#barovian currents
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Time for a Barovian Ball!
art by sacrednanners @ TH
So to celebrate Burgomaster Ismark and the continued triumph of the Four Heroes of Vallaki, Lord Vasili von Holtz was throwing a ball! And as the tax collector of Lord Strahd - none of us fucking trusted him. Sure, we got all dressed up and ready for the black carriages that came to collect us and dozens of other citizens of Vallaki but we were ready to B R A W L and S T E A L—
And then... the Brides arrived.
DM @the-kiburi introduced these four fucking beautiful vampires entering the ball on behalf of Ravenloft and I became weak. And so did my very bi very poly death priestess who was in the process of denying she might have a feeling for Mina. So even while we were still planning to possibly do some crimes here... certain plans, like detecting OTHER undead, went... out the window. Because I saw 4 very lovely undead and decided I was going to get any information out of them I could.
Sure other possibly relevant characters were being introduced from around Barovia
BUT I WAS FOCUSED
So the party kind of broke up in various ways for the evening. I had strongly set my eyes on the Brides, Tanner was focused on trying to find the thing we came to steal,
Arabelle was having her first ever date with +1 Rowan (look her lifes been shit, we wanted her to have a good night if she could), and Mina was torn between stress drinking and keeping an eye on everyone else
(I repeat: God bless Faraga aka old lady 2)
But as the night progressed, things really went downhill for me as a person who cares only a normal amount about 4 npc vampires
So while Tanner was figuring out about the small town artificer feud and started chatting up the councilwoman granddaughter of old lady 1 (and somehow inviting her into his fucking heist attempt??), I brought the ball aspect of the evening into play by approaching the little beskulled golden nightmare that is Volenta Popofsky
And this soon became a multi-night event...
We made some great jokes
and some fucking horrendous ones
but I rescued the most emo of vampire poets from an old woman trying to seduce him and my night got infinitely better.
Meanwhile, Tanner and Councilwoman Kalina were casually sneaking their way through von Holtz’s estate looking for somewhere a rich fuck would likely be keeping a dragon skull... and things took a turn.
(Did I forget to mention he made TWO deals in the Amber Temple? Whoopsie)
Is it really D&D if you haven’t casually done mental war crimes to your DM?
But Tanner managed to gEt RiD oF the guard and lead Kalina into a weird little magic hallway and no way anything bad happens there. Which means it’s a great time to flash back to Alkali and her vampire hunting seduction
The whiplash between the two scenes was insane. When Alkali wasn’t wining and dining she was wining with Mina and talking about their Arabelle having a good night and it was a good time. Neither of them had any idea Tanner was doing goddamn crimes. So a good time.
Alkali was on constant look out for Strahd still because, you know, Ireena was here. And apparently having a great time dancing with von Holtz while her brother danced with my 4th and final target
But we couldn’t do this all in 2 nights of gameplay and the turns kept coming
Because hear me out. The Brides were the first vampires we met outside of Strahd who were not... monsters. They were monstrous, yes, but they were people. Charming, pleasant, a little bit too in love with a toxic husband, people. And if Alkali could be a homewrecker and get them to leave the toxic husband to create a better life for themselves without him and with her — that seems like a good idea, yeah?
Food for thought at least.
Tanner and Kalina got out of the weird nightmare puzzle room after locating the skull (but unable to get it cause its HUGE) and stealing a book from the library there. He was able to rejoin Alkali and Mina in their wine corner and a realization was had:
So off to find Arabelle we went.
Unfortunately, while Alkali and Mina were having that panic again. Tanner went off to go talk with edgelord von Holtz... and just... asked... for... the skull... To which von Holtz had had a counter offer:
Tanner said no. Because if he didn’t. Alkali would be gutting some people. Though he made a wonderful point that did mostly soothe the angry fish
And I presented my own counter offer to von Holtz by offering up my unique services as a death keeper
No luck, but other successes were soon had
Anastrasya was delightful and a little be vicious in a fun way and I’m here for it and ignore the fact I couldn’t properly count to four - it was late I swear
And then some cleaning up was done when Tanner realized we were spending the night here
He sent it to our merfolk prince friend Merrick and surely no way that goes weird, right?
But as everyone was settling in for the night...
then they both stood there like “......... good talk love you bye” but that’s familial love bby and Alkali will love and support Arabelle regardless and also promise to snuff out a fire genasi if he did anything that upset her. Love.
L o v e... ?
