D&D 5E Curse of Strahd spoiler-filled general discussion

[C-F-K]

I had another thought: Using Death House as a hook.
The House could be in a normal town. Within could be a letters that tell of Barovia (an abbrieviated Tome?) and how to get there, perhaps a black sapphire provides a link, or the ritual is actually a ritual of Summoning the Mists of Ravenloft.
Or maybe a Vistani caravan visits the group afterwards, mentioning mysteries discovered in the Death House.

Or, the characters enter the house in, lets say Waterdeep. And exit in Barovia.
Turns out those cultists where actually trying to summon something evil, but that failed so the evil summoned them...
Which goes great next to the "Strahd is looking for someone strong to follow his footsteps".

 

[pukunui]

Re Death House: I've noticed a number of reviews commenting that the grick and the shambling mound are too Lovecraftian and don't fit with the overall gothic tone of Ravenloft. Anyone got any good suggestions on what to replace them with?

 

[Sunseeker]

Re Death House: I've noticed a number of reviews commenting that the grick and the shambling mound are too Lovecraftian and don't fit with the overall gothic tone of Ravenloft. Anyone got any good suggestions on what to replace them with?

No, but it was a MAJOR letdown when the basement had a giant shambling mound instead of, well, goodness almost ANYTHING more fitting to Ravenloft.

Witches would have worked well, I think, doing some evil deed either to further their power, or further Strahd's.

We had undead and animated armors, so perhaps some kind of Death Knight in the basement, requiring just one more unlucky soul to finish powering it.

A nod to the Dark Powers could have been useful.

I dunno, honestly ANYTHING would have been superior. Shambling mounds aren't even that scary anyway. Wouldn't take much to whip up a cross between a Gibbering Mouther and a Shambling Mound to make essentially a lesser Old God, if that was the goal. Otherwise it was just a big beat-em-up boss fight with no real spark or pizzazz to it.

 

[pukunui]

Hmm. What about a fiend that's trapped in some kind of stasis - but the magic keeping it there is waning. If the PCs don't sacrifice someone on the altar, the stasis ends, and the fiend escapes and attacks?

Possible options in the CR 5 range:
*Barbed devil
*Barlgura
*Cambion
*Mezzoloth
*Red slaad

Other options:
*Flesh golem
*Gorgon
*Otyugh
*Roper
*Troll
*Umber hulk
*Vampire spawn
*Wraith


I might use a vampire spawn. I'm just running Death House as a one-shot for April Fools' Day tomorrow, so I don't really need to worry about how it got there. Perhaps the sacrifice somehow sustains the vampire - the altar magically feeds it, keeping it in stasis. Refusing the sacrifice means it wakes up and attacks, hungry for blood.

 

[Daern]

I'm going for a Gibbering Mouther. It is made up of the inchoate mass of victims whose souls have been sent to Strahd's realm.

 

[pukunui]

A gibbering mouther is still rather Lovecraftian, though. I'm looking for something that fits better with the gothic horror milieu. Unless someone has a better idea, I'm going to go with a vampire spawn. Perhaps the cult somehow managed to make one as a sort of mockery/effigy of Strahd. That being said, I'm cutting Strahd's name out of the letter, as I'm just running this as a one-shot for fun, and I don't need it to tie into Curse of Strahd or anything like that.

 

[evilbob]

I might use a vampire spawn.

Vampire spawn seems especially appropriate for a Ravenloft one-shot.

In truth, all of the substitute options - while more thematic - will also likely slaughter the party. It might be better to at least keep it something that's corporeal and not too bright in order to substitute for all of its weaknesses as well.

 

[pukunui]

Indeed.

I could always go with a wight instead. It's only CR 3 but could still probably beat up 2nd level PCs pretty badly, especially if I max out its hp or something.

 

[evilbob]

I guess it just depends on what the goal is for the encounter. As-written, it's a TPK-or-run. If you want them to have a chance to win, it's probably better to tone it down.

 

[pukunui]

I guess it just depends on what the goal is for the encounter. As-written, it's a TPK-or-run. If you want them to have a chance to win, it's probably better to tone it down.

I like the TPK-or-run aspect, but that being said, I'd really prefer it if they survived (either by running or defeating the monster), as a TPK means they won't get to experience the last part of the adventure where they have to fight the house itself.

A shambling mound is pretty tough, and it seems unlikely that five 2nd level PCs would be able to defeat it, but it is fairly mindless and slow. A vampire spawn would be more intelligent and, unlike the mound, might pursue the PCs beyond the dungeon. However, if it succeeds in grappling and biting a PC, it might just continue to feed on that PC, which would allow the rest of them to escape (assuming they don't try to rescue the other PC). Or maybe it only needs one victim - that is, if no one's willing to "feed" it via sacrifice on the altar, then it just pursues one of the PCs and, if it kills that PC, then it's satiated and goes back to its dirt pile to rest.


EDIT: I think I'm going to replace the grick with a rug of smothering.