My Barovia Campaign

[Fido]

I've been running a campaign in Barovia for the last... year I think... (damn, time flies) Now, I've come a bit at a choke point and I don't know how to carry on.

My group of PC's consists of:

A Sithican elf, who doesn't know much about his history, except that he has been banished from his homeworld for -some- reason. He's two steps down the Path of Corruption and is slowly turning into a wereraven. He has grown small feathers in his hair, he has become extremely fast and agile and his eyes have turned to black. I might give him a claw attack next time.
A Paladin of Ezra from Mordent
A Knight of the Raven (from EtCR) and cleric of Ezra
and a female Rogue


So far:

The group has helped the Gundarakite resistance in Zeidenburg and Teufeldorf and has helped in the assassination of the Zeidenburg burgomaster (Jacenty Girghiu, or whatever) so Gundarakite peasants could live properly.

The Paladin in the group has met a Ravenkin eating a corpse. He slew the bird and now has a debt to pay to these creatures. The group found the Symbol of Ravenkind on the dead Ravenkin and now has this in its possession. To settle the debt, they must bring the holy symbol to the Blood o' the Vine Inn in Barovia and give it to some contact.
I know, I used the Symbol of Ravenkind here, contradicting canon. I don't care. :p

The Sithican Elf has proven his worth with the bow by competing in a few archery contests. He always lost to an NPC called Lipton. Lipton always won contests, has a cloak made from the golden feathers he always wins and has made fun of the elf at several occasions.

They met a robber called Estiban (from Champions of Darkness). This guy stole their pistols and also made fun of them a bit.

Later on, the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind was stolen from them by darklings sent by Strahd. They got away with this, having encased the Symbol in a heavy chest.

They came to the town of Vallaki, where they learned that the Holy Symbol could only be taken out of the chest with explosives. Only one man would know enough about explosives to assist them with this task: Estiban, of course. Estiban was imprisoned in Vallaki. Lipton was also seen in Vallaki, near the prison. Turns out they were brothers.

The group rescued Estiban from the prison, is now on the run from the law and has Estiban in their midst. Their chasing the darklings to Barovia.

The cleric was suddenly missing when they awoke in the inn. All of his clothing was still in the room. I solo'ed this part with the cleric character. He woke up in a room in Castle Ravenloft (in a wardrobe). When he looked in a mirror, he saw that he had aged 20 years. He met a dominated woman from the town of Barovia in the castle. He also met the Knight of the Raven ghost woman, who taught him about being a Knight of the Raven. After this, he was found by the Count. Strahd picked him up, told him to go tell his friends to leave the land and threw him off the walls of the castle. There was no crash, so the group will find this character dangling from a tree or something.


My Problem Where the hell next?
I want to play the EtCR adventure a bit, but my PC's are only like level 7. I want to throw them around a bit, first. If they enter the castle, they'll get slaughtered. Their mission was also to just bring the symbol to the Blood o' the Vine, nothing more. Maybe some Keeper of the Black Feather could give them an assignment? Maybe I could use a different item that is now lost in Sithicus? Any suggestions?


I could go to Sithicus, but I don't know about that. How do I get there? Strahd wouldn't decide to throw the Symbol of Ravenkind in there, right? I guess he would just keep it in his basement.

I also want to visit Mordent, maybe. Just to make the paladin guy feel special. I also want to do something special for the Rogue character.

I might want to use a Vistani tarokka reading, but I don't know how to handle this. Do I stack the cards or do I go with the flow and pull stuff out of my hat?


Ideas? Gawd, I'm desperate.

(edit: ffs, longest post ever. Thanks for reading this far...)

[Charney]

Well I'd say, if you want to run EtCR, do it. You seem to have taken the party right at the spot you needed to make them run the adventure.

From what I read, Strahd has the holy symbol so the PCs need to get it back to the Blood o'Wine so that's a good enough reason to enter the castle. They are slightly too low level but at worst make the encounters less deadly. Or have the Keepers of the Black Feather give the PCs some extra protection for their mission.

About the Tarrokka reading, you can always modifie it. For instance, look inside the castle for appropriate locations (3 or 4)where Strahd might hide the Holy symbol. Some of these locations might already be noted in the module. Have the PCs draw the cards to determine at random where it is and if it will be dangerous or not to get it (having penalties or not).

