Session recap

Session 3 D&D Session: Fortune Reading and Vampire Spawn ###### Vampire Spawn Encounter - The party decided to mercy kill Donovich's vampiric son in the church basement - Iridel persuaded Donovich to consent by explaining their half-vampire nature and that the son could never be in the presence of their god while undead - Donovich agreed after hearing his son scream again, saying "maybe it is his time" - Combat with the vampire spawn was challenging - the creature had 90 hit points and drained maximum health with its bite attacks - Jables was grappled and bitten, losing both health and maximum HP - The party coordinated attacks effectively: Iridel used guiding bolt for radiant damage , Gray cast chromatic orb with fire damage , and Jables escaped the grapple - Jables delivered the killing blow with Divine Smite, dealing 16 radiant damage - Donovich thanked the party and said he would handle the burial preparations himself ###### Travel with the Vistani - The party met with Ismark and Ivan as planned and departed Barovia village with the Vistani caravan - Travel took approximately five days without incident - During a night around the campfire, a Vistani told the story of a wizard who challenged Strahd a year ago and was killed after an epic magical battle - Jables performed a song about the priest who lost his son to vampirism and the paladin who put him to rest, which greatly moved the Vistani ###### Fortune Telling with Madam Eva - Madam Eva welcomed the party to her tent, saying she had been expecting them since they entered the domain - She offered the reading for free, warning that "the knowledge will take its own toll" - The party drew five cards revealing critical information: Card 1 - Master of Coins (History/Knowledge): "I see a nest of ravens. There you will find the prize." This will help the party understand their enemy. Card 2 - Master of Glyphs (Protection/Holy Symbol): "You will find what you seek in the castle, amid the ruins of a place of supplication." A holy symbol of great hope located in Ravenloft. Card 3 - Five of Coins (Weapon of Vengeance): "I see a dark room full of bottles. It is the tomb of a guild member." This is the location of the Sword of Sunlight. Card 4 - Don Jon (Ally): "Search for a troubled young man surrounded by wealth and madness. His home is his prison." This person will help greatly in the battle against darkness. Card 5 - The Innocent (Enemy's Location): "She dwells with the one whose blood sealed his doom. A brother of light snuffed out too soon." This reveals where to find Strahd. ###### Party Discussion and Theories - The party discussed the meaning of "nest of ravens" - could be literal ravens, a location, or possibly referring to a group of people - When asked if "ravens" refers to the Vistani, Madam Eva gave a cryptic response: "Ravens take many forms, nest in many places, see many things" - The party speculated that the Don Jon and The Innocent cards might refer to the two brothers (Ismark and Ivan), particularly given the mention of "brother of light snuffed out too soon" - The "tomb of a guild member" in a dark room full of bottles was flagged as an important location to watch for ###### Other Notable Events - During the first night of rest at the mansion, Iridel witnessed a ghostly procession of ethereal warriors emerging from the graveyard with an eerie green glow around midnight - The spirits marched silently down the road away from the village, showing no emotion or interaction with the living - Iridel attempted to flirt with Ivan during the journey, with mixed results ###### Next Steps - [ ] Follow up on fortune telling clues, particularly the "nest of ravens" for ancient knowledge - [ ] Locate the troubled young man surrounded by wealth and madness (potential ally) - [ ] Search for the Sword of Sunlight in a dark room full of bottles (tomb of guild member) - [ ] Find the holy symbol in Castle Ravenloft's ruins of a place of supplication - [ ] Investigate the meaning of "brother of light snuffed out too soon" to locate Strahd Fortune teller reading History - the knowledge of the agent better understand - master of coins - nest of ravens - there is where we Force for good and protection - Master of glyphs - find what you seek in the castle. amid the ruins of a place of supplication Power and strength - sword of sunlight - 5 of coins - dark room full of bottles. Tomb of guild member. Sheds light on one who will help greatly - don jon - search for a troubled young man, surrounded by wealth and madness. His home is his prison. Your enemy is a creature of darkness - lead you to him - the Innocent - He dwells with the one whose blood sealed his doom. A brother of light snuffed out too soon. All right. Yes. Okay, ready? All right. So as you guys regain consciousness after leaving this death house and falling asleep, you would wake up to very interesting sounds, sounds of laughter, of music playing, that everyone would feel like oddly... We're looking for comfortable as you guys are all going to wake up in your cots in a camp. Surrounded by people who look like Italians. For lack of a better word, fantasy Italians. Can we like hear their mustaches or something? How do we know they're Italian? They're talking like a beast. Like hello. They notice you guys are up. Oh, oh. Where are you? You are in Barovia! Barovia! Do we know anything