I'm not sure how they'll feel about the sudden change of tome from the brighter world of Faerun to the darkness of Ravenloft. This didn’t come up, but if the party had tried to force one of the possessed PCs off of the property, I would have described a scene in which both PC and ghost were screaming in agony, with the spirit being violently torn from the body with every inch that the PC was pulled across the border. ... Varimathras on the other hand struggled to escape without losing chunks of his ass to the dangling blades. He could not truly die here, nor could his curse end by death. Cookies help us deliver our Services. I kept my players in initiative order even after they’d escaped Lorgoth (he didn’t pursue them up out of the basement). Hi ! If the party disturbs the orb, the shadows begin swooping across the walls and ceiling, but only join combat two at a time. When the party's Druid got to the window, the curtain started to attack him (I used the Smothering ability of the Animated Carpet). Leveling up. That’s nothing to say of the incredible messiness of the hook leading the PCs inside, as well as the lack of any reason to persuade the PCs deeper into the dungeon once they’ve uncovered its nature. It was my first time as a DM and I had four players. For the uninitiated, this is an optional mini-adventure designed to advance new characters to 3rd level. The way this adventure works. When Death House is rejected, it gets mad. Your players will likely take Rose and Thorn’s request at face value, and using these encounters can cause them to realize that they’re in a ghost house too soon. Death House / Curse of Strahd Complete Campaign Miniature Set - 28mm Miniatures JustWonder3DDesign. But you're right, it does make sense that they need to see the altar and face more directly the Dark Powers before Strahd is satisfied and dissipates it ! Did you do anything differently? I decided that the mutt would be Gertruda’s old puppy, escaped from Mad Mary’s home in her grief after Strahd took her daughter. If they haven’t found the sacrifice room and heard “One Must Die” yet, I don’t think the house should punish them. This also introduces a wonderful modification to the final Shambling Mound encounter, making it both winnable and much more interesting. Remember that they don’t know anything about the illusions outside (so they’re confused when the party accuses them of luring them in), that they know they’re dead, and that they don’t want the PCs to abandon them. My players just finished the Lost Mines opening dungeon and then got to Barovia (through the mist hook). Anyone that's ran or peeked at Curse of Strahd's prologue, Death House, will know that there are hardly any area descriptions, and that the information provided is as dry as the [spoiler].This often leads to the DM dryly reading aloud the information provided: "This room contains a bed, a wardrobe, and a mirror behind which a secret—uhh, oops!". Oh, Death House. The Curse of Strahd Chapters 1-3 & Death House SoundPack gives you the complete audio solution when playing the first part of this awesome DUNGEONS & DRAGONS adventure. Curse of Strahd: Death House. Hi ! My main problem with teaching them a valuable lesson by punishing the rest is that they already learned a lot, like don't touch everything carelessly aka the orb and the coffins (yes the centipedes almost downed someone..) Both players and characters have expressed their will to change and be more careful, so doubling down on this would a bit extra imo. After barely surviving the horrors of Death House, the adventurers seek food, rest, and refuge. Wow, weird. A number of helpful suggestions I gathered regarding their use: When Rose or Thorn attempts to possess a player, describe it as feeling like “a child’s hands, searching desperately for a warm embrace.” Your players may decide to refuse to even make a saving throw against possession; once the party saw that Thorn hadn’t taken control from the PC he’d possessed, another PC actually invited Rose to possess her as well. The way I see this, the House should get mad it's not getting its sacrifice and come alive, but the don't even know that and I'm not sure I want to punish them for playing it safe, especially since going through the 4 floors is very likely to kill at least one of them and losing characters before the "real" adventure starts kinda sucks. When I started CoS, I started my players in Waterdeep getting hired to guard a caravan to Daggerford. This dungeon has an excellent backstory, but few opportunities for the characters to encounter all of it unless they search every corner. Curse of Strahd. Copy and paste in place each of the four models into a single model to create the full model. I began the campaign with Death House, however I started the PCs at level 3, and they gained level 4 upon completing Death House. My most recent run the group sacrificed their drow sorcerer and left. Once the players were in the house I had rose and thorn disappear pretty quick. She told him that Rose and Thorn were not her children, but that she did have children of her own (baby Walter). More posts from the CurseofStrahd community. And then level 3 after escaping the house. Ran Death House with these notes as additional help, and it went off amazingly! Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd is a series of expansions and elaborations to t Three of them had already been the DM for our group and the fourth player might do so sometime in the future (he's not sure about it). If the PCs decide to take a long rest in the house, allow them to roll an Intelligence check to recall the relative safety of the Servants’ Quarters. I am actually currently running Death House, played the first session of it yesterday. Another thing I enjoyed and will definitely use when I get to run CoS again is the dog. We started with a nerfed Death House, but it still was very dangerous. On the other hand, it would teach them they can't just ignore stuff they don't want to deal with. he cult’s habit of trapping and devouring wayward T visitors proved to be its downfall. Curse of Strahd Supplemental Content. ), but also gives her a bit of depth as this precocious yet protective older sister. Death House (Curse of Strahd) Ashley gives the pungent fire an oddly disgusted look, then turns and follows Kathul out towards the den. Anyway, I used the encounter where wolves attack the party and Strahd looks at the scene in his Dire Wolf form. If you intend on playing the adventure some point in the future I caution you to stop reading now. written. Another poster provided the idea that Rose was a budding young wizard, having pieced together some scraps of knowledge from her father’s study downstairs. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. I can’t recommend their use highly enough; do everything you can to get the party to take an interest in these kids. Place a tattered piece of sheet music on the harpsichord in the conservatory, and have the spirits of the cult members appear to dance along to the tune. I ran with the updated/alternative Death House I mentioned in my last post, and I think it worked really well. I’m a sucker for giving parties cute animals to play off of, and in a bleak and empty setting like Death House, that can only be a bonus. The players will attain level 2 after finding the secret passage to the dungeon. Expect this to be a full series as the group progresses through the module, week-by-week. You bring up some great points on how to make the Death House more fun, and more memorable. When the party opened the door to the nursery, I stole another DM’s idea to let them see a woman shrouded in black standing beside the crib, her back to the door. Your PCs will surprise you with all sorts of brilliant ways to avoid fighting if you let them. They wouldn’t even know why they’re being punished, which in my opinion is bad storytelling. I did outright tell my players I would need the heck out of this house and I didn't really want a death before the real book starts unless they reaaaaally deserved it. I also got rid of the toxic smoke and door traps at the end for my group. This isn’t a single session report, I think it was actually about four 2-3 hour slots. I ran Death House as written, and with a party of four level 3 PCs, it went great. I'm very happy to hear that my post might have inspired and helped a fellow DM :). as. I'm currently DM'ing a party of new-ish players and we decided to go with Cruse of Strahd as it looked like the more interesting one. I just added a second key on the keyring found in the library. Throughout, the PC received a sense of quiet pride from Rose. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Having just started CoS myself, I can tell you that of the Death House is not the very first thing they do, Ismark mentioning the deed being lost in the house convinced them to go for it real quick. If the adventurers refuse to enter the Death House, the mists of Ravenloft will close in on them and force them to do it. Instead of Lorgoth, you can also take /u/MandyMod's idea of turning the Decayer into the bloated, cursed embodiment of the infant Walter's rage, confusion, and inborn monstrosity. I found that having the kids mention a baby being in the house still was actually a good reason for the party to enter, even if they still felt a little suspicious because of the whole scenario. I might actually add another section above to discuss it. Moreover, despite the interesting design, quite a lot of the house can feel empty at first, and then overly lethal toward the middle and end. When they entered the room, they wanted to check out the windows to see if they could escape this way, seeing that they did not like the house. Curse of Strahd: Megathreads Follow. Death House Lives Up To Its Name. JUL/18. Did the transition work well for you? These include: The discovery that one of the PCs was actually impersonated by Strahd the entire time, immediately