During Strahd's attack on Saint Andral's Church, the Baron kills Father Damien while the latter's family and Stella Wachter teleport to Saint Markovia's Abbey, whose abbot is conducting genetic engineering experiments, whose usually armored subjects are sometimes Sorrowsworn, nightwalkers, shadowdragons, flesh golems and lots of chimeras. My female half elf wizard companion escorts the party to Krezk's burgomeister as I, a noble born dhampir ranger, secure a safe route. As the weeks progress, the Baron has allowed the Vallakians to do as they wish in the name of unbridled happiness. Furthermore, the Vistani bring scores of bandits, criminals, swindlers, gamblers, sadists, rowdy mercenaries, and other unsavoury people as well supply caravans on a monthly basis to Vallaki, which turns into a cesspool of debauchery and cruelty although the Baron and Lady Fiona Wachter are at war, whose battles usually take place near Brez, Barovia, and Vallaki. Berez has become the home for a black dragon in order to counter the profound aura of Argynvost's lawful good. The Vallakians barter in addition to using currency, which uses coins that bear the Baron's wide smile with the caption of "Do as thou will shall be the law and the law is love." The parts of people, plants, animals and monsters arw highly valued as trophies and alchemical ingredients as well as weapons. Bones can be used for broth and weapons; hair can be used to make glue and fletches; horns can be used for translucent panels; muscle tissue can be ingested; fat can be used to make oil and soap; hides can be used for textiles; and sinew can be used for strings. Lady Wachter tends to use undead minions as her soldiers to harass the Vallakians, who tend to turn on each other gleefully over petty reasons, in order to conserve her living followers, whose numbers increase and decrease at similar rates as those of the Baron. Izek is a sadistic psychopath who acts as the Baron's enforcer and bodyguard whose imposing size, brute strength, pyromancy, and countless acts of sadism on animals and disrespectful people keeps the Vallakians in a state of mortal trepidation. Izek is over 8 feet tall and nearly 600 pounds of lean muscle and is only dispatched in battle to contend with dangerous adversaries such as Sorrowsworn, large chimeras, fleders, garkains, alghouls, graviers, cemataurs, werewolves, giant mutants, giant spiders and other such adversaries. He wears 3 inch thick spiked plate armor with black wyvern hide covering and his enchanted all-metal battle axe is 8 feet tall, weighs nearly 200 pounds and has a 3 inch thick shaft that burns unworthy users. The dull axehead alone weighs 150 pounds and is coated with pain oil so that its sadistic user can revel in its use although he prefers to use his hands, fire and unmagical tools to prolong his sadistic pleasures.
The Abbot is using the abbey as a biochemical lab to create monsters as well as to contain and experiment on Sorrowsworn for Strahd. This is really bad indeed. Victor, Stella, and the Vallaki Baroness teleported here with us here from Saint Andral's Church during Strahd's attack as the Baron murdered Father Damien. I use my natural abilities as a dhampir to carry the refugees over the abbey's walls as my female half elf wizard companion acts as a rear guard, who is the last member of our party to be carried down before we escort the refugees to Krezk in order to report to its burgomeister, who reports to us about the events in Krezk during a dinner of multiple stews and pastries which we gladly partake in, considering our severe battle fatigue, which has led to us not sleeping for at least 48 hours in addition to fighting Izek, vampire spawn, fleders, garkains, zombies, skeletons, barghests, and Wachterites. In a frw minutes, we quickly consume 24 eggs, 20 pounds of meat, 12 loaves of buttered brown bread, 2 pounds of smoked cheese, 8 honey glazed pies, 5 pounds of carrots, 5 pounds of turnips, 5 pounds of celery, and a gallon of spruce needle beer. The fact that none of us froze to death after teleporting to the Abby is a miracle in of itself as the only cold weather provisions that we brought are some blankets and some flints. We have no problem in falling asleep instantly upon lying under furs in beds of straw and logs as the roaring fires die down. We agree that the rest of the party will stay in Krezk as my companion and I investigate the abbey. The winds are too cold and strong for flying; so I have to use my spidercrawl to carry her over the walls from unguarded areas, which are many, considering that the guard consists of a flesh golem, which we try to avoid encountering in order to retain secrecy. However, the abbey also has rabbidevils, the hungry, the last, the angry, boneclaws, armored mutants and armored chimeras for Strahd's war efforts. The mongrelfolk quickly learn to trust my companion and me as we show them little to no aggression in place of genuine compassion, which is enhanced by some minor illusions, giving miscellaneous objects such as small flutes and healing their wounded. Of course, I can turn myself into mist and various animals in order to minimize the chances of being discovered and failing my mission. In the ruined hospital, we have very vivid visions of its chaotic services during the war with Strahd and in the library, I quickly subdue and interrogate Esmeralda, who agrees to work with us and act as our spy among the Vistani. We avoid using artificial light in order to retain our cover.
hoenstly, this sounds so good, slightly happy which is what i'm going for in this part of my campaign. that false happiness of people wearing masks of happiness everywhere
18:00 The flute! The Magic Flute! The moment you mentioned an easter egg relating to Werewolf's Den I've been anxiously waiting for the flute to play. I loved this detail from the book so much that I made the flute a magical item in my game :D
I finished running Curse of Strahd a few months ago, and my one regret looking back, is that we eventually overtook your release schedule for tracks. Your ambience's are the best, no contest.
I've always gotten an Egyptian/Eastern lost temple kind of vibe from the Amber Temple (maybe because of the amber golems?), so I went for something like that. Let me know what you think!
I've just started listening to this and it's already beautifully done! And I'm glad you used Atrium Carceri & Mount Shrine, they create some wonderful music and it fits perfectly into Curse of Strahd. As always, I know I will use your mixed ambience for my sessions :) How is your playthrough going or is it already finished :)
thanks! our play through is paused for the moment, but hopefully we will pick it back up some time in the near future (which is why progress on the videos is slow, as I usually make them around the time that I need them)
