I'm going to start this post off positively: newer and younger players are amazing. They don't come to the table with preconceived notions about gameplay; they they will surprise you with something people way more scholarly than me about gaming call emergent play. In normal speak it means playing a game in a fashion other than how its meant to played, but in a way it can be played. Table-top RPGs are great for this (in theory), because at its heart, they're about cooperatively creating a story about fictional personas in a fantasy universe.
However, table-top RPGs still often have very gamist roots, where the "story" is a challenge created by the DM that the players are trying to win, and its expected that the players will have a fighting chance, provided they don't do something stupid like splitting the party.
So for last session's game, Nathan and his half-elf warlock were back. He chose two very "tanky" warlock invocations: Armor of Shadows and Fiendish Vigor. The first lets him cast mage armor at will (a spell with an 8-hour duration that sets your AC 13+ Dex mod), and the second lets you cast false life at will (a spell which grants you 1d4+4 temporary hp for an hour). Sadly Ethan and Andrew were absent. Especially since Andrew's character, Tarkir, a paladin, would have been super effective in this fight. More on that later.
We had some new players: Alec, and two kids he takes care of: Hilary and Jake. Alec made a human wizard named Cugel, opting for the School of Necromancy arcane tradition. Hilary made a wood elf fighter named Sarra that specialized in two-weapon fighting. Jake made a wood elf rogue named Amrus.
The problem with new players and the Death House adventure is that its set up to be a bottle; the PCs can't get out until they finish the adventure. Presumably, then, no one should be able to get in. Being a DM for a shifting roster of players involves stretching narrative credulity to its breaking point; so the Mists of Ravenloft lured these three people in and drove them to the Death House, and they stumbled on the party just as the fight was beginning. As a DM, I think player participation is more important than narrative credulity.
One last thing: I read the DM's guide to the Ravenloft season of Adventurer's League, and discovered how the one-time return to life works. It provides the resurrected character with a benefit and two drawbacks. I already gave Joseph's resurrected Ap a drawback (a long-term madness with the flaw "I don't like the way people judge me all the time.") I added the perk: he's reading other's surface thoughts, but the first thing he hears is all their judgmental thoughts. So he has advantage on Insight checks, but hence the madness. I'm planning on introducing the second drawback later, when they emerge from the Death House and being interacting with Barovia in general.
So, Lop had grabbed an orb off a statue in a creepy basement, summoning some shadows into the room. The party bottle-necked themselves in the corridor into the room, leaving poor Lop alone to face the shadows.
Shadows are pretty tought for challenge 1/2 creatures. They're resistant to most things, including nonmagical weapons, and flat-out immune to necrotic and poison damage. They are however vulnerable to radiant, and take normal damage from force. They only have an AC of 12, but they have 3d8+3 hit die (averaging 16 hp-I use the averages from the stat blocks to save time). They're attack is only +4, but it inflicts 2d6+2 necrotic damage and does 1d4 Strength damage, which is healed with a short of long rest. The only other balancing factor is Sunlight Weakness, which gives them disadvantage on most rolls (mainly attacks and saves), so daylight (a 3rd level spell) could stop them cold. Still, as kobolds with Pack Tactics and CR 1/8 is a bit of a gross underestimation (see ALL of my posts on Tyranny of Dragons), I think these guys at CR 1/2 is a gross underestimation. Of course, as a DM I know the stat block, so I'm privy to good tactical choices. In this case, focus fire on each shadow in turn to take it out. Players, being players, react to what they can see. So most players (myself included) often see a mob and think: crowd control spells.
Their only source of radiant damage was Tathora, and their otherwise best damage dealer was Sarra, who was hampered by not having magic weapons (no surprise at 2nd level in a bottle adventure designed to take the party up to 3rd by the end) and by a couple of hits that brought her Strength down to 8 early in the fight. On top of that Cinis, Nathan's warlock, boldly stepped into the middle of the fray and was quickly taken to 0 hp. The astounding thing is that he self-stabilized in just three rolls. It also didn't help that (and I didn't realize this until the end of the session!) Alec thought spell slots are spell-dedicated like they were in previous editions. Now that its cleared up for him, I expect he'll play a little differently next session.
