Day 1
Morning
- Arriving in Phandalin Mountains via Kingsguard Train.
- Kingsguard Mercenaries being dispatched to seek out missing Captain Sildar Hallwinter and a dwarven delegation he was traveling with
- Players are the freshest batch of mercenaries and thus sent to search the furthest and least likely location along the main highway
- Midday they are at a curve in the road with cliffs on either side
- They spot a broken down cart with a dead horse that has been shot to death with arrows.
- They are ambushed by goblins. They kill all of the Goblins except for 1 who briefly downed Archy. Archy respects him, names him Greg, and adopts him.
- Greg leads them off the road and through the woods to a cave where his boss Klarg the Bugbear has a human captive.
Afternoon
- Party ambushes and fights their way through the cave, killing Klarg the Bugbear and numerous goblins and rescuing Sildar.
- They tend to their wounds and take a long rest in the cave.
Day 2
Morning
- Travel to the town of Phandalin and make introductions with most of the villagers.
- They learn that the Redbrands are bandits who have been taking advantage of the town for a few months.
- They learn that the mayor is a coward who does not want to provoke the Redbrands to do anything worse than they already have, so he instead lets the bandits take advantage of the town.
- Rubin flirts with a priestess
Afternoon
- Archy disguises himself as a Redbrand Bandit and sneaks into their tavern.
- He lures them all to the door and launches a thudnerwave that hits many of them.
- The rest of the party ambushes the bandits, and the party kills everyone who was in the tavern.
Evening
- Players take a long rest in the tavern but are awoken to flames in the middle of the night.
Day 3
~2am
- Players escape burning tavern and go to Tresendor Manor to strike back at the Redbrands who likely started the fire.
- They find their way into the large cellar, with many rooms. They fight their way through until they eventually come on an unsuspecting group of guards playing dice.
- One bandits has earned the ire of the others by using weighted dice. When the players attack, he takes the opportunity to turn coat and join them. This is the player character Sean Connery.
- Sean and the party defeat strong bugbear and hobgoblin guards, but discover that the wizard Glasstaff has escaped the manor.
- They find a draft of a note expressing his frustrations with wasting time in Phandalin when there are easier and more worthwhile places to take power.
- They find some gold, 2 invisibility potions, a potion of water breathing, ring of swimming, and a bag of holding.
- They rest until the morning, 9 or 10am
Morning
- Players leave the manor and find it is still very dark with thick fog.
- They wander through the woods, with Roy Donk IV leading the way, tracking fresh claw marks on the trees.
- Roy has a vision of a Vistani Caravan by a river that he knows doesn’t exist nearby. No one in the caravan seems to notice him except for a beautiful dark hair woman wearing an emerald green dress and silvery+emerald jewelry. She assess him before stepping into a tent, and Roy returns to the present, where he has stopped dead in his tracks.
- They carry on and eventually find a freshly gored body.
- Investigation reveals there isn’t much blood on the ground and two vampiric bite marks on neck.
- There is a letter on the body addressed to “those of might and valor” from a man named Kolyan Indirovich. He says his love Ireena Kolyana is in danger. He claims his town has much wealth and he will pay untold sums of gold to see her safe.
- When Archy reaches for the letter, he glimpses a brief vision of Glasstaff, gored and fallen in the same position as this messenger.
- Glasstaff’s glass staff later appears in Roy’s bag of holding along with a letter from the spider, “N.” It speaks of a conqueror, patience, and wanting to leave a legacy. It ends with “the mists will obey.”
- The players are ambushed and nearly killed by wolves, but manage to defeat the first group.
- More and more wolves show up and linger in the edges of the unnatural fog, leaving them only one path forward - towards tall, ancient gates looming out of the forest, with massive stone soldiers on either side whose heads have long since cracked and fallen into the ground.
Afternoon
- The players follow the road to the fortified village of Barovia
- They learn of the devil Strahd
- They meet Morgantha the hag and accept some free pies from her
- There they learn that the town has been under siege, as Strahd tries to take Ireena Kolyana back to Castle Ravenloft to become his wife.
