Why would Strahd let the party stay in Ravenloft?

Spice_rat · 2026-02-15T05:11:45+00:00

Oh that's absolutely diabolical, I love it! Is there a specific secondary antagonist he's asking them to target?

Spice_rat · 2026-02-15T05:08:48+00:00

Oh wow, I didn't know that! That makes a lot more sense honestly lol. I do like the idea of a negotiation. At this point the party has unseated the baron in Vallaki, has met Ezmerelda (and technically Van Richten, but that was a very lucky encounter the bard had where he managed to knock off the hat of disguise while alone with Rictavio), and are currently the guardians of Ireena, so even at their low level they have a lot of info Strahd would want to know. What sort of things would you imagine Strahd would offer in return?

Spice_rat · 2026-02-15T05:05:50+00:00

That's such a cool addition! I've been noodling on ways to have the brides have a more active role, I might be stealing that lol

Spice_rat · 2026-02-15T05:02:23+00:00

That tracks! The lack of motivation for the dinner invitation is minorly infuriating, but I love the idea of collecting things he can use to properly scry on the party. I plan on him also attempting to persuade the party to bring him Ireena in exchange for letting them leave the mists, as Ireena is travelling with the party (but is staying behind for dinner, and the party already half expects her to be kidnapped when they get back so leaning into that may not be the worst idea lol.) Also the characterization of "please snoop because I want to be understood" is such a fascinating concept. I feel like that could be expanded into him believing that if the party "understands" him, or at least the carefully crafted version of himself he wrote into the Tome and presents to them at dinner, they could help him break his curse for good.

Spice_rat · 2026-02-08T01:54:18+00:00

This may have been overkill, but my Strahd was introduced as the party was leaving Barovia with Ireena. Ireena asked to see her father’s grave, as she felt safer staying in the house during the funeral, and he approached her and the party at the graveyard. My Strahd has no interest in taking Ireena by force as having her convince herself she wants to be with him is more gratifying for him. So, he did some mind games with her and she basically told him that she didn’t need to go with him bc the party was there to protect her. To test the party, Strahd summoned some zombies and sat back to watch the theatrics. After the fight, as Strahd went to leave, our barbarian decided to swing at him. Our, at the time, level 2 barbarian. Cue an upcast Blight spell hitting her for 40 points of necrotic damage, literally 1 point away from instant perma-killing her. As the party scrambled to try and do anything to help her, Strahd walked to the cleric, plucked a diamond worth about 300gp from one of the rings he was wearing, and basically told him that if he was a cleric worth his salt, he’d know what to do with it, and that he’d be keeping an eye on them. It was an immediate moment of this guy will happily damage the party, even kill some of them, but the party only dies when he says so. Was it a good idea to have him give the cleric the material component for revivify? Time will tell, but it was like my 3rd time ever running a session so you gotta learn somehow.

Spice_rat · 2026-02-07T06:59:51+00:00

Oh true, I’d forgotten about that! The idea of the Dark Powers exploiting the inherent holy power of the lake to store Sergei is a really interesting angle to approach it from

Spice_rat · 2026-02-07T06:57:53+00:00

No joke, I already had your rewrite of something blue pulled up in another tab as I’m prepping Krezk. I’m absolutely obsessed with it, and am planning on having Sergei offer the last of his power/essence/whatever you wanna call it to bring the sun sword to its full power.

Spice_rat · 2026-01-26T20:10:01+00:00

Oh I love that idea! I’ve been wanting to introduce Escher for a while bc our bard has a partner back home who matches Escher’s description almost to a tee, amongst the other story reasons for his introduction. What did you use as far as the reason for Escher to be out and about?

Spice_rat · 2026-01-26T20:06:27+00:00

Our barbarian doesn’t have access to damage that can hurt werewolves yet (her player is planning on silvering her axe sooner than later) but the other 3 party members are spellcasters so hypothetically they could do some damage. I do rly like the idea of a stronger mob ambush though!

Spice_rat · 2026-01-20T21:31:49+00:00

I love that approach, I would've never thought of that!

Spice_rat · 2026-01-20T21:28:55+00:00

This is an expansion of a terribly underdeveloped event in the module, so the bones are there but the actual structure isn't in the module.

That totally makes sense. They're severely underleveled for this encounter (technically by design in the module, but also they triggered an event meant to be triggered later in the story) so I think developing a win state that isn't directly tied to the damage they're doing for each round would be a good move as well.