The shadow fight would have greatly benefited from Tarkir. Paladins have a nice spike in capability at 2nd. They get their fighting style feature (idenitical to previously discussed fighter features), spellcasting, and divine smite. This feature lets a paladin spend a spell slot after hitting with a melee attack. Spending a first level slot adds 2d8 radiant damage to the attack, adding 1d8 for every slot above 1st spent. Shadows have low AC, 12 to be precise. Plus they're vulnerable to radiant damage. Averaging 9 damage, doubled the 18, plus half of whatever he rolled on the attack's initial, halved damage, Tarkir could have taken out 2 shadows in as many turns.
So the fight with the shadows was a grind. I realized this early and started fudging rolls to have things go a little easier for the PCs. Then Jake and his wood elf rogue Amrus decided to go exploring. His reasons for doing so were right on target for role-playing: his character wants money, so he was looking for valuables to loot. He discovered a den and then a bed chamber with a footlocker. So, looking for valuables, he opened the foot locker. He found some. After grabbing the first item, a potion of healing, he awakened the ghasts of Gustav and Elizabeth Durst, the leaders of the cult that built this basement lair.
Ghasts, for those not familiar with D&D, are tougher palette-swaps of ghouls. They have a few more hit points, hit a little bit more often and hit harder when they do hit. Plus, they can paralyze even those pesky elves. On top of that they have a Stench feature, which can poison anyone standing next to them. Last but not least, they have resistance to Turn Undead, something that they also grant to nearby undead. I fudged the feature a bit-PCs should have had to save against both ghasts before being immune to the feature for 24 hours. With the in-game reasoning that this was already a grind, and the narrative reason that this was a husband and wife team, I let one save work for both ghasts. All these upgrades earn a ghast a Challenge of 2 compared to the ghoul's 1. However, since ghasts aren't resistant to any particular damage type the party was dishing out, their hit points were effectively "lower" than the shadows'. Especially since ghasts' AC is also low, 13 to be exact.
Fortunately, Jake was smart enough to play another rogue tactic right: running, hiding, and sneak attacking from hiding. One particularly lucky damage roll took Elizabeth Durst ghast down to almost bloodied in one hit.
In the meantime, the party's shadow fight continued to grind. First burning hands and thunderwave were used. Unfortunately, shadows are resistant to fire and thunder. So successful saves effectively quartered the damage. Some low rolls led to some shadows taking a measly 1 damage from the attacks. In a bit of role-playing more than tactics, will had Lop use prestidigitation to turn the sheet he had taken into a "ghost." This didn't really slow the shadows down, but it provided some entertaining moments during a tense battle.
Once they had cleared most of the shadows, the Gustav Durst ghast arrived in the room. Cugel disabled it with tasha's hideous laughter, which made dropping it a mere chore rather than a grind. It had a particular string of bad saving throws, too. Other party members decided to help Amrus with his battle with the ghastly Mrs. Durst.
Without maps, it will be a little difficult to explain what happened next, but this it. There are two ways into the shadow room from the cult den and bedroom nearby. One a twisty corridor, the other a short corridor with a door. Gustav Durst took the twisty corridor when entering the shadow room. None of the players noticed the significance of this (they're all kicking themselves for how obvious it was in hindsight, now). Ap decided to open the door.
In a classic moment of the 1st-edition adventure design standard of "The DM is actively trying to kill the PCs," the door turned out to be a mimic. These mean D&D standbys imitate furniture, usually chests but also (sometimes) doors and other frequently used items like tables or chairs, ambushing PCs with sticky skin, psuedopods, and biting jaws. Ap hadn't used his action yet, so he pushed the mimic away with a thunderwave spell. At this point I flat out told the players that I had hoped they didn't pull this monster.
