One of my players - a paladin was infected with lycantropy while fighting Kiryl - managed to kill him and later became leader of werewolves... woops xD
currently as it stands, my party is on good terms with the aboot. However, unknowing of this, the mongrelfolk kidnapped them and put them into the werewolf's cages alongside some of the children. Kiril will confront them wearing the symbol of ravenkind around his neck despite not being able to weild it, (the fortune said it was there). Oh and previously, the same werewolf pack directed by strahd tore through vallaki and killed almost everyone. not to mention my party was drawn to barovia from the wolf hunt hook, and has recently acquired the sunsword. how it goes from there ill find out tonight
So I know I'm late and honestly I only checked out this video to see what my group missed out on in the den, now to be clear our "experience" in the den didn't actually take place in the den but I feel this fits here based on what happened. Tldr: that whole mountain no longer exists. So our DM ran a dungeon for us from the tower, not sure if the dungeon was part of the game, and so we explored it. While inside we found powerful amphibious people who make the things they believe in real, think 40k orcs, now we bypassed them and went deeper to find a sacrificial orb being gaurded, after being told it was near indestructible the paladin and I, the ranger, came up with a plan to convince the frog people that a mundane sword we had was powerful and made to destroy those orbs, but that we needed the power of Thier singing to power the sword. One Nat 20 later we basically watched them sacrifice Thier life's to creature a golden from army who took our sword and my companion (make up a lie that they were proof of our "great quest") and sacrificed themselfs to the orb, destroying it and the mountain above... The crater was larger then the lake. Inshort the whole werewolf den was vaporised with the mountain and right now I can't resummon my companion meaning they are alive and out of reach. Came to see this video wondering how badly we screwed the perverbial pooch. Edit: we had heard of werewolf problems from valaki but had not made it to krezk
GUARDS: "We're societal outcasts! Go look for your furry friends elsewhere!" PARTY: "So, just to be clear, the wolf-shaped cave entrance is...?" GUARDS, SWEATING: "Purely metaphorical!"
GUARDS: "What you're experiencing is called 'Pareidolia'. It's just a naturally formed cave entrance, but your mind is superimposing a face on top of it due to your evolved tendency to recognize patterns and faces in things around you. NOW GO AWAY!"
I literally just ran the werewolf den with my party for the first time based on your guide and it went brilliantly. They actually got hooked to the place by Ezmerelda, who told them it might be best for someone to scout ahead. That gave one of my players a prime opportunity to use Disguise Self and pretend to be a werewolf in human form to go in and scout the den. He got to meet Skennis, who escorted him through the den and introduced all the NPCs. That player hasn't had the primary spotlight in quite a while, so I was very happy that he got this huge chunk to really shine. And at the end of the day - they didn't fight a single werewolf, and they are absolutely doing whatever they can to overthrow Kiril! Fleshing out the werewolves and livening up the den is such good advice.
I’m keeping the Mother Night theme because we have a lot of religion in our campaign, but I am adjusting the werewolves and actions based on this! Thanks! :)
I hope I'll get to buy the entire reVamped book soon ♥ My party and I the DM have finally agreed on a starting date for our CoS campaign and I'll be making good use of your nightmare plot hook! I'm terrified to be DMing a campaign for the first time, but so so excited!
You got this, Essi! I'm not sure when the full book will come out, but hopefully soon(ish). There's only Khazan's Tower, Tsolenka Pass, Yester Hill, and Castle Ravenloft to go.
I know I wrote a bit about Zuleika in another post, but if anyone wants to read about a more sympathetic werewolf .... Her story begins five years ago, when the Mists swallowed her, and brought her to Barovia. A brave, beautiful woman, she was spotted by Emil, and he fell in love at first sight, and she joined the pack. (she was already kind of evil, and being a werewolf fascinated her) Everything was fine until Kiril challenged old Skennis and became Alpha. Since then, the pack has been uneasy, a simmering resentment might become an actual civil war. Zuleika thinks Emil is a better choice, but he isn't here, and she isn't strong enough to challenge Kiril alone. She could use some allies. She is my campaign's "Ally Against Strahd". Her dialogue to the party includes these lines: "Do you know what The Curse Of The Werewolf means? It's not being fast, or strong, or being able to hear a squirrel in a tree 200 feet away, or being able to smell blood a mile away and know if it is from a man, or a horse, or a deer. It's not being able to run all night, or to tell if someone is lying by hearing how their heart jumps, or never getting sick. These are all benefits. "The Curse is that your body is always burning energy, always ready to eat raw, living, flesh. Oh, we may look like you, but we are not Human. We are always ready to run, to fight, to climb, to love, to laugh .... have I shocked you? Our Lifeforce is so terribly strong, we feel emotions much more intensely than you can. Vampires don't feel true emotions, only a twisted mirror image, a perversion, as false as their Undead existence. "This is our curse, for as much as we love living, we cannot create life. Werewolves can't have children. Our bodies burn so hot, it destroys our ability to breed. So we must take the children of others, and make them our own. Which makes Kiril's action all the more horrific. I just watched Kiril order a dozen children to fight to the death, to see who would join the pack. Murdered, for his sick pleasure! I talked to the children before the ritual. Do you know who was the first to die? A boy named Michael, he was 7. His father broke his arm a month ago, and didn't get it fixed. He just wrapped it and gave Michael wine for the pain. Watching a one-armed child cry and beg for his life, trying to hold up a spear bigger than he is, that is what Kiril enjoys. I am a werewolf .... but Kiril is a monster. "The second was a girl, Anastasia. She had beautiful blonde hair, very rare here in Barovia. I'm sure that's why she was picked. She was 11. When she was 9, she saw her mother sleeping with a man, a stranger. Her mother scooped out her eyes. She was stolen from an orphanage in Vallaki, and brought here to die, in pain and darkness. And do you know the worst of it? If we had added those children, all hurt, all in pain, to our pack, they would have regenerated those injuries. They would have become whole, and complete! They would have been grateful, happy, that someone loved them! They would have become part of my family! But now? Their lives were wasted by Kiril. Thrown away, for nothing, except his cruelty and his stupidity. "And now you come to me, into my den, into my home, and ask for my help? Because Madame Eva says so? Well, let me tell you, that witch can burn for all I care. What has she done to help me?!" (this is where my players have an exchange, and try to convince Zuleika with a Persuasion Check, DC 10) "A week ago, Emil challenged Kiril for the position of Alpha. And rather than fight, Kiril ran away to Strahd, and cried. Strahd sent 16 Dire Wolves to accompany Kiril, and Emil left here in chains. I haven't seen him since, but I feel he is still alive. "Last night, Kiril announced that he wants a new ritual for the upcoming full moon. With 20 children. I would give my life to stop Kiril, but I would rather take his. We already have 3 children in cages, so if you want my help, you must help me first. Either return Emil to me, or help me kill Kiril and become the new Alpha myself." I know this is long, but the Muse is strong tonight.
