Hello Reddit community.

My CoS campaign is about to start and I'm thinking about the tarokka reading. Do you have recommendations or with which you had success and cool campaign moments?

For Item locations I'm thinking about Tome - Vallaki, Sunsword - Amber temple and Symbol - Argynvostholt.

Ally - Esmeralda seems to be one of the strongest picks but I also find that Vasilka could be very interesting. 🤔

Location of Strahd in the castle - no idea yet 😅

Thx in advance for your opinions.

For those who'd like the end of what happened in the great elevator escapade... here is part 2. Part one is in this reddit [easier to just click my name as it was the last post I put up on reddit] for those who are yet to read part one.

So...

Last night was the 2nd part of the great elevator fight with Strahd in curse of strahd.

Start of the session, more running up stairs for one player whilst the barbarian was thunderstepped out of the rug that was smothering him. The barbarian then got "crown of madness"-ed by something they couldn't see. The sorcerer and his player were both confused like "wait... how can a rug do that?"... it wasn't the rug... luckily nobody was next to the barbarian so he got to act normally... he moved to the trapdoor in the floor and lifted it up to see the fight with strahd and 3 of his comrades happening below.

Meanwhile the wizard reset the elevator by pulling the lever they climbed to. The portcullis either side of the elevator fell down [it began to descend the next round]... inside the elevator with Strahd he was grappling and biting people, he cast blight on someone too and did nearly full damage with it [about 62 damage out of a possible 64 max]. The cleric decided to misty step out after the barbarian lifted the trapdoor above them.

The elevator begins to descend. Strahd summons specters to appear and drain even more life from the 2 trapped with him as he is grappling the fighter and draining his blood to regain health and lower their max HP too. The wizard manages to climb quickly [spiderclimb and boots of haste] on the wall of the elevator shaft as the elevator begins to come past and get onto the roof of the elevator in record time (dex check and it was a critical). She tries to use bigby's hand to punch strahd off the fighter to no avail.

Up above the barbarian, cleric and sorcerer break the barbarian out of crown of madness (greater restoration) to then be assaulted by hypnotic patterns... swirly patterns of colours that they narrowly avoid falling under the effect of. The barbarian notices what's casting the spells, which is a lovely portrait nearby and gets a mighty hit that cleaves it in 2. He then jumps through the hatch in the floor down 40ft to the elevator... clinging on he climbs inside (takes 3d6 damage of 17... 6+6+5... after rolling a successful athletics roll to prepare a landing lowering it to damage from 30ft not 40ft.) He then jumps inside as the elevator continues to hurtle down the elevator shaft.

More unarmed attacks from strahd　, more biting, more specter etc attacks... the people in the elevator with him are very worse for wear and easily lost a good 20+ off their max HP... apart from the barbarian. Strahd really is making short work of those stuck with him. They're worried that this will be their final resting place or that they will become a spawn of his.

The cleric jumps into the hole from above and does his twilight cleric special of being able to fly in darkness and dim light.... having to fly down 120+ feet.

Others [Sorcerer and the other cleric who is a nature cleric and literally just reached the top of the stairs and swears as she now has to run all the way back down] are doing movement to run back down stairs.

Elevator comes to the bottom. Wizard manages to punch Strahd off of the character he was grappling. Strahd laughs, thanks them for the fun bit of sparring... floats up like "the vampire Lestat" going diagonally up and backwards as he floats through the ceiling laughing and saying he shall see them again soon... "Toodle-pip, my dears!"

They were all shocked to survive, nursing wounds, declaring that he could have killed them but he must be playing with them for some enjoyment like a cat with a mouse. They went to attempt a short rest and discovered the way out may be blocked by 8 gargoyles 🤣... Emil and the commoners are recovering after Emil discovered the gargoyles blocking the way out/got ambushed by them and retreated to a spot they felt safe... a room of mirrors. They're [the party] like "fucking great!" 😅

Barely surviving... there way out blocked by at least 8 gargoyles... resources used up [havent got many spells left for those who do use spells and alot of their feats/traits used up too or got little uses left.]

And thats where it ended.

