Another Battle With Strahd

We had a new player: Ron, a friend of Alec's, who took up Simon. I'm pretty sure a character passing from player to player like that isn't Adventurer's League legal, but there's other things at our table that aren't. Plus, a pre-made character like that is a time saver.

The group decided to check out the bridge before taking a rest in the crumbling watch tower near the vrock-guarded gates. They were in for a surprise.

There was a black-cloaked rider on a flame-wreathed black horse. This was supposed to be an illusion the way the adventure was written. But I felt it was time for another dry run at the final boss. The party needed a chance to use their newly acquired artifacts.

Although the Count was cloaked, the mists of Barovia and the storms in the Tsolenka Pass more than adequately sheltered him from the natural sunlight. He was mounted on Beucelphas, his mount, a fiendish horse-like creature called a nightmare. (Get it? Because a "mare" is a horse?)

Mounted combat in 5e is...interesting, but I think I understand it. The mount and rider are still separate creatures, but whether the mount is an independent creature or not determines the mounts initiative and action options. Since nightmares are intelligent, Beucelphas acted on its own initiative and used its full complement of actions. This became important later.

Dry runs of a boss like this have one important role: they get you an idea of how the party will fare against the real thing. Strahd might need some beefing up. Lop used counterspell to stop Strahd's opening fireball. Next Sara moved in with the Sun Sword and Tathora moved in to summon actual sunlight using the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. The PCs also finally learned why Strahd's enemy is helpful: they can grant a PC Inspiration as an action as long as Strahd is in sight. This proved to be a boon, allowing Tathora to make a save against blight. It also helped that the dice were, for once, in Kyla's favor and rolled low to begin with. I'm not sure if this has been a case of dice hating Kyla, or just hating clerics in particular. My cleric seemed to have the worst luck, too.

Cugel also used magic weapon on Amrus's weapon. A quick review of the Rogue sneak attack feature also revealed how powerful rogues have become in this edition: their sneak attack actually works more like pack tactics. As long as the rogue has an ally within 5 feet of target to get the bonus damage. There is no range limit on this! And since rogues no longer have to sit in the corner and cry during some fights (like against undead, for example), he managed to contribute with a longbow.

Even with Legendary resilience, they managed to get Strahd down to bloodied. There's a reason the party is encouraged to get the vampire fighting relics: they allow them to kick ass for the Morninglord. Of course, no good villain starts a fight without a contingency. In this case, Beucelphas, who the party mostly ignored (they still managed him, anyway!), used an etherealness feature to flee. I had set three timers on the fight: Strahd being bloodied, Beucelphas being bloodied, or 5 rounds. They managed to clear the first two by the third round!

I had expected the Strahd fight to take most of the night, but they had time to reach the Amber Temple, where they gained a milestone, finish leveling up, and start exploring the Amber Temple.

Creepy abandoned temples are a staple of D&D. The Amber Temple is in this tradition. It's even carved from the stone of the cliff, just so it looks like that temple they used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Rather than taking the shmuck bait and walking right into the open main room, they spotted the arrow slits along the walls and decided to explore the other areas first. They found a group of camping barbarians being "minded" by a dire wolf. I do mean minded: wolves and dire wolves in Barovia are servants of Strahd, and this one growled at the barbarians when they considered not fighting. However, the aggressive dire wolf got dropped on the first round, and Amrus actually managed to use his Persuasion skill! Blake offered them a chance to leave peacefully with some wine. Amrus was on the floor when he made the offer, but Cugel had just filled the room with a cloudkill spell. I was surprised loot and kill happy Blake had bothered to put his Rogue expertise feature (doubling his proficiency bonus) to his Persuasion skill, but he did! And he beat the DC I set for the roll: 20. I have to say I was proud of the boy. He's learning some real role-playing.

We actually ran a little late, so when the barbarians departed with their secretly poisoned wine, we broke for the evening. Next time we join our heroes, they'll be delving further into the Amber Temple.