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brownstonearmy · 3 years ago

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2021-08-01: Out In The Styx (Part 1)

Tuesday September 15 (evening)

In the days since our last adventure, the poopy tornadoes have subsided. Unfortunately, another threat has begun to take its toll on the citizens of Brownstone. There's something in the water that seems to be making the residents (for lack of a better word) stupid. Rooney thinks that Brynnan is probably behind (or at least involved with) whatever is going on with the water. The party has been tasked by new mayor Zaribeth Quickfingers to find and fix the problem, but the usual culprits for water problems aren't involved this time.

Lucky suggests flipping a coin to determine where the party should investigate next, and the options are these: several holes that have opened up in the ground in recent adventures, the shadow spire, some other plane, and (just for funsies) trying to gain access to the Nine Hells. Lucky doesn't want to flip the coin herself because the coin tends to land sideways far too often. Spleenifer performs the coin flips and it is determined that the hole where Yula got incinerated at the Harvest Festival is where the party will start today's investigation.

Aside from a few safety cones and a sign warning about the dangers of falling into the hole, not much repair work has been done on the massive hole. The sewer's magical rubbish incinerator is still visible at the bottom of the hole, along with a few stray pieces of outhouse lumber that didn't hit the incinerator 10 feet below. A viscous orange goo is seeping onto the floor of the incineration chamber.

Lucky eyes the goo and says "Someone should probably taste it and see if it's the Dumb Liquid."

Dear reader, this is the exact moment where the adventure train starts to go off the rails in the most wonderful way possible. No one in the party wants to taste it, so naturally the role of test subject falls upon Zaribeth Quickfingers. Who, it should be noted, isn't present at all for this discussion. The party will secretly give it to the mayor in the guise of a pie to test the liquid.

Lucky dumps out four jars' worth of jam from her pack and uses Mage Hand to get the liquid in the jar. She also prestidigitates the words "DO NOT EAT" onto the jar. You know, for safety. Once the samples have been captured, some additional details about the goo emerges. It's about the consistency of honey, just barely translucent, and smells a bit musty. Now all that's left is to enlist the help of a talented baker with questionable morals.

That's where Granny Agatha comes in. "What brings you to my doorstep?" she asks.

"Mischief," says the party.

This resonates with Granny Agatha, who has been nursing a grudge against government and politicians for a while after her court appearance. She agrees to make a pie for the party's use, but only on the condition that she gets to bake and keep a similar pie for her own purposes. Pie-based political revolution is agreeable for both parties, and two mystery liquid pies come out of the oven a short time later.

Once everyone gets close to the Mayoral Manor, Spleenifer and Q (who is going as Disco today) split up to provide reconnaissance and distractions as Lucky polymorphs into regular halfing who works for the just-now-made-up Halfling Food Delivery Service. Lucky knocks on the door and a guard signs for the delivery. As the guard turns around, Lucky becomes invisible and sneaks through the door before it closes.

Guards in the Mayor Manor are a new addition under the Quickfingers administration, and Disco notices that there are also four plainclothes guards making regular patrols of the area. Disco slinks into the shadows of the evening's twilight and becomes effectively invisible. Meanwhile, Spleenifer does not attempt to hide her great height in the slightest and starts wandering the outside perimeter of the building.

Spleenifer finds a suitable spot of wall and gives it a mighty kick. It makes a terrible racket as Spleenifer kicks a hole clean through the wall. It appears that Shepherd Dunwall, the previous mayor, had renovated some of the building's exterior after the town flooded with some of his ample manure collection.

Back inside the manor, the invisible Lucky is dealing with a different situation. The guard with the pie is waffling on whether or not to sneak a taste. Lucky does her best mimicry of the guard's voice to convince him that it's probably not a good idea.

Disco's employing a similar tactic on the plainclothes guards from their hiding spot in the shadows. Their first attempt convinces a guard that Disco's whispering is actually a ghost, and that guard refuses to listen to sassy ghosts as a matter of principle. But Disco's second attempt on the next guard... that gets some traction.

"Does your father know where you work?" Disco asks the guard. The guard, whom we'll call Randy, comes to realize that he's working for a criminal and that Disco's voice is actually the voice of his conscience. "Randy's conscience" tells him to cause trouble for his employer. How much trouble should he cause? Pooping on the mayor's desk without getting caught would be a good start. Randy's convinced and leaves his post to go inside.

On a different side of the building, two uniformed guards have confronted Spleenifer. She places her Handy Haversack on her head and screams "I AM THE WRONG DISHONORABLE SPLEENIE MEANIE!" The guards are taken aback for a moment before realizing that she's likely a victim of the so-called "stupid juice" in the water.

The guards march back inside to give Zaribeth an update on the situation. Lucky is still invisible and has managed to sneak her way through several doors to reach Zaribeth's office. The pie guard (I'm just gonna call him Gordy) has placed the pie on Zaribeth's desk, but she's in the middle of doing a pile of mayoral paperwork. Zaribeth tells Spleenifer's guards (Jerome and Albert) to just handle the situation however they see fit. Even if it involves a little bit of light murder.

Randy almost comes into Zaribeth's office but sees Zaribeth sitting there and sneaks back a bit. "WHAT SHOULD I DO, CONSCIENCE?" Randy whispers. And Lucky, who is unaware of Disco's previous conversation with Randy, is able to reply in such a way that only Randy can hear: "Do it right outside."

