#izek is the standard!!

[mugenn]

now this is the kind of man i want in my life

[prose-priest-potentate]

As the dust settles after Strahd’s defeat, Izek and Imrath sometimes find themselves crashing in Ismark’s spare room. 

Originally, Imrath volunteered to curl up in his bedroll on the floor (he’s done it for months already, it’s fine) while Izek is actually used to comfort in his own bed and has only recently been sleeping rough. Izek wasn’t going to push it or pass up some luxury, so they sleep separately until Izek wakes up from a nightmare (standard) and notices that Imrath is gone (unusual) only to find him conked out on the downstairs sofa.

He takes great offence to this (maybe he feels guilty or irritated that Imrath isn’t just sleeping properly or angry that Im is avoiding him now of all times) but he shakes Imrath awake and demands that he go upstairs and get in bed. Imrath is happy to do so, and they settle in together from them on.

[arrenkae]

Some highlights of our Curse of Strahd campaign so far:

Izek fight, with half of the party pinning him down and the other half slowly and painfully trying to cut off his demon arm while Vincent (the bard) tries to calm him down and explain that he is, in fact, his long lost twin brother and all of this is for his own good; meanwhile, the house is on fire

A Very Angry Vincent confronting the baron over his treatment of Izek, rolling a nat 20 to bitch slap him, then proceeding to make out with Edena (the sorlock and also his gf) because she found it hot somehow; meanwhile, Paelias (the dusk elf druid) finds the Murder Mirror and summons a mirror assassin, who proceeds to walk into baron’s office, stab his unconscious body right in front of Vincent and Edena and walk right back out

Edena, a nice and proper sorlock lady, getting nightmares from her patron Tharizdun, failing her saving throw against a sudden urge to burn things, calmly walking down in the middle of the night, starting a small fire downstairs, putting it out and going back to sleep like nothing happened; cue everyone in the party panicking when they wake up and find out someone tried to burn down the house

Party basically adopting Victor Vallakovich despite the fact that he killed 2 people just to test his teleportation circle, because being in Barovia lowers your standards considerably

Ferret (the 10-year old child archfey warlock) being Very Confused about the Vasili reveal and writing a very nice letter to Vasili/Strahd asking him if they can still be friends, prompting him to send her nice dreams and a cool flaming horse to bring her to Ravenloft when the party decides that taking an actual child there for dinner might not be the best idea; naturally, she becomes convinced he is a great guy and gets even more confused about everyone hating on him (and then terrified of the party considering her Strahd’s spy, although this got resolved eventually)

Lady Arisa (the eldritch knight and certified history nerd) trying to dig up more info on wildfolk and druids of Barovia in Strahd’s library, discovering the legend of Sangzor and unlocking Sangzor wildshape for the druid

Ferret pulling up an epic combo to snatch Izek (aka Alexander, who now joined the party as a trusted NPC) from the Gulthias Tree vampiric branches at the last possible moment, getting snatched and almost drained to death herself, then bursting into flames with Hellish Rebuke and burning the tree into ashes; meanwhile, Paelias summons lightning from the sky as Sangzor, thoroughly impressing the remaining druids and berserkers

Lady Arisa deciding it’s a good idea to send a bunch of bandits to find honest work in the Village of Barovia with a recommendation letter for Ismark; as the party finds out much later, those bandits decided that a lone and unloved burgomaster with no guards and a pretty sister would be an easy prey, and then subsequently got brutally murdered by Strahd who JUST allowed Ireena to leave the castle and join her brother but apparently even the village is not safe for her anymore, how unfortunate ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Party trying to take on the hags 3 times and failing each one of them, eventually settling on making a deal with them and Ferret giving up her tooth to save a bunch of children from certain death (which surely won’t come to bite them back in the ass later)

Lady Arisa flirting with Strahd’s bride Sasha at the dinner, then getting her memories about her eaten by an oblex in Krezk and becoming very confused when she gets a letter from Sasha (like, why is this vampire even writing to her??)

