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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9472855" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/iE3sO73.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/424375/Camp-Silver-Lake-A-Slasher-Horror-Ravenloft-Domain" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: AdventureCoS-Required? NoThis one-shot adventure takes place in a homebrewed Domain of Dread strongly inspired by Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp, along with some video games such as Dead by Daylight. The author did this due to a lack of “slasher horror” style domains in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.Designed for a party of level 1 PCs,* the adventure begins with the characters unceremoniously dropped out of the Mists and into a forest clearing and lake, with eight log cabins surrounding a fire pit. As soon as they arrive, everyone gets the sense that they’re being hunted and initiative is rolled, and the entire adventure stays in turn order. Yanek, the domain’s Darklord, is a masked machete-wielding fiend who seeks to find and kill the characters. He is intentionally designed to be too lethal for the party to kill barring extremely lucky rolls, so they must find a means to escape while hiding from and distracting him.*The adventure recommends letting each player have multiple PCs due to the lethality.The adventure is basically an investigation/mystery in that there are various items the PCs can get to help their odds of survival. In addition to the eight cabins, there’s also a nearby Barn, Yanek’s Lair nearby in the woods, and a Rookery at the edge of Silver Lake. The contents of all the locations save the Rookery are randomized, with d6 tables for the cabins to determine interior lighting, the contents of drawers and cabinets, and hiding spots that allow PCs to make Stealth rolls vs Yanek’s opposed Perception (he has a +7 bonus). The Lair and magically-locked Barn have less items, but their d4 table gives them notable named unique magic items and a skull of Yanek’s kin automatically.The cabin items are various useful mundane stuff, such as Alchemist’s Fire (Yanek is vulnerable to fire damage), Bone Daggers that can be used as a reaction to automatically deal damage and break Yanek’s grapple, ink, parchment, and quill (all found together) to write a message for help to send from the Rookery, candles that can improve light level in a cabin, hempen rope that can be used to fashion an improvised tripwire trap for Yanek, Bandages that can automatically staunch a bleeding wound left by Yanek, a Spell Slot Potion to restore a 1st level slot, and so on.For more significant items, three of them belonged to Yanek’s Father: his Axe grants the wielder a massive attack and damage bonus when fighting the Darklord, his boots increase walking speed by 5 feet and let the wearer cast Hold Monster 3 times (first time causes Yanek to auto-fail), and his Cloak sets a PC’s AC to 22 vs Yanek’s attacks (doesn’t stack with armor but does stack with other modifications). The Rookery is guarded by a hostile raven, but if befriended via the Raven Nip random item or other means it can be used to take a written note. If this is done, a group of 5th level PCs (one for each player) arrive as backup in 1d4 rounds. The Skulls of Yanek’s Kin can be found as a random item in a cabin, or automatically along with whatever results are rolled for in the Lair and Barn. Once three of them are obtained, if they’re placed in the Barn they will animate into friendly Flameskulls as an extraplanar portal opens up that lets the PCs escape the Domain. This is one of the adventure’s “win” conditions, the other being killing Yanek. The book says that the DM should tell the players exactly what the items do when found, even for the supernatural ones, so you won’t get angry players asking how exactly they were supposed to know to take the skulls to the Barn for instance.As for Yanek, statwise he’s a fiend with 89 hit points, 17 AC, a climb and swim speed of 30 feet but a slower walking speed of 25 feet. He has Legendary Resistance that he can use once per day, is immune to the charmed and frightened conditions, also immune to any effect that can sense his presence or read his thoughts along with spells that can alter his form, and can cast a variety of non-offensive spells 3 times per day each such as Misty Step and Silence. He has Devil’s Sight of 120 feet, meaning that he can see even in magical darkness, and his primary form of offense is a Multiattack grab that grapples the target and a machete which he can only use on a grappled target. His machete easily deals enough damage to kill a 1st level PC (4d6, half of which is necrotic) and survivors suffer a wound that deals 1 necrotic damage each turn until magically healed or a Medicine check or Bandage is applied. If Yanek is disarmed of his machete he can use an action to summon it, fully repaired, back to his hand. Once he drops to 23 or fewer hit points his mask is knocked off, revealing a monstrous visage (the book has several suggestions), and he can Dash as a bonus action for the rest of the adventure, which he will initially use along with an action to retrieve and put the mask back on.While undoubtedly deadly, Yanek does give PCs some breathing room once he kills one of them; he will spend the next turn reveling in the kill, and he loses sight of PCs who flee unless they remain within his line of sight. His vulnerability to fire damage means that he’s pretty much toast once the Flameskulls are summoned, and his lack of ranged attacks combined with slow movement means that PCs who focus on moving can stay just enough ahead of him (but not enough to really ever be in the clear).Overall Thoughts: The idea for the adventure is quite nifty, and I like how the random placement of items allows for some replay value. 5th Edition doesn’t really do slasher horror well, although the fragility of 1st level PCs is perfect in being close to but not entirely helpless. Even so, certain abilities may not be completely suitable for this adventure; PCs with flight pretty much have nothing to fear from Yanek, and his vulnerability to fire means that the Fire Bolt cantrip can deal quite a bit of damage (2d10) even if he has good Armor Class and hit points. The potential for swift spellcasters kiting him once they find out his weakness can tip the balance in the party’s favor, at least until he gets his bonus action Dash.While the module gives dimensions in feet for the cabins and how far the Barn is from the campsite, the lack of a map for this module is a hindrance given that the entire adventure takes place in initiative. Additionally, it’s not beyond expectations for PCs to start with paper and writing supplies, so such groups may be able to make a beeline for the Rookery and get backup faster than normal, although the initially irate raven prevents this from being a foregone victory.But that being said, it is a novel idea for an adventure, and one that looks like it’d be fun to run for a Halloween one-shot.Join us next time as we get versions of Curse of Strahd’s Fated Allies that level up with the party in Adventure Sidekicks: Curse of Strahd!</blockquote>

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