D&D is For Nerds - Vampire Infested Barovia II #10 The Heart of Sorrow

Episode Date: July 8, 2023

The party welcomes the return of a lost friend as they bear witness to a shocking revelation about Yester Hill. Hecktor attempts to make a last stand while Pip ignores his own advice and takes a leap of faith.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. Although you see no water for miles around, you are, like us, marooned. You're stranded in this sad and lonely place called Barovia. To mix metaphors, we are incarcerated. The fog that surrounds us are the bars of our dungeon, and Baron von Strahd is our jailer. As far as I can tell, there is only one way out, and that is to kill Devil Strahd. There is a tree the size of a double-decker bus is sprouting out of the ground here.

Oh, fuck. The tree in its side. Has a mouth. And it's chewing. Every time it opens. You can see a bloodied. Broken. Awful. Sad looking creature within.

You could know it as nothing else but a were-raven. As you fly down. The druids don't say anything. But those rock people look up at you as you approach. And they notice you. They refuse to stop their ritual, but they are absolutely ready for you when you approach. When you get close, the ones in the innermost circle draw weapons,

and you know if you dwell here, you're going to start taking blows. Speaking of taking blows, you grab that were-raven and start pulling, but the tree is stronger and its vines drag her in. One of them slams into you. Is it a... Pray for a low number. Is it high?

I don't know what you want from me, dude. Not to be high. Oh, no. God. Crushed hand. You have disadvantage on skill checks that rely on hands or arms until you finish a short rest. Short rest is okay. Don't roll a...

What is this? Sorry, it's an athletics check. Oh, wait. What they rolled or what you rolled? You rolled an athletics check to get this person out. The hand thing. Is that a check or has that just rolled? You rolled an athletics check to get this person out. No, I mean the hand thing. Is that a check or has that just happened? You just have disadvantage.

That's a shame. You only take 15 points of damage. Okay. You're on seven hit points. This went really wrong. Real bad. Real quickly. Real quick.

So, it's Kribbit's turn. It'd be nice if, it's nice. Okay. It's nice. That's good. Okay. That seems good.

Okay. It's, uh, Tarpos's turn. Tarpos, screaming, drives, tries to drive the spear

into Keshgar one more time. Pray for a high number. High, high, high, high, high, high, high. Try harder. I'm so bad at prayer duty. What a thing you often have to say. With a sharp stick, triple damage,

and the target must make a DC 18 dexterity saving throw on a failed save. The target loses an eye. That rolls. DM decides which one that is tarpos deals oh wow oh my god holy shit all right keshgar turns to face Tarpos and

his eyes go wide there is no belief in these eyes but there is still somehow certainty in his words you will not kill Kshum

Tarpos drives the spear into Keshgar's eye hell yeah drags it back out and Keshgar falls backwards and hits the dirt behind him. Tapos says to no one but herself. Blood.

Blood. Blood. A wild look that only Gorob and Lushen can see appears in her eyes. Her thirst has been satiated. For now. Yeah, yeahiated. For now. Yeah, yeah, for now. Then, the figure in the tree, using your help, tries to

drag themselves out. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Let us get out of here. You've got disadvantage on this, Jack. You just barely fucking make it. Oh, thank God. All right.

They drag themselves out of the tree and take wing with you, or at best they can. You're kind of helping. They're like limp flying. You know what I mean? Like limping but flying, and you're half helping them. When you do that, one of the stone people tries to grab at you as you pass. But you're too high. You're flying away.

They look at you, look at the druids. One of the druids nods, and then they throw themselves into the tree. Oh. They are consumed, and the ritual completes. The entire hill begins to rumble tarpos looks at gorob and lushen and gestures to the prone figures of pip and tribbet the rock people scatter past eleniel who looks up at the hill as gora blushen and tarpos look down at her she gestures for them to follow and then points at cribbit and pip's prone forms everyone begins

trying to scatter off the tree well that happens pip and yeah pip and cribbit no one can spare a moment no stabilize you right now, unfortunately. Yeah, look, I'm going to be there as fast as I can fly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it, I get it. The hill begins erupting as giant, it looks like giant trees to match the one that just ate are exploding their way out of the hill. Then you realize with a sickening sensation, these are not individual tree blights. This is one tree blight beneath the hill. The hill is completely destroyed as the tree blight begins to four legs, raises itself up.

It is impossibly huge. It is as big as Krezik. Fucking hell. All right. Okay. All right. When that happens. Oh, sorry.

Kribbit is going to need to fail pass. Fail. That's two fails, two passes. All right, Kribbit's stale. Should I be? Yeah, would you like to? Unfortunately. In terms of where we're flying, how quickly is this all happening?

How quickly can we get back to them, even if I can try to scoop them up? It's absolute chaos right now. You can see Tarpos and Goroblushin are carrying both Kribbit and Pip, respectively, sprinting away as Eleniel also sprints to the tree line. You could try to dart after them. It's going to take you a little while, though, because you're traveling a lot and you're trying to avoid the tree right now. I'm dodging, I understand. I will be trying to zoom and

head towards Pip and Kripp. Alright, I think Pip, you're going to have to make at least two death saving throws before he can reach you. Twelve. That's a success. That's a success. That's a fail.

