Festival of the Blazing Sun

For any reader curious about what I might do other than gaming in my spare time, I spent this morning walking dogs for the Pima Animal Care Center. Getting the animals some exercise and companionship was well worth it, and I recommend it for any dog person out there.

Plus, if any of you are fans of any combination of the Dresden Files and co-operative board games, be sure to visit Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game Kickstarter and back it.

As I mentioned before, Vallaki is an event based portion of the new Curse of Strahd. As a DM, I always enjoy these sorts of adventures because they let the players make (a)moral (and sometimes stupid) decisions. These always end up being a little more interesting than the basic "left, right, or center at the fork" decisions provided by dungeons.

The day dawned gloomy and cloudy even by Barovia standards, and the party joined the rest of the town in the square for the Festival of the Blazing Sun, the greatest festival of the year! ALL WILL BE WELL! They watched a parade of children dressed in shabby flower costumes bring up a wicker sun (no, there wasn't anyone inside) that was then doused in oil. The burgomaster of Vallaki, the self-styled Baron Vargas Vallakovich rode into the square bearing a torch sputtering in the sudden downpour. He attempted to set the wicker sun ablaze, only to have it sputter and go out. This drew a tepid, fearful laugh from one of the assembled town guards. The baron accused the offender of "malicious unhappiness" (This is in the adventure itself. No, I don't know if the writers know Paranoia, but I'm betting they do.) and had him hog tied and attached to the Baron's horse. The baron then dragged the hapless guard around the muddy square for the "entertainment" of the assembled crowd. Ap cast mage hand to free the guard. As you might expect, this redirected the Baron's ire onto the party. He ordered the guards to surround the party, disarm them, and lead them from the town, which they would henceforth be banished from.

Tathora tried to calm the guards, but her words (and low die roll), failed to sway them from the fearsome Baron. Cugel cast invisibility, and from that cover cast rope trick. This handy spell suspends a rope in mid-air that leads to a small pocket dimension that lasts for an hour. If you pull up the rope, you close off the pocket dimension. It allows the party to take a short rest without worry of having to deal with a random encounter (at least until the spell ends and they have to leave the dimension). The party all scrambled up the rope to safety. The incensed Baron wanted them found, stripped, and left in the stocks for a week.

Everyone except Ap, who decided to peacefully accompany two guards to the gates. His original plan was to use crown of madness with the Twin Spell metamagic (a sorcerer feature in this edition-its exactly what it says on the tin: the spell effects two targets). This spell charms a target, and forces it to spend its action attacking a target of the caster's choice before moving. Presumably, Ap planned to have the guards knock each other out before returning to the party. But after seeing them disappear up the rope, he walked the rest of the way, allowed himself to be taken out the gates, then doubled back, found a clear area along the walls (with some Dexterity (stealth) checks) and climbed back over. He spotted a raven watching him, and used chill touch on it, which it took in stride and flew off. That was no ordinary raven!

In the mean time, the rest of the party relaxed in Cugel's bubble while a pair of guards stayed below where they disappeared. Help arrived in the form of Rictavio, who offered the guards some wine (laced with a harmless sleeping toxin) to ease their parched throats. The guards nodded off, so the party left the bubble and joined Rictavio, who asked them a favor. He had been keeping a saber-tooth tiger in his carnival wagon, but some idiot had broken the lock, and the beast got out. He wanted them to recover it before it hurt anyone. He told the party the coffin maker had been found dead, his throat torn out. Everyone was blaming the tiger. Except Rictavio managed to get a glimpse of the body, and he had been dead too long for it to have been the tiger. However, he knew the baron's guards meant it harm, so they had to find it before they provoked the beast. He gave the PCs some wolf steaks to lure it, and went to his wagon to prepare to leave. Since I like narrative coincidences to get a party back together, Ap returned just in time to meet Rictavio.

I ran this as a series of opposed tests. The Baron's bodyguard, the deformed and amoral Izek Strazni and a pack of guards were searching for the tiger while the party searched. Fortunately, the party found it first. They then needed to make some Wisdom (handle animal) checks to calm it and encourage it to follow them. I rewarded clever ideas and role-playing (using mage hand to scratch it behind the ears) and use of tools (tempting it with a wolf steak) with advantage on the roll. They accumulated enough successes to get it following them. However, they failed to evade Izek and his guards on their way back to Rictavio's wagon.

