Featured Image by Lawrence Johnson
This is part of my Revised Guide to Curse of Strahd. For the list of articles, and the order to read them, see my Intro to My Revised Guide. If you find this interesting, feel free to use as much or as little as you want.
We bounced back and forth across the valley a lot, but I won’t assume what order you’ll tackle it in, except that you go to Krezk first. For anything that I ran as it’s presented in the WotC Curse of Strahd book, I’ll put in Italics, for anything that I ran from one of the 3rd Party Sources, I’ll put in underline.
The conflicts in Krezk revolve around three central topics. The first is the Baron, and his secret. The second is The Doctor, and her mission. The third is Ireena, and her past. Then I end with the Tarokka Reading, because I have Ezmerelda do that.
The major changes I make in Krezk include the following:
- The campaign begins near Krezk, as opposed to near the Village of Barovia
- The Abbot has been replaced with Dr. Viktra Mordenheim
- The Baronet, Ilya, has not yet died, but he is dying of tuberculosis
- The Baron is secretly a werewolf
Entering Barovia
We open with the Werewolves in the Mist hook, but when you follow the werewolf attacks, it leads you into the valley from the West side, near Krezk. Once you are fully in the valley, you come across a fight between two town guards, a hurt werewolf, and two hurt wolves. Assuming you help the town guards fight off the werewolf and wolves, you have to help the now hurt town guards into Krezk, and the guards vouch for you to come into the village.
The Baron is still distrustful, but honorable. He will let you stay for one night since you helped his men. During that day, we get the Something New special event, which will obviously open up a lot of questions from the party. The Baron will say that the party are simply the newest batch of “Outsiders” which they get on a fairly regular basis. He will give them a lot of information that most Outsiders ask, which is all the Barovian Lore in Chapter 2. Other outsiders that are still around include “The Doctor, the lady with the metal leg, Rictavio the Carnival Man, and the Mad Mage of Mount Baratok”. This gives your party a nice list of notable NPCs to track down. Lastly, as you stay the night, you find out that the Baron’s last son, Ilya, is very sick. He has lost all his other children to consumption (the olde name for tuberculosis, a respiratory disease).
The next morning the Baron asks you to leave, and suggests that if they want to pay their dues, they can go check on their missing wine shipment from the Wizard of Wines Winery (West Barovia). The campaign has officially begun.
The Baron’s Secret
I quickly want to mention, it’s a Baron, not a Burgomaster. So many groups make a joke of Burger Master, or Burger King. I love humor in my games, but that’s a cheap joke, and it doesn’t fit.
The next time the party is in town, Ilya, the Baronet, is incredibly sick, and dying. The party’s magic can relieve pain, but can do nothing to stop this disease. He will die. If the Baron trusts the party, or if they offer their help, he will mention that perhaps The Doctor can do something about it, but he is too scared to go ask. The Doctor lives up in the Abbey, where she has been for the past decade or so.
The Doctor (which I will explain below) brings Ilya back to life, through a process called “science”, a modified version of the Something Old Special Event. Ilya comes back, and seems to be okay. Then, the following few times the party visits town, potentially over weeks, Ilya seems to be getting increasingly hungry. We then do a mixed version of the MandyMod Krezk story, and the DragnaCarta Krezk updates. Ilya, and his family, are secretly all werewolves, and Ilya’s resurrection put his hunger into overdrive, and unless you can do something to help him, he will lose control, eat the livestock and eventually a person, and the town will kill him, or even the entire Krezkov family. If you have a good relationship with The Doctor, she is willing to take Ilya in, and essentially put him in a rehab type situation, to force him to take control of his hunger.
The Baron will do whatever it takes to keep his secret of lycanthropy from being known by the public, because they are constantly harassed by the nearby werewolf den. Otherwise, the Baron comes to trust the party, and Krezk can be a safe zone with little drama within the walls.
The Doctor’s Mission
When the party goes up to the Abbey, I completely replaced the Abbot. The purpose of the character was an Island of Dr. Moreau type of HG Wells horror, but many people mistook it for a Frankenstein type of gothic horror, so I decided to lean into that instead.
In the Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, where they list other Domains of Dread, there is Lamordia, the Domain of Snow and Stitched Flesh, with the Darklord Doctor Viktra Mordenheim. This is the Doctor, who is now stuck in Barovia, just like the party. She too has a secret, that she came to Barovia with other travelers, who attempted, and failed, to defeat Strahd. She survived, and for the last decade, she has a deal with Strahd, the same deal Strahd gives to all outsiders. If she can give him Tatyana, his long dead love, then she will be free to leave.
