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[Let's Read] DM's Guild Ravenloft Sourcebooks
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9148790" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dE80NzV.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/302840/Real-Housewives-of-Ravenloft" target="_blank"><strong>Product Link</strong></a></p><p></p><p><strong>Product Type:</strong> Adventure</p><p></p><p><strong>CoS-Required?</strong> Yes</p><p></p><p>This is a sourcebook dedicated to fleshing out the famous dinner scene at Castle Ravenloft. But with less eating and more catty infighting and drama. Designed for 4-6 PCs of levels 3rd to 11th, it can occur at virtually any time in Curse of Strahd’s plot. The adventure expands Strahd’s dinner date to a social and investigation scenario in Castle Ravenloft, where using the benefit of noblesse oblige the PCs have the ability to learn more about Strahd, Castle Ravenloft, and get involved in a traitorous consort’s plot that can end up with Barovia’s darklord giving them a reward of some kind!</p><p></p><p>The buildup to the adventure involves one of Strahd’s consorts having revealed sensitive information about the darklord to someone else. Information that Strahd would regard as a great betrayal. The reality of the situation is that the guilty party is doesn’t view what they’re doing is a betrayal. All of the consorts are desperate to please Strahd in constant games of one upmanship, for he is prone to staking and burying consorts he grows bored with in the crypts. As none can truly replace Tatyana as the apple in his eye, the consorts are thus trapped in a never-ending cycle of constant scheming.</p><p></p><p>Before the adventure begins, the DM must determine which of the consorts is guilty of this inadvertent betrayal. They also have an Accomplice, one of eight NPCs from elsewhere in the Curse of Strahd adventure. Some of them are allies of Strahd, such as Lady Wachter, while others are those who want to see him gone such as the Keepers of the Feather or Van Richten. Two particularly out-there Accomplices include the Dark Powers directly speaking to the consort with temptations of power, or the Mad Mage. Each Accomplice has their own motivations and favored tactics. For example, Baba Lysaga is akin to a doting mother who wants to keep tabs on her son, and makes use of scrying magic and a spell that causes the consort’s head to explode if she is forced to reveal the accomplice; Lady Wachter is motivated by realpolitik and wants to better find out what makes Strahd tick in order get on his good side, and makes use of a magic mirror in her bedroom or uses her cultists as envoys; the Keepers of the Feather want to learn ways of hampering Strahd’s reign, and make use of animal messengers and shape changing.</p><p></p><p>The adventure details various ways Strahd will deal with the Accomplice should he learn of their role in the conspiracy. For example, Strahd will offer a bounty for the head of Kirl Stoyanovich, the werewolf leader, figuring that the PCs will be motivated either by greed or “vanquishing a dangerous monster” to do his work for him. As for Lady Wachter, he will be impressed with her ambition and turn her into a vampire spawn to work for him directly in Castle Ravenloft. If it’s one of the Vistani groups who is the Accomplice, Strahd will arrange to have all of those in that clan killed, with only those with the gift of foresight managing to escape.</p><p></p><p>Finally, there are four major Methods that the Accomplice uses to communicate with the traitorous consort, along with specific rooms in the Castle where the communication takes place. This can be randomly determined by rolling a d4, but some Accomplices have suggested favored Methods, and in the Dark Powers’ case they only have one (Voice on the Wind). Animal Messenger makes use of mundane or enchanted animals to deliver messages or notes; Envoys makes use of human or human-looking messengers who can walk among Castle Ravenloft relatively freely; Magic Mirror is a two-way communication device; and Voice on the Wind has the Accomplice magically speak long-distance with the culprit.</p><p></p><p>Our adventure begins with the PCs receiving an invitation to have <strong>Dinner at Ravenloft,</strong> complete with an in-game handout in the back! They will meet Strahd at the front door, where he will lead them through the castle into the dining room. We get a modified boxed text of the Dining Hall area in Curse of Strahd, basically including seating arrangements with the PCs’ names at places on the table and Strahd playing the organ with two recommended song links from YouTube. After greeting the PCs, he will ask them various questions about their overall impressions of Barovia.</p><p></p><p>During the dinner the PCs have the opportunity to speak with the consorts, who have a list of various topics in which they take interest. Strahd himself sits back and lets the consorts guide the conversations. Once dinner is over, the consorts leave while Strahd stays behind, with Rahadin whispering something into his ear. This prompts the darklord to engage in conversation with the PCs. He explains that he met with Madam Eva several nights ago, and learned that one of his own consorts has betrayed him. He won’t go into detail on the specifics of the betrayal, but says that he wants the PCs to ferret out the traitor, why they turned against him, and find evidence or get a confession out of them. In exchange, Strahd offers to genuinely reward the party and give them limited reign in exploring Castle Ravenloft during the investigation, while giving them some useful information on how not to violate his vow of hospitality.