u/Totistotito

Hi, it’s me again, so my players finally got to the festival of the blazing sun and they… well, they ignored the bones of San Andral quest and the spawns are now in the church, so the feast of San Andral is ready to happen soon after they step into the church, yay

I planned on using some of lunchbreaks hero’s advice, and that Anastrasya was the one (ordered by Strahd) to orchestrate the attack on Vallaki, then she gets pissed off by seeing Strahd disguised as Vasili and lashes outs, and revels Vasili as Strahd, and decides to kill Anastrasya in front of the players, that’s fine I guess bc it’s an npc

But, in my last 2 sessions, the changeling paladin decided to tell me they were going to learn Tatyana’s face so they could mimic her appearance, I assume to torment Strahd, I think it is a very clever idea, however don’t know if it will work as they planned, since it will certainly backfire. Because Strahd knows Tatyana’s soul, so he wouldn’t be that easily fooled by a copy from an outsider, and I have the feeling that the paladin might change into Tatyana’s appearance in middle of the conflict to protect Ireena

So I thought (foolishly) that a good idea would be to pretend Strahd was charmed by the illusion, approach, then power word kill, but reading a little more into the subreddit, I don’t think it’s that bright of an idea on my end.

Just to clarify, my group is a lot more roleplay heavy, and when we discussed boundaries this player in specific didn’t had problem with her characters being cannon fodder, since she have plenty more, however I could always use the dark powers to bring the paladin back or even make Strahd revive them to prove his control in the valley

But, I think I could also hurt the Paladin’s boyfriend and turn him into a spawn or sm just to torment them, but if someone have a better idea, please, I’m desperate and open to suggestion

Also, sorry for my botched English, it is not my first language, besos, bye 😿

Hi, it’s me again

[please, excuse the bad grammar and mistakes I could make, English isn’t my first language]

So I decided to do a lot of things while the party stays in Vallaki, I’ve extended the days until the festival and the feast so I could put in between a masquerade in Ravenloft, bc I know my party would really appreciate a “happy” session and all and I want them to roam around the castle bc I think it’s a really cool location for them not to visit them until they’re in the final battle or the dinner with Strahd

However, I have a bit of a situation, since instead of using the missions of the module to get them to Barovia, I made Escher to be one of my pc’s brother who got lost (he was an adventurer and when his party got defeated he did the very stereotypical thing of a Bard to do and saved himself by seducing Strahd and becoming her consort).

This pc, Salem, is very rude to Strahd, and had suspicions that Escher was in Ravenloft, but then it was confirmed when Strahd send her Escher’s severed finger in a little box

And here’s where the problem is, I can’t decide what to do with Escher during the masquerade.

One of the options I had was locking him up in a tower, like he’s in time-out since Strahd is already on her last nerve with him (not really living to her expectations but just keeping him around since she finds really amusing that this new party of adventurers is looking for him) in this scenario I could maybe make him roam the halls begging Rahadin to let him in into the ball, and not realising his sister is attending the ball

The other option is making him attend the ball, but then Salem and Escher would see each other right away, and there’s another thing I have trouble in deciding what to do with Escher

Escher enjoys being Strahd’s consort (despite the finger incident) and in a way his personality, desires and mentality got distorted when he became a spawn, so I don’t know if he should be like happy to see his sister, terrified for her wellbeing (Barovia is horrible!) or like annoyed for her interference in his new life

Yeah… and also, if you have other ideas to keep torturing them psychologically a party of adventurers, it will be well received, I have been granted consent from the players to do so.

Hiii, it’s me again

Back on session one, I did the tarokka reading for my group and they happen to pull out the dark lord card for the fated ally, and well… it makes my job a little easier so that in theory, in the final battle I don’t have to have another npc in initiative and I can focus on Strahd and her lair actions and maybe Rahadin and the brides if the party haven’t killed them yet

HOWEVER, as many parties do, this group in particular have a tendency to adopt a lot of npcs, like Ireena is part of the group, one of my players has a big crush on Victor Vallakovich (I Made him like 22-23 in here and in irl we’re all around that age), they took a liking to Izek and they already found Van Richten, and if things go as badly as I think they will, and get distracted with other quests and the interactive tome of Strahd, Vallaki will be a bloodbath and Victor, Izek and Van Richten will need to leave with the party, so yeah,,, I kind of expect them to stick together

I know it’s not necessary for the fated ally to go with them to the final battle, since a lot of them have commoner stat blocks, but I can’t come up with a reason why Van Richten or Ezmeralda wouln’t go with the party to Ravenloft, so, should I make Ez and Van Richten go with the party? That’s a possibility right? Bc it’s kinda funny for Rudolph to say “well, I know Countess Strahd was supposed to be the last vampire I killed… but on second thought, my back hurts so I’ll just wait for you guys in my tower, don’t
die!”

I guess I just want to know what others dms did and prepare myself for something that won’t happen in less than a year or two irl 😅