Session recap

Session 1 D&D Session: Death House Exploration ###### Locations Explored - Pantry and Secret Passage: The party discovered a secret tunnel in the pantry area - Second Floor (Previously Skipped): The group decided to explore the second floor they had bypassed earlier - Servant's Room: Found an undecorated bedroom with straw mattresses, footlockers, and servants' uniforms, plus a dumbwaiter - Library: Discovered a well-appointed library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, mahogany desk, and hundreds of books on history, warfare, and alchemy - Secret Room Behind Library: Found by pulling a fake book, revealing necromantic texts about the "Priestess of Osybus" and a chest containing a skeleton in leather armor - Conservatory: An elegantly appointed music room with a harpsichord and harp, where the party took a brief respite to play music - Master Bedroom: Located and looted jewelry from the room - Dungeon/Crypts: Descended via secret staircase to find family crypts for Gustav, Elizabeth, Rose, Thorn, and baby Walter ###### Important Discoveries - Iron Key: Found on the library desk, appears to match the crude lock of a door the party had previously picked - Letter from Strahd von Zarovich: Discovered clutched in the skeleton's hand, revealing the tragic story of the house's master - he abandoned his wife for another woman, sired a stillborn son, and was rejected by Strahd - Books and Scrolls: Party acquired various books on alchemy, poetry, warfare, and combat, plus three spell scrolls (Bless, Protection from Poison, Spiritual Weapon) - Legal Documents: Found deed to the house, deed to a windmill, and a signed will - Jewelry: Silver jewelry box containing three gold rings and a thin platinum necklace with topaz pendant - Fake Necromancy Books: The books about demon summoning and bringing people back to life in the secret room were all determined to be fake - Family Crypts: The party realized Rose and Thorn (the children they had burned earlier) already had prepared crypts that were now empty ###### Combat Encounter - Four Ghouls: The party was ambushed by four ghouls in the dungeon - Gray took heavy damage early and used Cunning Action to disengage and attack from range with shortbow - Iridel cast Entangle (which failed to restrain the ghouls but created difficult terrain) and Bless on all three party members - Jables was paralyzed temporarily by a ghoul's attack but was healed by Iridel's Healing Word - The party successfully defeated all four ghouls through coordinated ranged and melee attacks ###### Character Developments - Gray's Archetype: Now playing as a rogue, still adjusting to the role and mechanics like Sneak Attack and Cunning Action - Jables' Oath Decision: Needs to choose a paladin oath and plans to do homework on the options - Party Coordination: The group demonstrated effective teamwork with Iridel providing support spells while Gray and Jables handled damage ###### Strategic Decisions - The party chose to take a long rest in the crypts after the difficult ghoul encounter - They moved a heavy stone slab to block the entrance to their resting area for security - The eight-hour rest passed without major incident (rolled 69 and 38 on random encounter checks) ###### Action Items - [ ] Jables to research and choose a paladin oath - [ ] All players to ensure character sheets reflect long rest recovery - [ ] Continue exploration of the dungeon in next session Exactly where you guys left off. If you have any questions, ask me now. So you are Gray. Go tell me your name. Tell me your name. Iridel. Iridel. What did you roll? That's what my deck added. Yeah, but like, what's your deck? Plus one. Okay. The reason I'm asking, I'll go ahead and tell you, is that you and the specter got the same initiative, and the person with the higher overall deck stat was first. Oh, overall deck stat is 13. Yeah. You said what? Overall deck stat is 13. Okay. And you only have a plus one? Yeah, that's what it says. This must be calculating it differently for the specter. I believe you. I believe you. It must have a plus one to count. Okay, that's good. That's good. You actually look great. Jable's got a nat 1 for a cumulative 2. You said you were a... Sorry. 10. Yeah, I rolled a 10. 10? She's my head on what the hell would I do against a ghost. What do you do against a ghost? She does not look happy. She's an unhappy looking ghost. She is looking directly at Jules at this moment. Am I poking her baby with a sword or something? Yes. Okay. Yes, in short. Sorry, I'm going to have to take a second to kind of look at what I've got here that I can do. And you said the cantrips are ones that you can just kind of use whenever or however. They are actions, unless specified. Like some of them are going to be bonus actions, but a handful of them. I can move and then attack, right? You can move and then attack and then move if you still have movement speed. Yes. Yes, there's no, like, end or beginning phase. There will be times where we're rolling potentially. How big is your room? Huh? So, like, a square like this is, like, five feet. So if you, like, move yourself, like, one little tick, that's five. Yeah. People use grid. I don't like grids. Life doesn't come with a grid, damn it. I mean, you can move diagonally. You can move... Up, down, you know. Up, down, up. The distance is all that matters, you know, at the end of the day. Exactly. Standard is like an inch is five feet. Yes, actually. It doesn't translate very well in that regard. Cool. Well, you decide. It makes it pretty easy to, like, guess where I