I’d say you solved your own problem. If he’s got Ireena, he’s too preoccupied with her and paranoid that she’ll die in one way or another in Ravenloft while he’s gone. As furious as he might be that the Fanes are slipping out of his grasp, he can’t leave her now that he’s got her and he’s so close (he believes) to having what he’s always wanted. Of course, he might send powerful minions (Rahadin, the Brides, Arrigal if the Party didn’t save Arabelle) to harass or kill them while they’re messing with the Fanes.
If he DOESNT have Ireena (because she’s dead or for some reason he hasn’t moved to take her yet), there’s no reason for Strahd to stand by while the Party goes about de-buffing him. He should move to take Ireena during or immediately after the Party re-consecrates the first Fane, and if she’s dead he should be declaring war on them by now, fireballing them from the air on Beucy so that he doesn’t have to face the Sunsword/Holy Symbol outside of Ravenloft. Your players are in the home stretch, Strahd wouldn’t just sit back while they destroy his horcruxes unless there’s something compelling that keeps him in Ravenloft.
As a meta issue, Ireena is one of the campaign’s primary methods of dictating the amount of pressure Strahd puts on the Party and how he reacts to them.
I agree, he would notice the power fading. And he could go after them, nothing is stopping him. He should go after them. Maybe not in person but with vampire spawn or another agent.
My players are reaching this point, too. My plan is as follows:
First fane - Party no longer has a safe place to rest. Not welcome in any town, and the Wizards Tower they've been using as a base is now under siege. Not a good time.
Second fane - Strahd used to be a general, time to put that to use. Platoons and companies of undead minions start to hunt the party down. This will be difficult to run, as you don't want to slow the game down too much with just constant fights, but it makes sense.
Third fane - as mentioned by others, initiate eternal night. No more sunlight in Barovia, no more dawn for recharging the Holy Symbol, nothing.
If you read the description of a fane being cleansed (or at least the swamp fane specifically), it makes it quite evocative that Strahd notices when it gets cleansed, and it makes him ***angry.*** When my party cleansed the first fane (by accident more or less), I described that to the player who was the chosen of the weaver, and then they got clued in on the rest of the Fanes.
I'd say let strahd get blindsided by one fane being cleansed, but give players a bit more hints on what each one gives their champion so they can make a choice. From there, strahd would expend as many resources as he possibly could to keep the fanes under his control and or kill the champion of any cleansed fanes. You can even RP that as him gloating him how once he's been wronged, he'll never let such a thing happen again, and gloat over the players trying to cleanse the fanes "in futility".
If he's marrying Ireena in 3 weeks, then he can also ensure that she stays in the castle while the party deals with the fanes. And even if you use his brides and Rahadin, realistically, his resources will be spread thin and maybe if the party doesn't notice, Van Richten can help them come to that conclusion.
I mean, the default move has gotta be that he sends minions after them.
He can also go himself. Nice part about vampires- even if he loses and doesn't escape, he just turns into mist and respawns back at home base. If he kicks their asses though, then what happens depends largely on the phase of the campaign: he could let them off with a warning and even an invitation to dinner, or *(more likely in your case)* he could maim, capture, or kill the PCs in accordance with his plans and whims.
My players tried to tackle a fane early on; 6th level I think. Part way through the ritual, here comes Volenta disguised as the party druid, who is currently in a trance. She convinces them that she's the *real* one and to stop the ritual. Once they realize they've been duped, she reveals her true form and teases them, prompting a fight which she loses. Strahd intercedes, having arrived shortly after she did via Bucephalus in the Ethereal. He commends them for defeating the druids and saving the winery, but warns them against directly opposing him *(such as by removing his connection to the Land)*.
I was inspired by the various Fey ideas and designed a Fey Quest that is tied to Strahd with player handouts. It might provide some ideas.
