Wizard of Wines Guide | Running Curse of Strahd 5e

What are the druids looking for? What does Baba Lysaga want? What is Wintersplinter's ultimate purpose? LET'S FIND OUT!
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This Curse of Strahd guide will walk you through the unanswered questions and mysteries of the Wizard of Wines chapter, and provide clarity and explanations for all of them. What are the Yester Hill druids searching for while they ransack the Wizard of Wines vineyard? To what end is Baba Lysaga waging war against the wereravens? What will Wintersplinter do after he destroys the winery? All this and MORE!
#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #rpg
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Be sure to watch: "Do NOT run Curse of Strahd without watching this guide!"
• Do NOT run Curse of St...
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[@LunchBreakHeroes]

What was your experience like at the winery? Let us know below!

[@ademiranda2]

I don't know why, but this is the first time I notice how much you move your hands while you talk. lol! Great video, btw.

[@Twisted_Code]

well, in a friend's game I was spectating, the DPS managed to create an army of Twig Blights. They thought they were casting "animal friendship" on just 1 twig Blight in a wine vat, but it turns out it was a hive mind of 23 stacked on top of one another. To the tune of Pink Elephants on Parade, a swarm of twig blights proceeding out of the vat allowed the DPS to subdue the remaining hostile combatants with ease.

[@FabulousJejmaze]

After the fight, it was revealed that the party warlock had taken a bribe from Strahd to reveal the party's location, which indirectly lead to the death of the cleric during the fight on Yester Hill. We got 2 new PCs after that :)

[@godsize781]

Hello, I did something in my campaign I'm not sure I should have. My players found a "DECK OF MANY THINGS " in Durst Manor. Lol , they just left it alone for many sessions. But at the Blue water Inn on their first day in vallaki, started drawing cards. The only important one is that the cleric resurrected Tatyana. I'm completely stumped on how to handle this . Any suggestions?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

@@godsize781 cue the Spider-Man meme with Tatyana and Ireena.

[@abdallah-nash-ramadan]

"60 Blights surround the Winery .... " My part wizard : FIIIIIRE BAAAAAALL

[@ryankolter5524]

Say goodbye to the vineyard's grapevines. Martikovs won't be very happy about that.

[@ArrakisHeir88]

Fortunately, my party's sorcerer was both level 4 and also respectful of alcohol.

[@Kenjibudo]

You know, you didn't even say it, but the way you posed it made me think that maybe one of the reasons Baba Lysaga hates ravens so much is because they're a reminder of the name of Strahd's biological mother, who she seeks to supplant.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Nice connection! That's pretty great.

[@Grimlore82]

I am so using this! Nice connection!

[@WellBattle6]

The blights surrounding the vineyard idea is just begging for the party to ignore all restraint and burn the entire vineyard down.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Burn them all!

[@TheEldritchGoth]

My explanation as to why the Martikovs couldn’t defend the winery wasn’t only because they were outnumbered, but also because the fight happened indoors where their powers weren’t the most effective. Knowing this, the Martikovs used the players to break the initial wave and lure out the rest of the druids forces, whereupon the nine of them descended upon the druids and blights like hungry vultures

[@maedhrosv8449]

Hey man, I know you’re a small channel now, but keep it up! These are invaluable!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thanks, will do!

[@AU-cu4yf]

Dude keep this going! I love the insights!

[@lonelygiant]

This channel is going to be HUGE!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

@@lonelygiant fingers crossed! Toes too, just for good measure.

[@PbnjGuy]

True

[@Nethar6]

I was going to have the Druids only send Wintersplinter in retaliation if they have been driven from the Vineyard by the players

[@MyRegularNameWasTaken]

The thought of my players coming back to an absolutely demolished winery, and having to follow the trail to seek revenge, is one of my favorite things about this chapter (accentuated by Dragna Carta's amazing paragraph of describing the carnage). But it clashed with me so much that the druids would outright destroy this place after they spent all this time taking it over and poisoning the wine. This video helped me reconcile how the two plans could coincide, so thank you!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

You’re welcome!

