D&D General The thread where I review a ton of Ravenloft modules

[Stormonu]

The Price of Revenge (Dungeon #42)

Given that this girl is walking around with 6 wolves and is barefoot in the snow, smart money is on just killing her, and at just 25 hit points, it wouldn’t be a tough fight anyway, Nosferatu vampire or not.

In 5E, that would translate to close to 100 hp (and probably only harmed by magic weapons of +2 value or better). And 1E/2E 2-level drain is not the wimpy "slightly reduce your max hp" of 5E.

<Edit> Slight correction - Nosferatu drain 3 Con per round. PCs can get back 1 Con per two days.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Thank you, this 100%. Add in "she's barefoot in the snow" and "Surrounded by 6 pet wolves" and you've got yourself a villain absolutely deserving of being removed from the domain.

Any of these things might be true, and should be taken into account by a sensible party:

1) she might be a good aligned druid/nature spirit/fey;

2) The party might be hopelessly outclassed and get TPKed.

If the players haven't learned to take these things into consideration, they need to be taught.

 

[der_kluge]

Any of these things might be true, and should be taken into account by a sensible party:

1) she might be a good aligned druid/nature spirit/fey;

2) The party might be hopelessly outclassed and get TPKed.

If the players haven't learned to take these things into consideration, they need to be taught.

#1 seems like a stretch, but #2 could be true, and I'm not saying it's likely that a party would kill her, just that they could, which basically derails the entirety of the module.

Also, following the module along its stated path doesn't necessarily make it good, either.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

#1 seems like a stretch, but #2 could be true, and I'm not saying it's likely that a party would kill her, just that they could, which basically derails the entirety of the module.

Also, following the module along its stated path doesn't necessarily make it good, either.

I'm not saying they are true. I'm saying that they might be true. And if your party don't consider the possibility, then why not? Have you never given them reason to think that just because something looks suspicious attacking it might not be a good idea? I.e. have your taught your party to be murder hobos because it always works?

 

[TiQuinn]

Thank you, this 100%. Add in "she's barefoot in the snow" and "Surrounded by 6 pet wolves" and you've got yourself a villain absolutely deserving of being removed from the domain.

Normally when the writer does this kind of thing, they say "If they attack this NPC, immediately roll a powers check", but this one didn't indicate that, probably for the very reason you just indicated.

But even if they don't kill her, she doesn't tell you who her mother is, which means the party is just in for a very boring city exploration until the DM starts force-feeding them clues about where they need to go. And even then, ultimately this boils down to "Party goes to a new village and ends up killing two vampires." There's nothing to see here. Move along.

I think an easy way to restructure the beginning of this adventure is instead of having the girl demand a mount, have the PCs encounter her in the woods and witness her take down a stag for a kill, and create a more neutral starting point for their interaction. From there, the party may still fight with her and if they do (and destroy her), have the mother find them later and factor that into their interactions. It doesn’t even have to be negative - the Vistani could be relieved that she was put to rest…or it could go off the rails and she could curse the party to destroy the vampire who turned her daughter - let the PCs social skills dictate how badly this goes. I think it’d probably make sense for the mother and daughter to not be separated so it makes sense for them both to be encountered shortly after each other.

From there, it’s a basic hunt the vampire master adventure.

 

[Voadam]

1) she might be a good aligned druid/nature spirit/fey;

In AD&D when this was written druids could only be true neutral, they could not be good.

Nymphs were neutral (good) and cast druid spells which could summon wolves, but they have a tell of causing blindness if you see them.

It could be something unique but there are a lot of reasons to bet heavily on her being a not good thing.

 

[Stormonu]

Nymphs were neutral (good) and cast druid spells which could summon wolves, but they have a tell of causing blindness if you see them.

Nymphs only blind you if you see them naked.

...Now, where's my cane?

 

[Voadam]

Nymphs only blind you if you see them naked.

...Now, where's my cane?

Check again.

"Looking at a nymph will cause permanent blindness unless the onlookers save versus spell. If the nymph is nude or disrobes, an onlooker will die unless a saving throw versus spell is successful."

They only blind you if you miss your save and they are wearing clothes.

 

[Stormonu]

Check again.

"Looking at a nymph will cause permanent blindness unless the onlookers save versus spell. If the nymph is nude or disrobes, an onlooker will die unless a saving throw versus spell is successful."

They only blind you if you miss your save and they are wearing clothes.

Oh, whoops - I must have been thinking about the die part (partial memories from "Ecology of the Nymph").

 

[der_kluge]

I think an easy way to restructure the beginning of this adventure is instead of having the girl demand a mount, have the PCs encounter her in the woods and witness her take down a stag for a kill, and create a more neutral starting point for their interaction. From there, the party may still fight with her and if they do (and destroy her), have the mother find them later and factor that into their interactions. It doesn’t even have to be negative - the Vistani could be relieved that she was put to rest…or it could go off the rails and she could curse the party to destroy the vampire who turned her daughter - let the PCs social skills dictate how badly this goes. I think it’d probably make sense for the mother and daughter to not be separated so it makes sense for them both to be encountered shortly after each other.

From there, it’s a basic hunt the vampire master adventure.

That seems like a much better option, and certainly paints her in a much more favorable light to the party, instead of having to sacrifice a mount (assuming they have them anyway). Without the girl, it's unlikely they'll meet the Mom. The encounter with the mom has to be massaged a little bit as well, since a wizard could go see her specifically, perhaps, and without any means to heal her, she'll die without giving the clue to the remainder of the module.