The Dark is Rising

 

Almost as evocative as the original book cover.

The BBC has been doing a 12 part adaptation of Susan Cooper’s “The Dark is Rising”, which is one of the books I’d put into a top ten that influenced me when I was growing up. Robert McFarlane has been involved in the project and it’s really well scripted and performed. The soundscape is amazing, definitely one to listen to using earphones. It runs to 12 episodes of around 17 minutes each.

For those not familiar with the books, this is young adult fiction which I first encountered during my first year at secondary school. It was a recommended read during the free reading lesson. I loved it and went on to read the original series multiple times. There are five linked books; chronologically, this is the second but it’s a good place to start.

Set at the end of 1973, Will is the seventh son of a seventh son, and is approaching his 11th birthday. He doesn’t know it, but this marks him out as one of the Old Ones, a group who have fought the Dark over centuries and across time. He’s about to come into his power, and must quickly learn how it is used as he has an important task to carry out against the rising of the Dark. The powers of Light need to resist and protect, and gather six signs of power. The whole story is evocative; a village near the Thames, cut off by sudden snow and cold, the agents of the Dark, the feel of claustrophobia and a bit of paranoia as you aren’t certain if characters could be agents of either side. Cooper links into stories like Weyland Smith, Herne, the Wild Hunt and more and uses them brilliantly.

This is definitely worth listening to or reading; it has the kind of feel as Alan Garner’s work but with a darker streak. The English Countryside and powers afoot in it. It isn’t twee, but intelligent, evocative fiction.

The podcast can be found via usual routes and BBC Sounds. Here’s a link to the Overcast FM syndication.

Love this. Recommended.

31st December 2022

First Impressions - Paolo Mori’s Blitzkrieg! (board game)

The board at the end of the game of Blitzkrieg.

The second game that we played on our games night was Paolo Mori’s Blitzkrieg! This is a two player game which I played with the eldest (15) who has always been fascinated by the WW2 period. Blitzkrieg! sets itself the challenge of playing out the entire war in around 20 minutes, and delivers. We took a bit longer but had we known the rules it would have easily been achievable.

The game board represents five theatres of operation, each with two or three distinct campaigns. Each theatre has an overall track which shows who is winning that theatre overall. There’s also an overall war victory track which is adjusted based on events in each theatre of operation. In most cases, you have to work your way through each campaign within a theatre in sequence.

The game comes with two little screens with all the rules you need. You have a bag of military forces - these are air units (can be used on land and sea), armies (can be used on land only) and navies (can be used on sea only). Each unit has a numerical value. Some may be ‘blitz’ units, but more on that later. There are also generals and admirals which score based on numbers of other units of the same type (sea or land) you’ve deployed already.

There are also special units - better armies and navies, spies, scientists and even atomic weapons.

Within each theatre of operation, campaigns are marked by a series of spaces between two and five long. Spaces are coloured blue for water, brown for land and both for coastal. Each turn, by default, you will play one unit into an active campaign space in any theatre, and draw another unit from your bag to replenish your forces. You have three units in your reserve to select from at any time.

However, most campaign spaces have special effects; some let you draw and extra unit immediately, others allow you to randomly send one of your opponent’s units back to their bag by bombing them. You can also gain special units, or the ability to shift the war in an individual theatre by moving the position on  its track. Finally, you can increase your score on the overall war victory track through the use of propaganda.

Winning an individual campaign happens when someone fills the final space. At that point, the total forces deployed are summed and the victory points for that campaign added to the winner’s score on the war victory track. The theatre of operations’ track is not changed. You can win an entire theatre of operations if you can move its track to your end. As you progress on that track you also get victory points. If you do reach the end, you get all the benefits that remain on the theatre.

The game ends when a player reaches 25 victory points on the war victory track. As the Axis player always starts, if they reach 25 first then the Allied player gets a final turn. The player with the highest victory score always wins.

So overall, a simple game. Does it deliver? 

My answer to that is ‘yes’. There’s a surprising amount of nuance in the game. You find yourself holding back on completing campaigns because your opponent may be able to seize victory if there are two spaces left and you play the penultimate space. That’s when having a blitz unit is useful because it lets you immediately play a second unit. You can get drawn into the battle of the tracks in each theatre and get distracted from overall war victory track if you aren’t careful. You have difficult decisions - using the atomic bomb will definitely mean you likely win a specific campaign but the news of it negatively affects all the other theatres, stiffening the enemy’s resolve. I only won the game we played because I managed to get hold of a blitz unit that allowed me to complete the last Western European campaign track and get 5 victory points at the last minute, finishing a single point ahead of the eldest who had triggered the endgame by pushing through 25 victory points.

This will definitely come to the table again. At around thirty minutes including set up and tidy up, I think this will get a lot more play than the copy of Columbia Games’ Victory in Europe that I have.

Recommended

29 December 2022

First Impressions - Guilds of Cadwallon (card game)

The game showing guild suits building up.

We played Guilds of Cadwallon last night. This was a very early kickstarter for me and I’ve been trying to get it to the table for ages. The kickstarter version I have comes in a box with a 5x5 board and a second set of cards to support up to 8 players and bigger versions of the city. We played using a single deck and a 3x3 set up. We didn’t use any of the extra options like contracts (bonuses for the end game) or conditions (impacts on how the game works).

Anyway, the youngster (11) played it with for a first game and then the eldest (15) joined in. The theme is that you’re trying to garner power in the city of Cadwallon by gaining influence with the guilds and key personalities. You’re trying to avoid the militia noticing you, so I suspect that you’re really a criminal faction.

The game uses a deck of district cards which are laid out in a 3x3 grid with spaces between. Each turn you can place one agent, and play an action card if you have one. You place your agents in the spaces (boulevards) between the grid to leverage the support values on either site. Once the round completes, you see who has the most support and can claim those cards. Not all cards have support values though. The district cards include guild cards (all of which have a different suit to represent the guild and a value in gold), action cards, personality cards and militia.

You don’t start with action cards but instead win them on the table. Each has a unique effect and a gold value, so you have to make choice whether you want to play them or hold them for the endgame.Some of the most devastating uses for them are to move or swap district cards while leaving agents untouched.  Personality cards don’t have support value but are valuable in the endgame scoring. Militia cards are effectively the direct opposite of guild cards - they score the same way but negatively.

