A Timely Performance

(A Party Introduction to the Curse of Strahd Adventure Game)

Narrator = Black, (Straight & Varied)

Halford’s Music = Red, (Music Background Song)

Ireena = Blue, (Higher Pitched)

Strahd = Purple, (Dark Slow Rumble)

Halford the Bard = Green, (Straight & Longing)

Background Theme Song= Love Bites, Judas Priest (Note: Ensure song is cued at start and that the volume
is not too loud; it is background to your narration).

Setup
((As fate would have it (the DM), our adventurers have found themselves presently awaiting
the arrival of the midnight coach to Neverwinter in a large tavern in Luskan. Some of the party
have booked passage and others have signed on as guards for the trip. While waiting for the
coach, there is a famous bard playing at the Piss & Whistle for one night only, (he’s also
awaiting the coach). As the adventurers settle in with food and drink and the local flavors; the
show is about to begin! Read the following to your party ;))

The crowd in the large tavern begins to whisper loud and low while watching the
travelling bard Halford prepare for his opening ballad in the port city of Luskan. Not
necessarily famous for his music, or performances, but rather for his sad tale of being lost and
separated from his one true love who in turn is being endlessly pursued by a powerful Count,
and a Vampire Count no less the rumors say...

With a fandangled contraption the size of a mimic, the bard is arranging his instruments while
scanning the audience. Finally coming to arrest, he lowers his head and pauses to build up the
silence before his recital...

((Pause for effect…then play the song and wait for 1st Gong and then say: “MEANWHILE…”
wait for 2nd Gong to finish then say “…In a far off misty plane...” wait for 3rd Gong to finish
then continue below…))

1
Several floors above the muck and mud of the bleak town below, a pretty woman in a white
nightgown is combing her long lovely red locks. Watching her from just outside her glass
paned window and a little bit further into the darkness; beady red malevolent eyes follow the
lone woman’s every move…

((When you feel safe

When you feel warm

That's when I rise

That's when I crawl))

With nary the effort, the emanating evil being crawls along the walls to the opposite building
where he then starts to glide on a summoned mist. In the dead of night he descends to the
lone woman’s window.

((Gliding on mist

Hardly a sound

Bringing the kiss

Evils abound. (READ NEXT)

In the dead of night…love bites))

After a long busy day, the woman who lay so snug in her soft bed quickly drifts into a deeply
needed sleep. Her mind filled with visions of her long lost lover performing his way across the
planes in search of her; his one true love and so he has professed.

((Into your room

Where in deep sleep

There you lie still))

With a fluid wave of his hand, the window opens up to allow the dark shadow to glide into her
room. With all the time in the world he creeps to her, a slow smile spreading from his tight
pale face revealing sharp ivory fangs.

2
((To you I creep

Then I descend

Close to your lips

Across you I bend))

Barely able to contain the excitement building within him, the vampire Strahd bends across
the lonely sleeping woman with her curvaceous form laid out before him. Now, his lips brush
hers ever so slightly and now with practiced ease, the ivory fangs pierce the soft supple flesh
of her neck. Now uncontrollably, she whimpers.

((You smile as I sip

Now you are mine

In my control

One taste of your life

And I own your soul))

Gently she moans as she stirs in the night, two thick lines of blood weave together from the
bite mark on her neck. In her lucid mind, it is her lover upon her that she sees; not the
vampire Strahd.

The taste of her warm blood invigorates the feasting creature as he growls his groans of
pleasure for her particular flavor.

((Softly you stir

Gently you moan

Lust's in the air

Wake as I groan

In the dead of night love bites)) (After 2nd, READ NEXT)

With the feeling of sudden horror the woman wakes with a gasp and a gurgle. Her eyes wide
open, she looks with shock upon her pale white hands and arms that are now bereft and
drained of color.

