Iron & Gold, Curse of Strahd
Previous Chapter 31 On The Roof — Next Chapter 33 The Search For Dark Gifts
Being an actual play of Curse of Strahd, using Precis Intermedia Games’ Iron & Gold, with Mythic as the GM.
32 — To The Temple[1]
Uthrilir was still sitting there when dawn came. Hrelgi touched him on the shoulder before going down to check on the horses. Felewin was already down there.“Watch the floor,” he told Hrelgi. “Horses relieved themselves in the night and it froze.” He called up the stairs, “Going to open the door!” Felewin checked the outside for predators that might spook the horses, and then let them out.[2] He had just gotten the last horse out when the green flames sputtered, followed by a bad smell.
“There!” Hrelgi said from inside. “Got rid of all of that stuff.”
“You teleported it into the green fire.” Hrelgi nodded. “It smells terrible,” replied Felewin.
“Breakfast anyway?” Hrelgi asked.
Felewin agreed, and they went into the tower.
Breakfast was quick because Kasimir was in a hurry to continue.
“If we leave now, we should get to the Amber Temple before noon. Inside there will be dangers.” He handed out the fur-lined cloaks and for everyone but Felewin, gloves. “Your hands are too big; I could not find any that would probably fit.”
“It is an old problem,” said Felewin. “And you?”
“I do not need them,” Kasimir said.
Felewin nodded, and said, “Ezmerelda, you did not promise to come along, nor is Strahd actively seeking you. You can wait here in the tower.”
Ezmerelda shook her head and ticked reasons on her fingers. “You need the horse I am riding, for Hrelgi cannot ride, and three on a horse would be impossible, even if one is Ninefingers. Strahd is after me for other reasons so I am not much safer. There is no food or heat here. Perhaps I could impose on Hrelgi to get me past the flames, but from there it is a day and a half by foot to my wagon. In the short term, I am safer with you.”
Felewin nodded. “The goatskin is not properly tanned or softened yet but fur side in, it will help some.”
She took it from him, and wrinkled her nose. “I am sure it will smell better after being properly treated.”
“The heat of the horse helps keep us warm,” said Hrelgi. She checked out her fur-lined cloak. Uthrilir said, “You look good,” but he looked tired.
“I wish I had slept with this. That tower got cold,” said Ninefingers.
“It will be colder in the temple,” said Kasimir. “From the tales, the temperature in the Temple is cold enough for ice.”
Felewin said, “If we see firewood and we can safely grab it, we do. Hrelgi is most helpful but she might not always be around. Also, the smoke is useful for softening the pelt.”
“We will,” said Kasimir. “The spare horse, Maria, is best for lading.”
“She’s got the temperament for it,” Felewin agreed.
They saddled the horses and continued west. In a very short time, they came upon a bridge over a deep gorge; the river was only occasionally visible through the fog. At each end of the bridge was a tall stone arch. On each arch were statues: a pair of armored knights on horseback with lances, charging toward one another.
The bridge had low walls that enclosed it, but it was less than a dozen paces wide. Felewin looked at it for a moment, judging, and then called to Kasimir, “Should we walk the horses?” The horses seemed to be taking the bridge fine but he could see a spot where the wall had broken. The wind howled so loudly that he had to repeat the question.
“They are Vistani horses; they have seen worse.” Kasimir urged his horse on.
“I’ll bring up the rear, after Maria,” called Felewin.
Kasimir just shrugged.
Felewin waved the others along.
The horses were fine, but the wind was terrible. It bit and clutched at them; he could see Ezmerelda ahead, hunched over the neck of her horse (Ludmilla was her name) and Hrelgi bent to get close to her. Felewin let Maria go and then followed with his horse, Oxblood.
“I don’t like bridges,” said Ninefingers. “Especially old bridges in unmaintained mountain passes.”
“Hush,” said Felewin. “This takes some care.”
Oxblood had just stepped on the bridge proper when a black-cloaked figure appeared in the middle of the bridge. The figure’s horse was a black bay with a white blaze on the forehead; the blaze could be a raven.
Kasimir kept riding; perhaps he was going to talk to the figure, but when he reached the figure, it vanished.
I hate magic, thought Felewin.
When he was halfway across the bridge, it became obvious to Felewin that one of the two statues on the eastern arch had broken, leaving one knight charging a horse’s hindquarters. Once they were past the broken arch, the horses seemed fine; the wind was pushing them away from it, anyway.
The ruins of the half-statue were scattered across the road; the group picked their way through the stones. Beyond the arch, the road became more a gravel path that hugged the side of the mountain. They rode single-file because they had no choice. In a few places, sheltered from the wind, snow had accumulated, as deep as the horses’ knees. The snow was dry and powdery, though, so it was relatively easy to walk through albeit slowly.
