How to REALLY run Death House | Running Curse of Strahd 5e

[Music] that sense of deja vu that you're having right now is completely warranted this is the second time that we've covered death house on this channel but this time it's all lunch break heroes now we're going to go over changes to the Durst family history we're gonna make it tie more into the rest of morovia and we're gonna make their presence as a cult makes sense we're also gonna go over to some changes to the house and some of the encounters and whatnot in there to help you run your best introduction to curse of strong possible as I mentioned in a previous video when the mists came to brew yeah so did famine it rocked the land and killed thousands of people now famine and starvation and hunger are themes that are central to all of the changes that we made in this chapter they underpin everything it's gonna be what kicks off the whole series of events that leads the Durst's from being a fairly normal noble family in burrow via to being the undead cult that you meet in this introduction to cursor straud now all of that being said let's go ahead and take a look at some of the changes that we've made to this chapter before we do that though I want to point out that the written edition of this chapter is in the description down below it's publicly available for anyone to download and keep forever so if you've ever wanted to see a lunch break heroes written guide now is your opportunity all right now let's take a look at all of the changes what we made to this chapter first and foremost we've changed the name it's not death house it's durst manor or the old durst house or some other inane moniker that you can think of that doesn't imply that everybody who walks in gets murdered the words death house should never come out of your mouth around your players not a single time if you're playing with a virtual tabletop by the way make sure that it doesn't show the maps name to the player and if it does change the map's name I've heard of at least one group where the surprise was spoiled because the virtual tabletop include the men that this is death house I mean can you imagine being the realtor in charge of selling a place called death house yeah we got this nice place here I got it I totally by law have to tell you somebody died in this place but that's okay nobody's seen any ghosts in any way shape or form at least it's made it out of life yeah yeah that's okay this is a great town house it's just oozing charm and blood everywhere it's fine don't worry about the blood it cleans up nice and easy you know this is a real family home it's got five bedrooms only one bathroom but don't worry about it you'll be pissing your pants most of the time anyways right I'm just kidding I'm just kidding it's got a fully finished basement too so that's a lot of fun and it's move-in ready it's fully furnished you'll love it you death house is the place for you hey hey where are you going it'll be a tough sell that that's all I'm saying but speaking of selling houses you know what else is really important location it can really make or break your property values and your ability to establish a secret cult remember from my previous video that the area east of the village of Rovia is fertile farmland this is actually where the Durst Manor is located changing the houses location makes it the first sign of civilization that your party is going to see when they enter burrow via with all the lamps and the fireplace is going on inside it's a pretty cozy looking place if you toss in a dark night some inclement weather some howling wolves and too distraught children you might not need to use the mists to railroad them inside especially if you've taken all of their gear now speaking of the mists I would recommend not using it it's all about player agency right here if your players really want to skip Durst Manor and leave those two poor crying children on the side of the road let them let them go ahead nothing says gothic horror like having a two-level handicap for the next year of your life before we go into changes to the house let's establish some alternative facts about the Durst family history we're gonna drop the whole generic cult pastiche and make them into a more relatable or at least realistic family somebody who has a motivation for being what they became way back when the Durst's were a wealthy and well-connected noble family they had their plantation and several businesses inside the village of morovia everything was going right up until strawed messed it up for everybody and the mists came and in shroud at the land the sunlight got blocked out and everybody's crops died even the Durst's their fortune and their lines of credit and all of that basically got wiped out in the span of just a few weeks like we established earlier famines swept the land and killed thousands of Peruvians when things were looking at most bleak Gustav and Elisabeth Durst called a meeting with the remaining friends this was a clandestine midnight meeting where all of these wealthy borough viens could scheme and plot and try to figure out how to get the upper hand in this situation and how they could survive but none of the ideas that anybody put forth