See. Alkali has been carrying this compass on her from one of her ship wrecks for ages. She got it off the first sailor she saw drown. Oddly... he was a sea elf. But he was on an Istishian ship, one that had stolen from Umberlee. And he drowned. And while a little bit wine drunk and a little bit sad... Mina told Alkali that the only reason she’d went on the mission for her temple to steal back the stolen relic.. was because her long lost brother had last been seen on that ship. Mina Lumenvroth...
Alkali’s compass has the initials M. L. on it ... is this a guilt she feels perhaps?
But as far as spending the night went, it could of been worse.
Von Holtz wanted to chat with us come morning so all four of us + Rowan assembled in a side room off the main hall to meet with him and he, very obviously, doubled down on trying to convince Arabelle AND Rowan to spend time at the manor with him as collateral for lending us the skull.
We said no, again.
And then we REALLY said no when Alkali caught him in the act of charming Rowan and Arabelle to try and side with him. Arabelle managed to shake it off. Alkali charmed Rowan herself to break von Holtz’s charm - and then charmed von Holtz, threatening him against doing so again. It didn’t take, but he seemed greatly entertained by the attempt and allowed them to leave as the roads had been cleared.
Alkali OF COURSE had to make one last goodbye to the brides and Anastrasya may have gotten a little bold, but Alkali was into it
Fun times, fun times.
Tanner found out the book he stole was a tome that increases INT so the next days following the ball were... quiet? Tanner spent some absurd number of hours reading a book and Alkali scrounged up every bit of oil and incense she could to hallow the ground Ireena and Ismark were moving into in Vallaki. A totally normal thing to be doing and she absolutely flipped off the bats that flew overhead as she spent 24 hours straight ritually cleansing the property so Ireena could feel safe somewhere other than the church.
Strahd was not getting another bride.
And if she had her way would be getting divorced soon enough too.
#dnd#curse of strahd#barovian currents#look#this was game changing#i would die for#the brides of strahd#they are my wives - escher too#hes a bride fight me#i love them to bits and this was one of my favorite dnd encounters ever tbh
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UPD: if this post gets more notes, I'll draw more puffy-pants Escher. The confession post is in the reblogs (っಠ‿ಠ)っ
Okay, so we are currently at the ball (yep, that one from the last parts of the book) and I decided to sketch some outfits for my PC and also for some NPCs I'm responsible for. It's kinda rough, but I still like it.
From left to right:
Escher Belasco, who escaped Barovia and had a nice time in Waterdeep until he met us.
The gorgeous lady, who decided to adopt him and perhaps cure his broken heart
My PC Marcella
Ilthine, whose hobbies include trying to seduce our priest since the pre-Barovian times and also making him terrifically uncomfortable
Also, in case you want to use that sketch of Escher for whatever unholy reasons you have, here ya go
Also, an older sketch of him I've realized I never showed you. Circa an in-game month ago, when he recently arrived at Waterdeep
#escher belasco#curse of strahd#reblog to give the man a proper sketch in puffy pants#waterdeep#waterdeep dragon heist#marcella matsovets#ilthine#dnd#dnd sketch#dnd art#we keep calling him Marshmellow now#he is living his best after-life
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The amazingly talented @spicyspell has utterly captured my game's Alek Gwilym! I cannot overstate how pleased I am with this piece, how beautiful it is, and how excited I have been all day to unveil it to my players - especially my player whose cleric is Alek and Strahd's son.
In Blood Countess, Alek Gwilym has many titles. He is Commander Gwilym, Master at Arms of Ravenloft. He is the former squire and eldest scion of Lord Argynvost. He is the avatar of the Morning Lord. Most importantly, he is Ayah, or Father, to Godfrey and Alistor Gwilym.
Alek was the son of the dragon lord, Argynvost, and his human wife, Freya. He spent his youth at Argynvostholt, training to be a knight. He even became his father's squire. However, his mother was killed by the wizards of the Amber Temple and Alek abandoned the order. He became a mercenary sell-sword and traveled far and wide. He eventually returned to the Balinok Valley to serve as a bodyguard and guide for the princess-general, Strahd von Zarovich. He was a powerful fighter and asset to the Barovian forces. After saving Strahd's life, he was inducted into her army and he rose through the ranks quickly. They fell in love and carried on an illicit affair until Strahd fell pregnant with twins and defeated the Tergic army. The boys were sent to live at Argynvostholt but Strahd was never informed of their whereabouts. Alek remained a devoted father to Godfrey and Alistor and repaired his relationship with his father while maintaining his position at Ravenloft's court as Strahd's right hand. However, Strahd became mired in her grief and obsession with preserving her power. Alek ultimately lost her but remained dedicated to her even to his own demise in the Amber Temple, where she killed him as a sacrifice to Vampyre. Alek made a deal that day, too, with the Morning Lord and agreed to be his avatar. Unfortunately, he was magically sealed away by the Dark Powers and he awaits the day that he can reunite with his sons.
