Ardonk Szerieza

[Ail]

Well, since this received a lot more input than what I was expecting, let me tell you what happened.
As usual, it was not entirely what I expected.

There was an intense moral debate between the party and Ardonk, where the PCs tried to convince him to stop the rebellion that it was making his people suffer more than before and where he was unable to make them see how bad the oppression is.

At the same time, one PC is now Chaotic Evil and since he is a murderer anyway, he decided that this time he should honour his contract: they had been hired by Strahd to invetigate the rebellion. This PC interpreted it as 'deal with the rebellion' so he took the chance to charge at Ardonk with a greatsword. Big deal, he only dealt 12hp damage and Ardonk had 57hp. Ardonk then, using 2 attacks per round one of which criticalled, almost put the PC out (negatives, but with Diehard feat...). The result was that the rest of the party turned their backs on both of them, hoping that the Evil character would die at last (I won't allow that so easily) and deeming Ardonk an irredeemable fanatic. Precisely at that moment, Strahd arrived. As he concentrated on Ardonk, all the PCs fled the cave, with the evil PC snatching a gunpowder keg with him. So, I told them that they heard the cries inside and that Ardonk was dead. But since they didn't actually see or check this, he might still come up some day.

At the same time, one of the PCs now is a sworn enemy of vampires, and over-cautious at that too. She managed to point a mirror at Strahd and see he cast no reflection just before he shattered it. Strhad is immune to mirrors among other things, but I don't know if he merely does not recoil from them or if that includes casting a reflection. I don't think it should include this last effect so everybody saw then that Strahd was a vampire (not that they did not suspect, some NPCs are just too obvious).

More interesting things: Strahd made them a speech before striking at Ardonk claiming that he knew the group was ready to double-cross them, but that fortunately there was a member in the group that had warned him of his plans. This was the same evil PC above, but they all blamed a young NPC that they caught up in Barovia village many sessions before. This girl, in turn, who is innocent of the accusation, had no idea that they had a deal with Strahd and may now be as willing to leave the party as the party is willing to dump her. As for knowing Strahd is a vampire, I take it that most Barovians believe it to the Core (pun intended). It's a bit impossible not to, regardless of what the books say on this.

Of course this now looks like a 'Mafia' game and I don't know what will come of this. There's a lot of thinking I have to do before next session.

Alex

[Ail]

Actually, one thing I want to do in the future is to show the players how Ardonk might be right after all. Next time they enter Barovia in in the south (but this is hardly unlikely, since they are trying to flee it at full speed and probably don't intend to return) they'll see how there has been a major ethnic cleansing there.

But since this is probably not going to happen, I'd like them to feel the need to be rebels as Ardonk was. Perhaps the best place to do this would be in Falkovnia, but I have no plans to take them there. I'd like to avoid many subquests now (as the whole campaign so far has been about subquests), but I still need to drive that point home. So, how would be the best way to do this?

In short, how should I make plainly obvious to them that while the majority of the PCs are so called 'Good', they have instead served the darkness and not understood the suffering of the poor innocent people?

Alex

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Strhad is immune to mirrors among other things, but I don't know if he merely does not recoil from them or if that includes casting a reflection.

That's correct. He doesn't recoil, but still casts no reflection.

if Ardonk manages to blow up two kegs, however..... Goodnight, Strahd...

At least until he retreats in mist form to his nearest coffin and regenerates... I presume?

Right, of course...