What was it like when YOUR players dined with "The Devil Strahd"? Tell me all about it!

Our group cheerfully accepted the invite because he hit all the obvious trap cliches so well we said it would have felt rude to spoil all that work. We tucked into the food with gusto (on the principle we'd at least have a full stomach when we were running screaming for our lives later), which lead to the best line of the campaign when we asked Strahd why he wasn't eating with us - "Oh, I'll be dining later this evening :)". DM was amazing, best game I've ever been in really.

In my game, Strahd gave them an invitation to his castle for dinner after the Paladin gave a beautiful ceremonial eulogy for Kolyan. The party was surprised and he explained “I attend the funerals of ALL my burgomeisters-they work for ME, after all.”

My personal choice for switching up the illusion Strahd was to KEEP illusion Strahd playing the organ, and the players waited respectfully at the door for him to stop, only for real Strahd to walk in behind them and sit at the table like "oh please no need to stand on ceremony, sit" and the players were just looking back and forth trying to figure out which was real Strahd, or if he'd used something like Simulacrum and they were BOTH Strahd 😂 the wizard was VERY distracted throughout dinner

Oh, man, my party will not forget about Gertruda. They ask literally every single person they meet if they've seen Gertruda. Eventually they got around to asking Ludmilla, and she just said "She's asleep". Drove my players crazy

My players were already VERY anti-undead and hated the snobby pretentiousness of aristocracy, so the whole dinner for us was basically just me getting under their skin. It was devilishly delightful.

I actually have a solution to one issue. If the players agree to give Ireena to Strahd in exchange of freedom from Barovia, Strahd won't let them go until after the wedding. During the wedding, someone, most likely Van Richten and/or Ezmeralda, crash the wedding and successfully rescue Ireena. Strahd, furious, sends the players after them. I personally would have them chase them to Kresk and see the reunion of Tatyana and Sergei. Their failure has put them on Strahd's shitlist.

This video brought up a great point that I hadn't considered before. When you suggested Strahd prepare Wall of Force, my first thought was, "But Strahd doesn't have access to Wall of Force, it's not in his spell list." Then I realized, Strahd is a Wizard, and he's been around for a long time, slaying many Wizards while ruling over Barovia, collecting their spellbooks. It stands to reason he could prepare any Wizard spell up through level 5 that he wants! Running him just got much more interesting. Thank you for this bit of insight.

When my players dined with Strahd my favorite moment was when someone lied to him and asked if they needed to make a deception check. I informed them no they did not need to do so (as Strahd did not care if they were lying)

Whenever i start a session i ask my players little questions to flesh out their characters. Early in the campaign ill ask the players their characters favorite appitizers, meal, side dish, and desert and have whaterver they say served at this meal. Really adds to the all knowing, always watching feel of strahd

I'm running this soon for the first time with some friends. Really love the ideas y'all cooked up here. One thing I intend to add is that during a break between the main course and dessert, Strahd will elect to serenade the group with some music and insist that they all dance, each with one of his consorts. I like the idea of each of them having a bit of one-on-one banter/threats when Strahd is "not looking."

Through much player shenanigans and one player attempting her best to deal with Strahd, the dinner has become the endgame. It's date has loomed over the party for many sessions and the stress of it has about killed my party. Dinner is tomorrow (as of this writing).

A real dinner during the session is a great idea! I've always had trouble with role-playing discussions that happen over a meal.

We were invited really, really early on and went to the castle with Ireena. Strahd didn't try to take her mind you, but simply flirt with her to get her to come with him willingly. Plus he wanted to get information on the party and delegate a few tasks - namely going after the hags and retrieving taxes for him. His goal was to intimidate the party and see what we could do. The main thing I remember doing during all this was having my rogue flirt with Escher. When the party went to the ballroom to dance with Strahd and his consorts after dinner, they slipped off with Escher while everyone else danced. That's how they managed to get to the library and steal the Tome of Strahd. It also clued them into why Strahd was so interested in Ireena. Yes, stealing the tome came back to haunt my character later, but it worked out for them in the long run.

