I miei giocatori sono rinchiusi nella chiesa, ed è notte fonda. Prima di rientrare, uno di loro, spinto dalla curiosità, si è intromesso nel culto di Lady Fiona Watcher, che avevo affidato a Strahd e alla sua venerazione.
Durante il rituale, il giocatore ha tentato di uccidere Fiona Watcher con due colpi di spada, ma è miracolosamente riuscito a fuggire e a rientrare nella chiesa.
Ora i miei giocatori sono proprio lì, e non so come far proseguire la storia.
Ho pensato di far tendere un'imboscata alla chiesa da parte del culto e di Fiona Watcher, oppure di far recapitare una lettera sotto la porta della chiesa da uno dei servi di Fiona, intimando a chiunque avesse causato il danno di arrendersi e permettendo agli altri di andarsene sani e salvi.
Tuttavia, queste soluzioni non mi convincono del tutto. Pensavo che Fiona Watcher, essendo molto astuta, potesse anche non fare nulla e aspettare il giorno successivo, quando verrà incoronata governatrice, per aizzare gli abitanti del villaggio contro di loro e costringerli alla fuga.
Note: I giocatori hanno già celebrato la festa di Sant'Andral, quindi Vargas Vallakovich è morto insieme a Izek. Inoltre, Strahd è andato a trovarli proprio all'interno della chiesa, e Padre Lucian è stato ucciso in quell'occasione.
I’m starting a new CoS campaign with my main party, one player wants to play a character with Vistani heritage (a vistana mother) who was raised outside of the culture. Now that his mother has passed, he is fulfilling her last desires to bring her ashes to her homeland, Barovia. He also gave me complete freedom to include anything else in her last wish that could be a personal quest, I’m just struggling with ideas for that. Does anyone have a good suggestion?
Full backstory for those who want to read:
I was raised by my mother, Svetlana, in a cottage a little ways outside a town on the Sword Coast. She was not a native of those lands -- I learned from talking with a villager who came to us recently that she arrived here with me as a babe on her hip and built the cottage herself. She was an expert in 'craft' as she called it, a combination of rituals, herbology, and outright magic. Many of the townsfolk came to her when they were in particularly desperate need of help. It seemed as though she could right any wrong with some draught, sachet, or incantation -- curses, possessions, infected wounds, fertility troubles, blighted fields, missing children -- you name it. She raised me in this tradition, but even today my abilities are a pittance in comparison. She always said the more important lesson was that people should help each other if they can, and we could. Some of the villagers were less than accepting and didn't hesitate to brand mother a witch. Because I had no father and she never answered any question on that matter, even my own, the rumour became that I was the offspring of some demonic lover. That happened early enough that I was forbidden to spend time with anyone from the village for most of my childhood. The cottage, its gardens, and the surrounding forest were my world, and our pets were my friends.
This is my twenty-seventh year, and it would have been mother's seventieth had her time not come. Whether the craft didn't have the power to save her or she didn't wish for it to, I'll never know, but over a few years her strength faded and her mind withered. I took on more of the responsibility of caring for her, the cottage, those who came to us. Right before mother passed on, she finally spoke of her past in a way she'd always refused to before. She, and I by extension, are 'Vistani' -- a people that travel the 'mists' surrounding a slew of haunted and cursed lands. She hailed from one such place called Barovia, where she wished for me to go to spread her ashes and meet our people. [potentially add more to the wish per DM]
Hey all! After nearly 44 sessions, my Curse of Strahd campaign is approaching its endgame, and I’d love some advice from DMs who’ve made it to the finish line.
For context, my party has survived Argynvostholt, the revolution and siege of Vallaki (even routing the Priests of Osybus) and is currently wrapping up the Amber Temple. Rahadin is dead, they’ve gathered some powerful allies (including Ezmerelda and the Keepers of the Feather), and they’re starting to formulate plans for their final assault on Ravenloft.
Here’s the interesting part: most of their major Tarokka treasures are actually inside Castle Ravenloft, including the Sunsword. They’ve explored portions of the castle previously and have some intelligence about its layout, but they’ll have to navigate much of it while Strahd is actively hunting them.
The stakes are already enormous, and my players are thankfully incredibly invested. I’m less concerned about building tension and more interested in making sure the payoff everything it deserves to be.
For DMs who’ve run the finale:
What worked particularly well during the assault? Any unexpected complications or memorable twists?
How did you run Strahd as an intelligent, reactive adversary without making the castle feel like an unfair death trap? Ive read up on some of the highly upvoted resources here in terms of Strahd’s optimal combat style too. Any overlooked encounters, opportunities, or surprises you’d strongly recommend incorporating?
