I ran my game again last night. So far my recovery from surgery has gone very smoothly. I'm still being cautious, but optimism is outweighing that.
But on to the game. Our heroes had just cleared the winery of the invading druids and their vicious plant monsters. They took a long rest, sheltering with the Martikovs, so that Tathora could prepare purify food and drink to remove the poison the druids had added. It's a ritual, meaning that if the caster takes 10 minutes, they can cast the spell without expending a spell slot. It also only affects five cubic feet at a time. So it probably took a little while, but she had the wine cleaned up before the morning was over. In the meantime, everyone else loaded the wine barrels into the wagon and hitched up the horses.
Before they set out, Adrian Martikov told them about the jewel stolen from their fields by the druids and taken to Yester Hill. He asked that the players retrieve the jewel after they had finished with the wine delivery.
The journey to Vallaki to retrieve Ireena and Ismark was mostly uneventful. However, Amrus did spot a small bundle tucked into some tree roots. Every larcenous, he pulled it out and opened it up to find a set of plain common clothes. The rest of the party called out to the surrounding forest to try and locate an owner. When no one responded, Amrus decided to put it back.
When they arrived, they found they weren't exactly welcome in Vallaki, the guards even showed a poster with the PCs' pictures declaring the banished. Of course, alcohol heals wounds, so the guards agreed to let them take some wine to the Blue Water Inn.
There they learned that Izek Strazni had protected Ireena and the Inn from the Burgomaster's wrath following the incident at the festival. While the Martikovs at the Blue Water unloaded a portion of the shipment (two barrels, to be precise), the party deviated from their prescribed itinerary to visit Blinsky Toys.
There they found a portly man in a moth-eaten jester's costume whittling a block of wood while a monkey named Piccolo watched. Hillary (and by extension Sarra) was quite taken with the monkey. Blinsky, who in his write up in the adventure itself actually talks with a Boris Badenov accent. He showed the party some of his various wares: a headless doll with a sack of attachable heads, a miniature gallows with a weighted hanged man, a ventriloquist dummy that looks like Strahd, and a set of nesting dolls that gets older as they get smaller with the innermost doll resembling a mummified corpse. Lop bought the dummy and Sarra bought the nesting dolls, both to the dismay of their beleaguered cleric Tathora (Aside: yes, I know "beleaguered cleric" is like saying "evil cat," "scary clown," or "sulky teenager." The adjective isn't really modifying anything, just reinforcing something already there.) They also spotted a doll that looked remarkably like Ireena Kolyana. Blinsky confirmed that they're special ordered by Izek, one every month, to always look like the same girl. Blinsky said he just makes a different dress every time. Cugel did ask about the toy horse they had found. Blinsky confirmed that he had made it and sold it to the keepers of the Winery. Ultimately, it proved a good role-playing side note to add further to the setting even if it didn't really advance the plot.
The PCs returned to the Inn, and with Ireena and Ismark loaded up, they set out for Krezk. A storm built up through the late afternoon. They met a group of five grizzled fur trappers on the road, and Cugel traded a bottle of Red Dragon Crush for information. The trappers gave the PCs directions to Krezk and a wolf pelt before continuing on the way to Vallaki to peddle.
Just before reaching Krezk, however, the storm hit with sudden fury. Ireena and Ismark spotted a nearby church and suggested they take shelter. They tied off the horses nearby and ducked into the church. This led into the next encounter I borrowed from Fifth Edition Fantasy's Fantastic Encounters module: "A Broken Window." In the flashes of lightning from the storm, the PCs had a chance spot some important details of the stained glass window in the one room church they took shelter in: that it depicts a cleric in hand-to-hand combat with a shadowy figure, that the cleric was fighting with a shard of glass, and that in the background the church is almost finished except for the window. They also rolled well enough to spot a couple of vials of holy water in the ruined pulpit. Next thing they knew, lightning struck the window, breaking it. A shadowy figure emerged from it, littering the area around the pulpit with shards of broken glass.
The shadowy figure, a "cursed shade" is a variant on the shadow. It's immune to most things, but vulnerable to radiant, and extra vulnerable to the shards of glass. Kyla realized this right away. However, only Cugel bothered to retrieve any shards (using mage hand to pull one in), and he missed with his attack. However, normal radiant damage from guiding bolt, sacred flame, and splashes of holy water ended up doing the job. Amrus did some of the holy water splashing, and he had advantage on the attack roll. I actually applied to sneak attack damage at the time, and when I'm double checking it doesn't look like the rogue needs to be proficient with the attack in order to get the sneak attack bonus. Once they had disrupted the shade, Lop cast mending to restore the window.
They took a long rest so Tathora could recover from some attacks that reduced her hit point maximum, and continued on to Krezk. Its a walled, forested village high in the mountains below the Abbey of St. Markovia. Once the guards learned that the PCs had a shipment of wine, they summoned the Burgomaster, Dmitri Krezkov. He confirmed the wine shipment, and guided the PCs to his cottage to store it in the cellar there.
