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[Let's Read] DM's Guild Ravenloft Sourcebooks
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9173093" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/jAsTzYm.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Castle Ravenloft has always been an end-game dungeon for Curse of Strahd, and many genre-savvy players often put off exploring it until they tied up all the loose ends in the rest of Barovia. There have been non-lethal incentives to explore it prematurely, such as a Tarokka treasure or Destined Ally being located there, leads to other plot points such as Lief Lipsiege knowing where the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is, or a trove of homebrew fancying up Strahd’s dinner invitation to be more than an illusory trap.</p><p></p><p>The Curse of Strahd Companion all but encourages multiple visits to the Castle: one when the party’s low-level in accepting Strahd’s dinner invitation, where they can explore the dungeon in relative safety and perhaps help out Ezmerelda d’Avenir; a second time where an ally teleports them into the castle for some other means, such as searching for a Tarokka treasure; and the third and final time in rescuing Ireena from Strahd’s wedding.</p><p></p><p>After giving a brief overview of the notable named NPCs in the castle, we get a suggestion of spells to replace Strahd’s default array based on what official sourcebooks to which the DM has access. The book encourages practical ones such as Shield to negate a deadly blow from a Smite or Sunsword, Misty Step to break grapples and being otherwise immobilized, Counterspell and Dispel Magic for dealing with troublesome spells, and Telekinesis for forcefully disarming a character of a magic item. We also get a list of general tactics for Strahd, such as using Nondetection to ward him from enemy divinations, having a swarm of bats take the Help action in coordinating attacks, charming a Destined Ally while they’re isolated from the party to betray them at a later date,* and a list of how he’d deal with the tactics of different classes.</p><p></p><p>*This may be a harder sell for Allies who are quite fond of the party. Strahd’s charm isn’t like Dominate or overrides their free will entirely, it merely makes them regard Strahd as a trusted friend.</p><p></p><p>The first visit, <em>To Dine at Castle Ravenloft,</em> recommends this to happen when the PCs are 5th or 6th level, sometime after Saint Andral’s Feast but before he kidnaps Ireena in Krezk. Should the PCs opt to visit, they have the opportunity to converse more with Strahd and learn about things, from Rahadin’s role in genociding his own people to Strahd’s obsession with Ireena by revealing that she’s the reincarnated form of Tatyana should the party not know it already. The meal is then followed by a ballroom dance and a personal invitation to his Study to enjoy some cigars and wine. A bard PC will spot the Instrument of the Bards magic item on the way there, and have a supernatural premonition that it’s a special item. During their time in the Study, Strahd will infodump a bit more during casual conversation, such as revealing that the tobacco leaves were taken from the Gulthias Tree at Yester Hill or that the archmage that built the Castle is entombed with his magical staff in the below crypts.</p><p></p><p>The PCs are allowed to stay overnight, where they have the opportunity to sneak out of the Guest Rooms and explore the Castle. There’s not much to do here save look around and get a feel for things, and should the PCs meet Ezmerelda she will be there to try (and inevitably) fail to assassinate Strahd, and the PCs can aid her in this foolish endeavor by attacking the vampire on the High Tower Peak. The Dark Powers won’t let the party die, and should they be defeated they will be either dumped elsewhere inside or outside the castle or imprisoned in the dungeons depending on Strahd’s mood. The PCs can also encounter Gertruda who, wrapped up in her own little fantasy world, believes that she can fly and will try to jump off the balcony in an attempt to go back to the Village of Barovia unless the PCs intervene.