In the CoS module, the Abbot mentions that he expects Strahd to come and receive the bride he built. Given that until now the interaction the party has had with Strahd have been few and far between, I would like to come up with a Special Event where Strahd does come to visit the Abbey of St. Markovia to toy with the Abbot more and perhaps the party as well. The "Something Blue" special event occurred, so he knows the party is currently at Krezk.
My questions are as follows
1) Has anyone ever tried to include an interaction with Strahd at Krezk ? How did you have it occur? I have some ideas right now but I am unsure how many of them make sense and am looking for inspiration.
2) Has anyone had an interaction outside of Castle Ravenloft with a high level party? How did you handle it to ensure Strahd could safely escape back to Ravenloft without being pursued? One of my party memebers has the Spell Sniper feat, so I worry that even if he shapechanges and flies away they may continue to take shots at him from far away.
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1) I haven't. But off the top of my head, Strahd would want to avoid an actual fight with the Abbot, especially if formidable PCs were around. The Abbot's radiant damage would interfere with his regeneration, and make the whole thing too much of a crapshoot. Also, something that has always run through my mind is that the Abbot's intrinsic spell casting includes commune, which presumably a deva uses regularly to check in with home office. And, in Raveloft, such spells all get switched through Strahd himself. So, he's essentially been the little voice whispering in the Abbot's ear and leading him down the dark path he's been walking since the very beginning. There were surprisingly few movies where Dracula actually met Frankenstein, so there's no easy thing to rip off. I'll think about it.
2). If the players are tough enough to do real damage, he'd probably start trying to split them up and kill them one on one. As far as Spell Sniper, my first thought is that if Strahd escapes as one bat in a cloud of bats, you can spell snipe all you want, you hit 4 or 5 ordinary bats instead before he's out of range.
Thinking about it for just a moment, iirc, you were looking for something to do with Ireena. Krezk is actually kind of the final square for Ireena. If you can get her to the shrine and your players don't mess up the Sergei thing, you can kill two birds with one stone. Not only is Ireena out of your hair, but Strahd has every reason to come to Krezk and take a shot at the characters. If they're ready for a final fight, it could even happen there! The Abbot isn't meant to be a redeemable character, but getting two monsters to fight is classic Universal horror movie.
ETA: Oh, nvm, you just said it had happened. Carry on.
Yeah. The party considered the reflection of Sergei to be a threat and prevented Ireena from joining him before Strahd destroyed the pool.
I see your point regarding the Abbot fighting Strahd. I hadn't considered that happening since Strahd had twisted the Abbot to his will up until now. While I don't consider the Abbot to be under Strahd's control, I do consider him to be strongly influenced by him, trying whatever he can to please to Strahd with the bride and to free Barovia with a twisted sense of good.
Here was my idea at this point:
Strahd travels to Krezk under the guise of Vasili von Holtz. He brings with him a few vampire spawn hidden in plate armor to act as Vasili's guards (the plate armor also makes the vampire spawn more difficult to deal with). He visits the Abbot (who already knows Vasili is Strahd due to their history), and The Abbot presents him the bride he has prepared. Strahd feigns interest in the bride, and if the party is not there takes her back to Castle Ravenloft where he dismembers her and scatters her body across the castle for the party to encounter later.
If the party is there and are witnessing the presentation of the bride, Strahd (as Vasili) says something along the lines of "The bride you have prepared for me is nearly perfect, my dear Abbot. She is missing just one crucial part. Blood" At which point he sheds his disguise and begins to attack the party with the vampire spawn, targeting Ireena if she is with them. (He does not attack the bride out of fear that it may incur the Abbot's rage). The Abbot is seemingly convinced that extracting blood could help make the bride pleasing to Strahd (he has had the mongrelfolk robbing graves up until now anyway). While he will not attack the party, he will not stop Strahd from doing as he pleases with them.
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Bear in mind that Strahd has Stealth +14 and would probably be using Nondetection if he's coming in disguise. Also, he can use his legendary actions to move so he's very fast.