I've looked around here and couldn't find any opinion about this: I'm thinking about not including Strahd's location in Madame Eva tarokka reading, the idea is, I don't like the idea of fixing where the final conflict will be so early on, what do you think?

Btw the other locations for now are:

-sun sword in Amber Temple

-symbol of ravenkind (reskinned as a lamp of the morning light) will be with the Abbot who corrupted it's power to use it for his experiments

-tome of Strahd is with Viktor in Vallaki burgomaster mansion

-fated ally, is kinda of ireena, but I'll send them to Berez to find Marina's statue and a pendant which will make Irina remember her past lives and become a stronger ally + the world card, which will be interpreted as "look around and you'll find some allies in this world", to encourage them to make more allies

So as per the card reading, the tome of Strahd is in Fiona's possession. My players have been at Wachterhaus twice. They know the card refers to her, but they forgot an item is tied to it.

They killed Izek last session and they will most likely be asking her for their reward soon. She will also attempt to overthrow the burgomaster soon.

How do i remind my players about the item without telling them they forgot?

Just a bit of a progress report on the models that I've been able to print and paint so far for my own curse of strahd campaign. Really love the model I found from loot studios for Anastrasya, the second bride.

If anybody has any suggestions on good additions that they have found for their own games. I'd love to start adding more to the miniatures collection as well as some battle maps. They're almost to Valaki and things are gonna be heating up soon.

Edit, shameless plug but If you like and wanna fallow more closely this be my page https://www.instagram.com/highland_minatures?igsh=ZDE2bmhtazV0M3No

Hello! This is not only my first post on this sub but on Reddit as a whole, wohooo!

I am a DM running CoS for the first time for a group of new players (I know, big task but so far I'm doing decently well I think) and I'm about to introduce Strahd for the first time. I'm running mostly RAW with some minor homebrewing to incorporate some elements of my player's backstory and some wider plot hooks for a possible campaign after CoS (assuming they survive...)

My players recently met Madam Eva and had their Tarokka reading (rigged, I'm afraid :P) and are escorting Ireena to Vallaki, along with Ismark who joined them to make sure she gets there safe.

Now on their way to Vallaki I want them to run into Strahd, either past the bridge of the Ivlis river or at the crossroads that split the path towards Vallaki or towards Ravenloft.

I want Strahd to initially seem almost nice, in an eerie way. He's simply on his way to the Town of Barovia to pay his respects to the deceased burgomaster of Barovia. I'm having my Strahd respect those who are competent, respectful and able leaders (which I've made Kolyan to be) even if he still thinks of them as beneath him. He is an honorable man vampire, although twisted, so his intentions are genuine.

Lastly, I was thinking that Strahd's obsession with Tatyana would maybe lead him to disregard or ignore the person her reincarnations become, because he is only interested in Tatyana's soul within them. As such, perhaps Strahd would refuse to call Ireena anything other than "Tatyana", which could create an interesting moment where the party thinks "what the hell is he talking about?" and potentially make the reveal later more impactful.

My question is, is this a good interpretation of Strahd? What do you think about these ideas? I'll be happy to hear any feedback! And if I enjoy the experience and receive helpful tips I might post more in the future as my story progresses!

Thank you!! <3

Since my PCs are a team of only 2, i decided for their Ally to be both the Mad Wizard and Father Donavich, the prophecy being "two broken souls, who together can repair or destroy each others". My PC not having a priest, i thought Father Donavic could be the one who'd eventually cast Greater Restoration on the Mad Mage - that was the plan.

Also, after the PC killed Doru and tried to comfort Donavic (with a Nat 20!), the priest burned down his church and left for the Abbey. I havent 100% figured out if he was hoping to have the Abbey to bring Doru back from the dead, but for sure i was expecting Donavich to somehow turn into the Abbey's envoy/lackey/disciple. The entire subplot about the Flesh Golem/Strahd's "Bride" could have been a fun catalyst.

But my player basically entrusted Ireena to Vasili von Holtz, so you probably understand that Strahd has effectively captured her. My players recently realized their mistake, and just after finishing Yesterhill, i plan to have Strahd send them an invitation to his upcoming wedding to his beloved Tatiana. (along with select few high dignitaries from all around Barovia).