about Barovia? History check. With this bandage, just you. If anyone else wants to make it, they'll make it normally. What was the... History. Figure out where we are? Yep. Well, he just said the words Barovia, and we'll see if y'all can read that. Negative? Well, nine isn't a number. That's... Thirteen. Thirteen? With the edge? Yeah, I rolled twice. Seven. Seven. So... Iridel is the only one who is going to remember, and this confirms your fears after coming face to face with that statue and seeing and hearing the name Strahd Banzarovich while in that death house. This confirms that this is the place that you heard about as a kid. It's like a legendary land that was lost in the mists of time, trapped. by an evil vampire lord. It's kind of like the story of the buggy man, especially amongst your dampier and or vampire kin. But you know, in the stories that you would have heard, it's a land that was lost to another dimension 600 years ago. How would I best communicate that with the team? You could be like, guys, guys, how's it going? Because this Vasanti is still sitting there fighting. He's like, yes, yes, you're in the bottom of the room. So, yeah, I lean over to Gray and Jubals. Like, hey, guys, we really need to talk about that. We really need to talk about that. That was a lot of it. And I kind of whisper to Gray because Jubals can be kind of loud and give him the quick synopsis of the history that I know and then just kind of look at Jubals and kind of nod my head as I turn back to the person that we're talking to and try to distract them. Let the Jubal slide this time, but I'm not from Israel. Jabal's. I'm going to slide this time. You know, that's a great way to remind me because now I won't forget. Not that kind of paladin. This man is going to introduce himself. He's like, "Where are my manners?" I can't hear the fucking accent now. I got two-spilled. "Where are my manners? My name is Yzik." Yzik, pleasure to meet you. I'm Iridel. Yes, yes. You are free to do as you please. We do not want to leave you in the streets. I really appreciate that. We just want to get our bearings. Is there somewhere that we can find you in like 15 minutes? We'll be here for at least the next day. Okay. Thanks. Because they're all camping as well. They have a full camp set up, tents, carts. But he's in our tent right now, right? So that's what I was asking. Well, you're not actually in a tent. You're just in your cots on the ground. Okay. So they kind of just put you guys in the corner. Okay. Okay. This would be roughly where you are. You would find yourself on the outskirts of a very dismal looking village. But you guys with this-- We use that as your party marker. What was that dude's name again? You said Izek? Is it just like I-Z-E-K? I-S-E-K. I-S-E-K. I ask you, Sik, if there's anything that we need to know about the area or places that we shouldn't go. I kind of bat my eyelashes a little bit to see if, you know. Oh, persuasion check. Eleven. Slightly above average. Slightly low. Listen, you know, I'm half vampire. Makes up for all the lack of talent. I'm trying. Just for reference, this is what these Italians look like right now. Oh, this is my other left. Can you give me the quick summary of that? I heard something about 600 years or something. My brain was like-- So actually, he wasn't referring to the town as much as the land at large. He referred to it as Barovia. OK. A-R-O-V-I-A. This, as you can see up there, not really spoilers, just the village of Barovia. Yeah. So-- And it was the area of Barovia, Iridel remembered, was rumored to have been lost 600 years ago at the time in the mists of time. It's kind of, she explains that there's an understanding that it exists outside of the realm and time doesn't flow normally there, that kind of thing. Okay, that's kind of what I thought I heard with the lost 600 years ago, but I wanted to make sure that I wrote it down right so I could remember it properly. And if you, upon you asking him about where not to go, he's going to say, we travel? Thank you, that's great to know. Yes, yes. And he's gonna go back to drinking. You've seen their old drinking wine. Of course they have. All right. So obviously, Erindel then turns back to the group. And asks Gray if he told Jables yet what she told him. I'm sure Gray would have the opportunity to kind of relay this general information. You know, do you have a moment? Yeah. Yeah, I'll just say I've gone in and talked to him and caught him up on the situation, so we're all caught up. Just for a visual reference, this is... Ooh, what did I like that? Oh, you got it up on the screen. It did. It really didn't work. That's fucking cracking me up. Hey. Let's try that one more time. This is what these guys look like. Okay. They're gypsies. Yes! In fact, that's the better word, not a town. Here, they'll try flirting with Ivan again. Yes, he's very handsome. We're going to be together for a while, so why not have some fun? Did he underperform? