There’s a lot of important things to do in Vallaki). As the party walked back to Vallaki, and they passed one of the small rivers leading from the lake, they found a small shoe with a ruffled sock still in it floating in the water (I was using this as another hook to push them to the lake but they didn’t bite. (Esmerelda mentioned to the party that she was helping the nearby Vistani camp search for Arabelle when they first encountered her). I didn’t want the meeting between Van Richten and Esmerelda to take place so soon, so I had it so that Esmerelda and IRena went looking for Arabelle. My party left IRena in the care of Ez at Van Richten’s Tower, but when shit went down in Vallaki, Van Richten ended up rescuing the party in his Rictavio disguise and blew his cover. You’re more powerful than I thought.” (He’s using this to play with his food and do some information gathering). OR maybe they do kill it and he is impressed. Have him be disappointed in the party that they couldn’t do it. It’s a good way to show how powerful Strahd actually is. They fight the hydra and it kicks the party’s collective ass, and then Strahd can come down the the banks of the lake and straight up one shot it. There’s a Bounty board in Vallaki that directs them to the lake “the fish are missing investigate the lake” yadda yadda, and then also when they get there Bluto is in the middle of his sacrifice. I had a few different ideas with this, one being that Strahd is the one who puts the zombie hydra there (there’s already a hydra in the lake but he zombifies it), in order to test the party’s strength. I used this as an opportunity to come up with a reason why the fish are disappearing. Bluto is attempting to sacrifice a Vistani to the lake so that there are fish again. In my campaign, I had it so when my party uses the rowboats/swims/water walks out to save Arabelle, it triggers an encounter with a zombie hydra. And Bluto is found in a trance, so he could be soulless just as easily as he could be under an enchantment. If things aren't well, if he's incompetent, then the balance of power shifts in her favor. (Victor can also use the aformentioned vampire spawn.) And Lady Wachter can just want it mess up Vargas's "All will be well" schtick. Victor can be using Bluto, and the chaos surrounding her intended death, as a scapegoat for his missing teleportation victims. Personally, if I had to have a villain, I'd use Victor or Lady Wachter. So, was Arabelle chosen at random or deliberately? Would her death trigger something? Can someone else (i.e. No one enters Castle Ravenloft unbiddenĭrowning Arabelle is a clever shortcut around the third law.In older Ravenloft lore, there are only three laws in Barovia all of which are punishable by death. If they fail and whisk Ireena away to Krezk for her safety, then the is drawn to the pool, is absconded away by Sergei's ghost, and Strahd sends them a letter anyway.Īssuming you still wish to use a monster, consider one who can mind control and direct someone to bring it food. If the party is successful in thwarting the Feast, then Strahd sends them an invite. The point is to get the party an invitation to Castle Ravenloft. Many DMs run it early, as I did my first time, but that's a mistake. But I also bring it up to highlight the danger it poses. It's possible to recover the bones and reconsecrate the church without incident. In fact, they don't need to be fought at all. And there's no guarantee they'll all be in boats on the lake.įor example, the vampire spawn in the upstairs of the coffin maker's, while tough, do not need to be fought right after the party arrives. It's a deadly encounter for a party of four 6th-level characters. If they're forced to fight, say, an aboleth for Arabelle's fate, they're hosed. You also want to make sure whatever monster you throw at the party isn't something that will completely overpower them at this level. If there is a monster, you need to telegraph it. Maybe people stay away from the shore, for fear of being pulled in. Not unless it's being fed from outside the lake. The first is, knowing all the fish are dead, what could live down there? The second is why was poor Bluto Krogarov attempting to drown little Arabelle? The third is who Arabelle is.Īssuming anything predatory lives below the surface, it's not feeding on meat. Well, there are a few things to consider here.