Hi all, relatively new DM here nearing the end of my first Curse of Strahd run. I had some bad luck on the Tarroka reading and got the Sun Sword placed in Strahd's tomb itself. In hindsight, I probably should have redrawn, but I was convinced I could make it work. What worries me now is how the game is going to end: I'm worried the team is going to have to fight their way throughout Castle Ravenloft without the Sun Sword, making the final showdown with Strahd somewhat anti-climatic in comparison. They've got all the other items, the ally (Sir Godfrey the revenant), alliances with Ezmerelda and Von Richten, and they're all on the way to Ravenloft now.
My plan is to have Ezmerelda and/or Von Richten essentially act as a guide in the castle, leading them to Strahd's tomb with little detours, only to have Strahd himself ambush them there, taunting them with the broken sword. (He believes the sword to have been destroyed properly, which is why he keeps the hilt next to his tomb.) Godfrey gives his 'life' to merge with the sword, giving it powers again and driving off Strahd. After that, it's guerilla warfare, with Strahd sending every minion he's got after them in increased random encounters. He'll use his lair actions to walk through walls / ceilings and try hit and run attacks. The final showdown is in Sergei's tomb, but since that's practically next door to Strahd's tomb, he won't be waiting there until they find and destroy the heart of Ravenloft. This way, the team gets the Sun Sword fairly quickly, does some exploration of the castle while feeling like badasses (they've got Strahd on the run!) and finally corner him for their climatic showdown.
Any thoughts or advice? This campaign has been a little unfocused at times, and I know it's annoyed some of my players. I want to give them a strong finish where they're not wandering around wondering what to do. I'd love to hear what anyone else has to say!
I only vaguely recall hearing of an EGO check before. Something to do with sentient weapons?
I was thinking of using Godfrey to activate the sword because it takes care of a question my players have already asked: what's so important about this "ally" that we need him, anyway? It also ties nicely with the sentient weapon aspect, since it's his soul inhabiting the sword now.
I like your idea, and think it works really well! Trust yourself to DM.
One alternative idea is to give your characters some additional special info (maybe from something they find in the Amber Temple?) and give the Sun Sword a special ability: when the words "Strahd, your time is done!" or similar are spoken, the Sun Sword flies through the air into the hand of the character. The players don't need to know that this is what the words will do, only that they will reveal the Sun Sword's power. Alternatively, the sword could activate on its own - and Strahd will definitely be forced to drop it. This could create a jaw-drop moment for Strahd and make the PCs feel like real badasses.
Your solution and rationale sound fine. In my game, the sunsword was also in the catacombs though not in Strahd's tomb. However, the characters explored the outside ground level of the castle first and happened to find the overlook and the entrance into the catacombs below and ended up entering stealthily through the basement. The characters had previously seen the model of the castle at the Amber Temple and had deduced that the item they were looking for was likely in the catacombs so they were motivated to find alternate ways in.
What level are your characters?
Some additional comments in the spoiler
Strahd's tomb contains some of his consorts - 3 vampire spawn. It is also defended by the teleport traps that transport characters into the coffins below one of the crypts swapping the character with one of the undead in the coffins. The undead appears in the teleport trap to fight the rest of the characters BUT the character that triggered the trap ends up in a tomb with 14 other undead and unless they have found and dealt with it already the odds are good that the character who triggered the trap might not survive it. Actually getting into Strahd's tomb requires casting dispel magic on the teleport traps to deactivate them for 1 minute or using the teleporters hidden in a nearby crypt but these aren't marked and don't say what they do so unless the characters are walking around with detect magic turned on all the time they might well miss ALL of these traps.
You might want to keep that in mind when leading the characters to Strahd's tomb.
Finally, if the characters eventually kill Strahd but do not use radiant damage then he turns to mist and reforms in his tomb so the characters will have to come back here to finally kill him.
-------------------
In case you are curious :), here is one example of how the final battle went ... everyone's game will be different but the magic items the party can acquire are extremely powerful against undead.
My group of players were completionists, they liked to do everything. As a result, they defeated every mini-boss and side quest and advanced to level 11 in the first half of the castle before the final encounter with Strahd. There were four characters + Esmerelda in the party at the end.
Combined with the magic items that are vicious vs vampires, Strahd as written was severely overmatched.
One of the magic items turns vampires and boosts the capability of a cleric to turn undead. The sunsword emits sunlight - preventing regeneration and doing 20 damage/turn - it also does radiant damage. Another item provides protection from good and evil to all creatures within 30' of it (giving every single undead disadvantage on to hit rolls). The party had recovered the +2 plate mail from the catacombs and had raided Strahd's treasure vault. In addition, the helm of brilliance does 1d6 radiant damage to all undead within 30' turning off their ability to regenerate and allows for the casting of a large number of prismatic spray/wall of fire etc depending on what gems are on the helm. However, almost all of these negative abilities require sight.
With all these items, if the party faced Strahd alone, he would have died in the first round for a rather anti-climactic finish.
