mcmuffinfluffin
2018-07-26, 07:46 PM
Hey everyone,
I am running 5th edition for the first time along with players who haven't played it. We are all 3.5 veterans who also play Exalted on the side, so thankfully we understand the gist of roleplaying and most of the rules. We are all just familiarizing ourselves with relatively few changes between 3.5 and 5th edition. We have started off with SpiketailDrake's Army of the Damned from Reddit (Apparently I have only posted 5 times on Giantitp so I can't post links yet...). That should take the players from level 1 to level 5. After that we will go into a heavily modified version of Curse of Strahd that will take the players from level 5 to 15 which should wrap up the campaign if they make it that far.
We have sessions once a week for about 4 hours. I welcome feedback and suggestions, but for the most part I am using this to record events and as a practice to recall various details to bring up later. So to begin...
Army of the Damned will be played as is. I might change some of the treasure if I think it does not fit and I may insert some NPCs who may appear later in the story.
The focus will be Curse of Strahd which I have begun heavily expanding and modifying to fit a higher level party and to make a less direct objective. To do this I extended the Southern reaches of the map to eventually arrive at a coastline, I have added 3-4 settlements(I am still deciding the need of one), I hope to design a reflection of the land in The Feywild and The Shadowfell that can be visited(though they will not be required, they will provide information and possibly tools to assist), expanding Barovia to be a more important influential location to help make this more long-lasting, and finally the addition of two new factions within this land.
The biggest change is likely the addition of the new factions, one which represents a villain on par with Strahd. This faction is inspired by the Cthulhu mythos and will likely be led by a powerful Aboleth or equally powerful/interesting abberation that washed up on the Southern shore near one of the new settlements, a large fishing village. This alien entity has begun a cult in this town that worships it in exchange for mystic powers and transformations. The abberation's goal is to usurp Strahd and become the unquestioned god of this dark realm. Unlike Strahd this being works in secret and is not all-present, and thus the corresponding questline will be focused on investigation to discover this threat.
To learn of this quest the players must either side with Strahd after some convincing, or come across the other new faction. This faction is made up of agents from The Empire who have occupied an abandoned mining village in the mountains under the guise of Barovians loyal to Strahd who are mining the silver mine and shipping it to Caste Ravenloft so other cannot have the dangerous metal. On the opposite side of the dark realm is another empire controlled by clever Yuan-Ti who The Empire fears. As long as Strahd remains in power, the impenetrable border that is Ravenloft remains keeping The Empire safe. This faction will serve as the primary hook to investigate the eldritch cult of the South who defy Strahd's reign with alarming success which may inspire other settlements to challenge his authority, or they will serve as an adversary in the assistance of Barovia.
The rest of the changes are relatively minor and mostly are made to reflect a longer campaign, and to move Strahd from the "all powerful villain" to the "most powerful villain". I don't want an omnipotent villain who knows all and rules because the land bends to his will. I want a villain who knows everything (albeit not immediately) because he has loyal servants everywhere and the people bend to his will because they know defiance will be met with retribution that is unmatched. This way players can be rewarded for dealing with agents of Strahd, so that they can earn moments of respite. I also want the possibility to side with Strahd to be present.
I am expanding Barovia to be a much larger village with hundreds of people rather than dozens. It will be a town that was loyal to Strahd out of fear, but within the last month a half-orc paladin from beyond the mist gave up his quest to hunt Strahd to instead help the people of Barovia. So as he trains a militia and restores hope in the people, Strahd will eventually take notice and show them why he should be feared. However, if the players stay they can work with the paladin to make Barovia a bastion of hope within the land. I plan disconnecting the werewolves from Strahd and tying them more as a specific threat to Barovia for their questline and adding some minor expansions to them along with the addition of numerous "helpful" NPCs to all of the land.
Everyone knows that this will be Ravenloft beforehand, but since most of the players are not familiar with that they know it will be a Gothic Horror setting. The custom setting I have began to flesh out starts them on the frontiers of The Empire. Given the size and current lack of rivals of The Empire it has no official name, but, it has nicknames such as: The Winter Empire, The Thri-Kreen, The Mirror Empire, and the Antruvian Empire. To make a long story short (especially since most of the campaign takes place in Ravenloft), The Empire is made up of Thri-Kreen who were uplifted by magic from Fey of the Winter Court who act as The Empire's advisors. Kobolds hold special rights within The Empire as they serve as its loyal forces in exerting their influence over the Underdark.
However, The Empire is not heavy handed in its reign over other territories. They have small garrison forces, require taxes be paid, but let regions within their territory govern themselves. The players start in The Green Coast, the Western frontier of The Empire whose border is marked by a thick, imposing forest perpetually covered in heavy fog that claims the lives of any who dare journey through. They begin in the capital city Brookshire, though any from deeper within The Empire would not call it a city.
Starting at level 1...
Grug(CN Orc Barbarian)-A simple orc who grew up traveling on the road with his father. After his father's death he took to adventuring with a simple motivation: to feed himself with the talent he has, his strength. After meeting the bard, Jack Fletcher, he was convinced to join forces to gain more coin and make sure he is fed for all of his life. As his name implies, Grug is a a simple being with simple solutions. However, every once in a while his experience on the road allows him to come up with uncharacteristically clever solutions.
Jack Fletcher(NG Human Bard)-A veteran and foreign adventurer with countless tales about his own deeds, that few believe. Every story he tells about himself his true, but his last few encounters ended in defeat that left him mentally and physically weakened. His final encounter was with a female vampire who took advantage of his attempts at seduction and weakened him immensely. With his mental and physical strength gone he has fled to The Empire to escape his adversaries and regain his talent. In an attempt to join the national adventuring association, The Guild, he has convinced Grug with the promise of food to follow him in his adventures.
Aria Amastaria(CN Dark Elf Druid)-A dark elf who grew up in one of the many metropolises of the empire. Her family valued the importance of their ancestral ways and thus revered nature even in the heart of an urban environment. She was taught druidic ways by her family, but her studies were cut short after her mother, the matriarch of her family, was assassinated. She joined other relatives in the hunt for this assassin. They all eventually went their separate ways to find the trail. Some met tragic ends, while Aria found herself in The Green Coast with the trail she followed leading to seemingly nothing. As she tries to recoup expenses she has recently been hired by the dwarves, Harbek Fireforge and Flint Anvil, to act as one of their guides in the hunt for a missing girl.
Adran Carric(LN Wood Elf Ranger)-Adran is a wood elf native to The Green Coast. He is from a small town in the dangerous lands of the North where monsters run wild and powerful necromancers hide to practice their arts. He learned the skills of a ranger out of necessity for his survival and his trade as a hunter. However, he is haunted by the death of childhood friend. He witnessed the murder as a monster consumed his friend before his eyes in his young adult years. Since then his meditations are interrupted by ghastly visions of the murder, though each time the monster changes...a monstrous beast, a beautiful vampire, an indescribable abomination. They change frequently his true memory of the monster has been lost. However, he knows it is true because the voice of the monster calls out to him frequently in an alien tongue that he fully understands, but never heard before the murder. In an attempt to find the monster or ease his mind he has taken to the life of an adventurer. He was hired by Harbek and Flint to act as a second guide int heir quest to rescue a missing girl.
