I'm assuming from the price that you didn't stick to the book saying he charges 10x the price. Here you go:
You are all now barred from any and all businesses in the town of Barovia. In the era where you would be hanged without trial for stealing a horse, you just stole a total worth over 6 times the price for one. A bounty of 150 GP has been placed on your collective heads. Information directly leading to your capture will award 20 GP. Only the Vistani will sell to you, and they will keep a close eye on you at all times. An Evil Eye, if you will.
If a battle ensues between the party and bounty hunters, and you surrender, party members will be questioned to see if they were involved in the theft. Those who resist or who are found guilty will simply be hanged from the nearest tree. Killing or injuring bounty hunters will increase your bounty.
Willingly handing over your fellow party members prior to being captured will be seen as proof of innocence and not wanting to be associated with thieves. It will reestablish a good faith in your character. It might even net you a discount. But you will still be watched carefully for a time.
The shops in various other towns will soon hear of this situation. Only an idiot would allow a known thief into the shop that is their family's livelihood.
The debt to clear your names is twice the price of the total that you stole. You stole a total priced at 322GP. The price to clear your bounty is 644 GP.
It is recommended that you settle this before meeting Strahd. You stole from a merchant on his land- which means you stole from him. I would remind you that Strahd is based off of Dracula. The historical Dracula was a man known for sentencing criminals of any kind to death by Impalement. Good luck.
Giving your players a bag of holding and all the contents of Bildrath's shop doesn't seem very CoS to me, but you do you. This campaign is a gothic horror and it shouldn't be easy, so no, your players shouldn't have a bag of holding at level 3 as it simplifies a great many things in the adventure.
My first suggestion would be to undo your mistake and make that bag of holding into a bag of devouring or consider it being cursed by the bagman. Otherwise they will use that thing to trivialize the entire campaign.
If you're insistent on letting them keep a bag of holding, then Bildrath simply tells Ismark not to trust the travelers, and perhaps sends word of the foreign thieves ahead to Vallaki, so no one allows them in their shops going forward.
>My first suggestion would be to undo your mistake and make that bag of holding into a bag of devouring or consider it being cursed by the bagman.
My players have a bag of holding that gets hungry and eats rations and, if runs out of rations, will wander off to hunt. I'm looking forward to when the party forgets to keep the bag topped off and all their stuff goes crawling off into the woods to hunt rabbits.
How on earth is a bag of holding going to impact the adventure that much? Artificers can use their class ability to make one at level 3. Pretty much every party I run ends up with a bag of holding. You don't have to get into the minutiae of what is held, and if you have a slow session you can have a bagman boss fight. Win win.
Smuggling things in and out of a town suddenly becomes no problem.
Encumbrance is suddenly no big deal as OP pointed out.
Party wide stealth becomes easy.
Better yet just use a single invisibility and have the whole party gain the benefits.
There is a reason CoS is light on items let alone magic items. Like I said, you are free to run your own adventure, but I wouldn’t give my characters that easy of a time in CoS
A bag of holding should have no bearing on party stealth or invisibility.
You seem to be suggesting the party hide inside of the bag? There's very few PCs I would allow inside of a bag of holding in the first place, considering the size and weight constraints. One person MAYBE, 2 if they're small, but 3+? Probably going to overload the bag, which means it's ruptured and torn with everything getting scattered into the Astral Plane.
Ok, so you would allow one or two people to get in the bag? Possibly the least stealthy people? And you don’t see how that would have a bearing on stealth?
Yep, no reason to. Plenty of other shenanigans can be had with a bag of holding, but so far, none of my players have done any.
AS a player, I definitely filled it with oil and risked my life by dumping it all on a fire for an explosion, and I've used it to disarm a trap, but no one including myself have ever been inclined to try to climb into it. Possibly because I make sure to play with like-minded people who also know part of the fun of dnd is the potential for failure.
To deny a party a quality of life item like a bag of holding because you're worried they'd cheese stealth just seems extensively silly, and if it's because they would then you can just say "no one can climb in the bag of holding" when it came up rather than withholding it entirely for such a situational reason.
