Recently I read The Thrill of Dracula: Two Lifetimes of Playing with the Dracula Story by the redoubtable Kenneth Hite. While it's meant to work with Pelgrane Press's Night Black Agents game and that game's Dracula Dossier campaign (guys, I totally want to run that if I can find the players for it!) it could be read just for entertainment or general gaming. It focuses on film versions of Bram Stoker's novel through the years, and includes simple summaries and reviews of various films and brief discussions on elements of it that could be adapted for gaming.
Since he only had limited time to write and limited space to write in, he included some films even he would rather not have (like Mel Brooks' reportedly very awful Dracula Dead and Loving It over George Hamilton's fantastic Dracula rom-com Love at First Bite). Basically, he summarizes the various films, reviews them, and breaks down what elements of the Dracula or vampire mythos each film omitted or added, and concludes each section with a list of cool stuff from the movie to explore in a game.
Hite, incidentally, is pretty amazing. He explores ideas like the link between vampires and pestilence that Nosferatu explored. He also points out how few films or stories really explore the economic and social link between the vampire in his castle and the town below. Especially in those weird cases where the townsfolk seem to be benefiting from it! He even admits that some movies are bad, but can still provide some ideas that could be just plain awesome at the game table. For example, Van Helsing is a terrible movie, but there is very little in it that can't be mined for a good gaming session, even if just for the "that's cool!" factor.
Why should players and DMs read this? Well, Curse of Strahd, what I'm running now, and its precursors, Ravenloft, are D&D's take on the Dracula tale. Of course, since D&D is tech light, it couldn't have the "modern technology trumps ancient evil" theme you get from Stoker's original novel. But since PCs are generally from down-on-their-luck circumstances you can still get that "middle class defeats aristocracy theme." Although, if not careful, you might still find yourself playing the particularly odious "west defeats east" theme.
Going back to technology v. the ancients, since D&D lacks the high tech (in most settings, anyway), it instead has the PCs questing for artifacts of good. More recent editions of Ravenloft even added a Van Helsing archetype (Van Richten). Alec actually managed to compare the current thread of the story: the PCs questing for items and allied against Strahd to Simon's Quest, a classic Nintendo Metroidvania.
So, we've walked a curious path. Hite focused on film, but bringing up a video game let's us know that just Dracula has influenced film, he's influenced gaming. Hite's little book reminds us of the curious interplay between literary classics and pop culture like films and gaming, as well. Ultimately worth a read and worth a think.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Saturday, July 30, 2016
The Party Returns
This week saw the return of Alec, Blake, Hillary, Pete, and Will. Blake and Hillary also brought a friend along: Jacob. We had to spend some time leveling up Amrus, Cugel, and Sarra. For Jacob, we ended up allowing him to use Simon, a character created by another Blake and Hillary's friends, Jose. Simon had to be leveled up and Jacob given the Cliff's Notes version of D&D and the rules. I am a little nervous about letting new players in at higher levels (although I suppose level 7 counts as "mid-level" in this edition), I had him sit with Blake and trusted the kid to help his friend learn.
We had lost some time on leveling up, so I decided to dive right in rather than take too much time explaining the reunion. In some ways, an RPG group with the occasional shift in attendance can look like an ensemble television show like that; the same characters over and over again, but not every character is in every episode. Of course, unlike say, Game of Thrones, all cast members are on the same plot line. In a world with infinite time, it might be neat to do small sessions with absentee players to play out "b-stories" in the plot, but the last time I had the time for something like that was in college.
But back on topic, their next goal was the third and final treasure: the Tome of Strahd. It was in Argynvostholt, a haunted mansion inhabited by the undead remnants of an army Strahd destroyed while conquering the valley of Barovia. The journey was uneventful; no random encounters were rolled.
The first thing the party spotted as they approached the ruined mansion was the statue of a silver dragon facing the doors. They (correctly) suspected something was up with it, but no one bothered to cast detect magic. When Amrus tried to open the doors, however, a burst of chilly air came out of the dragon's mouth. Joseph (correctly) guessed that it had at one point been a cone of cold trap that had lost its potency through the years.
