Role Playing Games/CoS/Log
Episode 1: The Invitation[edit | edit source]
Our party begins their adventure in a small town tavern. They were enjoying an evening meal when a man in colorful clothing barged into the tavern and walked up to their table.
He compels them to come to his master's aid at first light, leaving them a letter and a bag of gold for drinks before leaving.
The party is to travel westward along the road towards Svalich Woods to Barovia, which is about a 5 hour journey from where they are now.
Fulcrum takes lead to open the letter, on it a seal with a crest the party has never seen before. The letter is from a man named Kolyan Indirovich, seeking help from our fellow adventurers to save his daughter Ireena who had been bit by a vampire. Only Guille knows of vampires, so she gave the group a little rundown on what they are. They discuss if they should answer the call for help in the letter. Shadow remembers hearing of the man who walked in earlier, who goes by the name of Argol, but doesn't know much else about him.
The party tries to find out more information about Barovia and Argol but nobody in the inn had any answers for them. The bartender tells them they occasionally see caravans with travelers like Argol come through. Our adventurers thought about going after him, but it was already late in the evening, so they decided to retire for the night and head out next morning.
The following morning, after a hearty breakfast, the party heads out. Shadow had tried looking for signs of a caravan atop the inn, but the only thing he found was the funny looks the townspeople gave him. As the party go further along Svalich Road, the woods on either side of the road gets thicker, almost dense enough to block out the sunlight.
After five long hours on the road, they come upon a large gate in the road, with towering walls spanning either sides of the gate. There's no sign of any guards or other people at the gate. As they near the gate, it swings open slightly, enough for one person to pass through. On the other side the road and forest continues. Shadow takes the lead, and once the last party member passed through the gate, it slams close.
Guille is the first to notice the fog that was closing in towards the party from the forest, which scares off Fulcrum who runs off further down the road into the forest. The party tries to open the gate to no avail. They are forced to continue down the road, the forest getting more dense than before.
Shadow decides to climb a tree to survey the road ahead. He could see the road continued until a bend a few hundreds yard ahead, and further along in that direction on top of cliff in the mountainside was what looked like towers, the outline of castle barely visible. Shadow reports his findings to the party, with not much choice but to keep going.
When our party neared the bend in the road, a foul stench filled the air, 'twas an odor of death. Shadow tracks down the origin of the smell, a dead, half-buried body of a young commoner man. His body had claw marks and animal prints surrounding the body, likely picked at by wild animals after death. The prints around the body revealed it to be wolf prints. In his hand was a crumpled piece of paper that was discovered to be a letter by the very same Kolyan Indirovich. However, Fulcrum noticed inconsistencies between this and the letter they received, leading the party to be suspicious about this expedition.
Not too long after continuing down the road, the party heard the howling of wolves, gradually increasing in number and getting closer. Shadow and Guille quickly hide in the nearby bushes, leaving Pog, Fulcrum and Dragos in the middle of the road. Fulcrum surrounds himself with a circle of torches, just as they are attacked by five wolves!
The party dispatches the wolves without much trouble, and after the battle, they see about 50 feet up the road a giant wolf that looks about twice the size as the ones they faced looking straight at them, before running off into the dark. Fulcrum tried to catapult a torch at it but unfortunately missed. As the sun neared the horizon, the party heads further into the woods in hopes of finding a small town or village to rest at. Fortunately, after trekking for a while they see a river up to the left of the road, and to the right, multiple buildings that looks to be signs of a town. The buildings and the road into town are rather worn, signs of living but no person to be seen.
Just as the party was wondering where all the people are, they hear the faint crying of a woman...
Party has gone up to Level 2
NPCs Introduced - Kolyan Indirovich - Argol (colorful caravan man)
Battle Details - 5 wolves defeated
Episode 2: Welcome to Barovia[edit | edit source]
Oct. 4, 2020
Our party approaches the small village cautiously, sneaking around to investigate the houses. All of the houses are dark with no lights lit except a mercantile shop that has a dim light in the upstairs window and the local tavern.
