High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Curse of Strahd #2 | Wrath of Fire and Death
Episode Date: April 21, 2020The newly formed team face off against demons and more to protect the people of Barovia! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon:Â www.patreon.com/...HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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high rollers presents the curse of strad a gothic horror adventure of chills thrills and many blood
spills i am your dungeon master Humes, and the players joining me
are as follows.
Chris Trott as Jesper the Vistani Bard,
Kim Richards as Shadows
Beyond the Veil, a Tabaxi Cleric,
Katie Morrison as Rose
Vanandi the Human Ranger,
Tom Hazel as Xeros Mistan,
the Dragonborn Fighter, and Riannon Gower
as Ziki Mistan, the Dragonborn
Sorcerer.
Last time on Curse of Strahd.
Four travelers arrive at the Elfsong Tavern in Baldur's Gate as the night grows cold and a chilling rain soaks them through.
The inn offers warmth but little safety
as hungry eyes and nervous hands welcome them inside.
Jesper, a human
man who claims to be a traveler
from a strange land, has been waiting
for them, sent by his master
to guide them to his homeland and
help defeat a terrible evil that has
taken them there. Shadow
Beyond the Veil, a Tabaxi priest,
and Zeki-Mistan, a dragonborn sorceress,
have both received visions
from the gods to seek out this traveler
and aid him. Besides
them travel their own bodyguards,
Rose Vanendi, a human archer,
and Zeros-Mistan, a
dragonborn who holds some connection
to Zeki. Into the
night they travel, and it is not long
before the strange mists encircle
their wagon, and
they find themselves born to a new land.
A dark, dead land.
And waiting for them is a strange, darkly handsome man.
He hints that they have become the latest pawns in a game, and introduces himself as
Count Strahd von Zorovich, and that this land is his, before he transforms into a swirling
storm of bat-like creatures and vanishes.
Finally, the group arrive in the village of Barovia, where the streets are empty and silent
as a graveyard.
They find solace in an inn where other Vistani welcome them and offer them some wine, before
this moment of light is shattered by screaming and the sounds of battle.
Rushing to the source,
the group find a mansion besieged by undead
and devils, as a young man
and his father desperately try to protect
a young woman who is being called
by Strahd himself.
Well, that voice was something, huh?
Ooh, love it.
You've got to set the mood. You've got gotta set the mood you gotta set the mood
yeah well thank thank thank the wonders
of technology not necessarily uh my vocal
cords um so yeah
begin inside
on the upper floor well kind of spread
out a little bit um on the mainly
on the upper floor of the burgomasters
mansion in the village of barovia a village that sits in the kind of bottom of a small valley
uh and is overlooked by castle an ominous castle against the moonlight um you have arrived uh i
believe that shadow beyond the veil and rose are still downstairs having just fended off or just used
Shadow had just used Turn Undead
to scare off a number of zombies that were trying
to get through the main door which has been
barricaded, heavily barred and barricaded
from the inside. The rest of you
ran upstairs and running into
what is very clearly a young woman's
bedroom. She's wearing a knight
dress and she's being held back with a
hand over her mouth by a very young handsome man um barovian they both appear to be barovian uh
and next to them is a aged father who is the one who led you upstairs brandishing a crossbow
and the room is currently uh being besieged from the outside three devil-like creatures
probably no bigger than a than a than a dog but with these leathery wings and these big spined
tails are currently tearing and clawing at boards around the outside of the windows and you can see
them beginning to smash them through break them with their their their claws and their fangs um scrabbling to get on the inside and just outside the window flying
in the night air is the man that you met before strad von zarovich this very well dressed a metal
breastplate a large furred collar and a billowing cloak with dark long hair behind him kind of
flowing all around him and he's reaching
out and you can see his eyes glow
red and he calls out to the woman
once more come
Irene invite
me inside so I may take you
to our castle
uh as you guys
arrive uh the young man calls out
once again like please
help me just keep those things
off of me! And you can see that he has
several large spines sticking out of his back
where he's been struck by these
projectile spines.
Bleeding quite heavily, but he's holding his sister
with a hand over her mouth
and is keeping her restrained.
And that is where we're going to
roll initiative.
Straight off the bat.
Oh!
I need to get here.
Done it.
So he's already restraining her then?
So, yes.
So you can see that the young blonde man is restraining the girl.
Okay.
The three devils are breaking through the boards,
and in fact, as we begin this combat,
they're going to smash these boards and begin flying inside,
or at least they have the capacity to.
You can see Strahd is outside the window calling out to this woman,
and then her father is with them as well.
So let's go around with initiatives.
Zeke, Miss Dan.
That's a seven.
That's a seven.
Jesper.
Sorry, my thing wasn't working.
So it's eight plus four.
Twelve.
Twelve.
Nice.
Shadow, be on the veil.
Eighteen.
Rose?
Also 18.
I believe that means, Rose, you'll be going first.
Zeros.
I might be going first.
No, 12.
I meant between the two of them, Tom.
Oh, I see.
Okay, so Rose and Shadow, correct me if I'm wrong, because it has been a week,
but you guys were downstairs because Shadow had just turned undead a group of zombies at the door,
and Rose, I think you'd gone to back her up, I think.
I feel like Rose would have backed her up.
She wouldn't have left her just downstairs to run up.
She would have been down with her.
So you guys are currently downstairs. You can hear the shouting and hollering coming from above
um but you don't necessarily know exactly the situation up there yet you can see that the the
zombies that were trying to break through this this front door four of them have run away they've
just gone they've just began backing away moving away from the door shielding their faces these
kind of rotten uh dysmorphized kind of
jaws hanging loose, flesh peeling
off their bodies, covered in dirt
and dust, it seems.
And they begin recoiling and moving away
as Shadow is basically
channeling some sort of energy into the door.
One of them is still there, but
you don't think that one of them is going to be able to
be strong enough to break the door
down on its own. It was really only because there were so many of them that they were having any success before.
What would you like to do?
Is the...
So I can hear stuff going on upstairs, though.
Yeah, you can definitely hear the sounds of struggling and fighting.
You probably could just about hear a man's voice, but you can't really make out what was said.
Right.
I will
turn to Shadow
and say, I think this is okay for now.
I'm going to check upstairs. Are you okay?
I'll come with you.
Ooh!
Ooh!
Okay.
That was a very cat-like voice Um, okay. Uh, that was a very
cat-like voice there,
Kim. Um,
I'll go upstairs then, and
when I go upstairs,
am I close to seeing any of these
enemies? Yeah, so if you
pop on roll 20, by the way, um,
I now have a map up for you.
Um,
do the... Hang on.
It looks very dark.
It's because I keep forgetting
that it's got dynamic lighting enabled.
There's no lights on upstairs.
There's no lights on upstairs.
You begin making your way upstairs, Rose.
By the time you complete your first
set of movement, you appear to be in
a corridor.
You pass what appears to be a statue and a doorway on a landing
as you make your way up to the top floor.
But there is just a corridor and you can hear that the sounds of this fighting
is growing louder now.
Okay.
So, in fact, I think you would also see just beginning to claw its way inside,
one of these devil creatures is kind of pulling its way through these broken
boarded windows.
Okay. How much of my movement
have I used already? Am I at the bottom?
You've used your 30 feet. No, you're at the top
of the stairs and you've used all your movement.
Do I have enough to peek around and take a shot
at the one that's poking through the window?
I'd say yes, but you'll get some cover.
Okay. It's technically outside it will have some cover from the boards that it's currently
clawing its way through i'll give it a shot why not um
so ah four plus seven
you use a long bow right rose? Rose uses a longbow.
So you pull out the wrong bow, the longbow.
The longbow. You knock an arrow.
You fire, and you're a pretty good shot,
but these boards, like this creature is quite small,
and it kind of pulls itself back at the last minute,
and the arrow thuds into the boards around it.
And you just hear it kind of, this low, growling hiss,
like, I'll kill
you!
It begins kind of
gnashing and biting at the boards
to try and make a bigger hole for it to claw through.
End of your turn?
I think I'll just finish it
by shouting down to Shadow.
Definitely something unnatural
here. Looks like devils.
Okay. Okay.
Shadow.
Disgusting.
I would like to...
I will clamber up the stairs as well.
Okay.
And I guess upon seeing Spooky McDoubleface,
spooky McDouble face.
Can I cast
a
sacred flame
on it? You absolutely
can. Also, just out of interest, how
much knowledge do you think
Shadow would have of devils in general?
Because you're more undead or would you
think that there'd be, do you think you'd have
some knowledge? I'd probably
say some, given her knowledge of the fugue plane
and, I guess, just her general knowledge
about life-after-death beliefs in the realm.
Sure, that makes sense, because you would know that, yeah,
in Toril as well, when a creature dies,
if it's an evil creature, it goes to the Nine Hells
or the Abyss, basically.
Yeah, make a... I mean, you don't know...
If you make a religion check, you might know exactly what kind of devil this is,
but you can tell by looking at it, it's very clearly a devil, not a demon,
which means that they're normally bound by some sort of agreement.
You're not sure what kind of devil exactly it is.
What was that in total, just for the podcast?
I have rolled a four.
Hey, twinsies!
Twinsies.
You're not quite sure what kind of devil this is,
but yeah, you know it is a devil, not a demon.
And normally these creatures are summoned for something.
Yeah, and then Sacred Flame, right?
So what do I need to do?
Could you please make me a dexterity saving throw? Twelve. for something. And then Sacred Flame, right? So what do I need to do?
Could you please make me a Dexterity saving
throw? 12.
12 DC?
Yes, please.
That is going to be a total of an 8.
Oh.
In which case, I will make
a roll of 1
D8. Wait, ignore that one.
That was not the right thing oh wait no it was it was
a d8 yeah it was yeah i was gonna say yes um so yes uh that was a four okay radiant damage
what does this look like when shadow cast this spell so i would think similar to the turn on
dead spell it would look like a bolt of gold.
Almost in the shape of a, oh, hello, in the shape of a, I guess in the vague shape of a scarab beetle kind of flying out towards the devil.
But there would be a tinge of shadow coiled around the edges.
Okay.
It's kind of almost propelling it.
Yeah.
coiled around the edges.
Okay.
It's kind of almost propelling it.