Flint Anvil(CG Mountain Dwarf Divine Soul Sorcerer)-Flint Anvil is talented smith from a prominent clan of dwarven artisans. However, this clan looks down on the practice of magic. They see it as a shortcut that is unneeded and brings shame to their clan name which is known for their skill in crafting. However, the clan's bloodline has also been touched by divine blood leading to a child with sorcerous powers every few generations. Some learn to suppress their powers and accept their family's ways, but others like Flint are cast out as they believe magic is a tool to enhance their talents. Flint seeks to prove to himself and his family that his magic is something that should be accepted. He eventually found himself in the service of Harbek Fireforge, a cleric of one of the widespread angelic churches of The Empire. Harbek seeks to find a girl in the North of The Green Coast, she holds a powerful artifact and possesses inhuman talents that are important to his faith, but a month ago she has gone missing.
The first session mostly consisted of character creation. Flint's player couldn't make it, and Adran's along with Aria's player had to leave shortly after character creation. I plan on being more detailed with future sessions, but I just wanted to get basic info down from the first major session...
Jack Fletcher and Grug began by waking up in the inn they rented a room from late in the night before. The inn was called The Golden Eagle, or The Copper Pigeon by the locals due to the shady customers and business found within. Jack sought admittance into The Guild, an organization started by The Empire that accepted skilled adventurers who they paid with taxes so others would have to pay the adventurers less to complete tasks; this way people could cheaply solve issues while The Empire kept tabs on adventurers to stop illicit activities. Because of this, Jack and Grug who were not members had to turn to more questionable sources to prove their talents. Over morning drinks they spotted two foreign figures standing by the fireplace. One was an imposing man with olive-brown skin, fierce eyes, a curved sword, and clothing meant for a desert beneath the furs he clung to for warmth. The other was an average height, but extremely thin woman in similar attire except for her lack of weapon, but she had porcelain skin and features similar to the oriental people of the far East who were rare, but popular mercenaries among The Empire's forces.
Jack and Grug approached and introduced themselves. The man, from a kingdom across the Sea to the South explained to the pair that they were in a hurry, but it was fortunate they approached. His name was Rashid, and she was a former slave(a lie as she was still a slave, but no one knows as of yet) who assisted him in hunting monsters of the night. In his homeland a hunter of beasts known as Rictavio assisted them and recently has asked for their assistance in dealing with a horror within the forests beyond The Green Coast. Rashid, the girl known as Qianyu, and his childhood friend who was not present had another quest they were preparing to abandon to instead help Rictavio. But Rashid asked the pair to go in his stead, so he didn't abandon his acquaintance Harbek who was also tasked with the quest.
The second session began with the pair arriving at the town of Andai, a fairly large town between the start of two mountain ranges that encompassed the northern part of the region. At the local tavern they met Harbek along with his companions: Flint, Adran, and Aria. He expressed his disappointment that Rashid didn't come, but was glad he sent people in his stead. Harbek explained to the group that The Empire was interested in an artifact secretly given to a girl name Katarina who lived in the village of Shadowgrange. The Empire hoped this artifact could release one of the angels who led one of their angelic churches from a celestial prison she trapped herself in along with a powerful demon. However, there are demonic cultists within The Empire's ranks, so the artifact had to be studied in secret, and they sent it to the frontier of the Empire in a dangerous lands called Falkan. These lands were unofficially ruled by vampiric nobles. The Empire, fearful the vampires would incite rebellion, never sent guards farther North than Andai. Instead, the angelic churches mustered the local faithful as religious guards sanctioned by The Empire known as Cathars. However, Harbek's church had lost contact with her one month ago. Harbek is in charge of the investigation, but knows he was followed due to his association with the angelic church led by the trapped angel, so he planned on sending the group Northwest to Shadowgrange to begin the investigation, while he attempted to lose his tail on a path heading Northeast before doubling back.
The next day the group headed off between the mountain ranges marking the confines of Falkan. They quickly figured out the land was lonely, desolate, and dangerous. They came across an abandoned church in the hope of finding other travelers, but were instead met by the animated skeletons of four Cathars who resided inside. The fearless Grug called out to them and battle commenced. Aria and Adran snuck around either side of the church while the rest ran down the middle. The battle went by quickly as Adran, Grug, and Flint crushed the skeletons with arrows and blades. Jack had unfortunate luck, constantly missing throughout the fight. And Aria comedically spent the whole fight setting up a single attack that missed. The adventurers rested for an hour to tend to Grug's wounds as he was pelted by two arrows.
After the short rest the group headed out until nightfall began to approach. They spotted a cave on the side of the road purposely dug out one day away from Andai. Within was a broken shrine to the trapped angel along with an older man wearing worn, commoner's clothing. Jack and Aria spoke with the man, he said he was traveling to Shadowgrange, but was afraid to journey from the shrine due to the danger on the roads. The group knew he was not telling the whole truth, but decided not to dig deeper. They agreed to escort him to Shadowgrange and set up camp around the shrine for the night.
We ended the session as Aria, keeping watch beneath full moon began to hear the dog-like whimpers from this mysterious traveler just as he began his transformation...
The night opened up with immediate action as the mysterious traveler, Anthony, transformed into a werewolf, hungry for prey. Given Adran's quick wits and keen perception, he quickly awoke from his elven meditation as the werewolf completed his transformation and was able to engage the beast before it could strike his helpless companions. Adran had looted a short sword from the animated skeleton of a Cathar the day before, and has he drew the blade he found it gave a dim, silver light as inscriptions upon the blade glowed in the beast's presence(The adventure oddly has the possibility of throwing a werewolf at a group who would be in no way equipped to fight them, so I decided to make the looted weapons from the day before into one-fight use silver weapons). The rest of the party awoke as Adran yelled in response to the werewolf's bite, and ended up losing his group as he swung back with his sword causing to fall to his feet(we use a fumble/critical table). The rest of the group entered the fray, swinging blades or spells. The beast quickly fell, though not before biting the raging Grug.
After the fight the glowing inscriptions in Adran's and Grug's short swords along with a few of Aria's used arrows turned black and let off a dark smoke, signaling their expenditures. After searching Anthony's pack the group found a couple of healing potions, a few gold, and a couple of similarly inscribed weapons. The group returned to resting for the rest of the night and set off the next morning. The day was uneventful and lonely, no animals or travelers to be seen. As the path narrowed as it traversed the mountain the group was forced to camp on top of the path for the night. Two shadows descended upon the resting party as Adran stood watch. He didn't notice their approach until they already sapped some of his strength away. However, fight lasted mere seconds as Flint incinerated one with radiant energy from his guiding bolt and the rest of the party quickly dispatched of the remaining shadow.
The next morning the party headed out. As the mountainous path began to descend into a valley the party heard a nearby explosion. Not too far from them, three Vrocks crawled out of a cave and took to the skies. Grug wanted to pursue, but the rest of the party convinced him otherwise as they were wary. However, shortly after, a small devil riding a death dog emerged from the cave and charged the party. With a single shot Adran shot and killed the devil from atop the dog's back as the party's opening move. But, the dog proved more resilient as it engaged with Grug. The rest of the party closed in as Grug took a few powerful hits from the dog, thankfully for the Orc barbarian the dog was never quite able to connect with both of its head on a single round. The dog was dispatched, though Grug required healing that Aria gladly administered to with her druidic magic. The party searched the cave to find the remains of a demonic ritual, burnt cultists littered the cave's floor. But after a time the group found a hidden stash within the cave containing some gold ingots, a wand, and a potion that grants strength. Shortly after the group returned to the path and headed to Shadowgrange.
