A DnD Tale - Van Richten's Guide to Raveloft - The Fall of the House of Lament

 

The image of the missing picture!

So we continue the House of Lament story. As Immeral have waken up in the tub with the words of Mara in blood on the mirror he returns to the parlour where van Richten and Hope still sleep. They begin by returning to the third floor and the nursery to try getting in to the locked door. A vision of a shield appears... and here I gotta complain a bit about the book, since it clearly references the seal of a god, but in none of the books I got (and I got pretty much every official book from Wizard of the Coast regarding DnD 5e) I could find it, neither Player's Handbook, nor Dungeon Master's Guide or even the van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft or even Curse of Strahd. I don't even know where people got the image above, but I'm suspecting one of the older books? How can you miss that? Not all of us have been here since the 1970's!

Anyway, van Richten is mentioning that it is missing the Belladonna for the image to be complete and they recall that there was a lone living flower in the conservatory below so they go down to get it and then return and enters the room after presenting it to the visage. They enter the children bedroom and sees a skeleton in a rocking chair and hear the voices of a boy and a girl from two toys, a purple dragon and a tin knight. They tell them about the hungry ones and how there mother locked them in their bedchamber and prayed to the god Ezra to protect them from the darkness and they want to leave. They are told by van Richten that the spell protecting the room now is gone so they should take the toys with them. They return down, but in the corridor they hear the coughing from the master bedroom. They enter and sees something shivering under the bed sheets. Immeral pulls it off and from the bed rises a zombie plauge spreader. It's dispatched without any problem, other than I rolled so bad for van Richten that he didn't hit any.

They go back to the foyer and see that the mist outside now have crept closer to the house and they seem to be surrounded. They head to the parlour and take a long rest to prepare for the end and a final seance. They ask Theodora for help and they get the message of "GET THEM OUT". They are hinted to go to the tower where they saw the vision of the bricked up prisoners. In the gallery they are attacked by four flying death's head that came alive from the busts. van Richten missed every attack, but the other was able to kill the other's without problem. They enter the tower and sees blood dripping from the ceiling and forming an alcove in the wall as well as running to the floor and seemingly pain a stairway down. As they investigate an armoured hand breaks out from the wall and a ghastly voice screams for Mara. A armoured knight breaks out together with two boneless creatures. van Richten is able to go first and actually doing pretty well against the first boneless, but is still hit by it twice so that it begin entangle itself on him. The other's take care of the boneless so that they can attack the knight alone. As he falls to Immeral's strikes and the light within the armour extinguish, the stairway down appears. They climb down and finds a door that leads to a wall with a gate leading to the storage room that they investigated earlier (the supposedly correct way to get down here, but it was a bit hard getting that, and getting the knight fight made it more fun). A short rest later they investigate a pit where they except Hope hear their voices echoing in the dark. Hope hear someone calling her and a faint amber light. They enter.

They end up in a cavern with an amber pillar standing on a patch of land surrounded by some black ink. Immeral and Hope recalls the amber sarcophagus from the Amber temple. Hope touches it and sees a vision of a spiralling eye, the eye of Tharizdun together with the image of a spider. Call back to their mission to get the rod of law as well hinting about the evil that the Temple of Elemental Evil is trapping (I just now realised that I don't have a name for the wizard/monk giving them their mission, oops). Also rather fun how I used the books vague description that you can tempt the players with any of the dark gifts detailed in the book, but the Amber Temple only had one per god, meaning that this is some real powerful god. Sometimes inspiration strikes right at the last moment. Hope has the Mark of the Raven, an amulet that now begins to glow which causes the pillar to almost scream in agony. Five tendril arises from the dark ink and a spectre appears above them. Now, I don't know how you would make it on an ordinary level 3 party, the tendrils act like shadows and drain your strength with every hit, meaning that instead of the 60 hit points they usually have my party have around 10 Strength to worry about. Thankfully they have the sun sword that showers all enemies in sunlight and they are affected by disadvantage on every roll. They are able to kill the tendrils and stun the spectre with the Mark of the Raven. Hope uses the sun sword and gets a critical hit as she thrusts the sword into the amber and filling it up with light. Another round and she repeats the action and the light burst through the stone and it cracks and then explodes. The murky water disappears and the spectre leaves her sword behind. They get the treasures and head out. Theodora seems to have created a corridor through the mist and as they leave they see the shadows of the children in the toys appearing in the mist and running to their mother before they leave. The End!