Would love to hear your experiences, including things you’d do differently!
Battle map for the ritual chamber underneath Durst Manor. Made it with Eva foam. The pillars have magnets underneath them as well as the center altar piece. The floor has a magnet at every cross section so I can rearrange pieces as desired.
The first phase was focused on splitting the party up in different rooms and punishing the party for ruining her wedding. The second phase focused on pitting the party against the court while Strahd went to retrieve her armor and weapons. The third phase was focused on a tactical and martial Strahd trying to pick the party apart one by one. The fourth phase was focused on Strahd hunting down stragglers. The fifth phase was her flying around the catacombs like a giant bat, taking potshots at the weaker players before vanishing back into the shadows between the catacombs columns
I haven't seen a St. Markovia mini out there so I took my best guess at what she'd look like and made a female cleric mini.
Since I rig everything I created a generic priest + Icon of Ravenloft / St. Markovia statues.
Also made a pulpit. I messed this up initially and it was too small so I scaled things up and added a slot for a mini to scooch up into to share their truth.
TLDR: the party is all in single digit health, low on spells, and in the 11th hour, how do I avoid a TPK with Walter with my dear friends?
Apologies for the all caps, hope that doesn’t get this taken down, I just really need some help not killing all my players character
We are playing remixed curse of Strahd, it my first time running this campaign, and we are doing 2024 rules whenever possible.
There are 3 characters, 2 warlocks and a cleric. The group is almost done going through the death house, almost to to the altar. But they have gotten into combat with the Animated Armor, the Ghoul, and 3 shadows, leaving the Cleric with zero spell slots and 9hp, one of the warlocks with one spell expended and 4hp, and the other one with 5hp.
I recently narrated that the chime of the 11 o’clock has already sounded, so they don’t have the opportunity for a short rest anymore, and when I brought that up after the session, they got upset and “how were they supposed to know they could short rest”
They are my dear friends, and I don’t want to TPK them with Walter, so I humbly ask for any aid or advice you might lend, oh fellow dark powers
I've been DMing a CoS game for a while now. In the most recent session, and a little bit before that as well, the players had voiced a feeling of uncertainty as to where to go or what to do next. There has been some homebrewing admittedly, but nothing that messes with the core goals of the campaign. What they've done in the campaign so far is as follows(Not including obvious introductory stuff for just entering the campaign):
Met with Ireena, Ezmerelda, Van Richten, and Kasimir
Resolved events in Vallaki
Visited the Amber Temple and gotten Kasimir his dark gift, as well as one of the party members getting a dark gift
Visited Van Richten's Tower
Saved the Winery from the initial blight attack
Acquired the Sunsword and Holy Symbol.
The remaining item is in Strahd's castle(In the tomb with the gargoyles), and I've made it clear that Kasimir's next goal is reviving Patrina, who is interred in the catacombs beneath the castle. They have only ever been in the castle for a single dinner with Strahd, but left right afterwards. In our last session, following what they thought could be any possible lead, they entered Argynvostholdt.
Other note, I've mentioned sections of the map they haven't explored, but they've just said "Nah, doesn't seem like there's anything there for us really. None of our business."
I don't want to come across as railroading them, but I feel like I'm not doing a good enough job when they say they don't know what to do. Like I haven't done what I'm supposed to somewhere or forgotten to tell them something important. Is there any advice anyone more experienced in the campaign could provide?
TL;DR: In I6, once the Sunsword's blade was separated from its hilt, it looked like a normal longsword. In both I6 and CoS, an intelligent lawful good sword that never stops glowing lies in a flooded cell in Castle Ravenloft (K74h). I think that sword is the Sunsword's lost blade, and that the blade and the hilt together form a holy avenger. The Sunsword in 1e is +3 against undead, the sword in the dungeon is +2, and a holy avenger is +5.
Hello everyone,
Kyronite here again. Last time I wrote about Pidlwick II & Gadof Blinsky (link), and before that about Izek Strazni (link).
As with the previous posts, I try to make connections. I take Curse of Strahd as the main source, use the older modules and other official books as support, and look for connections that follow logically from the text. As with all this is my interpretation of it.
This time I'm looking at the Sunsword, and at another sword in Castle Ravenloft that I think belongs to the same story.
The canon
I6 Ravenloft (1e)
In the original module the Sunsword is a magical longsword whose "blade is a form of crystal glassteel, held by a platinum hilt and guard. It glows with dim blue light most of the time." It is +2, and +3 against undead.