Kasimir did call back, “We might not get to the temple before mid-day.”
“You think?” muttered Ninefingers so that only Felewin could hear.
They rode for a bit more, and then Ninefingers said, “Kasimir, you’ve said it will be dangerous. Tell us about the temple.”
Kasimir said, “It was built by monks or wizards who worshiped a god who kept secrets. Its name is forgotten, but they imprisoned a number of evil entities, maybe gods. Those entities are still imprisoned there, vastly reduced by time and lack of worshipers…but still evil. Eventually their mere presence overcame the monks, who killed each other.[3]”
“Oh, this is the monks of Gubleshon-Tamar,” said Ninefingers.
“You’ve heard of them?”
“They were a footnote in a history I once learned, but my teacher seized on them as an emblem of fallibility. I’m not sure one in a hundred sages would know of them.”
“There are other automated traps and immortal beings who are charged with defending the temple,” said Kasimir. “Strahd can avoid them, of course. In the depths of the temple are the sarcophagi where the entities are trapped. They cannot be freed nor can they really be questioned. I am told that each one offers a gift.”
“The cost is your soul,” said Uthrilir.
“There is a cost, certainly. And you become by some measure more evil, but if it is to right a wrong…” Kasimir let his voice trail off. “One offers the gift of the Vampyr—that is the gift that Strahd took. I am told that one of the entities offers the power to raise the long dead.”
“But at a cost,” repeated Uthrilir.
“I am willing to pay,” said Kasimir, and he would speak no more.
Eventually they traveled down and came to a branch in the road. Here there was a small stand of cedar trees, stunted and twisted by the wind. Maybe sixty paces from them, an arrow shot from the copse[4]. A second arrow flew out; it also missed.
Felewin looked for the archers[5] but could not see them. Ninefingers said, “Can’t see them either.”
“We’re going closer; get ready to dismount and fight.” He kneed his horse into a gallop and headed for the trees.
Ezmerelda got her own grimoire out and looked up a spell; Hrelgi did the same.
Uthrilir prayed. “Maiden, please hear the words of your most unworthy servant that Felewin and Ninefingers might not be hurt as they deal with the bandits.”[6]
Once they were closed, Felewin[7] spotted one of the bandits, and rode directly for him.
As they got closer Felewin could see that there were four of them, and two were cranking the crossbows so they could be fired again. From close up, Felewin could see a way to ride the horse right to them, so he did.[8]
Instead of fighting, he trampled: he ran the horse over the two on the ground;[9] Ninefingers jumped off the horse[10] and onto one of the standing ones. His sword sank deeply into the man.
The fourth man held a crossbow and fired at Felewin; it looked like a good shot, but it curved in mid-air and missed the big man.[11]
Ninefingers slashed at the man beneath him, hoping to cut an artery or something vital;[12] he thought he had killed the man but didn’t know it for sure. Felewin drew his sword and hit the one who had just fired.[13]
Uthrilir continued to pray.
Hrelgi and Ezmerelda came up closer and Ezmerelda spoke a spell[14] that made all the trees transparent. From this distance, Hrelgi spoke one spell that turned a bandit’s clothes to air. He was naked and his sword fell to the ground because he hadn’t been holding it yet.
The man screamed and tried to hide himself.
Kasimir saw one man trying to run away and also spoke a spell.[15] The man froze in place.
Felewin noticed that the trees had gone transparent and knew it as magic. “Thank you,” he called, and hit the one he had been fighting[16] and then one near him. The first died; the second nearly.
Ninefingers dispatched that one, and Felewin guided his horse to the paralyzed man. Felewin quickly killed him.[17]
The trees resumed their normal appearance.
“I liked that,” said Hrelgi. “How did you do that?”
“Do you not know any of Fabrica sensus?” Ezmerelda asked.
“No,” said Hrelgi. “I’m self-taught,” she explained.
“Ah,” said Ezmerelda.
“Look,” called Felewin. “They have firewood! And food!”
“They were camping here,” said Ninefingers. “Waiting.”
“For us?”
“Maybe. Strahd did say he’d kill us.”
“Or he’s protecting the temple; Kasimir did say Strahd made some kind of deal with the entities inside.”
“No signs that this has been going on for a long time. They’d have something semipermanent. There are the latrines there, so this is new,” concluded Ninefingers.
“Point taken. Let’s be cautious.”
Ninefingers laughed, a short yip. “Like we weren’t before.”
They followed the fork in the road north. The gravel got sparser and covered under snow again and again, and eventually it was invisible under snow. By that time, they had curved up to the mountainside again, and they could the facade of a temple carved into the rock ahead.