Play proceeds through a series of rounds until you no longer have enough cards to build out the city in the 3x3 grid. Once that happens you score the game.

Scoring is simple but needs some multiplication. You collect the guilds of the same type together and add up the golden guild points on them. You then multiply the score by the number of cards to get the score for that guild in total. Personality cards can be added to guilds in your hand when the guild has four or less cards to boost their multiplier. The militia cards score the same way as guild cards but reduce your score. Action cards are scored for their unique values and don’t multiply.

The youngster enjoyed the combination of strategy and maths a lot. He carefully thought through his placements to get as many cards the same as he could and also to block me getting certain cards. The eldest didn’t quite get it and managed to have the militia all over him. I think we’ll likely be playing this again as it’s quick and clever. I’ll add in the contracts and conditions next time.

Recommended.

29 December 2022 

The second game - this time with three players.

End of the Revolutions

 

The last episode…

I’ve been enjoying Mike Duncan’s Revolutions Podcast since April 2017. I came to it after I’d finished his epic History of Rome podcast which preceded it (and I highly recommend if you like all things Roman). I discovered Revolutions on a week off between jobs; I managed to listen to the first two seasons while painting a fence (that probably needs doing again now) and was hooked. Duncan is incredibly easy to listen to, and Revolutions was an education to me. It covered topics I thought I knew and showed me aspects I hadn’t considered. It also taught me a lot about topics I’d didn’t know anything about. It has been fascinating, entertaining and educating. 

The podcast runs to around 190 hours (and apparently 1.5 million words of script); the longest seasons are the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution, which is unsurprising. Two books have spun off his podcasts - one on the failing of the Roman Republic, and one on Lafayette. Both are great. 

Revolutions is  definitely worth the time. I’m looking forward to his next work. You can find it where you get your podcasts or here: https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/revolutions_podcast/

Highly recommended.

27th December 2022

A Return to Eden

A Return to Eden

One of my Christmas presents was the recently released remixed Deluxe Edition of Holidays in Eden by Marillion. This was their second studio album with Steve Hogarth (H) as frontman, and it brought me back to the band. When Fish left, I’d followed him on with Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors and more. I’d struggled with Seasons End, mainly as I’d felt at times that H was sailing to close to Fish’s vocal style in how he was delivering lyrics and it was still raw. On reflection, this was all in my head; some of the tracks on that album are sublime, and the vocals match them perfectly. 

Anyway, I’d ended up chatting to another engineer during the draughting course in first year at Southampton, a friend of my lab partner Ceri. We discovered a common love for Marillion, and I said that I hadn’t really got on with Season’s End. He told me that Holiday’s in Eden was worth a listen, that the musical style had shifted and H had come into his own. I borrowed the CD, loved it, taped it, and passed it back. Eventually I picked up my own copy. 1994’s Brave re-cemented my love for the band and the rest is history.

Holidays in Eden tends to get dismissed as too commercial and poppy for Marillion. It’s true that Chris Neil, the producer, has huge pop credentials, and that EMI wanted 3 hit singles, but the album is much more than that. ‘Splintering Heart’ is possibly one of the best openers that the band has every written. It pulses with energy and menace. The ‘This Town’ trilogy at the end (This Town/The Rake’s Progress/100 Nights) shows clearly where the band would go with intertwined and complex tracks. The remix feels much more expansive, and you can hear much more detail in the tracks. Sonically, it’s impressive.

Of course, the album contains one of my all time favourites, ‘Waiting to Happen’, a song of rediscovered love that - 20 years ago - Jill & I had during the register signing when we got married. It’s a wistful story of love. 

I’ve just listened through the whole album once with the headphones on, and it’s gorgeous. I’m hoping to give it a few more spins over the next few days. But before that, there are discs 2 & 3 to listen to. These are a live show at Hammersmith in September 1991, which should be great fun.

A lovely live version of ‘Waiting to Happen’.

Waiting to Happen

I lie awake at night
Listening to you sleeping
I hear the darkness breathe
And the rain against the window

After all this time
Cynical and jaded
All the stones are diamonds
All the blues are faded

Everything I've been through
All I've seen and heard
Spend so much of my life
In the spiritual third world
But you came and brought the rain here

Something waiting to happen
Something learning to fly
We can talk without talking
From inside to inside
I have waited to feel this
For the whole of my life

We took ourselves apart
We talked about our faces
You said you didn't like yours
I said I disagree

I keep the pieces separate
I clutch them in my coat
A jigsaw of an angel
I can do when I feel low

From emptiness and dryness
The famine of our days
I watch the heavens open
Wash it all away
You came and brought the rain here

Something waiting to happen
Something learning to fly
On the edge of exploding
Something wild and alive
Something waiting to happen
Any time that you like
I have waited to feel this
For the whole of my life

MUSIC: Hogarth | Kelly | Mosley | Rothery | Trewavas
LYRICS:Hogarth

Happy Christmas.

25 December 2022

Addendum (26/12/2022).

I watched Jim Newstead’s YouTube first listen on this and despite being delightful in its own right to see someone’s first reaction to a record that I love, he makes the very valid point that there are shades of U2 and Simple Minds in the music on this album. I guess that’s part of the reason that it resonated with me as much as it did; both those bands were at the heart of my listening in the late 80s and early 90s. Simple Minds were the first band I saw live (at Leeds’ Roundhay Park), and U2 weren’t that far behind (also at Roundhay Park, disappointing in comparison to Simple Minds live). One of the things I’ve loved about Marillion over the years has been how their music has changed and developed with each album, and yet a recognisable thread remains.

Broader not deeper

I was looking at my Goodreads list of what I’d read for inspiration and realised that I’d slowed down tremendously over the last few months. Now, since the changes for adding books, Goodreads has become less useful as many roleplaying games are a real pain to add (you need to submit the details into a thread maintained by the volunteer librarians on the service and a link to a publisher website with an image and details and then hope it gets added).

I realised that the reason was that I’d got into a habit of dipping into books, reading a few chapters, then moving onto another book or roleplaying game without finishing. Probably a reflection of how busy life has been the last few weeks but I hope to actually focus a bit more the next two weeks and start to finish reading some of the things that I’ve started. Maybe even get the first pass through Castle Xyntillan done for Roll20 and also to complete the reviews for Swords of the Serpentine and the final part of Helveçzia which have been hovering around for a while. It’ll depend what we’re up to as a family, of course, but it’s nice to have some non-work time planned. 

