Lessons from the Mists: Session 0/1 - Ravenloft Beckons

Welcome to Lessons from the Mists! A blog/campaign diary about my campaign of Curse of Strahd, including the narrative, as well as a look behind the screen to show how I prepared each session, what I think went right, what I think could have gone better, and why I made the decisions I did.

These blogs are going to be split into two parts: The Recap, a narrative description of the story of my campaign, for those that want just what happened. Then, “So How Did this Session Go?” where I recount my thoughts before, during, and after a session from the Dungeon Master’s side of the screen.

Because our first session was a session 0, my group went over a lot of different things for the campaign as a whole as well as character creation, so we didn’t get much in terms of narrative, so this post is going to blend those two sections together.

This was the document I wrote and paraphrased for my players to start off our campaign to let them know about my thoughts regarding the content of Curse of Strahd, how it will play, and what the players can expect. I wanted both to give my players a very thorough understanding that this campaign will be grim, bleak, and its legendary status as a D&D adventure - not only as one of 5th Edition’s most popular adventures, but also its place in D&D’s history.

Character Creation Rules

Why did I put so many restrictions on character creation? To start, we are playing with 2014 rules because not only is the original adventure written for 5E 2014, but also all the supplements I might use are for that ruleset. In addition to this, I wanted to maintain a gothic tone that I believe certain supplements that came out after CoS did could destroy. For example, for me, an aarakocra artificer would destroy my own sense of verisimilitude when they stumble into D&D’s version of Dracula. However, the subclasses in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything are less egregious. But races and classes from the original core rules keep my own idea of fantasy gothic horror intact.

On no multiclassing: I just don’t like it. I like having characters be the epitome of their class identity. Watering that identity down, and breaking some rules generally about combat balance when you combine two features from different classes that gets REALLY POWERFUL, it’s all just annoying to me. So this time I’ve opted to make a strict rule on no multiclassing.

A few general things: I think taking starting gear away reinforces the theme of horror when the PCs need to get desperate about the gear they are looking for, and so I also want to keep a more strict track of rations, ammunition, and other resources like that. Long rests requiring four watches means with a table of four players, each needs to make their own individual watch roll, AND it makes sense with the rules where a long rest is 8 hours, 6 of which needs to be sleeping. I think the players do need a bit of an edge with how difficult combat encounters will be in this campaign, so I introduce flanking, but rather than it grant advantage on a roll, I am keeping it a flat +2 bonus. Finally, I hate that quaffing a potion requires an action, and so we will make it take a bonus action. That’s a change I really like about the 2024 rules.

A side note: I do truly believe limitations breed creativity, not limit them. When faced with a box to create in, you are forced to make many more interesting decisions than with boundless possibilities. I think that is true in basically any creative field, but I bring it up because some people may not agree with my rules of character creation for this campaign. Of course, different stories, campaigns, games, and groups of players will approach these limitations (or lack thereof!) differently.

The Characters

My friend Sam created Angvar Deepheart - a Level 1 Mountain Dwarf Fighter with the Haunted One background. Angvar was a member of the Flaming Fist for years before his commander, who he and his twin brother were his personal bodyguards, made a deal with some fiendish entity that caused his twin brother to disappear. Angvar saw all this in a dream. All that was left of his brother, Thraegar, was a silver coin with both of their faces on either side. His commander disappeared, and he spent years as a crypt keeper for dwarven mausoleums in Baldur’s Gate, until he came across his old commander by happenstance, and murdered him. He lost his dominant hand in the fight. Learning to fight again with his non dominant hand and in need of coin, he turned to a life of adventuring. Angvar is about 220 years old, has ashen gray skin, red, bloodshot eyes, a gray-white beard, and wears chainmail armor. His weapons consist of handaxes and a flail that he wields in his left hand. His right hand is missing, and a mechanism allows it to slot into a shield specially built. He speaks in low tones, not saying more than is absolutely necessary.

My friend Bryan created Kane Halx - a Level 1 Human Cleric with the Soldier background. He was the son of a family of farmers, and he left this life behind when a mercenary company, the Sundered Blades, traveled through his village at the age of 10. He’s been with them ever since, eventually getting the job of field medic and scribe for the company. He is a cleric of Kelemvor, appears to be in his late 30s, with short cropped dark brown hair and an unkept dark brown beard that is slowly going gray. He wears an insignia of the Sundered Blades (a hammer striking a sword), his shield bears the holy symbol of Kelemvor, and wields a longsword. His mercenary company faced a series of unfortunate events, the company believing it had a run of bad luck, that ended in them decimated in a battle and the company disbanding. Kane has been on his own since then.

My friend Liv created Mary Sue Ann Burn - a Level 1 Human Wizard with the Courtier background. She had an aptitude for magic in her youth, but never pursued that life in favor of raising a family. She married young and had children, and had a prosperous but mundane life, and worked as a lady in waiting for nobles in the big city. She was privy to many private conversations because no one paid any mind to her - until she became really invisible. Through unknown circumstances, her family no longer saw her, heard her, nor felt her. This continued to happen to nearly everyone she got close enough to. She set out on her adventuring career to attempt to return to her family and rid herself of what she believes is a curse. She is a woman in her 50s, with graying dark brown hair, a soft face, immaculate clothing but dirty boots, and carries a component pouch with her spellbook in a beautiful purse by her side.

My friend Grace created Oonagh Stumbleduck - a Level 1 Forest Gnome Ranger with the Outlander background. She was recruited to be a warden of the Trail of Mists, a gnome portal network that stretches across Faerun. She was stationed in the Trollbark Forest, and spent much of her career hunting trolls in the forest. She was relieved from her job recently, and became an adventurer instead to make ends meet. She is a small gnome with a round face, dark brown skin, frizzy gray white hair full of twigs and needles, and wears leather armor fit for a ranger, camouflaged as best as she can.

Getting Started

I was planning on only creating characters this session, but with an hour or so left of game time, we actually started the campaign! I described the opening scene in the town of Daggerford, and an invitation a young courier boy delivered to Angvar in the local tavern to dine with Duchess Morwen at the Ducal Castle.

He arrives early, and eventually Kane and Mary Sue Ann also arrive. They are told to wait in a sitting room and make their awkward introductions. Finally, it’s time for dinner.

The duchess Morwen lets them know why they were invited: she would like to hire them for a special job, to kill two birds with one stone: a group of wolves has been acting strangely in the nearby Misty Forest, and a group of colorful bandits robbed some townsfolk of Daggerford, and they were spotted in the Misty Forest. Morwen wants these adventurers to find out what’s happening with the wolves and drive those bandits out of the forest to make the Trade Way safe for travelers. Morwen allows them to stay the night and will send her servants to grab supplies they might need for the journey.

Angvar needs no more motivation. He abruptly gets up and leaves to rest for the night. The others stay for dinner, and it is appropriately awkward. Morwen attempts to get to know each of the adventurer’s talents and skill sets, and is appalled at Oonagh’s lack of decorum, as she stuffs her face with food and shows little reverence to the Lady of Daggerford. Finally, they all turn in for the night.

The party stocks up on supplies and heads out. While searching the forest, they find strange wolf tracks that seem to start and stop abruptly, with no indication of where the wolves may have gone. Among the tracks are large tracks, indicative of a direwolf among the pack. There might be upwards of a dozen wolves and 3-4 direwolves. On their second night in camp, they are attacked by a group of wolves, including a direwolf!

That’s where we end our session 0/first session of Curse of Strahd! Next time, we will see what happens in the fight with the wolves.