Lessons from the Mists: Session 20 - Yester Hill

Welcome back to Lessons from the Mists! This session, the heroes take Yester Hill back from the forest folk and interrupt a ritual to summon a devastating horror. Let's get started!

The Recap

The heroes arrive at Yester Hill. Off in the distance, they see a tiered hill with a trail that meanders up the sides, and around the concentric circles lie dozens of cairns - this is a burial site of the forest folk. Atop the hill, a ring of boulders surround a large statue, and beyond that, a copse of trees surrounds a sickly, black, massive tree. A storm gathers above the hill, and lightning occasionally strikes the ring of stones at the crown of the hill. Even further beyond, far to the west, the mists congeal and solidify into a wall that reaches all the way to the sky.

Mary Sue Ann takes in this incredible scene, and spots in the east a glimmer of orange flame - as it comes closer, she sees a nightmare and Strahd von Zarovich arrives on its back, joined by a woman in a yellow dress. They touch down atop the hill and are lost from sight. Angvar, meanwhile, begins to feel a tugging sensation in his chest, as if pulling him forward towards the hill.

The heroes discuss what the best plan of approach might be, and Angvar warns that if Strahd is present, they may want to wait and watch until he leaves to make some sort of move. Mary Sue Ann cannot send her familiar very far to get information, so they decide to approach the hill. As they walk up the hill, they narrowly avoid patrols of forest folk. As they rise, Angvar continues to feel that pulling, and it grows stronger, more insistent. Just before reaching the crown of the hill, Angvar spots one of the cairns, larger, more decorated, more imposing than the rest. As he sets eyes on it, he knows that this is what has been propelling him forward since they arrived. He asks his companions to wait, and approaches it - a voice, deep and melodious, issues forth, introducing itself as Kavan, Bloodsinger, a mighty warrior whose spear thirsts for blood. The spirit implores Angvar to rule the mountains in his stead, and as the voice fades, Angvar spots a glimmer of light reflected off metal through a gap in the rock - something inside. He informs his companions on what he heard, then begins to dig.

He finds within the cairn a spear - simple in design, and covered in dried blood. He and the rest of his companions are wary of it, but he decides to carry it for now. They eventually make it to the top of the hill and take in the scene: seven forest folk stand guard around six druids that chant a strange hymn in front of a large statue made of twigs and woven plants that resembles Strahd von Zarovich. Strahd and the woman in yellow stand on the north side of the circle, watching. The heroes debate on how to approach this, but the druidic chanting rises higher and louder, taking on strange sounds that human vocal chords could not produce. They get the sense that time is ticking, and launch into an attack. Mary Sue Ann enlarges Angvar and he charges forward with Ylenia, who calls upon the Morninglord to bless her weapon. Kane hops over the wall and prays to Kelemvor to silence the ritual, and it falls silent save for one druid.

It’s initiative! The forest folk standing guard burst into motion to defend their ritual. Several of the raiders attempt to swarm Ylenia, but Angvar wades into the fray, felling enemies and launching Pidlwick into the fight to distract the enemies. Ylenia sprints for the woman beside Strahd, believing she is a captive, but she just smiles at the carnage. Strahd, meanwhile, watches and waits. A sharpshooter among the forest folk lets loose barrages that disables Pidlwick and dispels Mary Sue Ann’s familiar. Mary Sue Ann gets close to the ritual and begins to burn the statue, and the leader weakens Angvar. Several of the melee fighters swarm Kane, but he sends them to their graves with Spirit Guardians.

The statue burns, and a glowing gem falls from it. With the ritual broken, the remaining forest folk panic and flee. Mary Sue Ann retrieves the gem. Strahd mounts his nightmare while the woman in yellow disappears in a flash of magic. He rides to the edge of the hill, looking longingly at the wall of mists, and returns to the heroes. He reiterates that he is patient, but his patience is not limitless. He invites them to dine at Castle Ravenloft. He wishes to speak to them in civilized surroundings. Angvar questions who the woman was, and he replies she is his wife, a position highly sought after. It amazes him that some reject such advances, making meaningful glances at Ylenia. He says that they are among the most interesting guests he has invited to his realm in quite some time. He mounts his nightmare once more, and leaves.

All of the heroes’ eyes are drawn towards the towering wall of mists. Mary Sue Ann sees her home, where she gave birth to and raised her children. Angvar sees a tavern, an amalgamation of all the places he and Thraegar traveled together, with his brother’s hearty laughter echoing from within. Kane sees a military camp, full of companions he made over many long years of campaigning. Ylenia alone sees a vision she herself does not understand - Castle Ravenloft, its walls festooned with red and white roses and decorations - fit for a wedding.