They enter the tavern and sit down at a table next to the bar, Shadow choosing to sit at the bar. The party figures out rooming before finally settling down to eat and drink.
After a while, they finally take notice of the other people left in the inn: a man in a nearby table who had been looking at them for a long time, and a table of three women.
Guille winks at the man, who is surprised and confused by this, but this was all it took for him to leave his table and approach our adventurers. He introduces himself as Ismark, and chats up our adventurers. They learn that this village is called Barovia, and the reason why no lights are on at night is because of the Lord of this land, Strahd. Those that attract attention to themselves or wander around at night don't ever make it back home.
Ismark also advised them not to try and open any of the doors that are locked, for they are locked for a reason. In the past, a plague befell the village. However, some people were not completely dead, becoming zombies. They were locked away in their houses and have remained since.
He asks what our adventurers are doing here in Barovia, and they mention the letter from Kolyan Indirovich. Ismark is taken aback, and after looking at the letters given to the adventurers, reveals that Kolyan Indirovich was his father, who died three nights ago, and that Ireena is his sister, who Lord Strahd is after. He tells them that the letter they found on the dead body is of his father's handwriting, and the other one is likely the work of Lord Strahd.
Ismark seeks the help of our party in escorting his sister to the town of Vallaki, where he hopes will be a safer place for her. It is a few days ride east, and he will provide horses, as well as a small amount of gold and antiques should they deliver Ireena safely. Our party agrees to help and he will come pick them up at 8am the next morning.
The party also learns of the identity of the three women, who are the proprietors of this tavern. They decide to go over and chat, and they introduce themselves as Alenka, Sorvia and Mirabel.
Afterwards, Fulcrum has some fun on his skateboard while a drunk Shadow plays his fiddle with Dragos accompanying.
Just when they were having a lot of fun, a colorfully dressed man enters the tavern, his attire much like Argol. He invites them to Madam Eva's encampment, and after some discussion, the party follows him back out the way they came and headed towards the river.
The encampment is made up of several wagons, and the party seems people dancing and singing. Gustav, their guide, tells them he will inform Madame Eva of their arrival. Pog and Guille join in the dances, with a drunk Shadow off enjoying the music. Fulcrum snatches a bunch of sweet rolls into his bag of holding, while Dragos sits back and watches. While Fulcrum eats his rolls, he notices off to the side several children sitting in front of an old man with a cauldron. The cauldron spouted green flames, and in the flames were pictures.
Curious, Fulcrum goes over to listen, and the old man recounts an old tale:
A mighty wizard came to this land over a year ago. I remember him like it was yesterday. He stood exactly where you're standing. A very charismatic man, he was. He thought he could rally the people of Barovia against the devil Strahd. He stirred them with thoughts of revolt and bore them to the castle en masse.
When the vampire appeared, the wizard's peasant army fled in terror. A few stood their ground and were never seen again.
The wizard and the vampire cast spells at each other. Their battle flew from the courtyards of Ravenloft to a precipice overlooking the falls. I saw the battle with my own eyes. Thunder shook the mountainside, and great rocks tumbled down upon the wizard, yet by his magic he survived. Lightning from the heavens struck the wizard, and again he stood his ground. But when the devil Strahd fell upon him, the wizard's magic couldn't save him. I saw him thrown a thousand feet to his death. I climbed down to the river to search for the wizard's body, to see if, you know, he had anything of value, but the River Ivlis had already spirited him away.
When the old man finished recounting the tale, Fulcrum asks him about the flames, to which the old man answered by giving him a pouch full of green flame powder.
About an hour later, Gustav returns to collect our party and leads them to a well-decorated wagon.
Inside, magic flames cast a reddish glow over the interior of this tent, revealing a low table covered in a black velvet cloth. Glints of light seem to flash from a crystal ball on the table as a hunched figure peers into its depths. The old woman greets each of them, and offers to read their fortune. The party accepts, and Madam Eva lays out her tarokka cards in a cross.
