Ravenloft #2

After several weeks of no D&D, getting back to the game was fun. Well kind of fun.

Dale and I both had just gotten over a little cold bug. Aaron was still a little under the weather. And Justin had to work so he couldn’t make it (Brian ran Tenbeers for the night).

The session kind of started a little slow and ramped up over the evening. That tends to be the standard way most of our campaigns get going. Dale’s eagerness to get the story moving caused him to unintentionally skip a few things, like zombie attack rolls against us and others, but it was a temporary issue. Anyone who has ever run a story-based game understands how easily that can happen.

The group bought a combat pad (hopefully I’ll remember to include a link for it) to help things move a little quicker in combat and to take some work out of Dale’s hands so he can focus on killing our PC’s rather than worrying about the initiative stack. It’s a simple magnetic dry-erase pad that allows us to track initiative order and make notes and such. Anything that makes D&D combat a little quicker is a good thing to me. It did take some getting used to during the first combat, but after that it was pretty easy to use.

We started this session very shortly after the last combat of last session with the dire maggots and vargouilles.

We heard the sound of combat coming from deeper in the city and followed it to see some more shambling zombies, several of which came after us.

So far we haven’t found any normal easy-to-kill zombies. I would say every single one we’ve fought so far has around 40 hit points, a 16 armor class, and can deal around 1d6+4 damage. They are by no means powerful, but they aren’t exactly a pushover. Their biggest asset is their high hit points which allows them to be more of a blocking monster, soaking up damage up front while their allies do something evil in the back.

In this event 4 of the zombies attacked us and occupied our attention while the other 4 beat up on a woman we some of could see fighting them. The fog prevented our spell-slingers from even seeing her from their vantage point, but we could easily hear her.

After several rounds we were able to help the woman, but she was at a mere 4 hit points. So it was just in the nick of time.

She thanked us for helping her and introduced herself as Ashlynn, a paladin of Lathander of the Order of Lightbringers (or something like that). She told us that she too had come to this place to discover the lost artifacts of Lathander, and came with her friends, Frederick and Mathilda, who have not returned since they left the village to search through an old church of Lathander. Then she told us that they intended to go see some great Vistani seer known as Madame Eva. She also made a few verbal jabs Grevan Thalmer’s unwillingness to fight undead, even though he’s a priest of Lathander – which made us like her more.

She also filled us in on the small area behind the barricade (which the zombies had torn down just minutes prior to our timely arrival). There was the Blood on the Vine Tavern that used to be called the Blood in the Vine Tavern. Then there was the general store, but we were told to not expect to buy anything there as the place was never open anymore.

As she was telling us all of this, a very large muscle-bound lummox of a man called Perriwimple exited the general store; carrying some casks. Someone else inside the store relocked the doors. In a few short minutes he had remade the barricade, and then gone back into the store.

We attempted to communicate with the owner of the store, Bildrath, that we wanted to buy some equipment, but were told they were closed (repeatedly). No manner of bribery or threats worked to get that store open.

Next we had to find safe lodgings for the night for Kelvin’s and Mina’s horses. We found an abandoned but sufficiently sturdy home and the put the horses there. Then Kelvin had his owl familiar Amarinth watch over the area in case anything happened.

Yeah, like you’ve never worried about your horses before, those poor horses’ days are numbered. A pair of light riding horses, cooped up in a confined area where zombie attacks occur daily. Plus we can’t even sell them to hand the headache over to someone else.

The next and last place we visited for the night was the tavern.

Note: all names and such are just how I remember them, or are a combination or poor note-taking or misunderstanding something that was said. If I get something wrong, oh well. It’s not the first time, and it’s certainly not the last.

Oh and what a dreary and depressing place that was. There were 3 Vistanis playing cards at one table, a sulking man drinking alone in the corner, and a bartender who couldn’t look more miserable and depressed.

Our bard Marco tried to strike up a conversation with the Vistani, but that went nowhere. They made it pretty clear that they had no interest in talking to us or anyone else who wasn’t a Vistani (or a bartender).

