Tamerath

The best part of writing scary monsters is seeing how the group handles the situation. Though I'm happy with how I modified Strahd, modifing the EYE of Strahd gave me an equal satisfaction.

We go back to 7th level...at the original Expedition to Castle Ravenloft encounter named, "the crossroads", where they met the last remaining Paladin storming into battle against some murks (kinda like shadows)...but I played this encounter before...it's boring, it's kinda easy...and there was no memories I carried with me about it.....so enter Tamerath's red marker editiing the encounter to better suit his party and the experience he wanted to tell...what I changed?

The, Paladin, Sir Braedan is a Knight of the Raven still...but he's not your average knight (see later description)

The easy stupid murks were replaced with a lieutenant of Strahd...a bloodkiss beholder (Open Grave) named the Eye of Strahd who is one of his "spies". The battle was brutal...Braedan rushed in...our party rushed in...the Beholder felled the Artificer in the first round and was tearing up our PC's fast without their "healer"...the PC's ran....ran fast all in different directions...while the Eye chased after Braedan....when they come back to the scene with a militia from the town of Barovia...it is gone...

Pan Ahead....as the PC's take the side passages and tunnels leading upward they enter a secret passage in the Throne Room. This room was supposed to have Strahd in his "feral form"...but not wanting to play the Strahd card 2 rooms in a row I opted for a
"party morale" booster encounter....Since the party HATED getting defeated by the Eye of Strahd, I brought him back and used him here...you should have seen their faces...they caught it off guard (which was really good rolling on their part)...formulated a solid plan...and ATTACKED!....the encounter was vicious...the eye doing 50 points of damage to the swordmage in the first round. The fourth round saw the Artificer down for the count yet again...the party was falling fast...and when the Artificer fell....the beholder's bloodkiss power regenerated 100+ hp!!!! Then, the party started doing well...they dragged out the artificer, healed him....had him heal THEM...and then really took the fight back from the fiend....round 10 saw the beholder slain in defeat...and high-fives were issued across the table...Good work I must say. Things got interesting from this point...

The party met the Stewart of Castle Ravenloft (passed the skill challenge with INSANE rolls)...and had him point them to the way of the library... (This encounter is changed significantly from the book...I'll post more on it later as I don't want to give anything away just yet)

The party came across the Hall of Maids room (originally a "mood setting" room if the party even found it...) where they found Ireena laying in a bed along with other maidens sleeping....the party was able to deduce through Arcana and Perception rolls that 1) Ireena wasn't there...it was just an illusion..and 2) the girls weren't breathing...thinking they were vampires they wanted to stake them there so they wouldn't have to worry about them later. As the group formed into position to stake 4 of the maids...they plunged their stakes into the chests of the maids....to their surprise their skin fell like ash away from blackend skeletons....and the TRAP was sprung. This trap was designed to tell some of the story..the story how these women were abducted from the village by agenst of Strahd and were brought here where they died soon later and were placed in this room...the ghosts of these women where nothing but minions...but the threat came not from them...but the necrotic / psychic damage the party took each round till they either a) performed a religion check to properly give rest to the undead or b) crushed the skeletons themselves...As the party closed the doors behind them...they heard a whisper echo, "She WILL be mine"...

The last encounter had them facing off a corridor where they got the jump on a patrol...3 Strahd zombies and another agent of Strahd...a Medusa named Avarice...this encounter I was really impressed with...the beginning tactics were a bit lame and only actually helped ONE group member do his job better...but seconds into combat they scrapped that horrible plan and found purchase with a better plan. The Medusa fell to the Swordmage's blade...but not before swearing to see the party again....as mists formed over her body...when it dissipated she was no longer there. Suddenly the image of a woman came from a statue of her likeness and introduced herself as Lady Vallen Ren of the Knights of the Raven....

Personally I didn't think the PC's would make it here...so I hadn't fleshed her out as well as I wanted...so we stopped there for the night and just set the stage for the next adventure. Hope you enjoyed reading...and I'll keep you all posted with the goings on in Ravenloft via here or Gardens of Stone. Take care all and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!