However, Strahd is smart, has been wiping out adventuring parties for centuries so he came up with a plan to try to eliminate the party. He studied at the Amber Temple and learned new spells (I bumped him up to 13th level caster from 9th). He wore his animated armor, recovered his +2 great sword, recruited four Yesterhill druids to cast fog cloud and silence, elevated one of his vampire spawn to a vampire spellcaster and brought along four extra vampire spawn. (Rahadin had died in his office trying to show to Strahd that these adventurers were no different from the rest). Anyway, the druids hid in the final chamber - cast silence and fog cloud (blocked vision canceled all the different sources of advantage/disadvantage making melee combat straight rolls and preventing the protection from evil and good from doing anything - it also canceled the effect of sunlight), while Strahd cast Tenser's transformation and went to town on the characters. Strahd's AC was 21 and I bumped him up to close to max hit points (around 170). One of the characters finally took him down not using radiant damage so he converted to mist and they had to find and stake him in his tomb to finish the quest. Two characters were knocked unconscious in the final fight. I had the spirit of Tatyana as a backup to distract Strahd if things went badly but it wasn't needed.
The characters are 8th-level, and there are five of them. I'm doing milestone advancement, so getting the sword will bump them up to level 9. Another level if they return Argynvost's skull, which they know is an option but seem to be ambivalent about.
We didn't do the Amber Temple... these guys are very much a "why should we do that" kinda group, and I couldn't think of a good reason to present it to them. Also, they're a bit murderhobo, and I could see them going all in on the dark powers. :)
Well, a quick update for anyone who's interested: things only went partially as planned, so about right for a game of D&D! The party convinced all the NPCs to carry the dragon skull out of the castle before finding the teleport room. Unfortunately, one player wasn't paying attention and tossed the wrong stone in, so he got teleported to the Amber Temple, along with another PC who jumped in after him. During this time, I decided that Strahd had ambushed the NPCs on their way out of the castle.
The remaining players ported to Strahd's tomb, started searching, and couldn't find squat. Strahd himself showed up, taunted the players about having found Van Richten, killed Esmerelda in front of them, and tossed the broken sword at their feet. I ran one round of combat (during which they were discussing what new characters they should roll) when Godfrey showed up missing an arm and gave his life to bring the Sun Sword back. Strahd ran, the players managed to find their way back to the teleportation room, and followed their companions to the Amber Temple.
I'm now really glad I didn't run the Amber Temple earlier... they have no clue where they are, they're stranded and freezing, but they're eager to return to Ravenloft now that they've got Strahd on the run.
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Hi all, relatively new DM here nearing the end of my first Curse of Strahd run. I had some bad luck on the Tarroka reading and got the Sun Sword placed in Strahd's tomb itself. In hindsight, I probably should have redrawn, but I was convinced I could make it work. What worries me now is how the game is going to end: I'm worried the team is going to have to fight their way throughout Castle Ravenloft without the Sun Sword, making the final showdown with Strahd somewhat anti-climatic in comparison. They've got all the other items, the ally (Sir Godfrey the revenant), alliances with Ezmerelda and Von Richten, and they're all on the way to Ravenloft now.
My plan is to have Ezmerelda and/or Von Richten essentially act as a guide in the castle, leading them to Strahd's tomb with little detours, only to have Strahd himself ambush them there, taunting them with the broken sword. (He believes the sword to have been destroyed properly, which is why he keeps the hilt next to his tomb.) Godfrey gives his 'life' to merge with the sword, giving it powers again and driving off Strahd. After that, it's guerilla warfare, with Strahd sending every minion he's got after them in increased random encounters. He'll use his lair actions to walk through walls / ceilings and try hit and run attacks. The final showdown is in Sergei's tomb, but since that's practically next door to Strahd's tomb, he won't be waiting there until they find and destroy the heart of Ravenloft. This way, the team gets the Sun Sword fairly quickly, does some exploration of the castle while feeling like badasses (they've got Strahd on the run!) and finally corner him for their climatic showdown.
Any thoughts or advice? This campaign has been a little unfocused at times, and I know it's annoyed some of my players. I want to give them a strong finish where they're not wandering around wondering what to do. I'd love to hear what anyone else has to say!
I kind like your idea. But you could also do a EGO check or conflict check. DC15 cha check when Strahd is monologing.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
I only vaguely recall hearing of an EGO check before. Something to do with sentient weapons?
I was thinking of using Godfrey to activate the sword because it takes care of a question my players have already asked: what's so important about this "ally" that we need him, anyway? It also ties nicely with the sentient weapon aspect, since it's his soul inhabiting the sword now.
I like your idea, and think it works really well! Trust yourself to DM.
One alternative idea is to give your characters some additional special info (maybe from something they find in the Amber Temple?) and give the Sun Sword a special ability: when the words "Strahd, your time is done!" or similar are spoken, the Sun Sword flies through the air into the hand of the character. The players don't need to know that this is what the words will do, only that they will reveal the Sun Sword's power. Alternatively, the sword could activate on its own - and Strahd will definitely be forced to drop it. This could create a jaw-drop moment for Strahd and make the PCs feel like real badasses.
