[OOC] Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

[dangelo]

Link to the IC thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?659083-IC-Expedition-to-Castle-Ravenloft&p=25854931#post25854931)


Expedition to Castle Ravenloft
ooc thread

https://i.ibb.co/rbMPcWy/images-8.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/h7cbHjp/images-6.jpg


https://youtu.be/r6xpEV-W60I?si=30kwnCtfrKrzua9S

I'm glad to announce: Welcome to Barovia, dear adventurers!

First or all, thanks for the effort you all put in your characters for this campaign. I'm really looking forward to dismember challenge you guys with all the awesome features of Castle Ravenloft.

Before we get started, I'd like everyone to make a post describing what exactly was happening when the Mist showed up and snatched you from your homeland. Were you tricked by Vistani into joining their caravan? Did you hunt evil spirits and eventually tracked down their plane of origin? Did you witness terrible deeds of pure evil, which resonated with the Dark Powers and opened a portal to Barovia? Who did you leave behind? Make sure to make the Mists mischievous and evil in that story - even if you were hunting Strahd, suddenly he was the one hunting you.

I'll set up an IC thread where you'll be able to step into Barovia and get in character a little bit. It shouldn't take too long before we activate dungeon crawl mode, just a few rounds of posts so we don't just "teleport" to the front door.

Honest disclaimer: This dungeon is dangerous and challenging. Strahd always plays around the PC's mistakes, hitting where it hurts. You will die if you don't manage your resources and pace yourselves. Heck, you might die even if you do that. As explained in the recruitment thread, leaving the dungeon to take a long rest means your enemies will have 8 hours to reposition (and also rest if necessary) and prepare for your next expedition - Of course this depends on their Intelligence score: You can expect dumb zombies to maintain the same behavior at all times, while a more cunning foe will use your long rest against you by resetting traps, moving troops to different rooms, blocking certain passages, etc.

A little bit about my DMing style: I try to be flexible and to listen to my players, and admittedly I tend to get tunnel vision when the stakes are high. If you notice a mistake, whether it's an inconsistency in the narrative or an extra 5ft of movement in an enemy's round, please let me know. You can PM me if you don't wanna call me out. I also sometimes get carried away and go overboard with my writing, so expect a few textwalls between chapters and in key moments of the narrative.

If you wanna request a roll such as Perception, you can go ahead and roll it in advance. Chances are I'll probably find something to do with your result, and worst case scenario, the roll is not applicable and we move forward.

Going forward, as part of general PbP etiquette, I kindly ask you guys to maintain clear communication even if your character has nothing to say or you're waiting on someone else to post first. Just go ahead and make a post, even if it's just flavor narrative. If you can't, or really don't feel like roleplaying, just post OOC. It already makes a huge difference

I think this is actually it? Yall gave me plenty to work with with your backgrounds and the sheets are ready to go, so I think we could use this momentum and get right into it (:

Ps.: Are you guys regular discord users? How do you feel about a small server for ooc chatter?



Player
Character
Race
Class


J-H
Herbert Raycraft (https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/106829438)
Human
Cleric 10



TaiLiu
Yikkol Four-Eyes (https://myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2826580)
Half-Orc
Rogue 10



The Commander
Lord Zinro Varanash (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2826768)
Drow
Wizard 10



Waistcoatwill
Bori (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2826732)
Halfling
Paladin 10



truemane
Rue (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2827202)
Dhampir
Barbarian 8 / Fighter 2



Dr. Samurai
Aelki (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2827701)
Astral Elf
Artificer 10



----------

Treasure


Mace of Terror
This magic weapon has 3 charges. While holding it, you can use an action and expend 1 charge to release a wave of terror. Each creature of your choice in a 30-foot radius extending from you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you for 1 minute. While it is frightened in this way, a creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If it has nowhere it can move, the creature can use the Dodge action. At the end of each of its turns, a creature can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.

The mace regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.
Icon of Ravenloft
While within 30 feet of the icon, a creature is under the effect of a Protection from Evil and Good spell against fiends and undead. Only a creature attuned to the icon can use its other properties.

Augury. You can use an action to cast an Augury spell from the icon, with no material components required. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn.

Bane of the Undead. You can use the icon as a holy symbol while using the Turn Undead or Turn the Unholy feature. If you do so, increase the save DC by 2.

Cure Wounds. While holding the icon, you can take an action to heal one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. The target regains 3d8 + 3 hit points, unless it is an undead, a construct, or a fiend. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn.


Plate Armor of Sergei von Zarovich
+2 enhancement bonus.

Converted into a "light chain shirt". The heavy parts of the armor were respectfully left in Sergei's tomb
Sword of Sergei von Zarovich
+2 enhancement bonus. Versatile, Finesse.

Applicable proficiencies: Longsword or Shortsword

Activation: Requires a Bonus Action. Effects still unknown.


---------

Experience

Sir Theodore and his party: 2300 each
Zombies + Swarms: 2000 each
Rahadin: 1200 each
Soldiers: 1900 each
Children of Strahd: 3500 each

[The Commander]

Lord Zinro Varanash
Drow Noble, Evocation Wizard



https://i.pinimg.com/736x/60/d0/b3/60d0b32bcee31719e8538635cba8da8e.jpg



https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2826768

"Lord Varanash will speak in Indigo."



Lord Zinro Varanash is the 3rd son of House Varanash of Menzoberranzan. Given the matriarchal society that Drow follow, being 3rd son entitles Zinro to almost nothing in terms of inheritance and prestige. That honour goes to his eldest, and only, sister, Elestra Varanash; who the family both respects and fears as the next matriarch of the House.

As a male noble, Zinro's options were somewhat limited in how to expand and bring prestige to his House: he could join the military as an officer, become head of the House Guard, or take up magic and become a respectable Mage. Seeing as both of his older brothers had already respectively become an Officer in Menzoberranzan's Army and head of the House Guard, the only real option left to Zinro was to take up magic and attempt to bring glory to both himself and his House that way.

And so began years of study and practise. Evocation magic came naturally to Zinro, and he eventually became somewhat of potent magician.

But even becoming a Mage of some note, this was still not enough for Zinro. Using his House's contacts, he heard rumours of a castle shrouded in perpetual darkness, ruled by a Vampire Lord, with great treasures, secrets, and power within. Taking such a castle would be a worthy place from which Zinro could rule his part of the House, or at the very least the treasures and power from such a place would help cement his place in the House and earn him some much needed prestige and approval. He arranged transport and made his way to the fabled lands of Barovia. Whilst he had nothing personally against Lord Strahd, the current occupant of the castle, Zinro appreciated that things would be much easier if Strahd were destroyed, or at least taken out of the picture; and thus resolved to do such a thing.



Pearl of Power (UC Major)
Rope of Climbing, Bag of Holding (UC Minor)
Cloak of Many Fashions, Enduring Spellbook, Tankard of Sobriety (C Minor)



House Varanash of Menzoberranzan
Zutho Varanash - Father (Deceased)
Myralaney Varanash - Mother, current House Matriarch
Elestra Varanash - Eldest Sister, current House Priestess of Lolth
Darnassicus Varanash - 1st Brother, current Officer in Menzoberranzan's Army
Nurellion Varanash - 2nd Brother, current Head of the House Guard
(Zinro is the Youngest Son)



Fear of heights + Witnessed a friend fall to their death - Whilst a young boy in Menzoberranzan, Zinro befriended the son of a neighbouring House named Byliant. During their adolescent years, Zinro and Byliant would often go drinking in some of the classy gastro-bars which made their home in the Underdark's stalactites. One such evening, after too much drinking, Byliant tried to show off to a bunch of female adolescent Drow by performing daring leaps of acrobatics between small stalactites. Needless to say, his confidence outstretched his abilities. Failing a final, daring leap, Byliant plummeted over a thousand feet to the Underdark floor. It was an experience that stayed with Zinro forever - leading him to fear heights, and to swear off drinking using his Tankard of Sobriety.

Fear of older sister's wrath - As the next Matriarch of House Varanash, Elestra has a lot of power both within the House and outside of it. Added to which, her position as a Priestess of Lolth, there is very little Zinro can do to mitigate any wrath that Elestra decides to visit upon him. As the youngest son, and especially as Zinro isn't particularly strong or charismatic, he makes an easy target when Elestra chooses to prey upon him. He does his best to stay out of her way and not to anything to upset her, but fears her whenever she seeks a victim to vent her frustrations to (whether those frustrations are valid or not is irrelevant).

Fear of Lolth's wrath - As a Drow, Zinro is keenly aware of Lolth's place in his society. Especially as a male, Zinro appreciates that, should Lolth choose to punish him for some kind of transgression against Her, he would likely not survive or enjoy the outcome.

Snobbish and aloof - Years of pampering (despite his low position in the House) has left Zinro believing he is better than the common man, and that he is destined to rule over his own slice of the world.



Zinro has Find Familiar, and took a Familiar as soon as he was able to. His Familiar, in keeping with the traditions of Drow, is a spider (I'll refrain from posting pictures in case anyone is arachnophobic).
Dot - the female Amazon Sapphire Pink Toe (Tarantula).
Has blue legs with an orange abdomen and pink toes. Has a reddish mark in the shape of a dot on her abdomen (hence the nickname).
Is technically an Infernal Tarantula (as per the spell).





Lord Varanash had begrudgingly accepted joining the Vistani caravan headed to Barovia. Strangely, no-one else at the last inn had seemed eager to take, or even direct, Lord Varanash to Barovia; even when he had offered them coin. Something about these colourful foreigners made his skin crawl, but he had little other choice and had preferred to make the journey during the night to avoid the harsh rays of the sun.

That had been several hours ago; at least, that's what it felt like. Lord Varanash had awoken, dazed, on a cobbled road. 'Great' - he had thought - 'these peasants have robbed me and left me for dead'. However, upon checking his person, he found that all of his money and items were still accounted for. He then took in his surroundings.

It was still dark, which was surprising, and he was in the middle of a cobbled road, flanked by dense forest. A gentle breeze almost seemed to push Lord Varanash onwards, and the sound of snapping twigs and the betrayal of shadowy movement within the dense forest dissuaded him from leaving the cobbled road. Looking back the way he had come, Lord Varanash could see nothing: his vision, superior in the dark than most creatures, was blocked by the thickest mist he had ever witnessed. Something primordial in Lord Varanash's brain flickered and he was at once curious and terrified by this mist and the way it just... hung there... waiting. Tentatively, he reached out towards it.

He had half expected the mist to consume his hand; but instead he was able to wisp his hand through the vaporous cloud. And then, in an instant, the mist was all about him, closing in on him, choking him, threatening to crush him into the cobbled road. Lord Varanash gasped and grasped at the cobbles, trying to drag himself out of the maelstrom that had enveloped him. He could swear he could hear laughing and feel fingers clawing at his clothes. With a desperate heave he pushed himself to his feet and began running, trying to keep the feeling of the cobbled road beneath his boots.

He didn't know how long he ran for, or when exactly the mist had finally released him, but when he finally looked up he could see what looked like a small, dilapidated village ahead of him. Several crows on a nearby tree heralded his arrival as he passed the neglected gates at the edge of the village.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, briefly illuminating the world. In that moment Lord Varanash saw the castle, far and above the tiny village, almost as if it were looming over the inhabitants. Then came the thunder - a booming challenge for anyone who dared approach.

Turning to look back, Lord Varanash saw the same mist as before, but this time it appeared as if it were waiting just beyond the village gates and progressing no further. Seeing no other option, Lord Varanash mustered his courage and headed for what looked like the village inn.



I use Discord, yes. I don't mind either way if you want to use it or not. I'll join if you make a server.

[J-H]

https://i.ibb.co/W6GRQd6/priets.jpg Herbert Raycraft (https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/106829438)
Human Life Cleric
AC: 20 HP: 73/73
PPer: 18 PInv: 10 PIst: 18
Conditions: --
Concentrating: Faerie Fire


Here's the link to Herbert Raycraft (https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/106829438), party cleric. With some good fortune, he'll help keep everyone alive this time.

Do you want the "before the mists" bit here, or in IC?

I favor having a Discord for OOC. It's also a great way to ask for clarifications on maps, positioning, "if I do X will it do Y?" questions, and the like.

Funny you should use music from Simon's Quest in your intro post... I did Super Castlevania IV as Castle Dracula a few years ago (Dm's Guild) for levels 3-12, and right now I'm working on Dracula's Curse based around Castlevania II... a small hexmap and point-to-point quest. I will probably be putting up a recruitment thread in 1-3 months, depending on how long it takes me to get the first couple of dungeons done. I'm pretty familiar with the Castlevania side of the inspirations of Strahd, at least until you get past 16-bit consoles :)

Question edited in: Do we assume we have infinite mundane spell components? Hallow, Revivify, Raise dead are all expensive.

What my character can do for the party:
Some tanking (AC 20, +6 on Con saves, I get healed when I cast healing spells)
Magic light source (1)
Radiant damage at will both with Sacred Flame, and Word of Radiance if there are a bunch of enemies next to me
Healing: Life cleric.

Buffs: Bless, Beacon of Hope (C, 30' radius, Adv on Wis saves, death saves, and max healing), Aura of Purity (also C, 30' radius, adv on saves vs. a lot of bad conditions), Death Ward, Freedom of Movement, Holy Weapon (C, gives someone a glowing weapon that does +2d8 radiant damage on hit, and I can dismiss as a BA to do some AOE damage and blind)

CC: Silence, Bestow Curse, Banishment

Damage: Mostly single target. Guiding Bolt, Spiritual Weapon, Guardian of Faith. I took Spirit Guardians but I think there will usually be something better to use Concentration on.

Misc: It takes 24 hours to cast Hallow. I have a feeling Count Strahd would not be happy if I tried to Hallow anything in his Castle. If we need to force an engagement at some point, this is one way to do it, although I would not be able to participate much.

[Dr.Samurai]

Aelki Ruasha, Void Knight of the Star Ocean, Former Elite Bionoid of the Elven Imperial Fleet (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2827701)

https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000169997983-7ihftz-t500x500.jpg

I don't know who Strahd is, but I know a bad guy when I see one, and people that need saving. If that's his castle, then the mission is clear.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/gundam/images/a/a2/Milliardo_Peacecraft_GGCR_3.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20200711153705https://alchetron.com/cdn/bio-booster-armor-guyver-e54343d5-af5a-4dcf-b007-44bd58a9970-resize-750.jpeg
Rua is a former bionoid of the Elven Imperial Army, a massive Sphere-spanning fleet that patrols Wildspace, and fought in both the first and second Unhuman Wars. After the second war, the elves rejected the bionoids, and they were banished from elven society. Rua is an Astral Elf Artificer (Armorer), and the idea is that his armor is his Bionoid enhancement. He can doff/don the armor as an Action (as per Armorer ability). With DM permission, I would like the armor to sort of recede into his flesh, and then spring from his flesh. I don't intend to abuse this in any way, and I suspect the armor will be donned probably the entire time we're in the castle. But it would really gel with the guyver/bionoid theme of the character if allowed. Otherwise, I'll just stick the armor in the bag of holding.
Rua's parents were staunch supporters of the idea of ridding Wildspace of goblinoids, and strongly supported the notion of launching what would be known as the Unhuman Wars to eradicate goblin-kind. Both parents were expert alchemists and artificers, and helped spearhead the Bionoid project. When their own son was old enough, they submitted him to the program. Rua would have his body torn apart and augmented to become a Bionoid, a living weapon with the goal of defending elvenkind and annihilating its enemies. Seeking the satisfaction of his parents, Rua became the best soldier he could be, training to become a completely independent and self-sufficient unit. He carried out critical high risk missions against the orcs and goblins, and won countless victories against them. But always there was more work to be done, more spheres and planets in danger, more enemies to vanquish. Rua rarely ever saw or spoke to his parents, but they would send message that they knew he could be trusted to carry out his duties.