In the meantime, he's tried to exert his will on the valley with mixed success. Currently, he has one (1) warlock: a nun from Krezk who is more than the sum of her parts and has sent an angel to try to heal Strahd with unfavorable results. He's trying. He really, really is. It's tough to be a god!
Especially when all he wants is to see the people he loves one more time.
I absolutely adore Alek and I am so thrilled to have art of him! I am so happy! I love his dragon scales, which look a little like vitiligo. I love the curls of his hair and the sharpness of his nose. I love his smile and the fact that when I showed my cleric, she said that he is definitely Alistor's father.
(Also, his and Strahd's portraits face in opposite directions. I can make them face each other and he looks besotted while she's looking away or I can make them face away from each other, back to back, in comparison. Hell. Yes.)
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~ᎶᎧᎧᎴ ᏋᏉᏋᏁᎥᏁᎶ~
Here ye shall find:
RPGs & Writing Projects
Curse of Strahd
I am deep in the muck of planning a Curse of Strahd campaign, having recently been through it as a player. So far, my concept has been mostly based on a few of the Ravenloft novels, plus the absolutely heinous 5e module (many details of which I have been attempting to rewrite), and a deep unrelenting desire to reintroduce Alek Gwilym to the world (so far working with the idea that he will be some kind of ghoul). Bookish ramblings, 5e headaches, and creative solutions are under #Lamour DMs CoS.
Also: Costuming Barovia
Jewelry | Strahd: Part 1 | Strahd: Art Addendum
Alek Gwilym
It has come to my attention that this blog has become one of the top recommended for #Alek Gwilym. When I first read I, Strahd—which was given to us ver batim as the Tome in the campaign I played—I knew in my heart that this man's death was the true crux of the Barovian tragedy. I became obsessed with solving the mystery of what else had become of him and working to bring him back, because I could conceive of no better way to break a curse which had been sealed with his demise.
I continue to strive to do Alek as much justice as possible.
He deserved better. It can and will be helped.
Strahd/Alek Fanfiction
#Stralek my beloved.
The piece de resistance of my work in this realm—my portfolio, if you will—has been the Vampentine's 2024 Collection which came about through this prompt list. It contains vignettes from several universe concepts (indexed), as well as a fully self-contained 6,693-word idea under the heading "It's all right."
Other (in-progress) works include:
Immortality - In 398 BC, after finally wiping his hands of Leo Dilisnya, Strahd discovers a painter in Vallaki who looks a lot like Alek Gwilym.
Despite Fear - Alek thwarts Strahd's deal with "Death" and the OG team go on campaign to destroy the dark entity once and for all.
Ezra Sunstar
Ezra was the character I played in Curse of Strahd. He was a self-conscious fire genasi roaming Faerûn in disguise before he and a couple of adventurers stumbled into Barovia. He knew very little about his own race or lineage, and hadn't even known his own surname until Madam Eva called him by it. He was enamored with the Vistani, accidentally fell for Ireena, and remained stalwartly determined to prove that Strahd was not a monster but a man under a curse who needed help.
Slowly working through my notes to create a cohesive narrative of Ezra's experiences, which were very therapeutic for me and ultimately went very well, all things considered.
The Tome of Ezra (Anno Viatoris)
A few campaign snippets, art, and other things can be found under #Ezra Sunstar. Currently in the midst of Descent into Avernus as an epilogue/sequel to our CoS campaign, so Ezra's not done yet!
Original/Related Works
Someday...
A retelling of Cinderella, featuring Dracula as the prince, rife with influences from Slavic folklore.
Post-Dracula, Lord Godalming funds the asylum run by his husband Dr. Seward, where they investigate the paranormal influences underlying many of their wards' issues. A young man admits his college friend, Victor Frankenstein, who raves about a creature he created from the dead.
