I picked up Candlekeep to get a few one-shots ready for rainy days and I started reading the book to see what type of adventures we had here. Then I got to the 3rd adventure. And I think I need help understanding it. Maybe because I’m still a novice DM or something but it seems like it’s missing information from my perspective.
So what is the point of the map? Do we just tell our players “go here” and tell them that they hiked through the map to find a mansion? And add a 1 or 2 encounter to make up for progress in the story?
Where is the entrance? C4? Does that mean that C4 is locked by a wood plank from inside? Or am I reading it wrong? Not sure how the PCs are suppose to make it inside...
So I think the adventure ends with them crossing through the grave, correct? But how are they suppose to even know to do that? Are the wereraven suppose to tell the PC about the crossing? Maybe I skipped it during my first reading that they share that information. Also, it’s weird that the Scarlett Sash are super chill with the PCs just exploring their home base, no?
Maybe I’m the issue here. Anyone ran this and can guide me on how they did it?
Have not read it. But based on what you described it seems like you are too worried about how the players are going to approach the obtacles. Thats their problem, not yours. They'll come up with something. Just play along with it.
Also, you may not want to tell them they've "hiked through thr map". That takes away their agency. You have to give them a reason to make them want to go to the mansion of wherever the adventure is.
If you think something is missing or doesn't make sense, then change it. You are the decider so dont get bogged down by having to stick to the letter of a prewritten adventure. Your players are gonna do something unexpected anyways.
I played this chapter as an intro to Curse of Strahd, having the grave lead them på Barovia.
In my opinion the point of the map was to make them search for the starting location for the journey and to look for the mentioned land marks. In our game we did this quite quickly going from mark to mark and making some fun little notes of how the marks had changed over time (one of the three trees on the hill had fallen down and such). For getting into the house, the door in C4 locked with a bar from the inside is the main entrance, but most of the windows are described as broken so going round the house the players should easily find a broken window to crawl through.
I had to give them some clues with the grave, but i made the wereravens mention something about sometimes having to fill in the grave in the morning and when the players dug up the grave in daylight and nothing happened I made a point of describing the thick fog (which is mentioned on the map) rolling over the graveyard and dipping into the graves during the night and they were able to get through it. My players made friends with the wereravens so one of them helped them quite a bit through the house. (I also did the card reading for cuse of Strahd through the ravens) Might be a bit harder if the players don't wanna be friendly with them.
I'm starting Book of the Raven with my group tomorrow. Haven't looked at it for a couple of weeks but my big impression relevant to the OP:
That Shadowcrossing does seem sort of like a "secret level" that's not tied at all to the main plot of the semi-haunted restoring lost spirts of the Chateau or the Order of the Red Sash. It's like the PCs are in a sort of Abbott and Costello things that go bump into the night research into a family tragedy and then some Wereraven window dressing are like "Ask us about our shadow crossing" and suddenly the characters are in the major set piece to the video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Like if there was more of a connection to the Hag who meddled with the graves or the other daughter. It's like the adventure is entirely role playing and investigation and someone said "needs a bigger battle than that scarecrow" so this is what we have.
The chateau has great atmosphere, developed NPCs etc. and then the Shadowcrossing is just sort "wha? and why? and a magic saddle?" That said, I've developed the Shadowfell graveyard into something that may be useful to my game if the characters go there but I see them more likely hanging out with the Order of the Red Sash and respect their discomfort at the idea of using the Shadowcrossing.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It says that the door can be barred from the inside, but it’s not when the PCs arrive.
I feel like the map is flavor text, but I’m planning to have some survival checks as they look for landmarks.
The end is uncovering the purpose of the map and the wereraven’s goals- at first the party thinks they’re finding treasure, and there are monsters in the house, influenced by the noises the wereravens make. Then they discover that it’s a front for the scarlet sash, and learn what the scarlet sash is. The shadow crossing is another thing, a bonus like Midnight says. The wereravens are supposed to ask, when they reveal themselves, if the party is here for the shadow crossing, or to loot for treasure.
