Lessons from the Mists: Session 7 - The Coven

Welcome back to Lessons from the Mists! This session, the heroes battle the crones revealed to be hags at the dilapidated windmill, then arrive at the town of Vallaki. Let's get started!

The heroes approach the old, dilapidated windmill, Angvar hidden underneath Granny’s cloak and pulling the cart up the road. Mary Sue Ann hides within the cart with Ludo while Kane and Ylenia sneak off to the sides to flank the first woman to come out, but with a very low Dexterity (Stealth) roll from Kane and him tripping on a nearby stone, their approach is announced and it’s initiative!

Ylenia climbs up the scaffolding to find the children in the cages while Angvar, Mary Sue Ann, and Kane fight Offalia. She calls for Bella who rushes from the second story. Ylenia manages to climb inside but Offalia sees her intrusion and commands Bella to stop Ylenia from “touching our ingredients.” With that, Offalia uses a charm to make Angvar fight his friends, who rushes up to stop Ylenia as well.

Mary Sue Ann’s familiar, Guinevere, joins the fray on the second story by the time Bella catches up to Ylenia, but Bella too releases a charm to make Guinevere fight Ylenia. When Guinevere attacks Ylenia, it’s revealed that once a charmed combatant deals damage, the charm is released.

Outside, Mary Sue Ann Misty Steps onto the scaffolding while Offalia follows, but quickly is killed by a Magic Missile. Kane is able to bless his allies and get a Guiding Bolt off onto Bella who rejoins the fight outside while Angvar hunts Ylenia. Bella attempts to catch Mary Sue Ann but is dispatched much like her sister from the scaffolding. Angvar hits Ylenia once and the charm is broken.

With that, the battle of the windmill comes to an end. Ludo peaks his head out of the cart and asks if it is alright to come out. The heroes search the windmill and release the children, who identify themselves as Myrtle and Freek. Mary Sue Ann discovers a larger collection of menhirs on a hill behind the windmill with similar iconography they saw on the standing stone in the forest the previous day. They find the hags’ concoctions, three bottles labeled Youth, Laughter, and Mother’s Milk, which Mary Sue Ann identifies later that night. Ylenia bakes bread for the children with the ingredients in the windmill (without using the bone dust) and they eventually make their way to bed, with Ylenia taking the first watch. Kane eats his last piece of dream pastry without realizing it, as he is addicted, and falls into a deep slumber.

A knock sounds at the door of the windmill near the end of Ylenia’s first watch, and she opens it to find a regal elf with long, black hair, a deep blue cloak with a sword at his hip. He greets Ylenia by name despite her never having met him, and identifies himself as Rahadin, the chamberlain and majordomo of Strahd von Zarovich with an invitation to Castle Ravenloft for dinner. Angvar prepares to attack from behind the door, waiting for a signal from Ylenia which never comes. They decline the invitation, which Rahadin accepts but informs them that Strahd does not like to be kept waiting. Rahadin gets into a black carriage by the side of the road and rides off.

Due to the dream pastry addiction, Ylenia and Angvar’s dreams that night are plagued with horrors and cannot get a long rest, but the heroes discuss the meaning of the invitation in the morning. They think it best to just make it to town, where at the very least they can find homes for the children and take a moment to assess their options. They press on to Vallaki.

While the heroes are conversing on the road through a thick forest, an arrow whizzes out of the foliage and strikes the ground. A voice calls out, “That was a warning shot.” Two grim looking men emerge from the brush covered in wolf’s hides. Ylenia puts her hands up, screaming “Don’t shoot! We have children!” One of the men approaches and says, “That is precisely why you were stopped.” One of them threatens the heroes while the other called Yevgeni asks the names of each of the children, who comply with the interrogation. The man holding a nocked arrow at the party informs the other these aren’t the children they’re looking for. Ylenia asks what’s going on, and the men explain that they were paid quite a bit to find three children that went missing from the orphanage in Vallaki. They are three boys, aged 12-14, named Lazlo, Hans, and Franz. These children are not them. The hunters and the heroes go their separate ways.

