D&D is For Nerds - Vampire Infested Barovia I #11 Trees and Towers

Episode Date: November 26, 2022

The party are stopped in their tracks by angry and sentient shrubbery and are then blindsided by the druids controlling them. Pip is afraid of the dark while Hecktor learns to delegate.Want ad-free and even more bonus content? Just check out the Imagination Adventures show page on Apple podcasts! Music by the ever wonderful Lepidora, you can check out her music here. And head to peddlerspress.store to peruse our D&D themed merch store and help support the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ahem. You're listening to the Sandspants Network. of this prison, you ask? None other than the wonderful, the terrible, the powerful Baron Strahd von Zarovich. And the only way to leave this place is to kill him or die. It takes you only a day. It takes you a full day, but that is still significantly shorter

than it would have taken you without the horse to reach the Raven River crossroads. On your way... Oh, actually, also. Nice. Say that over something ugly you can see. I bet it was good.

You see a weather-worn signpost next to the road. The three arms of the sign point along three branches of the road. The arm pointing north reads Krezik. That would be back the way you came. And through the woods, you can see an arching stone bridge spanning a river. The arm pointing east reads Valakai. That would be the one onwards. And the road slopes gradually in that direction.

The arm pointing southwest reads, The Wizard of Wines. The road slopes gently downwards in that direction. In addition, on the bridge that you would be crossing, you can see that there is foliage on the bridge. I put up my hand to try and stop the cart. Tell me about this foliage, Adam, and I whip out Emmanuel de Montsour. I tell Orion

to just halt. Oh, by the way, with all the letters of the missing kids, could I have, during I guess the remainder of the evening, grabbed a bunch of them that were for people in Valakai? Yeah, you could have. Probably note that somewhere on your character sheet if you can.

Yeah. You can spot 10 individual plants on this bridge. None of them appear to be, well, you can see their roots, but you're not sure. The roots must sink into the bridge somehow. You're not sure how. But anyway, there are three little shrubs about maybe up to knee height. little shrubs about maybe up to knee height. And then seven of them are some sort of tree,

like human-sized tree, but with no leaves. Blight, I say. They're blight. They can look like a person. They love to lie, which I assume means this. Not with mouth. Yes, not with mouth. Yes, thank you, Esme.

It also means there's probably druids somewhere in the area. I like start, yeah, just like thumbing the, I guess, the hilt of the mace. Like actual trees, they fear fire. It's great that I can make myself laugh like this. I stop thumbing my mace and I'm like, what? Like actual, what do you mean what? No, I just. Just as trees fear fire, so does the needle blight. Of course.

I just never assumed that a tree could fear. Okay. Okay. Well, if any tree can fear, it's these ones. Okay. Regular tree. Okay. I, like, turn to the wagon.

Does anybody have some kind of cooling or cold magic? Yes. Lushen puts the one hand that is his up and says, I, as wizard supreme of the dwarven colonies, have many magics of cold. Some might even call me a chill wizard. Gorob punches him in the gut. Both of them double over. And as Gorob punches him in the gut, Gorob says,

You fool! Wizard supremes are not cool wizards. Please be quiet. Esmeralda shrugs. I do not think they are aware of us. They have vision and sight mostly out to about 60 feet. As long as we stay away. Esmeralda, that was for me, not for the two of us.

Not for the blights. I want them to be quiet. But yes, Pip is correct. If we can chill them first, any fire we hit them with will be extra effective. Fire damage should be our priority here. They're resistant to anything physical. If you've got a magical weapon as well, I'm sure that will help. And radiant, as always, is pretty useful.

Well, they're just not weak. Oh, sorry, they're just not strong to radiant damage. All right. Well, then I say our tactic is thus. Lushen, you bathe as many of them in cold as you can and then we'll just come in the rest of us and is it um going to be a hard fight needle blights do i identify any as poisonous adam yeah the little shrubs look like they would be those three little shrubs i say and then like i just like i look down at the book and i look i look at the uh description of their poison and my note don't let this happen

don't get poisoned by them would be my suggestion those three little shrubs there well it is currently night time look up at the sky and you see the moon well you can see a little bit of moon in between the in between the mist and the clouds. You know that that would mean that... It would happen pretty much instantly. Yeah, it would be pretty instant. Yeah. We should focus our attention on them, I think.

That would probably be priority number one, unless you want blood to fall out of every one of your openings. I do not want that. You do! I have seen it happen, as Meralda says. It is unpleasant. Right. Do they attack with a range or is it a...

Needle blights, yes. Poison blights, less so. But they're not aware of our presence here. They won't be until we approach them. We could. Also, it is entirely possible. It will not be easy, but we could ford the river and avoid them completely. That's true, too, if nobody wants their openings opened.

How deep is the river? A dirty wagon. It's a big old river. You actually don't think that's very likely. There's a reason there's a breach. Yeah, you could try, but... Raven River, Esmeralda? I don't think that's very likely. There's a reason there's a breach. Yeah, you could try, but... Raven River, Esmeralda, I don't think so. I say we go for the cold attack.

Leshawn freezes the three poison blights, and then the rest of us come in and burn them down. Do you need me... As you've been aware, I have certain abilities, but they're only for a short time, once a day. Is it pertinent we go all out, or is it a... I think the needle blights should be fine, once we've got rid of the poison blights. It's night time, so we're probably going to be batting down soon anyway, yeah?

Yeah, you were going to right after this bridge anyway. Might as well, I say. Yeah, all Alright then. Under your direction, Lushan targets the poison blights first, or the two what you hope are two poison blights. Oh god, I hope they're poison blights, Adam.

Oh, sweet merciful bones, I hope. Those are poison blights. As we do that, I just want to cast Radiant Soul on myself to give myself that extra radiant damage and beautiful wings, as well as channel divinity into that mace of mine to make it a very good magical weapon.