24th December 2022

Roll20 CSS hacking

Roll20 after CSS tweaks

Keith Curtis kindly commented on my previous post on Roll20 Interface Design and shared some of the work that he and others have been doing to modify the CSS used for the webpage. I decided to take the plunge and installed the Stylus extension on the Chrome instance on my MacBook Pro.

I installed two of the scripts; Tiny Turn and a second one to take out padding from the right hand sidebar. It's pretty simple to do; you type in a name for the script and then paste it in, then associate it with a domain (app.roll20.net). Once you reload the page, it's done. You can turn it off by clicking a switch on the extension. I'm impressed with the effects and will be exploring this a bit more going forward.

How I use Roll20 has changed since I started running this campaign; these days I'm used to building maps, adding dynamic lighting, making sure they're scaled. I also have started using a few macros and now hacking the CSS dynamically. That's what running nearly 60 sessions of a campaign on a VTT does to you!

These are the two links Keith shared. I found the second one most useful. Thanks again!

https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/7949153/
https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/7209333/

13 December 2022

 

Who is hunting whom?

So we come to the endgame. So far, Strahd has indulged the characters like a contented cat playing games with a mouse, with no intent to harm. But they’ve broken part of his connection to the land, raised his people against him and defied tradition. He’s soon to find that they’ve broken into his home and desecrated his brother’s grave, robbing his corpse, if he hasn’t already. I think that will be the point that the time for games will have passed.

Meanwhile, our heroes continue with their plan to summon him onto an island in the lake. Perhaps that will be enough to shift the balance in their favour, perhaps not. Ireena has been taken, and perhaps turned.

The very existence of our heroes and their nemesis is at stake. The battle for Ireena Kolyana’s soul is joined. How will it end? 

10 December 2022

Initial thoughts on iPad Air 4

All the fours - iPad mini 4 and iPad Air 4

After some thoughts, I’ve upgraded my iPad. The main motivations were that I don’t really want to take my MacBook 14” out on the road if I don’t need to, plus the fact that the iPad mini is now obsolete in operating system terms. That said, I bought the mini when it was released in 2015, so it’s done seven years which is a lifetime in technology terms. It’s only really been the last 12 months when it’s started to feel slow.

It took a while to decide what model to replace it with. I know I wanted a cellular capable iPad (the last two iPads I have owned have had that functionality and it’s been really useful). The big decision was screen size. My first iPad was the original with the 10” screen, but my second and third units had the iPad mini form factor. I’d used the iPad minis regularly travelling on the train to London with work when I was at Unilever. It was really portable and useful. However, my close vision has deteriorated slightly (always short-sighted, I needed to switch to varifocals for reading reasons), so I decided that it would be better to go back to the larger form factor. I knew I didn’t want the 12” screen size on the iPad Pro; I still wanted portability and I always have the MacBook as an option.

I knew I wanted more than 64Gb of storage; one of my use scenarios is reading RPG books that I have on PDF, and that usually ends up taking several gigabytes of storage. It had become tight on the iPad mini 4 as the apps I had installed also ate a lot of space. I figured 128Gb or 256Gb was the right kind of storage. I’d used laptops with that happily. When I was using Chromebooks, I tended to stick an SD card in that added 128Gb to store this kind of thing. As external storage wasn’t an option with the iPad, it meant the initial purchase had to be right.

I wanted a bit more power than the base iPad model, so that left me with the Pro or Air. That led me down a rabbit-hole of whether I wanted to get onboard the M-series processor train. iPadOS already is getting features that don’t work on the iPhone processor based lower end models. In the end, I decided that the price jump to the M-series wasn’t worth it for the power difference I could get with the upgrade. I ended up looking at the iPad Air 4 and the iPad Pro (2020). These had A14 and A12Z processors respectively. I was looking on the Apple refurbished store (which gives you fully warranted devices but in a white box - they feel as well presented as a new device). In the end, I came to the conclusion that I’d go with the iPad Air and the A14. Looking on Geekbench, this was about a 25x processing speed jump compared to the A8 on my iPad mini; the M-series iPad Air 5 would be nearer 32x faster, but I figured that this would be more than enough for the next five years. I picked the 256Gb option for storage.

I picked up an Apple Pencil 2 (via Amazon as £15 less than Apple) and then started looking at keyboard cases. I’ve used a keyboard with the iPad from the original model in 2010, as it adds a lot of flexibility. I settled on the Logitech Combo Touch. This has a trackpad, backlighting and space to place the Apple Pencil to charge. I’ve used Logitech keyboards extensively and they’re usually quality with a good typing experience. I did consider the Magic Keyboard (lovely but £300), and the Folio Keyboard (£200) from Apple, but the Logitech was significantly cheaper (£150 RRP but £110 at Amazon) so that was me decided.

I’ve been saving to do the replacement over the last year, so placed the orders.

DPD are running a day behind around Leeds, so I spent a day or so looking at a keyboard case waiting for the iPad to fill it. Once it arrived, the fun started in a good way.

My old iPad had a notification in system settings that my new device was coming. I gave me instructions and all I had to do was to bring the two close together and scan what was on the screen on the iPad mini with the iPad Air. It then pulled across all my data and apps via iCloud. The experience was seamless.

The new machine feels buttery-smooth and the gradual convergence between iPadOS and macOS means that there isn’t a huge difference in experience so far. I could imagine a scenario where a keyboard and touchpad equipped iPad Air or Pro replaced a laptop for general use. The touchpad is a game changer. iPadOS is built for it; if you come from a laptop you’ll find it very natural to use. It’s quick - loading into World of Tanks Blitz onto a map takes less than five seconds whereas it could take thirty seconds on a bad day once you got out of the queue with the 2015 machine. It has desktop class apps (Affinity Suite, decent versions of Microsoft Office) which are no longer screen-size increased phone apps. I can use this as a portable work device as well; no more struggling with a phone keyboard if I get contacted when away.

The keyboard case detaches magnetically so it’s really easy to just switch to a tablet view. The screen is bright and clear, and reading full size RPG books is easy.

That said, the MacBook has a lot more power and can do more complicated things. There’s definitely a use-case for that. I’d only consider playing RPGs on a VTT as a player with the iPad. Although I may experiment to see how Role works. It also won’t replace my reMarkable day to day. The experience of writing on glass isn’t as pleasant and the shear level of focus the rM gives me mean I’m happy with that experience.

