Curse of Strahd dnd campaign

[siobhancan99]

Quinn nods "I was hoping I could convince you to kill yourself out of love for Ireena and the land. Surely you understand you're cursed. THe skulls told us you're doomed to kill the woman you love, that that was the price of your immortality. You can't thwart fate strahd. As long as you live Ireena will not be able to. You will be responsible for her death again and again. In the meantime the people of your land are miserable. they never see the sun, they live in constant fear of horrors like the abbot, werewolves, vampire spawn. The towns are crumbling, the people have no real hope that their lives will be any better. only your death can save Barovia. Only your death can save Ireena. I implore whatever is left inside you that was ever good or ever loved her to relinquish your hold on immortality."

 

[SubPhil91]

Strahd gives Quinn a puzzled look. "Kill myself? No, no I could never do that. See, I'm going to make her immortal too, that way she never dies. We would be able to rule this land together without fear of death. And each time new adventurers came trying to rid us of our immortality, they would meet the same fate you'll be faced with shortly. I've done my best to let you all have free roam if this land. In hopes that you would just stay and enjoy life instead of throwing it away like you're about to. Which is sad, Ireena does adore you so much." He takes a few step from the organ. "The skulls know nothing, they give you half bits of information and keep the truth to themselves. I think you of all people should know that. People here may never see the sun, but they can't miss what they've never seen, so I don't think that's an issue. The Abbot is gone, the werewolves are being dealt with, they have nothing else to fear. As for the towns, I give them freedom to do what they wish. To build and take care of as they see fit. I can't help some of the people just let their towns go to hell I'm afraid." He shrugs and smiles over at Ireena again.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn sighs "don't you think that would have worked the first time?" she shrugs and then brushes her hair back "guess there's nothing for it then" she clutches at the weird oddly colored stone around her neck, feeling the connection to pandemonium there. she intones harshly, quickly, gesturing at odd angles with her fingers as she brings up the hellish sickly green light of her spelll. she centers it so the party will be outside its range, but to cover as much of the room as is humanly possible. she assumes everyone will take that as a cue to ready themselves for what's next. "have at thee."

 

[SubPhil91]

Lucan takes a deep breath as he clutches at the holy symbol as he readies to use it. Through Quinn's spell she can see the image of Strahd disappear. Laughter fills the room as the illusion of Strahd breaks. Bone-chilling winds blast through the room, putting out all light in the area, outside you can hear the gate slam shut. The draw bridge can be heard pulling up slowly. Everyone hears Strahd's voice again, "I hope you didn't think it would be that easy, mighty Quinn." Lucan sighs and looks around, "Well.. Now we get to find him in this stupid maze of a castle."

 

[siobhancan99]

quinn nods "we should take a short break at some point so i can recover that spell, and honestly i didnt think it would be that easy but i was kinda hoping. you know?" she shakes her head "its too bad we dont have an inside man to just tell us where to go. any suggestions?"

 

[SubPhil91]

Lucan thinks for a moment, "Well, Madam Eva said we'd meet him in his throne room. So I have to assume thats where he is. Where we could take a break.. Or whether he will even let us or not when we just tried to attack him, I doubt it.. But if thats what you want to do, we could find a room to hold up in for a bit and hope it works. If not we will just have to fight him wherever we are at the time. Its up to you." Ireena sighs heavily, "it will never be that easy. If it were, he would have been dead long ago."

 

[siobhancan99]

quinn nods "well. that sucks.lets wander around and if we find a likely place, i just need 5 minutes or so to focus" she gestures towards the door "well shall we head out to the receiving hall or whatever the fuck? i admit i don't know anything about castles. this is literally my first."

 

[SubPhil91]

Ireena leads you all back into the great entry with the gargoyles, still squatting motionlessly. She looks around before leading you down another long hall leading to another set of double doors. She opens the doors slowly and peaks inside. "Hmmm, what about here?"

Dim, colored light filters through tall, broken, and board-
ed-up windows of stained glass, illuminating the ancient
chapel of Raven loft. A few bats flutter about near the top
of the ninety-foot-high domed ceiling. A balcony runs the
length of the west wall, fifty feet above the floor. In the
center of the balcony, two dark shapes are slumped in
tall chairs.
Benches coated with centuries of dust lie about the
floor in jumbled disarray. Beyond this debris, lit by a
piercing shaft of light, an altar stands upon a stone plat-
form. The sides of the altar are carved with bas-reliefs of
angelic figures entwined with grape vines. The light from
above falls directly on a silver statuette. A cloaked figure
is draped over the altar, and a black mace lies on the
floor near its feet.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn swallows and looks over at lucan "wonder what that's about" she gestures at the mace "is your weapon magic? if that is and yours isnt maybe we should take it" she moves towards the chapel "any way to tell if this place is still concecrated? might be a place we could spend a few minutes" she inhales, then exhales, trying to resume her connection with the lord of nightmares and regain her spell.

