Once again, we only had three players: Kyla, Pete, and Will. Generally, three players is the minimum for a good RPG party. This allows the players to cover three "specialty" areas and most systems have three to six. D&D has four combat roles: tank, healer, striker (single target DPS), and controller (AoE DPS and general battlefield changer). It generally assumes that outside of combat the party will have one brute (someone to smash and break stuff), a face (the high Charisma character doing all the talking), a sneak (stealth and skill to overcome traps), and a scholar (the one that just knows stuff). This is why five to six is generally considered the sweet spot for party size. It allows each player a variety of options when choosing roles and ensures that at least some will be doubled up to account for absenteeism or for those nights when one player is just unlucky or off. With three players, however, the players need to be more conscious of choices in class and specialties. They'll need to pick more flexible classes that cover at least two roles (most can) and build to cover both. Of course that has to mean that the players created their characters together fully aware of the fact that there would only be three players (or at least three regular players).
Kyla, Pete, and Will did not do that. Tathora is a nuke heal cleric, Lop is a wizard with a spell selection geared towards altering the battlefield and knowing stuff rather than blasting large groups of monsters to smithereens, and Hoek is another nuke heal cleric. Fortunately, nuke heal clerics can use spells and native features to do some off-tanking and monster blasting. Clerics of the Life Domain are proficient in heavy armor, so they can have fighter quality ACs. Spiritual Weapon is a handy spell for dishing out single target damage at range. And spirit guardians turns a cleric into a mobile damage over time fireball. In other words, in 5e if you're going to have only three players at least one of them should be playing a cleric. Ideally of the Life Domain or War Domain (both grant proficiency in heavy armor, and the War Domain has the added bonus of proficiency in martial weapons).
The game started with the werewolf pack attack. The party had a short time before the werewolves arrived, do Van Richten gave them some of the treasure from his wagon: a silvered short sword and 20 silvered crossbow bolts. Lop took the short sword, and Hoek took the bolts. They then took shelter in the tower as the pack arrived.
Once again, I reduced the count of monsters to account for a smaller party. This is where the milestone system is helpful. I don't have to account for experience point totals when figuring party level, so it's easier to adjust the difficulty of encounters on the fly by just dropping a few monsters from the total. In this case, the event called for the pack leader, Kiril Stoyanovich, to arrive with six regular werewolves and nine normal wolves. Part of the tension in the encounter was meant to be the werewolves in wolf form moving among the normal wolves. My miniature collection is not robust enough to allow for this and also give me a quick way to differentiate between the two myself without giving the game away to the players. So I opted for my usual transparency, with different miniatures for Kiril, the werewolves, and the normal wolves. I dropped three werewolves and four normal wolves from the final count.
The pack prowled outside the tower among the wagons. Van Richten told the party that the pack knew the basics of the magical defenses on the tower and would not approach. But he was eager to take out the werewolves as servants of Strahd. I actually unconsciously removed one of those defenses, though in retrospect, it was better that I did with a party so heavy on spell casters and so light on physically capable ones. The tower has an effect that prevents anyone but the original builder from casting spells inside or within five feet of it. This would force spellcasters to take riskier positions outside the safety of the tower to be fully effective, forcing more physically able characters to choose between protecting the spellcasters or taking safety in the tower. In this case, the whole party was spellcasters. While I simply forgot about it at the time, as a DM I'm generally against anything that completely shuts down the whole party.
Since they were fighting from the tower door, they were able to bottle-neck the pack pretty well, eliminating some of the threat due to numbers. Of course this meant someone had to take up the role of front-line tank, and this ended up being Hoek (despite the fact that Tathora actually has an AC one higher). This was unfortunate, since Van Richten also had a silvered sword (specifically his sword cane) and could have contributed. Instead, he cast some of the clerical support spells he had prepared. Specifically, he used death ward. This handy little spell lasts eight hours, requires no concentration, and returns the recipient to 1 hit point the first time they are ever reduced to 0 hit points by damage during the duration. Or, if the target would be subjected to an effect that would kill it without damage, that effect is negated. In either case, the spell ends. It is a 4th level spell, and deservedly so. Van Richten was eventually able to cast this on all three of the PCs.
Lop used web in the space between the wagons. It failed to significantly trap anything, but the difficult terrain did force the werewolves to take a round about route, slowing them down. In the meantime, Tathora used spiritual weapon to assist Hoek with the front line of the werewolves, in this case the pack alpha himself. In the meantime, Hoek took advantage of the bottleneck to cast spirit guardians. The only weakness to that spell is that it requires concentration. This mostly matters in two cases: one, the cleric wants to use a buff spell that requires concentration. And two, the cleric paints a target on his back, since concentration can be broken by damage. The werewolves, starting with Kiril Stoyanovich, all focused their attacks on Hoek and tried to break his concentration.
Unfortunately, they failed. Werewolves are Challenge 3, but they aren't really that high for offensive capability. Unlike classic World of Darkness werewolves they don't have uberclaws that do aggravated damage. Instead they are immune to nonmagical weapon attacks that aren't silver. Their bites can inflict lycanthropy, but their attack bonus is only +4 and the attacks only do a base of d8 damage. They can gain a multiattack, but only in hybrid form. The encounter calls for them to mostly remain in wolf form.
