Star Trek: The Next Generation

Engage!

Continued with The Next Generation. A lot better. It actually still look futuristic in the machines and all that if we just go at the technical bits. Although, first season is a bit wonky. And sad to think I assume it's due to the influence of Gene Roddenberry since as he apparently got sicker until his death after season four the series got better and better... well, season 7 has bits here and there one could argue isn't that good, but I assume that maybe have more to do with strained attention for the creative team as they made Deep Space 9 at the same time. 

So now we follow Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship U.S.S. Enterprise. There's first officer William T. Riker, chief engineer Geordie La Forge, lieutenant Data the android, Councelor Deanna Troi the Betezed empath, dr Beverly Crusher with her son Wesley Crusher, Mr Worf the first Klingon officer. Or that is pretty much the main cast of the whole show, in fact season 1 had Tasha Yar as security officer until she died before the end of the season and her position was filled with Worf. Which was played by Denise Cosby that was in the music video of No Stranger to Love by Black Sabbath. Of course she came back in later seasons, as a parallel universe, and then as a Romulan daughter. There's Klingons, Romulans and Vulcans from the original series, but here we are introduced to Cardassians, Bajorans and the Borg. 

Compared to the first series, from the second season and on there was episodes I couldn't pull my eyes from since they engrossed me so. Episodes like the Offspring when Delta builds a child that tragically dies at the end, the horror movie feel from that episode in the 7th season, the Klingon civil war, an alien race that only speaks in references (which can't really work in star travels since how will the language be able to be understood by all members of the race if one ship adopts one reference and another a second? Still, interesting concept) and so many more. Stories centres on Worf and his Klingon heritage, Data discovering what it means to be human, La Forge tinkering with the Enterprise and on and on with missions that explore this futuristic world or concepts beyond what the original managed. Of course, sometimes it doesn't work like the episode the Game where Riker after a vacation on the pleasure planet Risa brings back a game that addicts the whole crew and almost topples the whole Federation. Throwing rings doesn't feel that enticing if I'm gonna be honest. 

Still holds up in most areas. Remember seeing it on channel 4 as a kid, but I didn't like it. First episode I recall was the one with Picards double that he shoots at the end. Too much talking over all. I didn't get into it until the show was shown on channel 6 when I was at University. Of course at that time I had already seen 4 or so seasons of Voyager and Enterprise and most Star Trek-movies so I was more into it.... as well getting references and understanding the concepts they discussed. Now it's also fun to notice all the cameos. You got Mick Fleetwood, Bob Kelso from Scrubs, Agent 3 and Dr. Sinclair from The Journeyman Project-game series. Also the reason I started watching this show after playing the second game. And the music, first 4 seasons scored by Ron Jones, the composer for the original DuckTales, can't be better than that.

Star Trek: The Original Series

 

To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before!

Been watching the Star Trek-series on Netflix to catch up on my gaps in the Sci-Fi pantheon. Only watched one of the original series episodes before when it was on TV as a kid, and it was the episode Who Cries for Adonis? about a manifestation of the ancient greek gods that apparently are aliens. I watched Stargate SG1 when I was at university so I'm not new to that idea. So now I've seen the whole original series... and it hasn't aged that well. Interesting concept, but just the start up jingle of the Star Trek theme makes me wonder what this is. And I can't argue that there is some interesting things like Kirk and Spock dressing up as Nazi after a Federation observer gone rouge and turned a whole world into Nazi-Germany. Now, it was the 60's so it's a bit naive, but I wonder why an historian from earth gotta emulate the third reich in all its regalia? Now, also, it's not the Nazi's that made the early success of Germany in the second world war possible, but the structure of the German Wehrmacht.

I found that the humancentric episodes are a bit similar with gangster and roman legions or time traveling to the 1920's that they blend together in my mind. And then we have the technology. It might have been looking like the future in the 60's but it doesn't hold up with push-buttons all over. Also, hardly any emotional punch in any episode. Maybe the one where Kirk is left behind with amnesia and is seen as a god by the natives and is married with one for 2-3 months before she is killed by the natives as he seemed unable to stop a storm that was caused by an asteroid that the Enterprise had to stop. Maybe.

