Curse of Strahd Reloaded Update: Arc P: Ravenloft Heist is now available
Added 2024-07-19 16:53:16 +0000 UTCI'm excited to share the eighth public installment of my revised Curse of Strahd guide, Curse of Strahd: Reloaded. This new release contains Arc P: Ravenloft Heist, which includes:
Preparations for the Heist. New allies and intelligence the players can obtain before making the journey to Ravenloft, including rewards for players who spared Doru in Arc B: Welcome to Barovia.
Keep Infiltration. A comprehensive guide to the multiple routes the players might take when entering and traversing the castle, with ten new distinct castle "regions" for easy organization when navigating the Ravenloft sandbox.
Return of the Brides. Three all-new sequences with Strahd's surviving brides, including encounters with Volenta in the castle's torture chamber, Anastrasya in the royal apartments, and Ludmilla in the foyer and chapel.
Secrets of the Castle. Tense sequences and encounters with the existing denizens and mechanisms of the castle, including the witches' coven, the elevator trap, the castle treasury, and more.
Escape from Ravenloft. A climactic confrontation with Rahadin—and a pulse-pounding, last-minute escape from the keep when he's defeated.
This new release also contains a comprehensive overhaul of Arc B: Welcome to Barovia, such that the players now arrive in the village of Barovia on the last night of Strahd's siege, and the first night he visits Ireena. Existing campaigns that have already passed Arc B are fully backwards compatible with the new changes, except where specifically noted.
In addition, this update contains a number of edits, tweaks, and additions to previously released portions of the guide. You can find a full changelog here.
Thank you to all of the readers and playtesters who provided suggestions and feedback following the previous public release!
As always, I want your feedback and comments to help make this guide the best it can be. Is the adventure fun? Is the content accessible? Is there anything missing, or anything I can do better? Please let me know any and everything I can do to improve!
Thank you always to everyone who has supported this project, as well as to my incredible patrons for their support.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Cheers,
Dragna
Comments
Ok, thanks a lot for reply!
Ondřej Bacík
2024-09-25 09:47:03 +0000 UTCIn that case, I'd just pause and speak with them OOC. Let them know that, by doing the Heist, they're already crossing the Rubicon vis a vis Strahd. Reassure them that you wouldn't put a boss in front of them if they weren't capable of winning. But honestly, I'd be very surprised if it got to that point. I've never met or heard of a party that might do such a thing.
DragnaCarta
2024-09-25 03:07:25 +0000 UTCMaybe being afraid that fighting with Rahadin means TPK and Strahd might punish them, but let them live?
Ondřej Bacík
2024-09-20 09:45:24 +0000 UTCHappy to help! And that's basically a TPK, so I'd be very confused as to why the players might do that!
DragnaCarta
2024-09-20 02:56:37 +0000 UTCHi Dragna, first of all, thank you for all the hard work you are doing. You’re helping me a lot to make our CoS campaign shine :-) One simple question - What happens, if (during the heist) players simply give up to Volenta or Rahadin (as he asks them to lower weapons etc.) and just go to the jail and wait for Strahd? Sorry, if I just skipped that part somewhere, but I found no mentions about this option and it would change a lot (not having the skull, not rescuing Emil etc.). Thanks!
Ondřej Bacík
2024-09-19 14:51:56 +0000 UTCHrm; in that case, you might want to make Blinsky a bit of an artist, and have Izek collect artwork of Ireena instead of dolls. If Pidlwick II counts as a "doll/puppet," then you might want to try and figure something out there as well.
DragnaCarta
2024-08-30 16:50:31 +0000 UTCHey Dragna, that is a really good idea. Thank you so much for this advice! Can you recommend some ideas for a player that might have a fear of dolls or puppets in this module? I don't know if this idea helps but what if there's a category oder page for common triggers in the module and how a dm can deal with it? Just a random thought there :) - Love from the mists, Ray
DND Ravenloftenjoyer
2024-08-30 15:08:08 +0000 UTCHey Ray, and sorry for any difficulties! You'll mostly want to change the phase/giant spiders in Arc M - you can probably make them phase/giant serpents or something instead. You might also want to tweak the cocoon where the players find Pidlwick II in Arc P to a barred coffin or something. Hope this helps!