I write personal essays and suchthelike, too: #Lamour Stories
Creative Writing Advice
In college, I studied both creative writing and technical writing, with an emphasis in editing and the publishing industry. I learned enough to know that it's a tough industry to get into commercially, but some of the tricks I've learned have nonetheless been helpful in my private life and hobbies, too.
Creative writing tips will be hosted exclusively on my ko-fi page, but I'll post previews here to let you know when a new one drops. They're over there to encourage you to "take a penny, leave a penny" as it were, but at least the first several advice articles of this nature will be entirely free to read.
About Me
Creative Process
I studied studio arts in high school, and writing in college. Self-taught costume historian. I'm gearing up for the possibility of going back to school for an MFA. I think it would be pretty cool to be a creative writing professor.
I love when people make things. I love craft and story and folklore. I think people should make things they love. I'll reblog things that resonate.
Publications
Check out Wishbone Words, a magazine made by and for disabled creatives. My original short story "Skull Cave" is part of Issue 12!
Coming Soon! - Enchanted Living magazine's Summer 2024 issue will feature another original short story, "Flowers for Hannedy".
Demographics
I'm 29, married, and was only recently diagnosed autistic. Genderqueer (they/them to creatures of authority, but my fellow plebians are invited make it up as you go). I very much enjoy thou/thee/thy/thine second-person singular pronouns.
My middle name is love, and I am an icorrigible romantic.
♡ Lamour
#intro post#constantly evolving post#lamour stories#lamour dms cos#stralek#alek gwilym#ezra sunstar#this seems relevant#lamour's asylum wip
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Badly Summarized WIP Campaign Tag
thank you for the tag, @illarian-rambling! 😊
Rules: Summarize your WIP in 15 bullet points, but do it badly
we're gonna do my Curse of Strahd campaign for this because i immediately had some ideas about what some of the bullet points would be, and this is a great way to vague about some of the wackier (and nastier) moments in the campaign that i haven't gotten around to actually talking about yet! :D
so without further ado:
The horse is a lie, the house is a lie, and even the pie is a fucking lie (Welcome to Barovia)
Cerris and Ireena think they're in a romantic adventure comedy, but actually this is a gothic horror story
We promise to help an old lady die in exchange for getting our fortunes told
The valiant Valessha's amazing disappearing act
The bromance/love triangle begins
Just kidding, the bromance was also a lie and now Strahd has Ireena and Valaki has fallen and everything is on fire and it's All Our Fault
A cornfield full of teeth
The Abbot doesn't ask for medical consent, but he does ask for a wedding dress
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is
AITA for adopting a child instead of trying to rescue an acquaintance from the bag of holding pocket dimension?
Once you get over how terrifyingly uncanny everything about her is, it turns out that the Abbot's flesh golem is actually a pretty cool person
What do you mean Cerris has family in Barovia? No, you can't call on Cerris to fulfill a blood oath his Barovian family made to Daddy Eldritch 400 years ago, that's not fair!
Can't have shit in Barovia. Not even hair.
If you invade the dreams of a guy who's currently possessed by the vengeful ghost of your little brother for no other reason than to flirtatiously taunt the guy, does that count as incest?
Shalden is weirdly okay with the fact that his god is actually the leader of the capitalist hags, but that's probably the mind control talking
aaaaaaand that's where we were when this campaign had to go on hiatus!
this was a lot of fun to write; thanks again to illarian-rambling for the tag! i will leave this as an open tag for anyone to do, but i especially encourage other Curse of Strahd players/DMs to try summarizing their campaigns like this so we can all sit and compare notes 😈
#tag game#badly summarized wip#writblr#writeblr#ttrpg stories#curse of strahd#curse of strahd homebrew#original post#if any of these bullet points sound especially intriguing to you#feel free to send an ask about it and i can tell the full (abridged) story
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Ayyyyye Silas is back! Oh? A gift? From resident rat bastard Count Strahd von Zarovich? A gift that definitely has no strings attached and probably won't come back to haunt our boy Silas, hm? :3 But in all seriousness I would love to hear how your Curse of Strahd game is going, and anything you feel comfortable sharing about Silas's backstory. I always love hearing about people's dnd characters!
Hello!!! AAA thank you so much for asking, I could ramble on about our Curse of Strahd campaign and about Silas forever but I'll try and keep it concise!
As for Silas's backstory, I can say that he was raised in Balder's Gate by his very controlling single mother who has munchausen by proxy. Meaning that she made Silas believe he was very sick in order to keep him trapped in their dilapidated home. He was so weak that he was unable to walk for many years of his life and secretly practiced every time his mother left the house.
