CRISPY DM PRESENTS

CURSE OF STRAHD

CRISPY DM PRESENTS

CURSE OF STRAHD

"Because it is my Guilt, I claim you, Great Affliction."

The woman slammed the effigy upon her chest.

"Make my chest hurt with regret."

The woman slammed the effigy upon her chest.

"Forge your punishment and nail it deep."

The woman slammed the effigy upon her chest.

"Shape my Guilt, once again."

The woman slammed the effigy upon her chest, but this time, it transformed into a sword blade. Impaled, on her knees, she leaned back, bled out, and died. Sunlight shone down on her, and she turned to stone.

And thus, guilt, repentance, mourning and every pain of the soul of all kind were visibly and tangibly manifested, everywhere and in all of us. Sometimes in the form of blessing and grace, sometimes in the form of punishment and corruption. That divine will, equally pious and cruel, which we could not and will never be able to unravel, was called The Affliction.

BAROVIA
ABBEY OF THE BROTHERHOOD

SHIARA: Dead. Dead on mountainous pile of naked bodies. Slowly, somehow, you awaken. You open your eyes and blink. It stings. Everything hurts. It's cold. You're completely naked, and it's dark. You realize you're wearing the helm of your Order. You lift your head up. You're laying on something soft. Yes. A mountain of naked bodies. They're all bleeding. Broken. It reeks terribly. You look around. You're in the Abbey of the Brotherhood. Or, what's left of it.

DMMMM.

A sound. Your vision clears. You slowly get up. Your hands bleed, and it's not your blood. You're naked. All the bodies are naked, all wearing the same Brotherhood helm as you are, and nothing else. How did you get here? How are you alive? Where are you things?

You look around. The mound of dead bodies stretched as far as the eye can see, like rolling hills. The Abbey is in shambles. Ruined. It's daytime, you can see the weak sunlight shine through the cracks and holes from above. Flies buzz around you. The smell is overwhelming. Everywhere you look, your dead brothers and sisters create the ground for you to walk on, your body has no injuries but you are slathered in blood. You sense a presence.

DMMMM.

The noise again. What could it be? You feel something watching you. From above, a ruined balcony remains among the shambles. You look around. The Abbey is so large, the pile of bodies so great, it seems to stretch for a least a mile in all directions. Suddenly, from the balcony comes the grinding of wood. Something is up there. You squint through your helmet. Perhaps you remove it? Then you see it, and you forget all about it.

DMMMM.

From the balcony two naked malnourished females wheel a coffin for you to see. They are both chained to the coffin. They slowly prop up the coffin and open it. Inside, a withered form of a woman is asleep. Or dead? No. She is wrapped in mummy cloth, ancient, and you can tell this being is powerful. One naked slave turns around so you see her hunched back, and a dagger slowly, magically, rises to touch the skin. Words in a language you don't understand begin to be carved into her back on that slave, and the other naked slave screamed the translation to you as they were being written. Her voice made your skin crawl.

"CHILD! SISTER OF AFFLICTION! ONCE YOU WERE! NOW NO MORE!"the naked slave screamed. "ARISE! DESCEND THE FLESH AND LIVE AGAIN!"

DMMMM.

The sound again, in the distance. Like a massive hammer. Slowly, the dagger stopped writing on the back turned slave, and the wounds quickly healed. The dagger began to carve flesh again, and the other slave screamed again, translating.

"CHOSEN! NOW CHOOSE! SEEK REDEMPTION! DESTROY THE DARK EMPEROR!"

Before you, the mountain of bodies shift slightly. A passage is revealed. Stone steps leading down. It descends down for what seems like forever. How high up are you?

DMMMM.

Looking up, again, the dagger stops writing and the wounds on the back of the slave heal. More script is carved, and yet again, the other chained slave screams.

"TAKE THE FLASK! RESTORE LIFE! BEWARE THE WARDEN!"

The magical dagger is put away. The coffin is closed, and the two slaves drag the coffin away into the recesses of the ruined Abbey. A vial of red fluid appears before you. You can choose four people among the mountain of the dead Brotherhood to live once more in your quest for redemption.

Choose wisely.

DMMMM.

Off in the distance in the ruins of the abbey, an enormous twisted abomination of a man, nearly as tall as a building, walking like an ape, wanders slowly through the sea of corpses. It has a massive, bloody mace that looks like a religions icon, and uses it to smash the dead bodies into a pulp - perhaps finding Brothers still alive. It is dressed in nothing but rags and a helm. This is the one who murdered you and your brothers. This is the Warden of the Brotherhood.