Shortly afterwards, Ireena heard a voice calling her to the north end of the village. Only Cugel perceived it as well. Out of concern, the party followed her to a blessed pool with a nearby gazebo, a shrine to the Morninglord. Then a mysterious apparition appeared calling Ireena, "Tatyana." She suddenly recognized him as Sergei, her lover from a previous incarnation of her soul. She took a hand that raised out of the water, fell into the pool, and began to fade out. Fearing it might be a trick of Strahd's Tathora, Sarra, and Amrus also went in trying to grab her. However, her soul had joined Sergei's escaping from Strahd's grasp.
The vampire lord's face appeared in the clouds in the sky, crying out "How dare you take her from me! She is mine!" Lightning began to arc through the clouds. Fortunately, those who had gone into the water took the chance get out before the lightning struck. The shock wave knocked down everyone but Cugel and blew down the gazebo once and for all. It also banished the blessing from the pool. Once Ismark realized what had happened, he bowed his head and thanked the Morninglord for bearing Ireena away.
The group returned to the Burgomaster's cottage. There, the Burgomaster approached Tathora with a request. His 14 year old son had recently passed away of an pneumonia. He asked if she might be able to restore him to life. Unfortunately, raise dead is still beyond her reach (just four more levels to go, though).
And because narrative coincidence is a things, right about that time, there was a knock on the door. It was the Abbot. After Will graced us with the prerequisite "Hey, Abbottttttt!" line, it turned out that the Abbot (again, because narrative coincidence is a thing) was there to help the Burgomaster with his problem. Tathora was NOT pleased with having her thunder stolen by this interloper. Still, the Burgomaster was desperate, so despite the warnings offered by the other members of the party, he dug up his son, Ilya Krezkov and the Abbot cast raise dead. Ilya returned to life and was tearfully reunited with his parents.
Of course, as the PCs suspected, the Abbot's motivations were not wholly altruistic. He wanted to Burgomaster to supply him with a wedding dress. "It is time the lord of this realm have a bride to ease his suffering. And since you (the PCs) have denied him, I will need provide one." He gave the an ultimatum: one week to get a wedding dress or "What has been done can be undone."
On that sinister note, we called it a night. The PCs have a week to provide a wedding dress or find a way to stop the Abbot from delivering on his threat.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Some Nerdy & Life Observations
Some time ago, I promised to occasionally post some nerdy and/or life observations up. There isn't going to be a game this week. My recovery from a surgery last week has actually been incredible and better than I expected, but I still could use some R&R. But R&R doesn't (and shouldn't especially when recovering from surgery) mean doing nothing, so here's a post.
First, to my players, who are also loyal readers, a reader Pitfiend pointed out that I had been running daylight wrong in the Strahd encounter. Specifically, it isn't actual sunlight, just really bright light. Sadly, as much as I hate to say it, I reviewed the spell and even the errata, and Pitfiend was right. So, sorry, kids, but next time it won't be as effective. I've even mulled it over a bit to break down some of the power-level implications, and ultimately I do have to say that daylight is slightly under-powered for a third level spell, but still useful. Plus, reviewing the party's other capabilities at the time it merely hastened rather than guaranteed the vampire spawn's demise. Specifically, the alternate method would have involved focusing fire while Tathora spammed sacred flame to shut down their regeneration, or relied on guiding bolt, which also shuts down their regeneration and would set the rogues up for a sneak attack. Strahd's strategy was a little different-I made his parting shot more powerful than it might otherwise have been.
On the subject of spells, something I've been neglecting to mention is that Cugel used major image to conjure images of Strahd to try and convince the druids in the winery to stand down. So far I've been running it as an ineffective tactic. I've gone back and reviewed the spell, and, from conversations with Alec, I think I have a better idea of his play style and intentions. In short, if daylight will be less effective, major image should grow in effectiveness.
Another observation I failed to make as I was writing the last post, was that Hilary, the youngest player, actually asked a rules question. She asked about rules for finding food and water. Her willingness to ask the question is a good sign: she's interested in learning about the game and how it works. This is a good sign that a player is, in drug dealer terms, hooked. I hope my answer didn't go too far over her head. I told her yes, they were there, but the setting and story weren't conducive to using them. Barovia isn't exactly super fertile, but neither is it terribly barren, so foraging (something the PCs are assumed to do as they travel anyway in this edition, provided they aren't travelling too fast) isn't a problem. Further, they haven't ever spent longer than a few hours away from some form of civilization, so they could easily stock up on food. Last, but not least, few horror stories stop to have the characters look for food and water, so why should this game, a horror story, stop for that?
Mulling this over got me thinking on arm chair game design and game design philosophy. Anyone who knows me that not only am I nerd, I'm a nerd about nerdery. I've read Shannon Applecline's Designers & Dragons and David M. Ewalt's Of Dice and Men. At game conventions I'll attend the game designer's round tables and workshops to get inside the heads of people who actually make rules. So, on to game and rules stuff.
