The Death House Sucks (and how to fix it)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ค. 2020
- I talk about curse of strahd a lot but this is the last one I swear. I know you're making another one perkins. I KNOW IT'S COMING.
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Here's the VOD for our run of the Death House: th-cam.com/video/wR0OgWLhqgA/w-d-xo.html
Make sure to check out Grim Hollow!: bit.ly/3buCLHi
thank you!
Finally! Thank you!
Hey Jacob, really liked the video as always and I’m planning on running a game for my family, most likely Curse of Strahd, and I wanna start them through the Death House at level 1, and I plan on using your recommended changes, but do you think it would work that instead of Strahd at the end I made it Rahadin waiting outside? Just thought I should wait just a little longer before their first meeting with Strahd, and Rahadin could be there on orders to make sure the house didn’t kill all the adventurers.
Do you think they would set it up with dnd beyond?
My DM used living armor, a banshee, ghouls, a mimic, and the plant guy in this dungeon against us, but it was just a Fighter, and me playing a Wizard, we were both level 1. The Fighter kept going down, and didn't actually kill anything in the entire dungeon as I or a deus ex moxina (no idea if I'm spelling that right) NPC comes in, and helps save our lives.
Also the first time going through the house I accidentally burned down the house, but don't worry it got better.
Me to my players, announcing our Halloween one-shot: "We're playing the Death House. Edgy characters are encouraged but not required."
My players: "Let's play as the Scooby Doo gang!"
1000 iq
I 100% pitched Scooby-Doo doo/Ghostbusters to my party lol
Yikes
That sounds AWESOME!
ranger shaggy, college of glamor daphne, fighter fred, investigator rogue velma
We thought "He is ancient. He is the land." was like a key phrase we could use to ingratiate ourselves with folks around the area. We went around chanting this at NPCs for the most of the game to the point where our DM decided that we successfully sparked a revival of this cult.
Oh my god hahahah
I thought that the shambling mound (essentially shambling land) was supposed to be a stand-in for Strahd because he is the land, but that is interesting.
@@HeatherVerhagen I think the implication of the shambling mound was that the cult are frauds who didn't have any real magic (which is also hinted by the bogus ritual books in the secret library, and the non-magical "relics" the cult has collected in their reliquary) and they thought this shambling mound was some sort of cosmic horror when it blatantly wasn't.
On the other hand, the cult clearly had enough magic to all turn into fairly powerful undead (I mean, powerful by the standards of a level 2 party) and to be able to reappear as spooky ghosts in the altar room, so...
@@HeatherVerhagen See, I know it's because it is Strahd's self-made phrase via the Tome of Strahd
But this is hilarious too
Dear god how the DM didn't decide that you probably got all the townsfolk angry at you for basically worshipping the devil is beyond me haha
my death house experience was incredibly fun and produced one of my favourite D&D stories.
basically, the enchanted broom tried to attack us from the other side of a doorway. It rolled a nat 1 and snapped itself on the doorframe, instantly killing it, thus granting us the legendary tale of the suicidal broomstick
One of the players in our ongoing campaign found the broom, tried multiple times to hug it (?) and got beaten within an inch of their life. Think they were at 1 hp by the end of it lmfao
Man that broom made me fall in love with DnD. I remember i was playing with some colleagues. One of them was a Drow Elf and i played as a High Elf and became short friends after we where inventing fries in the kitchen of the house. While the rest of the members went upstairs without us. A dwarf. Pandaren and a harengon. They opened the door and they had to fight the magic broom. Our DM had lucky dice while the other 3 had a few nat 1's and below 10 rolls. The chaos that ensued and them basically almost dying had me and my Drow friend laughing our ass off the whole time. Eventually going down in the dungeon i almost got eating by a door mimic. Man what a time
Which is extremely funny to contrast how One of our party went into its room, got critted by said broom and went down from max HP in one attack. Doubly fun as it proved to be the hardest encounter pre-dungeon as the specter was made virtually incapable by a vicious mockery that made it so it never even touched our characters.
Jacob: “make the edgiest characters you want”
Spencer: *Are you challenging me?*
I am a sentient sword who lost his parents, got married twice, had children twice, and had the children murdered in front of him twice.
Oh and also I'm actually a demon with amnesia.
CoolGreen Bug B-but your a bug?
@@aturtle6270 I use my vampire powers (Which I also Have and if you argue I'm telling Mom) to bend the minds of the weak willed into seeing a bug
@CoolGreen Bug I was gonna say that it was weird you had your kids killed but then you mentioned being a demon and it made sense.
Star Colonel Spencer Malthus: A full trinary of My Chemical Romance fangirls stands ready to conquer your pathetic campaign. What forces dare oppose us?
Jacob: Look, buddy, I don't know what you-
Star Colonel Spencer Malthus: You dare to refuse my batchall?!
"Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way."
Nice try, Spencer, I get that reference.
I wish I was innocent enough to not get the reference
Dang I don't get it
I think it's from that shitty emo teen harry potter fanfic called My Immortal.
I came to the comments looking for people who also knew. I'm happy I found some.
Utterly based
Oh, I have an idea! Turn it into Tomb of Horrors instead!... What do you mean "not fun?"
What and play it at level 1?
why is it that i always see your comment on every single one of jacobs videos i mean im not complaining moreover im curious
@@edgelordsupreme3961 he does it to torment jacob of course
Level 1 Tomb of horrors and a lich Tarrasque
ivan vukovic did you pay attention to the name and profile picture? It’s a joke account made specifically to comment on these videos.
"I'm playing Ebony Darkness Dimentia Ravenway"
_my SIDES_
you called?
Never did i think you would be here hi
*vietnam flashbacks*
Crap, I thought it was "right of way"
Did you know there's a paperback book of the entire fanfic? Because the moment I found out I went on Amazon and ordered a copy for my sister, who'd introduced me to it.