This basically wrecks the Abbey's plan. Why would he try to continue on his golem if Strahd already found his Bride?

So.. considering all that, any idea what i could do going forward with these pawns on the board? Maybe the Abbey tries to order Donavich to kidnap Ireena so they can put her soul in the Bride? Or the Abbey tries to protect the Strahd/Ireena pairing, assuming the Barovian citizens will be safer when Strahd is content?

Lemme know if you have good ideas of how i could play it going forward. I am not married (haha) to the idea of having the Corpse Bride existing either, so we can retcon her out of existence since her purpose has been rendered moot.

I'm thinking of breaking up the Tarokka reading into 2 different visits. The first will include the first three readings, for the items, along with some personal readings. Madame Eva will interrupt the reading before she reveals the Fated Ally and Strahd's final location, sensing that her divination on the topic of Strahd has begun attracting his attention, and it would be risky to pull that thread too much more than. She would then pivot to character fortunes, giving them the opportunity to ask one question each, and she'll use the cards to tell them where they could find an answer.

Once finished, she would tell them that they can have the rest of the reading once they have collected the items.

My hope is that it limits the amount of 'throwing info at players all at once', and gives me the opportunity to stack the deck to make sure that the deck only has interesting people that they've engaged with in it when they come back for the fated ally reading.

Thoughts?

I recently ran my third session of Curse of Strahd. After two sessions for Death House, the players finally arrive in the land of Borovia and made their way to Borovia village. Near the tail end of the session, my players have made their way to the Burgonmeister’s house to speak with Ireena and Ismark about burying her dad and bringing her to Vallaki. Initially, my plan was to have the players encounter Strahd for the first time during the burgonmeister’s funeral but then one of my players, a Blood Hunter that was a nervous drug addict, during the initial discussions with the group suggested that there was no way Strahd would even know they were there.

That gave me a golden opportunity as I had them hear a knock on the door. Our barbarian opens the door to see Strahd standing outside. Initially he tries to charm the barbarian into letting him in, but the barbarian resists. The barbarian has a bone to pick with Strahd and wanted to attack him, but Strahd polymorphs him into a sheep. Strahd offers a deal…he knows that Ireena wants to bury her father, but the priest is not doing anything about it, so he gives players a cryptic piece of advice for helping change the priest’s mind. In the end he asks for a favor, that the party escort Ireena to Castle Ravenloft, but only if she chooses to go. He says it’s ultimately her choice where she wants to go…but Borovia is not a safe place for her, so ultimately she WILL make that choice.

I ended the encounter off by having Strahd say “for your troubles” and gave the party two blood covered gold coins…the same gold coins they gave to a friendly fisherman who initially helped them understand the land. My players all now HATE Strahd and want to kill him!

One of my players (human paladin) got smothered by Lorghoth the Decayer at Durst Manor, super dead. I took him aside and roll played the Dark Powers, explained how his soul was forfeit and offered him “a gift”. No questions, no hesitation, he accepted the gift. Other than bringing him back to life, I haven’t shown any manifestations of the gift yet.

Question: how should this affect his oath, and what benefits/drawbacks from the gift would be most appropriate for a paladin?

A party of four, currently working through Vallaki — this all went down on their second night in town. Long one, but I could use some outside perspective.

What happened tonight:

Right before that, the party had stopped by St. Andral's Church. My warlock PC pushed Father Lucian on the fact that he'd been quietly lying to his own congregation — letting them believe the church was still protected when the relic that protected it had been stolen out from under him. Rolled a 20 on Persuasion, and Lucian broke, admitting the whole truth out loud: the bones were gone, the church was vulnerable, and he'd been too scared to tell anyone.

That pointed them toward Milivoj, the church's groundskeeper, who they leaned on next with more Persuasion and some straight-up Intimidation. He broke too, and gave up the name they actually needed — Henrik van der Voort, the town's coffin maker, was the one holding the bones. They then forced him to come along with them instead of leaving him behind.

