CoS 1
CoS 1 is a roleplaying campaign set in Forgotten Realms (Faerûn/Demiplanes of Dread), run by Gunnar Petzäll as DM and the Epsilon group (Engh, Julle, Staffan, Jaroslav, Jonas) as players and using the DnD 5e system.
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.
For this campaign, not much house rules are used, mainly just the concept of Lingering Injuries that occur if a character receives exceptional and one feat.
House Rules
Barovian Sleep
In Barovia, the norm is to have nightmares dominate your sleep. On a Long Rest you regain only 25% of lost HP, though you do regain HD as normal (1 per 2 lvls).
Over time you will acclimatise yourself with the discomfort, nightmares, and the dreary surroundings and the 25% increases to 30% on the second night, 35% on the third, and so on until you restore all HP as normal.
In addition; The DM makes a Wisdom save (DC 10) for you at the end of a Long Rest. On a fail, you don't regain 5% x the amount failed on the save. There can also be other effects (or entities) in Barovia that can prevent hit point recovery.
Session prep
Main Cast
- Jack (Jaroslav) - Sheet
- Kevavor 'Kev' (Daniel) - Sheet - PDF
- Garth (Staffan) - Sheet
- Bigwig (Jonas) - Sheet
- Luna (Christopher) - Sheet
Planning
- 2022-09-20 - AS PLANNED - 3/5
- Christopher & Staffan unavailable
- 2022-09-27 - AS PLANNED - 4/5
- Daniel unavailable (came lol)
- 2022-10-04 - AS PLANNED - 5/5
- 2022-10-11 - AS PLANNED - 3/5
- Jaroslav & Christopher unavailable
- 2022-10-18 - AS PLANNED - 4/5
- Christopher unavailable
- 2022-10-25 - AS PLANNED - 5/5
- 2022-11-01 - AS PLANNED - 5/5
- 2022-11-08 - AS PLANNED - 5/5
Summary
Start
(Session 1 - 2022-09-06) [Day -2]
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.
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!
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.
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.
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)
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.
We'll start three days after this; you may assist with rebuilding, refugee assistance or some downtime activity.
The cast of characters include: Luna, the firbolg moon-attuned, Kev (Kevavor) the playwright, Jack, the sword-slinging magician, Bigwig, the barbarian bunny, and Garth, the champion of vengeance.
Chapter 1: The Wolves at Mud Creek
(Session 1 - 2022-09-06 -Engh) [Day 1]
Much of the dinner guests dissipates from Daggerford during the next few days 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. On the third day, you receive a letter from Duchess Morwen asking you to report to Sherlen Miller, Captain of the Constabulary, for an opportunity "to make that difference after all".
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.
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 Bigwig puts himself in harms way and is nearly injured, the wolves are killed or schased off and the shepherds and sheep are saved.
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.
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, brother of the town priest, Father Merricksson, has been missing about three weeks and this is when the troubles started. 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.
Talking to Featherock who claims the wolves SPOKE and 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 track or use some kind of ruse on the wolves tomorrow.
(Session ends)
Note: Some characters experience some nightmares during their long rest.
(Session 2 - 2022-09-13) [Day 2]
In the morning, the ruse idea was discussed and the party had a good time, but got one or two sceptical looks from other tavern patrons as well as the owner Leanor Slatebeard. Eventually they took some advice from Corel, the wiry fleecer/shepherd/farmer, and decided to track ther wolves from the point of attack from yesterday.
Tracking the Wolves
The slain wolves (sans their heads that Bigwig hade taken the previous day) were still there, prompting Kev to assume the thing controlling the wolves don't care to take care of their dead but the tracks were also fairly easy to find, at first. Following that, Luna's superior tracking skill did the rest. Well, it would have if she had not turned invisible, prompting Bigwig to having to track Luna into the forest.
Encountering an owlbear two hours of tracking later, Luna simply circumvented it and headed on after the track, leaving the rest of the party to deal with it, which was done in a couple of heartbeats.
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 and had made a campfire. 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. Kev tried to talk with them but Bigwig charged in and killing one of them in one fell swoop. 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. The first reluctantly halted and Kev again tried to speak with the wolves.
There was clearly some conflict between the wolves and the inhabitants of Mud Creek but they had, in fact, attacked and chased off the owlbear and the blue hue one seemed very keen on a non-violent solution to the conflict. As the party had managed to talk the wolves down a notch, the fire-breathing wolf had slowly become more and more agitated, muttering things like "we shouldn't talk to the killers, they should die" and the like. The apparent turn into all-out diplomacy simply turned her over the edge and draw a deep breath, preparing to once again spweing a cloud of fire.
Which is where the session ended.
New initiative!
(Session 3 - 2022-09-20 -Julle -Staffan)
The wolf with fiery streaks through its fur drew in breath, rose on its hin paws and breathed out on the other massive brethren. In the blink of an eye before he was enveloped in flames, a look of lupine horror was seen across his face before the flames and the pain.
