D&D 5E (2014) Enhancing "Curse of Strahd" (and DDAL adventures)

[jayoungr]

I wrote a small side-trek and put it up on the DMs Guild that could be inserted into the adventure to add more flavour.

Sounds great! Is there a title and/or link we can search for?

 

[MerricB]

Death in the Cornfields. (See my signature).

 

[Koren]

If everyone at the table is okay with it, the clouds from a vape pen make a good practical effect for when someone gets consumed by the mists.

Those are standard at my table (4 vapers out of 6 players and a DM). I'll have to try adjusting the lighting next session to take advantage of the atmosphere!

 

[MerricB]

The first in my series of articles on running Curse of Strahd is up! A combination session report & advice column, I hope you find it useful!

Running Curse of Strahd - part 1
"In which our heroes enter a land where the forces of darkness are strong..."


Cheers!

 

[jayoungr]

Death in the Cornfields. (See my signature).

Oh, of course! *smacks self*

To keep this post from being completely content-free, here are a couple more links to threads that recently cropped up (no pun intended)...

Vallaki
Determining Your Ally

And some useful articles on the Ultanya blog:

Ravenloft Dungeon Master Tips
Ravenloft Trinkets (list of 20)
Strahd's Fifth Motivation

 

[Koren]

The first in my series of articles on running Curse of Strahd is up! A combination session report & advice column, I hope you find it useful!

Running Curse of Strahd - part 1
"In which our heroes enter a land where the forces of darkness are strong..."


Cheers!

Excellent! I love following along with other DMs running the game. I love that your player "took one for the team" and became a valuable object lesson. That's the kind of player I love to have at my tables, and I would likely reward them in some small way next time they could play with me (if it wasn't AL or some other sanctioned play).

My blog is more of a campaign chronicle/session report format, but I'm also writing posts about house rules used for the campaign and will post DM advice/balance changes and other customizations I made to the adventure after they come up in live play (so I don't spoil it for my players).

Fear and Loathing in Ravenloft

 

[CapnZapp]

I'd like to reiterate what MerricB has said on his blog: this adventure will definitely play better with compassionate heroes.

(It is especially ill suited to standard "independent" adventurers who ignore any NPC that doesn't provide quests, loot or both. Being capable of caring for suffering villagers despite them having no gold and only 3 hit points will greatly enrich the campaign)

Reducing Curse of Strahd to a simple challenge to level up enogh to take the vampire out would do it a great disservice. Were I to run it, I would definitely make it impossible to kill the vampire without accomplishing great quests beforehand.

I'm also particularly interested in hearing about how the DDAL adventures can be worked into a Curse of Strahd campaign, or vice-versa.

On this subject, have anyone created a version of the Barovia map with the DDAL location(s) added in?

I love the idea of populating the map with little steadings like Orașnou; to give a sheen of historical veracity there would be more than three settlements.

Whoa, 3 Night Hags at the Bonegrinder is brutal! Green hags will make a tough enough challenge for my games I think. All those Coven spells...

I see it as an excellent opportunity to teach the players that in Barovia, murderhoboing will only get you dead!

The more the players realize that killing or ignoring any old villager can bring trouble, the better!

 

[evilbob]

I totally should have read this thread sooner!

The cleric is a penitent beggar who lives in the nearby town. She and her fellow priest, a drunkard, live off the kindness of the townsfolk even though the cleric is openly the sister of mayor. It’s awkward. They attended the wedding for the free food.

Awesome write-up. Also, I just have to say: this is one of the best backgrounds for a PC ever.

Also, sorry for all the threads - I was separating the topics!

Strahd’s Misty Escape ability gives him until sunrise (not 2 hours) to return to his coffin. His spawn still have the 2 hour limit.

Totally stealing that, too.

The "Scrying spell manifests as a shadow" idea is also awesome, although I will never remember to use it.

These soulless Barovians, of various ages, replace the mongrelfolk outlined in the adventure.

Oh man I wish I had read this first before tying my plot into the mongrelfolk - much better.

Ireena does not resemble Tatyana nor is she Tatyana reincarnated. She is just the most beautiful woman of her (limited) generation and thus the object of Strahd’s fixation. His crypts contain multiple wives he was certain - at the time - were Tatyana reborn because of their singular beauty. He has no way of recognizing her soul, and he never will, because he never truly loved her or knew her. He simply covets her. It’s a distinction his bent mind will never understand, so he continues to doom generations of women.

