10. Return to Castle Ravenloft

[Zhym]

Where are you planning to advance to? The obvious entrances are the front doors (currently shut) and the servants entrance around back. There might be other ways in if you feel like scaling walls, for example.

[Dram]

Bragar- Casts Cure light wounds on Lar. May the blessings Haela Brightaxe fall upon you.



CLW
Cure Lgt Wounds[1d8] = 2


This foul fog seems to blocking Haelas blessings

[Stirling]

Holding a flaming cudgel aloft, Scarlett will advance through the entrance tunnel. If all threatening slime is away she will douse the flames in the wet moss and keep at least one cudgel if she can.

Does it end in another door or gate? She will check out anything locked using her ex-thiefly skills and look/listen into the courtyard beyond, specifically thinking of guardian wargs patrolling, zombie servants or charming vampresses.

If everything is clear, Scarlett will offer to scout ahead, keeping to the shadows of the curtain wall and head towards the servants entrance. Castran and Bragar had mentioned before about the courtyard gate. Scarlett will go this far.

"Maybe those rust beasts have nibbled through the bars and we can sneak around the back unnoticed ", she will say before scampering off to check.

[Storm11]

Castran will call to the others softly and lead them to the servants entrance.

[Dram]

Bragar- Be wary this is near the area with the green slime. And than just beyond is where the rats attack us. He looks into the roof of the drawbridge without stepping under the roof.

[GreyWolfVT]

Where are you planning to advance to? The obvious entrances are the front doors (currently shut) and the servants entrance around back. There might be other ways in if you feel like scaling walls, for example.

Just following the rest of the group.

[Cwreando]

Lar carefully follows the front rank looking around for any signs of activity as well.

"Perhaps once inside we can find a way to the Catacombs", comments Lar softly. "We should be ready to find defensible locations as we move along should we encounter anything. We have one mission. Kill Strahd and return this place to the living by doing so. I swear to Ohama I will send Strahd to the underworld."

[Inferno]

Agax Gryyg, game mage:

Castran will call to the others softly and lead them to the servants entrance.

The camouflaged wizard follows the gnome, his eyes searching spectrums invisible. "Stay near the paladin, that his powers may shield us all."

[GreyWolfVT]

Gragog "Very well near to the paladin works for me." the half-orc makes sure to only advance when the paladin does. "If we just had a shovel and pick axe we could tunnel like dwarves and gnomes."

[Zhym]

Date: Trieluna 13, 1222
Time: 6:00 PM
Weather: Fog
Location: Across from Castle Ravenloft
**************************************

After some quick healing of Petyr and Lar, you advance through the entry tunnel and into the main courtyard of Ravenloft. Bragar leads you around the side of the keep where a massive wall connects the outer walls of the castle to the keep. A single gate, 20 feet wide and blocked by a rusting portcullis, leads through the wall. Gragog lifts the gate and holds it open as everyone hurries through.

Continuing around to the back the keep, you come to a small closed door: the servants' entrance. Taking a deep breath, one of you opens the door.

Inside, dim light filters into a 20' square room through dust-caked windows in the east wall. A large heavy table sits coated with dust in the corner of the room. A thick book lies open on the desktop with an inkwell and quill next to it. There is a broken door in the north wall. A staircase drops into total darkness in the south wall. On each side of the staircase, a skeleton in bright armor stands holding a halberd and sagging at attention.

Map 3 Main Floor Return.png (11.68 KiB) Viewed 441 times

-----
Status: Bragar: 41/42 (C7), Castran: 23/23 (F5/I6); Gragog (F7): 49/49; Lar (P6): 37/40; Scarlett (C7/T5): 34/34; Agax (MU7): 45/45; Petyr (F4): 30/30; Bogdana (C3): 23/23; Shinyah (D7): 37/38, Honeynose: 26/28, Treescratcher: 29/29, Hihu: 4/4
Effects: Phantom Armor (Castran): 6 pts left; Invisibility (Castran); Detect Invisibility (Agax): 2.5 turns

[Storm11]

"That stairway looks to lead down, the direction we were advised by the seeress to head." the unseen gnome points out. "Perhaps a good omen?" Castran shrugs, though only Agax can see him do so.

