I'm currently running three separate groups through Lost Mine of Phandelver. We're getting close to the end and the plan is to take everyone through Curse of Strahd next. We're using the pre-gen characters from LMoP and everyone wants to keep their character. The problem is that those characters are not very well equipped for something like Curse of Strahd. It seems like normally new characters would be generated for CoS and the book has some guidance for the DM on helping the players create characters that will fit in to the story.

So, my idea is to use the hook from LMoP where they find a map sewn into the cover of a book in the Forge of Spells. Instead of a map though, I'm thinking that maybe a Wizard who was involved with setting up the Amber Temple was later involved with the Forge of Spells in the Wave Echo Cave and caught wind of what had happened in Barovia with Exethanter defiling the temple and sharing the dark powers contained therein with Strahd.

This wizard then started concocting a plan to return to Barovia to try to set things right but was never able to execute his plan before the mine fell during the orc battle. So he hastily hid everything in the room with the Forge of Spells and left some mechanism for a potential future adventuring group to discover it to pick up where he left off.

Here's what I have in mind: As the characters find the hidden document sewn inside the book cover, they see that it is a letter written by this wizard explaining what happened. He lays out the basic background of the Amber Temple and his limited information about the dark powers that had been abused. I'm thinking he doesn't know much about Strahd specifically, just that someone messed around with the dark powers in the temple and the land was lost to a mist that trapped everyone within. Then as they finish reading the letter, the ghost of this wizard appears and gives them the quest to travel to Barovia and attempt to set things right. He would then have a few magic items and feats that he could award the characters to prepare them for what they will face in Barovia and gives them a way of transporting themselves to Barovia (I'm thinking something like a teleportation scroll).

Anyway, I could use some help with the lore here to justify the timeline. The Amber Temple is two thousand years old and Wave Echo Cave fell only 500 years ago. So how could I justify that a wizard who was involved in the Amber Temple was later still around and involved with the Forge of Spells in the cave? Also, is there some sort of way in Forgotten Realms lore where a wizard could preserve some part of himself in that sheet of paper to later appear to the adventurers and award them with some items of magic and power? (I'm thinking something like Tom Riddle's diary in Harry Potter).

Thinking about this some more. I could probably just make the wizard a ghost who has been trapped there because he had this unfinished business. He's been waiting for someone to find his letter before he appears to help them prepare for their quest to Barovia. That seems simple enough.

So mainly I need to figure out how to explain the timeline. I could fudge the dates a bit on how long Strahd has been a vampire stuck in Barovia and how long it has been since the mine fell. This would help line things up for the wizard/ghost to have to stash his plan. However, I'm still not sure exactly how to explain a wizard who was involved with the Amber Temple was still around ~1500 years later at the Forge of Spells but would then die in the battle at the mine. How could that be pulled off?

The problem is that those characters are not very well equipped for something like Curse of Strahd.

 

Could you elaborate on this?  COS starts characters off at level one.  I would think any character who had finished LMoP would do just fine in the early chapters of CoS.

Well, for example, one of my groups doesn't have a Cleric or a Palladin. I've been studying the CoS book and various supplements pretty carefully and it seems pretty clear to me that a team would struggle a lot without someone with those backgrounds. So I'm thinking I could offer one of them a feat like Magic Initiate so they could pick up some Cleric spells. Or maybe let them multiclass into one of those. So I'm trying to figure out a way to motivate that kind of move in-game.

So yeah, it's not like they would be completely helpless in CoS. I'm just trying to figure out a way to buff them up a little bit for the myriad of undead battles that will be ahead of them. Make sure I send the in there with at least one person who can deal radiant damage, for example. Hopefully then they can survive long enough to get the Sunsword and the the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and really go after Strahd.

I'd say to just let them play. Maybe give one or two spell scrolls to help out. It is mostly a test of player creativity to find solutions. And they can be quite creative when pushed to the limits. If they fail... they'll just have to make a new PC. One that most likely be more fitting with the current environment they're in. I'd focus on a reason why there would be a cleric or paladin wandering around and stumbling on the party to help. just for that purpose.

Ah, okay.

Well, to start off with the question you asked, I don’t think the timeline needs any particular fiddling.  It’s a pretty well established trope that time might operate differently in different dimensions.  Plus you can always make up some kind of time travel nonsense.  Similarly, if you can imagine almost anything, you can jam it into almost any setting.  I don’t think you should worry about whether such and such spell effect has ever appeared in FR lore.  And if it’s just a recorded message from the past, it’s just a contingency that triggers an illusion or something like that.

Now as for the questions you didn’t ask but I just want to butt in and give my opinion on - My preferred solution would be to let them struggle.  CoS is well-regarded because it’s not easy to just hack your way through.  4-5 characters of level 4-5 won’t have much trouble with anything along the main road from the village of Barovia to Krezk.  They should have plenty of time to assess what they’ll need beyond that.  If you want to motivate them in-game to multiclass, they have Donavitch, Madame Eva, Petrovitch, the Martikovs, Van Richten, Esmerelda, and even the Abbott there to basically tell them flat-out that they should do this (and for later levels, I agree that they should.  The Holy Symbol can only be attuned by a good cleric or paladin).  If you worry that they still won’t, you can write yourself an insurance policy by making sure that when you do the card reading, Strahd’s Enemy is Donavitch, and then he can attune to the Holy Symbol.

As for the hook itself, maybe you might like to establish early that the players are starting a horror campaign by having the letter be a warning like “Beware of The Fog!!” or maybe like some kind of thing like The Ring, where the players activate the curse by casting comprehend languages on the letter and they think nothing of it until the mists begin rolling in.

Thanks to both of you. That's very helpful!

I kind of like the idea that reading the letter somehow triggers a curse. For that matter it might be cool to have the mists to roll in and suck them into Barovia right there at the Forge of Spells. It would be fun to leave them reeling like that as cliff-hanger at the end of the session for that day. I'll have to think about that and figure out how that could work.

I also appreciate the idea that this is supposed to be a struggle. I'm reading this thing and seeing a lot of ways they could get completely wiped out if they go the wrong way. So that's going to be tricky. But I really like the idea of taking them straight to Barovia right there from the Forge of Spells since I know they're planning to go back to Phandalin and start setting up shop when the finish in the mine.

Much to think about . . .