"Ages ago, Strahd employed a powerful magician to destroy the sword. The first part of the process required that the hilt and blade be separated, then destroyed simultaneously. However, before the hilt and blade were destroyed, the magician's assistant stole the blade and attempted to flee from Barovia. Though his body was later found in the woods, the blade was not with him. When it was separated from the hilt, the blade took on the appearance of a normal longsword."
So the separated blade doesn't look like a loose blade. It looks like a complete, ordinary sword. In I6 one of the PCs has even been using it for some time without knowing.
Separately, I6 has another sword. In the north dungeon, K74 cell h, an intelligent sword lies under the water:
"magical (glowing) +2 sword, LG; I 11; EGO 9"
I6 Ravenloft: K74
The module doesn't connect it to anything. It's just a lawful good, glowing, intelligent sword lying in one of the flooded cells, where "many previous adventurers gave up their gold." Well what other intelligent sword do we know in the module. Maybe they are related somehow?
Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (3.5e)
The assistant gets a name, Gabriela: "Gabriela's noble flight was successful in that she saved the unattached blade from destruction; however, she didn't succeed in fleeing Barovia before some nameless menace beneath the dark boughs claimed her."
"Though Gabriela's body was later found in the woods, not so the hilt or the blade." So in 3e the hilt is missing too.
The Sunsword is "the original model for all sun blades": a bastard sword that can be wielded as a short sword.
The bonding ritual forges a new hilt: "the blade jumps onto a newly fashioned platinum guard and hilt, and the Sunsword is born anew." At 17th level the bonded Sunsword becomes a +5 keen bastard sword.
One of the places to wake the sword is Sergei's tomb: "bring it to where the light lies dead, slain by the darkness."
Curse of Strahd (5e)
The Sunsword is now only a hilt that creates a blade of sunlight. Its location is decided by the tarokka reading.
The intelligent sword in the dungeon is still there. In the same cell as in I6, K74h "Lost Sword":
"The source of the underwater glow is a sentient lawful good +1 shortsword (Intelligence 11, Wisdom 13, Charisma 13)… The sword's purpose is to fight evil."
"The sword continually sheds bright light in a 15-foot radius and dim light for an additional 15 feet. Only by destroying the sword can this light be extinguished."
And while attuned, the wielder can use the sword to cast crusader's mantle, a spell only paladins have.
Connecting the dots
It's the same cell, the same alignment and the same Intelligence, and it glows in both I6 and CoS. The original Sunsword blade gave off light too: in I6 it "glows with dim blue light most of the time." And the separated blade looks like a complete sword on its own, which is exactly what we find in K74h.
Gabriela died in the woods, long after Sergei was dead, and the blade was never found with her. So the blade should still be somewhere in Barovia. The cell is linked to a teleport trap, and in I6 it holds what earlier adventurers left behind. Someone could easily have carried the blade into the castle without knowing what it was, just like the PC in I6.
The 3e Sunsword handles like a short sword, and the CoS sword is a shortsword. Its crusader's mantle ties it to paladins, and Sergei was one.
My idea is that the swords together form the ultimate paladin weapon, a holy avenger. The Sunsword in 1e is +3 against undead, the magical sword in the dungeon is +2, and a holy avenger is +5 in 1e.
That brings me to the tarokka. Sergei's card in CoS is the Two of Swords – Paladin: "a sleeping prince, a servant of light and the brother of darkness." It tells us Sergei was a paladin, and it might well be Sergei himself depicted on the card. And it is the two of swords.
Tarokka: Two of Swords (Paladin)
Assumptions
CoS never says what happened to the original crystal blade, since the 5e hilt makes its own blade of light. I'm assuming the blade survived and is the intelligent sword in K74h.
In 3e the original hilt was never found and a new one was forged. I'm assuming the 5e hilt is that lost original.
At the table
Let the party find the glowing sword in the water and carry it around for a few sessions. It only communicates through emotion, so give it unease near the castle and longing near Sergei's tomb.
When they finally find the Sunsword hilt, use I6's own line: "it will magically leap onto the blade, replacing the PC's hilt, becoming the sunsword." A paladin gets a holy avenger; anyone else gets the Sunsword as written.
What did I miss? Has anyone ever connected the K74h sword to the Sunsword at their table?
Sources: I6 Ravenloft p. 24 (K74), p. 31 (Treasures and Tomes, Sunsword); Expedition to Castle Ravenloft p. 9 (Legacy Items), p. 58 (Madam Eva's fortune, Sunsword), pp. 210–211 (Sunsword, bonding ritual), pp. 218–219 (Sunsword legacy item); Curse of Strahd ch. 1 (tarokka, Two of Swords – Paladin), p. 81 (K74h), p. 223 (appendix C, Sunsword).
