[3.5]Expedition to Castle Ravenloft Campaign Journal

[arguskos]

For us, whilst I'm a player in the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft at the moment, when we complete that module I'll be DMing. So I'll be giving the current DM some things I'd like him to work into the end of the module, including the collapse of Castle Ravenloft as a portal opens to the Astral plane, upon the death of Strahd.

Through the portal will come a colossal floating island, built on the corpse of a dead god.

So..... you're replacing Castle Ravenloft with a corpse Island> Man, Barovia can't catch a break.

[Rei_Jin]

Nah, the island will float through Barovia, and the portal will close.

The island itself is the home of the Githyanki, and their Red Dragon mounts. The PCs have to get rid of this menace, in any way they can.

I expect this to take them 10 character levels or so to work through.

[arguskos]

Yeah, I guessed you might mean that particular corpse. The city's name is Tunath or something like that, right?

Also, I sincerely hope the players enjoy that quest. It'll be one for the record books, for sure!

[arguskos]

So... my computer crashed and ate my update yesterday, so I'll just give ya'll the SparkNotes version:

-Fahima's player, S, rebuilt her to be a Wizard 5//Ninja 2/Rogue 3.

Day 2
-The party, while moving towards Madam Eva's camp, notices some Vistani tracking them. They wave at the Vistani, who promptly hides and flees.
-The party saved Sir Urik, last living Knight of the Raven at the crossroads from a group of murks (wraith-lite)
-They visited Madam Eva, the fortune teller, and asked her to read their fortunes about Strahd, discovering that they will meet him where his "birth lies dead" and that "the darkness takes warmth from the living."
-They didn't ask about the Tome of Strahd, Sunsword, and Holy Symbol of Ravenkind because they didn't know about them yet.
-While resting at the Vistani camp (it was late by the time they arrived to speak with Eva), they get assaulted by 6 bat swarms. The party manages to dissuade them by diving into the nearby Tser Pool (local lake) and waiting them out.

Day 3
-The party moves back into town to fight the zombie plague, and destroy it. Some worgs tail them, but don't attack, freaking the players out a little.
-They use clairvoyance to scout out the church (they pretty much see nothing, since all the undead are hiding, and Danovich [the fallen priest] is behind the altar and is not visible), and then send in Fahima (in cat form and invisible) to scout it some more. She finds Danovich, sobbing and muttering nonsense behind the altar. She doesn't explore the siderooms.
-They bust in... and Danovich circle of death's them. Everyone makes their save... except for Lameth, who fails it and dies (again). They deal Danovich a massive amount of damage, and he just barely escapes into the understory. After slaughtering the other undead in here (three zombies and a deathlock), they party goes back to town and gets Ashlyn and Sir Urik for some support. Ashlyn, finally getting the chance to destroy the evil that claimed her friends once and for all, leaps into the pit and attacks the blaspheme down there. Sir Urik, not willing to let her go alone, joins her. The party... mostly follows, save for Retrix, who just sorta chills out up top, finds some rope, ties it to a pew, and THEN jumps in, so he has an escape route. *sigh*
-The battle in the understory mostly goes like this: PC's kill Danovich; Blaspheme ravages Ashlyn, who survives thanks to a potion of cure serious wounds; PC's focus fire on Blaspheme; Blaspheme manages to take Retrix (once he arrived) from 38 to -4 in one attack (crit happens); party finally manages to kill the Blaspheme and stop the plague.

That's it. We ended there. The party is thinking about going to see Madam Eva again, since they read Danovich's journal and talked to Ireena and Ismark some more. Basically, they know about the Tome, Sunsword, and Holy Symbol, and want to talk to Eva about where to find said items.



Personal Notes:
-I am having some trouble creating a solid atmosphere for the adventure. If I overdo it on the descriptions (the only way I can make a good "horror-y" atmosphere), they players ignore me. If I skimp on them, it becomes a hack-n-slash. Not sure what to do here.
-The party cannot stay even vaguely serious to save their lives. I get that D&D is a game, but the best games are made by the atmosphere and feel, not the actual content (though that helps somewhat). Jokes about real life events and internet memes aren't really conducive to the goal of the atmosphere being important. I guess this is really just a personal issue I'm having, but it DOES bug me.
-Sidenote: Anything OTHER than combat loses players VERY fast. It it isn't combat, people aren't interested. This... bugs me somewhat, but meh. I guess they just don't care for roleplaying, meaning I should tone it back somewhat.
-circle of death was insane. Multiple players BARELY made their saves. I wonder if a DC 18 was fair (I thought it was). I'm also wondering how Danovich could even cast it (it's not a cleric spell on any list or domain he had). Anyone know how that worked?