In this edition, mimics are CR 2. They have a low AC (12), lots of hit die (9d8 + 18, averaging to 58 hit points), middling attacks (only +5 to hit) with only middling damage (1d8+3 for a psuedopod and 1d8+3 for a bite that also inflicts 1d8 acid damage). However, they're VERY good at grappling (made MUCH easier in this edition). They're bigger hit point sinks than the similarly challenge rated ghasts, but they're less offensively inclined and have a little less battlefield control.
By this time, the party needed to finish off the ghasts (this included Cugel using his little used wizard stabby dagger! on Mr. Durst) and Amrus continuing to sneak attack Mrs. Durst. Even though poor Sarra had been nerfed by the shadows, she still managed to be effective in mop up. By the end of the night, our table had done something it had never done before: gone longer than any other encounters table in the store. It took close to 2 and a half hours from me arriving around 7:15, to when they finally cleared the encounter at around 9:45. I even spotted them the last hit point of the mimic and fudged rolls left and right to make the monsters less effective and to make the grind go quicker.
One of the more comedic moments was Ap using shocking grasp on the mimic, which only got his hand stuck to it again. In a subsequent, failed attack with the same spell, he missed. I decided that the mimic's adhesive is a resistor, so it gave his electrified hand just enough give to ground out the shocking part of the grasp its slime.
I'm going to take a soap box for a minute hear, and also combine it with some armchair game design. First, is the issue of challenge rating. The idea behind a challenge rating is that a party of a certain level should be able to handle that monster at a certain level of effectiveness. In 3rd and 3.5 it was "the party should expend a quarter of their overall resources on the monster," In 5th, it's the more vague "a fully rested party at this level should have no trouble beating the monster/NPC." The idea of challenge rating is a sticky one, considering how vague it really is, especially since different party builds will have different resources to throw at something. Sure, Tarkir (or any paladin really) at second level or higher would have made short work of the shadows. Or if Tathora hadn't expended her Turn Undead (or refreshed it before this battle with a short rest), they could have isolated the shadows better. Or if they were 5th level or higher and any caster with daylight (its on most of the lists-only bard, warlock, and wizard don't get it) or a cleric with spirit guardians, the shadows would have been dead meat in a turn or two tops. But at 1st-4th level, they're 32 hit point sinks with the potential to make the party's ability to damage them less effective with each attack. So CR 1/2 is a low ball figure, in my opinion. Granted, I think there is a base assumption that somewhere between level 1 and 4 at least one party member will become the proud owner of a shiny magic weapon, and the spell magic weapon is only level 2 (meaning casters get it at 3rd level and higher). Again, we've arrived at vagueness, and that just doesn't sit well with the gamist nature of the rule. The ghast and mimic's challenge rating felt more correct. The ghast for being better offensively and at controlling, and the mimic for its surprise value and being a big old hit point sink.
Lastly, was Jake's little foray that allowed this battle to spiral out of control. And God Bless the noobs. He hadn't played D&D long enough to know that you never split the party. But he was familiar enough with the idea of table-top role-playing games to understand another, and in some ways more important, thing: do what your character would do. He decided that a greedy wood elf rogue would leave an embattled group of strangers to find rich stuff. Tactically unwise, yes, but exactly why we play table-top RPGs and not CRPGs or adventure board games: because our options are only limited by our imagination.
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Thursday, March 17, 2016
The Death House, Continued
When we last left our heroes, they were taking a short rest. Remember, in 5e, that means resting for an hour.
Of course, the three high schoolers were absent this weeks. So they were down a warlock, a druid, and a paladin. In other words, they didn't have a tank. Those of you who remembered our Tyranny of Dragons tale will know that this is often bad. Also, the tank was the one who wanted to take the short rest to spend his hit die and regain some hit points.
Still, relaxing in the library, they found an iron key they missed before and had a chance to study some ritual books they found and learned that they were bogus. After the short rest, they returned to the third floor and explored the last room: a dust covered and cob-webbed chocked bedroom with an attached nursery. They found nothing of value in the bedroom and approached the nursery with trepidation, recalling the mention of a stillborn earlier in the story.