Oh this is great! Our group is planning on letting me run CoS next year, & while I don’t know who our Ally will be; I may use this dialogue regardless (slightly altered of course). At least, if that’s okay with you Paul.
@@Avengerj5 I don't consider it stealing, if that's what you mean. Anything that makes my hobby shine brighter, and attract more players, is fine by me. Of course, my favorite line I wrote is "I am a werewolf ... but Kiril is a monster." I hope that ends up in your game.
Love yhis video and all the changes add a lot of depth, the only thing I didn't get was the farmers and crops - as written there isn't much growing in Barovia, I left that out and it ran really great!
Thank you for this video series on expanding CoS, I just started the module with some friends, and have been drawing lots of inspiration from you and MandyMod's for adding depth, diversity and hooks for world building Barovia
They're in human form and trying to keep a low profile, so I think a bell makes sense. If they're all alerted and in hybrid/wolf form, then howls are definitely on-brand.
Great video as always! Is going to help with my current CoS campaign. Your added side quests for Barovia were a big hit; just so you know. A video suggestion I'd like to make is ideas for when and how to introduce Ezmeralda and Rictavio and suggestions on how to use them. I always struggle with this one, end up overthinking it.
I’m running a homebrewed version of cos and I’ve had SO much trouble trying to figure out what to do with the werewolf den. This so so helpful thank you so much!!
My party went there from the tower to observe after repelling a werewolf attack on the tower. There was no chance to use the isolated community backstory as the party immediately began firing arrows at the first sign of the sentries and one session later had murder hoboed everyone except the caged NPCs. At least they were nice to the runaway orphans.
Been loving your guides for CoS! Unfortunately this video came a few days late for my campaign as I ran the den just last weekend. Here was how I ran this chapter: My group's Cleric was infected with Lycanthropy early in the campaign. Left very deliberate bread crumbs about the Den and substituted the Werewolves (vs Vampire Spawn) burning down St. Andral's church and making off with the thighbone and orphans as extra incentive to hunt the pack down. As an infected, the pack granted parley with the party and laid out the terms as presented in the module (after taking out Kyril of course). Here is where issues with the module came up where you succinctly noted in the video; the group was not thrilled leaving the kids behind to the murderous shifters, had zero empathy for the anti-Strahd faction of wolves, and straight out refused to traipse into Castle Ravenloft too early to rescue one person for the pack. They left the cave with a false promise to help and immediately planned a raid on the den, which was largely successful since they now knew the cave layout and slaughtered nearly all the remaining pack. I allowed the infected Cleric to cure her Lycanthropy by consecrating the Mother Night Shrine and then destroying it with Saint Markovia's Thighbone. The next time I plan to run this section of the adventure I'll definitely use your suggestions to add more depth to the Werewolves.
I started my Strahd campaign with a variant of the Werewolves In the Mist hook. The players had found a child being held by a bandit. They returned the child to the local settlement only to find out he wasn’t from there! The boy was also nonverbal. Rough age of 2 years old. The local sheriff asked the players to guide him and his men to where they found the boy in the hope of finding a trail or something that would lead to the boy’s parents. They find one of the bandits that they thought they had killed (secretly he’s a werewolf) naked and covered in blood next to the trail. What happens from here is that werewolves stalk the party in the woods, I went for some suspense there. It worked out for once! At the end of the encounter, just as the Alpha wolf is about to kill one of the players, a much louder growl is heard. A Werebear rushes into the clearing and starts tearing the werewolves a new one. At the end, he morphs into his human form (naked as the day he was born) and demands to know where his son is. Shortly afterwards, the werebear and his son depart into the mists. The party was too injured to press on after this encounter and so they had camped in the woods, where the mists enveloped them and in the morning they awoke in Barovia.
This is great. I've been having trouble keeping time and the time of day during my Strahd game at the moment. If you or anyone have advice please let me know. It has been hard running Vallaki. Your previous video on the guide to Vallaki helped so much. Now if i can only figure a good time system.
