DavesGaming

Most of this Update will contain material from Lava’s mod “The Bloodied Stings of Barovia”. As I’ve been doing, it is written as the adventurer’s journal and will contain some spoilers for that large mod.

*****

Chuck

We entered the graveyard the following evening to hunt down Bohdi and the Lanthorn the Elves need. As we walked by one crypt we heard the sound of dark chanting from within. I knew the sound of magic, never a good thing in a graveyard, at night. So we entered immediately.

He died, but the portal remained. We all concurred this was a dangerous thing to just leave, and we saw no way to shut it down. So we took the leap…

And found ourselves in a deep, dark forest. There was enough howling going on to tell us there was a lot of wolf activity here.

We fought several werewolves that seemed enraged out of their minds by masses of bees attacking them. I think? I mean, enraged is sort of standard state for werewolves.

We set to exploring the area, all of us ready for anything. We did come across a broken well, and then beyond it, a ruined blacksmith shop.

Continued exploring brought us to a farmer under attack by swarms of bees. We helped him defend his home, and he told us about the local noble family. The Bloodjackets had a manor south of here. But for now, he offered a rope so we could check out the well we’d encountered. This led to an underground crypt.

Backtracking to the farm, we found an old campsite, that seemed just set, but empty. I sensed more ghosts in the area? Maybe this place is just making me a little bonkers?

The morning was grey and drizzling. We headed back to the farm, and continued on towards the manor house.

It was some sort of ancient monument, it grew one red rose for every artifact of love delivered to it! A beautiful thing in this dark land.

We found the Bloodjacket Manor House a little further south.

We also found several huge beehives, and were forced to kill swarms of aggressive bees. This would be hard with fewer spellcasters!

The house seemed empty, filthy, abandoned. But we heard bees.

We fought a few more golems, and some sort honey ooze?

Which led to a talkative, but completely crazy woman.

Never mind the trouble they were causing! We put an end to her trouble, which became a pretty big deal. The Lady Bloodjacket was able to call on more bee swarms, honey ooze, waxy golems…
It was a pretty big fight. In the end, we did what we could to ensure neither the lady nor her mostly dead husband would trouble this land again.

We had early acquired a list of items needed to re-open the portal out of here. So we completed the list, returned to our entry point and were able to return home.
An interesting detour into a dark land.

*****

A brief write up of the mod! This was my first time through. It was really great fun, atmospheric for the Ravenloft setting. A few riddles/puzzles which aren’t so much my thing. Plus a number of fun fights, and some new monster types, which definitely are more my thing! Bonus, a number of beautiful new maps. As we can expect from Lava’s work, this was plainly professional quality. Check out “The Bloodied Stings of Barovia”