Your solution and rationale sound fine. In my game, the sunsword was also in the catacombs though not in Strahd's tomb. However, the characters explored the outside ground level of the castle first and happened to find the overlook and the entrance into the catacombs below and ended up entering stealthily through the basement. The characters had previously seen the model of the castle at the Amber Temple and had deduced that the item they were looking for was likely in the catacombs so they were motivated to find alternate ways in.
What level are your characters?
Some additional comments in the spoiler
Strahd's tomb contains some of his consorts - 3 vampire spawn. It is also defended by the teleport traps that transport characters into the coffins below one of the crypts swapping the character with one of the undead in the coffins. The undead appears in the teleport trap to fight the rest of the characters BUT the character that triggered the trap ends up in a tomb with 14 other undead and unless they have found and dealt with it already the odds are good that the character who triggered the trap might not survive it. Actually getting into Strahd's tomb requires casting dispel magic on the teleport traps to deactivate them for 1 minute or using the teleporters hidden in a nearby crypt but these aren't marked and don't say what they do so unless the characters are walking around with detect magic turned on all the time they might well miss ALL of these traps.
You might want to keep that in mind when leading the characters to Strahd's tomb.
Finally, if the characters eventually kill Strahd but do not use radiant damage then he turns to mist and reforms in his tomb so the characters will have to come back here to finally kill him.
-------------------In case you are curious :), here is one example of how the final battle went ... everyone's game will be different but the magic items the party can acquire are extremely powerful against undead.
My group of players were completionists, they liked to do everything. As a result, they defeated every mini-boss and side quest and advanced to level 11 in the first half of the castle before the final encounter with Strahd. There were four characters + Esmerelda in the party at the end.
Combined with the magic items that are vicious vs vampires, Strahd as written was severely overmatched.
One of the magic items turns vampires and boosts the capability of a cleric to turn undead. The sunsword emits sunlight - preventing regeneration and doing 20 damage/turn - it also does radiant damage. Another item provides protection from good and evil to all creatures within 30' of it (giving every single undead disadvantage on to hit rolls). The party had recovered the +2 plate mail from the catacombs and had raided Strahd's treasure vault. In addition, the helm of brilliance does 1d6 radiant damage to all undead within 30' turning off their ability to regenerate and allows for the casting of a large number of prismatic spray/wall of fire etc depending on what gems are on the helm. However, almost all of these negative abilities require sight.
With all these items, if the party faced Strahd alone, he would have died in the first round for a rather anti-climactic finish.
However, Strahd is smart, has been wiping out adventuring parties for centuries so he came up with a plan to try to eliminate the party. He studied at the Amber Temple and learned new spells (I bumped him up to 13th level caster from 9th). He wore his animated armor, recovered his +2 great sword, recruited four Yesterhill druids to cast fog cloud and silence, elevated one of his vampire spawn to a vampire spellcaster and brought along four extra vampire spawn. (Rahadin had died in his office trying to show to Strahd that these adventurers were no different from the rest). Anyway, the druids hid in the final chamber - cast silence and fog cloud (blocked vision canceled all the different sources of advantage/disadvantage making melee combat straight rolls and preventing the protection from evil and good from doing anything - it also canceled the effect of sunlight), while Strahd cast Tenser's transformation and went to town on the characters. Strahd's AC was 21 and I bumped him up to close to max hit points (around 170). One of the characters finally took him down not using radiant damage so he converted to mist and they had to find and stake him in his tomb to finish the quest. Two characters were knocked unconscious in the final fight. I had the spirit of Tatyana as a backup to distract Strahd if things went badly but it wasn't needed.
The characters are 8th-level, and there are five of them. I'm doing milestone advancement, so getting the sword will bump them up to level 9. Another level if they return Argynvost's skull, which they know is an option but seem to be ambivalent about.
We didn't do the Amber Temple... these guys are very much a "why should we do that" kinda group, and I couldn't think of a good reason to present it to them. Also, they're a bit murderhobo, and I could see them going all in on the dark powers. :)
Well, a quick update for anyone who's interested: things only went partially as planned, so about right for a game of D&D! The party convinced all the NPCs to carry the dragon skull out of the castle before finding the teleport room. Unfortunately, one player wasn't paying attention and tossed the wrong stone in, so he got teleported to the Amber Temple, along with another PC who jumped in after him. During this time, I decided that Strahd had ambushed the NPCs on their way out of the castle.
The remaining players ported to Strahd's tomb, started searching, and couldn't find squat. Strahd himself showed up, taunted the players about having found Van Richten, killed Esmerelda in front of them, and tossed the broken sword at their feet. I ran one round of combat (during which they were discussing what new characters they should roll) when Godfrey showed up missing an arm and gave his life to bring the Sun Sword back. Strahd ran, the players managed to find their way back to the teleportation room, and followed their companions to the Amber Temple.
I'm now really glad I didn't run the Amber Temple earlier... they have no clue where they are, they're stranded and freezing, but they're eager to return to Ravenloft now that they've got Strahd on the run.