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.
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