Kelvin tried to talk to the bartender, but all he said was things like “Why bother? We’ll all be dead soon.” Plus this place was just a tavern, and not an inn. That threw Kelvin off. He didn’t know one could exist without the other. He is an adventurer after all.

After the Vistani rebuked him for the last time, Marco began chatting with the man in the corner and offered him a drink.

His name was Izmark the Lesser. This guy helped us with a few bits of information that helped us figure out a little on how this whole mess got started. Mainly it was because the now dead burgomaster of the town had angered the local lord, Strahd von Zarovich, and shortly there after the zombies began their nice visit to the town.

Kelvin asked the bartender if there was an inn or another place we could stay. The bartender told him to find an empty house and stay there. The owners were probably dead anyway.

Kelvin didn’t like that answer so he made a proposition to the bartender.

“We sleep here tonight and we make sure you have at least one last good night of drinking fun before the zombies come back to kill you. I can’t die, and so long as you’re around me tonight you’re fine. So I’ll guarantee you another night you’ll live through, you’ll give us a safe place to sleep, and tonight we drink as if it were the last night we’ll be alive.”

Somehow that worked, even though Dale had me make a diplomacy check. I rolled an 18, so the result was a 17. So we had a decent night of drinking and had good night’s rest. And of course, Grevan paid for it all.

During the night of drinking Ashlynn told us how the zombies came to be. It was caused by a disease that turned you into a zombie when you died. Mina immediately went to checking everyone of us to see if any of our wounds had transferred the disease. One particular wound that Theo had looked a little off, so the next morning Mina memorized and cast Remove Disease on Theo. Theo immediately felt a little bit “cleaner”.

Next we had some decisions to make. Do we go see Madame Eva the seer first to see if she had any information for us, or do we head to the old church of Lathander first to find Ashlynn’s friends? And then, do we bring Ashlynn along with us?

We decided to see Madame Eva first, without Ashlynn, and then return to the village and get her to go with us to find her friends at the church.

The reasons for not including her had more to do with there being 6 of us splitting XP. I felt that someone else in the group was a waste unless they were directly attached to that part of the story. I’m guessing everyone else felt the same way, but no one said it.

After about an eight mile trek through the fog covered lands of Barovia we came to a clearing filled the traveling wagons of the Vistani. (In case you don’t know, the Vistani in Ravenloft are pretty much medieval gypsies in a D&D world.)

We asked to see Madame Eva, and we were brought to her with no trouble. She was a very large and imposing Vistani.

Marco explained to her what we sought (the lost artifacts of Lathander, Ashlynn’s friends, freeing Barovia of its curse) so she brought out some tarot cards (in this case a red US Playing Cards deck).

Dale also had Allen roll a diplomacy check for Marco. Even though Marco had around a +17 in that skill, a natural 1 meant Madame Eva would be doing very little to help us interpret the cards.

Marco cut the deck and she dealt out the cards and gave us our fortunes, which I’m only going to give the quick of it.

The Queen of Hearts
A holy symbol that protects from darkness, it is powerful force for good. Seek it in a cemetery in a place of wisdom. Bring it to the castle to join it with ancient lore.

Jack of Clubs
A tome of ancient knowledge holds the source of the lord’s strength and how to rob it from him. Spend a night in prayer to steal his power and seek the tome where the river flies.

King of Spades
The Lord Strahd himself will be found in the heart of darkness. The darkness seeks light.

Jack of Diamonds
A blade of light will be found in a place of holiness. It can be woken by joining it with other treasures of the castle.

Jack of Spades
Death leads to death and walks the streets of Barovia. The plague of death can be stopped by ending its source.

One final card – the Ace of Hearts
The powers of good will ward us in this place.

Some of that makes obvious sense to us, but not all. Plus it’s really easy for a fortune to get twisted around. Just ask the thousands of “experts” on Nostradamus’s predictions.

We thanked her and left after asking a few other questions of no real consequence.

Next we returned to the village of Barovia to gather up Ashlynn and head to the old church.

We arrived to the church in no time and set about to enter the place and we heard to frantic and unintelligible chanting coming from within.

