My Mordent Campaign: The First Chapter

[The_Confessor]

Well, I ran my first two sessions and completed the first chapter in my Ravenloft campaign. Details of the background can be found in a previous entry in this forum titled "Mordent Campaign."

I have to say that I'm kind of 'blah' over the whole thing. But let me give you the skinny...

First, my characters:
Faith Radcliffe: Human Ranger. Raised in the church of Ezra and daughter of a famous paladin, Faith became a pariah from the church when she ran off after her mother while they lady paladin was dealing with a great ghostly threat. Faith's childish need to follow her mother "off to adventure" lead to her mother's dead. Faith inherited her mother's sword, though she gave up her aspirations of becoming a paladin from her guilt. Her elder brother is an Archonite in Mordentishire and still blames her for the mother's death.

Issac Reed: Half-Vistani Bard. A local orphan raised in the church and a childhood friend of Faith. He is merry and foolish, the innocent of the group. What Issac does not know is that the blood of a dark lord flows through his viens and he is cousin to the Godefroy family.

Nathanial Weathermay: Human Illusionist. Cousin to Mayor Jules Weathermay, Nathanial was an arrogant child. He spent much of his youth in Dementeliu, learning wizardry from his father - who teaches in the universities. He returned to his hometown of Mordentshire after being cursed by the Vistani for accusing them of being thieves and liars. Since that day he has been unable to cast magic from Invocation or Transmutation schools.

John Smith: Human Fighter. Son of Mordentshire's only gunsmith, John was raised with pride to inherit his father's trade. One day a man came and comissioned John's father to make the most perfect pistol in the core. John's father did this. The man took the pistol and killed the elder Smith. Since that day, John has sworn vengence. He presently keeps close to Mordentshire, acting as militia assistance to the Lamp Lighters.

Amber: Half-Elf Sorcerer: An odd witch who lives on the edge of town, she is distrusted by the local populous. Little is known of her past, except that she gets along quite well with the Vistani.

My Players:
Emily, player of Faith: Emily is the only person in my group who shares my strong love of Ravenloft. She's the strongest role-player in the group and the one most interested in plot and character development. She really appreciates character interaction and growth. She's not interested in mechanical issues of RPGs or combat.

Kendall, player of Issac: Kendall is relatively new to the world of table-top RPGs. He's young and has alot of energy. His actions in RPGs reflect his experience in MMORPGs. He has alot of trouble maintaining tone and tends to really want the spotlight. A good guy, but I don't think he's terribly into the gothic aspect of the game.

Paul, player of Nathanial: Paul is primarily interested in role-playing as a numbers exersize. That's not to say he's a twink, but he's not terribly interested in character interaction or setting. He doesn't detract from a setting, but he doesn't contribute to it. He comes up with a "cool idea" (like the whole "I'm a specialist because I was cursed") and then doesn't do anything with it. Very fearful of the general environment and character death.

Tony, player of John: Tony says nothing, ever. He reads the books and then when you ask him about his character he shrugs confusedly. It's very frustrating. We've spent six months trying to get this guy to come out of his shell, but to no avail. He decided on playing a Fighter who was a pistoleer. When I asked for some backstory, he had nothing. Zip. Zilch. Not even a name. Finally I jokingly said "What about something like Inigo Montoya?" He nodded and latched onto that, more to have SOMETHING rather than nothing.

Jackie, player of Amber: This is her first time gaming. She's got a neat concept for a rookie, but she over-analyzes things. She's always looking for the most complicated solution and when other players try to talk her down or offer insight, she tends to ignore them.

The Game:

Session One:

It's Harvest time in Mordentshire! All of the PCs are running around during the seasonal harvest festival. This season is a particularly special one, because the Vistani are nearby and they have offered their brand of entertainment to the townsfolk. Some are interested, most are leery. During the festival the PCs all had an opportunity to interact with the NPCs of the town and each other. During the festival each of the PCs is called to the Vistani camp and they each recieve a Tarokka reading.

The next night all of the children in town suffered from nightmares. That morning the townsfolk demanded Vistani blood, blaming them for the nightmares. Faith, living on the edge of town, interviened before Mayor Weathermay himself showed up. Together, they dispursed the crowd, but not before asking the Vinstani to leave. The Vistani instantly pack-up and leave.

The next day, Mordentshire is in chaos. John Marlowe, friend and longtime servant to Lord Weathermay is found dead in the Weathermay Estate. He has been butchered and a cryptic message has been left on the wall. "Martha, m Martha, so desperately alone. Now you'll have company, I've sent John home." Martha is of course, Lord Weathermay's dead wife. Also, there has long been a rumor that John and Martha had an affair years ago, though Weathermay will hear none of that.