Party helping Krezk with food and werewolves and finding a new burgomaster (also a werewolf, but still) and then all of this culminating in an extremely wholesome and beautiful First Snow festival that brings all people of Krezk together (and conveniently lines up with our Christmas session irl) 

Party going from an uneasy alliance with Lady Watcher to straight up friendship bombing her and resurrecting her husband until she is forced to admit that fine, she will look the other way if they decide to oppose Strahd just because they are That Great

Paelias’ amazing romance arc with Illyria “Whiteclaw” Krezkova, a wild and somewhat crazy middle-aged werewolf woman, who spent decades in the mountains being alone and bitter but gets saved and redeemed by the power of Love and Friendship, and then afterwards party helps her become an avatar of a literal moon goddess

This time when out of all people, Edena was the one to pick up Kavan’s spear, making his ghost EXTREMELY pissed because he sensed her connection to Tharizun and then swearing that he would NEVER entrust his spear’s power to one such as her; but then, after lots of bickering, some poorly-timed wild magic surges (that get blamed on Kavan), her using the spear as a drying rack, and then finally admitting that she wants to get rid of Tharizdun, Edena makes a pact with Kavan and changes her subclass into a hexblade (and wild magic sorcerer becomes abberant mind, symbolizing her own magic becoming more stable but still carrying traces of Tharizun)

An epic fight with the Abbot, with him dragging Lady Arisa up into the sky and her clinging onto his wings and stabbing him as he tries to throw her 800+ feet down, Vincent and Victor bombarding him with fireballs and Ferret pulling off another combo to bring Edena with her flying cloak up into range so that she can blast him; then, on their last hit points, the Abbot finally goes down and Edena manages to catch Lady Arisa into her arms before she falls to her death along with him

Victor accidentally getting corrupted by some corrupting stuff in Abbot’s Body Horror Dungeon, resulting in a hilarious sequence of events where increasingly panicking Victor starts disappearing into the ethereal plane and party has no idea how to drag him out (he does get better eventually)

Vincent finding a jar of symbiotic ooze in Abbot’s Body Horror dungeon and then deciding it’s a good idea to drink it because “he wants to show her the world” and name it Giselle; now he can spit acid and become a slime boy once per day

Party making a bet with Ez on who can get to the Tser Pool first, only for Paelias to immediately cast Plant Growth underneath her wagon, as the party is flying off on their summoned giant eagles (they won and Ez had to tell them an Embarrasing Van Richten fact)

[windsroad]

I LIVED BITCH

vilkas did not.

ireena may not have.

okay so like we get to the castle and I’m thinking rahadin or vamp spawn izek or even a hoard of undead will be there to greet us but NO STRAHD HIMSELF IS AT THE GATE

he offers to let me into the castle if I give him the holy symbol and for the first time I refuse a deal given by strahd. 

CUT TO THE OTHER PARTY

they teleport into the catacombs and absolutely wreck just hoards and hoards of undead. and an animated suit of armor. then when hope is doing a prayer of healing, a GLOWING comes from another tomb and she goes to it and it’s SERGEI’S TOMB and he has GLOWING HOLY ARMOR and she PUTS IT ON and it’s absolutely badass and awesome.

back to justice. strahd goes after me and keeps grappling me but missing on bite attacks. too much of this and ireena is like “wait, I have an idea” and shouts to strahd “I TOLD YOU, I WOULD RATHER DIE!” and starts RUNNING FOR THE FUCKING BRIDGE.

strahd yells and drops me to run after her. bit of a scuffle with vilkas, ireena, and strahd, and vilkas is on death’s door. ireena gets to the edge of the bridge at the end of her turn.

AND THEN ACTION SURGES, DISAPPEARING INTO THE MIST. strahd is absolutely beside himself. composure is GONE.

we don’t know if she’s dead... we’re hoping she’s doing some cool ninja shit where she’s holding onto the bottom of the bridge... but it’s not looking good...

vilkas is killed by wolves, flipping off strahd all the while.

meanwhile, justice is running around the castle to find an entrance. she finds one, fails to open the door, but then the lock breaks.