[@gamesandplayallnightandday8724]

This is great, definitely running with it! I think I'll have the Druid's poison slowly transform those who drink it into monsters. Deposits of black bark form underneath their flesh, vines rip out from their backs, their speech becomes inhuman, and eventually they turn on those they love most as their addiction to the poisoned wine becomes inescapable. Reveal some moments of clarity where they mourn what they've become/done, and admit that the wine doesn't even make them happy anymore to close out themes of alcohol abuse. As always, great video!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Y'know, I thought I had a messed up imagination. Maybe *you* should be making these videos. :-P

[@gamesandplayallnightandday8724]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Haha, I love horror gaming and these videos spark the imagination. All in all a good combo!

[@davidm5746]

60 blights in the field vs my party. in 5 waves (kinda, as lines began to mesh together the mid way and by the end) Hold a line slowly backing up bit by bit sorta like a phalanx with a hexblade warlock with sentinel and polearm mastery and a paladin shield mastery and sidekick warrior with defense, as an aasimar twilight priest hovering over-head constantly rebuffing everyone with temp HP through the twilight sanctuary. In short, it worked, lol. somehow.... What a goddamn mess. I loved it.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Sounds like fun!

[@BryanGurney]

Perfect Timing! my party just fled from the Burning of Vallaki.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

So did they handle the torch, or the gasoline?

[@rocketshawk2200]

Thank you so much for this video! Using your tips, just had an excellent experience at the winery with a group of mostly new players. It was a party of 4 level 3 players, so I scaled down the difficulty of encounter by using the minion monster house rule from DungeonDudes, and brought the damage of the needle blights to 1d6. Otherwise, I left everything as was. I had them interact with Adrian in the forest, as the defacto leader of the family. Our druid suggested they could wildshape into a barnmouse to scout the winery, which led to some interesting roleplay with subtle foreshadowing as to the true nature of the keepers. That scouting was brief and risky, but I was able to provide the party with much of the info you suggested, much to their benefit. The combat itself went incredibly well, with Adrian picking off needleblights from a distance with a light repeating crossbow our artificer provided, and the ravens from the fermenting room assisting every other round. They were both strategic and lucky, and were able to succeed on VERY high stealth checks to barricade two of the entrances before combat started, creating a chokepoint. A combination of flaming sphere and a flamethrower turret made short work of the twigblights as they funneled out, and the paladin and druid (as a direwolf) kept the druids busy until the hordes were nothing but ash. I was disappointed that the evil druids did not get to witness that wildshape transition, as it would have blown their maddened minds even further. All in all, loved the tips, and cannot wait to continue using them next session when the investigate the now-empty winery, meet Davion (their ally!), and face Yester Hill. Thanks again!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

That sounds like an epic session! I'm glad it went well, for you!

[@CireLepeod]

Fantastic re-imagining. My players are mid-Vallaki right now. And I will definitely incorporate this when they head west. Love the new set. Keep up the great work

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thanks, Eric! I'm gonna keep on truckin' as long as I can.

[@override367]

I've been doing something a bit different with Lysaga, I let the game start.... way in the past, so they could influence events, and Lysaga is a red herring. A lot of my players want Lysaga dead, but they won't find her... she's in the Barovian Feywild, which is about as pleasant a place as you'd expect

[@jacquisaysno]

Your videos have helped me so much, and though my players don't know it, you've helped add so much to their experience. Thank you for yet another thorough and thoughtful expansion on this module. As always, looking forward to what's next!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you so much! I'm glad all of these videos could help.

[@MetPhD]

Running this today and I love the rescue of the dad here!

[@Naustrawarlock]

I use Baba Lysaga as a "optional" big boss that everyone fear... people fear her more than Strahd. I think my group wont even go see her. Anyway its up to them

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

If your players don't know where to find the skull of Argynvost yet, you can replace the giant's skull with that of Argynvost. It makes a lot more sense, thematically, since there's no other giants in the game. That can be a big draw to Berez.

[@Naustrawarlock]

@@LunchBreakHeroes yes that what i planed. But still optional

[@jorrellds6520]

@@LunchBreakHeroes That is so brilliant. Thank you.

