Catacombs of Ravenloft

[Gwynfrid]

The companions scramble to gather around the crypt. Dropping her weapons, Aleith gets to work on the lock, and is quickly rewarded with a satisfying click. The door, however, doesn't budge, and she realizes there is an additional lever in the mechanism that will require more effort.

In the tense silence, the strongly muffled voice of the vampire behind the stone door might be heard by the keenest ears, but otherwise nothing else happens...

Spoiler: end of round 6

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Aleith scores one success against the lock, but she will need another check.

Other than moving and preparing attacks, Razick and Rychard can't do much. Since the door doesn't open this round and Strahd doesn't come out, the readied actions this round aren't triggered.

Spoiler: Map

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[SanguinePenguin]

Aleith scowls at the difficulty from this lock. She continues to work on the mechanism, while the others stand around behind her.

Spoiler

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Thievery: (1d20+22)[38]
Last action: pick up gloomblade

[zylodrizzt]

Spoiler: eada rnd 7?

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1. Move to door
2. Open door
3. Toss dagger

Attack(1d20+20)[34]
Damage(2d4+6)[12]

[Gwynfrid]

The stone door opens, its rusty iron hinges creaking menacingly... Behind, eada sees a grey marble sarcophagus. Behind it stands the Count, pushing the sarcophagus' lid open. The sylph monk's dagger flies true, but somehow the vampire manages to dodge it.

[Thunder999]

Jildu strides close enough to swing at the vampire and attempts to trip it. Then he'll back out to his original location as there's really not much space.

Spoiler: OOC

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So that's stride to within 10ft, since he has reach then (1d20+20)[39] to trip with his staff

Given that a 20 would only be 33 after MAP and Enfeebled 2 I'm not even going to try anything extra.

10 temp hp from false life, 86/118hp, 28 AC, enfeebled 2 (can anyone fix that?)
https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2643175

[Gwynfrid]

The door having given way, the companions rush forward to attack with everything they got! Kluh's enormous sword could problaby cleave the vampire in twain... If it hadn't ducked under it. Fancy footwork deftly thwarts Jildu's trip attempt as well as Ser Rychard's strike, and the bomb from Razick crashes against the back wall harmlessly.

The master of Ravenloft simply makes his mocking, cruel smile at his enemies, revealing two long, pointed teeth.

“My, these toddlers seems to think I am within their power to touch.” His voice, now softer, oozes confidence and sarcasm.

“... But I have a child of my own, who surely can touch them, however.” He points towards the now open sarcophagus, and a shadowy, incorporeal form emerges from it, resembling another kind of ghost, this one with burning eyes that reflect its hatred for the living. Its shadowy claws are weapon enough to strike Ser Rychard successfully, but the knight seems completely unfazed. He smiles and returns the mockery. "Lo and behold... Your puppet is wholly harmless."

Spoiler: end of round 7

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(EDITED to show Aleith not moving and instead picking up her gloomblade)

For Kluh, I had him move 5ft closer, using reach, and I used the roll of 31 from post #60.

For Jildu, I had him move in, because eada Aleith and Kluh use the space in front of the door. This way, he can attack.

As a readied action, Razick throws a Moderate Ghost Charge at Strahd, (1d20+14)[21], positive damage (2d8+5)[16]

Ser Richard moves to J37 and strikes twice
(1d20+20)[22], damage (2d8+5)[9]
(1d20+15)[30], damage (2d8+5)[19]

The shadowy creature rises from the sarcophagus, and attacks Ser Rychard twice
Strike #1 (1d20+17)[34], negative damage (2d8+5)[13] - hit... but Rychard is immune to negative damage.
Strike #2 (1d20+12)[28], negative damage (2d8+5)[17] - miss

Extra roll (1d20+22)[33]

Spoiler: Map

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[zylodrizzt]

Eada reaches to grab his immovable rod. He leaps high and over everyone thru the door and activates the rod hanging just over jildu by just a knee hooked over dagger in one hand.

Spoiler: rnd 8

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1. Retrieve rod (grumbles)
2. Quick leap (my rolls/assurance or even just my leap in general should get me where I need to be if really nessary I'll wall run)
3. Activate rod so I'm just hanging above jildu my balance and all that for rolls should be easily high enough to pull this off.