I haven’t run this yet, but I’m planning to- but I’m rewriting the descriptions to change the identity of the former owner instead of playing as is.
The way I've read it. The map is like a treasure map. It's suppose to get the players interested in finding the place. Go looking for it. Be up to you how hard it is for them to find the places mentioned on the map. It's also ment for low level party so not much fighting in it. Again would be up to you to add in some if you feel it needs it. Perhaps there's some wild beasts around the mansion why the wereraven's use it to hide, they can fly away after all.
It's really left open to the DM and for how the players come at it. how you handle it. Minium I would have them do some searching/investigating to find these places.
Side question if no one minds me asking here sense I want to run this too. Any ideas on how to get the book in players hands besides Candlekeep? I was thinking for my game a shop owner offering a "Reward" for saving village and they find book burried on a shelf of his shop (I know my raven loving warlock player would be curious of anything called book of the raven).
The end is uncovering the purpose of the map and the wereraven’s goals- at first the party thinks they’re finding treasure, and there are monsters in the house, influenced by the noises the wereravens make. Then they discover that it’s a front for the scarlet sash, and learn what the scarlet sash is. The shadow crossing is another thing, a bonus like Midnight says. The wereravens are supposed to ask, when they reveal themselves, if the party is here for the shadow crossing, or to loot for treasure.
I haven’t run this yet, but I’m planning to- but I’m rewriting the descriptions to change the identity of the former owner instead of playing as is.
See that's something else that doesn't sit well. The wereravens are pretty much doing their own thing. Its a raven inhabited by the spirit of one of the dead children who's hoping the adventurers will somehow drive them out (but never explicitly communicates that). It just feels like there could do something with the legacy of the prior occupants and its troubles than "boom gargoyles/ghouls and wights oh my!" If kinda feels like a literal wrong turn.
Side question if no one minds me asking here sense I want to run this too. Any ideas on how to get the book in players hands besides Candlekeep? I was thinking for my game a shop owner offering a "Reward" for saving village and they find book burried on a shelf of his shop (I know my raven loving warlock player would be curious of anything called book of the raven).
I think the intro suggests them finding the book with a raven (the spirit of one of the children) messing around with it. I'm skipping the book actually. My group has a patron of sorts who's testing out their resourcefulness. They return to their rooms one night and find a few items, a live raven with a note fastened to its leg and a note from said patron basically asking them to get rid of the items closing with "This raven's pretty cool, huh?" Characters find the map attached to the raven make the presumption that this is where the patron wants to stash the items and since the patron is a bit scattered brain this whole set up sort of reeks of her.
They arrive at the chateau eventually encounter the Crimson Sash, turns out the items are just the sort the Crimson Stash likes disposing of so gladly take the items off their hands. Whatever other mysteries are uncovered and maybe a ridiculous graveyard battle from out of nowhere.
When they meet up with their patron again they'll probably tell then all about the quest to find the chateau etc. turns out the patron has no idea what they're talking about and was wondering why they've been gone so long. When she hears about the map, she says "Map? I didn't give anyone a map. I just figured you'd use your own contacts to get rid of those things. The map was on the raven? I didn't know that. I thought it was your raven. Well, a raven with a map is probably cooler than a raven without a map so I guess I was right on that part of the note." Which is actually how a lot of things play out with this patron.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I just read through this last night, and this adventure is a mess. The players have no real motivation to do anything, the lore is not relevant to the story, and there are important things (like the fact that the raven has the spirit of the departed daughter in it) that there is no way the party will ever figure out.
After searching through any suggestions I could find for redeeming this thing online, I found this video that has some really good ideas on how to make it actually work:
After searching through any suggestions I could find for redeeming this thing online, I found this video that has some really good ideas on how to make it actually work:
Thanks for the link. "Book of the Raven" has a bunch of great ideas but they don't come together as written. Geek Pantheon does a good job taking all the elements and putting them into a working order.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I just read through this last night, and this adventure is a mess. The players have no real motivation to do anything, the lore is not relevant to the story, and there are important things (like the fact that the raven has the spirit of the departed daughter in it) that there is no way the party will ever figure out.