Hell yeah. You pray. Oh, I think I said two poison blights. There are three poison blights. What I meant is Lushen with his spell can only target two of the poison blights. All good, all good, all good. So he nonetheless targets two of the poison blights. And you pray for a brief second.

He turns around and he tickles the side of Gorob's head. Gorob turns around and is about to yell at Lushan, but Lushan grabs the air as he sucks it in and throws it as a spell. The spell, once again, the cold air coalesces into three revolving snowballs, which strike that area, and you pray that there will be a reaction.

Okay, yep. And there is indeed a reaction. Okay, yep. And there is indeed a reaction. Both the creatures, Hector, these two shrubs, as the snowballs strike them, you see their roots. They tear them out of the stone beneath them, and they become like four legs.

The little shrubs move and act like dogs, almost. I forgot how unpleasant they were. All blights are nasty. Blights have bad energy. I don't like them. No such thing as a good blight. Never met a blight I liked. It's in the frickin' name. It's in the frickin' name.

It's in the frickin' name, Jerry. You ever met a goddamn blight that's been nice? You ever met a goddamn blight? You're more of a Nick Cage energy. Oh, alright. You ever met a blight you don't like? That's a good Nick Cage.

Well done. I use your teeth a lot. Oh, you never met a blight you can't. You never met a blight you don't like. Yeah! Adam's word, Keira Knightley. Into Adam's Keira Knightley, I should say. You mean Kira Knightley. Excuse me.

Forgive me, Adam. The poison blights are resistant to cold damage, and they make their saving throws. They take basically a quarter damage. But, Pip, you see that they begin to freeze and lock up just a little bit. Just enough that a fiery second shot would do quite a lot of damage. So who has said fiery second shot? Well, I got a breath weapon that is all fire. You breathe upon them.

Both of them are going to need to make dexterity saving throws a second time. One passes, one fails. So the one that fails is going to take quadruple damage. Oh, yeah. The one that passed is only going to take regular damage because they're in the same way that they are only going to take a quarter, that they only took a quarter of the cold damage. They take four times the fire damage.

All right. Rock and roll. So the one that's saved takes 11 points of damage. Okay. How close did you have to get? Oh, he's right next to them. Yeah, I gotta get up to them. Okay.

I'm scared for my openings. The other one takes 48 points of damage. Well, hell yes. So that one's dead yep can I smell as Emmanuel de Monster puts it a pleasant smelling meat this is apparently the side effect of cooking

the roots of any blight it's a yeah it smells like you're at a barbecue lovely don't eat it though don't eat it can confirm that it does smell like a delicious meat yeah it smells great yeah the monster dark places edition as frustrating as it is is typically accurate yeah that's the kind of the worst part about it yeah the other poison blight also is burnt to a crisp

hey destroy both poison blights there's still one more there's still one more yeah okay and then the rest of the body gets to act as well because you are in a surprise round. Hector, what would you like to do? I would like to Sacred Flame. Although you've just charged up. Yeah, he has. I will make a beeline. I'll fly right next to him and I will swing twice.

And in doing so, I will make a searing smite is that fire i don't think you have fire damage it is fire oh what nice oh that's a right that's one of your spells cool yeah i thought that was an ability i know what's happening now all right who were you attack well both of the ones that were chilled were destroyed. Yeah, some of the non-chilled ones. Yeah, so there is another poison blight, but you'd need to... You're kind of exposing yourself. You're running out onto the bridge past some of the tree-like ones. Ah, okay, so past them.

Yeah, that's why they couldn't... That's why not all three poison blights could be targeted. Okay, well then I will go for, I guess, the closest... Needle blight? Needle blight, yeah. Fire will hurt them all. It's just a matter of... So I'll swing twice.

You hit both times? Okay. How much fire damage do you do? So let's... What am I doing currently? Okay, so it's a magical damage, which is plus five to attack rolls, plus I do an additional six radiant to one of them. So let's say the first

attack, and if that doesn't bring it down, I will then... What weapon do you use again? I'm using a mace, and I'm holding a shield. Alright, so mace and mace, and then how much other additional damage do you do?

And then the searing smite does an additional 1d6 fire damage. All right. And then you get a con save. Let's chuck all of our numbers into the first one. Yeah. So you deal 20 points of damage. Well, you destroy one of the needle blights in your opening volley.

And on my second hit, I will channel some more radiant energy and divine smite it. All right. What level of spell are you sacrificing? Just a one. Bang. Yeah, you bring down two needle blights. Nice. With one, then two strokes, two needle blights fall to your blade.

One caught up in regular fire. The other caught up in a holy fire. Agogash teleports from where he is standing to the opposite side of the bridge and starts hacking at the other poison blight. That's good. Thank goodness. Although, let's just hope. That's good. Thank goodness.

Although, let's just hope. Manu DeMossis has nothing on curing this terrible, terrible poisoning that can fall upon us. I can neutralize a poison. Well, that's good. Maybe that would help. Yeah. A gogash destroys that poison. We don't have to worry about it. He dices, he slices, he smashes, he dashes.