Alright, you reach Pip. What would you want to do? 12. That's a success. That's a success. 8. That's a fail. That's a fail. Okay. All right. You reach Pip. What would you want to do? I will. And at that point, Kribbit makes his third stabilizing saving throw. I do five points of lay on hands on Pip and then five on Kribbit. All right.

Kribbit and Pip both wake up. Did we? No. We need to go find a body of water. Oh, God. As the druids and the rock men begin scattering, or as their scattering finishes, they begin to remember that you are here.

Oh, fuck. You are in a field thick with them. remember that you are here. Fuck. You are in a field thick with them. But as the tree starts making its way north, one last bolt of lightning

splits the sky. And through the rain and the darkness of even the day of Barovia you can see far in the direction that you came from, a figure is on the road. They ride a horse. The horse is pure jet black. The figure astride it is impossibly large, or perhaps they just seem impossibly large. Certainly they are imposing. They wear beautiful finery, the nicest of clothing, the fanciest, perhaps.

They have a wickedly cruel face, awful, vicious looking, like the sort that makes you feel like you are truly prey in these lands. As they ride down towards you slowly, they make it seem like hunting you would be so easy, like they don't need to run. They could just walk and eventually they will find you. You stare at the vampiric face of a gogash. Oh no. Oh no.

Okay. Okay. Fuck. Pip, give me everything you have on vampires. What do you know about vampires? I can see a gogash too, yeah? Yeah. A gogash is very prominent. I'd like to give you like,

I know I've got a lizard face, so expression is hard, but the wildest I've looked. There's no time. I just want to turn around and get as far away from a gogash is hard, but the wildest I've looked there's no time! I just want to turn around and get as far away from a go-gash as is humanly possible. Brief moment to just flash in your

mind the pages in Emmanuel the Monster on Vampire. We'll be here all day! Imagining the part of the second page is a crossword that you need to solve to understand how to kill them

oh putting a crossword in that you need to solve fuck it out only he who solveth the puzzle he's like prior to him

he's like raised out what's the best medal ah six across what is that again it's cryptic it's cryptic cool you're running I'll just like What is that again? It's cryptic It's cryptic Cool You're running

I'll just like Because He did it bravely With his friends Ran away Ran away Just like Maybe just like

Holding Like just holding The ground To be like I think And I want to Like just Touch myself

And Give myself Wow give myself a... Wow, that's a weird expression, isn't it, paladins? I will touch myself and give myself a healing points. Okay. All right. A little bit of juice. You, Pip, you...

I mean, everyone can see the direst wolf standing next to... A gogash. A gogash. But only you really... At this distance, only you are familiar enough with Boris to recognize him this far away. To anyone else, he just looks like any old direst wolf with a bunch of bolts stuck in his back. But you recognize every bolt, every scar upon that dire wolf's body. And Boris turns up to look at a gogash. This blows your mind.

Almost as if waiting for orders. A gogash gives a gesture and then you hear from the woods around you, you hear before you see it. Oh, shit, dude. And then the footfalls of many direst wolves, including Boris, who has begun sprinting his way across, not really Yester's Hill anymore, more like Yester's Pit at this point, towards you.

When that happens, all of you turn around to look at the raven, which you saved just moments ago, circling around to the east. It makes the noise again. What does it seem like? It flies eastwards. Okay, I'm following the crow. How far away is everybody? When you say everybody, do you mean your companions or your enemies? I guess the enemies. The enemies? Well, that varies.

You can't see many. You can hear a bunch of diarist wolves moving through the tree line around Yester Hill. They could be as close as 30 feet or as far as 100 feet. You have no idea. You can't see them. Boris is about 250 feet and closing. He moves at maybe twice your flight speed. So he's tracking you at an insane rate. A gogash has not yet moved. He's just watching for now. It's almost as if he doesn't feel like he needs to get involved. Okay. So where's everyone else? They're behind me, I'm guessing?

Well, they're a bit scattered. I would say that Kribbit is probably basically at your side. Gorob Lushan is the furthest away and he's scrambling towards uh towards your formation tarpos the the druid i don't know if i've mentioned her name yet yeah yeah yeah tarpos is slowly staggering to her feet she might be closer to pip and when she sees pip moving she begins to move as well in pip's direction. Eleniel, you can't see. Okay, okay, okay. And what are the druids? The other druids?

The druids are kind of scattered. They don't look like they're much of a threat right now. Is he moving? Are you moving? Yeah, I don't know. Hector, are you moving? No, I'm just assessing it. I like to stop in the mud and turn around. Are you dim? Are you stupid?

you can't save Barovia if you're dead I don't think get a good boy card that's a great line thank you I could buy you some time no

you can't you can die causing further irreparable trauma coming to the forest yeah I just turn I grab Kribbit, I assume? Do you pick up Kribbit? Someone's got to scoop him up.

Tuck him under your arm? Yeah, sure. And run, run, run. Do I have a chance to scoop up Pop? To scoop up all the chicken! Oh, right! I'm really confused for a second. Jackson, he's in chult right now. You can scoop up Pop if you want.

Pop is moving. Pop's kind of stuck to your heel this entire time. But Pop is slower than you, so if you pick up Pop... Does he bulk at that? Pop, no. Pop goes really still and quiet. He's scared too, I guess. Maybe no, that's actually way too coherent a thought.