our dinner was ... something. It started with the fact that Strahd allowed anastrasya to dekorate the walls. she did so with things that would Trigger us for example the Wings of one of the dead family members of our owlin. But our group swallowed the anger and acted like its fine during the dinner. It was a lot of fun since everyone at the table was acting like were all friends, just dining together while this tenssion of hate and anger was silently present. Afterwards he offered to dance and wanted me to dance with him ( in our campagne our DM gave me Ireenas story instead of making her an NPC) . During the dance we all had the chance of a little privat conversation with the individual partner. Our Dragonborn was dancing with Volenta and they had the weirdest "ill kill u" " not when i kill u first" chemastry which was so fun to watch. Our rouge, whos a flirtboy actually flirted so hard with escher that later on the blonde Vampire joined our Group and my chara got the chance to ask about her (tatyanas) and strahds past. At that point we already encountered Sergei, who had told her that Strahd had killed him and that tatyana was not strahds bride but his. My chara isnt sure if she can trust sergei tho. - i mean to her he was just a ghostly stranger. Strahd told her a lie about they're past which she noticed but not commented. After the dinner we ran throu the castle and my chara wanted to go to the tower she fell in her past life from. we ran in some traps and my character got pushed of the same tower again (storytelling vise it was super epic and emotional) - strahd showed up to safe her, tho because of the fall, she remembered the fall in her past and the fact that strahd was there with her that day, which we didnt knew till then. So she was terrified by strahd ,ran, he ran after her. The rest of the group attacked Strahd cause he was hunting me and since they didnt stop he was about to kill them all so my chara turned back, grapped strahd and kissed him to distract him - which worked but he then asked her if shes his which she answered with "my soul for that of my friends" .... and that was the story of how i sold my old charater to the big evil vampire and got myself a new one 🥲

Ahhh, Gertruda. My party asked if Myrtle ( the girl captive by the hags) was the same girl they were supposed to find per the quest from Mad Mary in Barovia.

While I agree with the idea of being mindful of your players dietary choices... A certain part of me likes the idea of Strahd having a nice roast in front of the party to find out their preference be amused by it then as a lord and gentleman demand that suitable food be prepared for his guests. As long as it wouldn't offend your players. Consider also if the party has ever eaten while Strahd is spying on them since this happens often, if so he would have an appropriate meal prepared in advance.

The dinner with my party was very formal, was the real Strahd playing host, his 3 consorts attended. The party were courteous and handed out gifts that appealed to each of Strahd's consorts. Strahd never gave the promise they would be unharmed? But how can one be rude to such fine guests? Strahd appealed to the party's emotions, humanity and sympathy. To mend Strahd's broken heart... the party have agreed to bring Ireena to Castle Ravenloft.

I changed it from a simple dinner to a massive fricken ball. To make it more interesting the characters were all whisked away to Barovia from their homeland, or rather the land they were traveling in.... Colorado Territory, USA circa 1870. To say that these guys are freaked the hell out is an understatement lol.

Sooo I am currently running Curse of Strahd and the dinner scene was quite different. The party was a Drow Mercy Monk, a Tiefling Infernal Warlock, and a Human War Cleric. After they cleared my (heavily revised) version of the Death House, they got the invitation. Incidentally, this is after they found Rudolph Van Richten and read the Tome of Strahd, learning his backstory. The Monk and Warlock declined the invitation, reasoning that if they showed up to dinner, they would try to kill Strahd on principle and die fighting. The Cleric on the other hand kept hoping that by sitting down and speaking with Strahd like civil people they would learn of a way to break his curse. Sidebar, he was trying to look for a "True Ending" where Strahd didn't have to die. So, the Black Carriage arrived, the Cleric went to the castle alone. Rahadin took him aside and gave him proper dinner attire before entering the dining hall. As for Strahd's entrance. I had the organ be self-playing. It was an Unseen Servant carrying out Strahd's orders while he sat at the far end of the table. Completely in the open. No illusions, no walls of force. Instead, he had Gertruda sitting right next to him, naively going on about how magical and wonderful the castle was and how nice and sweet the Lord of Barovia was. It was a power move on Strahd's part. I am king here, and you aren't even worth the illusion of defense. As for the conversation and courses. I had precious wine and food prepared from different DnD realms, prepared by Rahadin and brought by the Vistani. Forgotten Realms boar to make the Cleric homesick, Deep Fried Pheasant from Eberron, Opulent exotic fruit from Greyhawke, etc.. It was to show how far Strahd's limited reach was while hinting at his desire to expand his reach later in the campaign. He then noticed the Cleric worshipped gods of war, so he regaled him with tales of how he had conquered Barovia. His battles with the Ulmist Inquisition against the Order of Osybus, his conquest of Argynvostholt (something that became super tragic later on once proper context was given). Going on and on about how glorious his legacy was and how it would truly take a mighty general to take him off his throne. The cleric took the bait and read that as a formal challenge by Strahd to break his curse by deposing him. Dinner ended with Strahd letting the Cleric sleep in the master bedroom, leaving the Sunsword in the Chapel for him to "discover" then he used the Brazier Room to enter Vallaki and set off a convoluted scheme to turn the city against the rest of the party lynch mob style as a response to them snubbing his invitation. Ever since that fateful dinner, the Cleric kept trying desperately in vain to amass an army and to meet Strahd on the warpath, believing his cause was just with the sunsword in hand... all while Strahd played him like a fiddle by praying on his obsession with conquest and fluffing his ego with false modesty and crocodile tears. There are no armies. The war was won long ago. And the very practical things the Cleric eschewed on this fool's errand, stuff like gold, food, and lodgings, have fallen away. It wasn't until ten sessions later when Strahd left him for dead in the Ethereal Plane that he flat out expressed all of this to him. So yeah, that was how my version of Dinner with Strahd played out.

