In the spirit of Halloween and all that is dark, mysterious and foreboding, I’ve thrown the gamers into the malicious world that is Ravenloft. The setting I’ve set to a mixture of Victorian and Edwardian time periods, a hint of low-magic and increased the volume on fright.
The adventuring party was sent out by Doctor Cheshire de Chat of Dark of Avonleigh to explore the new borderlands which the Mist has revealed. The departure of the Mist has cleared the area to reveal a dense forest, littered in the piles of autumn conceals the bones of humans and gnolls, maybe from a great battle a long time ago. The adventured bravely explored an area full of hanged humanoids; through observation the bodies have been left to rot till it muscles shrank to the bones. As the party moved forward, Gerhard the Paladin was caught in a noose trap, pulling him upwards as a hanged man came to unlife and started to molest him with its viscera tentacles. They fought on the Hanged Ones, Viscera Lashers and a Bloodthorn Vines who inhabited the area; the only beings that showed any signs of movement and sound as they started this trek.
After easily defeating the enemies, the party moved on. Only to be interrupted in their travel by a grisly sight of cannibalistic madmen feasting along with gnolls over claimed victim. Tycha the Druid opened the battle with a summoned Wall of Thorns, the vile barbed fauna wrapped around most of the cannibals and monstrous gnolls, permanently stopping some in their tracks. The undead gnolls tried to ravage alongside the madmen, guided by a ghoul and a witherling shrieker but all failed under the might of combined sword, divine power and claws.
Getting past the sight of the grim scene of violence “feasted” upon the poor victim, the adventurers encounter the strange mist once more. Only to find out that the clearing was a quiet graveyard (might I add, damn that Perception roll!), the party was able to find a sign of civilization – a road. The road was decorated with statues of cloaked men holding lamps, as if to guide them on to safety…supposively.
Passing by the great gates of a city, guardsmen and civilians alike warily observed the travelers, new people in this city! Civilians stirred cleared, closing their doors, watching behind half closed windows and continued to gawk in silence. The party asked the guards for information to find out they arrived in the city of Graefmotte, once a great city but reduced almost in half by the encroaching river which cuts into town and the problems of undead and gnoll invasion.
The party purchased a newspaper from small boy, headlining the news of the Midnight Slasher claiming its second victim in this now reduced town. The party sought out the leader of the town, Lord Durven Graef, whom the party were able to meet for he was on his way for a gnoll raid followed by his mob. Lord Durven pushed the business of having the gamers deal with the Midnight Slasher, leaving them behind to deal with the town’s problem.
Tycha volunteered to dress up as the target, a working lady of the night, in hopes of luring out the Midnight Slasher. Staying up till midnight, Xanston was able to spot the man performing a brutal act upon an innocent whore (oxymoron?) and tried to stop the Midnight Slasher! The party chased the Midnight Slasher down only to lose track in the warehouse section of the docks. Assuming that the Midnight Slasher went into a warehouse, the party instead discovered that the town’s butcher is in league with the gnolls. Fighting bravely against the sick-minded butcher and his gnoll colleagues, the party triumphed not only ridding the town of a killer but discovering that the town’s mystery meat was indeed, human beings.
Continuing their investigation, the party was able to find the Midnight Slasher’s track, muddy boot marks embedded with a dark pigmentation. Ink it was, now the game is afoot! Undead, Gnolls and Midnight Slasher, oh my! The party continues to wonder about the unaging Lord, a vampire? An undead of sort’s maybe?