[Albinobrow]

Kluh ignores the new shadowy foe reaching into the space for his quarry! GET OVER HERE!

Spoiler: Actions

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Let's see if I'm doing this right. My intention is to reach in and grapple Strahd, and then thrash for the rest of my actions.

1. Grapple Athletics based attack (1d20+23)[32]
- If successful: 2. Thrash - Foe makes Fort save vs DC 27 or suffer 17 bludgeoning dmg (10 rage + 5 str + 2 weapon specialization)
3. Thrash - Foe makes Fort save vs DC 27 or suffer 17 bludgeoning dmg (10 rage + 5 str + 2 weapon specialization)

- If unsuccessful grab, 2: Grapple again adding -5 to roll for 2nd attack (1d20+18)[26] followed by a Thrash - Foe makes Fort save vs DC 27 or suffer 17 bludgeoning dmg (10 rage + 5 str + 2 weapon specialization)

If both grabs fail use 3 action to use renewed vigor adding 9 temp HPs.

Character stats Kluh Sakaar

[Gwynfrid]

Eeada jumps in and hangs on to an impossible-looking handhold, while an enormous Kluh tries and fails to get a hold of the vampire. Yet again, the master of Ravenloft dodges out of the way with incredible ease!

[Thunder999]

Jildu will see if he recongises the new enemy, take a swing at it, then put up a Shield spell.

Spoiler: OOC/rolls

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Recall Knowledge(Religion) (1d20+15)[30]
Staff strike (1d20+18)[22] to hit for (2d8+3)[13] physical damage, 2 force damage, and (1d6)[5] fire damage
Shield Cantrip.
10 temp hp from false life, 86/118hp, 29 AC, enfeebled 2
https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2643175

[Gwynfrid]

Spoiler: Thunder999

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If we play by the book, Knowledge Recall is a secret check. That means I'm supposed to roll it. For this time I'll use your roll:

Jilud recognizes the creature as a wraith, an incorporeal undead.

The attack misses.

[Thunder999]

Jildu shouts out "Pretty sure that's a wraith, kill it like we did the shadows I suppose, one incorporeal undead is much like another."

[SanguinePenguin]

With the crypt full, and the incorporeal undead about, Aleith grabs her other blade, slips away and into the shadows.

Spoiler: Actions

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grab blade, move to H38, hide (1d20+21)[41]

[Gwynfrid]

Ignoring the wraith, helpless against the fell powers of his bloodline, Ser Rychard turns towards the vampire to attack as he cries out, "Go back to whatever layer of the Abyss you came from!" But his repeated attacks prove fruitless.

Meanwhile, in the back, Razick comforts himself with a drop from a tiny vial he extracts from his pocket, before he throws another of his strange bombs at the vampire. A perfect throw! This is why the goblin is astonished to see that once again, the elusive vampire ducks and escapes the whole of the effect!

That's when the light of understanding floods Razick's mind. Of course... "Watch out, it's an illusion! He's not in there at all!"

Spoiler: end of round 8 (PCs only)

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I'll do the PCs first.

Razick retrieves and drinks a Bomber's Eye Elixir. This reduces the vampire's AC bonus from cover.
Then he throws another Ghost Charge (1d20+14)[34], positive damage (2d8+5)[16]

Ser Rychard invokes Smite Evil and strikes twice.

(1d20+20)[24], damage (2d8+9)[18] including 4 good damage
(1d20+15)[33], damage (2d8+9)[18] including 4 good damage

Other rolls :
(1d20+16)[24]
(1d20+13)[26]

Note: Since he rolled a crit, I decided to give one higher level of success to Razick on this Perception check to notice the illusion.

[Gwynfrid]

The wraith lashes out at eada, while the rest of the party reacts to the news. A wisp of its smoke-like substance manages to pass through the sylph's artful defense, and it feels like the touch of Death itself.

Off two or more crypts away, the faint sound of someone casting a spell as quietly as possible can be heard... The unfortunate goblin yells in abject terror, "NOOOOO!" looking towards the ceiling at something only he can see! He calms down fairly quickly, but looks at his companions with haggard eyes, visibly shaken by some vision of horror.

Spoiler: end of round 8, enemy attacks

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The wraith attacks eada 3 times

Strike #1 (d20+17)[34], negative damage (2d8+5)[13] - hit
Strike #2 (d20+12)[29], negative damage (2d8+5)[18]
Strike #3 (d20+7)[21], negative damage (2d8+5)[12]

Some sort of spell hits Razick. The sound of casting comes from somewhere to the north-east of him.