Yeah, you see it strike the devil itself,
and it yelps in this kind of high-pitched,
quite horrible screech, like,
as it kind of recoils back as the gold flames lick at its flesh and its scales,
and it's just like,
ah, ah, holy magic!
Ah, kill! Kill!
It just begins kind of hissing to itself.
End of your go yes and this one will burst inside uh kill kill everyone inside kill you and it begins uh flying towards you
uh it will probably towards Shadow and Rose
and it begins making its way towards
the two of you and with a flick of its tail
these two
spines come flying out towards
each one of you basically
so one attack against both of you
against each of you sorry so against Shadow
that's a six to hit
that does not hit
and against Rose oh very bad rolling for me nine to hit um
no so you guys managed to kind of pull yourself back as these huge spines they hit into the
wooden kind of stairs and walls around you but you can see the spines themselves are so hot
that they they little flames kind of erupt um as they strike um and yeah they the wood around
like the furniture and stuff like that is kind of caught alight if not not massively but enough
that if left undealt with it will probably develop into a flame over time um for those of you in the
room that's its go those of you in the room which is yesper go. Those of you in the room, which is Jesper, Ziki, and Zeros,
you see that the young, quite handsome-looking guy,
there are some swords and things, but they're on the ground,
and he just continues to maintain this grip on this woman that he's holding,
and he begins dragging her backwards.
I'm just going to make a quick test to see if he can do that successfully.
Ooh.
So I think he is going to struggle a little.
Uh-oh.
She's wriggly.
Uh-oh.
Yeah, so she doesn't quite break free, but she avoids,
like, he can't drag her back.
He's trying to drag her back to what appears to be a wooden door,
but she's, like, he can't drag her back. He's trying to drag her back to what appears to be a wooden door, but she's like trying to break free.
She gets loose of his arms, but he's still got a hand over her mouth for now.
But you can see her eyes are glazed over,
and she's almost reaching out towards the window
where you can see the flying figure beyond it.
And she's looking at it desperately.
But yeah, her mouth is currently shut
uh so she does nothing um one of the other devil-like creatures bursts through uh and will
fly to over the bed um and it will try and hit the handsome man with two of its spines
uh missing on the first one with a one and then uh missing on the second one as
well um as the the spines bounce off you can see he's wearing like a scale mail armor um and it
just kind of pings off the armor itself uh and the creature just kind of perches itself on the top of I'll kill all inside. Yeah.
After that creature goes,
you see the man outside the window.
He looks in all of your directions,
seeing Jesper and Zeros.
And Jesper, you would notice, certainly, the inescapable look of displeasure crosses this pale very handsome but very dark
face as his brow furrows he looks around i tire of these games irena the rest of you, stay out of my way. He waves his hand,
and he is going to cast a spell into the room.
He will cast this spell.
So, Zeros and Jesper, I need you both to...
In fact, actually, you don't need to do anything.
I need to make a roll.
Oh, shit.
Cast it at bird level.
So, eight.
So, sorry, bear with me.
You're dead.
98.
So, you watch as this wave of black mist,
it rolls through the room and you see the older,
the older gentleman that kind of brought you upstairs,
his eyes kind of just flutter for a moment.
And then he falls asleep.
He just collapses to the ground,
fast asleep as he does.
So that takes
off 9. What does that
leave me with? That leaves me with 22.
So Jesper and
Zeros, how much health
do you have? And Zika technically as well.
In order of what?
What's your maximum hit points?
21.
20.
So 20 is the lowest.
Okay.
Okay.
So Zika, as you're kind of watching all of this happen,
as this mist kind of rolls through past your brother,
your eyes become so heavy and weary,
you just feel yourself just...
You kind of fall asleep, slumping to the ground uh down as well as you are affected
by the sleep spell oh um i don't believe you get a save i believe it just has to roll over your hit
points which it does for the remaining amount but the rest of you manage to stay awake the rest of
you the spell is not strong enough to affect the rest of you uh but you see the other two kind of slump down
and Strahd just once again
just kind of speaks out just like
invite me in, Arena
let us end this little game
invite me inside so I
can take you. As he calls
out, his voice kind of echoing through
and you can see her desperately trying to reach
over her now sleeping
the sleeping older man.
Crikey.
Xeros, you're up.
What
mechanically can I do to wake
Ziki up?
So,
if each creature affected by the spell falls
unconscious until the spell ends, the sleeper takes
damage or someone uses an action
to shake or slap the sleeper
awake.
I'm wondering if I would do that.
I'm not sure.
I think as she's falling
to get onto the ground, I'd
catch her and then walk
her down into
this room on the um just like to the right of us
yeah and then kind of like layer in there okay so you put her on the rug on the floor yep
so is that five ten no i'd say that's your movement right like she's sleeping she can't
resist you it's not much for you to just scoop her up as a like and as a bonus action or part
of the movement and then just move her in.
But it takes you like, you move at half
speed while you're carrying somebody, so like
10, 20, 30. So you'd end
your turn here, that's your end of your movement.
You'd put her down and then you have an action
and a bonus action left.
I guess action, if something
comes into this room, then I'll
attack it, but like...
I don't think he would
wake her up.
Okay. Perfect.
Okay. Jesper.
I think I would assist the young man
understanding the
power that
Strahd has over the
authorities and their sirens
and... Well, Jesper, you would also know
that until he is invited,
he cannot come in this house.
We must protect the precious girl.
We must find a way.
You say this to nobody
as you watch Zeros carry
his unconscious sister away.
I'm saying it to the young guy.
Oh, to the guy.
Yeah, so he looks at you, he's like
please, please my friend, you must
help and you can see like he's bleeding quite
heavily from these spines. The devils
they've been sent to kill me so he
can take her. Deal with them.
Can I? Because I'm
fast as shit
right Mark? Yeah, you are
fast as shit. Dex is real Yeah, you are fast as shit.
The deck is real high,
so I should have at least three actions here.
So... No, but you can tell me what you want to do.
Can I cast Heroism on him?
Right.
And I want to use the butt of my offhand dagger
as kind of like a bonus action
to try and knock out Irina.
I will say
you can definitely cast
heroism on him.
If I can only do one,
can I knock around the head?
Okay, yeah. I mean, basically
I would say that because you can normally
make an offhand attack as a bonus
action when you make the attack action,
but because of the
mechanics... But what I'm going to say
is that casting a spell and making an attack
are about the same amount of effort.
So quickly trying to knock her out... Yeah, you can
absolutely try that.
You can cast terrorism and make an offhand attack.
This has to happen.
I'll just hit her on the head.
Take her away.
He's too slow. He can't really stop you.
Do I need to make an attack you will need to make an attack roll against her yet you have advantage
because she um is technically kind of half being grappled still um and then when you make your
damage um you don't roll you don't add your modifier to it just um so it's just four points
so because you don't add the modifier oh no do
you have two weapon fighting um yeah yes i do if you do then you then you do add the full amount
yeah so uh new characters guys we'll get there so yeah so you you strike her and i think that
it's not quite enough to knock her out you kind of daze her um and you see the young man sort of angrily look at you but he
understands what you're doing he's just like i was hoping it would not come to that and he kind of
like tries to reel her in you know the power is strut take him away take her away uh she's still
conscious but obviously dazed um but i think no that wouldn't necessarily trigger her to make a
saving throw uh and then you cast Heroism on him.
Remind me what Heroism does.
It makes him immune to Strahd.
It doesn't, but carry on.
A willing creature, imbued with bravery,
immune to being frightened and gains temporary hit points
equal to the spellcasting ability modifier,
which would be a plus two. Plus two plus two all right so he gets two temporary
hit points uh for now and he gets a little start of every invigoration so to speak uh-huh yeah you
cast that into him as you're doing all of this one of the the last kind of devil creature breaks its
way into the room and flies in your direction with its claws and talons uh lifted uh to try and
strike you um as it does.
In fact, actually, no.
It won't strike you.
It will fly to this corner of the room
and then it flicks its tail
to hit you with its spines.
Two attacks against you, Jesper.
It's a 15-foot tail.
Okay.
Well, the spines come flying out
as it flicks its tail.
The spines fly out like projectiles.
The first one's only a nine to hit
you no um and then i can't roll for shit so the second one is only a 11 to hit you you gotta dodge
this you kind of parry them out the air dodging to the side as the second one comes flying in
and like before as they strike the kind of wooden walls around you this intense heat built up around
the spines kind of ignites and and you see these little flames beginning to burn
and scorch the wood where they were.
Zeke, it would be your turn, but unfortunately I put you to sleep.
I'm sorry.
It's nap time for me.
It's all right.
Zeke, you're sleepy.
Zeke, you're sleepy.
Rose, we come back up to you at the top.
Hello.
Hello.
Okay, so if I was to put out this tiny flame would that be
like a bonus action or yeah like it's a little while it's still small you can stamp it out with
a foot i'm not even going to make it an action to do it you can literally just stamp on it while it
is um but if they were if if you didn't do that if they build up if they get
bigger then it will obviously take more effort to put them out cool um i think i'm just gonna
take another shot at the little little thing the devil with my long bow that's the one 11 plus 7
18 to hit that's definitely will hit this thing. Yay!
I hit a thing!
Now you need to remember what this new character
does. Yeah.
6 damage.
Right, 6 damage.
Yep. Yes.
That's it for this one.
We're too low level for
multi-attacks at the moment.
Do you have to designate something
as your monster slayer thing?
I don't think so.
That is extra damage.
Oh wait, hang on.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, for monster slayer it's...
It's only once per long rest
so it's like a one-time thing
I think
I don't think it is
We'll have a read of it
I'll read it, but I think from what I can see
on D&D Beyond
it looks like that to me
Okay, Shadow
I'm probably done, I might move a little bit
How is the little crunchy boy looking? He looks injured to me. Okay. Shadow? I'm probably done. I might move a little bit.
How is the little crunchy boy looking?
He looks injured,
for sure.
But, yeah,
he's still
up and fighting.
He's taking a long bow,
but yeah,
these things are covered
in thick scales
and spines,
so even though
it's been struck
a few times,
it's still raring
to go.
Do you know what? Let's live a little and
cast a guiding bolt.
Okay.
So range spell attack.
So I need to roll.
Katie, on your character sheet
look up, look at Slayer's Prey.
It's under your features.
As a bonus action you designate one creature you can see within 60 feet,
and then you get to deal an extra D6 damage to it once per turn.