In the late afternoon the group climbed their last incline and saw Shadowgrange at the end of fields filled with flocks of sheep and shepherds tending to those flocks. The group continued down the path, until they reached the gates of the fairly large village nestled into the mountainside. Twin Cathars, Sven and Lars, guarded the gates and required the group to present open palms. They touched a silver holy symbol to each palm looking for the party's reaction. Everyone had a completely normal reaction, until it was Grug's turn. The symbol felt unnaturally hot against Grug's skin. Fortunately, the guards were looking for burns, not realizing that the symbol had a smaller affect upon those cursed with Lycanthropy, but had not yet turned. However, the group had noticed something is up. Unbeknownst to the party, they have one month till he transforms.
The group inquired about Katarina and restocking supplies which the guards pointed them towards the high priestess Flora and the town's places of business respectively. The group split up; Adran, Aria, and Jack headed towards to town's chapel while Flint and Grug who self appointed himself as the group's pack-mule and thus carried all the treasure headed towards the blacksmith. Flint, being a dwarf, felt comfortable in armor and sought to buy breastplate which was out of his price range. After a bit of haggling the blacksmith decided to sell the armor at half price if Flint was able to perform the religious rites to bless newly crafted silver weapons for the town's local cathars. Flint came from a religious family and had celestial blood in his veins and was able to perform the rites lost to the village after the mayor's passing. Until the night Flint assisted the blacksmith.
The rest of the group met Flora and inquired about Katarina. They found out she was the mayor's daughter and also opposed vampires ruling the land unanswered. However, as she tried to muster support to resist their reign the Falkanwrath nobles dispatched their knights to the town. Fearful of the vampiric knights, the town allowed them to walk to the mayor's home and slaughter the mayor as well kidnap Katarina one month ago. Since then, unsettling moaning and weeping could be heard from the former mayor's house. But fearful of wrathful ghosts, the town decided it was best not to investigate in fear of losing one of their few cathar guardians. Shadowgrange happens to be the hometown and resting place of Saint Traft, so Jack and Adran prayed at his memorial while Aria inquired about the wand they found. Flora promised the group that if they stopped the presumed haunting of the mayor's home she would pay them gold, identify their wand, and give them a key to the abandoned alchemist shop which was owned by Katarina's fiance who abandoned the town after watching it's citizens allow his love to be stolen.
Afterwords Aria went to the general store and met an old couple who ran the shop. They were cultists who left the demonic summoning before the explosion occurred. They were able to hand off a cursed weapon and some scrolls to Aria, pretending that they were gifts to assist them in searching the mayor's home. As of now, on one suspects a thing. Finally, Adran headed to the town's fletcher to find a powerful bow, but had no luck. Though they did inform him of a flower that grew in the swamp to the North that could fend off vampires. They offered gold if they were willing to retrieve it.
As night began the group met at the local inn. Believing time was of the essence, and besides going to the vampire noble estate the mayor's home likely had the best clues to find the artifact they sought, they decided to immediately head to the mayor's home at the risk of growing exhausted...
Update: The player for Flint was not present this week, so it was decided that his work on blessing the silver weaponry would take the entire night. As a note, my personal preference is not to let players play other characters when they are absent. I don't want absent characters to overshadow present characters, plus I neither want to protect a character being used or let a character die while the player is absent.
Session: After regrouping at The Silver Rose Inn the group decided they would investigate the mayor's home which was supposedly haunted at the behest of the head priestess along with their own goals of finding the lost holy artifact. Flint found blessing the artifacts took more work than he initially supposed and decided to work through the night.
The group came to the abandoned home...the front door was left ajar, the mirror to ward vampires was smashed in, a dozen bloody foot prints laid at the entrance, and the windows were pitch black despite the bright waning moon. The group entered the home and found when they lit a torch the light extended fifteen feet before it met a black inky wall that was the darkness. Along the wall was a line of blood purposely left behind that led to the staircase that wrapped around the hawthorne tree that the home was built around. They investigated the first floor which was made up of only a kitchen and dining space on one side of the tree, with a common area on the other. The kitchen had nothing interesting, it was merely an abandoned kitchen. However, the common room had mutilated body of the mayor covered in a dozen stab wounds plus an equal amount of claw marks.
Unbeknownst to the group, a poltergeist of the murdered mayor was watching the group to see what they would do. As they began to take books from a bookshelf the poltergeist responded by throwing others books at the perceived thieves. This led Adron to believe there was importance to the bookshelf, so Aria and himself investigated further while Grug and Jack headed upstairs to follow the trail of blood. Adron couldn't find anything, so Aria used her druidic magic to help her search and detected the presence of the poltergeist who was heading upstairs to follow the other two.
Grug and Jack followed the blood trail to an ornate music room complete with a piano, flute, violin, paintings, and numerous music stands and chairs. Grug attempted to pick up the flute covered in blood which was met with a bash in the head by a possessed chair. Grug, being a simple orc, began to duel with the possessed furniture as Jack continued his investigation which came up cold. Eventually Adron and Aria came up to assist in the search. Aria used her magic once more to find the mysterious presence which was quickly met with an axe from Grug before anybody else could respond. The group fought with the invisible ghost, except for Aria who noticed one of the painting was magical. As the fight raged on Aria found she could stick her hand through a painting of a canary in a rusty cage beside a locked chest. Within she felt a chest, but it was locked. Around that time Grug landed the finishing blow against the ghost lifting unnatural darkness from the home.
The group began searching the room for a key, but instead found to music sheets with written notes, one said play and the other said read. If the notes were translated the "Read" sheet would spell out aged cage to point to the correct painting. But the group mostly ignored that sheet and began playing the other music on the bloody flute. Nothing happened, but Jack got the inspiration to use the violin instead. He played the piece and the room lit up with magical light, and the group found the chest within the painting had opened. Within was the magic tuning fork, however, one of the tines was missing.
Though the group had to find the rest of the artifact, they knew the alchemist's shop used to belong to Katarina's fiance, so they decided to rest and investigate that home once they secured their reward from Flora, the priestess. In the night the geist of Saint Traft appeared in Jack's dreams offering his silver spear to assist, knowing a horrible evil was coming.
The next morning the four received their key, identified wand, and two hundred gold from the priestess before they went to investigate the shop. The shop was small as the dying hawthorne tree took up most of the center, but it had a few useful items. The group secured a few leftover potion that hand't spoiled. There was a fair amount of valuable alchemical equipment, but unfortunately due to the lack of alchemists no one in the town would be interested, so the group decided to leave the supplies behind until it was time to leave town. Further investigation led the group to find a lever in the fireplace that opened a crawlspace behind the fireplace. The group entered and climbed down a small flight of stairs to find a basement covered in earth, foliage, and dying tree roots. The far side of the room had a desk along with an operating table that carried a corpse. The two side walls held various flasks with tubes extending from them to the dying tree. As the group went to the far side to investigate the corpse, the foliage which were blights created by Siegfried got up and ambushed the party...