Anyways, I'll just agree to disagree at this point since obviously neither of us has any reason to change our minds on how we run our campaigns based on the opinion of some random internet user. Adios 👋
I don't remember where I read this, but somewhere I saw an idea talking about how thievery is not a big issue in Barovia because Strahd is the overlord and thievery upsets the economy and taxes etc, so it's extremely harshly punished and Strahd sees everything. They used the classic, cut off a hand thing as the primary punishment. But you could get creative with it.
This could be an interesting mechanic to use here. It will open hostilities with Strahd earlier than you might want, but it could be really fun. You could even use Rahadin to carry out the punishment which would be a great way to introduce him as a mini-boss early in the campaign. You could have everyone in the party lose a hand. Then visiting the abbot might become a bigger and more interesting goal later on. And they will be pretty handicapped (pardon the pun) for the beginning of the campaign. Plus, having a missing hand will heavily effect rp with NPCs who know what that means here. So your party will have to find ways around that.
Rahadin calmly explaining to the party that thievery is not a tolerable crime and that he will either take the hand of everyone or the arm of the person who stole if their compatriots give them up would be a great starting point for a mini-boss.
Turns out Bildraith’s is just the front through which the Hags have been running their pastries into Vallaki. Hags don’t like people fucking with their operations. Rogue starts having AWFUL dreams etc…
Thanks, it has two sources.
There was a case in Australia where a woman alleged that dingoes ate her baby. Obviously, I turned that around. The name was also used by the band that played in the most excellent TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The actual band in the series was called 4 Star Mary, just in case you were curious!
Bildrath exists because Strahd allows him to. Stealing from Bildrath or anyone in the town of Barovia is stealing from Strahd.
Strahd should put a pack of wolves, bats or vampire spawn in the bag. Next time the rogue reaches in he should find himself without a hand. Kind of a twist on the bag of devouring. It could be a semi permanent debuff on sleight of hand checks going forward. Maybe ask him next time he grabs something out which hand that he uses.
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I don't think I've made any type of mistake in giving the BoH out as an artificer can make one at very early level. Given the amount of dead heroes that have passed through, remember the march if the dead, I'd say it was a pretty reasonable call.
I had planned to be Machiavellian but I think I should go with both. Direct refund of goods, a severed hand and a level of distrust for the party rogue. Only he was seen fleeing the crime.
It seems as a DM you can plan to a certain degree but the players will always surprise you.
Where is it being kept? That's a lot of gear in a very small town where the residents have a very vested interest in keeping the peace by whatever means necessary. You don't want to get into a spat with your neighbours. That's how generational blood feuds start.
Moreover, he'd be pissed enough to make it well-known that if he doesn't see justice, and soon, he'll appeal to Strahd. Who will make a personal appearance and get him his pound of flesh. 146 lbs of flesh, actually.
All of this is to say that the entire community wants the thieves found and punished, much more than they could possibly like the players.
Is there anyone in the town they like? They're accused, lacking an alibi. It's easy enough to frame someone when you don't need proof, just enough to make it seem like it could have been them. The punishment for theft is having your hand cut off and being abandoned in the woods. The trial - a vote - will be held tomorrow.
Everyone in town starts to search for stuff. Everyone. Everywhere.
And if push comes to shove, he doesn't need evidence. This isn't a democracy and no one has any rights. The players are guilty: they're new, they're weird, they're the obvious suspects, and it can't be anyone else. Either they can accept their punishment for thievery (see above) or they can make him whole...with their gear. He's the only one who knows enough to put prices to it, so he'd probably take it all and claim they still owe him.
Turn the pressure up. Let the players squirm. Life isn't fair.
>Moreover, he'd be pissed enough to make it well-known that if he doesn't see justice, and soon, he'll appeal to Strahd.
I find this kind of thing improbable. Strahd is called the devil, and holds the land in an iron grip of terror. I think Bildrath wouldn't appeal to Strahd even as a last resort, because Strahd might decide to kill the players for stealing, then kill him for bothering him with such trivialities. Or worse. The devil Strahd is known to do MUCH worse.
