Ox --->Tiger --->Rabbit --->Dragon --->Snake --->Horse Campaign Session #231

 

Conversations with Syra-Zhull and Lanlyn

 

 

Session 231- A Return to Barovia Part 81; Borca 8

8/2/2026

• Watches are set and Team Rams settles into their guest rooms 

  for the night at Ocrotire Manor.

• Fecus takes the first watch and it is uneventful as he sorts through 

  his inventory and reflects on the recent events.  He is required 

  to make a Save Vs. Magic and is successful.

• Gugula takes the second watch and uses the time to sharpen her 

  sword and maintain her armor.  She is required to make a 

  Save Vs. Magic and fails.  She hears a voice in her head asking 

  her to come talk face to face.  She has enough presence of mind 

  to wake Fecus up and they go downstairs to the Exhibit Gallery of 

  the Menagerie.  The Yuan-Ti woman talks to Gugula and Fecus 

  about the Ocrotire’s dark history.  She claims Lord Amthor 

  sacrificed his wife and child to the monster in Lake Balaur.  The 

  official story is that it was a boating accident on the lake, but 

  Syra-Zhull is emphatic that it was a sacrifice and the lake monster 

  controls Amthor.  She attempts to cast Suggestion on Gugula and 

  Fecus.  Gugula makes her Save Vs. Magic and Fecus fails his Save.  

  Syra-Zhull focuses on Fecus and tells him she won’t hurt him or his 

  friends if he releases her from her captivity.  Gugula watches the 

  Yuan-Ti woman suspiciously as Fecus is charmed by the intelligent 

  creature.  Syra-Zhull realizes Gugula and Fecus don’t have the 

  requisite skills to remove the magic wards on her enclosure.  She 

  suggests Fecus go gather the Magic-Users of the party to release 

  her.

• Gugula is relieved to put some distance between the affected 

  Fecus and Syra-Zhull as they return to the guest rooms upstairs.  

  They wake up Tim, Shelby, and Victor and explain the interaction 

  with the Yuan-Ti.  Gugula pulls Tim aside to tell him she suspects 

  that Fecus was affected by a spell cast by Syra-Zhull.  Tim casts 

  Dispel Magic on Fecus, and Fecus is restored to his own faculties.

• The butler comes and knocks on the guest room door and asks if 

  the party are ok or if they need anything because he has heard 

  noises.

• They group allows Dmitri to sit the third watch as they go downstairs 

  to carefully approach Syra-Zhull and try to learn more information.

• They enter the gallery with a Wall of Force cast by Tim to repel any 

  of Syra-Zhull’s mental attacks.  Syra-Zhull explains that she learned 

  of Lord Amthor’s hideous lie about his wife and child from the Triton 

  woman, Lanlyn.  Lanlyn learned the terrible truth from the lake 

  monster, who talks and sings to the Triton woman telepathically.  

  Syra-Zhull tells Team Rams that they can talk to Lanlyn themselves 

  if they repair the conch shell pendant that Amthor broke to keep her 

  from continuing to talk to Syra-Zhull.

• Tim casts Mend on Lanlyn’s conch shell pendant and it floats over to 

  Lanlyn’s grasp.  Lanlyn tells Team Rams that the song of the lake 

  monster, Vireliith, has nearly driven her insane.  The monster itself 

  might be mad.  Lanlyn relates the monster’s desire to eat the gods 

  transformed into an intense worship of Ezra after Vireliith ate 

  Lord Amthor’s wife and child.  Both wife and child had a strong belief 

  in Ezra, and the consumption of them transferred onto Vireliith into a 

  believer.

• Syra-Zhull tries to bargain with Team Rams, claiming she knows 

  where part of the Vorpal Sword is located.  If they release her, she 

  offers to assist them in recovering the piece that is in the possession 

  of Lord Tatenna.

• Dmitri comes down to the gallery to tell Team Rams that the house 

  seems to be waking up and that the butler came around to knock on 

  the guest room, again.

• The party leave the gallery and make their way into the dining room.  

  The maid greets them and serves coffee, tea, and breakfast items.  

  Mimsy bounces in, more energetic than the day before.  She’s excited 

  that Team Rams will be guests at the Summer Garden Party to be 

  held at the Ritter Estate, her home.  This is the summer of her debut, 

  and having guests that are new faces in the domain is exciting and 

  she’s hoping that it will add to her prestige as a debutante.

• Lord Amthor joins the breakfast table and opines that he is sad he 

  didn’t get a chance to take Mimsy out on the lake in his boat.  This 

  alarms Tim and Fecus, after the knowledge they gained from 

  Lord Amthor’s captives.

