That's what Ravenloft does to you. But everyone once an while and with a lot of blood, sweat and tears. You can push back against the darkness and even force the dark powers to release you or another.
@Milan Marković clearly you dont understand the deep philosophy of simping. Strahd simps not just in his endless use of resources to spy on her, but in his inability to let her go. He has THREE vampire Whamen all pining for him as well as a male consort and let's be real, rahadine, probably after the vampire dick too. And he ignores all of it for one whamen who yeets herself off cliffs. Clearly strahd is only pretending to be a man of culture, I mean what else do you expect from a guy who blots out the sun? Any man who rejects big daddy sunshine is just out of his mind.
I feel like Boshek is literally the only one with the proper alignment for this campaign. I like to think his entire character goal is to see how Night Hag flesh tastes like, which explains why he hasn't just outright betrayed the group.
@A Better Tomorrow -- Not really imho. While he could easily get along with....most of the main NPC's in CoS, Boshek would probably fall under the Count's sway before to long if he was on his own. It's much more intresting to me to listen to Puffin's character trying to fight an almost daily battle of "lesser Evils", especially since he multiclassed into Cleric.... As a quick aside: you think he'll ever get to use "Brawn Velsing, Vampire Hunter"?
How _does_ one receive recipes from his dark lord? Am I correct to assume that he only has one arm because he gave the other one up to his dark lord (to eat)?
you can not be evil in the demiplane of dread (granted it has not developed into this in 5e yet. please wizards give us more ravenloft.) the more evil you do the more corrupted you get and the more of the dark powers attention you attract until you become an evil domain lord npc with your own demiplane or an evil working with the lord of your current domain npc character choice.
The image of a lone cleric, standing in a war torn church, surrounded by ravenous vampire spawn tearing into victims, while Strahd’s bride simply stands and watches in amusement...the cleric still holds their weapons, but the grip is slack, the shoulders hunched, their own breathing is a mystery to them as the sound of screams fills the church like a choir
Janna Montana as a struggling writer in the midst of doing just that I’ll let you know when it’s done. Thanks for the vote of confidence and I promise the final work will be better than this wee blurb I did for fun.
Garo ran. Ran like never before. ,,No no no! Not them! Not now!“ He tried to run even faster, but stepped on a pile of blood, nearly falling to the ground. It couldn’t be. It shouldn’t be. It must not be! But he knew he was to late. They were to late. Why? Why did this happen? Why where they so stupid? Why...? Now innocents are dying. One by one. And it’s our foult.
I mean it's true in 5e. If you don't cast spells with int all it does is give you a slightly better bonus to the knowledge skills. And the extremely rare int save.
@@whiterabbit75 Nope! I mean 5e doesn't even have skill points, but it doesn't give you more of the equivalent either. And I believe the only way to learn new languages after character creation is by taking the Linguist feat. Or like, multiclassing into certain classes I suppose. Like druid.
I'm pretty sure half of us in Puffin's audience have never played DnD. His videos have REALLY got me wanting to play, though. ...I've got a Hexblade Pact Warlock character sheet ready to go and everything, but there's no one where I live who likes the game 😭
Well looks like half of you need to play dnd and if the dm has a little experience than do this module cause it is epic and never plays the same way twice
@@darkmoon2503 Great character choice, I have wanted to play that myself. Many people are in a similar situation not near anyone who plays DnD. I recently found a website called Roll20 where you can play DnD online, and many people use it to stream the map and info, and you can speak through discord and such.
@@jacobellinger8027 Yeah seriously, it's the theme of this campaign which is "Everything is Grim. Nothing will be well." Also playing this one myself and I'm grinding my teeth to rally an army ( well, at least a few peasants that are insane enough) to attack Ravenloft with our group. Not an easy job with how down everyone is and also the defeat of Mordenkainen didn't help too.
Some of the vamp stereotypes are like that. They keep their word, but if you cross them yer 200% dead. Sometimes, you are even more dead than that it depends on the universe.
A well done Lawful Evil character is never rude or unreasonable. I mean, that would be impolite. It's not just Strahd, Asmodeus is often depicted like this. Heck, it's rarely done, but even Hobgoblins are supposed to be polite, according to the books. It's just how Lawful Evil is. Politeness is a great way to demonstrate the methodical patience associated with that shade of evil.
Hell the module for him says he’s really respectable well mannered guy. But uh, depending on the tarot card thing you do. Strand could potentially kill you outright upon just seeing him if he knows you made contact with the van Helsing guy from the book or you draw tower/upside down death. I won’t say why, but one of your players better be a cleric or be rolling them nat 20s
8:59: "Garo, your voice is getting drowned out by the shouting." The bloodthirsty crowd carries the baron and his wife away. From off in the distance comes the eerie voice, "I waaaaaaarned youuuuu!"
I assume you played in one of the earlier editions? Those were pretty light on anything but Strahd's lair. This is more of a whole campaign that takes place with Strahd in the background as opposed to the original 36 (or some such) page module.
@@darkmoon2503 This was originally a module from 1st edition which was considered so brilliant that over time more material has been added and expanded upon for it. At this point in 5th it is an entire small campaign that starts at 3rd level and ends with what is pretty much the original adventure at around 10th level.
Weeeeell...technically he did since the letters asking for their aide comes from him and not the mayor like they thought. I think that counts. And since he can scry when his name is spoken he was able to watch all their antics with possible glee.
To horribly mangle a metaphor: The road to Ravenloft is paved with the corpses of good intentions. That's what I'm getting from Curse Of Strahd. Basically, no good deed goes unpunished.
I like to imagine this is the cheery part of Boshack's biography. "Chapter 32: that time I had a barrel of laughs in Barovia". For someone with enough of a gallows humor the kids not being there at the end would've been a hilarious punchline.
Yeah I was pretty interested in the Curse of Strahd module but after watching these videos, I'll be honest, I'm never gonna play this. If I wanted to feel overpowered, hopeless, depressed and like nothing I do matters then real life has plenty of that without having to experience it in a game as well
@@sawspitfire422 it could also be just the GM. For my part, I grow frustrated the more videos of Strahd I watch but I also enjoy Puffin because he's swell. If he had fun, good for him: for my part, I'll keep watching just so I learn from the mistakes of the module or the other GM. XD I wanna be~ the very BEST!
Eh, it's been 300 years, they're used to his delusional abusive BS by now. And they have probably figured out that Tatyana is more of a fantasy than something they have to worry about.
They are clearly jealous of each other, so it could be something to leverage, if the cleric, warlock and apparently paladin had bothered to put points in charisma.
I mean you technically saved two werewolves from the dungeon. Sure they're not kids persay but two werewolf allies? Shit man I'd be like. "Yo let's figure out how to get me infected and see where this goes." Never know a 3rd werewolf might just be the trick to forming your own Trio De Danger
Garo: *exclusively asks Boshak to do the talking* Krusk the Paladin and Gouda the Sorcerer: “Are we a joke to you?” Btw, it was also probably for the best that Boshak is an Int Warlock, since it helps round out the party on all Mental stats, being Int, Wis, & Cha, while also rounding physical stats, with Krusk having good Str & Garo having good Dex.
