Welcome to Thunderdome

Troy wrote: Leisher, I just simulated all three of those rolls and they all critically failed.

You cheating cook hater.

Troy wrote: Oh BeeDee - You and Donavich slept in the church that evening.

I checked to ensure it was safe and our GM said yes, but he's clearly a liar. (See above.)

Leisher wrote: Catt's jelly he isn't playing the game.

As long as you keep thinking about me in the shower, I don't care.

Recap of storyline elements of Session 7:

Night started to fall on Day 2. The party hashed out some things related to the ghost aging.

The Vine tavern ran out of wine, partly due to Donavich, mostly due to a lack of shipments from the Martikov winery. There was much despairing among the common folk until the party remembered they had a cask of dwarven ale, which they sold to the tavern.

Muriel Martikov came along with a simple dinner invitation from Ismark Kolyana. She mentioned Ismark also invited them to spend the night at his manor, a considerable upgrade over the musty furniture shop.

Donavich and BeeDee decided to sleep in the church. They didn't sleep particularly well due to the occasional thumping coming from the undercroft, but it was a relatively quiet night otherwise. Oh - they buried the dwarf too, his spirit had degraded past the point of being salvageable.

Before dinner, at the heavily battle-scarred and boarded up manor, a series of meetings were held.

The first meeting was between Ismark and the party. Ismark was of two minds. He didn't want to abandon the village his father had lived and died for. But he also didn't want his sister, Ireena, in the town anymore. The Darklord apparently had a thing for his sister. Each night for the last few weeks, Strahd's forces had tested the manor's defenses. His father had left the house for unknown reasons during one of those nights. He and some of his best men had been destroyed.

The party could help Ismark continue his father's legacy by getting his sister, Ireena, out of town. He thought Vallaki was the safest location, and gave them the name "Father Lucian" who ran a church in Vallaki. He also said that his only visit to Vallaki was with his father, when he was quite young. On the road they found Ireena in the woods. Ismark the senior had adopted her, and raised her as his own.

At that point Ismark passed off the party to Muriel, their intelligence contact. She'd be accompanying the party and Ireena.

In the second meeting, Muriel showed the party a map of the road ahead. With it, they discussed the next day, aligning their other current plans with Muriel's idea on a route.

Ismark and his men had been busy, fixing up a wagon and buying a couple horses if the party wanted to use them on the road to Vallaki. He also bought a few healing potions AND GAVE THEM TO IREENA. (NOT THE GODDAMN CHEF)

At dinner, the party ate perfectly cooked bear steaks and sat in odd parts of the room because they still had quite a bit of ghost-aging friction to work through. Ireena wasn't much of a talker, and wouldn't or couldn't reveal much about her encounters with the Darklord. At some point someone noticed Ireena had puncture wounds on her neck. Strahd clearly has had the opportunity to take Ireena as his. But hadn't yet. Ismark thought it was because the Darklord wanted Ireena to come to him willingly.

As night fell, wolves and worse surrounded the manor. At midnight, the enemy made their move, damaging multiple windows and swarming the rooms with dangerous bat swarms. A stitched monstrosity burst through the wall. Ireena came really close to opening the front door and letting the darkness inside.

Luckily, the party weathered the storm, and survived the night.

We'll pick up dawn on Day 3.

Sessions 8: tentatively: "Let's blow this popsicle stand"
6p/9p
2.5 hours.

Ok, so...

I've read the things.

Where is BeeDee, in relation to his Paladin quest?

GORDON wrote: Ok, so...

I've read the things.

Where is BeeDee, in relation to his Paladin quest?

We'll pick up tomorrow essentially 24 hour later ingame time to when you first learned about it. I think the assumption of the party was that you'll attempt it in the morning before bugging out.

i was also wondering the same thing earlier this week, but then i got to thinking.

Supposedly we were to fight some vampire for BeeDee to finish his quest, most of us kind of figured fighting a vamp was a pretty tall task. So what if the vampire is Strahd? I'm thinking this paladin quest might be something that isn't going to be settled anytime soon.

I might be completely wrong here but if it is Strahd them i'm guessing BeeDee's quest might be an ongoing story line for a long time, maybe even the end of the game.

The vampire isn't Strahd, nor is it a vampire.

It's Donovich's son, the former priest of the town. That's why he wants BeeDee to deal with it and why he drinks so much. Also, Troy has already told us that he's a vampire spawn.

The plan, as fully discussed last session, is we're heading to the church to kill him immediately, then bolting town. That way any heat from killing a vampire spawn will have to search for us, particularly since it was implied that such an action will attract attention. However, said attention wouldn't be able to come until night. I believe when we leave this town, we're probably done with it permanently.

I assume we won't fight Strahd until we get to Ravenloft. At our current levels, he'd mop the floor with us.

Hey Troy, are we doing initiatives correctly? The Adventure Zone guys, who admittedly don't follow the rules closely, always talk about modifiers to their initiative rolls. My modifier is +4, but I don't think it's being added?

Leisher wrote:

Hey Troy, are we doing initiatives correctly? The Adventure Zone guys, who admittedly don't follow the rules closely, always talk about modifiers to their initiative rolls. My modifier is +4, but I don't think it's being added?

If you are clicking the initiative button on your sheet it should be doing it right. Some of you have had inits over 20, so it’s working for someone... I think.