A go-gash destroys a plenty. Hell yes. Piran is going to sidle up next to you, Hector. He moves with an unerring speed, and he's going to attack with rapier and dagger, one of the other needle blights. He hits twice. He deals a bit of sneak attack and a bit of regular attack

it's funny sneaking up on a tree yeah I know well as Emmanuel the monster points out they are capable of vision around 60 feet or 720 inches thanks Liam thanks for that I'm pretty funny

the needle blight that Pyrrhon attacks, Hector, it has, you could see it, as you approached, it kind of moved all of the needle blights, kind of like in a rippling sensation. All of them jump and move to attention, obviously having just noticed you. As you destroyed the two in front of you and moved forwards to the next one,

it kind of adopted a quick defensive stance you could see that it was about to swipe at you with one of its branch like claws but then Pyrrhon ducks underneath your guard cuts at you must assume the tree equivalent of an underarm tendon oh no that limb goes limp,

and then Piran drives his rapier into its roots. You hear a cracking noise. Half of its roots fall away, and that needle blight topples to its side and lies motionless. Piran takes down another one of them. And finally, we've got Esmeralda. Then we'll go to initiative.

Jesus. You've killed all of the poison blightsights and there are four needle blights left. Come on, Esme. Take out all of them in this ambush. They tried to ambush us. We ambushed them back. I like their idea of hiding or as an ambush is to be like this stone or wooden bridge. Several just bits of shrubs.

Tree bridge trees. We are are but mere bridge trees. We are one of them bridge trees. Shush, don't think about it. Come, cross, you hate water. We got them. I know what humans hate. They hate getting wet. If we stay here.

If we go on bridge. They come. Hector. Idiots. An axe soars past the opposite side to Pierron. The axe, you can see, it leaves behind a fiery trail. It slams into another needle blight. That needle blight explodes into flames.

Oh. Woo. Then. How'd the axe do that? Oh, well. Don't question it. Pip, you would have seen that Esmeralda had right before the fight. Some kind of ungulant.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Had rubbed an ungulant into the axe. Esmeralda slides past you, Hector, on the other side. She just quickly looks at you and says, coming through, and she grabs the axe from the falling needle blight, uses the weight of it falling to dislodge the axe,

and then swings at a second needle blight. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. axe and then swings at a second needle blight. Hell yeah. That needle blight manages to slam one of its roots into the ground and a rock,

a stone from the bridge, shoots up into the air. Esmeralda's axe hits that rock instead, causing an explosion of fire and pebbles in all directions. Alright, initiative. Good opening sal Salvo. Are there two or three needle blights left?

Three. Three, okay. Goddamn. One round of combat, that's all we need. Guaranteed. Alright, it's the needle blights open in a response. Not taking this lying down, the three remaining needle blights attack Esmeralda,

Hector, and Pyrrhon. Just needle blights. Nothing bad can happen if they attack you. The first needle blight stabs at Pyrrhon, and you see it punches Pyrrhon square in the chest, and when its fist retracts, Hector, you can see it looks as if a porcupine had been thrown into Piran's chest. Many needles remain piercing his leather armor. Piran endures the pain silently and takes but five points of damage. Did that get through the leather?

A little bit of blood trickling out. Yes. You could see Piran's bleeding. It definitely did hit him. Hector, another one of the needleblights takes a similar swing at you. You bring up the ancestral shield of the Krezkov family

and it batters against said shield. You're glad for the metal shield because you don't think the wooden one would have taken that blow. And then a final one attacks Esmeralda but Esmeralda ducks and rolls out of the blow then esme's turn she swings with the axe it it's a bit of a back and forth the needle blight that she's fighting

seems to be a little bit tougher perhaps some sort of greater lethal blight but she manages to kick it in the chest to make it stumble up against the edge of the bridge. And then she lands her axe right in the center of its head. Its head bursts into flames. And then as it dies, Esmeralda grabs it by one of its legs and rolls it off the bridge. You hear it splash into the water below. And even if it does survive, it is swept away by the current. Hector, it's your turn.

Right. Well, I'll just grab my holy mace and hit once and then hit again. All right. Are you charging it with anything other than magic? I will smite them. I'll smite both. Okay. It's both a first level smiting.

Yeah, just a basic smite. So you're burning two first level spells? Yep. All right. Your first attack is a hit. You bring down one of level spells? Yep. Your first attack is a hit, you bring down one of the needle blights, your second attack is a hit, all of the needle blights are dealt with.

Dust myself off, I barely did anything in that fight. Just burned some needle blights, burned some poison blights, sorry. That's all of them, yeah? Yeah, that was all of them. It is Pyrrhon's turn. Pyrrhon lowers both of his weapons, looks at you, Hector, and says, well, that was all of them. It is Piran's turn. Piran lowers both of his weapons, looks at you, Hector, and says, well, that wasn't too bad, I suppose.

Then you hear a rumbling sound from the other side of the bridge. Two figures stand up at the other side of the bridge. You see that they are wearing leather armor, but the leather armors are covered in hides and in feathers. They have war paint streaked across their face in strange arcane patterns. One of them, their war paint looks like a, it's kind of like a white chalkiness to it,

and it looks like a skull. The other one has just red bloody streaks across his face. Under my breath, I mutter, such cases more typically arise when vile or very bad druids are in command of their faculties. So watch out. Yes, that would be the druids.

One of the druids slams his foot down into the ground. And like the needle blight caused a rock to explode upwards earlier, a giant rock explodes out of the earth. The druid then punches the air, and the rock speeds towards Esmeralda, Hector, and Pyrrhon clumped together. All three of you need to make a dexterity saving throw. Pyrrhon. Pyrrhon's sloppery. Slippery. No, he's sloppery.

Sloppery? He's a sloppery boy, that Pyrrhon. Pyrrhon barely passes, but he kind of jumps and is now hanging by his hands off the side of the bridge. Hector, you fail. Esmeralda? Esmeralda fails as well. I didn't move. Just like, ah, that would be the druids.

Stand still. that would be the druids stand still pyrrhon takes no damage but esmeralda and hector both of you take 19 points of damage just full-on hit with a big rock yeah what that would hurt the other druid begins chanting a well he doesn't chant, actually. He says just one word. It's a name. Pip, you recognize, you don't know much about druidic magic, but you recognize the name that he is calling is the name of a wind spirit. Like, not just the wind spirit, but a spirit of wind. A massive gale force wind blows itself down the bridge. The three of you are going to need to make a strength saving throw now.

