Difference between revisions of "CoS 2"

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== Summary ==
== Summary ==


=== Start ===
* '''[[Cos 2/Summary]]'''
(Session 1 - 2022-11-26 -Tobias) '''[Day -1]'''


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}}
 
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.
 
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.
 
=== Chapter 1: The Wolves at Mud Creek ===
(Session 1 - 2022-11-26 -Tobias) '''[Day 1]'''
 
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.
 
'''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 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.
 
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 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.
 
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]'''
 
==== Tracking the Wolves ====
 
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'''.
 
(End of session)
 
(Session 2 - 2022-12-05) '''[Day 2]'''
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
(End of session)
 
(Session 3 - 2022-12-12) '''[Day 2]'''
 
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.
 
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.
 
They came home and rested.  '''[Day 3]'''
 
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.
 
(End of session)
 
==== Double-Checking the Success ====
 
(Session 4 - 2023-01-23) '''[Day 3]'''
 
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.
 
'''[Day 3]'''
 
* 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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
<!-- 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. -->


== Links ==
== Links ==

Revision as of 21:28, 3 February 2023

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)
    • Tobias unavailable
  • 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


Bad News on the Eastern Front

(Session 43 - 2024-01-09 - [Day 16] all)

As the battle ended and Nibbins called attention to Strahd mounted on the slope of the hill to the north-west, Ziff decided to jump the stone wall and ask him what he was doing. Nearly being hit by whatever electrical barricade held the wall, they got there unscathed. Ziff saw, as they came up to the shadow-wreathed nightmare-mounted lord, that a vision appeared on what looked like a wall of mist from just a hundred feet away. A vision of a sun-lit landscape with another valley with a township nearby and a large city on the horizon. Strahd openly admired its beauty and admitted it was his homelands. The vision had been put here to torment him. He admitted to coming here often to just look and long for these familiar lands. Strahd welcomed Ziff but seemed unfazed by their presence. He complimented the group on "getting rid of that abomination, which would have hurt people" and politely answered Ziff's questions.

Strahd got slightly more serious and asked Ziff and the party for a favour. He said there is an imminent danger to either Vallaki or Krezk as an intruder, an aboleth, had amassed a zombie horde and Strahd assumed it would use it to attack one of the settlements within the next week or so. He offered monetary rewards for saving the people. "What is a ruler without subjects?". With that his nightmare took steps into mid air and he flew off as a dark writhing shadow with streaks of fire from the nightmare occasionally reaching outside the darkness.

Meanwhile Bigwig had scouted the nearby group of druids, 12 in total, seeing a few hidden berserkers milling at the edge of the hill and decided not to engage them for now, joining the party which had moved down the hill. Garth headed towards the Martikovs and the three naked ladies, seemingly arguing loudly, surrounded by dozens of tree blights and barbarian corpses. The bits of the conversation he heard before reaching them was about "Urwin" but they silenced as he arrived.

The ladies, lead by Danika Dorakova (matron of the Blue Water Inn) got robed with capes, cowls or blankets and started talking. Vallaki had endured the Blazing sun festival of Baron Vallakovich but as a citizen had laughed when the Baron failed to light the pyre he had been killed and it set off an uproar of the town which apparently Fiona Wachter had capitalized on and not only siezed control of the town but outright stood by as the Baron and his wife were lynched. The fates of their son Viktor as well as Jack or Goncai was at present unknown, but the mage tower seemingly had been cut off near its base. The fates of the captains of the guards were to unknown but Izek, the head of the captains, was missing. Father Lucien had been killed by an attack made by vampire spawns buried all around Vallaki suddenly bursting out of the ground sometime during the riots. Danika also said that she had seen Ismark and Ireena fleeing on the road heading towards Krezk and the Abbey of St Markovia, probably seeking shelter with the Abbot (a figure described as philosophical, eccentric and powerful - a potential ally against "Bob").

On another note, the Martikovs and Danika admits to secretly be wereravens, part of an order they call "Keepers of the Feather", who have exeedingly carefully opposed Strahd, but never openly. It turns out Bigwig's pet raven, Muriel, also is a wereraven, and has been following them for the past two weeks!

They decide that Ireena and Ismark, probably sought after by Strahd, is the priority and that seeking aid from the Abbot is probably the next steps best suited. Old Davian and his sons were given the gem of growth to hide somewhere in the ground to regrow the grapes and for them all to rebuild the vineyard while the rest of the party, including Danika and the other two ladies to continue the road backtrackign to Vallaki to find Ismark and Ireena. The travel was blissfully uneventful until they found the pair on foot travelling on the main road towards Krezk. Danika and the other wereraven ladies returned back to Vallaki to ensure they could protect their families while the party marched onwards up the mountains towards Krezk while the trees turned more from decrepid leaf trees into decrepid pine trees and more frost and snow became common.

