Curse of Strahd Reloaded Update: Trials of the Mountain Begins

It’s been eighty-four years since my last Reloaded update newsletter—or at least a solid month—so please accept my sincerest apologies for the radio silence! Have an update.

I. Reloaded Update

I’ve officially broken ground on Arc R: Trials of the Mountain, which combines the players’ ascent up Tsolenka Pass and Strahd’s tyrannical tests of their will and fortitude. It’s seven thousand words long so far and still going strong, growing by another five to seven thousand words per week (at a minimum).

I’ve also finalized the scene-level outlines for Arc S: A Sword of Sunlight (including the entirety of the players’ exploration of the Amber Temple), Arc T: Dreams of Dawn (including the defeat of Baba Lysaga, the lifting of Van Richten’s curse, and the reconsecration of the Fanes), and Arc U: The Curse of Strahd (including the return to Castle Ravenloft and the final battle with Strahd). Those interested in reading more can find full flowchart diagrams of every scene in the remaining arcs in the Bronze Masterpost of the Patreon.

Thus far, I’ve completed the following work for Arc R: Trials of the Mountain:

• Drafted the players’ recruitment of Kasimir, including an all-new social encounter framework

• Revised and fleshed out Patrina’s history and character, including her relationship to Strahd, Exethanter, and the Amber Temple, and the reason for her death at Kasimir’s hands

• Added a new scene in which the players are confronted by Baron Vargas Vallakovich

• Added the Tyrant’s First Trial, in which Strahd calls the players to answer for their crimes against Castle Ravenloft in Arc P: Ravenloft Heist.

• Outlined the means by which Strahd scries upon and locates the players before the Tyrant’s Second Trial

You can read some excerpts from these scenes below:

Patrina’s History
After the siblings arrived in the valley, it wasn’t long before Patrina caught whisperings of the Amber Temple—a place of ancient magic and great, but terrible power. Unable to reach the Temple due to the protection of the Order of the Silver Dragon, however, she bided her time and kept the Temple’s existence a secret from Kasimir, her rage smoldering but never going out.

It was, ironically, Strahd’s conquest of Barovia and slaughter of the Order of the Silver Dragon that freed Patrina to investigate the Amber Temple at last, several months after the dusk elves had first arrived in the valley. After slipping away from the dusk elf encampment in secret, she braved the slopes of Mt. Ghakis and fought her way to the Temple’s great facade. There, she became the apprentice of Exethanter, the spirit of an archmage that once led the secret order of wizards that first raised the Temple.

Patrina spent two years in Exethanter’s tutelage, devouring every ounce of knowledge and power he could bequeath to her. The speed of her education, however, proved insufficient; determined to obtain enough power to lay waste to Strahd’s kingdom, Patrina turned to the dark arts, studying forbidden tomes sealed away in Exethanter’s library against his express commands. It wasn’t long before she began to commune with the vestige of Tenebrous that dwelled in the Temple’s amber vault, seeking the secrets of lichdom.

When Exethanter discovered Patrina’s treachery, he attempted to banish her from the Temple—but she had grown far more powerful than he. Patrina bound his spirit in amber, sealing it away for as long as she lived. With her mentor now imprisoned, Patrina set about remaking the Amber Temple in her own image, raising the skulls of long-dead wizards as flameskulls bound to her service and binding the amber golems that dwelled in its halls to her will.

The Baron’s Revenge 
As the players make their way from the Vistani encampment to Vallaki or the Old Svalich Road, they pass through a wooded crossroad. Read:

The grassy hill that houses the dusk-elf hamlet and Vistani encampment recedes into the distance as the gnarled canopy of the Svalich Wood swallows it up once again. The muddy, faded hunter’s trail continues north, pushing through the dense foliage.

As the northern treeline comes into view, the hunter’s trail splits, the eastern branch meandering further into the woods while the northern branch curves toward the pale thread of the Old Svalich Road in the distance. The air here is cool and quiet, with nothing but the rustling of leaves to fill the silence.

If Baron Vargas Vallakovich is alive, Lady Fiona Wachter is the current burgomaster of Vallaki, and the players made no efforts to conceal their travel to the Vistani encampment, a drunken Vargas and six guards attempt to corner the players on the road. Add:

The stillness is broken by the crunching of wet mulch beneath boots. Seven mud-stained figures emerge from the eastern trail, their faces dark and stony. Six bear spears and crossbows, their chests decorated with the familiar rusted mail of the Vallakian guard. The seventh, you recognize instantly: Baron Vargas Vallakovich. 

The Baron does not seem to have endured his retirement well. His greasy hair is unkempt, and his clothes are unwashed and haggard. His jowls have grown only looser, and deep, puffy circles mark the flesh beneath his eyes, just above the coarse, messy stubble that lines his jaws and chin. He wears an ill-fitting breastplate, with an unpolished scabbard tied to his hip. Even from a distance, he reeks of sweat and stale wine.

”There they are,” Vargas rasps, his bloodshot eyes twitching. “The treacherous vermin.”

