The Red Door: A Reunion Beneath the Abbey

Characters:

• Shabasta: Porcupine Bard (Grant Haseloff). A performer with a flair for the dramatic who mixes enchanting music with prickly wit; his sharp melodies inspire allies and dishearten enemies. Freshly reincarnated after a stint as a druid’s sheep.
• Aera shan Ravanór: Wood-elf Rogue (Liz Mathews). The party’s lead scout and a deadly archer, legendary at finding and disarming traps and always first into the dark.
• Olfin Darning: Hexblood Paladin (Seth Booth). Bound by an oath to the light, with a hexblood heritage that hints at old bargains; both protector and enigma to his companions.
• Malron Lichtstrahl: Reborn Cleric of Lathander (Christopher O’Toole). Raised by a resurrection gone wrong that let an ancient elven spirit share his body, he now speaks with spirits and understands Elvish and Sylvan.
• Crusty: High Elf Sage Wizard (Cole Smarr). A spectacled scholar with a crystal-crowned staff, a well-worn tome and a tawny owl familiar on his shoulder. Tonight he reveals he is a Divination wizard.
• Liren: Dragonborn Barbarian (Kane Child, visiting). Wary and slow to trust anyone except Malron, and a force of raw fury in battle.
• Gumbo: Half-orc Rogue (Michael Child, visiting). Resourceful and pragmatic, with a knack for unexpected solutions and a sly sense of humor.

The Abbot has been redeemed and sleeps as a white-winged youth, watched over by the flesh golem. The party, newly level 8, beds down in the Abbey of St. Markovia for the night, with no idea that two old friends are about to climb out of the courtyard well.

Summary:

With the Abbot restored, the party sleeps in the Abbey of St. Markovia. In the night the abbey bell wakes them. Fog pours upward out of the courtyard well, and beside it stand two still figures the party first takes for more of the Abbot’s creations, until one looks up. It is Liren and Gumbo, companions long thought lost. For the party it has been months; for the two of them, only hours.

Note: Michael and Kane surprised the table after waiting outside for an hour and a half. Ryan ran it as an in-theme one-shot so everyone could play together, and caught them up: the party had broken into Castle Ravenloft, stolen from Strahd, nearly been caught, and killed two of his three brides. Grant explained that Shabasta had been a druid’s sheep in the meantime, died, and is now Shabasta again, reincarnated.

A pounding begins beneath the abbey, in time with the bell, and a mongrelfolk in the courtyard whispers that the Abbot said never to open the red door. A red door no one noticed before now stands in the back corner, over stairs leading down. Crusty’s Detect Magic finds nothing magical on it. Aera and Gumbo work the lock and it finally opens onto fifteen feet of stairs into pitch darkness. Olfin leads the way, checking for traps, and Crusty casts Light on his shield.

The walls of the chamber below are lined with niches full of small objects: a child’s shoe, a wedding ring, a soldier’s medal, a wooden toy, a broken holy symbol, each belonging to someone whose soul passed through the abbey. Liren spots something she lost while traveling Barovia, and the party realizes the Abbot had collected an item from each of them. Shabasta finds his second glamour weave. Then the shadows peel off the walls and attack.

Six shadows strike to drain strength; those hit take 9 necrotic damage and lose 4 Strength. Shabasta, who rolls a 16 and goes first for once, mocks one for being “a little lighter than all those shadows.” Olfin, now with the Sentinel feat, smites one apart. Crusty’s Slow catches five of the six. Aera crits one with her blade and Liren cuts down another. Malron’s Sacred Flame, hitting harder since his level-up, drops a third, and Gumbo dispatches another: “So long, shadow.” Shabasta tries to finish the last with his special spear, rolls a 1 and stabs Olfin for 6 instead. Olfin, at disadvantage, finishes it anyway.

Beyond, a hallway ends in a spiked gate that lifts on its own. Olfin checks that it won’t drop, darts under it and vanishes from sight; light swallows him and no sound comes back. Malron ties off a rope and follows, the rope staying taut, and the rest go after. They step into a sunlit meadow with birdsong, outside Barovia, and each sees the life they could have had if they had never entered the mists. Liren and Gumbo see their families alive, their lives continuing without the party. Then St. Markovia appears: “You’ve suffered enough. There’s no shame in leaving this place.” She snaps her fingers and a door appears, an exit from the mists for anyone who wants it.

Malron tries to consult the icon of St. Markovia, but it has not answered since the fight with the Abbot. One by one the heroes refuse: Shabasta has grown to love the party (and his sweet arm), Olfin stays, Liren likes to fight, Crusty has mysteries to uncover, and Gumbo is too in love with his own lifestyle to give it up. Malron warns Aera that it feels like a trap: “From everything you’ve told me about your family, this wouldn’t be your family.” Aera, whose husband and children were lost, walks through the door anyway.

