Yes they are still illusions but appear too be real children and wont vanish. The true horror of this location comes from a specific event that can take place if the players are not careful. Nothing will prepare your players for what lurks inside. The house is not at all that dangerous if your players pick the right choices. So, give them vivacious temperaments or accents evocative of your favorite child protagonists in popular media (the Stranger Things kids, anyone?). ), The Themes of the Death House in Curse of Strahd. Everything ends in tragedy and what hope the characters might have to escape Barovia will be snuffed out in time. This probably explains why he loves story-driven games so much. She can potentially one-shot any member of the party each turn with her Life Drain ability. Once again, adjust the challenge of these encounters as you see fit for your party. Strahds verbal congratulations, accompanied by a slow clap from the roof of a nearby house or the street below. After using one of the adventure hooks (page 18), you have successfully steered the party to Barovia. Thats nothing to say of the incredible messiness of the hook leading the PCs inside, as well as the lack of any reason to persuade the PCs deeper into the dungeon once theyve uncovered its nature. One of my PCs assumed that shed accidentally killed him with Shocking Grasp, but thankfully didnt bring it up. Balcony.- The animated armor can be challenging if PCs dont react properly. Don't just drop the players in front of the children, make them go trough the initial adventure hook and trough the Gates Of Barovia. Dress Up This October With This Month's Free Subscription Perks! However if you wish to start from level 1, the attached dungeon crawl Death House is a great tool to level the party up, set the tone of the campaign and introduce a few clues and facts about the realm. The party is expected to take them at face value and enter the house as soon as possible. I am actually in the process of setting this up as a one-shot for some of my experienced gamer friends. The usual response to this encounter is retreat. They also tried to find other houses in the fog, but quickly realized that they were being railroaded inside once the constitution/exhaustion checks started. The goal is to lure the party into the house. THANK YOU SO MUCH. The Death House has become something of a modern classic for 5e players. Depending on your group, and how roleplay heavy they are. They become caught in the mists and can't travel to the afterlife. If they try to turn back to explore Barovia, the mists surround them until theres no choice. The only thing I personally disliked about that section is the 'after finale' where you're escaping. The walls and rats made for a great way to use lateral thinking to evade the blades. Use. ), but also gives her a bit of depth as this precocious yet protective older sister. Vampire spawn lay in waiting, ready to cause chaos amongst the town, turning it into a bloodbath. Ritual Chambers.- Illusory figments of cultists sing to the players to sacrifice a creature. We ran this as a Halloween one shot a few years ago. Letter two is in the 3rd Floor master suite, in MrsDursts jewelry box. If/when the PCs try to leave, the children will try to possess them, not out of aggression but out of fear of abandonment. By the end of the Death House, there are three themes that should be firmly established in the players minds. Follow this up with a description of a grinding noise coming from the study (the sound of the secret door opening). This kept them panicked, tense, and on their toes. Honestly, even if the party is level 3, this can be a very tough fight! "Death House" will run your player characters through levels 1-3 if they survive. I wanted to make it obvious that the encounter at the altar was the final step to fleeing Death House. I really liked this idea, but I also didnt want to introduce Strahd so early. For starters, that kind of monster is completely out of place here. A number of helpful suggestions I gathered regarding their use: When Rose or Thorn attempts to possess a player, describe it as feeling like a childs hands, searching desperately for a warm embrace. Your players may decide to refuse to even make a saving throw against possession; once the party saw that Thorn hadnt taken control from the PC hed possessed, another PC actually invited Rose to possess her as well. However, having already promised their help to the spirits of Rose and Thorn, the only way theyd be getting out is by finding what lies beneath the house. There is lots of foreshadowing for the story to come. They were wearing the exact same gear but seemed to not have their faces painted on. Im really loving the halloween content this year! Also theres a will bequeathing these properties to the Durst children. Death House is a modern Dungeons & Dragons horror classic. She and her daughters are, in fact, a coven of Night Hags. Strahd is aware of these events. 6.Upper Hall.- Theres a portrait of the Durst family. It was amazing. Help me get funding and enjoy hi resolution version of all my work. Pretty spoopy. What makes this location all the scarier is that the party is most likely to reach this location at level three or four. I find this last bit of information a potential let down for the settings tone. Well look over those now. I generally start my games at level 3. Be brave, dear reader, as you enter the haunted Durst Mansion. Den of Wolves.- There are two cabinets that can be lock picked, one of them contains a heavy crossbow, a light crossbow and 20 bolts. Either way Count Strahd is satisfied, since playing with good or evil aligned subjects is entertaining for him all the same. 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. Oh, Death House. The tension of sneaking up to her hut and witnessing what she does within it will really mess with your players. You can see the tendrils grip on the walls tighten with crushing force. There are 38 locations in the Death House. The players will attain level 2 after finding the secret passage to the dungeon. ! Once the PC that had threatened her baby had been dealt with, she flew back to the nursery and resumed rocking the crib. Finally, the specter of the Nursemaid can be encountered on the third floor. Now that everyone is level 2, they can proceed downwards into the Durst Mansions dungeon level. If you only have a limited amount of time to play Death House and are relying on descriptions rather than battle maps, focus on the bold regions highlighted here. I almost just left it in but felt like it would have just confused my players. 2023 Wizards. 