</p><p></p><p>The second visit, <em>In the Depths of Ravenloft,</em> occurs around 7th level where they must break into the place in order to get something important. There are various ways to do this, but the way the Companion suggests is an NPC ally helping them teleport inside. Victor Vallakovich’s shoddy teleportation circle, Mordenkainen, or making a deal with the hags of Old Bonegrinder are given as a few suggestions. Regardless of the means, the PCs end up in the Brazier Room and the way back is inactive for a limited time, forcing the party to explore the Castle’s lower levels. Reasons the PCs may go inside include retrieving Argynvost’s heart, freeing the former werewolf leader Emil Toranescu, finding the Ba’al Verzi Dagger or a similar Tarokka treasure, or quite possibly breaking into Strahd’s study for its tomes, although the Companion says that this encounter is intended for the lower levels of the dungeon. At some point during the infiltration, Rahadin will grow aware of the PCs’ presence and hunt them down with a small squad of undead.</p><p></p><p>The third visit is detailed in its own chapter: the Wedding at Ravenloft. The rest of this chapter deals with covering the Castle rooms in general. We get a one-page map flowchart of how the rooms all connect to each other, a handy two-page list summarizing each room with brief descriptions and likely inhabitants, one page summarizing the individual crypts and their contents in the Catacombs, revisions such as changing the red dragon wyrmlings to silver dragon wyrmlings who are the brainwashed brood of Argynvost, and outlines of rooms suitable for a final confrontation with Strahd complete with their own boxed text, unique magical effects and terrain, and evil speech by Strahd. A former meager +1 shortsword in the original Castle is turned into a Shortsword of the Lost Crusader, which is a lawful good sentient weapon that can shed bright light, can be attuned to by a Lawful Good creature in 1 minute (but the item description doesn’t mention requiring attunement) and can let the wielder cast Crusader’s Mantle once per day.</p><p></p><p>Overall, a pretty good chapter. It has high marks for its list of DM-friendly tools, especially the flowchart map, and I do like the idea of using the Brazier room to conduct a heist scenario in breaking into the Castle. The only real criticism I have is more of a surface-level one: Strahd doesn’t strike me as a whiskey and cigars kind of guy.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/keiKjKA.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Ah, Vallaki. The real point at which Curse of Strahd truly becomes a sandbox, and the bane of underprepared DMs and PCs who can juggle only so many quest hooks. The Curse of Strahd Companion is well aware of the location’s infamous reputation, so it advises the DM to take things slow. Not every day has to be full of danger and adventure, and the theft of Saint Andral’s bones can be introduced once the DM is ready to light the powder keg. So far, some pretty good advice.</p><p></p><p>There’s an awful lot of small changes the Companion makes to Vallaki. Some of them include Father Petrovich telling the PCs about the bones’ theft once he trusts them enough to handle the matter (such as the party rescuing Arabelle or freeing Udo Lukovich from the Baron’s manor), Van Richten doesn’t have a saber-tooth tiger he’s planning to use to kill the Vistani (he’s still present as Rictavio in town to gather information), Stella Wachter is still insane but instead of believing she’s a cat she has an insatiable need to break things and went insane not from Victor but by discovering her father’s corpse in Lady Wachter’s bedroom, the Arasek Stockyard’s goods aren’t overpriced, the Baron’s manor is more heavily defended with the addition of five Guards and a Veteran, Ernst Larnak knows Thieves’ Cant and can communicate with a Rogue PC should the party be willing to help switch his loyalties away from Lady Wachter, the Town Square has three new shops to sell things to the PCs (most notably an apothecary with wolfsbane and magical potions), and Kasimir Velikov can offer to let a wizard PC copy spells from his spellbook at a greatly reduced price in exchange for a future favor of accompanying him to the Amber Temple,</p><p></p><p>The more significant changes include giving Izek and his status as Ireena’s lost sibling a bigger role. Father Petrovich, upon seeing Ireena, realizes that she was a girl long thought dead, born as Yasmine Strazni to two parents in town who have now passed away. He lies about her brother still being alive, knowing that Izek is dangerous, but PCs can detect he’s lying via Insight and other means. Izek will personally deliver an invitation to the PCs should the Baron become aware of their presence in town, and if Ireena’s with them the party can catch that he seems particularly interested in her. During dinner with the Baron, he will ask Ireena to marry his son Victor, a proposition Ireena is not too fond of and one Victor vehemently refuses to the Baron’s ire.