I’m currently running Curse of Strahd and I’m struggling a bit with how to connect the different locations in a meaningful way. I feel like it’s too easy if each of the three treasures is just sitting in a single location and the party only has to go there to get it. So I started adding some “chains” between locations. Here’s what I came up with: First treasure: To get the first treasure, the party has to go to Krezk. However, they can only gain access if they help the winery by retrieving one of the missing gems from Yester Hill. Flow: Winery → Yester Hill → Krezk
Second treasure: The second treasure is with the werewolves. But I feel like it’s too easy if they just side with Zuleika and kill Kiril. So instead, the werewolves might demand that the party assassinate the Burgomaster of Vallaki, since he displayed wolf heads during one of his recent festivals. (I really like this idea, but I’d still allow alternative solutions.) Flow: Werewolf Den → Vallaki → Werewolf Den
Third treasure: The third treasure is in Argynvostholt. Since stealing the dragon skull from Castle Ravenloft feels almost impossible, I changed the beacon: it can instead be lit by sacrificing a vampire. One option: Sacrifice Doru.
Flow: Argynvostholt → Village of Barovia → Argynvostholt
Another option: The party could seek out the Amber Temple, where dark powers can turn someone into a vampire. The spirits of Argynvostholt know that Strahd von Zarovich gained his power there—but they don’t know its exact location. Only someone in Berez (Baba Lysaga) knows where it is. So the party would need to find and confront her.
Flow: Argynvostholt → Berez → Amber Temple → Argynvostholt These are my current ideas.
I feel pretty confident about the first two, and I think I can run them without too much railroading. The third one feels much harder to handle. What do you think?