...Six seconds later all of the blights were dead and the part went back to investigating. They found a journal that described Siegfried's descent into nechro-alchemy after his fiance's disappearance. The group also found a coded letter that they deciphered after some time which proved to be a letter from another necro-alchemist who Siegfried was receiving advice from. In the letter it was suggested that Siegfried move his operation North to an abandoned estate known as the Maur Estate.
The group left to report the news to the priestess, but found the town gathering in center. Two dozen refugees from the town of Mordov, one day to the North, arrived after a large horde of zombie attacked that were heading this direction. Harbek Fireforge, the dwarf who originally hired the party came across the refugees as he looped around Shadowgrange to lose his stalkers. He saw the party and invited them to come meet the leaders of the town to discuss what to do.
The leaders: the priestess, Levi who led the cathars, and Eckhardt who was a former Cathar that now ran the inn discussed what to do and presented two options. Stay in Shadowgrange and defend the town hoping the walls would be enough to prevent a the zombies from annihilating the town quickly or attempt to flee East to Fort Moonglow, the fort was the largest Cathar fortress that housed three times as many cathars as Shadowgrange. However, the evacuation would be a three day journey with guaranteed deaths as beasts and demons alike would no doubt prey upon the large migration of people, but the extra cathar forces would be enough to defeat the horde.
The party along with Harbek cast their vote to defend the town with the hope that if all goes right few people will die. Scouts returned later and reported that roughly four hundred zombies, two dozen skeletons, three large zombies made from numerous stitched bodies, and one teenage girl who was herding them all were heading their way. It would take the horde another two days to arrive, so the party and the town got to planning.
The party decided that Adron and Grug would attempt to harass the horde on horseback with support form Harbek. Meanwhile, Flint would set up religious wards along the walls and then try to craft as many crude weapons for the Cathars and volunteers that he could. Jack and Aria would attempt to boost morale and convince more less abled people to help fight. The town is focusing their defenses on the single entrance, two large wooden doors that serve as a gate, as the zombies appear to have no real sieging capabilities.
The plan seems solid, the town will thin out zombies who try to break the gate and if it does fall the town will be there to fight them back at the chokepoint that is the entrance. The biggest risk in the plan is Grug's and Adron's plans to harass the enemy; if it goes well then some of the skeleton archers or the large zombies can be eliminated further reducing the chance the gate will fall, but they are confronting a horde of hundreds of zombies and have very fair chance of not returning...
The group sent to look for Katarina and her artifact hope to hold the town, and so a siege is inevitable. Grug, Adron, and Harbek who originally hired them headed out to meet the horde and see what damage they could do after handing off any items they had that weren't needed to the rest of the group. They each took a horse and made the long journey North through the marshy lands.
Meanwhile, Flint decided to assist the town's clergy in reigniting holy wards that were left abandoned after the mayor's death. The task took him most of the day as he had to perform the rituals individually with each ward along the entirety of the wall. Aria attempted to convince more townsfolk to volunteer for the defense and boost morale, but sadly her words did not inspire anyone to fight or feel more confident. Jack had better luck as he attempted to find volunteers to act as messengers during the battle to quickly get info around in the midst of the fight.
During the morning of the second day Adron, Grug, and Harbek found where they wanted to make their attack. They found a long, but low hill that the horde would approach the side of. There they would hide their horses on one side as they engaged the zombies on the other side, if the situation got dire the three would run back behind the hill for cover and make their getaway. They had no intentions of making a significant dent in the roughly four hundred zombies that were coming; but the scouts reported two dozen skeleton archers, three large zombies made of multiple bodies that could threaten the gate, and a teenage girl who appeared to be herding the whole horde could be key targets to remove before the siege. Unfortunately, the majority of these key targets were at the center of the horde.
Adron posted up on the hill, and Grug charged over the top towards the zombies on the outskirts of the horde. They decided Harbek should stay with their horses and provide healing when they came back over the hill. There was about ten zombies immediately before the two, with the next few zombies being about a minute out. They easily dispatched them as Adron protected Grug with his magic. The next waves came after they finished off the first, it had about twice the numbers plus a few skeletons to pepper them with arrows. At first things were fine, the zombies surrounded Grug, but had little success in actually hitting him. Unfortunately, Grug never ran that far from Adron, so as the zombies surrounded him some broke off to attack the elven ranger. Adron lost focus on his spell and Grug became more vulnerable to the zombies. Grug managed to fight off the zombies, but not before taking a few solid hits he had to use one of his three healing potions for.
Another minute passed and even more zombies came, this time from all three sides in front of the hill as the center of the horde moved closer to the hill. The two continued to fight, but the increasing numbers were a lot to handle as Grug had to use the last of the his potions and Adron used one of his. As the fourth waved arrived, Adron was ready to leave, but Grug saw one of the larger zombies arrived on the battlefield and was determined to fight it. Adron kept popping out from behind the hill to avoid the half dozen skeleton archers that accumulated by now, but Grug stubbornly stood his ground hoping his rage would shed off enough of the blows to allow him to defeat the stitched zombie giant.
By time the stitched zombie reached Grug he was completely surrounded, but the center of the horde arrived. The necromancer and the other two stitched zombies showed up and were closing in on Grug. The orc barbarian did not want to leave the fight without inflicting some damage. He yelled for Adron to leave as he charged the necromancer...past two dozen zombies including the large stitched zombie...Adron heard the animalistic screams of his orc companion go silent as he mounted his horse to ride away with Harbek in defeat...
By time Adron and Harbek were able to maneuver back around the horde and on toe Shadowgrange they had only an hour before the horde would strike which they realized would be the dead of night. Thankfully Aria tried to inspire the people once more with significant more success and Flint did his best to forge a few more weapons for the town. The news of Grug's passing was disclosed, but there wasn't much time to mourn as the zombies arrived at the town's door...
There was one weak point in the wall, the main and only gate, so the majority of the defense was focused there. Aria and Flint did the most in preventing disaster at the gate. Shortly before the arrival of the zombies Aria filled barrels with oil and placed them away from the gate. Flint used them as anchors for webs to try to catch the two stitched zombies who charged the gate. They eventually broke free of the web, so Aria blasted the barrels with flaming sphere to ignite the large zombies before they arrived.
Meanwhile the skeleton archers assembled to pepper the towns defense upon the wall, but everyone focused on the two large zombies who were bashing the gate and a minute later the two fell. A fair amount of cathars and civilian volunteers perished to arrows, but the gate was much more secure. Attention was diverted to the archers and the situation seemed handled.
A messenger arrived to inform the town leaders and the party that a section of the wall on the far side of town was being assaulted by magic and would fall soon, but there were not enough soldiers to hold a breach in that section. The gate would hold for a while, but would eventually fall after hit from the stitched zombies. So the party thought it best to keep most of the town's defenders at the gate to hold the chokepoint for that eventual breach and they headed off. And that is where we ended things.
Afterthoughts: Really wasn't expecting a character death this early and I really didn't want one this early. However, I have a personal rule where I won't ever cheat in my or the player's favor and I won't ever pull punches or try to kill a player. I feel the player saw the werewolf curse as a death sentence rather than a a challenge to overcome, so he was more reckless.
I plan on introducing his new character after the siege, so after the next session. It may be a flaw of mine, but I really don't enjoy having character magically and conveniently show up, I want a little believable continuity. The player will play Captain Levi who heads the Cathars for next session.
