After escaping the Death House, the party hears more sobbing. They investigate the sound. On their journey they notice a couple of building are emanating light but they ignore them at first. They find a house, boarded up. They knock upon the door but no one answers. The party they decides to head to the building that has a sign distinguishing it as a tavern. Inside they find a barkeep, three jovial guys at a table and a lonely depressed looking man, drinking his despair in isolation. The party asks the barkeep a few questions and are met with a drab, hauntingly absent visage of a human. His answers are like stone. Emotionless other than despair and apathy. The barkeep does point the party in the direction of Ismark, the Lesser.
The party decides to engage with Ismark who gladly invites them to sit with him. He orders more wine and then asks the party if they will escort his sister to a different town. He says Vallaki is said to be beyond to grip of Strahd, the devil. The ruler of Barovia has taken interest in his sister and Ismark wants her to be safe. The party agrees and they head to Ismark's mansion.
At the mansion, the party finds the house dilapidated and overgrown with weeds. They find tracks made by large wolves and humanoid foot prints, the walls of the house scorched with black soot. When they knock on the door they hear a frightened female voice. Ismark asks Irevena to open the door. She does and the party finds a body lying in a poorly made wooden coffin in the nearby drawing room, the room rank with decay and rot. The body is of the Burgermaster of Barovia, their father. She talks of how Strahd had visited her, showing fang marks upon her neck. Wolves and Strahd's men then began attacking the mansion, night after night. Two days prior, her father succumbed to the stress and died. It is decided that the body should be buried at the abbey just outside of town.
The party makes their way to the church and hears screaming. As they enter the holy site, they hear the screaming of something from beneath the floor. They also hear someone praying in the main hall. They investigate the main area to find a priest desperately praying for help from his god. The party asks what is in the basement. The holy man, Danovich, says it is his sone. A year ago, a wizard in a black coat had gathered some of the townspeople to march upon Strahd's castle and destroy him. Instead, Danovich's son had returned, changed. He locked his son in the basement and has been trying to save his son's soul ever since. The god of light has forsaken Barovia. The town brought the curse of Strahd upon themselves. The voice from below yells out how hungry it is. The party decides best to not provoke the thing. They instead turn to burying the body they had brought. The carry the corpse to the cemetery and Danovich makes a prayer asking the gods to protect the mayor's soul into the afterlife.
The party returns to the mansion, gathers a few items and heads out of town on the road to Vallaki. They come to a crossroads with gallows on one corner and a sign on the other pointing out directions. When they head toward Vallaki, the party notices there is now a body hanging from the gallows. Upon inspection it is the dead body of Irevena. The Irevena with the party screams and shrinks away in horror. Bjorn goes to let down the body and it evaporates as if a cloud dispersed by wind.
The party continues on and finds another massive gateway similar to the one when they first entered the domain of Strahd. The take camp next to the wall to have one side defended. They take watches and all is uneventful until the last watch with Gilley on duty. She sees a figure come out of the mist and slowly looms toward her. She alerts her allies and they begin chopping at the dead lumbering thing. An arm comes off, then another, then a leg and then it stops moving. The DM dismayed that it did not get a chance to make an impact on the setting.
Eventually morning comes and they reach Vallaki soon after passing a waterfall. They make their way to the Blue Water Inn and book some rooms. They head to the drinking room only to find a cranky woman and her two kids cleaning up the room. They ask for whiskey and ale but wine is the only selection on the menu. They find wolf steak is also available and how two hunters have successfully brought back the flanks of the dire beasts. They are told wolves and bats are the servants of Strahd and that ravens are their protectors. The old woman then says maybe more people will be in later in the day and to come back later.
The party strolls through town, past a depressed house than sighs with sadness. The come to a toy makers shop and decide to go in. Poor Blinsky is there to greet them. He recites a greeting that sounds rehearsed ad nauseam. Then he offers the party a selection of his best toys. Gilley decides that she would like small dummy of Strahd. Blinky has his pet monkey retrieve other toys. Bjorn takes a tiny dwarven warhammer set into back of a baby's skull. Vannan reluctantly purchases a stuffed animal of a dead wolf pup, tongue hanging out, missing tufts of hair and its guts splayed out underneath its belly. They learn of a traveler who helps Blinksy, a henchman of Vallaki's burgermaster who threatens Blinsky and also has him make dolls. He has hired Blinsky to make a doll that matches Irevena.