</p><p></p><p>The time and circumstances of Izek’s attempted kidnapping of Ireena are left up in the air, but it’s more or less intended to happen before the theft of the bones of Saint Andral. It is at this time that the Companion breaks out the trusty ol’ railroad tracks we’ve grown to know and love. Most notably, both noble leaders of Vallaki must be alive when Saint Andral’s Feast occurs, and Lady Wachter in particular must survive for having her take over the town is regarded as a vital plot point. The theft of the bones plays out more or less as it does in the default adventure, but adds an encounter where the PCs meet Milivoj at his home where he learns that he’s caring for his impoverished siblings. Thus, this show’s how he’s motivated by economic hardship to steal the bones for Henrik and something the party can use to get him to confess. Whether or not the PCs recover the bones, Strahd and his minions move upon the church and cause a massacre just as the PCs get back. Strahd is accompanied by any surviving vampire spawn and possibly Arrigal, and the Count will go to kill Father Petrovich while his minions attack everyone else.</p><p></p><p>If Ireena is present, either with the party or staying at the Church as a safe haven, she will directly confront Strahd with sword in hand.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Here’s the thing: I agree with the overall setup Trull is trying to do here. Strahd’s first appearance to the party in person should be a dramatic event, and the theft of the bones and the assault on the church is a great way to demonstrate his power and danger. At this point in the campaign the PCs shouldn’t be able to adequately take him on, aided as he is by the Heart of Sorrow, his minions, and the party most likely having drained their resources fighting or running away from vampire spawn at the Coffin Shop. The Companion even has brief snippets to help enhance this terror, like a vampire spawn pulling a crying child out of hiding from beneath the pews, or a churchgoer’s failed attempt to save Father Petrovich by throwing himself in front of Strahd only to be slammed to death. All of these tools are very strong narrative devices that still maintain PC autonomy while conveying the chaos of the scene.</p><p></p><p>We don’t need to impose a non-interactive cutscene, particularly one where it looks like he’s about to drain Ireena dry. Talking is a free action, but combining that with other “actions” Strahd’s doing like disarming and grappling feels a bit overkill.</p><p></p><p>The Companion more or less presumes that Father Petrovich will die, and has Strahd disappear via fog in boxed text after he kills the priest followed by all the torches in the neighborhood going out. More cutscene powers.</p><p></p><p>The railroad tracks continue as the townsfolk’s last vestiges of safety are shattered, setting the sparks of revolution and Lady Wachter encouraging an angry mob to assault Baron Vallakovich’s manor. We get another non-interactive cutscene as the Vallakoviches are either stoned to death or burned at the stake. But Lady Wachter intervenes to have the crowd spare Victor, and she will invite the party to her manor. The noblewoman will note that the PCs are a threat to her rule, and she cannot tolerate their presence in town any longer. They will be allowed to leave the gates and keep their possessions, but otherwise will be “encouraged” to leave should they resist.</p><p></p><p><strong>Content Warning: Sexual Assault</strong></p><p></p><p>[spoiler]This module also turns Lady Wachter into a rapist-by-proxy. She will drag out a visibly-tortured Victor in front of the PCs, mention that she will force him to marry her daughter Stella, and kill him after an heir is produced. Lady Wachter also had plans to force one of her female servants to “be given to the Devils Beyonds” and impregnated by a fiend, and when said maid discovered this plan via eavesdropping Lady Wachter spread rumors to isolate her from her friends and family.[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>Should the PCs seek to intervene at any time, they will have to fight a huge mob. Not just 30 Commoners, but 12 Guards, 8 Cultists, and 3 Cult Fanatics all at once. The adventure more or less uses these strength of numbers to dissuade PCs from going off the tracks.</p><p></p><p>As for why Lady Wachter must both survive and take over Vallaki…there’s no real narrative reason besides forcing the party and Ireena to find safe haven elsewhere, most notably Krezk. As for the Wedding at Ravenloft, her survival for that isn’t paramount; in fact, that Chapter is rather open with alternatives to various scenes should important NPCs be dead. There’s even entries for what the Vallakovich family will do at the Wedding should they survive, so clearly Wachter’s ascension isn’t something that must happen for the campaign finale! And what if Victor is a Destined Ally? Well, the Companion more or less says that the party will have to find a way to rescue him at a later undetermined time, rather than…you know, the possibility of the PCs deciding to rescue him right then and there.