[@TheRepublic4]

Your content is truly helpful, I wish a good day to you and many many fruitful thoughts

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you very much! I hope you have a wonderful day as well. :-)

[@anjowestphal-mekking8275]

I LOVE your advice! Im a First time DM and Ive used a lot of your game tweaks to make the game more interesting and more cohesive. Your notes for Death House were AMAZING and it worked so well! My party LOVED Sophaxis in the story. Thanks so much for these Vids! Please keep it up :D

[@peterz7752]

I played CoS a couple years ago as a player and my gf was the DM. Our group managed to kill Strahd by a lucky coincidence when she was a bit overconfident with his abilities. We decided to run it again now with me being the DM. Originally we missed about the third of the map (like the Amber temple, argyvostholt, berez and such) because there was just no reason to visit them. This time I already used your changes to the death house and she loved it. I used the mist to get her into Barovia and dropped her in front of the the house. After she finished with it I used the "picnic basket from Strahd" idea and she loved it. The world is an alternate Barovia which is like 80-90 years later than in the book. After our adventure things changed. When she arrived into the bigger world she noticed these immediately. An middle aged man, Ismark's son is ruling the village of barovia whos son is Sergei (Strahd's brother) reincarnated. (she doesnt know this yet, but getting suspicious. There's no Tatyana yet. I have a few ideas in mind for some of the places of what could have changed in 80 years but I have no idea what to do with the winery and Yester hill yet since that time my group solved their issues. I was hoping to see some good ideas I can steal from this video but unfortunately its too close to the original. It's still great and you helped a lot especially with the dark powers and vestiges videos to put into my campaign. Anyway, I'm rambling and you probably aren't interested in that. Just wanted to say love your videos and please continue making them

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

I'm definitely interested, Peter! Since it's been 80 years, and your group saved the winery, then there's definitely no use for Wintersplinter. You could still bring the druids into play, unless it was explicitly stated that your group wiped them out. I would imagine that Martin, Viggo, or even Yolanda are in charge of the family at this point. Perhaps they've renewed interest in finding that third gem, and one of their number has gotten the "adventurer" itch, and would be a helpful ally in the search for it.

[@peterz7752]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Yeah, I thought about using the 3rd gem in Berez az a quest. The druids were wiped out unfortunately. I'm also using Dragnacarta's ideas in places where they seem relevant. I liked his idea about these druidic underground shrines of the land (bonegrinder, yester hill and not sure about the third) that could be fun in a way. In Nerd Immersion's recent video there was this neat book of monster and in that there was this vampiric hag (Red Hag) those could fit in this setting in those places. Thanks for the reply anyway

[@victorratier19]

Your videos have been a huge, huge help - I've been running CoS for two months now and your videos on Death House, Barovia and Vallaki (especially Vallaki; the place is so so...much!) have been absolutely invaluable during my prep sessions. Absolutely love your work, thank you a lot for making these!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

I'm glad that the videos could help!

[@music4note]

Love the video. One thing I would wish for would be like a video with the grand overview. Like: Village of Barovia Goal: meet Ireena and Ismark Burry Burgomaster .... Vallaki: Pick side in political Affair Optional: Kill Izek I am a bit lost in the whole picture atm

[@killermann232]

Love the bump in quality, another great video

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you very much!

[@skidmoda]

Had a thought, what if the wine is a subtle magic to keep the hopes of Barovians alive. This would explain why they want to poison/destroy the wine. Just a thought that hit me.

[@dy1178]

Man your Vallaki video literally made my campaigns last session so memorable, and I love this one too. Keep this up!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you! I'm glad I could help!

[@barrydean9264]

My party put the quest to recover the gems on the back burner. I gave them 2 weeks in game to go to Yesterhill, trying to space events out, but they forgot. Now half of Vallaki is burnt down. Thank you for your guides they are super helpful.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Glad I could help you bring the world down around their ears!

[@zero3045]

That inner dread when your doing Curse of Strahd and all the videos for a better game is just coming out.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

"You guys wanna play, like, chutes and ladders for a while? I gotta wait on a thing."

[@brizzyvoices]

Love this!! Thank you so much!! One question: around 10:05 you say “he (davian) doesn’t even have enough hp left to transform into a wereraven and fly away,” but where are you getting the idea that shapechanging into a raven costs hp? Is this a home brew detail you’ve added or is this written somewhere? either way, would love to hear how it works for you (and if it applies only to wereravens or all lycanthropes). Thanks! Sorry in advance if you covered this in another video and I haven’t gotten to it yet. 😬

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

It’s not really a concrete idea, but I imagine the act of shape changing takes at least some energy. He’s been beaten so badly that he just doesn’t have it in him to change and fly away. Whether you want to attach that to hit points, or some nebulous store of energy is entirely up to you!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Great stuff on your studio makeover, btw. I'll have to keep some of those things in mind for when I upgrade my sound gear. :-)

[@brizzyvoices]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Meep, thank you so much! On both counts. :)

[@paulcoy9060]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Or, like the old NBC show "Manimal", a shapechanger needs to make a Concentration Check, like on page 203 of the Player's Handbook, as if he's casting a spell and takes damage. And just for the hell of it, he's been beaten so bad, he rolls with Disadvantage.