Dale put us on initiative the moment we entered the place.

Kelvin delayed until “something of interest happened”.

So did Marco.

Ashlynn and Skellex entered cautiously.

Theo, who had turned himself into an alligator, moved far into the church to find the source of the voice. He did find the voice, but he had used all of his movement to do so.

The voice was from a fallen priest of Lathander. He rose from his hiding place holding a spell scroll and cast the spell from it, successfully. The spell was Circle of Death that affected everyone in the church. Theo, Skellex, and Ashlynn had to make a fortitude save of 19 to survive.

All three failed.

Aaron used a DM bribe to get a re-roll, but he failed that one too.

We just lost a third of our party and a plot-driving NPC in the first half a round of combat.

FINALLY Dale delivers on a threat!

We, well the rest of us, immediately kick into action.

Kelvin tosses a fireball right at the bastard. Now for every spell a wild mage casts you subtract three from their level then add 1d6 to get the caster’s effective level for that casting of the spell. I rolled max for a 9d6 fireball that did around 30 damage to the fallen priest.

Then Tenbeers charged in and was able to get right next to the fallen priest.

Marco played an Inspire Courage song that gave us a +2 to attack and damage for a couple of rounds.

The fallen priest, for some unknown reason, ran away from Tenbeers rather than step away and cast. I’m guessing that he was trying to jump down the pit that is in the center of the church. But anyway, Tenbeers critted the guy, doing enough damage to kill him.

Then some more zombies popped out, but they were nothing by comparison to a save or die spell.

Then, us being adventurers, we looted the bodies.

In our searching we found a scroll on the altar. Considering what just happened to us, Kelvin wasn’t about to read some scroll lying out in the open in a tainted church for all to see.

Kelvin cast a Detect Magic spell and got some strong necromancy coming from it. Burning it did nothing. That just screamed “Cursed!” to me, so Kelvin packed it up in a scroll case without touching it with his bare skin.

Then we found a hidden compartment in the altar itself. Inside was the Journal of Danovich, who we assume was the fallen priest of Lathander.

It detailed the man’s descent into madness after his son died. His grief drove him to reading the “cursed manuscript” (told ya) and his subsequent recanting in his faith to Lathander.

The journal had a couple other tidbits of information of interest to us. One was that Irena was not the burgomaster’s real daughter and another was that the tome that Strahd kept has many notes that could be the key to his downfall and is hidden somewhere in the castle library.

Then we gathered next to the pit and prepared to see what is down below before we stopped for the night.

Next week Brian will be bringing in a cleric of Kelemvor and Aaron will be bringing in a rogue/fighter that he said will be similar to a previous character of his (Ian Cabatuan).

My current list of clues and thoughts:
- The loss of Ashlynn was a minor blow if her Lightbringer friends are still alive and well.
- The owner of the general store is going to be a thorn in our side.
- Our horses are dead.
- Grevan Thalmer is going to get us screwed over somehow. He’s the guy in the movie who thinks he’s doing the right thing but causes something really bad to happen. Like the redheaded guy in Ghostbusters who gets the containment grid shut down.
- The holy symbol relic of Lathander emits light constantly and is hidden somewhere in a mausoleum. It might require activation, and that will probably be done in Castle Ravenloft.
- The blade of light pretty much has to be the first Sunsword, the other relic of Lathander and will probably have to be activated like the holy symbol.
- The tome of ancient knowledge might be the same tome that Strahd keeps his information in.
- Whatever is in the pit we’re about to enter is the source of the plague and we’ll put an end to it soon.

As for Dale killing our characters with little to no warning, I was actually happy that happened. There has been so many times where he had said “there could be a potential TPK tonight” and it was nothing.

Now I’m not saying that I want every single combat to be an ultimate life or death struggle for us, but having a big and nasty fight on occasion is fun.

Plus Dale made it clear that this module is dangerous, so a PC dying should not be a big deal to us.

In any other campaign, killing even a single PC before they even know who their threat is would be a big no-no. In this campaign we’re taking it with a smile.