DragnaCarta
2024-08-30 12:40:59 +0000 UTCHey Dragna, so I´m a DM with arachnophobia (Some images are a bit hard for me). Is still possible to continue with my players in Arc 1 C? How can I change it up? What could be some options? Love from the mists, Ray
DND Ravenloftenjoyer
2024-08-29 22:24:49 +0000 UTCSounds like a reasonable change! Thanks for sharing the suggestion, and hope your players enjoy the siege :)
DragnaCarta
2024-08-23 18:45:32 +0000 UTCHi Dragna! I am prepping the Siege from Part B and the assault on the Eastern Barricade (B5e) doesn't mention the 5' wide x 5' deep trench with stakes that is described when the PCs arrive at the village in B5a. It seems unlikely that the (6) zombies would be able to deal with this and would simply fall in, skewering themselves prior to getting to the barricade. I'm going to address this via making an actual horde of a few dozen zombies enter on the first round and there are enough of them that the front ranks voluntarily walk into the trench and fill it such that those behind (6 per the module) can cross easily, as well as those undead in following rounds.
wolfgaidin
2024-08-23 15:59:43 +0000 UTCNo problem, thanks for the clarification :)
Louis Maieru
2024-08-15 14:41:43 +0000 UTCAbsolutely! And he's supposed to retreat once he activates the Amulet of Ravenloft, actually. I've just pushed a hotfix update clarifying this in the Heist section. Sorry for any confusion!
DragnaCarta
2024-08-15 12:08:50 +0000 UTCHey Dragna, thanks for the update! My players are planning the heist right now and are heading to Ravenloft in the next session. One Question, you might have answered already: Is Rahadin supposed to die?
Louis Maieru
2024-08-15 10:23:16 +0000 UTCThat sounds like a great idea! I'm not sure If I could drop it into the campaign bc once they complete the dinner arc they won't have much time in-game to go to argynvostholt because of the heist. But since the Sunsword is super important, I think that might be enough to convince them to visit before the heist. Thank you so much!
Tarun Sargunar
2024-08-12 07:00:41 +0000 UTCDang, that's unfortunate. My current plan to patch this in future updates is to have assorted NPCs (Fiona/Victor/Kasimir) tell them to go to Argynvostholt to learn more about the Sunsword reading (since the reading mentions/suggests the Amber Temple, and each of those NPCs can have heard/read that the Order once guarded the temple). Do you have enough time to drop that in now?
DragnaCarta
2024-08-10 05:01:11 +0000 UTC"Wachter" is actually the correct spelling! And no worries.
DragnaCarta
2024-08-06 12:41:47 +0000 UTCYou also have "WaCHter" instead of "Watcher" in several places :) Sorry for the desarticulate reports. I'm translating and rearranging the notes to fit my own style so it'll be slow coming.
Pyrosophy
2024-08-06 12:29:57 +0000 UTCI don't think they have forgotten because the revenants have been reminding them everytime they pass one, and I also had Ezmeralda mention it to them as well. I haven't asked them why they haven't visited, but honestly it just doesn't seem to interest them. I think it's probably because to them, it doesn't seem to have any connection to everything else that's going on in Barovia, even though it's pretty relevant. At this point it's a bit too late for them to go to Argynvostholt before the Dinner, but I'm trying to get them to go after the heist, and them (hopefully) stealing the skull and returning it. Then again, they wouldn't really know what the skull actually does, so I just don't really know what to do with the arc.
Tarun Sargunar
2024-08-06 04:23:00 +0000 UTCHuh, that's weird. Have you asked them why they haven't visited it yet? It's possible they've just forgotten.
DragnaCarta
2024-08-06 02:16:38 +0000 UTCHey Dragna, my players are about to head out for Dinner at Castle Ravenloft, but they haven't visited Argynvostholt, despite all the revenants mentioning it and encouraging them to go. To me, it seems like they're not too interested in going. Is that going to be a problem later on, and are there any other ways I can interest them in going? I just think it's a really cool arc, and I think they would enjoy it a lot.
Tarun Sargunar
2024-08-05 15:50:20 +0000 UTCHey! Sorry for the delayed response - it looks like Arc M is up right now, but let me know if you're still having any difficulty accessing it.
DragnaCarta
2024-08-05 11:45:47 +0000 UTCThanks for pointing that out! I'll take a look at it in the next update.
DragnaCarta
2024-08-05 11:44:37 +0000 UTCHey Dragna, I just noticed that on Arc B. - 5f. Parriwimple's Profile has a duplicate entry just below (https://www.strahdreloaded.com/Act+I+-+Into+the+Mists/Arc+B+-+Welcome+to+Barovia) Did you mean to put Bildrath's ? Thanks for the amazing guide !
Pyrosophy
2024-08-05 09:25:56 +0000 UTCI noticed that Arc M is unavailable, will it be up again soon?
