Castle Ravenloft [Archive] - Wizards Community

Castle Ravenloft [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
epifreak
11-16-07, 10:24 PM Okay, so I'm running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (obviously, given the title), and I'm running into a bit of a stumbling block: the body count.

The characters have recently put a stop to the undead infestation of Barovia and are currently trying to figure out what to do next. They've more or less decided to go try to hunt down the sunsword and try to kill Strahd. Hopefully for them, they'll take my hints about the Holy Symbol as well, but whatever, it's their characters.

But I digress. The body count is causing me some issues. To date, the entire first party has died sans one, including Ashlyn. The player of the survivor deemed that the survivor was driven insane by the stress and similarity to a backstory event he had. Mainly, he didn't want to be stuck with a lvl. 8 character in a lvl. 6 party. Subsequently, one other party member has been driven insane (I inserted a Ravenloft-style madness check in place of the heroes of horror add for reading Danovich's journal. I admit that I set the save DC several points too high and have apologized to the player for doing so, but he's cool with it and has already thrown in a new character. To make matters worse, the same madness save was failed horribly by the NPC that was essentially the party's link to the outside world, and he now lays in the inn in a coma. The new character was a mountaineer in the mountains surrounding Barovia who got lost in the fog and wandered into town by accident.

Before Tobias (the NPC link) went comatose, I had an easy flow of backup characters, as the government for which the characters work presumably has a large number of agents. Now, though, with their link to the outside world gone, I have no easy way of bringing in replacement characters should the need arise. I've already burned my deus ex machina lost woodsman for the campaign ;) Any ideas?

Oh, and for those interested, the first party and Ashlyn all died at the church. They planned out an elaborate battle plan which probably would have worked quite well. The rogue scaled the building and prepared to sneak attack Danovich through one of the holes in the roof. The others were to quickly bust into all the side rooms on the top story and deal with those threats quickly before they all checked out the undercroft together. Plan made, they all rolled initiative, and the rogue put some sever hurt on old Danovich before he knew what hit him. He died before he had a chance to do more than fire off a hold person at the rogue. 3/4 of the party members followed the plan and hit their rooms. The fighter, on the other hand, ignored the plan, tried to charge Danovich, failed his reflex save, and fell through the hole in the floor. He was dead and zombified within 3 rounds.

The party began utilizing the elevation to their advantage and firing down into the undercroft while summoning monsters down there to keep the undead at bay. Eventually Ashlyn (who was already doomed due to a failed save on a Vargouille's kiss and knew it) chose to sacrifice herself in the hopes of accomplishing something more effective than pumping the undead full of ineffectual bolts and dove on top of the big guy smiting in the process. The rest of the party decided to go out in a blaze of glory, hopefully purging the evil in the process rather than return two members shy and defeated. They didn't succeed, though they did heavily wound most of the undead left standing. The rogue chose to run back to the inn to relate the story of what had happened to Bravo team. The backup team did cakewalk their way through the church due to the first team's valiant efforts, so bully for them.

So for those keeping score, that's:
PCs: 3 dead, 2 insane (the rogue reverted to childhood, due in large part to having watched as a young lad, his family be butchered by undead, and the duskblade in B team is now suffering amnesia for the last 40 years or so of his life)
NPCs: 1 dead, 1 insane and comotose (suicidal tendencies for those curious), and Sir Urik sitting at about 3 wisdom now, rambling about his pretty bird. I honestly don't know how the writers expected him to be of any use. His battle strategy was to run into the mass of spectral undead and wait impotently as they knocked him into a coma. He should prove useful in about a week :rolleyes:
Rechan
11-16-07, 10:56 PM Funny. I know a DM running this, and he says that his PCs have just plowed through it with barely any problems at all. But he said that the action points, good rolls and a pesky warforged artificer have been keeping the PCs alive.

One suggestion that he had was to make all the PCs Soulbound. Basically their destinies were intertwined, and if a PC died, one of the other members of the group could chose to raise him. When the dead PC was suddenly raised, the one who raised him was Marked, and now could no longer raise anyone. This made them stick together, and also choose wisely if they want to bring someone back, as it's a one shot deal.
pukunui
11-17-07, 04:39 AM Funny. I know a DM running this, and he says that his PCs have just plowed through it with barely any problems at all. But he said that the action points, good rolls and a pesky warforged artificer have been keeping the PCs alive.

One suggestion that he had was to make all the PCs Soulbound. Basically their destinies were intertwined, and if a PC died, one of the other members of the group could chose to raise him. When the dead PC was suddenly raised, the one who raised him was Marked, and now could no longer raise anyone. This made them stick together, and also choose wisely if they want to bring someone back, as it's a one shot deal.
Is that "soulbound" thing an actual game mechanic from somewhere or is it something the guy made up? It sounds quite intriguing and could be something my group might like to try.
Rechan
11-17-07, 06:24 AM Is that "soulbound" thing an actual game mechanic from somewhere or is it something the guy made up? It sounds quite intriguing and could be something my group might like to try.

