A Bittersweet Morning
At the end of the last session, the party were on their way back from the Amber Temple, when they spotted Strahd’s carriage parked near the stone bridge on Tsolenka Pass. Unsure if they were ready to take on Strahd, they decided to instead pull off the road, and sleep for the night inside a tiny hut spell. During the night, the party kept a constant eye on Strahd’s carriage, which remained parked for most of their long rest. About an hour before dawn, the party’s lookout watched as the black carriage slowly began to head away from them, back down the mountain.
In the morning, the party was met with the unsettling feeling that this day could be their last, and spent some time reflecting on their adventure. One by one, the players came to grips with the fact that the fate of Barovia rested on them, as they prepared for whatever lay ahead. Finally, as the magic of the tiny hut reached its end, the party was thrust back into the cold mountain air, and started to make their way to the bridge on Tsolenka Pass.
As the first players crossed the bridge, their hearts sank as they spotted several figures approaching them from the other side: three women they did not recognize, followed closely by Strahd himself. The party had some heated words for Strahd, as they often do whenever they have a run in with him, but he remained calm and composed as always. Strahd, never forgetting his manners, introduced the three women as his wives: Ludmilla, Anastrasya, and Volenta. (Some quick housekeeping: I posted my homebrew statblocks for the three brides as a pay what you want resource on the DMs Guild, check-out The Brides of Strahd if you’re interested!)
During their conversation, Strahd had a disappointed look on his face, as he lamented that the party never took up his offer to visit Castle Ravenloft. When it became clear that the talking would soon turn into fighting, Strahd proclaimed, with a heavy heart:
“I, Strahd von Zarovich, sentence the five of you to die.”
The Curse of Strahd
Right before combat began, my player activated their newly restored sunsword, and for the first time the party got a reaction out of Strahd. He brushed this momentary shock aside, and assured the party that his brother’s old blade would serve them little in this fight. Acting quickly, two of Strahd’s brides went first, and moved towards the party to defend the middle of the bridge. Using a lair action (for context, I decided to rule all of Barovia as Strahd’s lair), the back most party member was suddenly attacked by the vengeful spirit of Rahadin.
Knowing that the player with the sunsword would be Strahd’s first target, one of my other players spent their first turn casting Protection from Evil and Good on them, a decision which would frequently pay off during the fight. On his first turn, Strahd showed the party that he meant business as he hurled a level five fireball at them, and remained safely behind his brides. During the first two rounds, the players focused on Ludmilla, who was fiercely guarding the middle of the bridge. On his second turn, Strahd raised his arms, and his booming voice echoed down Tsolenka Pass:
“Children of the night, heed my call!”
As the battle raged on, the first casualty was made, as a critical hit took down Ludmilla. Now that the party had a clear line to Strahd, the wielder of the sunsword jumped on the opportunity, and rushed directly at him. Toe to toe with Strahd, they used their once per day casting of shield, and tanked a flurry of strikes and legendary actions. Unfortunately, this defense did not last for long, as the already wounded player took a nasty blow from Strahd’s blight spell, and the wielder of the sunsword fell unconscious at Strahd’s feet.
As another of Strahd’s brides, Anastrasya, fell in battle, the summoned swarms of bats finally arrived to aid their master. During the fighting, Strahd had also successfully turned a few of the player’s shadows against them, although not surprisingly these were defeated rather quickly by the level nine players. With the wielder of the sunsword still unconscious, but now stable, several players hesitantly charged at Strahd, knowing fully well his capabilities in melee.
The Dark Lord of Barovia
With the party now pretty badly wounded, the final bride of Strahd was defeated, but Strahd himself showed little sign of injury, as his wounds had been slowly healing during the battle. With my barbarian player recklessly attacking Strahd, they eventually ran out of their enormous pool of hit points, and fell unconscious from Strahd’s relentless strikes. Things were looking rather bleak for the remaining party members, as their two front-line members had both fallen to Strahd.
In a last ditch effort, the party used a healing spell on the unconscious wielder of the sunsword, and we realized that miraculously my other player’s concentration on Protection from Evil and Good was never broken. Strahd focused all his attacks and legendary actions on this now conscious threat, but the disadvantage granted by the spell caused all of these attacks to miss. On this player’s first turn now in nearly a dozen rounds, they made two attacks with the sunsword, and the second attack was a critical hit. After pumping an insane amount of radiant damage into Strahd, the Count was sent reeling backwards, clutching at his chest, which was now wet with blood.
Fumbling with his coat, Strahd revealed that his chest was riddled with crossbow bolt wounds, which were each oozing dark blood. Falling to his knees, Strahd’s eyes began to dart between the party members, as he raised a hand up and weakly spoke.
“Sergei, Tatyana, I only wish that things had turned out differently for the three of us..”
With these final words, Strahd fell into a rapidly forming pool of blood, and my Vistani phantom rogue player used their new Tokens of the Departed feature to trap a piece of him in their tarokka deck. Picking up their unconscious friend, the sun began to crest from behind Mount Ghakis, and the party felt its warmth for the first time now in weeks. Looking out to Barovia, the party had a chance to appreciate the land for what it always was, a place of great peace, and beauty. Finally, after centuries of torment, the Curse of Strahd had been lifted.
I’d like to take a quick chance to thank my players for coming along with me on this adventure, and to thank you for reading about our stories. Whether this is your first time checking out one of my session recaps, or you have been following along for the whole ride, I hope you enjoyed this write up! Feel free to check out my other resources for Curse of Strahd, or if you’d like to see how this all started you can check out our first session recap here. Finally, if you are interested in any of the homebrew I made for this campaign, I have released two pay what you want resources on the DMs Guild: Leader of the Pack and the previously mentioned Brides of Strahd. I have a few other resources in the pipeline, but that’s all for now, cheers!