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Restored Death House | Curse of Strahd Map Pack!
🕑 Added 2023-09-26 15:56:16 +0000 UTCThe download URL for the map files can be found in a following "Tier Rewards" post specific to your tier, or on the Pinned post on the front page of the Patreon.
I had an idea!
Welcome to the Restored Death House, a special version of the location that can be used to enhance the module experience, or perhaps as a special Halloween one-shot for homebrews.
Whenever I create a map of an old, abandoned location, I generally first map the location as a new, lived-in location so that I better understand how the location works -- Where does everyone live? How do they move through the space? Does the furniture make sense?
After walking through this exercise with the Death House, I saw a unique opportunity to insert the Restored version into the story itself -- as a way for the PC's to experiencing Living in the Past within the Death House.
The location has some interesting backstory, which is part of the initial adventure, as written, requiring players to do some digging into the history and past of this abandoned home. While doing so, they share some frightening experiences while making some grim discoveries. Those discoveries are currently only experienced through dialogue and discovered notes, HOWEVER, the experience could be expanded by transporting the characters' consciousness back in time to witness the events themselves.
Insert the Restored Death House.
Your players can enter the home in its abandoned state. Floors creak, chains rattle, voices echo from upstairs -- something is amiss. They may encounter apparitions, find some gruesome discoveries while exploring the home and, eventually, may find a conduit between the present and the past.
That conduit could be:
1. Reading a passage from an open book.
2. Interacting with a particular object in one of the rooms.
3. Interacting with a ghost somewhere in the house.
Once triggered, the PC's find themselves transported into the consciousness of an NPC, or NPC's, within the house -- a servant, cook, even a cat. The PC's can navigate the house and come across various conversations, scenes and truths, as they experience critical moments in real time, perhaps making some interesting links between past and present.
For those not running the module, this could be a great way to introduce a layered one-shot adventure, dancing between the present and the past, as the players race to solve a mystery before history repeats itself.
I hope you enjoy the variant map, and the idea!