They entered into ruined foyer, filled with marble busts (one now ruined), pillars, and a tattered tapestry. Recalling the reading as indicating the book was at the top of the tower, the party headed toward the tower on the eastern end of the building. In a second floor hallway, they found a marble bust that had the illusion of Hoek's severed head over it. So far, they've seen creepy illusions of Lop, Tathora (ok, Tathora wasn't an illusion, but close enough), and Hoek. While the adventure itself calls for these illusions to be of random party members, for this determination I excluded Tathora and Lop, since they already had a turn being creeped out by their own images. Pete, of course, found the image of his character's severed head not the least bit creepy and was found it...entertaining. Needless to say, in a Vampire game, Pete might have some trouble holding onto his character's Humanity score.
After that, they entered the second story balcony overlooking a chapel containing three worshippers. The party hailed them, drawing the attention of the revenants of three of the soldiers killed by Strahd. Revenants are corpses reanimated by spirits thirsting for vengeance. In this case, against Strahd. However, the pitiful creatures had been trapped for so long that they regarded any strangers with hostility. so they attacked the party.
Revenants are tough monsters. They have a ton of hit points and regeneration, but the regeneration is turned off by fire or radiant damage. They also deal extra damage and have some controlling abilities targeting creatures that they've sworn vengeance against. Much like a vampire spawn, they're challenge 5. Unlike vampire spawn, they're less maneuverable and a little easier to hit with standard attacks. Once again, the challenge system leave a bit to be desired. Honestly, the level and type tables of 4e were better, even if they produced a lot of homogenous monsters. I'm willing to come out and say that when dealing with some as gamist as "they party should be X level before fighting this monster" a little bit of homogenous is a perfectly good sacrifice for balance. Honestly, it should be up to the DM and not the rules to make two different monsters with similar stats feel different in play.
Still, with two clerics and Sarra wielding the Sunblade, the party managed pretty well. They made the tactical booboo of having all their tanks on one side and all their casters on the other. These revenants, being former soldiers, took full advantage of that booboo. Further, as former soldiers, they were wielding longswords two-handed rather than pounding away with their fists like a default revenant. This upped their damage potential considerably and they rolled...well...really well. They came close to dropping Cugel and Ap, and even layed into Tathora when she arrived for support. The revenant with the two tanks didn't last long: Sarra was slashing away with her sunblade and new silvered longsword while Simon chipped in. Amrus and Lop were the primary damage dealers for the other pair. Lop burned them away with scorching ray while Amrus ran in, used sneak attack, and ran out.
Ap did use one sorcerer feature: the metamagic ability twin spell. Unlike in third edition, where metamagic meant sacrificing a) a feat slot to have, b) a higher level spell slot to cast, and c) casting time if you were a spontaneous caster, sorcerers get metamagic abilities just for being sorcerers. In this edition, they spend their sorcery points on it and apply the ability.
Ap used Twin Spell to cast witch bolt at both revenants at once, using his storm sorcerer features to also shock them and fly away. Witch bolt is an unusual spell. It's first level and starts with a spell attack, but once latched on, it "tractor beams" onto the same target as long as the caster maintains concentration and stays within range, automatically inflicting damage (in this case a d12) every turn. This does cost the caster their action for that turn, and is broken if the caster uses their action for anything else. Joseph enjoys it.
Surprising, Hoek and Tathora didn't inflict all that much damage this time around. Hoek managed to connect with a guiding bolt, helping Amrus get in a sneak attack. Neither used spirit guardians, and Tathora focused on healing. Cugel, being a necromancer, also didn't have much to use. However, chill touch, in this edition, does have a neat rider: targets cannot regain hit points after being hit with it. So while it didn't inflict all that much damage by itself (it does necrotic damage, which these things resist), it did shut down regeneration for a turn.
But once Sarra could bring her sunblade to bear of the caster-side revenants, the fight was over, and it was time to break for the evening.