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6DIXsKG.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>In recognition that fighting three night hags is something even high-level adventurers struggle with, the Companion all but advises against turning this into a violent encounter. In the default adventure the PCs could choose to visit the windmill, but a disguised wereraven will attempt to steer them away. The Companion has other ideas…</p><p></p><p>To railroad the party into visiting! How, you may ask? Well, in keeping with the Bigger Barovia variant, an army of zombies led by a Barovian Witch will give chase to the party, their numbers more or less “enough to overwhelm the PCs in a straight fight.” And it just so happens that their only convenient means of shelter is the windmill. The book doesn't explain what's preventing the zombies from just massing around it and battering down the doors, <em>and the boxed text when the PCs first meet the hags doesn't have them react, much less acknowledge, the incoming zombie horde.</em> It doesn't even have something like the zombies deciding to retreat, or the hags appearing nonchalant about it with a "it's just a jumped-up mageling, nothing we can’t handle."</p><p></p><p>The major changes the chapter makes are reflavoring the windmill rooms to look less overtly like a monster lair like with the scattered bones, turning the mechanics of Dream Pastry addition into a progressive series of Constitution saves that impose exhaustion should an addict go without pastries, and instead of a TPK a party who is defeated by the hags are instead stabilized and are spared should they accept a curse or Geas. There’s a list of curses, such as losing their shadow which can be summoned as a monster by the hags. The Geas is a complicated three-step process that forces a PC to indirectly aid in the theft of the bones of Saint Andral and the overthrow of Vallaki’s Baron, such as delivering a letter to Henrik upon arrival in town or casting the first stone or torch during the Baron’s public execution by the mob. The megaliths are given more detail, where the hags will attempt to sacrifice a captured PC who refuses to take on a curse or Geas.</p><p></p><p>PCs on non-violent terms with the hags can have them set up a teleportation circle to get into Castle Ravenloft. There’s a list of tasks asked for as the price, such as a Geas for a PC to retrieve Khazan’s Staff of Power, finding out the identities of one of the Keepers of the Feather along with a lock of their hair, or a lock of Arabelle’s hair and a vial of her blood. This last one is part of a ploy by Morgantha to manipulate or charm Strahd into letting her leave Barovia. A plot that is highly unlikely to work, at best.</p><p></p><p>And last but not least, the Companion suggests depowering the hags to green hags save for Morgantha who remains a night hag. Should the party fight her and she escapes, she will plot revenge and conduct cannibalistic rituals to turn herself into an Auntie, a greater hag who gets lair actions. Should this happen, Old Bonegrinder is filled with more monsters such as scarecrows and animated brooms.</p><p></p><p>I like the idea of avoiding a TPK by having the hags force the PCs to make dark bargains with them. I’ve seen this suggested on online communities for Curse of Strahd, but the Companion provides a set of explicit mechanics to them. I’m not so hot on the Geas, given that things in Vallaki are already railroaded to a predetermined point. It’s like Quantum Ogres, but instead of ogres it’s an entire plot.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> It’s at this point I more or less resigned my overall opinion of the Curse of Strahd Companion. Having railroads at certain key points to guide the party is one thing, but doing it in places where it’s both obviously artificial and unnecessary demonstrates a larger problem. Combined with the more evocative boxed text and NPC speeches, the Companion is turning Curse of Strahd into less of an RPG sandbox and more of a novel. In attempting to work backwards into setting up a climactic finale to the campaign with a Wedding at Ravenloft, I feel that Trull became so enamored of the idea that he began shutting down anything that can hint at the PCs going off course into uncharted territory. Instead of preparing for the journey, he kept his eyes on the end destination. And while the Wedding is a pretty cool end-game scenario, it has come at the expense of other important areas in the campaign.