But this benefit lasts until you finish a short or long rest.
Yeah, you use it once.
So if...
Yeah, I guess I was just trying not to waste it on a tiny...
No, no, you can't waste it.
This benefit lasts until you take a short, long rest.
That means the creature stays your target for that period,
and then you just pick a new one, I think.
I think Hunter's Mark is the one that moves when the thing dies.
Yeah, that's the thing.
I didn't know if it moved.
I think so.
Have a read of it. Shadow, that is a thing. I didn't know if it moved. I think so. Have a read of it.
Shadow, that is a one.
I rolled a natural one, Mark.
And I don't believe Guiding Bolt has an effect on a miss.
I think that means that the Guiding Bolt turns around
and shoots me in the face.
I'm not that mean.
No, you just
summon the energy and it just...
This place is so infused. like this whole land, wherever you find yourself,
you struggle to conjure enough energy and as you let it go,
it kind of dissipates in front of you.
Some sort of power preventing...
Yeah, this is just terrible.
However, can I...
I would like... I'll move a little bit.
I'm going to move a little bit.
5, 10...
I'm kind of tempted to go past this little thing.
Sure.
But it's going to swipe at me, isn't it?
I mean, it might do.
Yeah, let's try.
So where was I?
5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.
So I'm going to move past it.
Okay, it will take a swipe at you with its, uh, it has like
you can see it's kind of holding like a little
spear in its little claws. It's kind of
clutching like a little, like almost
like a larger version of one of its tail
spines, um, and it will swing that
at you for a 9 to hit.
That does not hit me, no.
It just swipes over as you kind of duck
underneath it as you begin running past
the creature down the hallway.
And yeah, you can see doors.
Well, you can't see them yet,
but you can again hear that sound of battle growing faster.
The creature will...
The little spine devil that was fighting the two of you
that just took a swing at you,
it's going to do the same thing it did before.
It's going to flick a tail spine at each one of you.
So towards Rose, it flicks one
for a 21 to hit.
Might hit.
So you're going to take four piercing damage
and then three fire damage.
As this thing kind of hits into your body,
the intense heat is so much it begins
like the flesh begins to bubble and sear.
You kind of have to quickly pull it out
before it does any lasting damage
to your skin. Shadow, that's only a seven to hit you so again that is not one of the spines flies past embeds
into the the doors that you seem to be moving past um and just begins igniting those doors
on a flame i like to think it's because shadow's just gone down on all fours and is doing a little cat scamper. Yeah, just like darting along the round.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, perfectly works.
The handsome young man with his sister will attempt once again to try and drag her back.
This time, far more successful.
He manages to kind of back her up into this room.
And you can see him basically trying to throw her to the side so he
can get in front of her to close the door um but that's going to be pretty much his turn uh one of
these creatures will hover up to the ceiling of the room and fling two spines in his direction
he the spines fly overhead but you see the the young man kind of throws the sister to the side or the girl to the side
and then he shuts the door just in time for these spines
to kind of through them
before he kind of opens them again to step
through and make his way back
out. Strahd
looks at Jesper
You
dare strike
her
you have no idea what you've done, boy!
And he will be very mad.
He will look at you, Jesper.
And he will...
Would he do this?
Or would he do this? He he do this he would that were risks that risks hurting her
this doesn't daddy i need you to make a constitution saving throw please
21 That's very good.
Jesus.
So you watch as he reaches his hand out, and from the window,
you see these tendrils of black smoke erupt from his arm
just in this sudden surge of movement
like snakes they twist
and coil through the air and they
bite onto your flesh Jesper
and you feel the life force
of your very energy
your essence being drained away
you would have taken 30 necrotic
damage but you half it to 15
still pretty nasty there.
Yes.
So you just watch.
Yes, it was.
And he just kind of like clutches it and his eyes, you can see them now.
Where before when you saw this man, there was a placid, almost calm look on his face.
His face is now twisted into rage.
These fangs bared.
How dare you harm her!
And he kind of yanks on the smoke
as he watches your form kind of shudder
and shake from the black magic
surging through you. But he looks
amazed that you're still standing
as he does that.
Cranking.
I will not fall to the darkness
so easily
you will do as you are commanded
boy
maybe in 6 HP's time
the young woman
desperately
you can see her
she desperately tries to break free of the man
that dragged her into the room beyond
she manages to kind of reach the door she kind of goes to say something before the man that dragged her into the room beyond. She manages to kind of reach the door.
She kind of goes to say something
before the man shoves her back
and shuts the door in front of her.
And you just hear this muffled voice.
But it's not enough, and you can
see Strahd's face just like,
No! Irina!
Zeros.
So,
for Katie's benefit
Slayer's Prey
is a bonus action
and you can do that
as many times as you want
I thought that's what it was
Yeah
Okay
because I just looked it up
and it said
this benefit lasts
until you finish
a short or long rest
it ends early
if you designate
a different creature
Yeah
So the benefit
on that one creature
lasts until
a short or long rest
Until you take a rest
Yeah
You can just bonus action
whenever you want
to slay a spree.
Yeah.
That's how I figured it worked.
So I can do it to anyone.
As soon as you create
a new, as soon as you
as soon as you target
a new creature
the old one fades.
That's what it means, basically.
Yeah.
Soz.
It's clearing my own login now.
No, no, no.
It was confusing as well
It was the way it was worded
I was like I don't know if that's unlimited or not
And I didn't want to waste it on a tiny little shit
No no no
I think it is but you have to use a bonus action
Because it's only a B6 once per thing anyway
So it's not a big deal
So I'm going to leave
I'm going to leave the room that Zeke is in
Close the door firmly behind me
And as the blight dissipates
from behind Jesper,
Xeros appears.
This
six foot tall black dragonborn.
Yeah, I materialise
out of his blight and I am going
to go and wail on this thing
on the bed.
It's kind of floating at the top of the room
but within reach, easily enough.
Yes, so with my greatsword
I'm just going to...
Actually, I'm going to do a goading attack.
Okay.
So, when I hit a creature with a
weapon attack, I can expend a superiority die.
So let's see if I hit first.
Yep.
16.
16 will indeed hit this small creature.
It's small and mobile, but once your sword connects with it,
there's barely anything to defend it.
Cool, I do 13 damage with that,
and I'll expend a superiority.
Two.
So they now make a wisdom saving throw.
DC 14.
Dammit. Yeah, it passes passes but doesn't it also when you expend it deals extra damage as well uh i don't think on goading attack i do so i expend a superior diet uh oh i
add the total to the damage as well there you go so you roll a d8 you get to my dad as well
the damage as well.
There you go.
So you roll a d8 and you get to
my dad as well.
Ooh.
More points.
So you strike at the
ground.
What do you say?
Do you say anything?
How are you goading it?
Oh, go...
I hit its arms.
This is a goading attack.
What it does is
it has disadvantage
on all attack rolls
on targets
other than me.
Yeah, it's like a taunt.
Right, so I just
really fucking stare it down.
Just like staring this devil
dead in the eyes. I just came out of a blight.
It wants to go for me.
It looks at you. I mean, you definitely get the fact
whether or not you succeeded,
you definitely get the sense it's probably going to try and fight
you next.
So, it definitely
goes for you. Jasper.
I'm going to
shake off
that horrific blight.
Can I get my head back into the game?
You can see your veins are
almost dark in your arms. Wherever the
smoke touched you, your skin is like
ash grey and it feels
sickly and pallid.
I'll
dart towards the
creature directly in front of me here
and I will attack them
with a defensive flourish.
So what this allows me to do is when I
take an attack action,
my speed increases 10 feet, which doesn't really matter.
If the weapon attack hits, I can expend one of my bardic inspiration take an attack action. My speed increases 10 feet, which doesn't really matter.
If the weapon attack hits, I can expend one of my Bardic Inspiration
to deal extra damage
equal to the number I roll on the dice
and also add that number to my
AC as well. Great. That sounds
awesome. Yeah, doesn't it just?
Marku-san. Let's see if you hit.
Ding dong.
20. Yeah, that will hit.
4 piercing damage.
And then I get to roll an extra D8, correct?
Yeah, is your Bardic Inspiration D8 or is it D6?
Oh, is it based on my Bardic Inspiration?
I think, that's what you just said.
It's a D6.
There you go.
Bam.
Three, so I get to add that to my AC as well. And you add three to your AC as well. Yeah. Bam. Three. So I get to add that to my AC as well.
And you add three to your AC as well.
Yeah.
Bam.
Cool.
That's nice.
Yeah.
This thing on its go, it will...
The one that you've just struck with your rapier,
you kind of lash out and cut towards it.
Is it a rapier you've got?
Yes.
Yeah.
So you kind of slash it once,
and then it will basically it will do
yeah it it doesn't provoke an opportunity attack when it flies out this thing is so quick and
nippy it kind of just bats its wings and jerks away from you really right quite rapidly um and
it backs itself up into this far corner. And then it's going to fling
two of its spines towards you
again. Lashing out with each
one. So that's going to be a 17
to hit. Yeah, I've got AC
17. Is that with the
plus 3 currently? Yeah.
Okay, let me see if... The next one misses
but the first one will hit for
4 points of piercing damage.
Okay. And then 3 points of fire damage.
Yeah.
And done.
Oh.
Oh, shit.
So close.
Save.
So you watch, yeah, Jesper kind of like,
this spine hits you in the side
and this intense fiery pain bursts out around it
and just combined with the crippling black smoke
you lose consciousness as you fall down to the ground
in a big slump
you just see
Strahd kind of watching you
the last thing you see as you're kind of falling
unconscious is just his dead eyes
staring at you
waiting, watching
Ziki, I'm so sorry
you're still asleep I hear you that sleepiki i'm so sorry you're still asleep sleepy i
hear you that sleep spell
that's like sorry yeah
that's all good me again
okay top of the round i
will um try and finish off
the little shit that's in
front of me so i'm gonna
take uh i'll do bonus action um slayers pray then finish off the little shit that's in front of me. So I'm going to take...
I'll do bonus action
Slayer's Prey then
and I will
take a shot at it.
You hone your senses
as a monster slayer.
14 plus 7.
That definitely hits.
And then it will be...
Nine points of damage with the bow and five points of damage, Slayer's Prey.
And with that, the Slayer's Prey,
you kind of hone your senses,
the training you've had,
knowing where to strike on devils and things like that.
