This is going to be my second time DMing ever. And I'm doing so because our regular DM's birthday is coming and he wants to play as a character for once. A bit of explaining on the problem I'm facing: We started playing Curse of Strahd a while back, and are currently quite advanced in the main story; however, since players have been added to the party recently, he justified their sudden appearance by claiming they were prisoners (We were on Strahd's castle). So I came up with the idea that for his birthday we play and see what happened to the adventurers that were in these characters party. Therefore I immediately looked into the Adventurer's League modules, but after reading a couple of them (and adapting them to the backstory of the crew), I realized that these adventures are poorly written. And now I don't know what to run for the session. My objective is to kill most of the PCs save for those that are in pur main party now. (Mineh and Eight Shadows).
Can anyone recommend a quest that's located in Barovia that will prove challenging enough as to either kill or plane shift a bunch of level 5 characters?
This is the backstory I got so far (I know it's got ssome typos, also, I'm sorry if the sentence structure is flawed, english is not my main language):
Chapter 1:
The Raging Unicorn Band formed as many others in the tavern "The Yawning Portal", was originally a simple group of first timer adventurers. In the beginningt only three members were part of the group, Mineh, Rollo Telvanni, a fierce archer and Neloth, a young and somewhat fool bard.
Volo (somewhat of a big celebrity writer and storyteller) apporached the group and asked them for help, there had apparently been various goblin sightings in the vicinities of Waterdeep, it was nothing for sure, but this guys looked like they could handle it if something were to actually be gping on. Little did they know, upon accepting the quest that their destinies would be changed forever.
In the forest east from Waterdeep, While scouting, Rollo spotted the corpse of a goblin and upon telling his companions, followed the path all the way to what appeared to be the entrance to a secret sunken city. Near the entrance they heard what appeared to be fighting going on, following their ears, and preparin both, weapons and spells, they found a lone blue Dragonborn barbarian fighting against 4 Kobolds and 2 Goblins, behind her the barely breathing body of a wounded Aaorka, it did not look well, Rollo and Neloth were hesitant to intervene, but Mineh did not stop even for a second, she wouldn't let these foul creatures take any more lives. She joined the fight, almost breaking the neck of a Kobold on the first strike, A couple of arrows flew right past her ending one of the Goblins as well. The Dragonborn striked again, very few enemies remained, and that's when a half- orc emerged from the forest, the head of an elf on one hand, an axe on the other. As the fight continued, the half-orc positioned himself to kill Mineh, however, in an act of either bravery or foolery, Neloth jumped onwards, receiving the full force of the attack dying almost instantly.
Mineh, awestruck, was unable to move as the half-orc readied another attack, she was barely able to dodge the attack as the Dragonborn charged with all her might on the creature, its jaw broken, the greenish body of the once frightful creature fell on the ground lifeless. Alrissa, the Dragonborn Barbarian fell as well, not dead, but vey tired. A few minutes passed before Beijeon, an elf warlock who was part of Alrissa's party found them and after Rollo and Mineh explained everything, decided they were not at edault for what happened. Upon inspection he declared that de Aaorka, a blood-hunter that was traveling with them was dead as well. They camped there, together, they decided the forest was too dangerous for two rookies and Alrissa's wounds were too many for her to travel without rest. After a couple of days of traveing together, they found and killed the orc chieftain that was ordering the others to attack adventurers, he was looking for a magical creature so rare that even scholars have trouble deciding if it ctually exists, a pure golden unicorn.
After ending the life of the orc, they all returned to Waterdeep, where they had agreed to dissolve the alliance. Celebrating a job well done and mourning those who had passed away, Mineh looked out the window and for a couple of seconds saw what appeared to be the shimmering golden glow of an unusually large uni-horned horse. She then realized, their adventures were far from over. Over the years the Raging Unicorn band had many members come and go. They traveled to various different locations, and even became known as an up and coming adventurer group. One month before the beginning of our adventure the Raging Unicorn band was hired to look into a certain situation: The Star Mounts, in the middle of the High Forest had always been a calm place, but a couple of months back something strange began happening, sheep from nearby towns started to disappear, wolves were acting very bold, attacking everything and averyone on sight, what's more, a mist seemed to appear out of nowhere covering the terrain people who had been unlucky enough to be caught in it started disappearing.
Eight Shadows Snow, who had recently joined the band was approached by an old woman claiming his husband had entered the mist a couple days back and he had not returned yet, she feared the worst. After teling everyone of this situation, the band decided to take action and headed straight there, it wasn't long before the mist swallowed them, one by one. Beijeon and the others are now, unbeknownst to them, in another plane of existence, Barovia.