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Are you staying up? Things did go well. Better for you than for him. As it gets closer to the stroke of midnight, you're about to turn in and go to bed yourself. You are going to see a green glow illuminate your window. All right. The best kind. You open the window and say, come on in? All right. You are going to notice, because you can see a decent amount through the town through this window, an eerie green light suffuses the graveyard. From this light emerges a ghostly procession, wavering images of dowdy women toting greatswords, woodwise men with slender bows, dwarves with glittering axes, and in our Archaically dressed mages with beards and strange pointed hats. All these and much more... Yeah, all these and more march forth from the graveyard, their numbers growing by the second. So you're gonna notice from your window there is like this line of dead people. Yeah, that's true. I think the fact that they're heading away from us, I kind of watch for a minute to make sure that that stays the case and take note to talk to somebody about it in the morning because What else you got to do? Okay. So, you know, as you watch them for a few moments, they're not interacting with anyone, saying anything, showing any signs of, like, emotion. But they march forward nonetheless. ...for just a moment, seeming to kind of be taking in the morning rays on this kid. Alright, so what are the specifics of how we're going to go down there and kill this thing? Because I almost feel like with his reaction this morning, the inspiration that we gave, maybe I should go talk to him and just be completely real about, like... what my recommendation is. We'll do that first. If he likes it, then we can do it, no problems. If not, we can still do it, and I'll just do the illusion that makes it seem like he's still there, just screaming, and then we can leave, and then he can just... Maybe I can set the illusion to, at the end, make it sound like some divine miracle happened or whatever. Because I've got a full minute that I can do using both of those, so... Alright, so I go over to the priest and have an earnest conversation, acknowledge my half-vampirism and explain that all I want is for his son to experience peace and he should want that as well. Even in not being able to leave the realm in the afterlife, it would be better than starving as a vampire locked in a cellar. with no chance for survival. And we want to help him to release his son to be in the presence of their God, where right now he can never see the son that they worship. Now you know. He is going to think very, very hard. And as he hears his son yell one more time on him, he heard from the graveyard, which y'all are standing in. He will agree. He's like, maybe it is his time. We're going to go return to the morning morning. It's funny that you say that because he is going to say, I can't take it anymore. And he's going to rush and attack. But we're going to roll initiative. Initiative. Very nice, very nice. Hold those numbers in your head real quick while I push this up. Okay, so that would be 2d6 plus 2 versus... The Quranic word is 3d8s, though. I'm still just gonna try Chromatic Warp because I want to try it, so... Alright. And it's with advantage, so I roll twice to take the highest? Is that correct? Yes. I just want to make sure I have some added advantage. If it's... Nice. 20. 15, and I chose fire. I'm going to deal some slashing damage to you. you He's going to deal 9 slashing damage, and you are now grappled. Take five additional piercing damage. And you're also going to take ten to chronic damage. Your hit point maximum is also unfortunately going to decrease by the 10th. So I'm going to use... I'm gonna go ahead and use the level 2 guiding bolt. That's... Oh, sorry. 16 for... Word. So then it's 5d6. Yeah. That's hilarious. Okay, yeah. My thought was like to jump in and help and after helping disengage, but I don't think I can do the move since it's not my job. 14. And then 16 radiant. 16? That is literally one point enough to murder this guy. I laid his soul to rest and now I'll tell him to lay his body to rest. Don't worry about the rest of the preparations. I will make sure he's very done. You're probably going to wait for them pretty safely. - But you're easily able to join the Vistani in their camp as they pack up, get ready, and all of you guys hit the road. - Yeah, Ismark and Ivan. So, as you guys travel, with the Bastani in your company, you travel without incident the entire way. It does take one day, two days. You can go ahead and restore your man's health. Anything you guys want to do, stay during this time? I'm just going to run a long rest. It would take like five days pretty much to get here. Sounds good. We've got just enough time to do this. This is a good little encounter right here. Not how bad. No, I shouldn't have said that. - You guys, after traveling in the night, would find yourselves at this camp. With Vestandi all around, tents, I believe, you would find a camp kind of at the side of the river that y'all have been traveling right next to. They are, of course, gathered around, not surprisingly, drinking, sharing stories, You would be joined in the company of twelve Vesandis, standing and sitting around the fire, telling stories and good, like wine. If no one wants to tell a tale, there would be one Vista in particular who would tell one. Would you all allow it? A mighty wizard came to this land over a year ago. I remember him like it was yesterday. He stood exactly where you're standing. A very charismatic man he was. He thought he would rally the people of Barovia against the devil Strahd. He stirred them with thoughts of revolt and bore them to the castle in mass. When