You launch your attack. Damn it, I've forgotten
the whole thing this whole time.
The attack flies through, and it
strikes the creature in the chest, and you hear it just kind of
like, as it just turns
to ash in front of you, and
just vanishes.
So I will move my 30 feet
to the corner
and try and stay in front of
Shadow and try and be like
be careful, careful. I don't know how many
of them there are, okay?
Shadows go next.
So I'm going to move past
Rose.
I'm just going to be like, I heard something.
5, 10,
15, 20, 25, 30.
Yeah, the door is shut on the other side,
so you don't see Zeke sleeping inside.
Yeah, I wouldn't have seen any of that business.
Yeah.
Noom, noom, noom, noom, noom, noom.
But let me just check my spell.
That's all good.
So I think I'll probably burst into the room and see Jesper
on the ground.
You see him clutching the spine
in his gut and unconscious.
So I'm going to use my
feline agility, which means I can double
my speed until the end of my turn
and run over to him.
So you kind of have a quick burst of speed
like Chitara in the Thundercats.
And then I'm going to cast Cure Wounds at second level.
Okay.
And I have an ability called Circle of Mortality,
which means I can restore maximum hit points
instead of rolling the dice,
with healing spells to a creature with zero HP.
You do indeed.
So he will automatically
16 plus your wisdom uh plus two so 18 hit points wow so what does this look like for shadow because
there's i mean obviously with your goddess because i mean you know who that is but the audience
doesn't um what does this look like?
It looks like a cleric healing someone
in the middle of the dungeon. Oh, there it is!
I need to know how you got 18.
Because
Shadow is a grave cleric, yeah,
they have an ability which, when they heal
to somebody who's at zero, it heals the
maximum number on the dice possible.
Fucking grave clerics are better
than Arcana at healing.
Well, yes.
Yes.
Yeah, exactly. Not a life domain
cleric. Arcana, alright?
I mean, it's mainly
the choice to actually heal in the
first place that was the main
thing here.
Anyway.
Anyway.
Anyway. Anyway.
I would rush into the room.
I would rush into the room, see Jesper
on the ground, be like, no!
And run over,
immediately put my paw to his,
where I think his heart is, I presume that
Vishhtani have hearts
the same place humans do.
And I would start muttering prayers under my breath.
And as,
uh,
the prayers kind of take hold again,
this kind of golden,
but black tinged light builds throughout my body,
shoots through my hand and goes into Jesper's body.
And you almost see shadows form across his face and go into his mouth and nose,
and he'll jerk awake.
Okay.
You are quite close to Zeros as you're doing this,
and Zeros, you don't quite hear every word
that Shadow says in these prayers,
but there is one word, and I don't know,
this might not mean anything to Zeros,
but you hear the word shah.
It's just saying.
Nope.
How much healing is that?
18.
18.
Thank you.
Yeah.
That's your full turn, right, Kim?
Because that's bonus action for feline agility, move, and then your action to heal.
Perfect.
The spine devil in the hallway is dead.
The young man comes out, like, now out of the room,
looks around, and you see him kind of breathe this sigh of relief,
and he's just like,
Thank you.
We must deal with these devils and then get out of sight of him.
And then he points at the window,
and you see him rush over, and underneath Zeros' feet,
he picks up a
longsword and he will
turn on the devil
next to Zeros as well.
He will make
two attacks. He'll hit
with the first one and he will hit
with the second one. That's an 18
plus 5 and a 17 plus 5
and then he will do
11 and then he will do all 11 and then oh that's the max
damage I could have rolled on two attacks to 11 points of damage which
basically the one that you were fighting Xeros this man comes up and completely
steals the kill from you he runs up with two hacking blows he just cuts its head
and its wings off. And you see the same
thing that as it dies it explodes
and turns into a fiery
burst of ash basically
as it erupts.
Rowling.
Strahd looks
into the room.
Oh!
Looks at Shadow healing
the Vistani. Sees this
young man who's now, you know,
sealed his sister away.
Looks at the one remaining devil he has.
And then just floats
backwards, away
from the window.
And you see him beginning to... Anybody who can glance out of the window. You see him beginning to...
Anybody who can glance out of the window
sees him moving towards
the rest
of the village. He's moving
towards the main central part
of the village itself.
You hear loud banging
coming from the door where the woman has been
placed in,
and then, Zeros, it is your turn.
Okay.
After growling at this guy for stealing my kill,
it's like an action to, like, slam into someone if I was to run at them, right?
Yes, yeah.
It uses one of your attack actions.
Right, okay.
In that case, I will just go with an old classic.
Old classic greatsword.
Swing that greatsword.
Eleven.
This one manages to just barely kind of flap its way out
and kind of dodge to the side as it moves past you.
I'll be better than this guy.
Yes, but
you are conscious.
I will
grip Shadow by the arm and say
I owe you a life debt.
I will repay it.
And I will
I'm going to look out the window further
and see what Strata's doing.
Yeah, so you move over to the window.
Move over to the window quickly.
Yeah, it's partially boarded. It was just big enough for these smaller creatures to get inside but you can see him just very calmly flying just his cloak billowing behind him you can almost see
like a swirl of mist at his feet and he's just he's flown basically over towards the center of
the village like above it but he is just flying that direction.
He is planning something, I don't know what.
Is she safe?
I believe so.
There's only one way out of the closet, so...
We must all retreat into the shadows.
Become hidden.
I don't think I have enough shadows for everyone.
There is still one little devil.
He's just like, we deal with this first.
Have I used all my actions doing all that?
No, no, no.
Just looking out the window.
I'm not going to make you.
In which case, while I'm talking to them calmly,
I'll be stabbing the living shit out of this devil.
Sure.
We must go into the... Hide, everybody!
That's a mood.
Run up and rip your strike
with a 20 again, and
6 piercing, and I've got
2 weapon fighting, so...
As a bonus action, you can make an attack with your dagger.
Which is a 22, and a 6 piercing.
Wow. Yeah, you come in, and Zeros dagger. Which is a 22 and a 6 piercing. Wow.
Fucking hell.
Yeah, you come in and Xeros, kind of very similar to what just happened,
doesn't quite destroy it.
I keep forgetting to half the damage.
Completely forgotten a mechanic for these things.
But you watch as Jesper kind of flies up and with two strikes
manages to almost tear one of this creature's wings off.
It's alive, but barely. It's
kind of just flapping around somewhat
uselessly, unable to really
get any momentum for where it wants to go.
You don't deserve to live on a mortal plane.
Stay dead.
Soon.
Soon he'd flash kill.
I will
come into the room, look
around, see there's still one left and take a shot at it
sure
can I move my bonus action, move my little
slayer's prey over
again
focusing those highly tuned
monster hunter settings
yep, hits
11 with the bow
and 5 with the slayer's prey.
You take aim and with one arrow
it slips between Xeros and Jesper
and just, it sticks the creature to the wall,
the back wall that it's currently flapping against.
The arrow pins it through the chest to the wall.
It lets out one sort of final
and then it just turns to ash and dust
spinning onto the chair below it.
Start out of the way and then look
in both bewilderment and
impressiveness at Rose.
Wow.
Okay.
I'm an okay shot.
I want to stomp out of the room and then go into the one that Zeke is in as I'm going okay shot I want to stomp out of the room
and then go into the one that Ziki is in
as I'm going past Rose
nice shot
and then try and wake up
Ziki
yeah it doesn't take much it takes like a
some gentle shaking and well vigorous shaking
kind of like
nudging and things like that but yeah Ziki
you kind of you come to not quite feeling refreshed but yeah feeling as if like you've just fallen asleep you know that kind of like nudging and things like that but yeah, Ziki, you kind of you come to, not quite feeling refreshed, but yeah
feeling as if you've just fallen asleep
you know, that kind of, you just doze off
without realising it vibe
I just try to be like
Zeros, I'm dead, did I die?
Am I dead?
Zeros, what happened?
We're going, we're going
What happened? Are you okay? What happened? We're going. We're going.
What? Are you okay?
What happened?
Where am I?
Hold a hand out to the... He's standing up.
I just take his hand and just
drearily stand up.
Yeah, you seem to be in some sort of bedroom.
The two of you seem to be in a bedroom.
There's hunting trophies
on some of the walls there is a rack with like uh uh some various swords and bows and things like
that and arrows um a single bed a desk not too much but yeah there's definitely this looks to
be like a hunter's room like somebody who does a lot of hunting uh those of you in the other room
um those of you in the other room the young man kind of goes over to the older one
and is like, Father! Father, wake up!
We're alright! We're okay!
And you see the older man
beginning to come round
and the fellow is just like
Thank you!
Thank you, strangers! I don't know who you are
or where you have come from
I know that you are not from around here
but thank you.
My name is Ismark.
This is my father, Kalyana.
And the woman you just saved is Irina, my sister.
Thank you.
The devil has been trying to get her for the last few nights,
and this time he set those things on us.
I thought that we were gone for.
Thank you.
Why?
Why does he want her?
We don't know.
She...
He came...
She began speaking of strange dreams.
Of a man that would visit her and speak to her through her window, but...
We did not think much of it, and then one night I...
I heard him.
I came bursting in and saw him at the window, reaching out for her, trying to get her to invite him in.
I knew the devil as soon as I saw him, and, well, I wrestled her away, and he grew furious.
He then set creatures made of, creatures of undeath against our house, wolves, bats, and then lately those things.
wolves, bats, and then lately those things.
I don't know what sort of creature they are,
but they had flame and claws like nothing I've seen before.
The older man is just like,
They are devils, my boy.
I have heard legends of them. They are creatures of night like the devil, like he is.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you all.
You don't know.
You've saved us.
Does the old man look wounded?
He doesn't look wounded.
Ismark does.
Ismark has got several of these spines, and you can see him bleeding.
But he seems pretty tough.
He's kind of, you know, struggling through it.
But the old man just looks, he does look exhausted and stressed. Like, he's kind of he's you know struggling through it but the old man just looks he does look exhausted and stressed like he's pale you can see that his eyes are all bloodshot you don't
think he's slept in days um he looks battered he looks on the verge of breaking um but yeah
zero sins ziki do you guys regroup with everyone else? Yeah, I think as he's saying you're all saved,
can I push past him,
say, you're not saved
yet, and look through the window
astride.