Chapter 2:
Upon exiting the fog, Charleen, a Kenku Warlock told the others that something did not feel right. The grass is strange, and a chill can be felt on the air. As they continue to move forward Eight Shadows makes a statment that should've been obvious from the moment they emerged from the mist. "We are no longer on The Star Mounts"- he said, whispering, almost purring it out. It was clear, they weren't, there were no mountains and the smell of the air was completely different from before. Ueani High-Hill, a halfling bard student of the College of Lore,(Bards of the College of Lore know something about most things, collecting bits of knowledge from sources as diverse as scholarly tomes and peasant tales) and long-time part of the group said commented that even in all the books she had read, a transporting mist was unheard of. A few miles ahead, Rollo, with his Drow eyes spotted what seemed to be a village. It was wirtten in an old musky sign barely still hanging from a branch, the name of the town they were heading into: Orasnou. Though there weren't many building in Orasnou, one caught Airini's eye, a shop called "The Hare & Hair". Arini had been in and off the group several times, it was in her nature to be lonely, but she cherished the friends she had made in the group. Arini was a Gith Cleric of the Arcana Domain. As they entered the shop, they were greeted by an old man. It was him that informed them of their actual current location. "The duchy of Barovia. The domain of Lord Strahd von Zarovich, may he be healthy and well."- He tells them. After a few questions, they understand the situation and are aback. It was Rollo that told them to see it as he did: "An adventuring oportunity, unlike any before". This seemed to boost the party's morale, save for Passol, an earth Genassi, Paladin of Talos, god of Storms, and Alrissa.
After some investigation and before deciding where to go, they are told of some strange things that have happened. Apprantly a wolf pup was abandonned in the village a couple of days ago, and a man was taking care of it until it escaped that very morning. Also a married couple disappeared a couple of nights ago. The Raging Unicorn Band decided to explore the surrounding area and search for the missing people, as they do so, they are faced with gruelsome creatures th inhabit this parts, zombies. In the midst of the fight a blizzard envelops the battlefield, making it that much harder to fight. After defeating the zombies, Passol finds a road and leads everyone into the forest. It's in there that they find the dismembered body of a man, the one that disappeared, it's clear to them that a beast attacked him and Ueani determines the bites to be from a wolf, a big bad wolf. As they follow the track left by the creature, they find a wolf cub crying. As they approach it a growl can be heard behind them, the cub's mother, baring her fangs is ready to attack. They fight the wolf, it seemed smarter than most creatures of its kind and a minute too late, as Alrissa's axe splits the wolf's head right in the middle, Airini spots a pendant hanging from its neck. Upon death, the wolf turns back to its original form, a human, her cub, lifeless, remains in beast form. Though terrible, this is something the Raging Unicorn Band has to understand about Barovia: Nothing is as it seems.
Chapter 3:
After spending a couple of days lost in the forest, our heroes are able to find their way back to the village of Orasnou. As they reached the entrance, they noticed there were a lot more people than before. In the inn, Ueani starts playing her lute, attracting the attention of everyone and paying close attention to all around her. At the same time, Beijeon and Arini start to gather information on what's been going on, they learned a lot but the most important things were the following:
*The Burgomaster recently inreaed the amount of guards he used to protecct his house
*There was a newcomer in town that acted especially weird. He wore a wolfskin capand only ever spoke to with Fillar, to whom he delivered variou high quality items. He seemed to head out of town every day, returning with the items very early during the day.
*Apparently a strange and mystical item somehow related to Strahd is somewhere in the village, word of its existence is what's brought this many people here.
Charleen felt uneasy in town, a lot of people seemed to despise the way he looked, so he chose to stick to the shadows. The Raging Unicorn Band decide to investigate the situation and discover this newcomer's name to be Arik, when they tried to talk to him, he would hide his face and turn around. It is Eight Shadows that tells the group that the guy smelled like a rotten piece of meat, he was maybe a hunter or something of the like. During their inestigation, the group splits to cover more ground, one of the teams goes to the burgomaster's mansion and sneak in, only to find that he has gone somewhere else. Another team decides to check up on Fillar's store, there they find a transaction taken place, apparently Arik is buying something form Fillar. As he leaves the store, Arik's gaze crosses, for a second with Mineh's. And she thinks she has seen im somewhere before, though she isn't ceratin o where or when. After speaking with many of the people of the town as well as shop owners, they concluded that Arik's the most mysterious character they've met as of yet. Fillar tells them that Arik had been interested in a weird box and just bought it on that day. After learning of this, they immediatley go lloking for any clues regarding his location. As they reach the edge of town, Charleen tells the band that he saw the rotten smelling man going in a certain direction, at this moment the other part of the group catches on and together go in the direcction Charleen mentioned. As they reach their destination, they see a shack that's burning, immediately Alrissa tells the others that she had heard that this used to be the home of the wolf-woman they had killed and his husband (whose corps the had found in the forest as well). Suddenly, the ground around the house starts to move, as a horde of zombies and ghouls come to life. It is a fierce battle, and one that almost cost Passol his life. Ultimately, Beijeon was able to cast a spell strong enough to end the reamaining creatures. After the batttle ended, Rollo finds the wolfskin cap worn by Arik under the burnt down remnants of the once cozy shack. Ater the battle, they all find themselves having a drink, panning on what to do next. As they do so, a regal looking man enters the inn and demands to know what the band knows of what's happened, he identifies hiself as the burgomaster and commands them to show their belongings if they know what's good for them. As he turns around to order his men to come in, Alrissa's axe strike his neck, beheading him. "I'm too ald for this shit"- whispers Rollo as he and everyone else grabs their weapons and prepare to face the thugs. In the meantime, another group of adventures enter the village of Barovia, not knowing that soon their sotry will cross the Raging Unicorn Band's one.
