From Across the Multiverse to Barovia: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft OOC

[Jeff the Green]

From Across the Multiverse to Barovia:
Expedition to Castle Ravenloft



Characters:

Player	Character	World	Race/Class
al'Lan Mandragoran	Arya Skye	Far Plains	Catfolk Knight/Swordsage
Fireheart	T'rissaste Xorlarrin	Forgotten Realms	Drow Scout/Ranger
Mahrke	Isaac Pellivander	Earth (Shadowrun)	Human Chronomancer
The Fallen One	Aswin Vigunnarson	Earth (Norse)	Goliath Harmonious Knight of Freedom
Sallera	August	Earth (European Fairy Tale)	Aasimar Shadowcaster
Lateral	Mireann nic Ciarán	Earth (Mythological Irish)	Dark Human Evolutionist

Retired Characters:

Player	Character	World	Race/Class	Fate
candycorn	Kuni Komori	Rokugan	Water Shugenja	Driven insane, NPCd, disappeared.
Stack	Arthros Silvereye	Eberron	Aasimar Healer	Dead, zombified, teleported home.

Misc. Lists and Resources:

Spoiler

Initiative Table

Character	Initiative
Arya	[roll]1d20+5[/roll]
T'riss	[roll]1d20+11[/roll]
Isaac	[roll]1d20+1[/roll]
Aswin	[roll]1d20[/roll]
August	[roll]1d20+2[/roll]
Kuni	[roll]1d20+4[/roll]
Mireann	[roll]1d20+3[/roll]
Baddies	[roll]1d20+n[/roll]

Spot/Listen Table

Character	Spot	Listen
Arya (LLV)	[roll]1d20+2[/roll]	[roll]1d20+6[/roll]
T'riss (DV 120)	[roll]1d20+11[/roll]	[roll]1d20+11[/roll]
Isaac	[roll]1d20+2[/roll]	[roll]1d20+2[/roll]
Aswin	[roll]1d20+3[/roll]	[roll]1d20+3[/roll]
Drifa (LLV)	[roll]1d20+7[/roll]	[roll]1d20+7[/roll]
August (DV 90)	[roll]1d20+16[/roll]	[roll]1d20+2[/roll]
Mireann (DV 60, pierces magical)	[roll]1d20+6[/roll]	[roll]1d20+5[/roll]
Kuni (DV 60)	[roll]1d20+4[/roll]	[roll]1d20+4[/roll]
Ashlyn	[roll]1d20+2[/roll]	[roll]1d20+2[/roll]
Ireena	[roll]1d20+3[/roll]	[roll]1d20+3[/roll]

Immediate action standing orders:

Character	Condition	Action
Isaac	Any enemy uses any non-seeking projectile-like spell, Su, or SLA of 2nd-level or higher on an ally	Manifest delay

Experience

Encounter	EXP
(Initial)	15,000
First zombies in village	425
Second zombies in village	450
Rescuing villagers in town square	1007
Zombies in house	450
Danovich in the church	1200
Oni	630
Shades at the crossroads	1198
Total	20,360

NPCs

Name	Description
Ashlyn	Palatine of Sol Invictus, from Richemulot.
Ireena Kolyichna	Daughter of the former Burgomaster, sister of Ismark, apparently stalked by Strahd.
Count Strahd von Zarovich	Count of Barovia.
Ismark Kolyavich	Son of the former Burgomaster, apparent informal leader of Barovia.
Nicolae	Old man, father of Ioana, maker of bone ravens.
Ioana	Young woman, daughter of Nicolae.
Arik	Bartender and proprietor of the the Blood of the Vine tavern.
Bildrath	Owner of Bildrath's mercantile.
Parriwimple	Bildrath's somewhat slow nephew.
Danovich	Former priest of Barovia's village, went insane and created a Blaspheme from his son's corpse, thereby causing the plague of zombies. Dead.
Doru	Danovich's son, raised to unlife by his father. Dead, now destroyed.
Arthros	Healer from Eberron. Dead, zombified, teleported back home.
Kuni Komori	Water shugenja from the Crab clan.
Madam Eva	A seeress or fortune teller. Apparently associated with the Vistani.