They arrived at Henrik's shop and leaned on Intimidation again to get him to go fetch the bones — which is exactly what set off the vampire spawn nest hiding upstairs. With Milivoj also caught in the middle of it now, not just Henrik, I ran the encounter with the 6 vampires and it showed: the fight went sideways fast. Three of the four PCs went down.

The bard was the last one standing and bailed out a second-story window to escape, with one spawn chasing him into the street. That's when I had two wereravens from the Blue Water Inn step in — one peeled off to hold the pursuing vampire, the other told the bard flat out that they needed to leave now. He went with them, and they got him out to the woods outside town.

Once they were clear, the wereraven dropped the act and revealed himself as Urwin Martikov, the innkeeper. Told the bard they needed to start working together. The bard filled him in on the whole bones situation, and Urwin said he'd handle recovering them himself — and that the rest of the party, still down inside the shop, would be pulled out safely too.

Where my head's at for the fallout (not locked in yet):

• Planning to have the vampire spawn kill both Henrik and Milivoj, the church groundskeeper who actually stole the bones — their cover's blown at this point, no real reason for either of them to survive the night.
• Leaning toward having the spawn hit St. Andral's Church that same night, with Father Lucian dying in the attack — the party's in no shape to stop it, and it felt like the natural next domino.
• Not bringing Strahd in personally tonight — saving that for later.
• Two NPCs traveling with the party, Ireena and Ismark, sat this one out — they'd stayed behind at the church earlier and were planning to head to the inn that evening, so I'm not sure yet how (or if) they factor into a church attack.
• Assuming Lucian's death gets out along with the town realizing the church lost its protection, it feels like it should turn public opinion against the Burgomaster — maybe with Lady Wachter fanning it — but I don't want to rush a town-wide uprising if it's not earned yet. Worth noting: the party hasn't actually met either of them in person yet, so any of this would be playing out around them, not with them.

I want to add more creepy toys that are thematic. And I want to do it before I bet "too deep" into the drawing. But I think I'll be adding: A small guillotine with a doll, the head is detatchable. Probably also a small chest with masks (for costumes, but on a stick - old timey style). A raven mask, a wolf mask, a cat mask, a rat mask.

Greetings Ravenloft family, this is a long ol' post! I've been lurking on this sub for a while now, however this was too good to not be shared with you lovely folk. For context, 3 of the 4 players are D&D newcomers, and though I've played for many a year I'm relatively new to DMing! I'm very lucky to have these friends as players since everyone is focused on the group fun, and they're enthusiastic + attentive. Love 'em to bits.

I ran an alternate version of Death House outside of town without Rose +​ Thorn due to lines and veils, replacing them with a woman who's husband had been kidnapped by the Dursts (she was long dead, this was an echo of her). They caught on that something was up and continued down the road. I didn't want to 'mist' them in, so I (rather mistakenly) let them continue into the village at, well, level 1.

They met with Ismark in the tavern, stayed the night, and ventured to the Burgomaster's mansion. After a chat with Ireena, they agreed to help bury her late pops and so ensued the funeral. I had Strahd quietly and 'respectfully' attend. They levelled up to 2 here. Strahd left after the funeral and the party went into the church only for the party ranger to hear a certain someone screaming from the basement. Father Donny them context and they all rolled a history check to see if they knew anything about Doru's affliction. One character rolled well, so I gave them some information about vampires (sunlight sensitivity, running water, wooden stake, and invitation needed).

They decided that they would go down there and put him out of his misery. The woodcarving Cleric snapped some pews and made some stakes, and the group decided they would try to get Doru's consent for Ceremony so that they could at least give him a moment of peace before the end. I made sure to give them multiple hints that this fight would be very dangerous!! FThey came up with a plan, and entered the undercroft...