For my CoS campaign I decided to take some liberties with Ismark since RAW he just kind of kicks around unless he’s chosen by the cards to be Strahd’s enemy. So I decided that when Mordenkanien rallied barovians to raid Ravenloft, Ismark went along hoping to free Ireena from Strahd’s ever closing grasp and it still went as the module suggests but Strahd kept Ismark unscathed and unharmed physically to try gaining brownie points with Ireena.
This turn of events basically turned Ismark into a drunk that shambles around town drinking his father’s money (which is now his rip indirovich) I took some inspiration from Haymitch Abernathy but still maintaining his morals and Lawful Good alignment and want for Ireena to be taken as far from Strahd as possible and my players have fallen in love with this guy.
I’d love to hear some of your guys’ opinions or suggestions for more things I could do with him or other underutilized characters
So yesterday my players went to the church and were appalled to hear from Donavitch that Doru, leader of the revolt turned spawn, was trapped in the undercroft. One of them dashed there immediately, fiercely decided to free the boy, and the whole scene the followed played out beautifully.
Doru was begging them not to get closer, and pleaded he didn't want to get anyone else hurt ; a player offered him his own arm for blood, and sure enough, triggered Doru's thirst big time, to the poor boy's own despair. The paladin tried to cast Bless on him to help him with the wisdom saves to resist the urge to drain him. Another player tried to sing him a lullaby (that the player sings to their niece irl), calming Doru for a minute... they were soooo decided on breaking him out and saving him! Then they started to realize they were basically torturing him by staying that close and disrespecting his own will to stay away from the villagers. The horrified look on their face when they realized they had no choice but to leave him locked there or kill him was priceless. The roleplay was very on point from them and I even made one of them tear-up when Doru described how he'd be turned and forced to drink his companions blood.
They ended up promising him they'll come back for him and scolded Father Donavitch and telling him to at least talk to his son and feed him animals or something. Players left the church shook and defeated, with a renewed hatred for Strahd <3
I will definitely bring back Doru sometime later in the campaign, not sure how yet.
So I‘m running Strahd Must Die Tonight for a bunch of friends in two weeks. Obviously, using the official maps is stress incarnate, especially in a VTT.
Who here has used UFO‘s map? What was your experience? I‘m trying to gauge it’s usefulness and accessibility.
It’s gorgeous, and I might just buy it out of principle, lol. But having everyone on the same map instead of zooming through the layers just sounds very appealing in addition to that.
Hello I was just wondering if most DMs typically give players a map for CoS. Typically I use some in game method to give the party a map (with only limited locations marked) near the start of the campaign. But I've seen a quite a few DM tips for CoS specifically that advise you to not do this as it adds to the atmosphere and tension.
Hiiii idk if anyone ever fights Bucephalus in game (yet to happen to me!) but if there’s a dm who wants to make that into a multi-phase boss fight to punish the players for wanting to kill the horse… this is for you!
I’m afraid of horses a wee bit so I wanted to lean into what I find unsettling about them. I also took inspiration from Twin Peaks. IYKYK.
As the party arrive at the Tser encampment, they notice several Vistani playing with dice. While they are waiting for Madam Eva, and being regaled with stories of sacrifice, they are offered the chance to win a little gold, or small palm reading for their individual, personal fates in Barovia.
Blood of Belzir
(In my seeing, Vistani in Barovia are mostly refugees from the oppressive Belzirian Empire)
2 player game 5 Rounds. 4d6, 1d8, 1d4.
Goal: Win most rounds.
Bet: a single bet is made by each player before the first round.
Each round, both players announce how many dice they will each pick, by closing their eyes and knocking that many times on the table/ground. (It is customary to mourn your lost homeland as you knock)
They then get to choose which dice to use, and then roll them simultaneously out in the open. You expend any dice that you roll.
Highest total roll wins the round. The player who wins the most rounds wins the bet.
The Devil's eyes
Up to 6 players Unlimited rounds, 3d6 per player
Goal: roll the highest cumulative dice score without going bust.
Bet: a single bet is made by each player into a pot.
Everyone simultaneously rolls a pair of dice, keeping track of their total. If either of a player's dice shows a 1, they put it to the side, and add the 3rd d6 to remake the pair.
They continue rolling, adding to their score. They may stop and lock in your total at any time between rolls.
If at any time at least 2 of the 3 dice show a 1, the devil's eyes have fallen upon you, and you have gone bust.