Incantations Found
Create Blaspheme
Necromancy [evil]
Effective Level: 6th
Skill CheckKnowledge (religion) DC 21, 6 successes
Failure: Death
Components: V, S, M, F, B
Casting Time: 1 week
Range: Touch
Target: One corpse
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates; see text
Spell Resistance: No

You raise a close family member (a mother, father, brother, sister, son, or daughter) to a mockery of life as a blaspheme (LM p. 85). They retain some semblance of their personality and memories, but their Intelligence is extremely limited and they are unspeakably evil, delighting in petty cruelties and hungering for the flesh of the living.

In addition, all corpses within 500 ft. at the completion of the incantation rise as infected zombies (EtCR p. 32) or infected skeletons (EtCR p. 43). Every living creature within 500 ft. must make a DC 13 Fortitude saving throw or contract the necromantic infection. All infected zombies and infected skeletons produced by this incantation or by contracting the necromantic infection initiated by this disease is instantly destroyed as soon as the blaspheme is, and all living creatures with the necromantic infection are cured of it 6 rounds after the blaspheme's destruction.

Failure
The caster dies instantly and rises as an infected zombie 1d4 rounds later.

Backlash Component
The caster's depravity and corruption each increase by 10.

Material Component
Gems worth 15,000 GP.

Focus
A bell worth 500 GP and a chalice worth 1000 GP, both made from silver obtained from holy relics blighted in unholy rites.


Control Spell Resistance
Transmutation
Effective Level: 4th
Skill CheckKnowledge (religion) DC 30, 4 successes
Failure: Wild resistance
Components: V, S, B
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Target: Willing creature with spell resistance touched
Duration: 24 hours
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

The target gains the ability to raise or lower their spell resistance as a free action once per round on their turn. Once so raised or lowered, it remains raised or lowered until they decide to change it.

Failure
The target has a 50% chance each of having their spell resistance lowered to 0 or increased by 10 for 24 hours. This incantation cannot be attempted on this creature again until this effect wears off.

Backlash Component
The caster is exhausted for 1d6 hours.

[Mahrke]

Party Loot:

• +2 Greatsword
• +1 Chainmail
• Belt of Growth (Once per day CL 10 Enlarge Person that affects any creature type.)

• A scroll of Circle of Death
• A skull talisman (potion) of Death Armor
• x2 Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
• Potion of Lesser Restoration

• Masterwork Halfplate
• 20 Silver Arrows

Libre Blasphemenum
Journal


Create Blaspheme

Spoiler

Necromancy [evil]
Effective Level: 6th
Skill CheckKnowledge (religion) DC 21, 6 successes
Failure: Death
Components: V, S, M, F, B
Casting Time: 1 week
Range: Touch
Target: One corpse
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates; see text
Spell Resistance: No

You raise a close family member (a mother, father, brother, sister, son, or daughter) to a mockery of life as a blaspheme (LM p. 85). They retain some semblance of their personality and memories, but their Intelligence is extremely limited and they are unspeakably evil, delighting in petty cruelties and hungering for the flesh of the living.

In addition, all corpses within 500 ft. at the completion of the incantation rise as infected zombies (EtCR p. 32) or infected skeletons (EtCR p. 43). Every living creature within 500 ft. must make a DC 13 Fortitude saving throw or contract the necromantic infection. All infected zombies and infected skeletons produced by this incantation or by contracting the necromantic infection initiated by this disease is instantly destroyed as soon as the blaspheme is, and all living creatures with the necromantic infection are cured of it 6 rounds after the blaspheme's destruction.

Failure
The caster dies instantly and rises as an infected zombie 1d4 rounds later.

Backlash Component
The caster's depravity and corruption each increase by 10.

Material Component
Gems worth 15,000 GP.

Focus
A bell worth 500 GP and a chalice worth 1000 GP, both made from silver obtained from holy relics blighted in unholy rites.

