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| == Summary == | | == Summary == |
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| === Start ===
| | * '''[[Cos 2/Summary]]''' |
| (Session 1 - 2022-11-26 -Tobias) '''[Day -1]'''
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| The introduction '''starts near Waterdeep''', the largest city on the Sword Coast and possibly the largest in the world (at least that you know of). Starting out as small fish in a big pond, you heed a call from '''Sir Isteval''', a noted paladin of Amaunator (formerly Lathander) for adventurers and mercenaries to '''aid Daggerford''' in dealing with goblins, gnolls, and orcs who’ve been raiding the countryside, destroying homes and causing an influx of refugees to head to Daggerford.
| | {{:CoS 1/Summary}} |
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| A militia guards Dagggerford. Service is mandatory for all able-bodied adults, and lasts for twenty years. All citizens living within the town receive instruction from the duchess's own soldiers in the use of spears and other weapons, and must spend at least one day a month in defense of the town, standing sentry on its walls, or patrolling the nearby roads. Their training means that the common citizens of Daggerford aren't easily cowed by armed folk demanding goods, coin, or passage, and are slightly more likely to take up work as mercenaries, caravan guards, or adventurers. In this case, the troubles have been so large and such an influx of refugees that help is needed!
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| You heeded the call to arms coming from Waterdeep, but only came at the '''end of the crisis''', assisting with a few minor erradications and to housing refugees, etc. Nevertheless, your help was greatly appreciated and you have been given a small '''reward of 25gp''' each and invited to '''dine in the Duchess Morwen's manor'''.
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| The largest and oldest building in Daggerford is the ducal castle, a three-level keep enclosed by a two-story wall that contains its own smithy, parad ground, and stabling. The dukes of Daggerford have always kept a well-stocked larder, capable of feeding the castle's inhabitants and any citizens that it might shelter inside during a siege.
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| The feast is lavish by any commoner's standard and is mostly attened by local militia, mercenaries and intrepid adventurers. The local nobility, including Duchess Morwen mingle among the common folk (some nobles seem to have been told to attend). (Passive society 14 informs you that though luxurious for commoners, this is a budget ordeal compared to a proper nobility feast, albeit accomodated for many times the amount of guests)
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| During the dinner you share stories with others and also have the luck to be seated fairly near Duchess Morwen and got some time to socialise in addition to regular mingling. She shows appreciation and while not heavy on the wine, not timid either. During the evening you convey regret you arrived too late to really make a difference defending Daggerford and Morwen politely acknowledges the sentiment and implies the time may yet come.
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| The cast of characters include: '''Terrance''', the secluded sage seduced by celestial, '''Jormund''' the simply delightful wildman, '''Torbjoern''', the shady half-elven outrider, '''Aelfric''', the charismatic half-elven outrider.
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| === Chapter 1: The Wolves at Mud Creek ===
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| (Session 1 - 2022-11-26 -Tobias) '''[Day 1]'''
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| Much of the dinner guests dissipates from Daggerford during the next day and many are allowed free housing either as guests at locals or at an inn while refugees are still catered for and repair work is in order. You spend time helping for free food and lodging and can do some downtime activity or simply help out with the work. Torbjoern couldn't handle the uneventful time and sought to visit the Constabulary and spoke to '''Sherlen Miller''', Captain of the Constabulary, to get an actually rewarding job.
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| '''Mud Creek''' village council is having severe problems with '''wolves''', possibly related to the goblin attacks, offering a '''800gp reward''' to anyone who can wipe them out. The rest of the guard are too busy and if you elect to not go, there are others they can ask.
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| The travel to Mud Creek you traverse on foot and is uneventful for half a day's worth of travel. Nearing the town, a few miles up you see '''six wolves''' attacking two shepherds and a flock of sheep, seemingly herding the sheep into the woods with precision similar to a sheepdog. You intervene and though Jormung puts himself in harms way and is nearly injured, the wolves are killed or chased off and the shepherds and (most) sheep are saved, though Torbjoern manage to skewer one with an errant lonbow arrow. The party made a quick job of skinning the wolves, taking their pelts with them to town.
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| You get some '''odd stories''' from the shepherds in regards to the wolf attacks, and something is clearly amiss. Someone or thing is obviously controlling the wolves.
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| In town you're invited to a council meeting where they debade if it's worth the risk to continue to export foodstuff while the wolves attack (risking either starvation in the coming winter or a lack of money to re-stock in spring). It turns out the town guardian (and sorcerer) '''Alexi Merricksson''', brother of the town priest, '''Father Merricksson''', has been missing about three-four weeks and this is roughly coinciding with the troubles starting. There has been more disturbing reports like sheep stolen out of locked barns and when the village sent out a hunting party, several died and of the missing people only the halfling '''Willen Featherock''' turned up alive - but only barely.