Brilliant! And much more like a vampire. I might keep her being Tatyana reincarnated (lucky guess on Strahd's part) just to keep the risk of him finally "obtaining" her, but I love the idea that she doesn't really look like Tatyana. Makes the other brides make more sense, too.

Zombies in Barovia the remains of Strahd’s army and castle guards whom he cursed for their assumed treason. They’re not miscellaneous undead. Those that weren’t slain and raised in the castle were hunted down in the forest over subsequent nights and executed. Most of them bear the scars of their demise, headless or with deep gashes across their throats. They stay close to where they perished, unless summoned by Strahd, and only attack and pursue armed individuals. They do not randomly congregate in village houses

Love it, totally using this, too. (Why in the WORLD were they in those houses?)

He has a Vistani troop dress as the characters and perform a play in Vallaki wherein they each commit suicide

He has the coffin maker contact them and say their funerals, and plots, have been paid for in advance.

He takes a family hostage in their home and forces them to prepare a fine meal. He invites the PCs to dinner, just to have a long chat, with the implication that he will slaughter the family if the PCs raise a finger against him.

So much awesome! They... should have... sent a poet...

Here’s a twisted idea:

I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am curious how the deva came to the realization that the curse would not end with Strahd's death. If he shares this bit of knowledge with the PCs, and they recognize him as an authority on the subject, wouldn't it derail the campaign?

Seriously! It's a really, really dumb reason. I was already thinking that maybe Strahd's tomb was unhallowed, so that meant the deva could never actually defeat him finally because he could never get close enough, but even that is swiss cheese (uh, ranged weapons? Random other PCs he's teamed up with?). One of several annoying plot holes that while, yes, the PCs might never notice them, it always makes for a much richer story (in my experience) when everything HAS a reason, you just might not know it.

Thanks for all these great posts!

 

[evilbob]

I can share some of the ways I've changed CoS for our group as well. Most of these are based on suggestions throughout the various linked threads, or other ideas mentioned here and there.

1. Amber Temple. Gone. Serves no purpose, it's a long dungeon right before the long dungeon, it's confusing story-wise, and it's deadly as sin. (I also don't like how it tries to explain Strahd's curse in a more mundane way.) Similarly Tsolenka Pass is pointless (even moreso without the Temple) and cut. Neither of these things fit the adventure and seem like someone wanted to include their cool home-brew dungeon idea but instead they were writing CoS. I might keep the goat thing if they bother to go to the mountains for some reason, though. (Or just stick it somewhere else.)

2. Dusk Elves. Gone. As others have said, the more "high fantasy" you make CoS, the more it loses its gothic horror flavor. The Patrina Velikovna subplot doesn't make sense without the Temple anyway. You can keep Rahadin if you want but honestly he's a pointless character as well, and mostly just a really hard battle in the middle of a really hard dungeon. If your group loves fighting then keep him, otherwise just pretend they had one extra long rest and that's that.

3. NPC changes. Ireena doesn't look like Tatyana (see earlier in this thread). Madame Eva is not Strahd's sister but an old Vistani woman who inherited the "sight" and is tied to Strahd's ability to influence Barovia (another thread). The Abbot's purpose and defeat are redone (this thread).

4. Winery Gem. The late burgomaster of Barovia actually stole the 3rd wine gem 10 years ago. Although he's since used it to nourish his own garden, he originally took it because the third type of wine (champagne du le stomp) was TOO good, and quite addictive - the people of Barovia were using it to dull their senses, which some Vistani were taking advantage of to rob them. Both to deal a blow to the evil Vistani and to help keep his citizens focused on the evil at hand, he took the gem and buried it near his house. He took it when he was going to the other villages to try to get them to unite against Strahd - which obviously didn't work at all - but it also explains why his kids know the surrounding lands fairly well (he took them along).

5. No dead children. See the entire thread about this, but I'm using all the changes: Death House, hags, werewolves, and all the other kids are aged up (like the one in the lake and the Kzrek boy who recently died).

6. Hags. They're green hags but they also have connections to the other witches in the area (specifically Baba Lysaga and the ones in the castle, which they've watched via their eye) and are willing to trade information for interesting trinkets from Death House or captured spellbooks. (Baba Lysaga originally granted them permission to use Barovia as their base - being the ranking "witch"-like thing in the area - in exchange for information about the castle, which she so desperately craves.) They will even trade their current prisoners for the "hag's finger" (which is the leader's finger, in fact) which is an "out" for a hopelessly outmatched party.

