up the stairs of the second door. He finds an incredibly long and dark hallway, seemingly with no end. As he makes his way down the never-ending corridor, the floor suddenly gives out from underneath him and he tumbles down a chute. Through my tears of laughter, I describe how he splashes into one of the cells of the northern wing of the dungeon. Bedlam, griping and groaning once more, picks the lock and frees himself. He pays Emil another visit.Ā
Bedlam asks Emil if he wound up in the cell due to snooping around or being somewhere he shouldnāt have been. He apologizes and explains that no, he was just in the wrong part of the woods and was beset upon by dire wolves.
Bedlam trudges back to Vondal and Vel. He used some of the waterlogged torture equipment to help him get onto the balcony easier since he wasnāt sure how many times heād be doing this dance. The two were both shocked to see Bedlam walking in from the balcony, soaking wet again.Ā
Bedlam asks Vondal to come and maybe help him locate exactly where this trap is. Vondal goes up to take a look, rolls perception. As heās walking, the floor gives out under his feet and he tumbles into the cell. At least now Bedlam is able to pinpoint where the trap is and begin making checks to disable it. Thanks to Bedlamās previous visit, the door was already unlocked, so he could just exit. He did realize this time though, that the weird seam in the wall that he had noticed before was where they were tumbling out of. Vondal makes his way back to the others.Ā
As he passes through the Torture Chamber, the player asks if he would be able to cast Shillelagh on an improvised weapon. I figured as long as it was wooden and club or quarterstaff shaped then it would be no problem, so he grabbed one of the broken chair legs and clambered onto the balcony and returned to the room.Ā
As Vondal makes his way across the room, he sees Veledrel cast the violet stone into the fire. As they flare a brilliant violet color, Vel reaches out and touches the flames. He disappears before Vondalās eyes.Ā
Veledrel finds himself in misty marshlands. He can make out a ring of tall dark stones nearby and what looks like the warm glow of a campfire and a lantern. He can see that the person holding the lantern is a young woman with blue streaked through her dark hair. Clasping her cape around her shoulders was a broach decorated with feathers. He felt either brave or desperate enough to approach her.
Meanwhile Bedlam pokes his head back into the room to share his story of great success in regards to jamming the trap door. Vondal frantically describes the disappearance of Veledrel and they both have a moment to panic.Ā
We took a moment to pause the game to talk out of character and consider options. Bedlamās player and I took a Balcony Break to discuss (the player had an epiphany) and Vondal and Velās player talked and spit-balled some possible options too. When we reconvened we had a plan and a back up (of sorts).
Bedlam ran back out to the Balcony in the Torture Chamber, took off his ring of protection and tossed it into the water. He returned to Vondal; they considered sending an animal messenger to tell the other half of the party what was going on, but Bedlam didnāt want to waste time since he didnāt know if Veledrel was in danger or not.Ā
The violet stone was once more cast into the flames. Bedlam and Vondal held hands, clenched their cheeks, and touched the flames.Ā
They were relieved to find Veledrel sitting around a campfire drinking tea with Muriel. She was thrilled to see Bedlam again and asked if he had returned to help her. He explained awkwardly that actually no, they are still missing a few guys, but hey, definitely next time!
He ushered his companions to the waterās edge where he called for his Patron Puddles. She emerged, scaring the other two who hadnāt met her yet. Formal introductions were made and everyone was made thoroughly uncomfortable by the naked hag. Bedlam cut to the chase and explained that he was trying to get the three of them back to Castle Ravenloft. He left his ring in the water there in hopes that maybe she could hone in on it and land them somewhere near it. She said yes of course but it wouldnāt be for free. After some haggling (lol) they settled on 5 gold pieces per person. Everyone paid up, she scarfed down the coins and asked them all to step into some water. They each obliged, Bedlam apologized, and they were all drowned one by one.Ā
They come up in Emilās cell, which gets awfully crowded with all five of them in there. Bedlam asks Emil how badly he wants out- like would you suffer the pain of drowning to escape this cell? Emil answers āYes, of course, that is nothing compared to the pain Iāve felt being here.ā Bedlam tells him to brace himself, pays the toll, and that he probably wants to avoid the waters in Lake Zarovich because of the monster. Puddles scoffs at the thought of a water creature scarier than herself and also brings up the fact that if she takes him to lake Baratok, he still has to survive the road to Vallaki. They all say āFair.ā Emil opens his mouth to speak but Puddles drags him under. The bubbles eventually stop and the dungeon is quiet again.