after discovering that PC’s corpse in a coffin outside of the house. Front Page; Adventure Log ... Maps; Death House Part 2 25. Quick question: if you unbrick the windows, would you be willing to allow a PC to take a running leap through the glass? Things I added. Their best bet is the local tavern. I picked the person I thought was least interested in continuing to play d&d (I was DM'ing for a friends birthday.) Sale Price $96.52 $ 96.52 $ 107.25 Original Price $107.25" (10% off) FREE shipping Baldurs Gate: Descent into Avernus Complete Campaign Miniature Set - … I’m not sure what I would change going forward about these, but I think I might choose to make one of the doors a mimic instead, and would likely unbrick the windows. Opening the door reveals two skeletons on the bed. This kept them panicked, tense, and on their toes. The last session ended with the ghasts in the first dungeon floor dying and everyone out of resources with fairly low health pools. Death House part 2. Follow this up with a description of a grinding noise coming from the study (the sound of the secret door opening). They also tried to find other houses in the fog, but quickly realized that they were being railroaded inside once the constitution/exhaustion checks started. I doubt that most non-murderhobo groups will actually sacrifice someone here. Awesome! They found Brian’s bones hanging halfway out of a trapped treasure chest with a poison dart in his forehead. See here for more details. Thus the adventurers need to find a new way to sustain the land. Unbricking the windows also allows you to let the PCs know immediately that the fog has gone away, letting them know from the start that they can finally escape for real. It did not set up a great tone for the rest of the module, and we ended up disbanding a few sessions in because, with everything being so brutal as written, it was basically a PC mill. Now here's where I don't know what to do : my players have talked about their plan to go back in the house's bedrooms to make a long rest. I definitely think having a dog around for the altar cranks up the tension. You’ll be rewarded with a non-murderhobo party for the rest of the campaign. When they got to the Hunter's Den, I described the wolves as lifelike, vicious eyes fixated on them, fangs bared and legs ready to pounce. Before they had entered the room, I had already described the front door slam shut and that there was no way of opening it. Curse of Strahd is a re-tread of the original plot of I6 Ravenloft (later revised for AD&D 2nd edition as RM4 House of Strahd, and again, but more heavily so, for the revised 3.5 edition as Expedition to Castle Ravenloft), but with a metric boatload of added content. This way if she wanted out she could, but if she wanted back in she could come back with a curse. It’s actually been three sessions since I updated on Curse of Strahd, two of which finished out Death House. Amazing tips all in all, probably gonna use most of these when I run it. Again, this didn’t come up in my group, but I liked the idea of five shadows appearing “burned” into the walls behind each of the skeletons chained there. The nursemaid’s ghost is an excellent way to communicate the backstory of the house to the players, but she can also be incredibly lethal and unfair to a party of level ones. The cultists withdrew to Death House in despair. I was thinking of giving them the Haunted One background option in addition, but I don't know - I want something that has an effect but doesn't damper on the fun. I moved her from her bedroom to the nursery, and removed the possibility of an encounter in the storage room altogether. I was also running it for a group of new players, some of whom really poured time and energy into their backstories, so I wasn’t out to just murder them all and turn them off D&D for life. The mist surrounding the house usually doesn’t dissipate until after the alter event occurs. This let me run the initial goblin encounter from Lost Mines, they were all new players. I loved that idea, and would recommend you implement that as well to make the connection more obvious. How did your sessions in Death House go? The characters should probably have left but the players were interested in seeing it through. But what would the curse be? The whole module is dependent on your PCs understanding that. The Death House Script solves … However, the person who I assumed would hate d&d is actually loving it, surprising all of us. Chapter 6: Argynvostholt. Make sure your description alludes the idea they are simple minded. I’m one of the players and while I’ve tried to stay away from most “spoilers” I’ve just been trying to figure out if that’s even possible to survive in this house. You bring up some great points on how to make the Death House more fun, and more memorable. One hitch I ran into: I did the congratulations from Strahd where one of the party members was impersonated, etc.

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