D&D Curse of Strahd Replay (Episode 3): Vallaki, A Village of Mystery 

I love how the Cleric and the Warlock agrees about upper managment problems

“I will not let anyone have power over me!” -Warlock

Warlock: Distributes pastries like a boss Hag: "I waaarrrnnned youuuu!"

Players: "We're going to surrender." DM: "No, you're not."

Fun fact: our party *did* try and cook a Hag in a giant oven. She did not die.

"welp its time for Stan Hellsing!" "NOOO BEN!" makes me lol every time he is denied

1:46: "Treat this as a warning." 21:18: Once we entered in through the gates, the portcullis slammed down behind us, and we were surrounded by about 10 guards. Defective sword: I waaaaarned y-- Night Hag: Aww shaddup! *I* warned them this time!

I love how the character named Gouda is the one with the cheesy lines.

I feel like Ben is just really desperate to get rid of his cleric.

boshak being a man-eating lizardman i expected to just eat all the pastries himself

OK, when we did Strahd; we fought the hags, stole the kid; ran away; and lost a Pally in the process. But you guys....you guys..... are serving canabilistic pastries for them?!?!?

"The module beat me to the punch with Stan Velsing." Not necessarily, just have Stan be his apprentice. He's going to be "The world's GREATEST vampire hunter"...with 18 int to start.

"I guess you could say we have a bone to pick with them!" Continuing to rib the party by making these puns in the face of their hostility really takes a lot of spine, no bones about it. Skeleton.

One day we will see Stan velsing and he’ll be great

The move to longer format, less animation is slotting in nicely with my need for stuff to listen too as I'm working from home. This and Zee Bashew's Cold Road series are putting in work. Thank you.

The cleric is cursed as bad things keep happening to him without allowing him to feel the sweet embrace of death to let a vampire hunter step onto the stage.

Oh man... that whole lake scene went SO differently in my game... Me (a 5'1" Aasimar Paladin of Heironeous) and the half-elf Rogue saw the fishermen (two of them) throw the girl overboard. In a panic, I managed to row us over at bizarre speed. The rogue leapt in to save the girl while I tried to intimidate what happened out of the fishermen, who broke down into tears and confessed what they'd done. The rogue reached the girl, but she was dying quickly at nearly 100ft down. I start panicking... until I come up with the most unorthodox plan. See, we'd managed to get our hands on a set of necklaces that can cause someone to teleport to the person holding the 'master' necklace if they are wearing a 'slave' necklace, but only up to a range of 120ft. I quickly empty out my waterskin, flex it open and stopper it tight. I then take a huge breath and activate the necklace, putting me right next to the rogue. The girl is a little below him and my chain mail drags me down to her quickly. I unstopper the waterskin and make her take a deep breath from the air in the bag as I do the completely (not impossible) improbably thing of swimming up 100ft in chain mail. We make it to the surface and I cure wounds on her. Nothing happens for a moment... then she coughs. She's fine. James, the rogue, is all for killing the fishermen. The girl can't remember being kidnapped or who by. The fishermen look like they're going to die and are terrified. My paladin, ever the merciful sort, thinks it over for a little bit and talks to the fishermen. It turns out that fishing hasn't been good and their families are starving. My paladin hands over her rations, along with a good sum of money. She then intimidates the men into agreeing to go home and feed their familes, then present themselves to the blacksmith in the morning to learn a new trade, one that will see them through the leaner months as well as committing to serving as a mentor and supporter of the local orphanage that my paladin had helped rebuild and fund. They almost cry at this new lease on life and race off. The rogue was all for throwing them under the bus, but my paladin pointed out that hope in Borovia was rare and that the more people they armed with it, the more dangerous the populace would become to Strahd. ... to be fair, though, my paladin does call Strahd "Von Zaro-b*tch". No-one's perfect.

I love your pitches for Stan Velsing. It's like he's the newest sitcom on Fox.

Forget the quest for that elf. I'm starting to think the party isn't a high enough level to step out the front door.

When my party got to Vallaki, we investigated for about 2 sessions, but then I, the only lawful good character, had to miss a session. When i got back, I was told that Vallaki was burned down and turned into a monstrous apocalyptic wasteland. Long story short, some new players were joining and the DM introduced them as prisoners about to be executed. His thought process was, "Well, the party is trying to mount a rebellion against Strahd, surely they will help these innocents." No one in the party cared, saying that they weren't going to risk their lives for strangers, so the two new characters had to break themselves out, somehow leading to a fire spreading through Vallaki and the Sorcerer destroying the gate to Vallaki, which was up specifically to keep monsters out. Without the gate, monsters invaded the town. All the survivors were holed up in the inn, and we ended up in Vallaki for another 5 sessions, trying to finish our investigation while holding off constant monsters like Manticores, Perytons, Displacer beasts, and (for some reason) a Goddamn BONE DEVIL( too be fair, one of the coolest fights of that campaign). It was a flustercluck.

