EN World is reporting a new D&D event, the Curse of Strahd. Let us dream a while.

Cover of Von Richten’s Guide to Vampires by Den Beauvais

How about a Strahd turned up to 11? The vampire who was stuck on a Demi-plane of Dread  with other monsters has evolved. Now the mists curl throughout the planes and the monsters are working together to pour those mists into all of the worlds.

In the weeks before Strahd’s arrival, augury turn to tragedy and blood. Marriages turn to murder and love to ashes. All dreams are full-terror nightmares as the evenings become more mist-shrouded.

At dusk the villagers notice a castle through the mists on the horizon that was not there during the day.  Lord Soth, Knight of the Black Rose, rides out with some undead knights and youngling vampires at moon-rise to do their thing and get back to the castle before day-break.

Lord Soth’s Charge by Keith Parkinson

Steal what?

It is too easy to say they have to put some Ravenloft planar markers in place around a village in order to take it all back with them to the Demi-Plane of Dread? They are riding around a village, dropping bone and obsidian obelisks into the ground all night. Or maybe they want something specific, something this area has that they need to get some dirt done on a planar scale.

Eh. It feels like a mediocre boffer LARP adventure.

My instincts tell me to do something about Strahd’s bride and past lives but let’s evolve his motivations too. He doesn’t want that bullshit anymore. He’s evolved and over it. Strahd wants to suck on the blood of creation itself. He wants to be a vampire-god, seeing the other denizens of Ravenloft as his unholy angels. The mists of Ravenloft will be his tentacles, a Lovecraftian extension of his will and he will eat worlds.

The players are going to track him through the planes, from his spawn setting up shop in Sigil to his diplomatic overtures to Orcus and Vecna. And in the meantime he is marshaling his forces, getting ready to become a vampire god by biting the neck of a deity.

The adventure is busting up his operations and figuring out which deity he is stalking.