Streamlining I6 Ravenloft

[Olgar Shiverstone]

During the initial encounters in town, or during the tarot reading, suggest to the PCs that the mists of Ravenloft are gradually poisoning them; if they don't complete their quest in time (ala the designated six sessions), they'll die. It will create a race against the clock that may encourage them to stay focused on outcomes rather than pure exploration.

I'd skip random encounters, obviously. Have a scene-setting encounter with Strahd early upon entry into the castle. That should get them focused.

 

[Rune]

Good stuff! I'm not sure how much it'll speed them up, but even if it doesn't, I like the extra layer of tension!

 

[Rune]

The plan was to use the D&D Next playtest with the old module, but I had a change of heart.

Using the system I entered into the 7-day RPG contest, I was able to run a much quicker, streamlined game--converting the adventure on the fly!

It worked very well! The strengths of that system kind of fall in line with the strengths of the module--and I didn't feel the need to cut anything out, either. In the course of a roughly 2-hour session, the party made it all the way up to the castle's gates. This, while spending a fair amount of time snooping about the village of Barovia (although, they did pass up the meeting with Madam Eva, because they were trying to follow the ghostly procession).

I usually don't fool with boxed text, but I decided to use it for this module, since I figured that we would get further along in a shorter span of time than we would have with the D&D rules. And also because the boxed text is just so damned atmospheric.

We'll see how things work out next week, when they enter the castle!

 

[Herobizkit]

I might be wrong, but I thought the meeting with the Tarot reader was pretty much mandatory as it determined the location of the key items and Strahd in the module...? I mean, you can pre-set that yourself, but the randomness of everything was part of the appeal for me.

 

[Rune]

As I recalled (which I had to, because I forgot to bring the map with me), the Tarrot-reading event was actually on a different path than the one that lead to the castle (the one that leads to the base of the waterfall).

I might have been wrong, but it's inconsequential: the module has the DM do a reading before the game starts just in case the PCs don't have Madam Eva do one for them.

It's okay--it just means they'll potentially have a richer experience if I ever run the module again.

 

[Rune]

Spoilers Ahead!

The party crossed the drawbridge, with one nearly falling to his death and also losing a gauntlet to the green slime. Off to a bad start! They decided to pretend to be yokels, thinking that, if the Count was aware of them anyway (as, surely, he must be!), they might at least get him to underestimate them. Of course, he knows exactly what they are (adventurers), but they haven't figured that out, yet. Nor, of course, what he wants from them.

They went in the front entrance of the castle proper and followed the organ music to the dining hall, where they had a very creepy conversation with the master of the castle (or so they thought!). Then, he vanished, taking the light with him. The party took the opportunity to explore the room and, especially, the organ.

Finding and forcing open the secret door, they were very puzzled with the Puppet-Strahd. They did not make the connection that the mirrors were helping to cast an illusion into the dining hall. But they did make a minor alteration to the puppet's clothing, figuring that, when they saw the Count again, if they saw the alteration, they would know it was the fake Strahd.

Then they made their way up and up, avoiding a pit trap (just a trap door in the module) along the way and sheltering for the night in a library four stories up. Next week, they'll start out by being harassed by Strahd Zombies! Because being attacked by severed limbs is fun.

 

[Rune]

More Spoilers!

Well, the party decided they didn't want to sleep in a room that had two entrances--especially without exploring one of them. So, they opened the next door leading into the bedroom, and then discovered the secret trap-door in the closet's ceiling.

Climbing through that, they discovered the room full of ingredients and reagents. Since all subtlety was already thrown out, they busted up all of the bottles and then opened up the door to the cauldron-room. One of the dwarves (the barbarian) rushed in and heaved the cauldron over; the other dwarf (the fighter) rushed in cleaving. Because we were using the Token System, the fighter was able to sweep through the chamber, behead 6 witches, and cripple and tackle the last. This cost a lot of tokens, but it was a lively moment!

The interrogation began. Turns out the witches made Strahd's special zombies--zombies with limbs that could keep attacking after being severed. And the stuff in the cauldron--that now was all over the floor and had dead witches lying in it? That was the stuff that made it possible. Oh yeah, and the last witch cursed the dwarf who was interrogating her with a damning hex as she died. And, oh, yeah. They killed the familiars, too. For which the wood-elf gained damning hex, as well.

The party actually had a lengthy discussion about whether or not they should bed down in this chamber (since it only had the one door). They wisely decided against it.

Instead, they decided to climb as high as they could, so...

Eventually, they made it all the way up to the High Tower Room. Where Strahd was waiting on them!

...And that's where we broke off for the night! Great cliffhanger!




...But, we did get back to it a few nights later.

Strahd was after the sunsword...which the wood-elf barbarian was (unknowingly) in possession of (and which still did not have the hilt). He attempted to charm the wood elf into giving it up, but decided not to press the issue too far at that time. The dwarven fighter lept forward with a massive decapitation-strike with his axe, but Strahd merely vanished into a gaseous cloud and departed the room. He did, however, send a couple of wraiths up a little while later.

By that time, however, the party had discovered the holy symbol that had been lying in the chamber and were able to use it to repel the wraiths. (Of course, the damned dwarven barbarian was badly burned by touching the holy symbol, but endured the pain and removed the damnation.)

The fighter took his first steps toward piety, hoping to gain religion in time for the group's next encounter with the vampire.

They decided then to climb back down the tower, and began to think of a plan to draw Strahd out by setting fire to some of his furnishings--for which a trip to the kitchen or larders to find some oil would be necessary.

