Redcoat Smasher and the Mystery of the Vampire Lord

I may have unleashed a monster. D&D is about all that has been talked about in the house since our first game with my son a week prior. I finally convinced him that it takes a little bit of prep, and I can’t just slide it in on a whim, so now he thinks it’s an every Saturday affair. In between, he has been telling me all about the adventures he thinks Redcoat has gone on and asking for information about Queen Alexandria and Prince Domino.

So, we sat down for adventure two. I realized during prep that an episodic set of one-off stories could work well. He can build some established characters, and stories, but we don’t have to rely on involved long stories. It’s much more like the story of the week TV shows he is watching. I broke out my go to plot #2, which worked well with the Halloween holiday approaching. Vampires kidnapping folks.

We start today with Redcoat smasher and Opal Moondust trekking through the woods on their way to the town of Westchester. As they leave the woods, they can see the town in the distance, a small farming town, and it looks like its harvest time. They can see the wheat fields cut low, and candles lighting the town.

When they make it to town, they join in the celebration. There are some ring toss games, pie baking contests, and a pole climb competition. Redcoat and Opal both try their hand at pole climbing (str checks, the townsfolk rolled flat d6 which I’ve been using as untrained attempts at anything) and Redcoat smashes it with a 7 winning the whole thing. He gets a whole pie as a prize and shares with the rest of the competition.

Afterwards, the ringmaster of the pole climb approaches, and asks, “you must be a hero with how good you did at the climb”. The towns teenagers have gone missing, and they would be eternally grateful for help. Redcoat and Opal ask around town, and Opal flubs again. Redcoat’s highest stat is Charisma for some reason, and the people love him with a 10. He gets tons of hints and puts together that the teens were last seen hanging around an abandoned church graveyard outside town.

As soon as Redcoat steps over the broken gates into the graveyard, lightning flashes, and thunder booms. A handful of zombies climb from the earth and lurch towards them. After a brief fight, and the team resettles, Opal notices the wicked willows seem menacing, and guides them safely past. Redcoat gets between, and guides them safely around but then, a duo of banshee flies from the chapel on the hill.

Finally, as the party makes their way to the chapel, outsteps three black clad figures. In true adventurer fashion, as soon as the lead one opens his mouth to address the party, Redcoat launches a volley of fireballs springing the group into combat. The villain (Lord Alucard) never got to really get into explaining his plan, but the kids inside did explain a standard vampire kidnapping plot.

Back in town, Redcoat gets five gold pieces, and all the pies he can eat, before hitting them up for a couple more gold pieces. Some things are just innate.