Their caution was founded, when they opened the nursery a spectre of the dead nursemaid, the dead baby's mother, manifested and attacked. Thanks to some high rolls on my part and low rolls for the players, I almost killed Tathora and did kill Ap. In this edition, negative levels have been replaced by reduction to maximum hit points. It is just as threatening at low levels, but a little bit less burdensome at higher levels. Plus, spectres resist almost everything. Ap used Witch Bolt, a handy little damage over time attack spell. Lop used magic missile, and Tathora used Sacred Flame. Force and radiant damage are among the few things spectres don't resist. They aren't hard to hit, and don't have too many hit points, but can hit like bricks when they connect. I improvised a one-time free resurrection involving a bargain with a mysterious entity, and Ap came back to life with a new flaw brought on by long term madness, an optional rule in the DMG.
Checking the crib, they found it...empty. As Poe said, "Darkness there and nothing more."
They finally reached the attic. They found a dust choked spare bedroom, and a dust choked storage room. In the storage room, they found the corpse of the nursemaid, stabbed to death, wrapped in a blanket, and stuffed in a chest. They explored another dusty spare bedroom, then used the iron key to unlock the padlock on the final room: a room filled with children's toys, and toy dead children dressed in familiar clothes, on clutching a familiar stuffed animal. As they began examining the room, the ghosts of Rose and Thorn rose up from their bones and confronted the party. They revealed some final secrets: including the location of the secret door down to the basement. Thorn possessed Lop after the party promised to take the kids with them. Rose wanted to possess Tathora, but she managed to convince the ghost to just follow them instead. They gathered up the kids bones and opened the secret door and descended the twisting wooden spiral stairs down to the basement. This was their first plot milestone, and they leveled-up. Being a Diablo fan, I also granted them the side boon of getting the benefits of a long rest when leveling up.
The basement was carved out of earth, clay and rock, with narrow, twisting corridors. When they arrived the sound of chanting filled the basement. After stepping off the stair, they found a set of family crypts. They left the parents' alone, but laid Rose and Thorn's remains to rest in their crypts, allowing the ghosts to pass on and earning the PCs inspiration. They found a dining hall west of the crypts with a grick lying in ambush in an alcove. They avoided the grick, and took a corridor around the dining hall, where Tathora fell into a spiked pit trap. After pulling her out, they followed another hallway, and were ambushed by ghouls. The adventure called for 4, but with the party short and down a tank, I decided to reduce it to 2. Tathora used Turn Undead to chase away one of them, allowing them to isolate and take out the monsters. Rather than rolling on tables to determine the strength of the turning, the undead targets just make a Wisdom saving throw to avoid being turned. This makes it more powerful and more useful. Of course, this power upgrade is probably why clerics don't get it until 2nd level now. When they followed the turned ghoul to take it out, they found a room with a shrine dedicated to a statue of a pale figure petting a wolf and holding a crystal orb. Getting greedy, Lop grabbed the orb, summoning up some shadows guarding the shrine. We ended on that cliff hanger.
Hopefully, they'll have more of the party present at the next session. They might need a tank.
Of course, the three high schoolers were absent this weeks. So they were down a warlock, a druid, and a paladin. In other words, they didn't have a tank. Those of you who remembered our Tyranny of Dragons tale will know that this is often bad. Also, the tank was the one who wanted to take the short rest to spend his hit die and regain some hit points.
Still, relaxing in the library, they found an iron key they missed before and had a chance to study some ritual books they found and learned that they were bogus. After the short rest, they returned to the third floor and explored the last room: a dust covered and cob-webbed chocked bedroom with an attached nursery. They found nothing of value in the bedroom and approached the nursery with trepidation, recalling the mention of a stillborn earlier in the story.