Excellent advice. My one nitpick (and this truly is a nitpick) is the appetizer course. The goal of the course is "introduction" so wouldn't it make more sense to have something local? A goulash made with all the bounty of Strahd's great land. A peasant dish, for sure, but under Cyrus' expert hand (and several imported spices) surely a welcome addition to any table. Strahd can save truly wow-ing the party for the Entrée or the Dessert course--perhaps something like italian ice? Fruit at the height of perfection, preserved by wonder of the cold. Why would you let rot, when you can keep it forever? (cough *vampirism?* cough)

i like having the message be delivered by stradh himself so that he himself can make an oath that once the letter is opened none of his minions for the 10 days after will attempt to strike to group.

The immortal dog gag is fantastic, definitely stealing that one.

It was pretty fun when my players dinned with the Devil. They dinned with him and his group. Finding that no expense had been spared. The barbarian spared with one of the brides which caused the cleric to almost start combat not realizing the pair had mutually agreed to a fight in the hall. Same trickster cleric slipped soap figurine into Rahadin's pocket as he watched him do so. Some perused the books in the study. A few dressing up for the occasion with garments able to be chosen upon. A few even eating baked goods that were provided by a certain old lady down the road. _ They got invited first session after entering the mists from a carriage on an empty road when each got lost from their respective places and had them dine with Strahd who was being a perfect host throughout dinner (remarking he as the lord of this land had matters to discuss with them after as that business could wait) with each introduction of the brides, Echer, and Rahadin (and that dynamic). I figured Strahd would invite them straight off into the land before they knew better and thus be able for Strahd to twist the narrative. With him requesting (slowly dripping in hints of the vampirism) the group deliver a sealed message (with pendant inside) to a girl in the nearby village as his presence being a Lord might take up a stir with the locals. The group agreed and making their way to the village they were pulled into the Vistani camp where Madam Eva invited them inside and gave a warning and a card reading. It started to dawn on them that Strahd hadn't best intentions when they finally reached the village finding the pretty sights they had seen on the carriage ride didn't fully show the whole picture. The village being in such disrepair compared to the few rooms they had been in at the castle. And the girl, Ireena, they were to deliver to was actually being tormented by the Lord in question. Just helped give my players a bit more pull to help Ireena and keep her safe. A curious bunch too as to find as to why he is in need of her specifically. He will give them an invite again later on down the road, but it might not be as pleasant as the first. Only reason I didn't hold off until later is cause sometimes I've seen groups get scared/stubborn about making their way to the castle especially after the reading because they expect it to be a final fight.

I know you recommended that we cut the illusion part of Strahd's dinner, but I had a different idea. What if the illusion does exactly as it is described, but partway through the parties discussion with the illusion the actual Strahd walks in and converses with himself. He says something along the lines of "Please forgive my tardiness, I had urgent business to attend to" and the illusion dissipates. It gives the party the feeling that they can't trust what they see as well as making Strahd seem like he's very busy(when he's actually not).

While "waiting in sinister silence" and "playing the organ" are both pretty on-the-nose introductions to a gothic villain, I think I'd have to stick with playing the organ because it shows that he really isn't concerned with the party at all (especially if his back is turned), and is much more disarming to a party of paranoid adventures. Waiting in "sinister silence" and facing the party could imply that he views the party as a serious threat, and set a combative tone to what is supposed to be a social encounter.

I love these videos and have used them to add flavour to the current CoS campaign that I'm running. Whilst I don't use everything, some of the suggestions make for some fantastic storytelling. Special thanks to you for this session on the dinner!!! I LOVED the extravagant 3 course suggestion with Strahd's entourage. Will be running this with my Group next week, and wanted to go all out on the dinner to make it as ostentatious and pretentious as possible. After trolling through some of the most pretentious dish and wine reviews I could find, I've come up with a 3 course meal + 3 course "blood" pairing. Tasting notes / descriptions after the main description, which the vampires can preen about over the course of the dinner. WARNING - Disturbing content below My Lords, my ladies and non-binaries - I present our first course for the evening: - Porcini mushroom soup, garnished with black truffle shavings and a cheeky dash of sherry and thyme. (It is a unctuously rich, earthy soup that lies beneath a layer of foam.) - I humbly present a tantalizing vintage of mystery and rarity - drawn from a Drow priestess from the depths of the Underdark. A soul brimming with wickedness and spite, from one whose skin had never been touched by sunlight. Seasoned with a hint of cranial fluid. (One can taste the profound notes of cruelty, malice, and fresh turned earth. It displays a careful balance between power, finesse and a complete lack of remorse.) Served with a basket of steaming brioche, baguettes and truffle butter. For your culinary delight we have: - Steak tartare - fresh raw beef, with a slash of dijon mustard, wild spring garlic, smoked capers, shaved horseradish, and bound with raw quail eggs. With an aragula side salad and hearts of palm. (A primal blend of raw meat and spice that sets repressed urgings aflame.) - An exotic vintage hailing from the savage lands of Chult - drawn from the chieftain of a cannibalistic tribe, raised since birth having only known the taste of human flesh. Layered with a splash of spinal fluid. (A deep ruby hue of unbridled violence with streams of maniacal rage interlaced throughout. Almost overpowering in its simplicity and finish.) And to finish, we have: - Elderberry mouse, served with spiral-cut snow cucumber on a bed of crushed ice. (It tastes remarkably light and refreshing, with a pleasant chill spreading across your mouth.) - An exceptional vintage - distilled from the foetus of a pregnant elven beauty that hailed from Icewind Dale, carefully blended with amniotic fluid. (A remarkably complex and layered vintage. Strong overtones of terror and loss, with faint notes of pure innocence and hope obliterated...)