[@theophrastusbombastus1359]

​@@LunchBreakHeroes Or it could simply be the fact it takes a turn to transform, and they may feel that "spent time" would possibly open them up to another round of attacks?

[@wanderdragon1075]

These CoS videos are so great for me as I’m preparing to run it soon. Thanks man!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

You're quite welcome!

[@dimofamo]

🎉 OMG! Can't wait for the castle Ravenloft part 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Yeah, THAT'S gonna be something. Might not be able to fit in one video, but who knows?

[@sebastianplazas9697]

My players are on the way to wizards of the wine... So I will use your idea of the blights standing outside the vinery this week. I will come back with how that went hehe

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Love it, thank you!

[@Dearest_Dullahan1]

10/10 super helpful video. Well written, clear, and creative. You’ve earned another subscriber.

[@DukeusMostchillius]

hey im new to D&D and ive yet to attempt to run a game..ive been consuming information to try to make it the best experience for myself and friends possible..you have the best channel ive seen so far..solid gold insights into in to bring extra life to a rather methodical and often times mundane quest book. i feel like alot of the other channels are overly critical and dont offer a ton of solutions and other times it feels like content for the sake of content. your presentation is brisk and fluid, I appreciate it greatly

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you so much, Jared! That means a lot.

[@frantorcesar5266]

I love the questions in the end

[@firelordsinger9666]

Great!!! Im adding 3 Giants to help out Baba as well

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Well, that would definitely explain where she got the skull.

[@firelordsinger9666]

@@LunchBreakHeroes 😈😈😈

[@Eric-up9jc]

Even just listening to your ideas inspires me with ways to change my own campaign. Really great work here, my friend!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

That's the idea, Eric! I'm glad you found it helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@davidm5746]

im going to use many clues. Like the empty vials and smells. But I am going to have Davian actually tell them. The way I structured it is when Davian is captured and the druids interrogate him endlessly about his lycanthropy. When Davian refuses, the druids decide to instead of just destroying the place decide instead to poison the wines and ensure that Davian knows. In hopes he cracks.

[@cowboycave5071]

This is so good!! You are a life saver!

[@lonelygiant]

This such an amazing series. My hat is off to you!!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you, Christopher!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Love the new set up!!! Ahhhh! Huge fan!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

I'm pretty stoked myself! Still gotta play with the lighting a bit, and do the audio properly next time. The camera's mic boost was on medium, which resulted in some clipping.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Do you use a hair light/ rim light?? Thats the only thing I dont think I can see, but thats also more of a style thing. Im still working on that myself. Next thing im looking into is getting a new Mic, so well be in touch, cuz youre audio has always been legit!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Here's a philosophical question for you: does the bald man need a hair light? But no, there's really no rim light in this one. I've got an Ikea desk lamp to the left of the frame acting as a lower level fill light. As for the audio, this one was recorded on my Purple Panda lav, but again the audio settings weren't right. So I'm gonna try again next time, and then do the video after that with my Power Dewise. Then I'll see which I like best.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Or would a hair light for you be called a skin light?? The plot thickens! Looks and sounds good either way bro!

[@Brainman234]

Great Tipps :D i really like the surrounded vineyard but its not really possible because i have 3 man party runnin COS which is hard enough already so i went with the ambush scenraion kinda like "whew we did it!" "inside is the real terror" hope wit workls on todays session

[@msixtailshadow1668]

Someone has probably commented this already, but I'll say it just in case. One problem with the druids wanting the wereraven power to transform is that they could just check in with the nearby werewolves for that power to transform. I imagine the werewolves would not be particularly picky about it. But if the druids wanted flight, I suppose it could still be a thing. Also wouldnt it be a bit conflicting if they wanted to be wereravens when Baba Lysaga wants to kill all ravens? Otherwise, these are interesting ideas It gives a lot to think about. Thank you.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Hey! This is no place for your logic and narrative consistency. 😄

[@msixtailshadow1668]

@@LunchBreakHeroes 😅

[@KevShaw808]

You're amazing and I've been loving your videos while I'm at work.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you very much, Kevin!