Chapter 4:
As the headless body falls to the floor, everyone expects to hear the dry thud of flesh hitting the rocky floor, however the sound never comes. Eight Shadows swiftly looks down, but there's no body there, he turns around and hi finds himself to be completely alone, there is no sound, he screams, nothing. Suddenly a laughter booms inside his head, cold sweat running down his back. Corpse version of his friends appear in every drection, slowly crawling towards him. The laughter is heard again. Suddenly a bright light hits his eyes and he sees Mineh's face. "Are you ok?"-she asked him, -"You were screaming while asleep; bad dream I suppose?". Something worse, Eight Shadows thought to himself, but told Mineh she was right. After joining the others they hear from Airini that they had all been invited to have dinner with the Burgomaster. Eght Shadows is uneasy, but decides to not let his fear drive him, he wants everyone to see how brave he is.
Upon arrival they access the mansion and at the table are greeted by the burgomaster, a woman is with him. He introduces her as Sybil Rasia, a Vistanni fortune teller. The Raging Unicorn Band then learn that apparently she mentioned all of them by name whilst reading the cards, she talks about powderbox, an army of the dead, and a beautiful yet very powerful woman. The Burgomaster grows impatient and is about to ask the adventurer's to leave, but then Sybil tells them that they are now part of a ritual, no harm should come to them, but they aren't to leave yet. They sit around the tble, Alrissa somewhat hesitant. Sybil starts humming something in a language none of the adventurers understand and suddenly, they're outside of their bodies. Everyone is surprised to see their actual bodies sitting down while they themselves are floating, it is then that Rollo notices a girl in a white dress facing another direction. She turns, revealing dozens of wounds, holes on her chest, a missing eye, and a skeleteal hand. Everyon is shaken,but none more than Alrissa and Uaeni, both are horror-struck, however, are able to calm themselves down. From her they learn that her parents names are "Glovia" and "Lucian", she pints at them on a ghostly looking picture that hangs from nowhere. She claims that her father makes "toys" and "tools" to "fix people", her mother is apparently very smart and fixes people, the same way her father does so. She tells them her mother can't fix her without help from the pretty lady. Passol then asks the girl about the box the Vistanni woman mentioned before, she turns to a a silver box that seemed to be out of this world, with her skeleton hand she reached inside the slver box and pulled what seemed to be a simple wooden box. At that moment the window crashed and a figure with thick strings pulling his extremities (Like a puppet) enters the room; with a swift movement it decapitates the girl and takes the wooen box; leaping out before anyone can do anything. A sudden shout from the Burgomaster brings everyone back to reality. "We're udner attack!"
They all run outside and hear the creature shout ""Glovia! What shall you do now? You can't protect them all! I have what you seek and now you must betray them as you were going to betray me!". At that moment it threw a torch which landed on top of a building, instantly cathing fire. Uaeni then, in horror, pointed her finger towards town, undeads were rising from the ground, attacking everyone on sight. the Raging Unicorn Band decides to split up as to beat as many as posible. When they reunited, Charleen's imp tells everyone that apparently these creatures had a leader, a ghast. They head on to kill it, and although it almost cost them everything, they managed to defeat it. A few hours later, while the villagers were putting out fres and the adventurers resting, a woman comes to them, screaming hor help, apparently the creature that started the fire kidnapped her daughter, and her husband went after 'em. They went in the direction of Falinescu Manor, and that's where Passol and the others head to.
They all go into the manor, Beijeon at the front, due to the combine weight, he fell through the floor, hurting his back. After Alrissa helped Beijeon up, they pressed on, fighting ghouls and zombies along the way. About half an hour laterthey find the girl's father being aatacked by zombies. Rollo and Minae quickly end them and help the man to a chair. Though he wasn't injured, he was very tired. Eight Shadows promises him that they'll get his daughter back, Airini then scolds Eight Shadows for promising something they don't know can be done. Inspection of the manor continues and they find what seems to be a workshop, in it, the gost they saw in the vision introduces herself as Isabella. The room was her father's workshop, Many toy soldiers and mechanical men lie about; some of them hang from the rafters, swinging slowly as their eyes appear to follow the group's movement. There are also a few human and larger sized mechanical arms, some with weapon modifications. The party then moved forward and on the roof, came across Glovia's laboratory. Glovia (Isabella's) mother is standing in front of an operating table, where the kidnapped girl is bound, next to her, a ghast holding a wooden tray stands still. She then explained that the witch told her this experiment would bring her daughter back to life by canneling her spirit into this girl's body. A painting featuring Isabella hangs from the wall, “No, mother!” the girl in the painting says in a faint, echoing voice, “It hurts!” Eight shadows springs into action, only to be met by the ghast, far more powerful than any of the other's they had encountered, the battle went on, and as Rollo's arrow pierced the ghast's forehead, Mineh's attack ended Glovia. As life itself leaves her body she tells them "you have yet to kill the monster, he's dangerous". After she died, her daughter, Isabella, stepped out of the picture, thanked the Raging Unicorn Band, and trascended to the great beyond. A Few hours later, they found themselves being thanked by the woman who asked them to find her daughter and husband, however, they knew, this was not over yet.
