You decide not to pay a house call on Strahd, and instead the party turns west, toward Vallaki. You walk up and down the mountain road until you arrive at a familiar sight: The fog spills out of the forest to swallow up the road behind you. Ahead, jutting from the impenetrable woods on both sides of the road, are high stone buttresses looming gray in the fog. Huge iron gates hang on the stonework. Dew clings with cold tenacity to the rusted bars.
Two headless statues of armed guardians flank the far side of the gate, their heads now lying among weeds at their feet. They greet you only with silence.
It is a familiar sight, from roughly a week earlier, when you passed through a nearly identical gate to enter Barovia. You can see it on your map, just northwest of the three-way intersection north of Tser Falls.
You walk on.
After a couple more hours of hiking through this mountain forest, you come to another crossroads. You can continue due west, down a narrow, lightly used path, or continue northwest, following a sign to Vallaki. You continue on toward Vallaki, leaving that narrow path behind, and after two hours more you realize you are finally descending back into the broad valley floor. The sun is beginning to go down, and the forest spreads in the gathering darkness around you.
Lucento agrees, “I feel there’s little difference between night and day in this forest.”
The sun sets, and Lucento hears his own words echoing in his head as he realizes just how wrong he was.
Though the day was gloomy - tall trees; creeping fog - the night is terrifying. At least in the day you could see into the woods; at least in the day you could see the treetops, or an occasional glimpse of the mountain rising to the south. Now, whether you have darkvision or are relying on the lantern's illumination, it is almost pitch black. The moon seems to illuminate nothing more than the fog around you, and the stars are only visible in momentary glimpses. Wolves howl, and things move near you through the trees.
You shuffle onward, in the oppressive darkness. More than once Barnaby starts to tell a story about something he read in a book, or an interesting person he knew, but the stories all die in his throat, and you will have to wait for another day to hear the end of each vignette.
Suddenly you hear growls and the padding of swift feet on the road behind you. You're under attack!
Unnaturally enormous wolves are racing up behind you. Go check it out on Roll20, adjust yourselves to a natural marching order (I guessed), and roll initiative!
Also please update your HP and AC information for your tokens. Green for HP; blue for AC. Thanks!
This is probably a good time to remind you all that you can move and "hold" an action. So, for instance, Kif could move to the rear of the party, positioning himself between the charging wolves and Ireena, and "hold" an attack which he could then unleash under a specified condition: a wolf comes up to him.
If you try this with a spell, ("I hold a sleep spell until I can see three of them," or whatever), you still use the spell slot, even if the condition is never triggered and the spell never comes to pass.
Thanks for the reminder, Kif is going to see where everything shakes out with initiative, just in case he needs to do something crazy. As I recall you can only hold an action, not a bonus action action combo, correct
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
As the darkness was coming on, and Fope set in to light the lantern, Barnaby walks up behind him. There will be no need for that, and he leans in, touches Fope on the shoulder and casts dark vision on him. It's a spell I was working on, but there were a few clues in that spell book we found that finished the puzzle for me. It's a significant portion of my power to cast, but we will all be more ready to fight with our hands free and not such easy targets if we're not carrying a blaze.
Back to present time:
Stand firm everyone! Barnaby cries as he slowly backs behind the others.
So if we have the lantern lit but Føpé still has darkvision then Ireena can still fight and he can possibly sneak around to the back to get some backstabbing in
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
OK, so since the wolves didn't get super hight initiative I guss I'll hustle past Barnaby and ready an attack, If a wold comes in range I'll take a swing
So if we have the lantern lit but Føpé still has darkvision then Ireena can still fight and he can possibly sneak around to the back to get some backstabbing in
just sayin'
Yes, that's fine. You can have an illuminated lantern, and Ireena can carry it. That's what will we'll do. Barnaby's spell was, as he noted, a valuable resource, but this is fine. If you guys want to handle it differently in the future then you may.
If a wolf comes close enough, I will play that out. Looks good.
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I'll move you guys westward from the intersection, toward Vallaki, this evening.
You decide not to pay a house call on Strahd, and instead the party turns west, toward Vallaki. You walk up and down the mountain road until you arrive at a familiar sight: The fog spills out of the forest to swallow up the road behind you. Ahead, jutting from the impenetrable woods on both sides of the road, are high stone buttresses looming gray in the fog. Huge iron gates hang on the stonework. Dew clings with cold tenacity to the rusted bars.