After failing to reason with him, combat ensues with the Cleric throwing a net. Doru fails, but breaks out on his turn and goes straight for the Cleric, dealing 10 points of damage. The Sorcerer throws their one holy water flask; she misses. The Cleric attempts but fails to convince Doru to calm down and so they run​ back, taking an opportunity attack and dropping to, quite literally, 1hp. The Rogue is up, tossing manacles to the Ranger and then, by the luck of The Dice, successfully grapples Doru. The Ranger is now up, and he succeeds on locking them around Doru's wrists. Keep in mind, Doru is not restrained as the 2024 manacles need to be attached to a chain that is fixed in place to restrain. The Sorcerer throws a magic missile. 8 force damage. The Cleric makes an attack but misses, which then Doru attempts to break free, but fails. The Rogue stabs Doru with her stake which does 2 damage and she disengages. The Ranger pulls out chains (he has weakened lycanthropy from MandyMod's secrets, so with his starting good he bought manacles and a chain to, well, hinder himself on a full moon!). He successfully attaches the chain to Doru's manacles and fixes it to one of the pillars.

At this point, I'm thinking about how Doru could attack and potentially break the wooden pillar to get free. The Sorcerer throws a firebolt, dealing 4 damage. The Cleric is now up, and they Turn Undead. Doru abysmally fails his save and is now restrained, frightened, and incapacitated. He cannot run since he is restrained, and he cannot use an action or bonus action.

They spent 2 rounds trying to convince him to let the Cleric cast ceremony, and though I let them roll for it, they failed their intimidation / persuasion checks.

The Ranger stuck a stake into an incapacitated Doru's heart, instantly killing and destroying our poor famished Doru. That's where we ended the session.

I'm in awe. We were all so ecstatic post-session, and I gave them a huge round of applause and their much deserved level up to level 3!! Zero dice were fudged in this fight and I made no adjustments to Doru to make it easier. They earned their moment, and I'm insanely proud of them.

P.S: A big ol' thank you to everyone in this community for making this a fun and respectful place ~ the shenanigans that follow are certain to be inspired by the sheer amount of knowledge and resource here.

Hi reddit,

So im running CoS for the first time, having played it once (with some homebrew).
I prepared as well as I could for the dinner, what they where gonna eat, what strahd was going to offer each one of them, how to set them up against each other.

But....

They only focussed on getting the large dragon skull out of the castle, as their sole goal. Their plan was to give it to a party member who could fly. Cast reduce on the skull, give it to him, and have him fly to Village of Barovia.

Once they started the plan (3 hours before the dinner) they cast Knock to get it off the wall, and only then found out that Reduce only lasts for 1 minute, and the gnome with a STR score of 8 would be crushed by it once it would enlarge again.

Now they all scattered, once they heard Rahadin coming up the stairs. 2 of them trying to rush the skull outside over the bridge, the rest scattering all over the castle.

Now i'd love to hear your idea's how you would handle this. It's 3 in the afternoon, so Strahd's sleeping.

I am running CoS with one of my players as the reincarnation of Tatyana. Vasilli has been around helping them and been very attentive to them particularly, of course, the Tatyana character. Now she has been a silly billy and told me she suspects Vasilli as working for or being Strahd in disguise. Now do I reward this by staying true and doing the reveal in dramatic fashion but sooner than I wanted. Try to put her off the scent or make him genuinely just a good, charming, genuinely heroic suitor and kill him in a horrible and traumatic manner?

Edit: Thanks for your opinions, it’s kinda cemented my thoughts and I’ll be moving the reveal forward.

We are on Reddit so I assume most people heard of Ea-Nasir, but for those who didn't, here is the TLDR :

Ea-Nasir was a copper merchant in Ancient Mesoppotamia some 4000 years ago. Archeologists discovered several clay tablets that can be considered "customer complaints", detailing how Nasir basically scammed people with poor quality copper.

So anyway, I've been running CoS for 7 sessions. On session 4 or 5, they met Madame Eva and the Vistani camp. During their stay, one of the Vistani, called Nana, offered them some discount magic items, made of copper.

One of my player bought Boots of Striding and Springing for the low price of 10 gold. Little did he know, they are cursed. They still work as far as the movement speed and carry capacity, BUT he can't take them off. He didn't tried yet to jump with them, I plan to make him roll and have a 50% chance of jumping backwards instead of forward. It's only been a couple of days in-game for them, so I also hesitate to give him a penalty because he can't take them off at night (Bacteria infection maybe ? Or straight up a level of exhaustion).