They leave the toy house, suddenly realizing they should not have separated themselves from the siblings. They make their way to the burgermaster's mansion and meet with Ivanovich. He says he saw the siblings and suggested they look for a dwelling on the far west side of Vallaki. He says that the wall around Vallaki protects the citizens from Strahd as doing hope. "All is well" he drones over and over. He tells the party that a festival will take place in three days. He also asks the party to take his son out into the real world. This teenager refuses to leave the house and the mayor thinks the party could teach him a few lessons. He pays them with a bag of gold and wishes them the best... and to return his son alive or pay the consequences. Though he does show a sign of relief seeing his son leaving the mansion.
Up next... Here comes the Grim.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Monday, May 2, 2016
The Death House (chapters 1 & 2)
The party begins in a tavern. Each player gives a brief description of their respective character. Gilly Heathertoe is a halfling that proudly proclaims to be a rogue. Bjorn is a dwarf that speaks kindly to matters of divinity. Vannan is a half elf with a cloak and a longbow, his mind focused on the nature about them. Mumbles is a... that mumbles and passes out.
The various characters ask the barkeep if there is any work to be had and he/she directs them to a stout dwarf sitting at a table by his lonesome. When the party ask him for employment, the dwarf quickly offers them a transport job. To take a crate of raw gems to his brother in a city a few days to the northwest. The party haggles prices for a while and then agrees to start the jaunt the next morning. Gus, the dwarf, gives the party an ox with a crate counter-weighted with a bag of rocks and directions to his brother, Russ, who owns a jewelry establishment in Neverwinter (city).
The party heads off for the city and encounters some goblins. The ambush goes painfully bad for the goblins as a few quickly die. These characters are not mere pushovers, but seasoned veterans of destruction, slashing vengeance and spitting death... from the goblin's perspective.
The party pitches tents and hobbles the ox. A thick fog rolls into the valley they are traversing. The next morning seems eerily quiet and dim. The party finds the ox has gone missing and their crate of gems now contains only ordinary rocks. The road has changed to a unused path. The trees seem different as if they are in a new world. A new, older, world.
The party, as every paragraph appears to begin with, heads down the path and eventually comes upon a sleeping village. Some houses are boarded up and all are dark. The only activity in the town seems to be two children sobbing in the street. When the party approaches the kids, they stop sobbing and explain that there's a monster in their basement. The party asks about their parents and the children think they are also in the basement. They also say there is a baby on the third floor. They seem confused when other questions are asked about the situation. They also seem confused when asked general questions. They refuse to go back in the house but will stay near the front stoop.
The party enters the house. They see a grand staircase heading up to the second floor and continue on to the third. A suit or armor attacks Bjorn as he tries to open a door. The armor is quickly dispatched. Its hollow shell falls to the ground and shatters apart. They enter the nursemaid's bedroom. Bjorn goes to a balcony and sees the children staring up at him from the street. Vannan looks at himself in the mirror and then looks behind the mirror. He finds a secret entrance that leads upward.
The party climbs the secret passage and check the rooms of the attic. One room has two beds, a doll house, a toy chest and... The two children, manifested as ghosts. The children do not recognize the party and get upset when their toys are disturbed. They explain that their parents locked them in the room to protect them from the monster in the basement. But the parents never came back. The children starved to death, locked up with the windows bricked shut. Upon inspection of the doll house, another secret passage is found that goes from the attic down to the bottom of the replica. No other stairs lead downward from the first floor.
Bjorn marches off to find this passage while Vannan and Gilly become possessed by the children when they attempt to leave the room. Mumbles mumbles something. Bjorn turns around and demands the children go back to their room. The frightened kids obey his command and once again, sadly trap their souls back in their room, terrified. Bjorn finds a room filled with covered furniture. Gilly finds a skeleton wrapped up in bloodied sheets. The secret passage is found and the party descends into the dungeon below.