A decorated soldier, Rua struggled to understand the talk after the elves won the second Unhuman War. Many questioned the strategy and tactics of the Imperial Fleet. Did they go too far? Were they the antagonists? Many missions that the Bionoids engaged in were under scrutiny. Even the Bionoids themselves; were they still elves? could this organism they shared their body with control them?

Before long, bionoids were no longer welcome among elven society, and all but exiled from their homeworlds.

Rua has been wandering Wildspace since his glorious battles against the Scro, earning his keep as a highly efficient mercenary. His last job took him into an area rumored to be Deadspace, a sector of wildspace tainted by darkness. When the galleon landed and became enveloped in mist, he tried to find the source. After losing sight of the ship in the fog, Rua couldn't return to it, and eventually found himself somewhere else. Grounded on a backwater planet, with no spaceport in sight. The people here have no concept of wildspace, and are oppressed by a tyrant ruler.

Trapped, with no way to return to his ship, Rua sets his iron will on this evil despot. Having spent centuries wondering if he had fought the good fight, done the right thing to protect his people, a worthy adversary has appeared. If he can't free himself from this world, he could at least free these people from the man known as Strahd von Zarovich.
Rua is a tall and lean astral elf, with long platinum hair and dark blue eyes. He has the bearing of a military man, and a steel gaze. Alongside friends and comrades, he is easy-going. But Rua hasn't had family in a long time. As strong as the Bionoids were, once exiled and without support of the Imperial Fleet, many met grim fates in the Void. Rua carries a sadness with him, but a look in his eye betrays that he still has hope.

As part of his training, Rua was required to be self-sufficient. He can pilot space vehicles, and can navigate by the stars. Ground-side, he is a skilled cartographer, mapping the terrain of alien worlds ahead of Imperial strike teams, and can disarm and bypass locks and traps with relative ease. He is able to cast some spells, and craft his own arms and armor, including magical gear. This, combined with his victories against the Scro and their Witchlight Marauders, has given Rua immense confidence, and a sometimes one-directional attitude.
Fears
1. Rua is unsure what he means to his parents. The process to become a Bionoid was painful and dangerous. Rua thought he had to do it because of the war. But after the war, the elves turned against the Bionoids. This turn of events, plus the silent absence of his parents throughout the war, and especially after, have called into question their feelings toward him, and his own worthiness of the affection of others. Luckily, the day to day of surviving in the Void keeps these thoughts from gaining much traction on most days.
2. Bionoids are a host to an organism that is their chitinous armor and other combat abilities. Rua is supposed to be in control at all times. But he has doubts. Rua does not dwell on it often, as to do so is to contemplate the missions that elves protested after the second Unhuman War. Missions where Rua was commanded to strike at goblinoid civilians. When he resisted, an urge rose from within, compelling him to follow orders, to shed blood. Was that his training, the bionoid, or something deeper, in himself? Rua carried out his missions, because he knew he had to for the sake of his people. But he still wonders how far the Bionoid can push him.
3. Rua fears failure. As an elite Bionoid, he carried out critical missions. The Scro had planet-eater monsters called Witchlight Marauders, ready to destroy elven homeworlds throughout the Spheres. Rua and his team were in charge of destroying these marauders before they ever made it near their spheres. The weight of this burden was never felt at the time, but the dissent of the elven people, their disgust with the bionoids, and the calling into question of the Imperial Fleet, has thrown everything into turmoil in his mind. All the questions aside, what if he had failed? Don't they understand? What if the Scro unleashed their marauders on Krynn? Or Toril? Or Oerth? How many elves would have been lost to the world-eaters? But now everything they did is in question, and Rua doesn't know if he could do it again.

Traumas
1. Rua was made to carry out strikes against civilians on goblinoid planets. Critical locations required dispatching any enemy targets, even if they weren't military. Rua struggled with these orders, but ultimately did as he was told. He remains haunted by the lives he took.
2. The process to become a Bionoid was extremely invasive and painful, and Rua was young when it happened. He is haunted by the dispassionate faces looking down at him as the process unfolded.
3. The betrayal of the elven people after the war, sending the Bionoids into exile, has stayed with Rua in all the centuries he has been wandering Wildspace, a sorry reward for the duties he carried out to defend elven-kind.
4. Deadspace - Rua's last mission brought them into Deadspace, where his ship was overtaken by malevolent spirits. One by one the crew were hunted through the ship and killed, only to rise again and join the hunt of the remaining few. After days, Rua was able to land the ship, just as a mist was enveloping the asteroid he landed on. Rushing out to escape whatever had overtaken their ship, he made his way into the mist, and wound up in Barovia.

Flaws
1. Rua can sometimes become resentful of non-warrior people, as he feels he sacrificed much to protect others, and was rewarded with exile.
2. Rua is an elite warrior that has accomplished significant military victories. He can be too confident at times.
1. Will the Orb of Time and the Orb of Direction work in Barovia? I will still keep them as my items, but would like to know if this is something that might signal to Rua he is somewhere strange.
2. As mentioned in the concept spoiler, when Rua doffs and dons his armor, is it possible to describe it as the Guyver transformation? The Bionoids were inspired by Guyver so that would be cool.
3. I took the Wildspace background, which grants Toughness. But I'm happy to ignore that part of the Background if it makes sense.

[Waistcoatwill]

Bori 'The Apprentice' of the Greenback Clawfoot Tribe (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2826732).

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/eberron/images/f/f3/PGTE_Halfling_and_Clawfoot.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120131232401



Dark haired halfling with a long braid. In his early thirties but has crows feet around his usually mirthful eyes. Wears simple, functional leathers. An ornate red half mask hangs around his neck. A delicate curved blade hangs at his side, and a wicker shield coated in saurian hide hangs across his back.

Core concept:
A naturally jovial and friendly but weary soldier who has survived a great war and is demobbing. He wants to work in a nice friendly bar for a few years, bring himself and others joy again. When he has enough money saved he'll organise an expedition into the magical wasteland where his tribe were killed and put them to rest....but he is forced to travel through the wrong magical zone at the wrong time of year and gets transported to Revenloft instead.

Very superstitious by the standards of his world, which probably makes him totally normal for Ravenloft.

The weirdness:
This guy was from Eberron! He is from a nomadic dinosaur-riding tribe of halflings. He was training to be a shaman (mask weaver), who venerate/protect/appease/keep in line the spirits they believe inhabit everything. Think "every rock and try and creature...has a life, has a spirit, has a name".

Unfortunately for him he then developed a strong magical birthmark and he was pressured into joining the magical megacorp of hospitality. There he defended baracks/field hospital wards/etc provided by the megacorp during the war. He saw some terrible things and had to fight off no small number of attacks from enemies intent on murdering his guests.

The war came to an end with a magic apocalypse that destroyed an entire country, including killing his nomadic tribe that were in.the wrong place at the wrong time.

He gets about by riding the soul of his dead animal companion raptor that dwells within his scary mask.

Rolling for HP
[roll0][roll1][roll2][roll3][roll4][roll5][roll6][roll7][roll8]

Edit: Uprgradung the 5 ,3, and 3 to average rolls of 6.

Question about OCF from Tasha's
Ancients have one channel divinitynwhich is a worse version of a subclass spell of theirs, and the other only affects fey and fiends.

Can I use the "Harness Divine Power" OCF that lets me turn channel Divinity uses into low level spell slots instead?

Uncommon - Sentinel shield - fluffed as spirits warning him of threats, especially his deceased clawfoot companion.
Common - Moontouched rapier
Common - Dread helm (mask)

Fears
1) Being alone, he has always been in a close-knit tribe or wrapped up in operations run by House Ghallanda during the war, being on his own makes him nervous.
2) Losing his mask - His spirit weaver mask holds the soul of his fastieth companion, which will save them both from fading in the afterlife. It is also vital for tracking down the resting places of his dead tribe. To lose it would be to lose everything.

Traumas
1) Bori developed the Mark of Hospitality in his late teens, several years into his apprenticeship to be a mask weaver. He was forced to leave his nomadic tribe and jou his city-delling distant cousins in House Ghallanda, leaving everything he knew behind.
2) He was assigned to the Dragom's Tail, defending camps and wards established by House Ghallanda during the war. There he saw many wounded with horrifying injuries. He was also forced to defend the sites from numerous illegal attacks from multiple different nations, most notably undead monstrosities from Karrnath and arcane soldiers from Aundair.
3) The war ended when Cyre was destroyed in The Mourning. Between then and his demobbing he has been unable to contact anyone from his tribe and he feels in his heart that they were all killed, their resting places somewhere within those haunted mists.
4) With roads in chaos as the war finishes, the small Ghallanda caravan he was travelling with took a "short cut" that took them through a Mabaran manifest zone, despite his advice to the contrary.city foll never pit.muxh stock in Talentan knowledge and insights. The next morning he woke in this strange new land, once again cut off from all he had known.
5) He is used to feeling and communing with thr spirits in everything around him, but the ones in Ravenloft are horrified, soaked in despair or hunger or rage. There is something terribly wrong here.

Flaws
1) Slow to trust outsiders, although he does his best to out up a cheery jovial front as he was trained to by House Ghallanda.
2) Deflection - he would much rather help others and focus on their problems than face his own difficulties and struggles.

Bori will speak in green!

Before the mist
Bori had a terrible feeling about this for hours. His small caravan had pulled off the main road several hours back. Their Orian guide had been confident they'd cover more ground if they just avoided the snarl of refugees, merchants, troops trying to return home that were clogging up the heavily damaged road to Karrlakton.

These westlands are even more confusing now than they are during the fighting. The people are so used to sitting in their cities and town that they don't know how to travel now they finally have the chance again


He'd have almost been happier making his way back to the Talenta plains by himself. But at least this group of House Ghallanda staff were jovi company and mostly halfljngs, even if they had forgotten the ways of the plains. He didn't have to think about the fate of his tribe if he was swapping jokes and stories with tbe others.

Maybe that's why he hadn't objected when they left the oath. Those humans in the last village Had they called themselves Seekers?. Had said that the land was too dangerous during the Long Night, when the plane of death was coterminous. He'd have kept his wits about him, felt the warnings of the spirits, noticed the thin whisps of fog building up around their ankles as they passed into the Mabaran manifest zone.

Even in the dim light of the shadow moon they could see swirls in the hundred metre high mists on the opposite bank of the Cyre River. Swirls taking on the shapes like.the faces of loved ones and marking the edge of what was being called "The Mournland". They'd all done their best to ignore it during this trip. It hadn't moved since that fateful.day six months ago, but noone could take their eyes off it as an unnatural cold creeper up each traveller's spine. They kept expecting it to lunge forward at them across.the water, devouring them like they had the nation of Cyre...and likely my entire tribe with Cyrans...

It was then that the frantic thrum of warning from Nethis in his mask got through to him. He looked down with horror at the rising mist, looked left, no cocky Orien guide. He swung to his left, no sign of his fellow halflings. He strode into the mists, calling their names, desperate not to separated. The mist rose higher and higher, and with a terrible sinking feeling he stopped. He couldn't even see the river and that horrifying cloud of the Mournland anymore.

Donning his mask he felt a surge of reassurance as he summoned the spirit of Nethis from her rest there once more. Ectoplasm becoming solid flesh throughh an act of shared will. Leaping into the fastieth's saddle, he twisted around, scanning the mist or any sign of life...or unlife. He'd known something terrible would happen!

Very excited for this!

Full disclosure, I have a newborn so lots of sitting up in the middle of the night with time to post, not so much sleep though so I might be even less coherent than usual (see above) and some posts might be quite brief.

Happy to use discord for OOC chatting

@J-H Bori is likely to be front-lining with a healthy dose of bless, healing, or damage buffs for the party. Stay close if you want to be immune to fear better saves, and have resistance to damage from spells. Hopefully the Cleric and paladin can keep each other and everyone else alive for a while. He can do some limited crowd control and THP, plus cast tiny hut for resting in relative safety whilst the enemy plots more inventive ways to kill us.

Great point about material.components, the numerous of diamonds we can both start with is probably.important.

Also, was the Fastieth profile okay for a mount?

[TaiLiu]

Hey, Dr. Samurai. Hey, everyone. Nice to meet you all. :smallsmile:

Here's the recruitment thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?658905-5e-Curse-of-Strahd-but-just-the-castle-level-10).

Here's Yikkol's character sheet (https://og.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2826580). As mentioned, you can rely on her for trapfinding, lockpicking, and backup healing. She's carrying five healer's kits on her, but if you want to pick some up to increase her capacity, go for it.

I'm thinking she'll speak in black. It's the most legible color and you can tell when she's speaking anyway: "Like this," Yikkol said.


I'm glad to announce: Welcome to Barovia, dear adventurers!

First or all, thanks for the effort you all put in your characters for this campaign. I'm really looking forward to dismember challenge you guys with all the awesome features of Castle Ravenloft.

Before we get started, I'd like everyone to make a post describing what exactly was happening when the Mist showed up and snatched you from your homeland. Were you tricked by Vistani into joining their caravan? Did you hunt evil spirits and eventually tracked down their plane of origin? Did you witness terrible deeds of pure evil, which resonated with the Dark Powers and opened a portal to Barovia? Who did you leave behind? Make sure to make the Mists mischievous and evil in that story - even if you were hunting Strahd, suddenly he was the one hunting you.
Thanks for having us. :smallsmile:


At the end of the world sits an abandoned outpost. Once upon a time, when its reach was greater, this grey laboratory belonged to the Alchemists' Guild. Now it is dusty and undisturbed—until a few days ago, when Yikkol Four-Eyes broke in and ended its decades-long calm.

An alchemist's lab is odd place to search for a pocket dimension. But that's what the bone-man's journal said: the portal was hidden in the laboratory basement. She searched for days in increasing despair.

Was this even the right place? Maybe the translator was a quack. Maybe she should have him killed. Maybe... Maybe this wasn't right. How long was it since she'd been back home? Her children must be grown by now. Her lover's heart must now belong to someone else. Her friends, her home, and her workshop were so far away. Was this really worth it? To find the bones of a long-dead woman and a murderer she never knew?

She found herself letting out an ugly cry. Her face was wet. Years and years of her life—wasted! She would not waste more. She would go home and see her children and tell her lover she was sorry, sorry, sorrier than she had ever been and could she ever be forgiven for being so foolish? Yikkol lifted herself off the dirty stone floor, swung her crossbow over her back, and turned toward the door.

As she turned, the large limb on the right side of her crossbow knocked a rotting potion into another into another. They all tumbled onto the floor and began to mix. White smoke filled the room. It began to smell like motor oil and putrid flesh and, oddly, petrichor. Yikkol threw on her googles and covered her face with a wet cloth. She felt her way to the door. It wasn't there.

She tried to stay calm, but she felt her heart pound. Her head began to hurt. She was hearing things: a sinister laughter, a fortune-teller's croon, organ music. There should be a wall here, but there wasn't. A table here was now missing. It was impossible to see through the smoke. She inched forward. And again. And again.

