[IC] The Dragonmaster's Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

[TheDragonmaster]

The horses tense up and freeze in place as shrouded figures appear out of the fog; long, gaunt forms obscured by dark cloaks that merge with the very mist around them, five in total circling the Lightbringers in two smaller groups on opposite sides. Almost floating rather than walking, the shades seem to close the distance much quicker than their slow movements would suggest, and as they draw near the swirling strands of fog come alive, thickening to impossible levels and almost blotting out the sun altogether. The shapes make no sound against the brush as they move, but as they approach, they are accompanied by a high-pitched ringing sound, rising from inaudible levels to a piercing noise that drowns out sound and thought alike.

As the noise builds to a climax, a dull glow awakens from beneath the hoods of the figures, radiating from where a mouth would be were they humanoid but illuminating no appreciable features. As one, the shapes draw long blades from the folds of their robes, suffused with that same sinister glow, and swoop in to strike in unison with unimaginable speed against the travellers. The horses bolt in an attempt to flee from the spectres, which after the assault seemingly vanish into nothingness only as new specks of the same eerie glowing light appear in the surrounding fog.

Spoiler: Aelthas

Show

The shades superficially resemble wraiths, as dark shrouded humanoid figures that hover off the ground, and animals flee from them, but several dissimilar features such as the dark glow and their disappearance are not consistent with such a classification; thus they are either some variation or perhaps some form of a ghost or other kind of undead entirely.

Spoiler: Gerik

Show

The floating movement of the figures, their ragged hooded appearance, and the fact that the animals flee from them all point toward them being the undead creatures known as wraiths.

Spoiler: OoC

Show

One of the shades Attack each of the Player Characters; Arrin easily sidesteps the attack against him and Gerik barely dodges out the way of another, but the others are all struck as the blades seemingly pass through their armour and clothing without resistance, causing a dull, muted pain and intensifying the ringing to mind-numbing levels.

Aelthas takes 7 points of Damage and 2 points of Wisdom Damage.
Helena takes 3 points of Damage and 3 points of Wisdom Damage.
Iseldra takes 8 points of Damage and 1 point of Wisdom Damage.

The ringing sound renders all of the characters effectively Shaken, and in addition, Helena is Frightened for 2 Rounds. All tasks requiring full attention, such as Spellcasting, require successful Concentration Checks to succeed. The fog now restricts vision to about 40 feet, though sources of light might be perceivable from even further away. While the light is very dim, it does not restrict vision further than the fog already does.

Aelthas stops his horse from fleeing but it is still in a panic and struggling to get away. Gerik loses the grip on both his own horse and the pack horse after barely managing to retain his balance as they almost fell him in their flight.
Helena retains her grip on the reins of her own horse, but Arrin's horse barely slips her grasp. While perhaps not managing to calm her horse, she pacifies it momentarily with a steady grip of its upper lip.
Iseldra resists her horse's attempt to run away and manages to calm it somewhat, at least for the time being. Kersik cowers at her feet, staying small against the ground.

As for the Initiative order, all Player Characters are up before anyone else acts. I am borrowing Kish's style of using Google Spreadsheets for mapping encounters; the PC's and Kersik are marked by initials and colour in the map, 'H' marks a horse, and for the sake of convenience, rather than shading almost every square, just count the entire area as Difficult Terrain. The trail runs ESE to WNW, the most distant of the fleeing horses are barely out of view, and the newly appeared specks of light are somewhat more than 40 ft. from the group in the WSW and E directions, mirroring where the first wave of figures appeared out of the mist.

Encounter Map