A few years back, I ran a Curse of Strahd campaign for some friends. (There will be some minor Curse of Strahd spoilers here, but I will do my best to keep them cryptic.) In fact, it was the first campaign I ever ran. This meant that I changed up a lot of things and played with a lot of mechanics: I repurposed and expanded on the gems, I introduced the Three Ladies (each with their own sub-plot, of course), and I added a pumpkin monster to the Wizard of Wines vineyard. It is the final change that I’ll be examining here: The Pumpkin King. If you’d like to hear about the other changes, let me know!

The Pumpkin King

The party had traveled to the Wizard of Wines Vineyard, met the Martikov family, and helped them with their tasks, ending the session by taking a long rest at the Martikov’s house and ready to head back to town with their wine in the morning. Fortunately for me, the following session landed very near Halloween! I used the holiday as an opportunity to create a fun, spooky monster for the party to fight. At the start of the next session, the party awoke in the morning to loud, thundering noises and shaking ground. Checking outside, they saw a massive, mutated pumpkin creature called the Pumpkin King (I based the stats on Pumpkin King by StoneStrix, though I scaled things back to be level-appropriate). After a long and exciting fight, with two characters having gone down, the Pumpkin King was finally defeated. When the final blow struck, it exploded into a hail of candy! Naturally, this was no ordinary candy, but it took the party some sampling to discover that…

Shenanigans with a Goat

Before we get to the specifics, though, a story of caution: The party held onto these candies for quite some time, using them here and there for fun and profit. After some time, they came to the fight against the witch, Baba Lysaga. In the surrounding area of the witch’s hut, there was a group of helpless goats. I thought they’d use one of these goats to create a distraction while they surprised Baba. I suppose they did, in their own way, at least.

They lured one of the poor goats over to Baba Lysaga’s hut, fed it one of each candy, shoved it inside the hut, and slammed the door. Baba Lysaga came running out of the hut, chased by the goat. With all that magic flowing through it, the goat had become very large and was covered in patches of fire, poison, and ice, and crackling with lightning. With everything going on, they dispatched the coven summarily but lost track of the goat as it had, bewildered, charged into the forest. For their final battle of the campaign, though, I brought the goat back, introducing it with some art I had commissioned to commemorate the occasion. The goat had been discovered by a very powerful wizard who had rehabilitated it and helped it learn to control its newfound abilities, namely its elemental breath. Thus, the Magic-infused Goat was born!

Magical Candies

This list was cobbled together from several sources, mostly Reddit, though I have since lost the specific references.

• Hamster Ball Candy: Eating this candy creates a clear crystal-like ball around you for 2d6 min, containing at least enough air to meet the needs of the occupant. The ball can be broken with a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check, either from the inside or outside.
• Were-Candy: Eating this candy causes thick hair to grow all over your body, which falls off after 3d4 hours; it resists being cut with normal scissors or clippers.
• Glow Candy: Eating this candy causes you to become bioluminescent for 10 mins, emitting dim light in a 5’ radius.
• Tall Candy: Eating this candy causes your height to increase by 25% for 10 mins; this does not change your size category or your weight.
• Candy of Dwarvenkind: Eating this candy causes you to grow a full Dwarven beard for 2d4 days. If you shave it off, it will regrow within 1d10 minutes.
• Prank Candy: Attempting to eat this candy causes it to turn into broccoli.
• Fizzy Lifting Candy: Eating this candy brings you under the effect of Levitate for 2d4 minutes; you do not have to maintain concentration on this spell.
• Very High Sugar Content Candy: Eating this candy brings you under the effect of Haste for 2d4 rounds; you do not have to maintain concentration on this spell.
• Springy Candy: Eating this candy brings you under the effect of Jump for 1 minute.
• Small Black Dragon Egg: Eating this candy brings you under the effect of Dragon’s Breath for 1 minute, allowing you to exhale acid in a 30-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
• Small White Dragon Egg: Eating this candy brings you under the effect of Dragon’s Breath for 1 minute, allowing you to exhale an icy blast in a 20-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
• Small Red Dragon Egg: Eating this candy brings you under the effect of Dragon’s Breath for 1 minute, allowing you to exhale fire in a 20-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
• Small Blue Dragon Egg: Eating this candy brings you under the effect of Dragon’s Breath for 1 minute, allowing you to exhale lightning in a 30-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
• Small Green Dragon Egg: Eating this candy brings you under the effect of Dragon’s Breath for 1 minute, allowing you to exhale poisonous gas in a 20-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Photo by Luis Aguila.