I love how each CoS game is juuuust different enough to make things interesting!

"You _could_ say that...if you're a MONSTER." I mean, she *does* have a bunch of eyes now.

“Apparently you can’t go 10 feet in Barovia without another missing child” Yep

3:12 love how the paldin went "which one?" I'm noticing a pattern, I'm late, but the DM seems hesitant to kill players so the spirits appear. Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't run curse of strahd.

If she has multiple eyes does she always have advantage on perception

"He makes me create these life sized dolls for him. He tells me give them gigantic breasts. I've created hundreds of them for him. I have no idea what he does with them." - Blinski

okay i think my new favorite thing is the idea of a Warlock and a Priest complaining to each other about how difficult working with a deity is 😂

Gouda's alignment is evil but only because of her puns, I am sure of it.

I look forward to these Puffin, thanks for making these during these trying times!

The hags were so non-specific. I would've taken the the cookies straight to the count that refused them entrance in the first place, explained the situation and handed the cookies to him and his guards with full knowledge of what the cookies were, what they did, and what they should do with them. I would also tell them where the hags were so they could send their entire guard to kill them.

Omg I can’t believe this! So Saturday I was playing DnD with my group and we ended up in a village in the woods after saving a child from a NIGHT HAG. She came and attacked us and my teifling rogue was the only one who knew what she was saying since she spoke in infernal. So she wanted to eat the child and my character was really mad about it. I rolled highest initiative and threw my enchanted sickle at her. Nat 20 to hit 3D6 plus one D6 of holy damage. X3 critical plus my weapon bonus I wound up doing I think 80 damage. My DM and the whole party just STARRED at me for a solid two minutes. Usually I don’t roll too well xD so my DM just said. “Please explain to me how you just one shot murdered this night hag?!” I was like “Uuuuuuuh Kalliska was super mad she wanted to eat a child?” She looks back to the party and says “You see a weapon wizz past you. It hits the hag in the face, her nose falls off, and she dies. You turn to see a VERY angry rogue, arm still extended.” They all just laughed and my DM was like “yeah that was a WHOLE plot. Gone. Thanks.”

Damn you Ben. I am now emotionally invested in these characters.

Ah I remember our group walking into the amber temple underleveled. I, the healer, got hit with 3 fireballs, failed all my dex saves and almost died. Good times.

I got my own curse of strahd book on friday as a birthday gift And i couldn't be happier. I'm 26 now and apparently i was smiling from ear to ear when i left the store the book in hand I am SO looking forward to playing this one.. got the gm screen for it, too Aaaaaaahhhhhh, so awesome

I love how every chapter he has a chance to bring out Stan Vel Sing

Fun fact, as per the DMG (pg 139) the Identify spell does not actually tell you if a weapon is cursed. My DM pulled a similar thing to us when guards tried to get us to disarm peacefully.

Today I searched with my father through his collection of old Systems and Modules and i discovered he has a copy of Curse of Strahd(in a German version) Quite fun to read through. Also great storytelling Puffin.

This really makes me want to play Curse of Strahd! I started several months ago but sadly our group fell apart shortly after we got through the Death house...

I like how Ben just wants to play his new character but the DM is just having none of it. Perfect torture.

After gettin more deeply invested into this series, coming back and rewatching is amazing ❤

Guh. Vallaki is a crazy time bomb just waiting for ignition. I love it. Also I like having the players work for the hags. Puts a brutal twist on an already-sad story of dead children.

So, the TL;DR of this series is "Party goes from one asskicking to the next in an everlong stream of losing fights"... Oh, and the DM might have invented "the gift system" to keep Ben from pulling out that ranger.

"You can't back a Hag into a corner and beat her to death." *Laughs in having cleaved Morgantha in half before she could even take the child* (Yeah, we got lucky, REALLY lucky... Someone else died)

I love how much puffin wants to bring out Stan Velsing, but is denied every opportunity :P

Curse of Strahd was my first ever dnd campaign and I loved it but we got tpk'd at just late enough in the campaign that we felt we could get to the end and take on strahd soon. This series is really making me wanna go back to it but I'm in so many campaigns.

I love this! Our group ran The Curse of Strahd a few months ago. Cool to see what someone else’s experience was like

No to beat a dead horse or anything. But this could be the perfect time to pick up disaster squad again. What with the whole quarantine thing going on. I’m just, yah know, putting that into the universe.

Whats great is that Im running this and this actually helped give insight into whatll happen

The Curse of Strahd sounds both interesting and very frustrating. I am surprised it is so popular. I have found that you have to often keep the level of frustration low or I have a player revolt.

We NEED more Granola Girl moments...

This is such a great series! I love your work man.

Hags = all seeing eye of pastries

So, you finally had a session that didn't end with a party member making a pact with a higher being. Nice.

