DnD Write up: Surviving the house

Hey guys, so this is my first write up of the DnD campaign I am currently playing through with some friends and as we have played two sessions so far, this will be a really long post.

We're playing through the Curse of Strahd premade campaign and the first section of this post was graciously written up by our dungeon master Lucas.  We played the second session last Sunday and I have written up what happened but please bear in mind I am no writer!  I hope you find it entertaining and without any further stalling or adding anymore to the word count of this post, please enjoy;

Last Session

The group made their way through a thick fog, wandering aimlessly for several hours the mist cleared and they found themselves travelling along a road through the forest.  

They found a mysterious gateway and passed through, the gates closing behind them. Continuing along the road they found the remains of a messenger, gnawed on by large wolves. He was carrying a letter send by the Burgomaster of Barovia, who's daughter Ireena Kolyana has been bitten by a vampire.  Concerned about the closing howls of wolves the group quickly continued on their journey.They soon left the forest and after another hour of travel arrived at a small town. 

The buildings once must've looked fancy and impressive but now seem rotten and abandoned. The streets were empty with the exception of two small children asking our adventurers for help with a monster in the basement of their home.  

Exploring the children's house firstly they noticed an immediate lack of a basement but nevertheless went on to explore they upper floors. On the first floor they found an office and library, but upon attempting to loot the pristine looking books they immediately started to crumble and fall apart - could there be some sort of illusion at work? 

Soon they found a secret chamber behind one of the book cases where a poor adventurer found their early demise. The letter found in the secret camber alluded to a secret cult worshiping the dark lord of this land, Strahd, who in turn did not appear to be all too flattered. The letter also revealed some information about a secret affair the master of the house had with the maid, resulting in a stillborn child.   

Finally on the second floor our heroes were confronted with an animated suit of armour and the spectre of the nursemaid. As well as finding a secret staircase. They then went on to take a long rest in the office before going on.  

Climbing all the way to the attic our adventurers uncovered the locked bedchamber of the children - inside their skeletons and ghosts. The ghosts didn't appear to be hostile - just clingy - after a quick check of the room our heroes tried to leave resulting in the necromancer Randal being possessed by the ghost of the boy, although not taking over control the boy imposed his emotional state onto Randal putting him into a constant state of fear. The remaining heroes managed to leave the room unscathed, and naturally they took the children's remains with them. Taking the secret staircase the group entered the basement, immediately finding some prepared family crypts where they laid the children's remains to rest, ending Randal's possession. 

Slowly exploring the dungeon our heroes, haunted by constant chanting from bellow, revealed the living space of the cannibalistic cult. Fighting several undead our adventurers ended up in a shrine with the statue of a pale man holding an orb. When trying to take the orb they were attacked by several shadows and were faced with their most challenging fight yet and after decided to take their second long rest of the adventure back in the office before trying to find out what other secrets the shrine and rest of the dungeon may hold...

(Many thanks to our DM Lucas for typing that up for me!)

This Session

Curious, Ravaen goes up the stairs and looks behind the dusty curtain obscuring the space beyond whilst Rand takes the orb from the statue and stows in his pack.  At the top of the stairs is a ladder than goes up to a trap door that leads back into the living room of the house.

Ravaen comes back down and sneaks around a corner and goes to put her ear up to the door there. As she approaches the door, it begins to shimmer and reveals itself to be a mimic which immediately attacks.  The two shades that Randal had previously taken control of swiftly defeat the mimic and the adventurers move into a room that has a table and two wing backed chairs with an empty flagon on the table.  past that room is what appears to be some sort of bedroom with a small chest and a crate. 

Whilst rummaging through the crate two ghasts appear and attack the party and Ravaen who was closest jumps back to move away from the ghasts leaving Randal the closest target and the ghasts fall upon him, paralysing and then incapacitating the necromancer.  As Randal falls to the floor, the skeleton raised from the dead adventurer found in the last session crumbles to dust and the two shades who were under Randals control are freed and join the attack on the now diminished party.

Sirris uses his armoured form to block the corridor so that the now freed shades cannot get into the room and stabilises the dying Randal before casting sacred flame after sacred flame to try and stop the approaching undead.  Ravaen meanwhile is darting in and out of the fight using her daggers to try and kill the ghasts in the room and manages to finally neutralise one.

As a last ditch attempt to possibly escape, Sirris casts turn undead and both the remaining ghast and one of the shades turn and flee from the holy light, however one of the shades continues to atttack Sirris and he becomes weaker and weaker as his strength is drained by it's unholy attacks until he finally succumbs and dies a hero's death.

Seeing Sirris fall, Ravaen lunges at the remaining ghast and finishes it off before draining two healing potions at the same time as she herself was near death.  She manages to quickly finish off the Shade that Sirris was fighting and then awaits the return of the last enemy which was now freed from the influence of the holy light which died along with Sirris.  Using the last of her strength and with tears in her eyes, Ravaen struggles with the final Shade, finally slaying it.

Ravaen wearily returns to Randal and helps him to his feet and together they lift Sirris' lifeless body onto the bed into the room before saying a few words and using a small amount of alchemists fire to cremate the corpse.  Randal collects the ashes and swears to scatter the fallen cleric on hallowed ground once they escape this cursed land.  They then return to the office upstairs where they can rest and recover their strength in a hastily barricaded room.

As they return downstairs after a long rest, they come across a very confused barbarian.   Another survivor from the battle they had fought before they became lost in the mists and found this cursed town.  He has forgotten his name, taking many blows to the head during the battle but remembers that he is part of the same mercenary group as our heros and fell into the same trap, with the children asking him to investigate a monster in the basement of their home.

Together they all head back into the basement and down the last set of stairs which leads them into a pitch black room, Ravaen leads the way with her dark vision and the other two light a small lantern to see where they are stepping.  Entering a room guarded by a portcullis, they find themselves knee deep in water surrounding an altar set upon a raised dais in the middle of the room.At the back of the room is a small cave like alcove containing a large pile of refuse.

Ravaen goes to the altar to investigate and as she touches it many spectral, hooded figures appear all around the perimeter of the room and begin chanting "One must die! One must die!".   Seeing as the spectres are completely incorporeal and don't seem to offer any real threat, the adventurers go to investigate the refuse at the back of the room but as they touch it, it begins to shift and coalesce into a large amorphous beast which attacks.

After a lengthy battle with the beasts attention being keep by the barbarian and Ravaen inflicting horrific damage from behind (and Randal missing with every single shot from his crossbow as there were no undead for him to raise nor control) the beast is slain.

However as soon as the creature falls, the building starts to shake and collapse.  With only Ravaen nimble enough to dodge the falling debris, both the barbarian and Randal get hit and injured, and as they run for the exit, the door transforms into a mass of whirling blades.  Ravaen deftly dodges the blades and makes it outside and as Randal trys to follow, however the blades bite deeply into his flesh and he falls to the floor outside.  The barbarian also gets injured by the blades but keeps his balance. 

As the adventurers look back at the house, strangely it appears completely undamaged.  Walking to the door, Ravaen throws alchemists fire into the entrance and not bothering to stay and watch the house burn, the adventurers head for the inn to rest up and recover from their harrowing experiences within the haunted mansion they only just survived.

See you next time for the next chapter of the story.

Troez.