Ep. 1: Hello and Welcome

Thumbnail Art by Jordan Nelson

Jordan Nelson as
Larry Talbot

Daniel Cruz as
Imhotep

Grayson Norman as
Jack Griffin

Ben Magnet as
Mary Frankenstein

> This is an English countryside, but it's air quotes "England." It's England as imagined up by someone who's never been there and who didn't want to do any research beyond what city names sounded fun and what was within a reasonable distance from each other. This particular version of England is also a version that is host to the supernatural, the paranormal, the strange, and the dark...
>
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## Synopsis

**Full transcript available [here].**

*The Wolfman, The Phantom of the Opera, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and The Frankenstein Monster are all drawn in to the Church of St. Mary in the "Engl-ish" town of Fairstead, where they find themselves in the epicenter of a sinister plot led by the Cult of Reiner Leroux.*

### Pre-game

The episode opens up with The GM: "Danger Dan Jerz, "The Crypt Keeper" explaining the basic rules of Dungeons and Dragons 5e and the premise of an actual play podcast. The players then introduce themselves.

* Daniel Cruz plays Imhotep, The Mummy;
* Jenai Pellarin is featured as playing Countess Carmilla Karnstein;
* Jordan Nelson plays Larry Talbot, The Wolfman;
* Aaron Kaufhold plays The Phantom of the Opera;
* Ben Magnet plays The Frankenstein Monster;
* Grayson Norman plays Dr. Jack Griffin, The Invisible Man.

### Intro

Dan opens up establishing the setting as St. Mary's Cathedral in an alternate version of England that is almost but not quite accurate to its real life counterpart. The characters are introduced one at a time as they all assemble at the graveyard.

### Character Spotlights

#### **Larry Talbot**

Larry is a Lycanthropic Warlock with a homebrew Tarot Patron. He has a silver tipped cane and a deck of tarot cards that grant him a unique boon each session. His card for this session is **Death**.

Larry enters under the instruction of his mentor, the fortune teller Maleva, who has predicted that Larry will need to go to this location and assemble a team to prevent a great calamity. She knows nothing about the calamity or team in question beyond their corresponding cards: **The Moon**, **The Hermit**, **The Hierophant**, **Death Reversed**, **The Hanged Man Reversed**, and **The Empress**.

Larry hesitantly investigates his surroundings and, seeing commotion inside the chapel enters and spots The Phantom of the Opera lurking in the shadows.

#### **The Phantom of the Opera**

The Phantom is a human Bard, with the College of the Maestro subclass. He has a flute, rapier, and crossbow.

The Phantom is investigating the building for surviving pieces of art and spots a pipe organ in the corner. He plays the intro to Bach's Tocatta and Fugue and discovers that the volume control pedals are broken and the organ is incapable of playing below max volume. He is then immediately spotted by Larry, and two begin to interrogate each other. Larry identifies The Phantom as **The Hermit** and The Phantom identifies that there is something magically off about Larry, though is unable to determine any details about his affliction.

#### **Imhotep**

Imhotep is a Cnámhrûh Cleric with the Death Domain subclass. He has a Khopesh, The Scroll of Thoth, and a vial of water from the Nile River that he uses as his Arcane Focus.

Imhotep arrives, accompanied by two skeletal footmen, Ahsim and Uhr, in search of The Scroll of Anubis. They begin to investigate and are drawn into the church building by the sound of The Phantom playing the pipe organ. Imhotep uses his **Pierce the Veil** ability to disguise himself as a living priest and interrupts The Phantom and Larry's conversation. Larry identifies Imhotep as **The Hierophant** and Imhotep identifies Larry's nature as a warlock, and the tarot cards he channels his magic through (though he incorrectly assumes that Larry's mentor Maleva is his warlock patron).

#### **Jack Griffin**

Jack Griffin is a human Rogue with the subclass Thief. He has a dagger, a rapier, and a shortsword.

Jack arrives on the opposite side of the churchyard, and spots some activity in the cemetery that is heavily shrouded by an unnatural fog. He uses his **Undetectable** ability to drop his clothes and items and become invisible. He sneaks up and eavesdrops on the figures in the cemetery, identifying them as The Cult of Reiner, with their leader, Reiner Leroux holding off on their ceremony in anticipation of the others' arrival.