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| Talking to Featherock who claims '''the wolves SPOKE''' and investigating Alexi's town house that seemed like he had not planned to leave for "one of his long trips", the party decided to rest for the night and use the slow spoken '''Corel of the Fleecers' Guild''' to aid them track the wolves from their last attack point into the forest. But first they would have a rest in the Shepherd's Crook inn. '''[Day 2]'''
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| ==== Tracking the Wolves ====
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| The party was '''joined by Corel''' and he was assisted with the tracking. The first 1,5 hour was uneventful but the party noticed rustling in the bushes ahead and spotted a wounded and enraged '''owlbear'''.
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| (End of session)
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| (Session 2 - 2022-12-05) '''[Day 2]'''
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| Standing their ground, the party did its best to pile on the wounded owlbear, but not before it ferociously swiped and bit at Jormund, seriously wounding him. Before long he was downed and Torbjoern was in turn wounded as well. Fortunately, '''Torbjoern's cousin Aelfric''' had been tracking the party the last day or so and caught up with them in the nick of time so with his help and Terrence's holy powers the party employed some serious team work, tripping the owlbear and smashing its head in.
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| Taking a breather and then continuing on, Torbjoern spotted a '''lone wolf''' eating a rabbit near to the party but it was gone by the time they had discussed the matter to go look and see.
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| Eventually the party reached a clearing and '''a wolf den''' that was guarded by '''oddly behaving''' wolves, among other things they had dressed themselves in strips of cloth, had made a campfire and crude fencing. Apparently they also made noise traps as when the party were approaching the clearing, it was set off and all the wolves went to high alert. Torbjoern who accidentally had stepped on the tripwire moved to stand with the rest of the party.
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| (End of session)
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| (Session 3 - 2022-12-12) '''[Day 2]'''
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| As the wolves closed in, Torbjoern thwomped one of them and they assumed it was more hunters so they attacked. Shortly after, two huge wolves with fiery and electrical magic flowing about them came out of the wolf den. As the party seemed to lose hope on teh situation, the fiery wolf (Flame) halted the lupine attack and the two groups discussed the matter, though the electrical partner seemed to get more infuriated by the minute.
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| Terrence, in a bold move, invisibly went in to the wolves' den and saw pups there, just starting to learn how to talk. He decided to try to bluff being the "Lightbringer" and cast some minor cantrips to make him seem like a powerful ''Lightbringer''. After some talk he managed to, with the aid of his compatriots, convince the wolves to move away to some other forest.
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| They came home and rested. '''[Day 3]'''
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| With the aid of both Corel and Father Merrickson they convinced the council the wolves had left. The council wanted more proof though and asked the adventurers either only take a fraction of the reward or stay three months to guard the town.
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| (End of session)
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| ==== Double-Checking the Success ====
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| (Session 4 - 2023-01-23) '''[Day 3]'''
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| Torbjoern first negotiated the three month guard period down to 1 month but then Terrence suggested they could do the guarding for a week or so and go check the wolf den. In the meanwhile, the burly types (Torbjoern, Aelfric and Jormund) did the guarding, uneventfully, while Terrence had free reign of the sorcerer's house, trying to decipher his esoteric interests.
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| '''[Day 3]'''
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| * Went there - nobody - followed to dreary forest, they are there with all the stuff. Talk a bit, will be ok. Back to the Mud Creek. Got money. Go to Daggerfall, arriving late at night.
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| <!-- The party ran in and massacred most of the guarding wolves in the blink of an eye, after which '''two enormous wolves''', one with faint glowing orange streaks as if by lava and one with a blueish hue, sparkling with energy as well as four makeshift armoured wolves ran out. The first, fiery one, blasted the party as well as the last remaining guard wolf with fire and the other shouted for the violence to stop. They first reluctantly halted and Kev again tried to speak with the wolves. -->
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| == Links == | | == Links == |
CoS 2 is a roleplaying campaign using a modified Curse of Strahd module using the DnD 5e system set in Forgotten Realms (Faerûn/Demiplanes of Dread), run by Gunnar Petzäll as DM and the Zeta group (Masen, Tobias, Staffan, Darío) as players.
The campaign follows a group of Forgotten Realms characters who end up in in a forgotten realm, with varying motivations to mostly make the world a better place.