Time will tell if it's as bad an idea as it sounds!

 

[Rune]

And then there were more spoilers.

After some time to consider it, the impracticality of the "burn-everything-down" plan forced the players to alter course. But first, they had to fight off a swarm of bats that Strahd sent after them while they were on the top of one of the castle walls. Barbarian-dwarf swatted a number of them out of the sky, but, in the process, almost lost his balance and plummeted to the courtyard some 90 feet below. Almost.

From up here, they could see light coming from behind the boarded windows of the chapel (though, of course, they knew not what the building was). They determined that they should get down there to check it out, so they decided to go back inside to the spiral stair and climb down to its base--then explored the adjoining corridor and turret. Realizing that there was no way to get to the chapel from this section of the castle, they decided to make their own path by smashing through one of the arrow slits in the turret.

Success! Barbarian-wood elf succeeded where the two mighty dwarves could not! To add to the problem, fighter-dwarf pulled his groin in the process.

And, oh yeah. They caught the attention of some Strahd zombies.

Some hilarity involving strangling severed limbs ensued, but the zombies were dropped without too much difficulty. The party then moved around the courtyard, through the northern portcullis (separating east from west), and into the garden behind the chapel. Then through one of the boarded windows.

The wood elf then went straight for the Icon of Ravenloft. No problem, except that when she killed the witches' familiars, they cursed her with damnation. She, therefore, was badly burned when she tried to pick up the lawful-good super-holy icon.

Fighter-dwarf then claimed it with no problem and the party decided that, with some fortification, this would be the safest place for them to finally get a little shut-eye...

 

[Rune]

Spoilers and Conclusion!

The sanctity of the chapel provided some solace for the party as they rested, finally ready to press on when the day had passed. They made there way upstairs again, first fighting off a couple of Strahd zombies sitting in the thrones above the chapel and then, eventually, through some secret doors and into the bedchamber of Gertrude, Mad Mary's daughter.

Gertrude seemed to think that she was to be Strahd's bride (even though he never told her such!), so the PCs figured they could lure Strahd out by tying her up and verbally abusing her until she cried.

Turns out, Strahd was annoyed that they were bothering the snack he had set aside for after he dealt with them, so he did make an appearance, taunted them, and left as a gaseous cloud again. It was enough to convince Gertrude that Strahd wasn't such a nice guy, after all.

They decided to untie her and take her with them. Ultimately, they headed down again, into an angry mob of villagers--whose anger was mostly replaced with uncertainty by the time they had gotten this far.

The party unloaded Gertrude onto them and they happily took her off to Barovia.

Down again, this time, all the way to the lowest level, which, unfortunately for the dwarves, was covered in five feet of water! Fortunately, the dwarves both had exceptionally high endurance and could hold their breath for long periods of time.

That's when things went downhill. Fighter-dwarf stepped on one of the teleport-traps and found himself elsewhere, isolated in a cell. Strahd showed up, and attacked, sinking his fangs in and draining the dwarf nearly of all life. But, then, he stopped, saying that it suited him better to let the dwarf live and be a burden to his companions. Also, more taunting. And then he was gone again...

After this, the rest of the party found the cell, and barbarian-dwarf (with his belt of hill giant strength) bent the iron bars and carried the now unconscious fighter-dwarf over his head through the water.

We left off there...


...But picked up a week later.

The conscious party members took the unconscious back to the stairs (and out of the water), where barbarian-dwarf proceeded to slap and shout at the other until he woke up.

Then, they returned to the cells and proceeded to loot every single chamber--with barbarian-dwarf taking every single coin he could find (and barbarian-elf picking up the lawful good shortsword, after being cleansed of her damnation by the newly religious fighter-dwarf).

That's when the wraiths Strahd had previously sent after them finally caught up with them. Even in his weakened state, fighter/cleric-dwarf stood boldly forth with Icon of Ravenloft and Holy Symbol presented to turn them away. Instead, he destroyed them, but at the cost of his life!

It was a good death.

Just then, a high-elf popped into one of the cells--another victim of the traps!

After a brief introduction, the elf--a wizard--magicked some flight into everyone, and they all went up the chute they had discovered. They went straight for the catacombs, checking far too many of them (and barbarian-dwarf weighing himself down with even more loot), before moving into the tombs that mattered.

They discovered the Tome of Strahd. Then they discovered the sunsword hilt (and Sergei's armor) in Sergei's tomb.

Then they went straight for Strahd's tomb.

Barbarian-dwarf immediately drove the sharpened handle of his maul into Strahd's chest--immediately immobilizing him, but even as the barbarian-elf struck with the sunsword, some bit of mischief deflected her blow toward the other, so that he had to back away and release the stake from Strahd's heart. Now he was free, and, so rose up in gaseous form, before manifesting again in to energy drain the elf.

Barbarian-dwarf tried again with the stake, but much less successfully this time, and also ended up energy-drained. Barbarian-elf attacked with the sunsword again, but, Strahd grabbed her wrist with his draining touch and forced her to drop it.

That was the opening wizard-elf was looking for; s/he telekinetically picked up the sunsword and drove it at the vampyr. But Strahd was not to be so uneasily undone, and grabbed the sword--that which he had been after all along--straight out of the air!

Barbarian-dwarf renewed his assault, forcing Strahd to drop the sunsword. Once again, wizard-elf took control of the blade and thrust it straight into Strahd's face. When all was said and done, Strahd was destroyed, but the wizard had the vampyr's hands clasped firmly around his throat and had been drained of all energy and life. S/he, too, was dead.

It was a good death.