He must be killed.

TASKS:
FIND YOUR FRIENDS: In order to find those worthy enough to join you in your quest, you must make ten DC10 insight rolls as you wade and shift through the mountains of flesh and blood. PASS: you need to succeed on at least four Insight rolls to pass and find the PCs. Feed them the potion. Resurrect them to join your crusade. FAIL: If you pass no Insight rolls, you are found by the Warden, crushed, and killed. Then:
ANNIHILATE THE WARDEN: Your journey of redemption begins with the destruction of the Afflicted Warden of the Brotherhood. Once four Brothers have been revived, descend the stairs of the Afflicted, the roll for initiative. Kill the Warden and escape the Abbey to enter the land Barovia. (I will tell you what gear you begin with at this point.)

(THIS FIRST PART IS FOR SHIARA - YOU MAY ALL POST AFTER, OR IF, SHE CHOOSES YOU FOR RESURRECTION AND REDEMPTION.)

Shiara's eyes open. Pain. She ground her teeth and pushed past the old friend and rose slowly, gazing around at the dead bodies. Perhaps she should have been horrified at the mass death, and to some degree, seeing the bodies of so many of her brothers and sister was horrifying, but...a much larger part of her mind saw only materials.

The woman in the distance spoke, or at least communicated, and Shiara's face darkened as she remembered. The betrayal. The slaugher. She picked up the vial of red fluid. She knew precisely who would be of most help in this crusade. The dark, smoky mark on her shoulder shimmering, the necromancer descended the stone steps to find her four.

Insight: 15, 7, 3, 8, 3, 20, 15, 20, 3, 13

She found Ingrid first. Shiara knelt and forced some of the liquid down Ingrid's throat. "Get up. Our work is not done."

Next was Jeremiah, and more liquid went into his mouth. "Come on, Tempest. You're too cruelly stubborn to stay dead for long anyway."

Then Hera, not much of the liquid left after bringing her back. "Enough napping. Up."

Finally, she looked down at Jimmy's body for a moment, then sighed. Who better for the suicide mission this was sure to be? The last of the liquid was poured into his mouth. "Let's go, you madman, we have work to do."

Once they were all awake, Shiara pinned them with her trademark ruthless gaze. "We have a chance to fix what we ****ed up before dying. If we kill...Him. But first we need to get out of here." She points at the Warden. "Which means we need to kill that."

Jimmy sputters awake with a start, and begins to laugh uncontrollably. The insanity of it all, for some reason, filled him with glee. Where most would be repulsed with the ample signs of death arrayed around them, Jimmy’s warped sense of righteousness (or stunning lack thereof) caused him to have no moral filter, no compass to align right from wrong. The only feeling he felt at that moment was....revenge.

Through the giggles, Jimmy manages to squeak out “Killin’s me name and killin’s me game!”  He looks around him for some sort of expedient weapon (a sconce or other decoration that could be torn off the wall and used as a club?) - Perception: 13

Ingrid gasps her first renewed breath as the potion awakens her from death's slumber. Where am i? I am....no longer dead? Hmmm answers must be found, there are souls who must answer for these questions. The well-built celestial stands to her full height, an imposing warrior covered in the blood of those around her. "Liara, thank you." Ingrid will help Liara locate the others, keeping her eyes out for equipment. PERCEPTION: 12

Jeremiah’s first impressions as the liquid takes effects are a gradual re-surfacing of his consciousnes from the quiet dark to a cacophony of voices, images, impressions, emotions.

"You're awake.." he senses through his connection with the natural world around him, generated by a blend of the voices in harmony - which in itself generates a sense of amazement - from his connection's state before his death, when it was mottled, corrupted, charred, it has been renewed, feeling fresh grown, regenerated, albeit still delicate and with more growing to do.

Tears leak from his eyes at the feeling - the sense of being clean for the first time in so very long. Then the memories of his actions returns, and the tears run more bitter by far.
"Heal where you harmed, stay the Affliction that sickens the land, stop its emissary. Redeem yourself..."

As his consciousness continues to surface, his deep connection to the land recedes further into his subconscious, and the voices fragment, into smaller voices - the spirits of beasts, of river and wood, of the small fey folk, with gifts of information, and a bolstering of his natural senses.

