Café de Nuit

So, my party has accidentally ticked off Lord Zarovich, but I don't really know what we did to make him mad. I guess a vampire king doesn't really need a reason to be angry with adventurers. Anyway, we've only got a few days to prepare against Strahd's minions and I'm kind of out of my depth here. My character is a half-Vistani alchemist, so she's smart enough to have solutions for small issues, but defending the village of Barovia against a horde of undead is not exactly in her wheelhouse. I was hoping some of you may have some advice on what to do. Thanks in advance!

What exactly does your party have to work with? (Number of pcs, classes, any npc allies, special equipment, etc.)

Is there a particular need to stay in the village (ie. Is Strahd just mad at your party or is he mad at the village)?

How badly have they ticked him off? Is he dead set on killing them, or just teaching them a bit of a lesson?

As Resonant Curse asked - more information needed on what you have available.

Also - do the villagers want to be 'saved', or are they more likely to capture said party and hand them over to avoid being killed. Or will the villagers simply stay out of the way neither helping or hindering and not getting involved.

Welcome, Zujenia! Just as a note, we tend to get more DMs here than players, so we're usually pretty free with the spoilers. Please beware when browsing the site and stay away from anything you think your DM might not want you to see yet.

On the flipside, everyone else, feel free to help Zujenia out with general advice, but try to avoid outright spoilers like "go to the building next to ____ and you'll find some magic ___ in a hidden vault in the basement, which should help you defend the town."

My advice, which is a little meta-gamey admittedly, would be to figure out what your DM has is mind. Watch for clues that might be dropped. Are there friendly villagers offering help? Is there somewhere to hide outside of town until Strahd's wrath settles down? Has the DM mentioned anything that might be used for fortifications? If you throw yourself into the kind of adventure your DM has planned, you should make it through OK.

@Resonant Curse: My party (all level 3) consists of a human fighter who really has a thing for polearms and drywall, a dwarven paladin who likes grave robbing from churches/graveyards not affiliated with his deity, a human ranger/artificer who tells everyone he's from space, a human cleric/rogue who kills people as a sacrifice to her god, and a tiefling ranger who slaughtered an entire family of locals in frustration with being stuck in Ravenloft.

And there's my character. She's the only native to Barovia (my DM asked me to play a local since I'm more familiar with the setting than the rest of the players), and she's the one who wants to stay and protect the village. It's her home. The DM also gave me carte blanche to create whatever I can think of with the materials available, since "We're in medieval Transylvania. I doubt you can come up with anything too crazy."

As for how badly we've ticked Strahd off, I'm not entirely sure. We were told by the DM at the end of the last session "You can feel Strahd's eyes upon you, and you know he is greatly displeased with most of you, and fascinated with one of you."

@DustBunny: The villagers tolerate me well enough. I'm a local girl, so even being half-vistani the reactions range from mildly passive aggressive to mildly friendly. The town shopkeep doesn't even upcharge me

The rest of the group is ... not so well received. They're all outsiders to Ravenloft, and a couple of them are very flashy, so they draw a lot of unwanted attention. The villagers are also doing an investigation to figure out who murdered an entire family, but they're pretty sure it was one of those pesky adventurer types.

The feeling I get on whether or not the villagers want to be saved is that they'll be willing to work with us to fend off minions like zombies and wolves and whatnot, but they'd likely scatter or turn the party over if Strahd himself came to town.

@Gonzoron: Thanks for the welcome! I'll do my best to steer clear of spoilers. I know a fair amount about the setting from a fluff perspective, but I haven't played through any of the Ravenloft adventures except for Expedition to Castle Ravenloft a few years ago, and the general consensus seems to be that one doesn't count.

Admittedly, I'm having a hard time getting a read on what the DM wants us to do. Last session saw five character deaths, and one player (the one with the dwarf) spent more time rolling up new characters than actually playing. He's already on character #3.