To be fair, none of them would make very good party faces. Garo's charisma is his dump stat apparently, Gouda is a punmeister goody-two-shoes, Krusk is a paladin in Ravenloft ('nuff said), and Boshak... well, the less said about Boshak, the better. They are in desperate need of a bard, even if he _does_ try to sleep with everything.
Right? I thought there was something about the Warlock being one armed in the beginning. I'm kind of surprised there wasn't at least any mention of him being interested in studying it.
Last session when he was all like "oh we'll just recover the bones after the festival is over", yeah I'm a DM for this campaign. I knew exactly how that was going to end for them.
What have we learned? _Always have someone with high charisma do the talk,and never say no an invite from a vampire lord._ And they probably could of kicked the hags to bits sooner if they were not afraid to die on sight then.
should've sided(at least temporarily and conditionally of course) with Strahd, he actually seems reasonable in this version of the story, at least as reasonable as someone like this could be, but given everything he's been through after all this time.... this way they wouldn't need to go at it alone, get some loyalty points with him as well, they could've let him deal with them but for some measure of trust, (and to get some XP* as players too of course), should've offered to deal with them "on his behalf," for state security and solidarity, future prosperity, such business as usual.., just with some extra muscle from his side to assist, this whole story would've went entirely different, instead of having to wage a war on all fronts like this, in the end antagonizing almost everyone and essentially disappointing everyone else... how could they not see this! such total "do-gooders..." ...well, discounting Boshack of course, he's my favourite, of course... him and Gouda :)
@@FoxHound-ut1hu but it's also never a good idea to take on an opponent clearly superior in force(s), straight on without strategy, and appeasement is a strategy that works with people motivated by fear of a personal loss...(at least until other measures can be taken, be that drastic or not...) ...appeasement or even a temporary unification as the case may be...
"Take a shit on everything. And that's how we'll defeat the curse of strahd!" My speakers turned off at this moment, but it was so perfect I thought there was just this really long awkward pause as the other players reacted with disbelief to the plan. Then it went on for too long. Ben would have said something like 'not buying it huh?' by now. Then I noticed my speakers were off. It was really good timing and made it funnier.
@@DeathandBeeZ *gets out a marker and crosses out 'Curse of Strahd' and writes in 'Ravenloft'* That's more like it. There is NOTHING good which happens in Ravenloft, which sticks for long. That's just how it is...
It's really good to see how much more fleshed out the bride's of strahd are in your game, in the book they're a single encounter in the tomb. Big well done to your dm for putting in the extra work.
Breaking News: Local lizard cannibal, tree pope, eye girl and orc paladin ruthlessly slaughter 2 innocent old ladies (and one little girl) who just wanted to sell perfectly normal pastries.
FAKE NEWS! It was three little old ladies. And you didn't even mention that they were self employed small business owners working in the children's food industry! "Pastries children dream of." - 3 Sisters Children's Bakery And the little girl escaped
Some of those scenes... your voice and tone really did voice how emotional they really were... It must have been heartrending being there as the scenes were happening. But those kinds of things can really stick to you as amazing highlights of your RPing experience. Thank you Puffin Forest for sharing them with us.
and it's going to be someone you don't even like. Some selfish NE thief who robs you, only to escape into a squad of ghosts and skeletons, who you defeat, but not because you wanted to save the thief.
I’m sure someone already make this joke, but Back in Borovia I was in a very famous adventuring party I'm Boshack the lizard (Boshack) Boshack the lizardman Don't act like you don't know And I'm trying to find some meat to eat It's been so long I don't think I'm gonna last I guess I'll just try And make you understand That I'm more lizard than a man Or I'm more man than a lizard Boshack!
Garo's character development is amazing! Plus, this campaign accurately portrays the Ravenloft setting. Pyrrhic victories and outright suffering. Very Ravenloft.
This might be the most depressing campaign I've ever seen, including ones that ended in TPKs. Great storytelling. Also, saying that Lawful Good characters can never lie is a bit too restrictive. Clearly they will sometimes have to in order to defeat evildoers. .
@@bdp4That's interesting. I see even the oaths as ideals which they are motivated to strive for but nobody is perfect and sometimes they will be faced with choices that make adhering to all of the tenets impossible. The roleplay of what they do to repent once they break part of their oath is so rich in potential.
i think the point is less whether he is allowed to lie or not, and more how murphy's law has started breaking his character's spirit. died once, and anyone he tries to save ends up getting stamped with the mark of death. Everyone who seems to be a decent person turns into a "great evil" and those who seem evil are doing it for the right reasons. He is lawful good, but his character no longer can identify himself as such, and when it comes to a magic relic judging alignment, your own mindset does have some degree of influence into whether or not the character can or is willing to use it. Morality is almost entirely mental. The collective social consciousness just determines how much friction your ideals of morality will cause.
@@cullenlatham2366 There's no question this is one mind breaking experience. If the campaign were still going on I'd be worried about the mental health of the players. Thank goodness for Gouda's jokes to at least lighten the mood some.
That depends entirely upon where they work in an "essential role." Me, I'm a correctional officer and former soldier, volunteered for both jobs so I know I'm messed up.
@@Geckoey2 yknow I kinda guessed that, cos it was that or puffin really needs to chat to the FBI about any unknown serial killer cases and suggest his DM for ALL of them
In my run of CoS as a player, my DM took the "Lady Wachter makes no secret that she's a servant of Strahd" as "Let me tell the party that I work for Strahd with literally no prompting." This was *so* much better.
That sounds like a really dumb introduction. "Why yes, I am an ally to the inhuman tyrant you seek to kill. So, how about you help me in couping one of the few authorities opposed to Strahd?"
I'm in love with how rough it is for the PCs in this game. It will make the retribution at the end so epic. I especially liked how killing the hags was supposed to be that moment when the characters break through and finally take a stand against the evil. Instead, it amounted to nothing except more motivation to save Barovia. I say this, on the condition that the players don't get burnout from never having a victory, that is.
God DAMN man, this seems like the worst kinda playthrough for lawful/good heroic players. I mean, personally I would love to play a paladin having his ethics, morals, and values constantly whittled away in this land of evil, but this has to be so punishing for Garoh. Also, thank you for getting this series out so quickly during this hard time. It's hard to follow sometimes cause I like to have visuals with the stories, so if you plan to go back and animate this I look forward to that as well.
I'd also love a Chaotic Good character, after learning 'All souls that die here, are resurrected into new bodies', and just being like 'Well. I mean, they died. That sucks... They'll be back though'
The funny thing about truesight is that I don't think you know if people are "supposed" to be invisible, since you don't see illusions. This cluld actually be a way to trick somebody - using illusions, which they can't see, to communicate, or something.
holy mother of strahd! I can't believe it! a new puffin forest video! what a stupendous day this has become. and WHAT a video indeed 3/4 of an hour HOOOOOOBOYYYYYY post video edit: what a great story, omg I'm so sad
I have played and read the module before, but never really understood how the bleak environment of the world of bavoria is--overwhelming, each character can do so little, and sees so much suffering...this really nailed it--please keep posting!
Absolutely loved this episode. Drama, action, bloodshed all perfectly played out with tension cut by comical meta-talk. I only wish more groups could play like this
As much as I LOVE the shorts and other vids, these story telling longer vids are incredible. Thank you so much for the content you create and please continue to do so!