This is a world from the iPad experience that I first had in 2010. Apple’s tablet has grown up and become something much more than a big screen iPhone. The interactions with keyboards and trackpads add another layer of experience and iPadOS is much closer to macOS now. The user experience upgrading is graceful and frustration free and quick. I’m impressed.

10th December 2022

Roll20 Interface Design

GM view for Curse of Strahd

I’ve been running Curse of Strahd with the Roll20 VTT for the last 58 sessions, and apparently spent over 330 hours working with the interface for that game alone. The hour count is so height, despite the sessions usually being two and half to three hours because of the time I’ve spent doing preparation within the game set up. It is, by far, my most used VTT.

The platform has been getting steadily better as time has gone on, and changes have been much more apparent over the last 12 months. I think that the creators have realised that other VTTs such as Foundry are a serious threat so they’ve raised their game.

The main challenge I find with the game is the need for a huge amount of screen area to run effectively. Even on a 3000x2000 (ish) MacBook display, it feels cramped. This is because the elements within the game - the turn order, scenario parts, characters, images and more all display within the tabletop window. You can pop them out, but that has its own challenges.

I’m usually using a second screen now - I have a full HD portable monitor that I plug in and often pop out the chat window and the music player, and sometimes even monsters and NPCs. The challenge with this is that you can’t actually collapse these back into the main window or recover them if you manage to close them without reloading the page. You may wonder why someone may do this; it’s usually a double click when you mean a single click and an accidental closure. I can’t tell you exactly why, but I still do it. 

I’ve found myself opening a second browser - Safari - on the second screen and using D&D Beyond’s version of Curse of Strahd for reference rather than the same references in Roll20. This is because the structure of the hyperlinked text is much easier to navigate in Beyond than Roll20. The downside is that I then have to scramble to the Roll20 element if there’s a linked item like a handout or NPC that I want to display quickly.

I have been impressed with how user-friendly some of the elements of the platform have become; dynamic lighting was a nightmare when we started and now is a really slick system which is pretty intuitive to work. The screenshot above shows a GM’s overview so all the light is visible; players would be seeing much less. The design of barriers to light is very simple, and something that I’ve done several times when I’ve added in extra battle maps into the game.

On balance, I like Roll20, and I’d happily run more with it. This is particularly the case with D&D 5e, as I have invested into the core books on it and overall it’s pretty decently done. I’ve also used it for Alien, Vaesen and City of Mist, all of which have worked well. I’m currently slowly building Castle Xyntillan into Roll20 to run as a drop-in Old-School Essentials game.That said, I don’t love the way Roll20 works the way I love Role. I suspect that my feelings for Role have developed that way because it resembles a slightly better version of the Google Hangouts games that I’ve played for years with the Gumshoe group.

The answer to these niggles isn’t Foundry; I’ve had similar frustrations on that platform for different aspects. I’m conscious that Foundry has improved since the last time that I used it, but I’m reluctant to add a third VTT to my arsenal as a GM, especially for games that I’ve bought material for.

What’s your experience of Roll20? What do you like and what could be better?

9 December 2022

Curse of Strahd - S6E2 (58) - The Wight Stuff

 

Ser Alys and Ser Adon find themselves each entombed separately in what seem to be some kind of stone sarcophagus. Gaddock and Kelwarin have just trapped three wights in a sphere of force and are fleeing them, wondering what happened to their friends. Kasimir hides with his sister in the tomb she has been entrapped in for half-a-thousand years, condemned there when he incited his people to stone her to death rather than let her be taken by Strahd as his bride. He hopes the magic from the Amber Temple will restore her.

Our dramatis personae:

Ser Adon de Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Paladin, from a knightly background, with two human retainers and a priest), played by Paul (dr_mitch). Lawful Good. Married to Ser Alys.

Kelwarin (Kel) (a half-elf Sorceror flush with the powers of wild magic, an outlander), played by Graham (First Age). Chaotic Good.

Gaddock Teeg (a halfling wizard and former prizefighter), played by Alex (Doggetay), Neutral Good

Ser Alys de Adon-Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Fighter with a soldier background, currently the leader of the town militia of Daggerford), played by Tom (Guvnor). Lawful Neutral. Imagine a slightly greener take on Grace Jones... Married to Ser Adon. 

also featuring: 

Ireena Kolyana (a human warrior, daughter of the Burgomaster of Barovia, Twice-Bitten reincarnation of Strahd's unrequited love, Tatyana) - upgraded as a sidekick.

and introducing:

Muriel Vinshaw (a member of the Keepers of the Feather, travelling with the party to repay them for rescuing her),  a wereraven upgraded to a sidekick (yes, I know that breaks rules as she started at CR2 but frankly I don't care)!

All characters & sidekicks are level 9. 

__

Morning of 23rd December

It was pitch dark. Ser Adon found himself in what appeared to be a stone coffin, when only seconds before he'd been walking beside his wife, Ser Alys. There was a flash of light and the next thing that he knew was that he was entombed. He called out, but heard nothing, except maybe the drip of water. He feared he may be under the earth as well as in a coffin.

Ser Alys was in a similar situation no more than twenty feet from her husband. She didn't hear him call. She braced herself to escape.

Meanwhile, in the dark and mist-filled catacombs, Gaddock and Kel hastily conferred. Gaddock could only maintain the spell for ten minutes or so, so they decided to head north, the opposite direction that the wights had last seen them. They started to check tombs but decided that perhaps they needed to move at more pace, looking for a tomb labelled with their friend's names. They looked at the portcullis sealed black marble staircase and decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and headed north.

Ser Adon pushed hard, and managed to dislodge the lid of the coffin, carefully controlling its fall to the ground. Fortunately, it wasn't under earth. Unfortunately, it seemed to be in some kind of cave. As his eyes adjusted, he made out more than ten more similar coffins in the room. As he considered what to do next, one of the other lids flew off, crashing to the floor and smashing in two. A figure raised up, under laced shroud which was quickly pulled off to reveal Ser Alys. They hugged and then started to search the room to get out. The only viable route was a shaft, perhaps ten feet up in the air at ceiling level. The room itself was filled with bones and rusted weapons and armour. Their feet crunched over them.