And thus, Randy drops his trousers and poops right outside the boss's office door.

Zaribeth knows Randy is afflicted with a condition where he sometimes hears voices, but curtly asks him to do it somewhere else because she's trying to get all this paperwork done.

Jerome and Albert confront Spleenifer again and try to convince her to leave without having to resort to violence. But when Spleenifer corrects their grammar while using the phrase "second person pronouns," the guards know that she's not actually on the stupid juice. But this doesn't immediately trigger violence in the guards. Instead, it causes a moral debate between the Albert and Jerome about the merits of killing. Spleenifer goes off on a series of tangents and eventually convinces the guards that if they let her be a guard for the next five to fifteen minutes, she'll leave on her own.

Albert and Jerome fold like cheap lawnchairs, leaving their posts to go get a drink instead. Randy has the misfortune of emerging from the main door after his act of bowel rebellion, and Spleenifer berates him for using the door instead of this new "entrance" that Speenifer's sizable boot just added to the wall.

Inside the mayor's office, Zaribeth gets distracted enough to eat the delicious-smelling pie on her desk. But the problem now is that she doesn't have a fork handy. But Lucky's got that covered! She uses sleight of hand to shove a fork into Zaribeth's desk drawer.

Zaribeth checks the drawer for the fork that she "forgot" she put in there and tucks into the pie. "THIS PIE GOOD," she says. With the party's suspicions confirmed, Lucky begins the process of vacating the premises with Disco and Spleenifer.

Now that the party's identified part of the problem, they go to collect more samples of the goo. Lucky once again uses Mage Hand to secure the samples, which causes a wild magic surge that results in her hair to try to escape Lucky's head and also makes the hair repeat back random words it overhears. With four more jam jars full of treacherous ooze, the party searches out a familiar (and technically dead) person: Jangles.

Jangles' house looks condemned and covered in caution tape, but Disco understands that this is probably some sort of illusion to keep up the appearances of Jangles' death. "Yoohoo!" Disco shouts from the parlor of Jangles' house once they've let themselves in.

"Yoohoo!" Lucky's hair repeats.

After a bit of searching, the party is able to coax Jangles out of hiding. Jangles is wearing disheveled clothes and presenting as masculine today. When Jangles hears about Lucky's pie-related treachery, they want to see it firsthand via memory viewing. They offer Lucky an ugly hat that is part of a pair that allows memories to flow between the hats. Lucky declines the offer for now until her hair calms down.

It turns out that Jangles may have created an item during their lockdown that might be helpful to the party. Jangles retrieves an airtight box that contains an object called the Towel of McClane. It basically works like a reverse-version of the Decanter of Endless Water and endlessly absorbs liquids instead of producing them. Jangles gives the party a brief safety lesson on this partially-tested object, and the party prepares to depart for the evening.

As the party is going out the door, Jangles learns that Spleenifer is "practicing law" and asks if she would be willing to help "settle the Jangles estate." You know, as much as you can settle an estate while the person in question is actually alive. Oh, and there's one last little tidbit before we conclude for the adventure for the evening:

Lucky makes it home to Hilaria to show off her new talking hair. Hilaria loves it and tries to teach it how to swear like a parrot. She also tries to feed the hair crackers. Those two are just so cute together!

Stay tuned next time for more!

#Dungeons and Dragons #adventure log #stupid juice #dumb #granny agatha #hair #shits and giggles #towel #pie

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dndeviants · 6 years ago

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Taken to Church

Linda awakened the next day, the faintest glimmer of light was peeking through the shades. She rose from the bed with Ireena to look outside, and saw a strange, heavy fog. Ireena stirred awake.

They got ready for the day, and over breakfast, Linda discussed with Ireena to meet with the envoys at the Inn. Ismark offered to come with them for Ireena’s safety, but Grindle offered to stay behind and chat with Kolyan, while putting his tinker skills to good use, and fix the family clock that had stopped in the middle of the night.

Meanwhile, at the Inn, Aric was roused from his sleep by strange smells and sounds that seemed to assault him. He had a sharp pain in his head as his senses began to overwhelm him... the smoke of the fire, the smell of the mildew and hay, the smells of the feathers in his pillow, of skins on the ground, the smell of sweat, rust, alcohol, the pungent odor of not-so-fresh fish... the scent of blood...

Then his ears began to ring at all the incoherent pieces of conversation that seeped from below... but it sounded as if the noises were in the room with him. He managed to hold in his pain, and steadied himself, even with the dull ache of the bite the night before...

“Jeeves,” Aric called out, “I think the changes are starting... I can smell and hear things I shouldn't be able too...” He clenched his jaw, trying to force the sounds out.

Jeeves sat up quickly on his cot, concern showing on his face, "Are you alright?"

Aric rubbed his face, “I think so, my head just hurts.”

Jeeves nodded, "Perhaps we could get something to eat? It isn't as if we had heavy fare before bed."

“That's true, lets head down and see if they serve food...” Aric had had enough time to cope with the loud noises, and managed to tune out most of it.

They headed downstairs into a crowd that had gathered, and whirled around when the doors opened, revealing a familiar face: the woman who helped fend off the werewolves the night before. But she was accompanied by a young woman, and a young man.

“Seems we had the same idea,“ Aric mused.

Linda raised a brow as she saw the young fire genasi and his retainer. She made her way through the crowd, “Hey, you made it to the inn. Thought we left you behind.”