I think Pip's staring at Pop like... A wolf leaps out of the forest at you, Pip, Maybe no, that's actually way too coherent a thought I think Pip's staring at Bob's leg A wolf leaps out of the forest at you A wolf leaps out of the forest at you, Pip And then is struck by an arrow from seemingly nowhere With enough force that it's knocked aside You thank Elaniel and keep moving Okay, tuck Pop onto my arm and duck into the woods

Alright, you're all sprinting? Yeah, we're sprinting following the bird Alright, every now and then you hear Just to let you know where the bird is. And every now and then as well, one of the diarist wolves kind of emerges out of the tree line, makes a snap or a bite at one of you. And if that happens,

the crow tries to give you as best as they can a bit of a warning. They'll swoop down at eye level to let you know that they've spotted a diarist wolf, which gives you a split second so that you're not completely surprised. How would you like to deal with this? I would say that you could just ignore it, keep running, and every now and then you might cop a bite,

or you can stop and engage. Stopping and engaging every now and then might fend them off. They're using, you've seen this before, they're using hit and run tactics. So they'll come in, nip at you, and then retreat back before you can really do anything. If you stop and fight, you can get a hit in,

but that would mean very quickly you would become surrounded and escape would be, it'd be a fight at that point. I don't think we can stop. I don't think we can stop. I'd be like, oh, we could kind of Because I could do like, oh yeah A few little hits here Or like chucking in like a

Some sort of cantrip or whatever But that's just going to slow us down How I know this is a crazy question in Barovia How dry is this forest? Well, it's funny you should say that Yeah No sooner have you thought that

Then It begins snowing. Okay. Snowing? Yeah, you're quite close to Mount Gacchus I think it's called. Yeah, yeah. And where you are currently it is cold enough that it snows here rather than rains.

Pip's about to set fire to the forest. That's like, oh, maybe they are. You know what? Never mind. Fair enough. Yeah, I guess we just keep running then. The snow makes, Abruvi is already an unpleasant place, but the snow makes it even worse. As you've been running for about 10, 20 minutes, the snow begins to get as heavy as the heavy rain that comes down.

It's not like blizzard conditions, but it is heavy enough that you begin slowing down. And instead of the, the heaty of the direst wolves tracking you, it becomes more of a crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch,

crunch, snarling attack. All right. So I was like, radiant damage isn't heat to snow, is it? No, I'm sorry. Snow cares naught about God.

Oh, man. Tarpos, one of the direst wolves leaps on Tarpos and knocks her to the ground. Tarpos takes, yeah? She only takes 12 points of damage. Okay. Oh, she's pretty healthy, actually, but that slows her down. She's now at the back of the formation. Is she engaged with that

diarist wolf? No, the diarist wolf as it leaps down on her you can see a bunch of other diarist wolves slink their way out of the forest trying to come at her from different sides, but when she turns around and tries to snap back, the diarist wolves immediately retreat.

Hit and run tactics. Classic. Gorob Lushen is thankfully fast enough that he's making his way towards the front of the pack. Amazing that he's so quick. Barbarians move at a faster speed. They, I should say.

He's dragging the wizard companion. We will not stop! We will not stop! We will live! They say in unison. And, oh, no, yeah, Pip, you're also far enough at the front of the group that you and Pop are fine,

but Hector, you're probably going to cop it the worst, if I'm being honest, because you dawdled the most. That's fair. I was about to say, if Torpos was like full I'd probably like stop to help yeah yeah you are you and Kribbit are very lucky as as one of the dire souls leaps out at you Kribbit with his loot it's the direst, because he doesn't need to, he can focus on them, because he's just tucked underneath your arm. You beautiful frog man. Then, like, another one comes at you

from a different angle. Kribbit turns at that one and says, don't! There's no magic to it. The direst wolf just activates the dog brain. Stop! And then, a third one manages to land, oh, it hits you in the small of your back, Hector, but you manage to roll with the blow and keep going.

Okay. All right. All right. Tarpos is now the one who's going to take it the worst. Unless, Hector, you'd like to slow down. He would. I would. I would.

Well, we'll start with you, Hector, this time. I'm just helping. I'm just going to pick her up. Okay. You stop, you die. I've got bad news. You need to make a strength saving throw. One of the direst wolves hits you square in the back and knocks you to the ground.

Okay. You are going to fail that death saving throw. Do I have my aura? I got my aura. Oh, that's right. You do have an aura. You pass. You will still take damage.

Okay. Okay. How many hit points were you on again? Currently 15 Well you're going to take another 11 points of damage So what's that? 4? If I was to as a reaction Do a shield Would that help?

Or would that still get hit? Well I wish you told me that earlier. Was that an extra five hit points, right? Yeah. I believe that would have prevented this damage, correct? Okay. So you're going to cast Shield? Yeah.

