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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MostlyHarmless42" data-source="post: 7492819" data-attributes="member: 6845520">So, for my version of Curse of Strahd, I had similar ways of working in the characters. The Paladin who started as an Oathbreaker and ended up by the end an Oath of the Ancients (I'll get into it in a minute) I implied over the game was the reincarnation of Sergei and had a backstory tailored to be implying that Strhad was grooming him since childhood through Rahadin to replace him. The other players included a half-elf ranger whom I made the daughter of the dead eleven consort of strahd and a human from Faerun, and I made the change that Rahadin and Kassimir were twin brothers and that Rahadin was impersonating his brother to falsely lure the party. It tied the ranger and paladin together in a way they didnt expect and made Rahadin a more prominent character as a result, as he was bother the ranger's uncle and the paladin's mentor/betrayer. Also in the group was a tiefling warlock who I made the half-sister of Izek and made the creepy dolls about her instead, a cleric of Thor was was basically a glorious fish out of water compared to the rest of the group (who were from Faerun) with amnesia from hitting his head too hard when he fell from the sky, and a cleric of Amunator who ended up going full local and fell into temptation of a hand and eye of Vecna.The paladin was the one who ended up replacing Strahd after he and the warlock (who took a handful of dark gifts) sort of competed for it without telling each other. I ended up making the druid stones in the three places (the windmill, the hill with the blight tree and the ones near the village with the witch), and I let them "bind" themselves to the land, granting minor effects over weather, beasts, etc., and taking the phrase about strahd being "ancient, and the land" somewhat literally. The thing to remember is that Strahd is NOT the master of barovia, but its prisoner. Barovia is his prison and the dark powers are his sadistic wardens. I basically had the Abbet (a fallen angel) out right tell the party that there was a somewhat cyclical nature to Barovia and that killing Strahd might let them escape but who still doom the souls trapped there to oblivion. Best part? He explained this to the party *while* betraying them by helping Strahd capture Ireena and after they sort of got an insane vibe from him. For the actual ritual of replacing strahd I made it clear that the title of Dread Lord and the ruler of barovia were not necessarily one and the same. Strahd himself explained this to the party after getting back his journal, which I chose to make the literal pact item of the ritual, and tied it with the Heart of Sorrow in the castle. The party struck a bargain with Strahd for letting Ireena go if they a) found a replacement ruler he deemed acceptable, and b) found a new dread lord to allow him to escape. For the ruler strahd was the decider, while the dread lord needed to be a power undead (i.e. any of the three main stone pacts, as I was ruling the ancient resurrection stone would turn the bearer slowly into a powerful ghast). You may not like this divide, so use what you will, though if you haven't had it destroyed yet, tying the heart of sorrow to binding someone to barovia is appropriate. Alternatively they could drink strahd's blood or marry someone in a symbolic gesture of tying themselves to the land; there are a few eligible candidates for this: Ireena, Fiona Wachter, the girl charmed in the castle, any of Strahd's brides (including the male one), Ismark/Izek (for the ladies), or if you are particularly cruel the corpse golem bride with the abbet. After all it *is* the dark powers choice of this ritual should be allowed to happen.For my game? The paladin became both the dreadlord and the ruler (who later went on to become a reincarnation of strahd) but that was after the warlock and him fought to the death after she killed Izek and we ruled that her death qualified for other "loved one" part of the pact. His other option for that was to kill Ireena, whom he had sworn to protect. 3<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=":)" /></blockquote>

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