This week, we only had three players: Kyla, Pete, and Will. So that meant the party was Tathora, Lop, and Hoek. Running games for smaller groups without a tank presents some challenges, but I didn't want to let the players down, so we steamed on ahead.
We left our heroes after they had retrieved the fertility granting jewel from the druids and were returning it to its rightful place at Wizard of Wines vineyard.
Damian Martikov was happy to have the jewel returned. Lop mentioned that they might want better security for the jewels. They also mentioned needing his aid to battle Strahd. Damian agreed to travel with the PCs. He had some additional tasks: he wanted them to chop down the Gulthias Tree on Yester Hill, and wanted to visit his son Urwin the next time the party visited Krezk.
The group took a long rest and returned to the hill in the morning. The passed the site of the ritual and found the twisted Gulthias Tree in the southern lee of the hill. The tree was protected by a swarm of blights. Mostly twig and needle blights with a few vine blights. However, without a tank to soak hits, I felt it wise to reduce the number of monsters in the encounter. I halved the needle and twig blights and removed a single vine blight.
This probably reduced the difficulty of the encounter a bit more than I anticipated. None of the three spellcasters broke out their major crowd control spells. Hoek used spiritual weapon and at one point Tathora used guiding bolt. Lop didn't use his meteors, but cast magic missile at one point. Otherwise they relies on cantrips and, in Hoek's case, basic attacks. The vine blights did manage to use one of their more interesting powers: entangling plants. Its a fifteen foot area around the blight that creates difficult terrain and can restrain targets when it's first activated. One managed to get Hoek, but Tathora made her save against the effect of the second one.
Once they had mopped up the blights, they found an axe embedded in the tree. It turned out to be a magic axe. Although it didn't provide any normal bonuses, it does do an extra 1d8 damage against plants and plant monsters.
Next came dealing with the tree itself. Cursed trees being cursed trees, it chopping it down wasn't going to cut it. It needed to be uprooted or subjected to a hallow spell. Since they couldn't cast it yet, I let the players figure out a way to uproot the stump. They eventually settled on digging out the roots and then killing it with that old standby fire.
Digging through the roots they found one of the relics needed to face Strahd: the holy symbol of Ravenkind. This item helps with turning undead and also produces sunlight. As I mentioned before, I did a pre-game secret Tarokka reading, and this was the location it was placed at. While Kyla was willing to rock-paper-scissors Pete for it, Pete relinquished it. So Tathora now is the proud wielder of the symbol.
After clearing the tree, the party headed for Rictavio's tower. The journey was uneventful. Their trail led to a crumbling tower on an island in a small lake called Lake Baratok. An earthen causeway linked the island to the mainland. There the PCs found Rictavio's wagong and an unfamiliar, brightly painted barrel-top wagon.
Aside from the wagon, there was no sign of Rictavio. So they approached the tower door. It had no handles or visible locks, but there was a sign on the door. It was a circle with various figures inscribed along the edge linked by lines. There was a picture in the book to show the players. There was also a name on the lintel: "Khazan."
They tried saying the name. When that failed, Lop decided to knock. Unfortunately, this set off a magic trap, sheathing the whole tower in lightning and dealing some damage to Lop and Tathora, who were closest to the door. Once the lightning abated, they realized they needed to figure out another way in.
So Kyla, amazing puzzle solver that she is, was taking this time to actually look at the picture I showed the group. And she figured it out on her own: someone needed to pose in imitation of the figures on the outside of the circle, following the lines linking the poses to create a sequence. There were two possible start points, and either one would of have worked. She decided to start with the one at about the 11 o'clock position on the circle. Once Tathora completed the sequence, the door opened.
The interior of the tower was fairly decrepit. But now when they called out, Rictavio told them to join him on the top floor. They did this by riding an elevator worked by clay statues. There, they found him in a comfortable appointed room.
After introductions, Rictavio revealed his secret: he removed his hat of disguise, revealing himself to be an older human: the vampire hunter Rudolph Van Richten. He told the story of how his son was kidnapped by Vistani and given to a vampire to be turned, and how he slew his son out of mercy. Since then he has dedicated his life to hunting down the undead and other creatures of the night. He learned of Strahd Von Zarovich, the legendary vampire, from other Vistani he had interrogated. So he came to Barovia to fight him. He also mentioned his estranged protege: Ezmerelda D'Avenir. It told the PCs that it was her wagon parked out front.
Shortly after he had finished his tale, there came an ominous howling from the distance. The nearby pack of werewolves were coming, drawn by the lightning trap Lop had set off.
This was going to lead to another, fairly large battle. It was getting late, so I opted to end the session on the cliff hanger.
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