The important thing about D&D and table-top role-playing overall, is that the game's are, to put it in fancy terms, non-zero sum games. In simplest terms, it means that the game doesn't have a winner or loser, and often the best option is cooperation rather than competition. People have written reams on why this is so important, so I'll skip to my next point. Since D&D is non-zero sum, it astounds me how often in early D&D, and even among veteran players, there is still a notion of competition between the DM and the players. But there is a reason for it.
In the mists of D&D prehistory, were table-top strategy games where players used miniatures to reenact famous real battles. In the 60s and 70s, as fantasy and sci-fi began to receive a little more legitimacy in pop-culture and even culture in general, these began to include fictional battles. The original D&D rules were based on a rule set Gary Gygax wrote called Chainmail designed to reenact these sorts of fantasy battles with miniatures. So it was born in a crucible of zero-sum gaming, and it leads to one of the first axes of game design: gamist.
A gamist game's rules are not shy about what they are: a, well, game. Concepts such as balance are important. Specifically, balance between PC types and making sure that the scenario the party is tackling is balanced against the PCs capabilities. As such the greatest chunk of the rules is devoted to the cool stuff PCs and NPCs can do, and how they acquire more cool stuff. One of the dirtiest little secrets of table-top gaming is that most games are gamist. There's nothing really inherently wrong with that. When I analyze my own reasons for coming to the gaming table, and I'm being honest with myself, power fantasy is definitely on the list.
However, as table-top role-playing grew, new philosophies started to enter the arena. Tunnels and Trolls is often credited with being the second ever table-top RPG, and it was designed by Arizona's own Ken St. Andre. It used highly streamlined rules and generally focused on how things were described with words rather than with mechanics. This is an example of new philosophy embedded in D&D: couldn't the DM and players focus on creating a fun story rather than solving a miniature's battle in dungeon form? This is narrativist gaming, and you'll find a regaling on it in virtually every "What is a Role-Playing Game" sub-header for in virtually every role-playing book ever written. The philosophy has been around for literally forever in table-top game terms, but is only recently starting to become ascendant with the success of titles like FATE and Fiasco (both of which are great games that I highly recommend playing and would hope to run again some time). The nice thing about narrativist ideas, however, is that they're often system neutral, or at least easily adaptable to any system. Some, like Gumshoe's philosophy that the players shouldn't have to roll dice or spend resources to advance the plot adapt easily. Others, like rotating GM or GM-less play, are harder to adapt without a group willing to give it a try--and often needing a more finite scenario design to set the communications parameters.
There was another design philosophy that grew out of D&D, but was already embedded in wargaming, but D&D provided a platform to flourish. People began to make full-fledged fantasy worlds of their own in the wake of D&D, and they often shared these worlds with other players. Some just put whatever they thought was cool in the setting and called it a day. Others created detailed histories, weather, and trade patterns. As they tried to model their fictional world as realistically as possible, they sought to adapt the rules to suit. This is simulationist gaming. They tend to be math and rules heavy, and even more of a niche audience than even narrativist games. They were more popular in the early eighties and have petered out since the nineties, when computer games reached the point where providing hyper-realistic simulation was possible, leaving the math to be done by the computers instead of the players.
One important thing to note: most games aren't really purely one or the other. They exist on a continuum. The d20 system, 3rd and 3.5 Edition D&D, existed very much along the gamist and simulationist end of the spectrum. Fourth edition, however, dropped all simulationist pretense and introduced a lot of elements that were more narrativist (specifically the Skill Challenge). This is probably why it was so base-breaking. (Aside from the edition change rendering quite a lot of material obsolete--gamers had put a lot of money into D&D at that point). Fifth edition has moved back towards simulationist a little bit, but has introduced even more narrativist elements (personality traits and Inspiration).
When I look at my ever slowly evolving tastes in gaming, I notice that I was once a gamist. I still am, a little. As I admitted before, power fantasy is on the list of "why I come to the gaming table," but it no longer is the top one. In fact, that whole "do stuff, gather xp and treasure from doing stuff," has begun to feel like a chore. Video games that focus on it, like WoW and Diablo, no longer appeal to me like they did. Playing Fiasco at my birthday, getting together with friends and creating our very own impromptu Coen Brothers movie from semi-randomly chosen elements, was the height of fun. I've found the top of that gaming table list is now "Being with friends" and "Telling an awesome story together." In short, I'm now more of a narrativist. I don't think I've ever been a simulationist in any stripe.
It's food for any gamer's thought really. I know many readers will probably shrug and say, "I come to have fun." But I'm talking about breaking down what fun looks like for you. And with table-top role-playing, where options are almost literally limitless, its important to find out what "Fun" looks like.
First, to my players, who are also loyal readers, a reader Pitfiend pointed out that I had been running daylight wrong in the Strahd encounter. Specifically, it isn't actual sunlight, just really bright light. Sadly, as much as I hate to say it, I reviewed the spell and even the errata, and Pitfiend was right. So, sorry, kids, but next time it won't be as effective. I've even mulled it over a bit to break down some of the power-level implications, and ultimately I do have to say that daylight is slightly under-powered for a third level spell, but still useful. Plus, reviewing the party's other capabilities at the time it merely hastened rather than guaranteed the vampire spawn's demise. Specifically, the alternate method would have involved focusing fire while Tathora spammed sacred flame to shut down their regeneration, or relied on guiding bolt, which also shuts down their regeneration and would set the rogues up for a sneak attack. Strahd's strategy was a little different-I made his parting shot more powerful than it might otherwise have been.