Strahd travels to Krezk under the guise of Vasili von Holtz. He brings with him a few vampire spawn hidden in plate armor to act as Vasili's guards (the plate armor also makes the vampire spawn more difficult to deal with). He visits the Abbot (who already knows Vasili is Strahd due to their history), and The Abbot presents him the bride he has prepared. Strahd feigns interest in the bride, and if the party is not there takes her back to Castle Ravenloft where he dismembers her and scatters her body across the castle for the party to encounter later.
If the party is there and are witnessing the presentation of the bride, Strahd (as Vasili) says something along the lines of "The bride you have prepared for me is nearly perfect, my dear Abbot. She is missing just one crucial part. Blood" At which point he sheds his disguise and begins to attack the party with the vampire spawn, targeting Ireena if she is with them. (He does not attack the bride out of fear that it may incur the Abbot's rage). The Abbot is seemingly convinced that extracting blood could help make the bride pleasing to Strahd (he has had the mongrelfolk robbing graves up until now anyway). While he will not attack the party, he will not stop Strahd from doing as he pleases with them.
That's a solid fight scene. Let's see if we can come up with a horror scene. Let's just get the party, the Bride, and the Abbot in the main hall, under whatever pretext. If the players don't want to meet Strahd, the Abbot has invited them to dinner to give Vasilka some practice hostessing a party. He's also invited some dignitaries from town and his friend Vasili von Holtz. Dmitri and Anna Krezkov feel obligated to attend the party, even in the accursed Abbey, after the Abbot raised Ilya from the dead. They'll vouch for Holtz as a nobleman whom they think lives in Vallaki, though business brings him to Krezk from time to time.
Now let's say that Strahd, using greater invisibility and nondetection, has been skulking around the Abbey unlocking the cages of the mongrelfolk (ALL 150+ MONGRELFOLK!!!) and charming them into turning against the Abbot.
It's party time.
Basically, I'm seeing a combination of the end of Don Giovanni and the end of Re-Animator, with a dollop of Freaks thrown in. There's a sumptuous banquet set. Probably more opulent than anything the PCs have seen their entire time in Barovia. Maybe the Abbot burned up the scroll of heroes' feast that was in the wine cellar. At one end of the table is the Abbot, beaming with pride, and quietly looking for approval from his friend "Vasili." At the other is this poor, misguided Frankenstein, Vasilka the flesh golem. She starts off alright, but Anna Krezkov's well-intentioned questions are flustering her, especially, since she can't speak.. Anna wants to know about her family, maybe. Vasilka has such an uncanny resemblance to poor Zoya the milkmaid, who died two years ago. At the sound of that name, an eerie spark of recognition comes into the Bride's eyes. She looks down at the hands she doesn't recognize any longer and starts grunting like an animal and tearing the sleeves off her dress, revealing the stitch marks on her wrists and elbows. Anna starts screaming hysterically. Dmitri starts yelling about witchcraft. Vasili is the most righteously outraged of all, telling the Abbot that he has followed a path of black magic and sin and must repent or dread eternal vengeance! The Abbot is trying to juggle a bunch of things at once, telling everyone to get out and processing Vasili's words, all while restraining the struggling Bride, who is letting out a blood-curdling shriek of understanding. If any of the players have been harboring ambiguous feelings about the Abbot and his operation, maybe they start venting on him too. Maybe Vasili even had a chance to charm one of them into doing so. The Abbot is defiant. He has nothing to repent. Vasili shouts "This is your final hour! Your sins have found you out at last, monster!" And that's when the mongrelfolk start pouring in. Every despicable freak, every human centipede, every ill-advised cross-species transplant the Abbot has spliced together, all at once.
The Abbot moves to protect the Bride. He displays his true angelic visage to try to restore order. Anna falls on the floor in a dead faint. The mongrels don't care. They fling themselves on the Abbot tooth and nail, in a blind fury. There are too many for even a deva to fight. Within five or six rounds, they drag him down and start tearing chunks off him, all fighting each other in a nightmarish melee for a scrap of angel they can sew onto themselves. I imagine a berserk Bride fighting her way clear and smashing out a window into the darkness, to reappear later, but she could just as easily die here. The party, Ireena, and the Krezkovs, are a fresh supply of spare parts, so the mob goes after them too, clicking their lobster claws and scuttling along the walls. If they run and any of the PCs get caught, or if they fight and any of the PCs go down in the fight, they wake up an indeterminate time later, having been sewn into patchwork mongrelfolk themselves.