After his initial round of web, Lop switched to his favorite standby: Melf's minute meteors. Between those and Tathora and Hoek's attacks, Kiril Stoyanovich opted to flee and fight another day, the way all good named NPCs faced with death would. However, he wasn't quite fast enough to get away. Lop dropped him with a 3rd level magic missile. At this point, the rest of werewolves were pretty badly damaged and fled, but the party managed to drop at least one more. The normal wolves had been decimated, too, and the remainder fled.
At this point, the party had earned another milestone, putting them at level 7. Significant because the spellcasters earned a new spell level: 4th. Once everyone had finished with leveling, we resumed.
Van Richten reiterated his fears for his apprentice. He did advise the PCs to leave her wagon alone. She likes to set traps, and her last trap was explosive. He mentioned her having to regrow her eyebrows. The party opted to investigate the werewolf lair, especially since rumors pointed to the missing children Hoek had been sent to find lead there.
The party traveled to the bridge across the Luna River, then trail blazed through the forest to reach the werewolf lair. Along the way, they came upon a party of 17 Krekzkite peasants out to retrieve their children from the werewolf lair. Tathora managed to convince them to remain behind.
On their way to the lair, Hoek asked Damian Martikov about the histories of the wereravens and werewolves in the region. Damian answered that the wereravens came sometime before Strahd and have always lived in Barovia and quietly opposed Strahd's evil. He said he knows there's nothing mystical about Strahd and the werewolves; the serve the Count because they fear him. This of course got Hoek to concocting zany schemes to get the werewolves on their side when opposing Strahd. Lop and Tathora weren't quite sure about the wisdom of that plan. As werewolves are chaotic evil (generally) and vampires are lawful evil (generally), it would be a little like getting the Joker to fight Lex Luthor. Sure they might kill each other, but the amount of damage they'd cause to everyone else in the mean time would totally outweigh the benefit.
The entrance to werewolf lair was a cave that looked, fittingly enough, like a wolf's maw. The party opted to forego stealth and walked right in, challenging the guards. The guards, of course, weren't terribly intimidated. They raised an alarm, attracting threats from other nearby rooms.
This was going to lead to a long drawn out battle. We had started a little late, to give later players the benefit of the doubt. And leveling up had taken some time. Mainly because of spell selections. So it was late enough that I didn't want to start another long a drawn out battle. So we ended on the cliff hanger of the approaching enemies.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Small Party, No Blues
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.
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.
Monday, June 13, 2016
Rescue and Retrieval
Our friend Nathan returned this week. However, when he learned that the party was 5th level, he opted to create a new character. Since Andrew's attendance had been spotty lately, recommended he play a tank. So he built a half-elf paladin named Sinix that took the Oath of the Ancients. That particular build gives the paladin a little more of a druid/ranger feel.
Like the previously added higher level characters, he was hired by one of the Faerunian factions to hunt werewolves and kidnapped children in the Misty Forest, only to be eaten by the Mists of Barovia. He ended up in front of Vallaki, just in time to see the two guards that had been escorting Anna Krezkova running through to the nearby Vistani camp. Like a good PC biting at a story hook, he followed them and ran into the rest of the party.
The guards, of course, had Bad News. Apparently someone had stolen the Baron's Wife's wedding dress in the night and some of Anna Krezkova's jewelry had been found at the Baron's house. Sometimes it's helpful to have a rogue in the party so you don't have to rely on a hired scoundrel to do your dirty work. The guards informed them that Anna had been apprehended by the town guard, and that she was in the stocks in the town square, guarded by Izek Strazni and some other guards.
So, Sinix, being a good lawful good paladin, Sinix agreed to help, as did Hoek. They went through the town gate along with the guards. Lop and Tathora also came up to the gate, but they didn't plan on trying to sneak in or anything. Instead they had the guards send a runner to Izek. Lop wanted Izek to meet at the gate to discuss Izek's sister.
In my prep, I had already accounted for the party trying to talk Izek into releasing Lady Anna peacefully, but, like players do, they did it in a way I hadn't planned on. But I believe in letting clever plans work. So even though this plan involved splitting the party (*sigh* again!), I ran with it.
So Izek, intrigued that anyone would show such qualities as mercy, and curious about the fate of his sister, showed up at the gate. There, Tathora and Lop delivered the good news: the party had delivered Ireena to safety from Strahd. Since they were mainly trying to keep Izek talking, rather than really bargain with him, I called for Charisma (deception) checks. They managed to succeed and keep Izek occupied and earn his grudging respect and a mutual cease-fire.
Meanwhile, Hoek and Sinix went to the town square. They found two more guards. Sinix talked to the guards, so he got learn a little bit about the enforced happiness the town of Vallaki lives under. In any case, he distracted the guards long enough for Hoek to get onto the platform with the stocks and free Lady Anna with a crow bar. Once Hoek had her free, Sinix concluded his conversation with the guards, and the three departed the town in haste.