These changes are great, and perhaps when I run CoS again down the line, I'll consider them. For right now, especially since I am a first time DM, I am planning to run the module mostly as written, though I have taken inspiration from some of your ideas like the pies and windmill, and am implementing those ideas. But for Werewolf Den, I actually found an easy way to run it as is, and still manage to spice it up to make it a bit more interesting. I am running a six person party, and two of the party members will have their backstories lead them to the Werewolf Den and have a better variety of choices. My biggest problem with Werewolf Den isn't quite the way it's written with the evil NPC's, but the fact that it serves little to no purpose outside of just another place to kill some stuff. So what I did was simple. For the warlock in my party, their patron is a devil named Zol'gath, and he has a distaste for werewolves, since a few of them killed some of his loyal cult followers in the past, bringing doubt among some of his followers wondering if he's actually as powerful as he says he is. Zol'gath wants to get revenge and prove his power and influence to his followers. The primary culprit of the slaughter was Emil, who was on a hunt with a pack outside of Barovia when this happened (since the werewolves of the den are occasionally allowed to leave Barovia to hunt). Zol'gath will appear before the warlock player before a long rest, and task her with the objective of finding Emil and killing him, as well as killing the rest of his pack if she can, further emphasizing that she will be punished greatly if she fails this task. This not only brings the den into relevancy, but also brings some cool roleplay with a warlocks patron into the equation. Additionally, my party's fighter is a monster hunter who has come into contact with werewolves many times, and my player decided he wanted his character to be cursed with incomplete lycanthropy (basically an incomplete werewolf curse where he doesn't transform, but still experiences the violent urges of a werewolf without much control). While it's true that incomplete lycanthropy curses aren't really a thing, I decided to DM break the lore a bit for it, but that any more exposure to lycanthropy will complete the curse. Additionally, werewolves can smell their own kind, and can tell when a curse is incomplete and will often take it upon themselves to finish it. And with that done, it made his character an easy invitation to make the den a big part of his arc. Simply put, the werewolf who cursed him is Kiril, who was on an outside of Barovia hunt like Emil was. If he meets Emil, Emil will not get violent with this character to try and kill him, but instead ask him to help get control of the pack back for him from Kiril, a name the character will recognize and likely want revenge against. In return for their help, Emil will offer treasure, and not attempt to turn the character into a full werewolf, but will still try to talk him into it later by showing him the power werewolves can wield. Emils mate will make the same offer. So as you can see, we have Emil offering one of the character mutual revenge against Kiril. On the other hand, we have the warlock, who is tasked by her patron to kill Emil on sight. This makes thing much more interesting to me, and brings a lot of possibilities to the Werewolf Den without having to change too much, as there's a lot of directions it can now go.
As I have mentioned before under another video of yours I wanted a more complex Strahd who is playing and gaslighting his subjects while playing multiple games. In line with that and the changes to the Barovian population into three factions of Royalists (who either reverer Strahd or at least recognize him as the rightful tough Ruler), Resistance (who openly resist the Devil Strahd and rebel in what ways they have) and the Broken (who just cover and persevere in fear of the Devil Strahd) I placed the Werewolfs into the Royalist faction. They serve Strahd because they recognize his strength or because it allows them to hunt beyond the mists either way life as Strahd's enforcers are better than any of the alternatives in Barovia. As you suggested in your video regarding the Wizards of Wine vineyard I am going to have my Druids be after the to them lost secret of shapeshifting which puts tension between them and the Werewolfs but neither can't act on without fearing Strahd's wrath. This brings the potential for my players to exploit internal tensions in Strahd's ranks. The Werewolfs serve a different of Strahd's goals they are not aware of, the children he has them kidnap and the adventurers who follow serve to replenish Barovia's shrinking supply of Soul's. As mentioned under yet a 3rd video of yours I am going to have Strahd intentionally letting souls be lost so he can have a bigger chance of Tatjana being reincarnated and be made his. However, after the previous failed attempts to do so, he now is facing a shortage of souled subjects to feed upon and the Werewolfs, as well as the Vishtani, are bringing in fresh supply. He does not care what they do with the children but takes action when the dispute within the pack can't be ignored any longer. As you mentioned the Evil vs. Evil of the inner pack conflict was boring and I jumped on your idea of the Orphanage in Valakia and the Nighthags spreading rumors about it to the PCs. So in my campaign, I am having the Matron of the orphanage be actually connected to the Pack as the Hags claim to the players. Only it's far more benign than the Hags imply. Some of the Werewolves do steal children as Strahd demands but instead of bringing them to the Battle royal at the Den, they entrust them to the Orphanage in Valakia. I plan on my players encountering some of these werewolves when they investigate the Orphanage and learn about their "noble" leader who was taken to Ravenloft, even so far as going to offer the players a way out of Barovia for freeing him (they can't or at least not without Strahd knowing and allowing it but the players won't know). Since I am not using the Werewolf story hook to start the campaign this seems the best way to get the players involved in that plotline and make it feel less orphanage than it was if I played as the module reads. Not yet decided on just how good the "good" werewolves are going to be but I feel that the twists and paranoia of gothic horror don't work if everyone is actually evil. I think that will just make my player murder hobo this campaign.
Please look up , White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Werewolf tribes. My DMs always ran werewolves a bit of tongue un cheek humor. a.) PCs get a over friendly teenager following them around with a wolf pet asking them all types of questions. b.) PCs wake up in camp with a wolf snuggle up to one of them, which is overly friendly. c.) Young teenager runs out of a tree line with out clothes in a bloody mess yelling, " I didn't do it ! " Where the PC notice a pack of wolves and wolfmen come to a dead stop, bark insults, scent mark and fall back into the forest. PC, " Ok kid, .. What .. did you do, .. this time ?"
@@Nethar6 Sorry I over ran, or over think your statement on " Since I am not using the Werewolf story hook to start the campaign," so I thrown in the anecdotes. And any time I have problems or see people have problems regarding story plots for vampire or werewolves I fall back to the Van Richten Guides and White Wolf source books/ web sites.
@@krispalermo8133 I was just not using the section of Curse of Strahd in wich its suggested that players come to Barovia by following/hunting the wolfes kidnaping children. At no point did I suggest I had problems with the werewolfes in the module.
Can someone explain why a passive perception of 13 would be able to notice something they'd need to actively roll a DC 17 Perception check to see? It makes no sense for it to be easier for them to notice just "meandering about" than while actively searching.