Before I go, I'm going to talk a little bit about the sunblade. It was introduced in the original first edition Ravenloft. In that edition, it did damage as a two-handed bastard sword but could wielded as if it were a short sword. Sun swords, the non-artifact version of the weapon, retains this feature, though now its wielded as a longsword or a shortsword. The practical upshot of this is that you can use your Strength or Dexterity score for the attack; whichever's better. The first, second, and third edition version of these weapons could also conjure up a globe of sunlight. However, starting in 4e, the designers decided to make them awesome. They're lightsabers. They skip the middle man of making a globe of sunlight and just deal radiant damage. Plus, they're only sword hilts, conjuring up the blade of sunlight when wielded. Curse of Strahd's sunblade is also sentient and a little annoyed that its blade, previously made of glass, got destroyed. This is probably from input from Tracy and Laura Hickman, writers of the original Ravenloft.
Speaking of adventure writers, Pete has penned an adventure he plans to post on the DM's Guild. More on that as it develops.
See you later, readers.
We had lost some time on leveling up, so I decided to dive right in rather than take too much time explaining the reunion. In some ways, an RPG group with the occasional shift in attendance can look like an ensemble television show like that; the same characters over and over again, but not every character is in every episode. Of course, unlike say, Game of Thrones, all cast members are on the same plot line. In a world with infinite time, it might be neat to do small sessions with absentee players to play out "b-stories" in the plot, but the last time I had the time for something like that was in college.
But back on topic, their next goal was the third and final treasure: the Tome of Strahd. It was in Argynvostholt, a haunted mansion inhabited by the undead remnants of an army Strahd destroyed while conquering the valley of Barovia. The journey was uneventful; no random encounters were rolled.
The first thing the party spotted as they approached the ruined mansion was the statue of a silver dragon facing the doors. They (correctly) suspected something was up with it, but no one bothered to cast detect magic. When Amrus tried to open the doors, however, a burst of chilly air came out of the dragon's mouth. Joseph (correctly) guessed that it had at one point been a cone of cold trap that had lost its potency through the years.
They entered into ruined foyer, filled with marble busts (one now ruined), pillars, and a tattered tapestry. Recalling the reading as indicating the book was at the top of the tower, the party headed toward the tower on the eastern end of the building. In a second floor hallway, they found a marble bust that had the illusion of Hoek's severed head over it. So far, they've seen creepy illusions of Lop, Tathora (ok, Tathora wasn't an illusion, but close enough), and Hoek. While the adventure itself calls for these illusions to be of random party members, for this determination I excluded Tathora and Lop, since they already had a turn being creeped out by their own images. Pete, of course, found the image of his character's severed head not the least bit creepy and was found it...entertaining. Needless to say, in a Vampire game, Pete might have some trouble holding onto his character's Humanity score.
After that, they entered the second story balcony overlooking a chapel containing three worshippers. The party hailed them, drawing the attention of the revenants of three of the soldiers killed by Strahd. Revenants are corpses reanimated by spirits thirsting for vengeance. In this case, against Strahd. However, the pitiful creatures had been trapped for so long that they regarded any strangers with hostility. so they attacked the party.
Revenants are tough monsters. They have a ton of hit points and regeneration, but the regeneration is turned off by fire or radiant damage. They also deal extra damage and have some controlling abilities targeting creatures that they've sworn vengeance against. Much like a vampire spawn, they're challenge 5. Unlike vampire spawn, they're less maneuverable and a little easier to hit with standard attacks. Once again, the challenge system leave a bit to be desired. Honestly, the level and type tables of 4e were better, even if they produced a lot of homogenous monsters. I'm willing to come out and say that when dealing with some as gamist as "they party should be X level before fighting this monster" a little bit of homogenous is a perfectly good sacrifice for balance. Honestly, it should be up to the DM and not the rules to make two different monsters with similar stats feel different in play.
Still, with two clerics and Sarra wielding the Sunblade, the party managed pretty well. They made the tactical booboo of having all their tanks on one side and all their casters on the other. These revenants, being former soldiers, took full advantage of that booboo. Further, as former soldiers, they were wielding longswords two-handed rather than pounding away with their fists like a default revenant. This upped their damage potential considerably and they rolled...well...really well. They came close to dropping Cugel and Ap, and even layed into Tathora when she arrived for support. The revenant with the two tanks didn't last long: Sarra was slashing away with her sunblade and new silvered longsword while Simon chipped in. Amrus and Lop were the primary damage dealers for the other pair. Lop burned them away with scorching ray while Amrus ran in, used sneak attack, and ran out.