Original. :)
kelvinaw273
11-17-07, 06:32 AM Hmm ... how about doing something unusual?

For example, the reclusive druid in the forest sends his bat animal companion into the castle to collect a fragment from each of the characters, and he then reincarnates them all. After a few days healing and re-equipping, they can have another go ... sans their original gear, unfortunately.

Or, jump ahead a few years - another agent is sent to recruit another party. They can find the lunatic in the tavern, and extract information from his ravings about what has happened.

Just a few suggestions ...
thaylok
11-17-07, 10:50 AM I will be running this module in a campaign next year sometime (alternating DM's/Campaigns). So this thread is useful to more than yourself. Thanks for posting it.

I can see the players asking why the druid and familiar weren't' used originally. This is my explanation: The town council hired the druid to do this task, and they would have used it before had the druid been available. He only just recently made himself known. The town council kept some of the belongings of the PC's for whatever strange reason, so that something with the Scent ability could track the PC's. This could be the sheets from their beds, clothes worn, hankies/napkins used...

Next question/complaint of the players: How would a bat be able to recognize the PC's dead corpses? You could very well use a Wolf or other companion which has Scent.

Now, another solution, One which I've used in other campaigns. Let's assume that the PC who's lying in the inn has some strange hair fetish, and has secretly nipped a lock or two from each players before they died. He/she periodically takes a fresh bit of hair (every other level or so). This can be used to Res the party. Since the hair isn't necessarily new, it can be used to drop the PC's by 2 or more levels if you so choose. Or, you can use fresh hair for only 1 level loss. Of course, equiping the newly alive and naked PC's is the next problem.

