Feature Image by Jon Pintar
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. 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.
Barovia can be split into thirds. This Eastern third will already have an article for Dinner with Strahd, and Castle Ravenloft will be saved for last, so that leaves:
- The Ol’ Mill
- The Village of Barovia
Ol’ Mill
First of all, don’t call it “Bonegrinder” because that is so on-the-nose and you are too likely to slip up and call it that in front of your players. It’s just the Ol’ Mill, or the Windmill. This I ran fairly straightforward, especially when you realize that the Hags don’t really care about the party or what they’re doing, as long as they don’t interfere with their production of Dream Pastries. Obviously as soon as the party understands, they will probably want to interfere, but until that moment just let the Hags be friendly, yet creepy, to the party. The purpose of this chapter is to be the Brothers’ Grimm style of gothic horror, and rarely do those stories end in combat.
Overall, these Hags serve Baba Yaga, and don’t really care what the party does, unless Baba tells them to do something.
Dream Pastries
There are some great addiction mechanics online, specifically for the Dream Pastries. The first time the party encounters the pastries for me was at the Dinner with Strahd, where he served them as a side, a “local delicacy.” Then, several sessions later, they learn what the pastries actually are, and are disgusted that they ate them. If you are comfortable going down a path of addiction and withdrawal, this is a great place to do so, but remember that this can be a very real issue players have dealt with in their lives, and might not find it a fun game time to be reliving those moments.
Windmill Fane
Each of the Fanes has a theme, and there is no particular order to do them.
The Standing Stones behind the Windmill is the Forest Fane, of the Crone/Seeker. Just like the MandyMod, this is all about seeing into a dark future, and facing it. This took a lot of prep, because you create a Level 19 (no Capstone abilities) Evil version of each Player Character, even though you’ll only end up using one.
Village of Barovia
I’m finally going to take a minute and discuss why I think the campaign should start in Krezk, instead of Barovia, which comes down to two points.
The first, is that Ireena, in my opinion, is the key to Strahd. She is the most important person in the valley, equal to the players themselves. If she is the third person you meet, then you won’t fully appreciate her situation. The first day you’re in the valley of Barovia, you are completely focused on the fact that you’re trapped, a vampire rules the land, and he is incredibly powerful, so you need to play the long game. Some guy saying “can you escort my sister to the next town?” will be so overlooked, that DMs are constantly concerned that the party doesn’t seem to care about Ireena. If, however, you introduce the idea of Tatyana with Vasilka, her reappearances with Marina in Berez, her relationship with Strahd in the Tome of Strahd, and even seeing portraits of her in Castle Ravenloft, or dolls of her with Blinsky, then when the time finally comes that you meet Ireena, then you truly understand her importance.
The second, is the idea of voluntary danger. When the party first arrives in Krezk, they hear about Strahd, about how dangerous he is, and how every other adventurer that’s come here has died. Then, you have to CHOOSE to go closer, and closer, until you can see his castle looming over you. If you start the campaign, and you see the castle before you meet anyone, then there is no suspense. You’ve already seen it, and stood in it’s shadow, not realizing the situation you’re in. Make your players walk to their own demise, bury their own graves.
Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.
Alfred Hitchcock, Master of Suspense
So, if you remove Barovia as the starting town, what is it good for? Not much, aside from the final missing piece of the puzzle. I took care of everything I needed to with this village in a single session. One of the most impactful moments of that session was the funeral for Baron Kolyan Indirovich. This script of the funeral by u/TabletopLegends is phenomenal, and I don’t think I changed a line from it.
One last little note, is that Ireena is the trueborn daughter of the Baron. I removed the secret siblinghood with Izek Strasni, because I didn’t find it very interesting. Izek is a creep, separately. I’m not sure what her secretly being adopted could add to the story, because there is no known importance of the Strasni bloodline, nor the Indirovich bloodline, that would really change anything. That felt like a secret for secrets sake, and there are plenty of those already.
The Nerdd 
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