None of us are saved here,
my good
dragon. Dragons that
walk on two legs like men.
You truly
are strangers to this land.
As you say that, Tom, and you look out,
Xeros, you get the best view of this.
You and Jesper both kind of watching to see what Strahd does.
You see...
flame.
An eruption of fire and smoke in mid-air.
As whatever form he had before,
Strahd now becomes a swirling mass of black fog and smoke,
and a giant visage of his face looms over the town.
People of Barovia, hear me speak
as your lord and master.
My great work calls
me away from claiming what is
mine, so listen well.
If the Burgomaster's
daughter, Irena, is not brought
to my castle in three days'
time, I will unleash a
suffering onto this village the likes
of which you have never known. Three days to And as it does, the mist coalesces into a single point
and erupts once more into a storm of bats
flying up towards the shadowy castle
looking over the village.
Oh, no!
He went!
I would like to exit this campaign, Mark.
Nope, nope.
I'm just going to walk back.
You see...
Nope, nope, nope, nope.
You see Ismark and his father, Koleana, there.
I mean, if they could get more pale, they do.
Their eyes are wide.
They look at each other with a glance.
They look at you.
They look to the window, and they seem speechless for the moment.
You hear like a banging, like a coming from the door, just like,
What? Brother, what is going on?
What is happening out there?
I feel so strange the dreams he came to me in my dreams again i think what did you put me in here bang bang bang
it is is that arena yes yes that is irena I'm not sure if she is fully to her senses.
He kind of looks at you all.
Strangers, I...
I know that this is much to ask, but...
Will you help us more?
I must take Irina away from this place.
We must get out of Barovia tonight, if we can.
The people will not show us any mercy
if the devil has commanded them to do this.
They will no doubt be gathering now in mobs to come here.
Please, I will help you.
I will help fight.
I've trained all of my life to kill the devil, to free my people, to free our land.
I will come and fight with you.
But please take my sister. There must be somewhere we can go.
There is a town to the west. It has walls, and the people there have always fought against the devil.
Perhaps there we can be safe.
This is madness.
You don't understand.
You can't fight Strahd.
He can kill a thought with the blink of his eye.
No, no, that is superstition, Vistani, my friend, Vistani friend.
He is powerful, yes, he has magic, but
you see him now, he could not enter this building without permission.
He must use his servants to do this bidding for him.
The town to the west, Valaki.
I'm sure that the people there, or perhaps your people, the Vistani,
they could take Irina away. They could take her out of the mists, yes?
Don't you take her to my people.
Don't you bring his wrath upon them.
His wrath is already here.
He has blighted our land for generations, for centuries.
We are just cattle, pieces of a game to him.
He will always rule over us.
Whatever suffering he inflicts upon Barovia, he inflicts it just by his mere presence.
He is ruining this land.
We must do something.
If he wants Irina, it must be for a reason.
And if we can deny him that,
maybe there is something special about her.
Something that we can use to fight him.
I cannot look for any sign of motivation
from the rest of the people in this room.
Because I am at a loss.
The father father the older
man looks at you with kind of shaking hands he's like i will give you whatever wealth i have i have
coins a magic thing that i could give you as payment you're you're kind they are they are
you do things for for money i think some of you have come to Barovia before.
I will give you everything I have.
Just please, do not let the devil take my daughter.
Irina, what say you?
Why do you find this man fascinating?
So you go up to the door.
Well, I guess like, you know,
I'll probably whisper it,
I don't know, say it through a crackle or something like that.
Yeah, Zeke's clawing under the door.
Zeke's next to you.
I'll claw under the door with my little claw, you know, like cats do.
She doesn't seem to be able to fully hear.
She's just like, I can only hear
some of it. The door is quite thick
It's kind of muffled
And she must be pressed up right against it
Who are you?
Who is there?
Is Mark father?
Who are these people?
What is happening?
I think the decision has to be with her.
We can try and help.
Maybe if we take her away,
do you think that we would have a better chance
of lifting whatever curse is over this land?
I don't know, good lady.
The Vistana, they know the devil better than anyone,
and he kind of looks at Jasper.
But I don't know.
I know that many people have tried to fight against him before,
adventurers like yourselves and people, saints and holy men.
They have all been destroyed.
I've been training my whole life, but
I know that on my own it will not be
enough. There must be something.
He must fear something.
He claims to be a god, but I know
that he is not. He cannot be.
There's no...
And he kind of looks dejected. He's like,
I don't know.
Zeki, what are you doing at this point, by the way?
Um... I suppose...
Well, she's still quite dreary.
So she's just, like, trying to make head and tails of what's going on.
She's just like, what is happening right now?
I've got, like...
She's got, like, no idea.
Okay.
Did you say you were trying to do something, Shadow, I think, just before?
I think I would start opening the door.
Yeah, there's like nervous looks, but nobody stops you doing it.
You kind of open the door and, yeah, you see before you a very, very beautiful woman.
Let me, I've got, I can show you what she looks like.
I think I can, anyway.
I've got to find her
in my list of stuff
that I've got.
Aw, glad to hear it was Marizette again.
Aw, wow, wow, wow.
Tammy.
I want a strad, won't I?
She doesn't have any armor, and she doesn't have a weapon.
She's kind of wearing like a thin knight dress,
like a white kind of long knight dress.
She has like dark, dark skin, brown hair, quite long.
She looks a little bit dazed, a little bit not quite there.
You can see, I'd say, Shadow,
you kind of notice that there are very faint marks on her neck.
Like two little pinpricks along her neck.
But she looks more, a little weak, perhaps a little anemic almost.
Like her skin is quite pale.
And she kind of blinks a little bit as she looks at you for the first time.
What?
What are you?
Who are you? My you my apologies who are
these people father is Mark what is happening can I take a claw and not not
a claw but like you know like just kind of gently sort of angle her neck to look and yeah sorry given her like given my
like my knowledge of medicine and things like that can i make some sort of medicine check to
see like why she's pale and anemic like i don't know i mean yeah you don't need to make a check
for that normally blood loss will do that to a person um and yeah these look like they look quite
old like maybe three or four
days old, so they've started healing
and scarring and scabbing.
But yeah, they look like two incisor
marks on the neck.
And yeah, it's probably blood loss.
She's probably lost a lot of blood recently.
Do I recognise her face?
Are you thinking about vampires?
There's something...
We know nothing.
Well, I mean,
some people might. I think Rose will.
I think Rose absolutely would know.
But we'll get to that in a minute
because, Jesper, as you're looking at her face,
there is...
You know you've
never met this woman before,
but yet you still know
her face.
There's something timeless about it like a woman you've
heard described in stories too many times around the campfire she's beautiful but also strong
and she carries a grace nobility that most barovians don't really have
there is something oddly familiar about her even though you know
you've never ever met this person before um yeah rose um i mean right now like shadow is kind of
looking at them you you haven't seen the marks on the neck only shadow has at the moment um but yeah
she kind of looks around and sort of arena blinks and takes you all in for a moment. Strangers,
what are you doing?
Was that... I heard
a man's voice just now.
And she, her expression
goes dark, and she
kind of looks horrified.
It was him, wasn't it?
The devil came to me again. He
came... Ah! And she kind of
like slams her fist on the doorframe.
Ismark kind of like tries to brush you aside.
It's like, it's okay, Arine.
It's okay.
These people helped us.
They managed to stop him again.
We won't let him take you.
We won't.
And you can see her hands are kind of shaking and trembling.
I don't know how he gets into my head, Ismark.
He speaks in a voice and his
eyes, they glow and then I
just, it's like I can't resist
him. I don't want to.
I don't want to go with him.
But I can't help it.
I didn't. You're hurt. And she
seems to notice his wounds for the first time.
You got hurt defending me again.
It's alright, Irina. It's okay.
It's alright. We'll figure it's alright we'll figure this out
we'll figure this out
and there's this moment of stillness
comes across the room
I walk slowly towards
Irina
you
who are you
I am
I am
I am Irina daughter of the am Irina, daughter of the Burgomaster.
I turn to the man.
Who is she?
Is Marcus just like,
What are you asking, Vistani?
She's my sister. We've grown up.
She's my little sister.
I don't know what you're asking.
Why you?
Why did he pick you? I don't know.
He speaks
as if he speaks
to me like a lover would.
I don't know. Perhaps
he is
attracted to me, I guess.
I don't know.
I don't know. And she kind of looks
at you sternly.
I'm no servant of the devil, unlike you, Vistani.
Hold on a second.
Now don't you go making accusatory things at Vistani.
Your people are the ones who bring unfortunate fellows like these ones here.
We've seen it before.
You bring them, and he kills them.
Just because you are
special. Don't
accuse us all of the same.
We are not all
like that.
This one just saved your life.
Thank you,
big dragon man.
Two legs. Amazing.
Ismark puts a hand on Irina's shoulder.
It's true. He did.
I know that
they upset you.
No, but she is upset, my friend.
She is upset and
distraught. Please, forgive her
for her brashness.
It's something that father and I have
always had to deal with.
She's headstrong
I understand well let me frustrate you further
Irina
I wish to take you to my
superior
she knows a lot she is very wise
and she
should read you
your destiny it is important
Ismark looks at you so you'll take her away She should read you and your destiny. It is important.
Ismark looks at you, so you'll take her away from here, from the people, before they can
get their hands on her.
There is something about you, Arena, that fills me with something.
I don't know.
It's deep and it's woven into my history my past the stony talk of it
you seem familiar I don't know there's something maybe the cards will know more
I don't know what you speak of this Danny but if it takes me away from the
devil I will go if is mark and father come with us and you see the older man kind of steps forward
he's like no no Irene
Ismark will go with you
but the people of Barovia
they are coming here
I will need to do something to
keep them to stop them
chasing after you
he kind of looks around
at all of you the gathered strangers
I don't know why you are here, strangers from another world.
But you have come to a dark and terrible place.
I would not have requested your aid before tonight.
This is a dead land, a place of misery and death.
But there is some life here.
It was beautiful once.
Our ancestors
tell us of the great place
it once was.
I beg you.
You have been brought here for a reason.
Perhaps the Morning Lord
or Mother Night has brought
you here to help us.
Take Irina.
Safe and keep her safe.
And I will do everything I can to stop them coming after you.
And,
and come,
come.