I assume that does not sound like a clerical spell, so I assume... Well, it is a clerical spell, but it's not from a clerical source. I see. Well, you... Oh, no, no but it's not from a clerical source. I see. Well, you... Oh, no, no. It is not from... Yeah, I thought so, yeah. You, as one of the Dyrus wolves pounds up behind you, you turn around, put a hand in front of you, the hand that's not

holding Cribbit, obviously, and you feel a sickly presence in the back of your mind leap forwards, down your arm and out of your well you it's now a skeletal hand not a regular hand and then this sickly green aura appears as a shield in front of you the direst wolf lands on that instead today tapas is going to cop it once and luckily one of the direst wolves comes out tries to nip at her, but she kicks at it. And you keep moving.

Pip, the Raven has been leading you in just one direction. But at this point, in the back of your mind, you're like, you know Boris is quick. Where is Boris? The Raven nearly hits the ground. It tries to go down so quickly. Go, go, go, go, go. Yeah. You know there's a rustling in the bushes in front of you.

Boris has circled around, is fast enough to have gotten in front of you. You turn in another direction. The raven starts leading you somewhere else. Go, go, go, go, go. Oh, God. Oh, God. A couple of times this happens. Where am I?

You. All right, Pip, you're able to deduce, you're able to work out that there is a unseen battle happening right now between this Raven and Boris. Oh, God. Boris is trying to take you one direction. The Raven is trying to prevent that. Okay. All right. You could barrel past Boris if you

really wanted. I don't know if that's clever. Alright, meanwhile, Hector, you still up the back? Yeah, cool. Okay, you're gonna get hit again. Would you like to... Um, how... Is it a thing that's

gonna drag me to the ground kind of hit? You have to make a strength saving throw. I'm going to throw 15 hit points. Oh, fuck me. Um, oh, okay. Let's see. Yeah, yeah, I guess I've got to be up shielding up. It's going to be a cold night tonight.

Kribbit's going to give you bardic inspiration. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. That's a new song from Kribbit. Okay. You can't do it. Turns out with all of these fucking bonuses, you suck dick.

Maybe I'll just have a good boy card. I've got a good boy card. There's a fail, save, and throw. Maybe I'll just re-roll. Just re-roll? Yeah, yeah, just re-roll. I'll re-roll the d8 as well that you get because I'm kind like that. All right, you pass.

You're still going to take damage, but you're not knocked prone. I cast shield, I cast shield, I cast shield, I cast shield. Well, you should have done that first. I said I cast a shield. Oh, I didn't. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you weren't. I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry. Well, in that case, Krippit didn't use that bardic inspiration because you didn't get hit at all. Excellent, excellent didn't. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you weren't. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Well, in that case, Krippa didn't use that Bardic Inspiration because you didn't get hit at all. Excellent, excellent, excellent. And you prevented 14 points of damage. Oh, boy. That shield is real good, ain't it? Oh, boy. Tarpos is going to cop it.

Tarpos is pretty good at, while she does not wear heavy armors, she has heavy furs. does not wear heavy armors. She has heavy furs and that plus the fact that anytime one of the dire swarms comes at her, she growls at them. They back off. That boss is cool. Alright. And Pip, what's the plan?

What's the go? What are we doing here? Okay. You gonna barrel pass Boris? I think I gotta. As you do that, obviously, the raven probably doesn't really understand what you're planning on doing. So when you keep going after they warn you not to, they get really insistent. They swoop at you, trying to knock you in the face. Are you just going to... No, fair enough.

Fair enough. I'm going to turn around and just try and get as far away from Boris as possible. Alright, so you're not gonna barrel past Boris? Yeah, no, I'm actually gonna take my own advice and try not to be a hero. Alright. You- That moment of hesitation fucked some shit up. When the raven gets close enough to knock you in the face, it's already too late and Boris wins.

When you turn, you emerge from some trees and you realise, with a heart-stopping realisation, you see a massive cliff face. You are up the top of a cliff, gazing down into the... I believe it is this one here. The Luma River? The Luma River.

Or Luna? The Luna River, yeah. The is this one here. Luma River? The Luma River. Or Luna? The Luna River, yeah. The Luna River, okay. It is nearly a 500-foot drop. Oh, fuck. You see just cliff face on either side of you. Not only is it a 500-foot drop, it's a 500-foot drop into a waterfall.

You are currently looking at, there is a waterfall that extends maybe 100 feet in either either direction you don't know it's it looks like whitewater rapids for the entirety of any part of this river you can see it spans so far that you cannot in this heavy snow and in the darkening night oh my god oh yeah in the darkening night as well you cannot see the other side. You know there's got to be one. Right. But you can't fucking see it.

Funnily enough, though, actually, and I'm not even kidding here, it is so dark and snowing so heavily that it could be jumpable. You just don't know. Fuck, dude. Boris is like right on my heels, right? Well, actually, right on your heels instead is Goroblushen, followed by Tarpos, followed by Kribbit, and followed by Hector. All of you emerge here and you hear growling

as diarist wolves emerge from all different directions. This is not good. The raven circles high above you, and if you glance upwards for even just a brief moment, you can see the raven is kind of looking frantically, trying to find a path for you, but they're not doing anything

just yet. Okay. Boris emerges from the middle of the group. I'll have my crossbow ready and primed. Maybe if the mobile Boris emerges, I'm just going to shoot him in the head. There's no time! Alright, well, I'm just going to shoot him in the head. There's no time. Alright, well we'll just go to initiative. Adam, with my devil sight, can I see

a bit further than Pip could? With the heavy snow, you can see that there is it's not it is technically jumpable. I've got good news and I've got bad news. Which would you like first?

