As the title says, I'm currently running a homebrew sandbox campaign. We've had three sessions so far, and now all six PCs are Level 3. Basically, we agreed to have a campaign with a mix of Dark Souls and Berserk setting. Currently, the town the Party was escorting an elderly trader to is ablaze and swarming with undead and fiends, and no one knows why. I used the Tyranny of Dragons module to borrow the town (Greenest) and the basic idea of the cult attacking it, but rather than gathering treasure, the cult is killing and kidnapping people for sacrifice.
Behind the scenes:
The Party is coming from a keep on the mountain that separates the civilized land and a massive, lawless valley filled with ruins and scattered remains of old wars. Greenest is run by Governor Nighthill, but he was appointed by Lord Chaucer, a wealthy noble who has been spending a lot of time away. Without getting into boring details, Chaucer ordered almost all of the town's forces to occupy the keep on the mountain with a plausible excuse, but this was to leave the town basically defenseless for the cult to enter and unleash demons and undead via a ritual in the town's center.
We have a Cleric who is a Dragonborn worshipper of Bahamut, so the town's temple is well-known for its beautiful shrine dedicated to Bahamut.
That's the gist of things. How can I connect this current adventure to the Curse of Strahd module? I am thinking that the cultists could be performing some ritual that will alter the region, basically causing the actual curse of Curse of Strahd, but in that case we'd be starting way too early in the timeline. Any ideas? I'm perfectly fine with altering or changing things about the module to make it fit. Strahd might not be a vampire at all. I just really like the module.
Maybe Strahd has only existed in his castle in the Demiplane of Dread, but has used the cult as a way to expand his demiplane to include the surrounding land?
Do you want to transition from your current setting to CoS or do you want to somehow merge CoS into your setting?
The book itself contains several ways for transitioning, the easiest one is to have the party become engulfed by fog and when they exit the fog they are in Strahd's demiplane Barovia.
If you want to merge: it sounds like this Lord Chaucer could be a vassal of Strahd, or even Strahd himself.
If I read your description right, he is kinda the bad guy in your setting, so the PCs might want to follow him to a small valley... where they are then trapped by magical fog once they enter.
Do you want to transition from your current setting to CoS or do you want to somehow merge CoS into your setting?
The book itself contains several ways for transitioning, the easiest one is to have the party become engulfed by fog and when they exit the fog they are in Strahd's demiplane Barovia.
If you want to merge: it sounds like this Lord Chaucer could be a vassal of Strahd, or even Strahd himself.
If I read your description right, he is kinda the bad guy in your setting, so the PCs might want to follow him to a small valley... where they are then trapped by magical fog once they enter.
Great idea. I see Lord Chaucer as a vassal of Strahd definitely, and I could say it was Strahd's intention to destroy the town and collect its souls or whatever, as well as desecrating the Temple of Bahamut. Originally, Lord Chaucer wanted no survivors to speak of what happened, so he could say anything happened.
But after learning of the adventuring Party, Strahd thinks it would be more amusing to bring them into his Demiplane and corrupt the Cleric of Bahamut, so he has Lord Chaucer invite them to his castle as honored guests, and on the way they are unknowingly transported to Barovia.
So I'll let them be heroes and save this town, and after the real campaign will begin >:)
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As the title says, I'm currently running a homebrew sandbox campaign. We've had three sessions so far, and now all six PCs are Level 3. Basically, we agreed to have a campaign with a mix of Dark Souls and Berserk setting. Currently, the town the Party was escorting an elderly trader to is ablaze and swarming with undead and fiends, and no one knows why. I used the Tyranny of Dragons module to borrow the town (Greenest) and the basic idea of the cult attacking it, but rather than gathering treasure, the cult is killing and kidnapping people for sacrifice.
Behind the scenes:
The Party is coming from a keep on the mountain that separates the civilized land and a massive, lawless valley filled with ruins and scattered remains of old wars. Greenest is run by Governor Nighthill, but he was appointed by Lord Chaucer, a wealthy noble who has been spending a lot of time away. Without getting into boring details, Chaucer ordered almost all of the town's forces to occupy the keep on the mountain with a plausible excuse, but this was to leave the town basically defenseless for the cult to enter and unleash demons and undead via a ritual in the town's center.
We have a Cleric who is a Dragonborn worshipper of Bahamut, so the town's temple is well-known for its beautiful shrine dedicated to Bahamut.
That's the gist of things. How can I connect this current adventure to the Curse of Strahd module? I am thinking that the cultists could be performing some ritual that will alter the region, basically causing the actual curse of Curse of Strahd, but in that case we'd be starting way too early in the timeline. Any ideas? I'm perfectly fine with altering or changing things about the module to make it fit. Strahd might not be a vampire at all. I just really like the module.
Maybe Strahd has only existed in his castle in the Demiplane of Dread, but has used the cult as a way to expand his demiplane to include the surrounding land?
Do you want to transition from your current setting to CoS or do you want to somehow merge CoS into your setting?
The book itself contains several ways for transitioning, the easiest one is to have the party become engulfed by fog and when they exit the fog they are in Strahd's demiplane Barovia.
If you want to merge: it sounds like this Lord Chaucer could be a vassal of Strahd, or even Strahd himself.
If I read your description right, he is kinda the bad guy in your setting, so the PCs might want to follow him to a small valley... where they are then trapped by magical fog once they enter.
Great idea. I see Lord Chaucer as a vassal of Strahd definitely, and I could say it was Strahd's intention to destroy the town and collect its souls or whatever, as well as desecrating the Temple of Bahamut. Originally, Lord Chaucer wanted no survivors to speak of what happened, so he could say anything happened.
But after learning of the adventuring Party, Strahd thinks it would be more amusing to bring them into his Demiplane and corrupt the Cleric of Bahamut, so he has Lord Chaucer invite them to his castle as honored guests, and on the way they are unknowingly transported to Barovia.
So I'll let them be heroes and save this town, and after the real campaign will begin >:)