And he kind of goes out of the room.
Uh,
he doesn't wait for you to follow.
So if you stay in the room,
he shortly returns.
But if you do follow,
if any of you follow him,
uh,
he goes into his own bedroom,
um,
and lifts up a bearskin rug and a small trapdoor hidden underneath it and he
begins pulling out a chest
and carries it back into the room
this is everything
I can provide it is not
much but please
take it
friends
we have only just met
but something speaks
to me that maybe this is why Madame Eva
sent me to your land
and brought us together
maybe this is the start
the first thread
so to speak
if we can save this woman from
strad
you see as rose when you say his name
everybody except
you guys winces
they're just like do not speak his name
even yes
but
i don't know it's up to yes but whether yes
but winces but the three barovians
like it's physical when you say his name they like pull into themselves and they like look around
they like check their shadows just mentioning his name puts them on edge
i just remember being blighted and that does make me wince if we can save
arena from him
then
that will be
worth my time alone
I don't know who you are but thank you
and I don't
believe that he's
not killable
everything has a weakness
we'll find what it is
and we'll deal with it
Ismark looks at you
and just nods and you can see him like
nodding in your direction like yes
somebody who thinks that yeah he's like
I'm glad that you are willing to
help us my lady
I'm glad to know I'm not the only...
Well, I guess to some, maybe we are the insane ones,
but as far as I'm considered, we're the only ones thinking straight.
Everything crosses to the fugue plane eventually.
I shall help too.
Thank you.
Strange. Strange fellows.
But I'm glad for your company.
And what of you?
The dragons who walk like men?
I know that this is...
Perhaps you do not have any say in this, but...
I've seen this one, and he points at Zeros.
A great fighter, it seems.
I would be glad for your sword at our side.
Just look at Ziki.
Well, every story has an ending,
even scary ones.
I guess it's time we put an end to this one.
Then I will join her.
Thank you.
As this is happening,
you do begin to hear the sound of many boots marching.
Not marching in a military procession,
but a large group of people making their way towards the mansion.
When you glance out the window,
you can see that a crowd of i don't know let's say
about 12 of them and then
yeah about 22 humans um all different barovians you can see the three vistani from the inn um that you had stayed in have joined them
one of them looks about he looks he must be about six foot tall rippling muscles maybe looks like a
smith's a young smith or something like that these these very taut muscles i'm carrying a big heavy
hammer and the group of them are are marching on the mansion and you see a small group peel off and begin
making their way down a side street,
uh,
as,
and they're bearing torches and they've got clubs and all sorts of like
butcher knives and,
and pans,
anything that they can grab basically.
Um,
and they are making their way down towards the mansion.
We got ourselves a good old-fashioned mob
yes there is something of a mob is approaching down yes for we're gonna
need to know where we need to take arena we don't know the way what is the
safest way out of this town without the whole people knowing?
I have some stables around the back with a few horses, but... I mean, to get back on the main road, you need to go down into the main square and then head off past the river and then down towards the crossroads.
To take any other route is even more dangerous.
You do not want to travel the Svalik woods at night.
The wolves and there are other dark things in the woods.
And he points at Jasper like, I'm sure you know.
You cannot travel through the woods without greater harm.
Perhaps there is something we can do.
A distraction maybe.
Lure them away or something.
Okay.
Have you got anything that we can disguise arena with conceal her make her
less recognizable just for the time being we have some clothes irena is just like what is happening
why why why is there a mob why must we leave what is why do they want? There's not really a way to sugarcoat this.
They want you, Irina, and we need to get you away from here.
Okay.
Well, I have other clothes.
I have some traveling clothes and things like that.
And my armor that Ismark bought me but I don't think
we really have anything like disguises.
We have some cloaks and some hoods.
Please. Those will do.
Please put your armor on.
Okay. Oh, very well.
She rushes off into the closet
that she was previously in and you can see her
opening things and pulling like
clothes and a piece of scale
mail armor out
and Ismark is like, I will go and fetch my own things and he like uh clothes and a piece of scale mail armor out um and is mark is
like i will go and fetch my own things and he goes into his room and begins gathering up various
pieces of equipment um a round shield um a shorter sword a bow um torches and a backpack and things
like that um the older man is the only one kind of left with you. He's just like, There are two horses at the back in my stables,
but apart from that,
I don't know what else we can do.
If they're gathered outside,
they will see you coming or leaving.
I'm afraid I don't...
What can you recommend?
Is there anything I can do to help?
I don't... What can you recommend?
Is there anything I can do to help?
I could try and ward
them off.
If you have
the power to do so,
there is quite a lot of them.
Dragonborn,
and I'm looking at Zeros,
could I use you for a bit of theater?
I can't act.
I just need you to look menacing.
But I can act.
Let us go outside to meet this mob, then.
Keep Ziki safe.
And I'll head down with her, then?
Yeah, I'll go down.
Ziki, what do you do?
I guess they're coming to the front.
Yeah, you see the major group.
Okay.
So Ziki just kind of follows behind them.
How far away are the mob at the moment?
So, I mean, they're pretty much gathering in front of the...
There's a large iron fence that surrounds this mansion
with gates that then lead up to the main door.
And they're pretty much gathered at the iron fencing,
like the actual entrance into the mansion's estate.
Like I said, you did see a small number of them kind of peel off and you don't know where they've gone it was probably
about um six or seven of them went off to the side um but yeah you make your way downstairs
um the front door is still somewhat barricaded and barred um from where the zombies were trying to get in. One zombie is still there, just like
hounding away.
But the mob
Yeah, sure.
You guys just like
strike it through. It goes in its brain, knocks it
dead.
And yeah,
if you want to open the doors, you can do, but
otherwise you'll kind of have to look out the window and speak to them from there.
There's a single exit ground floor out of this place.
There is a back door. There's a back door that goes out to the back of the house.
And then there is a front door, which goes out onto the main pathway that then leads into the village itself.
But there is like a kitchen back door,
which has also been barricaded.
Okay.
Like from the inside though.
That wants to face the mob and distract them,
we'll see you at the stables.
We're taking the back door.
Be quick and swift.
The mob is slow in a group so be faster than them
hmm
so
remind me who's going to the front door
so Shadow and Xeros
is Zeke gonna follow after them
I'll like tail behind them
yeah just like just in case something happens
slowly okay
so Rose, Jesper,
Ismark and Irina
will be the ones going to the back.
Okay. Those of you who go to the front...
Go on. Sorry, do I have time
to turn to Ziki as we
go down and just be like,
what can you do? Can you
make illusion?
Can you do light?
I can cause
a blinding
spectrum of light to
cause blindness.
Dazzle them.
Perfect. Maybe we
won't need quite the blindness,
but just let's see.
Okay.
And then, yeah, can just like position ourselves outside the door
yeah so you begin you kind of have to manually move some of the barricade that
would previously been constructed and you open these big heavy oak wooden
doors the front doors to this mansion you open them up and you step outside
and gathered you can see that almost forming like a line in front of the fence itself are dozens of dour faced Barovians.
Some of them bear the same soulless expression as you saw in the bartender at the inn you briefly stopped by.
Others have looks of anger and fear mixed with a zealot kind of energy
um and there are three well there's there's three individuals who seem to be doing most of the
talking and they're kind of whispering and speaking to everybody as you guys make their
way outside um kollyanna the old man uh irena's father comes with you by the way shadow he comes with you
zeros and ziki um and as you begin stepping outside one of them uh one of the mob calls
out he's quite a tall handsome um older man probably in his sort of like 40s or 50s his
hair is salt and pepper uh kind of slicked back um wears quite rich looking clothing um and next to him are uh
elenka the vistani any innkeeper who invited you in when you first arrived in the village
um and his wife the two of them are on next to next to this this other man behind the three of
them is this six foot probably six foot four rippling muscled young man but his face he has like a very
heavy set brow uh his mouth is kind of hanging open and there's a bit of drool coming out of it
but he's holding a giant hammer uh and he's just kind of looking behind them um the well-dressed
man kind of like holds his hands up is that you Kalyana I was hoping that you
would come out to speak with us you heard the devil's proclamation it is not
fair one girl for the suffering of so many give her to to us, Koliana. You are our burgomaster. It is your job to protect our village.
Irina, he does not want to hurt her. You can tell that he would take her if he wanted to do that.
Give us the girl. Protect your people.
your people.
Kollyanna kind of stands awkwardly next
to the group of you.
Doesn't
address the man, just kind of looks at you
waiting to see what
you guys do.
Can I light
some incense?
So I imagine I would have like kind of one of
those, what do they call it?
I get like a it's like one of those, what do they call it? I get like a, it's like one of those.
Swinging chains?
Yeah, that you swing.
Yeah.
Yeah, censure.
So I'm going to start preparing that and just swinging it around and just muttering under my breath.
Like, you know, nothing in particular.
Just like, you know, start to the show and just, yeah.
And I'm going to start kind of like, you know, walking around, just being a bit strange and in my own world and just swinging this.
When you start doing that, the crowd does kind of murmur and whisper
and the well-spoken man is just like,
Who are these strangers?
Are they the ones to blame for upsetting our lord?
Who is this cat that walks like a man and a dragon?
What are these creatures that you have brought, Kalyana? They will not protect you from us or from the devil
Give us the girl is the only way and then the crowd begins
Those of those of the crowd who still have souls kind of join in like give us the girl Kalyana give her to us
It is the only way why should we suffer? She can save us all. Why are you being selfish?
I'm gonna
draw my sword and start
stomping towards them.
Okay, they all
quickly snatch up weapons.
You see the well-dressed man
steps back and just pushes the
giant man with the hammer forward
who's like,
Oh!
We do protect him.
We also protect the girl.
If any of you come one step closer,
I will start taking heads,
starting with his.
I point at the big guy.
Damn.
Cool.
Go on, Kim.
I'll just like, on hearing that, I'll kind of raise an eyebrow
I didn't want to ramp up that fact but
I'll be like
I suggest you
listen to my grumpy
dragon friend
he is blessed by
light and this place
is in dire need of that
and on saying that,
I will cast light
on Zeros's great
sword that he's wielding, so
it kind of essentially just lights up
and illuminates.
Okay.
In that case,
Zeros, make an intimidate check with
advantage, because Shadow is helping you out
and is providing some theatrics.
I'm also going to roll something for myself.
