Iron & Gold, Curse of Strahd
Previous Chapter 28 - Hunted! — Next Chapter 30 - To The Tsolenka Pass
29 - The Undercroft[1]
Hrelgi’s rend opened in the church, just inside the front doors. The church was damp and dark and silent. They could not hear Donavich weeping or Doru yelling.
“Asleep?” whispered Ninefingers.
“I hope,” replied Uthrilir quietly.[2]
“In we go,” said Felewin.
Ninefingers stealthily opened the door on the left and peered around. He shook his head. Ezmerelda, who had been second-last to come through (before Hrelgi) slowly opened the door to the right. She looked back at the others and shrugged.
Ninefingers silently pushed past her.
The room was a moldy mess. The ceiling had holes; the shingles from around the holes sat in puddles of water. Unlike the other room, there was no bed and no holy sunburst on the wall. Amid the detritus, in one corner of the floor was a heavy wooden trapdoor secured by a chain and padlock.
“There,” he breathed.
“We don’t have a key,” whispered Hrelgi.
“Give me a moment,” Ninefingers said.
Uthrilir said, “Plan. Ninefingers first because he can see in the dark. Hrelgi shines the light down, Felewin next, then me. Ezmerelda and Hrelgi stay up here, ready to shut the door if all goes wrong.”
Ezmerelda nodded; Hrelgi said, “No.”
“We don’t have a choice, Hrelgi,” Uthrilir said. “You are our protection, our insurance.”
“Nothing will go wrong,” she said. “I insist.”
Uthrilir managed to smile.[3] “I will tell the vampire that you insist.”
“Got it,” murmured Ninefingers. He quietly[4] lifted the chain through the hasp. Ezmerelda closed the door to the hallway, and Felewin[5] raised the trapdoor so that Ninefingers could go down. There was a wooden staircase under the trapdoor, and Ninefingers[6] quietly descended the stairs, his sword drawn and a flask of holy water in the other hand.
The basement was roughly a T shape, about forty Ninefingers’ paces across the narrow part, more at the other end — maybe twice as big. The walls were wood and stone, a foundation set into the clay-like earth, and the various posts that held up the wooden floor were bowed and rotting. In one corner, the farthest from the staircase that could be, was a gaunt figure, hunched in the corner. Ninefingers could just make out its sibilant “I can smell your blood.”
Light splashed behind him as he stepped off the staircase, and Felewin started down. Felewin was not silent at all, though he was trying to be quiet.[7]
“That’s tastier,” came the second comment from the corner.
Felewin stayed near the staircase and the light.
Uthrilir came down the stairs, his body casting huge shadows at the top of the stairs that got smaller as he got down the stairs.
They heard “What are you doing here?” from the room above.
“Father,” cried Doru as he scuttled along the ceiling.
The trapdoor fell shut, cutting off the light from upstairs.
#
Upstairs, the hallway door was forced open, despite Ezmerelda trying to hold it shut. Donavich said, “What are you doing here?”
Hrelgi said, “We’re—” but Donavich attacked[8], shoving the door aside as he leapt for Hrelgi. Hrelgi dodged but dropped the door.[9] The glow from her lantern revealed that Donavich was not a distraught father, but a vampire.
Hrelgi looked for the spell she wanted; Ezmerelda[10] smashed a flash of holy water against his chest, and Donavich started smoking. “I share my son’s hunger!” Donavich turned to attack Ezmerelda instead[11] and clawed Ezmerelda.[12]
Hrelgi cast a spell[13] and Donavich collapsed.
#
Grabbing the undersides of the floorboards, Doru said to Felewin, “They can see what I’m doing but you can’t.” He swung at Felewin to knock him down, but Felewin managed to evade him through luck.[14] Ninefingers kept forward but he was too small to hit Doru, even with his sword.
Uthrilir said, “By the power of the Maiden, hold still!”
The holy symbol of Ravenkind flared with radiance, and a shaft of light unerringly found Doru on the ceiling.[15] The vampire froze in place.
“Stake him before he moves!” Ninefingers said.