If they fight, that nice Vasili guy offers to lead Ireena and the Krezkovs to safety. If they take him up on that, you can run the brawl with a clear conscience because your next chapter is all taken care of. If there are one or two characters who insist on staying with Ireena, this gives Strahd a chance to gank one of them. If everyone runs, he tries to snag her in the confusion. However it happens, if he gets the chance, he snatches Ireena, jumps on his nightmare Beaucephalus, out of range of even spell snipers, waits for any survivors to exit the Abbey, mocks them ("I hope you enjoyed the party! And never fear! That deluded fool promised you a wedding, and a wedding there shall be!"), and rides back to the castle with his prize.
Come up with a few Cryptkeeper puns for the wrap-up and you have a horror game there.
That is a very well put together idea. I may look to it for inspiration. That being said, I think that I want the encounter to take place at a wedding ceremony. Since the other special events of Krezk are all titled around preparing the bride, I figured a wedding would be a good way to end the chapter. I admit that what I wrote up works better as a fight scene rather than a horror scene, which the event you proposed seems to capture masterfully. Im going to include what I have written up so far at the bottom if you are interested.
Some ideas from your event may work well in my situation as well. For one thing, I was thinking of having the Burgomaster and his wife attend the ceremony but decided against it. You have convinced me that their presence could be more beneficial to roleplay. I do also like the idea of Strahd using the mongrelfolk as a way to rid himself of the Abbot and make an escape with Ireena, but charming all of the mongrelfolk to act at his command would be a time consuming process, even for Strahd. Not to mention, the hall of the madhouse is patrolled by another flesh golem which cannot be charmed. If Vasili (Strahd) is gone for too long, the party is bound to get suspicious. It could maybe be made to work if as part of the setup Strahd has been sneaking to the madhouse to charm some of the mongrelfolk over the course of a few days by making use of the teleportation destination at the Abbey and charming Clovin to keep his presence a secret as well as "distract" the flesh golem while he does his work.
Overall, I do appreciate the perspective on this interaction and will think on these ideas in relation to my own encounter.
Here Comes the Bride
This event occurs if the party delivered the dress to the Abbot in the Something Borrowed event or if a bridal gown was obtained by the Abbot from another source.
The Abbot sends Marzena Belview (or another Mongrelfolk with the Extraordinary Feature of Flight) to deliver a letter addressed to Lord Vasili von Holtz, one of the aliases of Strahd. If the party inquires about the letter, the Abbot says that Valsika is to be married and that the letter is to her betrothed. The Abbot stresses that the wedding is to be a momentous occasion which will bring joy to the whole land of Barovia. If pressed about the name of the groom, the Abbot gives the alias but keeps his background vague. The Abbot invites the party to attend the wedding, which will be held in a few days in the courtyard of the abbey.