</p><p></p><p>Should the PCs accept, Strahd will excuse himself in being “busy working on other projects”* and let Rahadin be their guide around the castle. Should the PCs refuse, he will express his disappointment with grace, has Rahadin escort them outside, and they are taken back to their original destination by carriage.</p><p></p><p>*In reality, he is resting in his tomb.</p><p></p><p>Strahd’s rewards are open-ended and based on negotiation with the PCs, but Strahd will not inform them about any item that can be harmful to him. However, a few rewards are given as suggestions: the Skull of Argynvost, releasing an NPC he has in his custody, letting one PC leave Barovia, or various kinds of information or magical items. Strahd is a man of his word regarding this bargain, and will give it to the party with no strings attached should they ferret out the traitor.</p><p></p><p>The adventure’s investigation part is rather freeform, and serves the useful purpose of letting the PCs get an early look around Castle Ravenloft in relative safety. It mentions what areas are closed-off, and that Rahadin or other castle guides will avoid using any secret passages or traps. PCs who get too greedy in looting the castle will have Strahd demand them to return any stolen items before they leave. Random encounters can still occur, but intelligent creatures working for Strahd will not initiate hostilities unless the PCs attack first, instead opting to step aside and let the party pass.</p><p></p><p>Should a PC accuse a consort (rightly or wrongly) of being the traitor, they will become enraged and attack the party. Should they reach 5 hit points or less (they are instead at 1 hit point if an attack would ordinarily kill them), Strahd shows up and demands a cessation of hostilities. The consort, if guilty, will confess. If the Accomplice is not Baba Lysaga, the consort will be staked and put in one of the empty crypts in Castle Ravenloft’s lowest level.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/BZYBp75.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lxjYUze.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The last part of this adventure details the <strong>Consorts</strong> and <strong>Helpers.</strong> Each of Strahd’s consorts gets a detailed two-page writeup. The first half goes over general details and backstories, gossip they have on other people in the castle, their motive for the accidental betrayal, hobbies they like doing in their spare time, and where they can be found in the castle. They each get unique stat blocks to make them different from your run of the mill vampire spawn, including legendary actions. For example, Anastraya can cast spells like a 5th level bard with a preference for enchantment and can attain limited Invisibility as a legendary action. While Volenta can sneak attack, has some other abilities similar to a Rogue’s, and has bone dolls she can break as a legendary action dealing AoE psychic damage centered on her.</p><p></p><p>While brief, this book does a good job on expanding on the backstories and personalities of the consorts, making them feel more like unique characters and less like generic minions as they come off in the original adventure.</p><p></p><p>As for the helpers, they are secondary characters residing in the castle who can be of use to the PCs during their investigation. They have much less detail than the consorts and mostly aid the party via gossip on other castle inhabitants. Save for Rahadin, who has no gossip to share and is only reluctantly acting as a guide around the castle given he doesn’t approve of Strahd relying upon the PCs to solve internal problems.</p><p></p><p><strong>Overall Thoughts:</strong> Although brief and open-ended, this sub-adventure has very strong potential for being a fun little mystery and packs a lot of information in a brief amount of space. I like how it expands on the consorts in terms of backstory and personality, and feel that this can be of use in the greater Curse of Strahd adventure. If I had any major criticisms, it would be that it doesn’t have a strong initial buy-in beyond what the DM comes up with themself: many gaming groups are unlikely to accept Strahd’s dinner invitation in the first place. Offering to help root out a traitor in the Castle is something even less groups would be willing to do without some strong incentive as this technically helps Strahd better secure his power base. The adventure doesn’t provide an alternate reward for PCs who decide to keep the traitor’s identity to themselves, or if they instead attempt to blackmail them. The adventure cuts off such choices as any accusation will make combat inevitable. I suppose learning who the Accomplice is can give the PCs leverage or an alliance with said character depending on their identity, but that’s a less tangential reward.