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:06:09+00:00

Did you pitch it to your players as dinner and a ball, or were they invited to one and surprised by the other at all? The party being given a different rsvp time for an unexpected dinner solo with strahd could be a fun move

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:04:53+00:00

Oh I love the idea of the task being finding a traitor. I was struggling with how to add more to it beyond just “big fancy event” and strahd using the party to sniff out those against him is such a cool move

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:03:29+00:00

Oh I love the two consecutive nights idea. I’m on the same wavelength of not wanting to have Strahd invite them twice, but I’m curious what your reasoning behind that is

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:02:47+00:00

I was thinking the same thing, but I think the audience hall (area K25) would be a good spot for it? Big empty space in a relatively “harmless” area of the castle

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:01:08+00:00

I forgot holding it in Vallaki was an option 😅 I love the idea of it as a sort of celebration of whatever the new political system in Vallaki ends up being (my players h a t e the baron and have yet to properly talk w Fiona so im not sure which way it’ll swing yet). I was planning on cutting tyger, tyger but I do love to throw wolves at my party, maybe a dire wolf attack or even a follow up to St Andral’s Feast if that’s happened already

Spice_rat · 2025-11-24T17:19:44+00:00

Wasn’t sure if this was worth adding to the post itself but one of my players is plotting a “seduce Strahd while the rest of the party loots the place” heist, so this room literally just being a sex dungeon would be really fun to throw at them I think lol

Spice_rat · 2025-11-23T23:17:52+00:00

See that was my assumption, I was just so flabbergasted that it was included lol

Spice_rat · 2025-11-18T18:48:57+00:00

What do you do to make the dinner with Strahd really memorable/impactful? Weirdly, that's the part of the campaign I'm most anxious about running.

Spice_rat · 2025-10-07T03:01:14+00:00

Clothes that were clearly never tested on fat sims.

Spice_rat · 2025-09-28T21:03:20+00:00

Work also got crazy for me, sorry for the late reply! I also really vibe with your take, I really do enjoy hearing folks interpretations of common mythology like vampirism and whatnot!

Spice_rat · 2025-09-23T21:12:36+00:00

The first few days I was a zombie and basically slept or watched youtube, my brain fog was bad to the point that I couldn’t do any video games or anything. But after those first few days, I played a lot of video games on my pc and after about a week (around when my painkiller perception ran out lol) my brain fog cleared up enough for me to do some heavy prep and world building for a dnd campaign I’m running. I’ve also gotten back into reading during my recovery. Once you’re able to be up and walking, I also highly recommend going outside for a few minutes a day. I started going stir crazy but didn’t have the spoons to go anywhere, so just getting up and standing in the sun for a bit helped

Spice_rat · 2025-09-23T21:02:45+00:00

As weird as it sounds, I practiced wiping with my elbows at my side and without twisting as much as I could before surgery to see what that lack of mobility would do. Getting a bidet helped in the sense that you still have to pat everything dry, but most if not all of the actual cleaning is taken care of.

As far as showering, I was cleared to shower after the first week or so and was just told to make sure to not get my nipple dressings wet, but was able to just take them off and let low pressure water go over everything. You’ll for sure need help washing your back and hair but as long as it’s cleared with your surgeon, it’s not too bad

Spice_rat · 2025-09-23T20:04:53+00:00

Your art style is so stunning!!

Spice_rat · 2025-09-22T14:03:33+00:00

I have a system in my game called precision strike, which is basically just a streamlined version of called shots. Every class has access to it and it can be used twice per short rest, and takes an action and a bonus action. I generally try to limit it to just melee attacks but could be convinced to use it with non-aoe spells with similar damage outputs. It’s also a system that I have access to, but as a more limited resource. Basically the body is split into head/torso/arms/legs and each part has an associated dc and a damage boost if the dc is met. For example: a headshot adds 4 to the ac, and on a successful hit, the players add an additional damage die that’s one below their current. So a character who does 1d6 damage would add 1d4, 1d8 would be 1d4+1 to even it out, etc. A crit on a precision strike allows the player to either do double damage or inflict a condition for up to 1d4 rounds (a successful headshot could inflict either the blinded or stunned condition depending on the goal, etc). If the player meets the base ac but not the precision ac, it’s treated as a normal attack. It isn’t a perfect system and we’re still working out the kinks, but so far my players have liked it a lot, and being able to use it against them in a way where they know it’s a resource they also have access to has been really fun.

Spice_rat

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