Lessons from the Mists: Session 5 - On the Road Again!

Welcome back to Lessons from the Mists! This session, the heroes bury the burgomaster of Barovia and set out on the roads towards Vallaki, encountering some strange sights on the road... Let's get started!

The heroes awake in the morning to bury Kolyan Indirovich and Oonagh. Mary Sue Ann asks Ylenia for some incense to summon a red tailed hawk through the use of Find Familiar. They discuss how to best “cure the priest of his madness” and make their way to the church.

When they arrive, they see that the church is in complete disrepair - the pews having been broken and used as fuel as dozens of tiny fires are scattered around the church in an effort to banish every inch of shadow from the chapel. They also hear a chilling scream of Doru from below, asking his father to feed him.

Angvar goes through each room along the hallway to the chapel methodically to determine where Doru is hidden while Ylenia goes to pray with Donavich and Ismark persuades the priest to give funeral rites to their father. Donavich seems oblivious to their presence until they touch him. When Doru screams again, he falls down on his knees and prays as if it were purely by reflex. Ismark and Ylenia shake him out of his stupor for long enough to leave the church and bury their father and Oonagh in the graveyard.

The process takes a few hours, and by the end, Oonagh is buried first. Kane, Angvar, and Mary Sue Ann pay their respects, allowing the body of the forest gnome to return to the earth without any coffin. Kane casts Gentle Repose on both bodies to prevent them from being turned into undead in the next week. Donavich performs funeral rites for Kolyan according to rituals to the Morninglord while Ylenia and Ismark pay their respects to their father.

While Kolyan is being buried, Mary Sue Ann spots a dark cloaked silhouette barely visible through the mists at the edge of the cemetery. She sends her familiar to investigate, but the figure disappears back into the mists to avoid being spotted. When the mists swallow up the figure, they all hear wolves howling from beyond. After the funeral, the heroes go to investigate and find boot prints that transform into a wolf’s prints. They all discussed the possibility of werewolves in the wilderness, but Ylenia informed them that a vampire may also transform into different forms - a bat, a wolf, or a cloud of mist. 

The heroes discuss if there were werewolves in Barovia and if they would transform during the full moon. The players ask me what phase the moon was in previously, and I said it was full the previous night, and Ismark tells them that it is always full - the Barovian moon does not phase. In the morning, the clouds gather and blot out the sun, if one is up there. Ylenia tells the other heroes that some Barovians believe the sun does not exist at all, but she believes the Morninglord’s light will return. She is fascinated when the others tell her of Toril’s sun, and she replies that it sounds beautiful.

The heroes and Ismark return to the mansion (after grabbing some holy water from Donavich) to complete last minute preparations before their journey to Vallaki. Ismark tells them to go to the Tser Pool Encampment - it will shorten their journey by a day or more, and though a group of Vistani camp there, it is safer to stick in larger groups in the wilderness. He and Ylenia share a tearful goodbye, and she assures him that she would return, and put an end to Strahd’s evil. He looks forward to seeing her again.

Before heading out, the heroes decided to pay a visit to Bildrath’s Mercantile. When they step out of the mansion, two ravens overhead are eyeing them and caw at each other. Mary Sue Ann is extremely paranoid of creatures within this realm, and nearly blasts them with Magic Missile before Ylenia stops her, saying that ravens are signs of good luck, that they have lost souls within them. It may be Oonagh and her father. Ylenia informs them that Bildrath is an asshole, and to be on their best behavior. Stepping inside this humble shop, they discover the inventory to be woefully small, and the prices outrageous. Mary Sue Ann is primarily interested in finding a pearl to use Identify, but Bildrath has nothing of the sort. He is selling a healer’s kit for 50gp, and is willing to buy some of their gemstones at 10-20% of their actual value. Ylenia swipes the healing kit from the counter while Mary Sue Ann and Kane are speaking to him. Afterwards, the heroes make their way out of the village and towards Vallaki.

The party encounters three “random encounters” along the road on the first day of their journey. The first of which is an old, abandoned farmstead beside the road that looked like it had been ruined years before. Mary Sue Ann sends her hawk, Guinevere, to investigate, but she disturbs three Strahd zombies. It’s initiative! Two swarm Ylenia as she charges into the fight, excited to show her skills off to her new traveling companions. Angvar quickly jumps in to protect Ylenia and lopped off an arm of one of the zombies, only to see it still animated and attacking. Kane and Mary Sue Ann are able to deal with the last one through a combination of Sacred Flame, Fire Bolt, and Angvar rejoining the fight with his Battle Master maneuvers. They see the zombies coming and are able to handle them easily.