Thoughts? This wasn't a great session, but it was alright I guess.

[Rei_Jin]

I'm amused that the one player has had two deaths in a row. I'd recommend they try out a more hardy character, such as a Monk2/Hexblade3//Sorceror5

You have Mettle, Evasion, Charisma to Save against spells, a good base on all saves, and (if you take the Ascetic Spellcaster Feat) Charisma to AC as well.

In regards to the atmosphere, part of it comes from how freaked out they are at the risk of death, and the other part comes from how immersed they are in the risk to the townsfolk and the people.

For my party, we're freaking out constantly. And we're due to play again this Saturday, we'll probably be taking out the fanes.

Eeep!

[arguskos]

I'm amused that the one player has had two deaths in a row. I'd recommend they try out a more hardy character, such as a Monk2/Hexblade3//Sorceror5

You have Mettle, Evasion, Charisma to Save against spells, a good base on all saves, and (if you take the Ascetic Spellcaster Feat) Charisma to AC as well.

In regards to the atmosphere, part of it comes from how freaked out they are at the risk of death, and the other part comes from how immersed they are in the risk to the townsfolk and the people.

For my party, we're freaking out constantly. And we're due to play again this Saturday, we'll probably be taking out the fanes.

Eeep!

I actually forgot to mention that he's playing a Duskblade 6//Binder 6 (they leveled and I'm giving him the level too).

As for the feel... *sigh* I know that this is my fault for not creating a more immersive atmosphere, but they just don't CARE about the townsfolk, their characters, or anything really. I feel like I've failed along the way somewhere, and I'm not sure how to fix it, since I like a more immersive game experience. Should I just shut my mouth, and play the way they seem to enjoy? I mean, that's the DM's job, right?

[Rei_Jin]

Well, you could always just ask them about it.

Some players just want to screw around and quote monty python, others want an immersive experience.

If they don't want it, there's not a lot you can do.

The DMs job is to tell a story, with the players acting their part, however they like to. You adjust the story as you need to. Your job is not to pander to their every whim, nor is it their job to do whatever you want.

Everyone's there to have fun, after all.

Is it that they don't feel any attachment to their characters? Often that's where you need to start if you want them to invest themselves in the game.

[arguskos]

Well, you could always just ask them about it.

Some players just want to screw around and quote monty python, others want an immersive experience.

If they don't want it, there's not a lot you can do.

The DMs job is to tell a story, with the players acting their part, however they like to. You adjust the story as you need to. Your job is not to pander to their every whim, nor is it their job to do whatever you want.

Everyone's there to have fun, after all.

Is it that they don't feel any attachment to their characters? Often that's where you need to start if you want them to invest themselves in the game.

Pretty much, yeah. The players don't seem to really feel their characters are people. The character personalities are the same as the player's personality. I guess they just aren't interested.

I figure I'll scale back the NPC interaction, and focus more on the action and loot, since that's what everyone seems to be interested in.

[arguskos]

Well... session three was... wow. It changed EVERYTHING in more than a few ways.

Spoiler

Show

First things first, the new God joined us: Gildar, the (duskblade/binder) God of Thunder (hammer and all/Thor clone ).

The game began simply enough: talk to Madam Eva about the Sunsword, the Holy Symbol, and the Tome of Strahd. The party did this, discovered that the Sword was in the local Ivlis Marshes, the Holy Symbol was at Lysaga Hill, and the Tome was in the Tomb of Sergei von Zarovich (which made me smile more than a little bit).

So, the party set out for the Marches, planning to find the Sword first. With some rather rapid combat against a Bloodmoat Swarm and a Shambling Mound (Gildar was every flavor of "****!!!!" when they encountered the Mound; lol electricity resistance/growth), they were off to the Swamp Fane, where the Drowned Lady and the Sunsword awaited them. The party, through liberal application of Scorching Ray spells, managed to one-round the Drowned Lady, and then wipe her Blood Eel guards off the face of the earth too. They dug up the Fane's artifact (the tooth of St. Bogdan) and the Sunsword, which was the real treasure. Amusingly, the only character interested in the Sword was the god of pestilence, Retrix, which made me laugh to no end, but hey, it made him happy (also, it wasn't any better than his +1 bastard sword ).