And then she found herself in front of a small inn. The noise stopped. She laughed and cursed herself for being so quick to give up just moments (or hours?) ago.

For in the dark grey sky she saw the castle where her mom's bones rested. She was in Barovia.



I'll set up an IC thread where you'll be able to step into Barovia and get in character a little bit. It shouldn't take too long before we activate dungeon crawl mode, just a few rounds of posts so we don't just "teleport" to the front door.

Honest disclaimer: This dungeon is dangerous and challenging. Strahd always plays around the PC's mistakes, hitting where it hurts. You will die if you don't manage your resources and pace yourselves. Heck, you might die even if you do that. As explained in the recruitment thread, leaving the dungeon to take a long rest means your enemies will have 8 hours to reposition (and also rest if necessary) and prepare for your next expedition - Of course this depends on their Intelligence score: You can expect dumb zombies to maintain the same behavior at all times, while a more cunning foe will use your long rest against you by resetting traps, moving troops to different rooms, blocking certain passages, etc.

A little bit about my DMing style: I try to be flexible and to listen to my players, and admittedly I tend to get tunnel vision when the stakes are high. If you notice a mistake, whether it's an inconsistency in the narrative or an extra 5ft of movement in an enemy's round, please let me know. You can PM me if you don't wanna call me out. I also sometimes get carried away and go overboard with my writing, so expect a few textwalls between chapters and in key moments of the narrative.

If you wanna request a roll such as Perception, you can go ahead and roll it in advance. Chances are I'll probably find something to do with your result, and worst case scenario, the roll is not applicable and we move forward.

I think this is actually it? Yall gave me plenty to work with with your backgrounds and the sheets are ready to go, so I think we could use this momentum and get right into it (:

Going forward, as part of general PbP etiquette, I kindly ask you guys to clear communication even if your character has nothing to say or you're waiting on someone else to post first. Just go ahead and make post, even if it's just flavor narrative. If you can't, or really don't feel like roleplaying, just post OOC. It already makes a huge difference
Sounds good. The "always post" request is a smart idea. As players, we sometimes have nothing left to do or say, which is fine in a real-time game but can be a PBP killer.


Ps.: Are you guys regular discord users? How do you feel about a small server for ooc chatter?
I am, and I agree with J-H that it's a good idea.

[The Commander]

As a quick heads-up, I'm travelling for the next 2 days. I *may* have internet on my phone, so I'll try to keep up-to-date and post using that. But just in case I can't, I'm still here!

[truemane]

Hey everyone! I will your friendly neighbourhood half-vampire savage barbarian!

Rue, Dhampir, Child of Darkness, Wanderer and Sojourner, Barbarian (Path of the Beast)/Fighter (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2827202)

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/941056535935729727/1143671061800570921/image.png?width=180&height=290


Personality: Quiet and intense. She years for connection and friendship, she also fears rejection and abandonment.
Ideal: I will rise above the foul conditions of my birth and heritage.
Bond: My heart beats with poisoned blood, filling me with darkness. I have to keep iron control over myself lest I become what I hate most.
Flaws: I am afraid of myself and of what I might do in an unguarded moment. I am deeply wounded by my childhood abandonment and those wounds will never fully heal.

Rue was born to a tavern wench in the town of Barovia. Her mother claimed she did not know who the father was, but when Rue's true nature became clear, the townspeople claimed that she (her mother) lay with a devil (or perhaps THE Devil) willingly, and when she was still a child, drove her from the village and out into the wilderness.

She was taken in by a band of Vistani who fed her and housed her, but who treated her coldly and resentfully. They would not tell her why they took her in, and would not tell her what was to come of her. She travelled with them for some time, learning what she could as they passed through the mists into various worlds beyond. She overheard them whisper, speculate, that she was the child of Lord Strahd himself. That it was perhaps him, the Devil, who forced them to take her in.

One day she woke up and they were gone. And she was alone.

Who can speak of the story of Rue's Long Walk? She did not know the names of the places she passed through. She could not keep the count of days. She passed through mist and shadow, forest and mountain, alternately gravitating toward and avoiding, yearning for and fearing, the light of civilization. And everywhere she went a shadow went with her. Wolves hounded her trail. People she met came to bad ends. If she stopped too long, the weather turned bad and the air turned foul. Mists appeared randomly all around her.

One day she came to a town in a deep, dark forest nestled into the depths of a thickly forested valley. And she saw the sign at the town gates that said BAROVIA.

Rue was home. After uncounted years she was home.

She decided that it was time for her to have it out with the Devil that had dogged her once and for all.


Fear of abandonment, of being forgotten, of being alone. Rue has been abandoned or scorned by everyone she's ever cared about or tried to bond with. It has left her deeply scarred.
Fear of herself. There is darkness in Rue. A dark, fathomless, bestial rage that is barely kept to heel. She must become a beast to survive, but she fears that every time she loses herself to it, it might be her last. A beast I am lest a beast I become.
Fear of fire. Fire has always been one of the primary tools of scared, hostile townfolk. In her long, strange life, Rue's true nature has been discovered a number of times and most of those times ended with attempts to burn her. She can just barely manage around wall torches but anything more aggressive is terrifying to her.
Years for safety and security. Her mother feared (and maybe even hated) her. Her childhood protectors were cold and hostile to her. Every friend she's ever made has scorned her or abandoned her. She years for connection, for community, for family, for safety. Sometimes to her detriment.
Hounded by darkness. Everywhere Rue goes, shadows and fear and horror follow. Wolves dog her steps. Mists creep up near her. Shadows loom and lurk around her. If she stops anywhere for long, crops fail, the weather turns foul, food spoils and livestock grow sick and die. People she gets close to tend to disappear.


Feats Tavern Brawler
Skill Expert

Common Magic Items Illuminator's Tattoo
Spellwrought Tattoo
Masquerade Tattoo

Uncommon Magic Items Eldritch Claw Tattoo (Major)
Cloak of Fashions (Minor)

What Rue can do for the party: Smash things! That's basically her only talent. I specialized in grappling (grapple as a bonus action, Expertise in Athletics) so I'll mostly be picking someone, locking them down, and beating them foolish.
That's mostly it. She's a simple creature, is our girl Rue.

When the Mists Came:
Rue had completely lost count of the years she'd been wandering. She didn't seem to age like normal humanoids so even her physical development was no help. Was it ten years? Twenty? A thousand? She didn't know. There was only the endless metronome of night and day, hunger and food, sleep and wake, warm and cold to mark the passage of time.

But all through it there was a fierce determination and an ember of anger in her undead heart that drove her forward always forward. But toward what she did not know.

She wasn't always alone. Sometimes she came across a village. Or a town. Sometimes she carefully, warily ventured in, always cloaked and disguised, and tried to make small careful connections. Invariably, before long, her true nature was discovered and she was driven out. And, even without that, tragedy dogged her footsteps and those close to her came to bad ends.

And, also invariably, wherever she went, wherever she found herself, eventually the Mists came for her and she found herself in a new alien land where she knew nothing and had no one, and had to start again.

About a month ago she had come to a large port town at the edge of a vast forest. Venturing in, she met and befriended an old blind man Tiresias after defending him from cutthroats. He invited her to stay at his home and they two talked long about their lives. Rue even confided to him about her birth and nature. He accepted her anyway and made her his heir so that, when he was gone, she would always have a home and a place to live. Her wandering days were done.

Then came the Mists. She awoke in a forest. She cried out her rage and frustration. Then she found the village. Barovia.

She had finally come home.

@The Commander


https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/941056535935729727/1144705207599644742/Y.diversipes.jpg?width=435&height=581

[dangelo]

Here's the link to Herbert Raycraft (https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/106829438), party cleric. With some good fortune, he'll help keep everyone alive this time.
It says I don't have permission to see the character sheet - am I doing something wrong?


Do you want the "before the mists" bit here, or in IC?
Either will work (:


Funny you should use music from Simon's Quest in your intro post... I did Super Castlevania IV as Castle Dracula a few years ago (Dm's Guild) for levels 3-12, and right now I'm working on Dracula's Curse based around Castlevania II... a small hexmap and point-to-point quest. I will probably be putting up a recruitment thread in 1-3 months, depending on how long it takes me to get the first couple of dungeons done. I'm pretty familiar with the Castlevania side of the inspirations of Strahd, at least until you get past 16-bit consoles :)You can definitely expect me to show interest in a game like that. I'm a huge fan of the series -- Though as a 90s kid it was Symphony of the Night that did it for me, I really love all classicvanias, mainly 1, 3 and Dracula X.

Just gonna leave this beautiful version of Bloody Tears here, featured in the Season 2 finale of the animated series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwrqNI0Y8Jk


Question edited in: Do we assume we have infinite mundane spell components? Hallow, Revivify, Raise dead are all expensive.
How about each PC gets the starting gold for their classes times 10? That would be in actual gold pieces, jewels or materials for your spells (you don't have to specify) aside from your actual equipment (so you don't have to deduct the cost of your armor for example). Does that sound fair?


Question about OCF from Tasha's
Ancients have one channel divinitynwhich is a worse version of a subclass spell of theirs, and the other only affects fey and fiends.

Can I use the "Harness Divine Power" OCF that lets me turn channel Divinity uses into low level spell slots instead?
Yep that would be alright


Full disclosure, I have a newborn so lots of sitting up in the middle of the night with time to post, not so much sleep though so I might be even less coherent than usual (see above) and some posts might be quite brief.
Very understandable :)


Also, was the Fastieth profile okay for a mount?
If this (https://www.dndwiki.io/monsters/fastieth) is the sheet of the Fastieth, it seems alright except for the insane Dexterity on top of the bonus action Dodge, I'd say. Just cause I couldn't find any other mount for small characters that had more than 16 dex, like Deer, Wolf, Giant Weasel, Mastiff, etc. Would you mind making it 16 instead of 18? Or maybe I'm missing something about the creature's design?


[spoiler=Picture of Webster, my Amazon Sapphire Pinktoe]
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/941056535935729727/1144705207599644742/Y.diversipes.jpg?width=435&height=581
Aren't spiders cute little thingies.

[Waistcoatwill]

It's just the smallest/lowest CR dinosaur that the Talenta halflings ride in Eberron, more of a fluff thing than anything I'm weddrd to mechanically. I'm8 happy to drop the dex down to 14 or make it a suspiciously scaly Giant Weasel or pony if you'd prefer.

On the spell components front, with starting gold×10 we'd probably have enough for 2 revivify castings if we pooled it all together. Seems fair to me.

[dangelo]

I'm actually okay with Dex 16 (:

Let me know if there's more I can do for you all. IC thread should be up sometime tomorrow

[J-H]

Sheet is now set to public. Obviously nobody else tried to view it.
Starting wealth for a cleric is 5d4 x 10. At max, 200, so 200x 10 = 2000gp. That gives me 4 raise deads, or 6 revivifies, or 2 hallows. GP -> components or do we need to track specific material components.


It's been three months since the Grey Night. Undead overrunning all the cities of the realm en masse, slaughtering countless tens of thousands before being repulsed by desperate combat and the coming of dawn, praise Pelor. For Herbert, it was a nightmare of constant blood and battle as he staggered from place to place, healing and shining Pelor's Light among friend and foe alike. His armor almost didn't fit, and he knew that the warriors guarding him had to slow their pace to match his. By mid-morning, he'd collapsed with exhaustion and slept the day away, his body unable to keep up with the demands of exertion on the battlefield instead of the dinner table.

The only reason food wasn't scarce afterwards is that the dead don't eat. Despite this, Herbert found his appetite wanting, and his patience for the nobility - those who survived the wights teleporting into their mansions anyway - ended. There was always more, more, and still too much to do. Bury the dead, comfort the living, cure diseases, try to find the source, support the younger adventurers going out to try to find the culprits, and on and on.

Still, Herbert held things together until they stabilized, and then set out on his own, trusting Pelor to keep him safe... plus the countryside had been scoured of all threats during the search. His armor fits much better now, and he's lost weight and regained some of his old muscle. After three days of wandering, contemplating, and praying, Herbert ran across an exhausted teenage boy on a pony. His village - far from the city - had barely held out against the Gray Night, and now a band of trolls was extorting food from them even as some kind of pox was spreading through the town. After curing the boy's sickness, Herbert sent him on to the city, and headed out. With the way things are, he'd be able to arrive at least half a week before anyone else, and that's a lot of time for life and death.

He pushed on into the night, walking until his legs burned, and then until they went numb. There would always be healing spells in the morning. So focused was he that it took far too long to notice how very, very foggy it had become...

[dangelo]

How about no limit for pieces of equipment, but for the actual gold/jewels, roll or take average (similarly to ho we did hit points)

[TaiLiu]

IC thread should be up sometime tomorrow
Looking forward to it. :>


@The Commander


https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/941056535935729727/1144705207599644742/Y.diversipes.jpg?width=435&height=581
Oh, that's rad.


Sheet is now set to public. Obviously nobody else tried to view it.
I actually did try to view it, twice, and twice forgot to tell you it wouldn't show. My bad. I've been busy and it slipped my mind. :smallredface:


How about no limit for pieces of equipment, but for the actual gold/jewels, roll or take average (similarly to ho we did hit points)

On the spell components front, with starting gold×10 we'd probably have enough for 2 revivify castings if we pooled it all together. Seems fair to me.

Starting wealth for a cleric is 5d4 x 10. At max, 200, so 200x 10 = 2000gp. That gives me 4 raise deads, or 6 revivifies, or 2 hallows. GP -> components or do we need to track specific material components.
[roll0] × 10... 130 gold from me. I've no use for it, so it goes into the party coffers. :smallsmile:

[Waistcoatwill]

Awesome, changed the Fastieth stats!

[roll0] x10 for wealth = 160

X10 again is 1,600gp. Is that what you meant for generating cash for components etc?

[truemane]

MONEY

[roll0]

Haha! Minimum money.

So that's 200 gp. Rue doesn't need any cash, so that can go in the coffers.

[TaiLiu]

Awesome, changed the Fastieth stats!

[roll0] x10 for wealth = 160

X10 again is 1,600gp. Is that what you meant for generating cash for components etc?
Oh, whoops. Forgot the additional ×10. It's 1300 gp, then.


Haha! Minimum money.

So that's 200 gp. Rue doesn't need any cash, so that can go in the coffers.
Only 2d4? This is clearly anti-Barbarian discrimination. :smalltongue:

[The Commander]

@The Commander


https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/941056535935729727/1144705207599644742/Y.diversipes.jpg?width=435&height=581

Ain't that a beauty!

Wealth: [roll0] x100 = 700gp (clearly Lord Varanash has spent a lot of his House's fortunes getting here!)

@DM - Lord Varanash is carrying a Pearl of Power. To be able to cast Identify, I need a Pearl worth 100gp (which the spell doesn't consume). Can my Pearl of Power be used as the material component for Identify?

@Everyone - Aside from Potions of Healing (if we're considering them), and the question above, I don't have anything I need to spend gold on material-wise.

[TaiLiu]

@Everyone - Aside from Potions of Healing (if we're considering them), and the question above, I don't have anything I need to spend gold on material-wise.
If we're concerned about cheap healing, Yikkol has the Healer feat. Picking up some potions isn't a bad idea, but some of their use cases are covered by healer's kits:


You are an able physician, allowing you to mend wounds quickly and get your allies back in the fight. You gain the following benefits:


When you use a healer's kit to stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains 1 hit point.
As an action, you can spend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6 + 4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short or long rest.