There are no other interruptions for the rest of the day, and by the time night falls, they see the walls of Vallaki. When they approach they are stopped by the guards and interrogated about their business in town and their allegiance to “the Devil.” The heroes say they have no allegiance to the Devil. Satisfied, the guards let them into the town and inform them of the laws in place - Causing unrest is a serious crime, saying the name “Strahd” is not allowed, and attendance to the weekly festivals is mandatory. The guards log their weapons and descriptions, taking special note of Angvar’s ancestry and Ylenia’s hair.

Kane asks if they are trapped in town until the festival, and the guard says it would be ridiculous for them to flee from the safety of Vallaki’s walls. Ylenia asks where the Vistani are, and the guard captain says they are not allowed within the walls, calling them “thieving horse-fuckers.” Mary Sue Ann asks what the point of not saying the name of the vampire is, and the guard captain says that such a name brings unhappiness, and that is not allowed in Vallaki. “All will be well,” he says with a smile. They are pointed towards St. Andral’s Church for spiritual worship and the Blue Water Inn for rooms for the night. Before they leave, Angvar asks the name of the guard captain, who stutters out “Billy.”

That’s the end of the session!

The majority of this session was taken up by a long combat against the hags at the windmill, which went a lot better than expected. I used two Night Hags from MCDM’s Flee, Mortals!, and adjusted their AC, to hit bonus, and save DC’s using the quick stats provided in the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide, and it all worked out well. I really liked using the Hag’s dream dust charm ability on the heroes, as it immediately ratcheted up the tension when the heroes began to turn against each other. Angvar spent most of the fight charmed, and his player continued to announce to the other players how it’s all going to be fine because he will not spend much longer charmed, and then I never offered him a save or announced when it ended. 

The first turn he was charmed he was very close to Kane, but spent his turn dashing to find Ylenia, thinking he could outsmart the ability and get rid of it without harming an ally, but alas, it did not work well for him.

I was having absolutely awful luck the entire fight and I could not get a good turn of claw attacks off on any of the heroes, which was a huge bummer because when they hit with two claws, a save must be made or the target falls asleep. I reduced their to-hit bonus from +7 to +5, and if I was to run this again I think I would change it to +6, there were at least 2 times in which I missed a PC by 1, and it wouldn’t have broken the combat. Probably.

By the time the combat was over, we had about another hour left to play so I sort of sped the rest of the journey along. Rahadin’s reveal seemed to work very well, it put the fear of god into my players while also hooking them into curiosity about why an elf works for Strahd. I would have been very surprised had they accepted the invitation right then and there, and there would have been major consequences for bringing children into Strahd’s castle (see Jonathan Harker’s stay at Castle Dracula in Dracula and him meeting the brides of Dracula).

I introduced the wolf hunters early on to show capable people in Barovia and to seed the werewolf den later. I think they will be repeat characters while the party travels in the wilderness. My plan is to put them in the wilderness around the winery or Yester Hill, then they will meet a final time right before plunging into the wolf den with some allies?

Entering Vallaki with roleplaying a customs experience and ending it with a smile really put off Angvar and Kane’s players. They immediately attributed it to Avatar’s “There is no war in Ba Sing Se”, so they got the vibe I was putting down. After the session, Kane’s player told me “I was a fool to think that Vallaki wasn’t going to be absolutely fucked as well” to which I shrugged and just said “it’s Barovia man, what do you expect?”

For Next Session

Overall, we were a bit rushed for time this week but I am so excited to finally be in Vallaki. I told them up front at the end of the session that this is where the campaign truly becomes a sandbox, it will be up to them to figure out the order in which to tackle issues from here on out. The campaign has fully opened up with the arrival in the city. Let’s see what they do next.