• Mimsy is all packed and ready to go, but Tim and Shelby sneak off to 

  talk to Syra-Zhull and Lanlyn one last time before leaving 

  Ocrotire Manor.  They each cast ESP on Syra-Zhull to gain more 

  information about Tatenna Estate and how they should go about trying 

  to recover the Vorpal Sword piece that is in Lord Tatenna’s 

  possession.  The most opportune time would be during the 

  Summer Garden Party to be held there this summer.

• Tim and Shelby remember that Dmitri’s oldest sister, Vera, is married 

  to a Tatenna and that Vera would like them to attend the party at 

  her in-laws’ estate.

• Team Rams, Dmitri, and Mimsy Ritter leave Ocrotire Manor and travel 

  back to Ritter Estate uneventfully.

91 Days Until Halloween 2026!

91 Days Until Halloween!

 

 

 

   

 Prologue

 

     I have a deep and abiding love of Halloween.  I don't always dress up.  I don't always go 

out for a party.  But I do observe.

    The last several years, I've put my seasonal efforts into my Halloween RPG sessions.  

In 2023, I ran my own version of a One Night in Castle Ravenloft, inspired by a video and 

article by Mike Shea and an article by James Introcaso.  I run my game in a 2 hour time slot, 

so I stretched the "One Night" into a "Three Night" version and my players enjoyed the brief 

visit to Barovia's most famous castle.  I called it "Halloween Extravaganza 1".  I think the 

articles' assumptions are that these will be "One Shot" games, but I chose to fold the event 

into my campaign

    The next year, 2024, I asked if they would like to return and they said yes.  I anticipated 

a deeper dig into the setting by my players and I haven't been disappointed; we're 

technically still playing "Halloween Extravaganza 2", nearly two years later.  They are no 

longer in Barovia, the campaign has pushed into other Domains of Dread.

    In both instances, I began planning those Halloween games in the summer months.  A 

poll on Youtube recently asked when DMs begin preparing for their Halloween RPGs.  I 

think their were 3 options: several months before, several weeks before, or no preparation 

at all.  I obviously fall into the early prep category.  

    I began planning for "Halloween Extravaganza 1" several months before because as I 

mentioned above, I folded this into my already almost 2 year old campaign.  My players 

were exploring the megadungeon Dwimmermount with their many hirelings when I used 

the Mists to abduct 4 characters while they were sleeping (the hireling on watch didn't 

notice the disappearance of the 4).  The 4 characters woke up in a moving carriage with 

Madame Eva, she gave them a modified Tarokka Card reading (you edit the card deck to 

only include cards that are associated with a location in Castle Ravenloft) before the 

carriage stops in the courtyard of Castle Ravenloft.  Over the 3 sessions of 

"Halloween Extravaganza 1" the 4 characters meet Rahadin, Ireena, and Strahd.  

Ireena leads them to 2 of the item locations and they discover the 3rd on their own.  A 

few tough fights with vampire spawn in the crypts before the end game where they 

fought smart and had some luck in killing Strahd and 3 of his brides.  They 4 characters 

are whisked away by the Mist and awaken back in Dwimmermount just as the rest of the 

adventuring party is stirring after the night's rest.  They know they went somewhere and 

have several items to prove it, but I left the event inexplicable and they continued to 

explore Dwimmermount and it's wonders for a year of game sessions.

    Taking us to the prep that I began in the summer of '24 to set the tone for a return to 

Barovia.  I did this by having 3 of the characters dream about some scenes occurring in 

Castle Ravenloft, then the wider domain of Barovia.  The 4th character did not dream of 

Barovia, because I decided the domain was blocking/or blocked by her due to her using 

the Sun Sword to deal the killing blow to Strahd.  Another character would be chosen by 

the player to take into Barovia when the time came.  Helping Ireena would be the 

emphasis/hook for "Halloween Extravaganza 2".  The next bit of prep work was for me to 

go over the CoS book and get a handle on what NPCs and locations were interesting to 

me and edit out or de-emphasize the material I didn't want to work with such as the 

Mad Mage of Mount Baratok.  I liked Vallaki, especially the Blinsky Toy Shop and the 

Ireena dolls hook with another NPC in the town.  Other locations that were prominent 

were the Wizard of Wines, Krezk, Yester Hill, Berez, the Vistani Camp near Vallaki, and 

Lake Zarovich.  

    The week after Halloween 2025, their time in Barovia culminated in the attempted 

wedding they arranged between the Flesh Golem Vasilka and Strahd (who was 

inexplicably resurrected in the form of a tiny puppet).  Uninvited wedding crashers 

kill the bride to be, abduct puppet Strahd, and escape the domain of Barovia.