The Doctor, who has knowledge of undeath, has gathered historical accounts of what Tatyana looked like, and is attempting to create a Flesh Golem that matches that description. To help, Strahd has ensured that every day, at 3pm, a bolt of lightning will strike the Abbey on the lightning rod, giving The Doctor the power she needs to conduct her experiments. She has gathered unused power in makeshift batteries, which she uses to have electric lanterns throughout the Abbey. The whole thing has a very Victorian gothic vibe to it.
The Mongrelfolk, a problematic name, has been replaced with Abbeyfolk. However, in the Ravenloft book Mordenheim, about her father Victor Mordenheim, we learn that his first creation was named Adam. So, when The Doctor refers to her collection of reborn creations, she refers to them as the Adam’s Family. That’s a good subtle joke for you.
So who are these Abbeyfolk, the Adam’s Family? Well, they are other outsiders, who have died in the past 10 years, and she has used their bodies to continue her experiments. So instead of natural progressions into animal body parts as it lists in the book, instead we see the same dog arms and lizard faces have been stitched on to Dwarves and Drow and Dragonborn. Which of course makes them even scarier to the locals.
Anyway, so the Doctor agrees to revive Ilya Frankenstein-style. I really amped up the campyness of old black-and-white Universal style horror movies here, and it was a lot of fun. So she brings him back, and asks for a favor in return. The Doctor needs a wedding dress to “these specifications”. My party thought she was getting married, and The Doctor did not feel the need to correct them. The Baron lets them know that the only place they can get something like that will be Vallaki, the next town over, and as in Something Borrowed, the Baroness agrees to go with the party to retrieve/order it.
While they are in the Abbey, they can meet “The woman with the metal leg,” Ezmerelda d’Avenir. I left Ez fairly the same as written, except that she offers to do the Tarroka reading for the party, once she feels they are trustworthy, whenever you think that should be.
When the party returns with the wedding dress, The Doctor introduces Vasilka, a Flesh Golem that matches a very specific description (red hair, green eyes, etc). Then, Strahd appears, as the party learns that Vasilka was a gift.
“You look outside as a bolt of lightning strikes the ground, and the spot where it struck now stands…him.”
This could very well be the first time the party sees Strahd, but certainly not the last. His test for Vasilka is a formal dance, which Vasilka is clearly trained to do. However, Strahd speeds up his dance, increasingly until eventually Vasilka fails, at which point Strahd tears her body apart viscously limb from limb. Strahd leaves, suggesting that next time The Doctor tries with “fresher parts”. The Doctor is devastated.
The next time the party visits, she is getting help with Strahd’s suggestion from Ludmilla, one of Strahd’s consorts. I’ll go into detail why she is there when we talk about Castle Ravenloft. Her recommendation is that The Doctor, instead of using parts from other dead outsiders, uses live patients, who are all harvested within the same 24 hour period, to ensure that the body parts don’t go into Rigor Mortis and begin to decay. Because of this, she sends the Adams Family into Krezk to begin a survey of everyone’s physical descriptions. She doesn’t intend to use any citizens from Krezk, and is using it as a practice, before she sends them to Vallaki, where she actually intends to gather the parts from. If confronted, The Doctor doesn’t care if it’s moral or ethical, she only intends to escape Barovia, no matter the cost.
Of course, any of this can be interrupted the moment she sees Ireena, because she suddenly realizes (correctly) that handing Ireena to Strahd would grant her freedom. So now all of her attention is on that goal. The Doctor is a great potential for ally, potential for enemy, depending entirely on the party. Her goals are parallel with the party’s but do not align, but do not conflict.
Ireena’s Past
The pool in Krezk is very special, though it’s not initially clear why. When the party finds the Sunsword, whoever attunes to the item gets a vision of the pool. In order to turn the broken hilt into a weapon, you must submerge it into the pool, then draw it back out. When you do so, a blade of light will be attached. It is not explained why yet.
When the party meets Ireena, by then they would have seen Tatyana in multiple recreations, either by reputation, paintings in Castle Ravenloft, toys by Blinsky, etc. However, as they see her, whoever is attuned to the Sunsword gets the same vision. If they don’t have the Sunsword yet, then once the Sunsword and Ireena are reunited, someone will get the vision then.
This is where we make a major change from the Something Blue Special Event. Ireena does not go into the pond and fade from view. No, Ireena, Tatyana’s spirit, is angry. Strahd has kept her soul, as well as the soul of everyone in the valley, trapped in an eternal hell of his own damnation. She is ready to fight back. As Sergei jogs her memory, I give my party a metagaming gift. They can choose which of Ireena’s past lives take hold, and she can now be a help to them. Is it her Noble background, with History and Persuasion skills, trained with a Rapier as is formal? Is it her life as an Acolyte of the Morninglord, with limited Cleric healing powers and Radiant damage cantrips? Perhaps it was her life as a Forest Folk, and now we have a Primal spellcaster to help. There are so many versions of her past lives that you can use to help balance out the party and fill in a gap that they need.