The front of the structure was many times Felewin’s height, maybe ten times as tall. There were six alcoves cut into that facade, and each alcove held a statue carved from amber. The statues were all identical: a hooded figure so you couldn’t see the face, with hands pressed together in a gesture of prayer.
In the middle, between two alcoves, was an archway as tall as the statues. A stairway led down.
“I guess that’s where we go,” said Uthrilir. “Anybody else get uneasy looking at those statues for a long time?”
“Look somewhere else,” Hrelgi advised.
“Like that cave,” said Ezmerelda.
“Where?”
“To the west of the last alcove.”
They rode slowly, their horses and the ones they had taken from the bandits, testing the snow surface for solidity. The snow seemed to be no deeper than the horse’s knees, but Felewin insisted they go slowly. He was in the lead, and then he held up his hand for people to stop[18] and be silent. He seemed to be looking at something on the snowy ground in front of the cave. Then he turned back and met the others.
“People went in that cave but haven’t come out yet. Seven of them. An animal, probably a dire wolf, also went in but probably at the same time.”
“If they went in that way, it’s probably safer than the front door,” said Ninefingers.
“One of us stays here with the horses, the rest go in. There are five of us, but we might win if we ambush them.”
“At the very least, we’ll be blocking the exit,” said Ninefingers.
“Who watches the horses?” asked Hrelgi.
Felewin thought. Not Ninefingers or Uthrilir; their ability to see in the dark could be useful. Ezmerelda could fight as well, and that would be useful. He trusted Hrelgi while he didn’t know about Kasimir, but Kasimir had a reason not to leave: this was his quest. “Kasimir,” he said.
The elf said simply, “If you insist.”
“We’ll be out soon to call you in.” To the others, he said, “We’ll have to be quiet.”
“So you need to be last,” Ninefingers said.
“And you need to be first.” Felewin grinned. “You’re sneaky and you can see in the dark.” Ninefingers quickly established silent signals for movement, and they dismounted. It was a slog getting to the cavern, and Ezmerelda struggled.[19]
“You okay?” Felewin murmured.
“Yes,” she said. “Old injury. Shows up in deep snow or walking in rivers.”
He offered her his arm to grab, if she needed it. She did not take advantage of his offer.
The cave itself was spacious enough, for all it was open to the outside. The horses would fit here, if they survived.
Ninefingers signaled for everyone to stay.[20] He disappeared into the crack in the wall, and they all waited. Ninefingers came back and held up six fingers, then made a pawing motion. Hrelgi started flipping pages in her grimoire. They gave her a moment to find the pages and then moved single file through the fissure.
Everyone but Hrelgi and Felewin moved into the cavern at once. Hrelgi didn’t move, to be safer, but Felewin was stuck behind her.
The room was a room, not a cave, lit by torches in sconces. Six bedrolls of stitched animal furs covered the floor; the wildmen sat taking care of their weapons,, and a dire wolf was curled in a space in the middle of the room.
Big opaque amber doors were in the wall opposite, and another pair in the wall to their right. The crack they had come through was at a sort of corner: the wall next to them held a frieze of some kind.
The dire wolf was the first to notice them, and the six of them stood and faced the group. Ezmerelda shrugged off the pelt to allow herself more freedom of movement, and that’s when the leader yelled, “Stay!” The leader grabbed the ruff of the dire wolf and forcibly held it back.
“That pelt,” the leader said. “Where did it come from?”
“The pass,” said Ezmerelda. “A giant goat attacked us; we slew it.”
“Who killed Sangzor, blood of the mountain?” The leader might have been a woman or maybe a man; he or she was so encrusted with dirt and furs that it was not possible to tell. By the voice, maybe a woman.
Felewin readied himself to push past Hrelgi.
Ezmerelda looked at them all and said coolly, “I dealt the killing blow.”
“Hah!” The leader of the wildmen laughed. “Someone finally dealt with Sangzor!” The other humans laughed, too—
—and the dire wolf jerked free of the leader and leapt at Ninefingers.[21] Ninefingers stepped aside and slashed, and then[22] Ninefingers slashed again — the dire wolf wasn’t quite dead. Hrelgi was about to finish it off, but Felewin put his hand on her shoulder. “They’ll respect him more,” he told her.
Ninefingers delivered the killing blow[23] and then looked around at the others.
The wildmen hooted in appreciation.
“You are all great fighters,” the leader of the wildmen said. “We will not fight you.”
“Excellent,” said Ezmerelda.
“I’ll get Kasimir and the horses,” whispered Felewin. “Let them know we’re also here.”
