Fortunes of Ravenloft results in my game

[hexgrid]

edit- Expedition to Castle Ravenloft spoilers below

I'm two sessions into running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, and this is how the Fortunes went:

Strahd's Location - throne room
Sunsword Location - church
Sunsword Activation - throne room
Holy Symbol Location - graveyard
Holy Symbol Activation - Strahd's tomb
Tome Location - Strahd's tomb
Tome Quest - Vigil of Transference

So, during the next session, the 6th (or maybe 7th) level characters will be heading to directly to Castle Ravenloft to find the throne room and Strahd's tomb. They'll probably find the throne room fairly quickly, and based on the Fortunes, will have to face Strahd there.

It would make much more sense for them to take care of the Fanes before entering the castle, but they don't know anything about the Fanes except that Madame Eva said the Tome of Strahd would give them the details. And the Tome, of course, is about as far into Castle Ravenloft as you can possibly get.

It isn't clear to me how things are supposed to work with the Tome so inaccessible. If the PCs have the ability to make it all the way to Strahd's Tomb and survive, the information in the Tome probably isn't of much use, is it? Or am I over estimating the difficulty of the Castle?

Any thoughts? It seems like the Fortunes have unfairly doomed the PCs to failure. Should I just let things play out the way they will, or intervene somehow?

 

[Hawken]

You could have Madame Eva give them a charm that uses something like Locate Object attuned to the Tome--so, the Vistani could always find their way back to Barovia, or whatever other reason.

The Tome could start off in the tomb, but it is stolen by a thief that managed to infiltrate the castle during daylight hours when Strahd was napping. He makes off with the Tome, escapes the Castle. He is pursued by undead, manages to destroy them but not before being mortally wounded. The charm leads them to the dying rogue and the tome (possibly close enough to one of the Fanes to investigate) and go from there.

 

[rowport]

I basically did what Hawken suggested, just glossed over where to learn more about the Fanes, and put the details in the corrupted church from the first series of encounters and Madam Eva herself. That let the party focus on resolving the Fanes first outside the castle to get them fully prepared to enter it.

My read of the module is that Strahd may not destroy the party at first encounter, though, so it may work for them to be 'allowed to survive' as they pursue the Tomb if you want them to play it out as written. After all, Strahd may not believe the party capable of actually defeating him, and if he does not view them as a threat, then having the party defeat the Hags is really just helping him secure his power base.

I think either path works; it just depends on whether you prefer a linear path (i.e. all Fanes, then castle, then Strahd) or a more complex one (i.e. into and back out of the castle, Fanes out of order, multiple Strahd encounters, etc.).