Will DC 31 (d20+17)[35]
If critically successful, no effect
If successful, (4d6)[16] mental damage and frightened 1 - that's the outcome
If failed, (8d6)[31] mental damage and frightened 2
If critically failed, (12d6)[45] mental damage and frightened 4, fleeing for 1 round - also, Fort DC 31 (d20+18)[34]

Summary
eada took 13 negative damage and needs to roll a Fort save DC 23 or become drained 1.
Razick took 16 mental damage and is frightened (EDIT) 1 2 .

Spoiler: map

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[zylodrizzt]

Spoiler: eada rnd 9

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fort(1d20+18)[34]
1. Flurry grapple (1d20+20)[26] trip (1d20+16)[27]
2. Unarmed strike (1d20+12)[18] damage (2d6+6)[14]
3. Unarmed strike (1d20+12)[29] damage (2d6+6)[11]

Eada begins building momentum on the rod like parallel bars. He releases and begins performing a roundhouse kick taking the legs from the wraith. His other leg comes around it's throat. With one arm he catches himself and brings a fist down over the wraiths head

[Thunder999]

"So someone should probably go find the vampire, I'll see what I can do to the wraith beofre it drains someone." Jildu shouts before taking a magic-infused swing at the wraith.

Spoiler: OOC

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True Strike from Staff then Spellstrike with a 5th level shocking grasp
Taking the better of (1d20+18)[35] and (1d20+18)[22] to hit
For (2d8+3)[14] Physical, 2 force, (1d6)[4] fire and (6d12)[37] electricity damage

[Albinobrow]

Not real!? Where?!! Kluh closes his eyes and begins to sniff the air around him trying to pick up the scent of the vampire.

Spoiler: OoC

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Action 1 Seek using Acute Senses 30ft imprecise scent to try and find Strahd (1d20+15)[34]
Action 2 move towards where he think he is
Action 3 will be either attack if he sees Strahd, move again if needed, or open the door if needed.

[Gwynfrid]

Eada takes the wraith down, and while it writhes helpless against the grasp of the monk's hands reaching into its very being, Jildu's staff strikes true. A massive flash of lightning erupts from it, and the wraith instantly dissipates into nothingness...

Meanwhile, Kluh hears Razick's warning, and begins to sniff the air...

Spoiler: middle of round 9

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The wraith is tripped and grappled, and a top-level shocking grasp crit is a total of 104 damage if I count this right...

Kluh determines that the vampire is in O35, clinging to the ceiling, and invisible. A DC11 flat check is needed to hit him.

[SanguinePenguin]

Aleith dashes to a new position in the shadows and prepares to strike.

Spoiler: Actions

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Still hidden, move to J34, ready strike with gloomblade

[Albinobrow]

HA! There you are! Kluh rushes off grabbing at the air above him!

Spoiler: OoC

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Action 2: Move to O35.
Action 3: Grab attack Flat DC 11 to connect (1d20)[7]
Attack (1d20+19)[39]

[Gwynfrid]

Letting himself be guided by his keen sense of smell, Kluh breathes deeply. The stench of of decay and death, so pervasive throughout the whole of Castle Ravenloft, is of course at its strongest here, among the graves. But a certain direction feels more... How should he put it... Just, a more evil kind of morbidity. Reasoning that this can only be the vampire himself, he boldly steps forward to swing with his massive club. He meets only air, but his action is not wasted, as his comrades take it as their cue. Without hesitation, Ser Rychard moves to join the enormous goblin in the attack! Just behind him, Razick recovers from his fright somewhat. He fishes a little green bottle from one of his many pockets and quaffs the contents. "Yeah... I can sense him too..." He quickly follows through, with another of his undead-destroying concoctions! Both Rychard's and Razick's attacks fail to connect, but the alchemist is fairly certain that the splashing from his bottle's explosion hurt the vampire.

"So. You found me. That took long enough." The mocking voice of the master of Castle Ravenloft resonates under the arched passages between the crypts. "But it means I found you, too."

Silence. Then, the ominous sound of arcane casting.