Staring at a vision of happy memories, just out of reach in that misty country beyond, the heroes discuss Barovia and the very land’s torture of its people by dangling happy memories in front of them. Mary Sue Ann longs to return to normalcy, and Ylenia is confused by what she sees, but Kane and Angvar both agree that though they were happy memories, it is impossible to return to them. They have all moved on. Angvar brings up Thraegar again, and says that he may have come here once, but for his sake, he hopes he is no longer here - dead or otherwise. He still does not know what to make of Izek. With those somber echoes fresh, they prepare to spend the night here.

Mary Sue Ann examines Angvar’s spear, and detects a powerful enchantment, but no curses. She prepares Leomund’s Tiny Hut and they sleep for the night. The next morning, they briefly examine the copse of trees, but decide to cleanse it another time. Instead, they travel back north to the Wizard of Wines.

Early in the evening, they approach the Wizard of Wines. The heroes meet Dag at the door who brings out Adrian. Mary Sue Ann presents the gem to Adrian, who is overjoyed to see it. With this, wine production can start again. However, he says he must discuss something privately with his family. The heroes give him time, and when they are brought back inside, all the adult Martikovs are present. Adrian leads this conversation, saying that they want to thank the heroes and let them know a little bit more about them. They are all members of a secret society called the Keepers of the Feather, a spy network that opposes Strahd and uses ravens to spy and communicate with others all across Barovia. They assist those travelers from beyond the mists when they seem capable and powerful enough to stand against Strahd, but do not reveal themselves. One of these adventurers escaped Castle Ravenloft alive before Strahd hunted him down, and brought to them a book - an account of Strahd’s life written by the vampire lord himself. However, it is written in a cipher they have not been able to crack. This is their gift to the heroes - but they warn that if Strahd were to learn they had the tome with them, he would stop at nothing to hunt them down and retrieve it.

The party advances to level 6 and receives the Tome of Strahd!

And that’s where we left it!

So How Did the Session Go?

If you play in person, play up the atmosphere in this campaign. Revealing the art of Yester Hill and describing it was so atmospheric, with stormy weather sound effects and ominous music in the background. You can achieve this same effect on VTTs I suppose, but that moment really made me love playing this campaign in person. In addition to that, the creepy factor of revealing the Blood Spear to Angvar was so fun. He didn’t quite know what he was approaching or why it chose him, but by the end of the session, he was delighted to have a creepy (and definitely not cursed!) magic spear.

The fight was the centerpiece of this session, and I entirely threw out the encounter atop Yester Hill and rebuilt it with something new. Using the encounter building rules from MCDM’s Flee, Mortals! And the human stat blocks, I remade the encounter and this is what I did:

I decided it was a hard encounter, and using the rules in the book, it gave me a CR budget of 10, which I spent on one Death Cultist, four human raiders, one human trickshot, and one human knave. Those were going to be my primary combatants, while the six druids that were involved in the ritual were noncombatants. The ritual to summon Wintersplinter housed within the statue of Strahd was going to be a minute long when the heroes arrived, but because they discussed so long, I gave them a couple minutes to discuss tactics out of character, then signalled to them that the ritual was progressing. That being said, the encounter started with six rounds to go before Wintersplinter was summoned. There were two ways to interrupt it: destroy the statue (with AC and HP straight from the book) or kill all the druids involved with the ritual while still being harried by the combatants.

This combat was so damn fun. It would have been a lot more dangerous and exciting if I wasn’t rolling like absolute crap for the first half of it, but it finally got scary once Pidlwick II was knocked out AND I consistently rolled 19s on attacks during the back half. Mary Sue Ann’s magic tore apart the statue and they stopped the ritual with two rounds to spare. Overall, I think the players had a great, GREAT time with the combat encounter, I cannot recommend using the stat blocks within FM! enough.

I was, however, a little disappointed to not see Wintersplinter get used. I modified the Treant statblock from FM! with some villain actions and reactions to make it a proper solo encounter, but it was a little last minute and haphazard. I would use the base Tree Blight statblock in the CoS adventure with the following changes. Let me know how it works out!

Finally, I really think I dropped the ball on this Strahd encounter. I think giving him some written dialogue or talking points would have gone a long way, but in the moment he sort of just reiterated some of the things the players know he wants - come to dinner, make Ylenia fall in love with him. They did get to meet another wife of his, but she didn’t really get to show off her character, which I also think I could have done a lot better. I think I need to force the characters to go to Castle Ravenloft, and to do that, there are some events in the book where Ezmerelda attempts to assault Castle Ravenloft and fails, but escapes. To send the players a message that Strahd isn’t fucking around, I think Ezmerelda could get caught and does not escape, and Strahd sends the characters something of hers - her mechanical leg, perhaps. We’ll see where I deploy that.

Also, the players were DEVASTATED for me to knock out Pidlwick, but they are sure they can take him back to Blinsky to fix him. Huzzah, a reason to return to Vallaki!

Until next time!