In truth, there is hardly anything worth watching here. The Khan episode so you get the build up to Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan as an exception, but even then I watched the movies during a Star Trek marathon as a kid and I got by fine. And that also screwed me over since I couldn't tell who was who since the colours of the uniforms don't match the Next Generation making Kirk's choice of a... is it green or yellow, look like an engineer.. Well, Spock looks like Spock in any uniform he wears. Then we have Scotty who is clean shaven while in the movies clearly has a mustasch so I can distinguish him from all the others in the movies. So in conclusion, watch the movies instead. Klingons look like Klingons, the uniforms looks better (no mini skirt as I recall) and clearly better stories with emotional punches... in some of them.

Phantasmagoria

Gregorian chanting is the soundtrack of the game

ScummVM is the nostalgia balm for all my old point and click adventure games, and now we even can play the FMV games. And why not to start with one of the more infamous FMV-games Sierra put out? Phantasmagoria, caused such an uproar at release due to the gore and rape-scene within it that religious groups asked for a boycott, which lead to the game being one of the best-selling games that year... or maybe overall for Sierra. Funny how that works. And I can kinda see it cause it's really grotesque, but it is quite clear this is an 18+ game, just look at the box art, beheaded woman with an M for mature plastered right there. On the other hand by todays standards it's really tame in comparison.

So basic story is that Adrienne Delany, writer, together with her husband photographer Don Gordon has bought a house that used to belong to the illusionist Zoltan Carnovach. While looking around Adrienne by accident released a demon from a locked box in a walled in chapel. The demon possesses her husband that becomes more violent and aggressive. Meanwhile Adrienne begin to notice unnatural phenomenas and having strange dreams. She begin to see things like ectoplasm in the nursery and visions through the different mirrors in the mansion. So during the course of the game you first piece together that Zoltan had been possessed by a demon and how it effects him as he kills his wives, one by one in very grotesque detail. The first gets a gardening shovel shoved into her mouth and then stuffed with dirt and thereafter her body is hidden in a pot. The second one get her neck snapped with a torture device, the third got stuffed with animal entrails until she suffocates, the fourth a drunkard gets her head shoved into a bottle of wine and the body gets stuffed in a wine casket. Gruesome.

Meanwhile Don is getting aggressive and starts by killing their cat, and in the last chapter while running around the mansion you can find the cadavers of several of the supporting characters as Don have been busy in preparation for killing Adrienne. You kill Don and then do a ritual at an underground study where you send the demon back into hell or wherever it came from. Adrienne escapes and a girl power song turns up during the credits. I never finished this as a kid, me and my best friend from school played from cd 1 to cd 6, but we stepped out after the ending scene when Don bash the head in of Mike the telephone guy.

So what do I think of it now? It's a slow game, to get the most out of it you gotta play the long game and go through a routine and click everything at every chapter. That way you can discover small changes to things like an absinth bottle that slowly gets more empty as time goes or a cigarette case that loses one of the cigarette between a chapter or the painting that's get more filled out until it shows the true face of the demon. And then of course the horrible murder scenes as shown in different mirrors at different chapters. Music enhances it as well so when you hear the Gregorian chanting you know it's about to get bloody. Acting is cheesy at times and really goes over the deep end at the last chapter. In the right mood it works all right, but it's maybe too slow for its best. Mostly the quietness. Other reviewers commented on it and I have to agree, since Adrienne very seldom inner monolog the player don't know what she thinks or get hints on what to do. Cause its hard to understand the logic that my hammer or crowbar isn't enough to break through the walled in chapel in chapter 1, but the secret letter opener is what you need. This of course is the puzzle that stopped my dad from continuing the game (which isn't a problem here since you can choose to start from any of the seven chapters). If you wanna know the solution its that a cat statue you picked up you can actually enlarge and find a button on the back. Some solution, that they only use for this puzzle which feels like a bit of waste. Of course other games used it much more often. They have an inbuilt hint system, but it's not always that good. For example in chapter 2 I though I had done everything and was looking for Don to give some drain cleaners, but I couldn't find him and all the hint system said was find Don to give him the drain cleaners. Turns out that I had to reenter the antique shop in order to get some more information and from there I could continue to find Don.