[@nestorskip9410]

I am running CoS soon and would love to hear your thoughts on Van Richten and his tower. Love the channel!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you! I'll definitely be covering and expanding the tower in the coming month or so

[@jeresomthimh8111]

"Are these people trust worthy" *Nervously looks at players* "no"

[@TheSpattig]

Awesome videos, I plan to run the yester hill as an 4 step skillchallange event that can both nerf or boost the treeblight. Looking forward to see what you make of yester hill. ☺️

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Sounds great! I'm working on the script now. :-)

[@paulcoy9060]

I've been a consumer of your channel for a while now, but I think I can add something. The Wizard of Wines seems like a placeholder name, something the writers used until they could find a better one. So I propose a change to ........ "Vino Arcanis". Now that sounds like a cool place to work. I plan on giving my players a nice piece of artwork showing a case of bottles with magical sigils, perhaps for protection, or even to keep the bottles from breaking. This demiplane is closed off from the rest of the multiverse, so they probably want to recycle. Unless there is a glassblower in the neighborhood, those bottles are valuable.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

You're damn right. Barovia must have one hell of a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle program. And Vino Arcanis is an awesome name!

[@paulcoy9060]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Thanks, it will now be canon in my game. But now I'm not sure if I want to give my players unbreakable wine bottles, it may lead to to random barfights.

[@paulcoy9060]

@@LunchBreakHeroes It just came to me at work today. They have been recycling their souls for 500 years.

[@BeatstreetStudio]

You deserve way more subscribers

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

I agree! You can help out by sharing the videos on social media!

[@jasoncutugno8577]

My sessions was....interesting. The party split themselves without a plan, the wizard and the ranger tried to sneak around, sure enough the wizard botched past enemy lines and I tweaked the blights into Twigjacks (for PF1). 1st round attack and I got the wizard down to 1hp. While this was going on another player solo-ed up to the house and tried to talk to the blights using sylvan. Naturally the blights were curious took him too the room where Davian was being interrogated and he then tried to assist the druids in restraining Davian without actually telling any of them what he was doing. So he got slapped by a blight and escorted outside to be killed. The party was able to recover then use the action route to fight off the mob. Winning but allowing the druid who poisoned the vats to escape with the gem. We'll see how they measure up against Wintersplinter...

[@warmasterjames797]

Absolutely love your advice on CoS and have been altering a playthrough with some of your ideas to keep my group on their toes, but I do have one question or request - As a rookie GM, I see a lot of space between Barovia and the rest of everything else. Is there a way to spice up the lengthy travel after the first town? I'm drawing blanks.. Thank you for all you do and please keep up the incredible work!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

The gallows is a neat stopping point to add some flavor. My group was really itching for combat by the time they left, so I threw a few barbarians at them as they crossed the bridge by Tser Falls. After they pass that, I'd recommend playing up the utter deathly silence around Castle Ravenloft, approaching the next gate. Beyond those gates is the realm of the hags of Old Bonegrinder, and you can throw in some "Blair Witch" sort of region effects. Once they pass Old Bonegrinder, you can allow them to meet a poor traveler on the road, whose wagon has broken down. He's a well-to-do accountant from Vallaki named Vasili von Holtz. >:)

[@warmasterjames797]

I'll definitely put these to good use! I got the players creeped out and uncomfortable at the end of session zero. I feel like (especially) the "Blair Witch" vibes will crank that up some. Thank you again for the help and the extra oomph to make Curse of Strahd an even more memorable experience!

[@sillwullivan83]

This is what I do for the Druids. I have it so that the Druids are highly allied Baba Lysaga. They worship a false idea of strahd and not Strahd himself. So I have it that Strahd doesn’t want the winery destroyed, and will actually aid the players if he thinks they can take winter splinter (in my games, I have it so that Strahd has been following and watching the players in and attempt to size them up and see if they can replace him or not).

[@thomhuenger7455]

Great videos! Running Strahd right now and getting a lot of good inspiration from you. Some advice from me and my Area of expertise, try turning the gain on your mic down a bit.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Lol, yeah. New mic and camera combo. The mic boost was at medium, which was fine during my much quieter sound test (wife was sleeping). I'll have it set to low next time.