Jeeves made an ambivalent gesture, “No, just got sidetracked.”

"As did I,” Linda nodded, then widened her eyes at a realization, "Oh pardon me. I'm ignoring the fact we hardly know each other. I'm Linda. And you?"

“I’m Aric.“

Ireena stood close to Linda, and addressed Aric, “I am Ireena Kolyana. This is my brother, Ismark. We are the children of the Burgomaster here.”

Ismark nods politely, “How do you do?”

They were about to reply when the doors opened again. There was a small quiet when Ruki and Vasili arrived at the Inn. It seemed the people knew them to be envoys of Lord Strahd.

The party huddled together, measuring the reaction of the villagers. Ruki and Vasili paid them no mind, and walked a path over to them.

Linda mused, “Seems that not only we are here...”

Vasili seemed to be a little ill and off his balance. He pinched the bridge of his nose and spoke in a voice of long-suffering to Ruki, "How many times must I say that that is my least favorite method of travel?"

Ruki smirked and chuckled.

Linda raised a brow, "And what is that?"

"Vistani Mist travel,” Vasili replied, “It doesn't agree with me. I much prefer riding in a carriage, or walking."

Linda thought of the way they had come here the night before, a pensive expression occupied her face, "I see."

Aric looked over to Jeeves along the same line of thought, and mouthed, Mist travel? to his companion.

Jeeves simply shrugged and gave Aric an expression that told him Jeeves thought that every person here was crazy in no uncertain terms.

“The mists are exceptionally quicker, my lord...” Ruki smiled in self-satisfaction.

"I assume that is how we got here, to Barovia,” Linda needed confirmation.

“You assume correct, Lady Linda,“ Ruki replied.

"Hmmm... alright.... well...” Linda looked over to Ireena, “I have some plans for the day, including a few questions for Vasili, correct?"

Ireena hesitated for a moment, and looked over uncertainly at Vasili before she nodded to Linda.

Vasili made note of the gesture, and fixed his stare firmly on Linda, "Ruki informed Lord Strahd and myself of everything that had happened, and on behalf of Lord Strahd, I am to extend our sincerest apologies to Lady Ireena," his tone was direct.

Linda glanced over to Ireena in the corner of her eye. An apology doesn’t mean he’ll stop, she thought. She demanded clarification, "So... what does that mean? I'm sure it would be much preferred if he ceased and desists."

Ruki reached into her pack and pulled out a small silver music box, “As a token of our apology,” she handed it over to Ireena, “we offer this small trinket.”

Ireena took the box with a confused face, “Thank... you?”

Vasili used Ruki’s distraction to approach Ireena, "May I see your wound, my lady?" he quietly asked.

Ireena sharply inhaled and reluctantly lowered the scarf she had put about her neck to disguise the wounds. Ruki kept watch for them, making sure that no prying eyes could see.

Vasili brushed his gloved fingers against the bite, studying her neck, before very quickly drawing his hand back, and holding them to his lips in a gesture of shock.

Only Ruki knew that this was feigned. She could see the golden glint of the holy symbol under the girl’s scarf. Ireena had at least that much protection from him, it seemed.

"Not very subtle is it?” Vasili murmured, then drew his attention back to Ireena, “Ah, I am permitted to tell you that you could best handle that by going to see a priest, or to a Vistani medicine man named Luvash. Those are the only people in Barovia who can remove curses like that."

Linda looked over to Ireena and gave her a gesture of support, “I don’t mind escorting you to either.”

Jeeves looked over to Aric and whispered, “Perhaps we too should look into this? Lycanthropy is a curse... the sooner we can deal with this the better.”

Aric nodded, “It’s the best plan we have...” he whispered in reply, “I think this Luvash sounds interesting. What do you think?”

"If I recall, it was a Vistani woman who told our fortune, so I think a Vistani medicine man would be better than a priest in this instance..." Jeeves made his case.

“Agreed, best to stick with what we know in this unknown land,” Aric concluded.

Vasili turned his attention to Aric and Jeeves, "Ah, apologies, how rude of me. It seems you are the other foreigners in this realm. I am Lord Vasili von Holtz, envoy of Lord Strahd. I would be pleased to make your acquaintance..."

“A lord as an envoy to another Lord,” Aric mused, “that's a little strange isn't it?”

Vasili tilted his head, "Is it? All lords here are but servants to Lord Strahd. I just happen to be the closest to him. I help mitigate between the rival houses. As does Ruki."

Aric blinked, “I apologize, I appear to have misunderstood the hierarchy in this land.”

Vasili placed a hand over his chest "I do not begrudge you. You are in a strange and foreign land, after all..."

Ireena spoke up, "I think... I would like to see a priest first. Father Donavich is only a short walk away, and the sooner this is handled, the better I will feel."

Linda nodded, "Works with me. I would like to speak with him, as well."

Vasili pressed his lips tight, and nodded curtly, "Alright. I can help accompany you to the church. It is in our instructions to look after both the foreigners and Lady Ireena."

Linda turned to the others, "Would you like to come as well, Aric and-?”

“Jeeves,” Aric’s retainer responded, “Giles Jeeves. I'm... what you would call a 'butler' of sorts."

Linda blinked and raised a brow, "Oh.. well nice to have both of your acquaintances."

Jeeves bowed his head slightly. Aric gave a dignified nod, and spoke on their behalf, “Yes, it was nice to meet you. We are actually going to go find this Luvash, we have some questions we think he can answer for us.