Gouda is my favorite. You can't not love her appreciation of puns.

YES! YES! YES! I'm getting so excited when I see you upload these long stories.

I really like this method for long format RPG content. I struggle to sit through the live streams and edited down recordings of actual plays on other channels. This has just the right amount of on-screen content but doesn't force you to keep your eyes locked on the screen for its entire run time. Love all your videos. Thank you for all the excellent content 😄

Thank you so very much Ben. I don't know whether you actually take the time to read comments or just study the numbers, but I for one absolutely love love love these longer videos, and we all love the stories you have to tell. PLEASE keep them coming.

I did really enjoy this series and really hope you do another for the next module you decide to play

Through a series of machinations in our campaign, we managed to make Blinsky into the mayor...

I hope the warlock rips off the demonic arm and attahces it to himself

Your campaign is soo totally different than what how the campaign I'm running is going. I think it's crazy how much different it is, it just goes to show how amazing dungeon and dragons really is.

I love watching these, it's fulfilling my desire for gaming while we're locked away.

Really enjoying this format and the story puffin. Thanks for entertaining us during the end days

"I will not let anyone have power over me" -boshak the WARLOCK

Yo this is surprisingly sating my crit roll addiction. And now they are DISTRUBUTED MWAHAHAHAHAAH

I love your content, it helps remind me that Dungeons and Dragons is about having fun, and allows me to loosen up before a session.

“We should have probably gone for the arms if we wanted him to stop rowing.” This man has never rowed before. Legs are a huge part of the rowing motion.

I love these. Every time I hear about another groups adventures in Barovia I get to see the content our group missed.

Ah, cursed items are so fun, they’re even more fun when your players decide to combine their curses and figure out a way to create magical living explosives

I love the Stan Velsing running gag.

I've never been this early. Super excited with this series!

hey man, i am from Greece and we are in quarantine for quite a while now, you realy made my day, huge fun

Ben: *literally anything happens to his character* Also Ben: Guess it's time for STAN VELSING!!! Seriously though, he really just wanted to play Stan Velsing.

My god i love this series! I hope you'll consider making more of these longer sessions in the future

Seeing those new episodes fills me with excitement! Can’t wait for the next one!

I'm starting to like these more than your regular videos and find myself getting emotionally invested. 10/10

I love this series. Curse of strahd is a model I have been wanting to run for a while and i love seeing and hear about people’s play Throughs.

Kinda glad he doing these always like his D&D tales one cause I can't play D&D do to my social anxiety

I have seen enough of your videos to be able to envision some of the animations that could be. I enjoy the occasional picture change though.

Garro the character unable to die. even though he desperately wants to

I remember doing a DND campaign and I was a bard. I used inspire on my friend by playing a shitty flute version of “Never Gonna Give you Up.”

Was it only my play through where only the eldest was a night hag? We were able to gank the two younger ones and chase off the Elder while also saving several children. Finished her with an assassination mirror. It was one of our groups finest examples of teamwork that we have never fully duplicated.

This series is awesome please do more of these for players like me who may not get to play often but want to see the module played out!

Protection From Good and Evil works on Night Hags, if I recall (stops them from draining your life force while you sleep, at least). So the whole convo after 4:00 just shows the party doesn't know enough about Night Hags.

Was just thinking when part 3 was coming

Our adventure has started a bit different-by the point @19 minutes here- post boat- we had 7 NPCs in our party, including three children, one teen, and a large wild boar that one player got to keep as a "pet" rolling a nat 20 for animal handling. We are literally a traveling orphanage. We keep gaining people with nowhere for them to go.

I'm beginning to realise that Garo.., Garo is never dead, yet, never dead, yet...

Really liking this story so far Ben! 😊 I'm looking forward to the next chapter!

These stories are by far the best idea anyone has ever had.

I’m really enjoying the new story style! Great job Ben!

Seems SUPER metagamey for a random lizard folk to know everything about an extremely powerful fiend. Maybe it’s just a difference in game style but the game I play in puts a premium on realism haha. Love the animation Puffin!

Puffin, my crew is currently playing Strahd. Never underestimate Tiny Hut. The best way to get a night's sleep and tell a night hag to bugger off.

Amber Temple is end game content indeed.

For Etherialness, we just casted detect magic, saw their amulets, and ripped them off before the hags could do anything

Thx à lot, your video are a breath of fresh air during this harsh time.

I changed the dolls to weekly, that makes much more sense to me. 1 per month = 12 per year. So to have “over 100” that was mean at least 9 years, implied to be even more.

I like hearing stories narrated by you. 24 minutes flew by

Always identify any loot you find. It's just amazing how many people don't do this.

Digging the text story. Probably one of the reasons why I watch your videos is because your story telling style works for me. I'm for one for more of these kinds of videos.

I've always enjoyed your content, but I especially enjoy this series that takes a longer form. Can't wait for the next episode.