On the subject of spells, something I've been neglecting to mention is that Cugel used major image to conjure images of Strahd to try and convince the druids in the winery to stand down. So far I've been running it as an ineffective tactic. I've gone back and reviewed the spell, and, from conversations with Alec, I think I have a better idea of his play style and intentions. In short, if daylight will be less effective, major image should grow in effectiveness.
Another observation I failed to make as I was writing the last post, was that Hilary, the youngest player, actually asked a rules question. She asked about rules for finding food and water. Her willingness to ask the question is a good sign: she's interested in learning about the game and how it works. This is a good sign that a player is, in drug dealer terms, hooked. I hope my answer didn't go too far over her head. I told her yes, they were there, but the setting and story weren't conducive to using them. Barovia isn't exactly super fertile, but neither is it terribly barren, so foraging (something the PCs are assumed to do as they travel anyway in this edition, provided they aren't travelling too fast) isn't a problem. Further, they haven't ever spent longer than a few hours away from some form of civilization, so they could easily stock up on food. Last, but not least, few horror stories stop to have the characters look for food and water, so why should this game, a horror story, stop for that?
Mulling this over got me thinking on arm chair game design and game design philosophy. Anyone who knows me that not only am I nerd, I'm a nerd about nerdery. I've read Shannon Applecline's Designers & Dragons and David M. Ewalt's Of Dice and Men. At game conventions I'll attend the game designer's round tables and workshops to get inside the heads of people who actually make rules. So, on to game and rules stuff.
The important thing about D&D and table-top role-playing overall, is that the game's are, to put it in fancy terms, non-zero sum games. In simplest terms, it means that the game doesn't have a winner or loser, and often the best option is cooperation rather than competition. People have written reams on why this is so important, so I'll skip to my next point. Since D&D is non-zero sum, it astounds me how often in early D&D, and even among veteran players, there is still a notion of competition between the DM and the players. But there is a reason for it.
In the mists of D&D prehistory, were table-top strategy games where players used miniatures to reenact famous real battles. In the 60s and 70s, as fantasy and sci-fi began to receive a little more legitimacy in pop-culture and even culture in general, these began to include fictional battles. The original D&D rules were based on a rule set Gary Gygax wrote called Chainmail designed to reenact these sorts of fantasy battles with miniatures. So it was born in a crucible of zero-sum gaming, and it leads to one of the first axes of game design: gamist.
A gamist game's rules are not shy about what they are: a, well, game. Concepts such as balance are important. Specifically, balance between PC types and making sure that the scenario the party is tackling is balanced against the PCs capabilities. As such the greatest chunk of the rules is devoted to the cool stuff PCs and NPCs can do, and how they acquire more cool stuff. One of the dirtiest little secrets of table-top gaming is that most games are gamist. There's nothing really inherently wrong with that. When I analyze my own reasons for coming to the gaming table, and I'm being honest with myself, power fantasy is definitely on the list.
However, as table-top role-playing grew, new philosophies started to enter the arena. Tunnels and Trolls is often credited with being the second ever table-top RPG, and it was designed by Arizona's own Ken St. Andre. It used highly streamlined rules and generally focused on how things were described with words rather than with mechanics. This is an example of new philosophy embedded in D&D: couldn't the DM and players focus on creating a fun story rather than solving a miniature's battle in dungeon form? This is narrativist gaming, and you'll find a regaling on it in virtually every "What is a Role-Playing Game" sub-header for in virtually every role-playing book ever written. The philosophy has been around for literally forever in table-top game terms, but is only recently starting to become ascendant with the success of titles like FATE and Fiasco (both of which are great games that I highly recommend playing and would hope to run again some time). The nice thing about narrativist ideas, however, is that they're often system neutral, or at least easily adaptable to any system. Some, like Gumshoe's philosophy that the players shouldn't have to roll dice or spend resources to advance the plot adapt easily. Others, like rotating GM or GM-less play, are harder to adapt without a group willing to give it a try--and often needing a more finite scenario design to set the communications parameters.
There was another design philosophy that grew out of D&D, but was already embedded in wargaming, but D&D provided a platform to flourish. People began to make full-fledged fantasy worlds of their own in the wake of D&D, and they often shared these worlds with other players. Some just put whatever they thought was cool in the setting and called it a day. Others created detailed histories, weather, and trade patterns. As they tried to model their fictional world as realistically as possible, they sought to adapt the rules to suit. This is simulationist gaming. They tend to be math and rules heavy, and even more of a niche audience than even narrativist games. They were more popular in the early eighties and have petered out since the nineties, when computer games reached the point where providing hyper-realistic simulation was possible, leaving the math to be done by the computers instead of the players.