"We'll meet with you again. I'm sure," said Linda.

Vasili steepled his fingers, "We will have business in Vallaki as well. Perhaps we can stop by this Father Donavich, and begin travel to Vallaki. By my reckoning the church is already on the way."

Linda nodded in agreement, "To the Father, then Vallaki. If Aric and Jeeves, you get done with Luvash before we are done in the village, will you met us there?"

“Yes,“ Aric agreed. He was thankful for an ally, “That sounds great.“

Vasili reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bone carving for Aric, “It would be best to carry that with you, so that none of Lord Strahd’s creatures unwittingly attack you on your way there.”

“Thank you...“ Aric pocketed the charm, “and thank Lord Strahd too, I guess.“

Ireena made a small aside to Linda, "If you could give one of those to every Barovian, I feel we'd have a good start making it safer to live here..."

Linda nodded slightly to Ireena, trying not to alert the vampire’s servant.

Vasili gave Aric a small nod and wished him a safe journey. Jeeves collected supplies for the road, and made sure to taste a bit of every food item that he bought, just to be sure it was not poisoned or bad before he packed them away. They took a moment to eat before heading out to Vallaki.

Everyone else took a slow walk to the Church of Barovia. They walked through the dismal streets, the mist and fog hung high above their heads and pooled at their feet.

Linda grew curious about the vampire’s servant, and addressed Vasili, hoping to gain insight on the other side of things that she had learned, “So how long has your family been working for Strahd? Did they know what he was the entire time or no?"

"I come from a very old family line,” he explained, “We have been in servitude to the Von Zaroviches for a very long time, though our family has been more quiet in its service. We have guarded the secret for generations."

"I see..." So they knew and still served? Linda was questioning the motives in their family...

Ireena seemed to pick up on Linda’s thoughts, "So what do you get in return for your servitude? Pardon me, but I don't see the benefits of serving something as vicious as a vampire."

Vasili paused in his speech, “I suppose it is an overwhelming sense of loyalty. I don’t think my family would... or could... ever betray the interests of Lord Strahd.”

"Does your family have any recorded history that I could read?" Linda asked. It would make sense... if the Von Holtz family was a noble line, they should have some kind of record.

Vasili stopped in his tracks for a moment, and turned to face Linda directly, "I'm afraid that would be difficult."

Linda grew suspicious, “Why?”

“Because there isn't much records left,” Vasili explained, “A lot of records were destroyed in Vallaki. I'm afraid that if you tried to look for documents on the Von Holtz's... you wouldn't find very much."

He is being truthful... she thought. But there is something there that isn’t quite right either... I can’t put my finger on it. Wholly frustrating...She sighed, “A shame,” she half-frowns, “Though... I can relate.”

Ismark reached into his pack and handed a red-bound book to Linda, “Oh, I almost forgot! Father wanted you to have this as a thank you for saving his life.”

Linda’s eyes widened as she was handed the book Barovia and its Histories. “Thanks... at least I’ll have some history of this place. This should help my research.”

Vasili resumed the walk to the church, pondering Linda’s words. He glanced at her while she walked, “You can relate? Is that so?”

Linda was startled back to the previous conversation, “Oh, yeah... there is no record of my family line. And no record of me even being alive.”

Ireena furrowed her brow, "How does that happen?"

Linda pauses, “The fire. The fire that was started by jealous rivals.”

There was a stunned silence from all. Ireena and Ismark looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

Linda continued, “My whole family died. I would have died too, if not for Grindle.”

Vasili broke the silence. “I am sorry for your loss,“ he spoke in a quiet voice.

Linda was struck by the man’s words. It wasn’t often she had gotten condolences about her family... but then again, it wasn’t often that she spoke of her family tragedy either.

"There is the church up there..." Ireena pointed, then patted Linda on her shoulder, “And I really like Mister Grindle... ”

Linda blinked, “Me too...”

Ruki frowned at the church, and Linda quickly sized up the place. It certainly did not meet her standards of what a holy place should be: it was run down, the white paint was chipped away, the cemetery unkempt, shingles from the roof were on the ground...

Crows cawed and fluttered off the holy symbol of the Morninglord affixed to the steeple. As they flew overhead, Vasili took out a strange metal pipe from his cloak and lit a flame in the chamber of the pipe. He drew the pipe to his lips and took the smoke into his lungs.

Linda looked to the natives, and raised a brow, “Do all your churches look so... disused?”

Ireena looked down in shame, "It didn't used to be this way..."

Ismark folded his arms, "After the angry mob went to Castle Ravenloft and Strahd was proven to be a vampire... people just stopped coming. Especially since Doru was missing... presumed dead. I don't know about other churches,” he turned to Vasili, “Lord Holtz, you are well traveled... what are the other ones like?"

Vasili took a long drag from the pipe before knocking out its contents and putting the pipe back in the folds of his cloak, "Well, most other villages' churches are small and quaint like this one. Though more well-cared for... In Vallaki, there is a Cathedral, much larger than this... and finally the Abbey in Krezk is much like a fortress... well... it was a fortress at one point so it shouldn't be surprising."

Linda looked back to the church, “So they aren’t all decrepit... and this Doru?”

"Father Donavich's son...” Ismark explained, “One of the people who followed Van Richten and that mage up to Castle Ravenloft with the mob..."

"He was a very sweet boy," Ireena added.