[The Commander]

If we're concerned about cheap healing, Yikkol has the Healer feat. Picking up some potions isn't a bad idea, but some of their use cases are covered by healer's kits:

I'm mostly thinking about potions for Combat Healing - if the Cleric, or you, is busy (or you go down yourselves), if you've got potions on you, or we have potions, we can save your life.

[TaiLiu]

I'm mostly thinking about potions for Combat Healing - if the Cleric, or you, is busy (or you go down yourselves), if you've got potions on you, or we have potions, we can save your life.
For sure. Those are some of the use cases I was talking about. Yikkol has three on her, so she probably doesn't need any more. But other characters might benefit from picking some up.

[Waistcoatwill]

Paladin for combat healing as well. He's likely to give everyone a goodberry or two with breakfast each morning, which could work for the rifle pockets instead of/as well as potions.

[dangelo]

On potions: I believe any 10th level adventurer would carry at least one for emergencies. So how about 6 health potions to begin with?


X10 again is 1,600gp. Is that what you meant for generating cash for components etc?
You are right!


@DM - Lord Varanash is carrying a Pearl of Power. To be able to cast Identify, I need a Pearl worth 100gp (which the spell doesn't consume). Can my Pearl of Power be used as the material component for Identify?
That sounds reasonable yeah :smallsmile:


Only 2d4? This is clearly anti-Barbarian discrimination. :smalltongue:
D&D Barbarians: Starts with 2d4 x 10 gp
Historical "Barbarians"': Sacks Rome

[The Commander]

On potions: I believe any 10th level adventurer would carry at least one for emergencies. So how about 6 health potions to begin with?


I'm 99% sure you mean 6 potions for the group, and not 6 potions each; but I may as well ask just in case :smallbiggrin:

We could each take 1 each, which would be fair; or we could prioritise certain characters if we feel that it's better for some characters to have potions handy.



That sounds reasonable yeah :smallsmile:


Thanks!

[J-H]

gold roll
[roll0] x 100

[Dr.Samurai]

I'm away and with family this weekend, but did want to say that I need to finish out my mundane gear. I will work on the "Mist" introduction as well when I am able to.

[TaiLiu]

D&D Barbarians: Starts with 2d4 x 10 gp
Historical "Barbarians"': Sacks Rome
They had to sack Rome cuz they were so poor. :smalltongue:

I thought that Monks would be even worse off than Barbarians, but they're one of the classes that have the highest amount of starting gold. It's:


Barbarians and Druids with 2d4 × 10 gp;
Sorcerers with 3d4 × 10 gp;
Rogues, Warlocks, and Wizards with 4d4 × 10 gp;
and everyone else has 5d4 × 10 gp.



Paladin for combat healing as well. He's likely to give everyone a goodberry or two with breakfast each morning, which could work for the rifle pockets instead of/as well as potions.
That's a good idea, though it'll depend on if we can feed people goodberries while they're unconscious.


I'm 99% sure you mean 6 potions for the group, and not 6 potions each; but I may as well ask just in case :smallbiggrin:

We could each take 1 each, which would be fair; or we could prioritise certain characters if we feel that it's better for some characters to have potions handy.
I like the one each idea. I'll guessing we'll be sharing in-game anyway.

[Waistcoatwill]

1600 is enough for Bori to get 5 diamonds for revivify and 100gp left over in case we ever need to do magic circle!

[TaiLiu]

1600 is enough for Bori to get 5 diamonds for revivify and 100gp left over in case we ever need to do magic circle!
Nice! I love being alive.

[dangelo]

Here's a link to the IC threat (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?659083-IC-Expedition-to-Castle-Ravenloft&p=25854931#post25854931). Excited to get started

I'm pretty sure I'm missing some questions...


1. Will the Orb of Time and the Orb of Direction work in Barovia? I will still keep them as my items, but would like to know if this is something that might signal to Rua he is somewhere strange.
2. As mentioned in the concept spoiler, when Rua doffs and dons his armor, is it possible to describe it as the Guyver transformation? The Bionoids were inspired by Guyver so that would be cool.
3. I took the Wildspace background, which grants Toughness. But I'm happy to ignore that part of the Background if it makes sense.

1. These items will seemingly work normally for most of the time, but might randomly go nuts and become unreliable. There's no way to prevent or to see that coming, though you will be able to tell when the item is working and when its just being crazy.

2. It seems alright - though can you "lose" your armor, thus losing access to your transformation? Not that I see any feasible to catch your character without his armor on, but supposing it was melted in acid or lava, for example?

3. I'm tempted to allow it, but I wonder if it's a Spelljamer thing to give feats through backgrounds? Is this background meant to be balanced with the vanilla ones or are all Spelljamer PCs supposed to pick those extra powerful ones? I think I would feel pressured to compensate the other players somehow.

[J-H]

I'm pretty sure I'm missing some questions...
Do we have to pre-buy specific spell components, or does GP just convert to spell components?

healing potions 50gp?




3. I'm tempted to allow it, but I wonder if it's a Spelljamer thing to give feats through backgrounds? Is this background meant to be balanced with the vanilla ones or are all Spelljamer PCs supposed to pick those extra powerful ones? I think I would feel pressured to compensate the other players somehow.

Spelljammer and Dragonlance included this, and I think the 2024 5.5e (or whatever) may include specific feats with backgrounds as well. Since backgrounds usually give 2 skills, a RP/fluff/society feature, and maybe a language or tool use, a feat is a step up even if it's a bad feat.

Do you want me to set up a Discord server?

[TaiLiu]

First! Or, well, second. Since the DM is first.


Do we have to pre-buy specific spell components, or does GP just convert to spell components?
dangelo said "you don't have to specify," so I don't think we need to pre-buy spell components.


I'm tempted to allow it, but I wonder if it's a Spelljamer thing to give feats through backgrounds? Is this background meant to be balanced with the vanilla ones or are all Spelljamer PCs supposed to pick those extra powerful ones? I think I would feel pressured to compensate the other players somehow.

Spelljammer and Dragonlance included this, and I think the 2024 5.5e (or whatever) may include specific feats with backgrounds as well. Since backgrounds usually give 2 skills, a RP/fluff/society feature, and maybe a language or tool use, a feat is a step up even if it's a bad feat.
I don't mind Aelki having Toughness. Someone having more HP benefits us all.

[Waistcoatwill]

I realised that Bori is probably slightly wary of artificers, he's not actively hostile though.

Edit: I'm not bothered by that background either.

[The Commander]

The background is fine with me.

I guess we're getting 1 healing potion each then? I'll add it to my character sheet.

[Waistcoatwill]

Totally forgot to mention that Bori sensing his surroundings us doing Divine Sense just beyond 60ft away then walking within range so that it's slightly less obstructive. Some will notice the Infernal tarantula.

[dangelo]

Do we have to pre-buy specific spell components, or does GP just convert to spell components?

healing potions 50gp?
GP converts to components conveniently, even as you find loot within the dungeon.

However I'd prefer if players didn't buy unlimited Healing Potions during character creation in this campaign - That's because you can buy potions in Barovia, from a limited stash and for a higher price.


Do you want me to set up a Discord server?
Thank you for the attention, but I should be able do it soon - since all the vital information and dice rolls are here, it will be really just a chatroom. I'll send an invite link to your PMs.


I guess we're getting 1 healing potion each then? I'll add it to my character sheet.
Yep, for starters!

[dangelo]

Loving the hate on Strahd. Death to the Devil!

[TaiLiu]

Loving the hate on Strahd. Death to the Devil!
We're gonna crush him. :D

[truemane]

I don't mind the Background either.

If you felt really, really guilty about it, dangelo, you could the rest of us a bonus half-Feat.

But it's cool as is.

[TaiLiu]

I like how differently we treat the fortune teller when we speak to her. It says a lot about our characters.

Yikkol is demanding and self-obsessed. Herbert is unsure but gives her the benefit of the doubt. Bori is open even as his tone turns bitter. Neither Zinro nor Rua even talk to her. And Rue does not disguise her hate.

[TaiLiu]

Okay, here are the locations of the treasures again:


"The Marionette. Ye must look at the top of the highest tower to find what ye need."
"The Innocent. A brothof light to a brother of shadows. Down below, where he rests in his tomb, is where you shall find the second treasure."
"The Tempter! I see a secret place—a vault of temptation, hidden behind a woman of great beauty."
"I see The Beast in his own lair. When ye wish to face the Devil, look for his dark throne."

EDIT (November 2023): The last fortune is no longer true. We will instead find Strahd in the Hall of Bones.

I vote to find the Marionette's treasure first. We can climb up the side of the castle to the highest tower and fight our way down one treasure richer. That seems a better idea than doing the expected and going through the front entrance.

But ultimately I'll go along with what the party thinks is best. :smallsmile:


I have potions of magical healing that I will sell ye for a fair price - unlike Bildrath, that miserable shopkeep - and other treasures in the bottom of my trunk.
dangelo, what are these other treasures she's selling?

[The Commander]

I vote to find the Marionette's treasure first. We can climb up the side of the castle to the highest tower and fight our way down one treasure richer. That seems a better idea than doing the expected and going through the front entrance.


Whilst that's genuinely a fantastic idea, and I agree as a player, Zinro has a fear of heights and would be absolutely against such a plan :smallbiggrin:

[TaiLiu]

Whilst that's genuinely a fantastic idea, and I agree as a player, Zinro has a fear of heights and would be absolutely against such a plan :smallbiggrin:
Aw, okay. Basement first, then?

Also: how did the Wizard beat my Perception? 😭

[Waistcoatwill]

That sounds like a great plan! Bori is okay at athletics and has misty step, it'll still be a long slow climb though. I'm assuming we all have tope? If someone can fly/spider climb etc fingers crossed the tower is <300ft tall.

[TaiLiu]

That sounds like a great plan! Bori is okay at athletics and has misty step, it'll still be a long slow climb though. I'm assuming we all have tope? If someone can fly/spider climb etc fingers crossed the tower is <300ft tall.
Yeah, I think most of the packs have rope. Yikkol has rope. Yikkol can climb at 30 ft, so she’ll be about twice as fast the others.

The main problem is that our Wizard is afraid of heights. We could split the party, but that’s probably a bad idea.

[J-H]

Herbert doesn't have Athletics, wears full plate, and has no flying magic. I don't think we can make it up the tower without some shenanigans such as the use of a Portable Hole. Dimension Door only allows carrying one passenger, Arcane Gate is 6th level, and I don't think we have a Genie warlock. Other ideas, maybe a flying summon?

I will pick up 2 healing potions in case I go down or need to feed to others. Last night in my BG2 game, the party cleric used a potion + healing word to top himself off really fast after Nat20ing his death save.

I suppose if we are going to be polite guests, we should go in the front door, and then we can look and see which option we find first. There may be more areas to search under the castle than over it.

[dangelo]

On Dragonlance and Spelljamer Backgrounds: If you guys are fine with it, I see no problem!


dangelo, what are these other treasures she's selling?
Those would be any regular mundane item you might need in the middle of your adventure, like rope, torches, rations, anything a general store would sell. Bildrath sells the same stuff for 10x the price.


Whilst that's genuinely a fantastic idea, and I agree as a player, Zinro has a fear of heights and would be absolutely against such a plan :smallbiggrin:
I wonder how the proud noble Drow will put that in words :smallbiggrin:


I vote to find the Marionette's treasure first. We can climb up the side of the castle to the highest tower and fight our way down one treasure richer. That seems a better idea than doing the expected and going through the front entrance.

That sounds like a great plan! Bori is okay at athletics and has misty step, it'll still be a long slow climb though. I'm assuming we all have tope? If someone can fly/spider climb etc fingers crossed the tower is <300ft tall.

I'm assuming each of the PCs have an Explorer's Pack at least. Keep in mind that climbing the walls of the castle has a high DC and requires a climber's kit.

For better visualization, this is the front view of Castle Ravenloft and the height of its towers written down:
https://longo.com.br/5e/img/adventure/CoS/DM%20Map%20-%20Castle%20Ravenloft%201.jpg?ver=1.77.1

[TaiLiu]

Herbert doesn't have Athletics, wears full plate, and has no flying magic. I don't think we can make it up the tower without some shenanigans such as the use of a Portable Hole. Dimension Door only allows carrying one passenger, Arcane Gate is 6th level, and I don't think we have a Genie warlock. Other ideas, maybe a flying summon?
I think you and the Wizard are the only ones with a chance of getting a flying summon. But yeah. It sounds that we aren't gonna get up there as a party.

Yikkol could probably climb up and take a look through the window. She'd definitely be the fastest.


I suppose if we are going to be polite guests, we should go in the front door, and then we can look and see which option we find first. There may be more areas to search under the castle than over it.
Oh, Yikkol's not gonna be a polite guest. The moment she sees him, she'll shoot. :smallbiggrin:


I will pick up 2 healing potions in case I go down or need to feed to others. Last night in my BG2 game, the party cleric used a potion + healing word to top himself off really fast after Nat20ing his death save.
Sounds good. Yikkol has four, so she won't be picking up any more.


Those would be any regular mundane item you might need in the middle of your adventure, like rope, torches, rations, anything a general store would sell. Bildrath sells the same stuff for 10x the price.

I'm assuming each of the PCs have an Explorer's Pack at least. Keep in mind that climbing the walls of the castle has a high DC and requires a climber's kit.
Oh, cool! Could Yikkol buy a climber's kit from Eva, or would that be metagaming? :smalltongue:

Aside: Yikkol has a burglar's pack instead. Lemme know if that's okay or if I should switch it out.


For better visualization, this is the front view of Castle Ravenloft and the height of its towers written down:
https://longo.com.br/5e/img/adventure/CoS/DM%20Map%20-%20Castle%20Ravenloft%201.jpg?ver=1.77.1
Oo. Yeah, that's tall. Even with Yikkol's climb speed and Cunning Action, she'd need 4 combat rounds to scale to the tip.

[Dr.Samurai]

Ok, I finally have some time to finalize things. Rolling for starting wealth, then will edit post with more information: [roll0] x100

[Waistcoatwill]

Aelfi is probably the best source of flight/spider climb but I imagine swapping infusions is a long rest thing? Good for a backup plan if we take a mauling and need to long rest.

[truemane]

Rue can also climb the castle in about four combat rounds (45 climb speed plus Dash). She would do it if the party asked, but she would rather not be alone up there.

If there are no objections, I'd like to take one Potion of Greater Healing and one normal. That's my 200 gp.

And rolling Perception:

[roll0]

[truemane]

Plus Arcana:

[roll0]

[TaiLiu]

Rue can also climb the castle in about four combat rounds (45 climb speed plus Dash). She would do it if the party asked, but she would rather not be alone up there.
So that's three party members able to climb. That's not bad. Splitting the party might be a viable idea.


If there are no objections, I'd like to take one Potion of Greater Healing and one normal. That's my 200 gp.
Go for it.

[Waistcoatwill]

Splitting the party might be a viable idea..

In a very hostile environment, with at least two party members with separation anxiety, what could go wrong!?

[Dr.Samurai]

Posted IC.