Dinner with Strahd is always a delight. I run it every few sessions haha

Man, I'm so hyped for the dinner! My players still haven't met Strahd and are still joking around, so I'm really looking forward to making them scared for their lives

I know this might've been a Taboo thing, but I gave the party the Invite at the end of Death House. But to make it not immediate, he gave them an unspecified time (Anywhere from when they reach Vallaki to the Feast) to join him. I did this because in my version there arent many heroes that enter Barovia. At least 1 party every 20 years, but it's been a slow 40 so he's eager to get back in the bend. I haven't done the dinner yet but I'm most likely gonna do it within the next few sessions. In terms of if they don't do it before the feast, I'm going to paint it as Strahd feeling personally attacked due to the fact that they essentially ignored him for a week. Thanks for the advice! Love your content

As someone who just had a formal dining experience recently, I can safely say it’s really fun. This experience wasn’t an RP session either. This was an irl experience hosted by the college I attend. I would love doing something like this around Halloween, especially given this aspect of Curse of Strahd.

We received the letter while we just hit lvl 4 and had a ton of other things to do (like freeing Ireena from the baron). Still we decided is wasn't wise to let him wait for too long. We decided that we would solve the mill issue on the way, but it turned out we were completely overwhelmed by the three inhabitants that were waiting for us. They couldn't kill use because of the letter's protection, but they could torture children in front of us, and finally the kicked us out literally naked except for a pair of silver scissors, asking us to bring back some of Strahd's hair if we wanted to get our equipment back. The dinner took place during the same session, just so that you can picture our state of mind at this moment. We all nicely put on the dusty old clothes we found in the carriage and barely said a word until we were greeted by Rahadin. During the dinner our DM did a perfect job at playing Strahd as someone who tries to sound nice but is deep down an unstable psychopath. I remember him suggesting that one of us became his advisor so they could help him becoming a better person... At some point one of use could talk to Gertruda (who was serving the wine) and she gave him some jewelry, and told us about some secret signal so that she could open the gates for us next time we want to come in Ravenloft... she seemed sincere and we honestly couldn't refuse any help at that point. When the dinner was over, Strahd brought us upstairs for a dance with his brides: of course the point was to talk privately while dancing. I remember him offering my character to become the next leader of Vallaki, as the baron was our common ennemy. Then, when the dance were over, Strahd clapped and told that he and his brides were tired and they were going to sleep. He wished us a good night and left us alone in Ravenloft, without any equipment but a pair of scissors and dusty costumes. Of course, as the evening was over it was implied that we weren't his guests anymore, and that's how the session ended. Next session we decided that we needed at minimum to find a few weapons if we wanted to survive, so we checked different rooms: we stole a bunch of coins from Lipsiege who apparently didn't care, an armor and a halberd from an armor stand, and more importantly the last barrel of wine of Ravenloft (we knew it had been stolen by some Vistanis from the Blue Mist tavern and wine was becoming so scarce in Barovia that even this single barrel would make a big difference). While we were leaving the castle like thieves, Strahd showed up at a window, eyes glowing red, and with a movement of the wrist stole the shadow from one of the PCs.

Our dm had the main course served and it was revealed to be the severed head of a former PC. OOC they had left the game few months ago and IC she had left the party to persue a personal journey so we just assumed it was an out so we'd never see her again... then he serves her head on a literal silver platter

Strahd has just invited my two players and Ismark to meet him and his soon to be bride Ireena... My first time running CoS has certainly been eventful. I have no clerics or paladins wanting to root out strahd once and for all, just a druid who wants to see his good side and a Rogue who might be persuaded to join him in exchange for his greatest desire...

It's interesting that the wall also separates straud from his own allies. Like there's doubt that he can trust them. It almost makes it seem like there's a potential opportunity that you could have them on your side one day.