"He just never came back?” Linda shook her head, “What a shame... I'm sure the state of the church reflects the Father's sense of loss then."

Vasili crushed the contents of his pipe beneath his heel, and uttered a brief apology, “Apologies. I only do that to calm my nerves."

Ruki sighed, “Father, you said you would quit...” This was rehearsed on her part. It was best that the others were not aware of the spell Strahd had just cast to protect himself from the holy aura of the church.

Vasili turned to Ruki, “I am trying to quit. It’s difficult.”

Ireena turned to Vasili, a small disapproving glance at the remnants of his bad habit, "And we are sure he can help us with removing the curse?"

Vasili shrugged, “I am not certain... but if you think it is worth trying..."

Linda continued on to the church, going beyond the rusty gate, and allowing the others to follow behind her. She opened the door to the church and saw a man with blond hair and a surprised expression on his face.

He greeted her with an accent that was slightly different from the other Barovians,”Oh? Visitors? It’s been a while... do you need anything from Father Donavich...? Oh, or were you looking for me? Any bodies to be buried?” The man noticed Ireena and Ismark and waved at them, “Ah, Fraulein Ireena! Herr Ismark! Is your father in good health?”

"Our father is better now, thanks to this stranger, and this Vistana!” Ismark answered jovially, “We actually came to see the father, Kristoff."

The man, Kristoff, pondered, "Oh? Well in that case... he's in the main chapel area, straight ahead. I gotta get back on my route. I'll see you around."

Kristoff walked past everyone to leave. Linda blinked and watched as the man left. She turned to Ismark, “He seems nice.”

Ismark nodded, "He is. But he's also an undertaker. He lives alone. He doesn't get to see people much except at their worst moments."

Ismark and Ireena headed into the chapel, eager to remove her curse. Linda paused to think about what Ismark said.

“He sounds like me...“ she murmured under her breath.

Linda moved in to the chapel area and saw the extent of the disruption. The entire area was in disarray... shattered pews, dusty glass, cobwebs, dirt, grime... There was a man in ragged robes praying in a hoarse voice at the head of the chapel...

The Morninglord’s prayer of salvation? Linda recognized the prayer... but it was being repeated over and over again by this man... but the man added a phrase at the end of every prayer:

“Lathander give me the strength to do what must be done.“

She thought she heard sounds of wailing... but it was so quiet, she couldn’t be sure... it was so faint. Maybe it is the wind? she thought.

Linda walked forward, Vasili lingered behind her. She called out to the praying man cautiously, “Father?”

Linda felt unease as the man ignored her and continued his prayer. Ireena rushed up behind Ismark.

“Father,“ Ireena cried, “It’s urgent, please!“

Linda walked near the Father, reasserting her voice, “Father Donavich.”

The Father stopped his prayer and stood up, his old joints creaked along with the floorboards as he turned to face everyone. A small bit of dust fell off his shoulders, and he fixed everyone with a sad, hollow face. Regardless, he speaks hoarsely, but quietly, “How... can I help you, children?”

"We wanted to ask you if you knew howto remove curses."

Father Donavich seemed to look through Linda, "Who needs a curse removed? Who has been cursed? And how?"

Linda felt cold as he looked at her. But decided to push on, regardless. "Ireena,” she statede, “Vampire bite."

Ireena nodded, and removed her scarf, exposing her bites to the priest, “I’ve been bitten...”

��By a vampire...“ Donavich breathed...

“... by Strahd,“ Ireena confirmed.

Father Donavich’s eye twitched at the mention of Strahd’s name, but Ireena didn’t notice the gesture. She pleaded, “Please help, Father.”

Donavich pulled at his face and muttered, “Lathander, give me the strength to do what I must...”

Linda heard the wailing again. This is not wind... what is going on here?

"The way to remove curses like that has been lost to the ages...” Donavich slowly paced, tears welling in his eyes. But he paused, and turned to Ireena with a grim, but determined look, “I'm afraid the only way to remove the impurity from your body... from your soul... is to spill your own blood before you taste it from another...”

His voice became harsh and full of hate, “If not... otherwise you will become an undead fiend like him!"

Father Donavich pulled a stake from his robe, his face contorted with a zealot’s self-righteous fury... He moved with purpose, raising his stake over a stunned Ireena...

#story update #curse of strahd #linda tacklemeyer #ruki von holtz #aric rein #strahd von zarovich #ireena kolyana #dnd #dnd 5e #writing

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wineanddinosaur · 5 years ago

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We Asked 24 Brewers: How Is Your Brewery Finding a Path Forward During Covid-19?

As businesses navigate the unknowns of coronavirus and Covid-19, breweries across the country are finding ways to stay active. For many small breweries, that means transitioning from taproom sales to curbside pickup and delivery services. Production breweries, meanwhile, are leaning deeper into larger packaging formats and retail partner support.

Along with staying in business, brewers are staying connected to consumers in creative ways, from virtual beer tastings and brewery tours, to social media contests, to beer deliveries by “shark.”

Other breweries, while still struggling, are looking past survival to the post-coronavirus future for the beer business, launching global beer collaborations to benefit hospitality workers, pivoting production to help create hand sanitizers for first responders, and giving away free pizzas to families in need.

From a simple hashtag to a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign like the New Belgium Bar & Restaurant Relief Fund, beer lovers are reminded once again of the camaraderie in the craft beer community. Here’s how 24 brewers are pushing forward during Covid-19.