If the party chooses to attend the wedding, read:
-The cool morning mist chills you to the bone. A simple, white carpet runs the doors of the main hall to the center of the courtyard where a simple alter has been made using a stone slab covering the well. Two lit candles flicker in the wind. The doors to the main hall opens, and from the threshold comes Vasilka, wearing a fine dress and with her face obscured by a veil, accompanied by the Abbot-
The Abbot does not have the bells played, as he does not want to hear the mongrelfolk. Instead, he hums or chants a wedding song as he and Vasilka walk to the alter. The party will see that Clovin, Otto, and Zygfreak are dressed in dirty, but nice clothing, but that there are no other guests in attendance. If the party inspects the chicken sheds, they will find that no mongrelfolk are inside. The Abbot has moved them into the madhouse for the ceremony. Shortly after Vasilka gets to the alter, a knock is heard at the entrance and the Abbot walks over to the doors. Read:
-The entrance is opened by the Abbot with the aid of Otto. A young man with chestnut hair and a well groomed beard and dressed in fine clothed stands in the entrance, with two guards to his front and two guards behind dressed in polished plate armor and carrying greatswords on their backs. The Abbot raises his hands and says "Welcome once again to the Abbey of St. Markovia, lord Vasili von Holtz. On this blessed morning I shall present to you your bride" -
As Vasili approaches Vasilka, two of his guards will move before him, ordering anyone besides the Abbot to step back. After he arrives at the alter, his guards will stand around placing themselves between the guests and those at the alter. After some inspection, Vasili will begin to admonish Vasilka for her beauty and praise the Abbot for the work he has put into raising her. The Abbot, please with this praise, with take the time to show Vasili, along with the guests how he has taught her to dance, ordering Clovin to play something on his viol. A player who makes a DC 18 Insight check can tell that Vasili's words are not genuine. If Ireena is with the party, a player with a passive Perception of 15 or higher will notice Vasili occasionally glancing her way during the dance.
Once the performance has concluded, Vasili will clap his hands and approach Vasilka. Then read:
-The man begins to circle Vasilka, with eyes inspecting every aspect of her. Putting his hand on her shoulder he says: "Abbot, you have truly outdone yourself with her. There is just one thing she is missing..." He leans in close to her neck, his eyes fixed on you as he says "...Blood" -
After saying this, Vasili sheds his disguise and orders his guards to attack the party. Anyone within 5ft of one of the guards provokes an attack of opportunity from it.
Vasili is secretly Strahd, who has used a hat of disguise to change his features to that of a young, handsome man. Strahd has also cast Nondetection on himself to hide his true nature from divination magic and only has two third level spell slots remaining today. The four guards which accompany Vasili are actually four of his vampire spawn made from adventurers who tried to storm his castle. The plate armor acts to hide their undead features from anyone not looking too closely. A creature who makes a DC 16 Perception check while looking closely within 5 ft of one of the guards can discern fangs protruding from its mouth. Use the Vampire Spawn stat block from the Monster Manual with the following changes: The spawn's AC is 18 from the plate armor, the spawn carries a greatsword, which can be used to make two attacks in the multiattack action, with a +6 to hit dealing 2d6+3 slashing damage on a hit. The vampire spawn cannot use their Bite or Claws action without using an action to remove their helmet or gauntlets, respectively. Removing each piece of armor reduces the vampire spawn's AC by 1.
The Abbot does not see that this is all a ploy for Strahd to toy with the party and is convinced that he made a mistake in not making Vasilka to have blood. Distracted by this notion and wishing to aid Strahd in finding peace through his bride, the Abbot does not stop him from attacking the party. The Abbot only fights if he or Vasilka are threatened or attacked. Strahd knows this and will not willingly attack Vasilka or the Abbot. If the Abbot resorts to showing his true form, Strahd will seek to escape and return to Castle Ravenloft using his shapechanger feature or greater invisibility spell.
Developments:
If the party does not choose to attend the ceremony, Vasili goes through with the ceremony and returns to Castle Ravenloft with Vasilka where he dismembers her and spreads her body parts across the castle. When you roll for random encounters in Castle Ravenloft, if the encounter is determined to be crawling claws or a trinket, you may choose to replace one of the claws with Vasilka's hands or the trinket with a randomly determined body part which seems to squirm on the floor.
Once again, Strahd aims to toy with the party and does not seek to kill them outright. If the party does not kill his guards, he has given them orders to attack Krezk after they have left the abbey. If Ireena is with the party, Strahd focuses on trying to abduct her while the party is busy with his guards. Strahd has brought a normal wagon drawn by two draft horses and will attempt to use this to flee with Ireena if he succeeds in Charming or Incapacitating her. Unless killed, Strahd ultimately returns to Castle Ravenloft without Vasilka.
If any players die in this encounter and the Abbot has previously promised to cast raise dead on their behalf, he will still honor that agreement so long as the party did not attack him or Vasilka.