I am running 5th edition for the first time along with players who haven't played it. We are all 3.5 veterans who also play Exalted on the side, so thankfully we understand the gist of roleplaying and most of the rules. We are all just familiarizing ourselves with relatively few changes between 3.5 and 5th edition. We have started off with SpiketailDrake's Army of the Damned from Reddit (Apparently I have only posted 5 times on Giantitp so I can't post links yet...). That should take the players from level 1 to level 5. After that we will go into a heavily modified version of Curse of Strahd that will take the players from level 5 to 15 which should wrap up the campaign if they make it that far.
We have sessions once a week for about 4 hours. I welcome feedback and suggestions, but for the most part I am using this to record events and as a practice to recall various details to bring up later. So to begin...
Army of the Damned will be played as is. I might change some of the treasure if I think it does not fit and I may insert some NPCs who may appear later in the story.
The focus will be Curse of Strahd which I have begun heavily expanding and modifying to fit a higher level party and to make a less direct objective. To do this I extended the Southern reaches of the map to eventually arrive at a coastline, I have added 3-4 settlements(I am still deciding the need of one), I hope to design a reflection of the land in The Feywild and The Shadowfell that can be visited(though they will not be required, they will provide information and possibly tools to assist), expanding Barovia to be a more important influential location to help make this more long-lasting, and finally the addition of two new factions within this land.
The biggest change is likely the addition of the new factions, one which represents a villain on par with Strahd. This faction is inspired by the Cthulhu mythos and will likely be led by a powerful Aboleth or equally powerful/interesting abberation that washed up on the Southern shore near one of the new settlements, a large fishing village. This alien entity has begun a cult in this town that worships it in exchange for mystic powers and transformations. The abberation's goal is to usurp Strahd and become the unquestioned god of this dark realm. Unlike Strahd this being works in secret and is not all-present, and thus the corresponding questline will be focused on investigation to discover this threat.
To learn of this quest the players must either side with Strahd after some convincing, or come across the other new faction. This faction is made up of agents from The Empire who have occupied an abandoned mining village in the mountains under the guise of Barovians loyal to Strahd who are mining the silver mine and shipping it to Caste Ravenloft so other cannot have the dangerous metal. On the opposite side of the dark realm is another empire controlled by clever Yuan-Ti who The Empire fears. As long as Strahd remains in power, the impenetrable border that is Ravenloft remains keeping The Empire safe. This faction will serve as the primary hook to investigate the eldritch cult of the South who defy Strahd's reign with alarming success which may inspire other settlements to challenge his authority, or they will serve as an adversary in the assistance of Barovia.
The rest of the changes are relatively minor and mostly are made to reflect a longer campaign, and to move Strahd from the "all powerful villain" to the "most powerful villain". I don't want an omnipotent villain who knows all and rules because the land bends to his will. I want a villain who knows everything (albeit not immediately) because he has loyal servants everywhere and the people bend to his will because they know defiance will be met with retribution that is unmatched. This way players can be rewarded for dealing with agents of Strahd, so that they can earn moments of respite. I also want the possibility to side with Strahd to be present.
I am expanding Barovia to be a much larger village with hundreds of people rather than dozens. It will be a town that was loyal to Strahd out of fear, but within the last month a half-orc paladin from beyond the mist gave up his quest to hunt Strahd to instead help the people of Barovia. So as he trains a militia and restores hope in the people, Strahd will eventually take notice and show them why he should be feared. However, if the players stay they can work with the paladin to make Barovia a bastion of hope within the land. I plan disconnecting the werewolves from Strahd and tying them more as a specific threat to Barovia for their questline and adding some minor expansions to them along with the addition of numerous "helpful" NPCs to all of the land.
Everyone knows that this will be Ravenloft beforehand, but since most of the players are not familiar with that they know it will be a Gothic Horror setting. The custom setting I have began to flesh out starts them on the frontiers of The Empire. Given the size and current lack of rivals of The Empire it has no official name, but, it has nicknames such as: The Winter Empire, The Thri-Kreen, The Mirror Empire, and the Antruvian Empire. To make a long story short (especially since most of the campaign takes place in Ravenloft), The Empire is made up of Thri-Kreen who were uplifted by magic from Fey of the Winter Court who act as The Empire's advisors. Kobolds hold special rights within The Empire as they serve as its loyal forces in exerting their influence over the Underdark.
However, The Empire is not heavy handed in its reign over other territories. They have small garrison forces, require taxes be paid, but let regions within their territory govern themselves. The players start in The Green Coast, the Western frontier of The Empire whose border is marked by a thick, imposing forest perpetually covered in heavy fog that claims the lives of any who dare journey through. They begin in the capital city Brookshire, though any from deeper within The Empire would not call it a city.
Starting at level 1...
Grug(CN Orc Barbarian)-A simple orc who grew up traveling on the road with his father. After his father's death he took to adventuring with a simple motivation: to feed himself with the talent he has, his strength. After meeting the bard, Jack Fletcher, he was convinced to join forces to gain more coin and make sure he is fed for all of his life. As his name implies, Grug is a a simple being with simple solutions. However, every once in a while his experience on the road allows him to come up with uncharacteristically clever solutions.
Jack Fletcher(NG Human Bard)-A veteran and foreign adventurer with countless tales about his own deeds, that few believe. Every story he tells about himself his true, but his last few encounters ended in defeat that left him mentally and physically weakened. His final encounter was with a female vampire who took advantage of his attempts at seduction and weakened him immensely. With his mental and physical strength gone he has fled to The Empire to escape his adversaries and regain his talent. In an attempt to join the national adventuring association, The Guild, he has convinced Grug with the promise of food to follow him in his adventures.
Aria Amastaria(CN Dark Elf Druid)-A dark elf who grew up in one of the many metropolises of the empire. Her family valued the importance of their ancestral ways and thus revered nature even in the heart of an urban environment. She was taught druidic ways by her family, but her studies were cut short after her mother, the matriarch of her family, was assassinated. She joined other relatives in the hunt for this assassin. They all eventually went their separate ways to find the trail. Some met tragic ends, while Aria found herself in The Green Coast with the trail she followed leading to seemingly nothing. As she tries to recoup expenses she has recently been hired by the dwarves, Harbek Fireforge and Flint Anvil, to act as one of their guides in the hunt for a missing girl.
Adran Carric(LN Wood Elf Ranger)-Adran is a wood elf native to The Green Coast. He is from a small town in the dangerous lands of the North where monsters run wild and powerful necromancers hide to practice their arts. He learned the skills of a ranger out of necessity for his survival and his trade as a hunter. However, he is haunted by the death of childhood friend. He witnessed the murder as a monster consumed his friend before his eyes in his young adult years. Since then his meditations are interrupted by ghastly visions of the murder, though each time the monster changes...a monstrous beast, a beautiful vampire, an indescribable abomination. They change frequently his true memory of the monster has been lost. However, he knows it is true because the voice of the monster calls out to him frequently in an alien tongue that he fully understands, but never heard before the murder. In an attempt to find the monster or ease his mind he has taken to the life of an adventurer. He was hired by Harbek and Flint to act as a second guide int heir quest to rescue a missing girl.
