Iron & Gold, Curse of Strahd
14 - In The Coffins[*]
Directions from Lucian led them to the coffin maker’s shop about six blocks away, a two-story affair in the south of town. The building was drab and dull, with iron bars over the windows, but by the sign out front with a picture of a coffin, they knew they were in the right place.
Ninefingers said, “Towns I’ve been to, the furniture maker also makes coffins, but here enough people die for it to be a specialty.”
Hrelgi said, “Ew.”
Felewin knocked on the door. From inside came a man’s voice. “Go away! I’m closed!”
“We need to talk to you!” said Felewin.
“Come back next week!”
Felewin said conversationally to his companions, “Normally I wouldn’t resort to this, but Ninefingers, do you think you can unlock that door?”
Ninefingers looked around. “I can fix the lock but not open the door if he’s barred it.”
“Give it a try.”
“Shield me from view.[†]” They stood around the goblin as he picked the lock.[‡] While they were standing there, two of the city guard saw them standing in a commercial neighbourhood after dark.[§]
“What are you doing there?” asked one guard as they moved closer.
Hrelgi said, “Arguing.”
“About what?”
“The best way back to the Blue Water Inn. I think it’s down to the palisade and back to the main street, while my friends think it’s best to go that way”—she pointed—“and stay in these buildings where it all looks the same.”
“It is closer the way that your friends suggested but if you go out to the palisade you might have fewer misunderstandings with other guards. Do you need help?”
“I don’t think so, but thank you.” She waved to them as they walked back to the main street.
Ninefingers pushed on the door. It opened. “No bar across it. Seems foolish in a place like this.” After a moment the door hit something, and Ninefingers kept pushing; something slid across the floor.
It was a chair that had been placed before the door. Mindful of the guard, they all stepped in and shut the door behind them, just as Van Der Voort, the coffin maker, came in carrying another chair to put before the door. He dropped it.
“Hello,” said Hrelgi.
“We need to know about the bones of St. Andral,” said Uthrilir. “Milivoj told us you bought them.”
Van Der Voort sat in the chair, resting his face in his hands. “I should have known there was a catch,” he said to himself more than them. “I should have known.”
“Tell us,” said Felewin.
“Several moons ago, just after the Obligation of St. Andral, I had a visit from a fine nobleman who said his name was Vasili von Holtz. He said that if I helped him, he could arrange for me to have good business. Those were his words — good business. Ohhhhh….” He stopped speaking.
“He wanted you to steal the bones?” Uthrilir prompted.
“No. No, he didn’t. But he asked that I keep six…he called them guests. They’re vampires. Vampires! And they can hear this! I’m going to die!”
“Hush,” said Uthrilir. “Von Holtz didn’t ask you to steal the bones.”
“No, they did. Oh, I’m doomed!”
“Well, you’re not wrong there,” Hrelgi said. “Theologically speaking.”
“But they can’t touch the bones,” said Uthrilir. “The bones are hallowed.”
“No, the bones are upstairs, in a secret compartment in my wardrobe. But you have to go past the vampires to get to it![**]”
Hrelgi was already flipping pages in her spell book.
Felewin said, “With the noise you’re making, of course they are waiting. Uthrilir, can we even the odds?”
“There is a holy implement close to us, so that will help.” He knelt in prayer for a moment.[††] “If the Lady will help us, she will help us.”
“We have no choice; they have heard us.”
Fortunately, the members of the group were still in armor; in the rush to eat and get to the church, no one had doffed theirs. “Stairwell’s a choke point,” said Felewin. “We’ll use that. He said six. Katrina, in the middle of the group, please, where I can see you.” He loaded his crossbow; he would have time for one shot only, and then the sword. He suspected the sword was magical and he knew some of the crossbow bolts had been blessed. Would that be enough? Perhaps not against six, but if they avoided this confrontation, they would lose the bones. He could only hope that they would damage several vampires and the others would flee.
If they could damage the vampires; he had never faced one, and now six….
“Ready?” he asked the others.
“Clump together,” said Hrelgi. “I have an idea.[‡‡]” She chanted a spell.
Nothing happened, but nobody wanted to say anything to her. She kept chanting. No one had ever heard her do a spell this long before.
Suddenly they were in a kitchen. Hrelgi said, “It worked!”
“Same building?”
“Upstairs. One of those two doors leads to the bones.”
“You couldn’t take us straight to the bones?”
“I’ve never been here before! I had to— Never mind, but it was tough!”
One door opened and a vampire dwarf was standing there, fangs bared and carrying a sword.[§§]
Felewin fired.[***] The bolt caught the vampire dwarf in the chest, and the dwarf had no obvious armor. The blow would have been crippling for a mortal, but the vampire dwarf kept moving. Meanwhile, Ninefingers scurried into the other room through the other door; he was best equipped to find a secret compartment in a wardrobe.[†††]
Uthrilir[‡‡‡] hit him with the mace, which slowed the vampire but didn’t stop him; Uthrilir could see another one in the stairwell, waiting and unable to come in.[§§§] “Hrelgi, I hope you can do that trick to get us out of here!”
