CoS 2
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
- General Dice Rules
- General DnD 5e house rules (all sorts)
- Barovian Sleep (nightmares may prevent some HP restoration; overcome with time)
Lingering Injuries (debuffs and scars when taking 50% max HP or being downed)
Session prep
Main Cast
Current level: 1.
| Player | Character | Sheet | Ini | HP | AC | Per | Hit | DC | Str | Dex | Con | Int | Wis | Cha | Prof | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birgitta | Várgas | Link | [ Link] | n/a | ||||||||||||
| Daniel | Torbjoern | Link | [ Link] | +4 | 12 | 15 | +3 | +6 | n/a | +0* | +4* | +2 | +0 | +1 | +0 | +2 |
| Darío | Terrence | [ Link] | [ Link] | +2 | 10 | 13 | +1 | +4 | 13 | -1 | +2 | +2 | +2 | +1* | +3* | +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 |
| Tata | Izzat | Link | [ Link] | n/a | ||||||||||||
| Yurii | Sol Invictus | Link | [ Link] | n/a |
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/111026535
Planning
- S1 2022-11-26 - as planned - 3/4 (face 2 face)
- Tobias unavailable
- S2 2022-12-05 - as planned - 4/4 (Discord)
- S3 2022-12-12 - as planned - 4/4 (Discord)
- S4 2023-01-23 - as planned - 4/4 (Discord)
Summary
Take me to Church
(continued)
The church showed lights on the inside but father Donovich was reluctant to open. The party eventually tired of his ramblings and let Jormund brake the door in. As they convinced him to perform the ceremony for Kolyan, a voice from under the floor boards echoed out saying "Father, please, I am starving". The party, focused on getting the ceremony done, ignored that and went out to the graveyard to the Burgomaster's crypt and laid Kolyan to rest.
Interrupted half way, a man with gray skin, pointed ears and a large scar across his forehead appeared. He wore some well worn armor and had swords on his hips, but the most prominent feature of the man was screams of horror and pain surrounded him. He seemed unaware of them but faint echoes could be heard quite far away from him. Ismark noted it's Rahadin, the right-hand man of Strahd von Sarovich, the man called "The Devil".
Ireena was furious and asked him to leave, even rushing up to hit him, accusing him or his master to cause their father's death. As she came up, he handed over a rose and a letter that she threw aside. He momentarily seemed to concentrate, causing Ireena to fall over and then he left with apologies if he may have interrupted. When she arose she had a trickle of blood coming out of her nose. Someone other than Ireena picked up the letter (to the right). A few moments after he left, a carriage was heard leaving from the front of the church.
The group turns on Donavich who asks the group to leave. They found numerous new graves despite no ceremonies and they eventually strongarm him into explaining the sounds of a voice from under the planks. His son, Doru, was one of the unfortunate that went up to oppose Strahd as they were inspired by the Mad Mage that came about a year ago. Doru was the only one to come back, and he had changed. He could mostly contain himself but after a while his hunger for blood overcame him and Donavich started feeding him off of himself whikle praying to the Morning Lord for salvation to his son. At some point Donavich had started bringing Doru members of the town itself as sustenance for Doru, but ensuring they didn't perish by the drain as that would have turned them also into these vampiric spawns.
(End of session; summer break)
(Session 15 - 2023-10-11 -Terrence* -Jormund) [Day 16]
- Terrence may return off and on
It's still before lunch time as father Donavich's horrendous deeds are uncovered and the party wants to let Ismark be the judge of it all. They decide to take the priest to be held at the burgomaster's mansion until they can call together the village for a town meeting and pass judgement. Then they turned to the issue at hand, the monster in the basement. Doru, Dovanich's son, was one of the "survivors" after the Mad Mage rallied young men from the village to take down Strahd a year ago and is now a vampire, somewhat weakend from not drinking any blood for a long time but still powerful and potentially deadly. Izzat just wanted to burn the whole church down but besides practical issues or if there are valuables (or value for the town) in the church there's also the risk of the fire above not really hurting the vampire, letting it escape back to Castle Ravenloft.
In the end they all decided to try sto surprise it and try to damage it into submission, putting a stake through its heart, hoping its coffin is in the basement so it all can be burned - hopefully without having to burn the church down.
Torbjoern carefully unlocked the chains with the keys given to them by Donavich, threw down a torch to be able to see in the dark and rushing down, pummeling Doru, who was hiding behind a pillar near a stone coffin. Whacked by everyone, including Sol's holy fire, Doru attemped to feed on the intruders but still got more and more hurt, became desperate and tried to flee with the party hot on his heels, trying to surround him.
(End of session)
(Session 16 - 2023-10-18 -Jormund +Vargas*) [Day 16]
Doru raced on the walls and cieling, the party hot on his heels, thrashing the remains of the young vampire, seemingly killing him. They quickly punched a piece of wood fromn a pew into his heart and then debated what to do, maybe burning the whole church down?
Taking a last look at things, the party noticed two chests in the basement. One very large and one near identical but very small. The big one was locked but not with a too complex of a lock and inside were a set of felt bags, each containing the stolen gear from each adventurer. Everyone was very happy and they continued to open the smaller chest - which turned out to be a hungry baby mimic!
With all their gear recovered, the baby mimic dead, and Doru's coffin identified, Izzat pushed for the entire church to be burned down. The timber was a little wet but it didn't take a whole lot of effort with the right gear and magic in order to fire up the entire building.
The party started going door to door to gather everyone for a town meeting.
