Itzi @i-tzi - Tumblr Blog

Part 2 of The Curse of Strahd ask!

As promised, here is the part with all of the fun/interesting parts of my current CoS campaign. There have been quiet a bit yeah, in two years a lot of fun stuff have happened, both when playing and during the moments you prepare something.

Again, under the cut there are spilers for the CoS campaign, so be careful!

Also this post is long, be preapred. And I do mean long, I'm so sorry x,x

The wizard and the rogue: They did not talk to one another, they had no idea what the other's race or backstory was, but both of them decided to play a character who got turned into something else against their will, one from an animal to a human, the other from a human to an animal-like hybrid. It was so fun for me when they pitched this idea to me, stil baffles my mind;

A true twist of fate: Like most DMs, I did two readings of the tarokka: one before the campaign started in case they might not have met madame Eva, the second with madame Eva herself. Both times, Victor was the one to be chosen as their fated ally. Both readings were made months from one another and there was no trick, so I guess it was destiny for them to have him as their fated ally XP;

All roads lead to... Vallaki?: beside Victor, the reading serves to reveal also where the three other objects needed to defeat Strahd are. When I did the official reading, the Symbol of Ravenkind was in the Werewolf Den, the Sun Sword was in Urwin's hand, and Rictavio had the diary. So, basically: three out of four things were in Vallaki. I was about to cry because of this x.x Since I didn't want my players to just exit Vallaki with basically everything they needed to defeat Strahd, I decided to split the things around, making this the Fetch Quest Campaign: Rictavio used to have the diary, but he left it in the tower (and yeah, I know there is a separate card for that location, but at the time I didn't realize it, so...); they found only the hilt of the Sun Sword in Vallaki and they also needed the blade, which was in the mausoleum in Argynvostholt, and to access it they needed to defeat Baba Lysaga; they did found Victor... but his Teleportation Circle worked, and before they could get him, he teleported, but instead of going to the outside world he teleported to Krezk, since his magic was intercepted by the biggest source of external magic in all of Barovia, aka the Abbot;

A wizard??? In meelee???: yeah you read that right, our wizard, who barely reaches 30 hitpoints now that they are level 8, from time to time just... enters close combat and attacks the monsters and the enemies in meelee, despite being a very frail and sickly wizard. He had done this since he was level 2 inside the Death House and is still going strong now. This thing always makes us laugh;

The Doru conundrum: A really interesting moment that happened was when they had to decided what to do with Doru. I made Father Donavich not completely insane, someone they could reason with, and in the end, also with the help of Ismark and Ireena, they found out the truth about Doru. This created the first moment of fracture inside the group, that ended up with the two paladins, the ranger and the rogue going in the chapel's underground, with the paladins and the ranger wanting to kill Doru on sight and the rogue on the other hand wanting to speak and reason with him. The wizard stayed out of it and made it clear he was against the idea of killing Doru. In the end the rogue, since Doru was hungry, thought that they could apply a cut to her hand and make him approach her and try and reason with him this way, but this made the spawn attack her, intiating what wasn't even a fight but a one way massacre. This created a fracture that followed the party all the way until Vallaki;

The sparring match: A scene I liked was when the two paladins, during their travel from Barovia to Vallaki, after dinner, decided to do a sparring match with one another. It was a really cool scene that I really apreciated that ended up in a draw between the two. It was really cool to see;

Team Church 4 Life!!!: When in Vallaki they decided to split in basically three groups, with the rogue alone, the half elf paladin and the ranger together and the drow paladin and the wizard together. The wizard and paladin went with Ismark and Ireena to see Vallakovich and then accompany them to the Church of St. Andraal, where they took the mission of retrieving the relique. After that they became basically bros, being together and helping each others out during all of the campaign, which lead to the nickname of the two being 'Team Church', which out of context is quiet funny, they had so many bromance moments, it was quiet sweet;

No bullying, no Blinsky: A "fun" but also important thing that came out of Vallaki is the relationship of the characters with Blinsky. You see, before the forming of 'Team Chiurch', the party divded, with wizard and drown paladin going with Ismark and Ireena to the bourgmaster's house while the other three found Blinsky's shop and the Ireena doll. Inside, the rogue, helped by the ranger, decided to basically bully Blisnky, even going as far as threatening Piccolo, to understand what was going on with the doll. He told them the truth - which resulted in and outside scene where Izek bascially took a whole shelf and threw it out of the window, destroying part of Blisnky's shop - and they left but not before basically also robbing him of some of his toys. The half elf paladin was pissed with the rogue who showed no remorse and found the whole thing funny and they butted head. This made so that later on the paladin and the ranger freed the prisoners in the main square and fought Izek, which then began the moment the party was at his lowest. After that the rogue began a weird relationship with Blisnky with her basically bullying him still to get what she wants and him being terrified by this 17 year old looking girl, while at the same time she keeps on trying to prove that she changed. It was a really interesting scene and i liked how it affected the players quiet a bit;