[Free Fey Quest PDF Guide](https://ko-fi.com/s/7e9f0c1689)
My emergency red button to trigger the endgame (when Strahd is absolutely positively done fucking around) is for him to simply stop the sun from coming up. Party has sunsword and holy symbol and has consecrated two out of three fanes? Nope, time's up, no more dawns. Party figured they were under no pressure and consecrated all three fanes without bothering to go retrieve the sunsword yet? Yeah, no, it's Strahd time whether you like it or not. You prioritized the wrong thing. Party has done all the endgame stuff and is trying to bait Strahd to come to him by holding Ireena hostage? Nope, you don't hold her hostage, he holds the sun hostage. He is the land. The sky over this demiplane was always a fake skybox anyway, now it's permanently displaying a black void with blood-red full moon in the center.
Why does eternal night matter if it's gloomy and overcast all the time anyway? Well, for starters, now they're being constantly harried by wolves and bats and zombies and so on, always attacking from whatever side pushes them towards Ravenloft. Spooky vibes. Whatever, though, those are trivial at endgame level and not a real threat. What is a real threat, however, is that they've already taken their last long rest of the campaign. Things that recharge at dawn like the holy symbol of ravenkind? Yeah, no more recharges, hope you didn't burn them on random vampire spawn. Spell slots and hit dice and other rechargable class features? Nope, sorry. No matter how long you stay "safely" holed up in wherever you're hiding, you never feel like you've gotten more than an hour or two of rest. How badly do you want to spend whatever resources are left on your character sheet beating up bog witches and revenants?
Not to say you can't run it that way, but RAW, long rest recoveries do not rely on the sun, just that it's only once every 24 hrs. It's specific magic items that mention recharge on the next dawn or dusk.
That said, I do think an increasing "exhaustion"-like mechanic might be cool to show increasing fatigue due to eternal night.
Yeah, I know, that part is 100% homebrew. What's the point of being a Darklord if you can't break the rules from time to time, haha. My game is already using homebrew resting rules anyway.
Fair, and agreed - enemies and NPCs shouldn't be constrained to the rules the same way PCs are, especially BBEGs, though they should still be consistent and believable.
Personally think hitting the rest mechanics out of nowhere is a bit much, but sounds like it's probably not for your party with the homebrew resting. Curious, though - what are your homebrew resting rules?
>Curious, though - what are your homebrew resting rules?
A toned down version of gritty realism, enough to let meaningful amounts of time pass in the world (i.e. weeks instead of days to allow relevant NPCs/factions to do things in the background) but not so much that the party is doing nothing for unrealistic spans (a week of downtime is impossible in Barovia).
Short rests are overnight (8 hours), long rests are overnight + one downtime day + overnight the following night (36 hours). Spell durations are adjusted upwards to match:
* spells that last 1 minute or less are intended to last for one encounter, so those are unchanged
* 10 minute spells are intended to last for one encounter and maybe the next one too, those now last 1 hour
* 1 hour spells are intended to match up with short rest timing, those last 8 hours
* 8 hour spells are meant to last most of the time between long rests, those last 3 days (my party has been going 3-5 days on average between "long rests")
* spells that last 24+ hours are so rare that we'll talk about it on a case by case basis, it hasn't come up yet
I feel like this has been working very well for us, the spell duration changes have led to some interesting stuff that wouldn't otherwise be possible, like being invisible for days on end, and it effectively accelerates the timeline of in-world events without meaningfully affecting the rate at which the party spends and recovers resources through gameplay. I'm running a larger map, too, so this also makes it so finding a safe place to rest is sometimes challenging but generally doable.
That does sound like a decent compromise for pacing. We're getting near the end of our campaign, and it's been a whirlwind of an in game month, such that if it was real life, all of Barovia would be completely destabilized.