When Silas was a teenager he discovered a secret room filled with old spell books and wizard materials that he believed belonged to his absent father. He secretly taught himself magic over the years. When he reached his 20s he finally discovered that his mother had been feeding him poisons to keep him sick, so he decided to escape his house for the very first time.
As for our Curse of Strahd Campaign [Possible spoilers for the campaign setting ahead], we're 6 sessions in and we're currently causing problems in Vallaki hahaha.
The gift came from a dream where Silas spoke directly with Strahd for the first time. Silas was surprised at how forthcoming Strahd was with answering his questions, as well as the level of respect Strahd treated him with. He offered a gift, pouring his own blood over a spell book Silas had been struggling to open since the beginning of the campaign. It allowed him to finally open and examine the pages which has led to some huge revelations about his fathers identity.
Silas decided not to tell the party about this dream, which lasted all but one day when his horrible deception skills spilled that he'd spoken with Strahd. This caused a massive argument. He was also extremely embarrassed when Rictavio examined the spell book and removed a scrying spell that was attached to it.
He's already extremely paranoid that the party finds him weird and is also skeptical and scared about this interaction with Strahd. Out of everyone in the party Silas is absolutely the most insecure and easiest to manipulate so I'm very excited to see where this could lead.
Fun Silas Facts
Silas has really terrible social skills mixed with the arrogance of someone who reads a lot of books which results in a lot of very funny interactions.
We have this ongoing joke where Silas cannot look Ireena in the eye and is so awkward everytime he speaks with her.
Silas has had a habit of levitating the elderly to get out of problems. If you're a Barovian man over 50 you better watch out because you're getting levitated.
Silas does not know how exactly old he is as his mother repeated his birthdays multiple years in a row. To quote Silas "Everyone turns 12 at least 4 times"
Silas has taken a very keen interest in Victor Vallakovich seeing as he's the only other wizard he's ever met before and it's resulted in Silas showing up outside his bedroom window at 3am to ask if he wants to compare notes. The rest of the party are not a fan of Victor and are not happy about this dynamic.
Thank you so much for asking about Silas and for giving me an opportunity to share more about him! If people would like to hear more about what has happened so far in our game I'd be happy to answer more questions about that! (Please no spoilers for the campaign setting) There will absolutely be more art from this campaign coming soon!
#Curse of Strahd#dnd#dungeons and dragons#Curse of Strahd campaign#Silas#silas shaw#Strahd#d&d#Babes in the Woods#curse of strahd spoilers
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Notable Paladins of the Morninglord Currently Training in Lunamire
There are approximately 53 paladins in training in the barracks of Lunamire. Of these, six are in the player characters' relative age group and experience level.
Celestian Dionisie Balauru
Celestian Dionisie Balauru, a devoted Paladin of the Morninglord, emerges from the lineage of lesser nobles, his path marked by valor and faith. Aged 19, his youth belies a wisdom beyond his years. Guided by his unshakable devotion, Celestian wields his blade gracefully, defending the righteous and standing sentinel against darkness. Born of noble blood, he rejected complacency, choosing instead a life of purpose. His resolute spirit is matched only by his unwavering belief in justice, a beacon of light amidst the shadows. Celestian champions the Morninglord's cause with each step, a steadfast guardian of hope and virtue. When not training, he studies ancient history, legends, and lore. An avid bibliophile, he often borrows books from the ex-Burgomaster's Taddeus' library. Consequently, he also appears to have a romantic interest in his daughter, Laffira.
Costi Negrescu
Costi Negrescu, a paladin serving the Morning Lord, possesses a unique path forged by fate's hand. Aged 23, his journey began as a thief in the bustling market of Vallaki. He was caught stealing and was about to lose both hands when a paladin intervened on his behalf. Costi was so grateful that he became a squire and eventually trained as a knight. Costi loves to drink, climb trees, and play pranks. Best friends with Zaaida. Nicknamed "Drunken Costi."
Ivan Devaux
Ivan Devaux, an earnest paladin-in-training at the Temple of the Morning Lord, hails from a quiet village on the outskirts of the enigmatic Barovia. Aged 17, his path is illuminated by faith and the dawning light. Amidst the temple's teachings, he finds solace in wielding polearms, a unique skill he's honed with dedication. Beyond his martial pursuits, Ivan's heart thrives in the gentle art of sketching the swamps' elusive wildlife, capturing their essence on parchment. A lover of still waters, he often retreats to the tranquil shores, casting lines and embracing the harmony of fishing. Ivan's soul is woven with the threads of art, devotion, and valor. Good friends with Spurio, they often wander the wilderness together.