I would love some good news first. It's a bit about time. With the addition of Devil's Sight, you can see through the darkness, not through the snow, and it is snowing quite heavily. But you can make out, even through the snow, that there is, on the other side of this crevasse ravine, whatever you want to call it, there is a bridge. Bad news, there is half of a bridge. On your side, it has crumbled away entirely.

You can see the massive divot here where it should have been once long ago. You could jump to that bridge, but you don't know its structural integrity. There is a bridge. All right, we're going to go to initiative.

Half a bridge. Okay. Oh, God. It's been just one thing after another. It's been for so long. It's been great knowing you. Pip, you're first. Okay.

You open fire. Yeah. How many attacks? Two attacks? Two attacks, yeah. Hit, hit. All right. Okay.

Are these special bolts or just regular? I think I've got some silver bolts left, so I'll make them silver. That won't overcome any resistances. It's just a diarist wolf. That's right. Just regular bolts. That is 19 points of damage. Good job.

All right. Boris takes 19 points of damage. Good job. All right. Boris takes 19 points of damage. I mean, this is pretty much just like a mad scramble. Of course. I don't think I meant to bring combat with Boris. I'm just trying to keep him from attacking us straight away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Hector, your turn.

We can only see Boris. Wow, there's Dyrus. They've made a semicircle around you. There's no escape right now. The Raven is quite obviously trying to find a way for a way out for you, but they either haven't seen the half of the bridge or they're not. They're not highlighting that because for some other reason. Okay.

Um, all right. All right. Okay. Can I? Ooh. Yelling over I guess The snow, the wolves, the house I'm like there's a bridge And it is the only way out

How many feet of a jump is it? It would be a 15 foot jump Okay 15 foot jump It is theoretically possible A cribbit? He is a frog Kribbit

I think is one of the other ones who has a decent chance he's so little Yender Yender's not with you Yender's not with us Gorob Lushen

no Gorob Lushen are great they got a massive bonus I guess everyone's fine I guess everyone's fine really I guess I wouldn't say that alright can I

yep alright there's a bridge it's the only way past i would like to use my action to help whoever is next to try and jump that score a blushing are going next yep so basically i'm going to use my action to help how shift them up shift them up direct them i can see it all right well let'sob Lushen's turn Alright we'll go first They've got such an ungainly body

Oh my god Lushen because they get two actions Lushen is going to at least buy you Try to buy you some time Lushen reaches up Into the air with Just one hand and then grabs From the air snatches With surprising and then grabs from the air, snatches

with surprising deftness a single snowflake. They flick that snowflake at the masked diarist wolves. The snowflake, as it flies, turns into two. Those two turn into four, then eight, sixteen, thirty-two. By the time

the snowflakes hit the diarist wolves, there are millions of them. The diarist wolves are going to need to make dexterity saving throws. Okay. That will be 46 damage. Fuck yeah. All right.

A bunch of the diarist wolves are buffeted by cold energy, which explodes the cold atmosphere that you are currently in, causes this, it's like it supercharges the spell. It becomes even more powerful than it would be normally. Lushen says, Alright, you idiots, now get us across! Gorub turns to Lushen, sucks him in the stomach. Then maybe your help action is like, guys.

What are you doing? They jump across. All right. Oh, God. Oh, God. All right. You are able to see it, Hector. Pip, you can't see it.

You just hear above the din of the direst wolves and the falling snow, which there's like a blizzard whipping up into it now. It's beginning to get a bit worse. You hear... Hector, you see that entire half of the bridge shifts down a little bit. You're a blushing sprint to get to the other side. Move back, run. Okay.

All right, then it is Kribbit's turn. Kribbit. Jump, run. Use your little frog legs, buddy. Jump, we'll be right behind you. We'll be right behind you. This one can do it. This one can do it.

This one can do it. He gives himself body consideration. Yeah, he gives himself body consideration. Sometimes you got to. Kribbit leaps across. You hear almost like a, as his legs fully extend themselves for the first time you've ever seen. He leaps like a frog would and then lands on the bridge on the other side. That's awesome.

He crawls his way onto the other side. Can I hear the bridge shift when he does that? No, he's light enough that he doesn't cause that. Okay. You hear his like... You hear the noises of him moving or speaking. It's hard to tell sometimes. Yeah, yeah.

It's just me, you, Eleniel, and Torpos. And Torpos, yeah. It's the direst Wolves town. Oh, shit. Guess what? I don't know why I thought Yeah now we'll just go through all of the NPCs like our friends And we'll all get across

That's not how that works Topos gets attacked three times Shit shit Oh why not four Topos gets hit twice. Hey, Adam. Can I have some shield of faith on myself as a bonus action? Just to give myself a bit of...

Sure. That's good, that's good. That's one. I would appreciate it next time if you kept your bonus actions to your turn. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'll allow it. There's a lot going on, Adam. And Tarpos is

Fails one saving throw But makes the other Well okay That's something Tarpos takes Apples and oranges Wow that's a lot of force Tarpos takes

16, 20 23 points of damage Okay And they are prone Cool cool cool Oh damn Okay Are they getting also my aura stuff?

