D&D 5E CoS: My players defeated Fate

Irda Ranger · Mar 25, 2017

My players did something very unexpected. They lured Strahd out of the Castle using Ireena as bait (by convincingly feeding false information to his Vistani spies), and ambushed him.

They did a great job planning it all out and took precautions to prevent Strahd from learning the plan, so I was thinking he'd show up, realize it was a trap, and run off after a round or two when he realized Ireena wasn't there.

The problem is he didn't get a chance to. The PCs won Initiative, went nova, and in round 2 the vengeance paladin (who had the sun sword) rolled three hits (he was Hasted) including a critical hit with Hunter's Mark plus a 2nd level Smite.

In two rounds they blew through his 50 HP buffer and all his HP, and because of the sunlight he couldn't transform into mist. Dusted.

I mean I could have fudged it and just said he wasn't really dead but the plan was so well executed and the rolls so awesome I didn't want to take that away from him.

Anyway now they're exploring Castle Ravenloft and they recognize they're near to where the card reading told the the final fight is, and I'm not sure what to hit them with. I don't want it to be anticlimactic and say "I guess the cards were wrong".

I'm thinking they encounter some vestigial spirit of Strahd. Like the tattered remains of his soul just refusing to die. Like a wraith turned up to 11. Any thoughts?

Sent from my iPhone using EN World mobile app

pukunui · Mar 25, 2017

Sounds like a plan! Maybe you could take a look a the vampiric mist stats in the new Tales from the Yawning Portal.

Leatherhead · Mar 25, 2017

The Dark Powers "Resurrect" him, right in front of the PCs. Make it clear this isn't the first, or even possibly the last, time he will die just to be brought back and toyed with.

Satyrn · Mar 25, 2017

I wonder if any fight at all would take away their already earned victory.

Taking from the vestigial spirit idea, I might just make it Strahd, who has managed with his last vestiges of undeath to make it back to his castle. But he has no strength left to fight, no power to command his minions. He is completely helpless now, face to face with the PCs.

What do they do? Do they talk to him, do they slaughter him, do they spare him? Or what? Let's find out!

Quickleaf · Mar 25, 2017

Irda Ranger said:
My players did something very unexpected. They lured Strahd out of the Castle using Ireena as bait (by convincingly feeding false information to his Vistani spies), and ambushed him.

They did a great job planning it all out and took precautions to prevent Strahd from learning the plan, so I was thinking he'd show up, realize it was a trap, and run off after a round or two when he realized Ireena wasn't there.

The problem is he didn't get a chance to. The PCs won Initiative, went nova, and in round 2 the vengeance paladin (who had the sun sword) rolled three hits (he was Hasted) including a critical hit with Hunter's Mark plus a 2nd level Smite.

In two rounds they blew through his 50 HP buffer and all his HP, and because of the sunlight he couldn't transform into mist. Dusted.

I mean I could have fudged it and just said he wasn't really dead but the plan was so well executed and the rolls so awesome I didn't want to take that away from him.

Anyway now they're exploring Castle Ravenloft and they recognize they're near to where the card reading told the the final fight is, and I'm not sure what to hit them with. I don't want it to be anticlimactic and say "I guess the cards were wrong".

I'm thinking they encounter some vestigial spirit of Strahd. Like the tattered remains of his soul just refusing to die. Like a wraith turned up to 11. Any thoughts?

Sent from my iPhone using EN World mobile app

Quite the dilemma. The Tarokka reading said there's a final fight in a certain room of Castle Ravenloft, and they've already dusted Strahd. I see 3 options...

1) Bring Strahd back by deus ex machina (aka Dark Powers). Personally, I wouldn't do this because I agree it cheapens their victory.

2) Introduce a completely different villain, such as upgrading one of his vampire spawn as the "new lord of the castle" (now freed from Strahd's control) OR the arcanoloth Inajira who has come to collect on Strahd's soul. This could present a fun dilemma – let the arcanoloth take Strahd's soul to do something evil with (but end the curse), or prevent it from taking Strahd's soul for its evil plot (but continuing the curse)?

3) Interpret "final fight" as "final challenge or conflict", since the Tarokka is all about symbolic meanings, not necessarily literal ones. So you could set up a dilemma designed specifically for your players / PCs. A dilemma that divides the party's opinions, potentially violently so. A temptation one particular PC can't resist that screws the rest of the party. A sacrificial choice. Something like that.

Irda Ranger · Mar 25, 2017

Luckily this is a text-based game so I went back to see what exactly the prophecy said. It seems I quoted the CoS book exactly-

"Madam Eva takes a deep breath to regain her composure.

Center: "The final destination. Your enemy is a creature of darkness, a being with powers beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him."