“We launched All Together, a worldwide collaborative brew with proceeds going to organizations that support hospitality workers, to help unite the brewing community across the globe. The idea for the All Together Beer project is that any brewery around the world can make beer with the assets provided (open source recipe, label and social media graphics) and donate proceeds to their staff, relief funds and/or organizations that are supporting hospitality workers in their community. We hope the All Together Beer project will inspire creativity and help get our hospitality community through this crisis and emerge stronger at the end.” — Sam Richardson, Co-founder, Other Half Brewing, Brooklyn

“With draft business essentially shut down, we’ve shifted gears on the wholesale side to best serve our retail partners by ramping up our packaging. We’ve launched takeout for both food and beer at our Beer Hall with curbside delivery. In addition to a concise list of pizzas and sandwiches, we’ve created a menu of ready-to-bake meals to serve our community of families. … In a situation that poses an existential threat, it is easy to lose yourself in the fight to survive. That being said, this brewery is a part of a community. If we are going down, we will go down while giving away pizzas to hungry families. We’ve partnered with local food pantry, Daniel’s Table, to donate 150 pizzas a week.” — Sam Hendler, Co-owner, Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers and Springdale Beer Co., Framingham, Mass.

“Maxline Brewing is doing its best to retain the majority of its staff, at least to some minimal level. Our beertenders have been cut to one shift each per week, which if nothing else should be a supplement to their unemployment. Our GM is working with the beertenders daily to handle our to-go beer sales in crowlers, which has been our primary source of revenue since this [crisis] started. … Crowler Nation (Oskar Blues) has been overwhelmed with orders from around the country, and they’re working hard to help us all keep things running. So a big shout out to them!” — Kevin Gearhardt, Co-owner, Maxline Brewing, Fort Collins, Colo.

“Part of the difficulty navigating through this pandemic, aside from the obvious and starting with our customers, is that we are dealing with two extremes. On the one hand, our on-premise customers are completely devastated while the off-premise accounts are growing for us. So for our on-premise friends, we’re trying to help as best we can through the #BuyNeighbor program we started aimed at support through gift cards and takeout. For our fans, we’re staying connected through social media. … And for our employees, we’re looking at this as a difficult period but [are] hopeful that we’ll start getting to a new normal by Memorial Day. Unfortunately we haven’t hit the middle of this dark tunnel yet but we’re optimistically looking forward to the other side.” — Mark Hellendrung, CEO, Narragansett Beer, Pawtucket, R.I.

“The New York State Brewers Association came up with a really good idea with virtual happy hours. It’ll give us a chance to showcase things about our brewery that some people may not know. I hope it’ll be both informative and also fun, getting people to forget that they can’t go out and enjoy a beer with a bunch of people. Now they get to enjoy a beer in their living room with us. It makes you think that we could do these virtual happy hours even after we are back to normal.” — Manny Coelho, Brewer, Lithology Brewing Company, Farmingdale, N.Y.

“We are making fast and challenging decisions in order to ensure we land strong on the other side of this crisis. With the closures of our pubs, we’ve focused on moving quickly to ensure our people have immediate access to unemployment benefits, and have committed to extending their medical benefits through the month of April. In brewing operations, we also had to furlough employees, to adapt production with the loss of on-premise business with the closure of restaurants and bars in most of the country. Our main focus has been connecting with our people and keeping them safe through daily communication from our Covid-19 task force, establishing new safety protocols at our brewery, virtual town halls with our senior leadership team, keeping in touch with employees that have been temporarily laid off, and enjoying virtual ‘shifties’ (our term for the shift beers we share after work). Our ultimate goal is to get everyone back to work.” — Veronica Vega, Director of Product of Development, Deschutes Brewery, Bend, Ore.

“First, I think it’s important to define what success looks like for us in the current situation — namely, it’s making sure that, despite massive disruptions to our business, we preserve our employees’ pay and healthcare benefits for as long as possible. We’ve undertaken some pretty massive efforts to that end, and have made all the info available to our fellow small businesses (and generally interested parties) via a blog post detailing our approach to this ‘new normal.’ You can check out all the information at moderntimesbeer.com/blog.” — Dan Reed, Communications Metabaron, Modern Times, San Diego

“Like many breweries that were reliant on taproom revenue and keg sales through distributors, we’ve had to be resourceful and pivot. For us that means (socially distanced) packaged beer sales, both curbside and delivery; pop-up retail sales at some of our favorite accounts and partners; and a lot of crowlers! We were also able to lend our empty taproom for a couple of days to a local effort to livestream musicians, themselves now suddenly without livelihoods. We’re thankful that we can at least keep making and selling beer in any capacity, and especially to the NYS Brewers Association who worked so quickly to ensure we and others would be able to operate and keep a few people employed. And of course, we have daily conversations on safety and best practices, which keep evolving.” — Ethan Cox, Co-founder and President, Community Beer Works, Buffalo, N.Y.

“With all of our friends and neighbors staying inside, delivery and social media have seen a huge spike in activity. We repurposed some of our front-of-house staff to make direct deliveries in our borough of NYC (curbside drop-off to keep safe distances), and have spent extra time keeping our followers engaged. Most notably, our #SingleCutDistancing contest is getting a lot of attention by challenging Instagram followers to come up with their best photos of some ice-cold beers and 6 feet of solitude. So far we’ve seen a lot of backyard hikers, rooftop solo salutes, and more than our fair share of doggos and newborns.” — Dan Bronson, GM, SingleCut Beersmiths, Astoria, N.Y.

