He should never be portrayed as an always evil, always ruthless, always savage individual. Quality content, cartography, and adventures for fantasy games. References (page numbers, etc.) The story of Strahd is explained in page 9, but it omits an important detail, the calendar. That’s awesome ! Both articles offer fantastic insights complementary to (and greatly improving upon) some of of the same ideas in what I wrote, below. Strahd comes to the hill on occasion to see it, tantalized. He will be remembered as a rude person who all his life worked at the library. Generally speaking, you want to use these as opportunities to add monsters to the encounter and — unlike in previous encounters — probably refrain from piling them on top of creatures from the Strahd’s Minions table (COS 239) since that would make this area a guaranteed TPK: remember, Strahd should be present, fighting the party and taunting them the whole time they are in the catacombs: this is their chance to feel like they are in a final boss fight. Portraits of King Barov and Queen Ravenovia appear on COS 94. This distinction is seldom made and it makes all the difference in correctly or successfully roleplaying the different alignment roles. Best of all, you can have Strahd screaming things like “why won’t you answer me” or “why did you leave me” or some other such thing that shows he does feel loss and rage for very human reasons, only he cannot control them and come back down. This is explained later on, on page 26. Copyright © We want to make the adventure interesting and feature some NPCs to interact with, rather than just to kill, since that’s so important to Strahd’s backstory and his domain. K86. Or rather, floats. Attract more people, help the poor, open orphanages, abbeys and schools. That is the “curse of Strahd”, it doesn’t matter what he does, he never seems to get any closer to his goal, he knows he has all the time in the world to wait for the next “Tatyana” and try again, but Strahd … However I find these paragraphs too bland. Strahd can offer an arrangement too, Ireena in exchange of safe passage out of Barovia. If she’s been with the party, this is where she will — once Strahd is defeated — see the ghost of Sergei and cross the threshold, her soul (and Sergei’s) finally being able to escape Barovia, and thus Strahd will never see Tatyana’s reborn soul or her likeness ever again. Castle Ravenloft itself is a big place, with hundreds of areas to explore. When the party enters, they are greated by a high ceilinged hall with lit torches, soon to be extinguished by the fluttering of wings from the eight gargoyles (MM 140) that will attack! Well, you’re right that I’m missing out, but I think we can solve enough of it to give Strahd a good backstory without bogging down a 4-6 hour gaming session with tons of journal writings, mysterious and opaque NPC interactions, and a boatload of secondary characters, fun though they may be. What that means is that he is predisposed to act under a code or law and that he cares not for the welfare or benefit of others. But he may still look for a successor, he might even mention it to the PCs, even if just to sow discord among them. In the card’s description (King of Diamonds page 17) it says Strahd is “haunting the tomb of the man he envied above all”. All the maps in this website are registered under the Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC. It will give PCs a sense of safety from vampires in general. Plus, you get a 15-day free trial, so there's nothing to lose. If he invites them to dinner and offers safe passage in writing (invitation letter), this is for him a binding contract since he is “legal”. He can take his time, this is the reason why Strahd seldom kills adventurers in a single showdown. Not quite what you expect from a “chaotic evil” person, right? 1.- Tatyana Federovna – Ireena Kolyana.- The most important thing in Strahd’s agenda is to get Tatyana. 1.- Let’s imagine a town librarian. Yes, he can be all that, but he is also many other things. Man, reading this article REALLY makes me want to DM CoS. Passage out of Barovia. The head of this church is an evil person who only keeps it in good shape to enjoy the advantages of such an influential position. 2020 Elven Tower Cartography. She’s been dead for almost 400 years, but every now and then a girl is born in Barovia with her soul. Since I started a few months back, I’ve never run a module, but now I want to! An honest person might under the right circumstances commit a felony, but that doesn’t make the person dishonest from that moment on. Regardless, this is where the party ends the whole ordeal, or dies trying. If you like what I do, consider getting involved and backing me. Castle Ravenloft is pretty darned cool, so let’s include as much of that as possible. Overlook (COS 52-54). If Strahd offers safe exit from Barovia in exchange of Ireena, he will keep his word and let the PCs exit. Preferably more than one. At that point, the nightmare busts off the carriage and attacks, along with the animated armor. Ringing the staircase, set on the walls are 10 animated halberds (treat as flying swords — MM 20 — with AC 15 and dealing 1d10+1 slashing damage) and at varying levels along the upper portion of the staircase near the Heart