Blood, Gold & Fire

If the persuasion die reaches one, the players fail to convince Strahd to spare them. Strahd demands that the players pay for their crimes against Castle Ravenloft by suffering the same wounds they have inflicted upon his throne. “I am the Land,” he intones, “and it is my solemn duty to mete out justice. For the blood you have spilled, blood shall be spilled from you. For the gold you have taken, gold shall be taken from you. And for the fire you have brought to my home, fire shall be brought to yours.” (If the players ask, Strahd explains that “blood” must be paid in the form of a life, “gold” must be paid in the form of riches or power, and “fire” must be paid in the form of destruction.)

Strahd invites the players to name the “blood,” “wealth,” and “fire” that shall form their punishment. (If the players protest Strahd’s penalties of blood and fire, he responds coolly: “Someone must die today. In my mercy, I have given you the final decision. Choose—or I shall choose for you.”). Strahd is willing to accept any of the following penalties, as well as any other of similar severity:

Blood. Using his longsword, Strahd executes a member of the party (excepting Ireena), an NPC who helped the players invade Ravenloft, or an NPC who directly benefited from the players’ invasion of Ravenloft. (Strahd won’t accept the sacrifice of any other character, or use any other means to carry out a chosen victim’s execution.) If the chosen sacrifice isn’t present at the crossroads, Strahd finds and executes them after departing.

Gold. Strahd takes a non-consumable magic item of Rare or greater value from the party, such as the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind or Vladimir Horngaard’s +2 greatsword. (If no member of the party is currently using or attuned to the item, they must succeed on a DC 19 Charisma (Deception) check to convince Strahd of its worth.)

Fire. Strahd destroys the Blue Water Inn, the Barovian burgomaster’s mansion, or any other place in Barovia the players call “home.” (Strahd destroys the chosen location after departing the crossroads. Players who subsequently visit the chosen location find the aftermath of Strahd’s attack, which has destroyed any structures and wounded any inhabitants.)

If the players refuse to name a penalty, or if they fail to name penalties of sufficient severity, Strahd names his own penalties from the list above.

Sadly, it looks like I grossly underestimated the amount of work I had left to do, and it looks like I won't be able to meet my hopeful Halloween deadline. Thankfully, however, I've now hired an editor for Reloaded, who will be able to make requested edits to past arcs while I focus my attention entirely on the unpublished material. Moreover, now that I've completed a scene-level outline of the rest of the campaign, it'll be much easier to power through by spending my time on writing, rather than planning. (I'm now writing consistently 4-5 days a week, so hopefully we'll be able to keep pushing through to the end.)

Right now, I'm very roughly projecting to finish Arc R: Trials of the Mountain (a projected 35,000 words) by the end of October, Arc S: A Sword of Sunlight (a projected 20,000 words) by the end of November, Arc T: Dreams of Dawn (a projected 45,000 words) by the end of January, and Arc U: The Curse of Strahd (a projected 25,000 words) by the end of February. (Depending on how fast I'm able to write, my publication schedule could well move more quickly than that—but given all of the self-imposed deadlines I've broken through lately, I figured it'd be better to be pessimistic than optimistic.)

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

Dragna’s Blog. Since my last update, I’ve published two blogs discussing and analyzing my work on Reloaded and my IRL homebrew campaign: Method Dungeons, discussing the importance of nonlinearity and “method choices” in crafting dungeons (and featuring a preview of my rework of Berez); and Inverted Dramatic Questions, discussing the intersection of narrative tension and exploration, and the means by which we can influence our players’ psychology in the exploration pillar (and briefly discussing an issue this raises with the skeletal rider at the River Ivlis Crossroads). You can find them, as well as my thirty-five other Reloaded developer blogs, in the Silver Masterpost by joining the Patreon as a paid member.

DMG: Reloaded. The seventh installation of my textbook on game and narrative design theory, Verbs, was just posted on the Bronze Masterpost for paid members of the Patreon. This chapter discusses the fundamental “physics” of gameplay, and the means by which we can create engaging gameplay for our players (or not).

New DM Mentoring. I’m contemplating offering a (paid) private four-session mentoring course for new DMs. Current topic ideas include “how to roleplay NPCs,” “how to do voice-acting,” “how to immerse your players with narration and description,” and “how to make combat fast, fun, and flavorful.” If you would be interested in enrolling in such a course, or if you have any other requests for topics to include, I’d love to hear it in the comments!

Post-Reloaded Projects. When Reloaded ultimately wraps up, I expect to refocus my attention on a few different projects. One, of course, will be my textbook on narrative and game design for DMs (codename “DMG: Reloaded”). Another will be an original Chult adventure called The Lost Treasure of Omu, which I’ll be building in realtime as I run the campaign for my players.

I expect my biggest project, however, to be Dragon’s Den Publishing, a third-party adventure publishing platform. My role, rather than writing adventures, would be to edit and develop them, ensuring that all published modules would meet the quality and accessibility standards I’ve endeavored to establish with Reloaded.

Currently, I’m working with two other writers to create a proof-of-concept Kickstarter for three short folk-horror one-shot adventures. (I know that some people have understandably been worried about additional projects delaying Reloaded further, but the time investment is looking to be fairly minimal—and to be honest, I desperately need other creative outlets in order to stay sane, hah.) Our goal is to launch this Kickstarter around Halloween, so stay tuned for more news about it!

III. Wrap-Up

And that's all the news that's fit to print! Thank you as always for your patience, and I'll do my best to keep you updated as things continue to move forward.

Cheers,
Dragna