Their caution was founded, when they opened the nursery a spectre of the dead nursemaid, the dead baby's mother, manifested and attacked. Thanks to some high rolls on my part and low rolls for the players, I almost killed Tathora and did kill Ap. In this edition, negative levels have been replaced by reduction to maximum hit points. It is just as threatening at low levels, but a little bit less burdensome at higher levels. Plus, spectres resist almost everything. Ap used Witch Bolt, a handy little damage over time attack spell. Lop used magic missile, and Tathora used Sacred Flame. Force and radiant damage are among the few things spectres don't resist. They aren't hard to hit, and don't have too many hit points, but can hit like bricks when they connect. I improvised a one-time free resurrection involving a bargain with a mysterious entity, and Ap came back to life with a new flaw brought on by long term madness, an optional rule in the DMG.
Checking the crib, they found it...empty. As Poe said, "Darkness there and nothing more."
They finally reached the attic. They found a dust choked spare bedroom, and a dust choked storage room. In the storage room, they found the corpse of the nursemaid, stabbed to death, wrapped in a blanket, and stuffed in a chest. They explored another dusty spare bedroom, then used the iron key to unlock the padlock on the final room: a room filled with children's toys, and toy dead children dressed in familiar clothes, on clutching a familiar stuffed animal. As they began examining the room, the ghosts of Rose and Thorn rose up from their bones and confronted the party. They revealed some final secrets: including the location of the secret door down to the basement. Thorn possessed Lop after the party promised to take the kids with them. Rose wanted to possess Tathora, but she managed to convince the ghost to just follow them instead. They gathered up the kids bones and opened the secret door and descended the twisting wooden spiral stairs down to the basement. This was their first plot milestone, and they leveled-up. Being a Diablo fan, I also granted them the side boon of getting the benefits of a long rest when leveling up.
The basement was carved out of earth, clay and rock, with narrow, twisting corridors. When they arrived the sound of chanting filled the basement. After stepping off the stair, they found a set of family crypts. They left the parents' alone, but laid Rose and Thorn's remains to rest in their crypts, allowing the ghosts to pass on and earning the PCs inspiration. They found a dining hall west of the crypts with a grick lying in ambush in an alcove. They avoided the grick, and took a corridor around the dining hall, where Tathora fell into a spiked pit trap. After pulling her out, they followed another hallway, and were ambushed by ghouls. The adventure called for 4, but with the party short and down a tank, I decided to reduce it to 2. Tathora used Turn Undead to chase away one of them, allowing them to isolate and take out the monsters. Rather than rolling on tables to determine the strength of the turning, the undead targets just make a Wisdom saving throw to avoid being turned. This makes it more powerful and more useful. Of course, this power upgrade is probably why clerics don't get it until 2nd level now. When they followed the turned ghoul to take it out, they found a room with a shrine dedicated to a statue of a pale figure petting a wolf and holding a crystal orb. Getting greedy, Lop grabbed the orb, summoning up some shadows guarding the shrine. We ended on that cliff hanger.
Hopefully, they'll have more of the party present at the next session. They might need a tank.
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Triumphant Return
So after my last post, complications from my surgery put me in the hospital, where I ended up needing another surgery. The Elemental Evil campaign fell apart after that, so I formed a new group and we played through the Lost Mines of Phandelver, the adventure that comes in the Starter Set. It's a tough, but otherwise pretty decent adventure. Much like Tyranny of Dragons its plagued with balance issues, which could be somewhat exacerbated by the mediocre pre-gens (we didn't use those).
On to the main event: Curse of Strahd, 5e's reboot of the Classic Ravenloft has hit shelves. Being a former White Wolf demo guy, I couldn't wait to introduce my players the some bloodsucking horror.
Curse of Strahd features an introductory adventure called Death House, where the PCs explore a haunted house, the ambiance of which becomes increasing terrifying and decayed as they examine the details and move further in. It makes me soooooooo happy.
While some options are available to have the PCs be Barovians, I opted for a more "Silent Hill" approach: the PCs are normal folks who just happened to stumble into the Mists. They built Forgotten Realms characters with extant options.