I plant my feet in. Yeah. I raise my shield. Pyrrhon is buffeted to the beginning of the bridge. Hector, you manage to hold your ground. My strength's not so bad. Esmeralda is buffeted back to the beginning Of the bridge

Then it is a go gash's turn With a mighty throaty roar He turns Oh wait a go gash is on the bridge He needs to make this saving throw as well He passes the saving throw Am I on the bridge? Just at the beginning of the bridge

The wind is like licking at you A go gash turns around And he tries to make the beginning of the bridge. Yeah, it's like licking. The wind is like licking at you. Agogash turns around and he tries to make his way up the bridge. Agogash reaches the wizard who is casting the wind spell. And, oh, wow. Agogash is attacking into the wind. And so you can see each of his blows is like blabbered and heavy as he hefts his great axe and tries to swing it against the tide of the air. Wow. Okay, Agogash, 20 points of damage.

Oh, Agogash, you love to be the best of us. Yeah. It is Gorub and Lushen's turn. Gorub tries to drag Lushen onto the bridge. Lushen does not want to go. to drag Lushen onto the bridge. Lushen does not want to go. Having to combat just the air,

Gorub might have made it. But having to combat the air and Lushen, Gorub cannot. Well, that is his turn. Lushen, on the other hand, casts a spell. Clever, clever. Yeah.

He lifts one of his hands back and an icy knife appears in it. He throws said icy knife right down the bridge. It strikes the druid casting the air spell dead in the chest and then explodes. Fuck yeah. The druid takes, oh, not much, just takes three points of piercing damage. But the explosion. Yeah, the explosion will deal further damage. That druid, the other druid, and a gogash need to make dexterity saving throws.

Other druid fails. A gogash passes. Original druid passes. So other druid takes two points of damage. Oh, no. I love these dwarves. But druid one

takes one point of damage and a gogash takes one point of damage. That's something. One point is sometimes all you need. It's the difference between life and death. Oh, that reminds me actually. Sorry, when a gogash hit him, wind druid needs to make a saving throw. He makes it.

And when he gets hit the second time, all right. He just needs to make saving throws to maintain concentration on his spell. And Pip, your turn. Okay. I will try and fire two arrows into the Druid. Wind Druid? Huh? Wind Druid.

Yeah, and I'm going to make them both precise shots. Okay. That's advantage? Yeah. Well, that's good because you have disadvantage. Yeah, that's what I figured. That's what I figured. First attack hit, second attack miss.

Damn. Well, it's to be expected. Damn. I'm sorry. You deal four points of damage. That's minimum for you. Fucking druid. Oh my god.

However, the druid still needs to make a saving throw. They pass. Fucking hell. And then it is, well, the needle blights are gone. I'm also going to cast Hunter's Mark as a bonus action on the druid. Well, let me quickly check what that does. I think earlier I said it gives me advantage. That's not true.

I was wrong. It gives me a little bit of extra damage and I get advantage to make perception or survival. You get a bonus to tracking them. Yeah. There he is. I see this guy. All right, no worries.

And then it is Esmeralda's turn. Where the fuck did they come from, Esmeralda says. She isn't even going to try to charge the bridge. She knows better than that. She casts magic missile. So, magic missile is only going to do a superfluous amount of damage, but it's going to do six different

damages. That's clever. It's a numbers game. The druid's got to roll a one eventually. It's hard to maintain a spell concentrating getting hit by one thing 6 things in a row

you can't recover from a magic missile what are they in the shape of? little magic knives she throws 6 of them they do a total of 14 damage, which, oh, well, the druid's beyond bloodied at this point.

So, like, the damage is kind of a lot, but then the druid needs to make six saving throws. That's so funny. It's been sort of a war of attrition with this druid. Yeah, he fucks it up. The wind stops. Perfect. It is Hector, your turn.

I'm going to just fly, make a beeline for that druid, and hit twice. Nice. Putting six. First attack, a critical hit. Excellent. Okay. You can charge it with any level of spell that you want, and it won't cost you. I will...

Second level. Second level. All right, that's 3d8 extra. Fucking paladins. As I'm doing it, I want to be like... More like paladon, not even once. Paladins, not even once. Give me back my horse!

10, 15 points of damage. In your first strike, you down Druid number one, Wind Druid, a.k.a. And then with your second attack, what would you like to do? Rock Druid? Yes. Rock Druid, yeah. I'll lock eyes onto him and swing and cast a smite at first level. Deal eighteen points of damage to Druid number two, a.k.a. rock druid.

Hell yeah. That was your turn, Hector. It's Piran's turn now. Oh, wait. Piran's at the beginning of the bridge, but he's quick. He stabs through the druid's throat. The druid grabs at his throat. Then he slashes the druid's hand nearly in half with his dagger,

wielding it cool, like holding it backwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pyrrhon's cool now. Everybody said almost to yourself, looking down at your neck, Pyrrhon's cool now. 22, 24 points of damage. Hector and Pip, remember this.

Pyrrhon's cool now takes 24 points of damage in total. It is the Druid's turn. Rock Druid takes a step backwards, and then with a wicked smile, he disappears. A go-gash looks down at the dirt and says, Spider! Oh, I see. Easy.

Squash it. It is a go-gash. Easy. Squash it. It is a go-gash's turn. Just squash it. What? Critical hit. A go-gash steps on the spider. It's just going to burst. It's going to be a man. Slowly, over the course of like 10 seconds,

a squashed droid appears beneath a go-gash. The fight is over. Why did it become a spider? It becomes something big. Who escaped, I assume. I think they wanted to run. Do these look like the droids that robbed you and ate your horse? I give them a squeeze.