Treasure: If Strahd returns to Castle Ravenloft using his shapechanger feature, he leaves behind his hat of disguise at the altar.
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Strahd travels to Krezk under the guise of Vasili von Holtz. He brings with him a few vampire spawn hidden in plate armor to act as Vasili's guards (the plate armor also makes the vampire spawn more difficult to deal with). He visits the Abbot (who already knows Vasili is Strahd due to their history), and The Abbot presents him the bride he has prepared. Strahd feigns interest in the bride, and if the party is not there takes her back to Castle Ravenloft where he dismembers her and scatters her body across the castle for the party to encounter later.
If the party is there and are witnessing the presentation of the bride, Strahd (as Vasili) says something along the lines of "The bride you have prepared for me is nearly perfect, my dear Abbot. She is missing just one crucial part. Blood" At which point he sheds his disguise and begins to attack the party with the vampire spawn, targeting Ireena if she is with them. (He does not attack the bride out of fear that it may incur the Abbot's rage). The Abbot is seemingly convinced that extracting blood could help make the bride pleasing to Strahd (he has had the mongrelfolk robbing graves up until now anyway). While he will not attack the party, he will not stop Strahd from doing as he pleases with them.
That's a solid fight scene. Let's see if we can come up with a horror scene. Let's just get the party, the Bride, and the Abbot in the main hall, under whatever pretext. If the players don't want to meet Strahd, the Abbot has invited them to dinner to give Vasilka some practice hostessing a party. He's also invited some dignitaries from town and his friend Vasili von Holtz. Dmitri and Anna Krezkov feel obligated to attend the party, even in the accursed Abbey, after the Abbot raised Ilya from the dead. They'll vouch for Holtz as a nobleman whom they think lives in Vallaki, though business brings him to Krezk from time to time.
Now let's say that Strahd, using greater invisibility and nondetection, has been skulking around the Abbey unlocking the cages of the mongrelfolk (ALL 150+ MONGRELFOLK!!!) and charming them into turning against the Abbot.
It's party time.
Basically, I'm seeing a combination of the end of Don Giovanni and the end of Re-Animator, with a dollop of Freaks thrown in. There's a sumptuous banquet set.
That’s a really good way to do this but I personally see some problems. Since party has been into the Abbey before they probably know that Vasilka is a flesh golem. That will be no surprise to them when Anna Krezkova will find out this. And the second. Cos has 1 dining with Strahd and now one with Abbot (Im not sure but I think you also have a dinner with lady Wachter). So it is a total of two (maybe three) dinners in the module with makes the main dinner less interesting i guess.
In the CoS module, the Abbot mentions that he expects Strahd to come and receive the bride he built. Given that until now the interaction the party has had with Strahd have been few and far between, I would like to come up with a Special Event where Strahd does come to visit the Abbey of St. Markovia to toy with the Abbot more and perhaps the party as well. The "Something Blue" special event occurred, so he knows the party is currently at Krezk.
My questions are as follows
1) Has anyone ever tried to include an interaction with Strahd at Krezk ? How did you have it occur? I have some ideas right now but I am unsure how many of them make sense and am looking for inspiration.
2) Has anyone had an interaction outside of Castle Ravenloft with a high level party? How did you handle it to ensure Strahd could safely escape back to Ravenloft without being pursued? One of my party memebers has the Spell Sniper feat, so I worry that even if he shapechanges and flies away they may continue to take shots at him from far away.
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1) I haven't. But off the top of my head, Strahd would want to avoid an actual fight with the Abbot, especially if formidable PCs were around. The Abbot's radiant damage would interfere with his regeneration, and make the whole thing too much of a crapshoot. Also, something that has always run through my mind is that the Abbot's intrinsic spell casting includes commune, which presumably a deva uses regularly to check in with home office. And, in Raveloft, such spells all get switched through Strahd himself. So, he's essentially been the little voice whispering in the Abbot's ear and leading him down the dark path he's been walking since the very beginning. There were surprisingly few movies where Dracula actually met Frankenstein, so there's no easy thing to rip off. I'll think about it.