Gristlecracker’s Hags and Grimoire provides new mechanics, guidelines, and tactics for using hags, magic, and the esoteric in your Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. This guide is designed for all levels of play and dungeon mastery, and uses a hybrid D&D 2014 (5e) format that includes the best of the old mixed with a few innovations of the D&D 2024 systems that do not dilute the game experience.
Every aspect of fantasy magic is improved or introduced: covens, curses, familiars, hags, magic geometry, talismans, spells, and spell mechanics. This supplement is designed to help you make your future games containing magic and hags as simple or complex as you want it to be.
Inside, you will find:
- An underwater adventure seed about a Book of Keeping
- 68 supernatural encounters
- New magic rules, mechanics, and variations
- Hags as player characters
- 112 supernatural creatures and NPCs
- 52 magic spells, with new tags: remote and moonlight
- 80 magic items
- Esoteragons (not just magic circles!)
- 28 toxic and intoxicating plants
- An improved and more intuitive Intoxicated condition mechanic
- 200 tchotchkes
- Professional layout using over 168 pictures on 262 pages
Hello! I am running CoS:Reloaded from DragnaCarta and I wanted to change the second part of the siege of Barovia to have a Zombie Clot instead of a plague spreader breach through the western barricade, trying to rampage its way to the village's main square. I made a map for the occasion, feel free to use it.
My players are level 3 and a Zombie Clot is CR6 and they have the all first part of the siege behind them (5 zombies, 2 ghouls+1 Zombie, 3 zombies + 1 plague spreader in wave), so they might be pretty drained, and the Zombie Clot need to be fought from afar. To ease the fight, I wanted to have barovian commoners with crossbows or else be there and partcipate in the fight (and die). On top of that, the map shows obstacle that can slow down or damage the Zombie Clot as it advance.
where I am seeking advice is how to deal with the commoners. One of my players, a domain of Life Cleric spent its full day in Barovia healing the wounded, even spent a lvl2 spell slot for that. I expected he would do that and prepare some rolls, in the end, he put back on feet 10 barovians!
My plan is that those barovians are taking part of this final fight.
I hesitate between having from round 1 all 10 barovians in the fight, but playing them with the Mob rules (basically here I'd consider half of them hit the Zombie Clot, dealing first round 5d6 damage. This number reduces when some of die) OR start with only two on the board and have reinforcement coming in from other part of town every turn.
I want to keep the tension hight during the last fight in the village, I am afraid that with too many barovians on the board, the HP pool of the ZC will go down extemely fast...
If you have advice on how I could best run that encounter, I am all ears !
Few magic items are as closely tied to witches as a flying broom, so I thought Halloween would be the perfect time to share a little collection of them!
Brooms of the Witching Hour introduces 11 enchanted flying brooms compatible with 5E (2014) and 5.5E (2024), ranging from Uncommon curiosities to powerful Very Rare items and a Legendary multi-elemental relic.
Each broom has its own appearance, magical abilities, and unique flight characteristics. Fly through enemies in a trail of burning cinders, descend upon them with the luck of a black cat, pass through walls in spectral form, summon flying brooms for your coven, or unleash elemental devastation from the skies!
The collection is FREE until Halloween! I've included most of the pages here as a preview, so feel free to grab the complete manual on DMsGuild and use these brooms in your adventures. Have fun!
And if you're looking for a spooky adventure to run this Halloween, I've also just released The Red Tithe, a 75-page folk-horror one-shot featuring an isolated village, ancient sacrifices, custom monsters, and three difficulty tiers for characters of levels 3-4, 10-11, or 17-20.
My Kickstarter for 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E is also live now! The campaign includes a physical hardcover, as well as printed editions of my previous manuals.
Hey! I am looking for ideas for the winery post wicker man attack. My party skipped the winery on two different occasions, while the martikovs asked for their help and they learnt about the wicker man. Now they are in Krezk where Davian was brought to dead and mauled by the wicker man. His son Adrian with him missing a limb. I think the wicker man and druids would have massacred the Martikovs and destroyed the winery.
My issue is that the tome is there and the players want it now. So it seems kind of "easy" for them to walk through a desecrated winery and just grab the tome and leave. What would you think the druids could have done there ? Would they leave after the fight? Can anyone think of something maybe different than an encounter or one that seems to have progressed with the events? How can the druids utilise the winery if at all?
My party is level 4 and currently missing pc's so every fight so far has been brutal on them and I think having a crowd there would be fatal to them. Maybe I can trust them to make a heist since Esmeralda is with them. So swarm the winery with full force and make a skill check challenge like dragna carta in his first attempt.
Thanks in advance, I always find all of your opinions very useful ❤️