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. Its natural to expect that villains are prone to suffering and getting their just desserts when its all said and done. Dungeons & Dragons: The 8 Scariest Locations In Curse Of Strahd, Dungeons & Dragons: The Best Adventures From Candlekeep Mysteries, why Ravenloft is one of the best settings in D&D, just how unsettling the domains of dread can be, Story Hooks In D&D You Always See And Why They Work, Dungeons & Dragons: Ideas For Running A One-Shot, Dungeons & Dragons: The Best Online Tools For DMs. Both DeiGratia and Abuget can be downloaded over at www.dafont.com. They starved to death after their parents locked them in their room. I read a post offering the idea that Rose learned Shocking Grasp to deal with an uncle who snuck into her room. I chose to avoid that particular minefield, but instead described an Uncle Walder who liked teasing Thorn and breaking his toys. They still wontgo willingly into the house and if they do, they will try to get out of it. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. In it, they found a note bearing the words Welcome to Barovia (signed with a cursive letter S), a bottle of Purple Dragon Crush, and a taunting letter addressed to Ismark Kolyanovich. 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. I'm hosting my second ever session tonight and my party will be heading into the dungeonhave I missed something? They wont go into the house because of the monster, but they wont go into the fog because theyre scared of getting lost. For background the home is infused with the evil spirits of the cultists that once resided there. 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. There are plenty of deadly combat encounters that can take place here, from giant spiders to undead revenants and phantom warriors. Looking over the dolls by the handful, each one showed an expression of pain and fear. Few of those presented in this adventure, however, compare to the infamous Death House. Theres a third baby in the picture in the fathers arms, Mrs. Durst looks at the baby with scorn. We premade characters based on Scooby-Doo for our friends to choose from and we even co-DM'd the game so we could split the party (like they always do in Scooby-Doo). 8 Real-Life Skills Youll Develop By Playing D&D, 12 Monsters That Will Instantly Kill Characters, 7 Types of D&D Players You Will Have In Your Group, 9 Powerful Tips to Engage Players in Your D&D Game. Subscribers get updates on all of the latest news, posts, and offerings from Tabletop Joab! If you start at level 2, Id say have them level up to 3 before they proceed into the Dungeon Level. What has been your experience with the Death House? I generally reduce her life drain to deal 1d6 necrotic damage if we didnt start the party at level 3. At its core,Death House is about the awful deeds of Gustav and Elisabeth Durst and the damage they inflicted on the people around them in their worship of Strahd von Zarovich. She deserves more development, especially in a stripped-down Death House emphasizing the evil nature of the Dursts. Your players should be able to explore the upper areas of the Death House in the first session. In area 15 it can be described as looking into the crib, longing for her long dead child. 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. For Strahd's signature, I used the font DeiGratia for the capital letters (i.e. However, this is more a set of skill challenges than combat. The Amber Temple is one of the most dangerous locations in Barovia. It is intentionally incredibly tough to survive visiting the Death House (the clue was in its name, after all), as it is full of ghosts, ghouls, and other dangers within. Rose and Thorns parents would surely be happy to pay the party for saving them! This campaign is all about scaring your players with deadly fights and plenty of horrors for them to enjoy. What you get is impressive hi-def versions of my maps to be used in your RPG games (these have lower resolution), and the satisfaction of helping the rpg community grow bigger and stronger. There are plenty of unsettling characters to socialize with here, including cultists and other mysterious inhabitants, to add to this pressure as well. All the maps in this website are registered under the Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC. Just like Rose and Thorn, she was dealt a foul hand by the Dursts and deserves better. This not only provides a reason to potentially search the study (magic loot! Tsolenka Pass consists of a bridge looming over the Luna River and a guard tower. Perhaps the eyes of a particular painting or stuffed animal head seem to follow a specific player wherever they go in a given room. Death House is a modern Dungeons & Dragons horror classic. This is better because you never say the monster name, avoiding metagame knowledge. As a new DM don't worry about getting things wrong. 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. RELATED: Dungeons & Dragons: Ideas For Running A One-Shot. Argynvostholt is a castle-like manor full of corruption and despair. Each and every doll in the chest had a face painted on it, though. Thunk me later! Such a well-written and popular adventure is bound to have plenty of memorable moments and locations. 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 not a fight encounter. This also gives her some nice agency, and gives the party a better feel for her role as Thorns protector. 4. He's a postgraduate from Bournemouth University, having studied Scriptwriting. In any discussion about this dungeon, most people tend to fall pretty firmly into one of two camps. By the end of the dungeon, the characters will be level 3. register a sa forums account here! 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. We also replace the shambling mound with a Blood Hulk! What is it? 11. Would love to revisit Death House some day and not mistakenly murder my friends instantly. Heading further up Mount Ghakis, it is also freezing cold at night. Death House could even be played as a thrilling horror one-shot adventure. The Count's Crypt. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[336,280],'tabletopjoab_com-leader-3','ezslot_23',152,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-tabletopjoab_com-leader-3-0');This is a dungeon that doesnt pull punches and makes for quite the introduction to the land of Barovia! See here for more details. Perhaps she legitimately loved Gustav and hoped to free him from the cults influence. The PCs could hear her making gentle cooing sounds, and see her rocking the crib gently. Tabletop Joab is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. 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. They will close up on them leading them to the Village of Barovia. 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