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[Troy]

I'm a little confused over the whole part when Troy said he wasn't prepared for Koban rolling a 5 earlier and then a 20 at the end of the night? Am I missing something or does that have to do with the journal stuff we received last night.

Ok, i'll try to explain. It's two different mechanics.

1) The campaign provides me a system to help populate the world

During overland travel and on night watches I'll regularly ask players to roll D20s. The more dubious your circumstance, the lower your threshold is that you generate an encounter when you make this roll. I have the option to use it or bank it for later. Of all the rolls by people so far, Koban has generated two. One on the road. And one with a Nat20 on the first night. It triggered even with Mortigan checking off all the tenants of Van Richten - see below. I thought about what should happen, described something probing your defenses, and then banked it.

2) Your journal was an exercise in roleplaying and an aide for your first night in Barovia.

Everyone had different circumstances. Some people kept theirs close to the chest. Zelda blurted out the Martikov family's dark secret to the group. When I asked later about that she said it was the type of thing Zelda would do. She's an un-charismatic outlander whose parents could shapechange* - she wouldn't see it as a secret. Others were intended to be internal for their character.

Mordigan's happened to be super practical that evening.

* Zelda updated her backstory a little bit. re: The death of her parents.

One happy day on the northern coast, her parents had left the family lodge and were spending the day shapechanged into giant otters. They were enjoying the sensation of swimming in the ocean while hunting and catching fish. When they went back to shore they were set upon by a vicious werebear named Sirius. They were murdered.

[GORDON]

I have been thinking about our upcoming vampire encounter.

I think our whole.party is still.very outmatched. I hope there is some.cannon fodder at the inn who are sick and tired of these.mother fucking vampires. I can strategize a plan but unless I have the freedom to burn the fucker down, we're going to need more bodies.

[Troy]

I have been thinking about our upcoming vampire encounter.

While I'm not going to baby you to pick your spells, I do have to give you that you have asked if you can cast "protection from evil" twice. So I'm ruling that you picked that.

That's one of the 10 or so options you could have selected. You can likely pick more, but for now "protection from evil" is a good start. They use spell slots like your natural ability, Divine Smite.

[Stranger]

Also, I believe the paladin chooses a fighting style at level 2. I'm not sure if you have picked that either. Defense is an easy one, wear armor and get a +1 to AC.

The fighter gets this at level 1 and I chose great weapon fighting since I use the two handed sword.

[GORDON]

It isn't my fault the baby men had to make so many changes since the far-superior 2nd Edition ruleset. Then, the paladin had a permanent 10' radius of PFE. and that's how we liked it. Hell, we loved it.

[GORDON]

And armor class used to be at 10 you were naked, and at -10 you were in full plate. I still haven't wrapped my head around my AC of 16 (18). Completely alien.

[GORDON]

And initiative is all.fucked up now.

[GORDON]

So make like the JC Penny's Men's Department and cut me some fucking slack(s).

[Stranger]

Wow chill out my man. All u gotta do is read the book.

[GORDON]

*redacted*

[Troy]

Lol - Mordigan his line of posts reads as sarcasm to me.

I'll update the Journal this weekend for NPCs and Monsters encountered so far.

[Stranger]

Lol - Mordigan his line of posts reads as sarcasm to me.

I'll update the Journal this weekend for NPCs and Monsters encountered so far.

Oh, yeah I guess it could be read like that. Sorry Gordon

[Leisher]

And about those journals. Are they supposed to be secrets or are those skills that we continue to use throughout the journey. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to go about that, all the others seemed to be hush hush about theirs. Mine didn't seem the need to be kept quiet.

Yeah, I got a bit confused on that too initially. I thought I was supposed to be vague to the party.

Long story short, everywhere we go there should be thieves I can talk to and get info from. That gypsy sought me out to warn me about the inn. We did not want to go there. Three big fellas who were clearly werewolves were walking in there. He recommended, like Ismarck, that we sleep in the outskirts of town.

Troy, are you allowed to tell us about things we missed or do you want to do that after the campaign ends? Like:
-What was in the house that smelt of death?
-Did we miss any big encounters or treasures?
-How tough is that lake monster really? (Assuming we don't end up fighting him revisiting the cart.)
-Etc.

During overland travel and on night watches I'll regularly ask players to roll D20s. The more dubious your circumstance, the lower your threshold is that you generate an encounter when you make this roll. I have the option to use it or bank it for later. Of all the rolls by people so far, Koban has generated two. One on the road. And one with a Nat20 on the first night. It triggered even with Mortigan checking off all the tenants of Van Richten - see below. I thought about what should happen, described something probing your defenses, and then banked it.

Right, we're due some encounters, but we don't know what yet. The DM basically paused them. I assume the 5 I rolled during the evening at the dwarf's house (?) is tame. The crit 20 could be interesting. It's either something really bad or really good (if higher numbers are always better).

I think our whole.party is still.very outmatched.

For a group of vampires and werewolves, maybe. Hell, probably. Like you, I hope we have more opportunities to level up. (And we might with the Inn, the vampire spawn in the church, the cart, and my two watch encounters to deal with?) We don't want to get too high though as the campaign has set levels in mind, right? That fight in the house could have gone much worse or much better, which is why I think it might be too early to say we're grossly outmatched. If we all weren't rolling so badly on that armor we would have been pretty healed and probably discussed continuing the fight. Having us all split up and the tight staircase made that fight more dangerous than it was, aside from that main lady.

the paladin had a permanent 10' radius of PFE.

I remember that.