"Je veux tous vous voir rôtis
Envahisseurs de ma demeure
Vous y trouverez l'incendie
Et le lieu de votre dernière heure!"

A great ball of fire explodes in the group's midst, and a swarm of bats rises in the entire area!

Spoiler: end of round 9

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Razick
#1-2 Retrieve and drinks a Bomber's Cat's Eye Elixir. This reduces the difficulty of the flat check to attack an invisible creature to 5.
#3 Throw a Ghost Charge flat check DC11 (1d20)[17] DC 5, attack (1d20+18)[25] (includes -1 for frightened EDIT should be -2), positive damage (2d8)[5] and 5 splash (splash damage occurs even on a fail, except a crit fail, but isn't doubled on a crit) - miss, 5 damage
Frightened condition ends is reduced by 1.

Rychard's Smite Evil is still active, since Strahd attacked his ally, Razick. Since the vampire is up near the 15-ft high ceiling and Rychard, unlike Kluh, doesn't have reach, I will include a -2 circumstance penalty to the attacks.
#1 Stride to N36
#2 Strike, flat check DC11 (1d20)[8], attack (1d20+18)[36], damage (2d8+9)[19] including 4 good damage - miss
#3 Strike, flat check DC11 (1d20)[10], attack (1d20+13)[14], damage (2d8+9)[17] including 4 good damage - miss

Vampire
One check (1d20+22)[25]
Fireball, level 3, centered on the L36-L37 corner, (6d6)[24] fire damage. Everyone is in the area of effect, except eada who's covered by the crypt wall.
Refl save DC 31
Aleith (1d20+21)[33] - success, half damage: 12
Jildu (1d20+16)[36] - success, half damage: 12
Kluh (1d20+17)[20] - crit fail, double damage: 48
Razick (1d20+19)[24] - fail, full damage: 24
Ser Rychard (1d20+18)[24] - fail, full damage: 24
(I think some characters have resistance from items, don't forget to substract it from your damage)

Spoiler: Map

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[zylodrizzt]

Spoiler: eada rnd 9?

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1. Disengage the rod (I have cat fall and I believe any wall I'm near during a fall doesn't count for fall damage nor do I think I'm high enough for it anyways)
2. Move down hall on north side as far as I can to perhaps head off strahd p36
3. Drop into crane stance

[Gwynfrid]

The Count sneaks away from the group, invisible and unnoticed by most. Not by all, however. Jilud and Aleith hear faint steps, and both have a decent guess as to their enemy's location.

Spoiler: Oops

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My apologies to everyone. I somehow blanked on the fact that the vampire, using the Sneak action to get away, had failed to beat Jildu's and Aleith's Perception DCs.

So... Aleith and Jildu (but no one else) know that the vampire is in R34. They can point this out to others, this uses an action and requires that others see them and the location in question. This means eada needs to get out of the crypt first, and so won't benefit from this information this round (you can't pause your round to wait for others, but you can Delay, or use a Ready action).

This also means that zylodrizzt and Albinobrow are allowed to delete their posts for this round, if they so choose, and post other actions.

[SanguinePenguin]

There was a visceral moment of panic for Aleith as the inferno blazed toward her. Her training won out over her baser instincts, and her crown activated, absorbing the totality of the blast.

She saw the vampire, and saw that most of the others did not. “He’s right there, by the Y-shaped crack in that crypt!”. She cried out before moving around the other way.

Spoiler

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Reaction: crown of fire eater absorbs all damage

Point Out
Double stride to P32 (stealth if possible)

[Thunder999]

Jildu will wait until Eada comes out, approaches closer, points the count out and centers himself.

Spoiler: OOC

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That is delay until after Eada, stride 45 closer (which I think is still a fair bit out of melee range) Point Out and Recharge Spellstrike.

[Albinobrow]

Kluh looks over to where Aleith points and runs over, Come down here!!!

Spoiler: Action (re-do per DM)

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Action 1 move to fill square Q35,R36
Action 2 GRAB the count! AH AH AH! (1d20+23)[42] vs targets Fort DC
Action 3 if he's grabbed thrash! for 17 damage!
if not grabbed try to grab again (1d20+23)[36]

[Albinobrow]

Spoiler: Miss chance for invisible enemy

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for action 2 (1d20)[7]
for action 3 (1d20)[4]

[Gwynfrid]

Seeing his opponents gather around him apparently silences the Count, and nothing can be heard from him as Kluh, Razick and Ser Rychard attack him, with mixed success. The giant goblin fails to connect, and so does the paladin, but the alchemist's undead-destroying flask hits something, resulting in a harmless shower for everyone around - with the strange exception of Ser Rychard: When the droplets of alchemical liquid hit the knight's face, he winces in pain, and little round, black marks appear on his skin as wisps of smoke erupt from it.