Purchased a healing potion and greater healing potion. With regards to healing, Rua has Revivify and Spare the Dying. Nothing prepared in between those two at the moment. A total of 2 healing potions and a greater healing potion now.

With regards to mundane gear, Rua is a trained soldier, explorer, and mercenary. I think it would make sense if he had a bunch of mundane gear in his bag of holding. Would that be okay or would that be overboard? I'm thinking block and tackle, lantern, chalk, crowbar, ink and scrolls to make maps, hourglass and magnifying glass, manacles, etc. As a cartographer, he can make maps and also contribute his Perception check to the group's awareness while traveling.

A few thoughts:

1. Is Rua too close to Rue for everyone else? If so, I can change his nickname to Asha (second part of his last name). I may just do that so the DM doesn't have to deal with the close names.

2. Not a question, more a comment. Rua can be on the frontline, Revivify the cleric or paladin as needed, help with saving throws 5/day, has Expertise in thieves' tools, and can hand out Guidance on ability checks. He's not that great at a distance, since he's mostly going to be in the Guardian armor.

3. Dangelo, I can say that the armor is linked to a bionoid crystal that Rua carries in his Bag of Holding. So in order to don the armor, he puts this crystal to his forehead or chest or something and it comes forth. Whenever I doff the armor, it goes into the Bag of Holding. So if anything destroys the Bag of Holding, then my armor, assuming it's in there, is also destroyed. That would be a bad day indeed lol.

I was going to list all the gear I wanted to purchase but I need to get to sleep. Figured I'd ask first as well.

[TaiLiu]

Some of the IC posts are beginning to be temporally confusing, which I guess is just part of PBP. I'm just gonna assume we've decided to stay in the carriage and just gotten out.


In a very hostile environment, with at least two party members with separation anxiety, what could go wrong!?
Lots of things. But things going wrong is part of the fun, isn't it? :smallbiggrin:


1. Is Rua too close to Rue for everyone else? If so, I can change his nickname to Asha (second part of his last name). I may just do that so the DM doesn't have to deal with the close names.
Don't feel pressured, but yeah—it is pretty close to Rue. Asha seems good.


2. Not a question, more a comment. Rua can be on the frontline, Revivify the cleric or paladin as needed, help with saving throws 5/day, has Expertise in thieves' tools, and can hand out Guidance on ability checks. He's not that great at a distance, since he's mostly going to be in the Guardian armor.
We can definitely split the party, then. Cuz you can picklock and trapfind, too.

[Waistcoatwill]

Lots of things. But things going wrong is part of the fun, isn't it? :smallbiggrin:

I'm all for mayhem. My only actual reservation is causing unwanted extra work for dangelo. Other than that I'm game for anything.

[Waistcoatwill]

@The Commander: Zinro not learning Fly is fluffy as hell and I love it!

[truemane]

Super excited by the quality RP posts, everyone. I love dungeon crawls, but I love intense melodrama even more. Put them together?

MAGIC.

I am in favour of changing Rua to Asha, if it isn't a huge inconvenience or annoyance.

As a character, Rue could be convinced to split the party. As a player, I would be concerned that it'll be a looooong time before we re-convene (especially as it's PbP pace). Which waters down the narrative a little.

[Dr.Samurai]

Ok, we'll go with Asha moving forward :smallcool:.

For gear, here is what I had in mind, based on Asha's star-jetting military and mercenary life:

Military/Mercenary
1. Blanket (lol)
2. A couple of Chains, Locks, and Manacles
3. Dagger
4. Healer's Kit
5. Portable Ram
6. Shovel
7. Signal Whistle
8. Two-Person Tent
9. String and Bells to set up perimeter
10. Ball Bearings and Caltrops (10 bags each?)

Exploration
1. Block and Tackle x4
2. Bullseye Lantern
3. Chalk x5
4. Climber's Kit
5. Crowbar
6. Hammer
7. Silk Rope x2
8. Ink Pen/Ink x2/Parchment x10 to make maps
9. Hourglass
10. Magnifying Glass
11. Map Cases x5
12. Pouches x5 and Sacks x10

All would be in his Bag of Holding. Does this make sense? Too much? Let me know.

With regards to splitting the party, I've never played in Ravenloft, but given the tone Dangelo is going for, and the comments on difficulty, I don't think we should open up with splitting the party. Plus it could be difficult to do over PBP. That said, it is good to know that we could if we had to.

EDIT: Forgot, I rolled 1300gp. Purchased two 300gp diamonds for Revivify, and the two potions of healing from Eva. So that leaves me at 500gp, which I can use to purchase the mundane gear (I think, will need to calculate).

[truemane]

dangelo's workload is the main concern, as far as splitting the party goes. The potential danger doesn't bother me since, for this kind of game, everyone dying a horrid (possibly ironic and/or dramatically poignant) death is as much a win as killing Strahd.

I just worry that if three of go to the top and come down and the other three head in the front, then, from a story standpoint, we'll basically be playing two mini games rather than one big game.

Which is less fun, I think.

But Rue has low self-esteem, so she'll do what she's told. Until she (explodes in a blood-soaked hurricane fury of bestial anger anyway).

[dangelo]

On splitting the party: It's not in me to say "no" to players without a practical reason, and really there's nothing keeping you from splitting the party (except certain death); But I agree it somewhat kills the purpose of the whole dungeon crawl vibe.

In homebrew dungeons, I like to do "controlled" party-splitting. That means when the party splits, I already have a vague notion of how the PCs are gonna meet up down the line. But it's more of a complication than a resource for the players to use... In most cases, splitting the party is bad.


Oh, cool! Could Yikkol buy a climber's kit from Eva, or would that be metagaming? :smalltongue:

Nope, not metagaming. That's why she's there (:


Ok, I finally have some time to finalize things. Rolling for starting wealth, then will edit post with more information: [roll0] x100
Looking good!


3. Dangelo, I can say that the armor is linked to a bionoid crystal that Rua carries in his Bag of Holding. So in order to don the armor, he puts this crystal to his forehead or chest or something and it comes forth. Whenever I doff the armor, it goes into the Bag of Holding. So if anything destroys the Bag of Holding, then my armor, assuming it's in there, is also destroyed. That would be a bad day indeed lol.

I was going to list all the gear I wanted to purchase but I need to get to sleep. Figured I'd ask first as well
Sure, that sounds very reasonable. Thanks for collaborating on this.


All would be in his Bag of Holding. Does this make sense? Too much? Let me know.

EDIT: Forgot, I rolled 1300gp. Purchased two 300gp diamonds for Revivify, and the two potions of healing from Eva. So that leaves me at 500gp, which I can use to purchase the mundane gear (I think, will need to calculate).
Not at all, it makes perfect sense that your character would carry these things given his background. Plus, that's what Bags of Holding are for :smallsmile:

However you don't have to deduct your mundane gear from your rolled treasure. This roll (x100) is just the spare money you brought to Barovia, for things like spell components. Your weapons, armor, adventuring equipment and all are free. I realize now that this system can be abused, but everyone has been playing it fair so it doesn't bother me :smallbiggrin:

[Waistcoatwill]

@truename: I didnt make it clear enouth, but Bori is riding his dinosaur alongside the carriage. I dont k ow of that would make Rue feel any better or not. I am more than happy to have him comedically break into her reverie or keep a distance depending on which tone you'd prefer.

Bori's dragonmark essentially makes him a walking sanctuary/beacon of home comforts, so it should be interesting if she ever gets within 10ft of him.

[truemane]

@truename: I didnt make it clear enouth, but Bori is riding his dinosaur alongside the carriage. I dont k ow of that would make Rue feel any better or not. I am more than happy to have him comedically break into her reverie or keep a distance depending on which tone you'd prefer.

No no, you made it very clear. I'm just leaning into Rue's Poor Me Mode. I'm fine with him breaking in however you like, if you want to go that way. I have no idea what they would talk about, but I'd be excited to find out.


Bori's dragonmark essentially makes him a walking sanctuary/beacon of home comforts, so it should be interesting if she ever gets within 10ft of him.Something something irresistible force vs. immovable object.

:)

[Waistcoatwill]

Fab, I'll post un a couple of hours depending on how bedtimes go.

[The Commander]

It should be abundantly clear, but Zinro is clearly out of his depth here, and is trying his best to be perceived as 'powerful' by falling back on his noble heritage.

[TaiLiu]

I'm all for mayhem. My only actual reservation is causing unwanted extra work for dangelo. Other than that I'm game for anything.

As a character, Rue could be convinced to split the party. As a player, I would be concerned that it'll be a looooong time before we re-convene (especially as it's PbP pace). Which waters down the narrative a little.

With regards to splitting the party, I've never played in Ravenloft, but given the tone Dangelo is going for, and the comments on difficulty, I don't think we should open up with splitting the party. Plus it could be difficult to do over PBP. That said, it is good to know that we could if we had to.

dangelo's workload is the main concern, as far as splitting the party goes. The potential danger doesn't bother me since, for this kind of game, everyone dying a horrid (possibly ironic and/or dramatically poignant) death is as much a win as killing Strahd.

I just worry that if three of go to the top and come down and the other three head in the front, then, from a story standpoint, we'll basically be playing two mini games rather than one big game.

Which is less fun, I think.

But Rue has low self-esteem, so she'll do what she's told. Until she (explodes in a blood-soaked hurricane fury of bestial anger anyway).

On splitting the party: It's not in me to say "no" to players without a practical reason, and really there's nothing keeping you from splitting the party (except certain death); But I agree it somewhat kills the purpose of the whole dungeon crawl vibe.

In homebrew dungeons, I like to do "controlled" party-splitting. That means when the party splits, I already have a vague notion of how the PCs are gonna meet up down the line. But it's more of a complication than a resource for the players to use... In most cases, splitting the party is bad.
Good points. We'll nix the party-splitting idea and travel together as a family team.


EDIT: Forgot, I rolled 1300gp. Purchased two 300gp diamonds for Revivify, and the two potions of healing from Eva. So that leaves me at 500gp, which I can use to purchase the mundane gear (I think, will need to calculate).
You don't need to buy diamonds for Asha. Spell components are abstracted as gp.


Nope, not metagaming. That's why she's there (:
Great! I'll pick one up just in case, then.


It should be abundantly clear, but Zinro is clearly out of his depth here, and is trying his best to be perceived as 'powerful' by falling back on his noble heritage.
I'm looking forward to Zinro's attempts at negotiation. :smallbiggrin:

[Waistcoatwill]

No no, you made it very clear. I'm just leaning into Rue's Poor Me Mode. I'm fine with him breaking in however you like, if you want to go that way. I have no idea what they would talk about, but I'd be excited to find out.

Something something irresistible force vs. immovable object.

:)

I just went fir being chatty, he's empathetic enough not to make light of her travel preferences without getting to know her first.

[dangelo]

Didn't wanna kill this awesome roleplay vibe so I delayed my post for a bit, but it is here now! Lemme know if you have any questions.

[The Commander]

As an FYI I expect our initial meeting with Strahd to go, ultimately, poorly - but I think it makes narrative sense for all of us to meet him properly first, and then go on our grand quest to defeat him. Plus it'll give us some cool RP moments to kick off the start of the crawl too, and will hopefully solidify the reasons for us all working together.

[dangelo]

@ The Commander
For some reason the book suggests pure Strength rather than Strength (Athletics). I believe the designer's intent here was to make this check a bit of a nuisance for the PCs, since a skill check would likely have +4 proficiency, making DC 15 a very easy target number. :smallsmile:

[The Commander]

@ The Commander
For some reason the book suggests pure Strength rather than Strength (Athletics). I believe the designer's intent here was to make this check a bit of a nuisance for the PCs, since a skill check would likely have +4 proficiency, making DC 15 a very easy target number. :smallsmile:

Interesting. Why not just inflate the target DC if they were worried 15 would be too easy? But fair enough.

[dangelo]

Mmmm maybe cause characters who don't have proficiency in Athletics wouldn't even have a chance at DC 19. I think that's the deal behind Ability checks without skills attached to them.

Always interesting to analyze the details in the design of such an awesome dungeon!

[truemane]

Rue has Expertise in Athletics. And 18 Strength. So either way, she's the portcullis hoisting master (mistress?).

Arcana: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

[TaiLiu]

Poor Rue. I feel for her.

[truemane]

Poor Rue. I feel for her.
Yeah, I really laid the misery on her. Poor thing. I figure, you don't get a name like "Rue" when you've had a pleasant go of things.

[Waistcoatwill]

Perfect fodder for someone who wants to avoid dealing with their own trauma! I smell a project for Bori.

[dangelo]

Quick question: When we start fighting monsters, how do you wanna deal with the battlemap? I usually just use Owlbear Rodeo (https://www.owlbear.rodeo), but I'm open if anyone else has other ideas, specially since Owlbear got a recent update and although it has more functions (and is probably bringing some money to the creators now) it lost that user friendly plug-and-play vibe I liked so much. I can also mock something up on Inkarnate + Photoshop and lay out numbers and letters for rows and collums if you don't mind the analogue approach.

[Waistcoatwill]

@dangelo: I'm more used to roll20 but more than happy to try Owlbear rodeo or an inkarnate/PS mock up. Whichever is easiest for you is almost certainly best for us.

@TaiLiu: Standing next to him with bis full mark on feels like a child getting a warm hug from a parent.

[truemane]

Perfect fodder for someone who wants to avoid dealing with their own trauma! I smell a project for Bori.
Oh no. I hadn't even considered what would happen if Rue met someone who wanted to actually help her. Like in the broad sense. She is basically nothing but trauma.

It would be an interesting spin-oiff though.


Quick question: When we start fighting monsters, how do you wanna deal with the battlemap? I usually just use Owlbear Rodeo (https://www.owlbear.rodeo), but I'm open if anyone else has other ideas, specially since Owlbear got a recent update and although it has more functions (and is probably bringing some money to the creators now) it lost that user friendly plug-and-play vibe I liked so much. I can also mock something up on Inkarnate + Photoshop and lay out numbers and letters for rows and collums if you don't mind the analogue approach.
That's funny, I also use Owlbear Rodeo, and have the same feelings about ver 2.0. It does things now that I always wished it would do, but it's lost of the ease and seat-of-the-pants vibe it had before.

Google Sheets can work, as well, as a very low tech alternative.

I'm happy working with whatever works for you.

EDIT:

Yikkol, ever the pessimist, immediately sidles up to the halfling.
That's very funny. "Sanctuary, eh? Lemme just...."

EDIT 2: Every year at my job I have an insanely busy and stressful and exhausting six week period and it's just about to start. I think it'll be more like three or four weeks this year, but my RL is about to be naynays until the end of Sept or so.

I'll be doing my best to keep up, but please don't pause or wait for me. If I'm away for a few days, assume Rue has lapsed into Brooding Silence.

[Dr.Samurai]

Sure, that sounds very reasonable. Thanks for collaborating on this.
Thank you for considering it and allowing it!

However you don't have to deduct your mundane gear from your rolled treasure. This roll (x100) is just the spare money you brought to Barovia, for things like spell components. Your weapons, armor, adventuring equipment and all are free. I realize now that this system can be abused, but everyone has been playing it fair so it doesn't bother me :smallbiggrin:
Sounds good, I will fill everything in on my character sheet.