7:56 So in this area, the ghosts want you to sacrifice a thing, and then they chill out. If you kill the shambling mound, the house comes to life and tries to kill you on the way out.
The first time I played this, we lured the shambling mound onto the pedestal and killed it there.
It took the DM a solid two minutes of dead silence to figure out what the hell was supposed to happen next.
Holy shit that's ingenious. Y'all played big brain, and if it was me, the house would not only NOT activate, but it would also lay out a red friggin' carpet, with a tiny fanfare creaking in the floorboards. Lol
I would have applauded. Good thinking, players.
My group has 6 players (barbarian, Druid, rogue, bard, sorcerer, life cleric) so we were able to kill the shambling mound even though it took us some time + a lucky crit & nat 20 on a death saving throw to do it lol
My team actually tried to trick the spirits with the sacrifice and... it did not work. We did still manage to get everybody out alive, though it was very sketchy. One of our party members got engulfed by the shambling mound and before they died someone else leaped in to push them out and take their place while we finished off the mound. It was pretty sick.
@@LinkDawnbringer I just used one of the rats, That seemed to work fine.
I remember playing this adventure with a small group of friends, and one of the players (who played a Tiefling Paladin) allowed the boy, Thorn I think his name was, to possess him on the condition that, once the dungeon was complete, the ghost would remain with the Paladin and would kind of "swap" with him on occasion. The boy agreed and after the Death House was completed, even though the kids were laid to rest, the Paladin kept the kid in his soul, teaching the boy how to fight and would let the DM control his character as Thorn, letting the boy kill low level creatures. He gained the flaw after being possessed, but also an additional separate personality background our DM made for him. I think Rose was laid to rest and was just thankful that the party was helping her brother become less scared of the world, and thanked the Paladin in-particular for "rescuing" her brother from the terrible fate that befell their spirits.
Badass
Almost brought a tear to my eye. Wholesome as fuck.
This is literally the most wholesome thing out of CoS
Awww, thats so sweet!
Tell Spencer her makeup looks badass in the playthrough clips
For real! She nailed that makeup!
Seriously it’s awesome
Damn much so!
@Alekxander Hellmold incel
Yeah, she should do it like that more often
For the shambling mound, I found this really cool homebrew for it. I can't remember exactly who made it but it really helped tie the shambling mound into the main story when I ran it. Basically, the shambling mound is made of the remains of cult sacrifices and if you listen closely you can hear what sounds like the faint cries of a baby coming from it. The center of the shambling mound contains the body of Rose and Thorn's baby brother who was turned into this fucked up creature during a cult ritual. I think the baby was alive for longer in this version but was murdered by Mrs Durst because it wasn't hers or something. The mound still dealt a massive amount of damage but if a player was engulfed they would be able to spot a small glowing heart inside of the flesh. If the heart is destroyed, the baby's soul is freed and the shambler dies. It gave death house a nice conclusion where my players ended up fighting the child they thought they were trying to save
believe youre thinking of mandymod's fleshing out curse of strahd on reddit. every part of that strahd revision is fantastic but the death house specifically is great
It's called Reloaded and is an amazing encounter compared to just the mossy shambling mound, it turns into a fleshy mound and it's so beat
I think that's what happened in our campaign. I was confused when I was reading the comments because everyone talked about the house trying to kill them or something while we just severed the ties between the flesh thing and the babyvs corpse and got out.
I like the idea that the couple lost their baby (stillborn), and started or joined the cult in an attempt to bring it back to life. It went horribly awry, as expected.
Bruh my minotaur/orc/tiefling trio of murderers Reborn paladin got swallowed by it and when the other Paladin killed it with a nat 20b and got a "how do you want to do this?" He included that he accidentally sliced off the tip of one of my horns! I have a bit of a phobia of permanent body modification/disfigurement, but played it off and had the Oath of Redemption Paladin feel the now damaged minotaur horn that had been grafted onto the tiefling's head, look at him, and calmly state "he would have killed you for that" and went about his business.
When I played we were trying to vandalize or deface the Strahd statue and I had the "brilliant idea" to pee on the statue instead of touching it. Now knowing that saved us from having to fight a bunch of shadows is hilarious to me.
Imagine being born with the name "ebony darkness dimentia"
Now I wanna make a super wholesome character with that name, she comes from a very edgy family but she isn't really into that stuff
myimmortal.fandom.com/wiki/Ebony_Dark%27ness_Dementia_Raven_Way
@@TwoHands95 oh, of course
Ya'll know Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way is from the infamous fanfiction My Immortal, right? That's why Spencer's choice to have that name and dress the way she does for the one-shot is so funny.
@@TwoHands95 I knew it sounded familiar!
An excerpt from my friend’s experience.
“There’s a HORSE! LOOSE in the DEATH HOUSE!”
Troll in the Dungeon
but there's a
HOOORRRSE IN THE DEATH HOOUUSSEE!
"There's a Moose! Loose! In the Death Hoose!"
I would tie the house to Strahd by making it Tatyana's old house where they find her Diary & can attain more information the more secret chambers they reveal.
I really love this! I'm gonna do that for my group!
Ooh, I like that a lot.
This is totally brilliant!
I did that lol, there are letters of strand before he was a vampire begging her to come to his estate
What should the DIary say? Incase my players read it?
This is actually my favorite ever D&D story. We were in the cultist room, and I decided to put myself up for sacrifice. The barbarian punched my back and I used dancing lights to make a spectral heart appear and dissipate. Then, since they were worshiping a shambling mound the barbarian said “we will use this body to fertilize the land” we ran out of the house. However, we were at the mercy of our deception rolls. If we failed at any time we were goners (we were 3rd level and a shambling mound is like 5th I think). We consistently kept rolling high, and it was WAY more intense than any combat encounter we’ve ever had before or since
My group had the same idea to do a fake sacrifice and it also failed. But it was really funny
I believe it says in the module cultists can't decieved.
