D&D 5E Curse of Strahd help (lots o’ spoilers)

[Hawk Diesel]

Not sure if anyone cares, but I have written out the ending of CoS, and have gone a little more simple than what was above.

Basically, I'm going with Barovia needs a King or else the Dark Powers are freed. Strahd can leave if Tatyana's soul goes with him, leaving Barovia without a King, freeing them and allowing Strahd to go out into the world.

When Strahd dies, the Dark Powers will appear and inform the players that either one of them takes his place, or they are loosed on the worlds. In order for one of them to take his place, they must kill one of the others, which makes them turn into either a Lich or a Vampire, or Death Knight, they're choice, and they become the new Lord of Ravenloft. At that point, the other two are allowed to leave, so long as the new Lord of Ravenloft allows them to.

I'm doing it this way because Curse of Strahd is a horror book, and it should have hard consequences. Becoming the Lord of Ravenloft shouldn't be just some willy nilly "Oh, I perform this ritual" or "Oh, I kill this random NPC." I want it to be hard. If my brothers want the throne, they're going to have to pay for it.

What I expect to happen is for my two brothers to look at each other and say "Duel to the death?" And the other to answer, "After you, old chap." And this would be after fighting Strahd, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

But if they DON'T, and it's likely they won't since I will make it clear that being the Lord of Ravenloft is just as much a curse as anything, then the Dark Powers are freed, and I'm considering running Tomb of Annihilation next, with the Dark Powers being responsible for the Death Curse, and they have to find a way to stop it. I'm really hoping they take this option, but knowing my brothers, probably not.

I guess my only question would be, why don't the Dark Powers want to be freed? Wouldn't they be motivated to allow Strahd to die and no one take his place? This could work if revealed by a scholar or text prior to the showdown, but I don't see the Dark Powers delivering this message/choice.

 

[tglassy]

My first thought is to say "They're the Dark Powers, who knows what they want?"

But I'm going to say they just need sustenance. Which would you rather do, sit at a restaurant and have people bring an unlimited amount of whatever food you want for the rest of your life, or have to go out and get a job, then buy the food, then make the food, then serve the food, then eat the food, only to do the same thing again and again.

I'm going to go with the Dark Powers just have a good thing, and don't want it taken from them. They'll go out and wreak havoc if they have to, and they'll enjoy it, but being able to feed off of Strahd and all the torment he both feels and inflicts without having to DO anything is very tempting for them.

Basically, they win either way.

 

[epithet]

Hmm.

The "dark powers" are just vestiges, trapped in amber over a thousand years ago by the cabal of magisters that built the Amber Temple. There they were trapped long after they had driven the arcanists mad, though the silver dragon Arynvost thought it was important to keep the Temple secure and prevent them from being released. That raises the question, "what is Strahd doing that keeps them trapped, or what is it about his release that would end their imprisonment?"

To me, it doesn't make sense for them to even seek to escape, at least not until they gain more power. Individually, they are simply vestiges of ancient entities. They have only enough power to grant a single gift. Collectively, however, they are The Dark Powers, and they can extend their influence much farther. How many souls an individual vestige would need to consume before it would seek to go off and do its own thing, I can't say... but it seems there would need to be many.

Strahd and Barovia are one, linked by ancient ritual when he became its lord. When he became a vampire, that bond made all of Barovia vampiric, as well. Strahd feeds on the blood of adventurers and their souls become part of Barovia, woven into its fabric through reincarnation without end. That's the only way the barovians can raise their turnips and beets in a land that never sees direct sunlight - when Strahd feeds, the land of Barovia is nourished. When the curse of the dark gift took hold of Strahd, the bond between the land and the prince was corrupted to make Barovia his prison, but I don't see how that leads to the release of the dark powers if he ever finds release. Instead, it seems that as long as there is life in Barovia that Strahd will never truly die... unless the bond between them is broken.

For Strahd to no longer be one with the land of Barovia requires the ancient ritual to be performed to bind the land to a new prince, and that requires following ancient laws. Those laws can acknowledge a new prince by right of heirship or by right of conquest. The heir of Strahd can be the heir of his body, which would be Eva/Katarina or one of her descendants. The right of heirship may also come to the heir of his blood, a full and free vampire. Either path of heirship requires Strahd to name the heir (by choice or by force) and then abdicate, die, or be removed from Barovia. Conquest is more straightforward, but would require the conqueror to hold dominion over the land of Barovia, meaning the Burgomasters of Barovia, Vallaki, Krezk, and Berez must bend the knee and acknowledge the conqueror as lord. I would also require the chieftain of the hill barbarians to do the same, which should be easy enough with the blood spear. How to become Burgomaster of Berez could be an interesting question to answer, possibly requiring the recovery of some regalia of office, but since Berez had a noble at the time the curse fell upon the land, that remains a knee that must be bent to acknowledge conquest. That leaves only the Order of the Silver Dragon at Argynvotholt. If the order is disbanded altogether when the dragon's skull is returned, it is a non-issue, but otherwise it might require Vladimir to be forced to bend the knee (perhaps threatening the soul of someone he cares about) or removing him from his position of leadership. I would suggest that any death from which "only a wish spell" can bring the subject back would be sufficient to lay a revenant to rest, but a more entertaining option would be to join the Order of the Silver Dragon, then challenge Vladimir for leadership and best him in a 1-on-1 honorable combat.