Chapter 5:
After spending a couple of weeks in Orasnou, the Raging Unicorn Band decided it was time lo leave, they, however knew not where to go, and therefore started investigating who might be able to help them.Whilst doing so, Uaeni stumbles onto a pack of bears, however she is saved when te constant drumming from a nearby camp apparently scares the bears away. Eigh Shadows Snow and the others then find her as she is having dinner with the people to whom the camp belongs to. They are the Bogaravs, a Vistanni family, and they are in need of heroes. One of the young men of the family is to be married to Lela, however she appears to have gone missing a couple of nights before. Other creatures have begun to spawn in the nearby area, among them are ghouls, ghasts and other hideous and terrible beings. The band then goes to investigate and after a few monster encounters, they face the one behind the disapeearence of local people and the rise of dark creatures: Lela. Our heroes swiftly beat her and then return to the camp with the news, though the young man is left heart broken, the Bogaravs are pleased that no more people will disappear.
Throughout their adventures in Barovia, The Raging Unicorn Band became more wary, they no longer laughed and had fun while adenturing, it had become clear to them, their lives were in peril, and the more they stayed in this dreary place, the lesser the chances of going back they had. In the span of 6 months after helping the Bogaravs, the Band faced creatures they would have never imagined possible, a ghost who was devouring elves in order to gain sthrenght and serve his master, a mortal, seeking to take control of the unlivng son of an unliving god, cursed to never die, but never truly be alive, a revenant and his army of thralls, a cunning Banshee guarding a haunted treasure, and even the burgomaster of the same town where the had been stayin all this time, Orasnou.
It was the morning after they returned from the temple in which they faced the burgomaster, the townsfolk have begun to act unsure about the adventurers, mean looks, whispers when they see them, everyone is afraid of what might happen next, Strahd will surely be mad. Its in this restless time, when an old veteran approaches the Ragng Unicorn Band, she claims that Orcs have been spotted nearby, and that caan't be good, it's an omen of their utter destruction, one of the farmers say. The band leaves town to investigate and face monster after monster, only to find that the orcs have been abducted and hypnotized into attacking innocents. Some Yuan-ti tribesmen enslaved the orcs and are now looking to expand, a great battle then takes place, everything seemed lost when both a Yuan-ti abomination and a Yuan-ti Maison are set free, however, Uaeni's cunning helped her free the orcs just at the right moment, and with that, they are able to claim victory. The orc leader, however, was gravely injured in the battle and her clan is grateful for their saving, but will now mourn their fallen warriors.
In the following weeks life in Orasnou started to feel like it could be normal, Beijeon and the others started to investigate how to leave so they could find the lord of this place, Strahd. Maybe he would be able to help them get home. They were on the outskirts, inspecting the terrain, when Larga Bloodhand, leader of the orcs, approached them with an offer, an exchange. if they helped hunt down a renegade shaman and his followers, she would turn over a high-ranking Cult of the Dragon prisoner who may have valuable information and a strange woman who read fortunes. After some investigation, Charleen was able to locate an altar, a place where the Shaman was to sacrifice their prisioners in order to exit the mists that envelop the area surrounding Orasnou. When the adventurers arrive there, they are greeted by the followers of the rogue shaman, a fierce battle commences, and it is only due to luck, that they are able to succeed. Larga then hands them over Ixusasa Terrorsong, but is not willing to part with Sybil Rasia, Uaeni's charisma is what convinces her in the end. The orcs leave the region, and the Raging Unicorn Band has now gained two very unlikely allies.
Plane shift doesn't work in Borovia. As for killing off those that didn't survive to become PCs, normally I would say they died through several misadventures over the course of their time in Borovia. If you want them to all have died in the same place, make it one of the places that's too high of a level for them, Castle Ravenloft itself seems appropriate. Anything you run is going to feel a little railroaded in terms of who lives or dies, but the players know that going in and will hopefully play along (or they'll deliberately go against it).
Can we boil this down a bit? If I'm getting this, Team A has onboarded two new members who were found in Strahd's dungeon. This is the story of the death of Team B and how those two members came to be in the dungeon?
I've got no problem with going into a horror game wanting to kill PCs. In fact, this set-up is sort of a dream of mine. But killing specific characters in a group requires careful planning and luck. Happily, you can use any number of horror movies as templates. Trick them into splitting up and ratchet up the tension by picking them off one at a time. Give the dead guys something to do so they're not just sitting there. Make sure everyone's death is gross and fun in horror movie terms.
Economy of location suggests that they should probably have all this happen at Castle Ravenloft. You can set some traps and then your players Team A characters will know the traps are there and avoid them. When you get back to Team A, the rest of Team B can be undead denizens of the Castle, terrifying their old teammates.
If you're not allowed to use Castle Ravenloft because your usual DM doesn't want you to see the maps, you can burn Orasnou to the ground and have it swarmed by Strahd zombies, it's not like anyone else is going to use it, and then just say they wandered through the forest until they showed up at the gates of Ravenloft.