The Tempter - "I see a secret room. A vault of temptation hidden behind a face of great beauty. The evil awaits atop his tower of great treasure."

"That is all I can know. Go now." Madam Eva quietly gathers her cards together and her granddaughter Illya hustle you out of the room."

There's good and bad to work with here. The good is that "your enemy" is vague. Maybe Strahd was never their REAL enemy all along. He was a puppet of some Dark Power, and that's who awaits them.

And I've also been dropping hints that the Dark Powers are connected to the Amber Temple and Mother Knight. The PCs haven't gone there yet but by process of elimination are pretty sure it's through Tsolenka Pass. They're guessing that whatever it is that keeps Strahd coming back is based there (and those vestiges are as good a Dark Power as any).

So the downside of the prophecy is the word "awaits" and the pronoun "him". They shouldn't find a clue that leads them to the Amber Temple, but their actual enemy should be present. And not Mother Night herself, as she's a she.

I think I'm leaning towards super-wraith. As Strahd's curse won't let him fully die, until the Dark Powers create a new body for him he's a wraith that haunts the castle.

But what does it even mean to defeat a wraith that cannot become fully dead? Maybe he's just an ordinary CR 5 wraith who doesn't even try to fight. He just laughs at the PCs and keeps reforming. They've got to break the curse first to really put an end to him.

(Which IMO means taking Ireena to the sacred pool to rejoin Sergei, then breaking the vestiges at the Amber Temple, then finally circling back to finish off wraith-Strahd for good)

Sent from my iPhone using EN World mobile app

dave2008 · Mar 26, 2017

Irda Ranger said:
I think I'm leaning towards super-wraith. As Strahd's curse won't let him fully die, until the Dark Powers create a new body for him he's a wraith that haunts the castle.

I would go with [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION]'s suggestion of Inajira. That is already built into his story and presents a lot of interesting issues. You have Strahd's wraith / vestige float in the room and then Inajira appears to collect his soul. That can go many ways, but finding out a fiend is the final fight wouldn't be so bad - and quite a change-up if they are expecting more undead.

Technically the MM arcanaloth is CR 12, but I could whip-up a beefed version if you want.

ad_hoc · Mar 26, 2017

Sounds like you messed up and didn't play Strahd the way the book instructs you to.

The only thing left to do here is conclude the campaign and try again in a new one.

MostlyHarmless42 · Mar 26, 2017

Fortunely I read ahead on places like here and realized quite quick Strahd is a squishy individual. I planned for this type of thing by doing a couple things. First, being well aware of his capabilities and making sure to swap out some spells to better suit a hit and run monster. One pet peeve of mine with Wizards and their monster stat blocks for casters is they always seem to use the same damn spells prepared for a "wizard" caster, regardless of if it makes sense. Strahd is more a guerilla fighter, which means he should have spells to support this. Likewise, he is scrying and spying on the party the whole adventure, which means he should prepare spells to counter the party.

I also made a slight tweak to the heart in that it kept him from being destroyed while the heart still beats. It's a classic trope and effective makes him a pseudo-lich, but it keeps him from being steamroller outside his castle, and explains why he's so confident about winning. I basically have set up with the players the idea that they have to find the heart (which will be at 1 HP when they find it if they do 49 damage to strahd first).

...that all said, to help with your immediate problem, the wraith idea has merit, though as others have said, the Dark Powers are the real baddies of Ravenloft. Perhaps you could use the arcanaloth from the Amber Temple, but I would suggest tying in the Lichtenstein of the Amber Temple, or Madame Eva herself. Yes, the prophecy mentions a "he", but you could have her be a more powerful being in disguise. Perhaps a powerful devil here to claim Strahd's soul?

Maybe even use the Abbot from the monastery. He is a fallen angel and could play into that. Perhaps he has been sent here to redeem the land itself from the dark powers, and he's miffed the party messed up his plans by offing Strahd? Remember he thinks the key is to give Strahd his bride. Sure he's by the book a Deva (and therfore weaker), but he could easily be upgraded to a powerful devil stats or even a Solar angel.

You can even play more into the Castlevania route. Barovia must always have a lich king...err, Strahd / Dracula. The players get to the final place, only to realize the lands themselves are disappearing into the mists. The people they've met are ceasing to exist. The players then have a choice, do they flee through a means to escape the land, or one of them attune to the land, and thus being the next Strahd? Madame Eva, The Lich, or The Abbot could present this choice, either as a representative of the dark powers, or just as a third party.

You have a lot of options, pick the one that best represents the version of Barovia you have conveyed so far.

Morrus · Mar 26, 2017

The 50hp heart buffer is dumb. Any optimised level appropriate PC will do that in a round with little effort.

I made him recover all hp every round while the heart still existed. Even so, they put the beat-down on him. At last he survived it.