Flint Anvil(CG Mountain Dwarf Divine Soul Sorcerer)-Flint Anvil is talented smith from a prominent clan of dwarven artisans. However, this clan looks down on the practice of magic. They see it as a shortcut that is unneeded and brings shame to their clan name which is known for their skill in crafting. However, the clan's bloodline has also been touched by divine blood leading to a child with sorcerous powers every few generations. Some learn to suppress their powers and accept their family's ways, but others like Flint are cast out as they believe magic is a tool to enhance their talents. Flint seeks to prove to himself and his family that his magic is something that should be accepted. He eventually found himself in the service of Harbek Fireforge, a cleric of one of the widespread angelic churches of The Empire. Harbek seeks to find a girl in the North of The Green Coast, she holds a powerful artifact and possesses inhuman talents that are important to his faith, but a month ago she has gone missing.
The first session mostly consisted of character creation. Flint's player couldn't make it, and Adran's along with Aria's player had to leave shortly after character creation. I plan on being more detailed with future sessions, but I just wanted to get basic info down from the first major session...
Jack Fletcher and Grug began by waking up in the inn they rented a room from late in the night before. The inn was called The Golden Eagle, or The Copper Pigeon by the locals due to the shady customers and business found within. Jack sought admittance into The Guild, an organization started by The Empire that accepted skilled adventurers who they paid with taxes so others would have to pay the adventurers less to complete tasks; this way people could cheaply solve issues while The Empire kept tabs on adventurers to stop illicit activities. Because of this, Jack and Grug who were not members had to turn to more questionable sources to prove their talents. Over morning drinks they spotted two foreign figures standing by the fireplace. One was an imposing man with olive-brown skin, fierce eyes, a curved sword, and clothing meant for a desert beneath the furs he clung to for warmth. The other was an average height, but extremely thin woman in similar attire except for her lack of weapon, but she had porcelain skin and features similar to the oriental people of the far East who were rare, but popular mercenaries among The Empire's forces.
Jack and Grug approached and introduced themselves. The man, from a kingdom across the Sea to the South explained to the pair that they were in a hurry, but it was fortunate they approached. His name was Rashid, and she was a former slave(a lie as she was still a slave, but no one knows as of yet) who assisted him in hunting monsters of the night. In his homeland a hunter of beasts known as Rictavio assisted them and recently has asked for their assistance in dealing with a horror within the forests beyond The Green Coast. Rashid, the girl known as Qianyu, and his childhood friend who was not present had another quest they were preparing to abandon to instead help Rictavio. But Rashid asked the pair to go in his stead, so he didn't abandon his acquaintance Harbek who was also tasked with the quest.
The second session began with the pair arriving at the town of Andai, a fairly large town between the start of two mountain ranges that encompassed the northern part of the region. At the local tavern they met Harbek along with his companions: Flint, Adran, and Aria. He expressed his disappointment that Rashid didn't come, but was glad he sent people in his stead. Harbek explained to the group that The Empire was interested in an artifact secretly given to a girl name Katarina who lived in the village of Shadowgrange. The Empire hoped this artifact could release one of the angels who led one of their angelic churches from a celestial prison she trapped herself in along with a powerful demon. However, there are demonic cultists within The Empire's ranks, so the artifact had to be studied in secret, and they sent it to the frontier of the Empire in a dangerous lands called Falkan. These lands were unofficially ruled by vampiric nobles. The Empire, fearful the vampires would incite rebellion, never sent guards farther North than Andai. Instead, the angelic churches mustered the local faithful as religious guards sanctioned by The Empire known as Cathars. However, Harbek's church had lost contact with her one month ago. Harbek is in charge of the investigation, but knows he was followed due to his association with the angelic church led by the trapped angel, so he planned on sending the group Northwest to Shadowgrange to begin the investigation, while he attempted to lose his tail on a path heading Northeast before doubling back.
The next day the group headed off between the mountain ranges marking the confines of Falkan. They quickly figured out the land was lonely, desolate, and dangerous. They came across an abandoned church in the hope of finding other travelers, but were instead met by the animated skeletons of four Cathars who resided inside. The fearless Grug called out to them and battle commenced. Aria and Adran snuck around either side of the church while the rest ran down the middle. The battle went by quickly as Adran, Grug, and Flint crushed the skeletons with arrows and blades. Jack had unfortunate luck, constantly missing throughout the fight. And Aria comedically spent the whole fight setting up a single attack that missed. The adventurers rested for an hour to tend to Grug's wounds as he was pelted by two arrows.
After the short rest the group headed out until nightfall began to approach. They spotted a cave on the side of the road purposely dug out one day away from Andai. Within was a broken shrine to the trapped angel along with an older man wearing worn, commoner's clothing. Jack and Aria spoke with the man, he said he was traveling to Shadowgrange, but was afraid to journey from the shrine due to the danger on the roads. The group knew he was not telling the whole truth, but decided not to dig deeper. They agreed to escort him to Shadowgrange and set up camp around the shrine for the night.
We ended the session as Aria, keeping watch beneath full moon began to hear the dog-like whimpers from this mysterious traveler just as he began his transformation...
The night opened up with immediate action as the mysterious traveler, Anthony, transformed into a werewolf, hungry for prey. Given Adran's quick wits and keen perception, he quickly awoke from his elven meditation as the werewolf completed his transformation and was able to engage the beast before it could strike his helpless companions. Adran had looted a short sword from the animated skeleton of a Cathar the day before, and has he drew the blade he found it gave a dim, silver light as inscriptions upon the blade glowed in the beast's presence(The adventure oddly has the possibility of throwing a werewolf at a group who would be in no way equipped to fight them, so I decided to make the looted weapons from the day before into one-fight use silver weapons). The rest of the party awoke as Adran yelled in response to the werewolf's bite, and ended up losing his group as he swung back with his sword causing to fall to his feet(we use a fumble/critical table). The rest of the group entered the fray, swinging blades or spells. The beast quickly fell, though not before biting the raging Grug.
After the fight the glowing inscriptions in Adran's and Grug's short swords along with a few of Aria's used arrows turned black and let off a dark smoke, signaling their expenditures. After searching Anthony's pack the group found a couple of healing potions, a few gold, and a couple of similarly inscribed weapons. The group returned to resting for the rest of the night and set off the next morning. The day was uneventful and lonely, no animals or travelers to be seen. As the path narrowed as it traversed the mountain the group was forced to camp on top of the path for the night. Two shadows descended upon the resting party as Adran stood watch. He didn't notice their approach until they already sapped some of his strength away. However, fight lasted mere seconds as Flint incinerated one with radiant energy from his guiding bolt and the rest of the party quickly dispatched of the remaining shadow.
The next morning the party headed out. As the mountainous path began to descend into a valley the party heard a nearby explosion. Not too far from them, three Vrocks crawled out of a cave and took to the skies. Grug wanted to pursue, but the rest of the party convinced him otherwise as they were wary. However, shortly after, a small devil riding a death dog emerged from the cave and charged the party. With a single shot Adran shot and killed the devil from atop the dog's back as the party's opening move. But, the dog proved more resilient as it engaged with Grug. The rest of the party closed in as Grug took a few powerful hits from the dog, thankfully for the Orc barbarian the dog was never quite able to connect with both of its head on a single round. The dog was dispatched, though Grug required healing that Aria gladly administered to with her druidic magic. The party searched the cave to find the remains of a demonic ritual, burnt cultists littered the cave's floor. But after a time the group found a hidden stash within the cave containing some gold ingots, a wand, and a potion that grants strength. Shortly after the group returned to the path and headed to Shadowgrange.