AND THERE’S IZEK. he CRITS her and drops justice to 11 HP, which is VERY BAD. I do my standard disengage run 60 ft schtick to get away from him, all the while shouting at him that it’s me, justice! I’m not an enemy! think of your sister! but he’s out of his mind with rage and thinks he’s still a child trying to protect his sister. in between his yells he’s SOBBING, because THAT’S WHAT WE NEEDED.

I get into the castle and head toward the high tower, but my friends are no where to be seen... because they took 10 minutes to heal up. so I hide, spring sneak attack a wolf that found me, and we ended the session just as I heard footsteps.

SO... I LIVED... BUT AT WHAT COST?? last game I said that I SHOULD have given ireena the holy symbol and just died so she could get to the final battle, but I joked about how *I* wanted to get to the final battle bc I was selfish and wanted justice to make it there. BUT NOW I REGRET IT. I SHOULD HAVE LET IREENA DO IT. I AM HORRIBLE........

[whereismywizardhat]

Curse of Strahd Play Report #6

Or, the one where the party fucks up.  More on that later

Cast

Sammie the Halfling Paladin

Alias the Illythid Mystic

Hakan the Warforged Artificer

Kairon the Tiefling Hexblade

Torment the Tiefling Cleric

Baux the Elven Rogue

Waning Gibbeous Moon, two Days til the next festival, six days until Alias needs to eat

So, the party has breakfast, lying low in the church.  You know, the usual things one does when one is the eclectic mix of personalities and races known as an adventuring party in rascistville.

Now to do some gumshoe work.  The party went over to the most obvious suspect: Milivoj the Gravedigger.  The group thought they were gonna find some old guy who looked like the crypt keeper, not some handsome bear looking man.  Sammie played child, and some good rolls (plus the rest of the party distracting the man) allowed her to venture upstairs.  As it turns out, Milivoj’s kid siblings said he had gotten a payment a week ago.

After confronting Milivoj, and getting the name “Henrik the Coffinmaker”, the party hit their first bit of malevolent attention.  A street urchin walks up to Alias and stabs him, before making a run for it.

Alias didn’t take it lightly, and using his mystic powers convinces the kid his legs are stone.  The party converges on the screaming kid.  A crowd is forming.  They hear a guard whistle.

Finally, one of them gets the bright idea to “get away from the crime scene before the law shows up”.  They take the knife and ditch.

Smart fish.

(Note: at this point, Hakan’s player had to leave due to personal stuff.  From this point on, the voice of paranoia is gone)

Not very stealthy though, so after regrouping, the party got a knock on the door from Izek, the watch captain and attack dog for the burgomeister.  They hid out of sight as Father Lucian talked him down.  Of course, something did go wrong, namely Izek noticed Ireena.

Deciding Stealth was the better part of valor, the group split up on the route to the coffin shop.  Street clothes, no heavy armor.  On the way, Baux noticed that the dolls at Blinsky’s Toys looked very similar to Ireena.  He advocated burning the place down, but was outvoted.

Arriving at the Coffinmaker’s shop, the party knocked on the door.  “We’re closed”.  Standard accusations. “You can’t come in!”  Ad nauseum.

And then Sammie Nat 20s kicking down the door, and the entire party watches as the halfling sends the door flying into the guy inside.

With their captive audience the party begins the interrogation immediately.  Henrik folds like a wet rag.  He tells them they “They” are upstairs.  Being genre savvy, the players ask what “They” means.  Vampires.  Naturally.

So this is where the party fucks up.

Sammie and Baux, seeing the situation is well in hand, head upstairs.  They call out.  No answer.  Sammie uses Detect Good and Evil, and senses something holy to her right and something unholy to her left.  Easy choice, turn right.

Navigating through the kitchen (nothing) and then to Henrik’s bedroom, the pair begin searching.  Nothing under the table, nothing behind the bed.  Wardrobe, dig in.  Both lean in.  Ah-hah, a secret spot with the bones.