Ap did use one sorcerer feature: the metamagic ability twin spell. Unlike in third edition, where metamagic meant sacrificing a) a feat slot to have, b) a higher level spell slot to cast, and c) casting time if you were a spontaneous caster, sorcerers get metamagic abilities just for being sorcerers. In this edition, they spend their sorcery points on it and apply the ability.
Ap used Twin Spell to cast witch bolt at both revenants at once, using his storm sorcerer features to also shock them and fly away. Witch bolt is an unusual spell. It's first level and starts with a spell attack, but once latched on, it "tractor beams" onto the same target as long as the caster maintains concentration and stays within range, automatically inflicting damage (in this case a d12) every turn. This does cost the caster their action for that turn, and is broken if the caster uses their action for anything else. Joseph enjoys it.
Surprising, Hoek and Tathora didn't inflict all that much damage this time around. Hoek managed to connect with a guiding bolt, helping Amrus get in a sneak attack. Neither used spirit guardians, and Tathora focused on healing. Cugel, being a necromancer, also didn't have much to use. However, chill touch, in this edition, does have a neat rider: targets cannot regain hit points after being hit with it. So while it didn't inflict all that much damage by itself (it does necrotic damage, which these things resist), it did shut down regeneration for a turn.
But once Sarra could bring her sunblade to bear of the caster-side revenants, the fight was over, and it was time to break for the evening.
Before I go, I'm going to talk a little bit about the sunblade. It was introduced in the original first edition Ravenloft. In that edition, it did damage as a two-handed bastard sword but could wielded as if it were a short sword. Sun swords, the non-artifact version of the weapon, retains this feature, though now its wielded as a longsword or a shortsword. The practical upshot of this is that you can use your Strength or Dexterity score for the attack; whichever's better. The first, second, and third edition version of these weapons could also conjure up a globe of sunlight. However, starting in 4e, the designers decided to make them awesome. They're lightsabers. They skip the middle man of making a globe of sunlight and just deal radiant damage. Plus, they're only sword hilts, conjuring up the blade of sunlight when wielded. Curse of Strahd's sunblade is also sentient and a little annoyed that its blade, previously made of glass, got destroyed. This is probably from input from Tracy and Laura Hickman, writers of the original Ravenloft.
Speaking of adventure writers, Pete has penned an adventure he plans to post on the DM's Guild. More on that as it develops.
See you later, readers.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Grave Robbing for Fun and Profit
Once again I found a spam comment on my blog. Once again, if you have a good or service to sell, my comment section is not your free billboard. But legitimate advertisers, I keep a pen knife handy next to my keyboard for pricking my finger and signing in blood contracts to write for money.
Once again, only Joseph and Kyla showed up. However, I was still confident in their ability to deal plenty of damage quickly, so I didn't pull any punches.
Travelling back to the Ivlis River Crossroads to find their sword, they found themselves attacked by a pack of ten normal wolves. Impressionable readers take note: real wolves DO NOT behave this way. wolves only act like this in horror stories and video games.
So lightning bolt, spirit guardians, thunderwave and the Heart of the Storm class feature did their job as I expected they would: and in about 12 seconds (remember, in D&D a combat round is 6 seconds), there were 10 dead Barovian wolves.
Rather than stop at the crossroads and start digging right away, (they had been walking about 8 hours at that point) they pushed on to the nearby village of Barovia. There they rested in the Burgomaster's old house and visited the shop to buy a shovel at a ridiculous mark-up. They returned to the Ivlis River Crossroads and started digging.
It was probably good that they rested. They had to dig up seven graves before finding the sword. Like the graveyard heart piece in Ocarina of Time, it appears randomly. Before they took it, however, Tathora cast speak with dead on the corpse holding it. Trying to do my best imitation of the animated corpse from Hellboy, I had the corpse tell Tathora to take the sword and use it against Strahd. Sunblade in hand, they returned to the Village of Barovia. That weapon will be a good upgrade for Sarra when she returns. Their journey wasn't without incident; the found a wolf-eaten corpse in the road. They did provide it a proper burial before heading back to town.
After spending another night in the Burgomaster's manor, they went around town. They'd actually met most of the important NPCs. I had skipped over an event that would have provided an adventure hook for the Old Bonegrinder, and I decided to skip it again. But I decided to have another encounter they hadn't had yet: Mad Mary.
