I spent the week thinking I was going to play Chimalpopoca an Olman(Aztec) Warrior with an identity crisis in a 2nd Ed Greyhawk game only to learn on Friday night that the game was canceled. We weren't going to let a d&d session go to waste so:
Surprise Ravenloft!
The party started the session in the servants’ quarters on the ground floor of Castle Ravenloft with the choice of taking stairs up or down.
The party was searching for the Tome of Strahd which Madam Eva’s cards foretold to be in a throne room, and a holy weapon which is to be found in the crypts. Avoiding vampire infested crypts for now, they decided the throne must be above ground and headed up the stairs.
We decided on a marching order, Zweck the Champion taking point with the nervous Hadjuks immediately behind him, Ulrich the Thief hiding behind the warriors, the spell casters in the middle, and Mellin with the Moors guarding the rear. Ascending the stairs the party found another set of servant’s quarters full of broken furniture and rubbish as well as a spike protruding from the west wall with a stone basin below it. In true old school henchman abuse fashion, rather than attempt to activate the mechanism himself Ulrich ordered one of the brave Moors to cut himself on the spike and bleed into the basin. Abu passed his morale check and willingly shed his blood for the company, revealing a hidden ladder climbing up into the darkness. With no other obvious routes the party climbed the ladder, Zweck taking the lead.
The Dane emerged on stairs circling the periphery of a hollow tower, darkness for a hundred feet below, and a hundred feet above a red light, throbbing rhythmically. Halberds decorated the walls, and almost immediately they came to life attacking Zweck and the Hadjuks. The warriors held off the animated polearms long enough for the rest of the party to climb the ladder and enter the tower. Once everyone was on the stairs the blood red light above flared revealing a massive heart throbbing with malice, the tower began to shake and rotate causing those on the stairs to lose balance. I called for a 4d6 DEX check, failure resulting in a 100 foot (9d6) fall. Miraculously everyone made the check. Zweck and the Hadjuks bravely chose to remain standing and faced the remaining halberds in order to allow the rest of the party to crawl up the stairs on hands and needs towards the safety of a landing. The Frenchman would have no crawling however; he took up a broken halberd and threw himself from the stairs into the empty middle of the tower, using his boots of levitation to propel himself up towards the malevolent heart.
While the Frenchmen flew towards the towers heart, halberd point aimed for a death blow, Zweck and the Hadjuks made another DEX check, Zweck failed. Mihail the Albanian attempted to grab the Dane before he fell a hundred feet to the stone floor below, I rolled 1d6 with the Hadjuk grabbing him on a 1-2, and rolled a 2. I then rolled a 3d6 STR check to see if the Hadjuk could hold the Dane, and succeeded. Anthaar Zweck cheated death again, although he did drop his rapier and buckler into the darkness below.
By now the rest of the party had reached the safety of the landing. Mellin’s flying charge struck home, and he buried the halberd into the throbbing red heart of the tower. The monstrous organ exploded in a shower of gore, soiling the flying Frenchman but stilling the tower and ending the immediate threat. Everyone regrouped at the landing, Anthaar , who fights in the Spanish Style preparing to descend into the darkness to retrieve his sword and buckler. Mellin offered to fly down and pick up the rapier, and when he reached the bottom of the tower I rolled a wandering monster check, indicating an encounter, rolling on the encounter table we discovered that a Banshee was waiting in the darkness below. Alone with the hideous female specter, Mellin lost initiative and the Banshee wailed with its deadly keen. The Frenchman made his save versus death, scooped up the Danes weapons and quickly fled, flying back up to the landing.
The landing was at the next level of the Castle, and the party had a choice of directions.
Hearing soft moaning coming from the corridor to the west, they decided to investigate. The corridor had alcoves on either side containing statues with the spirits of the nobles of Ravenloft trapped inside and voicing their woe at the fallen state of the family and castle. Nicolo the Warlock questioned the statues, and one of them gave helpful advice when asked where the throne was located, indicating that if they took the stairs at the end of the corridor down to the next level they would find it.