2). If the players are tough enough to do real damage, he'd probably start trying to split them up and kill them one on one. As far as Spell Sniper, my first thought is that if Strahd escapes as one bat in a cloud of bats, you can spell snipe all you want, you hit 4 or 5 ordinary bats instead before he's out of range.
Thinking about it for just a moment, iirc, you were looking for something to do with Ireena. Krezk is actually kind of the final square for Ireena. If you can get her to the shrine and your players don't mess up the Sergei thing, you can kill two birds with one stone. Not only is Ireena out of your hair, but Strahd has every reason to come to Krezk and take a shot at the characters. If they're ready for a final fight, it could even happen there! The Abbot isn't meant to be a redeemable character, but getting two monsters to fight is classic Universal horror movie.
ETA: Oh, nvm, you just said it had happened. Carry on.
Yeah. The party considered the reflection of Sergei to be a threat and prevented Ireena from joining him before Strahd destroyed the pool.
I see your point regarding the Abbot fighting Strahd. I hadn't considered that happening since Strahd had twisted the Abbot to his will up until now. While I don't consider the Abbot to be under Strahd's control, I do consider him to be strongly influenced by him, trying whatever he can to please to Strahd with the bride and to free Barovia with a twisted sense of good.
Here was my idea at this point:
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Bear in mind that Strahd has Stealth +14 and would probably be using Nondetection if he's coming in disguise. Also, he can use his legendary actions to move so he's very fast.
All very good points. Thank you
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That's a solid fight scene. Let's see if we can come up with a horror scene. Let's just get the party, the Bride, and the Abbot in the main hall, under whatever pretext. If the players don't want to meet Strahd, the Abbot has invited them to dinner to give Vasilka some practice hostessing a party. He's also invited some dignitaries from town and his friend Vasili von Holtz. Dmitri and Anna Krezkov feel obligated to attend the party, even in the accursed Abbey, after the Abbot raised Ilya from the dead. They'll vouch for Holtz as a nobleman whom they think lives in Vallaki, though business brings him to Krezk from time to time.
Now let's say that Strahd, using greater invisibility and nondetection, has been skulking around the Abbey unlocking the cages of the mongrelfolk (ALL 150+ MONGRELFOLK!!!) and charming them into turning against the Abbot.
It's party time.
Basically, I'm seeing a combination of the end of Don Giovanni and the end of Re-Animator, with a dollop of Freaks thrown in. There's a sumptuous banquet set. Probably more opulent than anything the PCs have seen their entire time in Barovia. Maybe the Abbot burned up the scroll of heroes' feast that was in the wine cellar. At one end of the table is the Abbot, beaming with pride, and quietly looking for approval from his friend "Vasili." At the other is this poor, misguided Frankenstein, Vasilka the flesh golem. She starts off alright, but Anna Krezkov's well-intentioned questions are flustering her, especially, since she can't speak.. Anna wants to know about her family, maybe. Vasilka has such an uncanny resemblance to poor Zoya the milkmaid, who died two years ago. At the sound of that name, an eerie spark of recognition comes into the Bride's eyes. She looks down at the hands she doesn't recognize any longer and starts grunting like an animal and tearing the sleeves off her dress, revealing the stitch marks on her wrists and elbows. Anna starts screaming hysterically. Dmitri starts yelling about witchcraft. Vasili is the most righteously outraged of all, telling the Abbot that he has followed a path of black magic and sin and must repent or dread eternal vengeance! The Abbot is trying to juggle a bunch of things at once, telling everyone to get out and processing Vasili's words, all while restraining the struggling Bride, who is letting out a blood-curdling shriek of understanding. If any of the players have been harboring ambiguous feelings about the Abbot and his operation, maybe they start venting on him too. Maybe Vasili even had a chance to charm one of them into doing so. The Abbot is defiant. He has nothing to repent. Vasili shouts "This is your final hour! Your sins have found you out at last, monster!" And that's when the mongrelfolk start pouring in. Every despicable freak, every human centipede, every ill-advised cross-species transplant the Abbot has spliced together, all at once.