Zaaida el-Barakat
Zaaida el-Barakat, a steadfast Paladin of the Morninglord, carries the radiant mantle of hope. Aged 24 and of Terg origin, she was orphaned during the war and taken in by the church. Her bond with fellow brothers-at-arms is resolute, yet at times, she grapples with dejection–always an outsider in Barovian culture. She has begun penning a chronicle of the war, jotting down any and all stories of battles, victories, and Terg defeats. She has taught several paladins the Terg language. One of five female trainees among the ranks. Best friends with Costi.
Vlad Basti Rosen
Vlad Basti Rosen, a determined paladin-in-training at the Temple of the Morning Lord, was orphaned in the crucible of war. Aged 20, his spirit is tempered by the loss of his family yet ignited by his faith. Amidst rigorous training, he excels in spirited athletic contests, channeling his boundless energy into feats of strength. A connoisseur of baked delights, his heart finds comfort in the village's array of confections. Vlad's two-weapons fighting style is superb, a testament to his dedication. Yet, his most profound secret lies in his unspoken love for Elena the Baker.
Gavril Herrlein
Gavril Herrlein, a seasoned paladin-in-training at the Temple of the Morning Lord, is the group's elder statesman at 35. His age belies his tenacity, often guiding the youngest with his accumulated wisdom. A familiar figure in the training yard, he engages in wooden sword sparring sessions, honing his and others' skills. Talkative and mild-mannered, though occasionally veering into pessimism, Gavril's words carry a wealth of experience. A veteran of the latter days of the war, haunting nightmares are the remnants of his battles. Through it all, his unwavering dedication to the light remains a beacon for those he mentors. Gavril lost his wife in the war and fell to despair, eventually turning to the church for guidance.
Alex Drijus Von Vollis
Alex Drijus Von Vollis, a young paladin-in-training at the Temple of the Morning Lord, is the tenth child of a noble house, sent to the church for reform. At 16, his fiery temper clashes with the teachings of the Morninglord. Yet, his compassion for animals and dedication to swordsmanship shine through. Struggling with arrogance and violence, he's faced oaths of silence as punishment. While his skills and potential are evident, his probationary status casts uncertainty on his future as a paladin. Alex has an apparent dislike for Spurio, Zaaida, and Darius.
Spurio Bedirhan
Spurio Bedirhan was left at the church's steps in Vallaki by his Vistani parents. Once orphaned, he was educated by the church and sent to train in Lunamire. Now aged 18, he wields two shortswords with remarkable dexterity, favoring supple leather over clunky metal armor. His faith is unwavering, demonstrated through earnest meditation and fervent prayers. Beyond the training grounds, Spurio loves to dance, play music, weave tales, and forage for medicinal herbs and berries. His youth belies his dedication and aptitude as he navigates the dual paths of combat and spirituality, driven by a profound sense of purpose. Spurio is extremely attractive and more than one of the young women in town has shown romantic interest. He seems oblivious.
Luca Ciprian Ionesco
Luca Ciprian Ionesco, inseparable from his best friend Darius, stands out with his wiry frame among the paladins. Despite being the least physically endowed in his age group, he endures training's beating with determination. A farmer's son from Krezk's outskirts, his strong work ethic shines. Luca's heart bursts with love for Alara, though she scarcely notices him. His passion for throwing daggers and crafting them complements his hardworking nature.
Darius Qhudihe Shrabomos
Darius Qhudihe Shrabomos, a product of divergent lineage, bears the mark of being half Terg, half-drow. Rescued from the clutches of a roving Vistani circus, where he was grotesquely exhibited as a cannibalistic anomaly, fate led him to the church's embrace. Education and training under the church's tutelage now pave the path of his redemption as a paladin serving the Morninglord – a sardonic twist of fate he keenly feels. Daylight poses a challenge, causing him to seek sanctuary within the abbey's subterranean recesses. Suspicion and prejudice from villagers shroud his attempts at camaraderie, yet his commitment and trustworthiness have endeared him to his peers in the barracks. Sir Brandak champions inclusion and will not stand for the lesser treatment of Darius. Luca is his closest ally. Twenty years of age, Darius hones his scimitar skills under Spurio's guidance, finding solace in astronomy–a discipline that favors night. He embodies the distinctive appearance of his people – stark white hair, pointed ears, and a dark brown complexion. Darius, who speaks Terg, Drowish, and Vistani, profoundly resents the Vistani, especially the Corvara Boemians. Some of the young women in town are curious and intrigued by Darius but too afraid to talk to him.