It is D20 + Dex modifier. I usually end up manually entering your inits half the time because everyone seems to do it differently, which breaks that little tool.

I think the ideal way is to click your token, then click the initiative button on your sheet. I don’t have a sheet so I do the monsters inits with a dice roll plus the mod. It’s one of those things that is getting a lot faster and easier for me. Even though half the time your names show up wrong. I think that happens if you don’t click your token first.

Alright, maybe i was afk when that discussion happened. If that's the case and the plan then that makes sense now.

Your dexterity is your modifier, i just logged into the game and looked back at our logs from last game and the initiative rolls. If you look there is a (4) next to where it says initiative, or you can hover the mouse over the roll and see the modifier being added. So yes, your +4 is being added.

Sorry, i didn't mean to answer for Troy, but i happened to log into the game to check something on my character sheet and checked that out.

Ok, I agree on them being done right. Wasn't sure.

So Troy, what's the plan with BeeDee? Do you need to catch him up on anything or is him reading the rundowns enough?

For my party: We got a full rest after that battle, so heal up and get your spell slots filled. Also make sure you reset your hit dice if you keep track of them. (BeeDee, I assume you got a full night's sleep too?) We need to head out to the church, kill that Vampire Spawn, and then back to Ismark's mansion to get the wagon and the girls so we can get out of town.

Our goals in this next bit of traveling should be:
1. Keep Ireena safe.
2. Get de-aged in the gypsy encampment.
3. Possibly kill Zelda's werebear nemesis. (If #2 happens, then Koban will be more willing to help...)
4. Find refuge in caves if needed for a night.
5. Investigate the windmill before or after getting to Vallaki.
6. Drop Ireena off in Vallaki with Father whatshisname.
7. Head to Ravenloft.

Oh - they buried the dwarf too, his spirit had degraded past the point of being salvageable.

That sucks. But it made me realize something...

(NOT THE GODDAMN CHEF)

You're a rabid anti-chefite. That dwarf was a chef too. Troy, did a chef inappropriately touch you? What's the hang up? They make delicious meals. Why must you kill them all?

BeeDee is good to merge back into our timeline. I don't think he missed anything the recaps don't cover. But he DOES need to take a wisdom saving throw when we start and see if the ghost aging affected him.

Session 8 4/13. "The Vampire and the Reading"

Alex:
+ Scroll of Detect Thoughts
- 75 gp

The casters used every level two spell slot before 7AM.

It's 9:30 AM.

Tarot reading post next.

"Madam Eva is super fucking ugly" - Zelda


The Main Readings

The first three cards were for items, and the result hints to their location. The fourth is your fated ally. The fifth is your confrontation with the DL.

1) "This card will guide you to an item of history and magical lore. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy."

Master of Coin - The Rogue:
"I see a nest of ravens. There you will find your prize."

2) "This card will guide you to an item for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope."

1 of Swords - The Avenger:
"The treasure lies in a dragon's house, in hands once clean and now corrupted."

3) "This card will guide you to an item of strength and purity. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight."

3 of Swords - The Soldier:
"Go the mountains. Climb the white tower guarded by golden knights."

4) "This card will shed light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against the darkness."

Joker - The Horseman:
"A man of death named Arrigal will forsake his dark lord to serve your cause. Beware! He has a rotten soul."

5) "Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. When you are ready, this card will lead you to him!"

Jack of Clubs - The Seer:
"He waits for you in a place of wisdom, warmth and despair. Great secrets are there."

6) Extra reading to the question: "Where can we find the cure to our unnatural aging?"

7 of Glyphs - The Charlatan:
"I see a lonely mill on a precipice. Those inside can create what you seek. Tread with caution - it will cost you dearly"

Problem: Zelda is going out of town next week and will miss the next session.

We can still roll with one down. Two down and we can skip a week and call it an Act 1 break.

I could also get my buddy who wants to play a guest NPC to join us for the session if needed.

i'm good to play Friday, and if you've got someone that wants to fill in for the night i'm ok with that too.

What kind of roll is he going to play? an NPC that we might meet up with and adventure with for the night or just someone that we come across?

Edit: Zelda is out. Working on something.

The answer to Stranger’s questions is... yes.

Cakedaddy wrote: For those that want hard copies, some good sales on Amazon right now:

https://slickdeals.net/f/11432451-dunge ... 4-more?v=1

i couldn't help myself and bought the PHB on Amazon today, $20 is a helluva deal and sometimes having the book is just easier to flip through.

Also bought 6 sets of dice for $10 just so i could get the free shipping. Not sure why because i'll probably never use them but who knows, maybe someday Leisher and i will start a home game.

Nice! I love the books. I don't like DMIng without hard copies, for monster stuff, for my session notes, practically everything.

I think I might have bought the same dice set you got too! I lost half of them in Australia, even though I didn't even need them there. Still have plenty left to get the job done.


Game at 9pm on Friday. I'm thinking we could go 3 hours. It will be a full East Coast crew, so we could start an hour earlier if people prefer and are able?

"The Road to Vallaki"

In Australia, dice roll in the opposite direction.

Troy wrote: The answer to Stranger’s questions is... yes.

So i'm guessing we won't get any information on him, like his race, class or even how we meet him until Friday night?

Unless Troy wants to divulge some information.. maybe?