- Did you know that there are
two exterior gates to Barovia? That's right. One in the west, where most games start, and one in the east,
just outside of Krezk. Now we're all familiar
with the eastern gate. Like I said, that's where
pretty much all games start. But, if you've run the module before, and you want to shake things up, you can start on the other side. That sounds stupidly simple. Like there's almost nothing to it. And if that were the case, I
wouldn't be making this video. When folks start their games in Krezk, they quickly realize just how much of the adventure hinges
on your party starting at the eastern border. There's a lot of assumptions
that get turned on their heads when you start over on the other side. So, today we're going to cover how you can start Curse of Strahd in Krezk, and actually have a good time. Things that you should expect, things that you should account for, and things that you need to change. (triumphant music) Welcome back to Lunch
Break Heroes, everybody. Today, we're going to be
talking about starting in Krezk, if you hadn't figured
that one out already. First, we're going to
cover the major issues that you're going to face
once starting in Krezk. For starters, there's no Death House. That little mini-adventure
simply doesn't exist in Krezk. So we're going to figure
out how to get your party to level three when they
start the adventure. Next, unlike the Village of Barovia, your characters can't
just walk into Krezk. If they want inside those town walls, they're going to have to do some work. Now, that's not a big
deal until you realize that all of the encounters in
the western part of the map are geared towards level five characters. That's bad news for low-level characters, so we'll have to make some adjustments. On top of that, there's a lack of introductory information in the west. Ismark, in the Village of Barovia, is the one who generally
gives characters the lowdown, the 4-1-1, on what's going on. So we'll need to have somebody
else be the information dump. And speaking of information, in order to know what
to do and where to go, your players are going to
need a Tarokka reading. Unfortunately, Madam Eva's almost all the way across the map. So that means that we're
going to have to find some other way of
directing the characters. Lastly, a lot of the campaign revolves around escorting and protecting Ireena. She's nowhere near Krezk. So we've got to figure out a way to get her and the party together somehow, preferably without
having the party hoof it all the way to her hometown. So those are our big problems. Let's go over solutions
to each one of them. (air whooshing) The absence of Death House is an easy fix. Just pluck it up from
the Village of Barovia and move it outside the western gates. This way, it's the first building that your parties encounter after they're drawn into the Mist. I kind of talk about this in
our other Death House video, which you can find right up there. (air whooshing) Just like it's written in the module, the burgomaster of Krezk,
Dmitri, isn't going to let some random group of
adventurers into his town. When your party first arrives, he's going to set them on a
task in order to earn entry. "Go get us our wine," he says. "And check on our vassals to the south." And at that point, he tosses down a crudely
drawn map of Barovia and lets the party go
about their business. This not only introduces the
untrusting nature of Barovians, and gives your party something to do, but it also gives them the lay of the land with that handy map. (air whooshing) Once the party is down at the winery, you're going to have
to make a few changes. First, have your party battle it out with some twig blights before
they meet the Martikovs. This introduces the threat in the area, and gives a valid excuse as to why the Martikovs
haven't just gone off to Krezk on their own. Remember, the party has no idea what the Martikovs
really are at this point. Next, you need to rebalance
the encounters here for a third level party. There's 30 or so needle
blights outside of the winery, only have two groups of three
or five engage the party at any given time. The rest just hang back
as window dressing. Next, replace the 24
twig blights in area W9 with two vine blights, and
have that druid in area W16, and a berserker, show up on, maybe, oh, the fourth round of combat. Lastly, decrease the damage
of that brown mold in area W15 from 4d10 to 2d10. Dying of brown mold is a really crappy way to start an adventure. Don't bother with any of that
Wintersplinter stuff here, or the kidnapping
subplot that I introduced in my winery video up here. We don't want the party
going down to Yester Hill and getting themselves killed just yet. You can always introduce
that stuff later on, after the characters have
leveled up just a little bit. Before we get on with that next section, you know what time it is. I got to remind you that
you can get this guide and all of the other written
guides over on Patreon for just as little as a dollar. All these beautifully typeset PDFs, yours to download and keep forever. So go check that out. Also LunchBreakHeroes.com
is up and running right now. We've got articles on Curse of Strahd and Dungeons and Dragons in general. Additionally, we've added
a whole bunch of new things to the store for you to take a look at. So head on over to
LunchBreakHeroes.com and check it out. Let me know what you think.
