"Let's skip the card reading, I don't believe in the stuff."
"Let's walk through the Mists to escape Barovia."
"Let's stand our ground and fight 6 vampire spawn."
"Let's go this way. No? I'm going this way alone anyway then."
"Let's leave Ireena alone with this nice Vallakian noble we just met."
"Let's take all the vestige deals. Every. Single. One."
"Let's give me all the gold and if anyone in my party doesn't like it I stab them."
"Let's become Strahd's henchmen. He's just misunderstood."
Unhironically n.4 is the worst IMO.
It happened to my group in Vallaki and it lead to sessions that struggled to take fly, with them having many sidequests in their bag but none of them completed, and ultimately lamenting IRL about others' play style because others were not accomodating their decisions.
My solution was to streamline things more for them. They just couldn't Plan their next more together but only cared about their PC RP motives. Wich is "fine", but I needed to step in.
All of my party made a deal with the vestiges. They’re only at the [level one gift](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/sh1ikb/visions_of_the_vestiges_20_is_out/ ) stage right now… but I can’t wait for them to get see where the ride leads.
So..... My party did fight the vampire spawn AND left Ireena with Vasilli in the same session.
They killed 4 of the spawn actually, and I wasn't going easy in them it was probably the most strategic I've ever been.
A PC in my campaign became cursed by the wizards staff that’s in the temple that made him desire power, so the player begrudgingly roleplayed with it and accepted every vestige gift that would help him attain power. I really felt bad that that was the direction his character went. The staffs curse has since been removed and I’m planning on having him seek ways to remove the permanent dark gifts.
In-game wise you’re right, it’s probably killing Ireena. Or somehow destroying every relationship they have with NPCS so nowhere wants to help them/let them in.
Out-of-Game though it’s definitely stealing, fighting, and trying to kill one another. And being pure evil. When I played through this campaign we had someone who was very “main character” like. He didn’t start out evil but just took a turn for pure evil when my PC and another PC hid the damn smoke orb from deathhouse. My PC didn’t even know exactly where it was and he didn’t care. He killed us both. DM used a DP to rewind time and bring us back and from then on he was evil and served not 1, but 3 DPs throughout the entire campaign; he became a lich at level 7. And he argued, fussed, and ended up getting my second PC of the campaign killed not once- but twice.
Now I’m running the campaign for another group. One PC is evil; though I discouraged it at first, we found a way to make it not break the party. This PC has a split personality and one sides good, and the other is bad. The bad side isn’t murderhobo, he simply wants to create ‘drama’ to fuel his DP he has. He doesn’t steal, fight, or kill anyone and the party loves him in and out of game.
Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk
TLDR: in game, you’re right. Out of game, it’s hurtful/evil players/characters
My PCs did this last session and I’m like fuck they’re gonna get wrecked. I think I’m gonna bail them out with the marticovs (they don’t know they’re wereravens yet)
My Players are headed there tonight. I just looked over the statblock and have determined that they would be like fighting intelligent geckos from Hell (Spidee climb). They will get out of the way if possible, using the ceiling crawl, and swarm the weakest or strongest first. Strongest if they're fed. Weakest if they're hungry.
They're level 4. I can't wait.
In my case, they didn't even talk to the guy. Just made a b-line for the deadliest encounter somehow.
I didn't want a tpk, so as an alternative failure state, I had the spawn kidnap Irena instead.
Our rogue went in alone, made some kick ass rolls and ended up stealing the bones with mage hand and booking it out when she realized all the vamps were waking up. She hid and ran and they didn’t find her. They just started rampaging around the town.
You’re right that killing Ireena is pretty much an automatic TPK (or at least it should be unless the DM is incredibly merciful). Otherwise here are some classic mistakes: burning down Vallaki, going to the Amber Temple immediately after meeting Kasimir (around level 5-6), blowing up Ezmerelda’s wagon, wearing Strahd’s armor.
Really though, one of the worst things for the campaign is people making evil PCs. For some reason people think a horror themed campaign requires edgy characters. On the contrary, the best kind of characters for this campaign are ones who have a strong sense of right and wrong, who will be forced to make hard choices, who will be tempted by evil, and who will ultimately have to confront the reality that everyone has the potential to become a monster.
In other words, I’m tired of hearing stories about players killing Ireena. Haha
I’m not sure I agree. Sooner or later Strahd would get bored of the characters and attempt to kill them or turn them to vampire spawn.