This reclusive shut-in is found weeping in a boarded up town house. She's weeping because her teenage daughter, Gertruda, disappeared. Rather than break into the house, Ap and Tathora climbed the house and peered in through a boarded up window. They got a description of the girl: young and skinny with blue eyes and brown hair, from the grieving mother. The two already suspect that Gertruda may have fallen victim to Strahd. Since I know they'll eventually find her, I'm grinning evilly on the inside. Not so much because of how awful what they'll find is, but because of how well it will reflect a theme that the authors of Curse of Strahd feel has been lost in modern vampire fiction. (Looking at you, Twilight!)
Hopefully Will, Alec, and the kids will be returning for the next session.
Once again, only Joseph and Kyla showed up. However, I was still confident in their ability to deal plenty of damage quickly, so I didn't pull any punches.
Travelling back to the Ivlis River Crossroads to find their sword, they found themselves attacked by a pack of ten normal wolves. Impressionable readers take note: real wolves DO NOT behave this way. wolves only act like this in horror stories and video games.
So lightning bolt, spirit guardians, thunderwave and the Heart of the Storm class feature did their job as I expected they would: and in about 12 seconds (remember, in D&D a combat round is 6 seconds), there were 10 dead Barovian wolves.
Rather than stop at the crossroads and start digging right away, (they had been walking about 8 hours at that point) they pushed on to the nearby village of Barovia. There they rested in the Burgomaster's old house and visited the shop to buy a shovel at a ridiculous mark-up. They returned to the Ivlis River Crossroads and started digging.
It was probably good that they rested. They had to dig up seven graves before finding the sword. Like the graveyard heart piece in Ocarina of Time, it appears randomly. Before they took it, however, Tathora cast speak with dead on the corpse holding it. Trying to do my best imitation of the animated corpse from Hellboy, I had the corpse tell Tathora to take the sword and use it against Strahd. Sunblade in hand, they returned to the Village of Barovia. That weapon will be a good upgrade for Sarra when she returns. Their journey wasn't without incident; the found a wolf-eaten corpse in the road. They did provide it a proper burial before heading back to town.
After spending another night in the Burgomaster's manor, they went around town. They'd actually met most of the important NPCs. I had skipped over an event that would have provided an adventure hook for the Old Bonegrinder, and I decided to skip it again. But I decided to have another encounter they hadn't had yet: Mad Mary.
This reclusive shut-in is found weeping in a boarded up town house. She's weeping because her teenage daughter, Gertruda, disappeared. Rather than break into the house, Ap and Tathora climbed the house and peered in through a boarded up window. They got a description of the girl: young and skinny with blue eyes and brown hair, from the grieving mother. The two already suspect that Gertruda may have fallen victim to Strahd. Since I know they'll eventually find her, I'm grinning evilly on the inside. Not so much because of how awful what they'll find is, but because of how well it will reflect a theme that the authors of Curse of Strahd feel has been lost in modern vampire fiction. (Looking at you, Twilight!)
Hopefully Will, Alec, and the kids will be returning for the next session.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
The Cure for Dire Wolves
...Take two George R.R. Martins with plenty of fluids. Seriously, internet, I want to start a dead pool on how many episodes Ghost has left in the next (and presumably final) season.
I was sick last week, and missed a session. But the weekend right before that I discovered a spam comment on the blog. So, readers, there's enough of you that someone felt it worth their time to put an ad for a sketchy service without having to remunerate me for the use of my writing space. So...Yay? But, real advertisers, I totally want to sell out! My soul for financial stability doing something I love? I'm not using that soul thing anyway.
Anyway, this week only Joseph and Kyla made it. The funny thing is, I don't mind smaller groups. Especially players like Joseph and Kyla that I could trust with some deeper role-playing. But I was a bit worn out that evening and not in the mood for much role-playing.
As you recall, the PCs had just recovered some kidnapped children, predominantly from Krezk. The party escorted the kids, along with the mob of Krezkite parents sent to recover them back. Unfortunately, their path back was blocked by a pack of five dire wolves. Kyla was pessimistic about their chances, but I had faith in their ability to do lots of damage to multiple targets really quickly.