Jaden James
2024-07-31 20:10:55 +0000 UTCHaha, that's great. I thought as much. Appreciate your work Dragna. My player are arriving in Vallaki in our next session. So I'm looking forward to seeing how they tackle it
Mikkel Hartvig
2024-07-31 11:41:49 +0000 UTCYup! She does a little revamping (pun intended).
DragnaCarta
2024-07-31 11:35:49 +0000 UTCIs Volenta supposed to have two different stat blocks. One during st. andrals and one during the heist?
Mikkel Hartvig
2024-07-30 20:05:07 +0000 UTCNo need to apologize! And the failing-forward content is largely built into the guide already (e.g., the hags imprison the PCs in the windmill if they TPK; Izek throws the PCs out of Vallaki if they pick a fight with him early), though some fights don't have fail-forward states (e.g., Leo Dilisnya in The Lost Soul). In general, however, 95% of the fights are balanced (using CR2.0 and playtesting) such that there's little chance of a TPK occurring in the first place, so there should be little reason for worry.
DragnaCarta
2024-07-28 23:31:25 +0000 UTCSorry if this has already been answered but in the contract it says that PCs can fail forward in the event of a TPK. Is there any ideas for how to implement this? Stuff like dark powers, strahd bailing them out, etc?
Dev K
2024-07-28 13:23:25 +0000 UTC♥
DragnaCarta
2024-07-23 01:42:43 +0000 UTCI just updated the Github over the weekend! Hopefully there shouldn't be any issues. Enjoy the new Arc B!
DragnaCarta
2024-07-23 01:42:38 +0000 UTCThank you very much for the kind words and support! Hope you enjoy the rest of the materials on the Patreon, including the Discord community :)
DragnaCarta
2024-07-23 01:42:13 +0000 UTCHot damn!
Caleb Cleveland
2024-07-21 00:07:14 +0000 UTCAre you waiting for the weekend hotfix which you mentioned before updating the github? The re-work for Arc B came just in time for my group to be finishing up Durst Manor. I expect to sign up at the start of next month. Thank you.
Jason Cavanaugh
2024-07-20 00:11:19 +0000 UTCI'm from colombia, i'm running this campaign for a time with my players, it's a great content and help for my campaign, I become a gold member to thank you.
Sagard du khoven
2024-07-19 22:59:43 +0000 UTCThanks so much!
Courtney DC
2024-07-19 21:56:53 +0000 UTCHoping to do it tomorrow once I've got an additional hotfix with a few more changes pushed out!
DragnaCarta
2024-07-19 20:03:33 +0000 UTCAny idea when we might see the github repo updated with the changes?
Boxfriend
2024-07-19 19:24:43 +0000 UTCHey! You should probably stick with the old version of Arc B, which is in the Deprecated Materials section of the website. It shouldn't cause any issues later on if you do that.
DragnaCarta
2024-07-19 19:13:02 +0000 UTCMy players are most of the way through Arc B at the moment, so I’m excited to see the changes but a bit nervous to see how this will affect the next session lol
Courtney DC
2024-07-19 18:52:55 +0000 UTCArt takes time! A delay honestly only makes hype for me go up because it means whoever is working on the project cares about it enough to not just shove it out there and really give it time in the oven, thank you again!
Orna Cosplay
2024-07-19 18:21:48 +0000 UTCThank you! Very sorry for the delay, but I'm glad you like the finished product. Enjoy!
DragnaCarta
2024-07-19 18:13:13 +0000 UTCAnother Dragna classic, I’ve been wanting to run a guest for quite a while now for my players, but was holding out for this and I’m not disappointed
Orna Cosplay
2024-07-19 17:52:41 +0000 UTCThank you! And I'm hoping to do so in a hotfix over the weekend, so stay tuned!
DragnaCarta
2024-07-19 17:44:06 +0000 UTCGreat stuff as always, I really appreciate all the effort you put into this. My players are having a great time! One request I do have is if you could add a bestiary to the appendix to make it easier to find all the custom stat blocks?
David Iooss
2024-07-19 17:31:18 +0000 UTC<3 Hope you enjoy!
DragnaCarta
2024-07-19 17:25:36 +0000 UTCThank you! I'm so glad to hear. Hope the campaign continues to go well!
DragnaCarta
2024-07-19 17:25:29 +0000 UTCHere we go. Can't wait to go trough this new masterpiece.
Damian Atlas
2024-07-19 17:16:30 +0000 UTCYou are the undisputed goat. Been using this guide to run my first campaign for my friends and they absolutely love it. Keep it up, dawg.
Luke Myers
2024-07-19 17:12:58 +0000 UTC