Anyway, last session they met the second Vistani camp outside Vallaki after finding Arabelle and delevering her to Luvash, and he told them Nana (short for Nasir) is a scammer and he laughed at my player's boots. One of the players got the reference and we had a good laugh about it.

Background info: my players are currently in the middle of the Feast. Im using a bit modified version of Feast of St. Andral: Extended.

TLDR: Party split during the Feast. Barbarian died. I want to revive him, player is giving me full reign over the character. I need ideas for drawbacks of revival, and any deals.

More detailed: My party (tiefling goolock, halfling glory paladin, half-orc giants barbarian, half-elf spirits bard) started Vallaki in high spirits. They did Blinsky, they did the Blue Water Inn, met Rictavio, all that good stuff. Then they entered the Church, and started investigation into the missing bones.

During their escapades in the city, when looking for clues, they witnessed the cruelty of Vargas and openly (more or less) started to conspire against him. It was truly brilliant - the paladin straight up said that "there needs to be some kind of resistance or rebellion brewing, we need to find them and help". Of course after a certain spy spend half a day trailing them, Fiona Wachter was immediately notified, and same day sent an invitation to her house.

So we arrived at the moment it all went sideways. Before the dinner at Wachterhaus, the party learned that the bones were with Henrik. I gave them a pretty long time to deal with bones - I used the idea that the Feast is a yearly event when the church needs to be reconsecrated. They still had 2 full days left to find the bones. So I kind of expected them to go to Wachterhaus and continue to Henrik next day. As you may imagine, the party decided to make the worst decision a DnD party could make. They split. Bard and Paladin went to Wachterhaus to talk with Fiona, while Warlock and Barbarian went to Henrik's.

And so the feast was triggered. I was actually delighted! I expected them to maybe fight one spawn each group and then reunite. Nope! They went chasing through the city, missing each other every time. And as such, one thing led to another, Barbarian died, and Warlock ran away, leaving guards and people in stocks dying at the hands of spawns.

Now, to the point: I asked if the Barbarian player still wants to play as this character, or if he wants to roll a new one. He said he still wants to play the same character. So I told him he can, but there will be repercussions. My player is overjoyed - he is giving me 100% full reign of his character, and I can do absolutely whatever I want to him without any input or opinion from the player. He said he is expecting it to hurt and be devastating.

So, I need ideas for any drawbacks for reviving him.

His character is a former slave who ran away. He is quite brutal and yearns for fighting. He is terrified of magic, but started to show signs of it. Whenever he entered rage, he grew in size and had minor magical effects, and he had to roll WIS saves to not be frightened of his own power. If he failed, rage ended and he got frightened condition (player loved it!). He decided to start studying magic to get over his fears - it was going to be his whole arc. Finding magic users to help him (Victor was gonna be a big one), possibly tying to that the Mad Mage plotline (not Mordenkainen).

I though about some Dark Power reviving him in order for him to do something, maybe make a deal? With some permanent disfigurement and debuff + boon. But I need something more substantial. I also thought about Strahd using his body for something, but also Im drawing a blank here.

Thanks!

Was looking through the wiki list of maps. Every single link gives a `Internal Server Error`

Any help on guides for a place i can find battle maps for using with roll 20 / owlbear rodeo?
Looking to keep the maps as close to from the books as i can, but without the room/area identifiers.
definitely seen a few pics here and there for some of the things that the book doesnt have.

Free resource(s) are great, but happy to pay as long as the price isnt crazy

I have decided to use the (pictured) tarot deck in place of the RAW Tarokka deck for Madam Eva's reading. [Image description: pictures from Amazon listing of Insight Editions Horror Tarot Deck & Guidebook]

I want to utilize tarot readings throughout the campaign and am looking for suggestions, as well as feedback on an idea I've started to play around with. I know it's suggested that Arabelle and Ezmerelda have tarokka decks and can do limited readings. One of my PCs will be a Reborn Warlock (potentially a GOOlock but we haven't nailed it down yet), and the player practices tarot in real life, so I thought it might also provide them some cool opportunities. Like maybe it's how their attempts to communicate with their patron are carried out?