The Abbot moves to protect the Bride. He displays his true angelic visage to try to restore order. Anna falls on the floor in a dead faint. The mongrels don't care. They fling themselves on the Abbot tooth and nail, in a blind fury. There are too many for even a deva to fight. Within five or six rounds, they drag him down and start tearing chunks off him, all fighting each other in a nightmarish melee for a scrap of angel they can sew onto themselves. I imagine a berserk Bride fighting her way clear and smashing out a window into the darkness, to reappear later, but she could just as easily die here. The party, Ireena, and the Krezkovs, are a fresh supply of spare parts, so the mob goes after them too, clicking their lobster claws and scuttling along the walls. If they run and any of the PCs get caught, or if they fight and any of the PCs go down in the fight, they wake up an indeterminate time later, having been sewn into patchwork mongrelfolk themselves.
If they fight, that nice Vasili guy offers to lead Ireena and the Krezkovs to safety. If they take him up on that, you can run the brawl with a clear conscience because your next chapter is all taken care of. If there are one or two characters who insist on staying with Ireena, this gives Strahd a chance to gank one of them. If everyone runs, he tries to snag her in the confusion. However it happens, if he gets the chance, he snatches Ireena, jumps on his nightmare Beaucephalus, out of range of even spell snipers, waits for any survivors to exit the Abbey, mocks them ("I hope you enjoyed the party! And never fear! That deluded fool promised you a wedding, and a wedding there shall be!"), and rides back to the castle with his prize.
Come up with a few Cryptkeeper puns for the wrap-up and you have a horror game there.
That is a very well put together idea. I may look to it for inspiration. That being said, I think that I want the encounter to take place at a wedding ceremony. Since the other special events of Krezk are all titled around preparing the bride, I figured a wedding would be a good way to end the chapter. I admit that what I wrote up works better as a fight scene rather than a horror scene, which the event you proposed seems to capture masterfully. Im going to include what I have written up so far at the bottom if you are interested.
Some ideas from your event may work well in my situation as well. For one thing, I was thinking of having the Burgomaster and his wife attend the ceremony but decided against it. You have convinced me that their presence could be more beneficial to roleplay. I do also like the idea of Strahd using the mongrelfolk as a way to rid himself of the Abbot and make an escape with Ireena, but charming all of the mongrelfolk to act at his command would be a time consuming process, even for Strahd. Not to mention, the hall of the madhouse is patrolled by another flesh golem which cannot be charmed. If Vasili (Strahd) is gone for too long, the party is bound to get suspicious. It could maybe be made to work if as part of the setup Strahd has been sneaking to the madhouse to charm some of the mongrelfolk over the course of a few days by making use of the teleportation destination at the Abbey and charming Clovin to keep his presence a secret as well as "distract" the flesh golem while he does his work.
Overall, I do appreciate the perspective on this interaction and will think on these ideas in relation to my own encounter.
Here Comes the Bride
This event occurs if the party delivered the dress to the Abbot in the Something Borrowed event or if a bridal gown was obtained by the Abbot from another source.
The Abbot sends Marzena Belview (or another Mongrelfolk with the Extraordinary Feature of Flight) to deliver a letter addressed to Lord Vasili von Holtz, one of the aliases of Strahd. If the party inquires about the letter, the Abbot says that Valsika is to be married and that the letter is to her betrothed. The Abbot stresses that the wedding is to be a momentous occasion which will bring joy to the whole land of Barovia. If pressed about the name of the groom, the Abbot gives the alias but keeps his background vague. The Abbot invites the party to attend the wedding, which will be held in a few days in the courtyard of the abbey.
