We had our first CoS session of the new year recently! The party got to explore a new area and learn some new things about Barovia in the process. 

In this series, I’m writing about how I prep my monthly CoS sessions and the results of that preparation. I’ve learned a lot about how session prep works for me!

What was prepped:

  • Recap

This session’s recap was pretty brief: reminding the players of how long they’ve been in Barovia and the last thing that happened. Everyone remembered the context around what happened last session pretty well, so it wasn’t necessary to go deeper in.

  • Argynvostholt and the revenants

I read back over the information for Argynvostholt, the mansion the party took refuge in at the end of last session. The revenants there are consumed with hatred for Strahd and fight to defend their former home, so many of them are straight-up hostiles that attack as soon as you enter the area. The mansion itself seems to be haunted by the spirit of its former owner, who has left clues behind about the story behind the mansion and the Order of the Silver Dragon. 

I was able to familiarize myself with the revenant stat block beforehand, and that was helpful since they have a few quirks (regeneration and specific rules about what stops their regeneration).

  • Scene with Ireena Kolyana

The party has grown pretty close to Ireena Kolyana, an NPC who can join the party early on in the adventure. She’s become a valuable friend to the characters and a love interest for our bard. I spent some time preparing a scene where she opened up more to the party.

I’m glad I sketched out a few beats I wanted to hit while still keeping the scene relatively open. I had some things I definitely wanted Ireena to say, but I didn’t script the whole thing out. That allowed the scene to flow naturally according to the player character’s reactions.

What was improvised:

  • Elf NPC personality

In Argynvostholt, there’s a dusk elf named Savid who is hiding while he recovers from his injuries. He is only mentioned in one room, so I neglected to prep out a specific personality for him.

I’m glad the party found him, because I got to deliver some interesting information through him. As a centuries-old elf, he has a different perspective on events in Barovia. I feel like I was able to improvise a passable personality to roleplay him with while remaining in harmony with the game’s themes and the area’s focus—the revenants and the Order of the Silver Dragon.

  • Defeating the revenants

Running Curse of Strahd is striking a balance between enforcing the campaign’s horror themes (also, it’s harsher than the games I typically run) while still encouraging players to come up with creative solutions.

The player characters don’t have a method for dealing fire or radiant damage. They were fighting a few revenants and needed to stop their regeneration feature, which is only halted if the revenant takes fire or radiant damage. They had found a prayer book and tried to use it to convince the revenants to stop fighting. It didn’t work, but instead, the book shone brilliantly and dealt radiant damage to the revenants, burning up completely in the process.

This was a one-time incident that got the player characters out of a bind. They know they can’t depend on these things next time, so I think this still encourages them to tread carefully and prepare wisely.

What I need to prep for next time:

  • Read back over Argynvostholt special events

The party hasn’t completely explored the mansion. It seems like they’ll explore a little more, so I plan to look into some of the special events suggested in the book. I’ll probably pick one to deploy in case the tension starts to die down.

Thanks for reading! Hope the first month of the new year is treating you all well.