As for local help, the townsfolk only seem to mildly like me and openly dislike the rest of the party. There have only been two tangible leads on getting help, and I'm worried I might be reading more into the situation than is warranted. A group of maybe-friendly wereravens was mentions, as was a witch hunter hiding out in the basement of the town windmill. The DM hasn't mentioned specifically about any place in town easily defensible, but he gave me a map of the town when I asked and there's a church on top of a hill. It's got walls on three sides of it, so maybe we can extend the wall to encompass the entirety of the church.


Anyway, I've rambled a whole bunch. Thanks to everyone!

::looks at the actions of the party:: Have three of these characters begun showing any new abilities and disabilities lately? Or is the DM not bothering with powers checks?

A windmill or the church are fairly defensible buildings. Depending on if the church is still in use or not lr hasn't been too desecrated it might have consecrated ground that would hinder the undead. You might be able to do some hit and run attacks at zombie types and keep retreating to the holy ground while still defending the town.

Your cleric could make use of defensible terrain to turn/rebuke undead (I assume rebuke from your description)

With being an alchemist you might have containers appropriate to doing a holy water balloon stash or make a container with a hose/sprayer. If your cleric can make holy water or the church is active and their priest can, you could make make a water tower quickly near the entrance to bless the contents of and then drop it on a wave of undead. Or dig a little moat across the front where there isn't a wall.

Fire is always good and you can probably whip up some stuff to make that as an alchemist.

Hmm - you're in some trouble and not because of the zombies. Some of the other players appear to be bad news from your description.
Still let's see what we can do....
Note: Cant get inside your DM's mind so it will be fairly general in ideas.

On the assumption that your major opponents will be stupid disposable fodder (skellies, zombies, wolves and maybe a Strahd zombie or ghoul) but with lots of them, and the villagers will offer minimal help (but wont hinder). If intangible undead or vampires show up, keep running till the sun rises

* Bunkering down should be the last resort. They could simply surround the place and rip it to pieces and wear you out with endless attacks....
* Hit-and-Run could work but given the difference in numbers your party would 'burn out' quickly....
* Swarm attacks are out as the villagers wont help
* Head on attack - surrounded and dead very fast.

So on thinking, this leaves 'Rope-a-Dope'.

Set up 'encounter points' were you encourage the enemy attack you. After a round or two, retreat to the next 'enounter point'. Each encounter point has a small stash of healing items, ammunition, bomnbs, etc to you can restock between fights. The idea is to lure the enemy after you. Why? Because you set up the path between the encounter points with traps, pits, etc.

Each 'retreat' will lure the enemy over a killing ground and thin out their numbers as well as give the PC's a chance to recover a little. Now for a smart enemy this would only work once or twice, but for mindless enemies (ie: zombies and such) you can keep going all day. And the end of the 'rope' when you have thinned out their numbers enough, you retreat to your 'fort' and then smash what is left of the 'dope' when they attack.

And with multiple 'encounter points' - if something goes wrong and the route is blocked - you can run to another one instead of having your only escape cut off.
Now ideas for encounter points and thinning out their numbers with only early medieval tech and can be done/acquired fast...

*Steals MacGyvers 80's mullet and puts it on*

Abandoned barn - Lure the zombies inside and run out the (concealed) back. Set the barn on fire. Having the doors shut with a tripwire/spring would ensure they are 'well done'
Scarecrows - Have some scarecrows dressed up as the PC's. Run past them so the zombies briefly attacks the scarecrows. Whereupon they discover an (alchemical) explosive device inside...
Bear traps - Scatter some bear traps around and place another explosive on them. WHen running dodge them and wait for zombies to step on them (*click* *snap* *boom!*)
Pits with spikes - Could be time consuming to build, but the idea is you run close to them, luring the zombies into them
Stink powder - Powder which messes up wolves smell. As in they 'try to claw their nose off' stink
Fields of Fire - Lure them into a small field full of dry grass. Set it on fire (may annoy villagers though)
Flame thrower - A primative water pump connected to a barrel of oil. Start pumping fast.
Royal flush - A cauldron of something nasty (acid, oil, etc) perched in a tree/roof. Run under it, wait for the zombies to arrive. Drop it on them and ignite it
Ewok's revenge - A large swinging log (with spikes) to hit them with once you run past
Slice and Dice - Farming scythes connected above a door. When the door is opened (without the safety on) gravity pulls them down *snick*
Hell on Wheels - Get a small cart. Fill it with hay, oil and alchemists explosives. Give it a good shove into the enemy as they chase you. Bonus - attach scythes to it as well.
Ker-splat - Heavy objects, high places, enough said.
Caltrops - wont stop skellies/zombies, but will hurt ghouls, wolves, etc

