u/Itchy-Willingness589

Long story short, I had a player I. a Curse of Strahd who wanted their brother to be killed by Strahd, giving them a vendetta against the vampire who killed her brother. I had to say no but explained I couldn’t tell them why without spoiling aspects of the campaign (the inescapable fog, tools Strahd uses to lure people to Barovia, etc). I also didn’t want her to be stuck with such a simple arc as “I don’t like Strahd.” So I said this instead.

I said it was okay for her brother to have come back from some kind of violent encounter (I figured maybe Strahd commanded a Vistani to use her brother as bait to get more adventurers to Barovia). However, the brother was cursed in some way so that he couldn’t speak and couldn’t warn his sister about any of the danger that lies ahead in Barovia, just to keep all of the campaign mysterious and fun. However, because I like to be the fun DM who tries to say yes to as much as possible, I said the brother could have one artifact/hint about his adventure: a dinner invitation covered with blood from Vasili Von Holtz.

I planted this seed, and started running the Death House. And now, that same player had the great idea for us to write competing session recaps, hers through the tone of her character and mine through the tone of Vasili. And while I immediately loved the idea, I’m also curious about how I can best use it to flesh out the Vasili character.

RAW, it’s just a cover name for Strahd, but I feel like that’s pretty weak and I know we can do better. Right now, I have two plans of what I can do with Vasili, both of which include creating a new NPC.

First, I think it would be interesting to separate the name from the character. I want to leave all of Strahd’s notes to the characters using Vasili’s name (including a taunt outside the Death House welcoming the characters to Barovia and warning them to be more careful). Separate from this, I want Strahd to be accompanied by a small dusk elf child every time they encounter him in public (at the burgomaster’s funeral, at dinner, etc) but to never give away the child’s name. The kid is just a fledgling vampire that Strahd is training to replace him and rule over Barovia once he is able to leave. This could be good to have the kid be a disposable minion that Strahd only thinks about tactically and is willing to throw under the bus (very emotional, good potential to have the player forgive Vasili who was just used as a puppet, etc).

The second idea is to make Vasili very openly aligned with Strahd. Except instead of being physically powerful, he just like keeps Strahd’s calendar and uses Strahd’s domination of Barovia to his economic advantage (a more influential and active version of Lief from Ravenloft). Maybe he owns the shop in Barovia, talks with the Watchers to influence politics in Valaki to make money there, and meddled with the Wizard of Wines to control the supply of alcohol across Barovia. This could be good to have a different kind of villain in Barovia who is motivated by greed more than power.

If anyone has done anything similar with Vasili Von Holtz, I would love to hear your thoughts! And if you have any notes about my two potential approaches (I’m currently leaning more towards the first) I would love to workshop ideas!

XO

Long story short, I had a player who wanted their brother to be killed by Strahd, giving them a vendetta against the vampire who killed her brother. I had to say no but explained I couldn’t tell them why without spoiling aspects of the campaign (the inescapable fog, tools Strahd uses to lure people to Barovia, etc). I also didn’t want her to be stuck with such a simple arc as “I don’t like Strahd.” So I said this instead.

I said it was okay for her brother to have come back from some kind of violent encounter (I figured maybe Strahd commanded a Vistani to use her brother as bait to get more adventurers to Barovia). However, the brother was cursed in some way so that he couldn’t speak and couldn’t warn his sister about any of the danger that lies ahead in Barovia, just to keep all of the campaign mysterious and fun. However, because I like to be the fun DM who tries to say yes to as much as possible, I said the brother could have one artifact/hint about his adventure: a dinner invitation covered with blood from Vasili Von Holtz.

I planted this seed, and started running the Death House. And now, that same player had the great idea for us to write competing session recaps, hers through the tone of her character and mine through the tone of Vasili. And while I immediately loved the idea, I’m also curious about how I can best use it to flesh out the Vasili character.

RAW, it’s just a cover name for Strahd, but I feel like that’s pretty weak and I know we can do better. Right now, I have two plans of what I can do with Vasili, both of which include creating a new NPC.

First, I think it would be interesting to separate the name from the character. I want to leave all of Strahd’s notes to the characters using Vasili’s name (including a taunt outside the Death House welcoming the characters to Barovia and warning them to be more careful). Separate from this, I want Strahd to be accompanied by a small dusk elf child every time they encounter him in public (at the burgomaster’s funeral, at dinner, etc) but to never give away the child’s name. The kid is just a fledgling vampire that Strahd is training to replace him and rule over Barovia once he is able to leave. This could be good to have the kid be a disposable minion that Strahd only thinks about tactically and is willing to throw under the bus (very emotional, good potential to have the player forgive Vasili who was just used as a puppet, etc).