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A Vampire and a Ghost
A starter for the lovely @walkingshcdow who I’m so excited to roleplay with!
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There were distinct downsides to being dead, and monotony was one of them. This was the thought that passed through Alek Gwilym’s mind as he passed down one of the many long corridors of Castle Ravenloft for what had to be the hundredth time that day.
Without realizing it, he had ended up floating along the same path he used to patrol when alive in his days as castle steward. Despite the time that had passed, he didn’t have to think too hard on it to imagine the hustle and bustle of servants dashing through the corridors to get some parcel where it needed to be, or to be assigned the unluckiest impossible task of dusting the place.
This castle had not seen such liveliness in centuries, and being bound to its walls Alek wondered if the outside world knew of that liveliness of the past as well or if for them too, it was lost to time. Given the rumors that he had heard murmured by the occasional Barovian mob who dared to enter the castle, or the righteous insults delivered by a pack of gung-ho adventurer’s dead set on murdering Strahd - he doubted it. Everything in this land, just like his lord had become weary and depressing.
If he were alive, perhaps he could abate such feelings with the sensation of alcohol tickling his brain and warming his bones, but the dead got no such luxuries. Should he ever have the chance, the ability to appreciate a bottle of wine like he used to would be first on the long list of things that he yearned to experience again.
The thought crossed his mind of going into Rahadin’s office and blowing his paper’s off of his desk while he was working, just to watch his puzzlement and annoyance as he had to pick them all up, and he let out a soft chuckle. Of course, no one had been able to see him since the day that he died, and the dusk elf would likely haven’t a clue how a breeze got into the lower levels of the keep. Then again - far stranger things had happened in this castle than a mysterious breeze so it was more likely that the current chamberlain wouldn't think too much about it and would simply go back to working while in a worse mood than before.
It wasn’t worth the trouble in the end, but he desperately wished for something to break his silence, and in doing so crafted all sorts of fun little pranks to play on the current residents here. He understood now why poltergeists were always portrayed as such troublemakers in stories, because in an eternity of solitude you became desperate for absolutely anyone to notice you. Truly, this was a hell of its own design.
Alek had never been a pious man, and in the past he had often wondered that if he had maybe prayed a little more often, then maybe he wouldn’t have been stuck here in this form.
No. This was a punishment for staying silent. For falling in line despite his own beliefs.
He stayed far too silent on his objections to Strahd’s wish to study the darkest part of the arcane, and he stayed silent on how he truly felt about him.
Strahd von Zarovich had his curse, and this was Alek Gwilym’s.
Now, every day he had to see the face of his king, general, and the man whom he had secretly loved look straight through him. To not notice that he was here, and in fact, had never left.
He was in the study now where Strahd was quietly working. It was one of the spots in the Castle where if looking, Alek always seemed to be able to find him. He perched himself on the back of one of the lounge chairs, his weightless form not indicating it at all as he stared unabashedly at Strahd with a distinct longing.
The once man-now vampire had remained the same for centuries. Visually anyway… Ever since Alek’s murder, Strahd’s skin had turned a deathly pale and where his ears were once round, now they came to an almost elven point. The most prominent change was -
He wanted to look at his fangs, but ended up fixating on his lips - those damnable lips that he should have kissed forever ago, now drawn into a thin line of concentration as he sat writing there at his desk.
Slipping silently off of his spot atop the chair, Alek floated to him, putting out a hand as if to touch them, knowing full well that even if he could make contact that he wouldn’t feel it and neither would Strahd.
“What have we become, my lord?” He whispered softly, looking down at the other man with a sad smile. “Just a couple of old fools lost in our curses. What I wouldn’t give for just a single day that was like old times.”
With a sad sigh, he sunk down, folding his arms across the desk, and with nothing else to do, he watched with a reminiscent wistfulness as Strahd worked.