Well that was fun. The most action in any game we played. And the ending battle with the amber pillar was fantastic really, maybe better if I thought through the consequences of putting a level 3 end boss against 2 level 8 PC and an NPC of challenge rating 5. Made some changes in the spur of the moment, in Theodora's path you actually just need to leave the house after getting the toys, but even if that the best emotional ending it doesn't feel that earned. So I dropped in both other endings as well. What's better than a gauntlet of fighting the undead and a cursed artefact below the house to seemingly allow Theodora to get them through the mist? So that is that side story. We are thinking about using one of the compilation books to play other adventures, but the problem is that most of them are quite high experience and they already are a bit miffed about losing something like 3000 exp in the final session? Still, two weeks to next game, and this time with all sisters plus another player. 

The Rusty Sword: Vanguard Island (Switch)

Another pirate game huh?

Well, been one of the non-playing times again so a huge backlog, but not feeling it for any game. And then I found this little game and besides the old-school graphics and music it was the description of a short game that caught my interest. And that it only cost 11 SEK (which is like what, 1 € or $?). 

So it begins with a pirate or adventurer arriving at the titular Vanguard Island in search of the Vanguard Relic. You explore the island and find the dungeon and defeat the boss and get the relic, the end. Yes, that was pretty much the whole game. There is a house on the island where you can get a life potion (which I didn't get till after finishing the game and start from the beginning to see what I missed). 

It looks good, sounds great and is rather fun playthrough. You have the option to play with a friend for some co-op. It basically a short Zelda game, they even references the old man in the cave at the start,  even use the same line, although it was just a sign telling us about the 2-player mode. 

Now, it feels like this is actually a tech-demo for a bigger game they would be working on. I would hope so. There is a lot of empty spaces on the character menu for more items beside the bombs. So, for a short break it is fun, no more than 15 minutes of play, if even that.

*After some googling* Well what do you know? They are actually developing a sequel and it's supposed to come out in Q4 2023? Sign me up!

A DnD Tale: Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist - Underwater Fantasy

 

Under the water where the seaweed grows
There is a world of fascination
Beneath the waves is where the coral glows
There is a world of jubilation

Another session with the main group. I should probably have read the last post since I forgot they gave the nimblewright detector away to the private eye. And instead they spent the whole session walking around using the detector in every district... oops. Lucky most things didn't have anything to do with the nimblewright, I just made them do all the side-quest for the different fractions. For example they went to the Blackstaff Tower to ask for the pinecone that the city watch dug up from the ground in the fields, which they want to send back to the wizards of the wine. The Blackstaff just scoffed at the request, but gave them a quest to look for a bronze dragon in the harbour. They went there on their off day, got a fisherman to take them to some sunken ships that have been reported as the place where some kind of fish creature had been observed. The fisherman believed it was a triton. They dive in with some potion of water breathing they got from the Blackstaff. There they find this young bronze dragon that have collected so much treasure it can and hiding in the shipwrecks, all while getting more "shiny-shiny". They convince him to stop stealing from above land and just take what have fallen into the water, and they also give him one of the platinum masks they had from Barovia, and realising that they actually are a lot more loaded than they thought. He warns them off the "big shadow" he has observed in the water that makes that awful noice and frightens him. They get some dates and head back to to land to investigate.

At the harbour they get to the harbour office and checks the logs of the ships and notice that the ships that have been here during the observed dates is their own ship and three ships belonging to a Captain Zord. The dates also corresponds to incidents like the fireball and Graalhound villa attack. They check the ships and discovers a nimblewright on the ship, but the crew sends them to captain Zord that is on his flagship the Eyecatcher. He dines with them and tells them of the nimblewrights he got from the island to the south and how they help in their parades and also working as servants. They return and report to the Blackstaff. Rest of the days they meet the inspectors and invite them to their pub, but also get information like Davil Starsong still in custody and they are cracking down on the Zhentarim operatives and that they soon will get Istrid Horn (which our heroes helped escape from the city last time). They also met Mirt who gave them a mission to help a friend to the Harpers that have been attacked by a monster and is currently holed up in her home trying to kill her cat. Our heroes investigate and are attacked by a gazer, the same type of monster they encountered while walking through the sewers in the first session of Dragon's Heist. 

Next, Hope is contacted by the flying snake and a friend of Davil who want to meet her in the cementery. She need their help in investigating the disappearance of a halfling noble and they begin looking in the dock and south ward getting a meeting for the next day with the halfling. They are also tipped of by the Zhentarim that Floxin might be looking into kidnapping Renaer again so they ask Mirt to set up a meeting with Renear in the morning. And here the session pretty much ends. Not much in actual story, but they got more world building and to look for their own quest... or the quests I hinted at least. They are pretty much prepared to break out Davil themselves. I have to retcon the nimblewright stuff next time and get them to just walking around promoting their pub. I should probably set up that the necromancer steals the pinecone from the city watch so that they don't pester the Blackstaff about it. I have a couple more side-quest so that they are in phase for the next part when finding the nimblewright. Should probably get the necromancer side-quest they haven't done, but give it to another faction. 