“This episode of Desperate Housewives, Barovia Edition!” I sincerely give credit to this dm for accomplishing these 3 things: 1. Adapting a great story to reflect their own creativity, implementing things they loved. 2. Making the story about the players. 3. Making the setting about the NPCs. Setting them loose in Ravenloft to investigate, rather than running it straight as a dungeon, is interesting. But what really sells this campaigns’ story is the clear objectives & feelings of the NPCs. The brides make Ravenloft. The NPCs make the world.
I gotta say, your DM seems to like putting y'all in scenarios where you are utterly powerless, used for evil, and have no real positive effect. Can't say I'm a fan. Don't get me wrong, though. This episode got me REALLY emotionally involved in the story.
Hamza Ali It's an option. The spirits are trapped in Borovia. It's something to talk to your players about before the the game. It doesn't sound like the gm did for this, though.
Yeah, I’m not going to lie I would have walked away from the table at this point and just left the campaign. I really don’t like this style of running Ravenloft. But watching this does make me appreciate my own DMs work in my groups campaign, it was tough and dark at times but he always made us feel like heroes fighting out way through the evil of Barovia and making the place just a little bit better.
Just a clarification on my comment, in the talk through episode, they say the GM did talk to them about the death options beforehand. They had the res option or the option of starting a new character.
I think it's perfect. Perfectly on point for the tone of Curse of Strahd. A lot of this could have been avoided with more investigation and as they get stronger they will likely get some victories.
Problem is it feels more like a punishment for getting overwhelmed by all the front loaded quests than a story consequence to me. Like "psych, that one quest you put off for a single dang night, that one was the time sensitive one, sorry, your lack of psychic abilities means everyone dies!" It was great for the emotional impact, but I hate being punished for time management rather than active decisions in a game. If the quests have deadlines don't give them to the players all at once! As a player I would have been really pissed about that. In real life I have to juggle deadlines and executive skills- in a game give me a break! Maybe if it were because Fiona let them in I would have found it more logical- that was an active mistake - but the invitation that didn't state a time or date plus the bones quest? Those felt like screw jobs, or at least would have to me as a player. This episode definitely cemented "awesome but waaay too depressing for me" as my opinion on Curse of Strahd as a module.
It’s so silly, but I’ve I gone over the part about Garo describing his “plan” to beat the curse of Strahd several times and it still brings me to tears from laughing so much.
Although it has been years since I’ve played dnd I played A and 3.5. I look forward to these installments every time I get a notification. Thanks for the entertainment during the lockdown great content great storytelling A+
@@aspektx Sorry to hear. I do understand- tried to look for a CoS game for the last three weeks under my availability times and no one seems to be running one. Now I’m just prepping to DM a game, with some inspirational ideas from this series.
I love the story. Never actually played or run this module but i have the pdf and these videos make me want to run it as it seems to be an amazing adventure.
I'm not going to spoil stuff about this campaign but almost every instance of horrible stuff happening (including the ones in this episode) is preventable.
Peter Bychkov preventable, but difficult. Worthy of note is that they did save the vallaki girl from drowning. That being said, during the early part of the game, trying to save anyone via combat is almost always going to result in someone dying.
I once played a runaway Princess in Curse of Strahd. She was from "the river kingdoms" which is basically not-japan, because I'm a total weeb. Also of note, she loved children, and would often come to the orphanage in her kingdom to read stories to the orphans there. She was a Barbarian/Paladin of Hanspur, a chaotic neutral God of Water, Travel, and Murder. Her alignment was Chaotic Good, just one step away from her God, but she was a sociopathic serial killer. Interestingly, her only victims were other serial killers. Basically, she played like Jason Voorhees with Dexter's mindset, complete with a porcelain mask reminiscent of Michael Myers. When we got to the windmill, we did something similar to Puffin's party to deal with the hags, and our spellcaster manage to trap the hags on the material plane. But unlike Puffin's party, we managed to save the children before they were turned into pastries. As for Gertrude, she was already a hag. We played with a murderhobo in the party, and he wanted to kill the child for the XP. I told him "If you try to interfere, I'll kill you." My character delivered this ultimatum with her mask on, and in a cold, emotionless tone. The murderhobo, a level 2/2 fighter/rogue at half HP and a used action surge wasn't sure he could take a level 3/2 Barbarian/Paladin with a full pool of Lay on Hands and one Rage left, so he quietly sidelined himself. I talked to Gertrude, and explained her situation. She seemed to understand that she was a monster now, and couldn't return to her family. I then told her that I was just like her. That in the future, she would have urges to kill, and would want, no, *need* to slaughter people. I told her that I would show her how to live with herself, that by devoting herself to a better cause, that she could use her powers not as a curse, but as a blessing. She would be a hag, there was no preventing that. But she didn't have to kill innocent people. I took her in, under the intention of making her another avenger, just like I was. I like to think, if our group didn't break up, I would have succeeded, and we'd have a hag running about, killing the guilty, and bringing joy to children, instead of the opposite.
Such is always the dilemma with Hag Gertruda. The question that always leans on the party’s mind is the essence of the prisoner dilemma- can Gertruda be “redeemed”, despite the fact that there’s no “human” form for her? Is her destiny fated to killing people? Or is it just safer to kill her now before she has the chance to reveal whether her fate is set in stone? I also use Hag Gertruda in my games. Partially due to the intrigue I think it causes, especially when engaging with those like Ezmerelda or Van Ricten who have zero chill for Gertruda once they find out she’s a Hag (like zero chill to the point of needing a dirty or nat 20 to get them to back off). I definitely would have seen that as something that you guys would have strived for and welcomed an ending like that for Gertruda. Though I also would have had Strahd take notice too.
Wow, that was one of the best episodes so far. The story telling really was great, I can imagine myself struggling in these situations. Wanting to help people, but in the end being forced to realize that your(basically) as helpless as the people your trying to save.
Hope you mean you want to DM it. Listening to these and then being a player in this campaign would be lame both for you and for the other players at the table.
I LOVE these full length story segments kinda make me think of All Things D&D but with more comedy. And makes me happier than hearing how the majority of that coven was done away with. Also, I don't agree with that final statement. You guys DID save who knows how many more future victims from the coven.
I love these longer videos. Now that you are not skipping any part of the story I can see it play out, I can try to guess what the characters will do next and imagine what I would do in their place
Yeah, the last time I played this module... We got really lucky and were able to carefully work everything near perfectly. But damn... I will never play this module again, and I just don't care to ever go to Ravenloft again. It's great lore and an interesting story on the outside, but fucking draining and annoying to play. If things don't go perfectly, it just falls apart and you just don't accomplish anything worthwhile. Soon... You just stop caring about the whole place, and start trying to figure out how to end the module as soon as possible so your DM will pick something else to run. Seriously, if Vastanti and mists in a forest start happening in any future campaign I play... I will play out that night's session, but I WON'T be coming back for next one. I play Tabletop RPGs to ESCAPE existential hopelessness... NOT to wallow in it. Ravenloft place exemplifies absolute pointlessness. Even if you kill Strahd and free the land of the curse... Most the people are at best evil tinged neutral, the place is packed with the worst things around, and the "Powers That Be" of Ravenloft will just eventually undo your work as they aren't going to let Strahd escape even in death. I put this module on the same level as the Deck of Many things on the "Campaign Killer" scale. You introduce and it will destroy whatever campaign you had going. So yeah... Our group did really well with everything and it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. There were fun moments and triumphs, but overall a draining experience... That left me really debating if I wanted to continue after the first character death.