After this event, the party returned to town for some eventful resting and relaxing. In the following morning, Gildar leaves town to do some binding, so as not to freak out the townsfolk, and as he ends the binding, Kavan the Grim, a daywalker vampire barbarian that serves Strahd, attacks him (since he's on his own, as no one came with him for defense). Before Gildar can rally himself, Kavan knocks him into negatives with a pair of sword blows and a single slam attack, leaving him at a precarious -9.... and he makes it!! The party, luckily, manages to blow Kavan into nice, vampiric cubes. Following this, they heal up poor Glidar (who's been having a seriously bad series of days, to be fair), but the party clerics don't have access to anything to restore his two negative levels, so Gildar and the party decide that he'll hole up in an abandoned house while they go off to Lysaga Hill to uncover the Holy Symbol... and this is where **** goes loopy.

So, if you'll flashback with me, and remember what Strahd's ultimate goal was, you'll recall, dear reader, that it was Undead Dynasty. Strahd wants to create a great daywalker dynasty, and has chosen the player characters as the first of his new brood.

Let's return, shall we? Gildar is all alone that evening, with a mere earth elemental for protection (thanks to his bind that day). Strahd decides that now would be a good time to convert his first new subject: Gildar. He uses a combination of gaseous form, mind fog, and dominate, with the total effect being that Gildar ends up dominated and drained (thanks to failing several Will saves) and serving Strahd as a new vampire. Oh, and the elemental was merely waited out (Strahd had been using scrying to watch the players, and knew about the elemental having a duration of 24 hours, since the bind granted it, and said bind was about to end). Now Strahd has an agent in the party with standing orders to capture other party members and summon Strahd to convert them (by breaking a token Strahd gives Gildar).

Obviously, this is an interesting issue. On one hand, I wasn't sure what would happen. I figured that it would end up that the party would discover Gildar's "betrayal" and slay him in some rather awesome fight. Instead, for the answer, we must flash over to the party, who, after a long, restless night sleeping at the Hill and an early start in the dawn hours, encounter a caller in darkness (pic for the so inclined). The encounter begins and ends all at once: the caller uses a death urge power on Retrix, lord of pestilence, who proceeds to put himself at -9 life.... and the caller in darkness then merely uses it's incoporeal touch and Retrix joins the afterlife. To be fair, I said that when it absorbed a godlings soul, the creature was destroyed. Now, since they are two people down, the party decides to head back to town at top speed, pick up Gildar, come back here, and kill anything that might still be around.

Side Note: Retrix comes back, since, you know, godling and all that jazz.

Anyways, they make it back to town and find Retrix in the town square awaiting their arrival, along with Gildar, who is chilling there too. In full force... the party decides to use stealth now, and sends Retrix and Gildar in to scout the tower (using Hide from Undead on Retrix and Gildar [having bound Tenebrous]). Well, you can probably guess how this goes. Gildar and Retrix discover the secret entrance to the understory of the tower ruins, and together, the venture down there. Gildar goes first, and asks for a moment to be sure it's safe (he then uses his token of summoning Strahd). Retrix follows... and is rapidly dominated and converted by Strahd.

The rest of this tale is short (thankfully). Now, with his numbers much bolstered, Strahd risks an attack on the party... and with a lucky dominate on Vaijus (the monk//cleric) and his loyal vampire slaves, he in fact manages to kill off the NPC ally, turn Vaijus, and win the module.

Anyone smart will note that one PC is unaccounted for: Fahima, god of cats. This is an astute observation, and one that brings me to the final event of note. Fahima escaped Strahd's clutches, and the party collectively decided that our next arc in the campaign will be five years in the future, after Fahima and Sir Urik (who also made it out) have recruited some people to come back and help them eradicate Strahd, once and for all.

So...... yeaaaaah. This was amazing and strange and "WTF?!?" all at once, but it was fun. We'll be making characters next week probably, and we'll start the updated game the week after that, so I might just fill ya'll in as it goes.

However, I wouldn't mind some suggestions as to what Strahd will be doing. I'll post my ideas sooner than later.

[Shishnarfne]

Well, it looks like this campaign may be coming to a rather rapid end....

Spoiler

Show

This seems a reasonable justification for my belief that this particular motivation brings Strahd to his most dangerous

Technically, Circle of Death is a sixth level spell, which, with minimum ability score to cast, puts it at DC 19. That's how I've run it.

In most campaigns, player death is a real possibility. In Ravenloft, that goes at least double.

Regarding seriousness, I think that the players start to take the module seriously, no matter their demeanor around the table, when they start losing faith in their eventual victory. I think they're close to that point.