A DnD Tale: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft - The House The Gods Forgot

Cornwall and the harbor
Where witches went mad more than once and
Until this day
In dreams at least
The lighthouse at Lost Christabel
Squat and hugely tilts
Upon the strand where Grandad's house was built

A continuation of the dnd side-story two of my sisters are having. After taking care of the ordeal of Hope waking up in the cellar being rescued by van Richten and Immeral they decide to investigate the cellar portion a bit more, they find a storage room behind the wine cellar, but its isolated and the roof seems to have caved in. They at least find some treasure and a key. They do notice that one wall sticks out and looks like the tower portion of the house. They go back to the tower, but find nothing that looks to lead to the bottom. Immerals wall of secrets seem to indicate something in the wall, but no way to get there. They decide to climb the tower instead, but halfway there a mighty wind blows down on them while they hear the scream of someone falling over and over. Van Richten is the only one strong enough to get past the wind and reach the top, from there he throws down a rope to help the others climb up and pass the wind. Doesn't help Immeral as van Richten rolls a 1 and Immeral fails the strength check so he rolls down to the bottom of the tower. They tie a rope and pulls him up together. At the top they find a chalk circle with the mark of the Raven and a crimson red armour belonging to one of the previous owner, Mara Silvra. The armour has no magical properties or so, but they get that they can use the armour as an exhibit back in Ravenloft so they pick it up to bring it with them after the adventure. Every way a capitalist.

They climb down... or fall down since none of them could withstand the strong wind. And afterwards goes up to the second floor going from room to room. Nothing much happens really beside some strange sightings, the best being when Hope enters the morning room and see a big eye looking at her through the window. And then while looking in a tea cup see the dried leaves forming a screaming face with a missing eye. They also finds an office where they look find the will of Loren Halvhrest and the deed of the house. Van Richten is able to pocket a pistol with 49 bullets (since it's anachronistic to the playstyle of my sisters and it makes a rather weird continuation error if my sisters use it in the main campaign) and another key he hands over to the pair. They also finds the balcony and then goes up to the third floor. As they enter the third floor they hear a clock chimes 13 times. Van Richten ask them to return to the parlor for another seance as the spirits seems restless. The spirit of Theodora tells them again to "SEEK THE WHITCH STONE" and then showing a candle. As the seance ends they hear the sound of thunder and rain outside. They go to bed and this time Immeral awakens in the study as a phantom accountant places sins and good deeds on scale weighing his soul. The ghost asks him to repent before vanishing before his eyes.

The storm is still raging outside, but they have deciphered Theodoras words as they learn that a witch stone is an ornamental stone that lets witches rest on the roof during their nightly travels. So they got to get to the roof. They enter the balcony and the rain pours down. They uses a grappling hook and is able to climb toward the widows peak and locate the chimney. Unfortunately the roof isn't stable and the bricks tends to careen down if one steps on them. They tie a rope to the ladder to the third floor (which they realised they could have used instead of climbing on the outside) and at its end tie a rope for each that attach to themselves as they try to get to the chimney. All fails so they end up hanging from the roof. Hope is able to get up to the chimney and tries to help Immeral while using her tail to secure herself. Which fails and she gains one level of exhaustion. 

Been watching a bit of Thunderbirds so now I can only hear this action music during potential disasters, that we used as that scene played out.

After a couple of more attempts with the rain pouring down they all get to the chimney and find the witches stone. They place a candle and lights it while using a brick from the chimney to protect it from the rain. They use the ladder down to the third floor and back to the parlor. They light the fire and tries to dry their clothes. As night approaches they use the spirit board again and are given another instruction from Theodora, to "RESTORE HER SHIELD" and then showing them a vine with flowers. They go to bed again and Immeral wakes up in the master bathroom in the tub and sees the words "Bloody Mara" written in blood in the mirror. And the session ends. 

Not much happened really this session, but the action scene on the roof was rather fun. A problem so far seems to be that the adventure enjoy a lot of strength checks like acrobatics to succeed, both passing the wind in the tower and climbing over the roof to the chimney and none of the characters in play are strength based (Hope getting out of the wine casket was another one from last session). Hope has the highest strength modifier with a 0, Immeral and van Richten both have -1. Maybe should have allowed acrobatics skill checks instead of the suggested Athletics since it was kinda one-sided. Then on the other hand, they at times rolled so bad it wouldn't have mattered anyway.