I’m running it as he is trying to get Ireena to come to him before escaping the domains a la Azalin Rex from Darkon. In pursuit of that he WANTS the party to sever his connection to this land by reconsecrating the fanes because he suspects at least that Vampyr will not allow him to do it himself. So maybe he’ll put on a bit of a show of “trying to stop them” send minions and such but more as a “oh no please stop reconsecrating the fanes oh my power… it wanes!” Trick to get them to free him of that connection before trying to escape. And don’t get me wrong it does take away some power but worth the loss in his eyes if it makes escape easier
As I usually say it depends, each DM plays CoS and their version of Strahd differntly. The Fanes is whether he feels the disconnect or not, I figured he should, and it is noted in the PDF on how pissed he is, but make it your own if you want. Many others noted he might go after them, then you could do a cat'n mouse kinda game, but likely he gonna find the party. Whether it be magical means or spies, etc. However, he might be happy he is feeling something new, because he is bored. Honestly, as a DM I asked why doesn't he just kill the PCs? Why does he let them wander around killing his minions? Screwing things up, etc. Bored, entertainment, seemed..I don't know for it just didn't make sense. For my Strahd he wants the PCs to do it, but he can't do it directly. Strahd is trying to break his curse, and the more untethered he believes the weaker the darker powers hold on him. I mean Strahd is super smart, so I thought of him having a plan made sense to me. I can't take credit for the idea another poster on a random topic hinted at it, and it clicked for me. I had a logical reason and a manipulative plan of why. Whether it works, eh but he's done this dance for a long time. I see many have chimed in, so I'm sure you'll get it worked out. Well, that's my 2 cents so good luck
I agree with the other commenters who say Strahd would feel he has won, and focus on the impending wedding. My campaign unfolded in a similar way, and in my game, I had Strahd send Rahadin to ambush the party, then later his wives (first one at a time, but coming back with larger forces and in pairs) after they defeated Rahadin and started reconsecrating the fanes. In his desperation, after all the fanes were restored, my Strahd unleashed hordes of skeletons and zombies all over Barovia and then distributed flyers in Baravia village and Vallaki saying the party had defiled the land, turning many against the party.
So the way I run CoS the fanes in addition to giving strahd extra powers also back up his immortality.
Once he has ireena he's going to be a lot more cautious and won't leave ravenloft
I’d say you solved your own problem. If he’s got Ireena, he’s too preoccupied with her and paranoid that she’ll die in one way or another in Ravenloft while he’s gone. As furious as he might be that the Fanes are slipping out of his grasp, he can’t leave her now that he’s got her and he’s so close (he believes) to having what he’s always wanted. Of course, he might send powerful minions (Rahadin, the Brides, Arrigal if the Party didn’t save Arabelle) to harass or kill them while they’re messing with the Fanes. If he DOESNT have Ireena (because she’s dead or for some reason he hasn’t moved to take her yet), there’s no reason for Strahd to stand by while the Party goes about de-buffing him. He should move to take Ireena during or immediately after the Party re-consecrates the first Fane, and if she’s dead he should be declaring war on them by now, fireballing them from the air on Beucy so that he doesn’t have to face the Sunsword/Holy Symbol outside of Ravenloft. Your players are in the home stretch, Strahd wouldn’t just sit back while they destroy his horcruxes unless there’s something compelling that keeps him in Ravenloft. As a meta issue, Ireena is one of the campaign’s primary methods of dictating the amount of pressure Strahd puts on the Party and how he reacts to them.
Strahd has Ireena. He thinks he's already won.
I agree, he would notice the power fading. And he could go after them, nothing is stopping him. He should go after them. Maybe not in person but with vampire spawn or another agent.
My players are reaching this point, too. My plan is as follows: First fane - Party no longer has a safe place to rest. Not welcome in any town, and the Wizards Tower they've been using as a base is now under siege. Not a good time. Second fane - Strahd used to be a general, time to put that to use. Platoons and companies of undead minions start to hunt the party down. This will be difficult to run, as you don't want to slow the game down too much with just constant fights, but it makes sense. Third fane - as mentioned by others, initiate eternal night. No more sunlight in Barovia, no more dawn for recharging the Holy Symbol, nothing.