3
((Love bites you

Invites you

To feast in the night))

With a casual wipe of the back of his hand, her blood smears his beautiful soft pale features
around his wide charming smile. Like a king at a feast, he throws back his head to let out a
deep, echoing laugh, delighted to have finally had his prey.

((Excites you

Delights you

It drains you to white

Love bites)) (Small Pause, READ NEXT)

"No!" she cries, "It's you….from the market earlier today." Memories of a mysterious presence
flashes and assails her mind as she recalls the feeling of being followed with many eyes upon
her.

The Vampire stares deeply into her eyes and with his hands coupling her face he struggles to
tell her how he really feels.

He relents to her; "You know you belong to me… You know you’ve always come back
before". Smiling ever wider he gently wipes his finger across her still bleeding wound. “You
have been mine for eternity and for eternity so shall you be. Things are about to change my
love. At this very moment there comes to us someone worthy of taking my place and then
we can be free from this accursed misty prison of Mother Night.

“Come now Tatyana... there is no escaping my realm, my arms or my love.”

Hesitation begins to set upon her as she gently lowers her defensive blanket to the bed. In a
daze, her shoulders slump in release of her will to the vampire…

((You knew at first sight

You'd enjoy my attack))

Slowly savoring her blood, he removes his finger from his mouth. "There's no turning back
now my sweet dire love. Come to me and we will conquer the lands beyond all of Barovia
together!"

4
((That with my first bite

There'd be no turning back

So come in my arms))

Shaking her head, the scared woman pulls the bloodied bed sheets up tighter around her
while scurrying back to the far corner of the room.

Visibly the love from the vampire’s eyes begins to coldly fade away; Strahd looks out the
window and beyond in the piercing darkness and from within here, into your very own eyes
above the bard’s contraption you see him! With a dark slow menacing voice you hear him say;

"I will lay waste to all those that oppose me…" The light in the tavern now illuminates red off
the walls from the light of Strahd’s eyes as his head enlarges by several scary feet. The Bard
Halford doesn’t appear to notice as he is deeply entwined within his performance and the
many various gizmos on the gnomish contraption that is making the music and “rocking”
sound.

((I strike any hour))

"My agents are everywhere!”

((I will return))

"There is no escape, all of Barovia is mine."

((To trap and devour)) (After One, READ NEXT TILL FINISH)

And just as fast, the large visage disappears from the tavern sending the shadows back to the
corners of the room.

Withdrawing from her warm bloodied bed, Strahd hovers to the window sill.

Before floating out the window into the dead of night, he whispers into her mind; "In your
death, I shall find you again my love." Vanishing into the darkness from which he came,
Strahd’s laughter echoes among the village walls below and within her soul.

With her back to the wall, she slowly slumps to the floor. Whimpering in anguish she begins to
cry uncontrollably. Calling out her lover’s name between sobering gasps, she reaches up to
ask the darkness slowly surrounding her… “Where are you my love?”…

And with that the darkness consumes her as she gives into exhaustion.

5
((Elsewhere, in a far off Tavern, a bard is playing the last and final notes of his life...))

With a final motion of his arms, the Bard rises from his stool and contraption to slowly and
eloquently bow before the cowed audience. Suddenly mugs and dagger hilts barrage the
tables and beams, threatening to bring down the old tavern. More and more the crowd surges
forward to give a standing ovation to the bard for his performance. The Bard smiles a lonely
smile that is not to fool anyone of his true inner pain. With many flowers laid out before him,
he selects the best one and with a kiss to its petals, he whispers his one true loves name aloud
“Ireena…” as he tucks it into his blazer.

Looking up and beyond, and with one final bow to the happy crowd he makes his way stage
left before turning back one last time to address his captive audience. "I hope you liked my
show. If you happen to see my love Ireena, please tell her that I haven’t stopped looking for
her and that I never will.”

“Love Bites” -Judas Priest

_____________________

-Longtide (DM_Intuition)

Sept 2018, for the Curse of Strahd Adventure Party Introduction