If the party chooses to attend the wedding, read:
The Abbot does not have the bells played, as he does not want to hear the mongrelfolk. Instead, he hums or chants a wedding song as he and Vasilka walk to the alter. The party will see that Clovin, Otto, and Zygfreak are dressed in dirty, but nice clothing, but that there are no other guests in attendance. If the party inspects the chicken sheds, they will find that no mongrelfolk are inside. The Abbot has moved them into the madhouse for the ceremony. Shortly after Vasilka gets to the alter, a knock is heard at the entrance and the Abbot walks over to the doors. Read:
As Vasili approaches Vasilka, two of his guards will move before him, ordering anyone besides the Abbot to step back. After he arrives at the alter, his guards will stand around placing themselves between the guests and those at the alter. After some inspection, Vasili will begin to admonish Vasilka for her beauty and praise the Abbot for the work he has put into raising her. The Abbot, please with this praise, with take the time to show Vasili, along with the guests how he has taught her to dance, ordering Clovin to play something on his viol. A player who makes a DC 18 Insight check can tell that Vasili's words are not genuine. If Ireena is with the party, a player with a passive Perception of 15 or higher will notice Vasili occasionally glancing her way during the dance.
Once the performance has concluded, Vasili will clap his hands and approach Vasilka. Then read:
After saying this, Vasili sheds his disguise and orders his guards to attack the party. Anyone within 5ft of one of the guards provokes an attack of opportunity from it.
Vasili is secretly Strahd, who has used a hat of disguise to change his features to that of a young, handsome man. Strahd has also cast Nondetection on himself to hide his true nature from divination magic and only has two third level spell slots remaining today. The four guards which accompany Vasili are actually four of his vampire spawn made from adventurers who tried to storm his castle. The plate armor acts to hide their undead features from anyone not looking too closely. A creature who makes a DC 16 Perception check while looking closely within 5 ft of one of the guards can discern fangs protruding from its mouth. Use the Vampire Spawn stat block from the Monster Manual with the following changes: The spawn's AC is 18 from the plate armor, the spawn carries a greatsword, which can be used to make two attacks in the multiattack action, with a +6 to hit dealing 2d6+3 slashing damage on a hit. The vampire spawn cannot use their Bite or Claws action without using an action to remove their helmet or gauntlets, respectively. Removing each piece of armor reduces the vampire spawn's AC by 1.
The Abbot does not see that this is all a ploy for Strahd to toy with the party and is convinced that he made a mistake in not making Vasilka to have blood. Distracted by this notion and wishing to aid Strahd in finding peace through his bride, the Abbot does not stop him from attacking the party. The Abbot only fights if he or Vasilka are threatened or attacked. Strahd knows this and will not willingly attack Vasilka or the Abbot. If the Abbot resorts to showing his true form, Strahd will seek to escape and return to Castle Ravenloft using his shapechanger feature or greater invisibility spell.
Developments:
If the party does not choose to attend the ceremony, Vasili goes through with the ceremony and returns to Castle Ravenloft with Vasilka where he dismembers her and spreads her body parts across the castle. When you roll for random encounters in Castle Ravenloft, if the encounter is determined to be crawling claws or a trinket, you may choose to replace one of the claws with Vasilka's hands or the trinket with a randomly determined body part which seems to squirm on the floor.
Once again, Strahd aims to toy with the party and does not seek to kill them outright. If the party does not kill his guards, he has given them orders to attack Krezk after they have left the abbey. If Ireena is with the party, Strahd focuses on trying to abduct her while the party is busy with his guards. Strahd has brought a normal wagon drawn by two draft horses and will attempt to use this to flee with Ireena if he succeeds in Charming or Incapacitating her. Unless killed, Strahd ultimately returns to Castle Ravenloft without Vasilka.
If any players die in this encounter and the Abbot has previously promised to cast raise dead on their behalf, he will still honor that agreement so long as the party did not attack him or Vasilka.
Treasure: If Strahd returns to Castle Ravenloft using his shapechanger feature, he leaves behind his hat of disguise at the altar.
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That’s a really good way to do this but I personally see some problems. Since party has been into the Abbey before they probably know that Vasilka is a flesh golem. That will be no surprise to them when Anna Krezkova will find out this. And the second. Cos has 1 dining with Strahd and now one with Abbot (Im not sure but I think you also have a dinner with lady Wachter). So it is a total of two (maybe three) dinners in the module with makes the main dinner less interesting i guess.