It should be abundantly clear, but Zinro is clearly out of his depth here, and is trying his best to be perceived as 'powerful' by falling back on his noble heritage.
Well, Asha hasn't gotten that vibe, and fully expects Zinro to treat with Strahd. As someone who has tried to keep it together while a plane is taking off, only for people around him to notice he's staving off full blown panic, I might say Asha might have noticed Zinro's discomfort with heights :smallsigh:.

You don't need to buy diamonds for Asha. Spell components are abstracted as gp.
Awesome, thank you for pointing that out. Also, I rarely play spellcasters so this will be a bit new to me in general. I'm playing a warlock now in another game, and I've played a paladin before in a one-shot (pbp though so definitely went on longer than a one shot normally does lol).

@ The Commander
For some reason the book suggests pure Strength rather than Strength (Athletics). I believe the designer's intent here was to make this check a bit of a nuisance for the PCs, since a skill check would likely have +4 proficiency, making DC 15 a very easy target number. :smallsmile:
As someone that predominantly plays Strength characters, this is a little bone I have to pick with 5E. The DC 20 Strength checks means even a Str 20 fighter is struggling to succeed, and often the modules specifically use Strength checks instead of Str(Athletics) checks.

That said, it's easy to get Expertise, and Advantage, and then you're just blowing through these DCs if they're Athletics.

Quick question: When we start fighting monsters, how do you wanna deal with the battlemap? I usually just use Owlbear Rodeo (https://www.owlbear.rodeo), but I'm open if anyone else has other ideas, specially since Owlbear got a recent update and although it has more functions (and is probably bringing some money to the creators now) it lost that user friendly plug-and-play vibe I liked so much. I can also mock something up on Inkarnate + Photoshop and lay out numbers and letters for rows and collums if you don't mind the analogue approach.
I've used Roll20, Google Sheets, and the DM posting a picture of the map+grid. I can use Owlbear or whatever is easiest for you. I much prefer a map over ToM, especially with PbP.

[The Commander]

Quick question: When we start fighting monsters, how do you wanna deal with the battlemap? I usually just use Owlbear Rodeo (https://www.owlbear.rodeo), but I'm open if anyone else has other ideas, specially since Owlbear got a recent update and although it has more functions (and is probably bringing some money to the creators now) it lost that user friendly plug-and-play vibe I liked so much. I can also mock something up on Inkarnate + Photoshop and lay out numbers and letters for rows and collums if you don't mind the analogue approach.

I've used a virtual whiteboard for some things in the past called Miro. But happy to go with whatever you feel comfortable with.

[J-H]

I use Excel and screenshot it. There are a few limitations if you need a very large map, though, and it's not pretty.

Google sheets never seems to work right, possibly because I don't use Google browsers and don't maintain an active login, for reasons that I probably can't fully discuss on here.

One DM I'm in a game with is using Roll20 maps and then screenshotting them. I tried that recently, but could never get the grid to line up with my background image.

[dangelo]

I've put up a modest Discord server (https://discord.gg/GDXWMXgC) for us. The link expires in a few days so I guess it's fine to post it publicly?

On battlemaps: I never quite managed to wrap my head around Roll20, or any VTT service for that matter. If you guys are fine with Owlber, I'll be much more comfortable with that option :smallsmile:
Also will check out Miro. And I actually enjoy trying different stuff in Excel so I'll give that a shot sometime too

An example of the kind of mockup I mentioned, from one of my previous games here in the forums:
https://i.imgur.com/Lxpv1OH.png



EDIT 2: Every year at my job I have an insanely busy and stressful and exhausting six week period and it's just about to start. I think it'll be more like three or four weeks this year, but my RL is about to be naynays until the end of Sept or so.
Np, thanks for letting us know! Wish you good luck in these tough weeks.


As someone that predominantly plays Strength characters, this is a little bone I have to pick with 5E. The DC 20 Strength checks means even a Str 20 fighter is struggling to succeed, and often the modules specifically use Strength checks instead of Str(Athletics) checks.

That said, it's easy to get Expertise, and Advantage, and then you're just blowing through these DCs if they're Athletics.
I think the main difference between Athletics with a higher DC or Strength with a lower DC is that in the first case, everyone has a fairly similar chance to succeed, while in the second, it will certainly fall on the Barbarian or Paladin's shoulders to do so. In the first case, the complication is time, because the party might need several attempts to hit that target number 15; In the second, the complication is requiring a strong PC to spend their action next to the door; In a combat situation, while the players are trying to run away and someone has to open the porticullis, I can actually see why they went with the first example.

But I definitely agree, pure Ability checks with higher DCs would be more of an annoyance than a challenge. It's never fun to just retry the same check over and over.

Also sorry for textwalling you guys, I get excited when talking about d&d game design.

[Waistcoatwill]

@truemane: Best of luck with work! Bori will be delighted to continue failing to help Rue when things are easier.

@dangelo: That mockup looks brilliant to me. Giving a few things a go sounds fun.

[TaiLiu]

Quick question: When we start fighting monsters, how do you wanna deal with the battlemap? I usually just use Owlbear Rodeo (https://www.owlbear.rodeo), but I'm open if anyone else has other ideas, specially since Owlbear got a recent update and although it has more functions (and is probably bringing some money to the creators now) it lost that user friendly plug-and-play vibe I liked so much. I can also mock something up on Inkarnate + Photoshop and lay out numbers and letters for rows and collums if you don't mind the analogue approach.

I've used Roll20, Google Sheets, and the DM posting a picture of the map+grid. I can use Owlbear or whatever is easiest for you. I much prefer a map over ToM, especially with PbP.

@dangelo: I'm more used to roll20 but more than happy to try Owlbear rodeo or an inkarnate/PS mock up. Whichever is easiest for you is almost certainly best for us.

That's funny, I also use Owlbear Rodeo, and have the same feelings about ver 2.0. It does things now that I always wished it would do, but it's lost of the ease and seat-of-the-pants vibe it had before.

Google Sheets can work, as well, as a very low tech alternative.

I'm happy working with whatever works for you.
Agreed with everyone here. Whatever works best for dangelo is best for us, if only cuz you're the one who's gonna be making the maps and stuff. *

It looks like we're going Owlbear Rodeo. I haven't played on a battlemap in years, so I'm excited to play with rigorous positioning again.

* My preference is theatre of the mind (perhaps unusual amongst this crowd), but I also like Owlbear Rodeo and other battlemaps that can be accessed from the phone without logging in. PBP games have such a high rate of deaths that I'm inclined towards solutions that minimize work and friction for everyone.


@TaiLiu: Standing next to him with bis full mark on feels like a child getting a warm hug from a parent.
This is why she's nice to you but standoffish to most of the others. :smalltongue:

Mommy... I miss you... T^T


That's very funny. "Sanctuary, eh? Lemme just...."

EDIT 2: Every year at my job I have an insanely busy and stressful and exhausting six week period and it's just about to start. I think it'll be more like three or four weeks this year, but my RL is about to be naynays until the end of Sept or so.

I'll be doing my best to keep up, but please don't pause or wait for me. If I'm away for a few days, assume Rue has lapsed into Brooding Silence.
Good luck with work!


Awesome, thank you for pointing that out. Also, I rarely play spellcasters so this will be a bit new to me in general. I'm playing a warlock now in another game, and I've played a paladin before in a one-shot (pbp though so definitely went on longer than a one shot normally does lol).
Oh, nice! Artificers are half-casters, too, so if it helps it's probably very similar to playing a Pally.

[dangelo]

@TaiLiu I'm an enthusiast of the balance between the two :smallbiggrin:
Battlemaps work for encounters where your positioning matters. If the enemies have area-based effects, or can fly, or are applying a specific formation to get advantage of their surroundings, then I use battlemaps to give the players the chance of wargaming their way and get advantage of tactics. But some encounters happen in empty rooms where everyone just hack 'n slash every round. In these situations, ToM will actually make the fight much more fun, and is also a chance to take a break from the math-heavy encounters and enjoy some fast-paced action.

In fact, since many encounters are only there to make the heroes spend a little bit of their resources, and aren't necessarily death threats, I like to convert some of them to group-based Skill Challenges (borrowed from 4e) and deduct hitpoints or spell slots from the PCs based on the results. Hopefully that will help you feel more comfortable in such a grid-heavy campaign :smallsmile:

@all Don't worry if this sounds too homebrew-ey for you, it's more of an alternative that I will suggest at some point and you guys can say yes or no.

[TaiLiu]

@TaiLiu I'm an enthusiast of the balance between the two :smallbiggrin:
Battlemaps work for encounters where your positioning matters. If the enemies have area-based effects, or can fly, or are applying a specific formation to get advantage of their surroundings, then I use battlemaps to give the players the chance of wargaming their way and get advantage of tactics. But some encounters happen in empty rooms where everyone just hack 'n slash every round. In these situations, ToM will actually make the fight much more fun, and is also a chance to take a break from the math-heavy encounters and enjoy some fast-paced action.

In fact, since many encounters are only there to make the heroes spend a little bit of their resources, and aren't necessarily death threats, I like to convert some of them to group-based Skill Challenges (borrowed from 4e) and deduct hitpoints or spell slots from the PCs based on the results. Hopefully that will help you feel more comfortable in such a grid-heavy campaign :smallsmile:

@all Don't worry if this sounds too homebrew-ey for you, it's more of an alternative that I will suggest at some point and you guys can say yes or no.
I should clarify that I don't mind the grid-heavy aspect of this campaign. It's just that it's been a while since I've played with a battlemap. :smallsmile:

The skill challenge idea is clever and probably useful in PBP games, which tend to be slow. Looking forward to seeing how it works.

[TaiLiu]

Lots of places to go! I vote up.

[truemane]

I also vote up.




[...]
Nethis seems to **** her head slightly before feignting a lash with her tail.
[...]

That's an interesting place for the profanity filter to kick in. Did you misspell 'duck'?

[Dr.Samurai]

My vote is for music.

Censor is censoring out a word that rhymes with sock. I use it often in the same way and it censors me every time lol.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I was in a 4E game back in the day playing Finnan Tallsaddle, a halfling raptor rider lol. Used to come up.

[dangelo]

TaiLiu and truemane vote up
J-H, Dr.Samurai and Waistcoatwill vote music

Someone told me once that groups work better in odd numbers cause someone will always break a tie. Guess I didn't follow that advice lol

[The Commander]

TaiLiu and truemane vote up
J-H, Dr.Samurai and Waistcoatwill vote music

Someone told me once that groups work better in odd numbers cause someone will always break a tie. Guess I didn't follow that advice lol

Luckily Zinro would vote for following the music, partly because he's still in 'noble' mode and partly so he doesn't have to worry about heights just yet :smallwink:

[Waistcoatwill]

My vote is for music.

Censor is censoring out a word that rhymes with sock. I use it often in the same way and it censors me every time lol.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I was in a 4E game back in the day playing Finnan Tallsaddle, a halfling raptor rider lol. Used to come up.

That's hilarious! Did you come up with any alternatives for Finnan or just roll with the censoring?

[TaiLiu]

Looks like the music room won. 🎵


Censor is censoring out a word that rhymes with sock. I use it often in the same way and it censors me every time lol.
You can legally get around the censor with clever use of [color] and the like.

[TaiLiu]

Here’s the dungeon map we currently have (https://gitlab.com/ttrpgs/cos/-/blob/main/map.md). Latest change: renamed the unknown room to 1.03 Knights’ Hall.

[dangelo]

That's an awesome little map (:

[Waistcoatwill]

Perception check with advantage from Bori [roll0] or [roll1]
Oh dear, don't know how I managed to miss typing those extra 8s. I think the d20 roll was 16 (total 21) but happy to re-roll.

[truemane]

That is an awesome map! I put a link to it in my sig so anyone can access it when they need to.

[truemane]

Double post! From a moderator! Everyone clutch your pearls!

[roll0] - Perception

EDIT: Oh, Rue. Poor Rue. Turns out self-absorbed melodrama is distracting.

[TaiLiu]

Perception check: [roll0].


That's an awesome little map (:

That is an awesome map! I put a link to it in my sig so anyone can access it when they need to.
Aw, you two. Thank you. :>


Perception check with advantage from Bori [roll0] or [roll1]
Oh dear, don't know how I managed to miss typing those extra 8s. I think the d20 roll was 16 (total 21) but happy to re-roll.
With a 600+ roll, I’m sure we’ll spot whatever dangers lie ahead. 😛


Double post! From a moderator! Everyone clutch your pearls!
You broke the rules! I’m telling on you! 😤

[Dr.Samurai]

Gotta love telling everyone to stay alert and then rolling a nat 1 on your own Perception :smallcool:

[TaiLiu]

Gotta love telling everyone to stay alert and then rolling a nat 1 on your own Perception :smallcool:
Everyone! Stay alert! There’s no danger whatsoever!

[truemane]

You broke the rules! I’m telling on you! 😤
I'm a loose cannon!

[Waistcoatwill]

Initiative with advantage
[roll0] Or [roll1]

[TaiLiu]

Fight time! Initiative: [roll0].

[Dr.Samurai]

Asha Initiative w/Advantage

[roll0], [roll1]

[The Commander]

Zinro initiative: [roll0]

Dot initiative: [roll1]

[truemane]

Initiative!

(Advantage, +3 to whatever is higher)

[vroll]2d20[/roll]

[truemane]

dammit

2d20

[truemane]

GAH

[roll0]
[roll1]

[J-H]

Time to bring the group average down. [roll0]
Edit: Or not

[TaiLiu]

Average initiative is about 12.42.

[J-H]

Religion [roll0]+5 circumstance bonus = 20

[truemane]

That's 18 initiative for me.

And I put Rue off to the side slightly. Maybe she saw or smelled something interesting.

[Waistcoatwill]

Perception check to see if he notices anything about the archer. Untrained in the knowledge skills so he'll leave those alone.

[roll0] or [roll1]

[Dr.Samurai]

I created an account this morning and tried getting back in. Just waiting now to be let in I think.

Asha's checks:

Religion to know they are vampire spawn [roll0] DC 15
Religion/Nature to know druidic properties [roll1] DC 15
Arcana to notice wizardy properties [roll2] DC 15
Perception to notice detail about archer [roll3] DC 17

[TaiLiu]

• Religion check versus DC 15 to know they’re vampire spawn: [roll0].

• Nature check versus DC 15 to notice Druidic properties: [roll1].

• Arcana check versus DC 15 to notice Wizardy properties: [roll2].

• Perception check versus DC 17 to notice details about the archer: [roll3].

EDIT: Three out of four ain’t bad!

[The Commander]

Religion for Vampire Spawns: [roll0]

(Nature/Religion is the same) for the Druid Vampire: [roll1]

Arcana for Wizard Vampire: [roll2]

Perception for Archer Vampire: [roll3]

EDIT: Ironically I fail at identifying the opposing Wizard!

[truemane]

Religion re: Vampire Spawn [roll0]
Religion re: Druidic Stuff [roll1]
Arcana re: Wizardy [roll2]
Perception re: Archer [roll3]

[dangelo]

[Perception 18]: The archer carries more scars and signs of battle than the others. It seems like he is the weakest of them, or the one who gets beat up the most whenever they fight as a team. Basically, he's the weak link of the party.

[Religion 20]: Herbet and Lord Zinro are aware of the Vampire Spawn's [Regeneration], [Vampire Weaknesses] and [Damage Reduction: Necrotic; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing From Nonmagical Attacks]. You can pass on that knowledge to other PCs by yelling, at the cost of half of your movement for the round.

