Curse of Strahd: Week 25

Hi all,

Over the last few months I’ve been posting some warts-and-all email summaries of the Curse of Strahd campaign I ran in 2017. This is the first campaign I started sending summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that).

Some of the summaries may be dull, some may be amusing; some are written in present tense, some in past tense – these are unedited emails, so please forgive their somewhat chaotic nature and poor sentence structure/grammar.

If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them, but I warn you: I’m not Mathew Mercer and this is not Twitch.

Game on!

Steve 🙂

Week 25

Barovians unite! Amber week is here and the specials never end. Free amber to anyone who buys more than 2 tonnes of amber (that’s the special the builders of the Amber Temple got when they were looking for building materials. It’s the reason why there are no bugs in Barovia. Remember, this was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…oh, sorry, different game/genre.

So here we are, AGAIN, in the Amber Temple. Even the DM is getting sick of this place. This week’s highlights:

– Lots of treasure! Behold, all the treasure in Barovia! So this is where it’s been hiding. Shame it didn’t pop up when it was really needed (inflation in Barovian shops is ridiculous). Dan’s Halfling monk decided to sort through it all and picked up a few choice titbits. James’ Half Orc fighter/wizard decided to cart out most of the treasure on a Tenser’s Floating Disk to the front door, where he summoned an Azer to dig him a big hole to bury it all in. Still the problem of how to get all that treasure back home again. Also, there are no banks in Barovia, y’know.

– Lots of sarcophagus touching. Having not learned the error of their ways, various party members decided to keep on accepting dark gifts. James’ Fighter/Wizard decided he wanted a share of crazy abilities, and now has some evasion and protection from divination – but only for 10 days (and unfortunately now can no longer give anyone a straight answer…). He didn’t turn evil, though. Steve’s Elven Wizard can control two Hell Hounds and speak infernal…but only once until they die, and in the meantime sulphurous fumes emit from his pores whenever he speaks the evil language. Oh, and he’s now Chaotic Evil, which makes him just as evil as Strahd (I can smell a sub-plot coming on…). Dan’s monk decided “why not, I’m already evil”, and now also has the hell hound ability. It’s going to make future battles interesting… Kasimir/Kalashnikov/Krakatoa, the dusk elf NPC Wizard, got the dark gift he wanted, but didn’t turn evil. Unfortunately, he now looks like a corpse. Anxious to bring his lost sister back to life, he’s keen to get out of the temple. “Come on, come on, when are we leaving? I’m so bored. No, I’m not going to cast that spell you want.” So, no different, really.

– Battles galore! The party ground their way through several fights:

   * 6 Vampire Spawn never knew what hit them. There they were, just minding their own business, sleeping an endless sleep in their rotting wooden crates, when before they knew it – boof! All dead.

   * 3 poor old Barovian Witches copped it sweet when the party, who wanted to talk with them, were interrupted by James’ Half Orc, who decided he hadn’t had a chance to fight and promptly swept in and attacked! The witches cast some ineffectual spells and then were finished off.

  * 4 Nothics decided to teach Jame’s Fighter/Wizard a lesson in courtesy, dispatching him and knocking Dan’s Monk out. Damn that rotting gaze!!

  * As usual, everyone worked well to achieve lots of successful outcomes (sounds like a corporate team-building session). Mark’s Goliath Barbarian raging, William’s Dragonborn Paladin smashing (although his spirit horse was strangely ineffective. Or incorporeal. One of the two). Natasha’s Gnome Druid moonbeamed away, Dan’s monk karate-chopped and kicked and Steve’s Evoker Wizard sculpted lots of fireballs.

– A library full of empty books. “Lets throw them everywhere,” said the Paladin to the Barbarian (okay, they were looking for secret doors…).

– Meeting an old skeletal guy with red glowing eyes. He seemed to not really know where, or who he was. But the party has a feeling he might be useful (maybe as cannon fodder), so they are waiting for Natasha’s Druid to memorise her greater restoration spell in an attempt to fix his ailing memory…unfortunately, Natasha is leaving us to play saxophone in the uni band, so won’t be available to cast that spell. DOH!!

By the way, has anyone thought about the fact that becoming evil is like being cursed? Maybe there’s some sort of spell to fix that. Now what was that called again? Not that I’m saying it will work, but might be worth a try…

Next Week: Do the intrepid heroes leave this dang temple?

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