Requesting Death House help - SPOILERS AHEAD - DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE NOT DMING

[Caecafortuna]

Hello fellow gamers, I will be running Death House as a launch event at my local store this weekend. I have read with interest everyone's thoughts about the adventure. The comments/props/ideas have all been very helpful. However, I still have a couple questions and would love to get the community's feedback on the following:

• What is the preferred method of "transporting" the characters to Barovia? Is everyone using the hooks from Chapter 2 of Curse of Strahd? Which hook do you think works best? Personally, I think meeting up with the Vistani has the most appeal.
• What if the characters do not want to go into the house? Is the hook for the characters that they are trying to help the children? What if they say, "screw it" let's just leave the house? Do the mists confine them to the home? Are they locked inside?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

• What is the preferred method of "transporting" the characters to Barovia? Is everyone using the hooks from Chapter 2 of Curse of Strahd? Which hook do you think works best? Personally, I think meeting up with the Vistani has the most appeal.

I plan on using the Werewolves in the Mist adventure hook to let the party get some starting gear and because it's the one that involves the factions. The party will then run into the Barovian Scouts and the Corpse random encounters.

• What if the characters do not want to go into the house? Is the hook for the characters that they are trying to help the children? What if they say, "screw it" let's just leave the house? Do the mists confine them to the home? Are they locked inside?

If running Death House, the Mists essentially "guide" the party to the house. If they don't follow the Mists, then they suffer the consequences of being consumed by the Mists. The Mists don't recede from the area surrounding the house until the end of Death House.

 

[RCanine]

The adventure hooks are the weakest part of CoS, in my opinion. Heres what I would do:

* Have each character describe their day-to-day life in Faerûn
* Once done, improvise a time when that character or the group of characters is alone
* The characters are surrounded by missed and dumped in front of the death house
* The mists circle tightly around the house, and don't let them otherwise explore
* Let the characters react a minute, before introducing Rose & Thorn

The self-opening gates of the valley are neat and all, but the space is too far open for adventurers not to get distracted, and the reality is that this first adventure needs to be a bit railroady.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

Would it be against forum rules if I uploaded the edits that I did to the Death House player maps to make them printer friendly? They're of the house itself and not the dungeon.

Mike Schley did give them away for free, so I don't see any immediate issue, but I thought I'd ask before posting them.

 

[maxed]

I ran Death House on Sunday for my non-AL group. They were on the road to Phlan when they encountered a disabled wagon on the side of the road. It was a pair of Vistani. They needed to have a message delivered and were worried that they would not get it there in time due to the issue with the wagon. So, they paid the adventurers 5gp each to deliver a sealed scroll case to the Durst house and gave directions to the house. The rogue opened the scroll case when they were 5 minutes away from the Vistani to discover it was empty, which made the party suspicious. The party travelled down the road, made camp, and were enveloped by fog. When they arrived in Borovia, the town appeared abandoned and the fog "guided" them to the house. They knocked on a few doors on the street but found only empty homes. They were totally freaked out by the self-opening gates and immediately tried to get back out, even trying to go around the wall. It was a good time!

 

[Tyranthraxus]

My introduction to Death House started with the party resting in a Copse of trees near the Beach a few hours outside of Phlan. As Night approached I described how the usual fog/mist of the Moonsea seemed quite thick. This actually works well because there generally is Mist/Fog in the moonsea coastal regions. When the party awoke , they could no longer hear the beach swell and the trees they were camped against were not Beach type trees but Elms and Pines/Oaks. They then wandered back to the main road, found a strange new road and followed it into Barovia town in the Dark.. then Queue Death House.

The small of it was they were new adventurers and they had just escorted a caravan half way to Zhentil Keep because of the risk of Bandit attacks. Lately 2 bandit groups had been targeting Caravans. I even gave them 30 gold as their 'payment' (which I took from the Scenario later on) as their starting reward/ payment.

EDIT: I should point out one thing. THe party headed north from their campsite and found a road going east /west. Now I was kinda expecting someone to do something different and one character decided to go by himself to the east whilst everyone went west on the road. I did the whole 'Are you sure? ' business and still it was on. So he basically walked by himself off into the fog/mist as the party went West.

THen he came out of the mist and walking into the parties field of vision which lead to everyone freaking the hell out. They suddenly started to know that all roads were leading to Barovia town.

 

[Caecafortuna]

Thanks for all of the great feedback! I have a couple of ideas now on what to do. I will update after our session on Sunday. Thanks, again.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Hello fellow gamers, I will be running Death House as a launch event at my local store this weekend. I have read with interest everyone's thoughts about the adventure. The comments/props/ideas have all been very helpful. However, I still have a couple questions and would love to get the community's feedback on the following:

• What is the preferred method of "transporting" the characters to Barovia? Is everyone using the hooks from Chapter 2 of Curse of Strahd? Which hook do you think works best? Personally, I think meeting up with the Vistani has the most appeal.
• What if the characters do not want to go into the house? Is the hook for the characters that they are trying to help the children? What if they say, "screw it" let's just leave the house? Do the mists confine them to the home? Are they locked inside?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Ill respond to the second point here

If they dont want to enter, the mist will slowly enroach until the kids voluntarily step onto the Portico. Perhaps get them to say that the Mists 'Eats people alive'. If they need more convincing have a cat that was lazily lying on the portico duck off into the mist , startled by the Adventurers. Have a screech then silence to indicate that the cat is no more. Thats a bit over the top sure, but it could be effective.

As for once they are inside. The door slams shut. If they open the door they see the mist has settled over the Portico and the kids have disappeared and they can even see a ft out of the house. That should be enough to disuade them.

 

[Rils]

The book also clarifies a couple things re: the Mists:
- Characters who walk off into it will return you to where they started - if you walk away from the house into the Mists, you will eventually find yourself walking right back up to the front door again.
- Any character who starts their turn in the Mists has to make a Con save (DC 10 I think? Off of memory) or gain a level of Exhaustion. A round or two of that is GREAT incentive to get back to the house...

 

[RCanine]

- Any character who starts their turn in the Mists has to make a Con save (DC 10 I think? Off of memory) or gain a level of Exhaustion. A round or two of that is GREAT incentive to get back to the house...

The con save is DC20 and it's absurd. There's no fun in having Lost Woods-like mists if they neuter you before you have a chance to discover that you're stuck. I just ignore the mists exhaustion and rely on their deus-ex-machina features.