Expedition to Castle Ravenloft Question(s)

[Rakoa]

I'm currently DMing a campaign and am putting the characters through the lovely module Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. I'd heard that it was one of the best the game had to offer and so thought my PCs would enjoy it. Without getting into too much garbage, onwards to the question.

According to the table for Strahd's spies, a roll during the day of over 20 means that Strahd will Scry on the PCs. The issue here is that it seems the spying is intended to become more effective the higher the roll of the d20, but to my knowledge Scry lasts for a matter of minutes per caster level. That means that instead of having Strahd's minions following the PCs all day, they will only be dealing with him watching them for a few minutes. This doesn't strike me as particularly effective.

Am I missing something?

[Keneth]

That is indeed odd. If I recall correctly, Strahd isn't high enough level to use greater scrying. Scrying is quite a powerful tool, but with the normal version, it's not very useful in the hands of a BBEG. Check if the book elaborates any further on the matter, there should be some indication of how he goes about this business.

[Vamphyr]

I've never played/ran this module, but my first thought would be that he would scry them at a very important moment.

After a day of hard research, new connections, and bribing, the PC's have found a secret entrance and weapon to use against Strahd. Just as one of these two crucial parts comes together, Strahd uses his scrying to find out about the secret tunnel or weapon. Now the players are either facing a tunnel full of guards and monsters or a Strahd who is immune to their new weapon.

That's just how I would go with it.

[Jeff the Green]

Well, by the end of the module, the characters are probably easily able to kill Strahd's allies if they spot them, so scrying is a much more reliable means. Also, remember that he has his own reasons for bringing them to Barovia. He'll want to make sure they're on track, and nudge them in the right direction if necessary.

[Rakoa]

Thanks for the help guys. Should be pretty good on that issue now. I'll be sure to post here if I can come up with anything else to ask about.

[Callin]

In all honestly how the hell are you following that thing. I have it and have tried to run it twice after many many many times reading it through. I cant understand it at all.

[stack]

I thought it rather straight-forward. The only complexity really comes from the differing motives you can apply. I suppose remembering the various day to day rolls could be annoying, but I was running it PBP so it wasn't hard; each 'day' took weeks anyway.

[ksbsnowowl]

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft is a great module! The only way I can conceivably understand someone not understanding the module is if they didn't read it through COMPLETELY before trying to run it. It IS complex in regards to needing to know the whole module all the time, because who knows where your PC's will head next. But very well written, and a whole lot of fun!

To the OP's question, perhaps Strahd also has a minion following the PC's that day. When they head off with the look of doing something important, the minion reports to Strahd, giving him a heads-up that it might be a good time to scry the party. It might also be a good idea to give him a metamagic rod of extend, to up his scry duration to 18 minutes (or would it be 20?)

Also, allow me to give you a good tactic to use...
Hallway w/ Strahd at one end and the PC's at another. As the PC's approach, Strahd casts a Wall of Force, then dimension doors behind the PC's, and then unleashes a Cloudkill at them. They run away from the Cloudkill, and run into the wall of force, trapped.

You can also do it vertically in the tower with the Dayheart.

And remember that Strahd and his vamp minions are immune to poison, and can attack within the Cloudkill.