As the party reaches the basement, Mumbles announces his name is Roger. He is a mighty juggler and sometimes a sorcerer. He also has a magic eight ball. Unworldly chanting can be heard but not understood. Bjorn begins exploring the twisting passages and discovers a room. A large table sits at the center of this room with chair shaped benches at its sides. Moldy bones of a goblin rest upon the table. Vannan discovers dirt under the table. Bjorn notices an alcove and investigates. A large snake-like worm with four tentacles protruding from its face lashes out at him. A powerful beak also pecks at his face. The party tries to assist but Bjorn shields the creature from their attacks. Roger casts orbs of force that magically zoom around Bjorn and hit their target. Gilly darts in and stabs at the monstrosity and then nimbly retreats back to the table. Vannan attempts to shoot arrows past Bjorn but the grick has too much cover. Roger cast a bolt of fire that sails over everyone's head and splatters flame on the wall behind. Bjorn slams him hammer down and flattens the beast. He then wonders if its carcass is tasty.
Bjorn continues on through a passage way and is immediately bitten by humanoid fiends that rise from the ground. Another rises in front of him and slashes out. Bjorn requests a tactical retreat back into the room. After some meta-gaming, the party forms a kill zone and defeat three of the frenzied undead walkers. Roger goes to search the bodies for pockets. He loves pockets. Gilly, strangely, just sits back and watches Roger loot the remains. He finds nothing other than another attacker that swings at him, narrowly missing as Roger squats down to look at the dead bodies. Roger reaches out and magically shocks the undead thing and runs back to the room. The walker walks into the kill zone and takes damage, falling limp.
Gilly takes this opportunity to disappear down another hallway. Luckily, Vannan feels Gilly go by and follows. Without any conversation, Roger follows suit. Bjorn announces he is hurt. Perhaps they should rest. The party sits among the remains of the dead worm for an hour and decide to take another passage. The chanting appears louder in the northerly direction but the party heads south. They find a room, skeletons shackled along the walls, and two statues in another alcove. One of a dark humanoid holding an orb and the other of a large wolf at his side. Gilly gleefully skips up to the statue and seeing the orb is not actually part of the statue, takes it.
Five misty shadows pour out from the walls and take shape as semi-solid forms of dark smoke. Vannan recalls from the stories of her people that these are most likely hellish shadows. These shadows drain the strength from their victims and especially hunger after goody two shoes. This theory is proven when Bjorn is struck. He is buckled and goes down to one knee. He composes himself and calls upon his over-watching diety to assist him in smiting his foe. His warhammer connects with the dark form and light, sparks and rays of radiance explode leaving only the afterglow and divine embers where the wraith had been. Gilly unsheathes her long sword, black steeled with a golden hilt, it's blade lashing like a snake's flickering tongue. She slashes at another shadow who is cleaved in two, with both have evaporating into nothingness. Roger sends forward orbs of force that streak out and badly damage another shadow. Vannan rushes forward and takes the orb from Gilly and places it back upon the statue. The remaining shadows converge on Bjorn but fail to land any blows. (The DM forgot about flanking...) Bjorn smites another shadow, Gilly's blade disintegrates another and Roger once again send mystics missiles that vanquishes remaining foe.
Gilly contemplates taking the orb again. Bjorn once again suggests resting, this time up in the house. Roger leans against the wall revealing yet another secret passage, this time a convenient stairway that leads to a trap door on the first floor. The party relaxes in the den for an uneventful night.
The party rises in the dark morning and this time heads directly for the chanting in the basement. They discover stairs that lead down to yet another sub-level. Bjorn moves to the front and enters a room filled with non-valuable relics along the walls. The chanting grows louder from one of the passageways. "He is ancient! He is land!" Over and over the words are repeated. Gilly can smell the damp and dank odor of stale water from the passage.
Bjorn enters the breach and finds a huge pool of water flanked by ledges, a dais in the center and a cave at the far wall. The dais has an altar with chains suspended above it. Stairs go up to the encircling ledge from the water. Bjorn goes to explore the dais. Upon reaching it the chanting stops and now, "One must die!" becomes the new chorus of voices. Roger goes to look in the cave and finds a heap of organic matter piled in the small alcove, also jutting out in a pool of water. Bjorn heads back to the entrance and the chanting stops. Thirteen dark hooded spirits appear floating overhead, faceless yet daemonic. "Lorgoth the Decayer, we awaken thee!"