    Informed by a 2nd Tarokka Card Reading (technically it was the 3rd) that points to 

several magic items and an ally scattered throughout several Domains of Dread.  

These will be beneficial towards hunting down Strahd and his accomplices, who 

themselves have decamped to Nevuchar Springs in Darkon.  Since November '25, 

the campaign has picked up their ally in Lamordia, the Cloak of the Bat in Bluetspur, 

Mother Luba's Tarokka Deck in Darkon, and now they pursue the Vorpal Sword in 

Borca.  It is in pieces, each in the hands of a different Borcan noble family.  The PCs 

have just begun to visit different estates as the Summer Garden Party Series begins.  

I don't have a plan for the next 13 to 14 sessions beyond wrapping up the 

Summer Garden Party Series arc of the campaign by late October.  I don't know how 

entwined in the milieu of Borcan society they'll be by the time they've acquired the 

3 pieces of the Vorpal Sword, but the 2 Darklords are already interested in the party 

of newcomers.

    They feel like they have unfinished business in Darkon, so at some point the 

campaign will return to that domain. 

 

Main Vein

 

What are some collected thoughts I have on preparing for a Curse of Strahd 

focused Halloween game?  

1.     Knowing that the session duration and interval schedule of our 

   campaign lent itself to a 3 session adventure arc the first time around.  

   I think if you want to run it as a one-shot, you probably want to give 

   yourself 4-6 hours total to introduce the situation/do the Tarokka Deck 

   reading (1 hourish), give the party the "middle portion" of the session 

   (2-4 hours) to explore Castle Ravenloft and hopefully acquire some 

   helpful artifacts, then give yourself the last hour of the game to fight 

   Strahd and whoever else you want to back him up from the Castle 

   Ravenloft denizens.  

2.    The second time the campaign went to the Ravenloft setting, I seeded 

   dream sequences to establish some mystery and NPC faces in the PCs 

   minds before they are brought back to help Ireena, who I was portraying 

   as having taken possession of Castle Ravenloft after Strahd's death.  

   Strahd's allies pose a threat to the young noblewoman.  

3.     For the second time around I was looking to run this from Halloween '24 

   to Christmas/New Year '24, so roughly 8-10 sessions at our weekly rate.  

   The players' interest in the setting and emerging situations have extended 

   it much further, so if you view expansion past the projected 2 month arc as a 

   failure, then I'm in some sort of mass effect, where I don't know when I can 

   turn the ship.  

4.     Be ruthless about editing parts of the adventure that you don't like.  My 

   example is the Mad Mage.  Gone.  

5.     I had PCs that were mostly 9th level or higher the second time around.  

   Therefore I skipped the village of Barovia, because Vallaki had more to offer 

   for my players to interact with as they solved the creepy Ireena doll mystery 

   that was my intro for the second time in Barovia.

6.     Take that opportunity with the Wizard of Wines adventure with the gems, 

   to put the 3rd gem they don't give you a location for somewhere that causes 

   some kind of exploration or social navigation.  I placed it in the Flesh Golem 

   Vasilka. 

7.      The second time around, I went for as long as possible without looking 

   outside the CoS adventure, MM, DMG, and PHB.  After about 8 months, I 

   began looking at a couple of Ravenloft Youtube creators and got a few 

   supplements to help me run up to the Failed Wedding crescendo in late 

   October early November of '25.

8.      Two of those supplements, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and the 

   Second Tarokka Reading, led to the Domain hopping phase of the campaign.  

   This has led to 9 sessions in Lamordia, 3 sessions in Bluetspur, 10 sessions in 

   Darkon, and 7 sessions in Borca.  They aren't finished with their goals in Borca, 

   so more sessions to come!

9.      Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft contains it's own haunted house type 

   adventure, the House of Lament, that I ran very recently.  If you wanted an 

   alternative to Castle Ravenloft for a Halloween one-shot game, this is a 

   solid choice.  I ran it over 4 two hour sessions, so roughly 8 hours.  I think 

   it could be run in a shorter time slot.  Since I'm folding it into my wider 

   campaign, I modified the intro, the NPC allies, and the resolution, but used 

   the map, seance intervals, and hauntings.  I think my adaptation probably 

   added at least an hour, if not two hours, so a House of Lament one shot 

   might be achievable in 5 or 6 hours if you tighten up the pacing.

10.       I ran the Old Bonegrinder location from Curse of Strahd, and I think that 

    would make a great Halloween one-shot!  Maybe I'll expand on that in a later 

    essay.  

      

  Epilogue   

    Find some friends who will let you run crazy never-ending Halloween themed 

RPGs for them, and you too can find yourself babbling about it on the internet;)