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we explore more of Barovia, from the haunted fortress of Argynvostholt to Van Richten’s Tower!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 9173093, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/jAsTzYm.png[/img][/center] Castle Ravenloft has always been an end-game dungeon for Curse of Strahd, and many genre-savvy players often put off exploring it until they tied up all the loose ends in the rest of Barovia. There have been non-lethal incentives to explore it prematurely, such as a Tarokka treasure or Destined Ally being located there, leads to other plot points such as Lief Lipsiege knowing where the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is, or a trove of homebrew fancying up Strahd’s dinner invitation to be more than an illusory trap. The Curse of Strahd Companion all but encourages multiple visits to the Castle: one when the party’s low-level in accepting Strahd’s dinner invitation, where they can explore the dungeon in relative safety and perhaps help out Ezmerelda d’Avenir; a second time where an ally teleports them into the castle for some other means, such as searching for a Tarokka treasure; and the third and final time in rescuing Ireena from Strahd’s wedding. After giving a brief overview of the notable named NPCs in the castle, we get a suggestion of spells to replace Strahd’s default array based on what official sourcebooks to which the DM has access. The book encourages practical ones such as Shield to negate a deadly blow from a Smite or Sunsword, Misty Step to break grapples and being otherwise immobilized, Counterspell and Dispel Magic for dealing with troublesome spells, and Telekinesis for forcefully disarming a character of a magic item. We also get a list of general tactics for Strahd, such as using Nondetection to ward him from enemy divinations, having a swarm of bats take the Help action in coordinating attacks, charming a Destined Ally while they’re isolated from the party to betray them at a later date,* and a list of how he’d deal with the tactics of different classes. *This may be a harder sell for Allies who are quite fond of the party. Strahd’s charm isn’t like Dominate or overrides their free will entirely, it merely makes them regard Strahd as a trusted friend. The first visit, [i]To Dine at Castle Ravenloft,[/i] recommends this to happen when the PCs are 5th or 6th level, sometime after Saint Andral’s Feast but before he kidnaps Ireena in Krezk. Should the PCs opt to visit, they have the opportunity to converse more with Strahd and learn about things, from Rahadin’s role in genociding his own people to Strahd’s obsession with Ireena by revealing that she’s the reincarnated form of Tatyana should the party not know it already. The meal is then followed by a ballroom dance and a personal invitation to his Study to enjoy some cigars and wine. A bard PC will spot the Instrument of the Bards magic item on the way there, and have a supernatural premonition that it’s a special item. During their time in the Study, Strahd will infodump a bit more during casual conversation, such as revealing that the tobacco leaves were taken from the Gulthias Tree at Yester Hill or that the archmage that built the Castle is entombed with his magical staff in the below crypts. The PCs are allowed to stay overnight, where they have the opportunity to sneak out of the Guest Rooms and explore the Castle. There’s not much to do here save look around and get a feel for things, and should the PCs meet Ezmerelda she will be there to try (and inevitably) fail to assassinate Strahd, and the PCs can aid her in this foolish endeavor by attacking the vampire on the High Tower Peak. The Dark Powers won’t let the party die, and should they be defeated they will be either dumped elsewhere inside or outside the castle or imprisoned in the dungeons depending on Strahd’s mood. The PCs can also encounter Gertruda who, wrapped up in her own little fantasy world, believes that she can fly and will try to jump off the balcony in an attempt to go back to the Village of Barovia unless the PCs intervene. The second visit, [i]In the Depths of Ravenloft,[/i] occurs around 7th level where they must break into the place in order to get something important. There are various ways to do this, but the way the Companion suggests is an NPC ally helping them teleport inside. Victor Vallakovich’s shoddy teleportation circle, Mordenkainen, or making a deal with the hags of Old Bonegrinder are given as a few suggestions. Regardless of