The sound of The Phantom playing the pipe organ momentarily distracts the cult and Reiner sends a few members to investigate, they report that 3 of the 5 individuals that Reiner is expecting have arrived. They then hear a set of thundering footsteps to the south, which Reiner identifies as belonging to The Frankenstein Monster. He sends his six cultists away to deal with him, leaving himself isolated and open to be pickpocketed.

While Reiner is vulnerable, Jack successfully manages to steal the key to Reiner's private vault off his person, leaving a prosthetic nose in its place. This causes Jenai to make her first damage inducing pun of the campaign, "He didn't *nose* what hit him", which causes the entire team to take 2d4 psychic damage as pun-ishment.

Jack successfully makes it out of the graveyard with the key before Reiner stops him in his tracks by revealing that he had the ability to see invisibility the entire time. Reiner then pulls out Gor the Brain and uses him to create a psionic blast that incapacitates Jack and knocks The Phantom, Larry, Imhotep, Ahsim and Uhr all unconscious. The Phantom falls directly onto the pipe organ, whose concussive blast of noise sends him flying 80 feet right out the front door.

#### **The Frankenstein Monster**

The Frankenstein Monster is a Flesh Golem Barbarian with the subclass Path of the Storm Herald. He has a club, the journal of Victor Frankenstein, and a letter addressed to him from Victor Frankenstein claiming to still be alive and asking to meet him at this church on this night.

The Monster hears the commotion in the graveyard and begins to suspect that the letter that summoned him here might be a forgery. He is confronted by the cult members who he engages in combat with. He manages to hold his own surprisingly well but is ultimately incapacitated when they begin to use fire against him.

#### **Carmilla**

Carmilla is a Vampire Spawn Blood Hunter with the subclass Order of the Ghostslayer. She is unarmed but has fangs and claws.

Reiner's cult brings the bodies of the entire party together and Reiner steals something valuable or dangerous from each person except The Phantom. He takes The Scroll of Thoth from Imhotep, The journal of Victor Frankenstein from The Monster, a skin sample from Jack, and a sample of saliva from Larry. He then combines together the scrolls of Anubis and Thoth and uses their magic to perform a resurrection ceremony. The magic revives the long dead Vampire Lord, Carmilla, who was slain over 200 years prior, but something wrong with the ceremony leaves her depowered and reverted back into a mere vampire spawn as opposed to a full vampire. This commotion stirs the party back to consciousness. Reiner is momentarily distraught by this realization but pivots and uses Carmilla's momentary disorentation to steal a vial of her blood.

Reiner is then ambushed by a group of Blood Hunters led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who engages both him and Carmilla in combat. Reiner appears to be at a disadvantage in the skirmish but manages to turn the tables by using Gor the Brain to incapacitate Professor Van Helsing and stabbing him with his own knife, bringing him into Death Saves.

Van Helsing reveals that they have the churchyard surrounded, and Reiner uses the power of the two scrolls to revive every corpse in the cemetery to fight on his behalf before escaping with his stolen items. This magic overtakes Imhotep Ahsim and Uhr, who are compulsively dragged into the fray. Larry attempts to break them free of their trance while The Monster fights off some of the encoraching undead and Jack comes to the aid of Van Helsing. Seeing the potential for redemption in a betrayed Carmilla, and recognizing how close he is to dying, Van Helsing uses a powerful blood hunter spell to sacrifice his own soul so that it may be granted to Carmilla. Carmilla then gains access to Van Helsing's blood hunter abilities.

In what is perhaps the most consequential Nat 20 roll in the entire campaign, The Phantom then unintentionally deals the killing blow on Professor Van Helsing as The Phantom spots the magically empowered knife that is lodged in his chest and unceremoniously rips it out of him. Jack is mortified and develops an intense hatred of The Phantom and a distrust for Carmilla as a result of this.

Meanwhile, Larry manages to help Imhotep regain partial control of himself and as the dead close in around them, Larry, The Monster, The Phantom, Imhotep, Jack, and Carmilla all take cover in a nearby mausoleum.

[End of Episode]

## Featured NPCs

* Maleva
* Professor Abraham Van Helsing
* Ahsim and Uhr
* The Cult of Reiner
* Reiner Leroux