Drop me a line there. I'd love to hear from
each and every one of you. With all of that said, let's get on with the next
section of this video. (air whooshing) Once the threat at the
winery has been defeated, and some wine has been delivered to Krezk, the party will be allowed entrance. Dmitri and his wife,
and their still living, but very ill, son Ilya, will
put them up for the night. In the morning, they'll be
asked to do some chores, like defeathering a chicken,
chopping firewood, and whatnot. You can even run the
Something New special event here at this time. This is a great place for it. I, that's a really cool,
light-hearted event. It's just, ah, I dunno. It's cool. Once all that's done,
Dmitri takes the party to the Shrine of the White Sun and gives them a lot
of the same information that Ismark usually would. He explains that the land is ruled over by the immortal Strahd von Zarovich, and he's aided by dark-hearted
Barovians and Vistani. He gives them background information on Saint Markovia and her
failed crusade against Strahd. And maybe also some limited
information on the Abbot. He also tells them that they
aren't the first adventurers to be drawn in through the Mist. In fact, another one came
in just a few days ago. A woman with a prosthetic
leg who was last seen entering the Abbey on top of the hill. (air whooshing) Now that the party has
some baseline information about Barovia and its current situation, it's time to clue them
in on their destiny. To do this, we're going
to substitute Madam Eva for Ezmerelda, who is also capable of giving a Tarokka reading. But first, we need to get
your party to meet her. You can do that by drawing
your party into the Abbey, by kicking off the
Something Old special event. Here, a messenger runs up to Dmitri and announces that Ilya has succumbed to his illness and died. This prompts Dmitri to bring
his son to the Abbey for help, insisting that your party come along. With your party now inside
the Abbey of Saint Markovia, they get to meet the
enigmatic Abbot who will, of course, raise Ilya from the dead. If only to further his own agenda. Unlike in my Abbey video, seen up here, the Abbot here still wants
a wedding dress for Vasilka. After your party has a
run-in with Ezmerelda somewhere on the grounds, she introduces herself
and insists on conducting a Tarokka card reading
to discern the fates of your adventuring party. Just be sure not to put any
of the fortunes of Ravenloft items in either Krezk or the winery. Those are pretty crappy locations. "Where's the Sunsword? Oh,
look, it's right here." Once all that's done, the
Abbot invites everyone to a rather awkward dinner, where he can give a bit
more background information on Strahd and Barovia,
introduce the party to Vasilka, and pressure Dmitri to have your party go fetch a wedding gown from Vallaki. This is a nice little parallel to the dinner with Strahd later on. (air whooshing) Before your party leaves Krezk, Dmitri has one last parting gift. His own scouts found a body
on the road, bearing a letter, which he believes will
interest your party. It's the same letter that's
normally found on the body of Dalvan Eloensky in Area C. After reading it, Ezmerelda compels them to search for her mentor,
Rudolph Van Richten, before the devil sinks his fangs into Ireena one last time. By now, your party should
have the lay of the land. They should know about
the fortunes of Ravenloft and the importance of protecting Ireena. But how do they meet Ireena at this point? Rather than having the
party hoof it all the way to the village of Barovia,
let them encounter Ireena either in Vallaki, or on the road, or maybe at Old Bonegrinder. She was in the company of
some other adventuring party that met a grizzly end, and she's been left in dire straits. You get to whisk her
away to safety, kind of. And with a dead adventuring
party on the road, you get not only a warning
of the dangers of Barovia, but it's also a good chance for the party to score some basic loot. From there, everything plays
out pretty much as written. So there's your Krezk start to the game. Get on it, and let me know how it goes down in the comments below. And don't forget to subscribe. I'll see you back here next time.