You could even throw Ireena/Tatiana in the mix to give them more motivation.

I hope that helps, I'm planing on running it myself.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Check the netbook Chilling Encounters for some neat ideas on somethin alike "The Snow Qeen of Barovia". That might help.

[Lord Cyclohexane]

I dunno, you could easily sidetrack things right from where you left off. You just had the cleric thrown from the walls of Castle Ravenloft, so he's fallen, what, several thousand feet? You've arranged it so he survives, but perhaps not without gaining a serious phobia against heights; there's no way he's going back into Castle Ravenloft.

So, the group asks the Keepers what to do. Well, since the cleric is one of Ezra, perhaps only one of the chief clerics of Ezra can heal this damage of the mind. Party is sent to the Home Faith in Borca (right next door, so it works out), gets in a bunch of trouble there only to find out that the Home Faith can't do anything anyway, and ends up checking out the LG Sect in Mordent, who are the only ones who can help.

This'd give the good opportunity for Cleric of Ezra and the Rogue while in Borca. Then progressing on to Mordent would give the Paladin his chance to shine. Meanwhile, the PCs are upping their levels in this quest to heal the Cleric, such that, by the time he's healed, they're up to the level required to start EtCR.

Yay, subquests!

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

If you want to go to Sithicus, use NecrotiCarny's idea and say he can only be cured with some sort of exotic herb or magic flower only grown by the elves of Sithicus...

[Fido]

I dunno, you could easily sidetrack things right from where you left off. You just had the cleric thrown from the walls of Castle Ravenloft, so he's fallen, what, several thousand feet? You've arranged it so he survives, but perhaps not without gaining a serious phobia against heights; there's no way he's going back into Castle Ravenloft.

So, the group asks the Keepers what to do. Well, since the cleric is one of Ezra, perhaps only one of the chief clerics of Ezra can heal this damage of the mind. Party is sent to the Home Faith in Borca (right next door, so it works out), gets in a bunch of trouble there only to find out that the Home Faith can't do anything anyway, and ends up checking out the LG Sect in Mordent, who are the only ones who can help.

This'd give the good opportunity for Cleric of Ezra and the Rogue while in Borca. Then progressing on to Mordent would give the Paladin his chance to shine. Meanwhile, the PCs are upping their levels in this quest to heal the Cleric, such that, by the time he's healed, they're up to the level required to start EtCR.

Yay, subquests!

I love you.

[Le Noir Faineant]

I love you, too.

[Lord Cyclohexane]

(snip: my ideas)

Yay, subquests!

I love you.

... ...

Glad I could help!

[CorvusCornix]

I might want to use a Vistani tarokka reading, but I don't know how to handle this. Do I stack the cards or do I go with the flow and pull stuff out of my hat?

I always stack the deck - if you don't know the meaning of each and every card by heart I guess it's extremely difficult to give a good reading without preparation.
However, I try to make the players think the deck wasn't stacked: I give them the deck to shuffle, but keep the 5 cards for the reading hidden in my hand and add them to the top when they return the deck to me.

[Ail]

I might want to use a Vistani tarokka reading, but I don't know how to handle this. Do I stack the cards or do I go with the flow and pull stuff out of my hat?

I always stack the deck - if you don't know the meaning of each and every card by heart I guess it's extremely difficult to give a good reading without preparation.
However, I try to make the players think the deck wasn't stacked: I give them the deck to shuffle, but keep the 5 cards for the reading hidden in my hand and add them to the top when they return the deck to me.

I did two readings in my campaign. For the second one, I merely chose the cards I wanted in front of the players saying without calling for any mystery and for lots of suspension of disbelief.

But I only did this because I already had done my first time. And for that one, I really had studied a Tarot course (I used a Tarot deck) and had a fair grasping of the meaning of all 78 cards, so I did a live reading and tried to accomodate what came out to what I knew from the campaign and the players. It came out pretty accurate.

Alex

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Doing a real reading can be very rewarding, but very difficult. It helps to know the meanings of the cards, but it helps even more to be able to improv. Seize on stuff in the pictures that relates to what you really want to say. Most stuff on the cards is vague enough to twist however you like. Remember that if the picture doesn't do anything for you, use the number, or the suit. And who knows, you might find some inspiraration in the reading you didn't expect. I had a card in one reading that I couldn't explain, so I had to make up a whole new NPC to fit the reading.