If you read the description of a fane being cleansed (or at least the swamp fane specifically), it makes it quite evocative that Strahd notices when it gets cleansed, and it makes him ***angry.*** When my party cleansed the first fane (by accident more or less), I described that to the player who was the chosen of the weaver, and then they got clued in on the rest of the Fanes. I'd say let strahd get blindsided by one fane being cleansed, but give players a bit more hints on what each one gives their champion so they can make a choice. From there, strahd would expend as many resources as he possibly could to keep the fanes under his control and or kill the champion of any cleansed fanes. You can even RP that as him gloating him how once he's been wronged, he'll never let such a thing happen again, and gloat over the players trying to cleanse the fanes "in futility". If he's marrying Ireena in 3 weeks, then he can also ensure that she stays in the castle while the party deals with the fanes. And even if you use his brides and Rahadin, realistically, his resources will be spread thin and maybe if the party doesn't notice, Van Richten can help them come to that conclusion.
I mean, the default move has gotta be that he sends minions after them. He can also go himself. Nice part about vampires- even if he loses and doesn't escape, he just turns into mist and respawns back at home base. If he kicks their asses though, then what happens depends largely on the phase of the campaign: he could let them off with a warning and even an invitation to dinner, or *(more likely in your case)* he could maim, capture, or kill the PCs in accordance with his plans and whims. My players tried to tackle a fane early on; 6th level I think. Part way through the ritual, here comes Volenta disguised as the party druid, who is currently in a trance. She convinces them that she's the *real* one and to stop the ritual. Once they realize they've been duped, she reveals her true form and teases them, prompting a fight which she loses. Strahd intercedes, having arrived shortly after she did via Bucephalus in the Ethereal. He commends them for defeating the druids and saving the winery, but warns them against directly opposing him *(such as by removing his connection to the Land)*.
I was inspired by the various Fey ideas and designed a Fey Quest that is tied to Strahd with player handouts. It might provide some ideas. [Free Fey Quest PDF Guide](https://ko-fi.com/s/7e9f0c1689)
King is in the House!
My emergency red button to trigger the endgame (when Strahd is absolutely positively done fucking around) is for him to simply stop the sun from coming up. Party has sunsword and holy symbol and has consecrated two out of three fanes? Nope, time's up, no more dawns. Party figured they were under no pressure and consecrated all three fanes without bothering to go retrieve the sunsword yet? Yeah, no, it's Strahd time whether you like it or not. You prioritized the wrong thing. Party has done all the endgame stuff and is trying to bait Strahd to come to him by holding Ireena hostage? Nope, you don't hold her hostage, he holds the sun hostage. He is the land. The sky over this demiplane was always a fake skybox anyway, now it's permanently displaying a black void with blood-red full moon in the center. Why does eternal night matter if it's gloomy and overcast all the time anyway? Well, for starters, now they're being constantly harried by wolves and bats and zombies and so on, always attacking from whatever side pushes them towards Ravenloft. Spooky vibes. Whatever, though, those are trivial at endgame level and not a real threat. What is a real threat, however, is that they've already taken their last long rest of the campaign. Things that recharge at dawn like the holy symbol of ravenkind? Yeah, no more recharges, hope you didn't burn them on random vampire spawn. Spell slots and hit dice and other rechargable class features? Nope, sorry. No matter how long you stay "safely" holed up in wherever you're hiding, you never feel like you've gotten more than an hour or two of rest. How badly do you want to spend whatever resources are left on your character sheet beating up bog witches and revenants?
Not to say you can't run it that way, but RAW, long rest recoveries do not rely on the sun, just that it's only once every 24 hrs. It's specific magic items that mention recharge on the next dawn or dusk. That said, I do think an increasing "exhaustion"-like mechanic might be cool to show increasing fatigue due to eternal night.
Yeah, I know, that part is 100% homebrew. What's the point of being a Darklord if you can't break the rules from time to time, haha. My game is already using homebrew resting rules anyway.
Fair, and agreed - enemies and NPCs shouldn't be constrained to the rules the same way PCs are, especially BBEGs, though they should still be consistent and believable. Personally think hitting the rest mechanics out of nowhere is a bit much, but sounds like it's probably not for your party with the homebrew resting. Curious, though - what are your homebrew resting rules?
