Lessons from the Mists: Session 10 - Wachterhouse

Welcome back to Lessons from the Mists! This session, the heroes investigate further the unconsecrated church, and answer the summons of Lady Fiona Wachter for dinner. Let's get started!

The heroes search the town for information pertaining to Arabelle. Only Ylenia finds any information in the north of Vallaki from a farmer that says that the local drunk, Bluto, was talking about a Vistani child and was last seen leaving Vallaki from the northern gate a few days ago. Mary Sue Ann, meanwhile, returns to St. Andral’s Church to speak to Father Lucian and get more information on the missing bones. She prays, attempting to reach out to an unknown entity that showed her favor during the fight with the orphanage demon, and feels warmth, like a hearthfire, smells of fresh baked bread, and echoing sounds of laughter. She is pulled out of her reverie when Father Lucian exits the confessional, telling an old woman whose confessions he was hearing named Willemina to get home safe.

When the other heroes finally arrive, Father Lucian shows them the chamber where the bones of St. Andral were kept underneath the altar. The only remaining clue of the robbery is fresh dirt on the floor, lending truth to Milivoj’s confession. Mary Sue Ann asks for the keys to the Vallakovich crypt, explaining they have discovered a strange hooded man about town, and he was skulking near the Vallakovich crypts in the previous nights. They enter the crypt.

The only lead that they find is a long nail on the ground in the newest part of the crypt. Angvar examines it but cannot discern its exact purpose, and pockets it. Thinking they have found everything, they begin to leave but are stopped by the undead ancestors of the Vallakovich family rising from their crypts. It’s initiative!

The skeletons inside draw bows made of bone and let arrows fly loose at Ylenia, but because of Kane and Ylenia’s ability to turn the undead, they are forced to flee. The heroes escape and lock the crypt again. Kane wonders aloud to the others if they are now dealing with a necromancer, Mary Sue Ann believes the undead are a result of the lack of church consecration. They return the keys to Lucian then make their way to the Wachterhouse.

When they arrive at the Wachterhouse, they are invited in for dinner, and shortly afterward arrives Lady Fiona Wachter. She is quite inquisitive about their stay in Vallaki so far, and does not hide her disdain for the baron Vargas Vallakovich. Mary Sue Ann is quite suspicious of her but intuits that Lady Wachter is trying to suss the heroes out just as much as they are trying to suss her out. Over the course of the conversation, Angvar learns that Fiona is aware of dwarves from other realms, but knows none by name. Fiona tells about the history of the Vallakovich family and how their recent violence is far worse to an average Vallakian than the distant threat of Strahd, whose last attack was over a century ago. She tells them about the Reformation Center, where dissenters are sent to be brainwashed, as well as Vargas’ attack dog, Izek Strazni. Kane notes that there is a personal bitterness in her voice when speaking about Vargas’ violent and tyrannical rule.

Finally, Mary Sue Ann asks why they have been invited. Fiona sighs and says that she wants the truth about why her daughter went mad. She explains that she arranged a marriage between Vargas’ son Victor and her daughter Stella, and Stella began spending much more time at the Vallakovich mansion. Slowly, she began to show abnormal behaviors, and then she came home one night mad. That was three years ago, and she has not recovered. She wants information about what caused this. She explains it is quite easy to get in and speak to the baron.

Kane and Ylenia want to see Stella to determine what might be affecting her. Fiona reluctantly obliges, shows them up to her room and unlocks the door. Inside, they see Stella’s bed has restraints, she refers to herself as “Little Kitty,” and acts like a cat. Ylenia gets on all fours and matches her behavior, which Stella enjoys. When Mary Sue Ann attempts to Identify her, she hisses and cries out, then hides underneath the bed. Stella remains uncooperative, and they leave. Just before they leave, Mary Sue Ann pulls out her white feather she found in the Durst manor, and leaves it in the room.

Fiona implores the heroes to learn what truly happened to Stella. They agree to do what they can.

With night fallen, the heroes return to the Blue Water Inn. The common room is crowded, Urwin tends bar and Rictavio tells stories to a group of children, among them Brom and Bray Martikov. While at the bar, a pair of two young men offer to buy the heroes drinks and introduce themselves as Nikolai Wachter II and Karl Wachter. Mary Sue Ann says that they already met their mother, and Nikolai laughs and says that they are the ones that they were kicked out of the house for! Karl butts in and begins heavily flirting with Ylenia. The brothers ask about their heroics about town and their cleansing of the orphanage. Mary Sue Ann explains that they went outside town to meet the Vistani and Nikolai betrays his racism towards them, asking why they are looking for one of their missing children. However, Karl says to his brother that the heroes could help them, and explains they are looking for their lost drinking buddy, Bluto. They take advantage of his drinking to get free wine from him and would like to have him back. Ylenia flirts with Karl to the advantage of the heroes to get as much information as she can, but secretly despises the brothers.

A short time later, the heroes retire to bed. Mary Sue Ann dreams of similar feelings that she experienced in the church - warmth, a hearth, fresh baked bread and warm stew, green grass, children laughing and playing. They almost sound like the family she left behind, all accompanied by a rich, orange glow that retreats into the darkness, beckoning. She reaches out to it, and it acknowledges her.

Ylenia dreams of running through a castle wearing a wedding dress stained with blood. She dashes through galleries and arcades, not caring where she runs, all that matters is she must get away from the beast hunting her. She opens a door into blackness, jumps through, and plunges back into the darkness of sleep.

And that’s where we left off!

Not a ton to report this week, this session was mostly investigation and roleplaying. That’s a lot of the Curse of Strahd campaign, but there is something I have learned recently in GMing investigation that I think could be useful advice.

I have begun to worry that when I GM sessions where most of the plot moving forward is simply characters gathering information, I am simply telling the players everything and they are reacting to that information. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I think that lacks some interaction from the players. I recently watched Matt Colville design an adventure for MCDM’s new roleplaying game DRAW STEEL and there was a bit of GM wisdom in which he says: If there is a clue in an area, reveal that clue, but abstract it by one degree. The example here: the clue is that there are dangerous, magical cherries in an abandoned village but he advises to describe it as a bowl of fruit. If you are too specific about it, the players will latch onto that specific description and there will be no mystery. “Why did you describe everything else in the room generally, but specifically said in the bowl there were cherries?” 

In my session this week, there were some times that the Wachter brothers acted in strange ways that prompted questions from the characters which revealed their missing friend. The heroes found the nail (which will eventually lead them to the coffin maker) and I said that it is obviously for a specific job, but didn’t say what or imply that they need to bring it to a blacksmith to identify it. I want to leave it to them.

I think these examples show how you can make investigation and roleplay fun without just dumping information on players. Give your players as much information as they need to make the conclusion for themselves. Do not make the conclusion for them. Bring them right up to the edge, but allow them to jump off themselves. It makes it feel very rewarding for them when they feel that they have figured out something all by themselves by putting together all the pieces you have given them.

The other thing I thought went really well and was cool to GM is the combat that didn’t go anywhere. The players could sense that this was filler content, and through clever use of abilities, entirely bypassed that encounter. I think if I was to force them to play that encounter out that’s a definite example of railroading. It made me very happy to see players cleverly say “No, GM, we aren’t going to play along. We are making our own path.”

For Next Session

There are now multiple leads that are pointing them to the woods north of Vallaki to find where Bluto may have taken Arabelle, and so the heroes are interested in rescuing her.

Until next time!