Bedlam picks the lock of the cell, freeing them all. They return to the brazier room, Bedlam retrieving his ring along the way.Ā
We decided to end the session there since it was getting late. Even though it was a huge hassle for them, they concluded the information that they got from the experience was extremely important. They had been wondering why it felt like Strahd could be everywhere at once and they suspected that they had just found their answer. Now they are dying to know where the rest of them lead. We had also decided that Okrin had returned to the room to get the help of Jander, Ireena, and / or Kasimir, and to grab one piece of gear for anyone that wanted a piece since they didnāt exactly gear up before scampering off to explore.Ā
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I have unfortunately been slacking when it comes to posting my session write ups here, so Iāll slowly be posting them over the next several days to catch up!
You can find the folder for all my write-ups here
The google doc version of this session can be found here
ObligatoryĀ āThis may contain spoilers for the Dungeons and Dragons campaign Curse of Strahd so read at your own riskā warning.
Why Canāt We Be Friends
The session starts with dinner.Ā
Overall I have mixed feelings about this session. I could tell that my players were anxious because there was a lot of nervous out of character table talk.
When Strahd spoke to them, they kept their answers short. He asked them how they liked Barovia and it took them a long time to speak up with an answer.
They seemed to loosen up more when Sasha asked them about deities, or when Escher asked them about performances, or when Gertruda asked them about weddings. Anastrasya and Veledrel playfully banter back and forth about ruining each other's clothes during the scuffle in Vallaki, Bedlam steps in to remind everyone that weāre friends right now.
Ireena is absolutely shocked and angered to see Gertruda in the castle and so excited to be there. She looked like she wanted to say a million things to Gertruda but refrained, fearing it would push her away.
Jander, sitting in between Strahd and Ireena, did his best to hold Strahd in conversation to pull his aggro from Ireena.Ā
Kasimir seemed anxious but was playing it off well. It helped that Rahadin was nowhere to be seen, but the other guy who had a hand in genociding his people was sitting at the table soā¦ you know.
Each course the characters ate was served by the unseen servants and Helga. Wine glasses were constantly being refilled. There were many bottles circulating around the table, but the characters noticed that the same āwineā that was poured for the undead at the table was never poured for the living guests, and vice versa.
At one point during the palate cleanser course, Helga notifies Strahd that the wine upstairs is running a little dry and Strahd asks if anyone would like to volunteer to go get another barrel. Out of character I explain to the table that this is not a strength test, anyone can do it, and the idea is that someone from the castle will go, and someone from the party will go, and I let them choose who they would like to take.
Bedlam offered to go, and chose to take Ludmilla. They walked their way downstairs to the wine cellar. He had the pleasure of seeing Cryus doing all the cooking next to a barovian commoner who is being drained of his blood. Bedlam takes the opportunity to ask Ludmilla to give Evelyn more time with Vasilka. Ludmilla says that she thinks they can work something out.Ā
She explains that she suspects there is a traitor within the walls of Castle Ravenloft, and that if Bedlam can oust them and find irrefutable evidence, she would be more than happy to help him out. He agrees and they haul more barrels upstairs.
The details of the conversation are a little spotty, because Iām writing this quite a bit of time after it happened, and I donāt think there was much of a resolution to the conversation before they got uncomfortable and changed the subject.
They wanted to know why they were all here and how he knew about them. He alluded to a few of their pasts. Okrin has Arvid, who Okrin shunned from their Goliath community, so Arvid joined the werewolves that do Strahdās bidding. Bedlam has something that belongs to Barovia. He wasnāt sure if Strahd was alluding to the gemstone that was given to him by his mentor or if he was referring to Sergeiās soul. Veledrelās parents are both here in Barovia, Evelyn, his mother, is at the abbey in Krezk and his father has been confirmed to be a prisoner in the castle. We didnāt get to delve into Vondal and his amber sarcophagus before they started asking how he brought them together.
