Curse of Strahd: Week 26-27

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 sent 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 26

Things are kicking into overdrive! A bit more fighting in the Amber Temple, but the best thing to come out of it was a copy of the architectural plans for Strahd’s castle, Ravenloft! Now the party could plan the plan of their attack! Or just plan their attack. Either way.

Unfortunately, as the party exited the temple they were surrounded by magic mists (“Are these Barovian mists or homebrew mists?” joked Mark) and transported to a demonic plane! There they battled two Barlgura demons guarding the mystical portal, pinched some blue magic crystals from the pillars around the portal which translated the Abyssal language, pounded on loads of lowly Dretches and faced off against two Hezrou by a river of lava. But not before James’ Half Orc Fighter/Wizard sent his summoned elemental Azer for a bath in an acid lake (ouch!).

The party had just been yelled at by a depressed and irritable Glabrezu, who was searching for a mate and the only female in the area wanted nothing to do with him. If the party could persuade her to join him he would help them get out of there. Unfortunately, she was at the top of the 200 foot canyon walls and had a liking for diamonds (they are a girl’s best friend, after all…).

Dan’s Halfling Monk “done good” with lots of stunning and pushing monsters into lava, Steve’s Elvish Wizard was the master of magic missiles, Mark’s Goliath Barbarian missed his Paladin Compadre (who was in Sydney filming sports for work) and kicked ass as a result, and Kasimir the NPC Wizard continued to complain, wanting to get to Castle Ravenloft so he could bring his sister back from the dead toot suite.

Meanwhile, James’ Fighter/Wizard just realised Steve’s wizard is EVIL (Steve was trying to make a deal with a demon) and confronted him. In the sulphurous fumes of the Demon Canyon, there’s more fun to be had then you can shake a stick at. Or a great axe, in this case.

Until next week, intrepid adventurers!

Week 27

Taking a break from sunny Barovia, our intrepid party-goers holidayed in the sunny Abyss, which was just a misty and dreary as Barovia. No accounting for taste. 

Jame’s Half Orc Fighter/Wizard, having learned that Steve’s wizard was Chaotic Evil, took offense and decided to shadow the wizard for the rest of the game, just in case he tried something, well…evil. Meanwhile, Dan’s evil Halfling Monk acted innocent.

After negotiating with Norbert the Glabrezu, the party decided to recover some diamonds from a box canyon. The noise brought along 3 Hezrou and a lovely battle ensued, with Mark’s Goliath Barbarian stealing James’ Fighter/Wizard’s thunder by stealing his kill. DOH! The party copped a licking so decided to long rest in Norbert’s cave, where Mark’s Barbarian carved a lovely picture of the Glabrezu (and later, his prospective partner) for everyone to admire. Suitably recovered (Norbert was a nice demon – just goes to show, some demons will do anything for love), the party decided to cross the lava river and canyon using flight cast by Kasimir, the Dusk Elf NPC Wizard who resembled a zombie corpse.

They encountered 3 Chasme while flying, and it was almost a TPK if not for some amazing Kung Fu from Dan’s Halfling Monk while spider climbing halfway up the cliff face and some welcome back up from Norbert. James’ Fighter/Wizard decided to ignore his party’s dying screams and confront Norbert’s prospective better half, whom he insulted at length and then wondered why his Persuasion check failed. Dan’s Monk, for whom talking is not a strong point, saved the day, giving the Glabrezu female a gift of diamonds and some persuasive lovey-dovey words to get her into Norbert’s (many) waiting arms.  

It was a sobering encounter for the party, who long rested and then went with Norbert to the cavern over the river, where another portal waited. The big battle between the party, with Norbert the Glabrezu in support, against the Nalfashnee guardian and 2 Balgura demons went well, with the party getting back to Barovia through the portal and appearing on the other side of the magic gate house at Tsolenka Pass.

Next Week: Into Castle Ravenloft…

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