A bard's secret: During the fight with Izek, the rogue wasn't with the others, but decided to create a distraction. How so? Simple: by going to Rictavio's chariot and free the tiger she knew was inside. As she was about to do so, he surprised her, pointing a knife to her back, without her noticing him, dropping the Rictavio act and showing off the true Van Richten side. It was a moment among my favorites because later on allowed the whole party to know the truth and the beginning of a relationship with a quiet interesting character, which also lead to the beginning of this interesting mentor-mentee relationship between the ranger and him,, that allowed later on the beggining of the relationship between her and Ezmeralda;

He might be Strahd: Still during the Izek fight, the wizard, who, I remind you, always goes around with his face covered, used the spell 'Alter Self' and threw the hood of his cape behind to reveal he transformed into Strahd. The next day, while going around the village undercover, they found the wanted posters for all of them, obviously all caricatures of them based on the terrified descriptions of the guards. The wizard was an amorphus blob completely covered by his hood and with under it the words 'BE CAREFUL: he might be Strahd'. My players really found this funny;

Few but meaningful: A really unique aspect of the CoS campaing, in case you didn't know, is the fact that the manual encourages that the players meet Strahd multiple times during the story, instead of just the end for the big fight. My players did meet him... a total of two times, but those two times were honestly quiet great. First one was right after the funeral of the bourgmaster of Barovia, with the wizard and one of the paladins, I'm pretty sure it was the drow, escorting Ireena inside the church together with father Donavich, while the others and Ismark stayed outside and went to meet him. The second one was right after they retrieved the tome, as they were traveling either towards or from the winery, on the side of the road, as he "asked" them his book back. Both time were great and my players really liked how chill and in control he was during those meetings, during the first one the ranger told him they can attack him there and then, and he dropped his smile and simply told her to do it. People really liked that moment, they find it very powerful. I plan to maybe have them meet him a few others time, but we'll see, but this is just for you people to know: you don't have to force the encounters, use them wisely instead and make them have their meanings in the story itself;

We didn't start the fire: Another gem of a moment came when they decided to go against the spawns in the coffin-maker shop in Vallaki. During the fight the wizard - who else? - used a spell and started a fire in the storage room. After they defeated the monsters the drow paladin took the wizard and, as they ran out and found the coffin-maker that they left tied up in the lower floor, the wizard shouted to him "those damn spawns started a fire in your shop!". I love that moment;

The nat 20 that almost ruined Vallaki: This is why you should not allow your players to play two paladin in your party, not just in CoS, but in general. They are way too powerful. I made the final enemy of Vallaki Lady Watcher, and, after an Original NPC revealed her true nature, she started a fight with my players, raising in the air wih a spell, since I thought because she is a magic user and does not have too much life I will make so only spells and arrows can actually hit her. I was wrong. The drow went and casted 'Command' on her, ordering her to come down. I told him to roll and he rolled a 20, and once she was down, the two paladins together almost killed her in one turn. I had to improvise so much, because that simple thing almost ruined the enteriety of the fight. They did not know and it wasn't their fault, obviously - in fact it was a great idea, I even praised the player for it -, but I was so mad at that stupid 20 x.x;

Oh my god, who is she?: Can we all agree Vasili is not described that well in the manual? When I read the manual and arrived at his parts, I barely understood what was his prupose but, more importantly, how to make him act in the story. In case you want to understand how to actually use him effectively I recommend reading the novel 'I, Strahd', it's not only a quiet good read, but also will help you a lot in understanding and preparing for the campaign as DM, giving a lot of great inspirations for your story, and also explains what Vasili's role actually is. Thing is, I had no idea, having read the book only this last summer, and so I decided to change, erasing Vasili and trading his role with someone else. Enter: Patrina Velikovna. The elf that was the reason for the twisted fate of Kasimir and all the elves of his tribe is apparently alive and well and is about to destroy Vallaki if they don't give her what she wants, and what she wants is Ireena. All of this after having killed Vargas Vallakovich. She is also the one that put the spawn in the coffin-maker shop and planned all the twisted things in Vallaki. Why? How? Well, I can't tell you yet all my plans for her, since one of my players will read this post, but follow @thatsfwaccount for more updates XP;

Baby you're a firework: When they arrived at The Tower of Van Richten, the rogue found Ezmeralda's chariot just behind it and, obviously, wanted to find out what was inside it. She opened the door and the trap made it so it blew, knocking out the rogue and made the other come. Once the paladin made her come back to her senses after healing her the first thing he said was "what the fuck have you done?!". Still iconic in my mind, she kinda deserved that XP;

