WOW! WOW! WOW! What else is there to say? Cravenmoor: Tower of Blood was a fantastic way to start off the 2026 VTD season. It had everything—Vampires, Werewolves, Flesh Monster (Frankenstein to most), Spirits, Thieves, Possessed Spirits . . . a bat flying across the screen to let you know when time was half gone. The font and arrow to move to the next room was well-done. The fact that our stats could be collected in training saved us so much time. A big shout out to the programmers for making this possible. This is one of the most valuable changes that has been made.
Maybe I was just missing Virtual True Dungeon, but they knocked it out of the park again. Thank you to Jeff, Lori, CPN, Grunnel, Drake, Troy, all of the DM’s, Coaches, Innkeepers, Golems NPC’s and anyone I have forgotten. The storyline is great Jeff. The twists and turns kept us on our guard. Special shout outs to the NPC’s who were fantastic. Often we leave out the Innkeepers and Coaches so special thanks to Deni, Natasha and Yancey. They are very good about answering questions and getting us what we need before the adventure begins. Kudos to our DM’s Thomas and James—fantastic job in describing combats and monster hits. They also added in things like after defeating the Elemental—it is a long way across the room and it will take 4 or 5 minutes . . . take off your shoes, Remove your coat since the room is warm from the Elemental. Finally, a big thank you Andrew and Ashley in Epilogue. The selection for Condensed treasure went very smoothly. We are excited about this option—it was selected by everyone that could in our groups.
The combats were daunting—our NM Room 7 with the bandits and Boss Bandit took 8 rounds with seven adventurers. I guess I would be remiss if I did not concede the fact that we had our share of misses. Here is a run-down of one of our adventures.
Room 1—It took a long time to travel to the castle and then we hit a pack of wolves with an Alpha Wolf naturally. The wolf animations/pics on the screen were very representative and one of the best things was the realistic snarling the wolves made. Five rounds of combat finally produced victory. I read where some groups healed or tamed a wolf and then they accompanied them on there trek. Imagine talking to the wolves—one group did this and told them they come in peace—the wolves replied we’ll take you to pieces—that would have been fantastic but not our group. That is what makes this so much fun though. The memories that we make and the shenanigans we pull when our imaginations are let loose.
Room 2—A puzzle room to open the door. Placards on the door totaling 15 representing a moon, a bite, body parts, torch, hammer, wolf, lightning, flesh monster (Frankenstein), blood, zombie, silver coins, sun, vampire, fire and scarecrow. Clue—Birth to life to demise. Items to use—a stake attached to a chain, hammer attached to rope, Torch attached to rope and a silver tipped arrow attached to a chain. A well-constructed puzzle but solvable
Room 3—A surprise—a trapped Spirit Elemental guarding the way up to the top of the tower and it was very unhappy. He started with ice and then turned into a fire elemental. The size of the Elemental was impressive and the way he shot out blasts for dealing damage was cool with the sound effects. A few twists--Retribution damage dealt to those using melee weapons and some self-healing. When defeated he asked to be returned to his home plane. He wanted nothing to do with us. How were we to do that? Guess we go to the next room . . .
Room 4—A puzzle—four pedestals—each containing an element—fire, earth, water, and wind. Other things in the room included parchment, torches, candles, charcoal. How to use these to open the portal so the Elemental could return home (and he could not control everything so his painful trek might throw some damage our way). After we figured the sequence and he was just a small ember we had to bring him to a larger size with unique sources of stoking the ember or fire. This part was quite interactive and made use of some of those tokens you carry along thinking you will need them. Once this was accomplished the incantation had to be spoken. Alas when he entered the portal some nasties came through before we were able to close it.
Room 5—Malevolent Spirits that came through the portal. Five rounds of combat produced a victory but along the way some possessions took place, several will saves, several reflex saves, some psychic damage, some afraid effects. What a variety of things they could do. Making some of our party attack others in the party. When the spirits attacked they rushed at you and that was a well-received effect. Also, they faded in and out which was neat.
Room 6—A puzzle or combat room. We opted for puzzle to make the elevator operational. We were met with a grid, six colored tokens, an order they had to be placed and rules for what could be placed where or with another. The instructions were two pages. Not a lot of time to read and remember everything in detail. Luckily we worked together and solved the dilemma. We finished with enough time to check out the monster—a flesh golem (Frankenstein). We were able to get in four rounds of combat and he was hanging on by a thread when moved into the elevator.
Room 7—A den of thieves on the top level of the castle that was out of the reach of the Ilyena Von Thornes powers. They were able to become squatters using ropes and grappling hooks to reach the top of the tower. I don’t know why we didn’t pull out our ropes and grappling hooks and just climb up at the start of the adventure. Using hind sight I am glad we didn’t. As the difficulty level selected went up the number of thieves went up. They kept getting replaced as we fought. As the bandits were felled there were interesting sound effects and they had different ways of falling and simulating death. These were appreciated by our group. Finally, we make it to the boss thief who was bigger and more accomplished than his minions. So, at NM we ended up a group of seven and with flanking, misses, etc. It took eight rounds of combat. We were successful and freed Sabella. (The NPC played this part very well and will join us next month.)
John O (Salsa John)