 

[SubPhil91]

Lucan shakes his head before stepping inside. "It might be magical but I use warhammers, not maces. We should be okay to spend some time here though." You all take some time to rest in the church, regaining Quinn's spell slot with no interruptions. Ireena looks over the group. "Should we head to the throne room then? Or should we look elsewhere first?"

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn hmmms "there's time to explore after, unless there's a resting place of his or something?" she looks over at lucan "i mean, is there any reason to find his resting place or do we just attack him in the throne room and throw down?" she heads for the door "i mean, you know me, im inclined to kick a door in but not if its going to screw us in the end. you're the expert"

 

[SubPhil91]

"If we find his place of resting first we'd have an advantage. If we kill him that's where he will retreat to, so he can heal. He's immortal so we will have to actually kill him there. But that could be anywhere in the castle.. We could wait, after we kill him the first time we should have an hour to find him before he regenerates." Lucan looks around knowing it would be tough to find him in the large castle in under an hour. But its not impossible.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn nods "lets find it first." she brushes her hair out of her face "so do you think he will go high? or go low? i mean, he probably didnt make the sun disappear right away so im gonna guess he's below ground? but that's pure conjecture"

 

[SubPhil91]

Lucan nods as he starts looking for a way downstairs. "I would assume there's somewhere to keep something like that underneath the castle." After a few minutes you all find a set of stairs leading down. You start moving down them, being careful to look out for anything that might harm you or set off a trap as you do. You all walk down for a while, when you reach the bottom you realize you've gone down at least seventy feet.

Buried deep beneath the keep of Raven loft lie ancient
catacombs, with arched ceilings supported by wide, hol-
low columns that double as crypts. Cobwebs hang limp
in the musty air. A thick fog clings to the Acor, which is
covered in putrid waste. The black ceiling is moving.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn makes a face Gross" then looks up at the cieling "if that's movibng there might be some sort of awful creature up there. we should keep an eye out" fortunately quinn can seemighty well in the dark, and so she scans the area, looking for coffins or doors or archways, anything she can interact with in the gloom. Finding that the colums are also crypts she gestures "lets have a look. see if any of these are strahd's"

 

[SubPhil91]

Lucan's eyes glow as he casts detect magic and you all begin walking past crypt, after crypt. Many knights, kings, queens, barons, inventors, and other people of nobility lie here. As you pass one Lucan stops and looks inside, grabbing a blade from inside. "Wow.. This may be useful one day." He takes another moment to identify the item, "Useful indeed.. Can use this to cast the wish spell." Everyone checks some of the crypts as you move along, just to check whats inside even if the names don't mean anything to you. After passing eighty crypts the group collects 15,000 gold, various valuable gems, and a few magic scrolls.

You reach crypt 85, a golden plaque next to a large set of double doors reads "Sergei." Across the hall another reads "Strahd." And the final crypt in this very long labyrinth of crypts reads "King Barov and Queen Ravenovia." Lucan looks at the final crypts, "Not surprising they would all be the last.. Their parents, and his brother. I'm surprised he didn't destroy his brothers crypt though to be honest."

 

[siobhancan99]

QUinn chuckles "i don't supppose we can wish strahd back to Human again eh?" she shakes her head and looks over the crypts "maybe he couldn't destroy his brother's. maybe its holy or something?" she hmmms "can we trap strahd's with holy water so if he runs back down here after the fight he gets a holy water bath or something? just a thought. feel free to tell me i'm dumb or whatever"

 

[SubPhil91]

Lucan laughs and shakes his head. "I dont think its an awful idea, definitely not something I would have come up with. I would be tempted to use that as our wish, if I knew how powerful his deal was with who made him immortal. I would save wish for something else, or use it now what does it matter? This might be it." Lucan looks over Sergei's crypt.