Sadly, this is not the only brutality suffered that night. Mr. & Mrs. Graves have been found similarly butchered, leaving behind a six year old boy. At their murder scene, also written in blood, are the words "A necessary evil, as they all are."

I didn't have to really motivate the PCs to bite the hook, they all took it on themselves individually. So, the investigation begins.

The town's folk react frighteningly, and confine Lord Weathermay to his home. Most people in town believe he did it. The young Master Graves is taken to live at the Ezra orphanage.

Most of the first session was spent investigating the Graves house and the Graves history. The PCs learned several things: Mr. & Mrs Graves had a son die over ten years ago. This boy committed suicide over a lost love. After his death the Graves moved out of their former home, a sea-side cottage, and moved into Mordentshire proper. A few years later, they gave birth to the child they have now.

Also, the players discovered lingering necromantic energy connecting both crime sites. With this new information they decide to investigate the graveyard. They grow suspitious of the spirit of Martha Graves, for some reason. This theory is dashed when they discover protective magic over Martha's resting place. A new lead comes from Issac, who has etheral empathy. He has a rush of guilt and sorrow that wracks him, forcing him to his knees while they're at the graveyard. When he looks at the closest grave, they see it is Matthew Graves, the dead son of Mr. & Mrs. Graves.

They decided it was time to go investigate the old Graves cottage. They went to sleep that night, their plan set.

Session Two:
As they sleep that night, the PCs are awakened by the sound of fire bells. They run into town to see the famous shop of Rudolph Van Richten burning. Moments later they learn that young Amanda Cobbler is trapped inside the shop. Wrapping themselves in wet blankets a few of the PCs jump into the burning building and rescue the girl. One of the more perceptive PCs notices that there is something odd written in ashes on a half-burnt wall: "Ashes to Ashes, my dear Rudolph."

This new event changes the PCs course of action, and they decide not to go to the Graves Mansion after all. They instead connect the Vinstani nightmares to these children and decide to run after the Vistani tribe.

After a brief encounter with a Boowray in the moors of Mordentshire, they catch up to the Vinstani tribe. They do not recieve a warm welcome, but new information is learned. The leader of the Vinstani camp admits to having caused the childrens' nightmares, but she claims it was for their protection. This confuses the players, and when they ask for more information, she tells them to look to what the Tarokka has told them.

They hurry back to town. They begin speaking to the children who had the nightmares. They learn that one child, Joseph Black, was sleepwalking the previous night and his parents had to lock his room. Mr. Black is gruff and rude with the PCs.

The PCs nose around and discover that the Blacks had a child that died ten years ago. When they search for information on the Cobblers, they find the same thing.

They rush back to the Blacks and tell them to keep a close eye on their child and then go to the Church of Ezra, asking Faith's brother for help. The party rushes to the graveyard only to find the spirit of the dead Black boy rising from his grave as a ghost.

The ghost bids the characters step aside, and when they do not, they are forced to fight. Faith's inheritted sword is ghost touch so the party is able to barely survive the encounter. But for some reason, Faith's brother cannot put his spirit to rest.

The characters do further research and discover the deaths of the the three children ten years ago:

Graves: Suicide for lost love.
Cobbler: Died of a sickness that they couldn't afford to cure
Black: Suffocation in his sleep.

They quickly locate the woman that Graves killed himself over and bid her to apologize at his tombstone. She, reluctantly and remorsefully does. Graves is put to rest.

By gather herbs from the reminant of Van Richten's Shop, they pour a salve on the grave of Cobbler. Cobbler is put to rest.

They piece together clues that implament Mr. Black killed his own son. When they go to confront the ghost about this, the ghost becomes enraged and tells the party that if they do not leave he will kill them all. The party reluctantly follows the ghost as it makes its way into town.

The Black Ghost decends on his father and strangles him, beating him to death and choking the life from him. The PCs and the townsfolk watch in horror as a murdered son is put to rest.

No more murders, crimes, or arsons happen the next night. Peace has returned to Mordentshire. But in the Tarroka the PCs were told of a "Master from his Mansion" and a "The House of a Mythic Beast" that was the source of all their troubles.

That night Issac and Nathanial have dreams of an angry, ghostly man beating them and torturing them.

The Truth: Godefroy implamented a plan to discredit Jules Weathermay through these murders and arson. He wanted to ruin the Mayor's life. He did this by tapping the restless spirits of three children who had died ten years ago. These three ghosts, though unwilling, were forced to Godefroy's will. They possessed their siblings while they slept.

The nightmares? The Vinstani knew what Godefroy was planning, but they knew it was not their place to stop them. So they plagued the children with nightmares to keep them from being possessed that night.

Now that the adventure is all said and done, I have to say I'm kind of bored. Despite a good plot and relatively good actions on the PCs, there wasn't any role-playing, emotion, real interaction between characters.