@@yektaklc4327 But I believe the DM says it's really cool x)
-sees title "Excuse me, highly disagree"
-opening statement "Ok not really, but also kind"
Me: j'baited.
I mean the thumbnail did say "sucks but not a whole lot"
Have you seen the previous "[...] Sucks" videos?
Never be so foolish to already violently shake your head after reading a title :P ^^
I always felt that the shambling mound wasn't supposed to be beaten. You're supposed to run as soon as you do the thing.
I stacked the HP to max AND made sure the players knew in no uncertain terms this wasn't supposed to be beatable.
Also described it as a ball of flesh and bone, resembling similar behaviours as a shambling mound
Oh man...Animated Broom Of Attacking...I almost TPK'ed my whole party with it. They got so scarred of a brooms after that...One person got so scarred during that figh they played dead so it would go and fight someone else.
Me and my party have had many a encounter with brooms it’s become a meme
Jacob: So I'd like you to make some edg-
Spencer: *EDGE YOU SAY?*
"what's in that windmil- OH GOD I DON'T WANT THAT MYSTERY SOLVED"
What's in the windmill exactly?
@@ranpo_edogawa three hags making pastries out of children
Also it’s like right outside Barovia which is the first town most likely. So they will probably be under leveled if they swing by and investigate which can lead to a TPK
@@sanddry738 we almost ficking got them too
@@sanddry738 level 4 and we took down 2 out of three of a fucking hag coven
Death House: Tries to kill players always
Jacob: I like that but not so much
Well its a death house, not a injury house.
@@lollma0 The ouchie ouch house.
Yeah I've only heard this guy a few times but the sense I am getting is more or less
"Making players think they might not be good enough to win isnt okay"
@@Rebellions I think it's more of, "set them up with encounters they can win if they are smart" like.... if you just get jumped and one shot that wasn't fun and it wasn't your fault, there is no "playing it better" it's just "oops, you failed one roll time to die" like things can still be hard, and the player should always have the threat of dying, but getting one shot for no reason isn't fun for anyone.
When my dm ran this, we found a dog somewhere
When we got to the sacrifise room, my character crumbled under preasure and killed the dog
I got punished for killing said dog with the shambling mound
...i felt a bit cheated
The shambling mound name was properly John Wick
My team refused to kill the dog
We then pretended to kill one of our party members and then the shambling mound emgulfed the barbarian on turn one which he proceeded to do the nost damage and kill him from the inside
You will get no sympathy from me...you killed the doggy ;-;
Ya kinda messed. You made a sacrifice and got nothing?: lame
The most bummer part of death house for me, was really that the big monster in the basement didnt turn out to be the baby, like damn that would've been good
That was one change I made. the monster in the basement was a tiger that could mimic a baby's voice. Drove the mother mad.
"How are they supposed to beat this?"
I can't speak for everyone but my party had two fighter with an AC of 17 and 18 (yes I checked to make sure they hadn't accidentally fudged some math, I had no idea how good investing into DEX + armor and shield was) and so most of these enemies spent their turns missing attacks. The shambling mound in particular only landed a couple hits and no engulfs through the entire boss fight.
Yeah, but with that HP it doesn't take much to take them down. Also, that level of AC early on is not common. Add a modicum of bad luck to a squishier character of the party and things can go downhill FAST.
Honestly, I figured my players were okay since they had Thomas “The OP AF tank,”
Dex is king. Plate armour gets you 18 ac for 1500gp, whereas just having a high dex gets you 17 ac with studded leather, 45gp. 1 ac is well worth the cost of having far more gold and better initiative and dex saving throws. This is why it's commonly said that dex>strength in 5e.
Dozy150 the difference is that anyone can get plate armor if they have enough money, and your ac can’t be reduced by things that make your dexterity modifier not be applied. Whereas getting 17 ac in that way requires actually getting a 20 in dexterity (something that most characters don’t do), and the ac can be brought all the way down to a measly 12 if you are affected by something that stops your dex from applying to your ac. I speak from experience here. Both are good options, but their downsides should be noted.
@@GuyFawkes051 I mean, you also lose athletics, grappling, most of the better melee weapons in the game.
I still think dex is a really, really good stat that every character wants, I just don't think it's necessarily the most optimal.
So I was dragged into the death house. Not knowing we were playing this module.
But all our dm told us was - you are a part of a circus. Make your character level 2 and as big top circus as you can.
We had
A Luchador Barbarian Dwarf
A Knife Thrower Rouge Drow
A Magician Illusionist Halfling
And
AN Acrobatic Trapeze Monk Human
It was the best 4 sessions ever since our only goal was:
"We must return to the circus! The boss is going to cut our pay if we're late again."
That's inspiring
“Don’t start with this.” I mean, could make for a fun adventure where you have to escape this death house, after waking up here with some other chaps. That, could make for a cool introduction into the rest of CoS. Figure out how to escape, or ease the dead so they can just, walk out, only to come to the knowledge that they’re stuck in a hostile and dark land. Something was amiss back in the house, but now it’s clear something evil reigns here. Weither or not they know Strahd yet is up to you as well, could have the party make their way into a nearby town and learn just how fucked they are.
In terms of the difficulty I feel like running it with 3 players could be part of the problem. Nothing wrong with reducing the number of monsters they encounter to reflect party size.
I did this as a purely solo one-shot to be a late addition to my DM's Strahd group, so it's absolutely possible.