@@DrMDHyde Definitely agree. Even a collection of mini-series would be really neat to see. Ravenloft in 2nd edition launched into a whole plane of existence, where you have all these different dread lords kept locked in by the Dark Powers. A whole plane of existence designed to keep the dread lords in eternal torment, and sealed away from the rest of the multi-verse upon continents that serve as prisons for the dread lords. As amazing as that premise is... It's kinda of a bad setup for adventuring, since you'll always be shadowed by the dread lords. In fact, the Ravenloft plane is known to reject good aligned people and even neutral aligned people, too. But, if you are evil... It often keeps you. A dirty trick DMs have used to purge the annoying evil character out of a group: Planeshift the party to Ravenloft and have Ravenloft kick out everyone... except the evil character.
Listening to Garo suffering trying to do good in this hopeless place and failing every time is absolutely heartbreaking.
That's what Ravenloft does to you. But everyone once an while and with a lot of blood, sweat and tears. You can push back against the darkness and even force the dark powers to release you or another.
I swear I heqrd his voice breaking and crying during the church slaughter
I bet the church slaughter was a real powerful moment around the actual table.
I know right? this actually mad me feel quite sad indeed
@@zacharyhawley1693 It's just misery porn.
"Oh, so Fiona is an ally of Strahd."
Say it with me everyone...
I WAAAARRRRRRRNED YOU!
YES!!!!
THERE IS GREAT DAAAAAAAANGER
IIIIIIII WWWWAAAAAARRRRRRNNNNNEEEEDDD YYYYOOOUUUUU!!!!!!
I WAAAARNED YOU!
Another big youtuber? What is this a crossover episode?
I love how scenes of tragedy are bookended by a plan to literally crap on a formal dinner party and an argument about a PC's dump stat.
"No, not THAT kind of dump stat."
@@scytheseven9173 Ha! A charisma check would probably be required to make a proper job of crapping on a formal dinner setting.
@@nerag7459 That would probably be con to force the crap out
@@codedracticus3326 I dont want to bullshit you... we dont even have a minotaur in the party.
@@codedracticus3326 probably s mix of the two the charisma being lower
Strahd: "my Tatiana loves me so much, she didn't mean to yeet herself off the balcony full sprint."
You tell yourself a lie often enough, you'll sincerely come to believe it. And Strahd's had hundreds of years to lie to himself.
@@troodon1096 I mean yeah, that is 100% the truth. Dosen't make it any less funny or him any less stupid. Biggest simp vampire to ever un-live.
@Milan Marković clearly you dont understand the deep philosophy of simping. Strahd simps not just in his endless use of resources to spy on her, but in his inability to let her go. He has THREE vampire Whamen all pining for him as well as a male consort and let's be real, rahadine, probably after the vampire dick too. And he ignores all of it for one whamen who yeets herself off cliffs.
Clearly strahd is only pretending to be a man of culture, I mean what else do you expect from a guy who blots out the sun? Any man who rejects big daddy sunshine is just out of his mind.
@Milan Marković you madlad, I didn't even think of him! Haha!
@Milan Marković pfft, this joke is spiralling out of control at rapid pace
I feel like Boshek is literally the only one with the proper alignment for this campaign. I like to think his entire character goal is to see how Night Hag flesh tastes like, which explains why he hasn't just outright betrayed the group.
@A Better Tomorrow -- Not really imho. While he could easily get along with....most of the main NPC's in CoS, Boshek would probably fall under the Count's sway before to long if he was on his own. It's much more intresting to me to listen to Puffin's character trying to fight an almost daily battle of "lesser Evils", especially since he multiclassed into Cleric....
As a quick aside: you think he'll ever get to use "Brawn Velsing, Vampire Hunter"?
How _does_ one receive recipes from his dark lord? Am I correct to assume that he only has one arm because he gave the other one up to his dark lord (to eat)?
@D Sandoval -- i personally think he gave the arm up so he could gain his Warlock powers.
you can not be evil in the demiplane of dread (granted it has not developed into this in 5e yet. please wizards give us more ravenloft.) the more evil you do the more corrupted you get and the more of the dark powers attention you attract until you become an evil domain lord npc with your own demiplane or an evil working with the lord of your current domain npc character choice.
that's soooooo me!!
Garo to hags: "None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you... you're locked in here with me!"
Tincho
Boshack: “Also me.”
IM NOT TRAPPED IN A FACILITY FULL OF ROBOTS, YOUR ALL TRAPPED IN HERE WITH ME!
@@Marshadow01 *Pulls pin with religious intent*
I see you are a man of culture
The image of a lone cleric, standing in a war torn church, surrounded by ravenous vampire spawn tearing into victims, while Strahd’s bride simply stands and watches in amusement...the cleric still holds their weapons, but the grip is slack, the shoulders hunched, their own breathing is a mystery to them as the sound of screams fills the church like a choir
Welp...at least the Night Hags won't make pastry out of the kids.
Could you please write a dark fantasy novel. I will read it
Janna Montana as a struggling writer in the midst of doing just that I’ll let you know when it’s done. Thanks for the vote of confidence and I promise the final work will be better than this wee blurb I did for fun.
well written
Garo ran. Ran like never before. ,,No no no! Not them! Not now!“ He tried to run even faster, but stepped on a pile of blood, nearly falling to the ground. It couldn’t be. It shouldn’t be. It must not be! But he knew he was to late. They were to late. Why? Why did this happen? Why where they so stupid? Why...? Now innocents are dying. One by one. And it’s our foult.
"But since then I've figured out just how you do things in Borovia" is probably the most badass line I've heard from Puffin
Right? So cool but also painful and sad cos of what it represents.
The emo kid with the theronuclear telefailtation circle is the real hero... until he's reincarnated as pastry-fodder.
"Everyone knows intelligence is a dump stat"
That explains everything
I mean it's true in 5e. If you don't cast spells with int all it does is give you a slightly better bonus to the knowledge skills. And the extremely rare int save.
Hmmm that explains general human behaviour....oh, you meant in d&d!
E V E R Y T H I N G
@@Necrapocalypse It doesn't give you more skill points or languages?
@@whiterabbit75 Nope! I mean 5e doesn't even have skill points, but it doesn't give you more of the equivalent either.
And I believe the only way to learn new languages after character creation is by taking the Linguist feat. Or like, multiclassing into certain classes I suppose. Like druid.
As someone who has never played D&D I'm loving these long form vids way more than I thought I would.
I'm pretty sure half of us in Puffin's audience have never played DnD. His videos have REALLY got me wanting to play, though.
...I've got a Hexblade Pact Warlock character sheet ready to go and everything, but there's no one where I live who likes the game 😭
Well looks like half of you need to play dnd and if the dm has a little experience than do this module cause it is epic and never plays the same way twice
@@darkmoon2503 Great character choice, I have wanted to play that myself.
