The final confrontation is upon our heroes. From the top of the largest tower they descend to the catacombs once more, guided by Sergei's Sunsword. They deduce that Strahd has retired to his tomb and they follow him. And as they get closer to the portculis blocking their path, Toby gets transported away and replaced by a wraith they kill instantly. They use a dispel magic to unblock the invisible teleporters pad then they realise they can just use the teleporter brazier to enter Strahd's tomb. Toby's still gone and missing. So they teleports right in to the lion's den and begin the fight of their lives.
It begins bad as Echer attacks and destroy Pidlewick II, here on called Fu (don't ask me why, my sister named him). But then the table turns. Immeral cast wall of flame from a scroll blocking Strahds vampiric brides in their alcoves, burning every turn. Katrina uses Banishment on Escher and sends him to another plane of existence. Cygnus meanwhile uses the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind to trap the vampires, succeeding on two of the brides and Strahd, but with one Legendary Resistance he just shakes it off. Meanwhile he summons with the power of Ravenloft a Shadow from Hope's shadow. Don't last long since Rahadin tries to psychic damage everyone and succeeds in hurting our heroes, but destroying the Shadow. At least he got away with two poison darts against Katrina, which hits, but she is able to keep her concentration and keep Escher banished.
Strahd then summons 5 swarms of bats that will appear 1 turn from now. Meanwhile Toby have finally arrived by lifting the portculis and entering the tomb. As he was transported to another tomb where he had to push open a casket and then break free and run back to where he was. Can't do much this round, but he's here. Immeral starts attacking Rahadin and lays a long row of attacks on him (which we learned afterward was not allowed with the rules, so we shall try to remember that for next time). Sir Godfrey meanwhile who used his first turn to lay magic weapon on his sword now could use two attacks on Rahadin. Katrina tried to use a scorching ray, but missed all three. Hope begins sneak attack Strahd after using the first round to shine light from the sunsword. Cygnus starts using Divine Smite dealing 5d8 on each attack. And here it's pretty much over. Two of the Brides burns to death behind the wall of flame as they are paralyzed. The last one is able to escape, very badly burnt I might add by spider walk over the wall since it only goes 20 feet above ground when the ceiling is 30 feet above ground (I felt really smart when I recalled that tidbit so that they at least could escape, not as smart when I probably should have used the run action so she could have left the burning flame one turn earlier).
After that, the radiation from the sunsword kills Strahd that turns him into mist and goes in to his coffin. Then Immeral spears Rahadin, Cygnus destroys the last bride and the others systematically destroys the bats and shadows that have been summoned. Getruda lies on the coffin so they pick her up and hand her to Geofrey as the others open it. There lies Strahd, resting. They put a stake through the heart and he finally dies (for now, but the players doesn't know that) and turns to dust, leaving behind a part of a rod. They take that and since it's about midnight stays the night in the sleeping quarters. The next day on the overlook they see the sun finally break through the clouds, bring peace to the valley. The spirits of Sergei and Irena appears and thanks them for their help as they walk away into the sky. A month passes and they set up shop in Ravenloft as headquarters. The corrupt politicians are ousted and the foundations of their emporium are being laid. I guess I will have to speculate their treasures are being used to restoring the castle and pay all the employees. And so, the final step is trying to get customers to the domain or trade routes to get the flour out.
Luckily a vistani wagon appears that want's them to come with them to Madam Eve. As they pass through the gates of Barovia they enter the mist and appears in a large chamber where Madam Eve sits at a table near a corridor. As they begin to talk to her she appears to get younger (well, in her 50's at least) and look closer to her half-brother Stradh. She lets them in to meet her master. Passing through the corridor they enter another chamber, a circled room where for portals with beams in the colours red, blue, yellow and green converging on a golden triangle with an elvish looking old man meditating inside. From his forehead the four beams emerge again flowing into a black hole in front of him. With telepathy he welcomes them to the Temple of Elemental Evil where he guards the Nameless One, and that they have found the first part of the rod of seven parts which is needed to stop the Spider-Demon. The Master have localised the other parts in other planes of existence, opening 6 portals for them to choose from. The planes being the different adventure books I have that would be fun to play. Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Out of the Abyss, Tomb of Annihilation, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden and Baldur's Gate: Decent into Avernus. After some debate (and a roll of a die) they end up with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the search for a dragon treasure.
So that ends the Curse of Strahd-campaign, 4 years after it started. And it all began when I watched Dice, Camera, Action and felt that this could be a fun adventure to play with my sisters. And they seemed to enjoy it. I've already figured out how to get them to Waterdeep (besides teleporting them there since they want to continue their emporium idea). Basically Madam Eve decides that since she is the rightful heir to the throne of Barovia have a proposal. Since the Vistani can travel freely across the planes they might help with the transports, for a fee or something like that. So they summon a ship to the harbour in Barovia (I think there was some mention of some harbour to the south that was swallowed by the mist) where they load up on flour and materials and then will sail to Waterdeep across the planes. And maybe they need the help from a certain mercenary organisation that happen to have a dwarven cleric specialised in accounting.
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