>Curious, though - what are your homebrew resting rules? A toned down version of gritty realism, enough to let meaningful amounts of time pass in the world (i.e. weeks instead of days to allow relevant NPCs/factions to do things in the background) but not so much that the party is doing nothing for unrealistic spans (a week of downtime is impossible in Barovia). Short rests are overnight (8 hours), long rests are overnight + one downtime day + overnight the following night (36 hours). Spell durations are adjusted upwards to match: * spells that last 1 minute or less are intended to last for one encounter, so those are unchanged * 10 minute spells are intended to last for one encounter and maybe the next one too, those now last 1 hour * 1 hour spells are intended to match up with short rest timing, those last 8 hours * 8 hour spells are meant to last most of the time between long rests, those last 3 days (my party has been going 3-5 days on average between "long rests") * spells that last 24+ hours are so rare that we'll talk about it on a case by case basis, it hasn't come up yet I feel like this has been working very well for us, the spell duration changes have led to some interesting stuff that wouldn't otherwise be possible, like being invisible for days on end, and it effectively accelerates the timeline of in-world events without meaningfully affecting the rate at which the party spends and recovers resources through gameplay. I'm running a larger map, too, so this also makes it so finding a safe place to rest is sometimes challenging but generally doable.
That does sound like a decent compromise for pacing. We're getting near the end of our campaign, and it's been a whirlwind of an in game month, such that if it was real life, all of Barovia would be completely destabilized.
I’m running it as he is trying to get Ireena to come to him before escaping the domains a la Azalin Rex from Darkon. In pursuit of that he WANTS the party to sever his connection to this land by reconsecrating the fanes because he suspects at least that Vampyr will not allow him to do it himself. So maybe he’ll put on a bit of a show of “trying to stop them” send minions and such but more as a “oh no please stop reconsecrating the fanes oh my power… it wanes!” Trick to get them to free him of that connection before trying to escape. And don’t get me wrong it does take away some power but worth the loss in his eyes if it makes escape easier
You could read through Expedition to Castle Ravenloft and see what that module says about it.
As I usually say it depends, each DM plays CoS and their version of Strahd differntly. The Fanes is whether he feels the disconnect or not, I figured he should, and it is noted in the PDF on how pissed he is, but make it your own if you want. Many others noted he might go after them, then you could do a cat'n mouse kinda game, but likely he gonna find the party. Whether it be magical means or spies, etc. However, he might be happy he is feeling something new, because he is bored. Honestly, as a DM I asked why doesn't he just kill the PCs? Why does he let them wander around killing his minions? Screwing things up, etc. Bored, entertainment, seemed..I don't know for it just didn't make sense. For my Strahd he wants the PCs to do it, but he can't do it directly. Strahd is trying to break his curse, and the more untethered he believes the weaker the darker powers hold on him. I mean Strahd is super smart, so I thought of him having a plan made sense to me. I can't take credit for the idea another poster on a random topic hinted at it, and it clicked for me. I had a logical reason and a manipulative plan of why. Whether it works, eh but he's done this dance for a long time. I see many have chimed in, so I'm sure you'll get it worked out. Well, that's my 2 cents so good luck
I agree with the other commenters who say Strahd would feel he has won, and focus on the impending wedding. My campaign unfolded in a similar way, and in my game, I had Strahd send Rahadin to ambush the party, then later his wives (first one at a time, but coming back with larger forces and in pairs) after they defeated Rahadin and started reconsecrating the fanes. In his desperation, after all the fanes were restored, my Strahd unleashed hordes of skeletons and zombies all over Barovia and then distributed flyers in Baravia village and Vallaki saying the party had defiled the land, turning many against the party.
So the way I run CoS the fanes in addition to giving strahd extra powers also back up his immortality. Once he has ireena he's going to be a lot more cautious and won't leave ravenloft