"Look over there..." he hears a whisper as he opens his eyes, surveying where he is, and who is around him.

Guidance providing support of 3 for his Perception check

Perception: 15

'What's happened?' he asks, his final memories still patchy, looking towards Shiara and Ingrid.

NOTE: Among the bodies and blood stacked high in the Abbey of the Brotherhood is a discrete pathway that leads to what was once a room for storage. By the entrance, a ruined placard can be seen:

In this place we gather the remains of those who were separated and forgotten, so we can grant them holy burial as our charitable Rule prescribeth. Helpest these poor souls, oh ones of the Brotherhood. The Order blesses you.

Nearby, a pile of weapons and armor lie discarded and forgotten. (You may equip yourself with starting equipment, for now. All of you are equipped with a helm of the Brotherhood. It is merely a cosmetic representation of who you were, and what you used to represent. It will have importance soon.)

DMMMM.

The Warden, from a distance, continues to pound any Brother still alive, - which from what you can see, are no one - with religious fervor and aggression. The Affliction has warped this being to a terrible height and disfigurement, his spiritual weapon of great lethality. Each pound from the one handed maul sends horrible shockwaves, sending the bloodied bodies flying like debris from an explosion. 

Jeremiah looks through the pile of weapons and armour, looking for anything suitable. (Leather-based halfling-sized armour, scimitar, shield etc...)

He looks a little distracted as he searches. ”Look under that pile, no, that one...”

Guidance - 4

Investigation: 21

(Investigation was 21, not showing result)

Ingrid throws on a tunic laced with overlapping metal scales, picking up a small round buckler. She picks up and examines a beautiful longsword, enlaid with a mark signifying a hunter's blade. No, this is unclean now. I will carry this as a stain on my consciousness for now. She SHATTERS the sword, placing the broken blade into a recovered pack on her back. The powerful celestial woman picks up a crude, simple battleax, it looked more like a tool for chopping wood than some foot soldier's only line of defense, it's head chipped, the leather on the haft stained from blood and sweat. "This will do, for now." she mutters to herself,  looping the axe to her belt. "Let us be rid of this foul tomb."

Hera coughs as the potion comes down her throat. Luckily, the Warden was still too busy brutalizing the other members of the Brotherhood to notice. When she's able to speak, the only thing that she says is "We have to kill Strahd." She scrounges around the pile, looking for her weapons and armor, rapidly equipping them.

THE ABBEY OF THE BROTHERHOOD

LORE: The Brotherhood of the Dark Emperor was an elite covenant of holy warriors, forever vowed to do the Will of the Dark Lord in unquestionable religious and militaristic servitude. They were excommunicated and murdered when their mission came to oppose Strahd, and now their bodies lie scattered on the floor - save for five, who have returned from death to complete a pilgrimage of revenge.

The Warden of the Brotherhood, a massive disfigured man wearing black liturgical vestments and an iron mask, approaches you and attacks with a gold candelabra. He is a massive, malshaped man, poised like an ape, his weapon held high above his head. He is silent in his attacks, and seeks to destroy you, the Brotherhood, and all who opposed the Will of the Dark Emperor Strahd.

TASK: Defeat the Warden to leave the Abbey of the Brotherhood. May the Affliction guide you.

The Warden: 2

Ingrid's Initiative: 6

Shiara goes through the bag, smiling coldly as she finds a tome bound in black-stained leather, her spellbook. The smile quickly turns to a dark frown as she flips through the book. "It would appear we were somewhat...weakened by our death. I cannot cast most of the spells in my spellbook." Her eyes are cold with anger as she pulls a dagger and some supplies out of the pile, finishing by pulling out her robes and slipping them on. "Let's go kill this thing."

Shiara:

Shiara init: 13

COMBAT ORDER
Jeremiah20, Hera17, Shiara13, Ingrid6, TheWarden1(AC18/HP100)

Hera: 17

Jeremiah Initiative: 19

COMBAT ORDER
Jeremiah20, Hera17, Shiara13, Ingrid6, TheWarden1(AC18/HP100)

Among the endless piles of dead naked bodies that were once members of the Brotherhood, the Warden has found five souls have have sinned. Unafraid, he engaged with his massive, towering form to annihilate all heretics and the forsaken who opposed the Dark Emperor. Holding aloft his giant candelabra, he prepared to bring it down upon you all with devastating force and reverberation. 

Jimmy’s Initiative: 23

Hera activates Channel Divinity: Sacred Weapon.