Here’s our weekly AvocaD&D update.  Feel free to also use the comments to talk about your own games, or anything else to do with D&D or other tabletop RPGs.  General discussion topic for the week:  Do you have a go-to character type/class that you play?  Do you prefer to be in the front lines, dealing heavy damage and soaking up enemies’ attacks, or would you rather stay in the back and blast at the bad guys with arrows/bullets/spells, etc?  Do you enjoy healing or buffing your allies more than directly fighting your enemies?  Personally, I always start with a heavy-hitting melee character, but then I like to branch out and at least try all the other available options.

Our AvocaD&D group is currently running the Curse of Strahd adventure module, DM’d by The Hayes Code. As a reminder, our party consists of:

• Txan Einreique, a Half-Elf Stone Sorcerer; the Company Representative and nominal party leader (Josephus Brown).
• Kissi Farwood, a Human Fighter; a former solider hired as a bodyguard by Txan (forget_it_jake).
• Edwin Potts, a Human Cleric of Torm; a government agent sent to oversee the deal and make sure the company isn’t doing anything shady (Nope).
• ENGR-23, a Warforged Artificer; a living machine employed as a railway engineer (our only non-Avocado party member).
• Peter Peregrine, a Human Barbarian; a researcher with a rage-filled alter ego called Kragen Tempest (Doctor Nick).
• Wickerwelt Tanglewood, a Halfling Ranger; a Barovian native brought along as a guide (TheCleverGuy).

[spoiler title=”Spoilers for Curse of Strahd”]I actually had to miss most of the game this week, so this might be a shorter recap than most.  Having made our way into the secret basement of the haunted house we’ve been exploring, we found ourselves in a family crypt.  We could hear a faint chanting, and started to investigate.  We found a grick in one room, which proceeded to attack after someone decided to poke it.  Luckily, the beast was pretty quickly dispatched.  In another room, we found some locked chests in what seemed to be sleeping quarters for monks (the priestly sort, not the martial artist Monk, I assume).  ENGR-23 opened them all up, finding some various treasures, including coins, gems, a jeweled eyepatch, and a silver-coated shortsword.

I got online as the party was being attacked by a group of black-robed ghouls in a very narrow corridor.  Our front-line fighters, Peter and Kissi, were unfortunately positioned near the back of the group, blocked by Txan, who had taken the lead. Kissi was able to throw a handaxe at one of them, and Peter (or should I say Kragen Tempest?) got a hit off around a corner.  ENGR-23 and Wick managed to run around to a side passage, but 23 was hit and paralyzed by one of the ghouls.  Luckily, the creatures suffered from the same drawbacks to close-quarter fighting that we did and couldn’t swarm any of us.  Txan used a Burning Hands spell to roast 1 of the ghouls, allowing Kissi to close in and use her morningstar.  Wick’s Hunter’s Mark spell and a couple of arrows finished off a second, and Edwin’s Sacred Flame turned the last one to pile of ash.

And that’s where we ended for the evening.  Next week, we’ll see if we can locate the source of the chanting sound that’s growing steadily stronger as we search this crypt.  I’m sure whatever it is can’t be good.[/spoiler]

Just for fun, I’m going to be including a different character’s backstory here every week.  So here’s some more details on the leader of our expedition, the stone sorcerer Txan Einreique.  The description was written by Josephus Brown, and the image is another Hero Forge design I did.

Txan (pronounced “John”) Einreique is a surprisingly burly half-elf who has nothing elven about him aside from a slightly delicate face and a very pleasant voice that sounds downright incongruous coming from him. The only time he’s graceful is when he’s swinging a hammer, which some of his dwarven co-workers find amusing and often rib him about. He’s somewhat naive and over-estimates people’s commitment to morality and ethics, but isn’t entirely a pushover. He just prefers to take people at their word because it’s much easier than constantly trying to suss out lies and machinations. Ultimately, he’s a very simple man, who uses magic for lighting cooking fires and digging on the job site as often as he does for more noble purposes.

He got named a guild representative after standing up for working conditions for his fellow laborers after an instance when new digging equipment malfunctioned and caused a cave in. It was also the instance that sparked his latent stone sorcerer magical ability, though he’d always had an affinity for stone.

He’s fiercely loyal to both the company and his guild, but sees both as mutually dependent and is often willing to push back against one if he feels the other is being taken advantage of. Some of his superiors trust his integrity, particularly the old guard in the company, but many of the younger or more greedy managers distrust him for organizing his fellow laborers against them.

As such, he’s not sure if getting named as a representative to go to Barovia to negotiate a right of way is a show of faith in him, a convenient way of getting rid of him, or both.