[@deanfletcher4962]

I'm running this tomorrow night. Perfect timing and as usual, top quality and invaluable analysis of COS as written to fill the voids in there! Question : have you ever played call of cthulhu 7th edition? You would ROCK this as a dm/keeper

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

The closest I've come to that is reading through a good chunk of Lovecraft's published works. Never played the game, but it does sound like it'd be right up my alley.

[@deanfletcher4962]

If Yr already brushed up on the mythos dive straight in to 7th edition. There's a great scenario included in the book called "Amidst the ancient trees". It's good as written, but with a creative dm can be amazing. I added a police sergeant npc who the pcs grew to love, only for him to reveal his true colours in the final showdown. Ended up being the best combat session we've ever played in any session or game system!

[@haydenmcalister3242]

Appreciate your content man. Very valued stuff

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

My pleasure!

[@HAOSxy]

Fun fact: we destroyed Baba Lysiaga in a 2 vs 1, me the human monk and the Aasimar cleric. She arrived at us when we truggered the skulls-alarm, and when she became hostile she floated with her skull-Frieza ship thing in the air. Unfortunately, the power of parkour combined with step of the wind and various terrain elements, allowed my monk to jump on board. She only did one thing during that combat, at the beginning she hit with finger of death the cleric for a total of 15 damage. After that, she stayed stunned and died of beating up and guiding bolt. She lasted a total of 2 rounds. Our fighter didn't care, he wanted to talk to a ghost.

[@hunterjosey8027]

Perfect intro, man!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thanks!

[@edwardbirdsall6580]

Use the were-ravens to bombard the blights from above while the party hits the winery. Fire and maneuver Make the blights chase the bird people.

[@MrPFMneto]

I love your channel. Keep it up!!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you! Will do!

[@Lukalock]

Thank you sooo much for this

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Not a problem--thank you for watching!

[@Adrian8311221]

Great stuff as always. Thx for the tips and perspective!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

You betcha! Thank you for watching!

[@aaroncherry2854]

HOW DOES HE NOT HAVE MORE SUBS!!!!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

I KNOW RIGHT???!!!

[@kurtoogle4576]

Really appreciate your ideas! Thank you!

[@cmdmd]

You have wands from Harry Potter, when did you go to Universal? :P Anyway, great video. I like your guides, they are helpful. We are in Orlando, We'd love to meet you. We have MegaCon starting on Thursday.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

We did get them from Universal! The one in California, however.

[@companyoflosers]

I actually think wintersplinter attacking the winery is enough. in my mind, if the attack goes off without a hitch, the plan is to have wintersplinter re-plant itself at the winery and infest the winery with blights in order to prevent it from being viable for growing anything again. the gems would prevent this, so baba yaga informed the druids of their existence and location so she could use them to eliminate a thorn in strahd's side. she takes the gems for herself in the meantime. she corrupts them for three purposes. one, to strengthen her hut. with the gem it regenerates and is basically unbeatable. It also makes her stronger while in proximity. the second, she uses to resurrect the corpse of silver dragon argynvost as a zombie dragon as a mount and servant to strahd. The third, she gifts to the vestiges of the amber temple to sate their need for souls, seemingly stemming their need to reduce strahd's "crop" of soulful humans that he feeds on. It also makes the vestiges less willing to part with the gem without a fight or a suitable trade.

[@NonLogicUser]

My question with the curiosity of the Druids is, what happens when they come across a PC Druid, who can shape shift…?

[@ShadowDuck7892]

Great video! But... im sorry, every time you say it all i can hear is "Baba Lasagna" lmaoo

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Barovia is just a demiplane created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[@AliceinDisneyWorld1125]

Your comment made me realize that my players are going to call her that the whole game. Either one person's going to mishear her name as that, so they'll all call her that as a joke, or they're all going to misunderstand and legitimately believe that is her name. 😂

[@gabrielmacdonald689]

LOVE THESE VIDEOS

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you! I love the enthusiasm!