One important thing to note: most games aren't really purely one or the other. They exist on a continuum. The d20 system, 3rd and 3.5 Edition D&D, existed very much along the gamist and simulationist end of the spectrum. Fourth edition, however, dropped all simulationist pretense and introduced a lot of elements that were more narrativist (specifically the Skill Challenge). This is probably why it was so base-breaking. (Aside from the edition change rendering quite a lot of material obsolete--gamers had put a lot of money into D&D at that point). Fifth edition has moved back towards simulationist a little bit, but has introduced even more narrativist elements (personality traits and Inspiration).
When I look at my ever slowly evolving tastes in gaming, I notice that I was once a gamist. I still am, a little. As I admitted before, power fantasy is on the list of "why I come to the gaming table," but it no longer is the top one. In fact, that whole "do stuff, gather xp and treasure from doing stuff," has begun to feel like a chore. Video games that focus on it, like WoW and Diablo, no longer appeal to me like they did. Playing Fiasco at my birthday, getting together with friends and creating our very own impromptu Coen Brothers movie from semi-randomly chosen elements, was the height of fun. I've found the top of that gaming table list is now "Being with friends" and "Telling an awesome story together." In short, I'm now more of a narrativist. I don't think I've ever been a simulationist in any stripe.
It's food for any gamer's thought really. I know many readers will probably shrug and say, "I come to have fun." But I'm talking about breaking down what fun looks like for you. And with table-top role-playing, where options are almost literally limitless, its important to find out what "Fun" looks like.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
The Wizard of Wines
Hello, readers. I'm writing this from a hospital room following my surgery. But my recovery has gone very well and the doctor was talking about discharging me as early as tomorrow. I'm hopeful, because then I can catch the next Game of Thrones.
When we last left our heroes, they had decided to go inside the winery rather than face the swarm of thirty needle blights outside. Rather than roll a lot of dice and possibly start a marathon battle, I decided that the party was strong and/or clever enough to barricade the broken outer doors long enough for Lop to cast mending on them.
They decided to check out the basement of the winery first. There they found a second druid with a small group of needle blights. Amrus was able to sneak up on the enemies and get a surprise round, which he used throwing a screw he had looted from the barrel maker's room up above to create a distraction. He drew some attention, but the druid finished casting thunderwave, knocking 23 bottles of Red Dragon Crush to the floor and catching Amrus in the blast.
Tathora used silence to shut down the druid's spell casting, unfortunately her placement of the area prevented Lop, Cugel, and herself from casting any spells in the room either. Though to get the kids into the spirit of role-playing being in a silent room, Kyla got Hillary and Blake playing charades. Still, without their tank, Tarkir, or their other primary blaster Ap, they managed to finish the blights and the druid without too much trouble. They decided to loot some of the remaining bottle of Red Dragon Crush and set out for the second story of the winery.
They reached the loading crane over the loading dock. There they found the druid with the gulthias staff, a magic staff with power over blights and the ability to lets its wielder steal hit points on successful attacks. This application of the staff, incidentally, makes the wielder crazy. Most importantly, when broken it emits a scream that kills all blights in a 300 foot radius.
Lop opened up by casting web on the opening, blocking the druid's main escape route. Tathora then attempted to use command, specifically the disarm application. Unfortunately, the druid made his save. Still, between Sarra's whirling blades and Amrus's sneak attacks, the poor druid didn't last long. Lop used identify on the staff to determine how it worked.
They continued exploring the upper floor, finding the kitchen and dining room, the master bedroom where Amrus broke into the money chest and rooted around. Once again his desire to loot everything he finds butted up against the party's more general idea of trying to role-play benevolent adventurers. Trying to explain the idea that chaotic good is the general framework of Robin Hood or Batman seems to help. I have a feeling that an encounter coming up might push the situation further and not end well for Amrus (or the rest of the party, really).
The explored a couple of side bedrooms, including the one used by the children, where they found their first Blinsky toy: a Nightmare (a demonic horse with coal-black hair and fire for a mane and tail) named Beucephalus. These toys are scattered around Barovia, creepy play things emblazoned with "Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!" This particular toy is a representation of none other than Strahd's mount.
The found the final unexplored room, a printing press for wine bottle labels that contained the last druid and her two vine blight servants. Once again, the party managed to make short work of the combat. The druids aren't effective close combatants, but their spells were fairly effective, but it takes them a couple of rounds to fully prepare: they need a round to cast barkskin followed by shillelagh to become fully effective. Blights, overall, are particularly weak, but are meant to show up in large groups.
The characters finally stepped out of the Winery and the swarm of needle blights, where they broke to Gulthias staff, killing all 30 blights in one fell swoop. For that, they got Inspiration. They're planning on spending some time with the Martikovs to get a long rest. Amrus took some of the poisoned wine, and Tathora was planning on preparing purify food and drink to handle to poisoned wine.
When we last left our heroes, they had decided to go inside the winery rather than face the swarm of thirty needle blights outside. Rather than roll a lot of dice and possibly start a marathon battle, I decided that the party was strong and/or clever enough to barricade the broken outer doors long enough for Lop to cast mending on them.