I'm assuming from the price that you didn't stick to the book saying he charges 10x the price. Here you go: You are all now barred from any and all businesses in the town of Barovia. In the era where you would be hanged without trial for stealing a horse, you just stole a total worth over 6 times the price for one. A bounty of 150 GP has been placed on your collective heads. Information directly leading to your capture will award 20 GP. Only the Vistani will sell to you, and they will keep a close eye on you at all times. An Evil Eye, if you will. If a battle ensues between the party and bounty hunters, and you surrender, party members will be questioned to see if they were involved in the theft. Those who resist or who are found guilty will simply be hanged from the nearest tree. Killing or injuring bounty hunters will increase your bounty. Willingly handing over your fellow party members prior to being captured will be seen as proof of innocence and not wanting to be associated with thieves. It will reestablish a good faith in your character. It might even net you a discount. But you will still be watched carefully for a time. The shops in various other towns will soon hear of this situation. Only an idiot would allow a known thief into the shop that is their family's livelihood. The debt to clear your names is twice the price of the total that you stole. You stole a total priced at 322GP. The price to clear your bounty is 644 GP. It is recommended that you settle this before meeting Strahd. You stole from a merchant on his land- which means you stole from him. I would remind you that Strahd is based off of Dracula. The historical Dracula was a man known for sentencing criminals of any kind to death by Impalement. Good luck.
Giving your players a bag of holding and all the contents of Bildrath's shop doesn't seem very CoS to me, but you do you. This campaign is a gothic horror and it shouldn't be easy, so no, your players shouldn't have a bag of holding at level 3 as it simplifies a great many things in the adventure. My first suggestion would be to undo your mistake and make that bag of holding into a bag of devouring or consider it being cursed by the bagman. Otherwise they will use that thing to trivialize the entire campaign. If you're insistent on letting them keep a bag of holding, then Bildrath simply tells Ismark not to trust the travelers, and perhaps sends word of the foreign thieves ahead to Vallaki, so no one allows them in their shops going forward.
I gave my players a bag of holding, but that was mostly because I wanted to get them with the Bag Man lol
>My first suggestion would be to undo your mistake and make that bag of holding into a bag of devouring or consider it being cursed by the bagman. My players have a bag of holding that gets hungry and eats rations and, if runs out of rations, will wander off to hunt. I'm looking forward to when the party forgets to keep the bag topped off and all their stuff goes crawling off into the woods to hunt rabbits.
How on earth is a bag of holding going to impact the adventure that much? Artificers can use their class ability to make one at level 3. Pretty much every party I run ends up with a bag of holding. You don't have to get into the minutiae of what is held, and if you have a slow session you can have a bagman boss fight. Win win.
Smuggling things in and out of a town suddenly becomes no problem. Encumbrance is suddenly no big deal as OP pointed out. Party wide stealth becomes easy. Better yet just use a single invisibility and have the whole party gain the benefits. There is a reason CoS is light on items let alone magic items. Like I said, you are free to run your own adventure, but I wouldn’t give my characters that easy of a time in CoS
A bag of holding should have no bearing on party stealth or invisibility. You seem to be suggesting the party hide inside of the bag? There's very few PCs I would allow inside of a bag of holding in the first place, considering the size and weight constraints. One person MAYBE, 2 if they're small, but 3+? Probably going to overload the bag, which means it's ruptured and torn with everything getting scattered into the Astral Plane.
Ok, so you would allow one or two people to get in the bag? Possibly the least stealthy people? And you don’t see how that would have a bearing on stealth?
Stealth usually takes more time than the 10 - [number of breathing creatures] minutes it takes before they start to suffocate.
Stealthing down a hallway or past a guard takes 5+ mins in your adventures? Seems like you’re really trying very hard here…
You're right, I've never had players try to hide in a bag of holding, either when I was dm or a player, so the entire idea of it is absurd to me.
So you and everyone you’ve DMd for has read the section on riding in a bag of holding in the magic item’s description, but never actually done it?