Many people are in a similar situation not near anyone who plays DnD. I recently found a website called Roll20 where you can play DnD online, and many people use it to stream the map and info, and you can speak through discord and such.
I like D&D but I can’t get games organised
@@nerosoul2506 I am sorry that dose suck keep trying it will happen
Is anyone gonna say anything about how much depression that puffins character is going through. How hard it is to be a hero that cant save people.
I would, but so many things have ruined the feeling I get from that with still have the hero win,
@@nerosoul2506 might I respectfully point out his malikar vid
it's mostly his fault so i have no sympathy.
@@jacobellinger8027 nah, this campaign is misery porn, that's all.
@@jacobellinger8027 Yeah seriously, it's the theme of this campaign which is "Everything is Grim. Nothing will be well." Also playing this one myself and I'm grinding my teeth to rally an army ( well, at least a few peasants that are insane enough) to attack Ravenloft with our group. Not an easy job with how down everyone is and also the defeat of Mordenkainen didn't help too.
Strahd is surprisingly reasonable and courteous for a vampiric, sociopathic, mass-murdering tyrant.
Some of the vamp stereotypes are like that. They keep their word, but if you cross them yer 200% dead. Sometimes, you are even more dead than that it depends on the universe.
A well done Lawful Evil character is never rude or unreasonable. I mean, that would be impolite. It's not just Strahd, Asmodeus is often depicted like this. Heck, it's rarely done, but even Hobgoblins are supposed to be polite, according to the books. It's just how Lawful Evil is. Politeness is a great way to demonstrate the methodical patience associated with that shade of evil.
Standard nobility.
Hell the module for him says he’s really respectable well mannered guy. But uh, depending on the tarot card thing you do. Strand could potentially kill you outright upon just seeing him if he knows you made contact with the van Helsing guy from the book or you draw tower/upside down death. I won’t say why, but one of your players better be a cleric or be rolling them nat 20s
Violet Vulpix
I mean people can still be scum sucking shit stains, but still reasonable
8:59: "Garo, your voice is getting drowned out by the shouting." The bloodthirsty crowd carries the baron and his wife away.
From off in the distance comes the eerie voice, "I waaaaaaarned youuuuu!"
Thaumaturgy saves lives.
This is better than when I played Curse of Strahd, and we went directly to Strahd and skipped all this cool shit.
How did the fight go?
I assume you played in one of the earlier editions? Those were pretty light on anything but Strahd's lair. This is more of a whole campaign that takes place with Strahd in the background as opposed to the original 36 (or some such) page module.
That sucks. Did the DM just frickin' railroad you, or what?
@@darkmoon2503 nah, before the módule had like 40 pages.
This Is actually a remake from Ravenloft
@@darkmoon2503 This was originally a module from 1st edition which was considered so brilliant that over time more material has been added and expanded upon for it. At this point in 5th it is an entire small campaign that starts at 3rd level and ends with what is pretty much the original adventure at around 10th level.
Strahd should hire this party. They bring misery and sorrow everywhere they go.
Weeeeell...technically he did since the letters asking for their aide comes from him and not the mayor like they thought. I think that counts. And since he can scry when his name is spoken he was able to watch all their antics with possible glee.
I mean he literally did. Hired them to oust a spy, which they absolutely did not
To horribly mangle a metaphor: The road to Ravenloft is paved with the corpses of good intentions.
That's what I'm getting from Curse Of Strahd. Basically, no good deed goes unpunished.
"Well that could have gone better..." EXACTLY HOW COULD IT GO WORSE?!
We managed to accidentally burn down another house when we got to this point.
I have the “highest” hopes for my players. Nothing has gone wrong YET
@@magicstyx Its Ravenloft. Give it time.
@@TheHolyPear I stand corrected.
@@TheHolyPear if I get any a chance I’m burning down everything
"Finally something to make me feel better during this awful crisis," I said to myself, before starting the video.
daeger oh boy did that back fire
@Demiclea yup, really dislike it as well. This whole module is misery porn and nothing else.
I like to imagine this is the cheery part of Boshack's biography. "Chapter 32: that time I had a barrel of laughs in Barovia". For someone with enough of a gallows humor the kids not being there at the end would've been a hilarious punchline.
Yeah I was pretty interested in the Curse of Strahd module but after watching these videos, I'll be honest, I'm never gonna play this. If I wanted to feel overpowered, hopeless, depressed and like nothing I do matters then real life has plenty of that without having to experience it in a game as well
@@sawspitfire422 it could also be just the GM. For my part, I grow frustrated the more videos of Strahd I watch but I also enjoy Puffin because he's swell. If he had fun, good for him: for my part, I'll keep watching just so I learn from the mistakes of the module or the other GM. XD
I wanna be~ the very BEST!
Its funny how he says how much he loves this one girl infront of his three other wives
(J.Jimeny christ!!! Thanks for the likes!!!)
Eh, it's been 300 years, they're used to his delusional abusive BS by now. And they have probably figured out that Tatyana is more of a fantasy than something they have to worry about.
@@halfmask3 Brides. Not wives.
Eh, they're his vampiric brides. Those don't have to be romantic brides as well
@@halfmask3 good point
They are clearly jealous of each other, so it could be something to leverage, if the cleric, warlock and apparently paladin had bothered to put points in charisma.
"And that's how we'll defeat... the curse of Strahd!"
-Roll Credits!
+2 sins...Didn't include a lap dance.
I mean you technically saved two werewolves from the dungeon. Sure they're not kids persay but two werewolf allies? Shit man I'd be like. "Yo let's figure out how to get me infected and see where this goes." Never know a 3rd werewolf might just be the trick to forming your own Trio De Danger
Get a werewolf trio together, then next level multiclass into the mexican wrestler class. You know you want Werewolf Luchadore Trio!
Garo: *exclusively asks Boshak to do the talking*
Krusk the Paladin and Gouda the Sorcerer: “Are we a joke to you?”
Btw, it was also probably for the best that Boshak is an Int Warlock, since it helps round out the party on all Mental stats, being Int, Wis, & Cha, while also rounding physical stats, with Krusk having good Str & Garo having good Dex.
Con?
Not sure you want Gouda being the parties speaker either, but notice the other players aren't stepping up to fill that role.
Never let Gouda speak.
To be fair, none of them would make very good party faces. Garo's charisma is his dump stat apparently, Gouda is a punmeister goody-two-shoes, Krusk is a paladin in Ravenloft ('nuff said), and Boshak... well, the less said about Boshak, the better. They are in desperate need of a bard, even if he _does_ try to sleep with everything.
@@whiterabbit75
I wonder how many bards have contracted a necrotic or undead VD in Barovia?
The Shinani-guys: have literally never done anything that actually helps
Everyone in berovia: I diagnose you with hero
I mean you did save children. You saved all of the future children they would have turned into pies.
Well the child hag escaped, and she would probally begin something resembling the bakery...
@@theisjepsen22 How long does it take to turn into a hag? Also even if she was a hag does that mean she had to be evil?
Me realizing this is the festival, I wonder how garo’s going to die this time
So we can assume the value of his life equals that of several other people, as when he doesn't die several other people do instead.
