I want to use Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, darnit! Therefore, I’d like to fit it into my current Age of Worms campaign, replacing Alhaster with Valusia (Barovia), and replacing Zeech with Prince Prospero (Strahd), holding the party at Castle Ravenspire. (Ravenloft).
Prince Prospero, an ancient vampire and lord of Valusia (Barovia), and his queen Lashonna, a paeliryon demon, are throwing a party for the richest and most-influential people in the village and the surrounding countryside. Instead of a party celebrating a prince’s anniversary as ruler, I’d like the party to take on an atmosphere similar to Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, where the partygoers are attempting to shut themselves away from a terrible plague outside. Using the zombie encounters in Expedition, I’d like to create a scenario where Valusia is overrun with spawn of Kyuss, and the Prince and his guests are holed up safely in the castle, partying away at a masquerade ball while the village below destroys itself.
What the PCs don’t know is that Prospero (or Lashonna, or the avolakai, or perhaps another) has befouled the village’s water supply with Kyuss slow worms, which has turned the village into a Night of the Living Dead scenario that the PCs must fight through. All the while Prospero and Lashonna watch with mad delight, acting as if they are safe
The PCs will find an invitation somewhere somehow while they fight their way through the streets of the village, shocked at seeing an entire town overrun with Kyuss spawn. The invitation is eerily dated during the very infestation that the party goers are trying to avoid, seemingly mocking the general populace, as they are not invited.
I think I can take the dinner scenario from “Prince of Redhand” and fit it into Castle Ravenloft. Contrary to the module, I’d like the evening to end in blood. Certainly the PCs will have to talk to Lashonna so they know to eventually travel to the Wormcrawl Fissure, but I do want them to explore Castle Ravenspire (Ravenloft).
What I do with the guests is still undecided. Are they to be made into swords of Kyuss, or perhaps other powerful forms of undead? Will I have a symbol of death arrive as happens in the Poe short story? Is every drink laced with slow worms? Should the party end with an attempt to turn all guests into spawn of Kyuss, leaving the PCs to fend for themselves in Prospero’s (Strahd’s) haunted castle?
I’d also like to play Prospero and Lashonna against one another, like a feuding married couple. Having been gated in by Dragotha to serve as Prospero’s puppeteer in Valusia, Lashonna has succeeded in slowly driving Prospero mad, becoming the true power in Valusia.
As a side note, Letter B in the appendix is a great hook for Age of Worms. “Soon the worms will feast on me.” Madam Eva will be a cleric of Kyuss. Also, the hilt of the Sunsword could be a segment of the Rod of Seven Parts. ;)
Any other ideas?
I don't really know the details of Castle Ravenloft, so I'd just say what you are planning is a lot more combat-oriented than the adventure as written. So you might well reveal more about Lashonna than the adventure path plans at this stage, and also be drawing the PC's into fighting their way through Alhaster now rather than waiting for the end-game. So just have a think about the last three adventures too, and what changes you'll need to do there as well, keeping in mind your changes here could go in various directions depending on what your PC's do in your Castle setup. For example, what if Zeech dies, Lashonna's true motivations are revealed and/or she dies, etc - if you plan to get them to the Library then the Rift before they return to Alhaster, you might find that more difficult the way you're setting it up.
Sounds fun though.
I don't expect combat during the dinner. I'll be optimizing both Prospero (Strahd) and Lashonna, and the PCs will have a general idea that both are beyond them, mostly due to detect evil. I'm not worried about Lashonna dying. Heck, even if she leaves the scene, I might have her develop some perverse attraction to one of the PCs (perhaps the one who owns one or more segments of the Rod), and they'll learn what they need through that.
I'd like to run the dinner scenario as is, the only difference might be the aftermath, at the stroke of midnight, when Prospero and Lashonna bid the guests goodnight and perhaps unleash a deadly magic that causes all to save vs. fortitude or die and rise as a spawn of Kyuss 1d4 rounds later. When that horror passes, the PCs and any surviving guests must exit the castle somehow (with wards rendering exiting through windows or using translocational magic impossible). Perhaps all the guests are mass-teleported do the crypts far below, left there to find their way out.
At any rate, I haven't noticed any snags concerning Valusia (Barovia) and Alhaster. I'll still use the Blessed Angels, as they might serve Lashonna directly, but I hope that the PCs can eventually claim Castle Ravenspire as their own one day.