u/Western-Remove-2708

So I'm planning on replacing Nightstone with Dragon Heist as our level 1-5 intro into the world. I feel like the political machinations of Dragon Heist pair well with the later negotiations of Storm King's Thunder. I'd love some opinions though on which villain to start with. I'm debating towards pushing either the Manshoon and the Zhentarim, or Jarlaxle and the Sea Maidens as the initial villain. In favor of the Zhentarim, there are lots of mentions of them already in Storm Kings Thunder spreading there influence. But in Jarlaxle's favor it feels like he'd make the perfect recurring NPC to help shore up some of Storm King's weaknesses. I'll probably lay the groundwork for both, but I'd still love some feedback

I did my Tarokka reading mostly random, (I say mostly because I pulled madame Eva’s tent, and I just had to change the sunsword to somewhere better) and I pulled the tomb of king barov and queen ravenovia. Which I love! A climactic showdown in the deepest part of the castle where strahd is at his most emotionally raw! My issue is the curtain. Specifically that I have no lawful good characters in my party. And I only have one small character who can squeeze past. As much as I love the idea of strahd pulling a darth maul and killing the bard behind a light curtain while everyone watches, I also realize that would be completely lackluster for probably everyone but me. Any advice from someone who also ran the encounter there?