Previous Chapter 30 To Tsolenka Pass — Next Chapter 32 The Search For Dark Gifts
Monsters
Vistani (bandit)
| Abilities | Fitness 3 Awareness 3 Creativity 2 Reasoning 2 Influence 2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Skill | Archery 4 (≤7), Dueling 4 (≤7), Riding 4 (≤6) | ||
| Weapons | Scimitar (2 inj) | Armor | Leather armor (1) |
Igga
| Abilities | Fitness 4 Awareness 3 Creativity 2 Reasoning 2 Influence 3 | Gimmicks | Fearless, Toughness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skills | Brawling 5 (≤9), Melee 5 (≤9), Athletics 6 (≤10), Performance (intimidation) 4 (≤6) | ||
| Weapons | Javelin (2 inj, Fit added in), Shield (2 inj, Fit added in) | Armour | 2 for high Fitness and Toughness |
Dire Wolf
| Abilities | Fitness 4 Awareness 2 Creativity 0 Reasoning 0 Influence 0 |
|---|---|
| Skills | Athletics 3 (&l3;7), Brawling 6 (≤10), Survival 4 (≤4), Tracking 2 (≤2) |
| Gimmicks | Hardened, Musclebound, Oversized, Natural Armor (2), Special Weapon (Claws: +2 inj, Teeth: 2 inj), Pack Hunter |
Game Mechanics
[1] Mythic suggested theme: Negligence Elements (PC Negative)
[2] Hrelgi rolls 5 (Materia), 6 (R+C), 8 (Ge), 9 (R+C) so she teleports waste.
[3] Legends roll, difficulty 4. Everybody rolls; no one gets their Reasoning or less except Ninefingers, who rolls a 2 which is a triumph anyway..
[4] Bandit has an archery of 7 and rolls 6; at this distance, it’s difficulty 2 to hit someone, so he fails. The other bandit rolls 7 and also fails.
[5] Felewin rolls a 5 but they are hidden: difficulty 4 to see, and he only managed margin 3.
[6] Uthrilir rolls a 3, which certainly works. The horse, Ninefingers, and Felewin all have 4 added to their armor, which puts Felewin at 7, Ninefingers at 6,and the horse at 4.
[7] Felewin rolls a 3 which spots the bandits.
[8] I’ve been eyeballing it, but now it’s time for reactions. Felewin 14 Ninefingers 12 Uthrilir 12 Hrelgi 10 Ezmerelda 9 Kasimir 10 Bandits 9 Bandit Captain 11
[9] Felewin rolls 8, which is margin of 1 for riding. The target rolls a 12, so he is trampled, and the second rolls 8, which is -1 for fighting. Because the one rolled a tragedy they both got trapped. They each take 2 Fatigue damage. Their armor does not help.
[10] Ninefingers rolls 7 for Athletics (margin -1); bandit rolls 7 on dueling (margin 0) so Ninefingers hits. Of 3 Inj, leather stops one of it so bandit takes 2 Injury.
[11] Reactions: Felewin 13 Ninefingers 14 Hrelgi 10 Uthrilir 11 Ez 13 Kas 9 Unhurt Bandit 12 Bandits 11
Ninefingers margin 4 bandit margin -2; Felewin margin 1 bandit margin -2 Unhurt bandit vs Ninefingers Margin 0; Bandit margin 3 vs Felewin
[12] Armor is no good against an attack that does Injury, so 3 levels of damage.
[13] Felewin rolls a 3 which is margin 6 (because he’s using the lower of riding or dueling); the bandit rolls 6 which is margin 1. Again, no armor against injury, so that’s 4 levels of injury.
[14] Ezmerelda rolls a 7, which is enough now that she’s close enough.
[15] Hrelgi rolled a 4,, which worked; Kasimir rolled a 7 which just worked.
[16] Felewin rolls a 5 which is margin 4. He rolls a second 5 for an attack against one of the tramped bandits.
[17] Felewin rolls 4 and 7, margins 5 and 2, and kills the man.
[18] Felewin rolls 7, which is margin of 1 on his Tracking roll.
[19] Colour because canonically, Ezmerelda has a wooden leg.
[20] Ninefingers rolls 8 on his Stealth, for margin 1.
[21] The Dire wolf rolls a 9 margin of 1 on brawling; Ninefingers rolls a 7, margin of 3 on dueling. Then Ninefingers attacks, rolling a 4 (margin of 6) and the dire wolf rolls a 7 (margin of 3). Oops for the dire wolf. It has natural armor of 2 but Ninefingers rolls 6, 3, 4 for damage so all 3 get through.
[22] Ninefingers rolls 7 (margin of 3) while dire wolf rolls 11 (margin of -3 because of injury). Damage is not as good this time (2,1,3) but one gets through. The damage means the dire wolf misses (rolls 7 for margin 0 while Ninefingers rolls 9 for margin 1 to defend).
[23] Ninefingers rolls 7 for margin 3 versus a 7 for margin 0, and does 2 damage (3,1,3). Dire wolf is dead.
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