She reveals each card in order:
This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy.
The treasure you seek is hidden behind the sun, in the house of a saint. | |
This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope.
I see a faceless god. He awaits you at the end of a long and winding road, deep in the mountains. | |
This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight.
The treasure lies in a dragon's house, in hands once clean and now corrupted. | |
This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness.
A Vistani wanders this land alone, searching for her mentor. She does not stay in one place for long. Seek her out at Saint Markovia's abbey, near the mists. | |
Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him!
I see a secret place - a vault of temptation hidden behind a woman of great beauty. The evil waits atop his tower of treasure. |
The party also learns more from her about Argol, who is revealed to be a former member of their family, the Vistani, and now works for Strahd. They stay at the encampment for a further while before returning back to the tavern to sleep for the night.
Tomorrow, they set for Vallaki...
NPCs Introduced - Arik (barkeep) - Ismark Indirovich (son of Kolyan Indirovich) - Ireena Kolyana (daughter of Kolyan Indirovich) - Alenka, Sorvia, Mirabel (tavern proprietors) - Gustav aka Of No Consequences (Vistani guide) - Madam Eva
Episode 3: Road to Vallaki[edit | edit source]
Nov. 15, 2020
In the morning the party did some morning shopping, acquiring a map of the realm, before meeting up with Ismark. He takes them to his residence and introduces them to his sister, Ireena.
Ismark informs Ireena that she is to set out for Vallaki, but she refuses, insisting she will not go anywhere until their father has been put to rest at the church.
The party helped take their father's coffin to the church, where they were greeted by an eerie priest. The priest seemed restless and nervous, and hurriedly took them to the cemetery to perform a quick burial.
As they were putting the former Burgomaster, the priest overheard the party talking to Ismark about taking Ireena to Vallaki. He tells them she should be taken to the monastery in Krezk instead, remarking she would be safer at the monastery than in Vallaki. However, Ismark still believes Vallaki to be the safest place. The party returns to the house to let Ireena know they have buried Kolyan.
Assured that her father has been put to rest, Ireena gathers her belongings and sets out with the party towards Vallaki. Along the way, they made a pit stop at the Vistani encampment, only to find it now empty. The wagon tracks left behind seem to lead in all directions. The party continues on, by sundown reaching a set of gates like the one they entered on the way into Barovia. On either side of the gates sit a watchtower. Shadow takes lead into one of them to investigate. The party follows, and soon settle in on the second floor of the watchtower. Shadow continues his investigation to the top of the tower, and soon makes his way to the second tower. There, he finds wolf tracks leading into the woods. These tracks remind him of the wolves they came across.
As the party settles in for the night, they learn from Ireena a little more about the Vistani as well as the lord of the land, Strahd. It was said that Argynvost, a silver dragon, started a Knight's Order called Knights of the Silver Dragon to defeat Strahd, but failed. After some story time, the party took turns taking watch, and in the middle of the night, someone spotted a long line of ghostly figures marching along the road, seemingly coming from Barovia. It was quite a ways away, so they were unable to make out exactly what it was.
The next morning, the party continues along the road toward Vallaki, along the way traveling through the woods. By midday, they finally made it out of the trees into a low spot between the hills. It was at this time a dense fog started to roll in, much like the fog they encountered at the first set of gates. Dragos was way ahead of the party, behind him was Shadow, followed by Guille, Ireena, and Pog and Fulcrum at the very back. Dragos noticed some humanoid shapes that seem to be walking in the party's direction, and it wasn't until the fog cleared a bit that he realized they were skeletons!
He quickly signaled to the party, and everyone darted off road to hid behind some bushes. However, they weren't as sneaky as they thought. As the skeletons passed by Dragos' bush, suddenly, two of them veered off and headed towards him! Fearing the skeleton will attack, the party decided to take initiative instead. The party had quite a fight with the skeletons, but finally managed to dispatch them.