[Religion 15]: You're aware of [Vampire Weaknesses].

The vampire has the following flaws:
Forbiddance. The vampire can't enter a residence without an invitation from one of the occupants.
Harmed by Running Water. The vampire takes 20 acid damage when it ends its turn in running water.
Stake to the Heart. The vampire is destroyed if a piercing weapon made of wood is driven into its heart while it is incapacitated in its resting place.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity. The vampire takes 20 radiant damage when it starts its turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
[Arcana 15]: Expect up to 2nd level Wizard spellcasting.

[Religion/Nature 15]: Expect up to 2nd level Druid spellcasting.

[The Commander]

Not sure if you want us to make BOTH an Arcane and a Religion check for Bull's Strength; I'll make both rolls, but would use Arcana if it's an either or.

Arcana: [roll0]
Religion: [roll1]

[dangelo]

In this case yes, one for the Wizard, the other for the Druid. Although since the spells are similar, one could assume they're the same through logic.

[TaiLiu]

Yikkol doesn’t know too much about magic, so I’ll skip the INT checks.

I do want you all to know that I whipped out the Pythagorean theorem to calculate if I’d get disadvantage to shoot back at the ranger vampire. It’s about 97 feet away, which is just under the 100/400 feet range of the heavy crossbow. I got lucky—a little further would mean no sneak attack. :smalltongue:

EDIT: Assuming the Druid is the shirtless one, anyway. If the one without a shirt is the Ranger, he’s even closer.

[dangelo]

Nice math!! And actually yes, the Ranger is the shirtless one. Sorry if it was too confusing lol

[J-H]

Dex save [roll0]

[TaiLiu]

Friendly reminder: if you ate Bori's snacks, you have 4 temporary hit points. I forgot about them until I looked at my character sheet and saw them written down. :smallsmile:


Nice math!! And actually yes, the Ranger is the shirtless one. Sorry if it was too confusing lol
No worries! Some of them are obvious, but it was unclear which was ranger and which the druid.

[truemane]

Rolls!

Shove (rolling with Advantage): [roll0], [roll1]
Grapple (rolling with Advantage): [roll2], [roll3]

Both of these are opposed by the Spawn's Athletics or Acrobatics check.

Technically, it takes half your movement to stand up from prone, and the Grappled condition reduces your speed to 0. So the Spawn (assuming it's both Shoved and Grappled, will attack at Disadvantage and be attacked at Advantage until it uses its Action to break the grapple.

(Just in case it does do that, here's my opposed Athletics Checks: [roll4], [roll5])

EDIT: It's so weird how none of those rolls really benefitted from Advantage.

[J-H]

Advantage on my Spiritual Weapon attack if the vampire is prone [roll0]+[roll1] Bless

[dangelo]

[Yikkol]
Archer suffers [28] magical piercing damage.

[Herbert]
Knight suffers [4] radiant damage.
Spiritual weapon misses.


Nature/Religion from the Druid Spawn to identify the Bless spell, DC 11 (10 + level of the spell)
[roll0]

[Asha]
Knight suffers [[B]8] thunder damage.
Second attack misses.

[Lord Zinro]
Arcana from the Wizard Spawn to identify the Haste spell, DC 13 (10 + level of the spell)
[roll1]

[Rue]
Sir Theodore's Athletics check against Shove, DC 24
[roll2]

Sir Theodore's Athletics check against Grapple, DC 18
[roll3]

[The Commander]

Pre-emptively rolling a Dex save. Luckily, Prone doesn't affect Dex saves; but I might be in trouble for follow up attacks.

Dex save: [roll0]

[dangelo]

Wizard Spawn
[roll0] disadvantage to attack Zinro while Prone

[dangelo]

Wizard's concentration check against fall damage to maintain Bull's Strength, DC 16
[roll0]

Druid's fall damage: [roll1]

Druid's concentration check against fall damage to maintain Bull's Strength, DC will depend on Rue's dex save
[roll2]

[The Commander]

First order of business, evade the grapple.

Lord Zinro will attempt to evade the grapple from the Wizard Spawn using Acrobatics.

[roll0] vs 8

Sheesh...

[The Commander]

Therefore Zinro gets the fangs.

No real way to avoid getting hit at this time, so I'll eat the 10 damage. I believe my max HP is reduced by 6 from the Necrotic damage as well. Please let me know if that's wrong.

Concentration check to keep up Haste:

[roll0] vs 10

[dangelo]

Yes, your max HP is decreased by 6 until you Long Rest, and the wizard heals the same amount :smalltongue:

[truemane]

Rolls!

Resist Grapple (Advantage due to Rage): [roll0], [roll1]
Dex Save (Advantage due to Danger Sense): [roll2], [roll3]

Shove Sir Theodore (Advantage due to Rage): [roll4], [roll5]
Claws Sir Theodore (Possible Advantage if Prone):
-[roll6] (if prone [roll7]), [roll8] Magical Slashing Damage
-[roll9] (if prone [roll10]), [roll11] Magical Slashing Damage

If either of the above are successful, Initiate Grapple as a Bonus Action:
-Grapple (Advantage due to Rage): [roll12], [roll13]

[Dr.Samurai]

Crit damage roll on thunder gauntlet vs wizard spawn [roll0]

[dangelo]

How do you guys feel about houseruling the critical hit rule to:

Full damage dice + normal dice roll

Example: Greatsword would roll 12 + 2d6 + Strength

[Waistcoatwill]

Bori attacks the prone wizpire twice with advantage. He'll put a level one Smite on one if they hit, preferably one that crits

[roll0] or [roll1] for [roll2]
[roll3] or [roll4] for[roll5]

Smite if at least one hits [roll6]

[Waistcoatwill]

Ugh, forgot to increase Smite fir undead [roll0]

[The Commander]

How do you guys feel about houseruling the critical hit rule to:

Full damage dice + normal dice roll

Example: Greatsword would roll 12 + 2d6 + Strength

I personally use this rule, exactly as you describe; so this gets my vote.

[TaiLiu]

How do you guys feel about houseruling the critical hit rule to:

Full damage dice + normal dice roll

Example: Greatsword would roll 12 + 2d6 + Strength
My vote (which I think is a minority vote) is against. I think it makes combat a lil too swingy.

[dangelo]

Resolving Round Two:

[Lord Zinro]
- Chill Touch misses (13).

[Rue]
- Druid Spawn takes full damage from the fall and maintains concentration on Bull's Strength.
- Sir Theodore cannot resist Shove at DC 29 (his modifier is +6) and falls prone.
- Sir Theodore suffers [7] Magical Slashing Damage then [14] Magical Slashing Damage (crit).
- Sir Theodore cannot resist Grapple at DC 28 (his modifier is +6) and is Grappled.

[Asha]
- (30) and (29) hit, plus crit. Sir Theodore suffers [15], then [10], then [21] Thunder damage.

[Herbert]
- Sir Theodore suffers [4] Force damage.

[Bori]
- (27) hits, (11) misses. Wizard Spawn suffers [7] Magical Piercing and [11] Radiant damage.

[Yikkol]
- (18) hits. Sir Theodore suffers [13] Piercing damage.

[Waistcoatwill]

Bori's opportunity attack [roll0] for [roll1] Magical piercing damage

[Waistcoatwill]

Forgot we were pre-rolliing for enemies

Wiz Str or Dex save [roll0]

[dangelo]

Wizard Spawn takes the Dash action, triggering Attacks of Opportunity from both Bori and Asha, and moves 60 ft. It takes 10 ft. just to walk the last square within Herbert's spell, leaving 50 ft. She reaches the wall with 15 ft. and climb 35 ft.

Corrected to:

Wizard Spawn spends 15ft of movement to get up and takes the Dash action, triggering Attacks of Opportunity from both Bori and Asha. It takes 10 ft. just to walk the last square within Herbert's spell, leaving only 35 ft. She reaches the wall with 15 ft. and climbs 20 ft.

[truemane]

Attack of Opportunity: [roll0]+[roll1] for [roll2]

Attacks on Sir Theodore:
Beginning of Turn Unarmed Fighting Style Damage: [roll3]
Attack 1: Claw, Claw (w/Advantage)
-[roll4]+[roll5], [roll6]+[roll7] for [roll8]
-[roll9]+[roll10], [roll11]+[roll12] for [roll13]
Attack 2: BITE! (see how he likes it!)
-[roll14]+[roll15], [roll16]+[roll17] for [roll18]

If any of that kills Sir Theodore, I'll turn around and Leap up and grab the wall as close the Spawn as I can (mostly for fun). So about 5ft across and 30ft up. Path of the Beast lets me make an Athletics Check and extend my leap by the many feet.

Long Jump (no running start): 9 feet (plus whatever I roll, below)
High Jump (no running start): 4 feet (plus whatever I roll below)
Athletics: -[roll19], [roll20]

(if I don't roll high enough, I'll Wall Crawl the remainder)

[truemane]

Attack of Opportunity: [roll0]+[roll1] for [roll2]

Attack 1 on Druid:
-Claw 1: [roll3]+[roll4] for [roll5]
-Claw 2: [roll6]+[roll7] for [roll8]

Attack 2 on Druid:
-Claw: [roll9]+[roll10] for [roll11]

Assuming I connect with one of the claws, Bonus Action to Grapple:
-Grapple (w/Advantage): [roll12], or [roll13]

[dangelo]

[Yikkol]

29 magical piercing damage on Wizard Spawn.

[Herbert]

10 radiant damage on Wizard Spawn.

[Rue]

8 magical slashing damage on Druid Spawn (Attack of Opportunity).
Druid Spawn rolls 12 to resist Grapple and is Grappled.

[Asha]

10 thunder damage on Wizard Spawn.

[Bori]

8 magic piercing damage on the Wizard Spawn.

[Lord Zinro]

14 fire damage on Wizard Spawn.

[dangelo]

Druid spawns resists grapple - unlike Sir Theo, he's not proficient in Athletics [roll0]

[truemane]

Retain Grapple (w/Advantage): [roll0], [roll1]

[Dr.Samurai]

Asha OA vs Wizard Spawn
+ [roll] 1d4 Attack Roll
[roll1] Thunder Damage

[dangelo]

Treasure:

Mace of Terror
This magic weapon has 3 charges. While holding it, you can use an action and expend 1 charge to release a wave of terror. Each creature of your choice in a 30-foot radius extending from you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you for 1 minute. While it is frightened in this way, a creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If it has nowhere it can move, the creature can use the Dodge action. At the end of each of its turns, a creature can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.

The mace regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.

Icon of Ravenloft
While within 30 feet of the icon, a creature is under the effect of a Protection from Evil and Good spell against fiends and undead. Only a creature attuned to the icon can use its other properties.

Augury. You can use an action to cast an Augury spell from the icon, with no material components required. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn.

Bane of the Undead. You can use the icon as a holy symbol while using the Turn Undead or Turn the Unholy feature. If you do so, increase the save DC by 2.

Cure Wounds. While holding the icon, you can take an action to heal one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. The target regains 3d8 + 3 hit points, unless it is an undead, a construct, or a fiend. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn.

[TaiLiu]

Perception checks…

For top straight stairs: [roll0] or [roll1].

For bottom spiral stairs: [roll2] or [roll3].

[truemane]

Just in case:

Investigation: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

[truemane]

In anticipation of intransigent ingress: [roll0], [roll1]

[dangelo]

I believe anyone carrying a light source must stay 40 ft away from Yikkol so she can scout stealthily - I believe Herbert was keeping his shield aglow? You might want to keep him closer to the frontline tho

[The Commander]

Zinro plans to be glued to Herbert, so rolling a Stealth check seems a little bit redundant given the light.

[TaiLiu]

I believe anyone carrying a light source must stay 40 ft away from Yikkol so she can scout stealthily - I believe Herbert was keeping his shield aglow? You might want to keep him closer to the frontline tho
Is that a warning? Are we about to be attacked? O.O

[The Commander]

Is that a warning? Are we about to be attacked? O.O

I think that's an assumption we should always make.

[TaiLiu]

I think that's an assumption we should always make.
:smalleek:

[truemane]

Perception: [roll0]
Stealth: [roll1]

[The Commander]

Already rolled Perception ahead of time when we descended into the catacombs (it's in the IC post immediately before the DM's description). I guess I'll roll Stealth as well; since the party seems to be rolling for it: [roll0]

[The Commander]

Ceiling looks to be about 10ft high from the image, but is that accurate? Or is it 15ft? Etc? Do the bats cover the entire ceiling as far as we can see, or just a section of it?

[dangelo]

Ceiling is 15 ft tall
And yes, there's an excessive amount of bats here. They will form several swarms if they're spooked.

Hoped that answered your questions!

[The Commander]

Got it, thanks!

[TaiLiu]

I moved Yikkol's token a lil bit ahead. In reality, she's constantly moving and has begun systematically scanning for names. She starts in the upper left side of the room and searches until there's nothing left to look for.

[TaiLiu]

Woot woot! Initiative time. :smallsmile:

Yikkol's Init: [roll0]. Another poor showing by the Rogue. :smalltongue:

EDIT: For everyone's convenience, here is the battlemap (https://www.owlbear.rodeo/room/2V4I0B1fHVsM/TheChapel).

[Waistcoatwill]

Initiative with advantage [roll0] or [roll1]

[The Commander]

Zinro Perception: [roll0]
Zinro Initiative: [roll1]

As a reminder, Dot is still attached to Yikkol's leg.

[The Commander]

Initiative for Dot: [roll0]

Although if we're taking our actions as we post, maybe it's not strictly necessary to roll for her as well?

[Dr.Samurai]

Asha's Initiative, with Advantage: [roll0], [roll1]
Perception: [roll2]

[The Commander]

Rolling behalf of Herbert, Initiative: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

[dangelo]

Zombie initiative: [roll0]
Barovians initiative: [roll1]

Getting home to set everything up

[truemane]

Rue initiative, with Advantage: [roll0], [roll1].

[dangelo]

For this fight specifically, I would like us to experiment with regular individual initiative. @The Commander and @Waistcoatwill, your companions may act immediately before or after you (though I believe Bori has mostly controlled his mount rather than acted independently of it (as I believe is usually the case with low INT animals)). Stakes aren't super high, so it's a good opportunity to see how it goes. Plus, surprise is a key factor in this encounter and doing group initiative would really diminish the challenge. Let's get right into it!

Asha 20
Bori 19
Zinro 17
Rue 17
Barovians 10
Yikkol 9
Zombies 9
Herbert 4

bold are enemies, italic are surprised towards the zombie

Not sure if Bori is surprised or not. If not, then he goes first. If yes, then Rue.

[Waistcoatwill]

Sorry, wasn't sure if everyone needed to roll perception.