The wolves with makeshift armour attacked the intrepid explorers and the fiery one did its best to erradicate them but Kev snuck up and used his magic to heal the lightning-infused massive wolf, and turned the battle as he fried his flame compatriot with a bolt of energised lightning, straight to its own face. Together the fiery wolf was taken down and the rest submitted after that.
Lupine Diplomacy
The electrical wolf sought further diplomatic talks and Kev, joned by the rest, happily indulged. The general idea was to convince the wolf pack to talk directly with the town's council near the forest's edge and discuss a deal where the wolves wouldn't steal any more livestock or supplies from the townspeople and the townspeople wouldn't try to hunt the wolves. The hope was to expand this to perhaps "trade" (new concept for the lightning wolf introducing himself as "Bolt") and the wolves could keep the town safe from predators like owlbears or even human predators like bandits and the wolves could have some supplies from the town.
Jack also figured out a very plausible theory that Alexi, the town's protector and brother of Father Merrikson, had inadvertently MADE the wolves sentient and able to speak through a sorcerous Wild Surge, essentially exchanging his own life essence to awaken the wolves to sentience. They don't remember much from before this and the one they call the Lightbringer was probably Alexi.
The council wasn't too hard to convince. Sure, the halfling Tillus Merrion (from the Growers and Buyers' Association) was outright hostile, but Father Merrikson saw that the wolves, in a way, could be seen as Alexi's offspring, or fractions of his own soul and urged the council to vote to listen to the newly sentient wolf pack. And so they did, with just the one angry Tillius shouting obscenities.
The rest went without much resistance. The adventurers aided the two sides to amicably negotiate and increase trust. The council gave the adventurers the entire reward, despite not killing all the wolves, on the provisory they'd come back and help them for free if the wolves suddenly backed on their words - within a year.
Chapter 2: The Travellers
In Daggerford it seems Duchess Morwen kept doing celebratory dinners to the mercenaries and adventurers that were still about, and several of them had made similar missions in or around Daggerford in the past few days (some probably still out there). At least eight other adventurers attended the dinner. She had some other thing on her mind though and Kev directly asked her, finding out that a group of travellers had been harrassing townspeople and threatening them and a squad of town guards had come back seemingly magically hexed after being ordered to get them to leave. She asked the adventurers to have a go and to say "leave by dawn or have your wagons burned". She said it would be a "personal favour" to get the message across.
The Travellers
After much debate, the group checked with a "hexed" guard who had no magic hex on him and seemed fine, went and the travellers seemed pretty nice. Their patriarch Stanimir welcomed them and there was much music, dancing, cherry wine and stories. He made a convincing tale of a man his people had saved in the distant past, and whom in turn saved them. He had fought evil kings and taken up home in the travellers' homelands. Dismay had arrived as this man was a prince cursed by dark powers and Stanimir urged the adventurers to save him, as he had meen made into a tyrant to his people and so they could save the people of his lands. His own elder, Madam Eva could tell more of the curse and how to lift it, he said. He did know their ancient homelands, nowadays called Barovia was at least a little bit similar to the Feywild, and not all roads consistently lead there. A guide likes himself, or any traveller of his people, could lead them, but they need some aid.
Ever skeptical, Jack didn't believe a word of it, or, he did believe Stanimir was telling the truth but may be delusional or simply wrong. There was a potential for lots of treasure there with or without the prince but the "curse" was a very abstract concept he wasn't so sure about. Kev and Bigwig on the other hand were both intrigued. Partly as Bigwig has always had an underlying hatred for curses and a will to lift them (especially werewolf curses, and there was some of that, Stanimir said) but also the wealth of the kingdom itself, that potentially could be rewards in the size of "castles and kingdoms".
The group decided to stay and party with the travellers and leave in the night, well ahead of dawn and camp on the way, hoping to get that favour from Duchess Morwen and maybe even more treasure in this ancient land "Barovia".
Liam's Hold; The Stronghold
[Day 3]
After some nightly travels, a rest, and reaching Liam's Hold, they realised there is a local issue with werewolves. Several regional powers were involved to root out the issues, including the Lords' Alliance, the Order of the Gauntlet, the local Harpers, the Emerald Enclave and the Retinue. The Order of the Gauntlet's representative, Lanniver Strayl was in charge of protecting the local area and discussed the matter. There was rumours of a portal a day's march into the Misty Forest where these werewolves came from and there was a reward for finding it (strongly recommending any intrepid adventurers to NOT engage werewolves!). The party took a 200g reward for the information they already had and promised to do more.
The party also talked to Eravien Haund of the Lord's Alliance who tried to convince them to allow them to give him exclusive knowledge and ability to deal with the threat to give him political power but in the end declined, and Bigwig inadvertantly insulting the noble, angering him. In his anger he dropped his notes, including knowledge of things like it's a dozen specific werewolves, leader called Kiril, from "Barovia" (Lord's Alliance has no info on it), worship "The Huntress", leave through some ancient portal, will give letters of recommendation, related to Daggerford (!) and Waterdeep (?). A local guard (Dravin Barok) also disturbed their talk asking if they are looking for werewolves, please look for his missing son, Kellen.