Neither of them is familiar to you. They do not look like the particular druid that robbed me, no. But they have similar markings, I think. Are we keeping these or are we killing them? Keeping what? He gestures to the druids. They're bleeding out. They're not dead.

Pip shrugs. I suppose we could question one of them. Perrin shrugs. Does it seem abnormal to me? I mean, I know Pip doesn't. The druid's upset at me. He stayed away from them. But does it seem abnormal for them to be this far away from like...

They could be found basically anywhere in Barovia. Anywhere, actually. Anywhere except the roads. So this does seem strange for them to be on the bridge. Yeah. That is odd. I'm sure you would have said you're an honest boy, Hector, but Piran slashes one of their... Oh no, actually, he's about to slash

the throat and then he's like, oh wait, no, actually it would be much more effective if we killed this one in front of the other one. Your ways are very brutal, Piran. Piran's a tough one, I say. He's very tough, very cool. Piran, did you piss off the druid when it stole your horse? Are you sure you didn't make the first attack, as it were?

It's just abnormal to see them on the roads. What do you mean by piss off the druid? Well, it's just normally the druids would keep to the woods. I mean, they're basically everywhere in Barovia, but it is pretty abnormal. I mean, like you pointed out before, this is pretty stupid. Trees don't grow on bridges. So it just seems like intentional, I guess.

Do you think they're going after one of us? I shrug. You're the only one I know here who's had an interaction with the druids. I, like, scan and, like, point to everyone in the party. Unless... Everyone else, Oh, no, a. I, like, scan and, like, point to everyone in the party. Everyone else, oh no, a Gagash nods and he says, when I first came here, I did

meet one of the, of these type. I, I, um. Do you piss them off? Uh, we clashed. I don't know why, though. It was, I would not describe friendly at first, but through conversation, it seemed he decided we wanted to fight.

Piran rolls his eyes behind a Gagash. Yes, no, it was all very friendly when I met them in Jaren's outpost. But then when we arrived, everything seemed to be fine, and then in the morning... Suppose they know you're here, I say. Either way, probably should tie up their fingers, right? So they don't cast any spells when we're...

We could tie up their fingers, says Perrin, or we could just remove the issue entirely. Look... Potentially, yes, but Perrin, if one of them thinks they're going to be able to leave this, they might be more forthcoming. He wants his horse back. I say, I'm getting back in the wagon.

Piran shrugs. He doesn't seem convinced by your argument, but he's not going to tell you otherwise. Actually, don't, Piran. You're better at this than I am. This is your expertise. I quite frankly don't have the stomach for it. All yours.

All right. Well, is there any questions you'd like answered? Shake his head. If you could find information, perhaps, why they're here, why they're off the road, and perhaps if they have the location of their... What do Druids have? Like a grotto, a circle?

Some kind of stronghold to the south. Information about their stronghold and that kind of thing. Numbers would be nice. Alright. But yes, other than that, I think I'd rather remain ignorant. Let us... Yes, we'll be

in the wagon. Alright. You get in the wagon. You wander a little away. A go gash and Esmeralda seems a little caught in between. You can see that Esmeralda understands that a lot of useful information could be acquired through this, but Esmeralda also does not seem to like the method here. Gorobloshon have no issue with this whatsoever.

Piran asks them for assistance and you watch as Piran rouses both of the druids. Well, you don't watch, obviously, Hector. Perhaps you watch. Yeah, yeah. As Piran, with Gorob and Lushan's help

as kind of like muscle, rouses both of the druids next to the lake and they have, out of your earshot, have a little conversation. It goes for like maybe about 10, 15 minutes. Piran walks from one to the lake and they have, out of your earshot, have a little conversation. It goes for like maybe about 10, 15 minutes.

Piran walks from one to the other. He's got both of them tied up in an annealing position right next to the raging river. At one point, Piran stands behind one of them and kicks them into the river, which they get swept away in

with their hands and legs bound. It's pretty... The chances of them making their way out. Unless they're a Rasputin sort, sort of unlikely. They can't like turn into a fish with their hands bound or whatever. I mean, maybe. The other druid, they keep talking for like another minute. The other druid turns to Piran and Pip, you watch as he spits in Piran's face.

Bad move. Piran stands behind that druid and he makes like he's about to kick him into the water, like nearly completes the action, but then stops, and then turns to the druid again. The druid, you can, both of you hear, as the druid utters, like calls out, loudly,

All hail Strahd! And then Piran kicks him into the river pyrrhon walks back to the wagon and when he gets as he's hopping back in hector you see that he's he wipes a bit of moistness from his face with which pip you know is spit he settles down next to you hector and he says i'm re-revising my previous opinion. I don't like fanatics. And then you keep going. Keep watching for more twig blights or any kind of blight on the road, I suppose. Yeah, as we're wagging along, just peering out into the horizon.

I know I'm historically not good at this. Well, it's 6 p.m. Well, actually, it's a bit later than that. But it's 6 p.m. Well, actually, it's a bit later than that. It's about 7 p.m. So you don't get much further until you decide to bed down for the night. What is the safest place to bed down, I guess, when you are traveling? I like gesture around inner city. So if you're not in a city. If you're not in a city, it's pretty much a crapshoot.

Not in the woods. Is there like a crapshoot Not in the woods Is there like a bank on the side of the road Would we have passed your hut by any chance Or was that long long gone Are you concerned about pop I was just wondering and curious if we would have made a detour But I'd be out of our way

Yeah I probably wouldn't have, would we have passed it actually coming from Krezic to here? It's quite close to Krezic, comparatively. I might have nipped in. I wouldn't have got Pop. I just have got some other things, including a fiddle.

