Castle Ravenloft: The Larders of Ill Omen | Running Curse of Strahd 5e 

3:45 for everyone here that *isn't* a patron, the Discord alone is worth the price of admission. LBH posts dog pics, and sometimes we talk about D&D too

Strahd just invites you for dinner and orders Doordash

Speaking of the elevator I have a good story: One of my players found the elevator and almost stepped on the pressure plate, with their keen mind they figured out what it did. Later on when they fought one of the brides that player pushed her down the elevator shaft dealing 20 damage and then an extra fourty as he screamed “Fuck you you kinky long toothed freak” and landed on to the pressure killing both him and the vampire. But yeah nix that thing.

You should make a video about how to run a dinner with Strahd

Ohhh "Lord knows where it's at." I get it

Agreed. My players went to give a box to Cyrus (after a fight with the hags. . . thanks for that fall forward tip)... The elevator trap is a 'broken elevator' in my game. No trap. Just something that does not work.

I was a playing a bugbear rogue in curse of strahd, our party went into the elevator. My character, being quite heavy, set it off. We sort of figured we needed to get out, eventually we found a trap door and the party took turns jumping to a ledge to avoid the falling elevator. My character failed pretty bad and landed on their back, the rest of the party jumped off of my character to make the ledge. An NPC that was quite good willed, and also a construct, aided my character in making the jump just in time as the deathtrap of a box smashed into the bottom of the shaft. I actually found this encounter to be very fun and most had a laugh at the parties silliness of using me as a springboard. I think that the elevator should be left in if the DM can make it more interesting and maybe have a friendly NPC in there with the party who's only purpose is to help them escape, a loveable well liked NPC, that then descends with the elevator and the party doesn't get to say goodbye to.

I actually do have a good elevator trap story: The PCs in my campaign deduced that the hag's eye might be in the Castle, and so they went there in search of it. When they arrived in the Larders of Ill Omen, they stumbled across Cyrus Belview in the hallway, who greeted them amicably. Since he was wearing the hag's eye around his neck, they immediately attacked him. He screamed and ran to the middle of the elevator trap, at which point three of the five PCs followed him, triggering it and splitting the party. The looks on their faces were priceless. I'm not sure it would have gone so well if they just triggered it by walking, but since it happened in combat and at a point the players knew they were the aggressors in the fight, it felt like fair game. It also helped that the other two PCs were with Ezmerelda, and the party had access to the Sending spell to communicate, so they were safer than they otherwise would have been.

The elevator trap was really fun when I ran it.

Big fan of the pot mimic, though I might give it a ranged attack like a breath weapon where it releases some of its "soup"

Im starting my COS campaign Tomorrow. I can't wait.

0:56 I believe the reason is so that, in Strahd's mortal life, servants could bring food up from the kitchens before it got cold.

Early morning smoke and an analysis of castle ravenlofts larder

103rd Platinum here. Love the video! Please keep up the good work. Every one of these gives so much inspiration and especially during corona this is very needed.

This first bit is hilarious because just ran K61 last night. it was a good time but pretty uneventful. 2 players got separated from the rest of the party. and just ran to the top where they figured the elevator would end where they reunited with those in the elevator

I had a fun moment with elevator trap. S left them alone after dinner, said please stay out of the lower levels. He left to find Ez who was sneaking around. Party immediately triggers elevator trap. S thinks it's Ez, runs there, tells 2 PCs they were not to go that way, orders them to dungeon. Rest of party goes directly to hall of bones, which was their fated battle location. So I figured S had better be there simultaneously. Too afraid to fight, rest of party also agreed to go to dungeon. They reunited, met the werewolf guy down there which was perfect as Zuleka was their ally and that set it up nicely.