House Rules
Session prep
Main Cast
Current level: 1.
| Player |
Character |
Sheet |
PDF |
Ini |
HP |
AC |
Per |
Hit |
DC |
Str |
Dex |
Con |
Int |
Wis |
Cha |
Prof |
| Daniel |
Torbjoern |
Link |
[ Link] |
+4 |
12 |
15 |
+3 |
+6 |
n/a |
+0* |
+4* |
+2 |
+0 |
+1 |
+0 |
+2 |
| Staffan |
Jormund |
Link |
[ Link] |
+6 |
15 |
14 |
+0 |
+5 |
n/a |
+5* |
+1 |
+5* |
-1 |
+0 |
+1 |
+2 |
| Tobias |
Aelfric |
Link |
[ Link] |
+3 |
15 |
14 |
+0 |
+5 |
n/a |
+5* |
+1 |
+5* |
-1 |
+0 |
+1 |
+2 |
Planning
- S1 2022-11-26 - as planned - 4/5 (face 2 face)
- S2 2022-12-05 - as planned - 5/5 (Discord)
- S3 2022-12-12 - as planned - 5/5 (Discord)
- S4 2023-01-23 - as planned - 5/5 (Discord)
Summary
Yet again, Yester Hill
The party got Ezmeralda's wagon from Krezk and headed towards the wizard of Wines to have a night's rest there. On the way, several of the party members were individually approached by vestigial powers from around Barovia, similarly to Bigwig's connection with the Fanes, and they seemed eager to offer the enemies of Strahd help, some also wanted additional help in the "Amber Temple" up Mount Ghakis to the south, a place where the dusk elf healer and leader Kasimir Velikov said he wanted to go in order to find the powers to resurrect his long dead sister (killed by Strahd). Garth grew larger, Ziff gained some muscles and Nibbins gained an unseeing eye on the site of his head.
The party arrived unmolested at Wizard of Wine, despite the late hour, and shared some information with Davian Martikov and his family while having dinner. Davian asked if they had seen Muriel Zalenski, but they had not. They were given hay mattresses and blankets to sleep and Davian had his sons carry out the night watch.
[Day 17 23:00]
- Note: Bigwig was at some point earlier visited by the Swamp Fane, the Weaver, a young dark woman with 6 black eyes and smooth voice, and asked to strengthen his bond with The Ladies Three and he accepted, prior to the experiences of the rest of the party.
(Session 51 - 2024-04-23 - [Day 18 07:00] all +Greg)
Start with a short rest as some party members felt poorly from dreams.
Party headed towards Yester Hill but found a group of forest people that seemed to lie in ambush. They were engaged and dispatched.
Short session, mostly social.
(Session 52 - 2024-05-07 - [Day 18 10:00] -Garth)
With magical aid, snuck around the top of Yester Hill towards the Creepy Tree finding 13 sages including some sort of "arch druid" chanting. Darling identified large magical auras surrounding the tree. Bigwig rushed in, threw out the arch druid which was quickly pummeled to death by the party before the sages even noticed what was going on. With a roar from the party, many sages were frightened. When the sages recovered, however, a barrage of nature's necrotic energies surrounded several party members, even pushing Garth to his knees.
(Session 53 - 2024-05-14 - [Day 18 11:00] all)
The battle against the sages was punishing. They started out taking turns on some sort of chanting, slowly bringing life to the creepy tree that Bigwig identified as a Gulthias Tree, a sort of vampiric arboreal monstrosity, which also tried to grapp or hurt the intruders at every turn. The sages used magics that boomed across the hilltop, attracting the attention of the several groups of forest people around, albeit confused at first.
The battle raged with the looming threat of dozens of forest people coming to see if the sounds were a sign of some sort of danger.
(Session 54 - 2024-05-21 - [Day 18 11:02] all)
Eventually, only one sage remained fleeing behind a wall of stone as the adventurers desperately tried to destoy the Gulthias Tree. Barely hanging on, exhausted from combat and physical punishment, Zif leaps inside a surprised mouth-like gap of the tree, managing to swing her oversized swords at its interior while Bigwig acted bouncy ball to avoid getting stuck in its maws. With further aid of the whole team, X deals a lethal blow to something akin to a neural pathway and the tree stops moving with a deep groan.
Now getting surrounded on all sides, cries aroudn them seem more intent and some forest people are outright running at the party. With great physical effort they managed to skirt two oncoming groups and outrun their pursuers getting in to the edge of Svalich Woods, which made the escape slightly easier.
Getting to the northern side they noticed Davian and three younger family members of the Martikovs fighting off smaller groups of forest people, the ground littered with their corpses and the Martikovs looking quite worse for wear, one even on his knees. The attackes were swiftly expedited and everyone went a bit further to get on to Ezmeralda's wagon and make the escape.
Back at the vineyard they rested and had some food, awaiting their pursuers but nobody came. They strategised and agreed to fortify the vineyard to try to get some quality rest in case the forest people regroups to attack. Plenty of eyes to patrol, and Darling provided magical alarms in addition to that for the night. Poles were dug into the earth, forcing any advancing groups into particular funnels.
During dinner, Darling ate one of her magic mushrooms, summoning two dust mephits from the ground, named Traxeiastoleas and Stegnotirio.
As night started to settle, not a word was heard from Yester Hill. The hours passed into night and most attempted to recuperate some of their strength with a couple on guard at all times.
Then one of Darling's alarms went off...
(Session 55 - 2024-05-28 - [Day 18 23:50] -Zif)
Links
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