would land. When I was making all those ships, I had that in mind because I was always like, God damn, there's a big boat. My boat is 23 inches long. 10 inches. This is a 110-foot ship. That's a mega yacht right there. Fucking crazy. The only thing I can think of to do that would be... maybe i've got something in books somewhere that i will or something send it you know it's the only thing i can think of information's power man you'll never get me telling you not to do something that gives more info you can always do something like see if you remember if you know how to fight ghosts or something and she'll have you take like a history or a religion check or something like that yeah i think that's what i want to do all right i'm back sorry Alright, I've decided what I want to try to do. I want to study. I want to see if I can remember something from my studies in my temple or whatever about how to fight ghosts. Alright, maybe a history check. Alright, so... You just want to go over and click history? Yeah! Easy peasy. So... Twelve. Twelve. What's your background that gives you insight into ghosts? You said temple? Yeah, because I was in a temple for the god that I was following. Specters are actually a fairly common form of ghosts seen around. People who typically die under very excruciating circumstances will remain on their plane as a specter. You remember that damaging specters like this is Not very straightforward. You can slash it with a sword, but do you remember your master telling you that it was not the best way to do it? You don't remember too much other than that. What else did I turn? What do you think of? I don't know. I was just... You can. That was the only thing I could really think of. That was considered a free action because you sat there and you thought for a moment. So that didn't really take too much of your time. Pantry, the food was kind of like, it's not moldy, but yeah, not like, yeah, it was kind of like petrified-ish. Secret passage? I'd say time to go. Secret tunnel. I was going to say just up one more floor. You want to go check out the jewelry? Yeah, just because I'm thinking about that and that's... Oh, we never looked at floor two. Yeah, you guys went straight up all the way to floor three. So you would find an undecorated bedroom containing a pair of beds stuffed with straw mattresses. At the foot of each is a footlocker and tiny servants uniforms hang from hooks in a closet that you can see. So the footlocker's are both empty and upon opening this right here I'm assuming, right? You find the dumbwaiter. Okay, we confirm it's not right here. Yep. There's just another shape around it. There's no reason to hide this because you would know the existence of this room now. Upon stepping into this room, let me move you guys over here. It's a library. It is. Red velvet drapes cover the windows of this room. An exquisite mahogany desk and a matching high-backed chair face the entrance of the fireplace, above which hangs a framed picture of a windmill perched atop a rocky crag. Suited in the corners of the room are two overstuffed chairs. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves line the south wall. A rolling wooden ladder allows one to reach more easily the higher shelves. - 19, excellent. - 12. - 12, all right. With the 19 you got, you would see that the desk is pretty much empty, all except for an iron key. - Yes, it looks very similar to kind of a crude or it looks similar to the crude lock of that door that you ended up picking. So it matches aesthetically at least. - With the 19, as you look all around the bookshelf, You'll notice that he or this person had tomes on history, warfare, alchemy. Yes. Oh, sorry, 20, yes. You got a 12, right? Yes. So you would be able to see that he has tomes covering all of those. He even has multiple shelves containing first edition collected works of poetry and fiction. So this guy had an extremely vast collection of tomes. One in particular is going to stand out to you. It's red with a blank spine. It looks fake to you. Legacy gear, adventuring gear, add to... And then I pulled down that interesting fake looking book. There you go. There you go. This secret room would contain bookshelves packed with tomes describing fiend-summoning rituals and the necromantic rituals of a cult called the Priestess of... Osiris. - How do you spell that? - O-S-Y-B-U-S. You would also see a heavy wooden chest with clawed iron feet standing against the wall, lid half closed. Sticking out of the chest is a skeleton in leather armor. - What are you doing? He's got a letter in his hand, he does! That's why I like this map pack. If you go to pick up the letter, As you go closer to the skeleton, you'll see that there's three darts stuck in his ribcage. Kind of like he opened the chest, and then fell over. It's a pretty straight line to see what happened here. As you remove the letter and go to read it, it says, My most pathetic servant. I am not a messiah sent to you by the dark powers of this land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms writhing in my dirt. You say that you are cursed, your fortunes spent, You abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom of another woman, and sired a stillborn son. Cursed by your darkness, of that I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness, I think not. I much prefer you as you are. Your dread lord and master, Strahd von Zarovich. Good old Strahd. You would also find in that chest three blank books with leather, three spell scrolls, one of bless, one of protection from poison, and one of