Hey there! Can I ask if you have any plans to take on the daunting task of making a guide or series of guides on Castle Ravenloft? You helped me immensely with getting my mind around the Amber Temple, which was very intimidating but you made it much easier for me. Castle Ravenloft is another story entirely, however.
Lunch Break Heroes Well thank you for all the hard work you’ve put in! Certainly making my run through more interesting, and presenting it in a way that is more easy for me to manage than reading pages and pages of text. You are great at what you do!
Lunch Break Heroes ahhh, alright. I will happen to run that section this friday for my group. Was hoping it might be up by then, but no worries. Keep up the great content!
I know this is a very late message. I have a lycanthrope in my party. I’ve thought of having her challenge the pack leader or her back Emil in his challenge of the alpha. How would you go about that?
Better late than never! I'd be careful with that, and let it arise organically from the players' minds rather than yours. If it's something that she thinks of, great. But I wouldn't offer it up out of the blue. Giving your player control of the werewolf pack would A.) add a responsibility (e.g., a job) for the PC that could take them away from the party, and it could also B.) increase your party's numbers and powers, thus destroying the horror atmosphere of the module. Things are a lot scarier for a group of 3-4 than they are for a group of 15-20.
Thank you so much for the reply! Wasn’t going to offer it out of the blue and hadn’t thought of the lessening of the horror aspect. May not doing it then.
Just like all of your other videos, this is fantastic. I'm a little confused about one part though. If the players can't get through the front door, and they decide to sneak through one of the secret entrances, wouldn't all of the werewolves inside that they interacted with be immediately hostile? There's a lot of good details here, but I guess I'm not sure what to do if the players decide not to attack the guards when confronted at the front door.
* Ravenloft, .. Problems when D&D3e, my game shop back at the starts of the early 2000's. We already collected all the AD&D2e Ravenlof: Van Richten Guides, and we also played White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Vampire & Werewolf. Base plot behind the werewolves " War of the Packs," is over mostly hunting and herd grazing rights. Most traveling merchants identify werewolf hamlets or home steads by just seeing how casually wolves just walk around humans in broad day light. As normal wolves that supplement their diet with field mice and rats when deer is not around, hence their control over sheep and goat herds. So it is not uncommon to see " large near wolves " out right wolves hunting rats in gardens and grain fields. To maintain the shock value of their hybrid forms in combat, they normally just stick to their human or full wolf forms in public around normal humans.
Thanks very much. My players are heading there today and I used some of your ideas. One of my player's father (backstory hook) suffers from Lycanthropy and searched out the werewolf den to help learn to control the change. We stream today - ruclips.net/video/G7dpwX4PuWk/видео.html Here is the backstory video I made for the players with the father who is a werewolf. ruclips.net/video/CYRUUDrQWfU/видео.html Thanks again - looking forward to running the session.
I guess so? Great videos anyway, these are some very helpful guides. By the way have you heard of or read the Beast of Graenseskov adventure? It's a very popular DM's Guild module and I'm looking to use it as a replacement for the Death House, any thoughts on it?
I know this is very late, but I'd say Strahd and the dark powers still control the mists... he lets them use it because they serve him... if they tried to flee and not come back the mists would just come after them... :)
I am... confused about the LOT of this. CoS should be gritty, cruel and horrid, but here we are in a clean den with no torture, no maggot-ridden corpses, no unnesesary cruelty, negotiating with long-time kidnappers, because "ew" and "gross" and for some reason "shallow" and "one dimensional" characters. Death House meets players with cannibalism and child death and cults, and then we're just gonna... clean the werewolves? And only show the cruelty by... talking about it? Poor kids are fighting each other for survival, but we only see the kid being taken care of? No Mother Night because we can't relate somehow to evil religious practices? We do't want werevolves to be relatable. Evil shouldn't always be relatable. Sometimes you need this black and white. We already have Strahd the manipulator who can be easily "redeemed" because of a woman that came in his life and basically became his femme fatale. My sincerest apology, but this den is toothless.
What was YOUR experience like at the den? What did you change?
One of my players - a paladin was infected with lycantropy while fighting Kiryl - managed to kill him and later became leader of werewolves... woops xD
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@@LunchBreakHeroes Hey at least they're having fun right? I will deal with the possibility of a small werewolf army later... >_>
currently as it stands, my party is on good terms with the aboot. However, unknowing of this, the mongrelfolk kidnapped them and put them into the werewolf's cages alongside some of the children. Kiril will confront them wearing the symbol of ravenkind around his neck despite not being able to weild it, (the fortune said it was there). Oh and previously, the same werewolf pack directed by strahd tore through vallaki and killed almost everyone. not to mention my party was drawn to barovia from the wolf hunt hook, and has recently acquired the sunsword. how it goes from there ill find out tonight
So I know I'm late and honestly I only checked out this video to see what my group missed out on in the den, now to be clear our "experience" in the den didn't actually take place in the den but I feel this fits here based on what happened.
Tldr: that whole mountain no longer exists.
So our DM ran a dungeon for us from the tower, not sure if the dungeon was part of the game, and so we explored it. While inside we found powerful amphibious people who make the things they believe in real, think 40k orcs, now we bypassed them and went deeper to find a sacrificial orb being gaurded, after being told it was near indestructible the paladin and I, the ranger, came up with a plan to convince the frog people that a mundane sword we had was powerful and made to destroy those orbs, but that we needed the power of Thier singing to power the sword. One Nat 20 later we basically watched them sacrifice Thier life's to creature a golden from army who took our sword and my companion (make up a lie that they were proof of our "great quest") and sacrificed themselfs to the orb, destroying it and the mountain above... The crater was larger then the lake. Inshort the whole werewolf den was vaporised with the mountain and right now I can't resummon my companion meaning they are alive and out of reach.
Came to see this video wondering how badly we screwed the perverbial pooch.