After the party had reconvened, they journeyed back to Krezk. As they rounded the first few bends in the Old Svalich Road and crossed the Luna River, the mist cleared and they caught a glimpse of a ruined mansion topped by the stone effigy of a dragon. When the party asked Anna about it, she told them that it was Argynvostholt, the seat of a mighty army said to haven been destroyed by Strahd when he was first conquering the region of Barovia. The army used a silver dragon in their heraldry and it was said that they were led by such a creature. At this point, the party guessed (correctly) that it was the hiding place of one of the artifacts.
Not long after, the party met two Vistani on the road, smoking pipes and sharing a skin of wine. They cordially offered to serve as guides to wherever the party needed to go. The party, confident in their ability to take of themselves, declined. Later, Tathora (and only Tathora) managed to spot a group of four wild-looking humans covered in gray mud and carrying stone axes. After she pointed them out to the rest of the party, the PCs hailed the NPCs. The wild men/women (it was hard to tell under the mud) ignored the party and left. The party let them be on their way.
After arriving in Krezk, they gave the troublesome dress to the Abbott up at the Abbey. He gleefully took it, and returned to the Abbey to finish preparing his "Bride" for Strahd. The party had completed the events for Krezk, and reached a milestone. By this point the group are old hats at the level up thing, so we proceeded with the game almost immediately.
I reviewed the quest threads with the PCs, and they decided they wanted to work on getting on Damian Martikov's good side, so they decided to retrieve the stolen jewel from the druid hill south of the winery. The journey to the hill was uneventful, but Tathora, with the highest passive Perception, spotted a mysterious key on the side of the trail, a key to an unkown family's tomb. Rather than keep it, she gave it to Sinix.
The party reached to the base of the hill and climbed to the first tier, a ring of cairns. At that point, Sinix heard a mysterious voice drawing him to one of the cairns. The scripting on the event says that it prefers a Barbarian, Druid, or Ranger. The party had a solid "None of the Above," so I keyed it to the nearest thing: a paladin with the Oath of the Ancients. Following the voice, they approached the cairn of a barbarian chieftain named Kavan. Uncovering it, they found a magic weapon (their first!) with his moldering remains. The weapon is a blood spear. Whenever a hit with a melee attack from this weapon reduces the target to 0 hit points, the wielder gains 2d6 temporary hit points. In addition, Sinix, chosen by the spirit of Kavan in the spear, gains +2 to attack and damage rolls while wielding it.
At this point the PCs realized that it was fairly late in the afternoon, and didn't want to risk being on the hill after dark, so they ran back to the winery. They weren't able to rest through the night, however. Around eleven o'clock (in game world time), Strahd streaked across the night sky on Beucephalus headed toward the hill. Damian Martikov warned the party the Strahd was up to know good, so they went to the hill.
There, they found druid arrayed around a wooden statue performing a dark ritual. Strahd was there, but he didn't stay, leaving immediately and telling the druids to "take care of it. I have to make dinner preparations."
This was a fairly complex encounter and, unfortunately, I had to rush it since we were running a bit late. Six druids are performing a ritual that within ten rounds would summon a much tougher monster. The druids are protected by six berserkers, hidden in nearby "graves" until hostilities started. The berserkers are mud-caked savages wielding stone axes not unlike the ones the party chose to ignore earlier. The berserker NPCs can gain advantage on their attacks in exchange for having all attacks against them for the next turn be with advantage. The sword isn't as double-edged as it may seem: the suckers have 9d8+27 hit dice (average 67 hit points). The druids are otherwise identical to the ones they faced in the winery.
Since the berserkers were a lot of meat shield to plow through, and we were low on time, I adjusted the tactics of the berserkers and made them somewhat spineless. They fled upon being reduced to half hit points or lower. To buy us a little extra time I broke a cardinal rule and rounded up on the half. Also, because I prefer transparency, I put the count down for the arrival of the big monster on the board. I had also planned that the druids would slowly break off from the ritual to join in the fray.
So the berserkers got initiative and did a good job swarming the party while the first pair of druids broke off to cast barksskin followed by shillelagh. So Kyla, having learned a valuable lesson from the last time they got swarmed, cast spirit guardians. In the meantime Pete had Hoek cast silence, forcing another pair of druids out of the ritual. Lop used Melf's Minute Meteors for crowd control. And Sinix did what Paladin's do best: tank. I did have to help him with his build. He had taken Dueling, but I reminded Nathan that for that to work he couldn't be holding anything in his off hand, even a shield. I let him switch it for Protection (which let's you impose disadvantage on enemy attacks as long as you're using a shield and adjacent to the target).
I said it before, and I'll say it again: spirit guardians is amazing. Kyla even reminded me of one of its secondary effects once blooded berserkers started fleeing: those in the area are reduced to half speed, making it even harder to escape the swirling vortex of angelic (in Tathora's case) death. By the end of the night Pete agreed with us, and he clearly planned to change Hoek's prepared spells on the next long rest.
The NPCs, of course, weren't stupid. They focused fire on Tathora as much as they could to try to shut down her spell. However, as is sometimes the case, my dice betrayed me, and the bad guys scored a lot tinks and whiffs. One did manage to connect, but Tathora made her Con save to maintain concentration. This also allowed her to use one of the neat new features of a Life domain cleric. She cast cure wounds on an ailing Sinix and also got back some hit points herself.
The party tore through the druids that broke off from the ritual, leaving one to continue it. Lop finished him off with a pair of minute meteors and three magic missiles after Hoek had weakened him with sacred flame. There is no kill like overkill, as they say.