So it was a bit of a mess there. Past that no problem really, until the game crashed going into chapter 6 by missing some file for some reason so had to make a new save and start from chapter 6 directly. For a one time playthrough it can be fun if you like horror. It could have been a bit better though. For example Don goes crazy from chapter 1 to chapter 2 and constantly be aggressive from that point on. Part of me seem it a bit unrealistic, maybe he should have a longer more torn reaction to his behaviour as the demon take over his mind with the culmination in chapter 6 when he whacks Mike and then chapter 7 starts. Another problem is that in chapter 7 if you know what you do you can pick up necessary items before triggering the event that puts the game in "running from the crazy slasher"-mode, and it takes away a lot of the horror if you do. Really, in my playthrough only Mike and Don was killed and you hadn't found the bodies of the vagrants. Of course, it helps my squeamish heart as the games put it.

The Journeyman Project 2: Buried In Time

 

Caught Somewhere In Time!

Finally the Journeyman Project 2: Buried In Time have been added to ScummVM and I at last can understand the whole trilogy. I played the other two games in the series back in... 2015? God dammit, that was a long time ago. I was gonna try the Sierra FMV-games like Phantasmagoria and The Beast Within, but some bugs stopped me from that so I tried this instead. My musings over Pegasus Prime you can find here and Legacy of Time you can find here and here. Story begins sometime after the events of the first game and Gage Blackwoods future self from 10 years forward appears in what the game calls a jumpsuit. He puts the present Gage in the suit and cloaks it while Agent 8 appears and apprehends him for breaking his house arrest for being put on trail for stealing historical artefacts and causing time ripples on his mission. But he got the idea that he will be constantly watched so he gets a jumpsuit from chief engineer Daughton (not the same actor from Legacy of Time) and gives it to the present-Gage that no one will check on. So the hunt goes to four different time periods. Chichen Itza in South America, an english castle in Normandy, Leonardo Da Vinci's workshop in Italy and a space station in the 23d century. Already better locals with both future and actual historical places.

Now, stupid me chose to play in Adventure mode which is harder with more puzzle, while I might have had more enjoyment out of the walkthrough mode, but hey, I solved the other two games so why wouldn't I be good at this as well? Well, maybe cause there is a lot of busy work and repeating actions to some of the puzzles. And you don't get Arthur until you solved parts of the space station, while under a timer due to no air as it is derelict. And that was the first problem. I knew I could find Arthur at the space station, but I end up in space without propulsion equipment, so back to Gage home, checked the other areas, but found a couple of items, but not much. Back in the home began checking even more, guess what? I missed a certain area where you could order things by punching in numbers... which you get from commercials from the TV when you watched the news. Every time you wanted them, and the cheese thing you need for the space station you gotta get for every visit, since it's one use only. And you gotta punch in the code every time. Why not just let me push it and then have it as a short hand in the menu from the replicator? Or maybe not have a one use item? Or I could have been good enough to just use one, but even the walkthroughs suggest jumping back to the beginning, forcing you to get another. 

So I used a couple of walkthroughs to get through the game. Doesn't help that I find the layout hard to navigate. Many areas looked the same, and, while innovative, things like the space station makes you walk in several directs since you are in zero gravity so it's walking on ceiling and all that. And I got lost in Da Vinci's workshop with more hidden ways around the courtyard. Another irritating thing is that you constantly have to switch between items and microchips that powers your suit with cloaking, translation or Arthur so that you can get the hints and such. Or even the damn menu for saving and restoring the game (thankfully ctrl+S works, but then you have to reset the items for use). So a bit cumbersome, and I should probably had used a numerical pad since that is easier than using the mouse pad. So the games have some issues I don't like. But the story is interesting. Finding hints of the person and trying to figure out who is the real culprit. I got that it had something to do with the art sale for the Louvre since it's fairly simple to see that the items corresponds with the time zones. And fairly early you get foot prints from a jump suit that leads you to an id that incriminates Agent 3, but then I knew that from the third game. That and I got a glimpse of the 3 on her suit in the castle.

Maybe should have been some internal logic puzzle that it was her other than when I found the last clue it was just a recording of her. And I gotta say I liked the final Chichen Itza as well since it was the precursor for the Shangri-La in Legacy of Time, but with mayan mythology instead of Buddha traditions. Well, captured by Agent 3 Arthur sacrifices himself to create a virus that sends him and Agent 3 into the temporal vortex. Meanwhile after regained freedom the news break that the Krynn ambassador has left the talks about time travels future after changing their stands from allowing everyone their own technology to wanting its dismantling. With that you get a code to their base where you recapture the items with the blueprints of the time travel technology. Agent 3 disclosed that she did it after being sent to the early 20th century observing mankinds atrocities like Auswitz, Hiroshima and so on, observing mankinds bloody past and feeling that only a couple of hundred of years can't undo our constant bloodlust. So she acted like the scientist who gave Soviet Russia the secret of the nuclear bomb since they also believed that if more had it it could uphold the terror balance. That was a bit naive of her we learn as when we get the items back and right before escaping the ambassador shows up and tells that the Krynn will use it to correct their forefathers mistake in not travel to the stars and become the first sentient space race. And they also began acting for abolishing time travel which tells me that they didn't intend to let any other race get the power as they promised Agent 3. You escape, future Gage is released and is awarded another medal while present-Gage is mindwiped and sent back. And the story continues in the third game.