Unfortunately, this isn’t all good news. Strahd can feel Sergei’s spirit return, he can feel Ireena gain Tatyana’s memory back. This angers Strahd. So while Sergei and Tatyana are talking in the pool, thunder rumbles in the distance. As they finish speaking, Sergei is clearly rushing the conversation along, dark clouds have gathered above Krezk, and a face appears in the clouds. Strahd’s face! With a voice booming like thunder he shouts “SHE IS MINE!” A bolt of lightning strikes the pool, destroying Sergei’s spirit. Ireena, who’s feet were in the pool, is thrown back, and falls unconscious. A storm immediately begins, but this isn’t a regular storm, this is a Storm of Vengeance. The party must find cover, or help innocents find shelter, from the thunder, acid, lightning, bludgeoning, and cold damage respectively as the storm rages on around them.
Once the storm passes, the Baron Krezkov intuits that Strahd will be sending his forces to raze the village. The party has 1 day to prepare.
The Sacking of Krezk
Personally I love large scale combat, and this was the opportunity I took to implement it. There are several ways to manage Mass Combat, and this isn’t the place for me to decide how you want to manage it. I used the MCDM Warfare Units system, but if I could go back, I don’t know that I’d use that system again for this particular battle. It’s ultimately up to you.
Either way, on the first day, I had the Forest Folk attack the village. Or, I would have, if not for my Druid player who decided to follow up on the Blood Spear of Kavan for the Forest Folk plot hook. Berserkers and Druids with Blights make for a very fun and dynamic battle.
On the second day, if the party has helped Lady Wachter take over Vallaki, then the forces of Vallaki arrive. These are essentially guards with spears, or sword and shield. There aren’t a lot of them, but they are actually trained, as opposed to the farmers of Krezk. If Vallaki still belongs to the Vallakovich family, then they have a day to recover. It is a unexpected, positive consequence for letting that fascist dictator maintain control over the city.
On the third day, Strahd’s forces arrive. Though he does not lead them, it is instead one of his consorts, Anastrasya, the general of his army of vampire spawn, zombies, bats, rats, and any other crazy forces you want. At this point the town of Krezk will be pretty battered, and it is very possible, even likely, that Krezk falls. Whether or not the party goes down with the village is up to them.
If somehow, the village of Krezk is still standing, and the players killed Anastrasya, then Strahd will now see the party’s transgressions as personal. Strahd really wants these Outsiders gone, but he knows his best chance to kill them is still inside Castle Ravenloft.
Tarokka Reading
This is one of the most controversial things to change in Curse of Strahd, but I don’t trust the randomness of the Tarokka Reading. Also, I removed an entire card from the reading. To do this, I flipped over the card, read the number and suit, but then just replaced the cards name and location with whatever I wanted. They can’t see the massive page of card translations anyway.
The Tome of Strahd. Nine of Glyphs – Traitor. I put the Tome with Lady Wachter, as she is a Strahd Super-Fan, and would absolutely keep this collectible with her cool Dilisnya Bones.
The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. One of Swords – Avenger. I put this with Vlad in Argynvostholt, to replace his Holy Symbol of the Morninglord around his neck. It might not fit perfectly, narratively speaking, but it gives a solid reason to go to Argynvostholt, which has a great reward for completing.
The Sunsword. Five of Glyphs – Druid. I put the Sunsword under the Tree in Yesterhill, along with the other magic axe, and nearby Kavan’s Blood Spear. I like the idea of giving all my players magic weapons together, so they all go up in power around the same time. So it becomes a cool treasure spot of new magic weapons.
Strahd’s Enemy. I completely removed the fated ally, because why limit your party to just one? Even if they get a great ally, like Ezmerelda, does that mean they shouldn’t also ask Rictavio, the Mad Mage, Sir Godfrey, Ireena, Davian Martikov to help? Of course they should, if they want to have friends join them. So just remove the idea that there is only one person that can help them. Anyone can help, if you earn it.
Strahd. Jack of Hearts – Marionette. For the location they’ll find Strahd for the final fight, I wanted something cinematic. We know that the fight will eventually end in Strahd’s Tomb, at the lowest point of the dungeons of Castle Ravenloft. Well, if we want this fight to be dynamic and fluid, then let’s start the fight at the highest point of the spires of Castle Ravenloft. Besides, the first 50hp of the fight goes into the Heart anyway, so it’d be cool to watch that happen.
There’s a lot here, and this is not meant to be comprehensive, but instead format the text and potential story in a way that is much easier to return to.
The Nerdd 
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