Oh Well they would have failed still No yeah? Oh, well, they would have failed still. No, yeah, because they rolled a 1. They would have failed still. You then, Shield of Faith, is that a plus 4 bonus? Shield of Faith is a plus 2. Right, right, right. Well, your AC is pretty high now.

3 Dyrus Wolves attack you. Oh, my God. Sucks to be you, buddy. That's a critical hit. Oh, no. Pray for a low number. Oh, boy. Okay.

Oh, boy. Oh, no. What? Is he okay? Hobbled. Is he going to be okay? Hobbled, your speed is reduced by 10 feet for a D6 frown. Oh, God.

All right. That's 10 points of damage, so you're on 5 hit points. Cool. Then you need to make the saving throw to not be knocked prone. Cool stuff. You make the saving throw. Hey, small blessing. But your speed is now 20 feet. Okay.

20 feet? Yeah. It was 30? Yeah. For how? I don't know, I guess. Oh, well, yeah, I don't know I guess For Oh

Well yeah you don't know Yeah For some time Alright Then And then Pip Yeah

No there are So three diarist wolves on Tarpos Three diarist wolves on Hector There are a total of 15 more diarist wolves Okay None of them attack. That's the worst thing you could have said.

Boris approaches you slowly. You can't! Adam, it cannot be done! Maybe if you have to throw us up in his mouth a little bit. Boris leaps at you. Boris hits.

Of course. That was pretty much a given. So, Pit Mandarin, you need to make a strength saving throw, knowing that you are with your back to a 500 foot drop.

Okay. You pass. You make your strength saving throw. Oh, thank God. I'm going to give you an option. Boris is the ringleader and the toughest of all of these diarist wolves. You know enough to know that if you decapitate the Dire Swords, that's not going to end their threat in Barovia, but it might buy everyone else some time.

Now, instead of not falling, you could grab Boris and fall with him. He has put his full weight into this attack, expecting to knock you off. He hasn't knocked you off, so he's been a little unbalanced. You can grab and fall with him if you want. Okay, as Boris collides with me, I imagine I reach out my arms around his neck and grab some of the bolts in his

back. Oh, well, so, first of all, Boris collides with me, I throw Pop away, and I say, look after Pop. And then I grab the bolts, and I'll fall off the cliff with Boris. If I can land on his back, maybe he can cushion my fall. Get a good boy card. Hey, both of you are on five hit points.

That's so cool. I'm going to die. I'm going to fucking die. Oh, you recall one piece of law relevant to this situation. Adam, remind me of the way to fall so you don't kill yourself. So, there's water

at the bottom. That kind of was what I was thinking. You are falling backwards first. You hit a rock. Your shoulder breaks. You feel every bone that could be in your shoulder has just shattered. I think it's too painful for me to even scream. My mouth's just wide, letting no noise out.

You keep tumbling, and we'll come back to you. Okay. Alrighty. Then it is Tarpos' turn. Tarpos. That means I can't use my crossbow. Tarpos shoves the direst wolf off off her gets to her feet turns and then as she sprints she leaps hector you see she's not gonna make it she's not even close you don't even know why she tried to

jump then she turns mid-leap you should see she turns into a frog. She lands on the other side and is able to slide down a little bit, but hold on to the other side and then slowly climb her way up. Is she just like a little tiny frog? Yeah, she's like a dart frog. Yeah, like a tree flock. That's awesome.

That tapas is on the other side. Then, we'll come back to Pip. Pip, you're in a different combat. Gorob and Lushen on the other side, you see they pick up Kribbit when he gets to them. And Kribbit climbs up onto, in between their twin heads, settles himself in as like a third head. Lushen turns to say something to Gorob And Kribbit interrupts him Don't fight

Okay Oh my god They just needed a third head in there That Daevil was almost on the money Lushen grabs one of their javelins And with a hand It's Gorob and Lushen working together Lushen pulls his hand along the end of the javelin,

and you see an icy crystals form along the javelin. Lushen, still holding on to it, leans back and throws the javelin as hard as he can. One of the direst wolves is picked up by the javelin. You just hear, whoop! And it goes off into the darkness. Okay. All right, Hector, it's your turn.

Alrighty. Okay, so I've just seen Pip fall. The direst wolf on you gets off. Without you having to do anything, it just lets you up. I stand up. You can see there's a bit, you're not, you're going to get attacked in a moment, but there's a bit of chaos

among the direst wolves now that Boris is gone. If I, where's a bit that you're not, you're going to get attacked in a moment, but there's a bit of chaos among the direst wolves now that Boris is gone. If I, where's your chicken? If I was to grab the chicken and then try and make the jump, am I going to get attacked? You think you, you think the wolves are stunned. Well, no, I would say that you could get across without taking an attack, sure. Okay, I am going to pick up Pop. Try to remember the poem about the treant. Oh, yeah, kind of fucked you on that one.

