As I mentioned before, I'm currently in two D&D groups. The AD group meets monthly and is also playing Curse of Strahd, so there's going to be some overlap especially with the first few posts as the adventure begins in the same place (although it's said to be a sandbox-style adventure later on, so I'll be interested to see how things differ between the two groups). This group also started several months ago, and as we only meet once a month my memory is a bit more hazy on the early days of our adventures than it is with the GC group.
NOTE: CURSE OF STRAHD SPOILERS WILL BE CONTAINED IN THESE POSTS
In this group I play Seesil, a deliberate lizardfolk druid. Seesil began life in the world of Numenera with my last group in Iowa before we moved. He participated in defeating the Lich King using the Words of Power, then journeyed to destroy the lich's phylactery. However the group discovered they had been manipulated into releasing the god of evil and then gathered the corrupted words of power. Seesil himself was imbued with the corrupted word of Cannibalism. Long story short, our party doomed the world by releasing the evil god, then accidentally helped the Lich King return instead of destroying him by reliving his memories correctly, and then liberated a town from a tyrant we had earlier driven over the edge into full on paranoia. At that time, Seesil found himself engulfed by a mysterious fog, and he moved on. I'm not sure if the rest of the party ever got out of the mess we had inadvertently created.
Cut to moving to California and starting with the AD group. Seesil (translated from Numenera into D&D) found himself in a clearing with a couple other people. None of them could remember where they came from, and none of them knew where they were. We introduced ourselves to each other: Sagira, a tiefling sorceress whose power came from the Phoenix; Rek, a half-orc barbarian; Colin Walker, a half-elf cleric; and Elduin Longshadow, a half-elf ranger. The fog opened onto a path in only one direction, so we proceeded down the path and came upon two children crying outside a 3 story house. We asked them what was wrong, and they told us there was a monster in the basement, and their parents were gone, could we please take care of the monster for them? They were scared. We conferred amongst ourselves. Elduin was in favor of entering the house, as we could loot a lot of stuff. Rek liked the idea of fighting monsters, and the rest of us decided we should help the children. Seesil also wanted to look for food like insects in the walls, as the house looked rather old, and he was hungry. We entered the house, and in the first room came across a longsword with a handsome engraving on the hilt. Elduin checked it very carefully for traps (this would become a theme, as he first approached carefully, and looked the item over, then ran his hands around the wall gently, looking for any sign of danger). Eventually, he took the sword. When doom did not instantly befall the party, we moved on. After looting the silverware, and finding a disturbingly well stocked pantry (full of food that did not look aged at all) in a house that was oddly free of dust (or, much to Seesil's disappointment, insects of any kind) we moved upstairs.
On the second floor, we explored the library, finding many books (several of which Elduin stuffed into his pack) and as we explored, we found one book that was different from the others. Upon pulling on it, the bookcase moved aside, revealing a hidden room. The room contained a chest, with the skeleton of a previous thief hanging over it, the skeleton's hand still inside the chest. We determined the skeleton had been killed by poison darts, but having set the trap off ahead of us, we were able to safely loot the chest of its spell scrolls, the deed to both the house and a windmill, and a note from one Strahd von Zarovich. The note informed the recipient that Strahd was not some dark savior, but a cruel lord who reveled in the debasement of the recipient, and that no matter how many people the recipient sacrificed on their hidden altar, Strahd would not lift them out of their predicament. Exploring the secret room further, we found many books on dark magic, cults and the occult, but Colin informed us that all of them were written by charlatans pretending to know what they were talking about. We left and proceeded upstairs to the third floor, where a suit of armor attacked us as we walked past! After taking a few swings at us however, Rekey dispatched the thing with a mighty blow from her great axe, and we were able to continue our exploration.
I no longer remember exactly what we explored on the third floor after dispatching the armor, but we were eventually able to discover a hidden set of stairs that led into the attic. Not pausing to question why the stairs were hidden, we went up. At the top of the stairs we found doors to several rooms, one of which was locked. I believe we had Rek open the door rather forcefully (after carefully checking for traps). Inside we found two small cots, some children toys, and two small skeletons on the floor next to a dollhouse that was an exact replica of the very house we were in. Upon examining the doll house we determined there was another hidden staircase leading past all three floors of the house hidden in another room in the attic. However at that time, the ghosts of the two children we had met outside appeared before us and asked what we were there for. Their appearance startled Sagira, who absentmindedly set their skeletons on fire. The ghosts informed us that they had not left this room in years, and that it had not been them we had met outside. They had been locked in the room by their parents regularly when guests would come over, but one time their parents had not returned to let them out. And so they had died alone in their attic room. We promised to try to put things right for them, and turned to leave, but they pleaded with us not to leave them alone, and to stay and play with them. Knowing we would need still to defeat the monster in the basement, we moved on. But as we left, the ghosts attempted to jump into two of us. Sagira succeeded at her saving throw and resisted the older child's possession attempt, but the younger boy successfully jumped into Seesil, and Seesil, shouting that he wanted to play, turned to attack his friends. This was short lived, and Rek and Sagira together applied enough nonlethal force (and probably fire) that the ghost left Seesil's body. However, Seesil felt bad for them, and gathered the ashes from their skeletons in his bag to bring along. With that, and some more checking for traps, we proceeded to the secret staircase down into the basement.
To be continued!
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