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.