Once the druids and berserkers were dead or had fled, the party had a chance to search the area. They saw a glittering green object embedded in the statue. Sinix ended up risking the sphere of annihilation in the statue's mouth and reached in and grabbed. Hoek eyed the fist-sized artifact a little greedily, but, transparency, I let Pete know that it wouldn't be of any use what-so-ever to the party. So they returned it to the Martikovs after the battle had ended. We ended there, so the party will have a chance to recover on a long rest.
The Curse of Strahd module really makes me wish I could give out inspiration more like FATE points or Savage Worlds Bennies. Material rewards for more altruistic behavior are few and far between, yet it is somewhat expected in the module that the PCs are there to alleviate the pall of grimdark that the people of Barovia live under. And the material rewards being few and far between, a mechanical reward like that is an excellent way to motivate PC behavior. Outside of Adventurer's League context, I may end up house ruling that.
Until next time, loyal readers!
Like the previously added higher level characters, he was hired by one of the Faerunian factions to hunt werewolves and kidnapped children in the Misty Forest, only to be eaten by the Mists of Barovia. He ended up in front of Vallaki, just in time to see the two guards that had been escorting Anna Krezkova running through to the nearby Vistani camp. Like a good PC biting at a story hook, he followed them and ran into the rest of the party.
The guards, of course, had Bad News. Apparently someone had stolen the Baron's Wife's wedding dress in the night and some of Anna Krezkova's jewelry had been found at the Baron's house. Sometimes it's helpful to have a rogue in the party so you don't have to rely on a hired scoundrel to do your dirty work. The guards informed them that Anna had been apprehended by the town guard, and that she was in the stocks in the town square, guarded by Izek Strazni and some other guards.
So, Sinix, being a good lawful good paladin, Sinix agreed to help, as did Hoek. They went through the town gate along with the guards. Lop and Tathora also came up to the gate, but they didn't plan on trying to sneak in or anything. Instead they had the guards send a runner to Izek. Lop wanted Izek to meet at the gate to discuss Izek's sister.
In my prep, I had already accounted for the party trying to talk Izek into releasing Lady Anna peacefully, but, like players do, they did it in a way I hadn't planned on. But I believe in letting clever plans work. So even though this plan involved splitting the party (*sigh* again!), I ran with it.
So Izek, intrigued that anyone would show such qualities as mercy, and curious about the fate of his sister, showed up at the gate. There, Tathora and Lop delivered the good news: the party had delivered Ireena to safety from Strahd. Since they were mainly trying to keep Izek talking, rather than really bargain with him, I called for Charisma (deception) checks. They managed to succeed and keep Izek occupied and earn his grudging respect and a mutual cease-fire.
Meanwhile, Hoek and Sinix went to the town square. They found two more guards. Sinix talked to the guards, so he got learn a little bit about the enforced happiness the town of Vallaki lives under. In any case, he distracted the guards long enough for Hoek to get onto the platform with the stocks and free Lady Anna with a crow bar. Once Hoek had her free, Sinix concluded his conversation with the guards, and the three departed the town in haste.
After the party had reconvened, they journeyed back to Krezk. As they rounded the first few bends in the Old Svalich Road and crossed the Luna River, the mist cleared and they caught a glimpse of a ruined mansion topped by the stone effigy of a dragon. When the party asked Anna about it, she told them that it was Argynvostholt, the seat of a mighty army said to haven been destroyed by Strahd when he was first conquering the region of Barovia. The army used a silver dragon in their heraldry and it was said that they were led by such a creature. At this point, the party guessed (correctly) that it was the hiding place of one of the artifacts.
Not long after, the party met two Vistani on the road, smoking pipes and sharing a skin of wine. They cordially offered to serve as guides to wherever the party needed to go. The party, confident in their ability to take of themselves, declined. Later, Tathora (and only Tathora) managed to spot a group of four wild-looking humans covered in gray mud and carrying stone axes. After she pointed them out to the rest of the party, the PCs hailed the NPCs. The wild men/women (it was hard to tell under the mud) ignored the party and left. The party let them be on their way.
After arriving in Krezk, they gave the troublesome dress to the Abbott up at the Abbey. He gleefully took it, and returned to the Abbey to finish preparing his "Bride" for Strahd. The party had completed the events for Krezk, and reached a milestone. By this point the group are old hats at the level up thing, so we proceeded with the game almost immediately.
I reviewed the quest threads with the PCs, and they decided they wanted to work on getting on Damian Martikov's good side, so they decided to retrieve the stolen jewel from the druid hill south of the winery. The journey to the hill was uneventful, but Tathora, with the highest passive Perception, spotted a mysterious key on the side of the trail, a key to an unkown family's tomb. Rather than keep it, she gave it to Sinix.
The party reached to the base of the hill and climbed to the first tier, a ring of cairns. At that point, Sinix heard a mysterious voice drawing him to one of the cairns. The scripting on the event says that it prefers a Barbarian, Druid, or Ranger. The party had a solid "None of the Above," so I keyed it to the nearest thing: a paladin with the Oath of the Ancients. Following the voice, they approached the cairn of a barbarian chieftain named Kavan. Uncovering it, they found a magic weapon (their first!) with his moldering remains. The weapon is a blood spear. Whenever a hit with a melee attack from this weapon reduces the target to 0 hit points, the wielder gains 2d6 temporary hit points. In addition, Sinix, chosen by the spirit of Kavan in the spear, gains +2 to attack and damage rolls while wielding it.