are 3 guardian portraits (COS 227). JavaScript is currently disabled. Strahd will not harm them. He is more resourceful than them. This is something the players can see, and they should see it. Eventually he’d be at the top, and he would rule this church so it becomes more powerful. Reveal that Ireena is Tatyana’s soul reborn, and that there’s a chance either (A) she’ll simply repeat this tragedy with Strahd over and over again, or (B) her soul can only be freed through the destruction of Strahd. She rejected him because of his age, and for what she saw as a sadness and lack of joy in his heart. When PCs get too powerful and acquire the artifacts, Strahd can change his strategy. What this means is that anyone can use them, share them or modify them. Neither of them know this. Great Entry (COS 55). But Strahd like a real person, comes in layers of history and moments of success and failure. He suspects that the dark powers’ curse is what prevents him from attaining his goal. It didn’t work. We think you'll have a much more enjoyable experience. You’ll also notice that I deviate quite a bit from the initial list of encounters, because several of them might’ve been cool in the context of the full version of Castle Ravenloft, but I’m going to be running a significantly reduced one, so some encounters that would be too weak need severe ramping up, and using too many stock monsters (monsters the players likely faced a bajillion times in other adventures) is boring, so what I’m going to do is make maximum use of Curse of Strahd’s monster appendix to fill out the encounters, and challenge a party that’s 9th level. But if the PCs insult him by attacking him openly or decide to go around the rest of the castle uninvited, then the deal is over. Her beauty was widely known in the valley. Her being taken away from Barovia to Vallaki or Krezk, that angers him. Best to ram home the horror in one-shot, though, so why not have an illusion of Strahd (or the real thing!) This long chapter of the guide will deal with how to approach everything that has to do with the Lord of Barovia. He can also offer LOTS of gold and magical items in exchange of leaving him and his realm alone. A portrait of Strahd appears on COS 70. Because of his “legal” predisposition. Your email address will not be published. When characters approach the higher levels (7+) he will see that they are not so helpless anymore. The guardian portraits are another opportunity to add portraits of Strahd, King Barov, Queen Ravenovia, or Sergei and possibly Tatyana, their visages warping and appearing demonic as they attack and act against the PCs. 2.- Now let’s talk about a priest or acolyte who has dreams of power and influence. If Ireena was held captive, she’s here. Rahadin doesn’t get to use his abilities as well indoors, though, so you might want to consider either still having an encounter with him outside, maybe by replacing all the monsters in the first encounter (Area J) other than Beucephalus with Rahadin. Ireena is one of the key elements in Curse of Strahd. Heart of Sorrow & Staircase (COS 59). There’s a wall of mist that not even Strahd can cross, but this one shows a mirage through the mist. He wants to test them, crush their spirits, see how much they can withstand. It states he cannot enter a residence uninvited. However it’s NOT an indicator of the person’s actions. Have it be her, or a Vistani agent of hers. The following links were especially helpful in guiding the creation of this article: Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Tatyana is what Strahd wants the most and it is the only thing he will never have. K8. Why? He is ever resourceful. Like Sergei’s tomb, the tomb of Strahd’s parents provide a strangely humanizing place because it’s where Strahd might go to seek some sort of counsel or solace. The sad thing is that it never works out for Strahd in the end. Of course Strahd can turn into a savage beast once he is angered, this is difficult but possible. The whole of it consists of the following pieces: I primarily set all of this in Castle Ravenloft because that’s the iconic thing that goes along with Strahd. June 12, 2017 at 12:25 am However you only have to ask how different DMs played Strahd and you will find out that most didn’t take this approach. As soon as the Heart takes any damage, 4 vampire spawn (MM 298) are dispatched and appear in 3 rounds, scuttling in from above using their Spider Climb ability to cling to the walls. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. His perception of love is distorted by the dark powers. This article originally appeared on 10/13/2017 @neuronphaser.com. Ireena is the only Barovian villager who calls Strahd by name instead of “the Devil” or “the Devil Strahd.” She both despises and secretly fears him. for the rooms and monsters that appeared in my flowchart. This is a card Strahd will only offer when things get tough, he might do it in a dinner invitation or similar situation. He will not enter a residence uninvited and will try to get an invitation, honestly or dishonestly (charm). You can place these among the other crypts in the catacombs to reveal them a bit earlier (and more easily) to the players in order to build some story hooks.
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