The second idea is to make Vasili very openly aligned with Strahd. Except instead of being physically powerful, he just like keeps Strahd’s calendar and uses Strahd’s domination of Barovia to his economic advantage (a more influential and active version of Lief from Ravenloft). Maybe he owns the shop in Barovia, talks with the Watchers to influence politics in Valaki to make money there, and meddled with the Wizard of Wines to control the supply of alcohol across Barovia. This could be good to have a different kind of villain in Barovia who is motivated by greed more than power.

If anyone has done anything similar with Vasili Von Holtz, I would love to hear your thoughts! And if you have any notes about my two potential approaches (I’m currently leaning more towards the first) I would love to workshop ideas!

XO

My party's experience with the Death House.

(TL;DR: My party got insanely lucky with their encounters after reaching level 2 in the Death House, played super skillfully against Lorgoth, and managed to kill the beast with no character deaths (somehow). Istg if they had encountered even a single enemy encounter in the basement, they wouldn't have had enough spell slots for the boss fight and 100% would have died. A set of facts that I both applaud them for and that make me cry myself to sleep!)

The party has two brave members, a Dragonborn Paladin and an Aasimar Cleric who were deadset on helping Rose and Thorn (with so much focus that they never asked for the childrens' names) and a... less enthusiastic... Halfling Rogue and Human Warlock. They absolutely tear through the house part of the death house, completely ignoring the first two floors. On the third floor, they immediately run into the animated armor with relative ease. The paladin gets absolutely battered by the animated broom and the ghost of the maid nearly one-shots the level one cleric. So a lot more battle experience on that new level.

They eventually find their way through the mirror (with some helpful hints about how drafty the room is) and up to the attic, where they attempt to open every door at the same time. For some reason, I guess the attic was just more interesting than the first two floors to them lol. They discover the skeleton of the ghost they fought on the floor below and a small doll (which I changed to have a tag marking it as a Blinsky doll). And after picking a lock, they are reunited with Rose and Thorn. After a short conversation, the warlock fidgets with their character placement just a little too much and gets possessed by Thorn. The cleric and paladin are able to explain they want to help Rose before she can possess anyone, and they agree to take the children (and the body of the maid) to the family crypt beneath the house.

Here's where it gets interesting.

They do as they promise and lay the bodies to rest in the basement, deciding to go as fast as possible so they can ignore the chanting that seems to surround them. After completing this task, they want to leave, deciding the monster Rose and Thorn told them about should be someone else's problem. But, much to their dismay, as they return to the spiral staircase that would take them back to the attic, it is replaced with a wall of cobbled stone, with red letting "He is Ancient, He is the Land" written on it. So they begrudgingly keep exploring.

They perfectly navigate the first layer of the basement to loot all of the cultists' possessions without running into ANY of the enemies on the floor. So they are freshly leveled up, long-rested, and motivated by new goodies. They discover the spike trap without setting it off, and venture to the final floor of the dungeon, where they quickly discover the false wall in the prison and enter into the sacrifice chamber.

After some examination, and a failed check to discern what the 'pile of moss and vines' is doing in the sacrifice chamber, the paladin and cleric both step up to the altar, and they understand what the cult is asking them, though they would never agree. The warlock, however, steps up to the vines and sees through its dormancy. But rather than alerting the party, she decides to give it a good 'ol eldrich blast (while her friends art still up on the altar). The fight begins, and as Lorgoth exits his small cave, he takes the vines connecting him to the ceiling with him, causing a large hole to open, exposing the sacrifice chamber to the night light of Barovia (and giving the party an escape option).

Lorgoth manages to take down the cleric with relative ease, but the warlock casts sanctuary on her to protect her while she's down. Of course, Lorgoth failed on EVERY wisdom save, so he was unable to force any failed death saves on the cleric. Frustrated, he takes out his anger on the warlock, the source of the sanctuary spell. However, he (and I) didn't realize it wasn't a concentration spell, and stays up even once the warlock goes down. So he has two people downed, and turns to the paladin and rogue who have just been wailing on him the entire time.

With some incredible luck, the rogue manages to keep sneak attacks up the entire fight and lands two critical hits throughout the fight. And despite losing his light source after the cleric goes down, the halfling rushes in blind, swinging his knife with reckless abandon and plunges it deep into Lorgoth's sickly black heart, taking the monster down.

Overall, great first experience with Curse of Strahd! Can't wait to see what the future holds for the group.

EDIT: I should also note two things. First, this story comes from a DM who was terrified that the party would absolutely get obliterated if they stood and fought Lorgoth, and I’m pretty glad they got partially punished. It allows me to come back later when they stand and fight and die and say ‘I warned you! Sometimes you’re supposed to run away!.’

And second, this is the short version of the story because I doubt many people will want to hear about my party’s adventures lol. But this is a great opportunity to get some creative writing in and I’ll 100% use it as an opportunity to do longer form session recaps in the background (and who knows, maybe I’ll post one or two here along the way!)

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