Note: Aera’s choice was a long, real debate at the table. Liz chose it knowing it might mean a new character; Ryan let her play it out.

The meadow fades back into stone. From behind another door comes Aera’s muffled scream: the door was a lie, and she was teleported into the next room and took 9 psychic damage. Olfin opens the door to find her collapsed in a corner, clutching her head. Above her waits the Abbot’s first attempt at a perfect vessel, made before Vasilka: a body meant to hold a pure soul that failed, so he chained it beneath the abbey and forgot it. With the Abbot changed, hundreds of trapped soul fragments have flooded into it and woken it. It stands nine feet tall, with six mismatched arms, fragments of angelic wings, dozens of closed eyes stitched across its body and a golden halo nailed into its skull. It speaks in the voices of the dead, including Shabasta’s brother Doru.

Liren readies her battleaxe. The creature charges Olfin for 17 bludgeoning. Malron drops a Fireball behind the party’s line for 38, Crusty spends his Portent dice, and Gumbo’s sneak attack lands for 21. Olfin hits with a Shining Smite so every attack against it has advantage, and Crusty’s Scorching Ray hits with all three rays for 19. Shabasta curves a Chromatic Orb around his friends for 15 acid. Then Liren’s battleaxe carries straight through the blob and it bursts apart.

Hundreds of spirits stream up through the ceiling and the abbey seems to crumble around them. Liren and Gumbo begin to fade. The party says goodbye. Malron: “Thank you for joining us on this journey. Liren, I appreciate you protecting me.” The two become small flames and sink into the creature’s remains. Aera’s investigation (24) finds them inside a palm-sized silver reliquary shaped like a tiny gothic chapel, holding two silver flames that give off no heat.

Outside, a black carriage waits on the road, its door open and no driver in sight. Inside is a letter, which Malron reads aloud: “How delightful. Even the dead return for an encore. I do hope you enjoyed your reunion. There are so few left to come back.” It is signed by Strahd. The eye is ever watchful.

Key Locations:

Abbey of St. Markovia, courtyard well: Fog rises from it at night as Liren and Gumbo return.

The Red Door and the Hall of Niches: A previously unseen red door over stairs into darkness; a chamber of niches holding keepsakes of every soul that passed through the abbey, including the party’s lost items. Six shadows guard it.

The Gate and the False Meadow: A self-raising spiked gate opens onto an illusion of sunlight and the lives the heroes might have had, with a door “out of Barovia.”

The Chained Vessel’s Room: Where the Abbot’s first, failed vessel was chained and forgotten.

Encounters:

Combat: Six shadows (strength drain). Slowed by Crusty and cut down by the whole party. Shabasta’s natural 1 with his spear stabs Olfin.

Social and trap: St. Markovia’s illusion offers a way out of the mists. All refuse except Aera, who walks through, is teleported and takes 9 psychic damage.

Combat: The Abbot’s first vessel, full of trapped souls and speaking with the voices of the dead. Defeated with Fireball, Scorching Ray, Shining Smite, sneak attack and Chromatic Orb; Liren lands the killing blow.

Loot:

• Reliquary of Two Flames (Aera): A palm-sized silver reliquary shaped like a gothic chapel, holding two silver flames, the lingering echoes of Liren and Gumbo. Two charges, regained on a long rest: when a creature you can see within 30 feet fails an attack roll, ability check or saving throw, spend your reaction and a charge to help it (Ryan’s exact wording on the bonus was hard to hear; confirm with him). Once ever: when a character dies, crush it as an action and sacrifice one flame to return a companion to life.
• Strahd’s letter, left in a black carriage.

Notable NPCs:

Liren and Gumbo: Old companions, briefly returned through the abbey’s well. Saw their lives continue without the party, chose to fight anyway, and faded into the reliquary.

St. Markovia (illusion): Appeared in the meadow to offer a way out of Barovia. The door was a trap.

The Abbot’s First Vessel: A failed, forgotten body built to hold a pure soul. Filled with trapped soul fragments, it spoke with the voices of the dead, including Doru.

Strahd von Zarovich (by letter): “Even the dead return for an encore.”

Plot Points:

• The Abbot had been collecting a lost item from everyone who traveled through Barovia, the party included.
• The vessel held hundreds of trapped souls, freed when it fell.
• Strahd is watching: “There are so few left to come back.”
• Malron’s icon of St. Markovia has gone silent since the fight with the Abbot.

Session Highlights:

• The surprise return of Liren and Gumbo (and of Michael and Kane).
• Shabasta’s vicious mockery: “You’re not even a real shadow.”
• Shabasta’s special spear rolling a 1 and stabbing Olfin.
• Aera choosing the door to her lost family.
• Liren’s battleaxe through the blob, and the goodbyes as the two fade into the reliquary.