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So, here's the thing:
This is going to be my second time DMing ever. And I'm doing so because our regular DM's birthday is coming and he wants to play as a character for once. A bit of explaining on the problem I'm facing: We started playing Curse of Strahd a while back, and are currently quite advanced in the main story; however, since players have been added to the party recently, he justified their sudden appearance by claiming they were prisoners (We were on Strahd's castle). So I came up with the idea that for his birthday we play and see what happened to the adventurers that were in these characters party. Therefore I immediately looked into the Adventurer's League modules, but after reading a couple of them (and adapting them to the backstory of the crew), I realized that these adventures are poorly written. And now I don't know what to run for the session. My objective is to kill most of the PCs save for those that are in pur main party now. (Mineh and Eight Shadows).
Can anyone recommend a quest that's located in Barovia that will prove challenging enough as to either kill or plane shift a bunch of level 5 characters?
This is the backstory I got so far (I know it's got ssome typos, also, I'm sorry if the sentence structure is flawed, english is not my main language):
Chapter 1:
The Raging Unicorn Band formed as many others in the tavern "The Yawning Portal", was originally a simple group of first timer adventurers. In the beginningt only three members were part of the group, Mineh, Rollo Telvanni, a fierce archer and Neloth, a young and somewhat fool bard.
Volo (somewhat of a big celebrity writer and storyteller) apporached the group and asked them for help, there had apparently been various goblin sightings in the vicinities of Waterdeep, it was nothing for sure, but this guys looked like they could handle it if something were to actually be gping on. Little did they know, upon accepting the quest that their destinies would be changed forever.
In the forest east from Waterdeep, While scouting, Rollo spotted the corpse of a goblin and upon telling his companions, followed the path all the way to what appeared to be the entrance to a secret sunken city. Near the entrance they heard what appeared to be fighting going on, following their ears, and preparin both, weapons and spells, they found a lone blue Dragonborn barbarian fighting against 4 Kobolds and 2 Goblins, behind her the barely breathing body of a wounded Aaorka, it did not look well, Rollo and Neloth were hesitant to intervene, but Mineh did not stop even for a second, she wouldn't let these foul creatures take any more lives. She joined the fight, almost breaking the neck of a Kobold on the first strike, A couple of arrows flew right past her ending one of the Goblins as well. The Dragonborn striked again, very few enemies remained, and that's when a half- orc emerged from the forest, the head of an elf on one hand, an axe on the other. As the fight continued, the half-orc positioned himself to kill Mineh, however, in an act of either bravery or foolery, Neloth jumped onwards, receiving the full force of the attack dying almost instantly.
Mineh, awestruck, was unable to move as the half-orc readied another attack, she was barely able to dodge the attack as the Dragonborn charged with all her might on the creature, its jaw broken, the greenish body of the once frightful creature fell on the ground lifeless. Alrissa, the Dragonborn Barbarian fell as well, not dead, but vey tired. A few minutes passed before Beijeon, an elf warlock who was part of Alrissa's party found them and after Rollo and Mineh explained everything, decided they were not at edault for what happened. Upon inspection he declared that de Aaorka, a blood-hunter that was traveling with them was dead as well. They camped there, together, they decided the forest was too dangerous for two rookies and Alrissa's wounds were too many for her to travel without rest. After a couple of days of traveing together, they found and killed the orc chieftain that was ordering the others to attack adventurers, he was looking for a magical creature so rare that even scholars have trouble deciding if it ctually exists, a pure golden unicorn.
After ending the life of the orc, they all returned to Waterdeep, where they had agreed to dissolve the alliance. Celebrating a job well done and mourning those who had passed away, Mineh looked out the window and for a couple of seconds saw what appeared to be the shimmering golden glow of an unusually large uni-horned horse. She then realized, their adventures were far from over. Over the years the Raging Unicorn band had many members come and go. They traveled to various different locations, and even became known as an up and coming adventurer group. One month before the beginning of our adventure the Raging Unicorn band was hired to look into a certain situation: The Star Mounts, in the middle of the High Forest had always been a calm place, but a couple of months back something strange began happening, sheep from nearby towns started to disappear, wolves were acting very bold, attacking everything and averyone on sight, what's more, a mist seemed to appear out of nowhere covering the terrain people who had been unlucky enough to be caught in it started disappearing.
Eight Shadows Snow, who had recently joined the band was approached by an old woman claiming his husband had entered the mist a couple days back and he had not returned yet, she feared the worst. After teling everyone of this situation, the band decided to take action and headed straight there, it wasn't long before the mist swallowed them, one by one. Beijeon and the others are now, unbeknownst to them, in another plane of existence, Barovia.