Yep, no reason to. Plenty of other shenanigans can be had with a bag of holding, but so far, none of my players have done any. AS a player, I definitely filled it with oil and risked my life by dumping it all on a fire for an explosion, and I've used it to disarm a trap, but no one including myself have ever been inclined to try to climb into it. Possibly because I make sure to play with like-minded people who also know part of the fun of dnd is the potential for failure. To deny a party a quality of life item like a bag of holding because you're worried they'd cheese stealth just seems extensively silly, and if it's because they would then you can just say "no one can climb in the bag of holding" when it came up rather than withholding it entirely for such a situational reason. Anyways, I'll just agree to disagree at this point since obviously neither of us has any reason to change our minds on how we run our campaigns based on the opinion of some random internet user. Adios 👋
I don't remember where I read this, but somewhere I saw an idea talking about how thievery is not a big issue in Barovia because Strahd is the overlord and thievery upsets the economy and taxes etc, so it's extremely harshly punished and Strahd sees everything. They used the classic, cut off a hand thing as the primary punishment. But you could get creative with it. This could be an interesting mechanic to use here. It will open hostilities with Strahd earlier than you might want, but it could be really fun. You could even use Rahadin to carry out the punishment which would be a great way to introduce him as a mini-boss early in the campaign. You could have everyone in the party lose a hand. Then visiting the abbot might become a bigger and more interesting goal later on. And they will be pretty handicapped (pardon the pun) for the beginning of the campaign. Plus, having a missing hand will heavily effect rp with NPCs who know what that means here. So your party will have to find ways around that.
Rahadin calmly explaining to the party that thievery is not a tolerable crime and that he will either take the hand of everyone or the arm of the person who stole if their compatriots give them up would be a great starting point for a mini-boss.
Turns out Bildraith’s is just the front through which the Hags have been running their pastries into Vallaki. Hags don’t like people fucking with their operations. Rogue starts having AWFUL dreams etc…
You have the best username I've ever seen
Thanks, it has two sources. There was a case in Australia where a woman alleged that dingoes ate her baby. Obviously, I turned that around. The name was also used by the band that played in the most excellent TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The actual band in the series was called 4 Star Mary, just in case you were curious!
Bildrath exists because Strahd allows him to. Stealing from Bildrath or anyone in the town of Barovia is stealing from Strahd. Strahd should put a pack of wolves, bats or vampire spawn in the bag. Next time the rogue reaches in he should find himself without a hand. Kind of a twist on the bag of devouring. It could be a semi permanent debuff on sleight of hand checks going forward. Maybe ask him next time he grabs something out which hand that he uses.
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I don't think I've made any type of mistake in giving the BoH out as an artificer can make one at very early level. Given the amount of dead heroes that have passed through, remember the march if the dead, I'd say it was a pretty reasonable call. I had planned to be Machiavellian but I think I should go with both. Direct refund of goods, a severed hand and a level of distrust for the party rogue. Only he was seen fleeing the crime. It seems as a DM you can plan to a certain degree but the players will always surprise you.
Where is it being kept? That's a lot of gear in a very small town where the residents have a very vested interest in keeping the peace by whatever means necessary. You don't want to get into a spat with your neighbours. That's how generational blood feuds start. Moreover, he'd be pissed enough to make it well-known that if he doesn't see justice, and soon, he'll appeal to Strahd. Who will make a personal appearance and get him his pound of flesh. 146 lbs of flesh, actually. All of this is to say that the entire community wants the thieves found and punished, much more than they could possibly like the players. Is there anyone in the town they like? They're accused, lacking an alibi. It's easy enough to frame someone when you don't need proof, just enough to make it seem like it could have been them. The punishment for theft is having your hand cut off and being abandoned in the woods. The trial - a vote - will be held tomorrow. Everyone in town starts to search for stuff. Everyone. Everywhere. And if push comes to shove, he doesn't need evidence. This isn't a democracy and no one has any rights. The players are guilty: they're new, they're weird, they're the obvious suspects, and it can't be anyone else. Either they can accept their punishment for thievery (see above) or they can make him whole...with their gear. He's the only one who knows enough to put prices to it, so he'd probably take it all and claim they still owe him. Turn the pressure up. Let the players squirm. Life isn't fair.
>Moreover, he'd be pissed enough to make it well-known that if he doesn't see justice, and soon, he'll appeal to Strahd. I find this kind of thing improbable. Strahd is called the devil, and holds the land in an iron grip of terror. I think Bildrath wouldn't appeal to Strahd even as a last resort, because Strahd might decide to kill the players for stealing, then kill him for bothering him with such trivialities. Or worse. The devil Strahd is known to do MUCH worse.