*Returns slightly used mullet to owner*

As for the 'fort', the witch hunters basement may be best. It's made of stone, has one/two entrances, high ground (the mill) to shoot down on enemies and drop bombs oil. Also the DM seems to want you to go there to meet the witch hunter. It seems unlikely you would find the wereravens quickly enough, especially if they know you have trouble on your heels and you dont even know if they like you. The church probably has a very wide area, making it difficult to defent everything at once - and it is likely that any resident priest would not be happy with some of your party members (sacrificer and grave robber)

Now more importantly - No plan ever survies contact with the enemy! So be sure to have some backup plans if things start to go bad. Even if that plan is run until your legs fall off.
And secondly - your DM may read here too, so invent you own as insurance.

Zujenia wrote:Anyway, I've rambled a whole bunch.

Hee. welcome fellow Rambler.

What's the status of the church? Have you explored it to see if there are any caches of holy water or other relics? Are the clergy still around?

Do the PCs have an idea of what timeframe they have to work with?

@Mikhal: The only one I know who's gotten a Power's Check is the ranger that slaughtered a whole family. He also shifted to Chaotic Evil, though I guess it's no surprise.

@Resonant Curse: The windmill might be a decent place to defend, but every time I mention it the DM gives me the whole "I-bet-you-think-that's-a-good-idea" look. The church should be pretty defensible. It's got walls on three sides, so maybe we can extend it around the fourth side to make a mini-fort. I think it's a good idea for us to search it for secret doors, because I don't want any monsters sneaking up behind us while we're hiding out in the church. As for the time frame, we just got a vague "it could happen at any day now."

@Lesser Evil: We haven't checked out the church yet, but I think that's the plan for the upcoming session. I think there's one clergyman left in town, but we haven't talked to him yet.

@DustBunny: Yeah, my party might be more of a problem than the zombies and wolves ... You have so many good ideas! I'm gonna steal them wholecloth lol. I'm not really worried about the DM seeing this, since I don't think he uses anything other than 4chan's /tg board. I'm also glad to meet a fellow rambler!


I did manage to tease up a little more information about what the attack is all about. I guess Strahd is after 1) A particular village girl whom we have not met yet, 2) the poor witch hunter for some reason, and 3) my character, I guess because I'm "disrupting the natural flow of Barovia" with my experiments.

Thanks for all of the help so far

Welp, things didn't go the way I thought they would. I guess the whole zombie army thing was just a method of making us leave Barovia and move onto the next plot point. I'm kinda disappointed Guess we just gotta look for cryptic relics to defeat Strahd with.

Anyway, thanks for all the advice.

So, just something I'm curious about. Last session on our way to Vallaki village, my party and I ran across a trio of witches (a young blonde one, a fiesty red-head, and an old crone; so classic I could smell the leather bound books ) selling something called Dream Pies. The witches said the pies gave good dreams and let you slumber without fear. I didn't eat the pie because it sounds an awful lot like faerie food to me. The witch house was also surrounded by stones, like a faerie circle. Mostly everyone else in the party thought the pies were a great idea, though. The artificer didn't eat his either, but he said the pies were filled with hallucinogenic drugs or something.

Anyway, I'm not asking for spoilers if this incident is a well known plot thread, but I was just curious if I need to worry about the witches stealing peoples' shadows or redcaps trying to murder us in our sleep.

Thanks FoS! You're all awesome