He's going to die inside.
At this point he will form a death singularity, from which no death can escape.
I really thought the warlock would take the Captain’s devil arm.
JP indeed
Right? I thought there was something about the Warlock being one armed in the beginning. I'm kind of surprised there wasn't at least any mention of him being interested in studying it.
Nom Nom
Damn. That ending made me just wanna hug poor Garo.
Last session when he was all like "oh we'll just recover the bones after the festival is over", yeah I'm a DM for this campaign. I knew exactly how that was going to end for them.
This was a roller coaster of emotions. And the ending I felt that.
What have we learned?
_Always have someone with high charisma do the talk,and never say no an invite from a vampire lord._
And they probably could of kicked the hags to bits sooner if they were not afraid to die on sight then.
should've sided(at least temporarily and conditionally of course) with Strahd, he actually seems reasonable in this version of the story, at least as reasonable as someone like this could be, but given everything he's been through after all this time.... this way they wouldn't need to go at it alone, get some loyalty points with him as well, they could've let him deal with them but for some measure of trust, (and to get some XP* as players too of course), should've offered to deal with them "on his behalf," for state security and solidarity, future prosperity, such business as usual.., just with some extra muscle from his side to assist, this whole story would've went entirely different, instead of having to wage a war on all fronts like this, in the end antagonizing almost everyone and essentially disappointing everyone else... how could they not see this! such total "do-gooders..." ...well, discounting Boshack of course, he's my favourite, of course... him and Gouda :)
As far as the hags go, having a plan to keep them from going immaterial was required before fighting them. Without that they stood no chance.
@@alexanderzhmurov9624 you don't want to be under a vampire lords sway, it's really a fucking poor idea
@@FoxHound-ut1hu but it's also never a good idea to take on an opponent clearly superior in force(s), straight on without strategy, and appeasement is a strategy that works with people motivated by fear of a personal loss...(at least until other measures can be taken, be that drastic or not...)
...appeasement or even a temporary unification as the case may be...
@@WildBluntHickok I wasn't aware of such measures as even a possibility, hags want something I've covered before...only glanced at briefly before
"Take a shit on everything. And that's how we'll defeat the curse of strahd!"
My speakers turned off at this moment, but it was so perfect I thought there was just this really long awkward pause as the other players reacted with disbelief to the plan. Then it went on for too long. Ben would have said something like 'not buying it huh?' by now. Then I noticed my speakers were off. It was really good timing and made it funnier.
listening to this story, Im like "hello darkness my old freind"
I was thinking "Hotel California"
ON THIS EPISODE WE HAVE
Depression
Really. That's it.
Don't forget about the dumping on tables! And the murder!
Welcome to the curse of strahd
@@DeathandBeeZ *gets out a marker and crosses out 'Curse of Strahd' and writes in 'Ravenloft'*
That's more like it. There is NOTHING good which happens in Ravenloft, which sticks for long. That's just how it is...
Well, depression and vengeance
At least this episode has vengeance
It's really good to see how much more fleshed out the bride's of strahd are in your game, in the book they're a single encounter in the tomb. Big well done to your dm for putting in the extra work.
Breaking News: Local lizard cannibal, tree pope, eye girl and orc paladin ruthlessly slaughter 2 innocent old ladies (and one little girl)
who just wanted to sell perfectly normal pastries.
LoL
*3 Old Ladies
FAKE NEWS!
It was three little old ladies.
And you didn't even mention that they were self employed small business owners working in the children's food industry! "Pastries children dream of." - 3 Sisters Children's Bakery
And the little girl escaped
@@safetytheflamewolf the covenant was missing a Hag, the girl was to replace her
Next at 9, the new season of “Real Housewives of Barovia”
Some of those scenes... your voice and tone really did voice how emotional they really were... It must have been heartrending being there as the scenes were happening. But those kinds of things can really stick to you as amazing highlights of your RPing experience.
Thank you Puffin Forest for sharing them with us.
My dad and me watch your videos and we laughed when your campaign knocked over the obelisk
Pretty sure you're in the wrong video
@@bloodygecko2577 definitely is
Yeah it is a wrong video, but Ben probally doesn't check the comments of the old videos.
But it is nice that you got something to do with your dad
Poor Garo... one day you will save someone... that day will not be today, tomorrow, or the day after ^_^
But one day, one day.
and it's going to be someone you don't even like. Some selfish NE thief who robs you, only to escape into a squad of ghosts and skeletons, who you defeat, but not because you wanted to save the thief.
Mr. Krabs: or the next day, or the next day, or the next day, or the next day......
I’m sure someone already make this joke, but
Back in Borovia
I was in a very famous adventuring party
I'm Boshack the lizard (Boshack)
Boshack the lizardman
Don't act like you don't know
And I'm trying to find some meat to eat
It's been so long
I don't think I'm gonna last
I guess I'll just try
And make you understand
That I'm more lizard than a man
Or I'm more man than a lizard
Boshack!
I need to finish that series but after binging back in season 3 I'm scared to watch more. Shit sent me into a month long depressive spiral.
Alpha Hollow yes
You're a true hero.
I'm in r/whoooosh mode here. Help me out.
@@ArgzeroYT bojack horseman the netflix original.
Garo's character development is amazing! Plus, this campaign accurately portrays the Ravenloft setting. Pyrrhic victories and outright suffering. Very Ravenloft.
You always have to be thinking in the long term, and get your victories when you can.
This might be the most depressing campaign I've ever seen, including ones that ended in TPKs. Great storytelling. Also, saying that Lawful Good characters can never lie is a bit too restrictive. Clearly they will sometimes have to in order to defeat evildoers. .
only the paladin oath that forbids lying has that, so most Paladins can lie
@@bdp4That's interesting. I see even the oaths as ideals which they are motivated to strive for but nobody is perfect and sometimes they will be faced with choices that make adhering to all of the tenets impossible. The roleplay of what they do to repent once they break part of their oath is so rich in potential.
i think the point is less whether he is allowed to lie or not, and more how murphy's law has started breaking his character's spirit. died once, and anyone he tries to save ends up getting stamped with the mark of death. Everyone who seems to be a decent person turns into a "great evil" and those who seem evil are doing it for the right reasons. He is lawful good, but his character no longer can identify himself as such, and when it comes to a magic relic judging alignment, your own mindset does have some degree of influence into whether or not the character can or is willing to use it. Morality is almost entirely mental. The collective social consciousness just determines how much friction your ideals of morality will cause.
@@cullenlatham2366 There's no question this is one mind breaking experience. If the campaign were still going on I'd be worried about the mental health of the players. Thank goodness for Gouda's jokes to at least lighten the mood some.
Gouda: "Fire! Fire!"
Crowd: "That's right!"
Pro DMing right there!
Thanks, this came out just in time before work and it's a real morale booster. Been looking forward to this episode! Thanks so much! :D
Morale booster? Clearly you didn’t listen to the whole episode lol
That depends entirely upon where they work in an "essential role."
Me, I'm a correctional officer and former soldier, volunteered for both jobs so I know I'm messed up.
Jeez dude, is this supposed to be this dark, dont get me wrong I'm totally here for this but DAYUM
Llama Bing curse of straad Is a notoriously dark campaign.