Meet the dramatis personae: Tathora, played by a newer player Kyla. She's a half-elf cleric of Lathander (the Forgotten Realms deity of dawn, birth, and new beginnings). Next is Lop, played by newer player Will. He's a gnome wizard. Judging by Will' role-playing decisions and the traditional gnomish path, I think he might end up being an Illusionist. Continuing around the table, returning player Nathan is playing Cinis, a half-elf Warlock with Fiendish patron. Next, returning player Ethan is playing Rolan, a wood elf Druid who is planning on taking Circle of the Moon. Next up is newer player Andrew, brought into the group by Nathan. He's playing Tarkir (yes, he does play Magic), a gold-descended dragonborn Paladin. Last, but not least, is my buddy Joseph with Ap, a human Sorcerer with the new Storm Sorcerer and the Outlander background from the new Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Kyla and Nathan did opt to use a new background option for Curse of Strahd: Haunted One, a background based around the character being the survivor of some horrific event in their past.
We dove in: the group was travelling south from Daggerford, taking shelter from rain in the outskirts of the Misty Forest on the border of the High Moor. However, cold Mist from the Demiplane of Dread descended on them and took them the outskirts of Barovia. The soon found the Old Svalich road and followed it to the gates of Barovia, ancient metal gates that shrieked on rusty hinges as they opened and squealed as they closed behind the party. Travelling through the Svalich woods, they happened upon a corpse bearing a letter from Kolyan Indirovich, the Burgomaster of the village of Barovia. When the pack of wolves responsible for killing the messenger came closer, the party of first level adventurers wisely decided to flee. Eventually the road led them to the village, and Mists guided them to two children, weeping in front of an old row house on the eastern edge of town.
The children, Rosavalda and Thornboldt, or Rose and Thorn, asked the party to go into the house to help their younger brother Walter and to fight a terrible monster living in the basement. Being mostly good, they went in. The house belongs to a clan of minor noble called the Dursts (no relation to Fred) that have a wind mill as their symbol. The house is richly furnished and appointed, but apparently abandoned. After exploring the hall, dining room, kitchen, and den on the first floor, they moved onto the second floor.
The second floor held a servants' quarters, a conservatory, and a study. Here, they began taking a closer look at their surroundings, discovering hidden images of people being attacked by bats in a painting superficially about dancing, and small figurines that turned out to be well dressed skeletons upon closer inspection. They also found a secret room off the study with a now dead adventurer half inside a chest. They rooted through the treasure, finding spell scrolls and deeds to the house and a wind mill. They also found a nice condescending letter from Count Strahd Von Zarovich himself, letting the Durst know exactly how he felt about them (he doesn't like them). The letter also mentioned a stillborn child.
They reached the third floor balcony and the first battle of the session: with a suit of animated armor. They have a high AC (being made of armor and all) and lots of hit points (see before), but don't hit very hard or very often. Still, it made Tarkir nervous. Even first level tanks don't have that many hit points. Upon reaching the third floor, they discovered that everything is now old and covered with dust and cobwebs, as opposed the previous two floors where everything was intact and relatively clean. They explored the master bedroom, looting an old jewelry box. Then they found a bathroom and linen closet. Here, Lop got a bit greedy and tried to grab a sheet from the linen closet, setting off a broom of animated attack. Its a new animated object from Curse of Strahd. Easier to hit and with fewer hit points than the armor, it hits a little more often if a little less hard. After some obligatory Sorcerer's Apprentice jokes, the broom was dispatched.
At that point it was getting late, so we called the session. The PCs were planning on taking an uneventful short rest, so they'll start the next session somewhat refreshed.
I'm excited, folks in internet land. Are you?
On to the main event: Curse of Strahd, 5e's reboot of the Classic Ravenloft has hit shelves. Being a former White Wolf demo guy, I couldn't wait to introduce my players the some bloodsucking horror.
