He explained that while the stakes could no longer be "charged" that he himself would be able to perform the arcane operations to activate them, and he volunteered to join with the party and help in the fight against the hags. During his time in the tower, he had scrapped some of the old magical equipment in order to fashion a few useful items. He was not a traveling bard, rather he was a monster hunter named Rudolph Van Richten who came to Barovia months ago to defeat Strahd, the greatest vampire of them all. Rictavio fought surprisingly well, and after the battle revealed his secret. Strahd's past the point of just messing with them now.The group battled the werewolves charging Khazan's tower and overcame them, though several party members had been bitten by the cursed beasts. They got it, but stealing from him while under the banner of hospitality pissed Strahd off, and his civilized pretenses went out the window.My guys got the invitation too, but that was before they found the Symbol and the Tome and killed the Baba Lysaga.
The party decided the dinner invitation was a perfect opportunity to sneak into the castle and retrieve the sword, so while the paladin and other not-so-subtle party members kept Strahd busy at dinner, the rogue and warlock snuck in invisibly alongside them and went off to look for the sunsword. The dinner invitation arrived early, and it was addressed specifically to the paladin and "his guests". So Strahd's attention was drawn early, but only to one party member. And the way the adventure played out Strahs's attention was entirely focused on one character in particular, a conquest paladin who was not at all subtle about his intention to seize Strahd's throne, and he had been doing things like making big sweeping speeches in the town to rally them to his claim. My party figured out early on that the sunsword was in the castle. Alternatively, if they reach Strahd in well enough condition, let them show him just how big a mistake it was to trap them here in Barovia. Make the castle grind them up a bit before fighting them. I know he's been big and scary for most of the campaign, but I can't help but feel that he's a huge pushover if the players make it to him in relatively good shape. Some of the encounters make no sense for where they might be found (my party encountered a group of Vistani Thugs inside of Strahd's incredibly secret treasure vault) and if your players are careful enough to avoid most of the traps they might not run into enough trouble for Strahd to put up enough of a fight. I would recommend being very particular about random encounters. If you've played him crafty up to this point, there's no reason for him to not be actively watching them via scrying.Īgain to offshoot with how limited my scope was on how truly difficult the adventure is supposed to be, by the time my players reached Castle Ravenloft it was more akin to storming the castle and less about making it to Strahd in enough collective pieces to put up a fight. I would imagine he would be incredibly paranoid of the players at the point of the campaign you're at.
#Curse of strahd castle ravenloft windows#
The windows can be smashed easily and entry can be gained this way.įalling during your climb is certain death, between 900-1000 feet depending on where you fall.Īs for whether this is sneaky, it's up to you to decide how paranoid Strahd is about this sort of entry. This is actually the tomb of the King and Queen, Strahd's parents. The only way down is to climb, however, if you do climb down successfully you can easily clear the windows to reveal a dusty tomb.
With a passive wisdom score of 15 or higher, a character can peer over the balcony along the walls of Castle Ravenloft and spot a stone construction jutting out of the mountainside, sporting dirty opaque windows.