Yeah, yeah. And then make the jump. Try and make the jump. Just to hobble it. All right. With your reduced speed. Oh, do you get a bonus on? No, it's only a bonus on saving throws.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I was to maybe have a skip in my step and I move an extra five feet during my turn, would that help? Actually, yes. With the extra five feet, you easily get across. I'd like to have a skip of my step. Absolutely. You're pretty happy the wolves aren't trying to kill you anymore, I guess. As you land on the other side,

the bridge begins getting so low that it's starting to turn into a ladder. And with Pop in one arm, you can't climb a ladder. Okay, okay, okay. We'll get to you in just a moment. Kribbitz, first off, Kribbitz says the brave man he climbed up and

got back to his friends. You get bardic inspiration and in the back of your mind, you're really frustrated how good this song is. It's such a banger. It just really fucking rules it's so frustrating and unfortunately

I don't think he has any spells that can help you that's that's fine yeah and unfortunately I thought he might have had

long strider but he does not um cribbit makes his way to the edge and reaches out with his two mitts

towards you but he he's a little frog imagine you're sitting on the other side of tables from someone and they extend a toothpick out towards you it's like two child's arms reaching out you know very well that if you

grabbed Cribbit's hands you'd just both fall off I appreciate the gesture though I always have this wild magic roll if you ever need it, Talmud. I think maybe you might need it, my dude. Yeah, actually, yeah. You might be in a bit more of a dire situation

than I am. We're both in it. Now might be a time. It's so risky. It's the Dst wolves turn. They are not being observed by either player, so I'm not telling you what they're doing. That's fair.

It's Tarpos' turn, and Hector, you see a tiny little dart frog climbing up next to you. The dart frog looks at you and then the dart frog transforms. No, that's extra weight.

No, it's on the side where the bridge isn't. The dart frog transforms into a big monkey that can climb. Like an orangutan. Transforms into an orangutan. It gestures for pop. Alrighty. If I can do it on my turn, I will hand pop over. You hand pop to the orangutan and then with a climb speed, the orangutan...

Actually, it just maybe puts pop in its legs and then climbs up. What an unexpected thing to happen. Goodness me. All right. That was Tarpos's turn. And Hector, it's back to you. I will use that bardic inspiration and I will try and climb this ladder bridge.

You climb your way up to Kribbit. Kribbit grabs you and you feel like a little tugging at the hems of your shirt. But aside from that, Kribbit isn't very helpful. At a certain point, Gorob Lushen arrive and they grab you with one hand and with surprising, well, not surprising. Gorob is quite strong.

With a lot of strength, they just heave you up, and then all of you are on the other side. The raven, flying on your side now, leads you onwards. What would you like to do? The raven does not seem to be stopping for Pip. You can, if you want, try to search for Pip. You've fallen in a waterfall. I don't like my chances,

if I'm honest. You can't really search for me. Alright, we have to come back to find your manual the monster. At the very least. But right now, follow Miro.

Follow the raven. Maybe with a quick glance But right now, I follow Miro. Follow the raven. Follow the raven. Maybe with a quick glance backwards, I'm sure Hector's the sort of person who maybe would take just a moment to look back. Yeah, actually, with my devil sight, my beautiful devil sight, I'll just scan down, try and see a tumbling figure, try and see any kind of splashing try and have a look and see what's going on back and there is a lot of rushing white rapid water cascading down down

down into more white frothy water you could not you don't think it'd be possible for anyone to make out two figures among that you you you're not even sure they're from the look of it there might not even be much to see much left to see okay then your gaze slowly tracks onto the other side of the ravine where you see the direst wolves have quite clearly gotten over the fact that they were a little stunned at the sudden disappearance, probably death, of their leader and of Pip. You see, though, that they, now that they're over it, you see that they are sizing themselves up to jump across. They seem a lot less hesitant and a lot more confident at this jump

than your party did. I thought that was it. I thought we'd run. Go, go, go! Run, run, run, run, run. We run. I say, go down. I scoop up Cribbit or I scoop up Pop and I run.

I run with the rest of them. Meanwhile, in those white rapids, Pip, you keep tumbling. You shove, with what little strength you have, you shove Boris onto the next rock. You hear a brief moment of, as something cracks within him, and you are thrown into his body. You keep tumbling, Boris and you trying to fight for control over who hits the next rock.

Bite him, bite him, bite him. You manage to force Boris onto the next rock. Oh, thank God. Crack. Boris snarls and bites at you. Boris tries to sink his fangs into your shoulder, but you use that instead to force his head into the next rock. Hell yeah.

Crack. His entire snout bends at an odd angle. You feel Boris go limp in your arms. You are unable to relish this moment, though, as you look and the next thing that you see is a rock. Everything goes dark. Would you like to make death saving throws? I mean, of course, but I don't know why it was a shock.

14. 14. That's a pass. Yeah. Good. Six. That's a fail. Nine.

That's a fail. So you've got two fails, one success. 11. That's a success. Wow. Two successes, two fails. Good job. 16.

16. Good job. 16. 16. All right. We'll come back to you. Did Boris, how's he doing? He'll eat my fucking sleeping corpse. Okay. Hector. You keep moving through the wilderness.

Thankfully, it seems, even though the Dyrus wolves presumably did jump that ravine, they either weren't as successful as your party, not to say that your party was necessarily 100% successful, or perhaps they weren't actually as confident about it. Whatever the reason, the jumping of the ravine gives you a lot more time to move. Eventually, the woods begin to thin further and further and further. The snow begins to get heavier and heavier and heavier. And eventually now, even with your devil's sight, you can't see the full 60 feet. The conditions, they actually have not yet progressed to blizzard. You did not realize it could snow this heavily without actually blizzarding.