“We have been focused on helping our staff in every way we can and have been able to retain more than half the staff. Our people are our priority. We have been doing ‘family meal night’ on Thursdays in which Rohrbachs offers a free meal and groceries to staff members who have been temporarily laid off. We are also very excited to be working with our neighbor, Three Heads Brewery, on a collaboration beer. The camaraderie in our industry during this tough time has been incredible.” — Brittany Statt, Marketing Director, Rohrbach Brewing Company, Rochester, N.Y.

“At Anchor we are focused first on employee and customer safety. We temporarily shut down public tours and closed our taprooms prior to the shelter-in-place directive. We are running the brewhouse sporadically to ensure healthy yeast and to keep the beer flowing. We are running minimal packaging shifts of both bottles and cans to meet all orders and are doing everything possible to provide for safe distancing for employees on site and proper hygiene for people and equipment.” — Scott Ungermann, Brewmaster, Anchor Brewing, San Francisco

“Throughout all of this, the health of the community has been our top concern. We are cleaning and sanitizing everything in sight and minding strict rules of social distance to make this a safe experience for everyone involved. Through our online store we’re able to provide the community brewery-fresh 6-packs and cases of your favorite core Three Weavers beers along with 4-packs of limited releases available for both brewery pickup and local next-day delivery.” — Alex Nowell, Brewmaster, Three Weavers Brewing, Los Angeles

“[W]e are currently developing a program to help provide meals to those in the service industry, frontline workers, or frankly anyone who has been affected by recent closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic in NYC in need of a good meal. This initiative will roll out within the next week. Our brewery will remain closed, per Governor Cuomo’s guidelines, through the end of April. Currently, we are not offering beers-to-go, but suggest folks check our website and social channels to stay up to date on any developments. We are truly looking forward to re-opening our doors and enjoying a Mermaid [Pilsner] and some sunshine in our beer garden with our people. Until then, we just hope that everyone stays safe and healthy.” — Jim Betz, Head Brewer, Coney Island Brewery, Brooklyn

“We keep getting asked how we’ll keep up with business and also support our neighbors. The simple answer is: however we can! We’re keeping the stores fully stocked, offering regional delivery for beer and ready to heat, family-style meals and offering pay increases, perks and rewards to brewery-critical folks that can’t work from home. We couldn’t pull this off without them. The hospitality side of things has been most challenging. We didn’t want our rural location to limit us from continuing to serve the local community. Over a third of the population in our home county was food insecure before this all hit, so we’re also launching a pay-it-forward option with delivery, where you can add a boxed meal to your order that will feed a family in need or a front- line worker. Even though we’re over 11 years in the business, it feels a lot like starting the brewery all over again!” — Hayes Humphries, General Manager, Devils Backbone Brewing Co., Roseland, Va.

“These are uncharted times for our industry and our No. 1 priority has been to support our loyal employees and the communities we call home. Once the taproom business was shuttered to allow for social distancing guidelines, we launched a direct-to-consumer beer delivery service in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Our tasting room bartenders and kitchen staff have stepped up in a big way and have put in the hard work to take, process, and deliver beer orders to the doorsteps of local residents. This has also provided a unique opportunity for our staff to maintain reasonable employment when things are so uncertain for so many people.” — Justin Carson, Co-founder and President, Platform Beer Co., Cleveland

“Rogue is forging a path forward by doing what we’ve done since day one, giving back to our community any way that we can. We’re currently making hand sanitizer for first responders at our distillery in Newport and are looking into distilling beer for future batches. We are committed to safely continuing production to ensure our beer and spirits are available across the world while still making time to help those on the front lines fighting this pandemic. The days are long and busy, but we know what’s needed of us right now and are honored to be able to step up and help.” — Dharma Tamm, President, Rogue Spirits & Ales, Newport, Ore.

“[W]hile Ratio has predominantly focused solely on draft accounts, opting not to rush into canning or bottling our beers, during this time when we’re limited to packaged goods, we’ve been lucky to have been helped by our friends at Codi Manufacturing in Golden, Colo., who offered up their mobile canning line so we could package a release of Rooftops Mexican Lager. We’ve also been helped by our friends at New Belgium Brewing, as we were running low on crowler cans. We called up our buddy Andrew Emerton who works for New Belgium and they were willing to sell us half a pallet within the day to help fulfill our needs.” — Tristan Chan, Communications Manager, Ratio Beerworks, Denver

“Colorado, along with the rest of the world, is facing an unprecedented time of uncertainty, and in these tough times, the Breckenridge Brewery team believes that staying united and connected in our community is the best way to stay strong. From supporting our local healthcare heroes or helping those in need through causes like Food Bank of the Rockies, to providing opportunities where people can come together for a moment of joy through virtual dance parties, we are committed to being there for our fellow Coloradans and keep us connected when it’s needed most.” — Todd Usry, President, Breckenridge Brewery, Breckenridge, Colo.

“Sycamore was the first brewery in Charlotte to close to the public, days ahead of any state mandates. Our packaged product, beer, cider, and hard seltzer (BUBS) is available across our four-state distribution network. Our international markets are a different situation, and we have necessarily halted shipments to several European countries. We have not furloughed a single team member and we feel proud of this decision. Sycamore is more than a company, we are a family. While we wait for life to come back to normal, we have launched a fundraiser for Second Harvest Food Bank: Buy a Sycamore Gift Card from our online store to be used in the taproom, after we reopen; 100 percent up to $30,000 will go to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina. — Sarah Brigham, Managing Member, Sycamore Brewing, Charlotte, N.C.