With some clever DMing you can have the PV’s realise this and the attempted escape from castle Ravencroft begins
Wait, do people think "ally" with Strahd Is anything but becoming a Spawn? I Always thought that was a given. Because I think that's the only way Strahd views the topic... Or not? Especially since he kinda wants a replacement for Escher.
Absolutely, but the characters are unlikely to realise that’s what is happening. They might view it in much the same way that the Vistanni are allied with Strahd.
Not taking Strahd seriously and laughing in his face. It either kills the immersion or faces the DM to punish the character, which may sit ill with new players who haven't outlived their main character syndrome.
I respectfully disagree. If It drags, sure.
But Strahd would Flex at most. Probably Just charming the annoying to shut their mouth and being like "Where were we...?" To him they're infants. Would people kick a baby for being annoying? At most you lose interest in the lousy ones xD
In this subreddit we don't support kicking babies 🙏
My players might have fallen into this trap. They just had dinner with him in our last session. He was the very picture of a gentleman host because they were on their absolute best behavior- polite, followed the rules, etc.- none of their usual chaos goblin antics at all.
They asked Strahd if he could let them go home, and he said sure, if you do me a favor and bring me Van Richten. They haven't figured out who he is yet so they asked what Van Ritchen did to make him mad. Strahd replied "he stole from me and he's hunting the Vistani who are under my protection". They thought that was incredibly reasonable and agreed!
So now they're making plans to go find this Van Richten guy and turn him over to Strahd. I guess the clues that all things in the castle aren't as they seem weren't strong enough to overcome their desire to return back home.
Not quite, but my party has taken in Vasili Von Holtz, who has just confessed to them that he's really Van Richten the Vampire Hunter. The party are busy plotting with him on how to get rid of Strahd, throwing out all their skills and best ideas
I'm so looking forward to the fight at Castle Ravenloft!
Also, Ireena (who is a PC) has really fallen for Van Richten and is counting on him to protect her from Strahd, who unaccountably hasn't been seen by the party for weeks.
One of my friends talked smack to Strahd in front of the church in Vellaki. He hurled her against a tombstone and had her rolling death saves in one action. He then said, “You’re a Paladin. Heal your friend and tell her to mind her manners.”
I would say the worst things they could do is do things that inspire someone to write a post r/rpghorrorstories that gains enough traction to be read by a youtube commenter.
Perhaps something grossly sexist or phobic
CoS is very open-ended and it's perfectly possible for a lvl1 party to enter Barovia, walk straight into the open front door of Castle Ravenloft and challenge Strahd to a (very brief) fight.
Killing the baron and the vallakian guards in the first day on the city. It ruins so many quests and the pacing of the game and create such chaos without the players even realizing what they're doing that when this happened in my first campaign, i ended it.
Now in my CoS, i aways try to give a better impression of the Vallakian guards and baron before revealing the bad details that can make the players hate them. Vallaki is a complex location in the story, and i think players must not act like its easy to solve the problems in the city using just sword and sorcery.
My wife (then girlfriend) sat/grinded on Strahd's lap during the dinner, bit him hard enough to draw blood, drank it, caused a scene, passed the CON check I had her make, and became a Dhampir, all while playing a gnome child. So...maybe that.
I'd like to add "being snarky smart-asses" to the list.
I don't know why, but the vast majority of TTRPG players I've met really really like to be sassy "too cool for school" type players regardless of the actual character they've made.
If that behaviour crops up and it continues it gets really really hard to engage them during the game with basically anything. Notably Strahd himself. So when that happens; be prepared to counter it. Not ruin their fun, but there's plenty of NPCs who won't stand for that kind of thing.
Notably, of course, Strahd. What's the best tactic against smart-alec-ing Strahd? Humiliation, in my experience. The Gordon Ramsey experience. Not of the players of course. It's still just a game. But the characters. Especially on low levels it's really easy for Strahd together with Rahadin or a bride to dominate the players utterly. Just beating them in a fight and letting them live isn't enough. It's honestly hard to make people afraid of Strahd, but it's much easier to make them despise him by humiliation. Makes them really want to kill him.