spiritual weapon. You would find the deed to the house, the deed to a windmill, and a signed will. Yep, it's probably... I think they kind of cook you and have it as a common item, and you just have the common spell scroll, and then you have to know that it's something. But you can just have the common item. Is Bless a cantrip? It's a level spell. So, Bless, protection from poison, and spiritual weapon. Deed to the house. Deed to a window. With a 15... You're actually able to determine that these are all bogus. Okay, interesting. So I'm going to say that out loud just so everybody knows. You'll be like, all of these books are fakes. Not one of these is any kind of actual spell book or any kind of real magic. Zoom upon getting your books and figuring out what's going on here. Y'all are venturing to the other side of the room. Oh, yes. All right. Y'all with me? - This is my room. - A conservatory. Gossamer drapes cover the windows of this elegantly appointed hall, which has a brass-plated chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Upholstered chairs line the walls, and stained glass wall hangings depict beautiful men, women, and children singing and playing instruments. You'd see a harpsichord? - Yep. - With a bench, a harpsichord with a bass, The bench rests in the northwest corner. Near the fireplace is a large standing harp. Alabaster figurines of well-dressed dancers adorn the mantelpiece. Including real skulls. But y'all's music is beautiful as you take a moment to play in this room. - You wanna revisit some jewelry? - Yeah, I'm thinking about that. I've been thinking about that the whole time since now this place is ours. I'm also gonna say this out loud because nobody else saw this stuff and were like, "Hey, there was some really nice jewelry "in this room over here." So I'm gonna say that out loud and I don't know if Jables is gonna take the opportunity to run in there before me, but I'm gonna start walking that direction. Okay, so I guess whoever wants to add, you guys are going to go straight to the jewelry and you're going to loot it? Yeah. You would have... The jewelry box, so it itself is a silver jewelry box. It will contain three gold rings, a thin platinum necklace with a toe pass pendant. A thin platinum necklace with a topaz pendant. And the jewelry box itself is silver. It's light in an effective way, cantrip-wise, to get that done. Yeah. As you guys get in here, go to the right spot. So the moment you arrive in this dungeon, you are going to begin to hear an eerie, incessant chant echoing throughout. It's really hard to gauge where the sound is coming from exactly, but it is very, very unnerving. And I assume you guys are walking forward in the first or second round. So peering closer into these two... Little options. They are each trips with actual coppers in them. Do you have any names? I sure do. These two right here, Gustav, Elizabeth. These two right here, Rose, Balda, and Thorne Gold. Yes. So my thought is now I'm going to say, well, we burned them, but they had graves already. So as you take that step. Well, I... That's good, that's good. Of course. I had to make sure. The moment you take that step, you are gonna see four ghouls. Rise up from the ground and they're gonna attack you guys. that's grasping plants spread from the ground at a 20 foot square within range which is 90 feet uh these for the duration these plants turn the ground into an area into difficult terrain they disappear when the spell ends each creature other than you in the area when you cast the spell must succeed on a strength saving throw or have the restrained condition until the spell ends and a restraining creature can take I do have Sneak Attack, yeah. - Cunning action so you can bonus action disengage? Yeah, I mean... Disengage is large. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and do that. That's what I want to do. Get out of the way because I'm getting hurt bad. I want to get as far away as I can. Okay, yeah. So I'm going to go ahead and take an attack, and I want to use my short bow. Okay. I'm just going to, I guess, just vote for that. I would. I don't want to move. I just want to use Bless on all three of us. You're a dill. Oh, that's low again, you lucky son of a bitch. Nine? Yeah, 14. Nine. Okay, good, good, good. So that makes sense. Sorry. So there's going to be one... Okay. So I use, I cast Healing Word on Jables. He's also going to get smitten. Smitten? So the DA for the slashing is going to be 3 slashing. And then... Since he's undead, we'll do 3d8 for the Divine Smite. 11 radiant with 3 slashing. Tell me what you guys want to do. Yeah, I'm down for that. So I guess we would just kind of post up and maybe have one person move to the card. Whatever, I don't know. Yeah, we can post up in there and do whatever kind of rest we need to do. Because you guys need your bloody asses black. These children's crips. You would notice that there are large stone slabs, like these right here, that are kind of off to the side right now, but are meant to seal the crips. I don't know if any of you guys are strong enough to move them. But you almost could get it and seal it in there. So you know, all of you guys combined are able to scoot this heavy slab over to the section that you guys designated. Sixty... Nine. 38. It is, but everyone make sure you long rest on your character sheets so you know that you've got all those resources back. So give me some time to do some homework on oaths. I'm stuck between a couple of them.

Review before next table

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