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Message: <blockquote data-quote="evilbob" data-source="post: 6860583" data-attributes="member: 9789">Strahd is supposed to attack the party early and often.  He's the centerpiece of the adventure, and you want his presence to be felt as much as possible - but there's also the danger of seriously jumping the shark.  "Attacking the party early and often" goes against millennia of established storytelling scripture.  So how do you make his encounters interesting, dramatic, memorable, and yet still have even the slightest trace of mystery left?  (Did I just describe a tinder dating problem or CoS?)Let's come up with interesting, dramatic, memorable moments that still leave the party wondering.  I like to think of scenes, so that's how I'll present mine.  Then you show me yours!  (Did I just-)-----------"Donavich said he'll bury our father in the morning," Ismark sighs as he, Ireena, and the party make their way back down the hill toward town.  "It's not really safe at the house anymore," adds Ireena.  After a moment, "And I need a drink."The group heads to Blood On the Vine.  After arranging for rooms, they sit by the fire, silently nursing their respective poisons until the last few embers are left.  Most of the patrons have stumbled home by this point, and one woman gets up to leave.  She crosses to the bar, pays her tab, and then shifts slowly over to leave.  Suddenly she slams the door and screams:  "He's here!  THE DEVIL IS HERE!"That instant the room is filled with shattered glass as four wolves smash through the windows, followed by hundreds of bats that swarm the room, filling it with their screeching.  The remaining patrons scream as the wolves tear into them, and the party jumps to its feet.(battle starts)(on Ireena's initiative)Ireena meanwhile runs from wolf to wolf, each one backing away and engaging another target.  "Fight me, damn you!  Why won't you fight me!" she cries.  Her sword bites into wolf flesh in frustration, but still the creature runs from her.(when the door is opened, or the party wins)You head to the door, and look out into the murky darkness to see a man - or rather, a man-shaped shadow, inky black against the dark night, standing perfectly still in the square.  Before you can even act, Ireena is there:  her bow drawn, she lets fly an angry arrow without hesitation.  It pierces its mark in the middle of the head - but doesn't stop:  there's a perfect, arrow-sized hole left in the figure as you hear the wooden shaft clank against the cobblestone a hundred feet away.  For a moment, the figure is perfectly still... and then, as if it were a statue made of ash, it slowly blows away in the breeze, from head to toe.  Ireena runs out into the street as the figure disintegrates, screaming into the night:  "You monster!  YOU MONSTER!"  Her voice echoes down the street, to no answer.-----------So you've got your major themes - he knows you're there, he knows she's with you, Ireena can't be hurt by him, she's also a bad ass - but nothing serious is revealed and it's still pretty dramatic (borderline daytime TV dramatic but hey, you do what you can).  What else can you do that's so cool it couldn't possibly be a random encounter?</blockquote>

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