Edit: we had heard of werewolf problems from valaki but had not made it to krezk
GUARDS: "We're societal outcasts! Go look for your furry friends elsewhere!"
PARTY: "So, just to be clear, the wolf-shaped cave entrance is...?"
GUARDS, SWEATING: "Purely metaphorical!"
GUARDS: "What you're experiencing is called 'Pareidolia'. It's just a naturally formed cave entrance, but your mind is superimposing a face on top of it due to your evolved tendency to recognize patterns and faces in things around you. NOW GO AWAY!"
I literally just ran the werewolf den with my party for the first time based on your guide and it went brilliantly. They actually got hooked to the place by Ezmerelda, who told them it might be best for someone to scout ahead. That gave one of my players a prime opportunity to use Disguise Self and pretend to be a werewolf in human form to go in and scout the den. He got to meet Skennis, who escorted him through the den and introduced all the NPCs. That player hasn't had the primary spotlight in quite a while, so I was very happy that he got this huge chunk to really shine. And at the end of the day - they didn't fight a single werewolf, and they are absolutely doing whatever they can to overthrow Kiril! Fleshing out the werewolves and livening up the den is such good advice.
That’s fantastic to hear! I’m very glad to hear it went well
Quick- I need to make a pun to express my excitement for this video. I guess you could say I'm...
Over the moon?
I loled
I didn't get it originally, but I do nowoooooooo...
I’m keeping the Mother Night theme because we have a lot of religion in our campaign, but I am adjusting the werewolves and actions based on this! Thanks! :)
Haven't even gotten a minute in yet but so thankful you're doing this. My players are heading there on Monday.
Great timing, indeed!
I hope I'll get to buy the entire reVamped book soon ♥ My party and I the DM have finally agreed on a starting date for our CoS campaign and I'll be making good use of your nightmare plot hook! I'm terrified to be DMing a campaign for the first time, but so so excited!
You got this, Essi! I'm not sure when the full book will come out, but hopefully soon(ish). There's only Khazan's Tower, Tsolenka Pass, Yester Hill, and Castle Ravenloft to go.
@@LunchBreakHeroes Ravenloft alone will no doubt be a huge undertaking, so I'll be sending some good writing vibes your way for that!
I really like the changes made to the werewolves, shame I can’t implement them into my current campaign
I never knew Billy Corrigan played D&D. Great content!
I know I wrote a bit about Zuleika in another post, but if anyone wants to read about a more sympathetic werewolf ....
Her story begins five years ago, when the Mists swallowed her, and brought her to Barovia. A brave, beautiful woman, she was spotted by Emil, and he fell in love at first sight, and she joined the pack. (she was already kind of evil, and being a werewolf fascinated her) Everything was fine until Kiril challenged old Skennis and became Alpha. Since then, the pack has been uneasy, a simmering resentment might become an actual civil war. Zuleika thinks Emil is a better choice, but he isn't here, and she isn't strong enough to challenge Kiril alone. She could use some allies.
She is my campaign's "Ally Against Strahd".
Her dialogue to the party includes these lines:
"Do you know what The Curse Of The Werewolf means? It's not being fast, or strong, or being able to hear a squirrel in a tree 200 feet away, or being able to smell blood a mile away and know if it is from a man, or a horse, or a deer. It's not being able to run all night, or to tell if someone is lying by hearing how their heart jumps, or never getting sick. These are all benefits.
"The Curse is that your body is always burning energy, always ready to eat raw, living, flesh. Oh, we may look like you, but we are not Human. We are always ready to run, to fight, to climb, to love, to laugh .... have I shocked you? Our Lifeforce is so terribly strong, we feel emotions much more intensely than you can. Vampires don't feel true emotions, only a twisted mirror image, a perversion, as false as their Undead existence.
"This is our curse, for as much as we love living, we cannot create life. Werewolves can't have children. Our bodies burn so hot, it destroys our ability to breed. So we must take the children of others, and make them our own. Which makes Kiril's action all the more horrific. I just watched Kiril order a dozen children to fight to the death, to see who would join the pack. Murdered, for his sick pleasure! I talked to the children before the ritual. Do you know who was the first to die? A boy named Michael, he was 7. His father broke his arm a month ago, and didn't get it fixed. He just wrapped it and gave Michael wine for the pain. Watching a one-armed child cry and beg for his life, trying to hold up a spear bigger than he is, that is what Kiril enjoys. I am a werewolf .... but Kiril is a monster.
"The second was a girl, Anastasia. She had beautiful blonde hair, very rare here in Barovia. I'm sure that's why she was picked. She was 11. When she was 9, she saw her mother sleeping with a man, a stranger. Her mother scooped out her eyes. She was stolen from an orphanage in Vallaki, and brought here to die, in pain and darkness. And do you know the worst of it? If we had added those children, all hurt, all in pain, to our pack, they would have regenerated those injuries. They would have become whole, and complete! They would have been grateful, happy, that someone loved them! They would have become part of my family! But now? Their lives were wasted by Kiril. Thrown away, for nothing, except his cruelty and his stupidity.
"And now you come to me, into my den, into my home, and ask for my help? Because Madame Eva says so? Well, let me tell you, that witch can burn for all I care. What has she done to help me?!"
(this is where my players have an exchange, and try to convince Zuleika with a Persuasion Check, DC 10)
"A week ago, Emil challenged Kiril for the position of Alpha. And rather than fight, Kiril ran away to Strahd, and cried. Strahd sent 16 Dire Wolves to accompany Kiril, and Emil left here in chains. I haven't seen him since, but I feel he is still alive.
"Last night, Kiril announced that he wants a new ritual for the upcoming full moon. With 20 children. I would give my life to stop Kiril, but I would rather take his. We already have 3 children in cages, so if you want my help, you must help me first. Either return Emil to me, or help me kill Kiril and become the new Alpha myself."