As stated, it has some problems for me. Like the first game the jumps points are the same so you gotta redo puzzle after puzzle and in the game you are supposed too since you get clues you need to get later. But losing items and retrieving them to get back to that point is just tedious. But it's an interesting world, and Arthur heightens the whole experience. Not only do you actually learn stuff, but the references can be rather funny. But you misses him in several chunks of the game which leaves everything to your own grey cells, and I don't know if I get smarter or more stupid with age. Checking out the Walkthrough version, and guess what? No need for getting items through the replicator, no timer in the space station. But the puzzle is gone getting Arthur and basically most problems, might be boring in the long run. Now that this game is on ScummVM one can hope that in another 6 years we can get the third game as well so one can play it as intended.

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (SNES)

Should have gone with Lufia 0.

Another German game cart that I had to patch so I could read the damn thing. Also another of the Clan of the Grey Wolfs reviews. I actually thought I had got Lufia I: Fortress of Doom since the cartridge just says Lufia, but when I checked it out Lufia I was never released in Europe. Which is sad, but at least doesn't confuse people since Lufia II is a prequel to I that ends where Lufia I starts. Why make it easy?

So the game follows Maxim, a boy travelling the world for adventure. Apparently he is a really strong human and he gathers a party of other strong individuals to stop the Sinistrals, four beings of evil that threatens destruction on the world due to the dual blades started ringing. One thing that the German original translation probably gets more correct than the english is that the Dual Blades actual name is Lufia... it's gotta be, otherwise the name has no purpose in the story, or maybe it's something in Lufia 1 cause the game ends with a to be continue after some dialog from someone named Lufia.

In reality the story is kinda bland and the dialog is really bad. It's very simplistic. The graphics on the other hand is really good, the intro sequence especially. That was my first hint that this might not be the first game since it looked too good. Music is also bland, except the sinistrals theme, it rules. Although I will probably remember the boss and battle themes for a while. Gameplay beyond the normal RPG is that you also have overworld items that work like Zelda-games for some puzzle solving, which is rather fun, but I found certain puzzles a bit of a stretch, but maybe I'm just impatient as an adult.

As noticed, I probably don't have much to say about it. It's just go to the next town, find the right person that opens up the nearest dungeon and after that return to the town to open up the road to the next town and so it goes on. Very walled in. I miss a map as well when you finally get a boat since it's rather easy getting lost on the high seas. I also think the language patch screwed with some of the graphics since the credit crawls was all white lines and name of equipments in the equipment screen would get strange. Beside the main quest you could also gather 8 dragon eggs for the dragon, which I didn't do since it would unlock a super boss that I don't really would like to fight. Then we had the ancient cave. A randomly generated 99 level cave where you start from level 1 and has to fight your way down to level 99. Now with save stats you take the pressure away and thank god for that since the last 20 levels are horrible with the damn MP stealing attacks or insta kill spells. 

It has it's charm, but I don't find it that interesting. Maybe not worth the 100 $ or € I paid for this.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

 

Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law!

So back in 2019 I got to play through Ys VIII during my summer break, and it was a perfect summer vacation game with people stranded on an island with some mysteries thrown in as they try to escape. And then Ys IX was announced and finally in 2021 came to Switch. And perfectly for my summer vacation that year so it was another perfect match. So it starts with Adol escaping from the prison in the city of Balduq, but while escaping he is stopped by this mysterious woman with artificial limbs that shots him with a gun that curses him into becoming the Crimson King, a Monstrum cursed to fight the embodiment of negative called the Lumes to cleanse the city so that not even more monsters are created. After using his new powers to end up in a waterway we flash back to 10 days before as Adol and Dogi "the Wallcrusher" arrives at Balduq and Adol promptly is arrested by the Romun soldiers and Hieroglyphic Knights for his previous adventures that have set the Romun Empire to investigate him. So at the prison Adol helps this old man against another prisoner and as thanks he gives you a fork that allows you to escape the prison after being investigated by the female inquisitor and who wants to move you to Romn, so that sparks the need to escape, and now we are back in the present with Adol back in the town. 