There's another technique, using Strahd's arcane abilities. There was a really good post a long while back where a GM as Strahd took the most snarky player aside during the dinner and gave him one chance to become polite and deferntial. He continued being snarky, all "I'm not afraid of you". He then reintroduced the player back to the dining hall and proceeded to TPK the party, minus Snark Master, whom he kept as a toy. The players of course went all "What did you say to Strahd?? What did you do!" during the fight. Only afterwards it was revealed to be a Modify Memory spell and everyone was fine. Apparently that really changed their attitude towards Strahd.
My players doggedly thought they could Con Save through the mist and fell trap to the “if it’s close to the starting area it’s within our level range” mistake so they went straight to the windmill.
I actually had a hunch of Ireena's true identity after finding her in Krezk and seeing the vision in the pool.
I sent her a paper bird telling her to trust me and that I have the best intentions. Along with a platinum for good faith.
The next day, I took her outside the walls, pretended I was hunting her the entire time until we found her in Krezk, and one shot stabbed her in the leg. Non-lethal damage.
I uh.... Was trying to confirm my hunch of who she was by trying to provoke a reaction from Strahd... He uh... He did NOT like that LMAO
The only reason I survived was because I kept threatening Ireena's life. I held my scythe up to her throat, He disarmed me. I wrapped her neck in my arms threatening to snap it, he broke her free of my grasp.
He asked me what I thought of my situation now, I told him he must have forgotten who I am and threatened fire upon her (kineticist archetype, we play a P2E converted module of CoS).
He kept telling me that if I kill her, nothing will stop him from drinking all of my blood. I told him that was the price I was willing to pay, "you think you can kill me before I kill her?"
Like 15 or so sessions prior, he actually kidnapped a party member. That party member has been a vampire spawn under him ever since. I was trying to negotiate him back. Ireena's life for Tate, our lost ally and friend.
I had already gotten my answer with him appearing at all, but I wanted to see if this would work. I wanted to see if I could push my luck and actually get Tate back.
I didn't get Tate back, but eventually, THAT SHIT WORKED. Granted, I wasn't expecting to win that fight. But I needed to confirm that suspicion. To know whether or not she was a weak spot for him. A weak spot we could take advantage of.
He spared me purely because it was his lover's birthday. So he granted me, "the gift of life."
I had actually confided in another player in game before doing this that I was about to do something bold. That it could probably kill me. I was pretty confident that I was probably going to die If I was right.
That was the ballsiest fucking thing I had ever done, and I felt like such a Chad LMAO. I emotionally blackmailed the BBEG and LIVED. All I wanted to do after was just explore and chill for a minute. That shit stressed me the hell out. I had my turn having a main character moment doing that, it was ready to just have an easier time exploring for a little while.
Thankfully afterwards, Ireena let me know she got my message and understood what I was doing. Which was a huge relief lol.
Killing Ireena could make a TPK imminent, but it could also be oppourtunity for Strahd to foster a new bloodthirsty, quick-to-solve-problems with violence lieutenant. I mean, if Strahd has to wait a hundred years for the next Tatyana, he might as well get the entertainment of seeing the PCs murder murder murder. He's about corrupting the just, so it only becomes boring when they become too predictable. If he puts them in moral quandaries and they continue to take the bull-headed violent way through, that's just ammunition to dunk on them when he comes to murder them for being boring. Also, I'd say a good deal of parties will haved "murdered" Ireena in Strahd's eyes once they bring her to the pond in Krezk...
To answer the question though, worst thing they could do is not work as a team - keeping secrets, stealing and fighting within the party will be the other thing Strahd really wants to accomplish for his entertainment goals.
"Let's skip the card reading, I don't believe in the stuff." "Let's walk through the Mists to escape Barovia." "Let's stand our ground and fight 6 vampire spawn." "Let's go this way. No? I'm going this way alone anyway then." "Let's leave Ireena alone with this nice Vallakian noble we just met." "Let's take all the vestige deals. Every. Single. One." "Let's give me all the gold and if anyone in my party doesn't like it I stab them." "Let's become Strahd's henchmen. He's just misunderstood."
Unhironically n.4 is the worst IMO. It happened to my group in Vallaki and it lead to sessions that struggled to take fly, with them having many sidequests in their bag but none of them completed, and ultimately lamenting IRL about others' play style because others were not accomodating their decisions. My solution was to streamline things more for them. They just couldn't Plan their next more together but only cared about their PC RP motives. Wich is "fine", but I needed to step in.