“I can’t do it with him on the ceiling,” Felewin said. “Plus I can’t see him without light. I hope Hrelgi and Ezmerelda are safe.”
“We have a vampire right here,” said Ninefingers. “I hope we’re safe.”
“You’ll have to pull him down,” said Uthrilir.[16]
Felewin steeled himself for this and grabbed Doru by the hips (he had intended the chest, but it was dark) and pulled. He could feel Doru trembling, resisting the command of the symbol[17].
He held Doru’s arms and said, “Ninefingers, I’ll hold him and you do it. The stake and mallet are in my pouch.”
“We don’t know how long he’ll be paralyzed,” said Ninefingers.
“Right, so hurry!” Uthrilir said.[18]
Upstairs they could hear rhythmic hammering.[19]
The sound heartened Ninefingers and in five strokes, it was done.
Uthrilir said, “That’s good; now cut off its head.”
Ninefingers took care to aim and not hit Felewin, and in three strokes, severed its head.
The head rolled to one side; Felewin picked it up by the greasy hair and went up the stairs, using his back to raise the trapdoor. His sword was in his hand.[20]
The door was stuck: old wood, swollen with water. It had been difficult to open before, but it was well jammed now. Felewin pushed again, and the trapdoor broke in two; both pieces lolled to one side on their hinges.
A silvered blade stopped just short of Felewin’s neck.
“Oh. It’s you,” said Ezmerelda.
Hrelgi reached down to help him up. “Are you guys okay? How’s Uthie?”
“We’re fine. That holy symbol works a treat. Paralyzed him.” Felewin got out of the way, sheathed his sword, and helped Ninefingers up.
“It affects more than one,” said Ezmerelda. “I think it paralyzed the priest too.”
“He was a vampire?”
Ezmerelda nodded. “At some point, Strahd must have decided to turn him.”
Uthrilir came up and accepted Hrelgi’s hug. “Strahd might have started it long ago; Donavich’s robe hid his neck.”
“If so, do you think his suggestion of the Abbey was influenced by Strahd?”
Uthrilir shrugged. “Who knows? News does not travel quickly in this land. I would not be surprised if the wine deliveries are the principal way for information to get around.”
“Or raven.”
“Secretly, yes.” Uthrilir looked at the body of Donavich. “Let us take them downstairs and bury them under the church. Then no one will accidentally remove the stakes.”
“You do not need to worry about that,” said Ezmerelda. “Once the stake has destroyed them, they are no longer vampires and cannot be brought back.”
“Except by Dark Powers,” said Uthrilir.
Ezmerelda conceded this was true.
“You are hurt,” said Uthrilir to Ezmerelda. “I shall ask the Maiden.”[21]
“Say a prayer for their bodies, too, but then we must be off,” said Felewin. “Someone might have heard that fight.”
Hrelgi nodded and spent a moment searching the places she had been. “These are long distances,” she said. “I can do maybe two in a row, but it’s safer if I have a moment to rest between them.”
“Of course,” said Felewin.[22]
“Okay.” The next rend took them to the gates of Barovia, on the way to Vallaki. They heard the howling of wolves; Hrelgi created the next rend, and they stepped through, Felewin first.
They were in Kasimir’s study, outside Vallaki.
Kasimir was looking at them. He said, “Tea?”
Monsters
| Fitness | Awareness | Creativity | Reasoning | Influence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Skills | Brawling 3 (≤8), Dueling 5 (≤10), Stealth 4 (≤9) | |||
| Gimmicks | Undead, Night Vision, Life Drain, Natural Weapons (Bite: 1 inj), Resistant[Non-magical weapons], Supernatural Healing (does not work in sunlight or running water) If the spawn are called out as former adventurers, they also have Composure 3, which makes it much more likely that they can resist things. | |||
Game Mechancs
[1] Mythic suggested theme: Deceive Exravagance (PC Negative)
[2] Obviously they’re going to check the two rooms, but which do they check first? Odd is left, even is right. Rolled a 1, so they check Doru’s bedroom first.
[3] Ninefingers rolls a 3 for Finesse, which is a margin of 6, and easily makes the 2 Difficulty. (All locks in Barovia are Difficulty 2 unless otherwise stated.)
