![sunsword curse of strahd sunsword curse of strahd](https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/5/51932d8b-6f32-4aa3-80d3-5fa97c085c92/quD47pvq.png)
If Strahd sees, or learns from a minion, that the tome has fallen into the party's possession, all of his other objectives (see chapter 1, "Into the Mists") are put on hold until the book is recovered. From the Tome of Strahd's description in Appendix C (p. The only effect it appears to have is that it makes Strahd angry, but I imagine storming his castle with the other two powerful items and trying to kill him would be enough motivation for him to be angry enough already. I thought the idea was that if they marched straight up to Strahd's castle at the start of the adventure, he'd wipe the floor with them, but each of these special items they acquire along the way increases their chances of success against him, but it seems that having the Tome doesn't affect their chances whatsoever. Not that every item needs to be some super-powered magic item, but I was at least expecting it to tell you a secret that would indirectly make the fight against Strahd easier or something like that. Having the book on their person doesn't seem to confer any benefits to the party whatsoever. It might be interesting for the players to learn about, but the party could quite happily skip the part where they collect that book (although they'd miss out on some background lore) and take Strahd on with only the Sunsword and the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and still have the same odds of winning. However, I can't see what makes it as important as the other two items when all it does is give you a bit of history. The adventure at least implies that it's as important as the other two items by including them in the same Tarokka card reading that guides the party throughout the adventure. 252-253) describes how it's something that Strahd fears.īut in what way does the Tome of Strahd help the party? They don't really need to know that Strahd fears the Sunsword because any vampire is right to fear any sun blade, and we don't need to read their diary to figure that out. The Sunsword is also an obvious thing to want when going up against a vampire in fact, the excerpt from the Tome of Strahd (p. 222), it looks like something that a group of adventures wanting to take down a powerful vampire would want to have. Looking at the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind's description in Appendix C (p. In Curse of Strahd, as part of the Tarokka card reading, the party are told the locations of three "treasures" the Sunsword, the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, and the Tome of Strahd.