“It’s important to keep spirits up while the world is turning so quickly. We are a two-person team, just the owners, so we did not have to deal with the disappointments of laying off staff. We spent the first week of the Denver restaurant/bar closing trying to quickly shift to to-go sales. We had a great response from our customers and feel really good about that option. The stress of running after the tail of the dragon was hard on us, though, so we chose to take a step back from daily to-go sales, allowing us to focus on packaging a lot more, while also brewing and moving our beers forward. … To stay connected and provide some levity for folks, we use [Facebook Live] on our brewery page to produce ‘Socially Distanced Drinking With Wayne And Laura,’ and spend 15 minutes a day chatting, toasting, being human — looking to bolster spirits and stay in relationship with our friends and fans.” — Laura Worley, Managing Director, Owner, Burns Family Artisan Ales, Denver

“Karl Strauss has weathered some storms in our 31 years. We have quickly pivoted our menu at our brewpubs to allow for Meals At The Ready, which allows for people to get much-needed proteins, side dishes, and platters for their families. From a brewery standpoint we have adjusted brewing to accommodate an increase in package sales. We are still selling draft through our brewpubs and select restaurants that are offering growler and crowlers of beer. Our latest can offering is Red Trolley in cans. What better way to weather a pandemic than with our best-selling beer, now available in a can?! Stay safe and drink well.” — Chad Heath, VP of Sales & Marketing, Karl Strauss Brewing, San Diego

“There are two challenges right now in this Covid-19 crisis: how to take care of your people, and how to keep selling beer. So we’re trying to adapt our sales to this new market by getting as many of our people into different roles as possible: Start employing tasting room staff to handle home deliveries, changing brews last minute to focus on the beers that go to grocery stores, using your people to complete construction work instead of contractors, cut kegs to put that beer into cans (and the required staff to run the line), and still providing insurance and benefits to employees we had to furlough. Plus the other things we’re doing that I can’t remember. Add in the required social distancing and all of sudden no more shift beers to unwind with your coworkers at the end of the day, and it makes taking care of the people that make up the company really hard.” — Jeff Joslin, Director of Brewing Operations, Left Hand Brewing, Longmont, Colo.

“As a company, our first initiative was to ensure that the team was safe. … The team has been great working remotely to ensure our service levels to distributors and retailers have not lowered at all. In the marketplace, we have refocused our entire sales team toward the off-premise to ensure we are supporting our distributors and retailers as effectively as possible in a safe and secure format. For example, we have a major display program with Total Wine and More starting this week, the materials for which are being distributed in a customized fashion directly to TW&M, the distributor, or our team members to ensure 100 percent execution. We see this as a way of not only ensuring support for our TW&M retail partner in the short term, but as a way to reinforce Paulaner USA as a supplier that is easy to do business with.” — Steve Hauser, President and CEO, Paulaner USA

“The reality is, we’re fortunate. As an established brewery with a large percentage of our sales coming from packaged product, we’re not as exposed to the current market conditions that are heavily impacting brewers who have to rely on tap sales. Because of that, we very much feel a responsibility to carry the flag for a bit. First, it’s a priority for us to make sure that we keep our existing staff on payroll. We’re not doing any layoffs or furloughs and we have actually made the decision to hire some staff and just brought on four new sales people and an assistant brewer. Second, we’ve also chosen to not engage in brewery-direct sales or do local delivery. We thought it more important in a time like this to encourage people to support our local businesses and also support the retailers and our distributor partners who are also trying to navigate this crisis and pay their staff as well. Third, we are trying to find creative ways to stay connected, like our weekly remote happy hours, and take advantage of opportunities to take on projects like painting the taproom to make use of our downtime. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we are doing everything we can to keep brewing and to keep craft beer on shelves in order to support our local economy with jobs, knowing that we can do it safely and in accordance with all state and federal guidelines.” — Kevin McGee, CEO and President, Anderson Valley Brewing, Boonville, Calif.

The article We Asked 24 Brewers: How Is Your Brewery Finding a Path Forward During Covid-19? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/we-asked-how-breweries-surviving-covid-19/

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johnboothus · 5 years ago

Text

We Asked 24 Brewers: How Is Your Brewery Finding a Path Forward During Covid-19?

Along with staying in business, brewers are staying connected to consumers in creative ways, from virtual beer tastings and brewery tours, to social media contests, to beer deliveries by “shark.”

The article We Asked 24 Brewers: How Is Your Brewery Finding a Path Forward During Covid-19? appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/we-asked-how-breweries-surviving-covid-19/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/we-asked-24-brewers-how-is-your-brewery-finding-a-path-forward-during-covid-19

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isaiahrippinus · 5 years ago

Text

We Asked 24 Brewers: How Is Your Brewery Finding a Path Forward During Covid-19?

Along with staying in business, brewers are staying connected to consumers in creative ways, from virtual beer tastings and brewery tours, to social media contests, to beer deliveries by “shark.”

The article We Asked 24 Brewers: How Is Your Brewery Finding a Path Forward During Covid-19? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/we-asked-how-breweries-surviving-covid-19/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/614295418133676032

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