Curse of Strahd features an introductory adventure called Death House, where the PCs explore a haunted house, the ambiance of which becomes increasing terrifying and decayed as they examine the details and move further in. It makes me soooooooo happy.
While some options are available to have the PCs be Barovians, I opted for a more "Silent Hill" approach: the PCs are normal folks who just happened to stumble into the Mists. They built Forgotten Realms characters with extant options.
Meet the dramatis personae: Tathora, played by a newer player Kyla. She's a half-elf cleric of Lathander (the Forgotten Realms deity of dawn, birth, and new beginnings). Next is Lop, played by newer player Will. He's a gnome wizard. Judging by Will' role-playing decisions and the traditional gnomish path, I think he might end up being an Illusionist. Continuing around the table, returning player Nathan is playing Cinis, a half-elf Warlock with Fiendish patron. Next, returning player Ethan is playing Rolan, a wood elf Druid who is planning on taking Circle of the Moon. Next up is newer player Andrew, brought into the group by Nathan. He's playing Tarkir (yes, he does play Magic), a gold-descended dragonborn Paladin. Last, but not least, is my buddy Joseph with Ap, a human Sorcerer with the new Storm Sorcerer and the Outlander background from the new Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Kyla and Nathan did opt to use a new background option for Curse of Strahd: Haunted One, a background based around the character being the survivor of some horrific event in their past.
We dove in: the group was travelling south from Daggerford, taking shelter from rain in the outskirts of the Misty Forest on the border of the High Moor. However, cold Mist from the Demiplane of Dread descended on them and took them the outskirts of Barovia. The soon found the Old Svalich road and followed it to the gates of Barovia, ancient metal gates that shrieked on rusty hinges as they opened and squealed as they closed behind the party. Travelling through the Svalich woods, they happened upon a corpse bearing a letter from Kolyan Indirovich, the Burgomaster of the village of Barovia. When the pack of wolves responsible for killing the messenger came closer, the party of first level adventurers wisely decided to flee. Eventually the road led them to the village, and Mists guided them to two children, weeping in front of an old row house on the eastern edge of town.
The children, Rosavalda and Thornboldt, or Rose and Thorn, asked the party to go into the house to help their younger brother Walter and to fight a terrible monster living in the basement. Being mostly good, they went in. The house belongs to a clan of minor noble called the Dursts (no relation to Fred) that have a wind mill as their symbol. The house is richly furnished and appointed, but apparently abandoned. After exploring the hall, dining room, kitchen, and den on the first floor, they moved onto the second floor.
The second floor held a servants' quarters, a conservatory, and a study. Here, they began taking a closer look at their surroundings, discovering hidden images of people being attacked by bats in a painting superficially about dancing, and small figurines that turned out to be well dressed skeletons upon closer inspection. They also found a secret room off the study with a now dead adventurer half inside a chest. They rooted through the treasure, finding spell scrolls and deeds to the house and a wind mill. They also found a nice condescending letter from Count Strahd Von Zarovich himself, letting the Durst know exactly how he felt about them (he doesn't like them). The letter also mentioned a stillborn child.
They reached the third floor balcony and the first battle of the session: with a suit of animated armor. They have a high AC (being made of armor and all) and lots of hit points (see before), but don't hit very hard or very often. Still, it made Tarkir nervous. Even first level tanks don't have that many hit points. Upon reaching the third floor, they discovered that everything is now old and covered with dust and cobwebs, as opposed the previous two floors where everything was intact and relatively clean. They explored the master bedroom, looting an old jewelry box. Then they found a bathroom and linen closet. Here, Lop got a bit greedy and tried to grab a sheet from the linen closet, setting off a broom of animated attack. Its a new animated object from Curse of Strahd. Easier to hit and with fewer hit points than the armor, it hits a little more often if a little less hard. After some obligatory Sorcerer's Apprentice jokes, the broom was dispatched.
At that point it was getting late, so we called the session. The PCs were planning on taking an uneventful short rest, so they'll start the next session somewhat refreshed.
I'm excited, folks in internet land. Are you?
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