I still haven't wrapped my head around my AC of 16 (18).

Here's where we differ. I recall this... I honestly cannot explain it off the top of my head, but I do remember it.

And initiative is all.fucked up now.

I like how initiative works...kinda.

Rolling is absolutely fair. However, I think it needs to take circumstance, skills, and physical condition into account.

I suppose "surprise rounds" take some of circumstance into account, but with both parties receiving fair warning Koban with an 18 dexterity shouldn't ever lose initiative to, for example, animated armor or a zombie.

[GORDON]

I remember vampires have something like 10 hit dice, and about 20 ways to fuck you over... or escape at the last second... that have nothing to do with how much damage it can inflict in a brawl.

[Leisher]

I remember vampires have something like 10 hit dice, and about 20 ways to fuck you over... or escape at the last second... that have nothing to do with how much damage it can inflict in a brawl.

If someone get bit, that's going to suck to deal with.

[Troy]

Troy, are you allowed to tell us about things we missed or do you want to do that after the campaign ends? Like:
-What was in the house that smelt of death?
-Did we miss any big encounters or treasures?
-How tough is that lake monster really? (Assuming we don't end up fighting him revisiting the cart.)
-Etc.

You guys can't really "miss" anything. It's doesn't dissapear at the end of the level or something. Game time advances with you. Your actions by the hour impact the calendar and the world around you. There's an active story-line in the background.

This particular campaign is very open ended. Go where you want. Do what you think your character would do. Push the party to go where your character would want to go too.


I shouldn't have told you about Ismark's manor - but then Mordigan decided he sold the key, so I can fix it that way - he saw it. (thanks for that)


Level Wise:

You advance with a combo of "killed stuff" XP and storyline goals. You're ~2.5.

[GORDON]

Back in the 2nd Edition, all the campaigns were uphill, both ways.

[Stranger]

I like how initiative works...kinda.

Rolling is absolutely fair. However, I think it needs to take circumstance, skills, and physical condition into account.

Initiative does take dexterity into account. Having an 18 in DEX gives u a +4 to every initiative roll.

[Troy]

Game set for 9PM EST this Friday. Will try to keep the focus and not to exceed 2.5 hours.

"Morning in Barovia"



Last heard, our heroes were fighting for their lives inside the Durst Mansion, as a caper turned bad left them split up in a mansion crawling with hostile, animated enemies.

The party of mostly-amateur thieves leapt into action. Ismark volunteered to be a hero. Mordigan, Zelda and Alex "tactically" retreated to the first floor. Alex jumped off the stairs using his face to help soften his landing. BeeDee's scroll gave Ismark some serious hops. Zelda thunderwaved a suit of armor into a fireplace and caught Mordigan in the process. Almost everyone took a beating from the animated suits of armor and the wicked ringing of Ariana's bell.

Once outside, the party scrutinized a badly wounded Ismark, who was nice enough to offer them the fancy dinner sandwiches and champagne he had stolen. Satisfied with his truthfulness, the party received advice from Ismark on the village and their nightly accommodations.

The conversation was jolted back to reality by a raven, who flew down and landed on Ismark's shoulder. The party noticed the strange nature with which the raven behaved, particularly towards Ismark and Zelda.

The raven's touch broke Ismark's focus on the party. He glanced worriedly up at the dark castle looming above the town, and began walking with purpose to his family manor.

Each member of the party at that point took some personal time to reflect or walk alone in the town.

With a little less than an hour from nightfall, the party met back up and began searching for a safe house on the outskirts of town.

Their early searches revealed a few small looted dwellings and a medium sized house marked with a red "X". After detecting a strong stench of death emanating from the medium house, they moved on.

The party found a small abandoned furniture shop. Mostly full of broken wood and rusted tools, the party used their best survival skills and boarded up the shattered windows. A search upstairs revealed a bedroom that smelled a little of death. The smell was eminating from a sole zombie, who rushed to attack, but never got a chance to deal any damage. The party reacted overwhelming, dealing a bunch of damage and cutting the zombie's body in half. They threw the rotting body parts out the upstairs window and into a back alley.

The party made a fire and finally rested. Koban took most of the watches. He noticed a few strange suspicious noises and a strange light, but most of the night was quiet and uneventful.

At dawn, with much of the party still asleep, BeeDee woke to the voice of Alan Rickman. A celestial messenger from his deity. He had been assigned his paladin trial.

Selecting Zelda as his second, he woke her and the two made their way to the church. The village was quiet.

BeeDee and Zelda arrived at the church and witnessed Donavich attempting a soul reattachment. After some initial success, a "thumping" noise from under the church distracted Donavich. He could not continue and muttered to himself in worried tones.

BeeDee and Zelda talked the near-inconsolable Donavich down. They led him out of the church and learned he and the church harbored a dark secret.

The previous priest had gotten caught up by the last group of adventurers in the land. When they marched on Ravenloft, so did he. None had returned but the priest. And the Darklord had changed him into something horrible. Donavich and townsfolk managed to corral him in the church undercroft, but there had been injuries.

Displaying good persuasivness. BeeDee and Zelda convinced Donavich that they could help with the problem. Looking somewhat relieved but still mentally strained, Donavich headed for the tavern.

On the other side of town. In the musty smelling boarded up furniture shop (that smells like someone cut up a zombie upstairs) - Alex, Mordigan and Koban begin to stir.

It's morning in Barovia village.

[GORDON]

I need to see what the "door" to downstairs looks like.

Before he left, I asked the priest to give me a map for down there, or at least a description. Single room? Catacombs?