So you find this abandoned house and find Dogi that been laying low while Adol was in prison. Apparently Balduq was the capital of Gllia (which should be Gaul, which makes Balduq Paris or Lutetia if my knowledge of Asterix comics doesn't betray me) that was conquered by the Romun empire 8 years ago. Now, 6 months ago 5 monstrums appeared that started causing havoc, with one being the White cat that started stealing from the rich and giving to the poor Robin Hood style while the Feral Hawk picked fights with soldiers or strong people overall. This causes the people to fear them and the Romun Garrison and Hieroglyphic Knights to try to arrest them. So now Adol joins them and starts to unravel who they really are, cause apparently none of the others tried to even learn who the others where during these 6 months. First up is white cat that apparently is the adoptive daughter of the Pendleton family that are the richest family in Gllia that was one of the first to start trading with the Romuns, which make the Gllians hate them for betraying the country pretty much. Which the patriarch of the family don't care about. The company before all else and all potential competition is bought up... I get the sense it's some critique of the monopoly situation in an unregulated capitalistic market, especially when the White Cat after getting caught by Adol renounced her stealing ways and leave the family and start her own florist shop in the poor district. Meanwhile the older sister as thanks and seeing through the whole Monstrum facade gives you enough capital to establish a tavern in the abandoned house as a base of operations for Adol and Dogi.

The gameplay rounds is find a Monstrum, use its abilities to get into the prison and release some prisoners. The curse limits you to certain areas until you gathered enough crystals to open a portal to the Grimwald Nox that summons all Monstrums to one of two different fights, either a siege stage like the one in VIII or to destroy all crystals. Doing so open a new area and get you an entrance to the prison. First rescue is Park, the old man that helped you escape and he helps you out with information and rescue other prisoners. And after clearing that we jump back into the prison and... Adol??? Yes, apparently Adol is still in the prison where he goes around doing tasks for the corrupt soldiers that take missions from outside people, like the Monstrums. Helping you is Marius and Xavier, Xavier being a talking Roo at that. You don't level up and have to survive the traps in the prison to try to escape and find out whats going on. Prison Adol learns that the female inquisitor is actually a high ranking officer in the paranormal division that have been looking into Adol's activities, and later in the game he and Marius observe as the knight commander arrests the Romun commander for questioning his arrest of innocent people.

So that is the big mystery of the game, which is the true Adol and what happened here? Well, you find out that all the other Monstrums are adoptive children and that the leader of the Hieroglyphic knights are in league with an alchemist that have been alive for 500 years creating Homunculi's (lucky I had watched both Fullmetal Alchemist-series on Netflix to get the gist of that) of his comrades in the 100 years war between Britai and Gllia (meaning the 100 year war between England and France), Saint Rosvita and her champions. Saint Rosvita is pretty much Joan D'Arc. Apparently the war was a battle between the Nors gods Loki and Grimnir (Odin the Allfather pretty much) and the battle is Ragnarok that killed off all the gods and demigods that used to fight the Lemures in the Grimwald Nox. To compensate this loss the Alchemist made Homunculi's of his friends to fight in the Nox to avoid the destruction of the world. So that has been going on for 500 years, but some 15 years he disappeared which forced Apprilis, the clone of Rosvita, to give away the latest batch of Homunculi since she couldn't take care of them as well as fight the Lemures. So what has he been doing for these 15 years? He was busy creating the greatest homunculi to serve in the Nox and with that release the others from the curse of the Grimwald Nox. A homunculi based on Adol, the greatest adventurer of them all. So the Crimson King Adol is the homunculi and as he finds out and finds the imprisoned Adol that was betrayed by Marius that also was a homunculi (of the current Romun emperor no less) that was controlled by the knight's leader. Crimson King and the knight fight, and surprise, the knight is also a homunculi since he died in the invasion 8 years ago. He didn't know this and fought on to restore Gllia's independence and was in on the plan to create an homunculi army to match the legions of Romn. But the Crimson King malfunctions as well due to being insta-created so the Monstrum transfers his soul and powers into the real Adol so that they could fight angel Adol that have gone extermination mode on humanity since he correctly deduces that if the lemures is created by humans hate, greed, fear and what not, you gotta destroy the source, the whole city of Balduq and probably the whole world. And he killed the alchemist who tried to self-destruct him when he realised it was going out of hand. You defeat him and Adol is in a dream space where souls from Adols past arrives t help him destroy the Nox forever and release the Monstrum from their curse, but maybe doom the world int he future, but since we can't accept status quo Adol destroys the Nox and then leaves Balduq. With Romun legions chasing after you. 