Upon investigating the farmstead, they find it almost entirely picked clean except for a handful of coins and a small box that contains a wooden pipe. Mary Sue Ann asks if anyone smoked, but nobody was willing to give it a try. She keeps the pipe.

The second major encounter is at the River Ivlis Crossroads. They see an old signpost directing to major landmarks, an old gallows, and a graveyard. As they begin to march on, the heroes hear the creaking of a rope, and turn back to the gallows. All but one see a nondescript Barovian man hanging from a noose, but Kane sees a visage of himself hanging from the gallows, his own dead eyes staring right back at him. He is thoroughly spooked by this, not wanting to go forward and touch it. Ylenia and Mary Sue Ann go forward to investigate, with Ylenia using her Divine Sense and picking up an undead signature from Guinevere. Guinevere touched the body, which dissolved into dust.

Ylenia informs Mary Sue Ann that her familiar is undead, and she does not understand. She said she does not practice necromancy, but begins to understand that the metaphysics that govern Barovia may be outside of her understanding. They press on to the Tser Pools.

Their final encounter on their way to the Tser Pools involves Will-o-Wisps attempting to draw them off of the road and into the forest. Angvar is very against following anything they did not understand into danger, but Ylenia is adamant that they will not get anywhere without plunging headfirst into something dangerous. It is the only way they might have a chance against Strahd.

Mary Sue Ann instead sends Guinevere to follow the lights into the forest. They lead her hawk to a megalith with a primitive drawing of a woman with three eyes and raven wings standing above a tree. Ylenia follows them and attempts to speak to the will-o-wisps but all they do is blink in and out of existence. While Ylenia follows the will-o-wisps a short way off the road, Angvar pulls Mary Sue Ann aside and tells her she needs to look out for that girl. Mary Sue Ann has no desire to be a mother to that girl, and she agrees with Ylenia that some chances need to be taken if they are to escape from Barovia. Angvar relents, and says that he did not want what happened to Oonagh to happen to Ylenia. Ylenia returns to the road and they travel the final leg of the journey to the Tser Pool Encampment.

The heroes arrive at the Tser Pool Encampment after night has fallen, and there they see a large bonfire surrounded by barrel topped wagons, tents, draft horses drinking from the pool, and roughly 16 Vistani drinking, dancing, and eating. They are welcomed into the camp by a man named Arahja and his wife Rina, who feed them, give them wine, and ask where they are going and where they are from. The heroes attempt to test him on his opinions of Strahd, and he seems indifferent or otherwise dislikes the vampire. This puts the heroes more at ease. Mary Sue Ann asks to trade for a pearl to use as a spell component, and Arahja is willing to part with a more expensive pearl than she needs for a fraction of the cost. She trades some of the gemstones they found in the Durst house for the pearl.

Arahja tells the heroes that the Vistani are a welcoming people, and denies all their protestations that he is giving them too much. However, there is an old tradition that he abides by - if travelers want to pay the Vistani back, all he needs from them is a story, and in turn he will give one to them. No matter how destitute a traveler is, the one thing they all have is that invaluable story of their life they can trade. He begins, regaling them with the story of the Mad Mage of Mount Baratok - about how a year ago, a wizard from a far off land attempted to fight the devil, but was repelled. Some say he died, but rumor has it he lives still, hiding in the guises of animals on the slopes of Mount Baratok.

Then, he asks for a story from the heroes. Ylenia tells her traveling companions and the Vistani of the time that she met face to face with the devil and lived to tell the tale. Occasionally Strahd would pay a visit to the old burgomaster of Barovia as a show of power, and Kolyan ordered the children to hide. On his most recent visit, however, she tripped while on her way to lock herself away, and made eye contact with the vampire as he stood outside their mansion before he spoke with Kolyan. It was a chilling experience, and one she won’t forget. Arahja bursts into applause, “Good story!”

Arahja tells the heroes that they are welcome to stay in their camp for tonight, it is dangerous in the woods for Giorgio (non-Vistani) like themselves, but all those from beyond the mists that stay with them must speak to Madam Eva, a Raunie, a fortune teller. He says it is all in good fun, not quite understanding why Madam Eva requested speaking to all foreigners in Barovia. The heroes oblige, and approach Madam Eva’s tent, where purple smoke spills from behind the flaps, and the intense smell of incense wafts out.