They decided to check out the basement of the winery first. There they found a second druid with a small group of needle blights. Amrus was able to sneak up on the enemies and get a surprise round, which he used throwing a screw he had looted from the barrel maker's room up above to create a distraction. He drew some attention, but the druid finished casting thunderwave, knocking 23 bottles of Red Dragon Crush to the floor and catching Amrus in the blast.
Tathora used silence to shut down the druid's spell casting, unfortunately her placement of the area prevented Lop, Cugel, and herself from casting any spells in the room either. Though to get the kids into the spirit of role-playing being in a silent room, Kyla got Hillary and Blake playing charades. Still, without their tank, Tarkir, or their other primary blaster Ap, they managed to finish the blights and the druid without too much trouble. They decided to loot some of the remaining bottle of Red Dragon Crush and set out for the second story of the winery.
They reached the loading crane over the loading dock. There they found the druid with the gulthias staff, a magic staff with power over blights and the ability to lets its wielder steal hit points on successful attacks. This application of the staff, incidentally, makes the wielder crazy. Most importantly, when broken it emits a scream that kills all blights in a 300 foot radius.
Lop opened up by casting web on the opening, blocking the druid's main escape route. Tathora then attempted to use command, specifically the disarm application. Unfortunately, the druid made his save. Still, between Sarra's whirling blades and Amrus's sneak attacks, the poor druid didn't last long. Lop used identify on the staff to determine how it worked.
They continued exploring the upper floor, finding the kitchen and dining room, the master bedroom where Amrus broke into the money chest and rooted around. Once again his desire to loot everything he finds butted up against the party's more general idea of trying to role-play benevolent adventurers. Trying to explain the idea that chaotic good is the general framework of Robin Hood or Batman seems to help. I have a feeling that an encounter coming up might push the situation further and not end well for Amrus (or the rest of the party, really).
The explored a couple of side bedrooms, including the one used by the children, where they found their first Blinsky toy: a Nightmare (a demonic horse with coal-black hair and fire for a mane and tail) named Beucephalus. These toys are scattered around Barovia, creepy play things emblazoned with "Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!" This particular toy is a representation of none other than Strahd's mount.
The found the final unexplored room, a printing press for wine bottle labels that contained the last druid and her two vine blight servants. Once again, the party managed to make short work of the combat. The druids aren't effective close combatants, but their spells were fairly effective, but it takes them a couple of rounds to fully prepare: they need a round to cast barkskin followed by shillelagh to become fully effective. Blights, overall, are particularly weak, but are meant to show up in large groups.
The characters finally stepped out of the Winery and the swarm of needle blights, where they broke to Gulthias staff, killing all 30 blights in one fell swoop. For that, they got Inspiration. They're planning on spending some time with the Martikovs to get a long rest. Amrus took some of the poisoned wine, and Tathora was planning on preparing purify food and drink to handle to poisoned wine.
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Enter, Strahd
In a story with a singular antagonist, its often good for them to show up "on screen" before the final confrontation. I decided that 5th level, being about the mid-point of the campaign, would be a good time for Strahd to pay a visit to test and taunt the PCs, to pull a "Kefka," or "Sephiroth," if you prefer. Strahd is a trixy customer, and a spellcaster to boot. Spellcasters are always difficult to run, and I admit I underprepared a little.
Around about midnight, Strahd strolled into the camp they shared with the Martikovs with a pair of vampire spawn. He regarded the party, one-by-one in good old fashioned villain form. After regarding Sarra and Tathora, he commented that his last elven consort, "Didn't work out." He saw Tarkir's golden scales and said, "They send a dragon of gold after I had bested one of silver." He admired Lop's spellwork, but he was, "Too short." He found Ap too wild and uncontrollable. However, Cugel, with his ghoul-skin cloak and willingness to animate corpse, Strahd felt had promise. He taunted the Martikovs: "What's wrong, little birds? Afraid the strangers might learn your secrets?" Then he engaged in combat. I managed to resist having him say, "But enough talk, have at you!" I think I will save that for later...
There was a reason I waited until 5th level. Its the first time PCs will have a really wide range of tactical options combined with being sturdy enough to outlast the "rocket tag" of lower levels. Strahd had an off-screen timer as well. He did manage to put the all-important fear of an uncaring universe into the PCs' hearts, but they still handled it better than I expected.
The PCs, unlike the protagonists in most vampire stories, proved to be genre savvy, and Tathora opened by casting daylight in the center of the camp. Sunlight causes radiant damage to vampires and causes them to suffer disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. Radiant damage also shuts down their regeneration for a turn. Daylight is a third level spell mainly because of how effective it can be against foes sensitive to sunlight like vampires or drow. Cugel tried to use his favorite standby, Tasha's hideous laughter on Strahd, but Legendary Resistance kept him up.
