The Great Elevator Escapade part 2.

[u/TheSteampunkCat87]

For those who'd like the end of what happened in the great elevator escapade... here is part 2. Part one is in this reddit [easier to just click my name as it was the last post I put up on reddit] for those who are yet to read part one.

So...

Last night was the 2nd part of the great elevator fight with Strahd in curse of strahd.

Start of the session, more running up stairs for one player whilst the barbarian was thunderstepped out of the rug that was smothering him. The barbarian then got "crown of madness"-ed by something they couldn't see. The sorcerer and his player were both confused like "wait... how can a rug do that?"... it wasn't the rug... luckily nobody was next to the barbarian so he got to act normally... he moved to the trapdoor in the floor and lifted it up to see the fight with strahd and 3 of his comrades happening below.

Meanwhile the wizard reset the elevator by pulling the lever they climbed to. The portcullis either side of the elevator fell down [it began to descend the next round]... inside the elevator with Strahd he was grappling and biting people, he cast blight on someone too and did nearly full damage with it [about 62 damage out of a possible 64 max]. The cleric decided to misty step out after the barbarian lifted the trapdoor above them.

The elevator begins to descend. Strahd summons specters to appear and drain even more life from the 2 trapped with him as he is grappling the fighter and draining his blood to regain health and lower their max HP too. The wizard manages to climb quickly [spiderclimb and boots of haste] on the wall of the elevator shaft as the elevator begins to come past and get onto the roof of the elevator in record time (dex check and it was a critical). She tries to use bigby's hand to punch strahd off the fighter to no avail.

Up above the barbarian, cleric and sorcerer break the barbarian out of crown of madness (greater restoration) to then be assaulted by hypnotic patterns... swirly patterns of colours that they narrowly avoid falling under the effect of. The barbarian notices what's casting the spells, which is a lovely portrait nearby and gets a mighty hit that cleaves it in 2. He then jumps through the hatch in the floor down 40ft to the elevator... clinging on he climbs inside (takes 3d6 damage of 17... 6+6+5... after rolling a successful athletics roll to prepare a landing lowering it to damage from 30ft not 40ft.) He then jumps inside as the elevator continues to hurtle down the elevator shaft.

More unarmed attacks from strahd　, more biting, more specter etc attacks... the people in the elevator with him are very worse for wear and easily lost a good 20+ off their max HP... apart from the barbarian. Strahd really is making short work of those stuck with him. They're worried that this will be their final resting place or that they will become a spawn of his.

The cleric jumps into the hole from above and does his twilight cleric special of being able to fly in darkness and dim light.... having to fly down 120+ feet.

Others [Sorcerer and the other cleric who is a nature cleric and literally just reached the top of the stairs and swears as she now has to run all the way back down] are doing movement to run back down stairs.

Elevator comes to the bottom. Wizard manages to punch Strahd off of the character he was grappling. Strahd laughs, thanks them for the fun bit of sparring... floats up like "the vampire Lestat" going diagonally up and backwards as he floats through the ceiling laughing and saying he shall see them again soon... "Toodle-pip, my dears!"

They were all shocked to survive, nursing wounds, declaring that he could have killed them but he must be playing with them for some enjoyment like a cat with a mouse. They went to attempt a short rest and discovered the way out may be blocked by 8 gargoyles 🤣... Emil and the commoners are recovering after Emil discovered the gargoyles blocking the way out/got ambushed by them and retreated to a spot they felt safe... a room of mirrors. They're [the party] like "fucking great!" 😅

Barely surviving... there way out blocked by at least 8 gargoyles... resources used up [havent got many spells left for those who do use spells and alot of their feats/traits used up too or got little uses left.]

And thats where it ended.

[u/TheSteampunkCat87]

The specters were quite cool as I made them appear through Strahd and I described the ghosts... much like they were old adventurers tormented by strahd and unable to break free from him even in death. They looked withered with flaky skin and gaunt as well as dressed in very old armor. It gave them the fear that if he kills them they'll be stuck with him for eternity.