Curse of Strahd Reloaded Update: Into Tsolenka Pass

I'm trying to keep to a reasonably regular schedule for these; let's see how long I can keep it up!

But first—for those who aren't aware: Kaiya, the voice of Lilissen on Curse of Strahd: Twice Bitten, a brilliant storyteller, and a dear friend, has launched a Kickstarter for her new Worldbuilder's Almanac, a supplement that aims to help DMs build out their worlds with weekly prompts, historical inspiration, and hundreds of quest hooks. It's looking to be a beautiful, professionally designed product (you can find a sample preview here), and I'd encourage anyone who's interested in worldbuilding or homebrew to check it out!

I. Reloaded Update

Since my last update, I've continued my work on Arc R: Trials of the Mountain; by my estimate, we're now around 19k words in and 50-60% done with the arc. I've completed the following additional work for the arc:

• Outlined and drafted the Tyrant's Second Trial, including seven unique strategies he can use to force the players into the open out of fifteen different resting/hiding places

• Added a scene in which Kasimir explains Patrina's complicated legacy while en route to Mt. Ghakis

• Designed an encounter with a conclave of vengeful Forest Folk druids, including several who have sought out dark power from Baba Lysaga

• Designed an encounter with a group of frost maidens near a monument to the roc of Mt. Ghakis

• Added a new pair of scenes in which the players must choose whether to seek shelter or proceed forward through a blizzard toward the gatehouse of Tsolenka Pass

You can read some excerpts from these scenes below:

Strahd's Game

Once he has successfully gained entry to the players’ resting place or lured the players outside, Strahd informs the players—if he hasn’t already—that he has visited them “for a simple reason: to play a game.” Should the players appear reluctant to play his game, Strahd informs them that, if they do not play, they shall automatically forfeit—and at least one of them “shall not see the Moon set this night” (i.e., die).

Strahd explains the rules of the game as follows:

* From now until the game concludes, the players are forbidden from communicating or coordinating in any way. If Strahd believes that the players have broken this rule, they shall immediately forfeit.

* Tonight, Strahd will drink the blood of one of their party. He will return each night to drink that player’s blood again, until that player dies and rises as a vampire spawn. Each time a player is turned, Strahd will choose a new victim. However, it is for the players to decide which of them shall be the next to receive his “gift.”

* To vote for a victim, each player must hold the name of their chosen victim within their heads. Using his magic, Strahd will look into the players’ minds to discern who they have voted for.

* The victim will be whichever player receives a plurality of the votes. If no player receives a plurality, the players shall immediately forfeit.

* If the players forfeit, Strahd shall choose the victim himself.

* If the players refuse to allow Strahd to drink from the chosen victim, he shall claim the victim’s life, instead of their blood. “I shall return the following night,” he adds coldly, “whereupon we shall play this game again.”

If the players protest the rules of the game, Strahd reminds them that refusal to play will mean an immediate forfeit.

The Druids' Vengeance

The journey from the dusk elf encampment to the Raven River Crossroads is four and one-quarter miles and takes one hour and twenty-five minutes.

This area is largely as described in R. Raven River Crossroads (p. 40). However, the crossroads now hides three poisoned spiked pit traps (Dungeon Master’s Guide, p. 122), concealed as described in False Trail (p. 30). 

Together, the pit traps form a diagonal across the road that runs from the start of the path to Lake Baratok (lake path) to the start of the trail to Mt. Ghakis (mountain trail). A 2-foot-wide catwalk between each pit trap provides safe passage between them.

Three druid assailants, three berserkers, and two rootspike triads lurk amidst the Svalich Woods nearby, distributed as follows:

* Two druid assailants and one berserker east of the mountain trail

* One druid assailant and two berserkers east of the lake path

* One rootspike triad west of the lake path

* One rootspike triad west of the mountain trail

The druid assailants have prepared pass without trace instead of darkvision. When the players arrive, one druid assailant in each group and the two rootspike triads are concentrating on the spell *pass without trace*, concealing each druid and berserker within range.

The druids attack when any players fall into, discover, or bypass the pits.

The Blizzard

As the players proceed past the monument, the road takes them into Tsolenka Pass proper. Read:

Leaving the ancient monument behind, the road passes between two towering mountain peaks—one to the north that thrusts into the air like a thimble, and one to the south that sprawls lazily above the valley far below. It’s not long before the winding road weaves its way out of sight of the Svalich Woods entirely, the distant trees vanishing behind the edge of a low mountain spur.

The wind picks up, shrieking through the mountain crags as the snowfall doubles in intensity. The thick, swirling squall makes it difficult to see more than a few feet ahead, and the fallen snow has already risen past your shins, concealing the road and forcing you to fight for every inch traveled. After another hour or more since departing the monument, you doubt you’ve traveled much more than a mile.

Kasimir turns to you and pulls his flapping cloak tightly about him, shouting to be heard above the howling winds. “I don’t know how much further we can travel under these conditions!” he hollers hoarsely. “The gatehouse is only a few miles away, but if we stay out in this weather much longer, we might risk exhaustion—or worse.”

As always, you can get full access to my in-progress drafts by joining the Patreon as a paid member. All working drafts and outlines for future arcs, as well as a changelog and Trello board of upcoming edits, can be found on the Patreon Bronze Masterpost.

II. Other News

Folk Horror Trio. To raise funds for Dragon's Den Publishing, my planned post-Reloaded third-party adventure publishing platform, I'll be launching a Kickstarter this Halloween for three folk horror one-shot adventures that I'm developing with two other writers. We've been slowly shaping these over the past two months (to ensure that minimal time is taken away from writing Reloaded), and I'm excited to share them with you!

Dragna's Blog. I've just published a new design blog breaking down the game-design theory of exploration in D&D, titled "Tsolenka Pass, Travel Encounters, and the Reference Frames of Chult." You can find it, as well as my thirty-seven other Reloaded developer blogs, in the Silver Masterpost by joining the Patreon as a paid member.

Challenge Rated. I'm currently working with three volunteer web developers to improve and expand Challenge Rated, the open-source encounter-building calculator implementing my custom Challenge Ratings 2.0 combat framework. However, we've run into a problem - all of our developers are back-end, with little front-end experience. If you're a front-end web designer experienced in making interfaces and webapps Look Good, and you're interested in contributing to the project, shoot me a message or let me know in the comments - we could really use the help.

DM Mentoring Course. It seems that there's definite interest in the DM mentoring course I mentioned last update, so I'm definitely going to look into implementing it! Stay tuned for the first few courses going up on my Patreon store soon.

III. Wrap-Up

That's all I've got for this update! Hope you've been enjoying the previews of what's to come, and I'll see you next time.

Cheers,
Dragna