Hello Dark Powers!
I'm here to ask for suggestions and a bit of a "vibe check", as I've been debating for a while whether to give my players the Sunsword sooner rather than later.
A short background: I'm loosely following Reloaded, but heavily interspersed with Mandy and my own ideas.
Last session, my players reached the library in the Amber Temple and learnt a lot, including how to commune with the Ladies Three, who in turn should instruct them on how to restore the Fanes and rob Strahd of his immortality.
Next session they probably will reach the Caverns of Lights, commune with the Ladies and really reach the last part of the campaign. After that, all that is left is:
- reclaim the third gem from the Roc of Mt. Ghakis, and resolve the feud between Urwin and Davin;
- restore the Mountain Fane (I'm using the Gulthias Tree dungeon from Mandy, love it)
- restore the Swamp Fane (they already killed Baba, so following Mandy they pretty much just need to bury her heart)
- restore the Forest Fane (which will be guarded by Rahadin and possibly Volenta)
- optionally, break Van Richten's Curse
- optionally, resolve the Vallaki issue with the envoy from Ravenloft taken from Reloaded.
My initial idea was to have the Ladies personally give the players the Sunsword (which they are guarding) after the Fanes are restored. Of course, getting rid of Strahd's immortality is a huge story reward in and of itself, however I felt that a more "material" reward would be really cool.
However, recently I've been playing with the idea of giving the players the sword after communing with the Ladies.
Pros of this new idea:
- gives the players more time to have fun with the sword
- makes sense from a narrative standpoint, with the Ladies giving the sword to their champions to be in order to help them restore the Fanes
- makes sense as a way to keep Strahd away from them, as per Reloaded, once the sword is ignited (my original idea was for the Ladies to shield them from Strahd's scrying and perception while they toil to restore the Fanes)
Pros of the original idea:
- also makes sense from a narrative standpoint, with the Ladies gifting the players the final item they need to defeat Strahd as a recognition for their role in reinstating them in Barovia
- makes for a cool scene of the Ladies appearing and gifting the sword
- gives the players a huge material reward for completing a huge story element
- delays giving the players an item which could heavily impact their combat encounters
- gives the players a bit more choices of spirits to inhabit the sword with (possibly adding Erasmus Van Richten to others like Sergei, Godfrey, Markovia)
Cons of the original ideas:
- allows the players to use the sword much less. For example, if the players restore the Forest Fane last, they might even just have Ravenloft left before the end of the campaign
Sorry for rambling and the long post. I'm really torn about this.
TL;DR: Sunsword: After the Amber Temple or after restoring the Fanes?
I'm grateful for any insight!