[GreyWolfVT]

Gragog "One could only hope for a good omen in this place." the half-orc comments watching the skeleton in armor. "So is that the plan we go down the stairs in hopes it takes us down to the catacombs?"

[Inferno]

Agax Gryyg, game mage:

"Wait. Act in haste, repent at leisure," the dreaming wizard said, darkly quoting a mysterious prophet of Urth.
"We should deal with these charnel house sentinels now, rather than wait until they attack us on the stair. Bragar, would you be so kind as to join me?"

Agax produced the holy symbol of Raystek, a wheel of fortune hung from round his neck, and his own talisman, a strange polyhedron carved from bone, each of its 20 sides adorned with a mystic rune, and held them aloft toward the armored skeletons. Both symbols represented random chance and the myriad possibilities that life and freedom afford, the diametric antithesis of a doomed, undead existence, eternally devoid of possibility, choice and liberty. "Begone! Chance is behind you now. Your lives are already spent!"

Turn Undead: [1d20] = 5

[Storm11]

Invisibly Castran chokes on the Wizards words, given the rash nature of our rush to the castle. The gnome wasn't sure whether he could hear the call of the pot, saying something about something being black

[GreyWolfVT]

Gragog holds a hand out to try and stop the hasty mage cleric from using his divine powers but it appears someone has already done so. "Such an act would surely give away our presence here perhaps a better tactic is called for here."

[Cwreando]

"My guess is that Strahd already knows we are here. Perhaps we can physically destroy the skeletons by bashing them into a pile of bones, but that will be a bit noisy, adds Lar. They may animate as we get closer or should we take to long to figure out what we are going to do."

Lar stand ready with weapon and shield.

Lar finally says, "Let's destroy these things and move on. If any of the priest can destroy them then let them do it unless there is a better plan."

[Stirling]

Scarlett will check the book and ink on the desk. She is looking for recent entries, names, etc. The description makes her think that the room hasn't been cleaned in ages though the ' guards' have bright armour. So she will check if someone is just polishing the breastplates or that they are in fact animates who will move. The room is dusty so are there prints going up and down the staircase?

[Zhym]

Date: Trieluna 13, 1222
Time: 6:10 PM
Weather: Fog
Location: Castle Ravenloft, Servants' Entrance
**************************************

Agax holds up the wheel of Raystek and commands the skeletons to depart. They don't move at all. Scarlett takes a closer look—they appear to be normal skeletons hanging on hooks in the wall. Looking beyond the skeletons to the stairs, Scarlett tries to see whether there are any footsteps in the dust. It's hard for her to tell whether anyone might have been by recently to keep the skeletons' armor shiny.

She moves to the table and takes a look at the book. At the top of each page is written, in a careful hand, "Please register for your own convenience and that of your next of kin." The book is half-filled with names, all of them illegible.

-----
Status: Bragar: 41/42 (C7), Castran: 23/23 (F5/I6); Gragog (F7): 49/49; Lar (P6): 37/40; Scarlett (C7/T5): 34/34; Agax (MU7): 45/45; Petyr (F4): 30/30; Bogdana (C3): 23/23; Shinyah (D7): 37/38, Honeynose: 26/28, Treescratcher: 29/29, Hihu: 4/4
Effects: Phantom Armor (Castran): 6 pts left; Invisibility (Castran); Detect Invisibility (Agax): 1.5 turns

[Cwreando]

"Let's get going then", comments Lar softly. "Unless you have anything else you want to check out in here first. Castran, Bragar did your team have any issues with traps?"

[GreyWolfVT]

Gragog "Very well then lead on trap checkers."