Chapter 2:
Upon exiting the fog, Charleen, a Kenku Warlock told the others that something did not feel right. The grass is strange, and a chill can be felt on the air. As they continue to move forward Eight Shadows makes a statment that should've been obvious from the moment they emerged from the mist. "We are no longer on The Star Mounts"- he said, whispering, almost purring it out. It was clear, they weren't, there were no mountains and the smell of the air was completely different from before. Ueani High-Hill, a halfling bard student of the College of Lore,(Bards of the College of Lore know something about most things, collecting bits of knowledge from sources as diverse as scholarly tomes and peasant tales) and long-time part of the group said commented that even in all the books she had read, a transporting mist was unheard of. A few miles ahead, Rollo, with his Drow eyes spotted what seemed to be a village. It was wirtten in an old musky sign barely still hanging from a branch, the name of the town they were heading into: Orasnou. Though there weren't many building in Orasnou, one caught Airini's eye, a shop called "The Hare & Hair". Arini had been in and off the group several times, it was in her nature to be lonely, but she cherished the friends she had made in the group. Arini was a Gith Cleric of the Arcana Domain. As they entered the shop, they were greeted by an old man. It was him that informed them of their actual current location. "The duchy of Barovia. The domain of Lord Strahd von Zarovich, may he be healthy and well."- He tells them. After a few questions, they understand the situation and are aback. It was Rollo that told them to see it as he did: "An adventuring oportunity, unlike any before". This seemed to boost the party's morale, save for Passol, an earth Genassi, Paladin of Talos, god of Storms, and Alrissa.
After some investigation and before deciding where to go, they are told of some strange things that have happened. Apprantly a wolf pup was abandonned in the village a couple of days ago, and a man was taking care of it until it escaped that very morning. Also a married couple disappeared a couple of nights ago. The Raging Unicorn Band decided to explore the surrounding area and search for the missing people, as they do so, they are faced with gruelsome creatures th inhabit this parts, zombies. In the midst of the fight a blizzard envelops the battlefield, making it that much harder to fight. After defeating the zombies, Passol finds a road and leads everyone into the forest. It's in there that they find the dismembered body of a man, the one that disappeared, it's clear to them that a beast attacked him and Ueani determines the bites to be from a wolf, a big bad wolf. As they follow the track left by the creature, they find a wolf cub crying. As they approach it a growl can be heard behind them, the cub's mother, baring her fangs is ready to attack. They fight the wolf, it seemed smarter than most creatures of its kind and a minute too late, as Alrissa's axe splits the wolf's head right in the middle, Airini spots a pendant hanging from its neck. Upon death, the wolf turns back to its original form, a human, her cub, lifeless, remains in beast form. Though terrible, this is something the Raging Unicorn Band has to understand about Barovia: Nothing is as it seems.
Chapter 3:
After spending a couple of days lost in the forest, our heroes are able to find their way back to the village of Orasnou. As they reached the entrance, they noticed there were a lot more people than before. In the inn, Ueani starts playing her lute, attracting the attention of everyone and paying close attention to all around her. At the same time, Beijeon and Arini start to gather information on what's been going on, they learned a lot but the most important things were the following:
*The Burgomaster recently inreaed the amount of guards he used to protecct his house
*There was a newcomer in town that acted especially weird. He wore a wolfskin capand only ever spoke to with Fillar, to whom he delivered variou high quality items. He seemed to head out of town every day, returning with the items very early during the day.
*Apparently a strange and mystical item somehow related to Strahd is somewhere in the village, word of its existence is what's brought this many people here.
Charleen felt uneasy in town, a lot of people seemed to despise the way he looked, so he chose to stick to the shadows. The Raging Unicorn Band decide to investigate the situation and discover this newcomer's name to be Arik, when they tried to talk to him, he would hide his face and turn around. It is Eight Shadows that tells the group that the guy smelled like a rotten piece of meat, he was maybe a hunter or something of the like. During their inestigation, the group splits to cover more ground, one of the teams goes to the burgomaster's mansion and sneak in, only to find that he has gone somewhere else. Another team decides to check up on Fillar's store, there they find a transaction taken place, apparently Arik is buying something form Fillar. As he leaves the store, Arik's gaze crosses, for a second with Mineh's. And she thinks she has seen im somewhere before, though she isn't ceratin o where or when. After speaking with many of the people of the town as well as shop owners, they concluded that Arik's the most mysterious character they've met as of yet. Fillar tells them that Arik had been interested in a weird box and just bought it on that day. After learning of this, they immediatley go lloking for any clues regarding his location. As they reach the edge of town, Charleen tells the band that he saw the rotten smelling man going in a certain direction, at this moment the other part of the group catches on and together go in the direcction Charleen mentioned. As they reach their destination, they see a shack that's burning, immediately Alrissa tells the others that she had heard that this used to be the home of the wolf-woman they had killed and his husband (whose corps the had found in the forest as well). Suddenly, the ground around the house starts to move, as a horde of zombies and ghouls come to life. It is a fierce battle, and one that almost cost Passol his life. Ultimately, Beijeon was able to cast a spell strong enough to end the reamaining creatures. After the batttle ended, Rollo finds the wolfskin cap worn by Arik under the burnt down remnants of the once cozy shack. Ater the battle, they all find themselves having a drink, panning on what to do next. As they do so, a regal looking man enters the inn and demands to know what the band knows of what's happened, he identifies hiself as the burgomaster and commands them to show their belongings if they know what's good for them. As he turns around to order his men to come in, Alrissa's axe strike his neck, beheading him. "I'm too ald for this shit"- whispers Rollo as he and everyone else grabs their weapons and prepare to face the thugs. In the meantime, another group of adventures enter the village of Barovia, not knowing that soon their sotry will cross the Raging Unicorn Band's one.