In the late afternoon the group climbed their last incline and saw Shadowgrange at the end of fields filled with flocks of sheep and shepherds tending to those flocks. The group continued down the path, until they reached the gates of the fairly large village nestled into the mountainside. Twin Cathars, Sven and Lars, guarded the gates and required the group to present open palms. They touched a silver holy symbol to each palm looking for the party's reaction. Everyone had a completely normal reaction, until it was Grug's turn. The symbol felt unnaturally hot against Grug's skin. Fortunately, the guards were looking for burns, not realizing that the symbol had a smaller affect upon those cursed with Lycanthropy, but had not yet turned. However, the group had noticed something is up. Unbeknownst to the party, they have one month till he transforms.
The group inquired about Katarina and restocking supplies which the guards pointed them towards the high priestess Flora and the town's places of business respectively. The group split up; Adran, Aria, and Jack headed towards to town's chapel while Flint and Grug who self appointed himself as the group's pack-mule and thus carried all the treasure headed towards the blacksmith. Flint, being a dwarf, felt comfortable in armor and sought to buy breastplate which was out of his price range. After a bit of haggling the blacksmith decided to sell the armor at half price if Flint was able to perform the religious rites to bless newly crafted silver weapons for the town's local cathars. Flint came from a religious family and had celestial blood in his veins and was able to perform the rites lost to the village after the mayor's passing. Until the night Flint assisted the blacksmith.
The rest of the group met Flora and inquired about Katarina. They found out she was the mayor's daughter and also opposed vampires ruling the land unanswered. However, as she tried to muster support to resist their reign the Falkanwrath nobles dispatched their knights to the town. Fearful of the vampiric knights, the town allowed them to walk to the mayor's home and slaughter the mayor as well kidnap Katarina one month ago. Since then, unsettling moaning and weeping could be heard from the former mayor's house. But fearful of wrathful ghosts, the town decided it was best not to investigate in fear of losing one of their few cathar guardians. Shadowgrange happens to be the hometown and resting place of Saint Traft, so Jack and Adran prayed at his memorial while Aria inquired about the wand they found. Flora promised the group that if they stopped the presumed haunting of the mayor's home she would pay them gold, identify their wand, and give them a key to the abandoned alchemist shop which was owned by Katarina's fiance who abandoned the town after watching it's citizens allow his love to be stolen.
Afterwords Aria went to the general store and met an old couple who ran the shop. They were cultists who left the demonic summoning before the explosion occurred. They were able to hand off a cursed weapon and some scrolls to Aria, pretending that they were gifts to assist them in searching the mayor's home. As of now, on one suspects a thing. Finally, Adran headed to the town's fletcher to find a powerful bow, but had no luck. Though they did inform him of a flower that grew in the swamp to the North that could fend off vampires. They offered gold if they were willing to retrieve it.
As night began the group met at the local inn. Believing time was of the essence, and besides going to the vampire noble estate the mayor's home likely had the best clues to find the artifact they sought, they decided to immediately head to the mayor's home at the risk of growing exhausted...
Update: The player for Flint was not present this week, so it was decided that his work on blessing the silver weaponry would take the entire night. As a note, my personal preference is not to let players play other characters when they are absent. I don't want absent characters to overshadow present characters, plus I neither want to protect a character being used or let a character die while the player is absent.
Session: After regrouping at The Silver Rose Inn the group decided they would investigate the mayor's home which was supposedly haunted at the behest of the head priestess along with their own goals of finding the lost holy artifact. Flint found blessing the artifacts took more work than he initially supposed and decided to work through the night.
The group came to the abandoned home...the front door was left ajar, the mirror to ward vampires was smashed in, a dozen bloody foot prints laid at the entrance, and the windows were pitch black despite the bright waning moon. The group entered the home and found when they lit a torch the light extended fifteen feet before it met a black inky wall that was the darkness. Along the wall was a line of blood purposely left behind that led to the staircase that wrapped around the hawthorne tree that the home was built around. They investigated the first floor which was made up of only a kitchen and dining space on one side of the tree, with a common area on the other. The kitchen had nothing interesting, it was merely an abandoned kitchen. However, the common room had mutilated body of the mayor covered in a dozen stab wounds plus an equal amount of claw marks.
Unbeknownst to the group, a poltergeist of the murdered mayor was watching the group to see what they would do. As they began to take books from a bookshelf the poltergeist responded by throwing others books at the perceived thieves. This led Adron to believe there was importance to the bookshelf, so Aria and himself investigated further while Grug and Jack headed upstairs to follow the trail of blood. Adron couldn't find anything, so Aria used her druidic magic to help her search and detected the presence of the poltergeist who was heading upstairs to follow the other two.
Grug and Jack followed the blood trail to an ornate music room complete with a piano, flute, violin, paintings, and numerous music stands and chairs. Grug attempted to pick up the flute covered in blood which was met with a bash in the head by a possessed chair. Grug, being a simple orc, began to duel with the possessed furniture as Jack continued his investigation which came up cold. Eventually Adron and Aria came up to assist in the search. Aria used her magic once more to find the mysterious presence which was quickly met with an axe from Grug before anybody else could respond. The group fought with the invisible ghost, except for Aria who noticed one of the painting was magical. As the fight raged on Aria found she could stick her hand through a painting of a canary in a rusty cage beside a locked chest. Within she felt a chest, but it was locked. Around that time Grug landed the finishing blow against the ghost lifting unnatural darkness from the home.
The group began searching the room for a key, but instead found to music sheets with written notes, one said play and the other said read. If the notes were translated the "Read" sheet would spell out aged cage to point to the correct painting. But the group mostly ignored that sheet and began playing the other music on the bloody flute. Nothing happened, but Jack got the inspiration to use the violin instead. He played the piece and the room lit up with magical light, and the group found the chest within the painting had opened. Within was the magic tuning fork, however, one of the tines was missing.
Though the group had to find the rest of the artifact, they knew the alchemist's shop used to belong to Katarina's fiance, so they decided to rest and investigate that home once they secured their reward from Flora, the priestess. In the night the geist of Saint Traft appeared in Jack's dreams offering his silver spear to assist, knowing a horrible evil was coming.
The next morning the four received their key, identified wand, and two hundred gold from the priestess before they went to investigate the shop. The shop was small as the dying hawthorne tree took up most of the center, but it had a few useful items. The group secured a few leftover potion that hand't spoiled. There was a fair amount of valuable alchemical equipment, but unfortunately due to the lack of alchemists no one in the town would be interested, so the group decided to leave the supplies behind until it was time to leave town. Further investigation led the group to find a lever in the fireplace that opened a crawlspace behind the fireplace. The group entered and climbed down a small flight of stairs to find a basement covered in earth, foliage, and dying tree roots. The far side of the room had a desk along with an operating table that carried a corpse. The two side walls held various flasks with tubes extending from them to the dying tree. As the group went to the far side to investigate the corpse, the foliage which were blights created by Siegfried got up and ambushed the party...