[@eclairz9275]

Really great series! Could I ask what your thoughts are on the latest Doctor? Happened to notice some TARDIS' you've got back there.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Honestly, my wife and I stopped watching near the start of Capaldi's run. I think we'd just Doctor'd ourselves out at that point, and we've had trouble getting back. Bonus trivia: we had a Doctor Who themed wedding. :-D

[@OutOfPrintGM]

Rather than a poison that kills it could have some other effect like driving them insane from mercury contamination or ergot poisoning

[@EnnuiElpis]

One thing. If the druids want shapeshifting ability, why don’t they just go to the werewolf clan? Like, the werewolves serve Strahd as well, so they could easily just go to them and ask for a bite if they wanted that. I’m not saying this is necessarily a plot hole, but you should at least come up with some reason why they haven’t done that yet (or maybe you could just decide that they have). Like maybe the druids and werewolves have some kind of ideological difference in what they think the “right” way to serve Strahd is. Maybe Strahd knows that they’re having this feud and is deliberately stoking it, pitting them against one another just to let them determine on their own what the best way to serve him is, and whichever one loses just wasn’t worthy to serve his greatness. That just sounds like it would add a bit of interesting faction conflict and intrigue to the game which is one of the things people go to this adventure for.

[@donnellobrien4123]

The Druids don't really serve Strahd though, they serve Baba Lysaga who has sold them on her interpretation of Strahd. Them not cooperating with the druids can be as simple as them not knowing of each other's existence, or if the Druids do discover them Strahd doesn't acknowledge the druids as his or his servants' problem. The Werewolves would only consent to cursing them if Strahd told them to.

[@charlesprince6711]

Just a thought, if I wanted to give the players the ability to also find the Champagne de le Stomp gem, what/who do you think would be a fitting holder of the gem seeing as we have a Hag and a Druidic circle holding the other two? I don’t see the werewolves trying to take it, but not sure as to who would want it.

[@bassett_green]

I thought as written, the druids returned to try to recover the remaining

[@FadkinsDiet]

A lycanthrope or werewolf is a man-wolf hybrid. A man-raven hybrid would be a corvanthrope or wereraven.

[@override367]

So wereravens are immune to blights, how do you work around lycanthropic immunities?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Immune to blights in what way?

[@flavorgod]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Lycanthropes are immune to all Piercing/Slashing/Bludgeoning damage from non-magical, non-silvered attacks. Meaning RAW, blights can't hurt the Martikovs.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

@@flavorgod Well crud! I was so in love with my idea of Baba using the blights to murder wereravens that I completely pushed the lycanthrope statblock out of my memory. Perhaps all attacks by these blights are considered magical. Perhaps you drop the immunities for wereravens because they're birds. How silly is it to swing a sword at a tiny bird and have it laugh in your face? Or perhaps it's a crap idea and you shouldn't use it. ;-)

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Another idea of how this could work just popped into my head. The blights could attack any roosting raven. If it dies, great--it was a regular raven. If not, they do their best to subdue, capture, and hold it down until a druid can arrive and actually kill it.

[@flavorgod]

@@LunchBreakHeroes I believe there is a type of Blight that entangles.

[@WhataDumbName]

I'm very interested if you could fix Van Ritchen's tower as my players hated it. They felt cheated out of loot because the wagon exploded. The tower instantly crumbles if failed puzzle, and the tower doesnt have really anything that interesting in it. They still bag on it many sessions later.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

YES! The tower is a real bummer. I haven't quite yet given it much thought, but I figure Khazan had to be doing something out there that was more interesting than three nearly empty floors of a tiny little tower.

[@matthewbradberry6626]

I'm changing the wizard's tower to be more of a Frankenstein's lab kinda thing...mainly because one of my pc's is playing a warforged that was created to oppose Strahd

[@loadnlock357]

Only issue ibhave here is that wereravens are immune to nonmagical attacks. The needle blights cant do much to them or kill them. The druids could but they are also outmatched.

[@loadnlock357]

The whole chapter made little sense to me. Since my players failed to kill the hags in the beginning but survived. I made them, Baba and the druids connected. Druids revere the land, strahd is the land, therefore they revere him and Baba since she claims to be his mother. The champagne from the winery and the hags meat pies serve the same purpose. To provide happiness to the people of Barovia. However the meat pies are a much more sinister way of providing it. The hags want to eliminate the Markatov family and the competition all in one go. This gives the druids some kind of motivation. For the reason the druids returned and attacked after they got one gem, i made them do that so they could look for the third gem, which was stolen years before as we know. With 2 gems they could make another wintersplnter or even enhance their own power to be able to wildshape once again. That's how I spun the story anyway. As for why the wareravens didnt just take care of this themselves? Well they didnt really have time to make sure they could. The druids arent that powerful and the blights wont even scratch the wareravens. However if you add moonbeam to their spell list, now the wareravens have a reason to be cautious. They also have childeren they need to think about.