Chapter 4:
As the headless body falls to the floor, everyone expects to hear the dry thud of flesh hitting the rocky floor, however the sound never comes. Eight Shadows swiftly looks down, but there's no body there, he turns around and hi finds himself to be completely alone, there is no sound, he screams, nothing. Suddenly a laughter booms inside his head, cold sweat running down his back. Corpse version of his friends appear in every drection, slowly crawling towards him. The laughter is heard again. Suddenly a bright light hits his eyes and he sees Mineh's face. "Are you ok?"-she asked him, -"You were screaming while asleep; bad dream I suppose?". Something worse, Eight Shadows thought to himself, but told Mineh she was right. After joining the others they hear from Airini that they had all been invited to have dinner with the Burgomaster. Eght Shadows is uneasy, but decides to not let his fear drive him, he wants everyone to see how brave he is.
Upon arrival they access the mansion and at the table are greeted by the burgomaster, a woman is with him. He introduces her as Sybil Rasia, a Vistanni fortune teller. The Raging Unicorn Band then learn that apparently she mentioned all of them by name whilst reading the cards, she talks about powderbox, an army of the dead, and a beautiful yet very powerful woman. The Burgomaster grows impatient and is about to ask the adventurer's to leave, but then Sybil tells them that they are now part of a ritual, no harm should come to them, but they aren't to leave yet. They sit around the tble, Alrissa somewhat hesitant. Sybil starts humming something in a language none of the adventurers understand and suddenly, they're outside of their bodies. Everyone is surprised to see their actual bodies sitting down while they themselves are floating, it is then that Rollo notices a girl in a white dress facing another direction. She turns, revealing dozens of wounds, holes on her chest, a missing eye, and a skeleteal hand. Everyon is shaken,but none more than Alrissa and Uaeni, both are horror-struck, however, are able to calm themselves down. From her they learn that her parents names are "Glovia" and "Lucian", she pints at them on a ghostly looking picture that hangs from nowhere. She claims that her father makes "toys" and "tools" to "fix people", her mother is apparently very smart and fixes people, the same way her father does so. She tells them her mother can't fix her without help from the pretty lady. Passol then asks the girl about the box the Vistanni woman mentioned before, she turns to a a silver box that seemed to be out of this world, with her skeleton hand she reached inside the slver box and pulled what seemed to be a simple wooden box. At that moment the window crashed and a figure with thick strings pulling his extremities (Like a puppet) enters the room; with a swift movement it decapitates the girl and takes the wooen box; leaping out before anyone can do anything. A sudden shout from the Burgomaster brings everyone back to reality. "We're udner attack!"
They all run outside and hear the creature shout ""Glovia! What shall you do now? You can't protect them all! I have what you seek and now you must betray them as you were going to betray me!". At that moment it threw a torch which landed on top of a building, instantly cathing fire. Uaeni then, in horror, pointed her finger towards town, undeads were rising from the ground, attacking everyone on sight. the Raging Unicorn Band decides to split up as to beat as many as posible. When they reunited, Charleen's imp tells everyone that apparently these creatures had a leader, a ghast. They head on to kill it, and although it almost cost them everything, they managed to defeat it. A few hours later, while the villagers were putting out fres and the adventurers resting, a woman comes to them, screaming hor help, apparently the creature that started the fire kidnapped her daughter, and her husband went after 'em. They went in the direction of Falinescu Manor, and that's where Passol and the others head to.
They all go into the manor, Beijeon at the front, due to the combine weight, he fell through the floor, hurting his back. After Alrissa helped Beijeon up, they pressed on, fighting ghouls and zombies along the way. About half an hour laterthey find the girl's father being aatacked by zombies. Rollo and Minae quickly end them and help the man to a chair. Though he wasn't injured, he was very tired. Eight Shadows promises him that they'll get his daughter back, Airini then scolds Eight Shadows for promising something they don't know can be done. Inspection of the manor continues and they find what seems to be a workshop, in it, the gost they saw in the vision introduces herself as Isabella. The room was her father's workshop, Many toy soldiers and mechanical men lie about; some of them hang from the rafters, swinging slowly as their eyes appear to follow the group's movement. There are also a few human and larger sized mechanical arms, some with weapon modifications. The party then moved forward and on the roof, came across Glovia's laboratory. Glovia (Isabella's) mother is standing in front of an operating table, where the kidnapped girl is bound, next to her, a ghast holding a wooden tray stands still. She then explained that the witch told her this experiment would bring her daughter back to life by canneling her spirit into this girl's body. A painting featuring Isabella hangs from the wall, “No, mother!” the girl in the painting says in a faint, echoing voice, “It hurts!” Eight shadows springs into action, only to be met by the ghast, far more powerful than any of the other's they had encountered, the battle went on, and as Rollo's arrow pierced the ghast's forehead, Mineh's attack ended Glovia. As life itself leaves her body she tells them "you have yet to kill the monster, he's dangerous". After she died, her daughter, Isabella, stepped out of the picture, thanked the Raging Unicorn Band, and trascended to the great beyond. A Few hours later, they found themselves being thanked by the woman who asked them to find her daughter and husband, however, they knew, this was not over yet.