Dance dance revolution: When they found out the method to open the door of the tower, we made the ranger, who figured out the puzzle, do the dance in person. It's a fun and enjoyable memory;

A dangerous woman: After they etrieved the tome they went out of the tower and found Ezmeralda, who was being chased by Kyril and his werewolves. Once there they fought together against some of them, and here Ezmeralda completely girlbossed, showing how capable she is. After the fight she went to the ranger... and pointed a knife at her throath asking her where she got the bow that Van Rochten gifted her in Vallaki. They became friends and met her afterwards so that she could accompany them to the Werwolf Den. Once there she proved she is their ally, but she won't put herself in danger for them if not strictly necessary and her priorities was to save and protect the children. This moment I particularly liked, because it made some of the less expert plaers realize thath yes they have allies, but not always their view coincide. I think it was a good lesson for them;

A cranky old man and family dramas: I'm sorry but I need to talk about Davian and the Martikovs. I love them all so much. Davian especially because he is the stereotypical cranky old man always complaining about the youth of today but at the same time he is also very wise and ready to sacrifice himself for his family and his loved ones. He has the habit of hitting people in the head with his stick as he lectures them, and none of my players escaped, they all got hit at least once. I changed a bit the story of the how and why Davian and Urwin fought, keeping the premise and all, but making it make sense for the story they were playing. Also the wizard took him as a mentor figure. The wizard also wants the Keepers to bite him to turn him into a wereraven as a way to get rid of his curse. And by the way, this does not concern Davian but Adrian, his oldest son. I made him gay and he has a boyfriend now. His name is Valentine. They are happy together uwu;

You... shall not... pass!: The wizard strikes once again. When they were at the summit of Yester Hill and the Gulthias tree was summoned, while the paladins and the rogue went to fight the druids, only the ranger and the wizard stayed behind to stop the Gulthias Tree. So you have this comical image of this small, underweight wizard cosplaying Gandalf with the Balrog and basically stopping the giant monster from going forward. The tiny wizard stopped the giant carnivorous tree from destroying the winery. Kinda iconic;

The hunting contest: A cute habit the rogue and the ranger developed is this thing where they do a hunting contest of which one can hunt the biggest prey. It's a pretty fun scene every time they play it out;

No more Belviews: This is a change I made for myself. I hate the Belviews. As a concept they creep me out and make me uncomfortable. It's all a me thing, I get it, but ever since I decided to DM CoS I decided I want to get rid of them. And after a long, long time I found a solution. I turned the inhabitants of the Abbey in basically people that died before their times that the Abbot resurrected in his twisted view of saving them, but in doing so they came back wrong, their mind fractured and so the Abbey became basically an asylum. I'm pretty proud of the change I made, going for a more psychological angle;

The true nightmares: This happened right after the Wolf Den. Two of the players, the drow and the rogue, got bit and infected, so they spent the following nights with nightmares of being turned into werewolves, which was particularly upsetting for the rogue, which I remind you , is a cat turned human against her will. The wizard cured them... but I made so they weren't sure if that worked or not until the day of the full moon, which was 10 days later. And to top this all off, the other paladin got cursed when taking the Symbol of Ravenkind from Mother's Night treasure, and he spent like 4 days being haunted by horrific nightmares. It was a really tense moment that dragged on for at least 3/4 sessions, and that made them feel the true Strahd experience;

Tact? I barely know her!: I play with the less tactfull players possible x.x. I'm obviously joking, but some of the things they say are just... so wrong. The biggest example of this is with the Krezkov. When they arrived in Krezk, they stayed at the bourgmaster house for a night. Once there they saw that the children's beds were empty and unused. They then found out that Victor, the whole reason they were there in the first place, did, in fact, arrived in the village and the bourgmaster and his wife took him in, but the Abbbot forced them to give him to him. The players then thought that they usued to sacrifice kids to the Abbot - they did not know at the time what he was - and accused them of doing so, clearly ignoring all the messages that clearly said that they didn't want to give Victor to them and that their kids died and that they were still suffering their loss. Anna, the wife, told them that first thing next morning they are invited to leave their house and went away, soon followed by her husband. My player got mad at her for reacting this way x.x;

Ranger writes fanfictions: I love the ranger, she is great. What I mean by this title is the fact that, when they visited the Abbey, they found two books, one talking about Argynvostholt and the other talking about Berez. The one about Berez talked about a character from the 'I, Strahd' novels and his story, telling about Marina and how she was almost turned in a vampire by Strahd, not outright telling the whooe story but putting the first seeds to know the truth. The ranger, the one that found the Berez book, read it, then forgot completely about it, I had to made her do a dice throw to remember, and she then gave the book to the wizard and told the others about what she read... completely misrembering everything and telling a story that was the farthest away from the truth.. all by accident! It was one of the funniest stuff ever;