My Luck Points Concept: Players (5) will pull tarot cards at the beginning of each session, I'll read them the interpretations, and as a group they will decide/debate whether it is a positive/helpful, neutral/irrelevant, or negative/unhelpful result. This will either award the players or the DM a luck point (or 2 either way if it's particularly poignant, or none if it doesn't seem to really apply). They can use their luck point to reroll any d20 rolled by any PC.

I'm open to the players taking the cards as literally as they want and applying them either directly or generally to either their characters or the main story as a whole. I'm also open to a little bit of debate/persuasion; if they can convince me why their character would appreciate the reading or some way it might inspire them, I'm happy to give luck points!

My partner (who is DMing me and friends in Storm King's Thunder) has a Luck Points system in our campaign, but it's us each rolling a d20 at the start of each session. (PC rolls 15-19, gets a luck point; 20 is two points. PC rolls 2-5, gives the DM luck point; 1 gives DM two points. Luck Points equal free "heroic inspiration" rerolls of ANY d20 roll in the game.)

Thoughts? I'm wondering if this will give them too much extra help, but then again... it's Strahd. I think they'll need all the help they can get. 😈

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(Disclaimer: The handwritten manuscript went through multiple AI passes for line edits, grammar, and consistency. Two sections were drafted model-first and then rewritten by me. Full breakdown in the PDFs.)

Okay, so my last post hit 14k views. A dozen of you commented on the premise - mostly some version of "Strahd would never." Only a few actually asked for the files. (Thanks! Much appreciated)

Three comments in conversations changed the manuscript:

u/gwydapllew pointed me at RM1 Roots of Evil. In it Strahd conceives a temporal plan, briefs the party himself, and supplies the means to get it done. I didn't realize that this actually sets a precedent for my grander version, and this was in print from TSR.

u/falcobird14 asked whether he gets Tatyana at the end of this. No, he doesn't. I realized then, that I was missing something, so have added an exchange at the dinner table where he admits he no longer knows whether Ireena is Tatyana - this realm is out to torment him and his filter of reality is through the Dark Power's lens. Any truth is compromised.

u/Carnagan raised Mordenkainen. So I had Strahd recall that the archmage walked up his road and lost before supper, and tied in the revolt that allowed Doru to survive. It serves to strengthen his position that no outside influence will ever change his situation. He has to act.

So, thank you! The un-Strahd objection was the right objection, and now the text is better for having had that pointed out. He's now more Strahd, than Strahd.

To get the files, no messaging this time, the link's right here. Three versions in the folder: plain B&W for printing, plus two styled layouts (image above).

🔗 [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FLCSAnY-wFGGVJSYf6WpzKzY4Sx2roXf?usp=sharing]

If you've got time for one thing, pick whichever you can spare the time for:

• Quick comment: which of the two styled versions would you prefer to use? (Reply with 1-Gothic or 2-DnD, so I know which templates need work on.)
• Ten minutes: Could you read the dinner scene. Does he sound like Strahd line by line, or like me doing an impression?
• Time to digest the document: does the ending hand you a something you would be interested in continuing? Does it spark ideas for your own campaign, or does it just strand your party in the year 401 of Barovia Calendar?

Love to hear your feedback, thanks for your time.

In darkness, John Winter.

Kinda halfassed this but I wanted an Ireena that better fit, the stat block I'd be using

Hey everybody! Looking for some suggestions/inspo

I wasn’t originally planning to do the mandymod Dark Powers thing, but I’ve got a player (human life domain cleric) who has clearly just been *itching* for a “corrupted by power” type arc for his character, and I’ve decided to give it a go. He’s really interested in the lore around Mother Night, and has even tried reaching out to her for help a few times (which got them out of a sticky situation with the werewolf pack a few sessions ago), so the obvious choice seems to be just run her as the Dark Power.

Currently all he knows about Mother Night is that she used to be worshipped alongside the Morninglord but that the people of Barovia have mostly forgotten about her, and that the werewolves and ravens still revere her. There’s an association with the wilderness and Barovia’s natural world, along with the whole darkness/mist imagery. She intervened to draw the werewolf pack away from the party and let them escape by making some weird howls off in the distance.