the means, the PCs end up in the Brazier Room and the way back is inactive for a limited time, forcing the party to explore the Castle’s lower levels. Reasons the PCs may go inside include retrieving Argynvost’s heart, freeing the former werewolf leader Emil Toranescu, finding the Ba’al Verzi Dagger or a similar Tarokka treasure, or quite possibly breaking into Strahd’s study for its tomes, although the Companion says that this encounter is intended for the lower levels of the dungeon. At some point during the infiltration, Rahadin will grow aware of the PCs’ presence and hunt them down with a small squad of undead. The third visit is detailed in its own chapter: the Wedding at Ravenloft. The rest of this chapter deals with covering the Castle rooms in general. We get a one-page map flowchart of how the rooms all connect to each other, a handy two-page list summarizing each room with brief descriptions and likely inhabitants, one page summarizing the individual crypts and their contents in the Catacombs, revisions such as changing the red dragon wyrmlings to silver dragon wyrmlings who are the brainwashed brood of Argynvost, and outlines of rooms suitable for a final confrontation with Strahd complete with their own boxed text, unique magical effects and terrain, and evil speech by Strahd. A former meager +1 shortsword in the original Castle is turned into a Shortsword of the Lost Crusader, which is a lawful good sentient weapon that can shed bright light, can be attuned to by a Lawful Good creature in 1 minute (but the item description doesn’t mention requiring attunement) and can let the wielder cast Crusader’s Mantle once per day. Overall, a pretty good chapter. It has high marks for its list of DM-friendly tools, especially the flowchart map, and I do like the idea of using the Brazier room to conduct a heist scenario in breaking into the Castle. The only real criticism I have is more of a surface-level one: Strahd doesn’t strike me as a whiskey and cigars kind of guy. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/keiKjKA.png[/img][/center] Ah, Vallaki. The real point at which Curse of Strahd truly becomes a sandbox, and the bane of underprepared DMs and PCs who can juggle only so many quest hooks. The Curse of Strahd Companion is well aware of the location’s infamous reputation, so it advises the DM to take things slow. Not every day has to be full of danger and adventure, and the theft of Saint Andral’s bones can be introduced once the DM is ready to light the powder keg. So far, some pretty good advice. There’s an awful lot of small changes the Companion makes to Vallaki. Some of them include Father Petrovich telling the PCs about the bones’ theft once he trusts them enough to handle the matter (such as the party rescuing Arabelle or freeing Udo Lukovich from the Baron’s manor), Van Richten doesn’t have a saber-tooth tiger he’s planning to use to kill the Vistani (he’s still present as Rictavio in town to gather information), Stella Wachter is still insane but instead of believing she’s a cat she has an insatiable need to break things and went insane not from Victor but by discovering her father’s corpse in Lady Wachter’s bedroom, the Arasek Stockyard’s goods aren’t overpriced, the Baron’s manor is more heavily defended with the addition of five Guards and a Veteran, Ernst Larnak knows Thieves’ Cant and can communicate with a Rogue PC should the party be willing to help switch his loyalties away from Lady Wachter, the Town Square has three new shops to sell things to the PCs (most notably an apothecary with wolfsbane and magical potions), and Kasimir Velikov can offer to let a wizard PC copy spells from his spellbook at a greatly reduced price in exchange for a future favor of accompanying him to the Amber Temple, The more significant changes include giving Izek and his status as Ireena’s lost sibling a bigger role. Father Petrovich, upon seeing Ireena, realizes that she was a girl long thought dead, born as Yasmine Strazni to two parents in town who have now passed away. He lies about her brother still being alive, knowing that Izek is dangerous, but PCs can detect he’s lying via Insight and other means. Izek will personally deliver an invitation to the PCs should the Baron become aware of their presence in town, and if Ireena’s with them the party can catch that he seems particularly interested in her. During dinner with the Baron, he will ask Ireena to marry his son Victor, a proposition Ireena is not too fond of and one Victor vehemently refuses to the Baron’s ire. The time and circumstances of Izek’s attempted kidnapping of Ireena are left up in the air, but it’s more or less intended to happen before the