Due to a big roll on the encounter table the part met Strahd early. I saved this encounter until they finished there business with Madam Eva. The results of the dinner was Strahd being pretty high in the party's esteem, but they felt most of his consorts were shifty eapescially since I used them to introduce later plot threads. Its only now in the game that they are seeimg Strahd as the abusive patriarch he is. The part gets a pass, but his wives amd Escher pay for every one of the party's transgressions. Example: Ludmilla allowed the wizard of the the part to steal a few spellbooks from Strahd's study and the ranger to read the tome(though he didn't choose yo take it . . .hmm) as punishment she has been kicked out of the castle and continuously appears to harass the part for some way to get back. She's going to show up at the Wachterhaus for sure.

I turned heel and joined Strahd I was a distant relative and he convinced me to take over the game ended in me killing the party and taking over with some changes

I had Strahd invite them after they talked to Father Donavich and agreed to take Ireena to Krezk. He wanted to learn about "my new guests of my land". He then told a version of his backstory that made himself look good and Sergei look bad, of the 3 PCs, 2 Nat 1'd Insight and the other Nat 20'd. He offered the party "More treasure than a dragon's hoard" (but really he'd just have them either killed or become vampire spawn). The party talked later and was able to get on the same page with Strahd's BS

This is probably my next session so good timing!

Oh, it's a shame I already ran the dinner with my group. Wonderful guide! I did it in a somewhat similar fashion and even had Escher played by a guest player, but your guide is so so helpful. When (because that for sure will happen) I will run CoS again I will definitely come back for some inspiration

Fantastic video! Dinner with Strahd should be one of the most iconic and memorable parts of the whole campaign and the book doesn't really give all that much detail on how it can go. Your ideas here are excellent and now I want to go run Curse of Strahd a third time just to try and pull off a Dinner with the Devil like yours :D

I'm thinking of giving my party their invite to the dinner soon; They've already met him a few times around the place and one of my players even attempted to fight him (and proceeded to nearly die to the hoard of bats and rats that Strahd called to his side) during St Andral's Feast. . .which did not go well for them and ended with one of death saves, many extremely weak and one very dead priest. I need an excuse for them to go to the castle soon, want to nudge them in the direction of one of the fortunes (which I'm going to reroll soon; they have the Sunsword and have done VERY well concealing it from Strahd, however I don't want to throw them at Baby Lysaga for the Tome and the Holy Symbol is in Nimble-Nobs Crypt and my attempts to nudge them that way have missed unforunately). I'm going to have a fun time with it for sure, since they've got the Gertruda side-quest and the next session we do is going to be the Fall of Vallaki.

I'm definitely going to grab that PDF. This is my first time DMing 5e and I have complete set of new players. We're almost done with Dragon Heist and Strahd is next up.

Man I wish I found this video sooner! I have been running Curse of Strahd for a few months now, and the only real interaction they have had with Strahd was him showing up to try to nab Ireena from them, which always ended in combat. This is my first time DMing so I won't be too hard on myself, but damn I wish they had a dinner with them before it was so late in the game that everything will devolve into combat!

My party was mad enough to fight him at St Andrals, to me that warranted a personal invitation

How do I keep my group from giggling every time Strahd appears? They use the excuse that they know he's so powerful that he could easily wipe them out, so no one even attempts attacking. But also some players can't help but giggle. He is menacing damnit!

Beautiful, calm, brilliant, and thoughtful. I must say I love the way you think.

That dog joke took me a second but actually made me cackle. Thank you!

One of my party members (because this is a group of pranksters) keeps trying to do silly things to provoke people. One of them asked Strahd (they stopped winter splinter for this visit) how Sergei was... Strahd merely left (I know, my bad) but I plan on the meal including a pit trap of blond haired ghouls that have a strange family resemblance...

Thank you so much for this! I'll be running this soon, maybe in a month, so this will be very useful indeed.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! your videos are the best things ever and helped me a lot! keep up the great work!

Right on time, this is happening in this week's session of the game I run

Currently running curse of strahd for two dnd newbies. (Had to nerf a lot of encounters) They're currently escorting Ireena to vallaki and I plan on giving them the invite soon

I'm was already soooo keen to run this event and it's just been made even better thank you! I am so hyped and im running the tarroka reading tonight with costumes and set pieces!

DM here, I would suggest to anyone who hasn't run Dinner with Strahd yet to not do so too early in the campaign especially not right away. Definitely wait a bit, let the castle in the distance hang in the background while they travel back and forth, always menacing, and fear of the land, stories of the "Devil Strahd" marinate for a while. It will make the invitation and journey to the castle even more terrifying.

This is very helpful, thank you.

