onsdag 24 maj 2023

A DnD Tale: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft - Return to the house on haunted hill

 

What is a man?

Well, adding another player to the main campaign stopped that thread. I can't say that I'm surprised when that sister is a bit away compared to the others... and have family of her own. But what should we who want to play a bit more frequently? Well, I got a stack of books that doesn't add into the main campaign idea so why not try something else in the meanwhile? So we started the introduction adventure of the Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, House of Lament. 

It's basically Death house from Curse of Strahd, but with enough difference to make it interesting. It has an ouija board for example and seances. One month after defeating Strahd Immeral and Hope gets a letter with directions and the hint of treasures. They set out once again got lost in the mists. They approach a crossroad where they see the figure of a man, but as they approach it turns toward them with its yellow eyes and flies away with its black wings. Two black feather remains and a planchette. A light brakes through the mist and leads them to a hill where a three-stored mansions stand with a tower. As they approach a door opens and they are greeted by van Richten who is yet again on an investigation. He invites them in and they set up shop in the parlor where there is an ouija board. Immeral and Hope walks around the bottom floor seeing visions of ghosts, Immeral nearly strangled by the vines in the conservatory, both getting an ear-bleeding scream in the ballroom and finding a muffin in an oven and having 15 minutes discussion if it was safe to eat or they would get poisoned. They get up to the second floor, but van Richten calls them down to start the seance.

They sit near the board and summons the spirit of Theodora, the last lady of the house and that was killed by the "hungry ones" (which I stole from a dialog bit later in the adventure), she told them to look for the witch stone and then she disappeared. As midnight have gone past van Richten began locking the doors, tying them with a rope and writing holy symbols on them to ward evil spirits before going to bed near the fire place. The others followed suit. In the night Hope gets a dream about a knight in a skull helmet trap someone in the wall, then she wakes up and she is trapped what appears to be a coffin. She is not strong enough to break out and screams for help. Meanwhile van Richten awakens Immeral and asks where Hope is. She is gone leaving no trace. Van Richten performs an augery and concludes that she is somewhere below earth. Immeral remembers the door to the basement they found in the kitchen. They go down and find her banging from within a wine casket that they break down. At the same time they hear the sound of meows from the back of the wine cellar. Van Richten uses the spell light too illuminate it and they see several grishkens, cat-like monster. They return up and end the session.

Fun beginning, not much prep time since we agreed on it the day before so I hadn't the greatest idea on how to make it all jell, but it worked out. We also put some restrictions like, no exp since we couldn't level up due to this being set in between the campaigns and my other sister wanting to play. They are still level 8 so they are way and beyond leveled for this campaign, but they are alone so no problem there. This will probably be something like 2-3 more sessions before being finished and will probably be enough. 

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