were feasible they all got shot down for one reason or another that is until timid Elisabeth finally got up the courage to come forth with an idea an idea that was so simple but so depraved that she would never have honored it otherwise if it hadn't been a life or death situation she suggested that they wail a wayward travelers kill them and eat them now of course as soon as she suggested it everybody was outraged cannibalism it's an insane idea it's not what Nobles do but the more that she talked the more it made sense the more it seemed like the only road to survival by the wee hours of the morning Elizabeth had everybody convinced reluctantly or otherwise and the very next day work began to excavate the Durst family crypt to have a space to commit their vile deeds in secret just to be clear Gustav and Elisabeth weren't complete monsters at least back then they kept their two young children rose and thorn and their nursemaid Anja completely separated from all of this those three got to eat whatever food could be scrounged up while Gustav and Elisabeth and their friends dined on human flesh in the basement over a nice bottle of wine weeks turned into months months turned into years and eventually the land of barodia adjusted to its current climate harder year crops began to grow and the famine became a thing of the past you'd think that folks who were eating human flesh would stop but in the case of the Durst's you'd be wrong over the years their taste for human flesh had only grown it became a staple of their diet now maybe it's something about imbibing the life force of another human being or maybe there's admired strands rosy complexion but eventually they became a cult centered around the idea of eternal life they spent fortunes gathering occult books on the subject they even expanded the basement to include a ritual chamber where they could perform their sacrifices not everybody was on board them Gustave at the very least began to pull away from the cults activities he began to seek solace elsewhere primarily in the arms and the bed the children's nursemaid Anya now although their union was brief it did result in Anya's pregnancy and a really pissed-off Elizabeth understandably now what is a little strange there is Anya wasn't kicked out of the house like you'd expect in fact she was kept there and nine months later she gave birth to a living baby boy Walter this is of course in contrast to the module where Walter was stillborn on the night after the birth Elizabeth sent Gustave out of the house on an errand as soon as Gustav was gone Elizabeth took Rose and thorn up to the attic and locked them in the bedroom this is where your players gonna find them later she then went downstairs into Anya's room and brutally murdered the nursemaid with blood still on her hands Elizabeth then took baby Walter out of his crib and down into the Durst Manor basement once there in the ritual chamber you have an idea of what happened next nothing good I'd like to say that Walter made it out grew up to be young and healthy and strong but I'd be lying in Walter's final moments the dark powers finally took notice of Elizabeth Durst and her abhorrent cult and they decided to give her what they've always been after eternal life they'd live forever but as Undead and they would be locked in a house that would never allow them to leave Gustav came back a bit later to find his house different than when he left it he also found his wife extremely do effort and his baby son gone from the world he went upstairs to find Anya dead in her bed fearing the worst he didn't even bother looking for rose and thorn unfortunately he went into his room locked the door wrote a note he then promptly hung himself from the bed and that's where your party is going to find him once they explore durst Manor speaking what your players find in the master bedroom that brings us to the rest of the house now there are 38 rooms in total and we've made changes to most of them to varying degrees that's a lot of rooms to talk about on the video and I don't want to do that to you so instead the entire written guide to this chapter is available down below it goes over all the changes to the history to the rooms to the hazards to the encounters and everything it even includes a sample skill challenge to help your players escape at the house and make it fun definitely check that out and if you like more you can become a patron of the channel and get all of our write-ups past present and future for just as little as a dollar and like I said before if you don't want to do that that's fine go ahead and click the subscribe button and we will see you back here for our future videos

Channel: Lunch Break Heroes

Views: 81,887

Keywords: Death House, Durst Manor, Curse of Strand Death House, D&D Death House, DnD Death House, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons, dnd, dnd5e, campaign guide, dm tips, dungeon master tips, curse of strahd, running curse of strahd, curse of strahd guide, how to run curse of strahd, guide to curse of strahd, curse of strahd tips, running curse of strahd 5e, strahd, dursts, gibbering mouther, monsters, undead

Id: olByNvLNdb0

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 08 2020