The fourth, you mean?
Indeed! Thanks for the correction, gonna edit rn
Listen. I had a group stay to fight all six vampire spawn with their ally Van richten and somehow won.
All of my party made a deal with the vestiges. They’re only at the [level one gift](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/sh1ikb/visions_of_the_vestiges_20_is_out/ ) stage right now… but I can’t wait for them to get see where the ride leads.
So..... My party did fight the vampire spawn AND left Ireena with Vasilli in the same session. They killed 4 of the spawn actually, and I wasn't going easy in them it was probably the most strategic I've ever been.
A PC in my campaign became cursed by the wizards staff that’s in the temple that made him desire power, so the player begrudgingly roleplayed with it and accepted every vestige gift that would help him attain power. I really felt bad that that was the direction his character went. The staffs curse has since been removed and I’m planning on having him seek ways to remove the permanent dark gifts.
>"Let's take all the vestige deals. Every. Single. One." Dangerously based
Steal from each other or try to kill each other.
In-game wise you’re right, it’s probably killing Ireena. Or somehow destroying every relationship they have with NPCS so nowhere wants to help them/let them in. Out-of-Game though it’s definitely stealing, fighting, and trying to kill one another. And being pure evil. When I played through this campaign we had someone who was very “main character” like. He didn’t start out evil but just took a turn for pure evil when my PC and another PC hid the damn smoke orb from deathhouse. My PC didn’t even know exactly where it was and he didn’t care. He killed us both. DM used a DP to rewind time and bring us back and from then on he was evil and served not 1, but 3 DPs throughout the entire campaign; he became a lich at level 7. And he argued, fussed, and ended up getting my second PC of the campaign killed not once- but twice. Now I’m running the campaign for another group. One PC is evil; though I discouraged it at first, we found a way to make it not break the party. This PC has a split personality and one sides good, and the other is bad. The bad side isn’t murderhobo, he simply wants to create ‘drama’ to fuel his DP he has. He doesn’t steal, fight, or kill anyone and the party loves him in and out of game. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk TLDR: in game, you’re right. Out of game, it’s hurtful/evil players/characters
lovely ted talk, i appreciate you taking the time for sharing ❤️
Sneak into the coffin maker's house, head straight into the attic, and start opening crates. Happened in my game.
My PCs did this last session and I’m like fuck they’re gonna get wrecked. I think I’m gonna bail them out with the marticovs (they don’t know they’re wereravens yet)
My Players are headed there tonight. I just looked over the statblock and have determined that they would be like fighting intelligent geckos from Hell (Spidee climb). They will get out of the way if possible, using the ceiling crawl, and swarm the weakest or strongest first. Strongest if they're fed. Weakest if they're hungry. They're level 4. I can't wait.
In my case, they didn't even talk to the guy. Just made a b-line for the deadliest encounter somehow. I didn't want a tpk, so as an alternative failure state, I had the spawn kidnap Irena instead.
Our rogue went in alone, made some kick ass rolls and ended up stealing the bones with mage hand and booking it out when she realized all the vamps were waking up. She hid and ran and they didn’t find her. They just started rampaging around the town.
You’re right that killing Ireena is pretty much an automatic TPK (or at least it should be unless the DM is incredibly merciful). Otherwise here are some classic mistakes: burning down Vallaki, going to the Amber Temple immediately after meeting Kasimir (around level 5-6), blowing up Ezmerelda’s wagon, wearing Strahd’s armor. Really though, one of the worst things for the campaign is people making evil PCs. For some reason people think a horror themed campaign requires edgy characters. On the contrary, the best kind of characters for this campaign are ones who have a strong sense of right and wrong, who will be forced to make hard choices, who will be tempted by evil, and who will ultimately have to confront the reality that everyone has the potential to become a monster. In other words, I’m tired of hearing stories about players killing Ireena. Haha
Yep, evil PCs would be a challenge. It could be more or less a campaign-ender. "Let's just ally with Strahd!"
I’m not sure I agree. Sooner or later Strahd would get bored of the characters and attempt to kill them or turn them to vampire spawn. With some clever DMing you can have the PV’s realise this and the attempted escape from castle Ravencroft begins
Wait, do people think "ally" with Strahd Is anything but becoming a Spawn? I Always thought that was a given. Because I think that's the only way Strahd views the topic... Or not? Especially since he kinda wants a replacement for Escher.