[@jorrellds6520]

Any chance you might cover the Yester Hill Encounter? I've run strahd twice now and both times that encounter felt clunky and the map too huge for its own good.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

That one is on the docket, and I've been working on the script. To be honest though, that chapter's been kicking my butt.

[@barneymiller3689]

I literally ran this area today!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Aw darn, a day late!

[@johnsawyer6267]

What spells did people use when they played as baba lysaga? I feel like my party will roll over most spellcasters who are by themselves..

[@firelordsinger9666]

Im toying with the idea to swap sequences of yester hill and the winery? Like they gotta chase wintersplinter to the winery? And then DESTROY the winery right in front of their faces and then what haha. Also one if my players hunts ravens and is hella cursed for it so theyr basically enemies of the wereravens anyway lol 😈😈😈😈

[@thexorode]

Anyone have ideas on how to make the Brown Mold room more interesting? Seems like it's there for no reason

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

It is pretty nonsensical, isn't it? I've seen it used as a hiding place for the family's raven totem, which is where they get their lycanthropic powers from. It's also a good spot for any Fortunes of Ravenloft items.

[@paulcoy9060]

4:50 Wait, Lycanthropy can't be taken, it must be given freely? But as a curse, if I get a werewolf to bite me, I become a werewolf, right? Is this a Ravenloft rule, your own House Rule, or a Jeremy Crawford rule that I might have missed? I get that Strahd can create vampire spawn, and has lied to others about making them full vampires with free will, so is this the basis of the lycanthropy rule, because it's in Ravenloft? I guess it might make sense, in that a creature that lives a loner existence would only want a specific victim to become a "new" werecreature, someone who might chose to live with the creator. But what about a savage beast, who wants to create an army of werewolves, and destroy a town that the PCs just happen to stay at, so he tells his pack to go in and just bite people once and run away? Also, the MM says victims get a Saving Throw to ignore the curse, so do your victims get one? In any event, I'm going to steal that idea, because my only House Rules to lycanthropy so far has been that certain metals do more damage to certain types, not just silver. That's only good for werewolves. Weretigers are vulnerable to gold, and wererats are vulnerable to copper, iron for werebears, platinum for wereravens, and nickel for wereboars. Also, my lycanthropes have Regeneration and regain 20 points at the start of their next round unless the damage was dealt using Magic or the type of metal listed, rather than Immunity to Damage as shown in the MM. A werecreature that has 0 Hit Points at the start of it's turn, and can't regenerate, dies.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Can't be taken, as in I can't force a lycanthrope to bite me and pass along its curse. Much the same as I can't really force you to bite me. Sure, I suppose you could strap a lycanthrope to a chair and torture it until it willingly transforms and bites you. But that still requires the cooperation of the lycanthrope.

[@paulcoy9060]

@@LunchBreakHeroes I was talking to my friend who plays a Fighter in my group, and he said the Lycanthropes act like a gang, and choosing someone to come in to their group is like an Initiation. The new guys have to prove themselves before they are allowed to join. Then I got it. Now we are all on the same page. My mistake was basing my werewolf lore on tv and movies where if you get even a small scratch you become one of them. So I read the part about Kiril forcing children to fight to the death and the winner gets to join the clan, thinking wow, this guy's an asshole.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

@@paulcoy9060 yeah, Kiril is a prick.

[@JasonSmithPsychedelicTherapist]

Does anyone know what happened to the Champagn Gem? I haven't found anything in the book.

[@stefanobaroncello450]

One last answer: the third gem are lost or a DM can put it anywhere ha want?

[@jakedunson9098]

🙏🙏🙏🙏 thank you

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

You're welcome! Thank you for watching!

[@christopherjustice6411]

She wants to kill all the Ravens? Quick! Somebody hide Lamar Jackson! Actually never mind, the dude would probably just scramble away to safety.

[@MrJackMTama]

Got here early this time!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Early, late, on-time-as long as you show up, it's all good!

[@jordancoller]

Do you think that maybe the druids are looking for the third hidden gem?

[@codystovall4302]

With your logic of thee druids just wanted to shapeshift, why don't they just get recruited by the werewolves? They're looking for peopl

[@Riggsy_17]

Obligatory comment