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we recruit Ravenloft’s most famous NPCs as adventuring sidekicks in Allies Against the Night!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 9148790, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/dE80NzV.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] [URL='https://www.dmsguild.com/product/302840/Real-Housewives-of-Ravenloft'][B]Product Link[/B][/URL] [B]Product Type:[/B] Adventure [B]CoS-Required?[/B] Yes This is a sourcebook dedicated to fleshing out the famous dinner scene at Castle Ravenloft. But with less eating and more catty infighting and drama. Designed for 4-6 PCs of levels 3rd to 11th, it can occur at virtually any time in Curse of Strahd’s plot. The adventure expands Strahd’s dinner date to a social and investigation scenario in Castle Ravenloft, where using the benefit of noblesse oblige the PCs have the ability to learn more about Strahd, Castle Ravenloft, and get involved in a traitorous consort’s plot that can end up with Barovia’s darklord giving them a reward of some kind! The buildup to the adventure involves one of Strahd’s consorts having revealed sensitive information about the darklord to someone else. Information that Strahd would regard as a great betrayal. The reality of the situation is that the guilty party is doesn’t view what they’re doing is a betrayal. All of the consorts are desperate to please Strahd in constant games of one upmanship, for he is prone to staking and burying consorts he grows bored with in the crypts. As none can truly replace Tatyana as the apple in his eye, the consorts are thus trapped in a never-ending cycle of constant scheming. Before the adventure begins, the DM must determine which of the consorts is guilty of this inadvertent betrayal. They also have an Accomplice, one of eight NPCs from elsewhere in the Curse of Strahd adventure. Some of them are allies of Strahd, such as Lady Wachter, while others are those who want to see him gone such as the Keepers of the Feather or Van Richten. Two particularly out-there Accomplices include the Dark Powers directly speaking to the consort with temptations of power, or the Mad Mage. Each Accomplice has their own motivations and favored tactics. For example, Baba Lysaga is akin to a doting mother who wants to keep tabs on her son, and makes use of scrying magic and a spell that causes the consort’s head to explode if she is forced to reveal the accomplice; Lady Wachter is motivated by realpolitik and wants to better find out what makes Strahd tick in order get on his good side, and makes use of a magic mirror in her bedroom or uses her cultists as envoys; the Keepers of the Feather want to learn ways of hampering Strahd’s reign, and make use of animal messengers and shape changing. The adventure details various ways Strahd will deal with the Accomplice should he learn of their role in the conspiracy. For example, Strahd will offer a bounty for the head of Kirl Stoyanovich, the werewolf leader, figuring that the PCs will be motivated either by greed or “vanquishing a dangerous monster” to do his work for him. As for Lady Wachter, he will be impressed with her ambition and turn her into a vampire spawn to work for him directly in Castle Ravenloft. If it’s one of the Vistani groups who is the Accomplice, Strahd will arrange to have all of those in that clan killed, with only those with the gift of foresight managing to escape. Finally, there are four major Methods that the Accomplice uses to communicate with the traitorous consort, along with specific rooms in the Castle where the communication takes place. This can be randomly determined by rolling a d4, but some Accomplices have suggested favored Methods, and in the Dark Powers’ case they only have one (Voice on the Wind). Animal Messenger makes use of mundane or enchanted animals to deliver messages or notes; Envoys makes use of human or human-looking messengers who can walk among Castle Ravenloft relatively freely; Magic Mirror is a two-way communication device; and Voice on the Wind has the Accomplice magically speak long-distance with the culprit. Our adventure begins with the PCs receiving an invitation to have [B]Dinner at Ravenloft,[/B] complete with an in-game handout in the back! They will meet Strahd at the front door, where he will lead them through the castle into the dining room. We get a modified boxed text of the Dining Hall area in Curse of Strahd, basically including seating arrangements with the PCs’ names at places on the table and Strahd playing the organ with two recommended song links from YouTube. After greeting the PCs, he will ask them various questions about their overall impressions of Barovia. During the dinner the PCs have the opportunity to speak with the consorts, who have a list of various topics in which they take interest. Strahd himself sits back and lets the consorts guide the conversations. Once dinner is over, the consorts leave while Strahd stays behind, with Rahadin whispering something into his ear. This prompts the darklord to engage in conversation with the PCs. He explains that he met with Madam Eva several nights ago, and learned that one of his own consorts has betrayed him. He won’t go into detail on the