No one seemed horrified that children were murderers or that a man was being strangled in the street by an enraged spirit. No one seemed to care for the tired Weathermay or be wary of the cryptic Vistani.

They just didn't... well... get it.

That's making it really hard for me to continue to run the game. I run by candle light, I play classical music, I tried to express the emotion of this ghost, the fear of the children.

My players aren't bad, but they're... well... players. They'd crack jokes or break mood. I spent the entire first session just discussing gothic literature and gothic themes and what it meant to play Ravenloft and what kind of tone and mood it had. Everyone seemed ok with that, even enthusiasitic. Now, it doesn't feel like that's there.

This is causing my idea wellspring to be a bit dry. And frankly, I'm not sure if I want to re-water it.

[Blackpaws]

Good read, I'm suprised your players didn't get into it. Perhaps you could sit down with them and share the same things you've put into words here, or just have a talk with the first player who you said really loves the setting, try to get her to help you with the other players.

Regardless, I think your storyline was great. G'luck with your group in the future.

[Jennifer]

Hi Confessor,
I really thought this was a nice story. Lots of different elements and scary stuff. Vistani, children in peril, family tragedy, ghosts, detective work and a solution.

If your players did not get in to the mood right away, perhaps you should give it some time. it takes some time for people to become attached to characters and NPC's. perhaps another few sessions might take care of that.
What also might be the problem, is that there was a lot to do for the players the first time. They got to know several families and and their personal secrets and tragedies, perhaps it was a bit mucht for them for a first session.

anyway, I hope you will try again with some better responses from your players.

Jennifer

[Troile]

Now, it doesn't feel like that's there.

My suggestion to this: Its still d&d.

In a world of hit points and experience levels there can only be so much real feel to it.

I say let them have their fun but draw the line.

For example I don't allow any monty python quotes at the table. Period.

Some joking around is in good fun and encouraged but when its time for story or peak action I find players are too into it to make idle jokes.

Often too if you try to start too sudden with the okay now we're playing thing the urge to break the mood is a strong one.

I suggest music to let the players know that its time to play. Music has a very subtle effect. 30 minutes into the game it should start to effect them.

If you can relate it to a good book...Its hard to get into any book. The first chapter or so or maybe even more is so-so usually. Until something happens to grip you. Or maybe like I found in Bram Stoker's Dracula the beginning is really gripping then it trails off again for a while.

There is time to be light hearted even in Ravenloft. I've always felt juxtaposition makes the most impact.

One extreme emphasises the other.

Then after the session your players will walk away having had a nice jovial night with friends (which is what we're aiming for here) and having been stirred by some gripping play.

The gothic tecture is for the impact. Fun is what friends do together.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

You might also consider giving them more opportunities to get the silliness out of their systems before the adventure really gets going. Either write in some minor characters and encounters to precede the scary stuff -- bit-characters designed specifically to be annoying, and whom the PCs can take down a peg or two (without getting destructive) might help -- or else postpone the actual start of play for 20-30 minutes when your group gets together, so people can chat, joke, and otherwise socialize as themselves, before they get into character. Then summarize the events of the previous session (very important for Ravenloft!) in an appropriately-foreboding style, to prepare them for what's coming, before they start barking out their PCs' actions. If they've still got ants in their pants, sic a (minor) battle on them straight out of the starting gate, to get their attention.

BTW, don't worry yourself overmuch if Tony isn't participating as much as the rest of the group. Some gamers are just like that -- their level of commitment to play isn't as high as the rest, so they stay on the sidelines and observe -- and there's no reason you should blame yourself for that. As long as he's having enough fun to keep coming, go ahead and let him "lurk".

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

I quite like it so far and look forward to seeing more of it in the future (was meaning to post this last night but forgot, oops).

[kottakinge]

Hello fellow DM.
Your story and plot were great, and Mordent is the perfect Domain for ghost story.
Like the other reply i think it's maybe a bit too much for a first time.
Let ur player know each other a bit much and maybe u'll have better role playing.
I played Ravenloft for 10 years and i must say that the 3rd edition ruins the ghotic mood (u know the battle miniatures), my players no longer interest about the mood but became hack'n slash, always looking for the best way to improve their characters with minmax their feats and the such.
They're now 7th level and i'm bored to play with them, they no more interact with the story and just follow the course of events, i played with them the hexad campaign (night of the walking dead, touch of death, feast of goblyns + others minor scenariis) but i think i will stop there (mother fury eat them in Kartakass when they decide to hunt her and her cult without even a single cold iron weapon), so maybe i'll try to reoriente my game and do more plots and just a few battle.
But never forget that players are players and that most of them care more for their character than for the story.
Anyway i wish u good luck with ur players and continue to make excellent story like u do before.