Kel took a turn and suddenly realised that the wights could see him. He made a rude gesture and headed on. As he reached the northern wall, he found a tomb offset to the side. It was labelled 'Saint Markovia', like the Abbey. As he moved forward, four darts shot out. He managed to dodge them. 

Gaddock led them around the corner and they came to a portcullis. Beyond it were white marble stairs, heading downwards. Gaddock went to the portcullis and gingerly tested it to see if it was solid. It seemed to be set in place. Looking through, he could see a white marble chamber, with a white marble plinth in the middle on which rested an ornately engraved coffin. Gaddock reached through the portcullis and manifested his owl, which still had cobwebs on it from wherever it had beed trapped. Circling the room, it saw that there were three statues at the back wall (an attractive young man flanked by two angels). The marble plinth was inscribed with the name 'SERGEI VON ZAROVICH".

Ser Alys was boosted up to the shaft by Ser Adon. She was by far the better climber, so started to work her way up the shaft, hammering in pitons and securing rope for Ser Adon to use to climb with. She advising him on how to use his body when climbing in a shaft like this. Unfortunately, Ser Adon slipped and started to fall, only recovering with a Misty Step above Alys, who managed to take his weight. Adon now took the lead and carried on up the shaft.

Gaddock created a mage hand, and using the owl's eyes he pulled the lever on the western side of the south wall. The portcullis moved up nearly silently, untouched by time. The crypt was 30 feet tall and beautifully set out with arches and white marble. Kel stayed near the lever once they went in; Gaddock went up to the coffin. He noticed that there was a feeling of restfulness in the room, and a lack of the dust and decay in other parts of this floor. The fog seemed to be held back near the top of the stairs. Gaddock cast a spell to dispel any magical effects on the coffin. He then got his jemmy from his backpack and started to open the coffin.

Meanwhile, Alys and Adon reached the top of the shaft. Pausing for breath, they saw a door to the south. Alys started to slowly force it, but Ser Adon was impatient and forced the door hard, with a crash as it opened, smashed to the floor. They came outside and listened for there colleagues. They heard no-one.

Kel heard some noises to the south, he started to look out of the stair well, and called to Ser Adon and Ser Alys. This was the point when the three wights which they'd trapped rushed him. He pulled the portcullis lever but only managed to keep one wight out. They seemed to have preternatural speed. As the creatures arrived, Gaddock used his jemmy to pop the lid of the coffin.

The wight stuff?

Battle was quickly joined; Kelwarin was attacked by one of the wights which sucked at his life essence and set about him with a longsword. He set about it with a witch bolt, electrical energy blasting it. Gaddock blasted one to another plane of existence, then took cover behind the coffin. The creatures continued to attack, so Gaddock let rip with a up-powered magic missile, and the room was full of whistling and howling and the bolts of energy hit the wight that remained in the room. 

Adon and Alys heard the noise and ran north. Alys yelled "We're coming". As she did, the bats on the ceiling became more agitated. They rushed down the wight that was trapped outside snd trying to lift the portcullis, rapidly destroying it. Adon misty-stepped through the portcullis and helped Kelwarin finish off the last wight. 

Once they were safe, they decided to open the coffin. The body inside was the same as the middle statue, well preserved, perhaps by magic. It was wearing shiny plate armour and a blade-less sword lay beside it. Ser Adon picked this up and it flared with sun bright flame, hurting him. He felt distaste and pity and a sensation of taint. He dropped the hilt and Ser Alys took it gingerly. It didn't react to her, other it seemed to emote at her.

They decided to recover the armour from Sergei's armour. Once they'd broken into the coffin, then looted it for everything useful, Ser Adon placed the body back in the sarcophagus closed the lid and said prayers over Sergei's soul, praying for its rest and that it never rose again.

The party left, collecting Kasimir and Patrina. Patrina looked much better, but was still pale and drawn. There was a brief sharp look from her at Ser Alys, a sharpness in the way that she acted and perhaps a barely repressed anger. Quickly, they travelled east towards the tomb of Strahd's parents and their way out. 

Ser Adon passed through the blue light which had reformed. No-one else could. As a result, Gaddock had to dispel it again. He was now desparately low on magic; fortunately, he could cast enough fly spells to get his share of the party down. Kasimir took the remaining four down, dropping the 1000ft down to the valley below. They had escaped. Quickly, they hustled into the woods and back to the rendezvous. They'd been in the Castle perhaps four hours. They reached the camp; the guards had hot bacon cooked and gave the party sandwiches and refreshment as they set off to get back to town.

On the way back, there was bickering over who was worthy to bear the Sunsword; Ser Alys was of the opinion that Ser Adon wasn't, not while he had the unhealthy obsession with the Bloodspear. They made a steady pace, leaving minimal footprints and passing the Old Bonegrinder Mill without incident. They made good time to the gates of Vallaki, just before nightfall. There was general shock and delight that they'd managed to enter Castle Ravenloft and survive. Kasimir committed to help the characters, and rode off to the Dusk Elf encampment with his sister,

They held a council of war, and decided that it was time to recruit allies. Davian Martikov was a given, but Kel and Adon wanted to explore what Ez and Rictavio could offer. The answer was 'a lot'; Ezmeralda D'Avenir was an apprenticed monster-slayer who had worked with the legendary Rudolph Van Richten. They asked her how good Rictavio was, and were startled that he appeared in the pub, as if out of nowhere. He joined them for a drink; Kel tried a tub thumping speech, but Rictavio wasn't that impressed. He asked Kel if he really believed what he said, or was it for show. He did agree that the threat of Strahd needed to be dealt with. They shook on working together, at which point he introduced himself as Rudolph van Richten, there in disguise to try and slay Strahd. Adon was impressed with the company they were keeping.

Gaddock and Alys went to see the Fanes. They were younger and more energetic again. A conversation was had between Alys and Laura (the aspect of the Huntress) about the Bloodspear. She agreed to take the weapon and help free Adon of his taint from it. But there was a cost; a kiss would be needed to draw it out. Would Alys allow Adon to kiss the Avatar of the Huntress, a personification of the land, full of lithe and dangerous energy and attraction. The answer was yes; however, Alys was ready to kill Laura (or die trying) if she ensorcelled her husband in any way.

