We’re back at last, with the fallout from our heroes’ disastrous night at the Vistani carnival. Burning wagons! Vanishing vampires! An escape artist escapade! Don’t miss this action-packed installment! Exclamation point!
It may be our drunkest episode yet! Rictavio (the archaeopteryx?) spins a yarn over dinner; Ralston breaks up with the Vistani (and gets deeply offended!); the second time is not the charm for the party’s foray into acting; and Andrei’s audience with Ringmaster Blink leads to a jaw-dropping double reveal!
No Strahdcast this week. Instead, in recognition of the recent discoveries at former Canadian residential schools, Scott talks about colonialism, cultural genocide, and the pitfalls of indigenous stereotypes – both within the game of D&D and in real life.
Scott the DM does a run-down of the busy town of Vallaki, pointing out design flaws and making suggestions so that other Dungeon Masters can make the most of the chapter in their own Curse of Strahd campaigns. WARNING: Spoilers abound!
It’s the kind of fun you can only have in town: exchanging coins, hunting down holy bones, and bumping into random creepy aristocrats. “Do I notice any puncture wounds in his necky-holes?” Asks Ralston, and the answer may shock you!
In which Andrej, Dragomir, and Ralston experience the most heart-stopping, blood-curdling terror yet in the horror-fraught realm of Barovia: stage fright.
In a break between games, the lads sip “naughty and spiced” beer, and their diatribes grow accordingly naughty and spicy. It’s our shortest, most pointless episode yet!
“Everything is cursed!” Ralston, Dragomir, and Andrej meet some of the colourful characters who inhabit Vallaki, and learn that by far the most frequent colours are blood red and pitch black.
The heroes and their Vistani friends ride into Vallaki, the largest town in the Darklord’s cursed domain. “It’s worse than Barovia. How can it be worse than Barovia?” Hey, at least the wolf steak is fresh. This episode features some of Scott’s worst accents, a lot of gratuitous flavour text, and a group of gamers…
RALSTON: So, you wanna go to the bone-grinding windmill, and… smell the air? DRAGOMIR: Yes. RALSTON: I’m pretty confident I got a good idea of what you’re gonna smell. It’s not gonna be awesome. The heroes of Barovia make it through the mountain pass, but before they reach the Town of Vallaki, an accident on…
