Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 4324469" data-attributes="member: 743">Note: I say "NPC Paladin," "Thief / Rogue," etc. It's not because we don't have names, but because when I'm reading these things I sometimes get the cast of characters confused and have to scroll up every now and then to figure out who Adrian was, etc. In a remarkable display of projection, I assume others may have that problem as well and try to avoid it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />We mounted up and headed out (our horses having been mysteriously unmolested overnight, despite being tied up right outside the town's fence). A couple of hours down the road we cross a bridge over a huge chasm and enter into a forest. The cleric spots some beady red eyes watching us from the shadows and tells us. I look around and see many more. I slam a magic missile into a tree to scare them off, and they leave but come back shortly after. We discuss it and amongst our skill decide that they may be shadow hounds, creatures from the Shadowfell that can come through rifts or be summoned. They're used as hunters and trakers by despicable power mongers. I resolve to learn that ritual.We leave the forests and travel down the road farther, having been shadowed but not attacked. Ahead in a graveyard we see and hear a dragonborn wearing a symbol of the Raven Queen fighting off 3 flying wraiths. At one point during the fight the GM called them spectres, but I don't know if that was a generic term or their name in the MM.We join the fight to protect the paladin, who turns out to be very close statwise to our own Dragonborn Glaive-wielding Paladin of Pelor. I take over Ashlyn (the NPC Paladin of Pelor) and our DB's player takes over the NPC Paladin of the Raven Queen. One thing this taught me is that playing two characters is a lot harder in 4e than it was in prior editions (or even in Rolemaster, where we routinely played 2 PCs each). I typed up and printed out a power tracker sheet for the paladin, but was unfamiliar with her and so made several blunders. It would have been easier had I made both characters, but it was still a ton of stuff to track. At one point I was halfway through the paladin's turn before I was reminded that it was actually my wizard's turn.I didn't keep tight records of this fight, as I was having too much fun and there was too much tension. A few things:1) Being dominated sucks. These things had touches that could stun you if they had combat advantage, and an area blast of maddening screams that could also stun you. If you're stunned then one of them could dive inside and possess you, at which point you're dazed and they're making you use your At Will powers to beat up your friends.2) Justiciars are great. There's a lot of talk about them sucking, primarily based on their low damage output, but we'd have had a TPK on our hands if the NPC hadn't had the ability to let everyone adjacent to her reroll one save at the end of their turn.3) Lurkers are rough. We came up on a fight with 3 specters and unloaded on them, not with all dailies, but with some heavy guns. Later on a bunch more came out of the shadows and attacked, after we'd already used a lot of our nukes.4) Contrary to the final fight in the previous encounter, Turn Undead and Solar Wrath weren't very useful this time. Last time the cleric rolled great and stunned over ten enemies. This time he rolled poorly and only hit two. It still helped a lot, but shows how a bad string of dice can really rough you up.5) Bolstering Blood and ongoing effects is nasty. At one point I had a Flaming Sphere rolling around dealing 1d4 + 25 fire damage (halved because they were insubstantial). I also had a Bigby's Grasping Fist that was doing 2d8 + 30, but I let it go because the sphere was nicer. The sphere didn't take my standard action, and didn't need an attack roll to deal damage, so I could toss other spells as well. Sphere + Ray of Frost + Orb did 3d4 + 75 damage to one of the specters.6) Resistance (Wizard Utility 10) is great. The specters dealt Necrotic damage with their paralyzing touch, but once I had Resistance 16 going they had to crit to hurt me. Their blast and possession dealt psychic damage, and that still slapped me around, but the touch never hurt me. If we fight them again I'll have a hard time deciding between stopping all touch damage or lowering the rest by a big chunk.Several people dropped and were healed, many more were dominated and saved against it. We won and nobody died, but I wasn't sure it would turn out that way There were a few tough times when people were down and the healers around them were either dominated or about to be.After the fight we talked with Sir Uric, the paladin we'd helped. He was in search of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, which he believes to be in the area. Since entering Barovia he's been under constant attack, almost as if the land itself didn't want him here. Ashlyn (the other NPC paladin) had mentioned something similar. He said the Vistani didn't much care for him, but weren't hostile. They were also apparent safe from the predations of the land. Apparently Barovia doesn't like holy knights. The cleric and both NPC paladins had the Gentle