Into the Catacombs...

The Gang was split up at the start of the session.

Group 1: Mamol, Sleeps, and Kasimir in K73. They fumbled around until they found Grant and Elyrion in K74. Mamol managed to fall into another water trap, but it wasn’t really an issue.

Group 2: Grant K74, cell A. He was teleported into a cell with a bunch of electrum pieces that had Strahd’s likeness stamped on them. He was eventually freed by Elyrion and his lockpicks. Grant picked up a nifty magical short sword in one of the other cells.

Group 3: Elyrion K74, cell E. He found the outline of a secret door in his cell but couldn’t open it. In the end, he freed himself by picking the lock.

Group 4: Donkar K75, cell H. He was in a separate room and discovered last. Donkar busted through the bars using his weapon. While he was separated, a voice had entered Donkar’s head. Apparently, it was a soul trapped in a ring which was on the finger of a corpse. The soul claimed to be Van Richten and seemed to be rather informative. He also found two scrolls of cure wounds (6d8 + 7 HP of healing each) and one scroll of Magic Circle (undead).

After exploring all the cells, the Gang regroup in K73. Grant cast Water Walking on everyone and they proceeded to K76. This was an old torture chamber filled with brackish water and zombies. The Gang made short work of them and moved to the balcony (K77), then opened the door to the Brazier Room (K78).

Brazier Room (K78)

The room was thirty feet square, with a flat ceiling rising twenty feet above. In the center, a stone brazier burned fiercely, but its tall white flame gave off no heat. The rim of the brazier was carved with seven cup-shaped indentations, spaced evenly around its circumference. Each indentation held a spherical stone, each twice the diameter of a human eyeball and made of colored crystal. No two stones were the same color.

Overhead, a wood-framed hourglass as tall and wide as a dwarf hung ten feet above the brazier, suspended from the ceiling by thick iron chains. All the sand was stuck in the upper portion of the hourglass, seemingly unable to run down into the bottom. Written in glowing script on the base of the hourglass was a verse in Common.

Two nine-foot-tall iron statues of knights on horseback, poised to charge with swords drawn, stood in deep alcoves facing each other. The brazier sat between them.

After exploring the room, the Gang took a Short Rest under the protection of the Magic Circle Spell. At the end of the rest, an Unseen Servant came into the room holding a silver chalice filled with wine. Mamol drank it and it turned out to be poison, so he puked up a bunch of blood. Interesting choice.

The Gang took the middle door, went up the stairs, and proceeded down the hall to the east. They finally found the Crypt Room. They systematically explored each crypt, opening some but not all.

Here's the format for recapping your exploration of the crypts:

Crypt (number): Inscription engraved on door written in Italics

Book description written in Bold.

My notes written in normal script.

_____________________________________________________________________

Crypt 1: Herein lie the ones who walk the path of pain and torment

 This is the entrance to the entire catacomb complex.

Crypt 2:  Artista DeSlop—Court Ceiling Painter

Unopened.

Crypt 3: Lady Isolde Yunk (Isolde the Incredible): Purveyor of antiques and imports

The Gang opened the crypt.

A skeleton draped in rags lay atop a marble slab in the center of the crypt. Piled all around it, covering the floor, were heaps of old baskets, braziers, bundled tapestries, candlesticks, chairs, chests, cooking utensils, cressets, curtain rods, decanters, dishes, jugs, lamps, scroll cases, tankards, and tinderboxes. None of the junk looked valuable. An old chandelier hung from the domed ceiling.

Nothing of value here.

Crypt 4: Prince Ariel du Plumette (Ariel the Heavy)

The Gang opened the crypt.

The apparition of a large, rotund man formed within the dark crypt, its eyes wild with insanity. Large, artificial wings unfolded from its back.

The Gang easily killed the ghost.

Crypt 5: Artank Swilovich: Friend and member of the Barovian Wine Distillers Guild

Unopened.

Crypt 6: Saint Markovia: Dead for all time

The Gang opened the crypt.

This crypt smelled of roses. The remains atop its marble slab had disintegrated, except for one thighbone.

They explored the tomb.

A ghostly form appeared above the dust, so faint that they could barely discern more than part of a face. From this apparition came the faintest of whispers: "The vampire must be destroyed. Use me as your weapon." With that, it faded away.

The thighbone was a Mace of Disruption. Donkar took it.