I know this is long, but the Muse is strong tonight.
Good stuff as always!
@@LunchBreakHeroes Thank you. It's always nice to be appreciated, and recognized.
Oh this is great! Our group is planning on letting me run CoS next year, & while I don’t know who our Ally will be; I may use this dialogue regardless (slightly altered of course). At least, if that’s okay with you Paul.
@@Avengerj5 I don't consider it stealing, if that's what you mean. Anything that makes my hobby shine brighter, and attract more players, is fine by me.
Of course, my favorite line I wrote is "I am a werewolf ... but Kiril is a monster." I hope that ends up in your game.
@@paulcoy9060 Oh it definitely will. Everything about how LBH has set up Zuleika and Emil has already made them among my favorite characters.
Thank you mate! You’re helping out so many of us in making an already great campaign even better.
My pleasure!
Love yhis video and all the changes add a lot of depth, the only thing I didn't get was the farmers and crops - as written there isn't much growing in Barovia, I left that out and it ran really great!
Thank you for this video series on expanding CoS, I just started the module with some friends, and have been drawing lots of inspiration from you and MandyMod's for adding depth, diversity and hooks for world building Barovia
Glad we could help!
Do you reckon the Werewolves would use a series of howls to convey messages? It feels a bit more on-brand than a bell.
They're in human form and trying to keep a low profile, so I think a bell makes sense. If they're all alerted and in hybrid/wolf form, then howls are definitely on-brand.
Great video as always! Is going to help with my current CoS campaign. Your added side quests for Barovia were a big hit; just so you know. A video suggestion I'd like to make is ideas for when and how to introduce Ezmeralda and Rictavio and suggestions on how to use them. I always struggle with this one, end up overthinking it.
I’ll keep that in mind, thank you!
I’m running a homebrewed version of cos and I’ve had SO much trouble trying to figure out what to do with the werewolf den. This so so helpful thank you so much!!
You’re welcome!
why is there a picture of you with wings in the background?
My party went there from the tower to observe after repelling a werewolf attack on the tower. There was no chance to use the isolated community backstory as the party immediately began firing arrows at the first sign of the sentries and one session later had murder hoboed everyone except the caged NPCs. At least they were nice to the runaway orphans.
Been loving your guides for CoS! Unfortunately this video came a few days late for my campaign as I ran the den just last weekend. Here was how I ran this chapter:
My group's Cleric was infected with Lycanthropy early in the campaign. Left very deliberate bread crumbs about the Den and substituted the Werewolves (vs Vampire Spawn) burning down St. Andral's church and making off with the thighbone and orphans as extra incentive to hunt the pack down. As an infected, the pack granted parley with the party and laid out the terms as presented in the module (after taking out Kyril of course).
Here is where issues with the module came up where you succinctly noted in the video; the group was not thrilled leaving the kids behind to the murderous shifters, had zero empathy for the anti-Strahd faction of wolves, and straight out refused to traipse into Castle Ravenloft too early to rescue one person for the pack. They left the cave with a false promise to help and immediately planned a raid on the den, which was largely successful since they now knew the cave layout and slaughtered nearly all the remaining pack. I allowed the infected Cleric to cure her Lycanthropy by consecrating the Mother Night Shrine and then destroying it with Saint Markovia's Thighbone.
The next time I plan to run this section of the adventure I'll definitely use your suggestions to add more depth to the Werewolves.
Please type up on the internet, ..
White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Werewolf tribes.
I started my Strahd campaign with a variant of the Werewolves In the Mist hook. The players had found a child being held by a bandit. They returned the child to the local settlement only to find out he wasn’t from there! The boy was also nonverbal. Rough age of 2 years old.
The local sheriff asked the players to guide him and his men to where they found the boy in the hope of finding a trail or something that would lead to the boy’s parents.
They find one of the bandits that they thought they had killed (secretly he’s a werewolf) naked and covered in blood next to the trail.
What happens from here is that werewolves stalk the party in the woods, I went for some suspense there. It worked out for once!
At the end of the encounter, just as the Alpha wolf is about to kill one of the players, a much louder growl is heard. A Werebear rushes into the clearing and starts tearing the werewolves a new one. At the end, he morphs into his human form (naked as the day he was born) and demands to know where his son is.
Shortly afterwards, the werebear and his son depart into the mists. The party was too injured to press on after this encounter and so they had camped in the woods, where the mists enveloped them and in the morning they awoke in Barovia.
That's a fantastic intro to the adventure, and probably the best use of the werewolf hook that I've heard of!
@@LunchBreakHeroes Thanks! hearing that really brightened my day! Feel free to borrow this hook anytime :D
I've been thinking about running my werewolves like Eberron werewolves being aberrations instead of just Humanoids/Shape shifters.
This is great. I've been having trouble keeping time and the time of day during my Strahd game at the moment. If you or anyone have advice please let me know. It has been hard running Vallaki. Your previous video on the guide to Vallaki helped so much. Now if i can only figure a good time system.
I just assume the party gets up at dawn. Then I think about what the party has done since then, decide how long it took, and go from there.
103rd Platinum returning, Very Excited for the New Video! You make amazing content keep it up.
Thanks, will do!
These changes are great, and perhaps when I run CoS again down the line, I'll consider them. For right now, especially since I am a first time DM, I am planning to run the module mostly as written, though I have taken inspiration from some of your ideas like the pies and windmill, and am implementing those ideas. But for Werewolf Den, I actually found an easy way to run it as is, and still manage to spice it up to make it a bit more interesting.
I am running a six person party, and two of the party members will have their backstories lead them to the Werewolf Den and have a better variety of choices. My biggest problem with Werewolf Den isn't quite the way it's written with the evil NPC's, but the fact that it serves little to no purpose outside of just another place to kill some stuff.