theft of the bones of Saint Andral. It is at this time that the Companion breaks out the trusty ol’ railroad tracks we’ve grown to know and love. Most notably, both noble leaders of Vallaki must be alive when Saint Andral’s Feast occurs, and Lady Wachter in particular must survive for having her take over the town is regarded as a vital plot point. The theft of the bones plays out more or less as it does in the default adventure, but adds an encounter where the PCs meet Milivoj at his home where he learns that he’s caring for his impoverished siblings. Thus, this show’s how he’s motivated by economic hardship to steal the bones for Henrik and something the party can use to get him to confess. Whether or not the PCs recover the bones, Strahd and his minions move upon the church and cause a massacre just as the PCs get back. Strahd is accompanied by any surviving vampire spawn and possibly Arrigal, and the Count will go to kill Father Petrovich while his minions attack everyone else. If Ireena is present, either with the party or staying at the Church as a safe haven, she will directly confront Strahd with sword in hand. Here’s the thing: I agree with the overall setup Trull is trying to do here. Strahd’s first appearance to the party in person should be a dramatic event, and the theft of the bones and the assault on the church is a great way to demonstrate his power and danger. At this point in the campaign the PCs shouldn’t be able to adequately take him on, aided as he is by the Heart of Sorrow, his minions, and the party most likely having drained their resources fighting or running away from vampire spawn at the Coffin Shop. The Companion even has brief snippets to help enhance this terror, like a vampire spawn pulling a crying child out of hiding from beneath the pews, or a churchgoer’s failed attempt to save Father Petrovich by throwing himself in front of Strahd only to be slammed to death. All of these tools are very strong narrative devices that still maintain PC autonomy while conveying the chaos of the scene. We don’t need to impose a non-interactive cutscene, particularly one where it looks like he’s about to drain Ireena dry. Talking is a free action, but combining that with other “actions” Strahd’s doing like disarming and grappling feels a bit overkill. The Companion more or less presumes that Father Petrovich will die, and has Strahd disappear via fog in boxed text after he kills the priest followed by all the torches in the neighborhood going out. More cutscene powers. The railroad tracks continue as the townsfolk’s last vestiges of safety are shattered, setting the sparks of revolution and Lady Wachter encouraging an angry mob to assault Baron Vallakovich’s manor. We get another non-interactive cutscene as the Vallakoviches are either stoned to death or burned at the stake. But Lady Wachter intervenes to have the crowd spare Victor, and she will invite the party to her manor. The noblewoman will note that the PCs are a threat to her rule, and she cannot tolerate their presence in town any longer. They will be allowed to leave the gates and keep their possessions, but otherwise will be “encouraged” to leave should they resist. [b]Content Warning: Sexual Assault[/b] [spoiler]This module also turns Lady Wachter into a rapist-by-proxy. She will drag out a visibly-tortured Victor in front of the PCs, mention that she will force him to marry her daughter Stella, and kill him after an heir is produced. Lady Wachter also had plans to force one of her female servants to “be given to the Devils Beyonds” and impregnated by a fiend, and when said maid discovered this plan via eavesdropping Lady Wachter spread rumors to isolate her from her friends and family.[/spoiler] Should the PCs seek to intervene at any time, they will have to fight a huge mob. Not just 30 Commoners, but 12 Guards, 8 Cultists, and 3 Cult Fanatics all at once. The adventure more or less uses these strength of numbers to dissuade PCs from going off the tracks. As for why Lady Wachter must both survive and take over Vallaki…there’s no real narrative reason besides forcing the party and Ireena to find safe haven elsewhere, most notably Krezk. As for the Wedding at Ravenloft, her survival for that isn’t paramount; in fact, that Chapter is rather open with alternatives to various scenes should important NPCs be dead. There’s even entries for what the Vallakovich family will do at the Wedding should they survive, so clearly Wachter’s ascension isn’t something that must happen for the campaign finale! And what if Victor is a Destined Ally? Well, the Companion more or less says that the party will have to find a way to rescue him at a later undetermined time, rather than…you know, the possibility of the PCs deciding to rescue him right then and there. