Welcome to Castlevania! Castle Ravenloft.

DM's Forward and Disclaimer

I am not what one would call an experienced DM.  I much prefer making off color jokes and rolling dice until the monster is dead.  And looting corpses.  But Pandemics make strange bedfellows... or something... so here I am, running a 5e DnD campaign, the Curse of Strahd.  The world is supposed to be DnD's "Dark Gothic Horror" setting.  With our group, it will be more likely to resemble an Abbott and Costello movie.  I will most likely be partially to blame.  Because let's face it.  I only picked this campaign so I could do bad gypsy accents.

Some of our adventure is straight from the campaign book.  Some I have stolen borrowed from other DMs.  Some I came up with all on my own.  If you have not played Curse of Strahd, there will be spoilers.  If you are trying to cheat on Curse of Strahd and are looking for a walkthrough, you will be disappointed.  This is our own stumble through the mists.  Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

First Session:  Bringing the Band Back Together

Our motley crew assembled for tacos and homemade macarons.  The blue ones.  Like Baby Yoda almost force choked a kid over.  I would have also force choked someone for these.  After spending some time working on character creation, we have assembled the following team of daring adventurers:

Agnak Stonestalker Monekekali:  The three names are how you know this guy is the real deal.  A seven foot something Goliath former soldier.  We don't know much about him other than he likes to fight, likes to drink, doesn't like to share, and has a thing for short elf chicks. Or really any chicks. I've never seen something with so low charisma so convinced in his powers of attraction.  Can't fault a guy for trying.  He's the muscle of the group.  And he likes axes.  A lot.

Solomon Hawkins:  A broody human sorcerer with a haunted past.  I swear it wasn't just an unfortunate obsession with Trent Reznor that made him dress like that.  And no that's not eyeliner.  It's the darkness in his soul seeping out of his tear ducts... that never shed tears.  In all seriousness though, Solomon looks like one you would not want to mess with.  Maybe it's his terrifyingly striking presence... maybe its his proclivity to throw fire at people...maybe it's the fact he doesn't appear to bleed...maybe it's that lantern with its eerie green light...or maybe he's just creepy af.

Sheen:  No last name needed for this bongo wielding dwarf.  Sheen likes his ladies the way he likes his coffee.  Side note.  He should really stop paying 20g for a cup of coffee.  Sheen is a bard. Because of course he is.  And we can't be sure, but it sounds like the theme from Shaft plays whenever he enters a room.

Gilphine:  Another with no last name.  She probably has one.  She just doesn't want you to know it.  Or anything about her, really.  Gilphine is a Lilliputian half-elf ranger who stands a terrifying 4 and a half feet tall.  In service to the forest, she was granted a boon that turned her skin a deep wood shade, and her hair now grows green.  In short, she'd rather be a tree than a people and this is the first step.  And yes.  She was, in fact, raised by wolves.  Why do you ask?  Gilphine, in addition to brining her tracking and battle prowess, fills the much needed "obligatory female" role, providing the female NPCs much needed reprieve from awkward pickup attempts. 

This is our brave band of adventurers who will battle vampires, werewolves, wererats, probably wereplatypi...  Who will scour haunted lands, fighting evils, righting wrongs, looting corpses, and perhaps realizing that the greatest treasure of all... was their friendship.  Or... in the alternative.. that the monster they were fighting had been them all along.  Or maybe even that there's no place like home.

Or maybe they'll all perish in their first obligatory low level adventurer rat fight.

Only time will tell.

Next up... The Obligatory First Night in a Tavern!