I read about Ravenloft before, and I liked it. It wasn't a really long dungeon crawl (though the castle itself factors very heavily, of course), and it had a huge host of memorable characters and quests.
That's why I figured I'd pick this book up - and I wasn't sorry, since the maps and tactical encounter format are all great.
However... the book has a couple snags that I can't get over.
First of all, there really aren't ANY 'conclusion' notes or scenarios - not a one. Sure, the book tells us how to fight and destroy the zombie plague, but what happens afterward? I can assume, but I'd like more.
If anyone's already run the campaign - or could figure out what happens - I'd like to know.
1. First of all, what happens when the party defeats Strahd? The book says to refer to 'concluding the adventure', but there is no such section.
2. The encounter with the witches seems sort of unsatisfying, as do the rest of the Fane encounterse. "Great, we severed the connection." There doesn't seem to be any tangible effect for the PCs unless they already tried to fight Strahd.
3. Except for the Tome of Strahd's description, there never seems to be any sort of attraction from Strahd to Ireena. I don't think he ever makes it clear at all, even if it is part of his grand master plan.
What should I do?
I ran into similar problems when I ran this for my group. I'll address your questions in order.
1. Well, the original module has the castle disappear, Castlevania-style, and Sergio's ghost shows up, restores Ireena's memories of being Tatyana, and the two of them go to the afterlife, regardless of whether Ireena was alive or dead at that point.
I didn't do that. I had the castle remain standing and the intelligent mosters who weren't bound to the castle (mostly the Necromancer and her minons, as the party hadn't dealt with her by the time they defeated Strahd) flee, taking as much unclaimed treasure as they could carry. The party then finished cleaning out the castle and collecting the remaining treasure. They're currently trying to get their paladin (who took the Knight of the Raven prestige class) elevated to the peerage so she can claim the castle as her own, and rebuild the Order of the Raven. I'm getting ready to finish my conversion of "Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill" so I can run them through that next.
2. I didn't do the "hag's blood" fane quests, I did the "ritual to steal Strahd's buffs" quests instead, and they were equally unsatisfying. My problem with both the nymph and hag encounters is that there is most likely not a cleric in town who can restore blinded or petrified characters, so the nymph's and hag's aura and gaze attacks are more fatal than I think they were intended to be. Also, the Caller in Darkness's "Death Urge" ability is stupidly powerful, considering how easy it is for a character to coup de grace themselves while the rest of the party isn't looking. I'm not sure what to do about these issues.
As for showing how powerful Strahd is before the buffs are neutralized, you're right - you basically need the party to encounter Strahd and get owned early in the game, but without an actual TPK. I was using the "Strahd's Dynasty" option, so I decided that, in the first half of the game, Strahd was trying to both test and train the party, to make sure they would be "worthy" to be "elevated" to vampire-hood during the second half, when Strahd began to realize that the party was a real threat and stopped messing around. So, in the first part of the game, Strahd basically let the party beat ineffectually on him for a few rounds, then dropped a nasty - but not fatal - spell and misted out, laughing.
3. Strahd's attraction to Ireena is one of those things you can really only get across in roleplaying. When you're portraying Strahd, be as creepy, lascivious, and stalker-y as you can when talking about Ireena. Have him go off on tangents praising her beauty, and have him make offhand references to intimate details about her daily life. If the party is talking to Strahd in the castle and Ireena is with them, have him keep drifting over to her and doing things like stroking her hair or running one fingertip along her upper arm until someone stops him.
Of course, this is all assuming that he's not insane. If he is... uh... have him write her name on the castle walls in his feces?
I actually kind of like the original ending you describe. Was that from the original Ravenloft module for AD&D?
Depending on just how far the party goes through the castle, I guess I might have to leave it standing - but the way I've used the book, the entire lands of Barovia are a lot more inaccessible and reserved from the rest of the world (Khorvaire in my case).
As for the Fane encounters, my party just finished the zombie plague and hasn't even made it to Madam Eva.
Judging by Valicia's Blindness ability (which is always on), things will be especially hard for my party since they lack a healer (we just have another necromancer instead of a cleric. Yay). Same goes for the hags' abilities.
I suppose one great way to remedy both of these (a remedy which I plan to implement) is to have them enter Strahd's castle a mite early. Rather than send them in at a climactic moment (I suppose after he makes a big, dashing move), I'll have them enter right before they meet up with Eva, using the dinner encounter.
I'm still kind of confused about the Hags. Why (and how) does Madam Eva (or anyone) reveal their location and information? Unless they've heard about their gatherings from others, or one of the Key Items happens to be there, I'm not sure how they could possibly 'stumble upon' the hags in the middle of a huge ceremony without it being a huge cop-out for the players.