At this point the PCs realized that it was fairly late in the afternoon, and didn't want to risk being on the hill after dark, so they ran back to the winery. They weren't able to rest through the night, however. Around eleven o'clock (in game world time), Strahd streaked across the night sky on Beucephalus headed toward the hill. Damian Martikov warned the party the Strahd was up to know good, so they went to the hill.
There, they found druid arrayed around a wooden statue performing a dark ritual. Strahd was there, but he didn't stay, leaving immediately and telling the druids to "take care of it. I have to make dinner preparations."
This was a fairly complex encounter and, unfortunately, I had to rush it since we were running a bit late. Six druids are performing a ritual that within ten rounds would summon a much tougher monster. The druids are protected by six berserkers, hidden in nearby "graves" until hostilities started. The berserkers are mud-caked savages wielding stone axes not unlike the ones the party chose to ignore earlier. The berserker NPCs can gain advantage on their attacks in exchange for having all attacks against them for the next turn be with advantage. The sword isn't as double-edged as it may seem: the suckers have 9d8+27 hit dice (average 67 hit points). The druids are otherwise identical to the ones they faced in the winery.
Since the berserkers were a lot of meat shield to plow through, and we were low on time, I adjusted the tactics of the berserkers and made them somewhat spineless. They fled upon being reduced to half hit points or lower. To buy us a little extra time I broke a cardinal rule and rounded up on the half. Also, because I prefer transparency, I put the count down for the arrival of the big monster on the board. I had also planned that the druids would slowly break off from the ritual to join in the fray.
So the berserkers got initiative and did a good job swarming the party while the first pair of druids broke off to cast barksskin followed by shillelagh. So Kyla, having learned a valuable lesson from the last time they got swarmed, cast spirit guardians. In the meantime Pete had Hoek cast silence, forcing another pair of druids out of the ritual. Lop used Melf's Minute Meteors for crowd control. And Sinix did what Paladin's do best: tank. I did have to help him with his build. He had taken Dueling, but I reminded Nathan that for that to work he couldn't be holding anything in his off hand, even a shield. I let him switch it for Protection (which let's you impose disadvantage on enemy attacks as long as you're using a shield and adjacent to the target).
I said it before, and I'll say it again: spirit guardians is amazing. Kyla even reminded me of one of its secondary effects once blooded berserkers started fleeing: those in the area are reduced to half speed, making it even harder to escape the swirling vortex of angelic (in Tathora's case) death. By the end of the night Pete agreed with us, and he clearly planned to change Hoek's prepared spells on the next long rest.
The NPCs, of course, weren't stupid. They focused fire on Tathora as much as they could to try to shut down her spell. However, as is sometimes the case, my dice betrayed me, and the bad guys scored a lot tinks and whiffs. One did manage to connect, but Tathora made her Con save to maintain concentration. This also allowed her to use one of the neat new features of a Life domain cleric. She cast cure wounds on an ailing Sinix and also got back some hit points herself.
The party tore through the druids that broke off from the ritual, leaving one to continue it. Lop finished him off with a pair of minute meteors and three magic missiles after Hoek had weakened him with sacred flame. There is no kill like overkill, as they say.
Once the druids and berserkers were dead or had fled, the party had a chance to search the area. They saw a glittering green object embedded in the statue. Sinix ended up risking the sphere of annihilation in the statue's mouth and reached in and grabbed. Hoek eyed the fist-sized artifact a little greedily, but, transparency, I let Pete know that it wouldn't be of any use what-so-ever to the party. So they returned it to the Martikovs after the battle had ended. We ended there, so the party will have a chance to recover on a long rest.
The Curse of Strahd module really makes me wish I could give out inspiration more like FATE points or Savage Worlds Bennies. Material rewards for more altruistic behavior are few and far between, yet it is somewhat expected in the module that the PCs are there to alleviate the pall of grimdark that the people of Barovia live under. And the material rewards being few and far between, a mechanical reward like that is an excellent way to motivate PC behavior. Outside of Adventurer's League context, I may end up house ruling that.
Until next time, loyal readers!
Thursday, June 2, 2016
All in the Cards
We had a new player this week, Pete, playing a Hill Dwarf Cleric of Helm with the Life Domain named Hoek. Further, Andrew returned with Tarkir. This proved helpful since Blake and Hillary were absent, visiting family out of state, so Sarra and Amrus were off-screen.
I used the "Werewolves in the Mist" hook to introduce Hoek and guide him to Krezk to meet the rest of the party as I recapped the fateful meeting with the Abbot. The Burgomaster explained the situation to the party: Krezk has no dressmakers, and the nearest dressmakers were in Vallaki. Anna Krezkova, the burgomaster's wife, decided to take some commoners, a mule, and a pair of guards to Vallaki. The Burgomaster asked the PCs to act as escorts. After some deliberation, Tathora managed to get the party to agree.