[Fax Celestis]

Well... session three was... wow. It changed EVERYTHING in more than a few ways.

Spoiler

Show

First things first, the new God joined us: Gildar, the (duskblade/binder) God of Thunder (hammer and all/Thor clone ).

The game began simply enough: talk to Madam Eva about the Sunsword, the Holy Symbol, and the Tome of Strahd. The party did this, discovered that the Sword was in the local Ivlis Marshes, the Holy Symbol was at Lysaga Hill, and the Tome was in the Tomb of Sergei von Zarovich (which made me smile more than a little bit).

So, the party set out for the Marches, planning to find the Sword first. With some rather rapid combat against a Bloodmoat Swarm and a Shambling Mound (Gildar was every flavor of "****!!!!" when they encountered the Mound; lol electricity resistance/growth), they were off to the Swamp Fane, where the Drowned Lady and the Sunsword awaited them. The party, through liberal application of Scorching Ray spells, managed to one-round the Drowned Lady, and then wipe her Blood Eel guards off the face of the earth too. They dug up the Fane's artifact (the tooth of St. Bogdan) and the Sunsword, which was the real treasure. Amusingly, the only character interested in the Sword was the god of pestilence, Retrix, which made me laugh to no end, but hey, it made him happy (also, it wasn't any better than his +1 bastard sword ).

After this event, the party returned to town for some eventful resting and relaxing. In the following morning, Gildar leaves town to do some binding, so as not to freak out the townsfolk, and as he ends the binding, Kavan the Grim, a daywalker vampire barbarian that serves Strahd, attacks him (since he's on his own, as no one came with him for defense). Before Gildar can rally himself, Kavan knocks him into negatives with a pair of sword blows and a single slam attack, leaving him at a precarious -9.... and he makes it!! The party, luckily, manages to blow Kavan into nice, vampiric cubes. Following this, they heal up poor Glidar (who's been having a seriously bad series of days, to be fair), but the party clerics don't have access to anything to restore his two negative levels, so Gildar and the party decide that he'll hole up in an abandoned house while they go off to Lysaga Hill to uncover the Holy Symbol... and this is where **** goes loopy.

So, if you'll flashback with me, and remember what Strahd's ultimate goal was, you'll recall, dear reader, that it was Undead Dynasty. Strahd wants to create a great daywalker dynasty, and has chosen the player characters as the first of his new brood.

Let's return, shall we? Gildar is all alone that evening, with a mere earth elemental for protection (thanks to his bind that day). Strahd decides that now would be a good time to convert his first new subject: Gildar. He uses a combination of gaseous form, mind fog, and dominate, with the total effect being that Gildar ends up dominated and drained (thanks to failing several Will saves) and serving Strahd as a new vampire. Oh, and the elemental was merely waited out (Strahd had been using scrying to watch the players, and knew about the elemental having a duration of 24 hours, since the bind granted it, and said bind was about to end). Now Strahd has an agent in the party with standing orders to capture other party members and summon Strahd to convert them (by breaking a token Strahd gives Gildar).

Obviously, this is an interesting issue. On one hand, I wasn't sure what would happen. I figured that it would end up that the party would discover Gildar's "betrayal" and slay him in some rather awesome fight. Instead, for the answer, we must flash over to the party, who, after a long, restless night sleeping at the Hill and an early start in the dawn hours, encounter a caller in darkness (pic for the so inclined). The encounter begins and ends all at once: the caller uses a death urge power on Retrix, lord of pestilence, who proceeds to put himself at -9 life.... and the caller in darkness then merely uses it's incoporeal touch and Retrix joins the afterlife. To be fair, I said that when it absorbed a godlings soul, the creature was destroyed. Now, since they are two people down, the party decides to head back to town at top speed, pick up Gildar, come back here, and kill anything that might still be around.

Side Note: Retrix comes back, since, you know, godling and all that jazz.

Anyways, they make it back to town and find Retrix in the town square awaiting their arrival, along with Gildar, who is chilling there too. In full force... the party decides to use stealth now, and sends Retrix and Gildar in to scout the tower (using Hide from Undead on Retrix and Gildar [having bound Tenebrous]). Well, you can probably guess how this goes. Gildar and Retrix discover the secret entrance to the understory of the tower ruins, and together, the venture down there. Gildar goes first, and asks for a moment to be sure it's safe (he then uses his token of summoning Strahd). Retrix follows... and is rapidly dominated and converted by Strahd.