Rolled with advantage [roll0] or [roll1]

[Dr.Samurai]

Asha Persuasion vs Frightened Barovians (Disadvantage on roll)

[roll0], [roll1]

[dangelo]

Made the light source indicators more subtle in Owlbear, thin lines instead of opaque circles (orange for the lantern, cyan for pelor's white light), thought it was clogging up the vision too much. Let's leave the filled circles for spells and other effects.:smallsmile:

[dangelo]

In the future, I'm thinking we could use a quickstart set of rolls like this, for every time you guys go into a new room:

Herbert:
Initiative: 1d20-1
Perception: 1d20+8
Stealth: 1d20-1

Yikkol
Initiative: 1d20+4
Perception: 1d20+10
Stealth: 1d20+12 or 1d20+12 (Supreme Sneak)

Zinro:
Perception: 1d20+5
Initiative: 1d20+2
Stealth: 1d20+2
Dot's Stealth: 1d20+4

Bori:
Initiative: 1d20+5 or 1d20+5 (Sentinel Shield)
Perception: 1d20+5 Or 1d20+5 (Sentinel Shield)
Stealth: 1d20+5
Nethis Stealth: 1d20+3+1d4 (Guidance)

Rue:
Initiative: 1d20+3 or 1d20+3 (Feral Instinct)
Perception: 1d20+6
Stealth: 1d20+7

Asha:
Initiative: :1d20+2 or 1d20+2 (Helm of Awareness)
Perception 1d20+6
Stealth: 1d20+6 (Heavy Armor/Boots of Elvenkind)

An example of this playing out:

Herbert:
Initiative: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]
Stealth: [roll2]

Yikkol
Initiative: [roll3]
Perception: [roll4]
Stealth: [roll5] or [roll6] (Supreme Sneak)

Zinro:
Perception: [roll7]
Initiative: [roll8]
Stealth: [roll9]
Dot's Stealth: [roll10]

Bori:
Initiative: [roll11] or [roll12] (Sentinel Shield)
Perception: [roll13] Or [roll14] (Sentinel Shield)
Stealth: [roll15]

Rue:
Initiative: [roll16] or [roll17] (Feral Instinct)
Perception: [roll18]
Stealth: [roll19]

Asha:
Initiative: :[roll20] or [roll21] (Helm of Awareness)
Perception [roll22]
Stealth: [roll23] (Heavy Armor/Boots of Elvenkind)

Nethis doesn't need to roll Stealth unless she's using her actions to do stuff. Dot should still roll Stealth though.

Also Asha should have Advantage on Stealth when not wearing his armor, right?

[The Commander]

I'm happy for this to be the case going forward.

Although I would, perhaps, suggest that Dot's Stealth be tied to whoever she's attached to at the time. It would be incredibly weird for an enemy to spot Dot, but not the person she's attached to, and vice versa.

[TaiLiu]

In the future, I'm thinking we could use a quickstart set of rolls like this, for every time you guys go into a new room
Sure, that sounds good. :>

[Waistcoatwill]

I'm happy for this to be the case going forward.

Although I would, perhaps, suggest that Dot's Stealth be tied to whoever she's attached to at the time. It would be incredibly weird for an enemy to spot Dot, but not the person she's attached to, and vice versa.

My general lack of awareness of people but hyper-awareness of anything vaguely spider-shaped says different! You, of course, make total sense though!

@dangelo - love that roll sequence for entering rooms!

[dangelo]

Swarm of Bats initiative: [roll0]

New initiative:

Asha 20
Bori 19
Zinro 17
Rue 17
Barovians 10
Yikkol 9
Swarm of Bats 9
Zombies 9
Herbert 4

(I'm comparing DEX modifiers to break ties in initiative)

[truemane]

Reckless Attack 1: [roll0] / [roll1] for [roll2] Magical Bludgeoning damage

Reckless Attack 2: [roll3] / [roll4] for [roll5] Magical Bludgeoning damage

Off-hand attack as Bonus Action (if necessary): [roll6] / [roll7] for [roll8] Magical Bludgeoning damage

[The Commander]

If you're familiar with the term, Zinro looks 'bloodied'.

[Dr.Samurai]

Asha's Turn

Zombie Opportunity Attacks

Zombie 3 [roll0]
Zombie 11 [roll1]
Zombie 7 [roll2]
Zombie 12 [roll3]
Zombie 10 [roll4]

Zombie Constitution Saving Throws vs Thunderwave

Zombie 3 [roll5]
Zombie 11 [roll6]
Zombie 7 [roll7]
Zombie 12 [roll8]
Zombie 10 [roll9]

Thunderwave Damage - [roll10]

[Waistcoatwill]

Ugh, copy pasta fail for radiant damage. Should be [roll0]

[J-H]

Religion check [roll0]

[truemane]

Attack 1: [roll0], for [roll1]
Attack 2: [roll2], for [roll3]
Bonus Action: [roll4], for [roll5]

[dangelo]

The point of this campaign isn't to level up (and I don't think we'll really get to that) but here's the EXP accumulated so far:

Sir Theodore and his party: 2300 each
Zombies + Swarms: 2000 each

[dangelo]

Anyone who examines the tomb and the stained glass windows may roll Intelligence (Investigation) CD 16.

Result:You have entered Castle Ravenloft through its westernmost section (the "front" of the castle), and traversed to it's easternmost section, (the "back" of the castle). If you break these stained glass windows, you should glimpse the Valley of Barovia from the edge of a thousand-foot cliff.

If you fail the check, you're not sure if the catacombs are exactly below the chapel. The spiral staircase made it hard to track if the catacombs faced north, south, east or west.

[J-H]

Investigation [roll0]

[truemane]

Rue will expend a Hit Die during the Short rest. So, assuming Yikkol is able (and willing) to assist Rue with some healing:
[roll0]+[roll1]+[roll2]

[The Commander]

Investigation: [roll0]

[J-H]

Religion check [roll0]

[dangelo]

Apologies everyone, slow week over here - please remind me if I missed any questions on discord!

Are you guys gonna open the other crypts? All you need is a crowbar and some time, and Investigation rolls for traps and such.

[Waistcoatwill]

Re-rolling that 1 on initiative thanks to halflng luck [roll0]

[Waistcoatwill]

Re-rolling that 1 on perception [roll0]

[Waistcoatwill]

Re-rolling that 1 on the first Attack [roll0]

[TaiLiu]

Advantage on the Nature check to identify the green alchemical substance. Versus DC 16: [roll0].

[truemane]

Arcana, just in case: [roll0]

[dangelo]

Herbert:
Initiative: [roll0]

Yikkol
Initiative: [roll1]

Zinro:
Initiative: [roll2]

Bori:
Initiative: [roll3] or [roll4] (Sentinel Shield)

Rue:
Initiative: [roll5] or [roll6] (Feral Instinct)

Asha:
Initiative: [roll7] or [roll8] (Helm of Awareness)

[dangelo]

Rahadin's Initiative, with Advantage because he's in his office

[roll0] or [roll1]

[Waistcoatwill]

Rahadin's Strength save for ensnaring strike [roll]1d20+/roll] plus whatever.

[Waistcoatwill]

Ugh, apologies [roll0]

[truemane]

Rue Shove (advantage due to Rage): [roll0] or [roll1].

Rue Grapple (advantage due to Rage): [roll2] or [roll3].

[dangelo]

[Bori]

[roll0] Strength save against ensnaring strike
[roll1] damage if it fails

[Lord Zinro]

Throw successful
[roll2] poison damage

[Herbert]

[roll3] Dexterity Save DC 16 against 10 radiant damage

[Yikkol]

Miss!

[Asha]

First attack: 8
Second attack: 14 damage

*Disadvantage to attack anyone except Asha

[Rue]

[roll4] Dexterity (Acrobatics) against Shove DC 21
[roll5] Dexterity (Acrobatics) against Grapple DC 24

[dangelo]

Rahadin will make 3 attacks with his Scimitar, all at disadvantage. He will target Bori until he fails his Concentration check. If Bori fails the check, Rahadin will target his attacks on his mount instead.


Rahadin will make 3 attacks with his Scimitar, all at disadvantage. The first will target Bori.

(1d20+10)[15] or (1d20+10)[30] against Bori's AC (19) for (1d6+6)[12] slashing damage.

If successful, Bori's Constitution save for Concentration: (1d20+2)[8]


Second attack

(1d20+10)[27] or (1d20+10)[25] against Bori's AC (19) for (1d6+6)[7] slashing damage.

If successful, Bori's Constitution save for Concentration: (1d20+2)[19]


Third attack against Bori

(1d20+10)[19] or (1d20+10)[23] against Bori's AC (19) for (1d6+6)[12] slashing damage.

If successful, Bori's Constitution save for Concentration: (1d20+2)[22]

[Dr.Samurai]

Herbert's Religion check [roll0]

[Waistcoatwill]

Level 1 Smite for [roll0]

[The Commander]

Arcana Check to ID the Demon: [roll0] vs 18

[TaiLiu]

I get advantage. Attack: [roll0].

[truemane]

Arcana: [roll]1d20+5[/spoiler]

Unarmed Fighting Style lets me do 1d4 at the start of my turn if I'm Grappling Someone:
[roll0] (every little bit helps!)

Claws! (at advantage) [roll1] OR [roll2], for [roll3] magical slashing damage.
Claws Again! (also at advantage) [roll4] OR [roll5], for [roll6] magical slashing damage.
Ponch! (at advantage, no damage bonus) [roll7] OR [roll8], for [roll9] magical slashing damage.

[truemane]

Mucked that Arcana roll: [roll0]

[Dr.Samurai]

Arcana vs Shadow Demon [roll0]

[J-H]

Arcana [roll0]

[The Commander]

Arcana Check for the Animated Lances: [roll0] vs 17

[Waistcoatwill]

Wisdom save for nethis [roll0] vs DC 17.

....and she's a gunner twice over!

[truemane]

Second verse, same as the first!

Wisdom Save: (1d20+2)[19]

Attack 1!
-Claw 1 (advantage): (1d20+9)[14] or (1d20+9)[29], for (1d6+7)[10]
-Claw 2(advantage): (1d20+9)[19] or (1d20+9)[29], for (1d6+7)[10]

Attack 2 (Bite, advantage): (1d20+9)[12] or (1d20+9)[18], for (1d4+7)[9]

Bonus Attack (off-hand attack, advantage): (advantage): (1d20+9)[21] or (1d20+9)[27], for (1d8)[6]]

Also, forgot to roll my auto damage for the Grapple:

[roll0]

[Waistcoatwill]

In his grief Bori forgot to roll.attacks with advantage (nothing to do with my own incompetence!)

Attack 1 [roll0]
Attack 2 [roll1]

[The Commander]

Heads-up: I'm travelling over November 1st/2nd so I will not be posting during that time.

[J-H]

Checks for the ghosts/shades
Arcana [roll0]
Religion [roll1]

[dangelo]

Arcana: Herbert identifies that a "circle" of magic (more like a square) was drawn around the room, but not in that a way a spell could make disappear. It's much like the magic that animated the weapons in Rahadin's office, something woven intrinsically into the castle itself. You could tear down the walls and the magic would remain. In addition, you can open the door to the south without triggering the encounter, revealing another batch of phantasmal soldiers.

[The Commander]

Religion to know about the tactical analysis of the ghosts: [roll0]

[dangelo]

It's combat time again! This time you don't have to roll iniative: you guys can go first since you activated the trigger on purpose.

You may place your token on any square before your actual turn. The phantoms will go afterwards.

[J-H]

Religion [roll0]

[dangelo]

Hall of Bones:

Herbert:
Initiative: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]
Stealth: [roll2]

Yikkol
Initiative: [roll3]
Perception: [roll4]
Stealth: [roll5] or [roll6] (Supreme Sneak)

Zinro:
Perception: [roll7]
Initiative: [roll8]
Stealth: [roll9]
Dot's Stealth: [roll10]

Bori:
Initiative: [roll11] or [roll12] (Sentinel Shield)
Perception: [roll13] or [roll14] (Sentinel Shield)
Stealth: [roll15]

Rue:
Initiative: [roll16] or [roll17] (Feral Instinct)
Perception: [roll18]
Stealth: [roll19]

Asha:
Initiative: [roll20] or [roll21] (Helm of Awareness)
Perception [roll22]
Stealth: [roll23] (Heavy Armor/Boots of Elvenkind)

[dangelo]

Enemies initiative:
[roll0] 1
[roll1] 2
[roll2] 3
[roll3] 4
[roll4] 5
[roll5] 6
[roll6] 7
[roll7] 8
[roll8] 9
[roll9] 10

[J-H]

Religion [roll0]

[J-H]

Religion check to understand what's going on with the icon [roll0]

[TaiLiu]

Religion check to understand what's going on with the icon [roll0]
If the cleric's failing the Religion check, I reckon we won't learn why the Icon isn't working right. :smalltongue:

[The Commander]

Once again I am travelling today and tomorrow, so won't be posting.

[Dr.Samurai]

Asha's Religion check [roll0] vs DC 20

EDIT: Using Flash of Genius to add +5 to that roll, for a total of 23.

[dangelo]

Resolving Round One

Herbert
Child of Strahd 1 and 9 negate Word of Radiance.
Child of Strahd 2*, 3 and 4 take 8 damage.
*+2 (Blessed Strikes)

Yikkol head-shots Child of Strahd 8. Badass.

Zinro
Child of Strahd 2 and 6 take 21
Child of Strahd 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10 take 42

ChS 7: [roll0] for [roll1] piercing + [roll2] necrotic damage.
ChS 8: [roll3] for [roll4] piercing + [roll5] necrotic damage.

Bori
Child of Strahd 3 negates Word of Radiance.
Child of Strahd 4, 5 and 6 take 6 radiant damage.

Asha
Child of Strahd 3, 4 and 5 take 30 lightning damage.
Child of Strahd 1 takes 15 lightning damage.

[dangelo]

Re-rolling necrotic damage rolls:

[roll0]
[roll1]

[dangelo]

Disadvantage attack rolls for ChS 9 and 10

[roll0]
[roll1]

[The Commander]

Arcana to learn if the Children have Blindsight/other features: [roll0]

[dangelo]

Resolving round two

Yikkol
Child of Strahd 10 is killed by the crossboww
Child of Strahd 9 takes 8 damage from the holy water (50 taken total)

Zinro

Bori
Child of Strahd 6 takes 14 damage
Child of Strahd 6 takes 14 damage (55 taken total)

Herbert
Child of Strahd 9 takes 7 damage from OA (49 taken total)

Child of Strahd 1 negates Word of Radiance
Child of Strahd 2 takes 6+8=14 damage from Word of Radiance (43 taken total)

Asha
Child of Strahd 6 is killed by Thunder Gauntlets

[dangelo]

Disadvantage on Claw attacks against Yikkol
[roll0]
[roll1]

[dangelo]

Again, I forgot the disadvantage of the claw.

[roll0] ChS 1
[roll1] ChS 2

[J-H]

Religion check for any special insight into Strahd's abilities. [roll0]

[J-H]

Insight [roll0] for any insights Herbert may have that I don't about how to keep Strahd from pursuing us by appealing to what we know of his character.
Also to see if this is real anger or another illusionary taunt.

[dangelo]

Herbert:
Initiative: [roll0]

Yikkol
Initiative: [roll1]

Zinro:
Initiative: [roll2]

Bori:
Initiative: [roll3] or [roll4] (Sentinel Shield)

Asha:
Initiative: [roll5] or [roll6] (Helm of Awareness)

[dangelo]

Also Strahd's Initiative, with Advantage from his Throne Room:

[roll0] or [roll1]

[dangelo]

Asha's Wisdom Save against Strahd's Charm, DC 17
[roll0]

[dangelo]

Two concentration rolls for damage, DC 10
[roll0] (radiant)
[roll1] (fire)

[dangelo]

Concentration against crushing damage, DC 10
[roll0]

[dangelo]

Bless:

Herbert [roll0]
Yikkol [roll1]
Zinro [roll2]
Bori [roll3]
Asha [roll4]