After searching through any suggestions I could find for redeeming this thing online, I found this video that has some really good ideas on how to make it actually work:
In the campaing I'm running the players are hunting down magical items for mage guild to keep them safe. So do the wereravens. Also have a warlock of the raven queen so them running into the wereravens is a pretty good match. And getting them to go there with a raven and a book fits. but I'm down to check this out. Felt this needed a bit more filler on what to do besides metting the ravens.
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Good day fellow DM’s.
I picked up Candlekeep to get a few one-shots ready for rainy days and I started reading the book to see what type of adventures we had here.
Then I got to the 3rd adventure. And I think I need help understanding it. Maybe because I’m still a novice DM or something but it seems like it’s missing information from my perspective.
So what is the point of the map? Do we just tell our players “go here” and tell them that they hiked through the map to find a mansion? And add a 1 or 2 encounter to make up for progress in the story?
Where is the entrance? C4? Does that mean that C4 is locked by a wood plank from inside? Or am I reading it wrong? Not sure how the PCs are suppose to make it inside...
So I think the adventure ends with them crossing through the grave, correct? But how are they suppose to even know to do that? Are the wereraven suppose to tell the PC about the crossing? Maybe I skipped it during my first reading that they share that information.
Also, it’s weird that the Scarlett Sash are super chill with the PCs just exploring their home base, no?
Maybe I’m the issue here. Anyone ran this and can guide me on how they did it?
Thanks people! And stay awesome!
Have not read it. But based on what you described it seems like you are too worried about how the players are going to approach the obtacles. Thats their problem, not yours. They'll come up with something. Just play along with it.
Also, you may not want to tell them they've "hiked through thr map". That takes away their agency. You have to give them a reason to make them want to go to the mansion of wherever the adventure is.
If you think something is missing or doesn't make sense, then change it. You are the decider so dont get bogged down by having to stick to the letter of a prewritten adventure. Your players are gonna do something unexpected anyways.
I played this chapter as an intro to Curse of Strahd, having the grave lead them på Barovia.
In my opinion the point of the map was to make them search for the starting location for the journey and to look for the mentioned land marks. In our game we did this quite quickly going from mark to mark and making some fun little notes of how the marks had changed over time (one of the three trees on the hill had fallen down and such). For getting into the house, the door in C4 locked with a bar from the inside is the main entrance, but most of the windows are described as broken so going round the house the players should easily find a broken window to crawl through.
I had to give them some clues with the grave, but i made the wereravens mention something about sometimes having to fill in the grave in the morning and when the players dug up the grave in daylight and nothing happened I made a point of describing the thick fog (which is mentioned on the map) rolling over the graveyard and dipping into the graves during the night and they were able to get through it. My players made friends with the wereravens so one of them helped them quite a bit through the house. (I also did the card reading for cuse of Strahd through the ravens) Might be a bit harder if the players don't wanna be friendly with them.
Hope this was useful at all.
I'm starting Book of the Raven with my group tomorrow. Haven't looked at it for a couple of weeks but my big impression relevant to the OP:
That Shadowcrossing does seem sort of like a "secret level" that's not tied at all to the main plot of the semi-haunted restoring lost spirts of the Chateau or the Order of the Red Sash. It's like the PCs are in a sort of Abbott and Costello things that go bump into the night research into a family tragedy and then some Wereraven window dressing are like "Ask us about our shadow crossing" and suddenly the characters are in the major set piece to the video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Like if there was more of a connection to the Hag who meddled with the graves or the other daughter. It's like the adventure is entirely role playing and investigation and someone said "needs a bigger battle than that scarecrow" so this is what we have.
The chateau has great atmosphere, developed NPCs etc. and then the Shadowcrossing is just sort "wha? and why? and a magic saddle?" That said, I've developed the Shadowfell graveyard into something that may be useful to my game if the characters go there but I see them more likely hanging out with the Order of the Red Sash and respect their discomfort at the idea of using the Shadowcrossing.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It says that the door can be barred from the inside, but it’s not when the PCs arrive.