So you kind of bellow out to everybody
and you can see that most of the villagers are cowed by this.
You can see them kind of like,
they startle back, clutching rolling pins
and pitchforks and
torches um a few but quite a number of them they look maybe like they're used to tracking like in
the woods or they're hunters a few of them have got bows or like big meat cleavers or wood cutting
axes and they just kind of set their jaws and they growl and snarl as they kind of see you.
We're not frightened by the likes of you and your sorcery tricks.
You're just another stranger.
These are our lands.
This is our land.
We'll fight to protect it.
And you see the Vistani and the well-dressed man kind of begin encouraging this.
They're like, yes, yes,
you're right, my friends. We do not listen to these sorcerers. They are the ones who have
upset our lord. They are the ones who
bring misery down upon us. If we
take them together, we can dispatch them.
Perhaps he will even reward us.
And they begin like, yeah, and it begins
kind of riling them up again.
Seemingly your threat's now falling on
deaf ears against them yes yes but
while this is happening can i say let us not waste the time they have given us let us escape
through the back door while they are distracted yeah absolutely you uh you rose is mark and irena
begin making your way out the back through the back door. When you step
outside, kind of pulling all of these
makeshift barricades out the way, you open
the door and it leads to a small path that leads
to an iron gate and then an outdoor
stables. Outside the
back gate, the group that had split
off from the mob before is now
waiting by the stables.
It appears to be about seven
people, individuals. most of them look like
villagers with rudimentary crude weapons clubs and torches that sort of things but at least two
of them look quite vicious maybe like wolf hunters or something like that or like you know hounds
keepers um they have like these very nasty looking short hatchets um and then the other one is the
daughter of the vistani that you met earlier,
who's kind of sat with them.
She's kind of just sat on a short wall,
kind of picking her fingernails, looking in your direction.
It does not need to go this way, friends.
Please allow us to leave.
Brother, you are right.
It does not need to go this way.
Why are you getting involved with these people?
Just hand over the girl. It's the easiest way.
We don't want to upset our lord.
How could you say that? How could you give such a person to him?
You know what he would do.
Do you think that it has not happened before, brother?
The reason that we are favored by him, the reason that we are given
permission to leave is because we do what
he asks. We do not
want to upset that balance.
Even
precious Madame Ava knows when to
bow to the Dark Lord.
Don't you bring her into this.
You are making a mistake.
And she
kind of, you can see that she's got like a long...
Almost looks like a thin stiletto knife
that she's twirling around her fingers
that she's picking her nails with.
I believe you have made the mistake.
I'm going to dash at her and come swinging.
Okay.
Well, that's a surprise round for sure
because I don't think she was expecting escalation.
So yeah, go ahead and make your attacks with advantage.
Okay. I will do 19 uh that will definitely hit her yeah for sure 11 piercing
and i get a bonus action dagger yes you do.
23 to hit.
You rush in, and with two strikes,
you just cut into this girl.
One kind of catches her across the shoulder, and then the dagger blade cuts across her arm.
She yelps, and completely taken by surprise,
as you clash in.
I guess Rose, Ismark, and Irina
will need to roll initiative um uh whilst the
rest of the crew out the front so we'll come back to you guys in a minute uh the rest of the crew at
the front um what do you guys do like the the initial kind of intimidation um seemingly it
seems that these leaders the kind of the more vicious members are the ones keeping this mob together
what do you guys do can i uh start to appeal to them i'm gonna wait to hear what tom and rey
want to do as well but i would like to say something i guess uh hopefully before they
kick off or don't kick off um yeah i guess you're talking then it sounds like the dragon dragons ain't doing yeah
go for it okay so i guess leading on from what they said i'll open my arms out still kind of
swinging my uh censure and just say you want to attack the ones who just scared your dark lord away from this place you want to attack us now i can sense you are
angry i can sense you are scared my mistress is one of darkness and loss and i can sense
that this place has experienced much loss do not make that more we will deal with this perhaps if you turned your
violence outwards and not in on your own people you would be strong enough uh there is a kind of silence
for a long moment
and then there is just a kind of laugh
kind of
you think you
scared him away
he retreated because
he knows he does not need to deal
with if he wanted you dead
little cat you would be
nothing more than ash and
dust upon the ground.
He is giving us a
chance to prove ourselves
loyal.
He is using you.
Of course.
He is using you to do his work.
For what? To sacrifice
a young woman?
Yes. If sacrificing a young woman ensures the rest of us are safe, why would we not?
And to say that he is using us, he is using us in the way that the farmer uses his cows.
We have no way of challenging him. We live only because he allows it.
You are a foreigner and a stranger. You do not understand our land
and do not pretend to otherwise.
Come, my brothers and sisters.
Let us take Irene.
If they will not give us Irene,
we'll take her by force.
And then there is a general kind of murmuring and shouting.
I mean, you can make a persuasion check,
but it's going to be at disadvantage
because the things you're saying are not going to
have as much impact on the people of
Barovia, sadly.
That's one.
So first roll is an 18,
second roll is a 16.
So I think that most of the
commoners are
cowed enough by what you've said
and Xeros's intimidation
that they don't really seem to be
acting they just kind of hanging back um but there's definitely the the meaner looking members
of the mob are still dedicated to their cause they're not gonna they're not gonna move but the
commoners and the kind of like average folk don't look like they're going to get involved um and you see the large uh burly man begins stepping up to the gates and he begins trying to like force them open
basically you can see him like trying to like brand the the bars and the locks to give them
space to move through um going back to the other group i I guess. Rose, did you roll an initiative?
Yeah, it was eight.
Let me roll back.
Sorry.
Seven.
Seven.
In fact, actually, it probably makes sense for everybody to roll initiative at this point.
So, yes, but what did you get, by the way?
Twelve?
Twelve.
I think it makes sense if everybody rolls initiative now.
Okay. Okay.
Okay.
Yes.
Would I have gotten time to react while Jesper charged at...
No, because that was his surprise round,
was him doing something off the cuff, basically.
Shadow got a seven.
Zeke got a three.
Poor Zeke
Straight up 3
So those of you who are at the front
You're not necessarily in combat already
But you can sense that
These people don't look like they're willing
To listen to reason at this point
They don't seem
Particularly convinced
That you are more of a threat
Than Strahd is, or that
saving Irina is worth putting themselves
at risk.
And they're trying to
get over the fence. Is there anything you'd like to do?
There's
probably about, I'd say,
ten people
who look like they're gonna come over
the walls, plus the large man.
Are they well-armored man are they well armored and they well armed so they have like leather leather jackets and jerkins they've got hatchets and long
knives these these look like pretty rough outdoorsy types like woodsmen and woodswomen
um a couple of them have like large two-handed axes um you're not sure how well trained they
are but they definitely look
more dangerous than common villagers.
Keep on stomping
forward.
Okay.
If you continue going forward, you're going to be at
the gates where they're currently trying to
get through and storm over.
Wait, do I have an
action first?
You can do it.
It's your turn.
You can do what you want.
But I'm just saying,
30 feet will get you to the gates.
Well,
I'll do a hold thing.
If someone goes for me,
I'll attack back.
Okay.
All right.
Sure.
Right.
Okay. So, the. Right. Okay.
So, the first wave of thugs at the front and the back begin to kind of surge over.
Some of them start trying to climb up over the fence.
Some of them are trying to help the big man kind of break the gates open.
It basically takes their whole turn to do that.
They're not going to get to attack or anything like that.
But by the time they're finished finished about five of them have climbed
over the gates and the rest
have managed to help the larger man break
the gates open and open them up
so that the rest can charge through
they are just yeah
they look directly towards you
with a very murderous intent
the ones at the
back there are two at the back, there are two
at the back. After
seeing you strike at their Vistani
comrade, they are going to try and
turn on Jesper, I believe.
So he's going to swing with what appears to be like a
kind of studded billy club
towards you, Jesper,
for 21.
Jeez.
And then the second attack, however, will only towards you, Jesper, for a 21. Jeez. Yep.
And then the second attack, however, will only
be a 12. No, that won't
hit. Alright, so you take five
bludgeoning damage as the first blow kind of
swings in, and this studded
billy club kind of smacks you across the face,
but then you manage to leap back and parry
as the second blow comes swinging in.
The other one
probably, the other one's gonna pull out like
actually he'll pull out like a crossbow
and he'll aim it in Rose's direction
seeing that she has a ranged weapon and he'll try
and take a shot at her.
For a 19 to hit.
I know.
That'll hit. What a bitch.
Five points of piercing damage as he like
thuds as the arrow
scrapes across your thigh,
scraping and drawing a thick line of blood.
They finish their go.
After they're done, Kalyana, the older man, with you guys at the front,
so you've kind of got, like, split scenes jumping to and fro cinematically.
Kalyana just looks at Shadow and Ziki and is like,
You must run! Join join your friends there's no
way that you can fight them all off and these people haven't done anything wrong they're just
scared just go go and he snatches up a torch from like out of his pack and he lights it
um and he turns back towards the house uh with the torch um will you be safe i will slow them down you must leave go go
get my daughter to safety take her away protect her from the devil please um rose we jump back
to you as he does that sorry yes but actually uh so we jump back to the back where yes but you've
just been smacked in the face you turn around you've got one of these thugs and the other vistani woman right
in front of you uh i'm gonna shout to the people that aren't engaged in the battle like irena
etc please i mean yeah his mark is pulling his sword out he's like! Run! I can get away. Just run.
And I turn to the girl in front of me.
See what Strahd is doing to us.
Let us not let this end in more death.
Let us go.
Strahd, you are the one who is defying him.
As you guys, yeah, your blades cross.
Cool.
Okay.
In which case, I'm going to use my mobile
feat, which means
I can make a melee attack and then
get away from them without any opportunity
attacks. Sure. Okay.
So I'm going to do one without the intent
to kill anybody.
So you'll do non-lethal damage.
I'll attack the guy that just hit me.
Non-lethal damage
possible.