We actually had a Dragon Disciple in the party who willingly gave EVERY other member of the party a scale (every level) to be used to bring him back. He also kept a bank account where the other PC's could garner the money needed to ressurect him. This works best if your character is intelligent enough to do so. The previous hair fetish works if they aren't
epifreak
11-17-07, 01:02 PM Thanks for the responses, guys. I especially like the fastforward option. I've come to the conclusion that I'm beginning to strain the bounds of credulity with the continual addition of PCs to the party.
pukunui
11-17-07, 03:17 PM Original. :)
Oh ok. I thought it sounded kind of Incarnum-ish, so I looked in there but could only find a "soulbound" thing for armor and weapons. Oh well. Thanks anyway.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
epifreak 11-16-07, 10:24 PM	Okay, so I'm running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (obviously, given the title), and I'm running into a bit of a stumbling block: the body count. The characters have recently put a stop to the undead infestation of Barovia and are currently trying to figure out what to do next. They've more or less decided to go try to hunt down the sunsword and try to kill Strahd. Hopefully for them, they'll take my hints about the Holy Symbol as well, but whatever, it's their characters. But I digress. The body count is causing me some issues. To date, the entire first party has died sans one, including Ashlyn. The player of the survivor deemed that the survivor was driven insane by the stress and similarity to a backstory event he had. Mainly, he didn't want to be stuck with a lvl. 8 character in a lvl. 6 party. Subsequently, one other party member has been driven insane (I inserted a Ravenloft-style madness check in place of the heroes of horror add for reading Danovich's journal. I admit that I set the save DC several points too high and have apologized to the player for doing so, but he's cool with it and has already thrown in a new character. To make matters worse, the same madness save was failed horribly by the NPC that was essentially the party's link to the outside world, and he now lays in the inn in a coma. The new character was a mountaineer in the mountains surrounding Barovia who got lost in the fog and wandered into town by accident. Before Tobias (the NPC link) went comatose, I had an easy flow of backup characters, as the government for which the characters work presumably has a large number of agents. Now, though, with their link to the outside world gone, I have no easy way of bringing in replacement characters should the need arise. I've already burned my deus ex machina lost woodsman for the campaign ;) Any ideas? Oh, and for those interested, the first party and Ashlyn all died at the church. They planned out an elaborate battle plan which probably would have worked quite well. The rogue scaled the building and prepared to sneak attack Danovich through one of the holes in the roof. The others were to quickly bust into all the side rooms on the top story and deal with those threats quickly before they all checked out the undercroft together. Plan made, they all rolled initiative, and the rogue put some sever hurt on old Danovich before he knew what hit him. He died before he had a chance to do more than fire off a hold person at the rogue. 3/4 of the party members followed the plan and hit their rooms. The fighter, on the other hand, ignored the plan, tried to charge Danovich, failed his reflex save, and fell through the hole in the floor. He was dead and zombified within 3 rounds. The party began utilizing the elevation to their advantage and firing down into the undercroft while summoning monsters down there to keep the undead at bay. Eventually Ashlyn (who was already doomed due to a failed save on a Vargouille's kiss and knew it) chose to sacrifice herself in the hopes of accomplishing something more effective than pumping the undead full of ineffectual bolts and dove on top of the big guy smiting in the process. The rest of the party decided to go out in a blaze of glory, hopefully purging the evil in the process rather than return two members shy and defeated. They didn't succeed, though they did heavily wound most of the undead left standing. The rogue chose to run back to the inn to relate the story of what had happened to Bravo team. The backup team did cakewalk their way through the church due to the first team's valiant efforts, so bully for them. So for those keeping score, that's: PCs: 3 dead, 2 insane (the rogue reverted to childhood, due in large part to having watched as a young lad, his family be butchered by undead, and the duskblade in B team is now suffering amnesia for the last 40 years or so of his life) NPCs: 1 dead, 1 insane and comotose (suicidal tendencies for those curious), and Sir Urik sitting at about 3 wisdom now, rambling about his pretty bird. I honestly don't know how the writers expected him to be of any use. His battle strategy was to run into the mass of spectral undead and wait impotently as they knocked him into a coma. He should prove useful in about a week :rolleyes:
Rechan 11-16-07, 10:56 PM	Funny. I know a DM running this, and he says that his PCs have just plowed through it with barely any problems at all. But he said that the action points, good rolls and a pesky warforged artificer have been keeping the PCs alive. One suggestion that he had was to make all the PCs Soulbound. Basically their destinies were intertwined, and if a PC died, one of the other members of the group could chose to raise him. When the dead PC was suddenly raised, the one who raised him was Marked, and now could no longer raise anyone. This made them stick together, and also choose wisely if they want to bring someone back, as it's a one shot deal.
pukunui 11-17-07, 04:39 AM	Funny. I know a DM running this, and he says that his PCs have just plowed through it with barely any problems at all. But he said that the action points, good rolls and a pesky warforged artificer have been keeping the PCs alive. One suggestion that he had was to make all the PCs Soulbound. Basically their destinies were intertwined, and if a PC died, one of the other members of the group could chose to raise him. When the dead PC was suddenly raised, the one who raised him was Marked, and now could no longer raise anyone. This made them stick together, and also choose wisely if they want to bring someone back, as it's a one shot deal. Is that "soulbound" thing an actual game mechanic from somewhere or is it something the guy made up? It sounds quite intriguing and could be something my group might like to try.
Rechan 11-17-07, 06:24 AM	Is that "soulbound" thing an actual game mechanic from somewhere or is it something the guy made up? It sounds quite intriguing and could be something my group might like to try. Original. :)
kelvinaw273 11-17-07, 06:32 AM	Hmm ... how about doing something unusual? For example, the reclusive druid in the forest sends his bat animal companion into the castle to collect a fragment from each of the characters, and he then reincarnates them all. After a few days healing and re-equipping, they can have another go ... sans their original gear, unfortunately. Or, jump ahead a few years - another agent is sent to recruit another party. They can find the lunatic in the tavern, and extract information from his ravings about what has happened. Just a few suggestions ...
thaylok 11-17-07, 10:50 AM	I will be running this module in a campaign next year sometime (alternating DM's/Campaigns). So this thread is useful to more than yourself. Thanks for posting it. I can see the players asking why the druid and familiar weren't' used originally. This is my explanation: The town council hired the druid to do this task, and they would have used it before had the druid been available. He only just recently made himself known. The town council kept some of the belongings of the PC's for whatever strange reason, so that something with the Scent ability could track the PC's. This could be the sheets from their beds, clothes worn, hankies/napkins used... Next question/complaint of the players: How would a bat be able to recognize the PC's dead corpses? You could very well use a Wolf or other companion which has Scent. Now, another solution, One which I've used in other campaigns. Let's assume that the PC who's lying in the inn has some strange hair fetish, and has secretly nipped a lock or two from each players before they died. He/she periodically takes a fresh bit of hair (every other level or so). This can be used to Res the party. Since the hair isn't necessarily new, it can be used to drop the PC's by 2 or more levels if you so choose. Or, you can use fresh hair for only 1 level loss. Of course, equiping the newly alive and naked PC's is the next problem. We actually had a Dragon Disciple in the party who willingly gave EVERY other member of the party a scale (every level) to be used to bring him back. He also kept a bank account where the other PC's could garner the money needed to ressurect him. This works best if your character is intelligent enough to do so. The previous hair fetish works if they aren't
epifreak 11-17-07, 01:02 PM	Thanks for the responses, guys. I especially like the fastforward option. I've come to the conclusion that I'm beginning to strain the bounds of credulity with the continual addition of PCs to the party.
pukunui 11-17-07, 03:17 PM	Original. :) Oh ok. I thought it sounded kind of Incarnum-ish, so I looked in there but could only find a "soulbound" thing for armor and weapons. Oh well. Thanks anyway.