I feel like the map is flavor text, but I’m planning to have some survival checks as they look for landmarks.
The end is uncovering the purpose of the map and the wereraven’s goals- at first the party thinks they’re finding treasure, and there are monsters in the house, influenced by the noises the wereravens make. Then they discover that it’s a front for the scarlet sash, and learn what the scarlet sash is. The shadow crossing is another thing, a bonus like Midnight says. The wereravens are supposed to ask, when they reveal themselves, if the party is here for the shadow crossing, or to loot for treasure.
I haven’t run this yet, but I’m planning to- but I’m rewriting the descriptions to change the identity of the former owner instead of playing as is.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
The way I've read it. The map is like a treasure map. It's suppose to get the players interested in finding the place. Go looking for it. Be up to you how hard it is for them to find the places mentioned on the map. It's also ment for low level party so not much fighting in it. Again would be up to you to add in some if you feel it needs it. Perhaps there's some wild beasts around the mansion why the wereraven's use it to hide, they can fly away after all.
It's really left open to the DM and for how the players come at it. how you handle it. Minium I would have them do some searching/investigating to find these places.
Side question if no one minds me asking here sense I want to run this too. Any ideas on how to get the book in players hands besides Candlekeep? I was thinking for my game a shop owner offering a "Reward" for saving village and they find book burried on a shelf of his shop (I know my raven loving warlock player would be curious of anything called book of the raven).
See that's something else that doesn't sit well. The wereravens are pretty much doing their own thing. Its a raven inhabited by the spirit of one of the dead children who's hoping the adventurers will somehow drive them out (but never explicitly communicates that). It just feels like there could do something with the legacy of the prior occupants and its troubles than "boom gargoyles/ghouls and wights oh my!" If kinda feels like a literal wrong turn.
I think the intro suggests them finding the book with a raven (the spirit of one of the children) messing around with it. I'm skipping the book actually. My group has a patron of sorts who's testing out their resourcefulness. They return to their rooms one night and find a few items, a live raven with a note fastened to its leg and a note from said patron basically asking them to get rid of the items closing with "This raven's pretty cool, huh?" Characters find the map attached to the raven make the presumption that this is where the patron wants to stash the items and since the patron is a bit scattered brain this whole set up sort of reeks of her.
They arrive at the chateau eventually encounter the Crimson Sash, turns out the items are just the sort the Crimson Stash likes disposing of so gladly take the items off their hands. Whatever other mysteries are uncovered and maybe a ridiculous graveyard battle from out of nowhere.
When they meet up with their patron again they'll probably tell then all about the quest to find the chateau etc. turns out the patron has no idea what they're talking about and was wondering why they've been gone so long. When she hears about the map, she says "Map? I didn't give anyone a map. I just figured you'd use your own contacts to get rid of those things. The map was on the raven? I didn't know that. I thought it was your raven. Well, a raven with a map is probably cooler than a raven without a map so I guess I was right on that part of the note." Which is actually how a lot of things play out with this patron.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I just read through this last night, and this adventure is a mess. The players have no real motivation to do anything, the lore is not relevant to the story, and there are important things (like the fact that the raven has the spirit of the departed daughter in it) that there is no way the party will ever figure out.
After searching through any suggestions I could find for redeeming this thing online, I found this video that has some really good ideas on how to make it actually work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvzp2g_VNsU&t=130s
Good luck!
Thanks for the link. "Book of the Raven" has a bunch of great ideas but they don't come together as written. Geek Pantheon does a good job taking all the elements and putting them into a working order.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
In the campaing I'm running the players are hunting down magical items for mage guild to keep them safe. So do the wereravens. Also have a warlock of the raven queen so them running into the wereravens is a pretty good match. And getting them to go there with a raven and a book fits. but I'm down to check this out. Felt this needed a bit more filler on what to do besides metting the ravens.