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?
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| 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
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