Control Spell Resistance

Spoiler

Transmutation
Effective Level: 4th
Skill CheckKnowledge (arcana) DC 30, 4 successes
Failure: Wild resistance
Components: V, S, B
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Target: Willing creature with spell resistance touched
Duration: 24 hours
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

The target gains the ability to raise or lower their spell resistance as a free action once per round on their turn. Once so raised or lowered, it remains raised or lowered until they decide to change it.

Failure
The target has a 50% chance each of having their spell resistance lowered to 0 or increased by 10 for 24 hours. This incantation cannot be attempted on this creature again until this effect wears off.

Backlash Component
The caster is exhausted for 1d6 hours.

[Sallera]

Ehehe. This is going to be a wonderful first meeting. Now, the question is, is Aswin going to start convincing some of us that we're dead, or will it go the other way around?

Anyway, August shall take Dark Slate Blue, as I usually do. No plans for PrCing or multiclassing, unless something happens in-game to really shake August's philosophy... in which case everything will probably have set itself up anyway.

[Fireheart]

I'll stick w/ DeepSkyBlue. It seems to work for me.

I'll edit this to answer the rest of the questions...after my IRL game.

~Fireheart

[stack]

Dark red for Arthros. He'll be elbow-deep in blood healing all your wounds, so it fits.

Edit: If you want to use dungeongrapher, I've made many of the maps (all the in town ones that my party needed, though I cheated on one and recycled) and will do more as I go.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

So many 'A' names! This will be odd, an oxford professor meeting a Cat-human that thinks she's a knight (and is actually).
Red will be her chosen colour for speech.

[Jeff the Green]

Originally Posted by Mahrke

Also, questions:

(1) Will we be playing in real time at any point? As in, over Skype, RPTools, or what-have-you.

(2) How will you display a map-grid? Will it just be a chess table overlaying a map picture?

1) Probably not. We have players from around the world (both coasts of the US, Germany, and Oop North, that people have on their profiles) and I have a kind of funky schedule. I imagine a few of you guys do too; that's (one of the reasons) why we play PBP.

2) I think I'm going to use Dungeonographer, especially since Stack has offered to share his maps. (Thanks Stack!) I'll make changes to them as necessary/make new ones, then post them here. They look like this.

Originally Posted by Mahrke

(1) I had my psicrystal take feats. This is a point of contention among rules-readers, so its something you should take a look at and make a decision on.

Hmmm. I think it's probably not intended that they be able to, but RAW they can and I don't think it'll be a huge problem, with one caveat: if they realize that it's a big asset, your enemies will target it. That's not a huge problem when you're fighting mindless undead, but everything else is going to. There aren't any rules about reforming a psicrystal, so we'll port over the familiar rules (minus the ridiculous year and a day; it's a week or a full day of meditation).

Originally Posted by stack

If you want to use dungeongrapher, I've made many of the maps (all the in town ones that my party needed, though I cheated on one and recycled) and will do more as I go.

That would be great (especially if you have the .dgo files that I could edit)! It's up to you how you want to get them to me; I can PM you my email address or depending on their size you could upload them somewhere in a .zip or .rar.

Originally Posted by al'Lan Mandrag

So many 'A' names!

I did not realize that. Oh well, it'll make me feel at home; both of my brothers and a full third of my extended family has names starting with 'J'.

Also a question for you, al'Lan, as I'm writing the first IC post: I know it didn't come with you, but would you have been on a horse when you were pulled into Ravenloft? What about the other knights?

[TheFallenOne]

I'll make a dip into Pious Templar, and I might get into Knight of the Raven later on. I don't have the book available so I don't know the fluff, but something linked to ravens is likely a nice fit for Norse mythology.

Originally Posted by Sallera

Ehehe. This is going to be a wonderful first meeting. Now, the question is, is Aswin going to start convincing some of us that we're dead, or will it go the other way around?

I'm so looking forward to that. His first words will be "Huh... It's darker than I expected." Everyone clueless where they are and Aswin convinced it's Valhalla.... So many ways for this to play out, all of them amusing.

He should arrive without Drifa I think and then call her soon after the initial confusion.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Originally Posted by Jeff the Green

Also a question for you, al'Lan, as I'm writing the first IC post: I know it didn't come with you, but would you have been on a horse when you were pulled into Ravenloft? What about the other knights?

