DragnaCarta
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Curse of Strahd Reloaded Update: Into Tsolenka Pass
🕑 Added 2024-10-14 12:34:11 +0000 UTCI'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
Comments
DragnaCarta
Hey! I'm actively working on Arc R: Trials of the Mountain, and should have it released soon. After that, you can find drafts, outlines, and notes for the unreleased arcs by joining the Patreon as a paid member.
DragnaCarta
Hey! I'd like to eventually accommodate the 2024 rules in the guide, but I doubt I'll have the time to do it until the full guide is complete, which won't be until the end of February at the earliest. (I haven't even read the new 2024 PHB yet.) Sorry!
CaptiveCreepa
I've been playing Reloaded since Late March/early April. I'm currently 25 sessions in and am just about to head to Yester Hill. I feel like they're going to speed through the rest of the arcs, so I've done some mental calculations. I roughly got 9 sessions left until they do the beacon lighting. What should I do when we reach the end? Should I use your older guide or something like that? Thank you for everything.
Ryan Kelleher
Hi! I was wondering with the new 2024 DM Guide coming out and the new Bastions rules, do you think there's a place for those in this campaign and, if so, do you plan on putting that information out (as if you aren't busy enough)?
Andy Coupe
Thank you, that's great! Good luck!!
DragnaCarta
Thanks for the kind words, and welcome to Barovia! I'm currently hoping to finish Arc R: Trials of the Mountain by the end of this month (I'm 25,000 words into an estimated 35,000-word total), Arc S: The Amber Temple by the end of November, Arc T: Dreams of Dawn by the end of January, and Arc U: The Curse of Strahd by the end of February. We'll see how well I can stick to that plan, though!
Andy Coupe
Hi. Thanks for all the amazing work you have done!! I am just about to start a Strahd Reloaded campaign, and am very much looking forward to it - what is your current timescale for completion of all the acts?
DragnaCarta
They don't exist, sorry! I didn't invent goal diagrams until after I'd already finished most of Act III.
Rémy Guilmain
Hi Where I find the goal diagram (obsidian) for Act II et III please
Simone Stellin
Thank you, and thanks to the Patreon member for the rebalancing!
DragnaCarta
I imagine the player would have to form the telepathic bond with Strahd if they didn't want to break the rules! Remember that Strahd is going to be using detect thoughts here - if the player starts communicating telepathically, he'll know.
DragnaCarta
Thank you! And the rebalancing for different party sizes is generously done by a volunteer member of the Patreon; since I only add those with editing updates, they tend to lag behind the main publications by a month or two. And your English is very good! No need to apologize at all. Thanks for the question!
DragnaCarta
It's certainly not cancelled! It's just been deprioritized because it's an optional downtime arc - I expect to release it with or after the epilogue.
crabcakes01
The game is cool, but I have a player who can form a telepathic bond pr much at will. How do yall think strahd would react if the players revealed that it would be unavoidable for them to break the 'no coordination' rule in that manner?
Rafael Morandini
Is Tales of Vallaki cancelled as an arc, or are you focusing on the 'main story' before getting back to it?
Simone Stellin
Love the little updates like the last ones! I'm confused about something in the last arc: usually the encounters have options for smaller parties (how to balance the fight) in the last one there aren't for the fight against the Abbot or Kiril. Is it because now the npcs helping the party are enough even for smaller parties? (I'm Dming for a party of 3, occasionaly 4 players) sorry for the inconvenience. P.S. Sorry if there are errors english is not my first language 😅