the vampire appeared, The wizard's peasant army fled in terror. A few stood their ground and were never seen again. The wizard and the vampire cast spells at each other. Their battle flew from the courtyards of Ravenloft to a precipice overlooking the falls. I saw the battle with my own eyes. Thunder shook the mountainside and great rocks tumbled down upon the wizard. Yet, by his magic, he survived. Lightning from the heavens struck the wizard, and again he stood his ground. But when the devil's straw fell upon him, the wizard's magic couldn't save him. I saw him thrown a thousand feet to his death. I climbed down to the river to search for the wizard's body to see if, you know, he had anything of value, but the river had already spirited him away. You gonna sing a song? You gonna sing a song in this campfire? Yeah, I'll play. I'll play them a song. I'll play them a song, you poo. I'm gonna sing them a song about a priest who lost his son to vampirism, who was then smited down by the handsomest paladin you've ever seen. Oh my god. That's a 21. My God, I know, right? You absolutely brawl the pistana around the fire as they hear this tale. You know, Ivan and Ismark are also like, Is that what you were performing like? But they're not going to be offended by that at all. That's what happened. You'll gain inspiration. You already have it. So, magic flames cast a reddish glow over the interior of this tent, revealing a low table covered in black velvet tassels. Glints of light seem to flash from a crystal ball on the table as a hunched figure peers into the depth. As the crone speaks, her voice cackles like dry weeds. At last, you have arrived! Cackling laughter bursts like mad lightning from her wicked lips. She ushers you in. Hi! Come sit, sit, sit, sit, please. Expecting us? Yes, yes, yes. Ever since you entered this domain. I'd like to know your futures. What's the cost? Oh, for free, for free. Oh, no, the knowledge will wait and take its own toll, but the cost of my reading is free. All right. So each of you guys hand me that card without looking at it as well. Thank you. Thank you. So So she's going to flip over a single one of these cards. This card tells of history, the knowledge of the ancient will, or the knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy. Master of coins. Let me look that up real quick. She lays this card down and names the Master of Coins. She says, "I see a nest of ravens. There you will find the prize." Let me know if I need to repeat anything. The history of the ancient. I will read it all again. We actually pull it up right here so it will be on two. This card tells a history. The knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy. She's going to flip over the second one and read. This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope. Master of Glyphs. You will find what you seek in the castle, amid the ruins of a place of supplication. Yes, sorry. I should have read this one first. This card tells of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance, a sword of sunlight. The Five of Coins. She says, I see a dark room full of bottles. It is the tomb of a guild member. This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness. And you did get the Don John. And she will say, search for a troubled young man surrounded by wealth and badness. His home is his prison. Search for a trouble young man surrounded by wealth and madness. His home is his prison. And the fifth and final card, she will read... Your enemy is a creature of darkness whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him. And for this one, you've got the innocent. Let's see what all that means. with the one whose blood sealed his doom, a brother of light snuffed out too soon. He dwells with the one whose blood sealed his doom. A brother of light snuffed out too soon. With this information, you should have some insight on where to go as you travel Borogia. See you later. See you. Well, the nest of ravens one sticks out to me because, I mean, that could mean several things. Are we literally looking for, like, a nest of raven, like, in trees or in a house or something like that? I don't know. That one seemed... Worth getting more information on if we could. I asked her, what does it mean by a nest of ravens? Ravens take many forms, nest in many places, see many things. Ravens may not be literal ravens. There may be a kind of person or something that are referred to as ravens or could be thought of as ravens based on... Well, I'm just thinking, right? Churning... Ravens doesn't refer to the Vestanti, does it? Like I asked her that. Because you could make that connection potentially. Something about... To me, something that jumped out was just something about The Don John and then the Innocent. It's making me wonder if when we learn a bit more about these two brothers, if one or both of them might be these people. Especially the Innocent. Dwells with one whose blood seals his doom. Brother of light snuffed out too soon. There's something about that makes me think it might be one of the brothers. I don't know. The tomb of a guild member. Seems like a good one to flag for if we came across something like that. Yeah, what was the full description for that one again? It was five of coins.

Review before next table

• Confirm open clues, NPC promises, loot, and next-scene intent.