So... it was a fun game. It was rather fun running around the city, managing the tavern and all that. But I would say VIII is actually better. Tighter group of people, more fun locals since it got rather boring looking at the same catacombs of the prison and the music was a bit better since it at least had some more songs that I remember. It could also be that this game calls back to the other games in the series a bit more without explaining who they are, and the emotional scene of the souls coming to aid Adol is a bit missed when you don't know who they are. I mean, VIII had the death of the captain. The closest was the death of Aprilis, but she shows up later as the clones are revealed. It was fine for what it was, but I would love Ys 3-7 so I can get the deal. Or Ys X.

A DnD Tale: Curse of Strahd - Dinner with a Vampire

Welcome to my Dinner!

The story continues where we ended, on the way to castle Ravenloft for dinner with the count. Arriving in the carriage to the courtyard they where sent in to the dining room by Rahadin, the elf being the second in command pretty much of the castle. It isn't dinner time, but they meet the count, Strahd IX, for some brunch and an invitation for the dinner at 18:00. They eat and are brought up to the guest room where they meet Escher, a dandy. While in the room they find a hidden escape route in the closet. They send Cygnus to the study in order to look if he can find any books that will help them, Katrina gets to sleep since she need the fireball spells and the other climbs the trap door and finds some witches that block their path, and then a room with cats that tell them to go back,

So they decide to go out the front door with Escher away showing Cygnus the study. They climb the tower and goes to the other tower and finds a crystal heart pulsating, forcing them to crawl to avoid getting knocked down. They go to the top and down to the lower areas and find the study... with Cygnus and Escher as well as the count going through the different books, talking about the counts family all the way back from the King and Queen of Barovia and down to the current count. So basically I lured them into thinking that the count is actually the ninth count Strahd. They begin suspecting the accountant since he is the only one that seems to like having control of the treasures in the castle. But it begins to be time for dinner so they head back to the guest room where their clothes have been cleaned and they are taken down to the dinner hall again.

During the dinner they ask why they are here and the count divulges that he have had a burglary and someone have stolen some artefacts from him. And apparently they came from the mayors house through a portal. Oops! And then they begin talking about Gertruda, the girl they have been looking for from the start. And who would know, the girl is here and brought into the dinner room by Rahadin. Apparently she ran away from her mother and Strahd invited her in. And then he casually Strahd mentions that he actually never invited Imeral or Hope to Barovia since someone stole the letter for the intended person. And here the mask falls and his eyes turn red and his teeth sharpens and he began stroking Gertruda's hair as he explains that he intends to turn her into a vampire at midnight during the full moon. As Cygnus tries to take Gertruda away from Strahd both disappear in smoke. Panicked they decide they have to destroy the heart since it must be something evil. They rush up the stair... or crawl to the top and begins attack the heart. As they do it ten flying halberds emerges from the walls and begins attacking them. Godfrey, the revenant has a bit of problem since he with the first attack with his sword usually does decent damage, and then I rolled a 1 and he drops his sword... twice in a row. One halberd also gets a 1 and splinters itself against the heart as it misses its intended target. So in three rounds they pretty much cleaned up the halberds and destroyed the heart, but not until Cygnus rolls a 1 on the Dex saving throw and rolls down the stairs.

So, right when they think they won 4 vampire spawns appear from the roof, which they destroy rather fast. Two is burnt by fire and one is destroyed with the sun sword Hope have been carrying. One rolled a 1 and fell down the stairs as well, so that one they where able to gang up on. And that was the end of that season. By forcing a time limit for a vampire transformation I actually have been able to make them act instead of wait and see. Shall be interesting to see where I place the actual ritual. Rather fun to trick them with the whole "is the count really that Strahd?" and they really doubted it. But next session, when ever that is will probably be the last since fights usually goes off rather fast. So then we can finally end this 4 year long campaign and maybe start another one.