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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MostlyHarmless42" data-source="post: 7281322" data-attributes="member: 6845520">My players originally were torn between leaving Ireena in the chapel in Valaki or to risk taking her to the Monastery where I originally pitched it as "safer" but at the cost of risking the open road to Krezk. They chose to do the latter, and were inevitably betrayed by the Abbot, after a night long siege with all of Strahd's forces and their first encounter with him, resulting in them choosing to let Strahd take Ireena in the hopes of saving her later at the castle (remember Strahd is a gentleman and very traditionalist, and likes to play with his food, he's not the type for a quick bite. He wants to break the players spirit through Ireena.)For helping you, it sort of depends on a couple things:1) Who is the player's fated companion? For mine it was Ismark, so killing and vampiring him would've have been as good an option.2) Have you introduced Fiona Wachter, and if so, how have you handled her? The same with Izek and the Burgomaster of Vallaki?Either one of these people will chose the "safety" of the village over the lives of some random outsiders and the adopted daughter of a dead Burgomaster of another town, one which the Burgomaster in his madness, or Fiona, a known Strahd loyalist (and master manipulator) would likely spread the false belief the town of Barovia is all but fallen to Strahd anyway, and attempt to turn her in to Strahd to save their town if push comes to shove.In my game, for example, had the players kept Ireena in the chapel (a sacred place Strahd and his spawn can't enter, Strahd would have instead started sieging the town itself, sending spawn in the streets at night with bats, wolves and werewolves would be constantly outside the walls testing and prodding at defenses, steadily applying pressure and fear to the townsfolk. At the time, my players had not yet cured the Burgomaster of his madness, and I had already introduced Fiona and Izek as characters; I took a paige out of Dice, Camera, Action and made the Tiefling player Izek's sister and Fiona both their Aunt, though if you used what the book had, Izek is going to want to "save" Ireena himself by "keeping her safe" in the Burgomaster's home, and given his personality no way is he going to listen to some fool of a spellcaster pc telling him the church is safer, especially after Fiona starts publicly announcing to the entire town that Strahd's armies are here, and the only way to make them leave is to turn over this one girl named Ireena to them! ...by the time Strahd arrives it isn't just the players against him. It's the players vs the entire damn town! At the point if you really wish to be mean (especially if he is the fated companion), have Ismark have been charmed by Strahd, and help hand over his very sister. He doesn't even need to be a vampire to hit the players emotional (and himself, imagine how he'd feel when the charm wore off and he failed his one job?!). My Ismark, for example, literally broke down and colapsed to his knees in tears at his impotence in front of the party and Strahd while the paladin sworn to protect her went berserk and lost to Strahd one on one while the party watched. It was quite the emotional session. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Anyway, hopefully that helps. The just of it is that I would suggest using the NPCs to drive the story forward. You could go forward with the Ismark being turned and Ireena being taken, but I'd find a way to specify how it happened. Why did she leave the church, etc.?</blockquote>

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