Halfway from the Raven River bridge and up the mountain towards Krezk, Nibbins scouted through the eyes of his familiar owl an odd trio in the forest not far from the main road, doing some chanting or dance around a stone in a small clearing. The whole party got alert and sneaked up through the forest towards the trio and as Nibbins got in to hearing distance he could see through the sparse underbrush of the pine forest that it was three night hags! With some creative thinking he made an illusion of sound as if there was an army marching on the trio from within the forest while the party snuck back to the road and bolted onwards. The ruse hopefully worked; they don't know sinee the hags turned ethereal at first sign of danger.

The rest of the road, navigating some snowy cliff road turns and twists, was quick and eventually they saw the stone walls of Krezk.

(End of session.)


Just another Sunday morning in my quiet mountain town

(Session 44 - 2024-01-16 - [Day 16] all)

  • Guards - Eventually get Burgomaster Dmitri Krezkov
  • Discuss wine - find out a child was taken by werewolves
  • Go to Viskov family (Anders) - kid taken up the mountain towards the abbey (tracks)
  • Fizz cannonballs the pond nearby - Garth sees faces in the misty spash
  • Some discussion on what to do (incl a few "Strahd" comments)
  • Garth pray by pool; gets multi-face vision including Maya, the farmer
  • Ireena has a look, almost pulled into it by "Sergei" who is a spitting image of Vasili von Holtz
  • Presumably Strahd darkens the couds and shoots a lightning bolt into the pool
  • Heads up the mountain to the Abbey of St Markovia, greeted by two odd-looking monsters, Otto (donkey-ish) and Zygfrek (lizard-ish (is girl)) Belview
  • Courtyard, weird animal noises from cages
  • The Abbot arrives, with a woman at hand, identical copy of Ireena! (Vasilka)
  • Discussion about Vasilka and the abbot's background - Garth Divine Sense him and he's a Deva!
  • Something

(End of session.)

Where wolves go

(Session 45 - 2024-01-23 - [Day 16] all)

  • A little more talk with the Abbot
  • Offered to stay in the medical wing
  • Attacked by 6 Shadows, which apparenly were unable to leave the medical wing
  • Decide to check out the pool if the Tatyana thing can be re-activated (no, not today at least)
  • [Day 17]
  • Still dark overhead clouds
  • Ezmeralda d'Avenir, the monster hunter looking for her old master Van Richten, decided to join the party in eliminating the werewolves and rescue various children
  • After two grueling hours of climbing ever further up the foothills of Mount Baratok, they spotted the quite overt den, a few hundred feet away

A Rude Bride Interlude

(Session 46 - 2024-02-06 - [Day 17] all)

As reported by Nibbins Nimbletwig

In the dense woods near the werewolf den, our party was on a mission to rescue the village children. Suddenly, I spotted a huge black figure lurking in the southeastern bushes, leading Bigwig to tactically divert east to avoid the threat. Unexpectedly, Ludmilla, Stradh's oldest wife, emerged from that direction, demanding we leave. I bluffed about being on a special mission from Stradh to deter her, but she demanded more details. When I refused, she launched a thunderbolt at me, which missed. Her aggression triggered a battle, with the black figure turning out to be a large wolf, causing fear and chaos among us.

Ziff showed bravery by engaging the beast and delivering heavy blows. They cleverly played dead, tricking the wolf into releasing them. Capitalizing on this moment, I shook off my shock and attacked the creature with my mace and shadow blade, setting Ziff up for a triumphant final blow. As the beast fell, its pack fled, leaving us wondering about Ludmilla's location.

Her sudden reappearance led me to attack, only to find she was an illusion. We discovered a collar on the wolf, which Darling examined and identified as a potential scrying tool for Ludmilla. When Darling's attempt to break the collar failed, he passed it to Garth. I then suggested we repurpose it for our own use, resulting in the collar being handed to me for safekeeping. We planned to find a scrying scroll to counter Ludmilla.

Darling was intrigued by what seemed to be human remains within the slain wolf, hinting it had been transformed using human parts.

Our focus then shifted to Zuleika, who unsuccessfully tried to hide from us. Bigwig quickly apprehended her, bringing her to the group. Despite our initial hostility, she proposed helping us enter the den via a secret passage in exchange for our aid in overthrowing the pack leader Kiril.