Strahd didn't want to kill the party, but test them. He used sleep, which has been made much more user friendly in this edition. The caster rolls 5d8 "damage," and it effects targets in the radius starting from the center, going from lowest to highest hit point total. Strahd rolled really low, so only Tarkir, who hadn't taken much healing, was affected. Still, Strahd was able to retreat out of the radius of bright light, which is a whopping 60 feet. It kept the weaker vampire spawn at bay, too, which Lop and Ap focused on while the rest of the party focused on Strahd. Lop and Ap also convinced the Martikovs to take up arms against the vampire spawn.
Strahd's parting shot was fireball. He managed to roll fairly high damage, but the PCs managed to also roll well on their saving throws (and Tathora was timely with heals), so only Sarra and Cugel went down. Blake had a little bit of analysis paralysis at this point: whether to have Amrus use a healing potion on Sarra or on himself. The group generally counselled toward getting Sarra back into the fight, but both Alec and Will opted for the "Do what you want" option. I beginning to agree with their counsel, that as a DM and as a group we should let Blake make his own mistakes and learn.
After the party recovered, Strahd turned into a bat and left, leaving the party and the Martikovs to deal with the vampire spawn, who I had named Louis and Lestat off-screen, because why run a game with vampires without some references. The PCs discovered, after using some fire (Ap pushing a vampire through the campfire using thunderwave) and acid (Lop using Melf's acid arrow), only radiant damage shuts down a vampire's regeneration. Amrus also learned that his silvered shortsword wasn't effective against the vampire's either; he would need a magic weapon. Still, the vampire spawn lacked ranged attacks, so they were forced to fight in the light, so the party and their allies made short work of them.
At this point, I'm going to point out that there is a spell called magic weapon, which makes a weapon magical. Since some readers are going to go check to see what lists its on, I'll save you the trouble: Cleric with the War Domain, Paladin, and Wizard. Also, a Warlock with a Pact of the Blade feature's bonded weapon is magical, and a Monk's unarmed attacks are magical starting at level 6. So, even though they haven't found any actual magic weapons, Tarkir could have had magic weapon prepared and helped them out.
When the dust from battle cleared, the party confronted the Martikovs on their secret. They admitted that they were Wereravens, and that they use their powers to try and protect the people of Barovia from the machinations of Strahd. At one point Takir asked, "How do you turn into ravens?" Damian Martikov responded, "Like this," and turned into a raven, followed by the witty comeback, "The same way you can breath fire."
The party got a long rest, and approached the winery. The Martikovs warned the PCs about the mass of plant creatures and four druids within. They also mentioned one of the druids carrying poison to corrupt the wine. Another druid seemed to guide the plant monsters with a magical staff, and the Martikovs suggested that if the PCs destroy the staff it might destroy the plant monsters, too.
As they reached the winery, a sagging ivory-covered structure, needle blights like the one they had fought the day before began emerging from the vineyard. The ran into the winery through the stables and soon found themselves in the fermenting room, swarming with twig blights, plant monsters made of twig bundles. They found a female druid within poisoning the fermenting wine.
Ap once again used lightning bolt to clear a line of plant monsters. Lop used a split magic missile, and they learned how many hit point the things had (4 each) by rolling 3 damage on two hits. Using her multiattack, Sarra managed to clear even more twigs. Ap also used shatter to drop more twigs and hit the druid, who used barkskin before entering combat. Tathora finally used one of her offensive spells, guiding bolt, unfortunately it dropped her target: the druid, before the spells rider: the next attack against the target gets advantage, could come into play. Guiding bolt is probably one of the best first level spells in this edition. It does solid damage (4d6) and can set a Rogue up for a sneak attack, a Champion Fighter for an increased chance at getting a critical, a Hunter Ranger for a giant killer strike, for a Battle Master Fighter to connect with one of their more powerful maneuvers, etc.
The problem with the room is that it was too small to properly use the horde, especially since it had very limited entry points and narrow paths. It would have worked better with a singular, powerful enemy with lots of maneuverability, limiting the PC's ability to swarm it. Of course, if the party had chosen to stand against the needle blights outside, the druid and the twig blights within would have emerged to flank them. That could have devolved into another marathon battle, so I'm glad the party sought shelter.
We broke at this point, with players getting a chance to barricade themselves in the winery against the swarm of needle blights outside in the vineyard. They also will need to undo some of the damage Ap did with his spells. Fortunately, Lop knows mending.
Around about midnight, Strahd strolled into the camp they shared with the Martikovs with a pair of vampire spawn. He regarded the party, one-by-one in good old fashioned villain form. After regarding Sarra and Tathora, he commented that his last elven consort, "Didn't work out." He saw Tarkir's golden scales and said, "They send a dragon of gold after I had bested one of silver." He admired Lop's spellwork, but he was, "Too short." He found Ap too wild and uncontrollable. However, Cugel, with his ghoul-skin cloak and willingness to animate corpse, Strahd felt had promise. He taunted the Martikovs: "What's wrong, little birds? Afraid the strangers might learn your secrets?" Then he engaged in combat. I managed to resist having him say, "But enough talk, have at you!" I think I will save that for later...