Crypt 7: The stone door of this crypt lay on the floor, its inscription obscured by fog. The crypt gaped open. A skull, some bones, and a few bits of rusted armor rested atop a marble slab with a leering stone gargoyle squatting at each end.

The Gang skipped this.

Crypt 8: Duchess Dorfniya Dilisnya

Unopened

Crypt 9: Pidlwick—Fool of Dorfniya

Unopened.

Crypt 10: Sir Leonid Krushkin (Sir Lee the Crusher): Bigger than life, he loved his jewelry

Unopened

Crypt 11: Tasha Petrovna—Healer of Kings, Light unto the West, Servant, Companion

Unopened.

Crypt 12: King Troisky—The Three-Faced King

The Gang opened the crypt.

There were no bones atop the marble slab in this crypt, only a steel helm. The helm had three evenly spaced visors crafted to look like human faces—one sad, one happy, and one angry. 

I think Mamol claimed the helm. Not magical but pretty cool looking.

Crypt 13: King Katsky (Katsky the Bright): Ruler, inventor, and self-proclaimed time traveler

The Gang opened the crypt.

A skeleton draped in rags lay atop a marble slab in the center of the crypt. Lying amid the bones had been a stoppered drinking horn, a fat pouch, and a weird-looking scepter made of metal and wood. Above the bones, hanging from the domed ceiling by wires, had been a wooden flying contraption that looked like a set of folding dragon wings fitted with leather straps, metal buckles, and taut leather wing flaps.

Grant took the musket, silver bullets and gunpowder

Sleeps took the glider.

Crypt 14: Stahbal Indi-Bhak: A truer friend no ruler ever had. Here lies his family in honor.

The Gang opened the crypt

A ten-foot-square shaft plunges into darkness. The sound of slowly dripping water echoes up the shaft.

The Gang took one look down the 40-foot hole, said “fuck that,” and moved on.

Crypt 15: Khazan: His word was power

The Gang opened the crypt.

A skeleton draped in rags laid atop a marble slab in the center of the crypt. The skull had black opals set in its eye sockets and shards of amber where its teeth should have been.

The Gang left it untouched.

Crypt 16: Elsa Fallona von Twitterberg (Beloved Actor): She had many followers

The Gang opened the crypt.

A skeleton draped in rags lay atop a marble slab in the center of the crypt. Nine shallow alcoves had been carved into the surrounding walls. The back wall of each alcove was painted with a full-body image of a handsome man. Some of the men wore fine clothes; others wore armor. At the feet of each painting rested a skull atop a pile of bones.

The Gang left it untouched.

Crypt 17: Sir Sedrik Spinwitovich (Admiral Spinwitovich): Confused though he was, he built the greatest naval force ever assembled in a landlocked country

The Gang opened the crypt.

An eleven-foot-long funeral barge dominated this crypt, wedged diagonally into the available space. Lying in the boat is a skeleton draped in rags, with hundreds of gold coins piled around it.

The Gang left it untouched.

Crypt 18: The stone door of this crypt had been carefully laid to one side. Through the swirly mists of the perpetual fog, freshly engraved letters spelled out the words "Ireena Kolyana: Wife." The crypt was empty and had been swept clean.

The Gang left this untouched. 

Crypt 19: Artimus (Builder of the Keep): Thou standest amidst the monument to his life

Unopened.

Crypt 20: Sasha Ivliskova—Wife

Unopened.

Crypt 21: Patrina Velikovna—Bride

This was Kasimir’s sister and the main reason for coming down to the catacombs. The Gang opened the crypt.

From the darkness came a horrifying visage, a spectral elf maiden twisted by the horror of her undead existence. She wailed, and the very sound clawed at their souls.

Patrina was a Banshee and she had surprised the Gang with her deadly wail. It dropped three party members to zero HP immediately, and they were making death saves. The DM got to rock his "everybody died" t-shirt.

Grant cast silence to prevent further wailing. Mamol cast some sort of mass healing spell which saved the party.

Slight Change: Kasimir raced into the crypt and used his Dark Blessing from Zhundun by placing his hands on his sister's moldering bones. (At the table I said he touched the banshee, which doesn't make much sense.) The Banshee was immediately destroyed, and Patrina the Dusk Elf was restored. Brother and sister had a tearful reunion. She reclaimed her spellbook.

Patrina has agreed to return with the Gang but insists on leaving Ravenloft for now, so she can memorize her spells.

END SESSION