The mound within the cave begins to stir and rises from the water. Like a tidal wave, it engulfs poor Roger and sucks him into its body of animated mossy matter. Bjorn turns around and marches upon the aberration. He lands a mighty blow. Gilly fires off and arrow which causes the mass to shutter. Vannan starts to lighten her quiver. Kerplunk, as a missile clicks off the wall. Roger, horrified, releases a shot of acid and gets ejected from the mound. The mass once again turns tidal and swallows Bjorn. The dwarf attempts to power his way out and swims through the body of the beast and back into the pool of water. Gilly fires off another arrow and then begins to talk about round-abouts. Vannan marks off another arrow from her diminishing ammunition list. Roger blasts the bulky hulk with a burst of flame. A psuedo-pod lashes out and strikes the dwarf. Roger once again is engulfed by the mound. Bjorn climbs to his feet and slams his hammer upon the organic heap. Gilly throws some bat guano that she got from the relic room into the pool of water. Vannan... hits the side of a barn, I mean the mound, with an arrow! Roger this time burns the beast from within and is able to exit the pile. Bjorn swings away. Gilly nocks another arrow, takes a deep breath, focuses her mind, concentrates on the target and releases the killing blow to the mound. Its motions cease as it collapses into the water.
The chanting stops, the dark figures dissipate, and the ground begins to rumble. Darting mists of dust begin to fall from the ceiling. Pieces of rock splash in the pool as they fall like rain drops. The party dashes out of the dungeon, dodging larger and larger pieces of rubble as they run. They run to the secret stair case and find themselves in the den once again. However, the windows have been bricked up and the doorway has become rotated sickles spinning at high speeds. Black smoke begins to billow out from the fireplace as if the house itself was breathing death into the room.
Vannan notices the interior walls seem to have rotted and became brittle. He takes his axe and cleaves through the wall toward the main hall. Rats pour out of the walls and begin attacking the party. Bjorn flattens a few, Gilly slashes some with her dark sword, Vannan hacks away and Roger tries to snipe at them with a light crossbow. Eventually Vannan fights her way into the main room to find the windows are also bricked up and that all the doorways have become scythes of death. Gilly suggests going up the stairway. Smoke has also filled this room as the characters begin to choke. Bjorn asks his god for health and remains conscious. Vannan goes back to the den and breaks down another portal to the foyer. More rats fall from the breach in the wall. More stomping, pounding and chopping of rats takes place. Roger continues to pluck away with his light crossbow. Bjorn slams against the wall, this time attempting to get to the stoop of the house. Four points of damage are done, five were needed. The smoke has become so thick, vision is almost impossible. Gilly darts between the dwarf's legs and torpedoes herself through the wall with her short sword protruding forward. She is met with fresh air as the party exits the house.
The children are gone and a minute later the house implodes upon itself. The plot of land is now a pile of ruins. The roof has been razed.
The various characters ask the barkeep if there is any work to be had and he/she directs them to a stout dwarf sitting at a table by his lonesome. When the party ask him for employment, the dwarf quickly offers them a transport job. To take a crate of raw gems to his brother in a city a few days to the northwest. The party haggles prices for a while and then agrees to start the jaunt the next morning. Gus, the dwarf, gives the party an ox with a crate counter-weighted with a bag of rocks and directions to his brother, Russ, who owns a jewelry establishment in Neverwinter (city).
The party heads off for the city and encounters some goblins. The ambush goes painfully bad for the goblins as a few quickly die. These characters are not mere pushovers, but seasoned veterans of destruction, slashing vengeance and spitting death... from the goblin's perspective.
The party pitches tents and hobbles the ox. A thick fog rolls into the valley they are traversing. The next morning seems eerily quiet and dim. The party finds the ox has gone missing and their crate of gems now contains only ordinary rocks. The road has changed to a unused path. The trees seem different as if they are in a new world. A new, older, world.
The party, as every paragraph appears to begin with, heads down the path and eventually comes upon a sleeping village. Some houses are boarded up and all are dark. The only activity in the town seems to be two children sobbing in the street. When the party approaches the kids, they stop sobbing and explain that there's a monster in their basement. The party asks about their parents and the children think they are also in the basement. They also say there is a baby on the third floor. They seem confused when other questions are asked about the situation. They also seem confused when asked general questions. They refuse to go back in the house but will stay near the front stoop.