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6DIXsKG.png[/img][/center] In recognition that fighting three night hags is something even high-level adventurers struggle with, the Companion all but advises against turning this into a violent encounter. In the default adventure the PCs could choose to visit the windmill, but a disguised wereraven will attempt to steer them away. The Companion has other ideas… To railroad the party into visiting! How, you may ask? Well, in keeping with the Bigger Barovia variant, an army of zombies led by a Barovian Witch will give chase to the party, their numbers more or less “enough to overwhelm the PCs in a straight fight.” And it just so happens that their only convenient means of shelter is the windmill. The book doesn't explain what's preventing the zombies from just massing around it and battering down the doors, [i]and the boxed text when the PCs first meet the hags doesn't have them react, much less acknowledge, the incoming zombie horde.[/i] It doesn't even have something like the zombies deciding to retreat, or the hags appearing nonchalant about it with a "it's just a jumped-up mageling, nothing we can’t handle." The major changes the chapter makes are reflavoring the windmill rooms to look less overtly like a monster lair like with the scattered bones, turning the mechanics of Dream Pastry addition into a progressive series of Constitution saves that impose exhaustion should an addict go without pastries, and instead of a TPK a party who is defeated by the hags are instead stabilized and are spared should they accept a curse or Geas. There’s a list of curses, such as losing their shadow which can be summoned as a monster by the hags. The Geas is a complicated three-step process that forces a PC to indirectly aid in the theft of the bones of Saint Andral and the overthrow of Vallaki’s Baron, such as delivering a letter to Henrik upon arrival in town or casting the first stone or torch during the Baron’s public execution by the mob. The megaliths are given more detail, where the hags will attempt to sacrifice a captured PC who refuses to take on a curse or Geas. PCs on non-violent terms with the hags can have them set up a teleportation circle to get into Castle Ravenloft. There’s a list of tasks asked for as the price, such as a Geas for a PC to retrieve Khazan’s Staff of Power, finding out the identities of one of the Keepers of the Feather along with a lock of their hair, or a lock of Arabelle’s hair and a vial of her blood. This last one is part of a ploy by Morgantha to manipulate or charm Strahd into letting her leave Barovia. A plot that is highly unlikely to work, at best. And last but not least, the Companion suggests depowering the hags to green hags save for Morgantha who remains a night hag. Should the party fight her and she escapes, she will plot revenge and conduct cannibalistic rituals to turn herself into an Auntie, a greater hag who gets lair actions. Should this happen, Old Bonegrinder is filled with more monsters such as scarecrows and animated brooms. I like the idea of avoiding a TPK by having the hags force the PCs to make dark bargains with them. I’ve seen this suggested on online communities for Curse of Strahd, but the Companion provides a set of explicit mechanics to them. I’m not so hot on the Geas, given that things in Vallaki are already railroaded to a predetermined point. It’s like Quantum Ogres, but instead of ogres it’s an entire plot. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] It’s at this point I more or less resigned my overall opinion of the Curse of Strahd Companion. Having railroads at certain key points to guide the party is one thing, but doing it in places where it’s both obviously artificial and unnecessary demonstrates a larger problem. Combined with the more evocative boxed text and NPC speeches, the Companion is turning Curse of Strahd into less of an RPG sandbox and more of a novel. In attempting to work backwards into setting up a climactic finale to the campaign with a Wedding at Ravenloft, I feel that Trull became so enamored of the idea that he began shutting down anything that can hint at the PCs going off course into uncharted territory. Instead of preparing for the journey, he kept his eyes on the end destination. And while the Wedding is a pretty cool end-game scenario, it has come at the expense of other important areas in the campaign. [b]Join us next time as we explore more of Barovia, from the haunted fortress of Argynvostholt to Van Richten’s Tower![/b] [/QUOTE]
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