(End of session.)

A Mission of the Huntress

(Session 47 - 2024-02-13 - [Day 17] -Bigwig)

As the party started following Zulieka, a blueish sheen fell across the landscape and a leaf-clad maiden wearing antlers stepped out from between two treees and asked the party to join her. Reluctantly, they did so and followed her through a path in a dark and twisted woods until they found a small glen of greenery.

The woman introduced herself as the Huntress, a Fane of these lands and one that Strahd had subjugated to take her power. She has two sisters (Seeker and Weaver) and they each used to hold powerful portfolios until they were taken away and Strahd became "The Land". She explained that her main shrine is atop Yester Hill and can be re-consecrated, stealing Strahd of his powers, if cleansed with the help of the Sunsword, a powerful artefact that just so happens is located in the Werwolf Den. Reconsecrating the Huntress's shrine would break Strahd's explicit control of wolves and the forest, weaken the Heart of castle Ravenloft and remove an invisible force of nature around Strahd (a +4 AC bonus). Reconsecrating the shrines of the other fanes would remove other magical seals that strahd benefit, including that of weather and his ability to scry on anyone saying his name.

The werewolves themselves are descendants of people cursed by the Huntress herself as they betrayed her, many hundreds of years ago. This is unlike the wereravens, who carry lycanthropy as a blessing. Complicating matters further is that there used to be non-cursed werewolves but who suffers a curse and whom is blessed is unclear. She described Kiril's acts of child endangermen as abhorrent at least.

The party is told that this trip, this information exchange, will take all of the Huntress's remainig powers for centuries (except for the gifts granted to Bigwig, their Champion) but they are free to stay and rest. Time passes almost at no pace while they remain.

After a long rest, the party got out again and followed Zulieka up the side of the mountain to the bloodsport area and down into the mountain cave. Behind a curtain made of human skin was the resting place of Kiril. Zif scouted the cave carefully and found a room with both oodles of treasure as well as caged children but elected to not act right now. The party waited for a few hours behind the flesh curtains to get an opportunity to surprise and kill Kiril. Eventually he and his hunting party arrived and after some hub-hub they returned to their corner and started to relax and talk. The party, meanwhile, prepared a vicious attack...

Werewolves and Artifacts

(Session 48 - 2024-02-20 - [Day 17] all)

Zulieka parted the curtain for Garth to enunciate the final syllables of a holy spell, holding a surprised Kiril in place while the rest of the party pounced on the surprised pack. They quickly turned into their lupine forms and a vicious battle commenced, escalating to other nearby individuals within seconds. Though seconds was all they needed as Kiril was downed almost instantly by a barrage of attacks and most of Kiril's men were slaughtered before they had inflicted much damage in turn on the party. As suddenly as they attacked, the party retreated up the pathway to the top of the hillside and away from the werewolf Den.


(Session 49 - 2024-02-27 - [Day 17] all?)

Outside the party took some time to regroup and consider their options, including if the Sunsword really is there and how to get it. Eventually they went back to simply talk with the werewolves. The place was in turmoil and one of the calming voices was Skennis, an elderly and frail man. After some discussion they agreed to try to help retrieve the former co-leader Emil Toranescu, mate of Zulieka Toranescu from castle Ravenloft. The last remaining Strahd loyalist werewolf that had helped Kiril was then tricked into getting the Sunsword and to bring it to Strahd but Garth grew tired of talk and simply grabbed it.


(Session 50 - 2024-04-02 - [Day 17] all)

A brief staredown took place between the Strahd-loyal werewolf and Garth but eventually, seeing no overt support from the rest of the pack, he ran off towards Castle Ravenloft. The group stayed and spoke more with Skennis and tried to encourage him to take temporary leadership of the pack as well as swear that they will not touch the children other than to feed them (Garth gave them his rations to be sure). Skennis estimated that the uncertainty caused by the death of Kiril would take several days to calm down and that they probably won't see werewolves from this pack around for a little while.

The party then fairly easily tracked down the Strahd-loyal werewolf, exhausted him with the help of Bigwig's magical ability to fast travel and tried to speak to him. He seemed intimidated enough to speak but as he slipped Strahd's name in conversation, the party swiftly killed him and moved back towards Krezk. They decided to follow the words of the huntress and travel as fast as they could to Yester Hill and reconsecrate the Forest Fane's shrine there (The Huntress). Reconsecration is done by destroying the evil tree worshipped by the forest folk and using the Sunsword to somehow restore the Huntress's connection to the shrine and the forest.

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)



Links


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