D&D 5E CoS - Quick question on fortunes

[shager]

My players - if you happen to find this, stop reading.

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Had our second CoS session the other night, and we got to the Madame Eva card draw. I read them their fortune, and had a thought....should I just read them Madame Eva's words? Does anyone tell the players where exactly they need to look? I say this because in this version of Ravenloft, you cannot assume stuff is just hidden in the castle. It truly is all over the map. I can envision some difficulty in narrowing down the locations of some items.

How have you fine folks handled these things? My preference is not to tell them anything but Eva's words...but I can see some of their draws being very tough to pinpoint..even in finding the general area in which to look.

 

[Koren]

I'd just give them the words. I was actually thinking about making some of them LESS specific.

A lot of the adventure is stumbling around the countryside figuring out where these cryptic clues are pointing. Once they actually reach the monastery, or Argynvostholt, or some of the other more secluded locations, it should be fairly obvious the place is tied to Eva's reading.

There are plenty of hooks to these places given out by different NPCs in Vallaki and Krezk, and a lot of the locations are part of the "What villagers know" sections at the beginning of the chapters.

 

[77IM]

Just tell them the words. But let them write down the exact words, or make Intelligence checks later to recall the exact words.

If the party is ever completely at a loss, let them make Wisdom (Insight) checks to get a hint. I'd make the hint a specific course of action, like, "Why don't you ask so-and-so about it?" or "You could research that in (place with some books)." This way they can never get stuck, or whine about being stuck.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I'm making up quest cards anyway, so I'm going to have cards for each of the individual fortune items. Interpreting Eva's words is up to the party, of course.