@@Geckoey2 yknow I kinda guessed that, cos it was that or puffin really needs to chat to the FBI about any unknown serial killer cases and suggest his DM for ALL of them
Welcome to Ravenloft, also know as the Demiplane of Dread, a campaign setting of Gothic Horror. This dark and darker..
@@JGT42 With the 5e Curse of Strahd being infamously darker than the older modules to boot.
In my run of CoS as a player, my DM took the "Lady Wachter makes no secret that she's a servant of Strahd" as "Let me tell the party that I work for Strahd with literally no prompting." This was *so* much better.
That sounds like a really dumb introduction.
"Why yes, I am an ally to the inhuman tyrant you seek to kill. So, how about you help me in couping one of the few authorities opposed to Strahd?"
I thought this would be a morale boost for me ooh boy I was wrong! Everything went horrible holy shit
I'm in love with how rough it is for the PCs in this game. It will make the retribution at the end so epic. I especially liked how killing the hags was supposed to be that moment when the characters break through and finally take a stand against the evil. Instead, it amounted to nothing except more motivation to save Barovia. I say this, on the condition that the players don't get burnout from never having a victory, that is.
God DAMN man, this seems like the worst kinda playthrough for lawful/good heroic players. I mean, personally I would love to play a paladin having his ethics, morals, and values constantly whittled away in this land of evil, but this has to be so punishing for Garoh.
Also, thank you for getting this series out so quickly during this hard time. It's hard to follow sometimes cause I like to have visuals with the stories, so if you plan to go back and animate this I look forward to that as well.
I'd also love a Chaotic Good character, after learning 'All souls that die here, are resurrected into new bodies', and just being like 'Well. I mean, they died. That sucks... They'll be back though'
This is essentially what happened to my life cleric when we played CoS
I was literally thinking, "Damn Puffin Forest you need to post, the quarantine is making me so bored."
And then you posted, am I a witch?
Borovian Commoners: *BURN THE WITCH!*
Dunno, do you float or sink?
Do you weigh as much as a duck?
Who are you? How are you so wise in the ways of science?
can u wish to bring fusionfall retro back
The funny thing about truesight is that I don't think you know if people are "supposed" to be invisible, since you don't see illusions. This cluld actually be a way to trick somebody - using illusions, which they can't see, to communicate, or something.
holy mother of strahd! I can't believe it! a new puffin forest video! what a stupendous day this has become. and WHAT a video indeed 3/4 of an hour HOOOOOOBOYYYYYY
post video edit: what a great story, omg I'm so sad
I have played and read the module before, but never really understood how the bleak environment of the world of bavoria is--overwhelming, each character can do so little, and sees so much suffering...this really nailed it--please keep posting!
Every sixty seconds in Barovia, a child dies or goes missing.
3. Take it or leave it
Every 60 seconds in Africa a minute passes
Absolutely loved this episode. Drama, action, bloodshed all perfectly played out with tension cut by comical meta-talk.
I only wish more groups could play like this
I love these man. I listen to it at night before bed and it helps me sleep
As much as I LOVE the shorts and other vids, these story telling longer vids are incredible. Thank you so much for the content you create and please continue to do so!
"You couldn't save Lois, or Jason, or ANYONE!"
“This episode of Desperate Housewives, Barovia Edition!”
I sincerely give credit to this dm for accomplishing these 3 things:
1. Adapting a great story to reflect their own creativity, implementing things they loved.
2. Making the story about the players.
3. Making the setting about the NPCs. Setting them loose in Ravenloft to investigate, rather than running it straight as a dungeon, is interesting. But what really sells this campaigns’ story is the clear objectives & feelings of the NPCs. The brides make Ravenloft. The NPCs make the world.
I gotta say, your DM seems to like putting y'all in scenarios where you are utterly powerless, used for evil, and have no real positive effect. Can't say I'm a fan.
Don't get me wrong, though. This episode got me REALLY emotionally involved in the story.
Hamza Ali It's an option. The spirits are trapped in Borovia. It's something to talk to your players about before the the game. It doesn't sound like the gm did for this, though.
Yeah, I’m not going to lie I would have walked away from the table at this point and just left the campaign. I really don’t like this style of running Ravenloft. But watching this does make me appreciate my own DMs work in my groups campaign, it was tough and dark at times but he always made us feel like heroes fighting out way through the evil of Barovia and making the place just a little bit better.
Just a clarification on my comment, in the talk through episode, they say the GM did talk to them about the death options beforehand. They had the res option or the option of starting a new character.
I think it's perfect. Perfectly on point for the tone of Curse of Strahd.
A lot of this could have been avoided with more investigation and as they get stronger they will likely get some victories.
Problem is it feels more like a punishment for getting overwhelmed by all the front loaded quests than a story consequence to me. Like "psych, that one quest you put off for a single dang night, that one was the time sensitive one, sorry, your lack of psychic abilities means everyone dies!" It was great for the emotional impact, but I hate being punished for time management rather than active decisions in a game. If the quests have deadlines don't give them to the players all at once! As a player I would have been really pissed about that. In real life I have to juggle deadlines and executive skills- in a game give me a break!
Maybe if it were because Fiona let them in I would have found it more logical- that was an active mistake - but the invitation that didn't state a time or date plus the bones quest? Those felt like screw jobs, or at least would have to me as a player.
This episode definitely cemented "awesome but waaay too depressing for me" as my opinion on Curse of Strahd as a module.
Damn, the voice acting is so good. The shake in his voice when he's praying for the priest is so genuine.
The INT Warlock exchange is my fav part of this whole thing lol. I would totally do that as well.
His description of crapping on strahd and then how they should do it caught me off guard so well i fell out of my chair laughing
It’s so silly, but I’ve I gone over the part about Garo describing his “plan” to beat the curse of Strahd several times and it still brings me to tears from laughing so much.
"Make them hang"
"What? No!!" KILLED ME
Although it has been years since I’ve played dnd I played A and 3.5. I look forward to these installments every time I get a notification. Thanks for the entertainment during the lockdown great content great storytelling A+
As I'll likely never get a chance to play this I'm really glad you're posting these vids.
Has that changed since this comment?
@@Arcticmaster1190 No it has not.
@@aspektx Sorry to hear. I do understand- tried to look for a CoS game for the last three weeks under my availability times and no one seems to be running one. Now I’m just prepping to DM a game, with some inspirational ideas from this series.
Oh crap Puffin, This was intense and I feel so bad for Garo! :'(
Blood. These vids are making working from home bearable. Your charming drawing and storytelling makes these damn spreadsheets not so terrible!!
I love the story. Never actually played or run this module but i have the pdf and these videos make me want to run it as it seems to be an amazing adventure.
I love the voices, especially the Strahd one. It makes all the tale really awesome
IDK man, session after session of "there's nothing we can do" would probably put me off this adventure pretty damn quick.
I'm not going to spoil stuff about this campaign but almost every instance of horrible stuff happening (including the ones in this episode) is preventable.
Peter Bychkov preventable, but difficult. Worthy of note is that they did save the vallaki girl from drowning. That being said, during the early part of the game, trying to save anyone via combat is almost always going to result in someone dying.