[4] Ninefingers rolls a 5, which makes his stealth by margin 3
[5] Felewin rolls a 9, which is a margin of 1 on the Athletics roll, which is Difficulty 1.
[6] Ninefingers rolled a 9, which is his Finesse roll: margin 0.
[7] Felewin rolls 8 for a margin of -3, and Uthrilir rolls 5, for a margin of -1…neither of them actually has stealth, so not bad for trying.
[8] Donavich goes upstairs; others get no action. Reactions for downstairs: Felewin 13, Ninefingers 13, Uthrilir 9, Doru 11
Donavich does 2 Fatigue to Ezmerelda; her armor does not help, he rolls margin -1 to attack, she rolls margin 2 to not be attacked.
[9] Rather than cutting back and forth for every round, we’ll handle one (for at least a bit) and then the other.
Reactions: Donavich 9 Ezmerelda 11 Hrelgi 12
[10] Ez rolls an 8 on her athletics roll, and has a margin of 0. The holy water does 1 Inj to the vampire.
[11] Donavich rolls 4 for margin 2; Ezmerelda rolls a 7 for margin 1 so he hits her and does 2 inj
[12] Ezmerelda makes her Fit+Composure roll: she rolls 4 and needs 6.
Reactions upstairs: Donavich 11 Ezmerelda 11 Hrelgi 10
Hrelgi rolls a 9, which is margin 0 for her but it works. She does 4 levels of Injury. Toughness does not help.
Donavich might be dead, but vampires are hard to kill. The new Gimmick Undying lets him regenerate this turn anyway.
[13] Hrelgi makes the R+C roll with a 10, but only because the difficulty is -2.
[14] Reactions: Doru 10 Felewin 12 Ninefingers 10 Uthrilir 12
Doru: Attack Felewin Ninefingers: attack Doru Felewin: avoid attacks Uthrilir: use the holy symbol
Doru rolls an 8, which makes his Brawling roll by margin -1, but Felewin rolls a 2, a triumph, so through sheer luck Felewin is not hit.
[15] Doru has to make an Reasoning+Composure test with difficulty 2. He rolls a 4, which makes his I+C roll with a margin of -1 (he doesn’t have Composure), which does not make difficulty 2. He’s frozen for a minute. Donavich (who’s also in range) rolls a 7, which is margin of-4, and does not help.
[16] Felewin has to steel himself for this (Difficulty 2), but rolls 4 on his Reasoning+Composure test, for a margin of 4. Now he has to roll Awareness: it’s not completely dark down there. He rolls a 5, and I’ll let his Survival stand in on this so he makes it by margin 2. (Alternatively, it’s difficulty 2 and he has awareness 3, so he manages automatically).
[17] Doru gets another chance to roll, but does worse this time: he rolls a 7, which fails by -4.
[18] The paralysis lasts a minute; a minute is about 12 turns. Felewin gets him down: 1 turn; Ninefingers finds the mallet and stake: 1 turn;
[19] D&D makes specific that vampires are destroyed only if the wooden thing pierces the chest while incapacitated in resting place. I’m going to say that’s not true for vampire spawn; a stake through the heart or beheading will destroy them. (Though the church is the resting place for both of them.) Anyway, I had a whole reveal where they were back fast, but the dice didn’t fall that way. We’ll go on with a false sense of confidence.
[20] Felewin rolls a 12 on his Athletics roll to open the door, which is margin -2. He breaks the old trapdoor: he succeeds but the door isn’t any good any more.
[21] Uthrilir prays and rolls a 7, which succeeds on this 9- difficulty 2 check; he heals her for a whole 1.
[22] General process from a gaming standpoint: Hrelgi makes the rend, they step through. She can hold it open for 5 turns, that being her skill. dShe makes the R+C roll; if she fails, she takes a point of fatigue, which she needs to recover for herself (a memorized spell) wait a turn; make the second rend, pass through. Again, if there’s a problem, try the healing spell. Generally, a rend is four turns to pass through, dismiss, and check self.
No comments:
Post a Comment