The party enters the house. They see a grand staircase heading up to the second floor and continue on to the third. A suit or armor attacks Bjorn as he tries to open a door. The armor is quickly dispatched. Its hollow shell falls to the ground and shatters apart. They enter the nursemaid's bedroom. Bjorn goes to a balcony and sees the children staring up at him from the street. Vannan looks at himself in the mirror and then looks behind the mirror. He finds a secret entrance that leads upward.
The party climbs the secret passage and check the rooms of the attic. One room has two beds, a doll house, a toy chest and... The two children, manifested as ghosts. The children do not recognize the party and get upset when their toys are disturbed. They explain that their parents locked them in the room to protect them from the monster in the basement. But the parents never came back. The children starved to death, locked up with the windows bricked shut. Upon inspection of the doll house, another secret passage is found that goes from the attic down to the bottom of the replica. No other stairs lead downward from the first floor.
Bjorn marches off to find this passage while Vannan and Gilly become possessed by the children when they attempt to leave the room. Mumbles mumbles something. Bjorn turns around and demands the children go back to their room. The frightened kids obey his command and once again, sadly trap their souls back in their room, terrified. Bjorn finds a room filled with covered furniture. Gilly finds a skeleton wrapped up in bloodied sheets. The secret passage is found and the party descends into the dungeon below.
As the party reaches the basement, Mumbles announces his name is Roger. He is a mighty juggler and sometimes a sorcerer. He also has a magic eight ball. Unworldly chanting can be heard but not understood. Bjorn begins exploring the twisting passages and discovers a room. A large table sits at the center of this room with chair shaped benches at its sides. Moldy bones of a goblin rest upon the table. Vannan discovers dirt under the table. Bjorn notices an alcove and investigates. A large snake-like worm with four tentacles protruding from its face lashes out at him. A powerful beak also pecks at his face. The party tries to assist but Bjorn shields the creature from their attacks. Roger casts orbs of force that magically zoom around Bjorn and hit their target. Gilly darts in and stabs at the monstrosity and then nimbly retreats back to the table. Vannan attempts to shoot arrows past Bjorn but the grick has too much cover. Roger cast a bolt of fire that sails over everyone's head and splatters flame on the wall behind. Bjorn slams him hammer down and flattens the beast. He then wonders if its carcass is tasty.
Bjorn continues on through a passage way and is immediately bitten by humanoid fiends that rise from the ground. Another rises in front of him and slashes out. Bjorn requests a tactical retreat back into the room. After some meta-gaming, the party forms a kill zone and defeat three of the frenzied undead walkers. Roger goes to search the bodies for pockets. He loves pockets. Gilly, strangely, just sits back and watches Roger loot the remains. He finds nothing other than another attacker that swings at him, narrowly missing as Roger squats down to look at the dead bodies. Roger reaches out and magically shocks the undead thing and runs back to the room. The walker walks into the kill zone and takes damage, falling limp.
Gilly takes this opportunity to disappear down another hallway. Luckily, Vannan feels Gilly go by and follows. Without any conversation, Roger follows suit. Bjorn announces he is hurt. Perhaps they should rest. The party sits among the remains of the dead worm for an hour and decide to take another passage. The chanting appears louder in the northerly direction but the party heads south. They find a room, skeletons shackled along the walls, and two statues in another alcove. One of a dark humanoid holding an orb and the other of a large wolf at his side. Gilly gleefully skips up to the statue and seeing the orb is not actually part of the statue, takes it.
Five misty shadows pour out from the walls and take shape as semi-solid forms of dark smoke. Vannan recalls from the stories of her people that these are most likely hellish shadows. These shadows drain the strength from their victims and especially hunger after goody two shoes. This theory is proven when Bjorn is struck. He is buckled and goes down to one knee. He composes himself and calls upon his over-watching diety to assist him in smiting his foe. His warhammer connects with the dark form and light, sparks and rays of radiance explode leaving only the afterglow and divine embers where the wraith had been. Gilly unsheathes her long sword, black steeled with a golden hilt, it's blade lashing like a snake's flickering tongue. She slashes at another shadow who is cleaved in two, with both have evaporating into nothingness. Roger sends forward orbs of force that streak out and badly damage another shadow. Vannan rushes forward and takes the orb from Gilly and places it back upon the statue. The remaining shadows converge on Bjorn but fail to land any blows. (The DM forgot about flanking...) Bjorn smites another shadow, Gilly's blade disintegrates another and Roger once again send mystics missiles that vanquishes remaining foe.