Fuck. It is coming down thick, heavy. You can see, though, in the thinning trees, you can see structures. At first, it looks like you're saved. Then when you get a bit closer, you realize most of the structures are burnt out and destroyed. This is a village made out of maybe around

10 still standing buildings, or it was once, I should say, a village. Now, it's but a ghost town. Some dark mark on the map that is Barovia that once, maybe long ago, had a name, name but today it's nothing but a ghost town okay um how's the I guess are we all just following the raven right I guess when we

get into this ghost town just slow down maybe be a bit more cautious sort of have a weapon weapon ready as you're slowly ponderously making your way in, everyone's quiet, even Krebbit is not making a noise. The group slowly coalesces kind of half behind you and Goroblushan, who are forming like a front line. The raven, with one

much more gentle core than you've been used to for the last hour or so, lands on a nearby wall and then slowly morphs into a badly wounded woman. She gingerly climbs down from the wall. Muriel, I assume? She nods.

Yes, we've run into one of your... She coughs up some blood. I put my hand on her and I cast... I cast... Yes, what do you cast? It's just a week. It's a week and it's gone. Yeah, I know. We burned through it so quickly, dude.

Let's say five points of lay on hands. You heal her for five points. You realize something has, as you're channeling healing energy into her, you can see there is something gnarled within her. The healing energy spreads through her, and then it hits walls as it's trying to move. You do heal her for the full five hit points, but there are some damages that you cannot heal truly.

One of them is her throat has been badly slashed. You staunch the bleeding, but when she puts her hand to it and tries to speak, nothing comes out but air. Can I inspect her for any sort of poisons or diseases or anything like that? You have a look over her, but you're too frazzled to really know. Are you okay for the time being? She nods, and then with her back up against the wall, she slumps down into a seated position. We ran into one of your family members.

He mentions that if we were to find you to fly away home, your family awaits. She gestures to her broken arm and gives you like a, hmm. I'm Hector. With her own blood, she writes on the wall, Muriel. I was like, no, no, no, no, it's okay. I just maybe sit down next to her, maybe like look around, look to other people in this this this this giant woman that we've also managed to acquire she's coming along tarpos looks at the wounded party and you see

there's kind of awkwardness on her face and she says simply i hunt food She turns and walks away. Oh, did anyone see Eleniel? Muriel, she, do you want me to, did you let her write her name out at all? Oh, she went to write the M, I'll be like, no, no, no, no, no. If she goes to, if she goes to Jester, um, wait, uh, Cribbit, can, uh, do you have your, your pen and a piece of paper we can? Cribbit hands her a pen and paper. She writes Muriel at the top, and then... We ran into you. Yes.

And then she continues onwards, and she continues on and writes, Saw her sometimes in the trees, don't know where she is. She's very well hidden. Ah, what is this place? She writes, don't know name, just knew it was here Are we safe? Dyrus wolves, I'm sorry, she probably doesn't say Dyrus wolves She doesn't know that term

Wolves won't search here Any other dangers here? She writes disease, question mark And then she gestures to one of the There are many piles of snow in this the the town here or i should say what's left of it at first you thought they were just natural banks of snow but when she gestures she wipes away at it a little bit and you can see there are piles of desiccated bodies covered in snow oh she continues onwards but think it's safe now. Strahd?

She nods. She slowly gets up and then gestures to one of the, there are no buildings that have complete roofs, but some of them have at least part of a roof, and part of a roof feels better than no roof at this point. Yep, that's fair. Is there, okay, right. Let's head in and try to get warm, see what we need to do next.

You push open. The front door to this building is badly damaged and doesn't want to move, but it can be forced. You see that a big red X has been painted onto the door. And when you force it open, it's a single room dwelling. There's a bed over to one side. Good news, bad news. The bed is in the part where it would be covered by what's left of the roof. So there is actually an undercover bed here. The bad news is there are two corpses cuddled together in it.

Is it possible to remove? Are they on a sheet? Can we wrap them up in a blanket? It's a very threadbare sheet, but you could take it off them and then remove them from the bed. Wrap them up in it. Oh, yeah, you could do that as well. And get them outside so that we are not in the presence of that. Silently, you and Gorob Lushen do this.

Croubit moves over to what's left of the bed, and he just sits down next to it, and he's just quietly thinking, I suppose. Is there anywhere? Look look i'm looking around for like i guess furnitures like furnishings like wooden furnishings that we can kind of break down to maybe just make a mixture of fire sure you could do that yeah there's enough very dry wood here to make a make a little fire you start a Asking if it's safe. Would it be safe to have a fire? Muriel writes down on the paper,

probably. Okay. I think that is best, so we don't die of thermia. Let's make a fire. Do you know where that lake, that waterfall went to? She writes Lunar Lake, somewhere

to the east. We need to find my friend, or Lake, somewhere to the east. Well, we need to find my friend, or at the very least his book. She nods and says, we'll search tomorrow. To be continued... Thank you. 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 on your favourite podcast app of choice and join us on this epic quest of D&D podcast discovery.