The hell of the 1.000 doors: Argynvostholt was the first actual experience my players had with a proper dungeon. And they hated it. Opening door after door, just to find empty rooms with bascially nothing inside was so frustrating it became funny. It became a meme later on. Still makes me laugh how much they cursed Argynvostholt and all of its doors;

Ships, ships and more ships!: And of coruse there are some ships. Mainly, three ships developed between characters, two more canonicals, one that is more of a meme. The first one is between the wizard and an Original NPC that I created that is a Keeper of the Feather. She is a wereraven and the main help they received from the Keepers for the longest time, basically the acting agent, and the one that helped them revealing the truth about Lady Watcher. She gave him her Keeper of the Feathers cape at the end of Vallaki. Everyone ships them. Then there is the ship between the half elf paladin and Izek. Basically an enemies o lovers, opposites attract kind of story that only reveals how bad the taste in men of the half elf actually are. Izek is still a bad person, but he mellowed out a bit and finds fun in teasing the half elf paladin. During the last session, since they came back to Vallaki, the paladin kept following Izek around, so at one point I made him say "If you want to fuck me, you just have to ask". 'Nough said. The more meme-y ship is a bit more... predictable, I guess. It's between the ranger and Ezmeralda. It has quiet a bit of potential and they get along fine, being really similar, but they never had a proper interaction like the paladin or the wizard. We'll see how things develop in the future;

Berez and chaos: I made Berez quiet an important part of the story. First of all, the skull of Argynvost wasn't inside Castel Ravenloft - the dumbest idea ever, in my opinion - but instead it was used by Baba Lysaga as a way of transportation; second: they fought Kyril in the den but before they could defeat him he was tranported using magic by Baba Lysaga, who actually hepled him harnest more power to defeat Emil and became the leader of the Pack, and she is now using him to get everyone there, so they fought both Baba Lysaga and Kyril in the swamp; then I made so that, after the fight, they found in what was left of Lysaga's shack the pages of her diary in which she tells her story and what ties her to Strahd; finally, I used this moment to actually highlight Victor and started to plant seeds of doubts and make so the fact that he was the chosen ally to help them defeat Strahd actually have a motivation. Three scenes I loved of the fight against Baba Lysaga: first one, wizard used flight on the paladin by extending his hand and having him touch it casting it this way, it was a really hectic scene and the way they simply trusted each other was so cinematic; second one, the fact that Lysaga almost permanently in one action killed Victor while using one of her strongest spells and how this affected the party, it was great to see and made the scene much, much more tense; third one, after the fight, the drow, that killed Lysaga had a vision in which he saw Victor basically becoming the new Strahd and after that Mother Night basically taunting him. My players loved this fight, some of them told me it was their absolute favorite of the whole campaign as of now;

The true enemy of this campaign is not who you might think: The longest meme of the campaign, the true enemy my players keep wanting to meet. Have you ever realized how so many of the buildings have no sense, from an architectural point of view? Ever since they played the Death House, my players decided that there is only one architect in all of Barovia, that designed all of this building that make no sense whatsoever. This architect, simply known as "the Durst archytect", from the family that onwed the Death House, is now their one true enemy and whenever they find something that does not make sense in a building they blame the Durst archytect. Its the best thing that ever came out of this whole campaign XP;

Not so charismatic after all: One of the earliest jokes that ever came out was in the Death House, right after they meet the ghost children Rose and Thorn. In case you didn't know, if you tell them you want to leave, they try to possess the players, to escape you have to pass a possession throw. Two people failed: the ranger... and the drow paladin, who I'm pretty sure even made a nat 1. The paladin, who has as his highest score his charisma, failed a charisma saving throw. It was so fun. And he got possessed by crybaby Thorn too. It was great;

So yeah, that's it. That also made me think about the fact of making some other posts, I'm thinking one in particular dedicated to the Death House and why it's actually so bad and how you could change it.

Hope this was a good read, and I'm sorry it's so long, I just had so much to talk about, and again it's a 2 year worthy campaign TT.TT I'm sorry it's so messy, it's getting late and I'm getting quiet tired as well.

If any of you have any moments that intrigued you and wants to know a bit more about all of this, please send an ask to my sfw account and I'll gladly answer that ^.^

Tell me your experience too, how you changed stuff and what happened, I'm dying to know more CoS exeriences, they are all so fun and intrguing.

Thank you so much for the ask, it was so fun to answer it, remember to be awesome, see ya ^.^