Now, only halfway to Vallaki. What other dangers might they encounter along the way...?
Party has gone up to Level 3
Items Acquired - 120 g from Ismark - Map of the realm
Episode 4: Killer Monkey Toys[edit | edit source]
Dec. 6, 2020
The evening upon the top of the hill was chilly without a fire, but uneventful. The pale light of morning revealed the dreary landscape of brush and stones. From their vantage point on top of the hill, the dark Svalich Forest loomed behind them while the rough and muddy road beckoned them to continue. After a small breakfast, they were back on the Svalich Road bound for Vallaki.
At a fork in the road, a large windmill was spotted in the distance. After asking Ireena about it, she told them that it was called the Old Bonegrinder, a haven for a hag. Or so the story goes. A back and forth between Guille and Fulcrum about proceeding on to Vallaki or investigating resulted in Fulcrum charging up the road towards the Old Bonegrinder with Barney Miller in tow.
As he charged up the road, they saw a man and child running towards them. A brief conversation revealed that the girl, Arabelle, had been rescued and was being escorted home by the man, Suvash. Before they could all set out again, they were ambushed by small Jolly Chimps. They poured out of the bushes where they were hiding, throwing their little cymbals as weapons.
As the brawl ensued, Guille appeared to be the target of choice. Repeatedly, tiny cymbals were hurled at her with unerring accuracy. They all waded into battle.
Pog with his mace.
Shadow with his dagger and short bow.
Dragos with his quarterstaff.
Guille with her longbow.
Fulcrum in his Goblinator 5000 Mark 1 armor and Barney Miller, the lightning shooting flying pig. (Yes, you read that right).
Together, they defeated the foul toys of terror, saving themselves and their new trail companions. That evening, they made it to Vallaki where Suvash escorted them to the Blue Water Inn that was run by his uncle. It was there that they stayed the evening in warm beds and full bellies.
Episode 5: Is No Fun?[edit | edit source]
Dec. 27, 2020
The party starts off the day with breakfast at the Blue Water Inn and are joined by Ireena and Arabelle. Fulcrum makes small talk with the innkeeper about the ravens in town. Today they decide to explore the town of Vallaki. Just as they were about to set out, a pudgy man wearing a purple and grey jester's cap with a monkey on his shoulder walk into the inn. The man's name is Gadof Blinsky, a toymaker with a weird taste in design, making his store quite unpopular. He takes interest in Fulcrum's flying pig, and begins chatting with the party.
They learn from him that the people of the town are not happy because they live in constant fear of Strahd. If you speak ill of the Burgomaster, you get put in the stocks. The Burgomaster believes the only way to defeat Strahd is if everyone is happy, and so he hosts parties to make people happy. He also notes that Arabelle is a Vistani, and that the Vistani are people who work for Strahd.
After everyone's had breakfast, Blinsky takes the party to his shop. Along the way, they see a scary looking man on the streets with the town guards. The party learns he is Izek, and works under the Burgomaster. They are warned to stay away from him if at all possible. Once at the shop, the party finds out why Blinsky's shop is so unpopular. His various odd looking toys would more likely scare away a kid than interest them. As they all look around the shop, Fulcrum notices a doll that looks like Ireena.
Blinsky tells them the doll is not for sell. It's a special order for Izek, who comes in every 2 days to collect a new doll. If he doesn't make the doll for him, Izek threatens to burn down his shop. As thanks to Fulcrum for letting him see such an interesting invention (Barney), Blinsky gives Fulcrum a scroll. On the scroll is some kind of partial schematic for a clockwork piece. He tells Fulcrum the schematic was made by a man named Von Worg, who supposedly built a clockwork boy that was gifted to someone in Castle Ravenloft.
