While near-defunct, figured I owed you guys some closure. Don't really want to do a formal write-up, so this is basically a behind the scenes look:
The weary adventurers returned back to Barovia, but it is a broken shell of itself. Unable to find anyone left in the town, the gang finds signs of a werewolf attack- the dwindling population is no more and there are no further signs of Ireena. Realizing they may well be the only signs of benevolent (well comparably, I mean Nikhil still traveled with them) life left in this cursed realm they move to quickly leave. They catch sight of a few red scarves during their departure, but gratefully neither the scarves nor the mist harangue them any further as they, at long last, leave the shadow realm of Ravenloft.
You might have been surprised as to why the Necromancer sacrificed herself in order to help destroy Strahd. Well Timmy was basically a back-up card: she cast a ritual to make him her phylactery before imbuing herself with a dark magic allowing herself to act as a "magnet" to any other undead. Strahd was compelled to absorb her life force with his; while it killed her, it also weakened him severely allowing you to finish him off. She gambled her immortality on you guys coming through. Unfortunately for poor Timmy he will have his own memories and personality slowly replaced by that of the Necromancer's over the next few decades.
While ending on a dark note, Ravenloft was a dark place and ultimately your crossing through helped both expedite and ease its passing in a far less painful way then seemed destined. While sometimes the heroes don't triumph and escape with the girl, in this case they at least played a large role in ending a cycle of caustic despair.
Once clear from Ravenloft, our heroes ultimately split ways. While there was some lingering tension, it was decided that the evils of the land might have played as much of a role as anything and it would be best for each to do their best to forget about the atrocities encountered. As far as is known the gang might have stayed in touch, but never again met up and took up arms against another force. The heroes never heard from Ashlyn or Madam Eva again.
It was a great time guys, thanks for playing!
(I will try converting this to EpicWords eventually too, so we can better preserve it without taking up Facebook "side space").
Ultimately I was hoping to tempt you all with out-of-game private messages to see if you would be able to be lured to the "dark side". Jack I was going to actually start giving bloody visions and ultimately get the opportunity to become a vampire (I would have done this after having him be bit in combat). Abraxus would be recruited by the werewolf gangs (again, he would contract some sort of affliction and start "returning to madness" come the full moon) and Nikhil was going to have the Vistani offer him money to help them smuggle weaponry with his shows as a cover.
In the end it was still going to be everyone's choice how they wanted to handle it, but I thought some "hidden" strife among the party would be an interesting role-playing opportunity and it would fit the theme of Ravenloft's corruption pretty well.
Unfortunately both school and a poor out-of-game platform got in the way of this (Facebook messaging was pretty hard to stay on top of); if only I knew of EpicWords back then!
Just some more behind the scenes info
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Posted on September 15, 2014 13:05
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