Nope no horses. Cat-folk aren't traditional knights really.

[Jeff the Green]

Here's the fluff for Knight of the Raven:

Before evil descended on the land of Barovia, it was home to an order of virtuous champions, the Knights of the Raven. United under the symbol of the raven, they set aside differences of religion and political allegiance in their quest to fight evil wherever it appeared. They prospered for centuries before the appearance of Strahd in their land, but now they are practically extinct. Despite the order’s fierce opposition to the undead, one knight of the raven yet lingers as a benign spirit in the halls of Castle Ravenloft, while rumors persist in the village of Barovia that at least one knight still hides in the Svalich Woods or the steep slopes of the Balinok Mountains.

There's a requirement that you a) meet a KotR on friendly terms and b) spend an overnight vigil in the Chapel of Ravenloft. As I told Cardea in the recruitment thread, this normally involves a >12 EL encounter and so you wouldn't be able to progress very far in the class before the end of the module, but if you spend significant in-character resources (time & roleplaying) you can mitigate or avoid it.

Edit: Okay, another question. Mostly directed to Fireheart, but anyone who knows can answer. What monsters would one encounter in the Hills of the Dead Kings? I'm not familiar enough with southern Faerun, and my Google-fu is failing me.

[Fireheart]

@Jeff,

Shining South has the following creatures.

Mantimera (cousins of Chimeras)
Behirs
Dragons
Cyclops/Giants
Bandits
Gnolls
Lizardfolk
nagas
and....drow. :)

I'm still not sure about a prestige class. I'll try to look through books and see if something jobs out at me...otherwise for now, she'll just progress ranger or scout.

~Fireheart

[TheFallenOne]

Hill giants seem to be the biggest danger in the Hills of the Dead Kings. That's from the sourcebook Shining South. Page 108 lists various monsters common in Dambrath, Fireheart already listed most of them.

[Jeff the Green]

Thanks, Fireheart and TFO.

I've gone over character sheets in more detail. Here are comments and problems.

al'Lan Mandragoran: Good.
Stack: Good.
Fireheart: Did you take ranger or scout 1st level? If scout, you don't qualify for Weapon Finesse at 1st. If ranger, I'd recommend switching to scout and swapping your 1st and 3rd level feats for those extra 6 skill points.
Mahrke: Where is Endowed Mind from? I can't find it.
The Fallen One: Good
Sallera: It's entirely possible I've got this wrong since I've never played a shadowcaster, but I think you have too many feats. 2 from flaws + 3 from levels + 1 from completing the Dark Terrain path = 6, but you have 7.

[Mahrke]

Endowed Mind is from Pathfinder, upon doing a little bit of research. It increases the save DC of any power you manifest by 1 for every two power points you augment it by (as long as it does not naturally increase in DC via augmentation). You must also have your psionic focus maintained (something I forgot).

Honestly, it was just a lazy shortcut I took to avoid having to give my powers DC-scaling entries, and would be better served as a class feature, rather than a specific bonus feat.

Edit: Converted to a class feature built to simply allow Chronomancy powers to scale their DCs with increased power point investiture.

[Sallera]

Heh, I'm probably just too used to playing humans. Removed the second Quicken.

[stack]

Contributions for the wand of lesser vigor fund? Arthros has 144 GP out of 750, if we decide we need it.

Jeff, regarding maps, PM me your email and I'll send a zip of the ones I have so far.

Does the healing hands class feature also do extra damage to undead? It says it adds CHA mod to the amount of damage healed, making no reference to using cure spells against undead.

Does close wounds count as a cure spell for mastery of day and night? It is basically an immediate action cure spell (conjuration: healing), but doesn't have 'cure' in the name.

[Fireheart]

Originally Posted by Jeff the Green

Fireheart: Did you take ranger or scout 1st level? If scout, you don't qualify for Weapon Finesse at 1st. If ranger, I'd recommend switching to scout and swapping your 1st and 3rd level feats for those extra 6 skill points.

Unfortunately, I forgot my thumb drive at work today, so I don't have my notes from the build.