As the party bids goodbye to Blinsky, Shadow notices Izek heading off to one side of town. He, Guille, and Dragos follow Izek as Fulcrum and Pog takes Ireena and Arabelle back to the inn. The trio follows Izek to the church in town. He speaks briefly to the priest, and eventually leaves. Shadow follows him and the guards to the edge of town, where they have a switch in guards, and then Izek leads them back into town.
Around the same time, Guille heads into the church and chats with the priest, Father Lucian Petrovich. She learns that Izek is the adopted son of the Burgomaster.
At the inn, Fulcrum receives a note from Irwin, the innkeeper, on it the words "Hide her." Thinking it means Ireena, he passes the information onto the party, and they devise a plan to keep Ireena safe. They learn Ireena's father had an acquaintance in town, to which Ireena writes a letter to to seek refuge.
The acquaintance is known as Lady Fiona Wachter, who lives on the north end of town. Fulcrum and Dragos deliver the letter to Lady Wachter, who tells them she will send for them that evening. For the evening, Pog and Guille attend night service at the church. They find it is very Strahd-centric - making him out as the only demon.
Once everyone is back at the inn, two escorts from Lady Wachter arrive to take them to the house.
Items Acquired - Clockwork schematic (partial)
Episode 6: Guests of the Lady[edit | edit source]
Jan. 10, 2021
The party arrives at Lady Wachter's estate and are greeted by Dhavit, a servant of the Lady. He tells them that rooms and dinner have been arranged, and allow them to settle in while he gets Lady Wachter. At the dinner table, the party eats while being inquired by Lady Wachter of their reason for being in Vallaki. They tell her that they are trying to protect Ireena from Strahd and thus was seeking refuge here at the bequest of her brother. The party asks her for more information regarding the Vistani, Strahd, and the Burgomaster, and learn that she's not quite fond of the Burgomaster.
She tells them what she knows of Strahd, that he is cursed to the land and thus cannot leave. It is said that he made a pact with a dark power in order to obtain power to have full control of his domain. After the party has had their share of questions, Lady Wachter presents hers, asking the party about their plans, and what they intend to do once Ireena is "safe". She also offers them a job to be bodyguards for her, the reason being she is afraid tensions with the Burgomaster will result in conflict.
Once dinner is finished, the party takes a look around the house. Fulcrum finds a locked door in the living room and steals a lockpick from Shadow to open it. There's not much to the room besides a table and chair and the fireplace. Fulcrum admits to Lady Wachter they opened the door to "inspect" for any places that aren't secure.
The next morning, the party prepares to head to Crezk, and will return to Lady Wachter to take up her offer afterwards. First, they must take Arabelle back to her people. They find Arabelle's camp south of Vallaki and successfully return her to Lurash, her father.
As the party makes their way back on the Old Svalich Road, they are ambushed by Izek and his guards. After a not so intense fight, they subdue Izek and the guards, deciding to keep him alive for now.
Party has reached Level 5
Episode 7: Izek[edit | edit source]
Jan. 24, 2021
After the party subdued Izek and his guards, they negotiated with him and Izek finally agreed to help out the party. As they make their way back into town, Dragos asks Izek what he knows about Lady Wachter, but couldn't add to what the party already knows.
They do learn a bit about Izek's arm - he tells them that he got drunk one day and when he woke up, he had this arm. Once back in town, the party decides to head back to Blue Water Inn first instead of directly back to Lady Wachter's house. There, they discuss whether Lady Wachter could be trusted, with the final verdict being - they shall see.
To avoid suspicion, they went back to the Wachter house for the evening. At dinner, Shadow tells Lady Wachter about Izek's ambush, to which she expressed surprise. At night, Guille went to stay in Ireena's room in case anything happens, while Fulcrum decides to be naughty and sneak around investigating the house.
He makes himself invisible and goes around looking for secret doors. He finds a locked, ornate door at the end of the hall, and after a few attempts at lockpicking it, successfully opened the door. This room looks to be a large bedroom, and on the bed, Fulcrum finds two people sleeping, one of which looks to be Lady Wachter. The other is a man, dressed in full formal attire, but doesn't seem to be breathing. On closer look, Fulcrum recognizes him as Sir Wachter.
