Dice, Camera, Action: Episode 26 - Curse of Strahd

Episode 26: The Greater Good

• You can watch this episode on Youtube here.
• I have a Dice, Camera, Action Episode Guide here.
• You can buy Curse of Strahd here.
• Check out the Dice, Camera, Action section on reddit.

I usually wait about an hour after the show starts so I can watch the archived version and pause it as necessary. For some reason, this week I had a really hard time finding the archived version. I literally just sort of stumbled on it.

This week we have another special guest star: Liisa Lee, a voice actor. They do a really great job of picking people out for this show. Liisa was perfect and totally prepared.

The Party

(Liisa) Arabelle - Vistani
(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard 
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer 

Last Time: Paultin stayed at Van Richten's Tower with Dee. The rest of the group went to find a little girl named Arabelle. A guy in a rowboat was about to throw her into the lake...

The heroes are on the boat in the lake accosting the guy (his name is Bluto). Paultin comes riding on Valentina heading for Van Richten, who is on the shore. Paultin knows Van Richten killed his parents, but he doesn't know why. Paultin grabs him. Van Richten hits Paultin with his cane.. and rolls a 20. Paultin take a cool 11 points of damage.

Paultin rides off with Van Richten. I should note that we never find out what happened to Dee. Did he kill her? Did he knock her out and sneak past her? Did his shadow attack her?

Strix grabs the sack with the girl in it and gets back to the shore. Strix takes Arabelle out of the sack. Good god, Liisa does an awesome accent. Arabelle says she was playing the "hide and go seeking" and Bluto put her in a sack.

Strix uses thaumaturgy to shot at Paultin to stop. I swear I don't think I've ever seen anyone ever use thaumaturgy before. This loud noise attracts some mysterious person in the woods to come closer.

Bluto starts choking Diath and ends up in the lake, sinking. The group is pretty much fine with Bluto drowning.

Paultin casts suggestion on Van Richten, but he makes his save. Van Richten says he spared Paultin's life way back when. Paultin's family was responsible for the death of his son, Erasmus. Van Richten says that if the group defeats Strahd... "I will let you kill me." They shake on it.

The Mysterious Wizard: There's an elk off in the distance. Arabelle makes a check, rolls a natural 20! She knows that it's... the mad mage in a magical disguise! Wow... this should be awesome. Chris kind of dangled the mad mage in front of them a long time ago but the group didn't bite.

Van Richten vs. Paultin: Van Richten somehow lost the hag pin. A commentor reminded me that Diath took it last session.

Van Richten gives Paultin his journal so that he could read it and understand the full story of what happened with his parents. Didn't that journal burn up last time or am I confused?

You know.. Paultin could hand Van Richten over to Strahd. He is Strahd's spy and he would be rewarded greatly. Heck, he might be able to get Strahd to let the heroes out of Barovia in exchange for Van Richten.

Evelyn is suspicious and she decides to cast Zone of Truth on Paultin and Van Richten. Wow, smart! She is worried that Paultin is made of snow again (the group traveled with a simulacrum of Paultin for a while).

Van Richten explains that the group must use the hag pin on the little girl for the ritual to work. One prick of the hag's pin would kill her, just as it would Paultin. Good gawd. The group isn't too keen on killing Arabelle.

The more powerful the vistani, the more powerful the receptacle. Van Richten explains that the little girl has great power.

Evelyn accidentally walks into the zone of truth and blurts out that she love Paultin. The whole group goes "we know," even Van Richten.

Arabelle has had nightmares about Van Richten. She utters a curse to blind him. He makes his save. Van Richten almost stabs her, but backs off.

Waffles at Last: Arabelle says that her dad runs the vistani camp and he'll reward them with anything... including waffles! The group perks up. Will they finally get the waffles they've been questing so long for?

Diath points out that the group need chicken eggs for this ritual and that the vistani has the chickens.

Paultin tells the little girl she's being selfish for not wanting to be stabbed by the hag pin. She isn't happy about this and tries to pick his pocket. Evelyn is watching... Arabelle steals his spectacles - I think those are his eyes of charming. Evelyn calls her out and Paultin gets his item back.

We go through a pretty hilarious debate over whether to stab the kid with a pin. Evelyn insists that the group are heroes and they are not killing a kid. She says that they are not leaving Barovia until Strahd has been dealt with... even if the vistani could get them out.

The group heads toward the vistani camp. A dusk elf is in the woods and calls out to her. The dusk elf is part of her vistani camp.

Dusk elf

At the camp, Arabelle's dad, Luvash, is whipping a guy for losing her in the first place. Luvash is overjoyed to see his daughter alive. He rewards them with treasure. Chris does a great vistani accent, he makes Luvash a really fun character.

Vistani Treasure: Luvash has a big treasure hoard, divided up into boxes and containers. The group is allowed to take one container. The heroes convince him to give them two.

Strix assumes gaseous form and goes through each container. She goes into a rolled-up carpet but she can't make out what is in there. Chris described it as if there was a lump in it and indicated that there was something inside.

Luvash told them that one of the containers had a diamond in it (Diath needs one for his resurrection power) but Strix says there isn't one. Luvash gives a hearty laugh. He lied. He's so jolly about it that the group can't help but cut him some slack.

The group unrolls the carpet... that's where we stop.

If you want to know what all the treasure is, check out Curse of Strahd page 123. I think Evelyn will love the rug. Clearly, Chris has something up his sleeve here and is adding something new in.

Overall

There was a lot of funny stuff on this one and Liisa was really great. She was prepared, she knew everything she needed to know, and she did a fantastic voice for Arabelle. She fit right in and was really impressive.

Season 2: Chris mentions that a guy is making an animated opening for "season 2" of Dice, Camera, Action. He's putting Strix in it. I don't understand... what is season 2? Is it a new campaign? Or are they dividing up Curse of Strahd into two seasons?

Not enough happened on this episode for my liking. It was good, but it didn't really contain any major developments.