u/Drogtharransfav

tldr; player mentioned posessing magical hilt of a sword at the dinner, i don't think i reacted properly as strahd, looking for feedback on my ideas/curious about your ideas on how to proceed

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Hello, yesterday when we were roleplaying dinner with Strahd with my party of 3, the cleric got very friendly and close with Volenta, entertaining her feral and unhinged sugestions (drinking blood from her glass etc.) , to the point where while everyone was dancing, she jokingly laughed she should give him a parting gift from Strahd's treasury when they leave. He straight up asked whether they have a blade of a magical weapon because they have found an interesting hilt (one that belongs to the sunsword ofc). I rolled for perception for Strahd and rolled 19. The moment I said he looks their way the other players got anxious and even the music bot stopped playing.

I was stunned and my first thought was to charm the player into giving him the hilt, however, Strahd offered them safety while dining so I felt it would be contradictory and I don't feel like he'd break the promise. The cleric tried to lie his way out of it but i rolled insight for Strahd high enough so that he knows they had the hilt with themselves.

Currently, players are coming back to Vallaki and we'll start next session very late at night, close to the town gates. I am having second thoughts and I feel like i misplayed by not trying to charm the cleric into giving Strahd the hilt.

Here are some of my ideas:

• Rahadin recovers the hilt for Strahd when the players will not pay attention
• Anastrasya will want to get it back to be in Strahd's favor (as in my CoS she is jealous and tired of all the attention Ireena gets [which would be a great push towards their first ever battle with consort because I sort of softlocked myself from letting any type of vampire into Vallaki and accidentally made recovered bones of St Andral too OP])
• Strahd himself arrives before they reach the gates and threatens them to give him the hilt, otherwise he'll announce to the entire town (in which they have an alliance with most of the inhabitants, as Burgomaster, Martikovs, rehabilitated Bluto, van Richten soon possibly) that they are his agents

I think the last one is a controversial one - it might be too much of an asshole move, they worked hard and well to be on NPCs good side and I don't want to ruin it for them by one decision.

What do you think?

Hello all,

My party of 3 players got convinced (with the help of the amazing people of this reddit) to finally attend the dinner at the castle. So far, it's been going great. It took them over 2 hours to prepare and do all they wanted in Vallaki before heading off. They met Rahadin in black carriage, Cyrus who offered to help them tidy up and walked them to the dinner room and at last, they've already had some meaningful and deep conversations with the host himself.

We've finished the session after Strahd introduced his consorts that took place near the players, as it was super late at night irl. I have a few motivations/topics for the consorts to touch up on but it doesn't feel like enough. Would you be able to share a few topics/activities I could roleplay during the dinner to keep the dinner dynamic and engaging?

- Ludmilla will offer our artificer cursed with lycantrophy a trial vial that will help him with keeping the transformation at bay and mention that he is always welcome to visit again in case he ever needs a refill. I made her experiment with werevolven things as per LBH youtube guide and her spawns brought her a bit of his blood after they attacked him the last time during hs frenzy outside of Vallaki. She'll be focusing on swaying him in a way that will make him dependent on the vampires' help and maybe betray the party

- Volenta will be dropping ominous crumbs of lore about the wizard of Mount Baratok (adjusted to be a wizard from one of our player's backstory) to the player. She'll be urging him to embrace his wild side (weretiger cleric, i swear he's much different than the werewolf artificer) and convincing him that he's a monster even though he's proven extremely altruistic towards all the npcs they've met

- Escher will be my dramatic, tragic man who will radicalize and support our monster hunter and will be lowkey backstabbing Strahd (as much as a vampire spawn can betray his master) which in the end is supposed to show this bitter PC that he's doing good in the world, is valued and leaves a lasting mark on lives of the people he helps (as his backstor is that of a struggling man who came here for his last rogue mission to kill the fabled vampire lord)

- Anastrasya's focus will be trying to belittle them and convince Strahd (most likely not too effectively) out of swooning about Ireena and she'll try to win back his attention and approval

Any help with more motives/topics for the consorts (or other castle roommates) to touch on will be highly appreciated. Thank you all for reading through! 😄