He quickly retreats into another room that seems to be a library. Some trinkets on a table catches his attention, and as he nears, finds a human skull coated in gold with tarokka cards next to it. After a look around the library, Fulcrum also found a chest, inside contained various items, one of which stood out. It was a bound, black leather book, on it the words "Grimoire of the Four Quarters". A quick skim of the contents revealed it to be a book associated with demons.
Fulcrum, completely shocked by this discovery, hurried back out to find his party members.
Episode 8:[edit | edit source]
Feb. 21, 2021
Episode 9: Dinner & the Abbott[edit | edit source]
Mar. 7, 2021
After the party was greeted, they were told to wait outside until the bell tolled for dinner. With that, our adventurers were left to explore the Abbey grounds by themselves. They first head east and walked until they saw a guard gatehouse, and behind it what looked to be a garden. As they walked, Shadow decided to peek into one of the side windows of the Abbey. He could only make out shadows moving, and occasionally hear muttering sounds that seem to be something being repeated.
The garden had several plots, some which had full grown vegetables already. Guille, with her love of turnips, takes a turnip. Seeing there's not much else here and that his party members were already doing a lot of exploring, Dragos decided to head back the other way and check out the western grounds.
Dragos finds a graveyard on the west side of the Abbey, and takes a look at some of the headstones, but dared not go further in. Meanwhile, back at the garden, Shadow, Pog and Guille examine a tall, stained glass window. Through a piece of clear glass, Guille could barely make out a long hallway with multiple doors. Fulcrum is off sending Barney Miller down the hill to look for bodies in the trees, but alas, did not find anything.
Shadow and Fulcrum make their way to one of the scarecrows, on which Fulcrum finds a piece of parchment in the scarecrow's shirt. He pulls it out to find a folded piece of paper, and after he unfolded it, writing starts to appear. Fulcrum did not recognize the language, and just as they were about to examine it further, the ground starts shifting beneath them and a skeletal hand reaches out of the ground!
The party is attacked by Wights x3!
Back at the western side of the Abbey, Dragos starts heading back towards the garden at a leisurely pace, completely unaware of the battle that's ensued at the garden. Missing a member of their party, Shadow, Pog, Guille and Fulcrum somewhat struggled in fighting the wights. Fulcrum, scared to death, ran away and try to get help from the Abbott. As Dragos got closer to the garden, he heard Fulcrum screaming and sprinted double speed to help his teammates.
Fulcrum manages to find the Abbott and by the time they reached the garden, the party managed to slay the wights. Unfazed by the fact that there were wights living next to the Abbey, the Abbott excused himself and headed back. The threat gone, Fulcrum finally had time to more closely examine the paper, and found it wasn't a language he didn't recognize because it wasn't a language at all. It was a cipher!
He stayed back at the guardhouse to try and decipher the text while the rest of the party followed Dragos to explore the graveyard. There, Dragos and Pog find a copper band diamond ring on a grave in the corner of the graveyard. Off to the side out of sight from them, Guille leaned over the side wall to check out the other side only to be grabbed suddenly by a dark skinned, long hair woman. Guille learns her name is Ezmerelda, a Vistani, and is in search of something at the Abbey. As they shook hands, Guille was hit by an odd vision. She saw a graveyard enveloped by mist, and the words on the tarokka cards spoke out to her.
A Vistani wanders this land alone, searching for her mentor. She does not stay in one place for long. Seek her out at Saint Markovia's abbey, near the mists.
When asked what she was in search of, Ezmerelda simply replied: A thigh bone.
Episode 10:[edit | edit source]
Mar. 21, 2021
Curse of Strahd | |
---|---|
Characters | Fulcrum • Shadow • Guille • Pog • Dragos |
NPC's | |
Locations | Village of Barovia • Vistani Encampment |