“We’ll have the bones!” Hrelgi said, frantically flipping pages.[****]
The vampire dwarf swung at Uthrilir twice with terrifying speed, but missed both times; Uthrilir used his mace to drive in the crossbow bolt, and the vampire fell. “We have to drive a stake through his heart, or he’ll rise!” Uthrilir said.
“Where are we going to get a stake?” asked Hrelgi.
“We’re in a carpentry shop!” said Ireena.
“I’ve got one,” said Felewin. He put it on the dwarf’s chest. “The hammer is in my, no, drive it in with your mace.[††††]”
Uthrilir used his mace and drove the stake in. “One down!”
“Where’s Ninefingers?”
“Here!” said Ninefingers, coming in from the other room with a bag. “Got the bones.”
“We have to kill the other five vampires,” realized Felewin. “It’s the only way to make sure news doesn’t get back to him.”
Uthrilir asked, “How many magic crossbow bolts do you have? How many stakes?”
“I think I can do it,” said Hrelgi. “Fire works, right?”
“The place will go up like a tinderbox,” warned Ninefingers.
Hrelgi replied “Not if I’m careful.”
Ninefingers muttered, “Famous last words.”
“Hush. Clothes, clothes…here we go.” She chanted a spell[‡‡‡‡] and suddenly the hallway lit up. The clothes of the vampires were on fire, and the vampire they could see fell over.
Felewin rushed over with another stake and drove it into the vampire’s heart.
“Don’t leave the protection of the bones!” said Ninefingers.
Felewin waited for the others to catch up. “Let’s check the other room.[§§§§]”
Between Hrelgi’s spell and Felewin’s magic crossbow bolts, they killed three more vampires, but one was already gone. They went downstairs to discover Van Der Voort dead and eviscerated. There was no way to exit without stepping in blood or his remains.
“Hrelgi?” said Felewin. “It’s time for your new trick.”
“Gotcha,” Hrelgi said. It took a long time, but she eventually got them outside.
“The church,” said Uthrilir. “That vampire knows it’s unprotected. I’m sure he’s going to head there.” They started walking — Ninefingers cautioned them about running.
“Worse,’ said Felewin. “he’s seen Ireena…Katrina, rather. Strahd will know she’s here. Vallaki is not safe.”
“We return the bones,” said Ninefingers, “stay at the inn, leave in the morning.”
“Why don’t we just sleep in the church?” asked Hrelgi.
“Because we have to go back to the inn,” said Ninefingers.
“Why?”
“I’m not telling you,” Ninefingers said.[*****]
Felewin said, “I know why, and trust me, he’s right.”
GM Mechanics
[*] Mythic: Antagonize Ambush (Move Away From A Thread)
[†] Mythic, does a guard notice? Very Unlikely, CF 7 50% chance one will, and I roll a 10.
[‡] Ninefingers can see in the dark and he has Finesse 9. I roll a 9. He does it.
[§] Does the guard notice? I’m going to give him a +2 to Difficulty because of Hrelgi’s unnatural beauty and because it’s night. He rolls an 8 and he has only 7 anyway: Awareness 3 and Investigation 4.
[**] Well, you don’t, but they’ve heard all of this and so they’re at the top of the stairs, waiting.
[††] Uthrilir rolls a 10, which is failure no matter how you look at it. Fortunately for him, I’m going to use one of his (rolls d6) 6 free endowments on this. So the vampires can’t come within 16 meters of him unless they make Awareness+Composure rolls at Difficulty 4.. At least for (rolls D6) 6 rounds.
[‡‡] The idea is to teleport everyone upstairs. Her first roll is 7, on Materia, so that’s successful. She rolls a 5, so she makes Reasoning+Composure. Then a 7 on the Ge spell, which makes it by 3. Another 5 on the composure, so she’s good.
However, I learned afterward that you can only teleport to places you’ve been, so this was an example of divine intervention or a triumph or whatever.
[§§] Because the text explicitly says the vampires are former adventurers, he has Awareness 4 and Composure 6, and he rolled a 6, which barely makes Difficulty 4.
[***] Felewin is close, so the difficulty is -2; he rolls a 9; and the bolt is one of the magic ones. The vampire takes 3 levels of damage.
[†††] Ninefingers rolls a 7, which makes his Finesse roll. He knows where the secret compartment is.
[‡‡‡] Uthrilir rolls a 2, so margin 7; Vampire manages an 8, so margin 0. Unfortunately, he does only half damage.
[§§§] The vampire rolls a 12 to hit. Total failure; nobody else even needs to roll to defend.
[****] Reactions: Felewin 14, Ninefingers 9, Uthrilir 11, Spawn 15. Vamp rolls a 9 (margin -1) to hit with sword, Uthrilir rolls 2 (triumph);
[††††] Uthrilir rolls a 5 to hit and drives it in.
[‡‡‡‡] Materia: Turn vampire clothes to fire. Rols a 5, and it works: they will be fire for 4 rounds. Damage is 2 and 3, which is unexpected.
[§§§§] Mythic: Did one go downstairs to kill Van Der Voort? Likely, so 90 or less is a yes, and I roll a 72.
[*****] As mentioned before, re-reading, I did that wrong; she shouldn’t have been able to teleport them upstairs. Oh, well.
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