So what I did was simple. For the warlock in my party, their patron is a devil named Zol'gath, and he has a distaste for werewolves, since a few of them killed some of his loyal cult followers in the past, bringing doubt among some of his followers wondering if he's actually as powerful as he says he is. Zol'gath wants to get revenge and prove his power and influence to his followers. The primary culprit of the slaughter was Emil, who was on a hunt with a pack outside of Barovia when this happened (since the werewolves of the den are occasionally allowed to leave Barovia to hunt). Zol'gath will appear before the warlock player before a long rest, and task her with the objective of finding Emil and killing him, as well as killing the rest of his pack if she can, further emphasizing that she will be punished greatly if she fails this task. This not only brings the den into relevancy, but also brings some cool roleplay with a warlocks patron into the equation.
Additionally, my party's fighter is a monster hunter who has come into contact with werewolves many times, and my player decided he wanted his character to be cursed with incomplete lycanthropy (basically an incomplete werewolf curse where he doesn't transform, but still experiences the violent urges of a werewolf without much control). While it's true that incomplete lycanthropy curses aren't really a thing, I decided to DM break the lore a bit for it, but that any more exposure to lycanthropy will complete the curse. Additionally, werewolves can smell their own kind, and can tell when a curse is incomplete and will often take it upon themselves to finish it.
And with that done, it made his character an easy invitation to make the den a big part of his arc. Simply put, the werewolf who cursed him is Kiril, who was on an outside of Barovia hunt like Emil was. If he meets Emil, Emil will not get violent with this character to try and kill him, but instead ask him to help get control of the pack back for him from Kiril, a name the character will recognize and likely want revenge against. In return for their help, Emil will offer treasure, and not attempt to turn the character into a full werewolf, but will still try to talk him into it later by showing him the power werewolves can wield. Emils mate will make the same offer.
So as you can see, we have Emil offering one of the character mutual revenge against Kiril. On the other hand, we have the warlock, who is tasked by her patron to kill Emil on sight. This makes thing much more interesting to me, and brings a lot of possibilities to the Werewolf Den without having to change too much, as there's a lot of directions it can now go.
As I have mentioned before under another video of yours I wanted a more complex Strahd who is playing and gaslighting his subjects while playing multiple games. In line with that and the changes to the Barovian population into three factions of Royalists (who either reverer Strahd or at least recognize him as the rightful tough Ruler), Resistance (who openly resist the Devil Strahd and rebel in what ways they have) and the Broken (who just cover and persevere in fear of the Devil Strahd) I placed the Werewolfs into the Royalist faction. They serve Strahd because they recognize his strength or because it allows them to hunt beyond the mists either way life as Strahd's enforcers are better than any of the alternatives in Barovia. As you suggested in your video regarding the Wizards of Wine vineyard I am going to have my Druids be after the to them lost secret of shapeshifting which puts tension between them and the Werewolfs but neither can't act on without fearing Strahd's wrath. This brings the potential for my players to exploit internal tensions in Strahd's ranks. The Werewolfs serve a different of Strahd's goals they are not aware of, the children he has them kidnap and the adventurers who follow serve to replenish Barovia's shrinking supply of Soul's. As mentioned under yet a 3rd video of yours I am going to have Strahd intentionally letting souls be lost so he can have a bigger chance of Tatjana being reincarnated and be made his. However, after the previous failed attempts to do so, he now is facing a shortage of souled subjects to feed upon and the Werewolfs, as well as the Vishtani, are bringing in fresh supply. He does not care what they do with the children but takes action when the dispute within the pack can't be ignored any longer. As you mentioned the Evil vs. Evil of the inner pack conflict was boring and I jumped on your idea of the Orphanage in Valakia and the Nighthags spreading rumors about it to the PCs. So in my campaign, I am having the Matron of the orphanage be actually connected to the Pack as the Hags claim to the players. Only it's far more benign than the Hags imply. Some of the Werewolves do steal children as Strahd demands but instead of bringing them to the Battle royal at the Den, they entrust them to the Orphanage in Valakia. I plan on my players encountering some of these werewolves when they investigate the Orphanage and learn about their "noble" leader who was taken to Ravenloft, even so far as going to offer the players a way out of Barovia for freeing him (they can't or at least not without Strahd knowing and allowing it but the players won't know). Since I am not using the Werewolf story hook to start the campaign this seems the best way to get the players involved in that plotline and make it feel less orphanage than it was if I played as the module reads. Not yet decided on just how good the "good" werewolves are going to be but I feel that the twists and paranoia of gothic horror don't work if everyone is actually evil. I think that will just make my player murder hobo this campaign.
Please look up , White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Werewolf tribes.
My DMs always ran werewolves a bit of tongue un cheek humor.
a.) PCs get a over friendly teenager following them around with a wolf pet asking them all types of questions.
b.) PCs wake up in camp with a wolf snuggle up to one of them, which is overly friendly.
c.) Young teenager runs out of a tree line with out clothes in a bloody mess yelling, " I didn't do it ! "
Where the PC notice a pack of wolves and wolfmen come to a dead stop, bark insults, scent mark and fall back into the forest.
PC, " Ok kid, .. What .. did you do, .. this time ?"
@@krispalermo8133 I've played White Wolf, Vampire more than Werewolf. Don't see how it or your anecdote relate to my comment.
@@Nethar6 Sorry I over ran, or over think your statement on " Since I am not using the Werewolf story hook to start the campaign," so I thrown in the anecdotes.
And any time I have problems or see people have problems regarding story plots for vampire or werewolves I fall back to the Van Richten Guides and White Wolf source books/ web sites.
@@krispalermo8133 I was just not using the section of Curse of Strahd in wich its suggested that players come to Barovia by following/hunting the wolfes kidnaping children. At no point did I suggest I had problems with the werewolfes in the module.
i am just about to reach this part in my CoS campaign! thank you very much!