...Six seconds later all of the blights were dead and the part went back to investigating. They found a journal that described Siegfried's descent into nechro-alchemy after his fiance's disappearance. The group also found a coded letter that they deciphered after some time which proved to be a letter from another necro-alchemist who Siegfried was receiving advice from. In the letter it was suggested that Siegfried move his operation North to an abandoned estate known as the Maur Estate.
The group left to report the news to the priestess, but found the town gathering in center. Two dozen refugees from the town of Mordov, one day to the North, arrived after a large horde of zombie attacked that were heading this direction. Harbek Fireforge, the dwarf who originally hired the party came across the refugees as he looped around Shadowgrange to lose his stalkers. He saw the party and invited them to come meet the leaders of the town to discuss what to do.
The leaders: the priestess, Levi who led the cathars, and Eckhardt who was a former Cathar that now ran the inn discussed what to do and presented two options. Stay in Shadowgrange and defend the town hoping the walls would be enough to prevent a the zombies from annihilating the town quickly or attempt to flee East to Fort Moonglow, the fort was the largest Cathar fortress that housed three times as many cathars as Shadowgrange. However, the evacuation would be a three day journey with guaranteed deaths as beasts and demons alike would no doubt prey upon the large migration of people, but the extra cathar forces would be enough to defeat the horde.
The party along with Harbek cast their vote to defend the town with the hope that if all goes right few people will die. Scouts returned later and reported that roughly four hundred zombies, two dozen skeletons, three large zombies made from numerous stitched bodies, and one teenage girl who was herding them all were heading their way. It would take the horde another two days to arrive, so the party and the town got to planning.
The party decided that Adron and Grug would attempt to harass the horde on horseback with support form Harbek. Meanwhile, Flint would set up religious wards along the walls and then try to craft as many crude weapons for the Cathars and volunteers that he could. Jack and Aria would attempt to boost morale and convince more less abled people to help fight. The town is focusing their defenses on the single entrance, two large wooden doors that serve as a gate, as the zombies appear to have no real sieging capabilities.
The plan seems solid, the town will thin out zombies who try to break the gate and if it does fall the town will be there to fight them back at the chokepoint that is the entrance. The biggest risk in the plan is Grug's and Adron's plans to harass the enemy; if it goes well then some of the skeleton archers or the large zombies can be eliminated further reducing the chance the gate will fall, but they are confronting a horde of hundreds of zombies and have very fair chance of not returning...
The group sent to look for Katarina and her artifact hope to hold the town, and so a siege is inevitable. Grug, Adron, and Harbek who originally hired them headed out to meet the horde and see what damage they could do after handing off any items they had that weren't needed to the rest of the group. They each took a horse and made the long journey North through the marshy lands.
Meanwhile, Flint decided to assist the town's clergy in reigniting holy wards that were left abandoned after the mayor's death. The task took him most of the day as he had to perform the rituals individually with each ward along the entirety of the wall. Aria attempted to convince more townsfolk to volunteer for the defense and boost morale, but sadly her words did not inspire anyone to fight or feel more confident. Jack had better luck as he attempted to find volunteers to act as messengers during the battle to quickly get info around in the midst of the fight.
During the morning of the second day Adron, Grug, and Harbek found where they wanted to make their attack. They found a long, but low hill that the horde would approach the side of. There they would hide their horses on one side as they engaged the zombies on the other side, if the situation got dire the three would run back behind the hill for cover and make their getaway. They had no intentions of making a significant dent in the roughly four hundred zombies that were coming; but the scouts reported two dozen skeleton archers, three large zombies made of multiple bodies that could threaten the gate, and a teenage girl who appeared to be herding the whole horde could be key targets to remove before the siege. Unfortunately, the majority of these key targets were at the center of the horde.
Adron posted up on the hill, and Grug charged over the top towards the zombies on the outskirts of the horde. They decided Harbek should stay with their horses and provide healing when they came back over the hill. There was about ten zombies immediately before the two, with the next few zombies being about a minute out. They easily dispatched them as Adron protected Grug with his magic. The next waves came after they finished off the first, it had about twice the numbers plus a few skeletons to pepper them with arrows. At first things were fine, the zombies surrounded Grug, but had little success in actually hitting him. Unfortunately, Grug never ran that far from Adron, so as the zombies surrounded him some broke off to attack the elven ranger. Adron lost focus on his spell and Grug became more vulnerable to the zombies. Grug managed to fight off the zombies, but not before taking a few solid hits he had to use one of his three healing potions for.
Another minute passed and even more zombies came, this time from all three sides in front of the hill as the center of the horde moved closer to the hill. The two continued to fight, but the increasing numbers were a lot to handle as Grug had to use the last of the his potions and Adron used one of his. As the fourth waved arrived, Adron was ready to leave, but Grug saw one of the larger zombies arrived on the battlefield and was determined to fight it. Adron kept popping out from behind the hill to avoid the half dozen skeleton archers that accumulated by now, but Grug stubbornly stood his ground hoping his rage would shed off enough of the blows to allow him to defeat the stitched zombie giant.
By time the stitched zombie reached Grug he was completely surrounded, but the center of the horde arrived. The necromancer and the other two stitched zombies showed up and were closing in on Grug. The orc barbarian did not want to leave the fight without inflicting some damage. He yelled for Adron to leave as he charged the necromancer...past two dozen zombies including the large stitched zombie...Adron heard the animalistic screams of his orc companion go silent as he mounted his horse to ride away with Harbek in defeat...
By time Adron and Harbek were able to maneuver back around the horde and on toe Shadowgrange they had only an hour before the horde would strike which they realized would be the dead of night. Thankfully Aria tried to inspire the people once more with significant more success and Flint did his best to forge a few more weapons for the town. The news of Grug's passing was disclosed, but there wasn't much time to mourn as the zombies arrived at the town's door...
There was one weak point in the wall, the main and only gate, so the majority of the defense was focused there. Aria and Flint did the most in preventing disaster at the gate. Shortly before the arrival of the zombies Aria filled barrels with oil and placed them away from the gate. Flint used them as anchors for webs to try to catch the two stitched zombies who charged the gate. They eventually broke free of the web, so Aria blasted the barrels with flaming sphere to ignite the large zombies before they arrived.
Meanwhile the skeleton archers assembled to pepper the towns defense upon the wall, but everyone focused on the two large zombies who were bashing the gate and a minute later the two fell. A fair amount of cathars and civilian volunteers perished to arrows, but the gate was much more secure. Attention was diverted to the archers and the situation seemed handled.
A messenger arrived to inform the town leaders and the party that a section of the wall on the far side of town was being assaulted by magic and would fall soon, but there were not enough soldiers to hold a breach in that section. The gate would hold for a while, but would eventually fall after hit from the stitched zombies. So the party thought it best to keep most of the town's defenders at the gate to hold the chokepoint for that eventual breach and they headed off. And that is where we ended things.
Afterthoughts: Really wasn't expecting a character death this early and I really didn't want one this early. However, I have a personal rule where I won't ever cheat in my or the player's favor and I won't ever pull punches or try to kill a player. I feel the player saw the werewolf curse as a death sentence rather than a a challenge to overcome, so he was more reckless.
I plan on introducing his new character after the siege, so after the next session. It may be a flaw of mine, but I really don't enjoy having character magically and conveniently show up, I want a little believable continuity. The player will play Captain Levi who heads the Cathars for next session.