In which the Sigil 6 comes face to face with Lord Soth and begins to plan moving 2000 villagers across the Shadowfell using every tool at hand.

Who are the Sigil 6 – Trundle, Helewynn, Bugwump, Kuru, Jusko and Failed Soldier?

• The Squires (what they call the village guard) called the town together to hear out the great heroes who are said to have killed Strahd. Everyone who wanted to speak was able to say something. I didn’t ask for a roll because I want the adventure to happen and don’t want the village not to agree to it because someone rolled a 2 at the wrong time. There wasn’t an interesting result for a failed die roll, so no dice were rolled.
  
  The villagers were given a day and a night to think it over.

• Failed Soldier detected undead, a ghast hiding in the unfinished, unconsecrated shell of a cathedral. Failed Soldier and Kuru followed the ghast and its chained ghouls to an abandoned farm where a family who worshipped Orcus had been driven out years ago. Kuru followed by stealth and Failed Soldier went back to gather the whole party.
  
  Kuru watched the Ghast report to Lord Soth, who was sharpening his blade while his banshee host floated in their sleep-meditation among the rafters of the old barn. Kuru found a good spot to snipe should he be called upon to turn the tide of an upcoming battle.

• Bugwump burned the ghouls into ash with a fireball as they approached and nearly killed the ghast as well. Then Jusko asked for a parley, hoping that Lord Soth’s knighthood would mean that the Death Knight would respect another knight. They met on a nearby family barrow.
  
  “Don’t do anything stupid unless I come running down the hill. If I do, bring all of the stupid.” Jusko left his sword with the group (I think he left it with Hellewynn) and Soth left it with his nightmare steed, despite the banshees telling him that it was surely a trap.

• “How heroic.”

  Lord Soth upon hearing about the Sigil 6’s plan to relocate the villagers.

• Having a cool conversation with a powerful evil creature is one of my favorite things in fantasy gaming. I call it Tea with a Lich. It started to drizzle as Jusko met Soth on the top of an old overgrown barrow. Soth was talking to the spirit of an ancestor of the folk who were forced out of town when Jusko approached; he got there in time to hear Soth dismiss the spirit of an Orcus disciple.

  They played Outlands Chess, played on a circular board with Sigil in the middle and the Lady of Pain occasionally floating across the board wreaking havoc. We rolled not to find out who won but to find out what they learned about one another. Jusko learned Soth’s hit point total from a class power (180HP) and also learned that he was Chaotic Evil but was the worst kind of CE; Soth thought he was Lawful Evil and the reason he had to break oaths was because of others lack of faith and grace. Asshole.
  
  Soth learned why Jusko had killed his apprentice, the evil act that turned him towards banditry and got him put in the Maze where he met the Sigil 6. Jusko gave Soth back the chestplate he had found in Strahd’s castle and Soth agreed that he would stay out of this affair with the town marching north for as long as he could and would give warning if he had to get involved. Awesome stuff was said. It was a really fun scene.
  
  The Death Knight suggested that they kill the Ghast, a guide to the Shadowfell assigned from Orcus’ court. Bugwump did so with a shiny new daylight spell.
  
  Jusko’s player does this cool thing where he gives bad-ass NPC’s weight. The player described Jusko taking a drink when he got back from talking to Soth and his hand shaking.

• Trundle’s player is a craftsman and wanted to know if there was any interesting material to utilize to make something now or later. I pulled Hellewynn in and some stone-carvers showed them a block of stone from the moon. Trundle chipped off a hunk of moon stone to carve something later.
  
  “We were going to carve a warrior like you, one of the Moon’s Chosen so that even in the Shadowfell, we would have a moon in the sky.”
  
  “A nice gesture but far from the Bright Lady’s glory. How did you get this here?”
  
  “When the original siblings came here from the Heavens, they were powerful paladins and many thought their plan to bring light to the Shadowfell had merit. Angels brought us this stone, commanded by gods.”
  
  When Helewynn is within 50 feet of this hunk of moon-rock she can turn into a werewolf.

• Jusko asked questions about the fighting capability of the town; it wasn’t great. Failed Soldier asked about the original 3 knights, who have become an undead being (Skull Lord) called the 3 Who Are 1. A squire talked about how they pointed to a bandit leader and that bandit died and came back as a zombie.
  
  The Sigil 6 got together and had dinner, just the player characters. Jusko suggested that Helewynn turn some villagers into werewolves. We talked about Bugwump teaching those who could learn the Fire Bolt cantrip. The table is affectionately referring to this campaign arc as Oregon Trail.
  
  We ended the game discussing infecting villagers with lycanthropy and deciding if the group wants to jump on the 3 Who Are 1 before the sibling paladins turned undead abomination jumps the villagers as they try to leave.

DM’s Notes: I fucking love Tea with a Lich. There needs to be a name for when players take all of the different elements at the table and make something amazing that you never expected.

Next Game: The map…

We’ll start in the Ygoni Valley, Hex 071, headed northwesterly on the Salt Road, through the Bone Forest.

To the north you can see the Queen’s Mountain, a dark shape where black basalt is said to be quarried.

To the Northeast you can see the Lych-Fingers, mountains that seem to reach to dark sky like undead claws, where none dare mine.

As we scout and see more, I’ll unveil more.

Me, in the FB group

These designs and more in my Threadless shop – t-shirts of all kinds, mugs, stickers and even shower curtains…