- Ismark Kolyanovich gave a rousing speech a few weeks back, inspiring the village to stand united against “the Devil Strahd.”
- Many villagers have died defending the town, and resentment towards “Ismark the Lesser” is building.
- The merchant Bildrath is the leader of this frustrated faction, as his sister and brother-in-law were killed and he now must look after his idiot nephew Periwimple.
- Ismark invites the players to his home to
- Ask them to take Ireena to safety in the fortified village of Vallaki.
- Help them quietly arrange for their father, the Burgomaster Kolyan Indirovich, to be buried by Father Donavich. They have been hiding his death by heart attack because of the low morale in the town.
- Players go to the church of the Morninglord, learn about Donavich’s brother Doru, and manage to retrieve Donavich’s holy symbol.
- They plan for a funeral at dawn’s first light.
- Players stay the night in the inn - Sean, Gaza, Rubin, and Vil all eat Dream Pastries before bed and experience a blissful night sleep.
Dream Pastries
- 1 day
- Sean, Gaza, Rubin, and Vil
Day 4
Morning
- Burgomaster’s funeral, Strahd’s arrival, Ireena’s abduction, and Archy’s death.
- Players bully Father Donavich into casting Gentle Repose on Archy’s body, and put it in the bag of holding.
Rest of Day
- Players hang their heads in the tavern til night comes.
- Sean, Gaza, Rubin, and Vil once again eat Dream Pastries. Roy joins in.
Dream Pastries
- 1 Days
- Roy
- 2 Days
- Sean, Gaza, Rubin, and Vil
Day 5
Morning
- Party spends the first half of the day traveling to Tser Falls, where they know a gropu of Vistani to be camped.
- On their way they pass some old gallows at the crossroads and briefly see a vision of Archy and Greg hanging in the wind.
Afternoon
- Party meets Madame Eva and receives a Tarokka reading from her
- ToDo: Copy Tarokka results over
Archy Returns
- While this is happening, Archy meets The Weaver and learns
- Souls in Barovia are recycled into new bodies after they pass.
- The Weaver is almost a bureaucrat, stuck managing the ledgers of souls passing through
- Greg the Goblin has been through here and joined the march of the dead
- Due to Archy’s cause of death, the fate of his soul is out of The Weaver’s hands.
Dark Powers Gather
- Back in Barovia, dark clouds race to gather over Castle Ravenloft. Booming thunder and red lightning rattled the land. A massive lightning strike is aimed right next to the Castle, almost as a warning shot, and cleaves almost 3000 feat of granite - a slab the height of El Cap - from the cliffside.
- At the same time, Weaver becomes more bearlike, transforming from sleezy mobster to regal bear king of the wild.
- He excitingly explains to Archy that they may have a chance if Archy is willing to strike a deal.
- Weaver gives Archy access to great power, and is able to give him another 4 weeks in his body.
- Archy must cleanse the Megaliths by Old Bonegrinder of corruption.
- Meanwhile Madame Eva has a fresh, natural air about her, and life sprouts from the ground beneath her feet. She doesn’t know why this is, but admits she has always felt a sense of clarity when in nature. She feels especially clear in this instant and gives each player a Tarokka card that affect their fates
Individual Card Readings
- Long rest in Vistani Camp
Dream Pastries
- 1 Day
- Archy
- 2 Days
- Roy
- 3 Days
- Sean, Gaza, Rubin, and Vil
Day 6
Morning
- Old Bonegrinder
- Mexican stand off with hags
- Examination of Monoliths
- Short rest back by the road
Evening
- Players arrive at Vallaki just before sunset.
- Lots of wolf heads on stakes lining the road leading to the village.
- Guards who clearly don’t know much about werewolves wait til the moon rises to confirm there’s nothing wolfy about the party
- Enter down and get room at Blue Mana Inn
- Speak with Danika and Urwin
- Learned about late shipments
- Learned about corrupt Burgomaster and frequent festivals
- Clandestine meeting arranged with Lady Fiona Wachter. She wants the players to find or create incriminating evidence on Vargas Vallakovich that will turn the rest of the town’s opinion on him and pave the way for a transition of power.