She calls out to each hero by name, making a reference to their past. She asks Angvar to come in, saying he may find his missing brother and the one who took him. She asks Mary Sue Ann to come in, saying that she might shed light on how to cure her affliction. She asks Kane to come in, saying he may find help in looking for his old mentors. And she asks Ylenia to come in, saying that the cycle starts anew and that she may be able to escape from it.

And that’s where we ended the session!

I don’t think there were many major hiccups in the session this time around. There were a lot of little hints dropped about the wider nature of Barovia that I think was very successful. Ismark remarked on a missing wine shipment to seed the Wizard of Wines, then talked about the moon always being full. Like I said before, I am heavily making use of MandyMod’s incredible Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd Series, and in that she recommends changing the nature of lycanthropy to be the reverse of what we might be familiar with - where the infected lycanthropes change on every night but the full moon. I wanted my players’ knowledge on these monsters to remain true while also keeping the threat of werewolves alive and to illustrate that Barovia is not like anywhere else they’ve been. The detail was improvised, but I think it worked out rather well. I don’t love improvising much, but more on that later.

I am currently looking for solutions to random encounters during travel during this campaign. I almost used the random encounter tables in the written adventure, then found most of the results incredibly boring. I referred back to MandyMod’s FOCOS PDFs and thankfully those have some great encounters to foreshadow future events and characters. When I find a solution to random encounters that will work for my table, I will definitely give them a shout out here, but until then, Mandy has got me covered.

The thing I didn’t think worked (but I don’t think my players noticed) is the farmhouse encounter - it was sort of useless. I had the opportunity to use monsters unique to CoS, the Strahd Zombies, but it lacked any sort of drama, the treasure was boring. They could have walked by it as nothing was drawing them to the farmhouse, and if I want a combat encounter, I want something with a little bit more flair. My players, however, made it worthwhile because it was the first opportunity for them to see Ylenia fight, for her to prove herself as anything but a damsel in distress. Someone that garners respect not just due to her station, but because she can hold her own. She charged into the fight and then was complimented afterwards, by Angvar of all people. Boring encounter that led to a great roleplaying moment!

My Approach to Prep

It’s funny, I was planning our session 0 to be only a session 0,  but starting the campaign right away has  thrown the rhythm of this campaign slightly off. I end up going through about half of the content I prepared last week, and half of the content I prepared this week, week after week. Not an issue for me, but I think it will correct itself next week, as I am not going to be starting the very complicated mess that is Vallaki. We will probably do the card reading, the journey to the Old Bonegrinder and whatever decisions the heroes make there, then end at the gates of Vallaki. A good thing too, because we’ll be postponing a week due to player availability, and that gives me a chance to get Vallaki ready.

One of the major lessons of game mastering that did not come early to me is being okay with calling a break or an end to the session if the players explore content I had not prepared. I do not think of myself as a GM that improvises particularly well. I have way more of a writers’ brain than an improvisers' brain, and I’ve had campaigns suffer because I have made decisions while improvising that I did not like after giving it more consideration afterwards. Instead, I like to provide my players with a well thought out sandbox that they can play in. I do not think of this as limiting, but freeing, because I do not feel beholden to keep running in places I am not ready for. Rather, I can pack it up and say, “Let me get that content prepared, and I’ll see you all next week.” That doesn’t mean the end of game night, just the end of the session, and we can play some other games for the rest of the night.

This isn’t the same as railroading, which I think of as making all decisions for the players ahead of time and not allowing any of their creativity to shine. Railroading is deciding that one solution will work, and any attempt to bypass that with more creative, fun solutions will be met with failure. Railroading is preventing yourself from being inspired by your players.

In the content I already have prepared, the players may make decisions that take the story in a way different direction. That’s okay, as long as I have it ready. If I have Vallaki prepared and the players say they are going to the Winery without going to Vallaki, then that’s for next week. This week we’ll play Dune. But if I have Vallaki prepared and the first thing the players do there is steal Rictavio’s hat of disguise to reveal his true identity, they’re going to have to deal with that this week because while it may not be what I expected, it is still content I prepared. This is all to say - don’t be afraid to not run when you may not be ready to (This, of course, applies to D20 fantasy games that require a lot of planning. I look forward to playing Blades in the Dark but I have not run it yet, and supposedly that game relies heavily on light prep work. Again, your mileage may vary, but that's my two cents).

For Next Session

The plan for next session - prepare the card reading, the Old Bone Grinder, and the rest of the journey to Vallaki, and after that, outline the huge sandbox that is Vallaki!

Until next time!