Van Richten Tower
From Hayashi Park Potterverse for 5th ed. Dungeons and Dragons (5e)
Contents
Minimum PC Level
(Level 6) Van Richten's Tower: Page 167 ([1])
Ambient audio
van Richten Tower ambient audio by Sword Coast Audio
Tower Approach
https://i.imgur.com/TJBLy0m.mp4 (reddit)
Why Even Go Here?
First of all, there are a few issues with this place. Let's start with the name, shall we? On the map that I imagine most DM's will hand to their players at some point to show where they are, the legend has this site named "Van Richtens Tower". If they read that, part of the exploration is ruined. Whenever you give the map that comes in the book to the PCs, fold it so it really only shows the area near them. Now that that's sorted, why are they going to the tower? There really aren't a lot of reasons to go, unless you fabricate one or the PCs are the curious sort - which is going to be rare since Ravenloft typically kills the curious ones off pretty swiftly. How did I get my players there? Well one group has the wizard as their ally, and they thought a wizard might hang out at a tower, and there they were. The other group I was fabricated a reason for and changed a few things around, and this was the best way to operate IMO. (reddit)
The Hook
At this point in the adventure, chances are pretty high that the PCs have met Ezmerelda and that she has pledged herself to their cause. She can tell the group that she has a wagon of supplies which she left at the strange tower in the woods. These supplies would be helpful for the group to go get before they head to Castle Ravenloft. I rewrote the timeline of the events around the tower such that they follow each other like this: Ezmerelda takes her cart to the tower to look for clues about Van Richten's whereabouts >> She is unable to decipher the puzzle on the front door, and cannot get inside >> The Abbott contacts her for his own inscrutable purposes >> She leaves to go to the Abbey of St. Markovia which is where she is when the PCs find her. (reddit)
Now notice that this has a welcome side effect of changing the location of Van Richtens journal page (and map) from Ezmerelda's cart to the fireplace in the tower. This makes for a much better adventure site. These changes were the most important changes to running this adventure site, and I strongly recommend you do the same for your game. (reddit)
The Magic Wagon
In one group they were with Ezmerelda at the time when they came here, so obviously that went swimmingly. The other group (As you will see) triggered the trap. This is a pretty easy encounter to run in general. (reddit)
The Door
I love this part of the tower. Any type of puzzle or trick where the players have an opportunity to move around like this is fantastic and really fun. Well done Mr. Perkins (Let me playtest your stuff!). I'd like to see more elements like this in published adventures. I also love tricks that force players to reveal aspects of their character via roleplay, but we are getting pretty off topic now. (reddit)
One important point - I think if the party has a native to Barovia with them at the time of their investigation into the tower, I think you want them to pipe up and give a little of the narrative away - say something like "In legends past, they say this is tower of wizard. Long dead now." (My Barovians all have bad Russian accents). (reddit)
Inside the Tower
I played the scaffolds and the insides of the tower aside from the 4th floor pretty much exactly by the book. (reddit)
The 4th Floor
The only thing that I changed here was the location of Van Richten's map (it's in the desk now), and his journal entry (that's in the fireplace). Another important point here is with the severed head. Allow an arcana check for someone who inspects the head at a DC 10 to determine that the unguents in the chest are used for preservation, typically to prevent the expiration time requirement of some spells from coming into effect. This will get them curious about what spells they can cast and they will probably arrive at Speak with Dead sooner or later. (reddit)
Werewolf Attack
So the tower is really low on combat in general and I think this encounter is a great way to finish the session off. I ran this encounter in both groups, even though one group never made enough noise to bring them. The werewolves come in when the PCs are on the causeway and cut off the exit. In both groups what worked well for me was having Kiril talk to the PCs and pretend to be their friend and asking them to liberate Emil from the dungeon. Really all Kiril is doing is getting the PCs to cross the causeway so his warriors can't get caught in a chokepoint. As soon as the PCs are off the causeway and on the mainland, Kiril attacks. For more information on how I manage Lycanthropy, please refer to my "Werewolf Den" post. (reddit)
Bonus
In case you are wondering what this looks like in practice, I recorded one of my sessions where I ran this adventure. I don't have much production value, but at the very least you can see how these changes play out prior to making them in your game. (reddit)
Book Manuscript
Thought I would add to this, I was prepping tonight for a Van Richten's tower and reading through the Journal handout provided in the book. I noticed that the story in that Journal is not the same story in the appendix given for Ezmeralda. In the Journal, it states that Van Richten killed all the Vistani who kidnapped his son, but Ezmerald's description says that Van Richten chose not to kill her parents, and this act of mercy is what influenced her to become his apprentice. Influenced by someone else wrote on this board, I've decided instead of having a nonsensical "journal" entry laying around, I'm going to have Van Richten drafting the prologue to his Guide to Vampires book. I've also reworked it a bit to seed more story about the werewolves. Here it is if anyone wants to use it: (reddit)