specifics of the betrayal, but says that he wants the PCs to ferret out the traitor, why they turned against him, and find evidence or get a confession out of them. In exchange, Strahd offers to genuinely reward the party and give them limited reign in exploring Castle Ravenloft during the investigation, while giving them some useful information on how not to violate his vow of hospitality. Should the PCs accept, Strahd will excuse himself in being “busy working on other projects”* and let Rahadin be their guide around the castle. Should the PCs refuse, he will express his disappointment with grace, has Rahadin escort them outside, and they are taken back to their original destination by carriage. *In reality, he is resting in his tomb. Strahd’s rewards are open-ended and based on negotiation with the PCs, but Strahd will not inform them about any item that can be harmful to him. However, a few rewards are given as suggestions: the Skull of Argynvost, releasing an NPC he has in his custody, letting one PC leave Barovia, or various kinds of information or magical items. Strahd is a man of his word regarding this bargain, and will give it to the party with no strings attached should they ferret out the traitor. The adventure’s investigation part is rather freeform, and serves the useful purpose of letting the PCs get an early look around Castle Ravenloft in relative safety. It mentions what areas are closed-off, and that Rahadin or other castle guides will avoid using any secret passages or traps. PCs who get too greedy in looting the castle will have Strahd demand them to return any stolen items before they leave. Random encounters can still occur, but intelligent creatures working for Strahd will not initiate hostilities unless the PCs attack first, instead opting to step aside and let the party pass. Should a PC accuse a consort (rightly or wrongly) of being the traitor, they will become enraged and attack the party. Should they reach 5 hit points or less (they are instead at 1 hit point if an attack would ordinarily kill them), Strahd shows up and demands a cessation of hostilities. The consort, if guilty, will confess. If the Accomplice is not Baba Lysaga, the consort will be staked and put in one of the empty crypts in Castle Ravenloft’s lowest level. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/BZYBp75.png[/IMG] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/lxjYUze.png[/IMG][/CENTER] The last part of this adventure details the [B]Consorts[/B] and [B]Helpers.[/B] Each of Strahd’s consorts gets a detailed two-page writeup. The first half goes over general details and backstories, gossip they have on other people in the castle, their motive for the accidental betrayal, hobbies they like doing in their spare time, and where they can be found in the castle. They each get unique stat blocks to make them different from your run of the mill vampire spawn, including legendary actions. For example, Anastraya can cast spells like a 5th level bard with a preference for enchantment and can attain limited Invisibility as a legendary action. While Volenta can sneak attack, has some other abilities similar to a Rogue’s, and has bone dolls she can break as a legendary action dealing AoE psychic damage centered on her. While brief, this book does a good job on expanding on the backstories and personalities of the consorts, making them feel more like unique characters and less like generic minions as they come off in the original adventure. As for the helpers, they are secondary characters residing in the castle who can be of use to the PCs during their investigation. They have much less detail than the consorts and mostly aid the party via gossip on other castle inhabitants. Save for Rahadin, who has no gossip to share and is only reluctantly acting as a guide around the castle given he doesn’t approve of Strahd relying upon the PCs to solve internal problems. [B]Overall Thoughts:[/B] Although brief and open-ended, this sub-adventure has very strong potential for being a fun little mystery and packs a lot of information in a brief amount of space. I like how it expands on the consorts in terms of backstory and personality, and feel that this can be of use in the greater Curse of Strahd adventure. If I had any major criticisms, it would be that it doesn’t have a strong initial buy-in beyond what the DM comes up with themself: many gaming groups are unlikely to accept Strahd’s dinner invitation in the first place. Offering to help root out a traitor in the Castle is something even less groups would be willing to do without some strong incentive as this technically helps Strahd better secure his power base. The adventure doesn’t provide an alternate reward for PCs who decide to keep the traitor’s identity to themselves, or if they instead attempt to blackmail them. The adventure cuts off such choices as any accusation will make combat inevitable. I suppose learning who the Accomplice is can give the PCs leverage or an alliance with said character depending on their identity, but that’s a less tangential reward. [B]Join us next time as we recruit Ravenloft’s most famous NPCs as adventuring sidekicks in Allies Against the Night![/B] [/QUOTE]
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