Which he didnāt. āThe strands of fate have an interesting way of intertwining, donāt they?ā
The campaign began with a small town in the Dalelands of Faerun. It was late at night, and all the characters were in their respective places for the evening. All of a sudden, a loud bell rings out. When they look, they see the townspeople gathering in front of the mayor who announces that wolves are attacking the village. The characters gladly jump into combat and resolve the issue. Once they returned to the town square, the blacksmith rushed out frantically saying that his children havenāt been found since the scuffle. The mayor randomly grouped everyone into search parties, and thus, we have our group.
Eventually the topic of the party leaving came up. Strahd said he found them very entertaining and wouldnāt let them leave for free. When they got the sense that the price was Ireena, they quickly became uncomfortable and changed the subject to a more lighthearted one.
They got to know each of the denizens a little bit and asked about their backstories. Ludmilla was the first, she was a vistana who wanted more out of life and the arcane arts so she sought them out and found them in Strahd.
Ludmilla later sought out Anastrasya, an heiress with a growing reputation for throwing baller parties and having quite the attitude.
Escher was a traveling bard that got swept off to Barovia and happily joined Strahdās court to live a lavish lifestyle. He doesnāt exactly know how long heās been here or even remembers where heās from.Ā
Volenta a former sex worker who was shunned out of the village for torturing clients in her basement. She threw herself at the mercy of the count and he took her in.
Sasha is an oathbreaker paladin from Staunton Bluffs and a victim of the mercenaries terrorizing the countryside. She escaped, stowing away with the Vistani passing through. She forsook her oaths and joined Strahdās ranks.Ā
There was so much more to say, but dinner had to come to a close. Anastrasya explained that she would be throwing banger parties the next few nights, and that if they werenāt to tired, they could join the denizens in the audience hall, but Itās already so late, so if theyāre tired thatās understandable. Strahd and his posse make their way to the audience hall, talking and having a nice time, while the party makes their way to their room to recuperate.
Bedlam catches everyone up to speed on his conversation with Ludmilla and they decide what they want to do next. At first they wanted to split the party, Bedlam and Veledrel would go to the dance while Okrin and Vondal go exploring for a piece of Patrina and keep an eye out for Velās dad. I told them I loved the idea, but I was worried it would compromise the quality of the session.Ā
Iām not the type of DM to kill a party just because they split the group, I actually really like it when they do because usually it means they all have information to bring back to the group and share, which encourages great roleplay. This was a little bit different. With the Castle being so big I wasnāt confident in my ability to give everyone the screen time that they deserved, at least for now. They all understood and decided to, as a group, go exploring. Jander, Ireena, and Kasimir decided to stay behind, mostly because they didnāt want to go, and also I wanted the group to explore without NPCs for a little bit.Ā
They take the stairs as far down as they can go and find themselves in a flooded hallway. The flooded hallway contains a right and left wing of prison cells. Vondal turns into an octopus to explore the murky waters below. One of the cells contained an ooze that attacked. The party easily handled it, but not before Bedlam loses some durability on one of his daggers from striking it. They found some money, a magic glowing sword, a bunch of dead guys, and then a live prisoner.
He says his name is Emil, he lives in Vallaki and was attacked by dire wolves in the woods and imprisoned in the castle. The group doesnāt entirely trust him, and Bedlam doesnāt feel like Emil has really given them a reason to let him out because the risks for them would be too high. When they start to leave and say theyāre busy looking for someone, he asks who, maybe he can help, heās seen a lot of people come through here.Ā
Veledrel describes his father, Venda, and Emil recognizes the description. He explains that the musical man was imprisoned a while ago, and was escorted out. The party leaves him with some food and tells him that theyāll release him when they decide to leave the castle. He seemed crestfallen like he doesnāt believe them.
Thatās pretty much where we ended things for the night! They had a long discussion out of character about Emil. What he might be hiding, if his character art was picked out by me or provided by the book, what could the purpose of this character be? All really good stuff!
The festival ends way later than anyone wants it to, but when it does everyone immediately clears out of the square. The players are free to toddle about the town as they please!