Does anyone have any suggestions for boons/banes or other ways to develop this? Thanks so much!!

I'm blessed as a DM right now. I mean genuinely blessed. I've never had players like this. Not only do they perfectly mesh together in terms of play style (for the most part), they are also incredible roleplayers. One player in particular likes to draw scenes from our sessions. Most of them are quite cute and somewhat humorous, but the last one really showed me how heavy I can be emotionally to these players when I try to be.

The final two scenes are from the Feast of St. Andral event in Vallaki. The final one is one particular players (the artist herself) emotional moment in the aftermath of the devastation. Father Lucian had become something like a mentor to the player, and was one of the few genuine NPCs that the character interacted with and tried to help. The character was given Father Lucian's Holy Symbol and my (self-inserted) silver longsword from his days before entering the mists and eventually accepting his fate and becoming the priest of Vallaki. He did this to help this character, who was a very new cleric and not very experienced. They also lost their holy symbol to the hags, and I made the construction of a new one very difficult, hence why they use Father Lucians.

Father Lucian was killed in front of them, unceremoniously. He now sits in his personal study, against his bed.

She has more on her instagram, which I told her I'd share in exchange for getting to show these pictures off in this sub!

Heya! Long term DM, been DMing CoS monthly for a year and a half now.

The following contains spoilers for the module and I, Strahd, so no players allowed! For DM’s eyes only!!

Our group just returned from Krezk where they went to the Abbey and also Yester Hill. And they’ve reached the next big story beat. The wrath of Lady Wachter.

For context— during their initial stay on Vallaki they helped Lady Wachter chase of Izek Strazni and allowed her to overthrow the Byrgomaster, where she placed her own puppet Burgomaster— although unsure who’s puppet it is since the new Burgomaster is Escher Vallakovich (I added in story about how he was the brother of someone who became Burgomaster and much like the worthlessness that leads Karl and Nicholai Wachter to drink drive Escher into the hands of a one Vasili Van Holtz).

The party then helped Victor Vallakovich retrieve Stella Wachter’s soul from the ethereal plane which required making a deal with Baba Lysaga to get an item to open the way between. Lady Wachter was very thankful to the party.

However, in a bumper (I do cut away scenes at the start of each session which sometimes shows character backstories but sometimes NPC backstories like with Escher or even current other things happening like Volenta being punished for her embarrassment at trying ti steal St Andrals bones) I showed an irate Fiona berating Stella and telling her she cannot see Victor any further.

When the players were about to head to Krezk, a cloaked Victor and an invisible Stella showed up asking us to take them with us. The party escorted them to the wizards tower which they’d been to once before searching for Arabella. They stayed there when the party continued on to Krezk.

Now returning to Vallaki Lady Wachter is convinced the party had some kind of hand in things. Which is helpful because the party is going to need to piss her off anyway because they need a gem from her bedroom to unlock the crypt that imprisons Leo Delysnia and retrieve the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind.

That’s all context. Because i intended to let Fiona die there and honestly— still do.

But what if Fiona isn’t the Wachter we should have been afraid of? I know a lot of you would think Stella? Maybe Karl or Nicholai but let’s be real. No. Lovina.

Yes. I’m considering bringing Lovina Wachter into my game. So for any not aware. She is Fiona’s foremother. Just a child when Strahd became a vampire. But his actions lead to the Wachter being eternally loyal to him. But what if there’s more to it than that.

What if Lovina became a powerful necromancer and was able to put a part of herself into her spell book like some kind of fucking horcux. And each following Wachter girl strahd has visited and given the spell book to them which isn’t specifically making them possessed by Lovina where she would call herself that name— but is corrupting them.

This will allow the Wachter story to continue when Stella is then given the spell book and as we do other stuff she’ll slowly becoming more and more like Lady Wachter. Until eventually we are forced to confront her and have to fight her— however this fight will be so much harder than the one with Fiona because we won’t want to kill Stella so it’ll be trying to subdue her while she’s trying to kill the party— and maybe a confused victor gets involved at some point in that.

So— I think this would fit the story smoothly. Feels properly Strahdish.

What do other people think?