The elevator trap itself wasn't particularly amazing, though it did make for an interesting situation later. My gnome aritficer got sent up the elevator together with his steel defender (as he was riding it), which was essentially a robot wolf. At the top they beat the few enemies fairly easily, but now they had to get back to the party. Seeing as there was a window leading out of the tower, the idea was that they could get to the roof further down below, and from there we'd know how to retrace our steps back to the party. However, getting the defender down was pretty hard, so the decided method was by rope obviously I failed the check, so the defender ended up dropping down, straight through the roof and the floor below, all the way down to the bottom floor. The thing though was that the DM measured out where exactly it fell through, and it turns out that Strahd's secretary was standing right in the path of the falling metal wolf Basically when my gnome got down to the crash site, there was a mess of machine parts, debris and gore from the poor sod that got crushed by a robot wolf falling through the roof

Wasn't the elevator there because strahds food was getting cold before it got to his room so they tried that? And I am one runner of the trap that had a great time! 1 to 10000

Another great video. So glad I became a patron. I can't thank you enough for your contributions to CoS, which have helped me in my own CoS campaign, and led me to the absolutely fantastic reddit. Between the work of you, Dragnacarta, and MandyMod, it's made my life so very much easier.

Thanks man these guides really help Can you do some guides on Tomb of Annihilation after you finish curse of Strahd?

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the catacombs! I always thought it was really weird that they party encounters basically a bunch of names they have no connection to besides maybe Ireena's crypt, Patrina's crypt, or Sir Klutz if the party is unlucky enough to have him as an ally. Also, a luck blade? Seriously? I feel like Strahd would know about that by now... 🤔

Thank you. For the algorithm.

I actually turned the elevator into a piece of Strahd's backstory you see in his many conquests he conquered these monks who built these magical elevators that they used to get around they're temples.Strahd fascinated by these contraptions had his servants install one in his Castle but instead of it being a counterweight elevator it's just a magical elevator that constantly goes up and down.

I am a new subscriber. Although, I have watched all your CoS videos, too many times for me to admit. Love them all! Could you maybe do a video that has more side quests to add other than the main story?

The Champagne du le Stomp makes me think, for anyone wondering where to put this gem, check out the Ravenloft Gazetteer on the Dungeon Master's Guild. Immol is a great addition. I personally recommend putting it just north of the Western gates of Barovia along the Old Svalich Road.

You might want to take a look at DDO (d&d online) and comment on their rendition of Ravenloft and Curse of Strahd.

Well, I can say for certain that the elevator trap is no blinsky

I gotta be honest, I'm kind of excited to run the elevator trap, if only because it helps characters get more lost without supremely terrible consequences, like immediate death. Yes, it's dumb but... it's inconvenient and convoluted, just like the rest of Ravenloft Castle. They want to go grab the dragonskull out of Ravenloft and scooby doo outta there, and that trap is in the exact right place to foil their quick in-and-out situation and bring them to Escher, who will hopefully do more interesting exposition. Then again, I may be overcompensating because a beloved Artificer recently died and my player brought in a Paladin as a backup................................. (I Had It Coming cell block tango plays distantly in minor key)

Another great video - I am currently DMing CoS - but we have a way to go before we get here. Question - did you do anything with areas 68/69?

hey I love your content, keep at it! Do you have any plans to improve rime of the frostmaiden? I feel like there is a lot of potential but sadly it isn't really satisfying so far

My party’s last CoS session is tomorrow! I’m excited for them to fight Strahd for the last time.... any advice? Tactics with Strahd and his Servents

Ok, if we don't have the elevador trap anymore, what is in the sulth tower hollow space?

Thx! for the algorythm... hehe...

Hurray for getting rid of the damned elevator! *applauds* Worst part of Ravenloft.

Love the pet mimic idea, really cringed at that boner joke

Combine the macabre dance of death with the shadow demon to act out even more of that night?

Its not an elevator in fact. Its a plate lift like in restaurants ^^

I'm glad this book was given to me and I didnt buy it. The more if your videos I watch and the more if the adventure I read I can see that WotC trashed Ravenloft. Run 2nd edition if you want the real Ravenloft experience.