Happy to help!
Good timing! My players are set to deal with the Werewolf Den this Sunday.
Good luck!
Everyone loves Blinksly!
Oh dammit not again! I legit ran the den yesterday
Aw, darn! Time to start another campaign!
@@LunchBreakHeroes I'm genuinely considering running another one with your modifications
Can someone explain why a passive perception of 13 would be able to notice something they'd need to actively roll a DC 17 Perception check to see? It makes no sense for it to be easier for them to notice just "meandering about" than while actively searching.
Just an honest mistake. Thanks for catching that!
Hey there! Can I ask if you have any plans to take on the daunting task of making a guide or series of guides on Castle Ravenloft? You helped me immensely with getting my mind around the Amber Temple, which was very intimidating but you made it much easier for me. Castle Ravenloft is another story entirely, however.
It’s gonna be the capstone of the series, but no ETA yet.
Lunch Break Heroes Well thank you for all the hard work you’ve put in! Certainly making my run through more interesting, and presenting it in a way that is more easy for me to manage than reading pages and pages of text. You are great at what you do!
Thank you!
Can you provide some further information about Emil’s new location (being imprisoned in the tower at the Tsolenka Pass)?
We shall have a Tsolenka pass guide in the near(ish) future!
Lunch Break Heroes ahhh, alright. I will happen to run that section this friday for my group. Was hoping it might be up by then, but no worries. Keep up the great content!
I know this is a very late message. I have a lycanthrope in my party. I’ve thought of having her challenge the pack leader or her back Emil in his challenge of the alpha. How would you go about that?
Better late than never!
I'd be careful with that, and let it arise organically from the players' minds rather than yours. If it's something that she thinks of, great. But I wouldn't offer it up out of the blue. Giving your player control of the werewolf pack would A.) add a responsibility (e.g., a job) for the PC that could take them away from the party, and it could also B.) increase your party's numbers and powers, thus destroying the horror atmosphere of the module.
Things are a lot scarier for a group of 3-4 than they are for a group of 15-20.
Thank you so much for the reply!
Wasn’t going to offer it out of the blue and hadn’t thought of the lessening of the horror aspect. May not doing it then.
Ta-rokka and Ta-rolla!
Just like all of your other videos, this is fantastic. I'm a little confused about one part though. If the players can't get through the front door, and they decide to sneak through one of the secret entrances, wouldn't all of the werewolves inside that they interacted with be immediately hostile? There's a lot of good details here, but I guess I'm not sure what to do if the players decide not to attack the guards when confronted at the front door.
* Ravenloft, ..
Problems when D&D3e, my game shop back at the starts of the early 2000's.
We already collected all the AD&D2e Ravenlof: Van Richten Guides, and we also played White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Vampire & Werewolf.
Base plot behind the werewolves " War of the Packs," is over mostly hunting and herd grazing rights.
Most traveling merchants identify werewolf hamlets or home steads by just seeing how casually wolves just walk around humans in broad day light.
As normal wolves that supplement their diet with field mice and rats when deer is not around, hence their control over sheep and goat herds. So it is not uncommon to see " large near wolves " out right wolves hunting rats in gardens and grain fields.
To maintain the shock value of their hybrid forms in combat, they normally just stick to their human or full wolf forms in public around normal humans.
Do you plan to make a series about Descent into Avernus?
That'll be next after Curse of Strahd!
How does Patreon work? Your Tier structure is per video, instead of per month. How many videos you cranking out per month?
Typically two!
My players got TPK’d 🧐
Oh no!
Thanks very much. My players are heading there today and I used some of your ideas. One of my player's father (backstory hook) suffers from Lycanthropy and searched out the werewolf den to help learn to control the change. We stream today - ruclips.net/video/G7dpwX4PuWk/видео.html
Here is the backstory video I made for the players with the father who is a werewolf. ruclips.net/video/CYRUUDrQWfU/видео.html
Thanks again - looking forward to running the session.
Is there any explanation for why wouldn't the werewolves just leave and go somewhere else once Strahd let them through the mists?
Home is where your heart is?
I guess so? Great videos anyway, these are some very helpful guides.
By the way have you heard of or read the Beast of Graenseskov adventure? It's a very popular DM's Guild module and I'm looking to use it as a replacement for the Death House, any thoughts on it?
I know this is very late, but I'd say Strahd and the dark powers still control the mists... he lets them use it because they serve him... if they tried to flee and not come back the mists would just come after them... :)
Even though I loved running Curse of Strahd, the more of these I watch the more I realize how poorly written this game was.
If it were perfect, I wouldn't have anything to do! I'd be sitting here, bored. And that would be sad.
I am... confused about the LOT of this. CoS should be gritty, cruel and horrid, but here we are in a clean den with no torture, no maggot-ridden corpses, no unnesesary cruelty, negotiating with long-time kidnappers, because "ew" and "gross" and for some reason "shallow" and "one dimensional" characters. Death House meets players with cannibalism and child death and cults, and then we're just gonna... clean the werewolves? And only show the cruelty by... talking about it? Poor kids are fighting each other for survival, but we only see the kid being taken care of? No Mother Night because we can't relate somehow to evil religious practices?
We do't want werevolves to be relatable. Evil shouldn't always be relatable. Sometimes you need this black and white. We already have Strahd the manipulator who can be easily "redeemed" because of a woman that came in his life and basically became his femme fatale.
My sincerest apology, but this den is toothless.
Sadly there rereleasing Curse of Strahd because it apparently the Vallaki us “outdated Romanian Stereotypes” 😔
Yikes. Bad audio
Aside from the occasional creaking of my wife's chair, the audio sounds fine to me. What's so bad about it, in your opinion?