Repose ritual, so we spent the next few hours consecrating the graveyard. The thief found some names and dates, and asked me if they were important. My history check told me of an ancient bandit king who had disappeared ~600 years ago, and whose grave was nearby. Apparently he'd come here to hide from enemies and been hung.The two NPCs headed back to the village, the newest to rest and the older one to help him get past the zombies. We continued on to the Vistani camp. When we got to a crosroads, we noticed that a road whose sign said it led to Castle Ravenloft went in the opposite direction from where we could see a castle on a ridge. Thinking either the sign had been fiddled with or the road twisted a lot, we continued on.At the camp we road in and some Vistani around a huge fire told us that Madame Eva's tent was "over there." We went in and her response was basically "you're finally here." We spoke for a bit, and she took a shine to me. She read our fortunes and we each took turns asking a question. My arcana sensed no magic, but I knew it might not show up, and my Insight didn't point to her being a con artist (at least not in regards to the fortunes).Me: "Where can I find the werewolves?" I asked this because my reason for being in Barovia had nothing to do with the Sun Blade, Symbol of Ravenkind, or anything like that. I'm looking for a trapper who disappeared in what is believed to be Werewolf country. Her (typically cryptic) response: "where water rains from above on earth, wood, and itself." I plan to ask around in town for a local map, to see if there are any lakes with islands, waterfalls, etc. in the area. She apologized for the vagueness, saying she can't always understand the words she is given to speak.Thief: "I wanna be rich." That's why I hang out with the little guy. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> She tells him that riches can be found where the river flies, but the outcome is hazy. He will either get his reward or be doomed to eternity in a hell of his own devising.The (PC) Paladin asks how to stop the undead incursion into Barovia. That was his reason for coming to this land. She tells him that death was caused by a first death, and he must end the source and undesecrate (my made up word) the church. Something's presence .. something .. (I must have gotten distraced and missed part of it, because that's all my note says). The safest entrance is from where the living have not tread, so I'm guessing there's an underground mausoleum or graveyard we should sneak in through.The Cleric had meant to ask about the undead as well, but took the opportunity to ask about the Sun Bldae. It's probably a good thing, or the NPC paladin would have been really pissed off. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> She says that it is a blade of light and vengeance. It can be found where the wilds reach close to town and chaos threatens order. The light of the blade sleeps elsewhere, and it must be brought to the castle to wake it. His (presumably meaning the castle Lord's) source is life.She hid a crystal ball under a cloth and giggled. She tells the cleric that his letter (the quest trigger) is a forgery. When asked who forged it she says she does not know, but holds open a curtain so that only the castle on the ridge can be seen. I'm pretty sure that the ball is a crystal ball being used to spy on her by the lord, but roll poorly on both Arcana checks and so don't get any confirmation.We've learned a lot about what's going on in the area, some of which I've probably forgotten to include. We've never heard the name Strahd von Zarovich, but we've all read and played in Ravenloft so we have OOC info. I've gotten enough clues to guess that the lord is some sort of undead that feeds on the living, but not enough to know in character that he's a vampire.On the way out of the camp we noticed some Cormyrian wine casks that belong to the private stock of the nobility. To have stolen them requires major connections inside Cormyr, not just good banditry skills. We don't say anything about it to the Vistani, but if given a chance outside of the prying eyes of our churchier friends I'll ask to try a glass. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Back in the village the barricades have moved away from the inn and the lights near the inn are doused. It looks like the zombies are attracted to light, so there's a no lamps policy in effect. We head into the shop after being checked for signs of infection by the kid outside the door, and check the "private stock." There's a bunch of magic items for sale, much of which looks very useful, and almost none of which we can afford. A Circlet of Authority would be a big help to the cleric (who's about to get Diplomacy for those social skill challenges), but at 2,000gp I'm the only one that can afford it. Being the unaligned mercenary that I am, I offer to loan the priest the money at a mere 10% interest, which is a big risk since apparently monsters don't believe in coins in this country. He says no. I'll ask him again after we fail the next social challenge. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />It's 3am by this point, so we wrap it up for the night.</blockquote>

Verification