Session 0.5 - Into the Mists

Our story begins not with a grand quest, but with a quiet sense of unease. The party—a cleric on a holy mission (Gowain Heylgwyn), a wandering monster hunter (Lorian Calmorn), a stoic paladin (Kellen), a shifty rogue (Lyric Malwyn), and a druid monk with an insatiable curiosity (Getafix)—awoke from their camp along the Sword Coast to find that the world they knew had vanished.

The Unwelcoming Woods

The familiar trees were gone, replaced by a dark and menacing forest. A thick, magical fog clung to the edges of their camp, creeping ever closer. As the adventurers tested the mists, they found their energy draining away, and a magical flame was snuffed out as if it were nothing. With the fog advancing, they had no choice but to flee, plunging deeper into the unknown woods. Their flight led them to a soggy, muddy road, marked with the tracks of heavy caravans—a sign of civilization, or at least, of passage.

The Gates

Following the road, the party soon came upon a pair of towering iron gates set into a massive stone wall. As they approached, the gates swung open with a deafening scrape, Beckoning them forward. With the energy-sapping fog closing in behind them, the party stepped through. The moment they were clear, the gates slammed shut, sealing them in and cutting off the fog's pursuit. Casting a spell to detect magic, the cleric felt a powerful, ancient, and deeply malevolent force at work, woven into the very fabric of this new land.

The Children of the Village

Trapped, the party continued down what was now a gravel road. After hours of walking, the silhouettes of a village emerged from the gloom. The buildings were dark and silent as tombstones. Every shop was shuttered, every home sealed. The only sound was the soft whimpering of two children, a boy and a girl, standing alone in the lifeless street.

The girl, Rose, and her younger brother, Thorn, pleaded for the party's help. They claimed a monster had taken over their house, howling from the basement. More urgently, their baby brother, Walter, was still in his nursery on the third floor. Their parents, they said, were also inside.

A Moment of Levity
Despite the grim circumstances, the party couldn't resist a bit of gallows humor. Upon entering the house, the paladin, with the encouragement of the druid, decided the best course of action was to immediately break into a locked cabinet, just to see what was inside. Their justification? "We're in a weird place, everything is weird." They were rewarded with a stash of crossbows and bolts.

The House of Dark Secrets

The party entered the children's home, a large and surprisingly well-appointed brick house. While the main floor was welcoming, with a crackling fire and ornate decorations, a sense of dread hung in the air. A call out to the parents, Gustav and Elizabeth, was met with echoing silence.

In the library, the party’s keen eyes discovered a hidden room concealed behind a bookshelf. Inside, a far darker story began to unfold. They found a chest containing the skeleton of a man in leather armor, killed by a dart trap. Clutched in his hand was a letter from a self-proclaimed "dread lord," Strahd von Zarovich.

The Word of Strahd
The letter was a missive dripping with contempt, addressed to his "most pathetic servants." In it, Strahd made it clear he was no savior, but a master reveling in the "farcical rituals" and depravity of his subjects, whom he called "worms writhing in my earth." This was the party's first chilling introduction to the master of the land they had stumbled into.

Alongside the letter, the party found books filled with profane rituals for achieving immortality through bloodletting and cannibalism, a last will leaving the family's property to Rose and Thorn (but curiously not Walter), and the deed to the house itself. They were, for all intents and purposes, the new owners of this horrifying home.

The Haunting

With these grim discoveries, the party ascended to the third floor. As they climbed the grand staircase, a chill ran down their spines. The house transformed before their eyes. The polished wood grew cracked and decayed. Thick cobwebs and layers of dust appeared from nowhere, and the warm lamplight from the floor below winked out, plunging them into oppressive darkness. The house was no longer just a house; it was a tomb.

At the top of the stairs, a suit of black plate armor, draped in cobwebs, stood waiting. As Lorian approached, it creaked to life, its empty helm turning towards him as it raised its arms to strike. The session ended with the party locked in a desperate battle against the animated armor, their first taste of the physical dangers that lurked within the cursed house. After a hard-fought battle, they emerged victorious, the clatter of the defeated armor echoing in the now-silent hall.

Treasures Unearthed