So, what would happen to the "dark powers" if someone, either an heir or a conqueror, becomes prince of Barovia? I think nothing would happen at all. They would remain sealed in their amber vessels, waiting for the next opportunity to extend their corruptive influence. That might involve forging a soulmonger in the jungle of some far-off land, or granting a mad drow mage the ability to tear open a rift into the abyss.

EDIT

---

This also gives you an opportunity to make the Tome of Strahd worthwhile. Studying the Tome for a number of hours equal to 12 - the character's total Investigation bonus (minimum 1 hour, time cut in half for a character with the Sage background) will reveal the details of the ancient laws and Strahd's account of the ritual. A character able to cast the ceremony spell can study the account for 1 hour and make a DC 12 wisdom (Religion) check, and on a success that character knows how to use that spell to perform the Rite of Investiture, which requires a subject eligible under the ancient laws and has the Tome of Strahd as an additional material component, but is otherwise similar to the Rite of Dedication.

 

[tglassy]

That’s all great, but it’s a little complicated for my parents. I would have needed to seed a lot more through the campaign. We only get to play sporadically, so I need to keep it clear and concise form them.

Having it so someone needs to take over or something worse than Strahd is released is simple enough for them to understand. Making it so they have to betray one of their own in order to do so is a suitably horrible act to accompany it. I am putting them between a rock and a hard place, which is exactly where I want them.

 

[tglassy]

So we finally finished the game, and it went great, and the choice they made threw me for its simplicity and was, honestly, something I hadn't even thought of preparing for. Love it when that happens.

When they finally killed Strahd, the Dark Powers appeared and gave them an offer. I wrote a huge, long poem about how either Barovia has a King the Dark Powers can feed off of, or they break free and roam the worlds, feeding at their whim. But in order to become the Lord of Ravenloft, one of them had to kill another. Doing so would make them into something...else. My mom and one brother would become Vampires, my other brother would become a Lich, and my dad would become a Death Knight, though I didn't tell them that. Basically, they had to be undead to rule Barovia.

At first, my one brother, who was a Warlock and wanted nothing more than to rule Barovia, tried his best to talk everyone in to letting him kill one of them to be the new Lord of Ravenloft. He did a good job, too. A solid 19 on the persuasion roll (IRL, no rolls were used). My mom didn't want it, and my dad was, at first, willing to be the one who died to keep the Dark Powers locked away. After some bargaining with my other brother, the Warlock seemed to be getting the upper hand.

Well, my dad had a change of heart. He realized both my brothers' characters were evil, or at least not good. They would become just like Strahd, eventually. So right before they were going to make their choice, he decided to fight instead. He told the he wouldn't let them become the Lord of Ravenloft, because it wouldn't be any different than if Strahd was. So it was a fight. I told them to roll initiative. We would solve this in a good ol' PVP battle.

My dad won Initiative. And fell on his sword.

We all just sat there, stunned. I hadn't thought of that. The Dark Powers said that one of them must be the new King, and he must become that by killing another. Well...my dad killed himself. I didn't even bother to have him roll. I figure a Battle Master would know how to kill himself without needing to roll to see if he'd miss.

I was at a loss, and took a moment to figure out what happened. The only thing that I could come up with was that he rose as a Death Knight, or something like it, and he could keep the Dark Powers at bay, but because he took control with a selfless act instead of a murderous one, the Dark Powers could not twist his mind. He cannot leave Barovia, but he has all of Strahd's power within Barovia.

Now, my mom's wizard owns the Library in the Amber Temple, cause she made friends with the Lich there, so she knows every spell in the game, even if she's only level 11 and can only cast level 6 spells right now. My one brother, the Bard, took every gift in the Amber Temple. Yes, every one. He's a beast.

The other brother, the Warlock, now has a Staff of Power, a Staff of the Magi (he wants to dual wield and won't share), and a Luck Blade, which he used to wish for "A flying castle that he can use to go to other realms". So I gave him a Spelljammer. I know, very outside of the realm of Wish, but I liked the concept, and since they basically are going to use Barovia as their gateway to any other realm, I figured why not? He also had rescued all the kids from the werewolves, which the Bard rules, by the way, and takes them all to his ship to train them to be his own force he'll send out to other realms to do missions for him.

Not sure if they're going to keep playing with these characters or if they'll retire them. My dad's Fighter is probably retired. I figure they could start over as members of the Warlock's new crew, and it opens up every realm for me to play in. I thought about getting the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, to send them somewhere very different, but I'll think about it.

What do y'all think? What should I have done different?

Also, the Bard has the Dark Gift that allows him to use Reincarnate when he dies, but only three times. Using a Wish from the Luck Blade, he wants to make that infinite, so any time he dies, he just reincarnates in a random body. I'm not sure if I want to do that, but again, what do y'all think?

 

[MNblockhead]

Well, I would have focused on the requirement to "kill another", which would preclude suicide, which is killing yourself, not another. But it seems like the result was a meaningful and entertaining one for your group. Glad to hear the campaign went well.