Gilly contemplates taking the orb again. Bjorn once again suggests resting, this time up in the house. Roger leans against the wall revealing yet another secret passage, this time a convenient stairway that leads to a trap door on the first floor. The party relaxes in the den for an uneventful night.
The party rises in the dark morning and this time heads directly for the chanting in the basement. They discover stairs that lead down to yet another sub-level. Bjorn moves to the front and enters a room filled with non-valuable relics along the walls. The chanting grows louder from one of the passageways. "He is ancient! He is land!" Over and over the words are repeated. Gilly can smell the damp and dank odor of stale water from the passage.
Bjorn enters the breach and finds a huge pool of water flanked by ledges, a dais in the center and a cave at the far wall. The dais has an altar with chains suspended above it. Stairs go up to the encircling ledge from the water. Bjorn goes to explore the dais. Upon reaching it the chanting stops and now, "One must die!" becomes the new chorus of voices. Roger goes to look in the cave and finds a heap of organic matter piled in the small alcove, also jutting out in a pool of water. Bjorn heads back to the entrance and the chanting stops. Thirteen dark hooded spirits appear floating overhead, faceless yet daemonic. "Lorgoth the Decayer, we awaken thee!"
The mound within the cave begins to stir and rises from the water. Like a tidal wave, it engulfs poor Roger and sucks him into its body of animated mossy matter. Bjorn turns around and marches upon the aberration. He lands a mighty blow. Gilly fires off and arrow which causes the mass to shutter. Vannan starts to lighten her quiver. Kerplunk, as a missile clicks off the wall. Roger, horrified, releases a shot of acid and gets ejected from the mound. The mass once again turns tidal and swallows Bjorn. The dwarf attempts to power his way out and swims through the body of the beast and back into the pool of water. Gilly fires off another arrow and then begins to talk about round-abouts. Vannan marks off another arrow from her diminishing ammunition list. Roger blasts the bulky hulk with a burst of flame. A psuedo-pod lashes out and strikes the dwarf. Roger once again is engulfed by the mound. Bjorn climbs to his feet and slams his hammer upon the organic heap. Gilly throws some bat guano that she got from the relic room into the pool of water. Vannan... hits the side of a barn, I mean the mound, with an arrow! Roger this time burns the beast from within and is able to exit the pile. Bjorn swings away. Gilly nocks another arrow, takes a deep breath, focuses her mind, concentrates on the target and releases the killing blow to the mound. Its motions cease as it collapses into the water.
The chanting stops, the dark figures dissipate, and the ground begins to rumble. Darting mists of dust begin to fall from the ceiling. Pieces of rock splash in the pool as they fall like rain drops. The party dashes out of the dungeon, dodging larger and larger pieces of rubble as they run. They run to the secret stair case and find themselves in the den once again. However, the windows have been bricked up and the doorway has become rotated sickles spinning at high speeds. Black smoke begins to billow out from the fireplace as if the house itself was breathing death into the room.
Vannan notices the interior walls seem to have rotted and became brittle. He takes his axe and cleaves through the wall toward the main hall. Rats pour out of the walls and begin attacking the party. Bjorn flattens a few, Gilly slashes some with her dark sword, Vannan hacks away and Roger tries to snipe at them with a light crossbow. Eventually Vannan fights her way into the main room to find the windows are also bricked up and that all the doorways have become scythes of death. Gilly suggests going up the stairway. Smoke has also filled this room as the characters begin to choke. Bjorn asks his god for health and remains conscious. Vannan goes back to the den and breaks down another portal to the foyer. More rats fall from the breach in the wall. More stomping, pounding and chopping of rats takes place. Roger continues to pluck away with his light crossbow. Bjorn slams against the wall, this time attempting to get to the stoop of the house. Four points of damage are done, five were needed. The smoke has become so thick, vision is almost impossible. Gilly darts between the dwarf's legs and torpedoes herself through the wall with her short sword protruding forward. She is met with fresh air as the party exits the house.
The children are gone and a minute later the house implodes upon itself. The plot of land is now a pile of ruins. The roof has been razed.
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