Chapter 5:
After spending a couple of weeks in Orasnou, the Raging Unicorn Band decided it was time lo leave, they, however knew not where to go, and therefore started investigating who might be able to help them.Whilst doing so, Uaeni stumbles onto a pack of bears, however she is saved when te constant drumming from a nearby camp apparently scares the bears away. Eigh Shadows Snow and the others then find her as she is having dinner with the people to whom the camp belongs to. They are the Bogaravs, a Vistanni family, and they are in need of heroes. One of the young men of the family is to be married to Lela, however she appears to have gone missing a couple of nights before. Other creatures have begun to spawn in the nearby area, among them are ghouls, ghasts and other hideous and terrible beings. The band then goes to investigate and after a few monster encounters, they face the one behind the disapeearence of local people and the rise of dark creatures: Lela. Our heroes swiftly beat her and then return to the camp with the news, though the young man is left heart broken, the Bogaravs are pleased that no more people will disappear.
Throughout their adventures in Barovia, The Raging Unicorn Band became more wary, they no longer laughed and had fun while adenturing, it had become clear to them, their lives were in peril, and the more they stayed in this dreary place, the lesser the chances of going back they had. In the span of 6 months after helping the Bogaravs, the Band faced creatures they would have never imagined possible, a ghost who was devouring elves in order to gain sthrenght and serve his master, a mortal, seeking to take control of the unlivng son of an unliving god, cursed to never die, but never truly be alive, a revenant and his army of thralls, a cunning Banshee guarding a haunted treasure, and even the burgomaster of the same town where the had been stayin all this time, Orasnou.
It was the morning after they returned from the temple in which they faced the burgomaster, the townsfolk have begun to act unsure about the adventurers, mean looks, whispers when they see them, everyone is afraid of what might happen next, Strahd will surely be mad. Its in this restless time, when an old veteran approaches the Ragng Unicorn Band, she claims that Orcs have been spotted nearby, and that caan't be good, it's an omen of their utter destruction, one of the farmers say. The band leaves town to investigate and face monster after monster, only to find that the orcs have been abducted and hypnotized into attacking innocents. Some Yuan-ti tribesmen enslaved the orcs and are now looking to expand, a great battle then takes place, everything seemed lost when both a Yuan-ti abomination and a Yuan-ti Maison are set free, however, Uaeni's cunning helped her free the orcs just at the right moment, and with that, they are able to claim victory. The orc leader, however, was gravely injured in the battle and her clan is grateful for their saving, but will now mourn their fallen warriors.
In the following weeks life in Orasnou started to feel like it could be normal, Beijeon and the others started to investigate how to leave so they could find the lord of this place, Strahd. Maybe he would be able to help them get home. They were on the outskirts, inspecting the terrain, when Larga Bloodhand, leader of the orcs, approached them with an offer, an exchange. if they helped hunt down a renegade shaman and his followers, she would turn over a high-ranking Cult of the Dragon prisoner who may have valuable information and a strange woman who read fortunes. After some investigation, Charleen was able to locate an altar, a place where the Shaman was to sacrifice their prisioners in order to exit the mists that envelop the area surrounding Orasnou. When the adventurers arrive there, they are greeted by the followers of the rogue shaman, a fierce battle commences, and it is only due to luck, that they are able to succeed. Larga then hands them over Ixusasa Terrorsong, but is not willing to part with Sybil Rasia, Uaeni's charisma is what convinces her in the end. The orcs leave the region, and the Raging Unicorn Band has now gained two very unlikely allies.
You should never go into a game planing to kill some pc's.
The 6 most hated words in all of d&d history: make me a dex saving throw .
Plane shift doesn't work in Borovia. As for killing off those that didn't survive to become PCs, normally I would say they died through several misadventures over the course of their time in Borovia. If you want them to all have died in the same place, make it one of the places that's too high of a level for them, Castle Ravenloft itself seems appropriate. Anything you run is going to feel a little railroaded in terms of who lives or dies, but the players know that going in and will hopefully play along (or they'll deliberately go against it).
Can we boil this down a bit? If I'm getting this, Team A has onboarded two new members who were found in Strahd's dungeon. This is the story of the death of Team B and how those two members came to be in the dungeon?
I've got no problem with going into a horror game wanting to kill PCs. In fact, this set-up is sort of a dream of mine. But killing specific characters in a group requires careful planning and luck. Happily, you can use any number of horror movies as templates. Trick them into splitting up and ratchet up the tension by picking them off one at a time. Give the dead guys something to do so they're not just sitting there. Make sure everyone's death is gross and fun in horror movie terms.
Economy of location suggests that they should probably have all this happen at Castle Ravenloft. You can set some traps and then your players Team A characters will know the traps are there and avoid them. When you get back to Team A, the rest of Team B can be undead denizens of the Castle, terrifying their old teammates.
If you're not allowed to use Castle Ravenloft because your usual DM doesn't want you to see the maps, you can burn Orasnou to the ground and have it swarmed by Strahd zombies, it's not like anyone else is going to use it, and then just say they wandered through the forest until they showed up at the gates of Ravenloft.