The rest of this tale is short (thankfully). Now, with his numbers much bolstered, Strahd risks an attack on the party... and with a lucky dominate on Vaijus (the monk//cleric) and his loyal vampire slaves, he in fact manages to kill off the NPC ally, turn Vaijus, and win the module.

Anyone smart will note that one PC is unaccounted for: Fahima, god of cats. This is an astute observation, and one that brings me to the final event of note. Fahima escaped Strahd's clutches, and the party collectively decided that our next arc in the campaign will be five years in the future, after Fahima and Sir Urik (who also made it out) have recruited some people to come back and help them eradicate Strahd, once and for all.

So...... yeaaaaah. This was amazing and strange and "WTF?!?" all at once, but it was fun. We'll be making characters next week probably, and we'll start the updated game the week after that, so I might just fill ya'll in as it goes.

However, I wouldn't mind some suggestions as to what Strahd will be doing. I'll post my ideas sooner than later.

I only have one thing to say to this.

ZOMGWTFSPQR

Well, okay. Two things: Your players are awesome for going along with it.

[Rei_Jin]

Wow, I mean just...

Wow.

We played on the weekend, got the Sunsword, killed Vampire Perriwhimple, killed Madam Eva and all her Vistani (after she pissed us off for the last time), took control of the nearby fane after killing all the guardians contained therein(swamp fane?) and my character got the power of... wait for it.... permanent non-detection. Wooo. The lamest of all the fanes, and yet it somehow increases the power of Strahd enough to increase his CR by 1.

Oh, and we cleared the ghouls out of the graveyard, consecrated the church, and started the rebuilding process. And buried the Burgomaster.

So far, I think we're doing pretty well, but I'm not looking forward to having to fight Strahd for control of the Fanes.

In regards to your party, don't they have a cleric of any sort to remove the negative levels? And why for the love of god did they split up? Splitting up is always the way that the party is killed, in any old school game. I understand that one of the party members was hurting, but it would have been better for him to be with the party than to be alone, if nothing else it means that they can keep an eye on him so that nothing else bad can happen to him.

[arguskos]

Well, it looks like this campaign may be coming to a rather rapid end....

Spoiler

Show

This seems a reasonable justification for my belief that this particular motivation brings Strahd to his most dangerous

Technically, Circle of Death is a sixth level spell, which, with minimum ability score to cast, puts it at DC 19. That's how I've run it.

In most campaigns, player death is a real possibility. In Ravenloft, that goes at least double.

Regarding seriousness, I think that the players start to take the module seriously, no matter their demeanor around the table, when they start losing faith in their eventual victory. I think they're close to that point.

Yeah, that was my thought. I figured it would be a really difficult damn adventure.... but I didn't even come CLOSE to expecting this. o.O

As for the Circle of Death... it's not a cleric spell, meaning I though Danovich couldn't ever cast it. It's just a random "wtf is this?"

I only have one thing to say to this.

ZOMGWTFSPQR

Well, okay. Two things: Your players are awesome for going along with it.

Yup, that was my reaction. The whole "you're all vampires, have fun with that now" was pretty strange. Definitely NOT the outcome I expected.

Oh, and to be honest, it was their idea to advance things 5 years, and have Fahima, Sir Urik, and the new characters (of the three players turned into vampires) go back and purge Barovia completely. Oh, and the several cities that Strahd has been using the PC Vampires to conquer.

Wow, I mean just...

Wow.

We played on the weekend, got the Sunsword, killed Vampire Perriwhimple, killed Madam Eva and all her Vistani (after she pissed us off for the last time), took control of the nearby fane after killing all the guardians contained therein(swamp fane?) and my character got the power of... wait for it.... permanent non-detection. Wooo. The lamest of all the fanes, and yet it somehow increases the power of Strahd enough to increase his CR by 1.

Oh, and we cleared the ghouls out of the graveyard, consecrated the church, and started the rebuilding process. And buried the Burgomaster.

So far, I think we're doing pretty well, but I'm not looking forward to having to fight Strahd for control of the Fanes.

In regards to your party, don't they have a cleric of any sort to remove the negative levels? And why for the love of god did they split up? Splitting up is always the way that the party is killed, in any old school game. I understand that one of the party members was hurting, but it would have been better for him to be with the party than to be alone, if nothing else it means that they can keep an eye on him so that nothing else bad can happen to him.

1. That was Madam Eva's fane? That's the Forest Fane, and yeah, it REALLY sucks. Nondetection= +1 CR? In the words of a friend of mine, "lolwat?"