Ap tried to open the fight by using some spells to make himself spark like a thunder cloud. Of course, his bad luck (two threes when rolling with advantage), meant that none of the guards had seen the tale he told of his birth at the tavern. Plus, those guards were genuinely more scared of Izek and the Baron than they were of the PCs. The party opted to rely on non-lethal finishes for the guards, knocking out three (with the help of their cat) before dropping Izek.

I wished I had gotten to use Izek a little more. This brutish thug came complete with a tragic back story: losing his arm and family at a young age and a monstrous deformity: a demonic replacement arm grown for him by the Dark Powers ruling the Demiplane of Dread. The arm let him shoot fire, but the players were aggressive enough to get him melee right away. Of course, he had a big bucket of hit points and hit like a brick. He nearly dropped Sarra in a couple of hits. Cugel once again used Tasha's hideous laughter, but this time had to cast it twice, thanks to Izek rolling a natural 20 on his first save. In the meantime, Tathora got to break out the nuke heals to keep Sarra up. She also got to use spiritual weapon, one of the cleric's best early offense options, allowing ten turns of spell attacks doing 1d8 + Wisdom mod force damage. The best part is that it doesn't require concentration, so it can be used in conjunction with other duration spells, like many cleric buffs and the incomparable spirit guardians.

As Izek fell, he warned the party to watch out for his sister. They searched him for valuables,\ but only found a doll that looked suspiciously like Ireena Kolyana. They managed to surmise (with some Int rolls to remind them of previously revealed plot information) that Isek's sister is none other than Ireena. Tathora used spare the dying, a cleric cantrip that stabilizes a dying individual, to keep Izek alive and left a note on him letting him know that he had been shone mercy.

The rest of guards backed down and offered to cover for the PCs while they escaped. They lead the cat back to the wagon where Rictavio led the tiger in and locked it. They rode the out of town, where Urwin Martikov met them. He renewed his request investigate the winery, both for the sake of a parched Barovia and for the sake of checking on his estranged family. He let them know that they might need the wine to get Ireena and Ismark into Krezk, and told them he would keep the two safe until they returned. Rictavio told them to proceed on Urwin's errand, and to meet him at an old wizard's tower on the shores of Lake Barotok.

As they left, Urwin told Ap that ravens are a sign of good fortune in Barovia, and ought not be attacked, while he rubbed an obvious pain in his thigh. They guessed (correctly) that Ap had attacked none other than Urwin, though they figured he'd use a spell (such as polymorph). They weren't quite accurate, but I'd rather not spoil anything. (Though I think that teaser might be spoiler enough!)

The PCs were done with Vallaki (for now). They've earned the Baron's ire, but managed to save St Andral's church at the cost of the coffin maker's life. They've certainly affected the guards, but only time will tell if they left a mark on Izek. They haven't met with Lady Wachter yet, but may later.

I gave them a milestone, and helped them level up. Fifth level marks the start of the second "tier" in 5th edition. First, the proficiency bonus goes up, making everyone better at (nearly) everything. Second, dedicated spellcasters get access to 3rd level spells. This is where staples like fireball and lightning bolt live for arcane casters. Clerics get spirit guardians (a spell I waxed poetic on in previous posts, but I love it so much I'll talk about it again when Tathora uses it). They also get a raise dead: revivify that works if the target has been dead less than a minute. Also for spellcasters, cantrips get an extra damage die at 5th level. Rogues also get their third sneak attack die. Plus dedicated fighters (Fighters, Barbarian, Paladins, and Rangers) get their second attack. I think I forgot to tell Hillary this, so I'll be sure to let her know when next we meet. I also found I'd been an inattentive DM, and Kyla was further behind in her spellcasting than I thought. I broke out my cleric spell cards and sat down and (hopefully) got her squared away.

I also found out the kids ages, and they were about what I guesstimated. I found that the opportunity for a fight seemed to help keep Blake more attentive and less disruptive. Plus Alec had him sit next to me, which also help, I think. Plus, the last two sessions Hillary sat next to Kyla, who helped her out with combat rolls and kept her on track, too. I'll say it here and say it again in person: thanks Kyla!

The Winery will prove interesting, I think. Since they have another journey ahead, I'm going to pre-calculate travel times and roll for encounters ahead of time like DJ did back during Tyranny of Dragons. I tried the rest, so now I plan to try the best. I think I'll also try inserting some encounters from one of Goodman Games Fifth Edition Fantasy modules to shake things up. I know its technically unofficial, but I doubt Wizards' will send officiality police to stop my game and confiscate my gaming stuff. Plus they'll fit with the overall gothic horror mood of Ravenloft.