If you are reading this book it is undoubtedly because you wish to learn more about vampires and their ways. You are therefore also curious as to how the author attained this knowledge and if it is trustworthy. You are correct to ask for this information and I feel obliged, despite the pains it causes me, to recount my history. Long ago, I lived a simple and happy life as a doctor, a scholar, a husband, and father. One summer, a caravan of Vistani set up camp near us and my son, Eramus, became fast friends with one of their sons, Valentin. I thought nothing of it until he did not come home one day and the wagon gone. I immediately sought out the camp, believing Vistani to have kidnapped him, but the Vistani were missing their son, too. I had vowed to my wife I would not return until I had my son back, and so I continued on to find him. Within a few weeks, I tracked my son and the Vistani lad to a werewolf den. When the pack was out hunting, I entered the cave and found Valentin in a cage. He begged me for forgiveness and confessed he had hoped the werewolves would let him join the pack if he brought my son as tribute, but they had lied. Eramus, Valentin told me, had been given to a vampire and himself locked up for some later game. Despite my hatred of Valentin, he was still only a boy, and I took him back to his family. His sister remains grateful to me. I went back to find the vampire, hoping Eramus was still alive. But alas, he had been turned into a spawn and I had no choice but to place a stake through his heart to save his soul. For more than three decades now, I have undertaken to investigate and expose creatures of darkness to the purifying light of truth and knowledge. “Hero” I am named in some circles; “sage” and “master hunter” I am called in others. That I have survived countless supernatural assaults is a miracle. I have learned much in those years and only hope to spread the knowledge I know further. (reddit)
Notes
I finished running CoS almost a year ago. It was mine and my groups first DnD adventure, and hooked us all on this wonderful game. Much of the success of the campaign I contribute to resources that other people game up with, guides, etc, and so I wanted to give a little back to the community. (reddit)
When I ran it, I saw the puzzle door and was immediately excited. I Love puzzles, and so do a few members of my group. My excitement dulled, however, when I saw the actual puzzle. "That's it?" (reddit)
I felt that a simple gesture based puzzle using clear humanoids was going to be far to simple and so I set out to create a more detailed and exciting puzzle. I succeeded, and have run this same puzzle in different contexts for 3 groups since then with success. Without Further Ado, here is the puzzle. (It requires a functional visual aid to be produced for it to really work, I'll give advice on that at the end.) (reddit)
"You come to a door, on which you can see several engravings. They Look like this: (The original door puzzle, with 3 changes- the lines are in a circle contained in the larger circle, and there are divots at each of the corners where the line gets larger. I also included small guide arrow markings after each divot to help guide them. Unlike the original, direction matters.) (reddit)
Below this design are several more features. 3 glass orbs are ingrained into the wood, looking closeley, each has a curved arrow inlaid inside. The glass is dark right now. (reddit)
Beneath those, a wooden roller is embedded into the door. You can see that is has numbers engraved around it, and should you "spin" the roller it would allow you to present different numbers. (The rollers are currently locked, they are unable to spin the dancing poses, etc). (reddit)
The puzzle beings as normal for Van-Richten's- you do a dance, beginning at the first pose. As they do it, the divot next to it lights up in a soft white glow. As they follow the arrows, and preform the next pose, the divot lights up a different color. The interior of the puzzle (the one with the guidelines) spins faster than they can see (direction= whatever the gem above the spinner points, either clockwise or counter-clockwise), and comes to a rest in a new location, with the divots aligning to different poses. At this point, the first gem lights up, and the roller unlocks. The correct number to be selected is equal to the number of positions the indents changed in the direction of the gem. So, if you rotated the lines 4 points clockwise, they need to roll it to a four. Once they do this, the little light glows a nice color to tell them it was correct and the spinner locks. Note: This can never be greater than "8", becuase an answer of 9 is the same as 1, due to the number of poses. (reddit)
In order to proceed, they will need to do the next pose on the spinner According to it's new position. The indents stay lit up, and so they need to do the next pose that is not lit up. The second one they do (4th total) will set off the spinning again and unlock the second roller. Repeat until the puzzle is done. (reddit)
I will go ahead and note here that there are punishments for getting the puzzle wrong- but only at certain times. Trying the roller, for example, and discovering it is locked, does not result in punishment. In order to receive punishment, you have to do the wrong "thing" of the right "type" of the phase you are one. So doing the wrong pose when you are supposed to do a pose, or choosing the wrong number at the number phase. Posing during the number selection does not result in punishment, nor does exploring the puzzle in other ways (like pressing on the gems). In my game, the punishment was being paralyzed in place (often a silly pose due to the puzzle) until the puzzle was completed or reset. This led the group to sacrificing members to figure it out. Once everyone was paralyzed, lighting did some damage and the puzzle reset. (reddit)
This puzzle was been a massive hit with my group due to it's complexity, but also it's learning curve. Many groups may not get through that first section on the first try. But, as they figure out the pattern and get better at it, they get the satisfaction of mastering it by the end, usually completing the last roller in complete confidence and feeling success at their fingertips. While this seems relatively simple when described as I have, I wouldn't be fooled- I haven't had a group pass it in less than 45 minutes real-time. (reddit)
For the Physical Aid, I cut two circles and used a pushpin to secure the smaller one so that I could physically spin it. A used a rectangle sheet of paper and drew the likeness of the lower half, but did not write numbers., Instead of spinning the rollers, I had them write the number they spun in to on the "Front" face of the roller. I used colored pencils so color the changing glow of the vertices and gems throughout. (reddit)