I left the mob of parents and kids off the map. Mostly because as a gamer I know escort missions are the devil (and occasionally, the demon--depending on the game and how badly written the NPC AI is). Except Ico. That game was pretty fun and quite gorgeous.
I wasn't disappointed. They finished the fire wolves in three rounds. Ap used waterwall to funnel and slow the monsters on their way in. Tathora used (of course) spirit guardians. It meant that the party dealt plenty of damage on the first round without taking any from the melee only monsters. The second round, Tathora got hit and lost her concentration. Remember, Dire Wolves have pack tactics, the thing that make kobolds so (turn away youngsters!) fucking (you can start reading again youngsters!) stupid. So even having the highest AC in the party at 19, she took some hits. However, it still did plenty of damage and dropped a wolf. The real show on turn two, however, was Ap's new sorcerous origin feature: Heart of the Storm.
Whenever a storm sorcerer of 6th level or higher starts casting a spell of 1st level or higher that deals thunder or lightning damage, they deal lightning or thunder damage to creatures of their choice within 10 feet of them (emphasis mine). Ap used thunderwave to keep the wolves off of them. He took a few hits himself after the wolves had knocked out Tathora's spirit guardians.
On the third turn, after another thunderwave and Heart of the Storm blast and another round of spirit guardians, the dire wolf pack was put down like a bunch of literary symbols for the strength of unity of the Stark family. Sorry-last Game of Thrones reference (for this post anyways).
The party returned the Krezkites to their home without further incident, and got to take a long rest. Tathora changed up her spells and cast remove curse on herself. The party, such as it was, decided against heading to Argynvostholt for the Tome of Strahd, decided to head for the graveyard at the Ivlis River Crossroads for the Sunsword. Less undead--more random encounters.
Before they left, Tathora shook her fist up at the Abby. Again, maybe a little bit of role-playing could have been called for, but damn I was too tired for it.
The random encounter generator did call for a couple. The first was more of those mountainfolk berserkers that retreated after being spotted (again) by Tathora. The second one called for a pack of 10 regular-sized wolves. It was late enough that I left that battle for the next time.
I was sick last week, and missed a session. But the weekend right before that I discovered a spam comment on the blog. So, readers, there's enough of you that someone felt it worth their time to put an ad for a sketchy service without having to remunerate me for the use of my writing space. So...Yay? But, real advertisers, I totally want to sell out! My soul for financial stability doing something I love? I'm not using that soul thing anyway.
Anyway, this week only Joseph and Kyla made it. The funny thing is, I don't mind smaller groups. Especially players like Joseph and Kyla that I could trust with some deeper role-playing. But I was a bit worn out that evening and not in the mood for much role-playing.
As you recall, the PCs had just recovered some kidnapped children, predominantly from Krezk. The party escorted the kids, along with the mob of Krezkite parents sent to recover them back. Unfortunately, their path back was blocked by a pack of five dire wolves. Kyla was pessimistic about their chances, but I had faith in their ability to do lots of damage to multiple targets really quickly.
I left the mob of parents and kids off the map. Mostly because as a gamer I know escort missions are the devil (and occasionally, the demon--depending on the game and how badly written the NPC AI is). Except Ico. That game was pretty fun and quite gorgeous.
I wasn't disappointed. They finished the fire wolves in three rounds. Ap used waterwall to funnel and slow the monsters on their way in. Tathora used (of course) spirit guardians. It meant that the party dealt plenty of damage on the first round without taking any from the melee only monsters. The second round, Tathora got hit and lost her concentration. Remember, Dire Wolves have pack tactics, the thing that make kobolds so (turn away youngsters!) fucking (you can start reading again youngsters!) stupid. So even having the highest AC in the party at 19, she took some hits. However, it still did plenty of damage and dropped a wolf. The real show on turn two, however, was Ap's new sorcerous origin feature: Heart of the Storm.
Whenever a storm sorcerer of 6th level or higher starts casting a spell of 1st level or higher that deals thunder or lightning damage, they deal lightning or thunder damage to creatures of their choice within 10 feet of them (emphasis mine). Ap used thunderwave to keep the wolves off of them. He took a few hits himself after the wolves had knocked out Tathora's spirit guardians.