Nah, speaking for my party that JUST did it;
4 Players, Level 2 to start (just to avoid the awkward mid-house levelup), they lucked out and avoided basically every fight by accidentally beelining straight to the end, and still BARELY got out;
The Paladin got KO'd baseball diving out of the final door (but they were around to pick him up), and the rest were 1 hit away from death. That's WITH this lower difficulty AND me reducing the damage from the escape.
Yep, I'm actually running DeathHouse right now. Tried to advise skipping it. This is actually my second time going through it. Did it as a one shot once and died to the shadows. Not sure how but both times my brother got possessed by the little girl
So he is a reverse anime character now.
Wasn’t expecting Spencer to dress up as emo goth gf
Or specifically be Embony Raven D'arkness Dementia Raven Way.
I cracked up when he zoomed into her face and she said her character's name. Immediately thought of 3 people from my group 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣
What now, emo or goth? :D
Looks pretty Goth to me :D
I think Jack's idea of a Shambling mound made out of the flesh and bodies of its victims or the victims of the house makes perfect sense, as in if you destroy it you finally set their souls free, you've helped everyone rather than only the family, and the house then, I suppose, either cease to exist or sits in its original location and it turns to a normal long abandoned house that had something really dark happened in it. but that's it.
The death house was our first adventure EVER, my first time DMing. A bunch of research and VODs helped a bunch, including yours! I changed many details. Biggest change: I put the ghost of the chldren's mother near the coffins in the basement. She pleads with the party to put her children's bones to rest. Once they did, she told them about an affair she had with Strahd (she is lying and was a stalker of Strahd's, which works with the family's obsession with him), and also emotionnally gives vague and inconclusive hints about: Strahd's love for a Barovian woman and the mother's jealousy; a quick description of Strahd (an infatuated version); about magical items she used to sneak into the castle all the time (the Players can find those near the exit in a wardrobe. Adaptable to the individual party, there was a magical robe, boots, night vision goggles, and a bag of holding, also some healing potions). Most importantly, she hints at finding info about his weakness, the magical items in the modul. She told Strahd in an effort to bribe him into taking her on as a mistress. THIS is why Strahd killed the family and the cult. She is still bitter about it, which is why she reluctantly tells the players to take her things, bury her children and burn her house down, with a final "If you survive the house..." Before evaporating. Much exposition, magical equipment, and a first impression of Strahd, whithout letting him show up personally. My players were intrigued, and I was a happy (and very nervous) first time DM. :)
I ran Death House as a one shot at level 1, the party warlock was downed in one hit during the first combat and then flat out insta killed in the second fight we had (with the spectre)
The warlock is usually downed real quick.
"the party warlock was downed in one hit during the first combat"
What else is new?
In my first AL game, my variant human warlock had 16 con and the lucky feat. Final room, the kobold hits us with a fireball and 2/3 of the party goes down. After the bard's cutting words and rerolling my save, I had 1 hp remaining, which let me use a potion to get the cleric back up. I leveled after that one adventure.
I also rolled 20 on 2 death saving throws. That was fun after we got a handle on it.
I started running this today. A party of 4 level 2s fought the broom and specter at the same time. The fighter just out right died, and the artificer went down. But everyone else survived. But that spectre was bad news. They loved it though.
Tbh, I *love* the shambling mound. After a grueling battle to get to this chamber, they are faced with a juggernaut of a foe. There is no reason to beat the shambling mound. No xp, no treasure. They are leveling to 3 regardless. The only reasonable option is to run. They SHOULD run.
It's a great lesson that, if you try to solve every problem in Barovia with a sword, you will die.
I think this is an underrated response, to me at least the Death House is kind of a microcosm of CoS and good dungeons in DnD in general; you have to play it smart, be shrewd and pick your battles according to your strength. One thing that's kind of funny to me is that it's quite easy to get the monsters in the house to stop chasing you if you just scooby doo outta there.
Couldn't agree more. The mound isn't *supposed* to be killed - it's a plot device to scare them and teach them that very lesson. You're *supposed* to run.
2:08 omg a My Immortal reference out in the wild, the legend persists
My last campaign played curse of Strahd and I specifically remember Death house being the best part of the campaign actually, the DM actually didn't read the part of how you couldn't reason with the Specter and we were able to reason with her, asking her to be our guide through the mansion (which she obliged when we told her that we would avenge the family and stop the cultists) and we had fun problem solving around the place, it was a good introduction to the setting, helped us establish the personalities of the PCs, and with the Specter being an ally giving us a quest it gave us an overarching plot to stop the cultists that killed the ally we had made.
Honestly the plot hook of going after cultists that the party later had some sort of connection to Strahd was just a fun escalation of the plot. So yeah pro tip for DMs that want to run Death house, allow the Sally (the name the DM gave the Specter) to be reasoned with and give the players a Grim guide through this haunted mansion, it makes the whole thing a good intro to Strahd and allows the DM to weave it into the lore.
"I'm playing Ebony D'arkness Dementia Raven Way"
This is going to be good, isn't it?
The perfect video for me 6 days a way from running curse of strahd
Edit: I’m running for a party of 2 any ideas on how to keep them alive
Edit: well day of truth thanks for all the advice, wish me luck!
Look at the top posts of the curse of Strahd subreddit, it LITERALLY saved me
Goodluck!
Make sure Strahd shows up early and often. IMO he's best played as a man amused by these little adventurers and uses them to relieve the stifling boredom of living in this valley for centuries.
I like to try to fool them as a first impression by presenting him as a "tragic, remorseful man plagued by his vampiric curse and misunderstood by his subjects" i like to ask them for help. See, "these people are but mere peasants, vampires are just nightmare creatures to them. Evil to be burned away. They know not that I still feel,(he doesnt) and that, wayward as they are, I still care for them".(he's pulling their leg)
I have him send them on a few "humanitarian" missions; kill wolves (that he summoned) cleanse the church (of a vampire spawn he made) and clear a few of the houses of rats and lesser undead (that he also made)
Then the REAL hook. The Kolyana family, holed up in the mansion on the hill, have been engaging in domestic terrorism lately. Telling anyone who'll listen that he's some sort of wicked tyrant toying with their lives. Trying to sow rebellion and unrest. Doubtless youve already been approached by them, or will be. They don't understand his position and He'd like to save face with them, but they will not meet with him and his curse prevents him from entering a home uninvited.
