u/The_Poster_Nutbag

I've never played a bard before but I'm looking to do so in the next campaign I'll be playing. The idea is he's an orc trying to show the rest of the realm that orcs are more than brutes and have culture to share with society. He'll be joining up with the other party characters looking for inspiration for his ongoing book of poetry and spoken verse, none of it very good.

I'm not looking to optimize or min/max as much as I am just trying to make a fun character concept while not hamstringing myself with an idea that realistically isn't very good in practice. If anyone has any good input or ideas I'd love to hear what you think. With spell lists ideally I'll have a mix of good combat and RP type spells to make use of the class.

I'm running a campaign for 4 players who are now at level 9 and due to some poor decision making, were TPK'd by Baba Lysaga and her hut. Not wanting to end the campaign so close to the end after almost 2 years of play, they woke up in the flooded cells in the basement of Ravenloft.

My current plan is to have Strahd come deliver a monologue about how they've failed just line any other adventuring party and he is disappointed in them since they were the first to really pose a challenge to him, etc. Eventually Cyrus will show up to aid the party in their escape from the cells since one of the PCs has turned him into an ally through the game and will likely want to escape with them.

I'm looking for suggestions/ideas as to how the players might get their gear back in a more interesting way than the elder scrolls method of having a chest with their goods in it nearby but I also don't want them to have to move through the castle in their underwear, so to speak.

I'm open to any other fun ideas or stories of people who have run similar encounters for their party and to hear how it went.

9.999 times out of 10 these take the form of comment responses with no context and no advice. It's low effort, sets a bad precedent, and does nothing to help the person get the answers they were looking for.

I understand the perspective of "well it helps them visualize", except it really doesn't. It doesn't show mature plants, it doesn't do a good job at things like bed depth and plant spacing, just ride with all kinds of issues.

If we want this to be a subreddit with informed takes and helpful contributions, this would be an easy step towards that and a step away from low effort armchair experts who provide nothing other than cheap imitations of landscape designs.

My party is at the endgame now (level 9, has all the treasures, etc.) and have just been TPK'd by Baba Lysaga and the hut after kicking her door in and being slammed by cloud kill and the hut.

She delivered them to Strahd who locked them away. I'm the process one player was paralyzed by power word stun and another accepted a dark powers deal in the process. I figure the player who took the deal will awake with full health, the paralyzed one comes back as he was during the fight, and the other two will have 5hp in the cells since they were effectively zeroed in combat.

So now for the current plan. Right now I'm planning for the paralyzed player (he's not paralyzed anymore) and the dark powers character wake up first with lockpicks in their cells to find and attempt to open the locks on an escape, placed by Strahd of course. If that fails, they befriended Cyrus earlier in the campaign so he'll come to let them out at the last moment before giving up and tell them they need to get out as quickly and quietly as possible.

Once they exit the castle Strahd will be waiting for them outside to congratulate them on their escape. Since they couldn't even defeat a sad old woman, surely Strahd isn't worried about them fighting him and is willing to release them back into the valley for more antics. He'll deliver a monologue about power, cunning, and his never ending rule over the land, yadda yadda.

Theyve already explored some of the castle following dinner which included the basement where the skull of Argynvost was located. I was thinking the sun sword and symbol might end up in some of the tombs below which makes sense to me.

I'm wondering if anyone has good recommendations for interesting hooks I could include in their escape. I'm trying to come up with a good way for them to get their gear back (surely Strahd would have confiscated the sun sword and holy symbol so those should be located elsewhere from their core supplies. They'll be depleted of spell slots and some HP coming out of the battle so they'll be treading light, I hope.

Any and all ideas are appreciated! Bonus points for anything that relies on stealth and RP to navigate.