It's all the harder to assess the invisible vampire's actions, as the flaps from hundreds of bat wings fill the area! Awakened from their slumber by the mighty ball of fire that killed most of their numbers, the surviving bats hungrily swarm after everyone... Jildu and Ser Rychard suffer minor biting, but the bigger trouble is that once again, Strahd von Zarovich is nowhere to be seen.

However, Kluh's keen nose comes to the rescue. The giant goblin senses the vampire crawling over the walls and ceiling away from the group... Until he gets too far away for him to smell his peculiar odor, a mix of fresh blood and long-decaying flesh.

Spoiler: End of round 10

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Razick
#1 Stride to S36
#2 Quick Alchemy to create a Moderate Ghost Charge
Throw Moderate Ghost Charge flat check DC5 (1d20)[15], attack (1d20+18)[35] (includes -1 for frightened), positive damage (2d8)[9] and 5 splash (splash damage occurs even on a fail, except a crit fail, but isn't doubled on a crit) - hit, 14 damage
Frightened condition ends

Unfortunately, Ser Rychard is a dhampir, so he's harmed by positive damage (5 splash damage).

Ser Rychard
Rychard's Smite Evil is still active. Since the vampire is up near the 15-ft high ceiling and Rychard, doesn't have reach, I will include a -2 circumstance penalty to the attacks.
#1 Stride to Q33
#2 Strike, flat check DC11 (1d20)[13], attack (1d20+18)[28], damage (2d8+9)[17] including 4 good damage - miss
#3 Strike, flat check DC11 (1d20)[6], attack (1d20+13)[31], damage (2d8+9)[15] including 4 good damage - miss

The fireball rouses 6 vampires bats swarms, half of which follow the PCs to try and feed on them. The remaining 3 swarms fly away randomly and will eventually settle down (or rather, up) in (1d4)[4] rounds if they don't find prey.

All characters except Aleith are in a swarm and roll a basic DC16 Refl save for each swarm attack (2 attacks this round since the swarms take one action to move).

eada
#1 (1d20+22)[32] damage (1d4)[2] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - critical success, no damage
#2 (1d20+22)[30] damage (1d4)[4] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - critical success, no damage

Jildu
#1 (1d20+16)[20] damage (1d4)[3] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - success, 1 damage
#2 (1d20+16)[22] damage (1d4)[4] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - success, 2 damage

Kluh
#1 (1d20+17)[31] damage (1d4)[2] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - critical success, no damage
#2 (1d20+17)[34] damage (1d4)[4] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - critical success, no damage

Razick
#1 (1d20+19)[27] damage (1d4)[4] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - critical success, no damage
#2 (1d20+19)[27] damage (1d4)[2] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - critical success, no damage

Rychard
#1 (1d20+18)[36] damage (1d4)[3] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - critical success, no damage
#2 (1d20+18)[20] damage (1d4)[3] and 1 persistent bleed if failed - success, 1 damage

Strahd
3 times Sneak, and a fourth action from Haste
Stealth #1 (1d20+22)[40]
Stealth #2 (1d20+22)[38]
Stealth #3 (1d20+22)[29] - all 3 checks beat the Perception DCs of all PCs. No one knows where the vampire is.

Summary for the round:
Jildu took 3 damage
Ser Rychard took 6 damage

EDIT: Kluh sensed that Strahd went in the direction of the black tentacles patch, along the ceiling, and eventually went out of the 30' range of his scent. The last square he could sense the vampire was in is P29.

Spoiler: Map

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[Albinobrow]

Follow me follow nose! Nose knows!! While hastily sniffing he runs to chase down the stench of the vampire!

Spoiler: OOC

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Action 1: stride following path of vampire
Action 2: continue striding?
Action 3: Either continue striding oooorr attempt to grapple 50% miss chance (1d100)[67] Athletics to grapple VS target's Fort DC (1d20+23)[41]