Perhaps these adventurers could apprehend them? Unharmed of course, if at all possible. He simply wants a chance to plead his case and help to make reparations where he can.
My groups monk beat ireena Kolyana half to death and delivered her to Strahd in a burlap sack. Strahd slashed him across the face, leaving him bleeding on the road, and laughed as he bore her away to the castle to turn her.
TLDR: Strahd is NOT just a stat block and some spells. He's got huge potential as a manipulator and early on can blatantly stop the party's goals if they arent low key about it, and casually walk away from full combat if he likes.
@@predoarantes4641 Yeah MandyMod did an amazing work to make CoS a really cool campaign
Gods speed...
Gods speed..
When I ran death house, I had the specter's damage and max hp reduction separate, the reduction was only a d4 - one player was still reduced to 3 max hp tho. I also took a suggestion off Reddit and had the kids watch over them so they could long rest before descending into the dungeon part so he could get back up to normal.
In my run through, the nursemaid was killed trying to save the baby from the wife because the baby was born out of wedlock. As a result, the players were able to reason with the spector and put her bones to rest. I was so relieved since I didn't think they could handle the spector by themselves.
It’s actually funny because I was running Curse of Strahd for my friends and used the Death House as a prequel one shot. But beforehand two of my friends who were playing a Paladin and a Wizard had been kinda roleplaying outside of the game and they were talking about hard monster they’ve fought and the Paladin said “don’t you remember that Shambling Mound!?” And then I described the Shambling Mound and they flipped out. I did not know this all beforehand either and it is genuinely one of the funniest moments I have from dnd 😂
I ran the deathhouse with a silent hill twist. The players attended by invitation (local city), were locked in, ran the dungeon and then the house let them out into Barovia. The house promptly disappeared with laughter echoing through the mists.
My group ran this as a one-shot once, it ended with the entire house burning to the ground. The animated broom also snapped itself in two, which was fun.
When I ran Curse Of Strahd’s Death House, I home brewed it like crazy: my house is very old, so I just described the layout of my house rather than the house described in the book (ended up turning my bedroom into a darker room with a summoning circle in the middle that a fanatic summoned a vampire spawn out of, haha - the players didn’t really have too much risk because I was rusty and I’m not a war gamer DM, it was just meant to be fun) I also ended up having the children ask the players to help their parents, who had neglected the children into starvation, locked in their room (I didn’t even know there was a baby - I barely looked at the Death House in the first place - I hadn’t reviewed it much, but my players still had fun) and I ended up having the children (I believe we ended up giving them different names) following them through the world and being sweet little immortal children (rather than have the children go into the mist) and the players liked them, one of the PCs was a dad looking for his child, so it was sweet seeing him be a surrogate father, along with the rest of the party
Spencer.
Thank you SO much for that My Immortal reference.
It literally made my entire day.
my first time DMing was running death house for 4 friends of mine -- level 1 characters, and none of them chose a character that had any healing abilities lmao. We didn't end up finishing but we got more than half-way through it and they managed to survive without too much issue, though the specter did almost cause a TPK. The only thing I had changed was the statue thing that spawned shadows, otherwise I ran it as-written. They actually took out the ghouls with no issue by splitting the ghouls up effectively
EDIT: 10:10 bro there's literally a fog that closes in around the house that stops you from leaving it entirely until you go through the entirety of it, so you are forced to complete it and escape from it to leave
"Or ya'know, just play Grim Hollow."
*checks wallet, unholy screeching
. . . I'll get right on that. ;-;
I love the idea of playing Strahd like AM from "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream", a sadistic and ever present force that not only sees the party and any adventures who enter as his playthings, but actively *discourages* them dying. If they're dead, they have to be reincarnated in the best case scenario, so not wanting to risk his toys breaking, he would sometimes step in to *revive* a party member. Not always, as the tension is part of the game, but enough to where it becomes clear that even death doesn't necessarily free you from his domain
Had a DM do this as a oneshot and made the mound a fleshy monstrosity with the fetus inside basically a steady stream of fresh corpses sustains the child in a nightmarish life support system. Gave the house a complete story and also left everyone deeply disturbed👍.
From running the death house a few times myself, it's nice to see that someone else thought to have the shambling mound be a mound of bones rather than plant matter.
I also don't wholly agree that the mound needs to be tuned down. I believe that in some cases it's good to have a big monster that shows the players that they aren't invincible and sometimes running is better than fighting.
Not only that, but it's an especially poignant message for THIS particular campaign! Barovia is full of very powerful monsters and overlevelled areas. Fleeing is entirely appropriate in a horror story.
I think that Death House does a great job of setting the tone.
I'm not sure if it's only part of Strahd Revamped or if it's in the original 5E book, but there's a very clear link in the Death House between the family that died there and "A Lone Windmill" -- i think the players are able to find the Deed of Ownership for Bonegrinder basically, which gives them a hook to look for that landmark as they travel in the land
Word of advise run Death house as a 5 - 10 level dungeon and scale up the encounters. Recently run it for 5 level 6 characters and it was amazing.
I remember when me and my party went through this thing and came out with a new ghost friend😂😂😂
Edit: thank you all for the likes, its the most ive ever got
We named him "caspa the fuck you ghost"
@@kvalvag5934 That is amazing
One of my players ended up possessed by Thorn the whole campaign because she said "he was too cute to let go". 🙃 It turned out great, but I had to be eventually designing a system which would give her a system that, every 5 levels she could get a new flaw, but in exchange I gave her some ghost related abilities, until the kid and her became one single soul. Curse of Stradh reminded me why I love this game.