They rested the night and set out the next morning. They didn't travel far before encountering a pair of direwolves. The group has fought these foes before, and they had little trouble dispatching them. Although one of Anna's guards did fall in battle, Hoek returned him to full health with a timely healing word. Cugel used Maximilian's earthen grasp to restrain one of the beasts for the battle.
As they continued their journey, Anna Krezkova asked the party about their banishment from Vallaki. Lop game an evasive answer, but Tathora was a little more forthcoming about such things as Rictavio's tiger and the trouble with the festival. Hoek also asked Anna about werewolf activity. She did mention that they seem thickest around Lake Baratok, so they may have a lair there. She did confirm that they seem to enjoy kidnapping and infecting children.
A second pack of direwolves attacked as they approached Vallaki. This was a group of four. The fight proved a little more challenging. First, Cugel's spell of choice for the last battle proved to be ineffective; the damn wolf kept succeeding on its saving through the resist the hand's grasp. Three of the wolves swarmed toward the south side of the wagon where Anna, her guard, and Tathora met them. Meanwhile, Tarkir and Hoek took on the wolf on the north side. After a pair of hits brought poor Anna to 0 hit points, health restored by a cure wounds from Tathora. Cugel distracted a wolf with an illusory dire bear to cover Anna's retreat. Lop used Melf's minute meteors to weaken the wolves considerably. However, Tathora found herself surrounded by wolves with only one of the guards for direct support; the other had fallen to a wolf's jaws. At my suggestion, Kyla finally cast spirit guardians. This AWESOME spell summons up a swarming host of angelic (for good or neutral casters) entities that move around the caster in a 15-foot radius. Any creature that starts its turn in the area or moves into takes 3d8 radiant damage, making a Wisdom saving throw for half damage. While her damage rolls were low, the weakest wolf failed its saving throw and dropped. Of course, this attracted the wolves attention, and one managed to score a critical hit, which Tathora weathered with some hit points to spare. She also succeeded on her saving throw to maintain concentration on spirit guardians so it could do its damage again next turn. At that point Tarkir and Hoek finished off the northern wolf and helped mop up.
After reaching Vallaki, the guards were more adamant about refusing admission to the exiled PCs. However Cugel, with Tarkir's help, managed to bribe his way in with one of his ill-gotten bottles of Red Dragon Crush. Tarkir and Hoek, who weren't present to disrupt the festival accompanied Anna and her party. They left the wine wagon with the Martikovs at the Blue Water Inn and Anna visited the Baron's house, meeting with Lydia Petrovna. After Anna explained her situation, Lydia mentioned her own dress, but confessed she would need to consult with her husband. So Anna and the party visited a Vallaki dress maker. The dress maker wanted 50gp, which Anna did not have, and needed 10 days to make it, time which the Abbot did not give.
Meanwhile, a Vistana approach Tathora and Lop waiting outside the gate. Tathora had been busy glaring at the guards while Lop used his Blinsky dummy of Strahd to creep them out. The Vistana let Tathora and Lop know that their leader Luvash wanted to see them. Lop wrote a message, and the guards agreed to send it to the rest of party with a messenger.
While out in the street, the party saw the preparations for the Baron's next festival: the Festival of Hanging Fool, depicting crude drawings of Amrus, Ap, Cugel, Lop, Sarra, and Tathora hanging in Nooses. Effigies and Nooses would be provided. And of course, ALL WILL BE WELL. The party met with the Baron, without Cugel around. Anna explained the situation to the Baron, but he refused Lydia to loan or sell her dress. The party received Lop's message, and decided to join them. As the party left, Lady Fiona Wachter joined them at the gate and gave Lop an invitation for the whole party to join Strahd in his castle for dinner.
After everyone had a chance to read the letter and have a little "Oh Crap" moment, they went to the Vistani camp to meet Luvash. He noted that it was unfortunate that the PCs had angered Strahd, but that his daughter Arabelle wanted to read their fortune.
They met with the young girl in on of the tents. She had everything laid out for a Tarokka reading, which she said she saw herself doing for the party in a dream. Before she could begin, however, Madam Eva possessed her, something she could do because the child was a blood relative. The fact that Arabelle is a descendant of Madam Eva is in the adventure, but this was feature I added for flavor and to make the reading more convenient to the PCs location.
She let the PCs know they had done Strahd "grave harm." I'm not sure how aware the group is of it, but this was by delivering Ireena from Strahd's grasp. So now they needed to repay it by "releasing him from his curse." Of course, this wouldn't be easy, so she would perform a reading to help them in their task.
The Tarokka reading provides the location of three important artifacts: The Tome of Strahd, a book detailing the vampire's background and weaknesses, The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, a powerful tool for clerics and certain paladins in battling the undead, and the Sunsword, a powerful melee weapon for taking out undead blood bloodsuckers. It also reveals the identity of an ally the PCs will need when they face Strahd, and the location in Castle Ravenloft where Strahd can always be found waiting for the PCs (provided he's not already in his tomb). I got to use the Tarokka Deck supplement for this. It also comes with a mini-game that can be played with the deck. It works a little like Texas Hold 'Em but the "High Arcana" deck can be used to alter the cards in play.
