If you're new to this series about running Curse of Strahd as a sandbox for ShadowDark, there have been a few other posts (here). The previous post relayed the "gauntlet" I ran for the party, which brought a set of zero-level peasants from the capital city of Specularum, in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, through a haunted house, The Death House; when they left Death House they discovered they had been displaced to the lost valley of Barovia and were now trapped, elsewhere.
The characters had an immediate interaction with Count Strahd, who was supernaturally aware of the destruction of Death House (and more importantly, it's an opportunity to immediately get the antagonist in the face of the players, establish a power dynamic, and let them know he'll be seeing them again, on his time). Strahd welcomed the characters to Barovia, where new blood is always welcome, and he implored them to leave behind some of the happiness they brought in with them - because you've got to wave to Bram Stoker, naturally. But mainly he warned them to stay away from his future bride, a girl in the villages, and to be on the lookout for an invite to his castle, which would come when he was ready for them.
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| Not from Curse of Strahd... but definitely how Strahd looks in this campaign. |
The players went on to wander the darkened village, encountering an infant-stealing crone, Morgantha, whom they spared in trade for various secrets she divulged. (Actually she just wanted to spill dirt on the Count and send them his way). They next landed at the only open establishment in town, the tavern, where they caroused. Carousing is a ShadowDark rule that lets players burn some money and earn experience in-between adventures. Through carousing, they met the mayor's son (Ismark), who introduced him to his sister (Ireena), whom they quickly figured out was the village girl being courted/stalked by the vampire. They helped the pair bury their dead father, the former mayor.
At the village church where they buried the mayor, their first brush with horror was the priest's son, Doru, who was trapped in the undercroft of the church after being turned into a vampire some time ago and sent to terrorize his father. His mournful wails of hunger from below the floor drew them like moths. Since the players purport to be vampire slayers, they eagerly descended into the undercroft and slew Doru, but not before Imthal, their thief, was in-turn killed by the vampire spawn.
By the time they were ready to leave Barovia, here are the various plot hooks and ideas the characters had accumulated through these interactions:
- Castle Ravenloft is open to them anytime (from the conversation with Strahd)
- They should go get their fortunes read by Madame Eva at Tser Pool (the crone)
- Some of Strahd's enemies once lived at a ruin called Argynvostholt (the crone)
- Some of Strahd's secrets are hidden in the Amber Temple in the high mountains (the crone)
- The crone lives in the old windmills (the crone)
- A safe place for Ismark and Ireena could be Vallaki, the next village (Ismark)
- Wine is running out in the valley, there must be a problem at the winery (from the tavern)
- There's a magic pool and holy abbey in the village of Krezk far to the west (Donavich the village priest)
If you look online for Curse of Strahd advice, most of it is targeted at structuring it more like a story-driven adventure path with a pre-planned plot. I'm committed to going in the opposite direction and leaning into the sandbox elements; therefore it's important for the players to have enough information about their options and to be free to make plans. As I relate these reports, I'll continue to point out things I'm doing to make the sandbox approach work.
After the death of Imthal at the hands of the vampire spawn Doru, Imthal's player converted one of the surviving peasants (who also survived the Death House gauntlet) into a bard, Ergamal, and he joined the others. They decided the trip to the next village, Vallaki, made the most sense; they would be escorting Strahd's target, Ireena, away from Barovia, doing what he expressly asked them not to do, so they wanted to put some distance between them and the ominous castle towering over the village of Barovia. They also figured that Vallaki was centrally located and would be a good place to pursue all the other ideas. They're reconciled to the idea that they're trapped in Barovia and have assumed they'll need to accumulate some levels and some magic items in order to confront Strahd and break the curse keeping the valley isolated.
ShadowDark's author, Kelsey, had previewed some ShadowDark specific hex crawl and camping rules recently; we got the chance to use them on the trip to Vallaki so I'll also do a mini-review of those next time out. In the meantime, here is our cast of characters for this campaign:
Cast of Characters ("The Drips")
Miral - elf fighter - he's the one who declared them as vampire slayers and has been the group's combat MVP. He got plate mail in Death House ("nice drip, dude") and this became the group monniker.
Glaud - Glaud is a human priest of Ord, neutral god of secrets, and a font of relentless ORD puns... This is no ORD-inary situation, we must restore ORD-er, stop this dis-ORD-erly nonsense. He claimed a spear in Death House, which he named The Brittany Spear, his favored weapon. (I let him swap longsword for spear on the priest weapons list, figuring a spear works fine for a neutral priest).
Claren - elf ranger. Quiet but effective bowman.
Tzip - human wizard - Tzip has 17 strength and frequently does grunt work like opening doors, despite being the party's wizard. His player jokes he was the 'sorcerer's apprentice' who never stopped carrying buckets of water up and down stairs and now he's built like a wall.
Imthal (now deceased) - human thief - Imthal's great trick was quadruple backstab, but only 2 hit points, so he was basically a yo-yo; he'd get knocked to zero, get healed, knocked down again, healed again, which was a great source of comedy until the vampire spawn chose to keep draining him unto death. The players didn't take precautions with his corpse so he'll be back... muhaha.
Ergamal - human bard - he got his chance to shine in Vallaki, more to come on Ergamal next game report.
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