There's a fiddle in my backpack now. Okay, no worries. Maybe I would have got some things. I would have dumped a bunch of feed into Pop's cage. I'm so unconcerned. We could be gone a month. I know, I'll come back.

Pop will, if anything, he'll be stronger. We'll level up a month. I know. I'll come back. Popple, if anything, you'll be stronger. We'll level up. Exactly. As you're making the decision about where to stop for the night, Esmeralda gestures to a, the road that you've been following, the Slavic Road. This is the main road that runs through Barovia. The Slavic Road, I would not describe it as paved. I would certainly say that it is.

Partially cobbled? Yeah. Yeah. I would not describe it as paved. I would certainly say that it is. Partially cobbled. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There are certainly, you know, when you're driving down like a country road and you get to parts where you're like, oh, they recently did a road improvement here. And then you get to parts where you're like, oh, this is probably the first road that was laid in this area ever. And then some parts of the dirt trail. I feel like Pip might have described it as like cobbled in such a way that you're never expecting the cobbles.

You're like, oh, we're on smooth. Oh, that's right. And then you leave that and then you're just never comfortable on the road. That's the Slavich Road. Esmeralda points to a clear offshoot of the Slavic road, which you can see is 100% dirt trail. She gestures to that path and says, there is down there, if we wish to push through the night a little bit, there is a tower that my mentor has been using as a base of operations. He may be there. He may not.

I'm not 100% certain. He may be there. He may not. I'm not 100% certain. Either way, I will be traveling this way, and I can either meet you in Valakai, or you can meet me there tomorrow morning. Either way, I am heading this way now. How much further along?

It is perhaps another two, three hours. You know that's a risky prospect. Is it better to go in numbers, I say? We can make ourselves, I can cast light as much as we can on, so we're more visible, or we can light some torches, or the opposite. The Slavich Road, look, it's not safe, but a dirt trail is less safe than the Slavich Road. When you've been here a long enough time,

you learn not to trust little dirt trails like this one. I would recommend staying i like maybe gesture to like a little flat area just with the woods on one side and the road on the other setting up camp here i can set down a cordon of arrows if we said camp um you're heading off there yes if you stay here for i want to if there is even a chance that Dr. Van Richten is there now and that I could miss him, I would not forgive myself. Look, it's only a few hours. I understand it is dangerous, but there is safety in numbers, yes? Your funeral.

Gorob Lushen stand up and they say, we're going with the woman. And mine, I hear. All right. The trip to the tower is, I would describe it as harrowing. You meet and encounter nothing and no one. But the woods, the... That feels worse. Oh, it's horrible.

The slavish woods, they're not a pleasant place. It would almost be better if it was comic book, like all dead trees and evil looking marshes and cackling in the distance. There is a noticeable, almost noticeable lack of anything that could be disruptive. The noises are all normal. The sights are all normal. But things feel wrong. It feels like something is lulling you into a false sense of security, and you're not

sure if that is a real feeling that you should be monitoring or not. The tension is absolutely worse. The revelation of some kind of monster would be almost nice. It would be a relief. It would break the tension. Yeah, like dark vision. You can turn that off, right?

I think you must be able to because it's crazy if you can't just like sometimes be like i don't want to see i don't want to see yeah i just yeah i imagine the whole time i've just got the crossbow i'm just standing up in the wagon like scanning the the forest in like dark vision so it's all like, it's black and white. Yeah. Seeing just like a wolf standing on its hind legs, walking to a deer. A deer also on its hind legs. They make an exchange. Like, I don't need to see that.

Never again. Dark vision off. You come to a cold mountain lake enclosed by misty woods and rocky bluffs. Thick fog creeps across the dark, still, too still, perfectly still, waters. The trail ends at a grass-covered causeway that stretches 100 yards across the lake to a flat, marshy island, so a little marshy island, covered in stone and with a stone tower upon it. The tower is old and decrepit, with collapsing

scaffolds clinging to one side where a large gash has split the wall. Time-worn griffon statues, their wings and flanks covered with moss, perch atop buttresses that support the walls. I, like, because obviously that's where we want to go.

Yeah. I'm, like, hurrying people. Okay. Like, you can see that I'm scared. Like, I'm like, right, off the wagon. Let's move, let's move, let's move. And I'm scanning the woods as we go. It's too late.

We're too exposed. Mm-hmm. It's too dangerous. I'd be hurrying. If we've already parked, basically. Yeah, yeah. But before that, like, hurrying around If we've already parked, basically, but before that, like hurrying around. You hurry across the bridge.

Hector, as everyone gets off the wagon and is moving single file across the bridge, you are perhaps the last person making the wagon right before you, making sure the wagon gets ahead right before you. Hector, you take one turn back towards the forests here and you see a deer grazing somewhere in the woods bushes slightly cover its lower half so you just see basically where their their head is completely oh sorry you

cannot see the head or like hooves of the deer they are obscured by brush the deer rears but with its back legs and then when they land, it runs in reverse. You do not see its head come up. You do not know if you saw a deer. Let's keep moving. Let's keep moving. Come on. Well, yes, let's just go. I don't mention that one. Probably best not to.

That's the tower. That is the tower, yes? As you step onto the island, all of you feel a weight settle upon you, like you just put on a heavy, wet cloak. No one's 100% sure what it is, but Esmeralda mutters, Anti-Magic Zone. Oh.

Yeah. Yeah. That's something. Can I, like, scan? Does my horse go away? It doesn't go away, no. It's still... It's here.

