Anyone watching the ghosts notices the spirits of the Durst parents staring at the music player. Covering the hottest movie and TV topics that fans want. 2023 Elven Tower Cartography. Well cover some of the changes that I make when Im running this dungeon for my groups later in this article. Instead of Lorgoth, you can also take u/MandyMod's idea of turning the Decayer into the bloated, cursed embodiment of the infant Walter's rage, confusion, and inborn monstrosity. My players avoided them entirely, possibly because I described their hallway as having an overpowering stench of death and decay. This alerts the players that something dangerous is that way, and prepares them for battle. Nothing will prepare your players for what lurks inside. You are correct about how death works in Curse of Strahd. You are also setting the scene for a probably unwinnable fight. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[728,90],'tabletopjoab_com-banner-1','ezslot_7',126,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-tabletopjoab_com-banner-1-0');The Death House is meant for a group of four level 1 characters. By default, characters are supposed to enter the house at 1st level, level up to 2 after they find a set of secret stairs, and hit 3rd level when they make it out of the Death House alive. 12. Hey dude, where are letter 2 and 3 in death house? Give little clues or observations that are simply meant to unnerve the players. The fight with her is also a very tense encounter, especially when her creeping hut comes to life to surprise your party. (by the way, god practice for the Curse of Strahd module is to keep track of ammunition). By the end of the dungeon, the characters will be level 3. The goal is to lure the party into the house. Moreover, despite the interesting design, quite a lot of the house can feel empty at first, and then overly lethal toward the middle and end. The Death House is actually a very challenging dungeon. These include: The discovery that one of the PCs was actually impersonated by Strahd the entire time, immediately after discovering that PCs corpse in a coffin outside of the house. The smoke worked great as a way to keep them moving. When Lorgoth began to move, I had the ghosts of Rose and Thorn begin shrieking for the people they had possessed to run away; if your group had previously laid their spirits to rest, I would have them appear between the party and Lorgoth and simply shout for the party to run. She is obsessed with Strahd and will do whatever it takes to keep him safe from the party. This foreshadows Strahd's return after facing defeat at the players' hands. Letter two is in the 3rd Floor master suite, in MrsDursts jewelry box. (Quick side note: stop them from immediately going to the Bonegrinder. Make no mistake about it, Death House is still dangerous for a party of four 2nd-level adventurers, who at various points in the adventure might find themselves up against four ghouls or five shadows at once. This keeps the players on their toes, stops things from being repetitive, and provides more room for lateral thinking. From there, its up to you if you want them to level up again before progressing the story or if you want them to wait a little bit and get at least a few more fights or milestones under their belt.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'tabletopjoab_com-leader-2','ezslot_22',137,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-tabletopjoab_com-leader-2-0'); Pay special attention to describing the various things that the party can find and interact with. Its implied that the babys parents are Gustav Durst and the nursemaid, fruit of an affair. PCs can find a Cloak of Protection as treasure, plus a spellbook. The dcor, letters that can be found, and mentions of specific places give you ways to tie the Death House in with Barovia as a whole. Maybe as a specter, she now desires vengeance more than anything else and mourns for her son. Well and Cultist Quarters.- In these rooms theres some treasure to be found. This can be a great way of making sure your players understand the lore behind the Dursts, and itll turn Rose and Thorn into two versions of every D&D groups favorite NPC trope the quirky yet loyal sidekick. Its almost as difficult and disturbing as the Old Bonegrinder in the same adventure! In reality it doesnt matter what or who dies on the altar. Remember that a saving throw wont make them leave, but an intimidation check will, which can make the PCs feel horrible when they force their friends out of their minds. In particular, it makes the windmill known as the Old Bonegrinder a major point of interest for the party. Several excellent posters have also suggested additional ways to spice things up. Even (especially) the most ambitious of travelers have been crushed into dust by the horrors of this land. When Death House is rejected, it gets mad. Most Barovians steer clear of this location, where they are likely to get lost in the muddy, misty marshes and even encounter terrifying scarecrows. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window). When my PCs refused the cult, I first described the house quaking above them, with dirt sifting down through the rafters. Monster design is good, but we have to re-skin the description a bit. Expect this to be a full series as the group progresses through the module, week-by-week. ), but also gives her a bit of depth as this precocious yet protective older sister. You can see the tendrils grip on the walls tighten with crushing force. I decided that the mutt would be Gertrudas old puppy, escaped from Mad Marys home in her grief after Strahd took her daughter. There is lots of foreshadowing for the story to come. Honestly, few spooky things should have an explanation. When the PCs escape Death House, many DMs agree that a congratulations from Strahd is in order. Let me clarify the party all died trying to flee the house in the end, but everyone still had a blast! As written, the nursemaid is not only a lethal character who could potentially destroy a 1st- or 2nd-level adventurer with fewhit points with her Life Drain ability, but shes also a horror trope the cast aside, wronged woman who returns as a vengeful ghost. However, this is more a set of skill challenges than combat. For starters, that kind of monster is completely out of place here. Give them your quest hook and get them into Barovia. Death House is a modern Dungeons & Dragons horror classic. my article on running horror in your own D&D 5e games! It is a very fun encounter against an enemy who cannot be beaten. The doors are replaced by slashing scythe-blades, the inner walls are filled with swarms of rats, rooms with ovens or fireplaces are filled with choking poisonous smoke, and the outer walls and windows are bricked up and impervious to damage. He is the Land." Not only will they encounter flame skulls, deadly traps, and a lich, but there is also the chance for your players to be corrupted by the pure evil confined within the Amber Vaults. Chef Feat in D&D 5e Explained | Useful or Pie in the Sky? You want this to be fun, scary, and challenging. I advice to treat these children like a simulacrum-like spell. Each seemed to depict an adventurer of some type. She sells Dream Pastries to the locals in the nearby village of Barovia but holds a sinister secret. Heading further up Mount Ghakis, it is also freezing cold at night. Curse Of Strahd is one of the best campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons. Tsolenka Pass is relatively isolated from the rest of Barovia, making it quite an unsettling, lonely path for the party to travel down. We ran this as a Halloween one shot a few years ago. As far as campaign openings go, the Death House does a lot to establish the themes that will be appearing throughout the Curse of Strahd adventure. Oh, Death House. In my game, I gave Rose the personality of a sassy older sister who was fiercely protective of her younger brother. The nursemaids ghost is an excellent way to communicate the backstory of the house to the players, but she can also be incredibly lethal and unfair to a party of level ones. "Death House" will run your player characters through levels 1-3 if they survive. As the enormous thing crawls towards you, you see bodily remains of humans buried in its putrid body.. Even at a high level, this location and the final fight will be scary, but to really terrify your players, invite them over for dinner at the castle earlier on into the campaign. Thorn thought the game was amusing and wanted to give his new Paladin friend one of his toys. Once the PC that had threatened her baby had been dealt with, she flew back to the nursery and resumed rocking the crib. Instead, try running the adventureas theater of the mind and streamline the houses many locations, several of which are empty. Make sure you follow the rest of this Curse of Strahd DM Guide. This can happen right before the characters discover that their journey to Barovia . Based off of Mandy's Mod edits I used them touching the statue as . If you have fewer players, its easy enough to remove some of the enemies or lower how much HP each enemy has. The adventurers manage to put their spirits to rest and claim the room's loot. They will have no other choice (Hop on the railroad car). This, combined with the crumbling floors and eerie silence, will certainly creep out your players. Im really loving the halloween content this year! But, this is Strahd's home, and the battle will not be easy. ! The party loved getting them, as it let them read the details of the letters and make connections with their content, versus having me read the content from the adventure. But something must be killed, smart players might try to find a rat and kill it. Balcony.- The animated armor can be challenging if PCs dont react properly. ), The Themes of the Death House in Curse of Strahd. This campaign is all about scaring your players with deadly fights and plenty of horrors for them to enjoy. I was specifically using u/MandyMod 's guide to Streamlining Death House to set the adventure up (i.e. A level 2party which has had no long rests and several tough fights will not win this fight without losing some PCs. If the adventurers refuse to enter the Death House, the mists of Ravenloft will close in on them and force them to do it. Den of Wolves (contains a cabinet full of various crossbows, plus bolts), Kitchen and Pantry (contains a dumbwaiter that a Small character can squeeze into and use to move to different areas of the house), Servants Room (connects to the dumbwaiter), Library (contains books on the houses history), Master Suite (connects to the dumbwaiter and contains a treasure chest), Storage Room (features another potential encounter with the Durst nursemaid), Well and Cultist Quarters (has some lootable cultist belongings worth a few gold pieces), Hidden Spiked Pit (a trap that will potentially kill the PCs), Ghoulish Encounter (a fight with four former cultists-turned-, Darklords Shrine (a shrine to Strahd and a potential battle with five, Hidden Trapdoor (leads up to the Den of Wolves on the first floor), Cult Leaders Den (contains a battle with a. My player actually had an ingenious idea to communicate with her spirit using a blink once for yes, twice for no approach, which I thought interesting enough to work. . if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[728,90],'tabletopjoab_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_19',125,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-tabletopjoab_com-medrectangle-3-0');At least in the top 3! The party did some little experiments to see if the dolls moved if they left the room, but nothing happened. It's a horrific truth that will send a shiver down your party's spines. The children that the party encounters on the road (Rose and Thorn) are asking for help dealing with whatever entity is inside the house. This is a list of important bits of information, important locations and specific advice to run the different locations in the Death House. So theres a certain level of are we going to play D&D? here. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. When the party goes to escape, the house itself will be attacking them. Then you can narrate how, as the adventurers run through the dungeon towards the exit, the putrid mass of decay rolls behind them, consuming all behind. When the party tries to leave the house, Rose and Thorn do not let them. And then level 3 after escaping the house. Third. Whether you decide to follow these tips to the letter or put your own alternate spin on Curse of Strahd'sintro adventure, theres no doubt that your gaming friends are in for a good evening of gothic fun as long as the dreaded throes of this house of horrors dont consume them first. Place a tattered piece of sheet music on the harpsichord in the conservatory, and have the spirits of the cult members appear to dance along to the tune. Copyright He's a postgraduate from Bournemouth University, having studied Scriptwriting. Honestly, even if the party is level 3, this can be a very tough fight! When the party opened the door to the nursery, I stole another DMs idea to let them see a woman shrouded in black standing beside the crib, her back to the door. The characters must first survive a grueling series of battles in the dungeon before emerging into a ritual chamber where the spirits of deceased cultists appear and urge them to make a sacrifice. Three of my players were able to get boosts up to the attic from the balcony outside of the master bedroom, but the fourth, a firbolg, was too big to make it up. Death House rebuilds itself if burned down. Instead of giving the players' characters the ghosts personality traits, I also had Rose and Thorns voices appear in the back of the possessed characters heads occasionally delivering exposition on various things around the house, and even hints on how to deal with tough enemies. Death House says the children know theyre dead, so run with that concept. This also triggered the wonderful One Must Die encounter. Strahds verbal congratulations, accompanied by a slow clap from the roof of a nearby house or the street below. By the end of the Death House, there are three themes that should be firmly established in the players minds. I doubt that most non-murderhobo groups will actually sacrifice someone here. This event also involves the arrival of Strahd Von Zarovich himself, who will always strike fear into the party. Created by the house to lure in victims, the illusions drop vague hints about a monster in the basement and the sins of their parents. If you do this, have the party level up once theyve escaped. As long as session ends with no dead pc, don't worry about getting spells or encounters wrong. All the maps in this website are registered under the Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. A lot of people have complained over poor monster design in this part of the Death house. (If youre feeling generous, or really want your players to see the entirety of the house in a quick Halloween night of gaming, you could even run it at 3rd level.). Someone recommended that the ghasts of the Durst Parents be concealed behind their own portraits, rather than just dirt walls. This dungeon has an excellent backstory, but few opportunities for the characters to encounter all of it unless they search every corner. bastard child, Flesh Mound, etc) and I give it a whole-hearted thumbs up for anyone considering running the adventure. Its important to note that after exiting this place, its unlikely that the adventurers will visit it ever again. Secret Room.- Theres a letter by Strahd here. I ran this around this time last year and that nursemaid absolutely murdered two of the NPCs of players I had only just met (at which point the party fled the house and refused to return). Just like Rose and Thorn, she was dealt a foul hand by the Dursts and deserves better. However, youd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesnt put the gothic horror adventure, Curse of Strahd, at the top of their list. Yeah, adding the Dursts is a good idea. For inspiration, consider Gustav Dursts reasoning for the affair in a letter from Strahd that can be found in the Secret Room. Ideally, everyone is happy to assist the children and play the game. The usual response to this encounter is retreat. Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Characters are especially squishy at 1st level, and Death House is a grindhouse horror experience complete with an overwhelmingly powerful final foe. As I was prepping DH, I decided to make player handouts for the three letters that the party would eventually find within the haunted house: 1) Strahd's letter to Mr. Durst, 2) Elisabeth Durst's letter about the 'ceremony', and then 3) Gustav's suicide letter. NEXT: Dungeons & Dragons: The Best Online Tools For DMs. Not every spooky thing needs to have an explanation. They cannot be used commercially. Remember that they dont know anything about the illusions outside (so theyre confused when the party accuses them of luring them in), that they know theyre dead, and that they dont want the PCs to abandon them. Since then, he's never looked back and loves roleplaying games for the chance to tell the tales that have been swirling in his head since childhood. Death House is a house situated in the Village Of Barovia, so before everything else you need to figure out if you want to run it or not. 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