There was a reason I waited until 5th level. Its the first time PCs will have a really wide range of tactical options combined with being sturdy enough to outlast the "rocket tag" of lower levels. Strahd had an off-screen timer as well. He did manage to put the all-important fear of an uncaring universe into the PCs' hearts, but they still handled it better than I expected.
The PCs, unlike the protagonists in most vampire stories, proved to be genre savvy, and Tathora opened by casting daylight in the center of the camp. Sunlight causes radiant damage to vampires and causes them to suffer disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. Radiant damage also shuts down their regeneration for a turn. Daylight is a third level spell mainly because of how effective it can be against foes sensitive to sunlight like vampires or drow. Cugel tried to use his favorite standby, Tasha's hideous laughter on Strahd, but Legendary Resistance kept him up.
Strahd didn't want to kill the party, but test them. He used sleep, which has been made much more user friendly in this edition. The caster rolls 5d8 "damage," and it effects targets in the radius starting from the center, going from lowest to highest hit point total. Strahd rolled really low, so only Tarkir, who hadn't taken much healing, was affected. Still, Strahd was able to retreat out of the radius of bright light, which is a whopping 60 feet. It kept the weaker vampire spawn at bay, too, which Lop and Ap focused on while the rest of the party focused on Strahd. Lop and Ap also convinced the Martikovs to take up arms against the vampire spawn.
Strahd's parting shot was fireball. He managed to roll fairly high damage, but the PCs managed to also roll well on their saving throws (and Tathora was timely with heals), so only Sarra and Cugel went down. Blake had a little bit of analysis paralysis at this point: whether to have Amrus use a healing potion on Sarra or on himself. The group generally counselled toward getting Sarra back into the fight, but both Alec and Will opted for the "Do what you want" option. I beginning to agree with their counsel, that as a DM and as a group we should let Blake make his own mistakes and learn.
After the party recovered, Strahd turned into a bat and left, leaving the party and the Martikovs to deal with the vampire spawn, who I had named Louis and Lestat off-screen, because why run a game with vampires without some references. The PCs discovered, after using some fire (Ap pushing a vampire through the campfire using thunderwave) and acid (Lop using Melf's acid arrow), only radiant damage shuts down a vampire's regeneration. Amrus also learned that his silvered shortsword wasn't effective against the vampire's either; he would need a magic weapon. Still, the vampire spawn lacked ranged attacks, so they were forced to fight in the light, so the party and their allies made short work of them.
At this point, I'm going to point out that there is a spell called magic weapon, which makes a weapon magical. Since some readers are going to go check to see what lists its on, I'll save you the trouble: Cleric with the War Domain, Paladin, and Wizard. Also, a Warlock with a Pact of the Blade feature's bonded weapon is magical, and a Monk's unarmed attacks are magical starting at level 6. So, even though they haven't found any actual magic weapons, Tarkir could have had magic weapon prepared and helped them out.
When the dust from battle cleared, the party confronted the Martikovs on their secret. They admitted that they were Wereravens, and that they use their powers to try and protect the people of Barovia from the machinations of Strahd. At one point Takir asked, "How do you turn into ravens?" Damian Martikov responded, "Like this," and turned into a raven, followed by the witty comeback, "The same way you can breath fire."
The party got a long rest, and approached the winery. The Martikovs warned the PCs about the mass of plant creatures and four druids within. They also mentioned one of the druids carrying poison to corrupt the wine. Another druid seemed to guide the plant monsters with a magical staff, and the Martikovs suggested that if the PCs destroy the staff it might destroy the plant monsters, too.
As they reached the winery, a sagging ivory-covered structure, needle blights like the one they had fought the day before began emerging from the vineyard. The ran into the winery through the stables and soon found themselves in the fermenting room, swarming with twig blights, plant monsters made of twig bundles. They found a female druid within poisoning the fermenting wine.
Ap once again used lightning bolt to clear a line of plant monsters. Lop used a split magic missile, and they learned how many hit point the things had (4 each) by rolling 3 damage on two hits. Using her multiattack, Sarra managed to clear even more twigs. Ap also used shatter to drop more twigs and hit the druid, who used barkskin before entering combat. Tathora finally used one of her offensive spells, guiding bolt, unfortunately it dropped her target: the druid, before the spells rider: the next attack against the target gets advantage, could come into play. Guiding bolt is probably one of the best first level spells in this edition. It does solid damage (4d6) and can set a Rogue up for a sneak attack, a Champion Fighter for an increased chance at getting a critical, a Hunter Ranger for a giant killer strike, for a Battle Master Fighter to connect with one of their more powerful maneuvers, etc.
The problem with the room is that it was too small to properly use the horde, especially since it had very limited entry points and narrow paths. It would have worked better with a singular, powerful enemy with lots of maneuverability, limiting the PC's ability to swarm it. Of course, if the party had chosen to stand against the needle blights outside, the druid and the twig blights within would have emerged to flank them. That could have devolved into another marathon battle, so I'm glad the party sought shelter.
We broke at this point, with players getting a chance to barricade themselves in the winery against the swarm of needle blights outside in the vineyard. They also will need to undo some of the damage Ap did with his spells. Fortunately, Lop knows mending.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)