You have summoned it. Yeah, okay. Oh, it's the anti-magic zone. Yeah. No, the anti-magic does not... Yeah, it... The creature... Well, actually, the horse can now properly die,

which is funny. Because it can't go back to its home plane. Okay. Typically, if it reaches zero hit points, it's sent back to wherever it came from, unharmed. But if it dies here, it dies in real life. Oh, no. Oh, my God. She thought she was playing a game, but really, she's plugged into the Matrix, baby.

Oh, no. The tower door is made of iron with no visible handles or hinges. In the middle of the door is a large embossed symbol, a connected series of lines with eight stick figures set around it. Carved into the wood above the door is the word exothander. Do I know what it means? What is exothander? Is that in common or is that in...

Pip, you know this is something that perhaps Keening found out in his research and mentioned to you Exothander was Strahd's court wizard or arch wizard but he is supposedly dead Is that an elf? It's a name

Strahd in the past had a court wizard named Exothander long dead but I sure what does that mean really so this was where he went wizards love towers

I turn around to Esmeralda you're sure this is in the letter he sent this was where he said I would find a safe base of operations that he established. He did not mention, oh he did mention a magical lock but for safety reasons

he said he would not explain how to unlock it. He said he trusted me to figure it out. Right. Should we knock it? There is a knocker just below the, oh let me show you the so. If you want to describe the picture that you're looking at uh so it's a like a black iron door shrouded in a horrible green mist

with like a kind of dark mahogany wood uh in which the door is set and then in the kind of at eye height in the door there's like a circular possibly rusted brass plate with some kind of triangly sigil on it. It looks like a clock. All the things are connected, yeah. And around where the numbers would be are little symbols. Are they of people? It looks like a stick figure drawing of a person, yeah. Okay, right.

Well, I guess you'll try the knocker. You attempt the knocker. Nothing happens. Attempting the knocker makes Pip slightly nervous. It's dangerous to invite invitation. You certainly, though, all of you can tell when you hit the knocker, it echoes within the tower, magically enhanced, clearly. Esmeralda clucks at that. That is

curious. Why? That there would be magic within an anti-magic zone. Oh. His horse is still around. Esmeralda shrugs, I do not know summoning magic. Is it when you cast the enchantment first and then you do the anti- and then it... Pip shrugs, I...

I'm not schooled in magic. Right, well, surely if you're your... Van Richten trusted you. If he was here, he would have heard that. Oh, yes. Esmeralda, Van Richten seemed to believe you could figure out the...

Esmeralda approaches. She gingerly puts a gloved hand upon the door. When that happens, who's standing within 10 feet of the door? I feel like all of us. Yeah, all right. Electricity explodes out from the door, hitting everyone. Cool.

Dexterity save. Esmeralda passes. Pip, you fail. Hector, you pass. I would say no one else actually was standing that close. Goroblushen is eager. Goroblushen fails. So, Pip, did I say you failed?

Yeah, you did. Yeah. I'm sorry. That's okay. Oh. Thanks. You take 21 points of damage. Oh, my God.

It's not okay anymore. Can I have a look at the clock face? Unfortunately, no. I meant my character. Oh, yes. You can. Yes. Because there's a line going to it.

It's not a fully connected line, is it? Oh, you mean the symbol in the center? Yeah. You can trace from one end to the other, right? Like a maze almost, yeah? Oh, you mean the symbol in the center? Yeah. You can trace from one end to the other, right? Like a maze almost, yeah? Yeah, yeah. It's one continuous or contiguous line. It goes from one point to another

in kind of a... Almost like a triangular shape? Yeah. Making several triangles atop themselves. I guess like the start or the end, are they the same symbol that it's pointing to? No, they're pointing to two different ones. When Esmeralda touched it, did she just touch anywhere?

No, no, she touched a specific place. I mean, did she touch any specific place? What specific place did she touch? She touched the disc. Okay. The metallic disc with all the little symbols on it. Perhaps if you trace the... Does it seem part of the initial design?

The maze section? It looks like the door was made to have this fitted into it, so yeah. Are they repeating, the symbols? Any of them repeating they look like stick figures oh they look like yeah they look like little stick figures of a person uh none of them repeat no is it like circle and then like arms and legs what do you mean oh yeah so yeah stick figure like just a simple circle and then lines to represent arms legs torso are they are they doing anything yeah they look like they're doing little gestures so if i followed from like the one end to the next like so i go from like where it first

is to the next point does it look like is it is it a movement kind of thing i mean if i was doing a flip yeah you know like uh oh i see what you're saying like if i was doing an animation on like a p like a flip uh like a flip book flip. And then like, and is it walking? No, not really. Some of them are quite different to other ones. I mean, like, it's hard to say. It doesn't look like one naturally follows from the other, though. Okay.

Well, if you, the first one. Esmeralda is nodding and following along. As you see, that one is there, then you go there. Look, it's a stick figure doing It's a stick figure doing something. Is it... I look where the door is. Is there anything that like... I don't know what...

I don't know much about non-divine magic. So I'm trying to see if it's like, okay, there's like a magical eye. It's like you need to do something in front of that you know enough about arcane magic to know that such a

viewing device if there is one, some spells do create like a physical viewing eye but it is always invisible so you would not be able to see it if it was there Esmeralda gestures for everyone to get back. Allow me to attempt

the sequence. Yes, right. I do not know which way you start from. She imitates the little stick figure going from one to the next to the next to the next to the next until she completes the sequence, at which point you hear a ka-chunk

and the door swings open. Yeah. Why have the exact sequence you need to do written on the door? Well, I think it is. Why not memorize it? That's like if you had a numbered code, writing the numbered code above the place where you would enter the different digits. I'm assuming this court wizard was Strad, yes? Yes, I think so.