They are super excited about their new home, so they decide to head there first. Itās a nice little place in the Baronās District that has roughly the same floor plans as Hill House, is lightly furnished, and lightly inhabited!
The Party, Jander, Ireena, and Lancelot spent time going through the house and clearing out the pests. In the pantry they found a swarm of rats, and giant rats ridden by Jermlaines having a meeting? In the Library they were attacked by two Screaming Devilkin. In the Gallery they found several swarms of spiders and a Killmoulis stuck in a web that they freed and named Schnitzel. He speaks telepathically with gifs. So heāll be staying in their house and giving them either his Blessing of Bountiful Generosity or Curse of Poor Hospitality depending on if they feed him. They found a small pack of Wolf-Spiders in the Cellar. They were just giant spiders with Pack Tactics. Upstairs in the bathroom they found two Boggles causing problems. Jander wanted to see the garden but instead found a Giant Diseased Rat. Finally, they found the Mite that had been hexing them the whole time they were in the house! None of these encounters were terribly hard, but they were a lot of fun!
With their house seemingly cleared of rambunctious fey, the party was ready to start throwing out invites. They claimed rooms for themselves and offered Ireena and Jander a choice of room as well. Ireena is happy to take one, while Jander at first is hesitant. He seems unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the notion of being included. Understanding this, Bedlam persists, Jander relents and says heāll find space for himself, and eventually ending up in the room across from Ireena.
Bedlam goes to visit Urwin and Danika at the Inn. He basically told them that if they ever wanted a break from the kids, they could send the rascals over to the house anytime. As the parents of the hang-out house they greatly appreciate that. Bedlam bids them farewell and heads to the Vistani camp.Ā
Okrin and Veledren head to the Baronās house. Okrin asks the Baron about Izek after showering him with praise regarding that banger of a festival. He only finds disappointment when Vargas tells him Izek still has not been found. Super unlike him as he loves his job- which is open by the way and you look like you might fit his armor! No? Very Well. Okrin heads off to ask some questions to nearby guards while Veledrel tries his luck with Vargas.
He tells the Baron that since they just acquired the estate, he would now be able to mentor Victor and train him to be a proper socialite. He had a great persuasion roll and that is what Vargas wanted to hear so he called for Victor to pack his things. Victor wasnāt sold on the idea at first, but after a lot of winking and emphasis on a few specific words, he had his books packed and ready to go. Vel set him up in the house and thanks to him, the Library isnāt so bare. Vel intends on teaching Victor magic safely.
Okrin questioned the guards a little bit about Izek, but they say there has been no sign of him since last night. Frustrated, he goes to meet Bedlam, Vondal, and Vel at the camp.
Once at the camp, they approach Luvash for their chance to choose from the treasure wagon. Vondal and Okrin both chose money. Bedlam chose a rug with a mysterious lump in it, and Veledrel chose a fancy jewelry box with various accessories in it. Ireena chose a wooden chair with gold inlay and decorative stones.
When Bedlam unrolled the rug, he found that the lump was a toy! A 4-foot tall jester that mimes to communicate and jingles when he moves. Bedlam cast identify on the lil fella and through divine intervention was gifted with a vision of Pidlwick IIās life. Not really wanting to hurt his feelings or invoke his wrath, Bedlam decided to take him home and maybe set him up in the shed.
Jander quietly mentions to the group that they should probably unbury the bodies and burn them so they donāt rise in the night and attack. He keeps this from Bedlam because he is pretty strict about not disturbing the dead. And he was worried that Ireena would be (rightly) upset about Father Lucien. After a whole lotta work, the party can now rest easy.
Evening falls and everyone is hanging out in the study. Veledrel decides to pop open the Tome of Strahd, taking with the party Jander and Victor. In this chapter they are able to see Strahd bargain and begin his pact with the vestige calling out to him. They get a glimpse of the Amber Temple as they follow him and Alek through the winding halls. They reach the vault and Vondal is shocked to see a similar amber sarcophagus from his past. They also get to see just the beginning of what Strahd is willing to sacrifice to get what he wants.Ā
They return to their study. Victor had a great time, while Jander could have been fine without it. Ireena returns from the kitchen with dinner for everyone wondering why everyone looks so frazzled.
