Out Into the World

The players completed the Death House, and stepped out into Barovia proper. To use a mid-90s Final Fantasy metaphor, they just got out of Midgar.

This makes my job harder, but more fun. Sandboxes give players a lot of leeway to explore, but also leeway to wander into places they could get themselves killed. Or worse. Rather than railroad, I prefer to let NPCs and the setting itself to drop hints pointing the PCs in the right direction.

We had left our players on the doorstep of the house with a small group of villagers across the street, deep in discussion and exchanging a few coppers. Put out, Tathora confronted them. The commoners sheepishly apologized; many outlanders go into the Death House, the name given to the old Durst manor. They pointed out there isn't much more for entertainment aside from wine, which there is a shortage of. Blake asked if they seemed rich, probably planning on having Amrus rob them. Of course, the Barovians wore frayed, heavily patched, hand-me down garments. Lop asked how long the Dursts had been dead, and the Barovians told him for generations. They advised the adventurers to go the Blood of the Vine tavern. They made that their next stop.

The Blood of the Vine tavern is a fixture in the Ravenloft modules, Barovia's run down tavern. There, they met Ismark Kolyanovich, the burgomaster's son. He bought them a pitcher of wine from Arik, the rather mechanical behaving barkeep. Ismark spoke with them, and learned that they had escaped the Death House and found the message from his father. He asked them to help with his sister, Ireena Kolyana. Fortunately, the party was good aligned, and agreed to help. Ismark also told them about the Vistani, including pointing out that the dusky-skinned, brightly clothed women that owned the bar, were Vistani.

Ismark led the PCs to the burgomaster's mansion. It had been recently attacked, and the scars of violence covered the outer walls and grounds. This had the desired effect of unnerving the PCs. Fortunately, Ireena, one of the central characters of the Ravenloft module, managed to charm them with her honesty and courage. They discovered the former burgomaster already dead in a homemade coffin. Ireena refused to leave until they had given him a proper burial. Lop cast levitation on the coffin, and they carried it to the church.

The church, like the mansion, bore the scars of recent attacks. Upon entering the church, they heard prayers and an inhuman scream. This put them on edge during their interview with the mad old priest, Donavich. He agreed to bury the burgomaster, but not until the next morning. When confronted about the scream, Donavich admitted that it was his son, but that the PCs shouldn't convern themselves with that. Amrus probed a little to far into the issue, getting him banished from the church. The PCs made a few guesses about Donavich: that he's in league with Strahd in some way, or that he's using dead souls for some fell purpose or another.

They tried to find lodging at the tavern, but the owners couldn't be persuaded to give them room space. They did advise them to visit Madam Eva at the Vistani encampment by Tser Falls. They told them that outlanders who do so tend to live longer. They ended up staying with Ireena and Ismark at the mansion. When they conferred with Ismark about the Vistani, he warned them away from visiting the encampment with Ireena. The Vistani are spies for Strahd.

Next, to add some ill omen, I had them witness a harmless, but eerie march of the spirits of dead adventurers from the Barovian graveyard up to Castle Ravenloft above. This only furthered the PCs belief that Donavich was in league with Strahd. None-the-less, he performed the burial as agreed the next day. Afterwards, he pulled Tathora aside and advised that they take Ireena further than Vallaki, but all they way to Krezk and the Abbey of Saint Markovia. Returning to the rest of the party, they mulled it over, even considering their suspicions.

They left the village of Barovia then. Curse of Strahd calls for frequent random encounter checks: every half-hour of travel. But it calls for no more than 2 random encounters in a 12 hour period. This means travel is rapid but dangerous enough. Plus, when using the milestone rules, it mean the players shouldn't be dependent on the Xp from random fights to acquire levels.

Their first encounter occurred as they crossed an old stone bridge over the Ivlis river. They met a trapper with glorious mutton chops: Alexandrej Petrovich. He sized up the party and offered to sell them furs. Lop bought an over-priced but warm fox-fur cloak. In Barovia, most available goods are available if their under 25gp in the PHB and even then at ten times the price. I used traveler's clothes (cost 2 gp) as my guideline for price. So Alexandrej wanted 20gp. The party managed to bargain him down to 10. He did find Lop and Cugel entertaining. Fortunately, they entertained the trapper and he never saw Amrus's silver shortsword. The encounter could have gone south very quickly in that event.

After journeying through mountains and the forest, they came a crossroad with an empty gallows. They followed Ismark's advice and went left, avoiding the Tser Pool Encampment encounter for the moment. I'm not afraid to say I went OOC to let the players now that I'd like to have the Tarokka deck before running the reading. Fortunately, there are many options to for the reading other than Madam Eva if they never bother returning here. As they passed through the crossroads, they heard a body fall in the gallows behind them. Everyone saw a featureless body, but Lop saw the body as himself. They traveled past Tser falls, the cross roads leading up to Castle Ravenloft itself, and through another of Barovia's gates.

While passing through the forests, they had their second encounter: with a cackling mad druid and a pack of twig blights. Once again, Cugel broke out his favorite spell: Tahsa's hideous laughter to incapacitate the druid. We had a closer reading of the rules and learned that damage also grants a saving throw against the effect. This didn't matter much in this encounter, but it could have changed the encounter with the shambling mound. The reason it didn't effect this encounter: the first hit on the druid from Sarra was critical and took the druid down to half his hit points in one go.

Ismark and Ireena helped in the fight, Ismark using the fairly powerful veteran stat block and Ireena using the slightly less powerful noble stat block. I should have done a good DM thing and copied the blocks for the PCs to use, giving them more options in combat and making less work for me at the table.

The short version is that the druid died before contributing, and the PCs killed the twig blights before they could inflict any damage. I actually don't mind that Cugel is using Tasha's hideous laughter to good effect. So few players use these sort of control spells with no damaging effects. It's refreshing to see the tactic pay off at the table.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. They arrived in Vallaki. The guards sized them up, and decided they weren't dangerous enough to keep out. Contemplating the wolf heads on pikes surrounding the wooden stockade of the village, the PCs entered. They reached another milestone. The guards suggested the PCs visit the Blue Water Inn, and we broke for the night so people could level up.

I'm looking forward to running Vallaki. It exemplifies a good sandbox adventure: lots of options and directions for the PCs to follow, and so many of those wonderful sub-optimal choices to make that makes table-top role-playing worth it.