Alys left Gaddock there, with Laura and Jeny and met up with Adon. She explained what was needed to happen. They agreed that the potential cost was worth taking. They headed back to the shop where Jeny and Laura lived. It was closed. Alys banged on the door and a dishevelled Jeny came out, ushering them into the shop. Gaddock walked through with a steaming mug of drink, in his socks and undergarments. Laura followed, leaving little to the imagination. She confirmed that Adon and Alys were happy to go ahead, but warned that she couldn't be to blame if Adon was in any way affected by her kiss. They agreed that was the case.

She held the Bloodspear in one hand and drew Adon in with other, kissing him deeply. He could feel his essence flowing from him; the blood beating in his head and his heart hammering. It was electric, and there was such a draw and energy from Laura that he was almost jealous of Gaddock. The kiss broke, Laura's hand lingered for a moment on his face, and then she said "You're free of it". Adon heard the spear whispering; it told him it never wanted him either. He relaxed, his bloodshot eyes gone. Ser Alys passed him the Sunsword, and it ignited without any resistance.

The two orcish lovers left the shop, heading back home to a nice game of chess, or perhaps backgammon. Laura watched with a wistful look and then turned, grabbing Jeny and Gaddocks hands and headed back into the apartment. 

Later that evening, Kelwarin got back from the Blue Water Inn. Fortunately, someone had left the door unlocked for him. He staggered up to bed, wondering for moment where Ireena was, before falling to sleep.

GM Notes: Well, they escaped. They stopped opening random doors and focused, and the Ravenloft heist is done. They levelled up to Level 10 and the endgame is upon us. Bitter sweet for me as I'm a big fan of the characters and love seeing what they do.

7th December 2022

Curse of Strahd - S6E1 (57) - Strong Encryption

 

We enter the end game. Our heroes have planned their heist into Castle Ravenloft to retrieve the Sunsword from Strahd's brother's tomb, which they suspect is located within the catacombs below the castle inside the pillar rock itself. The only compromise they've made is to take Kasimir with them; he will use his spells that give the power of flight in return for assistance in recovering his sister from the tomb using the power he recovered from the Amber Temple. The plan is a quick in and out when the castle is dormant during the day.

Our dramatis personae:

Ser Adon de Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Paladin, from a knightly background, with two human retainers and a priest), played by Paul (dr_mitch). Lawful Good. Married to Ser Alys.

Kelwarin (Kel) (a half-elf Sorceror flush with the powers of wild magic, an outlander), played by Graham (First Age). Chaotic Good.

Gaddock Teeg (a halfling wizard and former prizefighter), played by Alex (Doggetay), Neutral Good

Ser Alys de Adon-Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Fighter with a soldier background, currently the leader of the town militia of Daggerford), played by Tom (Guvnor). Lawful Neutral. Imagine a slightly greener take on Grace Jones... Married to Ser Adon. 

also featuring: 

Ireena Kolyana (a human warrior, daughter of the Burgomaster of Barovia, Twice-Bitten reincarnation of Strahd's unrequited love, Tatyana) - upgraded as a sidekick.

and introducing:

Muriel Vinshaw (a member of the Keepers of the Feather, travelling with the party to repay them for rescuing her),  a wereraven upgraded to a sidekick (yes, I know that breaks rules as she started at CR2 but frankly I don't care)!

All characters & sidekicks are level 9. 

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23rd December, small hours of the morning

Our heroes rose two hours after midnight, broke their fast with the volunteers from the Vallaki militia who had agreed to accompany them on the mission, and then saddled up. Ireena and Muriel said their goodbyes, and they set off, riding fast with horses east along the Old Svalich Road, illuminating the way with torches to keep the creatures of darkness away.

While they travelled, they reflected on Gaddock's scrying for Patrina, Kasimir's sister. Using a locket of hair that the Dusk Elf had maintained since his sister's death, he focussed in and had a vision of a small room, perhaps twenty feet square. It was lit faintly by a eery blue glow. Gaddock moved his point of view, turning to see whether Patrina's body was there. He saw the corpse of a beautiful elf; long dead, with obvious signs of injury (most likely from the stoning that she had suffered when her people murdered her). As he studied her, he realised that the corpse's eyes had opened and it was staring at him. Startled, he cut the connection, hearing the faint echoes of a terrible cry as the link failed. Gaddock had staggered backwards, the other party members catching him before he fell. He had turned Kasimir explained that he had seen his sister, but she may well have seen him. Time didn't really seem to have touched her so perhaps there was hope?

The road rose up over the mountain side towards the Tser Falls. They made good time, soon reaching the turning where the road headed down towards the bridge over the waterfall. Instead of following the road down towards the village of Barovia, they headed east and down, round the mountain's side, using it to keep them out of sight from the Castle looming above. Finally, after perhaps six hours travel, with the pre-dawn glow in the east, they reached the point where they'd planned to leave their escorts. They made camp, ate a little, then headed through the woods to see the darkness of the castle looming above the mist-laden forests below. As they watched, and the light intensified, they became aware of movement in the clouds above. With a high pitched chittering, a spiral of bats dropped towards the castle's spires, disappearing as day tentatively began.

The five of them headed out from the forest to the base of the pillar rock. A thousand feet above them they could see the overlook jutting out. Below it were the windows they sought. Quietly confirming that they were ready, Kasimir paused for a moment, muttered some words of power, and Ser Alys and Ser Adon found their weight start to fall away. A little awkwardly at first, they started to float up towards the windows. Once they started and were underway, Kasimir turned to Gaddock and Kelwarin, and repeated the casting. All three of them started to follow.

They soon reached the windows. They were stained glass, with centuries of dirt making them nearly opaque. Kelwarin drew out the gloves of thievery which he had inherited from Alexei, and set to work on the window frames. After a few minutes, he'd worked it enough to open it. Without a creak, he rotated the entire frame and let the party through. The room was an ornate chapel with a gold mosaic roof. To the north was the effigy of a man, and to the south the effigy of a woman. Examining the tombs, they realised they were Strahd's parents, King Barov and Queen Ravenoia. In dust on the floor there was evidence that this room was visited with some regularity.

They decided to press on. To the east, steps rose up towards a blue field of light which was projected between two 30ft tall statues of warriors. Not wanting to risk passing through it, and deciding the gap behind the statues was too small to squeeze through, Gaddock cast a spell to dispel the magical effect. The blue light fell back to the statues and the party pressed on through.