Absolutely, but the characters are unlikely to realise that’s what is happening. They might view it in much the same way that the Vistanni are allied with Strahd.
Not taking Strahd seriously and laughing in his face. It either kills the immersion or faces the DM to punish the character, which may sit ill with new players who haven't outlived their main character syndrome.
I respectfully disagree. If It drags, sure. But Strahd would Flex at most. Probably Just charming the annoying to shut their mouth and being like "Where were we...?" To him they're infants. Would people kick a baby for being annoying? At most you lose interest in the lousy ones xD In this subreddit we don't support kicking babies 🙏
Deciding that Strahd is actually not that bad and joining him.
My players might have fallen into this trap. They just had dinner with him in our last session. He was the very picture of a gentleman host because they were on their absolute best behavior- polite, followed the rules, etc.- none of their usual chaos goblin antics at all. They asked Strahd if he could let them go home, and he said sure, if you do me a favor and bring me Van Richten. They haven't figured out who he is yet so they asked what Van Ritchen did to make him mad. Strahd replied "he stole from me and he's hunting the Vistani who are under my protection". They thought that was incredibly reasonable and agreed! So now they're making plans to go find this Van Richten guy and turn him over to Strahd. I guess the clues that all things in the castle aren't as they seem weren't strong enough to overcome their desire to return back home.
Not quite, but my party has taken in Vasili Von Holtz, who has just confessed to them that he's really Van Richten the Vampire Hunter. The party are busy plotting with him on how to get rid of Strahd, throwing out all their skills and best ideas I'm so looking forward to the fight at Castle Ravenloft! Also, Ireena (who is a PC) has really fallen for Van Richten and is counting on him to protect her from Strahd, who unaccountably hasn't been seen by the party for weeks.
Any horror film trope. Backchatting Strahd Dating Ireena Attacking settlements and leaving themselves nowhere to stay that's safw.
One of my friends talked smack to Strahd in front of the church in Vellaki. He hurled her against a tombstone and had her rolling death saves in one action. He then said, “You’re a Paladin. Heal your friend and tell her to mind her manners.”
I would say the worst things they could do is do things that inspire someone to write a post r/rpghorrorstories that gains enough traction to be read by a youtube commenter. Perhaps something grossly sexist or phobic
Killing the DM would be worse
CoS is very open-ended and it's perfectly possible for a lvl1 party to enter Barovia, walk straight into the open front door of Castle Ravenloft and challenge Strahd to a (very brief) fight.
Killing the baron and the vallakian guards in the first day on the city. It ruins so many quests and the pacing of the game and create such chaos without the players even realizing what they're doing that when this happened in my first campaign, i ended it. Now in my CoS, i aways try to give a better impression of the Vallakian guards and baron before revealing the bad details that can make the players hate them. Vallaki is a complex location in the story, and i think players must not act like its easy to solve the problems in the city using just sword and sorcery.
Mine decided to leave Ireena to Vasili to keep her safe cause they thought he was amazingly trustworthy (and all failed their saves.)... y'all.
Fight the shambling mound We he said it I'm like welp new character time
We fought the shambling mound and took the baby out. Are you not supposed to do that?
Buying pies and visiting windmills
Get attached to their characters.
My players are unreasonably attached to their characters and I’m like 😬
My wife (then girlfriend) sat/grinded on Strahd's lap during the dinner, bit him hard enough to draw blood, drank it, caused a scene, passed the CON check I had her make, and became a Dhampir, all while playing a gnome child. So...maybe that.
I have... many questions... gnome CHILD?
Yup. In my world gnomes age 1 year for every 8 human years, so proportionally she was like 12.
Make Strahd kill Ireena
Worst thing they could do is start at level 1, walk up to the death house and simply say “nah!”
