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!