The whole atmosphere changed. The floor was sticky, mist laden for perhaps a foot or so of depth and the ceiling seemed to be moving. Using Ser Adon's javelin to cast light for Gaddock, they could see that the roof was covered in bats which were sleeping. They decided that it was best not to risk disturbing them. The stickiness on the floor was bat guano. At the limit of their lights they could see large rock pillars, with carven doors. 

The first one they reached was a shock. It had Kelwarin's name written on it. Opening the door, they saw a body lying on a marble slab that looked identical to the sorcerer. Everyone turned and looked at Kel; the colour had drained from his face. When they looked back, the corpse had gone and the tomb was empty. Kel could only think that this was a vision of where he would end up if he took up Strahd's offer to become his ambassador. 

The pillar opposite was labelled "Sasha Ivilis, Bride". Gaddock opened the door, and saw a woman's form draped with a white lace funeral cloth. As he approached it, fascinated, a woman's voice called out weakly, "Is that you, my love? Can I come back and join you? Are you no longer angered by me?". Gaddock started to pull the cloth back and then there was a flurry of movement and the next thing he knew was that he had been grabbed and dragged behind the marble plinth and that there was a sharp pain in his neck. He could see hungry eyes, feel teeth and a strong grip holding him from behind as his blood was being drained. Ser Adon entered the tomb and short brutal fight ensued, with the ravenous vampire bride swiftly being destroyed with the powers of the sun and magic.

Warily, they headed further in. Soon after they found a tomb labelled 'Patrina Velovka'. They confirmed that it seemed to be the tomb of Kasimir's sister from the blue light spilling from the edges of the door when they tried it. Opening the door, they started towards the body, which was exactly as Gaddock had seen. Patrina's eyes opened, glowing blue and silver. Her whole body was glowing, and Adon could feel the strong presence of undeath. Her eyes lighted upon Kasimir and she flinched, letting out a horrific wail which cut into the depths of our heroes' souls. Kelwarin, Ser Adon and Ser Alys all collapsed to the floor horror-stricken. The orcish heritage of the two warriors gave them great tenacity, so somehow they managed to stagger to their feet. Kelwarin was less lucky; he had clearly stopped breathing. Kasimir yelled to his sister, apologising, telling her that he loved her, that he was wrong to raise his people up against her. Ser Alys set to against Patrina, wielding Ser Vladimir's magical blade which cut unto the dead woman with great effect. Kasimir, called out to Ser Alys, telling her to stop, and took the vial of the black, shimmering liquid which he'd brought from the Amber temple and threw it over Patrina, who immediately collapsed to the floor, the blue glow going out. 

Quickly, the party healed Kelwarin before he could pass beyond the veil of death. The warriors recovered somewhat, using magic, the healing cake from Jeny and Ser Adon's ability to lay on hands. Half their mission was complete, but they still needed to find Sergei's tomb. Kasimir was unhappy to leave his sister here alone, so they agreed that he would stay with her. She looked much more healthy, and was clearly breathing.

They headed back and towards the north. Amongst the pillars, they found the tombs of the Castle Architect and a variety of minor nobles. They found the tomb of Khazan, but decided not to open it as Strahd's mage ally had been on a quest to achieve lichdom. They didn't want to risk finding out if he had succeeded. More disturbingly, they found an empty tomb for Ireena Kolyana. Strahd seemed confident that she would become his bride, much to Kelwarin's discomfort.

As they continued along, they became aware of a scuttling noise. Something was moving underneath the fog on the floor. Suddenly, a disembodied hand left up at Ser Adon, followed by more of them. Kelwarin also seemed to be a popular target. A desperate battle commenced, with whistling sounds and explosions ripping through the catacombs as Gaddock unleashed his magic missiles against the creatures. One of them tried to hide in Ser Adon's backpack. Between the party, they managed to defeat all the crawling clawed hands. 

A quick discussion followed; they agreed that this was a dangerous, maze-like place and that rather than stumble around lost, it would make sense if they scouted carefully. Gaddock called his familiar, and the owl started in an anti-clockwise scouting flight. Soon found the back wall of the catacombs to the west, and there was a large staircase. This rose up until it became blocked with rubble perhaps forty feet above. Heading south and then east, the owl showed more of the same. Fog, tombs and then, as it flew between two pillars close to what looked like a portcullis to the south, there was a flash and Gaddock momentarily lost his connection to his owl. The next thing he knew was that it was panicking in some king of enclosed space. He summoned it back to its own dimension. They decided to investigate to the south in case that this was were Sergei's tomb was. 

The two warrior led the way, moving ahead of Kel and Gaddock. They headed south in a route to intercept where the owl had disappeared. As they came close, they stepped through the gap between two tombs. There was a blue/silver flicker and Gaddock released that the two figures ahead were no longer the two knights. Instead, there were two figures clad in aged uniforms with glowing red eyes and a coldness to them. Kel arrived just in time to turn around. Gaddock called to run, then they released there was a third of these horrific creatures coming from the west. Gaddock cast a spell which created a wall of force, trapping the three wights into a sphere of near invisible energy. He shouted to Kel that this wouldn't last long and they needed to get clear.

Meanwhile, Ser Adon and Ser Alys became aware that each of them was alone, in a tight space smelling of death and decay. Ser Alys called out 'I fear we have been placed into tombs, my love', but heard nothing back. In the darkness she felt the hewn stone all around her, with funerary clothes underneath her. She needed to escape and find her husband, lest this be their resting place for eternity...

GM Notes: The catacombs of Ravenloft are dangerous. I think the Patrina (with statistics as a Banshee) gave the players early notice of just how dangerous this place is. Had Ser Alys and Ser Adon not had orcish heritage, there would have been three characters down on death saves in the first round of a combat. The environment is extremely dangerous; their go-to spell of fireball isn't really viable, it's maze-like (and the residents know the routes) and the fog and bats pose unique threats. In addition, the fact that Gaddock needs a light source puts the characters at a disadvantage; they will be seen well before they see others because their enemy - in the main - don't need light to see.

As the characters aren't actively looking for Strahd, I over-rode part of the Tarokka reading but gave pointers to what it meant. It helps that I have a very specific plan for what Strahd is doing at the moment. The biggest danger the characters have is that they stumble into something more dangerous than they expect; they're looking for tombs. Will they find the right one?

My tracking cribsheet as they explore.