On the third turn, after another thunderwave and Heart of the Storm blast and another round of spirit guardians, the dire wolf pack was put down like a bunch of literary symbols for the strength of unity of the Stark family. Sorry-last Game of Thrones reference (for this post anyways).
The party returned the Krezkites to their home without further incident, and got to take a long rest. Tathora changed up her spells and cast remove curse on herself. The party, such as it was, decided against heading to Argynvostholt for the Tome of Strahd, decided to head for the graveyard at the Ivlis River Crossroads for the Sunsword. Less undead--more random encounters.
Before they left, Tathora shook her fist up at the Abby. Again, maybe a little bit of role-playing could have been called for, but damn I was too tired for it.
The random encounter generator did call for a couple. The first was more of those mountainfolk berserkers that retreated after being spotted (again) by Tathora. The second one called for a pack of 10 regular-sized wolves. It was late enough that I left that battle for the next time.
Monday, July 4, 2016
Werewolf Den
Once again the team consisted of three players: Kyla, Pete, and Will. So the only characters present for the battle were Hoek, Lop, and Tathora. This time, however, I decided not to pull punches. The encounter called for five werewolves, arriving in waves, and a pack of nine normal wolves.
The werewolves in this encounter are all named but otherwise unremarkable. The two guards in the entry hall are Aziana and Davanka. Immediately past their room is an older werewolf with reduced hit points named Skennis. Beyond that room are caves the werewolves dwell in. There, Bianca, a white haired werewolf that happens to be the mate of Kiril Stoyanovich, is resting. Beyond that is another female werewolf named Wensencia.
The fight began with Aziana and Davanka, with Skennis and his wolf pack arriving almost immediately, and Bianca arriving after a couple of rounds, with Wensencia arriving after completing a task.
One of the more interesting opening moves was made by Tathora. She cast command at 2nd level to target the two initial guards. In the true spirit of fighting canines, she worded her command as "stay." However, unlike in previous editions, 5e provides guidelines for one-word commands, limiting the effects to "approach," "drop," "flee," "grovel," and "halt." Ultimately Kyla settled on having "stay" produce the "halt" effect. While one of the two werewolves made their save, it still produced enough of a delay to help in the early stages.
Both Tathora and Hoek used spirit guardians in this fight. Tathora used it first and killed most of the wolves in Skennis's pack. Damian Martikov actually contributed in this fight, dropping one of the wolves with an attack from his short sword. Still, the whole "painting a target on your back" from spirit guardians drew attacks on Tathora, costing her quite a few hit points, concentration on her spell, and cursing her with lycanthropy.
Hoek tried to use remove curse on a werewolf. The Monster Manual indicates that it can work on those cursed with werewolf lycnathropy, but not on natural born lycnathropes. The adventure hints that these werewolves have been cursed. But it doesn't spell out specifically whether they are or not. I decided that "save or die" effects, which generally are rare for PCs, should also be rare for NPCs and monsters, and ruled that the effect did not work. My ultimate reasoning is that even if these werewolves were cursed and not natural born, they had lived long enough with the curse and accepted it to the point where remove curse would be useless anyways.
Hoek's spirit guardians wasn't quite as effective; he lost concentration sooner. He also ended up contracting werewolf lycanthropy during a round of attacks. His primary source of damage was spiritual weapon, which got almost a full duration of attacks in before the pack was finally subdued.
Tathora also used bane in this battle. It can affect three foes, forcing them to subtract a d4 from attack rolls and saving throws. Unfortunately, against all odds, it only hit one of the three werewolves she targeted. This was towards the end of the battle and only resulted in a few missed attacks.
Still, the large amount of foes with a reduced party count did make it a marathon battle that used up most of our play time. Still, I wanted to further to plot, so after the group took a short rest to heal, they forged deeper into the lair. They eventually found a shrine to the Barovian goddess, Mother Night. There, they found imprisoned children, including one Faerunian boy, Kellen, who has already been cursed with lycanthropy. He was playing with another Blinsky toy: a zombie doll that looked eerily like Tathora--Lop got to hang, so I figured Tathora could do with some zombification in effigy. They also met Zuleika Toranescu.