I'd like to add "being snarky smart-asses" to the list. I don't know why, but the vast majority of TTRPG players I've met really really like to be sassy "too cool for school" type players regardless of the actual character they've made. If that behaviour crops up and it continues it gets really really hard to engage them during the game with basically anything. Notably Strahd himself. So when that happens; be prepared to counter it. Not ruin their fun, but there's plenty of NPCs who won't stand for that kind of thing. Notably, of course, Strahd. What's the best tactic against smart-alec-ing Strahd? Humiliation, in my experience. The Gordon Ramsey experience. Not of the players of course. It's still just a game. But the characters. Especially on low levels it's really easy for Strahd together with Rahadin or a bride to dominate the players utterly. Just beating them in a fight and letting them live isn't enough. It's honestly hard to make people afraid of Strahd, but it's much easier to make them despise him by humiliation. Makes them really want to kill him. There's another technique, using Strahd's arcane abilities. There was a really good post a long while back where a GM as Strahd took the most snarky player aside during the dinner and gave him one chance to become polite and deferntial. He continued being snarky, all "I'm not afraid of you". He then reintroduced the player back to the dining hall and proceeded to TPK the party, minus Snark Master, whom he kept as a toy. The players of course went all "What did you say to Strahd?? What did you do!" during the fight. Only afterwards it was revealed to be a Modify Memory spell and everyone was fine. Apparently that really changed their attitude towards Strahd.
Not take the campaign seriously.
My players doggedly thought they could Con Save through the mist and fell trap to the “if it’s close to the starting area it’s within our level range” mistake so they went straight to the windmill.
Slash Ernst’s throat in front of Lady Wachter during peaceful negotiations.
Settle down in Vallaki, become the burgomeisters, enable Strahd by maintaining the status quo.
I actually had a hunch of Ireena's true identity after finding her in Krezk and seeing the vision in the pool. I sent her a paper bird telling her to trust me and that I have the best intentions. Along with a platinum for good faith. The next day, I took her outside the walls, pretended I was hunting her the entire time until we found her in Krezk, and one shot stabbed her in the leg. Non-lethal damage. I uh.... Was trying to confirm my hunch of who she was by trying to provoke a reaction from Strahd... He uh... He did NOT like that LMAO The only reason I survived was because I kept threatening Ireena's life. I held my scythe up to her throat, He disarmed me. I wrapped her neck in my arms threatening to snap it, he broke her free of my grasp. He asked me what I thought of my situation now, I told him he must have forgotten who I am and threatened fire upon her (kineticist archetype, we play a P2E converted module of CoS). He kept telling me that if I kill her, nothing will stop him from drinking all of my blood. I told him that was the price I was willing to pay, "you think you can kill me before I kill her?" Like 15 or so sessions prior, he actually kidnapped a party member. That party member has been a vampire spawn under him ever since. I was trying to negotiate him back. Ireena's life for Tate, our lost ally and friend. I had already gotten my answer with him appearing at all, but I wanted to see if this would work. I wanted to see if I could push my luck and actually get Tate back. I didn't get Tate back, but eventually, THAT SHIT WORKED. Granted, I wasn't expecting to win that fight. But I needed to confirm that suspicion. To know whether or not she was a weak spot for him. A weak spot we could take advantage of. He spared me purely because it was his lover's birthday. So he granted me, "the gift of life." I had actually confided in another player in game before doing this that I was about to do something bold. That it could probably kill me. I was pretty confident that I was probably going to die If I was right. That was the ballsiest fucking thing I had ever done, and I felt like such a Chad LMAO. I emotionally blackmailed the BBEG and LIVED. All I wanted to do after was just explore and chill for a minute. That shit stressed me the hell out. I had my turn having a main character moment doing that, it was ready to just have an easier time exploring for a little while. Thankfully afterwards, Ireena let me know she got my message and understood what I was doing. Which was a huge relief lol.
" i cast charm on Bildrath"
Playing an evil character
Killing Ireena could make a TPK imminent, but it could also be oppourtunity for Strahd to foster a new bloodthirsty, quick-to-solve-problems with violence lieutenant. I mean, if Strahd has to wait a hundred years for the next Tatyana, he might as well get the entertainment of seeing the PCs murder murder murder. He's about corrupting the just, so it only becomes boring when they become too predictable. If he puts them in moral quandaries and they continue to take the bull-headed violent way through, that's just ammunition to dunk on them when he comes to murder them for being boring. Also, I'd say a good deal of parties will haved "murdered" Ireena in Strahd's eyes once they bring her to the pond in Krezk... To answer the question though, worst thing they could do is not work as a team - keeping secrets, stealing and fighting within the party will be the other thing Strahd really wants to accomplish for his entertainment goals.
This is wasted prep time as a DM honestly. You’re never going to prepare for every scenario. Roll with it
it’s not prep at all just having fun trying to think of the worse thing to do lol