Pizazz's Ravenloft and Beyond

Ketch initiative: 7

      Ketch sits and watches Lionel creep up the stairs to investigate.  Good on him, Ketch thinks while trying to savor the rest.  Ketch shades his eyes a bit as Lionel’s sword illuminated, then sees the shadows are no trick of the light, that they are indeed attacking!

     “Gruumsh’s Angry Eye!” Ketch shouts out, as if it was a curse. To the contrary, with those words Ketch summons a [Spiritual Weapon[/spell] - A large, angry looking eye whose pupil is a mouth with rows and rows of teeth!

     Even while the eye takes form and lunges to take a bite at a shadow, Ketch is springing into action, shield and battle axe at the ready as he surges forward and takes a swing at the same shadow.. 

Spiritual Weapon Attack: 11 Damage: 6

Battle Axe Attack: 23 Damage: 5

At 21 Ulthan hrmphs as he lets fly a couple of arrows wondering which shadows will hit and whether they'll actually do anything.
Attack1: 11 Damage: 11
Attack2: 26 Damage: 7

Ketch's axe slices into a shadow, sweeping some of the dark substance away, while the magical eye of Gruumsh bites a good chunk of shadow away.  Two arrows whistle past him and slice through the next shadow....with a silent scream it evaporates into the daylight. 

Mordekai initiative: 19

Mordekai sighs a heartfelt sigh and joins the fray, transferring Hex to one of the shadows, and unleashing two of his signature Eldritch Blasts. 

Attack: 18 Damage:13 plus 5 Hex.

Attack: 14 Damage:6 plus 3 Hex.

The trick was to move constantly, so the shadows could not cling to him forcing others to carve the offenders off his own flesh. And Lionel moved. Should it come to it, he would not mind to cut some shadow himself:

Attack: 19 Damage: 11

Attack: 19 Damage: 11

Meepo initiative: 16
Skeleton initiative: 10

Meepo moves a bit, but winces at the light fromt he blade. he tries to hit one of the shadows with a blast of cold energy regardless, but stays back from the blade as far as possible.

ray of frost
To hit: 17 Damage: 8 cold. (Adv and Disadv cancel out, so rolling normal.)

Before they can even act, the shadows are leapt upon by the alert and battle ready group, two of the shadows fizzling out under the onslaught, and one being injured.  Regardless they all set upon Lionel with the glowing sword trying to extinguish the painful light. 

Attack: 6 Damage: 8. Attack: 6 Damage: 7. Attack: 13 Damage: 13

But in the bright light, they seemed unable to hurt Lionel.  The blade sweeping through and killing another, and hurting another. 

The group quickly finished off the last couple of shadows.  Moments later there was nothing left but silence and the bright glowing light. 

The sword blade vanishes leaving everything in glaring darkness once more, and you resume your rest on the stairs. 

 The group sits down, their rest interrupted after only 10 minutes...and waits in the dark quiet.  An hour eventually passes undisturbed.  

(Short rest attained). 

Meepo lets out a groan of relief as the blade's light is cut off again. He huddles with his skeletons, as the group rests.

Lionel broke the awkward after-the-battle silence: "If you truly think the traps react only to the living - should we, may be, all ride skeletons? With your permission, of course, Meepo".  "It's bot like I do not appreciate involuntarily bath in a dirty water," elaborated paladin, "but every trap is a delay and wasted resources". 

((Shouldn’t have been too dark, most the skeletons had lit torches...not that it changes anything but atmosphere.))

     “Meepo is easy enough for a pile of bones to carry, I imagine.  Perhaps you could ride one, sir dwarf.  But I think the Goliath and myself likely too heavy and unwieldy?” Ketch says.  
     “I don’t know much about traps but I would guess it may have more to do with weight than living... The kobold and a skeleton likely too light to trigger the things.”

one hit die used in short rest: 10

"You are probably right," agreed Lionel squashing the picture of a skeleton cavalry in his mind. "Well, if we rested enough - another try?" He did not move right away, though, letting the skeletons test the ground first.

     "I could lead for a while," Ketch offers.  "If I get dumped into water my head at least reaches above it...  "  Assuming no pbjection, Ketch will lead the party back into the room with the misty floors and bat filled ceilings.  He'll do his best to leave a wide swatch between his path and where the trap was.  "We should have marked the damn thing," he curses, realizing the idea occurred to him too late.

The group heads back, recognizing where the trap was, and all leap over it, since the panel filled the whole width of the hallway.  The skeletons do seem to be able to walk across it without trouble...and a little bit of experimenting with pushing on it reveals that it does appear to be weight triggered.  That mystery solved, the group moves to the end of the hallway and pushes the door open. Buried deep beneath the keep of Ravenloft lie ancient catacombs, with arched ceilings supported by wide, hol­low columns that double as crypts. Cobwebs hang limp in the musty air. A thick fog clings to the floor, which is covered in putrid waste. The black ceiling is moving.  The torchlight causes a wave of motion through the bat filled ceiling, and now that you're here, it obvious to see that the floor is slick and covered in bat guano. Huge pillar support the twenty foot high ceiling in this massive crypt, each pillar has a door in it, leading to likely a crypt within each. 

You seem to be near one corner of this massive crypt. To your left is one wall that stretches away from you.  Maybe fifty feet away down the wall you see a large archway blocked by a heavy portcullis.  To your right, and forward the large crypt stretches away into darkness.  You can see at least 15 thick pillars with doors in them that serve as individual crypts from where you stand. 

(Apologies to DragonDenn who can't see the map. But it shows crypts numbered 2 - 20 on it, and several hallways / sections that stretch beyond your view because of physical pillars in the way...)

(You guys are at 1.)

"You think he was polite enough to mark these things?" Lionel made a careful step towards the first crypt door, sure only of one thing - even if Strahd did not sign the crypts in any way, he did not forget to booby trap them.

Perception: 6  (Second roll for Help: 23 )

"I think we're all agreed on the need for utmost care here.  Whether they're trapped or filled with ghosts ready to jump out at us, I don't want to disturb things unnecessarily.  We should definitely take care not to touch anything.  Meepo, can you detect magic?  I would suspect there to be magical traps as well as mechanical ones in here."

Mordekai would help Lionel in looking for markings or names on the crypts.  Would that give Lionel advantage?  Or should I roll perception for Mordekai too?  (I'd rather give Lionel advantage because his perception modifier is higher, obviously, but happy to do either.)

Meepo casts detect magic as a ritual, so he can watch out for anything magical.

There are indeed engravings. In fact, the door you came in looks much like any other door in this area.  Above the door is the engraved message, "Herein lie the ones who walk the path of pain and tor­ment".  Walking to the first real crypt, with Meepo watching out for magic, you see it's engraved, "Artista DeSlop - Court Ceiling Painter".  The door to the crypt is not locked.  Inside the domed ceiling of this crypt is painted with an image of imps holding bouquets of colorful flowers. A skeleton draped in rags lies atop a marble slab in the center of the crypt. A wooden box is tucked under one bony hand.  Meepo has detected no magic here. 

Mordekai carefully checks out a few more crypts, carefully and quietly, keeping an eye out for any traps on the floor, and making sure not to touch anything as he goes. 

Stealth if necessary: 13

Perception to check for traps: 10

And moving to read crypts numbers 7  4 and 16.

Assuming 2 was the one we already checked, then also  16

((Stop rolling 2!))  4

...in that order. Across to 18 and 19, then back across to 4.

Meepo, astride his skeleton, follows Mordekai around, keeping an eye out for any magic.