(End of session)
Hangings & Heroes
(Session 17 - 2023-11-01 -Izzat) [Day 16]
A town meeting was held were Father donavich's crimes were laid bare. Reactions were mixed but the result was a decision to hang him.
A new, separate, adventurer showed up as well, looking to save children from werewolves. She introduiced herself as Vàrgas and she got introduced to much of the situation (stuck in these forgotten dark lands, a "Dark Lord" ruling over them, probably he stole their stuff and tormented them on the way).
After more discussion on what to do, and Ismark's insistance to get Ireena to safety in the neighbouring Vallaki, the party decided to stay the night, rest and leave early morning. Meanwhile, since it was only mid-day, Ismark asked for aid in clearing out the houses where families had gotten ill and turned into living dead. The work was slow and meticulous and took hours but was rewarding and helped the town immensely. A sense of safety (or at least less of a sense of danger) started to spread before nightfall.
The party joined up for a nice bean stew made by Ismark and Ireena.
(End of session.)
Chapter 3: On the Way to Prophecy
(Session 18 - 2023-11-16 -Izzat) [Day 17]
The group was awoken by bad dreams but also bacon. Some more harrowed than others, they all joined Ismark and Ireena in the kitchen to have some dry-ish bread with bacon and some lef-over stew accompanied by green tea. A small amount of beer was also made available to those so inclined.
Starting out early they all left but was briefly interrupted by Mad Mary who was wailing. They had heard her before but not seen her before now. She implored Ismark on her bare knees to find her daughter Gertruda which "disappeared yesterday". Ismark informed everyone that poor Gertruda had been missing for many weeks, at least six, and Mary had been asking every day about "missing since yesterday", implying Mary had been called "Mad Mary" since before Gertruda disappeared. He also said that, though horrible and sad, people and especially children disappear all the time and rarely reappear, even as a corpse.
Torbjoern promised Mary that they would look for Gertruda, and Mary said that Strahd had taken her (with no particular reasoning). Everyone nodded and Mary stopped screaming for once. The town was entirely empty except for one wooden hand-wagon coming past them. The old lady asked if they wanted to buy any pies and Ismark politely said "no thanks, Granny, hope you're doing well."
And that was that. Twenty minutes later they reached the Ivlis River and the bridge crossing it, observing a large murder of ravens flying straight across above them, disappearing to the south-east which they felt was odd but didn't want to venture into the woods to investigate.
Almost an hour later they came to the weirdly named "Ivlis Crossroads" (weirdly because it's nowhere near Ivlis River) and were met by a very old gallows and a small graveyard. A single raven came down to sit on Aelfric's shoulder but partly due to his poor condition he didn't even notice until Torbjoern saw it. Slightly perturbed he tried to talk to it, but it didn't seem to understand anything before sol talked about "eating" and "food", both words it immediately reacted to. As Sol fed the bird, it gingerly instead jumped over to his shoulder instead and seemed quite content.
They discussed the next part of the route a bit and weighed the options again. As they did, the raven on Sol's shoulder looked around and took off in the Nort-West direction (shorter but potentially more dangerous), the direction they originally had planned to go.
As the party left, Torbjoern had chills going up his spine and as he turned around, the earlier empty noose on the gallows now had a dead body hanging in it. The body swayed in the wind and as it turned towards him, it started staring at Torbjoern, revealing its face to be a dead version face of Torbjoern! It then slowly started raising its arm to lift him out of the noose. After a few seconds of hectic talk, the party decided to run away rather than risking a dangerous battle, especially considering their physical state. After running a short while and the gallows no longer visible through the mist, it was clear the monstrosity wasn't able to keep up so they slowed to a more comfortable pace. After a little while, Sol's raven also returned.
Almost another hour later they reached the Vistani camp and were surprisingly warmly greeted. People offered drinks and food and asked about where they were from and the party also asked them if they know Stanimir, Arrigal and the Vistani that the original party had encountered. Among tidbits, Stanimir is an "Elder" but that doesn't mean authority, just that he's a wise man (or guy) and if he did coerce anyone in to Barovia it may have been because he was forced.
A woman called Eliza had a magpie and had even more questions (and a funny accidental exchange when she asked if Sol was a mage but he more or less said "just because I have a raven doesn't mean I am a mage - after the raven had left) but primarily a request to take 25 of her gold to buy her niece Arabelle a toy from Blinsky's Toys in Vallaki and deliver it to her father Luvash in the slightly larger Vistani camp there.
Curious, Torbjoern headed up to the "leader's tent" and was ushered in by one Madam Eva who clearly worked as a fortune-teller and after some talk offered to and did a reading of the party's destiny. After having received it the party convened and discussed it's meaning with one takeaway being that Ireena may be the key to a lot. Sol was then asked in alone.
It's now about 10:30.
(End of session.)
Reading:
Knowledge
- "This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy."
- The 7 of Stars — The Illusionist
- "A man is not what he seems. He comes here in a carnival wagon. Therein lies what you seek."
Force for Good and Protection
- "This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope."
- The 7 of Coins — The Thief
- "What you seek lies at the crossroads of life and death, among the buried dead."
A Weapon of Vengeance
- "This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight."
- The 3 of Stars — The Enchanter
- "I see a kneeling woman - a rose of great beauty plucked too soon. The master of the marsh knows of whom I speak."
The Destined Ally
- "This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness."
- The Raven
- "Find the leader of the feathered ones who live among the vines. Though old, he has one more fight left in him."
A Final Battle
- "Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him!"
- The Innocent
- "He dwells with the one whose blood sealed his doom, a brother of light snuffed out too soon."
Links