At the base of the stair, they found another corridor. To the left a spike and basin, to the right a hallway with a door on the east wall, and at the end of the hallway the back of a secret door. They activated the basin and found a passage to the archer towers at the front of the castle. Returning to the hallway they hear moans coming from behind the door to the east. Ulrich the always wary Thief, argued that the room was a trap and that they should ignore the sounds and move on. The party listened to his advice and inspected the back of the secret door at the end of the hallway. With no visible means to open the door, Nicolo cast Knock and all doors within sixty feet open. This of course opened the door to the east room, inside of which was the disturbing tableaux of two dark haired female vampires feeding on a tawny haired young woman, she saw the party and pitifully sobbed for help.
We rolled initiative; the vampires won and with preternatural speed skittered on all fours across the room to attack Anthaar Zweck in the doorway. The first vampire missed, but the second rends Zweck with her claws.
In the past I have never used level drain. Even in my OD&D game I favor CON loss rather than level drain. Part of the particular charm of I6 however is the ample opportunity for this to happen. Quite frankly the module is not as scary without the potential to lose XP. That being said, I guess I’m a softy, and I let Anthaar make a saving throw to avoid losing two levels.
He failed.
Zweck’s life is drained away from him by one of the beautiful vampires, he goes from a vigorous level 7 Champion, to a fifth level Swashbuckler in one attack roll. The party knows facing vampires is serious business, and on their turn The Dastur wasted no time in revealing the holy thigh bone, the Relic of Saint Ravenloft. The saint’s remains burst into holy flame burning bright as the sun for 1d10 rounds. The Cleric rolled a 5, the vampires were stunned. It then became a simple matter for Zweck to have his revenge by staking the creatures, and Ulrich to remove their heads. With no holy wafers on hand, the heads were tossed into The Dasturs bag of holding.
Disoriented by the blazing light, the tawny haired girl begged for help, Nicolo asked the Cleric to avert the light of the relic so he could cast Detect Evil and make sure she was not an innocent. When the cleric did so, she gazed into the Persians eyes and attempted to charm him, but he made his save. The Warlocks spell showed she was evil, so the Cleric redirected the light of god at the now confirmed vampire, and she too fell to the stake. A search of the vampires’ chambers revealed a considerable treasure (type F) in jewelry, and a Trident of Fish Command.
With all the doors within 60 feet magically opened and the once per week ability of the relic to shine forth with sunlight spent, the party decided it was time for the thief to do his job. Nicolo cast Invisibility on him and Ulrich snuck away to scout ahead. He entered a huge chamber just south of the party’s position. The red setting sun just showing under black clouds through an enormous window to the west. At the south end of the room on a raised dais stood a throne turned so its back was to the room. Ulrich could hear the sound of fingers drumming on the stone arm of the throne and chose to return to the party and report.
While they discussed which course to take, they heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Ulrich certain it was the Count himself, quickly shut the door.
Ulrich was correct.
From the other side of the door, the Count welcomed the adventurers to his Castle apologizing for any rude behavior on the part of its denizens. He then offered them a deal. Convince Ireena Kolyana to willingly give herself to him, and he would allow the party to depart from Barovia. He then bid them good night and departed, his steps echoing in the corridor.
The Throne Room now empty and the Thief still invisible, Ulich returned and discovered the Tome of Strahd, an ancient book written in the Vampires own cypher. At this point the party was uncertain what direction to take, some arguing for a retreat from the castle to allow the Relic to recharge, other for pressing on to the tomb to find the weapon Madam Eva spoke of. They decided to hole up in the Vampire Maidens chamber to pray and study spells as well as attempt to decipher the Tome. While the party rested, wights attacked materializing through the walls. The Cleric made quick work of the undead, and we called it a night.
I awarded a considerable sum of XP for the tower fight, three vampires, four wights and 35K in treasure. This leveled Ulrich to Master Thief, Zweck back to Myrmidon (6th level) and brought the henchmen all up one level.
Looking forward to what the players decide to do next week!
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