The fog swirled thick and ominous within the catacombs of Castle Ravenloft as Elora, Maledurk, Thorn, and Tempest faced the dread vampire lord Strahd von Zarovich in his lair. Bats swarmed in the shadows and Elora’s own shadow rose up against her, animated by Strahd’s dark magic. With a mighty spell, Tempest unleashed power that decimated the bats but aged her 18 years in an instant. Thorn cast a Wall of Force to trap Strahd and prevent his escape, then Maledurk finished the monster with a final slash from the Sunsword.

In an instant, the fog rushed into a coffin at the center of the room and the lid slammed shut, Strahd seemingly disappearing within it. Cautiously, the heroes approached and opened the coffin to find Strahd lying inside, eyes closed as if in slumber. Elora held a wooden stake poised over the vampire’s heart while Tempest brought a hammer down, driving it deep. Strahd’s eyes flew open in shock as his form crumbled to dust.

Suddenly, the very foundations of Castle Ravenloft began to quake. Walls cracked and crumbled around them as they seized the coffin and raced for an exit. A portcullis gate crashed down, shattering the coffin and scattering Strahd’s ashes. Gathering what handfuls of dust and splinters of wood they could, the party debated their escape through collapsing crypts. Debris rained down upon them, a chunk of ceiling striking Thorn and spurring the group to make haste.

They reached a stained glass window, a potential exit, but beyond the window, a dizzying drop of two hundred feet awaited them, the ground below trembling as pieces of the castle walls plummeted and crashed. The sky churned with unnatural fog and eerie, multi-hued lightning. In the distance, the town of Barovia seemed to fade, as if the very fabric of its reality was unraveling.

With time running short, Maladurk tossed the splintered wood out the window, watching it smash to pieces far below, then tied a rope to the frame and dropped it out the window. Thorn cast fly on himself and flew out, prepared to help his allies should they struggle with their climb. Malledurk was the first to make the descent only to find the rope twenty feet short of the ground. Undeterred, he made a daring leap from bottom of the rope, landing with practiced agility.

Elora descended next, cautiously making her way down the rope. Halfway through her climb, a massive chunk of the wall above broke free, hurtling towards her. In a moment of desperation, she called upon her druidic powers, taking the form of a tiny, swift bird. She darted away just as the stone crashed into the cliff face.

Already starting her descent, Tempest’s laughter at Elora’s narrow escape echoed off the crumbling walls causing her to lose concentration and fall. Only Thorn’s quick thinking, casting Feather Fall shortly before she reached the ground, prevented disaster.

The group, now reunited at the base of the cliff, witnessed the full extent of the castle’s collapse and the strange, encroaching wall of fog that consumed the land. They found horses with flaming hooves awaiting them, perhaps the same ones that they had mysteriously found themselves riding when they magically arrived in this cursed land. Thorn and Maledurk quickly mounted up and raced down the road, undisturbed by the eerie coincidence. Tempest, trusting nothing in this land, summoned a giant weasel to carry her. Elora, still in her avian form, took to the sky after them. As they raced eastward along the road, the village of Barovia crumbled and faded behind them, the fog at their heels taking on the terrifying visage of Strahd himself. They reached the towering gate that marked the entrance to this accursed land, but found it sealed shut. Elora, reverting to her elven form, cast Dispel Magic, shattering the powerful enchantment. The gate swung open with a sound like cracking stone, and the fog recoiled as if in pain.

The adventurers charged through the gate, Elora taking to horseback as Strahd’s fog surged forward, threatening to engulf them. Ahead, they saw the thick mists they had originally emerged from when entering Barovia. With no other choice, they spurred their mounts onward, hoping that passing through this veil would return them to the world they knew. Maladurk, distracted by the pursuing fog, nearly lost control of his horse. With a menacing growl, he threatened to turn the beast into glue, spurring it forward into the dense mist. The fog grew thicker, obscuring sight in all directions, and the visage of Strahd faded behind them.

Into the unknown they rode, the fate of Barovia and their own destinies hanging in the balance. The mists swallowed them, leaving only questions and the echoes of their galloping mounts in their wake.