2. Yeah, damn, you guys are kicking some serious ass. Sword, Fane #1, Eva dead, church reconsecrated, ya'll are doing really well. Did Ashlyn leave you guys, or did she stick it out to help give you a hand? If so, see if your DM will level her up as you gain levels too (if she's helping you out personally). Same for Sir Urik and Ireena. It might help to have them nearby when you have to meditate at the Fanes, since Strahd IS going to come and attack you. Have you guys figured out what his secondary goal is yet, or still in the dark on that one?

3. As for splitting up the party... you have no idea. I've warned them SOOO many times, but they just never really listen to me. >_> I keep saying "guys, don't break up the party, don't do it, it's a bad idea, guys, listen, seriously now, DON'T BREAK UP THE PART- oh, NOW you listen to me!!" *sigh* Well, I think this really made them realize that this isn't a joke, you split up, you DIE. As for the clerics, I guess no one looked at their spell list (even though I mentioned they might want to check for anti-negative level spells). *cries*

I'm just excited for this next "Return to Castle Ravenloft"-esque adventure. Given that Strahd just won, and has his bride, his dynasty, and everything he wants, I've been thinking about what his next steps are. I figure, he's going to keep expanding his little "family" by having each PCV (player character vampire) go and begin subverting cities in his name. The best part about this is that it gives the new party a clear and present target for their wrath, since Strahd took Fahima's friends and allies, and nearly got her too, and now the PCV's are busily subverting cities in the name of their new master.

I think it's a fun idea, but that's just me. Anyone else have different suggestions as to what Strahd would do now?

[Rei_Jin]

Ashlyn took the gear of the now buried lightbringers home to let their families know what happened, so she's gone. Sir Urik will be joining us in our trip to the Chapel on the grounds of the castle so that we can activate the sunsword and I can spend a night in vigil for the Knight of the Raven PrC.

In regards to what would Strahd be doing? I would think he'd be looking for a way to reverse his vampyrism so that he can live again with his bride. To that end, he'd be trying to bring people with an interest in negative and positive energy.

It's either that, or he's already turned her into a Vampire, in which case they'd be having Vampire Babies and herding people up like cattle to be eaten at their leisure.

[arguskos]

Ashlyn took the gear of the now buried lightbringers home to let their families know what happened, so she's gone. Sir Urik will be joining us in our trip to the Chapel on the grounds of the castle so that we can activate the sunsword and I can spend a night in vigil for the Knight of the Raven PrC.

In regards to what would Strahd be doing? I would think he'd be looking for a way to reverse his vampyrism so that he can live again with his bride. To that end, he'd be trying to bring people with an interest in negative and positive energy.

It's either that, or he's already turned her into a Vampire, in which case they'd be having Vampire Babies and herding people up like cattle to be eaten at their leisure.

It actually implies that he was going to turn her into a Vampire and live with her forever, so I just ran with that.

I was more thinking about what Strahd's goals are now, ie. how he'll go about expanding this daywalker dynasty of his.

[Rei_Jin]

Well, my first thought in terms of creating a Daywalked Dynasty is to expand the borders of Barovia. Within that land, he has ultimate control right? So, if he expands the borders he expands his control.

It starts with small raiding parties into nearby regions. Those towns then respond by sending their own raiding parties.

Which are turned into vampires.

They then send a larger group. Again, turned into vampires.

Finally they mount an army against Barovia.

Barovian army of Vampires attacks under cover of darkness, and turns whole army into Vampires.

Strahd expands Barovia, meaning that his vampires can live in a larger area and still be immune to sunlight.

Repeat ad nauseum?

[arguskos]

Well, my first thought in terms of creating a Daywalked Dynasty is to expand the borders of Barovia. Within that land, he has ultimate control right? So, if he expands the borders he expands his control.

It starts with small raiding parties into nearby regions. Those towns then respond by sending their own raiding parties.

Which are turned into vampires.

They then send a larger group. Again, turned into vampires.

Finally they mount an army against Barovia.

Barovian army of Vampires attacks under cover of darkness, and turns whole army into Vampires.

Strahd expands Barovia, meaning that his vampires can live in a larger area and still be immune to sunlight.

Repeat ad nauseum?

I was thinking something along similar lines: he can use the PCV's to go and slowly convert whole cities into vampire servants and then expand the borders that way. It's a more sneaky way of expanding things, but it still works. I do like the idea of the forces of good mounting attacks on Barovia and being repulsed by squads of border-patrolling vampires. That seems interesting and fun.