Talking to Stanimir, they ensured that they are able to enter and leave Barovia ("yes, with a guide or leave through leave"). Special "leave" allowed with the aid of the "darklord" himself, "Strahd", but also with a guide like Stanimir. The old man also encouraged the adventurers to not directly intervene with the werewolves without plenty of resources. He was open to bringing more armed guards, but seemed sceptical of their heroic destinies, compared to the party. He meant to say that he believed in Destiny and that Destiny had not made him find the adventurers but Destiny had made the adventurers find him (Jack silently sighed but Bigwig seemed impressed - at least by any idea of killing werewolves!).
End of session.
(Session 4 - 2022-09-27)
The party discussed the matter some more and decided to leave the extra soldiers behind to scout for the source of the werewolves and report back before the full moon, the danger is on the travelled road, not Barovia or further towards Liam's Hold. Arrigal lead the main scouting of the caravan (though the party helped), camping near the forest's edge, [Day 4], and then later a day's travel in, both days uneventful.
Chapter 3: Welcome to Barovia
Everyone had a set of dreams starting delightsome and ending with inhaling cold mist like water, waking in twitchy fits.
As you drift off with the pleasent smell of the camp fire and traveller food leftovers and the near-full moon peaking out from behind the clouds, you enter into a cozy and comfortable sleep. In fact, you haven't slept this well for, well, you're not really sure you ever have slept this well! As this thought goes through your mind it strikes you as odd that you're even contemplating this while dreaming. The moment is fleeting and some of the happy moments of your life rolls on by and your troubles are swept away with them. Time seems to fly endlessly in this state and even years, decennia and centuries seem to pass you by.
Slowly, as you seem to recall moments repeating themselves (as they often do in dreams), they now seem tinted with less of that kind light. The clouds are heavier and the surroundings, just beyond sight, seem to now have whisps of white that dissipates as your eyes tries to focus on it. Eventually, these elusive mists seems more tangible and even stays in view. It even seems to slowly creep up on you.
The mist doesn't forebode a sense of dread. Just cold, solid determination, impermeable to the will of others. As your lovely moments slowly change, the mist moves closer still. Friends have gaunt and pale faces, food no longer tastes as rich. You hear a scream and the memories are no longer what you recall of them; something dreadful happened in place of the warm comfort you know of. You are gripped with a sense of panic as the very nature of the mist changes and moves on you with determination. You try to run but it rolls in faster than your feet can carry you.
As you run as fast as you are able and your throat hurts from panting, the mist overtakes you with deliberate determination and you feel the cold, almost liquid, air flowing down your throat and filling your lungs. The panic of drowning overcomes you and you inadvertently draw further breaths, filling not only your lungs but your soul with cold.
As you come to, you find yourself in a forest without a trail. As you look around, you see your own tracks going backwards in a shallow layer of mud on the forest floor. Following the tracks you find the camp mostly as it was left last night, planted on a patch of more solid grass than you first found yourself on, beyond the border of the small clearing. The Travellers are gone, but you can easily see tracks leading further East.
The weather is the same dreary overcast you have been used to for the past week or so, with a faint smell of rain in the air. The forest is, however, different than last night. Rather than a lush mostly leafy forest, almost every tree you see is a pinetree, many have streaks of a grey moss on them that doesn't look healthy and the forest is littered with dead, hollow trees in between the dark-green pines.
It's very quiet. The normal, lively sounds of the woods are noticeably absent. Not only that, but the thick fog seems to carry every sound much farther than usual and you imagine people will hear you well even if you whisper. You can't see any wildlife bar the odd raven.
Even though it's morning, the light is dimmer than normal morning light. The mist gives the whole world around you a hazy feel, illuminated by the sterile, white light of a sun far beyond the clouds. You hear some faint howling of wolves on the wind.
Waking up on the second day of the forest (4 days from full moon, [Day 5]), the party found themselves in what they believe is Barovia with essentially a different forest but the old tracks here. The travellers were missing, their wagon tracks going further in the same direction the whole caravan was going. Much of their possessions had been lifted from their persons but there was a track of someone dragging a large sack, which probably contained their items. The horses seemingly had been chased off from the area and Bigwig's hound had made some soft of resistance to stay and/or protect his master.
The tracking was interrupted by a Dire Wolf leading a pack of wolves to attack the party. Well equiped with wolf knowledge from Mud Creek, they know wolves normally don't attack humans and some did indeed flee. When they were fought off, Luna found the tracks again and helped Bigwig track them further while the rest of the party followed the travellers' tracks north-east towards what turned out to be a road. Arriving there, a black carriage was waiting for them. A dusk elf opened the door and carefully flung a bag of coins to Kev, saying "This may be of aid after your misfortune." A choire of voices screaming in despair and agony seemed to follow the carriage or the elf.
(End of session; minor play through messages after)
Out of frustration and desperation, Kev used his magical powers to teleport on top of the carriage as it was speeding off and Bigwig ran after into the mist, leaping into the air landing next to Kev. The sounds alerted the driver, who stopped the carriage.
(more to come)
(Session 5 - 2022-10-04)
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