Welcome back to the weekly D&D and Tabletop RPG thread!  Here’s a place where we can talk about Dungeons & Dragons or any other tabletop RPGs that you nerds might be into.  Tell us about the games you’re playing, speculate about future expansions, recruit your fellow Avocados into new groups, whatever you want.

This week, we’ve made a deal with the devil to talk about the Warlock.

A Warlock is an arcane magic-user, but the source and functionality of their power is unique–they don’t earn their abilities through careful study, nor are they born with an innate connection to magic.  Rather, they are granted power through a bargain made with a powerful, otherworldly being.  It’s roughly analogous to the Dark Side of Force in Star Wars–provided you think of the Force as something with a will of it’s own.1I know that Jedi spend lifetimes in training and study, and there’s also some in-born talent that comes into play, but Sith Lords seem to gain power through these sorts of pacts with the Dark Side via the master/apprentice relationship.  Anakin, for instance, turned to the Dark Side to prevent Padme’s death.  Regardless of the details of a Warlock’s pact, their Patron grants them certain magical abilities.  Unlike other spellcasters, Warlocks can only cast a few spells before needing to rest.  But they make up for this by needing only a short rest to recover that ability, and by always casting their spells at the highest level. A Warlock’s magic ability is based off the deal they made with their Patron, and as such it is powered by their charisma, rather than intelligence. A Warlock’s patron will also bestow other gifts upon them, such as the ability to see in even magical darkness or speak with animals.  Eventually, the Patron will also grant a specific boon to their loyal servants, which can take the form of a familiar, a magic weapon, or a tome of secret rituals.  Because of the relative scarcity of their magic, many Warlocks will carry conventional weapons and armor as well.

Between the choice of Patron, spells, Eldritch Invocations, and Pact Boons (at level 3), the Warlock has the perhaps the most decision points to make throughout their adventuring career.  The most important is just who to make your bargain with–each Patron gives the Warlock an expanded list of spells to choose from, as well as certain other abilities.  The options are:

• The Archfey–a fairy queen or other lord of the fey, who grants magic focused on charm and illusion
• The Fiend–a demon or devil, who lets you burn your enemies with hellfire
• The Great Old One–an unknowable abomination or elder god, who give you telepathy and mind control powers
• The Celestial–an angel or other heavenly being, who grants you healing magics
• The Hexblade–a being from the Shadowfell plane taking the form of a sentient weapon, who increases your melee combat abilities
• The Undying–a powerful lich or other being who has conquered death, giving you powers of necromancy and some control over the undead

[spoiler title=”Warlock Build”]

Vanuath Iathrana, High Elf Warlock (Archfey), Level 3

Stats:  STR 10, DEX 14(+2), CON 12, INT 13(+1), WIS 8, CHA 15

Skill/tool proficiencies: Perception, Acrobatics, Performance Arcana, Deception; Disguise kit, Musical instrument (lute)

Weapons: Shortsword

Armor: Leather armor, AC = 14

Spells: Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Friends, Minor Illusion2This cantrip is a racial bonus granted from being a High Elf, and as such it is powered by INT rather than by CHA; Level 1: Charm Person, Hex, Faerie Fire; Level 2: Invisibility

Eldritch Invocations: Misty Visions, Voice of the Chain Master

Pact Boon: Pact of the Chain

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Background: Entertainer
Vanuath is a young (for an Elf) wandering minstrel with some talent for music and not much sense.   While traveling through an ancient part of the forest, he became hopelessly lost.  As the sunset began, Vanuath stumbled across a small clearing, surrounded by a circle of large unfamiliar mushrooms.  He moved through the circle, and unknowingly entered the Feywild.  He wandered for some time, idly strumming his lute, until he was met on the path by a beautiful woman.  Vanuath confessed that he was lost and asked the woman for help getting home.  The woman offered her assistance in exchange for a song, which Vanuath was happy to give.  Vanuath played such a beautiful song that the woman (who was really the fairy queen Titania) became infatuated with him.  She used her power to transport him out of the Feywild, and also granted him magical abilities. She also created a small purple dragon to keep an eye on her new prize. Unfortunately, upon leaving the Feywild, Vanuath’s memory of these events was erased. He only remember Titania in his dreams, but he has learned to use his mysterious power and bonded with the tiny dragon.

At Level 3, Vanuath can only use two spells before he’ll need a short rest to recover his ability, and his spells will all be cast at second level. He has an innate racial ability to cast the Minor Illusion cantrip, and his Archfey patron has bestowed upon him 2 more cantrips and 4 spells.  His Elven heritage also lets him see in the dark, and makes him resistant to charm effects and immune to magically induced sleep.  When surrounded, Vanuath also has the ability to project a fey presence into the minds of nearby creatures, causing them to be charmed or frightened by him for a short time.  The Pact of the Chain made with his patron grants him a pseudodragon familiar, which he can command to attack another creature (something that a Wizard’s familiar can’t do).  Vanuath also has two Eldritch Invocations, which allow him to cast Silent Image at will and to communicate with familiar telepathically, as well as see through it’s senses.  At his next level, Vanuath would learn an additional spell, and would probably want to increase is CHA score by taking the Fey Teleportation feat, which would also grant him the ability to cast the Misty Step once per rest.
[/spoiler]

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Our AvocaD&D group is currently running the Curse of Strahd adventure module.  Our version takes place in a pseudo-historical 19th century Earth, and the group is playing as representatives of a railroad company sent to the tiny Eastern European nation of Barovia (ruled by Count Strahd von Zarovich) to negotiate the expansion of the railway through the country.