The Tome could be found in "a fallen house guarded by a great stone dragon. Look to the highest peak." The Holy Symbol could be found with "the mother--she who gave birth to evil." The Sword could be found "at the crossroads of life and death, among the buried dead." The party hadn't had a chance to learn about where the first hiding spot is. However, they guessed (correctly) that the second probably meant the tomb of Strahd's mother, and that it would be somewhere in the castle. Kyla, however, recalled the crossroads with gallows and the graveyard at River Ivlis and picked that as the hiding spot for the sword. As a DM, I have no problem letting a player know when they manage to put clues together correctly, and Kyla's proved to be pretty good at that. I do know that as a video gamer she's played survival horror games, so I'm guessing she was awesome at solve the soup cans puzzles.
Next, Madam Eva identified Strahd's enemy: "The leader of the feathered ones who live among the vines. Though old, he has one more fight left in him." This they determined (again correctly) to be Damian Martikov. Lastly, she told them where to have the final confrontation with Strahd: "the beast sits on his dark throne."
Now, the adventure as written has the DM do a reading in secret before the campaign even starts. I decided to use this secret reading as a sort of "Schroedinger's Reading." Either it is true or the new one is true depending on where the PCs locate the artifact, ally, or confrontation with Strahd first. I had Madam Eva deliver a hint about this: "Fate is a fickle mistress. These are signs of where these might be. Should you find them elsewhere, the Morninglord or Mother Night will give you a sign. With that, I wish you luck." Since Curse of Strahd is, after all, a sand box adventure, I want to give the PCs every reason to explore as much as possible.
With that, Madam Eva released Arabelle, who had no memory of what occurred and was a little confused about seeing that the reading had already been done. Tathora, ever the team mom, told Arabelle that she had done a good job.
In the meantime, Lop returned the music box they had found with the Vistana messenger near the Winery to Luvash. Thankful, he gave them a scroll of magic weapon, which Lop used to copy into his spellbook. They also explained the situation with the dress, and Luvash, grateful for what they had done, arranged to have his brother Arrigal retrieve it for them. Tathora did make sure to let him know to be sure that the theft couldn't be traced back to the party. Arrigal agreed, and set out to commit larceny that night while the party rested in the Vistani and elf camp.
He returned that morning with the dress in a box and assured Tathora that it wouldn't be traced to any of them. Of course, the PCs will need to wait until next time to find out exactly what he meant by that, as we had hit our break time.
I used the "Werewolves in the Mist" hook to introduce Hoek and guide him to Krezk to meet the rest of the party as I recapped the fateful meeting with the Abbot. The Burgomaster explained the situation to the party: Krezk has no dressmakers, and the nearest dressmakers were in Vallaki. Anna Krezkova, the burgomaster's wife, decided to take some commoners, a mule, and a pair of guards to Vallaki. The Burgomaster asked the PCs to act as escorts. After some deliberation, Tathora managed to get the party to agree.
They rested the night and set out the next morning. They didn't travel far before encountering a pair of direwolves. The group has fought these foes before, and they had little trouble dispatching them. Although one of Anna's guards did fall in battle, Hoek returned him to full health with a timely healing word. Cugel used Maximilian's earthen grasp to restrain one of the beasts for the battle.
As they continued their journey, Anna Krezkova asked the party about their banishment from Vallaki. Lop game an evasive answer, but Tathora was a little more forthcoming about such things as Rictavio's tiger and the trouble with the festival. Hoek also asked Anna about werewolf activity. She did mention that they seem thickest around Lake Baratok, so they may have a lair there. She did confirm that they seem to enjoy kidnapping and infecting children.
A second pack of direwolves attacked as they approached Vallaki. This was a group of four. The fight proved a little more challenging. First, Cugel's spell of choice for the last battle proved to be ineffective; the damn wolf kept succeeding on its saving through the resist the hand's grasp. Three of the wolves swarmed toward the south side of the wagon where Anna, her guard, and Tathora met them. Meanwhile, Tarkir and Hoek took on the wolf on the north side. After a pair of hits brought poor Anna to 0 hit points, health restored by a cure wounds from Tathora. Cugel distracted a wolf with an illusory dire bear to cover Anna's retreat. Lop used Melf's minute meteors to weaken the wolves considerably. However, Tathora found herself surrounded by wolves with only one of the guards for direct support; the other had fallen to a wolf's jaws. At my suggestion, Kyla finally cast spirit guardians. This AWESOME spell summons up a swarming host of angelic (for good or neutral casters) entities that move around the caster in a 15-foot radius. Any creature that starts its turn in the area or moves into takes 3d8 radiant damage, making a Wisdom saving throw for half damage. While her damage rolls were low, the weakest wolf failed its saving throw and dropped. Of course, this attracted the wolves attention, and one managed to score a critical hit, which Tathora weathered with some hit points to spare. She also succeeded on her saving throw to maintain concentration on spirit guardians so it could do its damage again next turn. At that point Tarkir and Hoek finished off the northern wolf and helped mop up.