She had been praying to Mother Night for the intervention of individuals like the party. She was glad that they has killed Kiril and most of his cronies. She agreed to release the children and break the werewolf pack's deal with Strahd if the PCs agreed to search for her mate, Emil, when they finally ventured into the castle. While Hoek tried to get a more aggressive alliance, but Zuleika was reluctant to risk her surviving packmates on an attack on Castle Ravenloft.
Hoek cast remove curse on himself and Kellen. Tathora declined it for the moment, opting to prepare and cast it on herself at the first opportunity.
Otherwise, the party had achieved it's goals at the werewolf lair. Now they need to find a safe place to keep the children, then explore Argynvostholt.
The werewolves in this encounter are all named but otherwise unremarkable. The two guards in the entry hall are Aziana and Davanka. Immediately past their room is an older werewolf with reduced hit points named Skennis. Beyond that room are caves the werewolves dwell in. There, Bianca, a white haired werewolf that happens to be the mate of Kiril Stoyanovich, is resting. Beyond that is another female werewolf named Wensencia.
The fight began with Aziana and Davanka, with Skennis and his wolf pack arriving almost immediately, and Bianca arriving after a couple of rounds, with Wensencia arriving after completing a task.
One of the more interesting opening moves was made by Tathora. She cast command at 2nd level to target the two initial guards. In the true spirit of fighting canines, she worded her command as "stay." However, unlike in previous editions, 5e provides guidelines for one-word commands, limiting the effects to "approach," "drop," "flee," "grovel," and "halt." Ultimately Kyla settled on having "stay" produce the "halt" effect. While one of the two werewolves made their save, it still produced enough of a delay to help in the early stages.
Both Tathora and Hoek used spirit guardians in this fight. Tathora used it first and killed most of the wolves in Skennis's pack. Damian Martikov actually contributed in this fight, dropping one of the wolves with an attack from his short sword. Still, the whole "painting a target on your back" from spirit guardians drew attacks on Tathora, costing her quite a few hit points, concentration on her spell, and cursing her with lycanthropy.
Hoek tried to use remove curse on a werewolf. The Monster Manual indicates that it can work on those cursed with werewolf lycnathropy, but not on natural born lycnathropes. The adventure hints that these werewolves have been cursed. But it doesn't spell out specifically whether they are or not. I decided that "save or die" effects, which generally are rare for PCs, should also be rare for NPCs and monsters, and ruled that the effect did not work. My ultimate reasoning is that even if these werewolves were cursed and not natural born, they had lived long enough with the curse and accepted it to the point where remove curse would be useless anyways.
Hoek's spirit guardians wasn't quite as effective; he lost concentration sooner. He also ended up contracting werewolf lycanthropy during a round of attacks. His primary source of damage was spiritual weapon, which got almost a full duration of attacks in before the pack was finally subdued.
Tathora also used bane in this battle. It can affect three foes, forcing them to subtract a d4 from attack rolls and saving throws. Unfortunately, against all odds, it only hit one of the three werewolves she targeted. This was towards the end of the battle and only resulted in a few missed attacks.
Still, the large amount of foes with a reduced party count did make it a marathon battle that used up most of our play time. Still, I wanted to further to plot, so after the group took a short rest to heal, they forged deeper into the lair. They eventually found a shrine to the Barovian goddess, Mother Night. There, they found imprisoned children, including one Faerunian boy, Kellen, who has already been cursed with lycanthropy. He was playing with another Blinsky toy: a zombie doll that looked eerily like Tathora--Lop got to hang, so I figured Tathora could do with some zombification in effigy. They also met Zuleika Toranescu.
She had been praying to Mother Night for the intervention of individuals like the party. She was glad that they has killed Kiril and most of his cronies. She agreed to release the children and break the werewolf pack's deal with Strahd if the PCs agreed to search for her mate, Emil, when they finally ventured into the castle. While Hoek tried to get a more aggressive alliance, but Zuleika was reluctant to risk her surviving packmates on an attack on Castle Ravenloft.
Hoek cast remove curse on himself and Kellen. Tathora declined it for the moment, opting to prepare and cast it on herself at the first opportunity.
Otherwise, the party had achieved it's goals at the werewolf lair. Now they need to find a safe place to keep the children, then explore Argynvostholt.
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