I once played a runaway Princess in Curse of Strahd. She was from "the river kingdoms" which is basically not-japan, because I'm a total weeb. Also of note, she loved children, and would often come to the orphanage in her kingdom to read stories to the orphans there. She was a Barbarian/Paladin of Hanspur, a chaotic neutral God of Water, Travel, and Murder. Her alignment was Chaotic Good, just one step away from her God, but she was a sociopathic serial killer. Interestingly, her only victims were other serial killers. Basically, she played like Jason Voorhees with Dexter's mindset, complete with a porcelain mask reminiscent of Michael Myers.
When we got to the windmill, we did something similar to Puffin's party to deal with the hags, and our spellcaster manage to trap the hags on the material plane. But unlike Puffin's party, we managed to save the children before they were turned into pastries. As for Gertrude, she was already a hag. We played with a murderhobo in the party, and he wanted to kill the child for the XP. I told him "If you try to interfere, I'll kill you." My character delivered this ultimatum with her mask on, and in a cold, emotionless tone. The murderhobo, a level 2/2 fighter/rogue at half HP and a used action surge wasn't sure he could take a level 3/2 Barbarian/Paladin with a full pool of Lay on Hands and one Rage left, so he quietly sidelined himself.
I talked to Gertrude, and explained her situation. She seemed to understand that she was a monster now, and couldn't return to her family. I then told her that I was just like her. That in the future, she would have urges to kill, and would want, no, *need* to slaughter people. I told her that I would show her how to live with herself, that by devoting herself to a better cause, that she could use her powers not as a curse, but as a blessing. She would be a hag, there was no preventing that. But she didn't have to kill innocent people. I took her in, under the intention of making her another avenger, just like I was. I like to think, if our group didn't break up, I would have succeeded, and we'd have a hag running about, killing the guilty, and bringing joy to children, instead of the opposite.
Such is always the dilemma with Hag Gertruda. The question that always leans on the party’s mind is the essence of the prisoner dilemma- can Gertruda be “redeemed”, despite the fact that there’s no “human” form for her? Is her destiny fated to killing people? Or is it just safer to kill her now before she has the chance to reveal whether her fate is set in stone?
I also use Hag Gertruda in my games. Partially due to the intrigue I think it causes, especially when engaging with those like Ezmerelda or Van Ricten who have zero chill for Gertruda once they find out she’s a Hag (like zero chill to the point of needing a dirty or nat 20 to get them to back off). I definitely would have seen that as something that you guys would have strived for and welcomed an ending like that for Gertruda. Though I also would have had Strahd take notice too.
I love this series! I cant wait to see you do these for other campaigns
I love this playthrough of Curse of Strahd! Your stories are always so great to listen to
Excellent! Been waiting for a new episode in this series! Great episode Ben!
Wow, that was one of the best episodes so far. The story telling really was great, I can imagine myself struggling in these situations. Wanting to help people, but in the end being forced to realize that your(basically) as helpless as the people your trying to save.
Ah, another exciting episode of "Man this campaign sounds way too depressing for me to actually play"
This was soooo different from our Strahd campaign. Very interesting, creative ways to move the party. Must have had a solid DM.
"EVERYONE KNOWS INTELLIGENCE IS A DUMP STAT!!!" loll
This went so differently than my campaign. We thought we were messing everything up but this makes us look like pros!
Just as a note, I really love this format and content.
I was feeling shit, but your videos always make my day happy, thank you so much for doing this.
Much love from Brazil.
Man with quarantine i havent been able to play any dnd, and these videos make me want to play curse of strahd so bad
Hope you mean you want to DM it. Listening to these and then being a player in this campaign would be lame both for you and for the other players at the table.
Did not expect to cry as much as I did during this video. Awesome series dude, keep it up.
I LOVE these full length story segments kinda make me think of
All Things D&D but with more comedy.
And makes me happier than hearing how the majority of that coven was done away with.
Also, I don't agree with that final statement.
You guys DID save who knows how many more future victims from the coven.
Ben you wanted to keep us waiting!
This story is GREAT.
Please we want more of Strahd!
Thanks for all your work!
The suffering and pain in this part just broke my heart.
The GM for this game really ties all the actors together perfectly. I'm impressed.
I see you guys are the "Failure Hero" trope
I really love this format for your stories Ben. Great job. I think these kinds of videos get more interest in DND
I like it when you have to stay home. The rest of us get great videos.
I love these longer videos. Now that you are not skipping any part of the story I can see it play out, I can try to guess what the characters will do next and imagine what I would do in their place
Honestly; it was his ethereal ability and legendary actions that near drove me out of my little evocation gnome mind.
That moment with Ludmilla saying “oh, maybe a little…” is sooo good! I hope I’m able to use this in my game!
Yeah, the last time I played this module... We got really lucky and were able to carefully work everything near perfectly. But damn... I will never play this module again, and I just don't care to ever go to Ravenloft again. It's great lore and an interesting story on the outside, but fucking draining and annoying to play. If things don't go perfectly, it just falls apart and you just don't accomplish anything worthwhile. Soon... You just stop caring about the whole place, and start trying to figure out how to end the module as soon as possible so your DM will pick something else to run.
Seriously, if Vastanti and mists in a forest start happening in any future campaign I play... I will play out that night's session, but I WON'T be coming back for next one. I play Tabletop RPGs to ESCAPE existential hopelessness... NOT to wallow in it. Ravenloft place exemplifies absolute pointlessness. Even if you kill Strahd and free the land of the curse... Most the people are at best evil tinged neutral, the place is packed with the worst things around, and the "Powers That Be" of Ravenloft will just eventually undo your work as they aren't going to let Strahd escape even in death. I put this module on the same level as the Deck of Many things on the "Campaign Killer" scale. You introduce and it will destroy whatever campaign you had going.
So yeah... Our group did really well with everything and it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. There were fun moments and triumphs, but overall a draining experience... That left me really debating if I wanted to continue after the first character death.
Lakstoties
I can agree. Great premise, not great for a campaign would be a good book though.
@@DrMDHyde Definitely agree. Even a collection of mini-series would be really neat to see. Ravenloft in 2nd edition launched into a whole plane of existence, where you have all these different dread lords kept locked in by the Dark Powers. A whole plane of existence designed to keep the dread lords in eternal torment, and sealed away from the rest of the multi-verse upon continents that serve as prisons for the dread lords. As amazing as that premise is... It's kinda of a bad setup for adventuring, since you'll always be shadowed by the dread lords. In fact, the Ravenloft plane is known to reject good aligned people and even neutral aligned people, too. But, if you are evil... It often keeps you. A dirty trick DMs have used to purge the annoying evil character out of a group: Planeshift the party to Ravenloft and have Ravenloft kick out everyone... except the evil character.
Damn, strahd has unmeasured elegance, mannerisms and calmness that makes me want to help him, damn, him and dio, the charm of vampires
I have been watching my notifications for a week for this! 😍👏👏
I’m really enjoying this style of story telling.
"You don't want to play your Ace in the hole on turn one."
Hey Puffin. Don't you mean your "Ace out of the hole"? Eh? Eh?!
....
I'll see myself out.
Dude these are such good videos, really hope you keep this style! You've inspired me to run a Strahd game of my own dude