After reaching Vallaki, the guards were more adamant about refusing admission to the exiled PCs. However Cugel, with Tarkir's help, managed to bribe his way in with one of his ill-gotten bottles of Red Dragon Crush. Tarkir and Hoek, who weren't present to disrupt the festival accompanied Anna and her party. They left the wine wagon with the Martikovs at the Blue Water Inn and Anna visited the Baron's house, meeting with Lydia Petrovna. After Anna explained her situation, Lydia mentioned her own dress, but confessed she would need to consult with her husband. So Anna and the party visited a Vallaki dress maker. The dress maker wanted 50gp, which Anna did not have, and needed 10 days to make it, time which the Abbot did not give.
Meanwhile, a Vistana approach Tathora and Lop waiting outside the gate. Tathora had been busy glaring at the guards while Lop used his Blinsky dummy of Strahd to creep them out. The Vistana let Tathora and Lop know that their leader Luvash wanted to see them. Lop wrote a message, and the guards agreed to send it to the rest of party with a messenger.
While out in the street, the party saw the preparations for the Baron's next festival: the Festival of Hanging Fool, depicting crude drawings of Amrus, Ap, Cugel, Lop, Sarra, and Tathora hanging in Nooses. Effigies and Nooses would be provided. And of course, ALL WILL BE WELL. The party met with the Baron, without Cugel around. Anna explained the situation to the Baron, but he refused Lydia to loan or sell her dress. The party received Lop's message, and decided to join them. As the party left, Lady Fiona Wachter joined them at the gate and gave Lop an invitation for the whole party to join Strahd in his castle for dinner.
After everyone had a chance to read the letter and have a little "Oh Crap" moment, they went to the Vistani camp to meet Luvash. He noted that it was unfortunate that the PCs had angered Strahd, but that his daughter Arabelle wanted to read their fortune.
They met with the young girl in on of the tents. She had everything laid out for a Tarokka reading, which she said she saw herself doing for the party in a dream. Before she could begin, however, Madam Eva possessed her, something she could do because the child was a blood relative. The fact that Arabelle is a descendant of Madam Eva is in the adventure, but this was feature I added for flavor and to make the reading more convenient to the PCs location.
She let the PCs know they had done Strahd "grave harm." I'm not sure how aware the group is of it, but this was by delivering Ireena from Strahd's grasp. So now they needed to repay it by "releasing him from his curse." Of course, this wouldn't be easy, so she would perform a reading to help them in their task.
The Tarokka reading provides the location of three important artifacts: The Tome of Strahd, a book detailing the vampire's background and weaknesses, The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, a powerful tool for clerics and certain paladins in battling the undead, and the Sunsword, a powerful melee weapon for taking out undead blood bloodsuckers. It also reveals the identity of an ally the PCs will need when they face Strahd, and the location in Castle Ravenloft where Strahd can always be found waiting for the PCs (provided he's not already in his tomb). I got to use the Tarokka Deck supplement for this. It also comes with a mini-game that can be played with the deck. It works a little like Texas Hold 'Em but the "High Arcana" deck can be used to alter the cards in play.
The Tome could be found in "a fallen house guarded by a great stone dragon. Look to the highest peak." The Holy Symbol could be found with "the mother--she who gave birth to evil." The Sword could be found "at the crossroads of life and death, among the buried dead." The party hadn't had a chance to learn about where the first hiding spot is. However, they guessed (correctly) that the second probably meant the tomb of Strahd's mother, and that it would be somewhere in the castle. Kyla, however, recalled the crossroads with gallows and the graveyard at River Ivlis and picked that as the hiding spot for the sword. As a DM, I have no problem letting a player know when they manage to put clues together correctly, and Kyla's proved to be pretty good at that. I do know that as a video gamer she's played survival horror games, so I'm guessing she was awesome at solve the soup cans puzzles.
Next, Madam Eva identified Strahd's enemy: "The leader of the feathered ones who live among the vines. Though old, he has one more fight left in him." This they determined (again correctly) to be Damian Martikov. Lastly, she told them where to have the final confrontation with Strahd: "the beast sits on his dark throne."
Now, the adventure as written has the DM do a reading in secret before the campaign even starts. I decided to use this secret reading as a sort of "Schroedinger's Reading." Either it is true or the new one is true depending on where the PCs locate the artifact, ally, or confrontation with Strahd first. I had Madam Eva deliver a hint about this: "Fate is a fickle mistress. These are signs of where these might be. Should you find them elsewhere, the Morninglord or Mother Night will give you a sign. With that, I wish you luck." Since Curse of Strahd is, after all, a sand box adventure, I want to give the PCs every reason to explore as much as possible.
With that, Madam Eva released Arabelle, who had no memory of what occurred and was a little confused about seeing that the reading had already been done. Tathora, ever the team mom, told Arabelle that she had done a good job.
In the meantime, Lop returned the music box they had found with the Vistana messenger near the Winery to Luvash. Thankful, he gave them a scroll of magic weapon, which Lop used to copy into his spellbook. They also explained the situation with the dress, and Luvash, grateful for what they had done, arranged to have his brother Arrigal retrieve it for them. Tathora did make sure to let him know to be sure that the theft couldn't be traced back to the party. Arrigal agreed, and set out to commit larceny that night while the party rested in the Vistani and elf camp.
He returned that morning with the dress in a box and assured Tathora that it wouldn't be traced to any of them. Of course, the PCs will need to wait until next time to find out exactly what he meant by that, as we had hit our break time.
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