@@TheBayzent could you post up the system. I'm about to run curse of strahd and one of my players wants to get possessed.
@@TheBayzent actually that sounds great. If you still have that homebrew can you share it? Thanks in advance
When we played this, one of my friends actually sacrificed his character so the rest of us could live. We at that point couldn't see any other way out and it was a terrible way to start the campaign. He had to join back in with another character that you could tell he wasn't really interested in playing. So instead of finding party unity and being energized at the beginning of the campaign, we were disconnected and disheartened. It took several adventures before we started to get excited by the game again. Bonding between our characters was also stalled for several sessions.
I also agree that the dungeon didn't have any real appeal to our characters. We just wanted to save the kids and get out. After running into the ghouls and shadows, we just wanted to gtfo.
I think all of these ideas would have fixed all of our negative experiences. Love the flesh mound idea, and especially love the idea of being able to possibly work things out with the nurse maid instead of an automatic fight. Using the lure of saving the parents for a good party or treasure for any party to get them to the dungeon also makes a lot more sense.
All in all, I felt let down by this adventure originally. One of my favorite adventures to put players through is a haunted house. I'm kinda known for my scary haunted house games. Here was a chance for me to play through one instead of DMing one and I also didn't have to write it! I was excited. Then I was beaten and demoralized lol. These fixes would have made the experience so much more enjoyable while still being challenging. They also would have improved the overall story of the adventure and connected it better to the rest of the campaign. Great video and I loved watching your playthrough as well.
Some really good ideas here. I like adding in some hooks to draw the PCs into the dungeon level. Also, the idea about softening up the specter is great. If she's more of a character, and can be defused through roleplaying, keeping the high threat level might make more sense. I like the idea of the kids asking the PCs to save their terrible parents. It's sad and makes the story more tragic. Definitely planning on weaving in some of these suggestions.
I love your advice man, I'm gonna have the spectre be the maid that was killed by the cult and if they reason with it she will tell them the cult killed her, and then have Strahd appear at the end like you said. Perfect tweaks. Thank you man!
On the Curse of Strahd subreddit, users MandyMod and DragnaCarta both have INCREDIBLE guides to running Death House (as well as nearly the entirety of the module), and make incredible suggestions to make the manor more Exploration heavy and less difficult from a combat perspective.
Two major changes, for example, is making the Specter the families housemaid whom the father of the manor had an affair with, and made Walter (the baby) a bastard child and half-sibling of the other two children, rather than just being a stillborn. As well as that, their suggestions change the Death House from being just a cannibal death cult to being a cult centered around eternal youth, spurred by the mother of the manor's envy of the housemaid, kidnapping and sacrificing people in various methods. Their last sacrifice, which is the one that cursed the manor, was Walter, and they even make the Shambling Mound a warped and mutated version of Walter's corpse. It makes it a lot darker, but considering the tone of the rest of the module, they did amazing work
Now imagine if those creatures still had their old incorporeal rule:
Non-magical damage is negated, and even magic damage is negated 50% of the time....
I loved this house, seeing the kids that starved gave me a tone that was curse of strhad. My character still has the bear of the youngest child as the spirit asked if he could take it so he could see the world.
My first character I ever made was actually sacrificed in death house, so I'm very fond of it. It, right away gave that dark souls like feeling of depression and despair, where death is arround every corner
It’s true that a plant monster wouldn’t make much sense, but if I’m not mistaken the thing you fight, Lorghoth the Decayer, actually is a mass of flesh and bone. It just uses shambling mound stats.
I actually just ran this recently, I ran it as close as i could, and it was super fun fun for me as a newer DM, and i think the players enjoyed it too. and yeah, the encounters where really hard, one of the pc's died against the mound, I rolled a crit, and he rolled his saves horribly, but it was such a good moment for a death to happen, and he loved the death scene. It really struck home that this place is dangerous, and if they aren't careful, the other players could be next.
But I agree a lot with this too, if i run this again i might implement a few of these ideas, i like Strahd showing up at the end. The players wanted to make sure the kids were avenged when they learned more about them in the attic, but man were they stressed out of all through all of the basement.
Although the mimic door was amazing, poor wizard tried to show he was brave, got a mimic for his troubles.
One idea I've heard for the Death House is that Strahd has already been there and replaced some of the letters with others to get anyone who enters on his side, so when he turns up he could help deal with the shambling mound.
It would make a ton of drama when he inevitably betrays the party for his own ends
I think one of the spell scrolls in the secret library should be a spell scroll of feign death, and if they use it in the boss room, the altar opens up to a nice little treasure horde, but when the party tries to leave, the house realizes your deception and tries to attack the party as they escape. You let the party feel like they can outsmart the death house, reward them with some treasure, but you still get to keep one of the more interesting encounters
I ran Curse of Strahd with Strahd being kinda a mad wizard scientist, and the death house was one of his main labs. It really tied into the story well, and by simply editing the shambling mound and replacing it with a few Strahd zombies, and then making the escape easier, it still presented a challenge, but still very survivable for any player
as the guy who left the hot take on liking the death house, thanks for the changes and ideas! If I ever get a group together again, will try some of these out!
Update: im going to be running it friday, im here to rewatch and take notes now LMFAO
Looking forward to watching the steam vlog of this run. Also, hope to see you continue this video trend of module examination and streamed play!
I really like the idea of this being where strahd makes his first showing. Like you said, this is SUPPOSED to be the introduction to the setting. Yet it has basically nothing to do with him at all. A smirking speech about how this house is a test to see if anyone who comes to barovia is worthy of his time and so here is your invitation to my castle. Then vanishing into the gloom. They now only know he exists but not what he wants or what he is. The main mystery has begun.