I'm good with going Scout and then switching 1 and 3rd feats and adding 6 skill points.

@stack, T'riss has 104gp that she will probably be willing to throw toward a wand once we meet up. She knows she doesn't have the ability to heal herself so she's more than willing to assist the healers in funding their needs (within reason of course.)

~Fireheart

[Sallera]

August has ~200 to spare, although I'd like to save at least some of that for the Inevitable Warhorse Replacement Fund. Honestly, with all your cures being maximized, I'm not sure we'll need a wand to stay healthy, but it could be nice to have one for efficiency's sake anyway.

[stack]

I assumed it would be pooled resources to be spent before hand, since it may be hard to find one right off in game. And I agree it may not be necessary. Even his cure minor wounds should be healing 7 HP (1 + 6 CHA, it is still a conjuration: healing spell, unless orisions don't count)

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Arya has 260gp to offer, but she also wears a healing belt and has the Vital Recovery feat, so she should be ok at Healing herself and staying on track (Also, DR1/- up to 10 damage ). But since she's also likely to get beaten up alot she'd appreciate a but of helpful healing.

[stack]

Maybe we'll just run without it. I keep vacillating...but when I run the numbers, he can kick out a lot of HP, so we'll see if we can make the first stretch on spells alone. I forget he has the aura, so OOC we only need healing above 50%

[Jeff the Green]

Originally Posted by stack

Does the healing hands class feature also do extra damage to undead? It says it adds CHA mod to the amount of damage healed, making no reference to using cure spells against undead.

Does close wounds count as a cure spell for mastery of day and night? It is basically an immediate action cure spell (conjuration: healing), but doesn't have 'cure' in the name.

No and no. It's pretty clear that Healing Hands doesn't increase damage done with Cure spells. In fact, if you were to somehow get Inflict spells as a Healer, you would Maximize add your charisma to any you cast on undead. Likewise with MoDaN, it's also pretty clear that it doesn't apply to, say Heal or Harm. If the authors had wanted to make close wounds work with MoDaN or a cleric's spontaneous cures/inflicts, they'd have called it something like "immediate cure."

Healing hands does work with Cure Minor Wounds, on the other hand.

[stack]

Pretty much what I thought, figured it was worth asking. Close wounds will still be quite handy for getting extra healing off in a pinch at range.

[Jeff the Green]

The IC thread is up; you wake up in the order you post.

Also, everyone roll DC 10 Will and DC 10 Fortitude. If you fail the Will save, the nightmares you saw during your travel increase your Depravity score from 0 to 1; if you fail the Fortitude save, the mist seeped into your bones and increases your Corruption score from 0 to 1.

[Fireheart]

Cool. I'll probably post IC/wake up late tonight...am leaving work shortly.

@Jeff,

Couple questions, having made those skill changes and did some more research on Eilistraee...if it is okay with you...I've put skill points in Perform (Voice) and w/ the little $ left over will buy an musical instrument (MW if I can afford it) before I cross over. :) Now fiddle...or lute?

Also, made some notes in the character sheet around language and Dogma, hopefully nothing that changes the basics of the character...just trying to flesh her out a little before starting.

Rolls

Spoiler

Will (1d10+2)[3]
Fort (1d10+7)[12]

~Fireheart

[Mahrke]

Fort Save: (1d20+5)[19]
Will Save: (1d20+7)[22]

[Fireheart]

Right...so actually rolling the right dice this time. Sorry!

Spoiler

Will (1d20+2)[17]
Fort (1d20+7)[27]

~T

[Fireheart]

Right...so actually rolling the right dice this time. Sorry!

Spoiler

Will (1d20+2)[7]
Fort (1d20+7)[23]

~T

[Sallera]

Fort: (1d20+8)[20]
Will: (1d20+6)[18]

[Jeff the Green]

Originally Posted by Fireheart

Couple questions, having made those skill changes and did some more research on Eilistraee...if it is okay with you...I've put skill points in Perform (Voice) and w/ the little $ left over will buy an musical instrument (MW if I can afford it) before I cross over.

Yep, that's fine.