Escape

After last week’s encounter with the doors and walls, they got smart and went after the walls to get out.

They were a little surprised by the smoke in the rooms with the fireplaces, but they made it out ok.

A Special Gift

In an attempt to get them to come back and try to take on Strahd at a later date, I had him leave them a parting gift.

On the porch of the house as they excited they found a gift basket containing two bottles of Barovian Red Dragon Crush from the Wizard of Wines vineyard, some bread and cheese, five Potions of Healing, and a deck of cards (details below). At the edge of the property, just outside the gate stood a shadowy figure who typed their hat and bowed to them before quickly entering an awaiting carriage and riding off into the mist.

Strahd’s Deck of Horrors

Kiril’s player had been talking about the Deck of Many Things and potentially bringing it into the game for weeks now and I finally figured out how to do it without breaking the game (I hope).

I chose to create a deck with cards that can be used individually, their effects harnessed by the player who draws the card is drawn from the Deck. They have no idea what the cards do and I’m hoping that once they start to learn that they’ll want to go back and thank Strahd personally (insert evil laugh here).

The excitement on Kiril’s face was totally worth the time it took to create the Deck and figure out how to use it.

For those of you who are curious, I used the standard Deck of Horrors from the Book of Many Things, but removed Comet and Void, replacing them with Book and Tomb.

I also created description cards corresponding to the effects for my players. Here’s a link to the deck contents and the effects document:

Strahd’s Deck of Horrors

Strahd’s Deck of Horrors Single Card Effects

Level Up!

It was at this point that I told the party that they had reached level 3. I didn’t want to derail the progress we were making this week so I had them just roll hit dice, telling them to make their level-up selections before the next session.

Return to Daggerford

When the party decided to take a long rest in Barovia, I used the same mechanic that I used at the start of the adventure to get them back home, having them wake up back in Faerûn.

They then returned to Daggerford with the stone casket containing the body of Zarkoth inside. They tried to speak with Lady Daggerford, but were rebuffed by the guards when they presented their original invitation to dinner only to find that several months have passed. NOTE: I needed a way to roll time forward to segue into the next campaign, so I used a time skip to do so (nobody in the party cared, so I guess it was OK).

They found their way to Morninglow Tower, the temple of Lathander where they spoke to Luc Sunbright, the self-important and blustery cleric there and were able to secure a space in a mausoleum in the temple graveyard for a small fee, a service to inter their companion for a few more coppers and luc offered to extend the period that they could resurrect Zarkoth to one year for 100 gold (we’re not sure if the player who played Zarkoth will be returning to the game or not, so we did that for continuity, just in case), which the party paid.

Curious Things Amiss in Waterdeep

After the ceremony the party made their way to the Lizards Gizzard for some food and drink in memory of their companion.

Kiril, while making a pass around that tavern to see what he could see, was stopped by an old friend, Fenwick Tealeaf. Fenwick delivered information about some strange happening in Waterdeep involving an ‘eye’ that had been lost or found (the details were murky) and that he and his party should talk to Davil Starsong at the Yawning Portal if they’re interested in getting in on the action.

Next Week

Next week, we’re off to the Waterdeep and the Yawning Portal where I’ve got a few surprises along the way that I hope they’ll enjoy.