I'd conjured up a completely different idea about what the Death House would be, from the name and its association with the Curse of Strahd I'd pictured something akin to a serial-killer/cannibals murder basement where the vampires would stash their meals for later. So my idea is that Stradh's domain through the medium of the mist periodically consumes whole towns and villages across the planes for fresh blood and to spread the dread it is known for. You could start the adventure with a fistful of level 0 townsfolk each and watch as a band of plucky fledgeling adventurers are tormented and torn to shreds by Stradh's minions. Your group gets tossed down a coal chute into a cellar with whatever is left of the adventurers. Now you are in an escape room with the knowledge that if you stay you will meet a grisly fate but if you manage to escape you will be hunted for sport.
"My name is Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way"
I lost my shit IMMEDIATELY
A similar thing happened with one of my games. We never got that far into Curse of Strahd, but the creepy ness was fun. But.. Me and my few friends never found the dungeon. Once we found out there wasn’t a brother we thought we would die and freaking booked it out of there, and ended up nearly dying from the house.
Thank you. This will be my first time running a module and first time running a longer campaign so this was very helpful. Plus I love your sense of humor.
I remember when our DM ran ghost house as it was in the book and we really enjoyed it but he got upset (in a funny way not pissed off way) when my paladin effectively stun locked the shambling mound so we all just ganked it
I would’ve ran my players through this, because I wanted them to learn of the creepy horror Barovia was (they had never experienced anything like this) but then I decided against it because they’d be pretty pissed at me once they died within the first session.
Although it would be nice to run it as a one shot like Jacob said.
It's free in WOTC if you want it as a one shot, honestly I think you'd be better winging it. As he said, the dungeon module really doesn't fit the atmosphere of the rest of the campaign, if you give your players more creepy stuff but reduce the enemies on the other hand it can work. Since the players level up reaching checkpoints, play it as a mystery, with creepy immagery (for example, ghostly scenes of the cult replaying, creepy baby wimpers from the attic, etc) you can introduce a feel of uneasiness that works really well and fits it better.
When I ran it, the only real monsters were the nurse and the shambling mound, but tge rest of the atmosphere was enough for my players to remember it. It haunts them to this day, in a good way.
TheBayzent , yeah I’m prob gonna do what Jacob did and just run it as a one shot.
When I ran the Death House I also changed the Shambling Mound into a pulsing man-shaped mass of flesh and bone, but I kept its engulfing attack, and when a character was engulfed they would see the animated still-born child at the center of the mass. Stabbing the poor thing, effectively mercy-killing it, would destroy the creature (and also start the house crumbling with the scythe doors and poison smoke, but a less severe version of it all).
Also I had the banshee nursemaid just try to force her way past the player characters to get to the crib, attacking them if they stood in the way, but when they eventually got out and she got to the crib, she made a motion as if picking up the child that would have been in there, and disappearing as she lulled it back to sleep.
Instead of the shadow encounter being a combat in the basement, I like making it into a will saving throw on a failed save the player succumbs to a minor madness
Spencer: "My name is Ebony Darkness Dementia Ravenway"
Me: *wheezes*
Hey Jacob what’s been you’re favorite character that you’ve played
We need an answer
*youre’
*youv
FIREBALL
Wizard that hates people
The one i drew art of and had high rp hopes. She died immediately.
For our group (of only 3) we started the house at level 3, so most of the fights we were able to work through without worrying too much. But our DM had the infant actually be in the nursery room in the third floor and we had worked to try and get the baby out of there. Until the last room where the shambling mound was and from the description we knew we stood no chance against it and had to sacrifice the baby. Afterwards when we collected ourselves and were in the village of Barovia, Strahd explained the house to us and why we were sent there as a testing ground for his experiments. He’s grown tired of luring adventurers to Barovia that stood no chance, and longed for individuals that would finally be a worthy challenge to appease his boredom. He also told us little things about our backstory to 1. Show us that he actually did know about us and to let us know he wasn’t an opponent to be taken lightly and 2. It caused a humongous roleplay session where each of us opened up about some things in our past and what we were looking for. Our group had a blast.
Just started running CoS and have watched several youtube vids about it and this one has been the best! And yes, I had my PCs start at level 3. Thank you Jacob.
Played in this once during a Con. Started at lvl 1. We almost TPked a few times up until we got to the statue. I stupidly touched the statue........ then we TPKed.
One of my players was playing a priest of Cthulhu. I changed the house to have originally been used by other priests of Cthulhu that abandoned it when Strahd conquered the area, and the house wanted to be back in the hands of Cthulhu priests. He got killed by the Shadows, so I had him have a dream where a creepy dude with a tentacle face gave him a key with some Cthulhu language on it. Once they escaped from the house after killing the ghasts, it was "purified" and became a base for the party with a squad of ghost butlers that answered to that particular player. I figured it would at least make it seem worth going through, the players really enjoyed interacting with the butlers, I gave them a silly accent.
I had a spark of inspiration to maybe run this campaign for some friends in the near future and this has given me some lovely things to think on. Thank you.
Because of the reasons you listed I chose to change the beginning adventure from the Death House into the House of Lament, an adventure from Van Richten's guide to Ravenloft. It's just way easier for level 1-2 characters plus it offers way more roleplaying opportunities.
Having played the Death house, that quick synopsis makes me realise the DM ran it wrong. Unless killing the shambling mound doesn't count as killing something? Because it still went all scythe door on us when we left. And one door 1 shot me.
The DM probably just wanted to have it try to kill you anyway
Killing the shambling mound doesn't stop the house from trying to kill you.
No, if the Mound is released, you had already "denied the cult", therefore the house wants to kill you. That said the door one shotting you is probably a dick move on the part of the DM.