These videos have been great. I'm glad you covered the dinner, as it will be coming up in six sessions or so (2 hour sessions). I try to recommend this channel to everyone who has questions about cursive straw that isn't specifically mentioned in the module, or that can be changed for the better (reddit, etc). Thank you!

Im having the dinner in two sessions, thank you so much for this!

Really appreciate the dietary preferences element. That's important.

Strahd is highly motivated by Ireena, so imo the earliest place for the invitation is when he learns that the characters have escorted get to Vallaki. "Oh damn I wasn't really paying attention and some pesky heroes are in play now"

I say have the butler make them take a seat saying the master will be along shortly. Make them wait for a bit, and after a small distraction, have him appear at the head of the table.

Great vid as always. How many more curse of strahd videos will you be doing?

I don't tend to send comments on youtube. but I had to. this guide might be the best CoS guide I had come across, it blows my dinner plans out of the waters. thank you.

Strahd befriended a single person in our party and after we went to sleep the pc snuck off to be picked up and taken to his castle. When we woke up, we just found a hand written note saying he is leaving us!

Our DM really did this great, after we left Barovia/Vistani camp, we knew a bit how Strahd is, so we tried to not go to his castle, so when we where at the crossroad to Valakki/Ravenloft the carriege was there with a letter in it that we're invited, we wrote down no thanks and closed the door. A few days later and doing some quests we we're yet again at the Vallaki festival, shit went wrong and Rahadin was there with the previous adventure party (that got turned). He killed a few commoners and then asked who is X name ( it was one of our party members) after killing some more we responded, and he gave us an invite to the castle, and if we didn't go more would die. So we went to the castle in the carriage that was provided. 10/10 Great DM.

The only thing i truely hope is that the "wine" we drunk when we met Lord Strahd for dinner.... Was actually the blood of the comrade we had already lost in Barovia.

Bruh i legit ran the dinner like this Saturday fam 😂 😭

Man... My DM forced us to attend dinner using the mists of Barovia. We'd been putting it off, not trusting him. Fine. We entered, led by the steward straight to the dining hall. Strahd was at the organ. He stopped. It was basically, "Hey, I'm Strahd. I'm the big bad. Eat dinner, or not, whatever. I'm busy so, if you bring Ireena to me I'll reward you." Then he walks out!! Then we're just kinda awkwardly left there. There was little incentive to explore, no direction. We found a room of plain mirrors behind the organ. They were just mirrors. Then we all left. ... 😐

Another great video as always! I recently got Bradley and Grimm’s Legendary Box set for this adventure, so that plus these videos will make an incredible experience for everyone involved.

This guide was super helpful thank you! Additionally, If you turn on this video, close your eyes and imagine Owen Wilson, it's magical.

JUST in time! My group will probably get the dinner at the next game. I love your guide man!

Our party never even heard of some of these characters. Strahd invited our party, Ismark (installed as burgomaster of Vallaki by the party), van Richten (publicly "out" by this point), Mordenkainen (rescued by the previous two while we were in Krezk), and Ireena to dinner 5 days ahead of time. Within that time we managed to get each of his three female consorts (the DM homebrewed them with spare PCs he had) within the area we had Hallowed around Vallaki (upgraded to have true sunlight via Divine Intervention) and not-entirely-dead, thereby freeing them of his control. Dinner never happened and we had only two brief visits to the Castle: once to smash the Heart, grab the Skull and Word of Recall back out¹, and once to again go straight for the Hall of Bones and defeat Strahd. - ¹ Damaging the Heart was only supposed to be a distraction for Strahd who was sitting in the Hall of Bones, but in the first round our Rogue/Ranger instead novaed it to smithereens while the rest of us shone the Amulet and Sunsword in Strahd's face, causing him to nope out through a wall, letting us Reduce the Skull and Recall out.

Haha I had Rahadin threaten one party to use the the spectral assassin mirror that they stole. Strauhd also invites them because they fumbled his plans to resurrect the tree bright

Best timing EVER! are you planning on doing a video on the festival?

Awesome video. Great advice. Just wanted to let you know some of the i cards were missing when you said “video here” and pointed to the corner in case you want to add them in 😉

"Your attire does not show respect to our Count." "That's because I don't respect him."

amazing timing with the video, as I'm running the campaign and was figuring out how to do the dinner.

My party first arrived in Barovia and I had a pack of dozens of wolves almost kill them all and they were saved at the last second by Strahd himself. He then offers to take them to his castle, or basically let the wolves kill em.

I'm super looking forward to this. My players just picked up an invitation last week, hand delivered by Strahd himself, after clearing Yester Hill. In an amusing twist of fate, I had set up a calendar to keep track of event and one of the few things I marked before hand was which day (1/10) Strahd would be present there, and by happenstance they cleared out Yester Hill on that date. They're probably going to have a few errands to run first but should be having this event take place in the next session or two.