As fifth edition is remarkably light on information for running dungeons, I fell back on procedurals in the same manner that I would when running old school D&D clones. It feels like it's working well. So far they've spent just over two hours wandering through the catacombs. As far as they know, they haven't done enough to provoke a response from the Castle's overlords. As far as they know.

Preparation for this involved a lot of reading Dragnacarta's descriptions and also the core module. I used D&D Beyond to reference the rooms as it was faster than Roll20 and allowed me to free up real estate on the screen by having it in a different tab on the second screen.

Roll20 worked really well for the visuals; we did struggle on audio again. Tom was on Edge on a MacBook and couldn't get audio to work right, so we ended up falling back to Discord. It may have been as he was in a hotel room.

I'm intrigued how the players are feeling this is going; does it feel dangerous and threatening?

30th November 2022

Curse of Strahd - S6 Prelude (56) - The Blue Water Conspiracy

 

Returned to Vallaki, our heroes hold a council of war with their allies.

Our dramatis personae:

Ser Adon de Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Paladin, from a knightly background, with two human retainers and a priest), played by Paul (dr_mitch). Lawful Good. Married to Ser Alys.

Kelwarin (Kel) (a half-elf Sorceror flush with the powers of wild magic, an outlander), played by Graham (First Age). Chaotic Good.

Gaddock Teeg (a halfling wizard and former prizefighter), played by Alex (Doggetay), Neutral Good

Ser Alys de Adon-Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Fighter with a soldier background, currently the leader of the town militia of Daggerford), played by Tom (Guvnor). Lawful Neutral. Imagine a slightly greener take on Grace Jones... Married to Ser Adon. 

also featuring: 

Ireena Kolyana (a human warrior, daughter of the Burgomaster of Barovia, Twice-Bitten reincarnation of Strahd's unrequited love, Tatyana) - upgraded as a sidekick.

and:

Muriel Vinshaw (a member of the Keepers of the Feather, travelling with the party to repay them for rescuing her),  a wereraven upgraded to a sidekick (yes, I know that breaks rules as she started at CR2 but frankly I don't care)!

All characters & sidekicks are level 9. 

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22th December

Notes from the meeting of the Blue Water Conspiracy, taken by Danika Martikov.

Conspirators present.

• Our heroes.
• The Martikovs
• Jeny and Laurą
• Kasimir
• Dimitri Martikov
• Muriel Vinshaw
• Ireena Kolyana
• Others present: Rictavio and Ez (uninvited but at their usual table).

Objective

• Your objective is to retrieve the Sunsword which you think is located in Sergei's crypt. You don't want to seek to kill Strahd on this visit. Ireena, Muriel and the other allies will stay at Vallaki, ready to defend it if needed. Kel does not want Ireena at Castle Ravenloft.

Enemies

• The enemies you have identified are Strahd, his brides Anastrasya, Ludmilla, Valenta? & Escher.
• There was also another vampire called Sasha. 
• Plus Rahadin.
• Plus god knows what else that's in the crypts.

Potential addition allies.

• Rictavio, Circus Ringmaster, has some powerful magics, seems to know a lot about the threats of Barovia, has a hideout by a lake to the north-west. Seems to be an ally. Staying at the Blue Water Inn in a private room. Has a close friendship with Ez D'Avenir. (present)
• Jeny Greenteeth - wise older woman who runs a herbalism and has something powerful about her, under the surface. Gaddock's occasional lover. Now in her late 30s/40s since the restoration of the Fanes. One of the Three.
• The Abbot- A fallen Deva entrapped by Strahd who has found new resolution following discussions with Ser Adon.
• Davian Martikov - head of the Martikov family.  A little estranged from his son Urwin. Now reconciled and ready to help against Strahd in return for the help the party have given. (present)
• Esmeralda D’Avenir (Ez) - friend of Rictavio -  significant player?  Ez D'Avenir to Rudolph Van Richten, describing how she had found a source on information about their common enemy and that she planned to obtain it and come and find him to help slay the Enemy. I think 'Ez' could be a useful ally, though not sure what she brings? (present)
• The Mage - came from beyond the Mists and gathered people to attack Castle Ravenloft to slay Strahd. Missing, presumed dead. Possibly called Mordenkainen. (!!)
• Ismark Kolyanovich - Might be an ally for the infiltration or another helper at the summoning and slaying? Give him the Bloodspear to make him yet more powerful?
• Ireena - Kel doesn't want her anywhere near Ravenloft (aww, isn't that sweet?). Of course, tactically she is precious to Strahd and the enemies would be careful not to harm her which could be useful. (present)
• Charm the Roc and all fly on its back. More whimsical than practical.
• The Vistani at the encampment won't move openly against Strahd.

Weapons

• You plan to spend the next two days resting and working with Father Lucian to fill the font with holy water using the town's silver reserves as part of the spell.
• You plan to bottle the holy water in wine bottles and leave some at the town and take some with you. Effectively, you are making 40 vials of holy water, scrying with it, then bottling it. Two each per member of the squad, which is 24. Leaving 16 with the militia for now.
• You talked about making spell scrolls but dismissed this.
• Alys will advise the priest to keep making holy water, and the militia to setup a stake production line. 
• Alys also will ask the armourer to start playing arrows and bolts with more silver.

The area around the Castle

Strategms

• You plan to leave around 2AM in the morning on the 24th and head along the Old Svalich Road on horses accompanied by 6 volunteers from the militia.
• You will leave the road and skirt south around the mountain to the south out of sight from the castle, stopping and camping at the bluff in the lands below the castle. 
• The party will go in on foot and make their way to the base of the pillar and somehow enter via the windows in the side of the cliff some 900ft above. You think these enter the crypts. 
• The windows are hidden from the rest of the castle by the projecting overlook another 100 feet higher. 
• You expect to have breakfast around 8am as you arrive and then enter the castle, leaving by 3pm while the sun is still up. 
• The militia have been instructed to leave if it gets to 3pm, but to leave the horses for you.

A side elevation, west to east.

The topography of Castle Ravenloft

Gaining entry to the castle.

• The windows you saw are 900ft up from the valley below the mountain. The overlook is perhaps just over another 100ft.
• Dimension Door is 500ft range. You could get into the Castle Courtyard with this but not the catacombs.
• You could fly - Kasimir would be able to help with this - or climb. Ser Alys is confident she can climb. Gaddock can also cast it but it will limit the higher level spells he can cast. Flying preferred, let's prepare!

End of meeting.