7. Vistani intro. The characters all have their own personal motivations to go to Barovia but just to shake things up I did the Vistani intro and skipped all the letters and false letters (it was confusing last time anyway). But I wanted the Vistani to leave when they got to the town and not actually take them to Madame Eva first so they could still do Death House and all. So, I had the Vistani take them into the land and just outside the village, and at this point their guide told them that the fastest way to madame eva is to go through the town and take a right at the next fork, but they prefer to go around the town as the villagers are not always welcoming to Vistani:
As they start to pull the wagons off the road, the rear wagon's front wheel hits a bump and falls off, throwing the guide's son off the wagon, turning the wagon over, and spilling the contents everywhere. Unfortunately, he was thrown under the horses and they panicked - he is very injured, coughing blood, and looks to have many internal injuries. If the party heals him, the old man will be extremely grateful, and offer her some advice: "You have given me a great service, and though i may never repay it, let me give you some information that may save your life. Not all our people are of the same mind as me. Some do not see our noble prince's condition as a curse, but rather as proof of his divine right to rule. Be wary, for though I wish to see his curse lifted, others may not find that goal to their liking. But I do believe, in my heart, that madame eva sees as I do." He'll then make excuses as they set about repairing the wagon and righting it and gathering their things and the horses, and asks that the party go on ahead into the town since this will take hours and they will likely find their way much quicker. The fog also starts to roll in, and get thicker, and the party can't see very far in any direction except the town. The Vistanti tell them to go ahead, but once the party leaves, they never see them again. Searching the area later reveals the wagon tracks going off the road, but never anywhere else.

 

[Gradine]

Here's a thought I had this morning that I've since run quite a ways with:

What if the Burgomaster of Vallaki is right?

What if the only way to permanent end Strahd's curse (or maybe not even Strahd's curse, but the curse on all of Barovia) is to restore hope to the people of his realm?

There's been some discussion (in this thread and others) about how the relic & ally hunt portion of the adventurers serves as a pretty weak framing device for the need to steer PCs towards "here are the things you for you to do to get more powerful (both directly in acquisition of goods and allies and indirectly in sweet sweet XP/milestones and levels) until you're actually ready for Strahd". Several people have mentioned bringing back the fanes from the 3.5 version of the adventurer, which if made explicit is a better method of steering the PCs away from Ravenloft initially but is still primarily replacing "find three whatzits" with "find and destory three humdingers", which isn't really all that much more stronger thematically.

CoD makes it clear that killing Strahd is a temporary measure, both for Strahd and for Barovia. Barovia is, seemingly freed from the Demiplane of Dread, as least temporarily, but also only somewhat partially (why then, would "soul-less" Barovians fade into nothingness if they try to leave, but "souled" Barovians seem fine?). Obviously the Dark Powers still hold some power over the realm and its people, even back on the Material Plane, but the grasp weakens measurably while restoring the life of their favorite Darklord. Once done, they can then turn their attention back to Barovia and drag the whole realm back into the Demiplane of Dread. This particular order is important especially if you intend to run CoD as Strahd pulling a Thanatos Gambit, as it gives him a bit of a window to actually escape or at least spread his influence out to plot a future escape; after all this might not be the first time this particular cycle has played out. This in turn makes Eva's loyalties considerably more questionable, and in general allows for the campaign to carry on past the adventure itself and/or into future campaigns in other settings.

But that's a digression. The real question to ask is: "why?" Why do the Dark Powers care so much, not just on continuing the torment of Strahd, but also the denizens of Barovia? They can't just be incidental victims in all of this; otherwise why give the realm as a whole a glimmer of freedom before yanking back on the chain? That this answer (and the Dark Powers in general) are meant to be inscrutable are supposed to be a part of its charm, but as a DM running them I kind of still need to determine that information for myself. Any time I run an Eberron campaign I certainly know what caused the Mourning, or whether the gods are actually real forces or not. That I get to decide that myself (and change my mind any time I restart the setting) is part of its charm too. So my answer to this is actually pretty simple. It's a Demiplane of Dread, right? So the Dark Powers need to feed on the dread of their demiplane's inhabitants. And in fact, they only have the power to directly manipulate or interfere with those who have fully succumbed to that Dread. Hence, why Barovians (and newcomer PCs) with souls still act as if they have some kind of agency, while those without souls do not. It's also why the PCs and en-souled Barovians can flee the realm while Strahd is dead and those without them cannot.