Since my friends played Curse of Sthrad before and almost all of them owned the book I had to get a little creative. Cue their surprise when Sthrad turned into a Dragon in broad Daylight.... The irony is that they managed to recruit him as an ally to fight someone worse... VECNA THE IMMORTAL!!!

In my campaign we used the un welcome visitors hook so the vistani and madame eva met the characters now the characters made there way to barovia to help a woman named ireena who was asking around for transport to krezk the party gladly accept and whilst they do that the vistani talk to strahd about a group in which they sense something new about and so strahd hid the invitation in the blue water inn as he knew where they would be staying so he could see and learn about theese new visitors

When I ran death house, one of my players managed to die at the hands of a shadow. With no real way for the party to resurrect the dead player character, I had our vampire lord and savior arrive in time to resurrect them. We can say that he was scrying on his new toys that had just arrived and when he saw one of them pass away so quickly, and not at his own hand he was mildly upset and took it upon himself to bring the player character back to life, only so that they may be toyed with a little longer. When they exited death house with the player characters corpse they were greeted by Strahd I and in exchange for the player characters life all he asked for in return was that they come over for dinner. I might also note that I gave them one week to get to the castle, and I also started them all the way over in Krezk. It then became a dinner with a deadline as they now had to traverse across Barovia on foot in a week, or find another way to get there.

I made my Strahd a frat boy and made the dinner invitation a frat party. They played beer pong with him 💀

Okay, it took me a while to understand it but i did laugh way to much about the Immortal Dog Joke. probably more than i should have.

The first time my DM tried to invite us to the dinner, his entire attempt fell flat because the party saw the carriage and just noped out of there, off of the road and into the woods XD We basically intentionally ignored the thing wich royally pissed of Strahd.

Well I had at least 4 different finished CoS campaigns and not all of them had this moment: 1 - Strahd invited party after they visited Ember Temple and Rahadin kinda snitched on them (because Iraina, my dear eldrich knight, severely mocked him there but that`s another story). Party accepted the invitation and dinner was very very very tence. Cleric mocked Strahd about fate of all tyrants but their skill of trolling was equal, bard sang some sad lovesongs, werewolf huntress just didn`t care about a thing, stuffing her half-orc face with food and tiefling sorceress with severe PTSD almost burned everything to ashes because of stress and lack of self-control. To that moment party bard (revenant) and Iraina visited the castle at least 3 times (and brides of Strahd really hated her guts). Iraina and Strahd were frightenly similar and brutaly honest with each other from their first innteraction (even Madame Eve thought she would be perfect replacment) so party was realy scared that she will side with vampire in the future. But no, after some remembering of party not so noble deeds and warning not to touch HER toys, because she is petty and will brake every single one of HIS, like she did with her lil bro`s stuff, Iraina smiled and invited him to have a drink. To what moment Strahd bited her to death door 8 times. After this dinner in Ravenloft dungeons appeared a crypt next to Ireena`s supposed resting place. I think you could guess which name was on the slab. If Tatiana was what this poor unfortunate vampire desired, Iraina was what he actually deserved. But his obsession helped him miss his chance and she dumped poor guy:D 2 - Strahd actively pretended to be just ordinary wizard with a bunch of problems (start not in Barovia village). Party doesn`t know WTF is going on but agree to do some innocent looking quests (like help lady Watcher to overthrow her insane political opponent and help famous vampire hunter to cleanse his land from evil (finding him for Strahd in the process) :3) He said what he has no idea why this land seems to be cursed (so party ended up killing almost every major villain in the area, trying to lift it), but some party members, including Leilassa (sneaky wooden elf), smells smth fishy. It was there she met Rahadin, had a HUGE crush on him, but to no avail. And it was he, who tongue-lashed her and in the end blabbed about what is really happening here. So she rewarded poor elf by backstabbing him with poison dagger and cutting his head off in the gloomy Ravenloft corridors. Also she and Esmeralda waited for Strahd in shadows of the crypt near his coffin, when in the same time on the upper floors party beat up is face, so vampire was met with double wooden surprise. ^_^ 3 - Strahd was a big meanie and bullied every single party member, including humble necromancer Drenshow. He let them feel like peasants smhw appeared on the royal ball in rags and mud. It`s not what bad, but he pulled this dinner stunt not in Ravenloft only... 5 times per campaign. And other encounters with Strahd were a nightmare for self-esteem of our not so brave heroes. But 2 betrayals really set up the slowburning party into "storm the castle, kill the king mode". Only two survived. Only Drenshow escaped Barovia... for this time. Kids! Pacts with unknown dark forces never brings any good! 4 - Master burned out and ended up tpk right in the middle of the dinner. Never ever ever try soup by Strahd`s "sweet old nannys recipe". Baba Lisaga can`t cook. Zero stars on Yelp! really. Our current campaign is very high risk not last long enough to play this scene. Party barbarian pissed this devil off too much and we prepare ourselves for brutal revenge this friday. Wish luck to crazy bard Sarmen and her battle ballads.

