Difference between revisions of "Castle Ravenloft"

Revision as of 18:16, 6 July 2018

Nurmengard prison/fortress/Castle Ravenloft

Ambient audio

Rainy Castle Exterior by Sword Coast Audio

Rain outside, fireplace inside by Guild of Ambience

The Journey to Ravenloft

In preparation for the trip to Ravenloft, I allowed a few things to happen. The group went to Van Richten and said they knew it was him and asked him to come with them to fight Strahd. He didn't go because he is too worried that his curse will spell their doom. Instead he gives them his Scroll of Raise Dead. Ireena had been captured by Strahd at this point so her brother sends some Barovian commoners along with the PCs to try to help. I loved having commoners with the PCs because it enhances the horror movie element since you can kill them off in various ways - the players get to watch their party dwindle as they go deeper into the Castle. (reddit)

My players jumped in the Black Carriage, but got out again before the bridge. One of the Barovian Commoners did not make it all the way across the bridge, loosing his footing and plummeting 1000 feet to his death. This was great. (reddit)

Managing the Castle

This is going to be the most important section of this post. Right at the moment the PCs set foot on the grounds of Castle Ravenloft, I told them how it was going to work with something along the lines of this - "Welcome to Castle Ravenloft. There are random encounters here that I will roll for. I will roll every 10 minutes of game time. A short rest takes 1 hour, that means 6 rolls. A long rest is 8 hours, or 48 rolls. Having everyone search a room will take 10 minutes, so one roll. If I think you are taking to long to do something, that's gonna be another roll. Not all the random encounters are bad for you, but most of them are." Saying this to the players does break the immersion to a degree, but I really think it is worth it. They need to know that resting in Ravenloft is a risky proposition. My players started out with Barovian Commoners, so read what they do in the random encounters. I'm almost certain that Barovian Commoners are the most dangerous thing in there. I also had all the players write down their Passive Perception, AC, and Weight on a little card and hung it from my DM screen. This is going to be important for the traps later. (reddit)

I also went through the dungeon beforehand with a pack of Sticky Notes. When I came to an interesting room I would write a little role playing challenge on the sticky note which was appropriate to the room and then stick the note in the book. When a player completed one of these challenges, I would peel off the sticky note and hand it too them. They can give it back to me for a point of inspiration. Some examples of these sticky notes follow: (reddit)

For K42. Kings Bedchamber : "For inspiration, tell of a time when your character experienced naive love" (reddit)

For K32. Maid in Hell: "For inspiration, tell of a time a servant showed you kindness even though it was risky" (reddit)

For K37. Study: "For Inspiration, tell of a time your character was excited or inspired to learn something" (reddit)

For Crypt 35 : "For inspiration, tell your characters favorite joke" (reddit)

You get the idea. I maybe made 20 of these. It's unlikely they will clear the whole castle so they won't get to do all of them, but I really like this idea (nice pat on the back for me there) and might start using it for other dungeons in the future. (reddit)

The Maps

Do yourself a favor and get some non-isometric maps of this place. It's gonna be a huge headache to draw out due to the scale and the view. I want to take this time to recommend /u/pigonthewing 's beautiful maps (What happened to K19?!). I imported them into Roll20 and had it projected for my players. It has been fantastic. (reddit)

Level -2, Catacombs Map

Source

Level -1, Basement Map

Source

Level 1, First Floor Map

Source

Level 2 Map

Source

Level 3 Map

Source

Level 4 Map

Source

Level 5 Map

Source

Strahd Prep

This probably deserves its own post but quickly, I wrote a paragraph of Strahd monologue for each player character. If things started looking hairy for Strahd he would start pleading with the characters. I also wrote a monologue for when they discover him at his location. (reddit)

K1. The Front Door

I've only started the Castle with one group and they avoided the front door. I suspect my other group will do the same thing. Don't be surprised if your group does this. Read up on the other ways to get into the Castle - The servants entrance, the windows, and the overlook to K88. (reddit)

K6. The Overlook

I really like this area. It gives the players an idea of the magnitude of where they are. They WILL look for a secret way to get into the castle, and they WILL find those damn windows to K88 and they WILL try to figure out how to get there. I straight up read aloud "This descent cannot be accomplished without the aid of magic or a climbers' kit." which shut that down pretty quick (because who buys a climbers kit?). They do have a Warlock who can fly, but they were rightly afraid that whoever went first would be stranded while the others were shuttled in. (reddit)

K24. The Servants' Quarters

This is where I would bet most groups will get into the castle. I had prepared for them to go through the front door. Make sure you read up on this entrance and the Larders of Ill Omen that are below. (reddit)

K62. The Servant's Hall

Read up on Cyrus. Practice a weird voice for him. He is actually pretty useful for the characters if they can convince him to talk, or charm him. (reddit)

Premature Strahd Encounters

My group entered the Castle through the Servant's Quarters, and Strahd's location is the Hall of Bones. The party was in the foyer adjacent to Strahd as their SECOND ROOM IN RAVENLOFT. Was I just going to let them mosey in, fresh as a bunch of daisies and thump my boy? Hell no. This is a risk of the nature of the module and the random position of Strahd. I had a plan. If the players encountered Strahd prematurely as determined by me, I was going to remove the sunlight and running water limitation in Strahd's Misty Escape ability. He was going to fight like hell, probably lose, and then turn to mist. After that, the PC's Ally would say something like "It's not over yet. The darklord has been banished back to his tomb. If we don't find it in time, he will rise again." Then I was going to end the session and start the next time with a big bowl of 600 skittles. Every minute that passes in game time, someone has to eat a skittle. When the Skittles are gone, STRAHD'S BACK BABY! (reddit)

Luckily, the players doglegged on to the Elevator Trap instead of the Hall of Bones. (reddit)

The Elevator Trap

This is why you need the weights of the party on the notecards. This Trap is really nasty. Read it over a few times until you completely understand it. It will probably catch 2-4 of the party. It is heavily implied that Strahd will be waiting for them at the top of the trap ready to destroy whoever gets caught. Splitting the party is the most common way players die in DnD. This is a party splitter with a boss fight. Strahd has taken the gloves off at this point and wants to kill these fools. The players who are stuck down at the bottom have to leg it up something like 170 feet of stairs. That's like running up a 16 story building. We will say that is difficult terrain, so that's 30 feet of movement every round (Generous), so our heroes arrive at the top in 6 rounds (36 seconds. Also generous for 16 stories.) or so. At the top they will be greeted with a DC 10 con save or take one level of exhaustion, because good lord that's a lot of stairs. I'll talk more about the Strahd fight here in a different post. (reddit)