[spoiler title=”Dramatis Personae”]Our Dungeon Master is The Hayes Code, and the 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; deceased (torn to pieces by vampires) (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 Professor of Antiquities with a rage-filled alter ego called Kragen Tempest (Doctor Nick)
• Wickerwelt Tanglewood, a Halfling Ranger/Rogue; a Barovian native brought along as a guide (TheCleverGuy)
• Carabelle Longstride, a Halfling Cleric of Lathander; a Southern-accented American on a personal mission of her own (Wafflicious)[/spoiler]

[spoiler title=”Spoilers for Curse of Strahd”]

We picked up this week with Wick and Peter having just survived a trap in Argynvostholt ruin by jumping out a second-story window.  We made it back into the castle and met up with the rest of the party to continue our exploration on the third floor.  We went up the stair case on the southern side of the hall, following a small spectral dragon that had flown by out of one of the rooms on the second floor.  On the next floor, we found a narrow hallway leading east, with another hall crossing north-south halfway down and ending with a door.  Wick took the lead and peeked around the corners down the north-south hall first–the ceiling had fallen in both directions.  The southern hall did have a couple of guest rooms, but they were open to the air. To the north, we could pick our way over the rubble to another corridor running west-east beyond, with lots of doors leading off it.  In the connecting passage, there a couple of sections of collapsed wall that we could see through.  On one side was a bathroom, full of debris, with a torn curtain covering a passage on the far side.  On the other a large audience chamber, filled with snow.  Fallen swords and shields covered the ground, and a large throne, carved to look like a dragon, was facing west, away from us. ENGR sent out it’s mechanical lobster companion to see what was beyond (or on) the throne. The lobster, which couldn’t actually talk, followed ENGR’s instructions to report back by wildly flailing its arms if it saw anything–which it did.  With no way of knowing what exactly the lobster saw, we decided to check the other rooms first.

Through the curtain in the ruined bathroom, we came to a gallery with stained-glass windows depicting various saints–we could see the chapel below where we’d killed the revenants.  In the hall to the north, we found another staircase leading up, covered in snow.  We decided not to go up yet, and continued into a study off the northern hall–they study shelves were bare and it looked like the room had been tossed, desk overturned, a slashed portrait.  There was only one book visible, next to an overturned chair.  Txan tried to piece together the slashed portrait, and found a picture of two knights in armor similar to that of the revenants we killed.  Peter picked up the book, a devotional text for knights, and loose page fell out, with a hand-written letter.  The letter was apparently written by the silver dragon, Argynvost, before a battle with Strahd’s troops–it told of the dragon’s fears that Strahd would break through their defenses.  He hoped that future generations of knights would light the beacon tower in defiance of Strahd, and feared that he wouldn’t be buried in the crypt he’d prepared.  He wrote, “Though my body may die, my soul will live on.”

In the far corner of the room, was a door to an empty tower room.  There was nothing in it, but some claw marks on the walls and floors.  Another iron door off the study led to a small treasure room, long since picked clean.  The last door held a war room, with a long table and 6 high-backed chairs.  Five of the chairs were occupied by skeletons in chain mail–and their heads turned as Peter walked into the room.  One of them spoke, asking why we were disturbing the dead.  Txan told them we had been sent to Argynvostholt by a knight to seek allies against Strahd, but they only said they were waiting for orders from their leader, Captain Horngaard.  They said the Horngaard would not order Strahd’s death, because doing so would end his suffering, and Horngaard wanted Strahd to suffer.  They also told us Strahd had killed the dragon, and taken it’s head to his castle.  Until the dragon’s head is returned to light the beacon, the knights of the order could only wait.  They said Horngaard was in the audience chamber.

Beyond the war room, was another tower room, this one a bedchamber with a stuff bear and dire wolf arranged in fearsome positions, and a large empty treasure chest.  We headed back to the audience chamber to talk to Captain Horngaard.  As we entered the chamber, Txan called out to the Captain, but there was no response.  So, he approached the throne and looked around it–the massive form of Captain Horngaard was there, covered in layers of ice.  But the frozen jaw moved, and Horngaard said “Go away.”  Txan told him we were hoping for an audience with the Captain, and that we were seeking aid or advice to help us take down Strahd.  Horngaard, however, wanted Strahd to continue suffering, trapped in “this dismal tomb.”  He said he would not help us destroy Strahd, but we could increase Strahd’s suffering by recovering the remains of the silver dragon and placing them in the crypt.  Wick wasn’t especially pleased, since he wanted to kill Strahd, but Horngaard got very threatening whenever anyone mentioned killing him, and we backed down to avoid having to fight Horngaard and whatever undead allies he would summon.

We left Horngaard behind and climbed the stairs up to the roof of the mansion. There were a few ballistae arranged on the roof, but the one that ENGR -23 tried to examine crumbled as she touched it. A narrow stone bridge led to a tower above the chapel, and Txan moved slowly across, checking for weaknesses in the stone.  It seemed safe enough, so the rest of the group (except for ENGR, who didn’t trust the bridge to hold its weight)followed to a set of heavy doors on the other side.  Inside, was a stairway leading up, and we could see down into the chapel as well.  We climbed up to a small room with ravens perching in the rafters and windows on all sides.  We could see all the way to Vallaki to the north, and Morgantha’s windmill in the east.  To the west was an old abbey on a hillside, and south a river flowed through a boggy marsh.

We called it a night there.  We have a new goal of sneaking into Ravenloft to recover a silver dragon’s head and bring it back to Argynvostholt, but I don’t think we’ll be heading there quite yet.[/spoiler]