Which is a 15
to hit him yeah that'll hit him
he doesn't appear to be really wearing any armor
he's just got like a leather jacket on basically
and yeah I will just
kind of flourish away
and start running back to the rest of the group
yeah so you kind of
slap him with the flat
side of the rapier kind kind of slap him with the um the flat end like the
flat side of the rapier kind of like slap him across the head and his eyes kind of ring for a
moment as he looks around um and then what you're going to kind of dash away uh are you dashing away
like down the street or are you going to try and run towards the horses and the stables i'm running running kind of and goading everyone to follow me to escape this town okay all right rose
ignoring the fact that i just got shot um i don't want to kill them so i'm gonna um run towards the
stable where the horses are how many horses are there are two did you say
uh there are two horses yeah so they can carry two people each stable where the horses are. How many horses are there? Two, did you say?
There are two horses, yeah, so they can carry two people each.
Okay, so how far
is it to get there?
Can I dash to get there?
Yeah, you can just get... If you dash, you'll get there.
Easy.
Okay, can I
untie the horses
probably... I don't know how can i drag arena with me and still get um she will follow you on her turn so yes effectively like she'll just take her
movement with you now yeah i wanted to basically take both of those guys and just get them towards the horses.
And I want to make sure that she gets on a horse with her brother.
And then I'll get on the other one.
Okay.
Sure.
So Ismark will go with you.
He looks a bit more like he wants to fight, but he'll look after his sister mainly.
As you make your way for the stable.
Yeah, you can see two two horses neither of them have their saddles but is mark and irena don't seem to be that bothered
they kind of start just kind of getting up on the horses to ride it anyway um it will make it more
difficult for anybody else who if you get caught in like a chase riding it without a saddle will
make it harder but putting a saddle on is going to take time which you don't really have right now
um you also as a reminder, yes, but your
wagon is currently, you had a wagon with some
horses as well, but it's just currently at the back
of the inn, which is just down the road
from here. So you can always
dash to make it to your wagon as well.
He's making a very confused
looking face, so I'm just going to assume that he heard that.
Yeah, but
yeah, Rose, you get to the horses, he heard that um yeah but yeah rose you you
get to the horses you untie them and jeb you can help them uh you can help irena and is mark up onto
one of the horses uh no problem um chasing after uh yes but comes mirabelle the vistani um who is
just kind of lashing out at him in a kind of frenzied rage at this point.
That is going to be a 11 to hit you, Jesper.
No.
Followed by a 14 to hit you.
My armor class is 14.
That will hit you on the second attack.
So the first one you managed to parry with the rapier,
but then she kind of drops the stiletto,
grabs it in the other hand, and kind of
jams it into your side, causing five
points of piercing damage. It just
kind of cuts you along the side, but it's enough to kind of
wince and wound you a little bit.
And then she'll use her
bonus action to disengage...
No, she can't disengage and move.
So she'll just basically stay locked in
combat with you for the time being
and just kind of say like,
Quickly, get over here. Help me deal with him.
We can grab the girl later.
But you can see the other thugs are eyeing up Irina,
not really listening to her as they do that.
All of the common folk that were around seem completely bewildered
and don't seem to be taking any aggressive actions,
um,
either through the threats of,
uh,
what Xeros and Shadow have said,
or at the back,
the kind of words that Jesper said,
they don't seem to be particularly motivated to fight either side.
They're just kind of avoiding it,
looking panicked and scared.
Um,
and they just kind of shuffled around.
Ziki,
what do you do?
Um, so you can see Xeros is kind of stood in front of the gate but the old man is like you must go
um so i'm gonna move up to xeros and just like motion to him to say come we need to like we
need to go now and then i'm gonna cast uh color spray towards the crowd that are coming
to in our direction.
Yeah, sure. So what do I have to do for that?
So describe us. So
a dazzling array of flashing
colored lights springs from your hand.
You roll 6010, or I roll 6010.
The total is how many hit points of
creatures the spell can affect. Creatures
in a 15-foot cone originating from you
affected in the ascending order of their current hit points.
They're going on conscious creatures.
All that stuff. There's no saves or anything
to make. Okay. Alright, perfect.
Okay, so just roll 6d10
and then tell me the total.
5 and 1.
So that's 25 in total.
Okay.
I imagine it like she's dipping...
Go on. you describe it yeah
i was imagining because she has she carries like painting supplies by her hips and belts and stuff
and i imagine she like reaches into a bag and like pulls out um and just dips her three fingers
into red blue and no red yellow and blue pigments and then she just blows on them on this like powder pigment and it flows out
it becomes like a spectrum
perfect
so you watch as this dazzling cone of light
engulfs and it engulfs
several of these hunters
and quite a lot of the common folk behind them
the large man kind of
shields his eyes and you can hear him kind of
grunt like no
as the light washes over him.
He seems unaffected.
A couple of the hunters kind of like clutch their eyes.
They're like, I can't see!
What has she done?
The dragon witch!
Kill her!
Kill her!
And they're kind of like squinting around.
But there's still quite a few of them who the spell washes over them,
but doesn't quite have the blinding effect as you hoped.
But it's enough to slow them down temporarily
if nothing else as they try and help
their companions. Several of them
kind of stumble in the way of others who are
running towards you, knocking them off balance.
Kind of sowing chaos amongst
them basically. Zeros,
what are you going to do?
I guess I...
If Zeke is leaving
then I will follow I think that's pretty much the
approach I'm going to take
and they haven't attacked us yet so I'm not going to fight back
okay so
I'm going to drop us out of initiative because I think what's going to happen here
is you guys begin rushing your way
back through the house
Kalyana waits until you've all rushed in past him
and are heading out the back door
and you see him slam the big heavy door and then all the discarded barricade that you'd moved out
the way he begins lighting it with the torch um and he just begins setting fire to it and you can
see his eyes are streaming with tears as he does it and he's kind of muttering something to it under
his breath he's like i'm sorry'm sorry. As the flames begin spreading
and he kind of looks at his house beginning to burn.
And you can hear the cries of the people outside
like trying to bash on the door,
but he's holding it shut as the fire is spreading around him.
And he's just kind of holding the door back.
He's like, he calls out once more.
He's just like, take Irina somewhere safe
as you begin making your way out the back.
As you emerge,
you kind of see the scene
that's been happening with Rose,
Jesper,
Irina,
and Ismark,
where this mad dash towards these horses
and the stables is ongoing.
You can see a couple
thuggish looking fellows,
one with a crossbow
and one with a cudgel,
are trying to beat on Jesper
and one's firing a crossbow towards the horses
trying to take out the horses legs
as you guys kind of come careening
through the back door
with a surge in numbers
the thugs quickly kind of back off
as you begin all kind of
charging and making your way
down the main street up towards
the village square of Barovia
you can hear the mob and the crowd calling and shouting and screaming
as they begin trying to follow you.
Some of them begin trying to make their way around the mansion estate,
but trying to make their way through the whole building
is going to take them enough time.
You guys sprint down these dark, dead streets.
There is a moon, but it's hidden behind thick layers of cloud,
so seeing is almost
difficult you're having to judge distances through just the vaguest shadows that you can see
and eventually you come across the inn the blood on the vine inn that you were at before
uh irena and ismark are on a horse and have careened ahead of you but are kind of waiting
for you guys to catch up um rose you have space on your horse for one other person. Do you grab...
Who do you want to grab?
So, I think
seeing everyone else come through, she would
probably
knowing that Jesper
does have a wagon,
send him
on the horse ahead
with Shadow,
probably. She would probably insist that Shadow gets on the horse and with Shadow, probably. She would probably insist
that Shadow gets on the horse,
and then she would run behind
with the dragons,
so that he can
get a head start in getting that
for the rest of them.
Okay. Yeah, perfect.
So, with that, you can see that
the Vistani girl,
Mirabelle, and then the two thugs,
they've hung back, but they're calling out to their comrades like,
come on, this way, they're going this way, towards the inn, towards the inn,
and they're kind of pulling it.
And you begin to see these little dots of orange flame as the torches of the mob begin filtering through the buildings.
And the buildings here, there are streets, but the buildings are, there's little narrow alleyways between them.
And you just begin to see more and more people appearing at these alleyways like chasing darting
towards you as you will desperately run uh making your way there yes but you get to your wagon
still hitched with two horses um and the group of you can all mount up and begin riding your way out of the village of Barovia.
Oh, I'm moving ways to a bigger map.
The mob chases you.
You begin to hear the sounds of dogs, like kind of barking hunting dogs are being gathered.
You can hear the sound of horses being prepared,
but you have enough of a lead.
The last thing you see as you begin uh as the the
fast the galloping hooves of the horses pound against the worn stone and dirt road the last
thing you see as you look behind you is a single building on the edge of the town burning completely burning, completely aflame orange and black smoke drifting up to mix with the black
clouds above
you pass over a stone
bridge as a powerful
and winding river courses
beneath it and you begin to see
and hear the sounds of the mob fading
away behind you as the
path takes you between
thick forests of gnarled
and twisted trees.
And that is where we will end today's episode.
Oh, my.
Man.
Pretty action-packed one, this one.
Yeah.
We're too good about that.
I wanted to take the old man with us.
Well.
Well, yeah.
We need to turn it down. Is he dead? Is he alive? You don't know. I hope he is. with us. Well. Well.
Is he dead? Is he alive?
I hope he is.
He is strong.
He is strong.
Plot twist.
Yeah, so a bit of a starting off. Lots of combat.
Lots of rolling dice, but that's how the Indy
goes sometimes. Can't always be
social.
To figure out our characters out how characters actually work.
Yeah, absolutely.
These new classes, new subclasses.
Figure out how hard it is to heal someone.
Oh!
Not satisfied with that one.
I love you Tony.
Nice and you've also
now kind of gotten to see the more grey nature of Barovia,
where, you know, those people are genuinely just trying to look out for themselves,
and they're like, yeah, but one girl, all of us.
That seems a sensible call to make.
Yeah.
And Strahd is not beyond leveraging
that sort of mentality
amongst his people. The sheeple!
Wake up, sheeple!
Wake up, sheeple!
Open your damn eyes!
Yeah.
And I do love, I love
particularly for me, I love the
confidence of Shadow of like,
we just scared Strahd off. I'm like,
I love the fact that you think that.
I love that.
Well, she's a naive little kitty,
isn't she? She's a naive little kitty.
Also, Kim thought she still
had a spell slot for
calm emotions.
Oh, did you not
have that? That's a shame.
No!
You sent me out there.
Now, that would have been impressive.
I own it.
Shut up.
Thank you, everybody.
We're done.
It's time to go.
Bye, friends.
Bye.
See you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye. Thank you.