Uhhmmm. So you said the livestream would be on Arcane Arcade but I can't find it over there. Help?
Yeah is it up yet or did he pull an oopsie
He'll do what he did for Tomb of Horrors and have it up later.
It's up now! Took forever to upload. th-cam.com/video/wR0OgWLhqgA/w-d-xo.html
@@XPtoLevel3 Cool! Thank you!
Thank you for some insight on start CoS! Im still new to DMing and struggle to come up with ways to really immerse my players. Finding a new way to really drive home this intro is going to be fun.
When I ran curse of strahd, I changed/added four things.
1.) When they got to the nurse maid suite, they heard singing and mumbling coming from the nursery. When they approached they saw a woman holding a bundle of clothes singing a lullaby. Only if they agitate her, or disturb her remains did she ever attack.
2.) I took out the shadows, and animated broom. Instead in the room of the shadows they met with one of Strahd's consorts, I used Escher. As a sort of welcoming party to Barovia. It actually turned out to be very fun.
3.) Rose and Thorns possession. I made a little document that added some things, including Rose's player got some new cantrips while possessed, while the possessed players couldn't willingly go more than 10ft from each other. It ended with some amazing rp between players.
4.) They met a dog in the library, that if fed and gained its trust would follow them. The dogs name was Lancelot. This was put there as a choice, in the shambling mound room as opposed to killing one of the players.
I managed to keep my Goliath fighter alive in tomb of annihilation until he got disintegrated during a time stop by acerack. Also good video
Curse of strahd makes my rod immovable. Death house is a fantastic module for DMs who like atmosphere.
This house still haunts me. I've played my first real dnd campaign starting with house and created fun kenku wizard but got absolutely murdered by specter and freakng living broom. And on second session we headed to basement and just died. Still missing this kenku
this was my first introduction to D&D and i played a rogue with burglar’s pack… as a newbie wanting to mess a little around, i knocked on ALL the armors. and the last one came alive and downed our cleric (with very good rolls) and then we managed to throw the armor down two flights of stairs and i spread the ball bearings from my pack all over the floor. it couldn’t get up. it kept falling over and over and our DM just shook her head at the rolls of the armor… we were left with two ranged fighters so we just abused the prone armor as we cry laughed. excellent experience we came out alive somehow and the boss ate our goblin but it tore him up from the inside as the last blow as we rejoiced that he was still alive.
When I ran the death house I basically just reduced the threat level of everything or made the monsters avoidable in most situations if the players are smart.
"There is no reason to go deeper, my players just left"
There is mists preventing characters from leaving and will kill them with exhaustion if they try before the scene with the altar! They don't have any other choice except to go deeper!
If you want to be technical, the house coming to life (basically killing nothing ending) actually works for not going deeper. You don’t want to make the players feel railroaded and giving them the bad ending is basically a nice way to make them wonder what was deeper but also know they fucked up royally by not thinking it sooner.
@@TheJthedog no, I don't wanna be technical. I want to point out, that, by the looks of this video, Jacob completely butchered the haunting atmosphere of the House by allowing easy escape and turning it from "There's something much bigger in play. Something we don't understand. And it's looking straight at us" to "wooo, spooky Scooby-Doo style mansion with ghosts".
If your players feel railroaded in the House full of exploration, treasure and optional rooms it's entirely YOUR fault and your presentation.
"I guess we have only one way to go" is a classic storytelling element, that creates motivation, direction and tension all at the same time. Mostly because it can't be dismissed by saying "let's just leave"
@@MrVladDubrovski my dm had the doors and everything be locked behind us. We explored the entire thing and no one died throughout the dungeon from levels 1-3. I almost died on the first session by being yote down the stairs by the armor though.
I liked curse of strahd because everything felt like a tactical dungeon crawl where we had to be careful. We rested often but were on edge the whole campaign.
Just thinking back to it that was just the best campaign. Good role play, good atmosphere and story, and good engaging game play.
@@TheJthedog I wouldn't call it railroading to have the doors lock the players in/have the mists trap the players, the world itself is hostile to the players and the house is trying to kill them. Though i do think players shouldn't be forced to enter the house in the first place, but once you are in the house you are stuck.
Thank you! I was starting a new campaign with beginning players with your advice this should be a fun session!
I'm making some adjustments as DM, I made the illusions be a part of a "contract" of the ghosts and the house itself, the house gets two person's figures to attract people and in exchange the illusions say there is a baby trapped where actually the ghosts are, so they can get a chance of being helped
"In playing Ebony Dementia Darkness Raven Way..."
Me: NOOOO NOT HER! ANYONE BUT HER!😭 ligit I forced my girlfriend and brother to sit in a 2 hour car ride of pain as I read that cursed work of literatur to them in character.
I loved running the death house with the reloaded document i found on reddit. That changed some critical points in the story of the family and also made it less insta kill. My players were spooked all the way through and absolutely loved it. I also added some small items and pointed out some details that foreshadow future story parts. Like more emphasis on the windmill, the were ravens, and I added a book about a PC's life. Now my players are looking everywhere possible for more books on the rest of them.
I used a Gibbering Mouther in place of the Shambling Mound. I also swapped out the shadows,specters and ghouls for possessed dolls, a rug of smothering and other animated objects/furniture to really make it feel like the house was alive and fighting the players. Any furniture that captures a player would drag them down to the basement and feed them to the Gibbering mouther. Which was connected to the house like a heart with veins spreading throughout the walls. The further the players got, the more they could hear a heart beat and moans within the walls. Any damage the players did to the interior of the house caused more furniture to awake and fight off the players like cells fighting off a foreign intruder in a body. The trap doors I flavored like the floor boards opening up as a fleshy mouth to attempt to swallow the players.