So I drop the whole "no souls from birth" aspect and replace with "most people have their souls mostly drained at an early age". So I make it explicit to the PCs from practically the word Go (or at the very least no later than their tarokka reading) that Strahd cannot be permanently killed because he is too firmly in the grasp of the Dark Powers, but that the realm and its people can be freed if only hope can be restored to the land. I envision this having a number of pretty significant impacts.

1. This suddenly makes pretty much every side-quest in the realm much more significant and meaningful beyond "here is where you can find an important whatzit" and "here is where you can get sweet sweet XP/milestones to make Castle Ravenloft/Strahd less scary". You can replace (or add to) your whatzit-hunting with the more nebulous and much more daunting goal of "bringing hope to the land and its people". Now all the Silver Dragon stuff is pretty essential. Other major subplots to resolve include the Winery/Druids/Blights, the Werewolves, the Abbey and the Dusk Elves. Some of these might require more work than others to fit into this framework (CoD doesn't really give you a happy ending for the Dusk Elves, for instance, so at the very least you'd have to come up with a way to redeem Patrina after resurrecting, or better yet find some other way to solve their inability to procreate, such as changing "kill all the women" to a more direct curse to be lifted.)

2. If CoD is a Thanatos Gambit on the part of Strahd then it gives the PCs agency to still screw up his plans. In this scenario, if the PCs are successful then Strahd is brought back with nothing but an empty castle overlooking an empty realm. What's more, it leaves Strahd as the Dark Powers' only play-thing, which certainly doesn't play into his hopes of escaping.

3. Vargas Vallakovich is no longer an amusingly incompetent bureaucrat but a potentially valuable ally if he could just be convinced to... you know, stop being such an amusingly incompetent bureaucrat. This could be an incredibly fun situation to play out at the PCs try to simultaneously convince Vargas to change his methods while protecting him those that mean him. Or they may decide to replace him someone more sympathetic (certainly not the Wacthers) but who the town would also accept as their leader. Do the PCs figure out how to fill that role themselves? Vallaki pretty much becomes the central location for the stand against Strahd and the Dark Powers, in this particular scenario.

4. Speaking of, the Dark Powers are now a more menacing and directly antagonistic force in this scenario. Treat this as a pro or a con as you wish. Me, I'm pro.

5. Dealing with the Abbey also becomes more interesting, especially if you decide that the Mongrelfolk (or at least some of them) are perfectly happy as they've been made. It muddies not just the Abbot's intentions (which were always muddy) but the impact of those actions (which could potentially be more in line with the PCs want, if not in the way they'd want it).

6. The Amber Temple still needs a bit of a re-design. I'm honestly okay with the implication that the Dark Powers were once vestiges, as long as there's enough clues laying around to suggest that they are the ones that escaped (or were at least set free). I'd even be okay with Strahd's vampiric origins taking place here. "I want the power to make someone love me for eternity". Sounds like the sort of pseudo-romantic, thickly controlling thing human-Strahd would ask for that would get him turned into a vampire. "Oh, and can you also throw in the power to turn into a wolf? Wolves are awesome." I dunno, it's definitely the aspect of this scenario I'm still working the most on. Might as well tie the cure to whatever is ailing the Dusk Elves here, along with an appropriate sacrifice. Like I said, this part's a work in progress.

7. The players get to see the actual impact of their activities as they turn a drab, lifeless world into one that seems to actually support a semblance of life. They get to see their progress in the world and the people around them, and with the frustration and desperation that Strahd begins to carry himself towards.

8. And if all this "bringing hope to a hopeless land" is a little too heroic fantasy for anyone, you can always heavily drop hints that Strahd himself can be redeemed, or at least convinced to let go of his desires and his despair and move on, which would also free him from the Dark Powers. That he of course cannot be, and that destroying him before doing so only means the Dark Powers will bring him back only more broken and bitter and determined and hellbent on spreading his darkness again, but is still necessary to at least free the rest of Barovia, can be a nice little dark cloud to hang over the otherwise admittedly happy ending. The Dark Powers still live, and as long as they do, they can drag other realms that have fallen into despair into their Demiplane. Perhaps with their very own Darklords?