Notes
  • The session starts with some technical difficulties and casual conversation between the players about the weather and snow.
  • The GM recaps the previous session - the party had fought zombie brides in Castle Ravenloft and encountered Strahd von Zarovich. Strahd knocked out Tempest and Emil, but Elora healed them. Maledurk used the Sun Sword which seemed to hurt Strahd and prevent him from healing. Swarms of bats attacked and Elora’s shadow rose up against her. Thorne cast Wall of Force to block the exits so Strahd couldn’t escape.
  • On Tempest’s turn, she uses a spell that hits everyone in the room except those she chooses to protect. She ages 18 years in the process. The bats seem to be killed but Strahd is still moving around.
  • Emil the werewolf tries to attack Strahd in the fog but misses. Elora’s shadow attacks her but misses due to her good armor.
  • On Maledurk’s turn, he moves to where he thinks Strahd is based on hearing him and hits with the Sun Sword, making Strahd cry out.
  • The fog then rushes into the coffin in the room and the lid shuts, with Strahd seemingly disappearing inside it.
  • The players discuss options like using garlic or holy water against Strahd. They consider opening the coffin to see if he’s inside.
  • Thorne confirms his Wall of Force is still up so Strahd couldn’t have escaped that way, though teleportation magic may be possible.
  • The players make perception/investigation checks to try to determine if Strahd is still in the room somewhere, possibly invisible.
  • The party investigates the room after Strahd disappeared. They don’t find any invisible creatures or signs of Strahd still being present.
  • They consider possibilities of what happened to Strahd - he turned to dust upon death, got sucked into the coffin with the fog, or teleported away with powerful magic.
  • They decide to open the coffin lid. Inside, they find Strahd lying there with his eyes closed.
  • Elora holds a sharpened wooden stake to Strahd’s heart while Tempest swings a hammer, driving the stake through with little resistance.
  • Strahd’s eyes open in shock and his body crumbles to dust, leaving just a layer of dirt and his clothing in the coffin.
  • They debate leaving the Sun Sword in the coffin to prevent Strahd from reforming. Elora stirs the ashes with the sword.
  • The ground starts rumbling and shaking. Pieces of the castle walls chip and fall. The shaking intensifies.
  • They decide to take the coffin outside. As they rush up the stairs, the portcullis gate crashes down, splitting the coffin in half. Dust goes everywhere.
  • The quarter staff stake is destroyed. They debate trying to gather the dust into a container but the castle is collapsing around them.
  • They ultimately decide to just grab handfuls of dust and the broken coffin pieces and rush to find an exit before the castle caves in on them.
  • They consider options - going back up to the ground floor and out the front or breaking a stained glass window in the catacombs to escape, though it would open to a cliff.
  • The wall of a nearby crypt collapses, nearly hitting them. They need to make a quick decision on which way to flee the crumbling castle.
  • The party is discussing their three options for escaping the collapsing castle - going back to the front door, checking the window to see if they can repel down the cliff, or having Thorn fly and carry them down one at a time.
  • As they debate, part of the ceiling collapses, hitting Thorn and dealing 5 damage. This spurs them to make a decision.
  • They choose to go to the window. There is an energy field blocking it, but Thorn uses Wall of Force to block the beams, allowing them to reach the window. This uses Thorn’s last 5th level spell slot.
  • Looking out the stained glass window, they see they are about 200 feet up the cliff face. The sky outside is filled with rapidly swirling fog and multi-colored lightning. The town below looks ethereal, as if fading away.
  • Chunks of the castle wall are falling past the window and hitting the shaking ground below with heavy thuds.
  • Thorn can only fly one person down at a time. The party has 150 feet of rope total to repel down, leaving a 10-50 foot drop at the bottom.
  • They decide to have Thorn fly Maladuric and half of Strahd’s coffin down first. Maladuric tosses the coffin out the window and it smashes to pieces below.
  • Maladuric climbs down the rope and makes an acrobatics check to drop the last 20 feet, landing safely. On the ground, the church in the distance appears to be both physically collapsing and fading in substance. The town is too far to see people, but no screams are heard, only the whinnying of nearby horses.
  • Back at the window, the party realizes Maladuric has disappeared, leaving the other half of the coffin behind.
  • Elora climbs down next, going slowly. Halfway down, a piece of the wall above falls towards her. She suddenly remembers her druid ability to Wild Shape.
  • Elora decides to turn into a tiny, fast bird to avoid the falling rocks and fly the rest of the way down.
  • The adventurers are fleeing from the collapsing Castle Ravenloft and the surrounding area. A wall is falling towards Elora, but she transforms into a bird at the last moment to avoid being crushed.
  • Tempest laughs hysterically at Elora’s close call. Elora questions why her shield of protection, cloak of protection, and ring of protection didn’t save her from the falling wall. Tempest explains they protect against attacks, not environmental hazards.
  • The party sees the castle and surrounding cliffs and hills collapsing. A wall of clouds and fog is rolling in from the west, and reality seems to be falling apart around them.
  • They find four horses with flaming hooves, similar to the ones they rode in on. Thorn mounts a horse, Elora flies as a bird, Tempest rides a weasel summoned from her Bag of Tricks, and Maladurk takes a horse. The two riderless horses follow them.
  • As they flee east along the road they entered on, they see the church and village of Barovia collapsing and fading from existence. The fog chasing them from the west seems to be forming Strahd’s face, consuming the countryside.
  • Elora, as a bird, is able to keep pace with the galloping horses for now. The party is unsure how far they must go to escape since they entered Barovia by riding through fog rather than a clear entrance.
  • They reach the giant gate they passed when first entering Barovia. The gate is closed and won’t open. Thorn flies over as a bird but can’t open it from the other side. The fog with Strahd’s face is rapidly approaching.
  • Elora reverts to elf form and casts Dispel Magic on the gate. She succeeds in breaking the powerful enchantment, and the gate swings open with a sound like shattering stone. The fog seems pained by this.
  • The party rides through the gate, Elora reluctantly mounting an evil-looking horse instead of slowing Tempest’s weasel. The fog consumes the gate behind them as they race onwards.
  • Ahead, they see the thick fog they originally rode out of. With Strahd’s fog chasing them, they charge forward into the fog, hoping to emerge riding their dinosaurs as they were before entering Barovia.
  • The adventurers are approaching a fog and need to make checks to urge their mounts forward. Tempest’s weasel, Elora’s horse, and Thorn’s horse move through after some encouragement.
  • Maladurk is distracted looking over his shoulder and doesn’t notice his horse slowing down at first. When he tries to kick it to move, it doesn’t respond.
  • Maladurk sees the fog coming behind him and his friends starting to disappear ahead into the fog. He threatens to turn the horse into glue if it doesn’t run, making an intimidation check. The horse responds to the threat and takes off into the fog.
  • The fog becomes very dense, obscuring vision both ahead and behind. The face of Strahd is no longer visible behind them.
  • The session ends on a cliffhanger as the adventurers rush into the thick fog. The DM needs to start cooking for a gathering at 5:30 PM.
  • There is some out-of-character discussion about bringing dogs to the gathering and the potential chaos that could ensue. The dogs may meet in the front yard to see how they interact.