How many more videos for the curse of Strahd series are still coming up? Feels to me, all main places and important themes are covered. Or am I missing something? Maybe a battle with Vampyr? Love the series! Just curious

I fully expect my players to refuse the food and act defiant to Strahd in an attempt to talk me into a corner or goad me into a fight.

I had the invitation happen after they survived the hags of Old Bonegrinder, and after they reunited Sergei with Ireena he stopped fucking around and aimed to kill them

3:39 cool, free carriage for the player.

I'm thinking about perhaps introducing my dinner earlier in my campaign. Right now my PCs are becoming pretty invested in the missing villagers of Barovia and Gertruda and have conflicting information on Gertruda's fate (Ismark says give her up for dead and the Visanti says she is well taken care of). Of course my PCs have the crystal ball from Durst Manor so Strahd is scrying in them. I'm thinking that perhaps he shall invite them to dinner so they can see Gertruda is safe and then he can survey them and attempt to hire them to find and kill Van Rickten. Right now my characters find him more interesting and fascinating than scary and I want him to be a more cunning villain instead of one that goes straight for the violence. If he can manipulate the party for his own needs, what reason is there to kill them?

I had the party dining with Strahd, and when they questioned the meat and red wine they were given. He would get mad at them by slamming the table. Also, the dining hall was very dark, only candle light. And when the party showed attempts of agression. I would let them roll perception and proceeded to tell them they saw 100’s of eyes on the ceiling (bats, vamps etc)

me before i started DMing: why would anyone buy the written version of these videos when you could just watch the video?? me after i started DMing CoS: why would anyone run this campaign without buying the written versions of these videos?? as per usual, this video is a lifesaver, thanks!!!!!

I ran imstead of a dinner I ran a ball. And my players had failed to save irena so when they entered auditorium I made in castle ravenloft strahd was front and center dancing with a vampire Irena in a wedding gown surrounded by dancing zombies to the music. Before they all left to dinner after the dance.

We never got that far because we thought (based on previous adventures) that going to Ravenloft for dinner would start the final fight. That and all the other plot hooks to go to Ravenloft that are in the book never played out because before that could happen we met Strahd talking to the mad angel in the abbey of Saint Markovia. Strahd failed his charm spell because of our paladin's aura, we killed everything else our DM threw at us way too quickly, hurt Strahd with the holy symbol of Ravenkind and forced him to retreat into the next room, where he planned on turning into mist and escaping through a window. Which would have worked, if it wasn't for my ranger's higher dex score (Strahd and I had the same initiative) putting my turn before his. My ranger threw two bottles of holy water, that she had randomly asked for a few sessions earlier, at him to test if it would work on Strahd as it would work on other vampires. First bottle missed, but the second one hit him straight in the face and I rolled damage. Our DM was silent for a few seconds and looked through his notes, so we assumed it was simply Strahds turn now, but then he just said: "He's dead" and that was basically the end of our adventures in Barovia.

in what video do you talk about the "made in hell"-event? I didn't see a video that you linked - i dunno if that is because YT killed a feature recently or what

My Tabaxi Sorceress would have attempted to snoop around Strahd's own bedchambers during the dinner event, playing it off as "room service". I hope to read the replies from Critters new and old who know what I'm referencing.

You should do Baulders gate : decent to avernus next

Yeah I wish my players would just walk in to the castle to have chat with him... My players play the game like you play a video game. Explore the entire map, do everything else BEFORE advancing the "main storyline". My Strahd already got fed up of waiting and confronted the characters. A battle ensued with one player KO'd. I'm fairly sure I'm never getting them to dine with Strahd now :DD I have one player who has trouble letting go of the video game mentality. He also happens to be the loudest player and he gets visibly annoyed when things isn't done the optimal way or he doesn't get what he wanted/expected. :P Even last session I had to tell him to relax when my DM controlled npc mage didn't cast fireball on a pack of wolves...

When I first played Strahd me and my party got nearly tpk’d 3 times. And by nearly I mean that the party we ended on contained none of the original characters and only 2 of the second characters. Our dm, foreseeing a 4th tpk decided he’d put the campaign on hiatus to let everyone reset a bit. That was 6 years ago. Now I am dming Strahd with my new group, which features one of the old members who wants to give it another go. That member and I, our second characters were identical twin firbolgs, Flash and Dash. Why does all this matter you ask? Because I plan to have the dinner at Ravenloft much earlier and have the main course be rare/medium rare steaks, with Strahd making the comment “please feast on these steaks, as far as I’ve heard the cows they came from were identical twins.” And if he doesn’t catch on to what I’m saying follow it with ah “Apparently they were the fastes cows in Barovia too, would Dash all around the place in such a Flash” followed by some evil laughter