And that’s when the vamps jump them.

To list the mistakes:

The Paladin isn’t wearing armor.  Stealth is fine, but going in unarmored for a non-dex based class is a recipe for dying

The party pulled a “Let’s Split Up Gang”.  One of the thousand uses for rope, and why all parties should carry it at all times, is tying up guys you don’t want getting away.  Since the party neglected this, they decided having three guys sit on the lead

The call out.  That just means the enemy knows you’re there.  Especially Vampires, who are ambush predators by nature.

Not spiking the door.  For those of you who don’t know, spiking a door makes it hard to open, and makes it make noise when they do.  It’s dungeon delving 101 to spike the road not taken so a nasty doesn’t come at you from behind, like these vamps are about to on the pair

Not closing the kitchen door.  Same story.

TURNING YOUR BACK TO THE ONLY ROOM ENTRANCE!

Naturally, the first vamp Nat 20s Sammie, knocking off half her health in a single blow.  Things just get worse from there.

This fight goes bad fast.  The party’s only experience with Vamps before this was that solitary spawn in the Barovian church, six to one.  On equal terms, it’s a different story.

The dummies downstairs hear the violence, and Alias (the squishy psychic squidman) leads the charge, Torment (also unarmored) at his back.  And on the narrow staircase, they have to jump to the side as a barrel shoots down.  The cackling form of another vampire who was deeply enjoying playing Donkey Kong was waiting for them.

So to put out the tactical situation: Two vamp spawn vs the rogue and paladin, sans armor.  Another Vamp at the top of the narrow staircase, keeping back reinforcements.  And a fourth barricading the kitchen door, just to make sure his friends weren’t interrupted.

Sammie goes down.  Baux gets grappled.  Nobody can move.  Looks like this is gonna be where people die.

Clutch Kairon saves the fucking day.  Blasts a hole in the wall, giving Baux a moment to break free and drag Sammie to the healer.  Baux makes a run for it.

And we had to stop there because the LGS was closing.

I think my party learned a lesson here.  Don’t split the party, stay vigilant, blah blah blah.

I hope they did.  This is a rough encounter but far from the roughest in Curse of Strahd.  Being sloppy will result in death.

On a completely separate note, the session does make me ponder D&D meets the cop show genre. Might have to write a city campaign with PCs as Guards.

[leatherworkingkit]

Features:

– Material: plastic – Bobbin size: approx. 2 * 2 * 1.15 cm/ 0.79*0.79*0.45″ – Case size: 12 * 10 * 2.5cm/ 4.7 * 3.9 * 1.0″ – Tape Size: 60cm

Fits for:

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Package Included:

– 1 * 25 Pcs Bobbin with Assorted Colors Sewing Thread – 1 * Soft Measuring Tape – 1 * Bobbin Organize Case QUANTITY – 25 Pcs bobbins and 25 assorted colors sewing thread is sufficient to use for a standard day-to-day the use of STANDARD SIZE TO FIT MOST SEWING MACHINES – Bobbin size: Standard size can be utilized on most sewing machine like brother, babylock, janome, Kenmore, singer and so forth. Perfect for anyone just starting out with an embroidery machine or a sewing machine KEEP THE BOBBINS ORGANIZED – Comes with a clear case with every bobbin in a separate spot that may be very organized, plastic made with clear view is easy to see which color to select FREE MEASURING TAPE – Come with a free 60cm soft measuring tape for craft the use of PRODUCT WARRANTY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE – We provide 48-day money-back and 24-month warranty. So feel free to contact us in case you have any question [amz_corss_sell asin=”B01IYCDY3K”]

Paxcoo 25 Pcs Bobbins and Sewing Thread with Case and Soft Measuring Tape for Brother Singer Babylock Janome Kenmore (Assorted Colors) Features: - Material: plastic - Bobbin size: approx. 2 * 2 * 1.15 cm/ 0.79*0.79*0.45" - Case size: 12 * 10 * 2.5cm/ 4.7 * 3.9 * 1.0" …