Two headless statues of armed guardians flank the far side of the gate, their heads now lying among weeds at their feet. They greet you only with silence.
It is a familiar sight, from roughly a week earlier, when you passed through a nearly identical gate to enter Barovia. You can see it on your map, just northwest of the three-way intersection north of Tser Falls.
You walk on.
After a couple more hours of hiking through this mountain forest, you come to another crossroads. You can continue due west, down a narrow, lightly used path, or continue northwest, following a sign to Vallaki. You continue on toward Vallaki, leaving that narrow path behind, and after two hours more you realize you are finally descending back into the broad valley floor. The sun is beginning to go down, and the forest spreads in the gathering darkness around you.
What do you do?
So we have about 2 hours of walking after sunset?
Well I'd rather keep moving than make camp and wait out a long night in these woods, what say you?
You would guess, based on the map, that you’re on schedule. About two and a half hours from Vallaki.
Lucento agrees, “I feel there’s little difference between night and day in this forest.”
The sun sets, and Lucento hears his own words echoing in his head as he realizes just how wrong he was.
Though the day was gloomy - tall trees; creeping fog - the night is terrifying. At least in the day you could see into the woods; at least in the day you could see the treetops, or an occasional glimpse of the mountain rising to the south. Now, whether you have darkvision or are relying on the lantern's illumination, it is almost pitch black. The moon seems to illuminate nothing more than the fog around you, and the stars are only visible in momentary glimpses. Wolves howl, and things move near you through the trees.
You shuffle onward, in the oppressive darkness. More than once Barnaby starts to tell a story about something he read in a book, or an interesting person he knew, but the stories all die in his throat, and you will have to wait for another day to hear the end of each vignette.
Suddenly you hear growls and the padding of swift feet on the road behind you. You're under attack!
Unnaturally enormous wolves are racing up behind you. Go check it out on Roll20, adjust yourselves to a natural marching order (I guessed), and roll initiative!
Also please update your HP and AC information for your tokens. Green for HP; blue for AC. Thanks!
17 initiating
Initiative: 19
Don't waste all your good rolls too early, Lucento! :)
Initiative: 15
Let's see if we can take one alive! Føpé calls out as he moves to engage.
This is probably a good time to remind you all that you can move and "hold" an action. So, for instance, Kif could move to the rear of the party, positioning himself between the charging wolves and Ireena, and "hold" an attack which he could then unleash under a specified condition: a wolf comes up to him.
If you try this with a spell, ("I hold a sleep spell until I can see three of them," or whatever), you still use the spell slot, even if the condition is never triggered and the spell never comes to pass.
Thanks for the reminder, Kif is going to see where everything shakes out with initiative, just in case he needs to do something crazy. As I recall you can only hold an action, not a bonus action action combo, correct
As the darkness was coming on, and Fope set in to light the lantern, Barnaby walks up behind him. There will be no need for that, and he leans in, touches Fope on the shoulder and casts dark vision on him. It's a spell I was working on, but there were a few clues in that spell book we found that finished the puzzle for me. It's a significant portion of my power to cast, but we will all be more ready to fight with our hands free and not such easy targets if we're not carrying a blaze.
Back to present time:
Stand firm everyone! Barnaby cries as he slowly backs behind the others.
Initiative: 10
That’s fine, and I will expand his vision range accordingly, but be aware that you have a third level fighter with you who is now effectively blind.
Here we go!
Lucento and Kif, you may go.
So if we have the lantern lit but Føpé still has darkvision then Ireena can still fight and he can possibly sneak around to the back to get some backstabbing in
just sayin'
OK, so since the wolves didn't get super hight initiative I guss I'll hustle past Barnaby and ready an attack, If a wold comes in range I'll take a swing
24 attack should that hit 9 damage
I get to reroll 1 or 2, so adjusted damage is 10
crap, well one more point is one more point
I don't think backstabbing is a thing in this version of D&D, just sneak attack which he gets so long as someone else is next to the same target.
I knew that, couldn't remember what it was called off the cuff
Yes, that's fine. You can have an illuminated lantern, and Ireena can carry it. That's what will we'll do. Barnaby's spell was, as he noted, a valuable resource, but this is fine. If you guys want to handle it differently in the future then you may.
If a wolf comes close enough, I will play that out. Looks good.