Perhaps if he wanted Strad to come visit, why would you not visit? Maybe he was an idiot. That's also feasible. It could be possible, as Beralda says, that perhaps you are right, that it is a very foolish thing and that what we have done, instead of opening the door,

is triggering a trap that we are not aware of yet. Yes, I suppose that's... Yes, it is an option, yes. I mean, you are correct, it is exceedingly easy. Alternatively, it could also be a thing that perhaps Dr. Van Richten came through and made something hard easy in the locking mechanism or something. The way that Esmeldin moved, was it kind of like a fitness calisthenics-y thing? Yeah, you reckon a go-gash made this. Or it could have simply been a way for the court wizard to get in his

morning stretches. Perhaps an exercise A good gosh, that seems to make a lot of sense to him. You know, it's like one of those things, you know,

it's like, well, I really want to do yoga in the morning. I'm getting older. I want to do some stretches and yoga in the morning, but I've got to

roll out the mat. But if the mat's already rolled out. Exactly. And if there's no way to get back into your house. Yeah, well, I guess I can do some stretches. Except by doing some exercise.

Yeah. So I guess I'll just do a downward dog in front of my door and howl. That's how I operate. Esmeralda looks to the threshold and shrugs and says, nothing ventured. She steps into the building. Nothing gained, I follow. All right. Everyone.

Terrible advice, I say. Can't step after you. Everyone walks in. Nothing ventured. Nothing Everyone. Terrible advice, I say. Can't step after you. Everyone walks in. Nothing mentioned. Nothing gained. Terrible advice. There is a little entry area, like a little landing space, with a curtain that blocks off the rest of the first floor.

You or Esmeralda pushes that aside, and you see the flagstone floor is strewn with debris, and a few old crates stand near the east wall. A torn curtain, which is what you just pushed aside, partially obscures the rest from viewing. A five foot square indentation in the center of the floor contains four pulleys attached to taut iron chains that stretch up through a familiarly sized hole in the rotted wooden ceiling. Standing next to the chains are four tall clay statues. So you see, as I said, four clay statues standing around. In the center, there's a little platform and then pulleys and chains that go up into the ceiling. There is a hole in the ceiling, and you can tell it is about the same size and shape as the platform.

Right. And then there's crates, I should say. Before we enter, can I have casted any sort of healing magic on myself after getting zapped, or does that just not happen? Yeah, you attempt to cast a spell, and you cannot. All right. Well, that is unfortunate.

Can I use divine sense? No. So I'm just completely cut off. Yep. All right. Well, that is unfortunate. Can I use divine sense? No. Or just like, so I'm just completely cut off. Yep. I do not like this. Well, this is, I guess, is there a lever or like, is it a pulling the chain? It's a pulley, so you've got to manually wind it. I guess you step on and head up.

The clay statues. Yeah. Can I give them a once over? Just a second, I say. You see the four clay statues are it's hard to tell, but you can see that they don't look like the rest of the room. There is a bit of, there's a lot of dust in this room. It looks like a largely disused space.

Except for the crates in the eastern section. Casting your gaze over there, Pip, you see that there's like clear disturbances there. You can't, you couldn't guess how recently it happened. But something more recently than the rest of the room has been around there. Okay. These clay statues are the same. It looks like they have recently, something has disturbed them. than the rest of the room has been around there. These clay statues are the same. It looks like they have recently,

something has disturbed them. They're not as dusty as the rest of the place. Do they strike me as possibly being an elemental of some kind? Hmm, I need to quickly check. Yeah, like are they? Yeah. With the Emmanuel de Monster page for elementals open, I like, without touching them,, just cast an eye over them.

You do recognize these, not as being elementals, but you do recognize that there is an elemental presence here. These statues are, in fact, clay golems. A earth elemental, the way a golem is made, is an elemental of an appropriate nature typically earth not always but typically earth is bound to like a vaguely humanoid shape these clay statues yeah and then it acts as kind of like a power to source to to animate the automaton these creatures would not be considered elementals anymore but they do have an elemental spark within them. Can I tell the kind of thing that would activate them, or is that a bit beyond me? It's impossible to tell.

They've been given orders, and they will follow said orders. Well, the fact that they've not attacked us outright means that they're either not guards or terrible guards, I say. As far as the nods. Right. Are they near the pulley system? Yeah. Although... Esmeralda nods are they near the pulley system? yeah although

well perhaps they're the ones that what if we Esmeralda has wandered over to the crates and you can see she's trying to open one Van Richten said nothing about golems of any kind did he? Esmeralda shakes her head it was a

brief message that he was able to send. Well, I would assume if we stepped on the platform and said something, they might lift us up. I'm also curious if there's anything

underneath this platform. My experience with wizards is that they are a tricky bunch. Gorob Lushan steps up, does not stand on the platform, but looks up into the hole in the ceiling. They put a hand to the corner of each of their mouths

as if they had one big mouth that they were about to call through. And both of them, in perfect unison, scream up, Doctor! We need a doctor! Help us! We must be separated! I think if the doctor was here, he would have heard the knock.

The knock went through the whole building. Hello? Oh, maybe you're right. Come up here. Esmeralda pauses. I bite my tongue. Esmeralda pauses and looks up. She looks at the rest of you and shakes her head.

That is not Dr. Van Richter. To be continued... picking up what we're putting down and want more D&D content, we have just what you need to scratch that itch. D&D is for Nerds Plus, the symbol not the word, where you can listen to select campaigns that were once only available to Sants Pants Plus members, the further adventures of the Greyhill Free Company if you want shorter campaigns with beautiful guests, and D&D is for Nerds, not Ognot, where all our non-canon D&D adventures go to rest. Just search for D&D is for Nerds, not Ognot, where all our non-canon D&D adventures go to rest. Just search for D&D is for Nerds on your favourite podcast app of choice and join us on this epic quest of D&D podcast discovery.