White marble steps descend to a tomb that has a vaulted
ceiling thirty feet overhead. A stillness-a calm amid the
storm-is felt here. In the center of the tomb, a white
marble slab supports an intricately inlaid coffin. Chis-
eled into the slab is a name: Sergei von Zarovich. To the
north, behind the coffin, are three alcoves. A beautifully
carved statue stands in each alcove-a stunning young
man flanked by two angels-looking as polished and new
as the day each was placed there. An iron lever protrudes
from the south wall, west of the tomb's entrance.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn chuckles "i think that we save it to save me from the consequence of asking to be able to raise the dead. if someone could wish strahd away i think the abbot would have tried." she looks around "alright. i think we leave the lever alone for now. we dont want to set off a trap or something. lets head upstairs, find the throne room and have at strahd. we know the way down here in case he escapes to his crypt, and if he doesnt well. he doesnt i guess. i dunno" she shifts a bit and brushes her hand through her hair "no point in faffing about"

 

[SubPhil91]

Lucan nods, "Okay. Good plan for wish, we need to get that stuff out of your system. Yeah lever doesn't get touched, that's the last thing we need right now. Now, let's go end this." He clutches his holy symbol and takes a deep breath as you all head out. You ascend the stairs back to the ground floor of the castle. You've looked around most of this floor and haven't seen a throne room so head to the second floor.

Dim light from the courtyard falls into this great hall
through the broken glass and iron latticework of a large
window in the west wall. This immense room is a place
of chilly, brooding darkness. Empty iron sconces dot
the walls. Hundreds of dust-laden cobwebs drape the
hall, hiding the ceiling from view. Directly across from
the window stand a set of double doors in the east wall.
Farther south, a single door also leads from the east wall.
Staircases at both ends of the north wall lead down.
At the far southern end of the hall, a large wooden
throne stands atop a marble dais. The high-backed
throne faces south, away from most of the room.

Strahd looks down at all of you from his wooden throne. "Well, that took a bit longer than expected. I suppose we don't need to deal with the niceties this time?" He sets down his glass of wine and stands up looking over the group. He claps his hands together before pointing them forward. Cold, icy wind shoots forward, washing over all of you.

[You can counterspell if you'd like, up to you.]

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn reacts, throwing up a counterspell in reaction to the blast. "i can either counter another of those or throw up that light" she shouts to Lucan, trusting his battle instincts and viewing him as the tactician of the group. for now though, she grabs the odd little stone around her neck, feeling that swirling chaos within. she extends two fingers and harsh alien sounds erupt from her mouth as she intones the power of her patron, the lord of nightmares. two strangely coloured, indescribable bolts launch from her fingers, streaking towards strahd. they wouldnt move hin, perched as he is on his throne, but if there were any gods watching they would hit and hopefully hurt. "everyone scatter so he can't catch us all together!"

 

[SubPhil91]

The first bolt misses, but the second hits him. A red glow fills the room coming from the tall tower. Lucan sighs and moves over as everyone scatters. Lucan holds the holy symbol closer and activates it, casting sunlight over Strahd who holds up his hands. Strahd tries to cover his face as he lets out a yell of pain. He glares over at Lucan as Erlen launches a couple arrows at Strahd. As he does the same red glow appears from the tower. Marius starts casting a spell, the cold starting to turn cold. He points his hands toward Strahd ready to launch the spell. Strahd raises his hand and the spell fizzles. Ireena runs forward with the sunsword in hand and starts attacking Strahd. The red glow becomes more faint as she hits him twice. As Ezmerelda attempts to throw a vial a vampire spawn appears behind her and starts to attack her. She pulls out her sword and attacks it.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn hmmms as taking down strahd is the main mission, but taking down someone harrassing es might free her up to fight strahd. she's in analysis paralysis for a few seconds, then figures she can see how much fight there is in the spawn before attacking it. she turns and launches another few bolts at strahd, wondering what the red light is. is it some sort of reserve of health? is it a protective spell? is it just a manfiestation of strahd? all questions that were interesting but unlikely to be answered any time soon. Instead of pondering, she arcs another few eldritch blasts at strahd, deftly threading them over Lucan's shoulder (spell sniper).

 

[SubPhil91]

The two blasts from Quinn hit Strahd and he turns his attention toward Ireena. His eyes glow faintly as he speaks to her. "You don't want to attack me, silly. You want to take a seat and wait for me to kill your friends, don't you?" Ireena's body goes stiff and she takes a few steps away before sitting down. Lucan looks over and sighs, "That's dirty.." He attacks Strahd with his Warhammer as Erlen hits him with two arrows. Ezmerelda attacks the spawn which seems to put up a decent fight as it bites down on her. Ezmerelda let's out a cry of pain as it bites down hard on her.

 

[siobhancan99]

Quinn groans, as es is the only one besides ireena that seems trained to use the suns word thing. she turns towards es, then launches off another volley of eldritch blasts, trying to smal the thing back off of her ""ES get to Ireena's blade! i'll hold that thing off of us for now!" she calls over, needing that terrible magical sword to be used in full effect on the real enemy.