#Here you are friend#i made this blog just for you#also i will just put all of my lovely commentary in the tags#<33333#Story: a vampire and a ghost#muse: alek gwilym
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Some self-indulgent barely-coherent OC A/B/O AU thoughts from 1:30am last night, yes sorry I am nominally into this horny garbage, if you don’t know what A/B/O is don’t google it on a work computer:
Storm kings: I got attached to the idea of Theseus as an alpha who for some reason was incapable of going into rut (and lacked “normal” instinctual alpha aggression) long before we found out what his canon deal was, and the way that tracks with him being not a true alpha but an imperfect clone of one fuckin hits. (Theseus is perpetually SUPER relieved he doesn't turn meathead when he's angry or horny like some alphas tend to.) I always loved the idea of Theseus helping Marin (and eventually an extremely peeved Rekhein) through their breakthrough heats not sexually, but just by being a soothing presence— in my A/B/O lore I really like the idea that the scent/ close attention/ nonsexual physical touch of an alpha helps with a heat as much as sex with one. Rekhien would find cuddling with Theseus while miserably horny almost more mortifying than just fucking him, but Marin insists it isn’t weird, and none of them have boundaries with each other anymore anyway, and it DOES help, so whatever. The stormchasers give off huge polycule energy despite none of them sleeping together (canon).
Speaking of Rekhien, he’s an omega who disguises his scent and passes for Beta for most of the campaign, because male omegas sometimes get dunked on/ disrespected for it. It’s Marin who ferrets him out and eventually convinces him not to hide it anymore— and she’s correct that they’re powerful enough by that point for it not to matter. Marin is an omega who magically becomes an alpha when she becomes Voc Rocsha— designations work a little differently for the people of the purple rocks, given that they’re not bound by the same biological rules as most species; I sort of imagine that the current Voc Rocsha is the only alpha of her tribe at any point. (I don’t ascribe to reproductive organs/ designation correlation, FWIW/ this is a non-mpreg-focused set of worldbuilding choices, sorry. But we do have mating/ claiming bites because those are hot.)
She’s worried Kitro (alpha) won’t be as interested in her now that she’s not an omega, but he doesn’t care what she is and doesn’t understand why she thinks he would. Drow, it turns out, tend to be very designation-pairing agnostic compared to some surface cultures that lionize alpha/omega couplings.
And Phyn is a beta. The most beta beta to ever normie alongside his hormone-riddled friends.
COS: if your strahd is an omega, you are so correct and valid, but in our game, strahd is an extremely typical alpha, and as I would write a full AU, Barovia has what could be considered some regressive collective beliefs about designations. (Tatyana as an omega and her choosing beta Sergei over alpha Strahd would have made him sooooooooo mad, it's too juicy not to do.) I have always loved the idea of Ismark (omega! which is obviously one of the reasons people don’t respect him) pulling teddy aside in the manor like, ‘hey, just so you know, I know what we are isn’t a big deal where you come from, but here you need to be careful. It’s good that you’re traveling with two alphas so people won't mess with you.’
Hot take! One of those alphas is Nim. Nim has a strong presence and a huge streak of stoic self-sufficiency that screams alpha to me. more importantly, it makes her abandoning her human family that much more fucked up, and is another layer to the maternal abandonment baggage that Borakov takes SUPER personally, as he buys in hard to the alpha-as-protector cultural messaging (which is probably a Barovian thing much more than an elf thing, to be fair to Nim)
Rahadin is a beta, but has some very weird and yikes ideas about designation and social hierarchy— as far as he’s concerned, part of Strahd’s absolute right to rule is simply that he’s The Strongest Alpha. Rahadin isn’t sexuaally interested in omegas because they “need” alphas, which he’s very matter of fact about not being, and Betas are fine, but what he really gets off on is putting “undeserving” alphas in their place. Hence his initial thing for being mean in a horny way to Nim, world’s least trad alpha. And if he's developing bigger feelings, well, maybe Rahadin can have a little unresolved cognitive dissonance about nim's alpha qualities (better than initially assessed, possibly leadership material) vs how much he likes domming her, as a treat.
Teddy and Borakov are, regrettably, the most obvious m/f alpha/omega trad-gender-shit-on-steroids heterosexual nonsense pairing ever committed to fiction. Just extremely classic territorial scenting protective horny bullshit. Sorry to everyone in Barovia.
Teddy goes into heat halfway through the campaign, in vallaki (she’s about four months out from her last dose of military-grade suppressants and hasn’t had a heat since she presented as a teenager, so it’s not pretty). Ismark kicks Borakov out of the entire building when it becomes obvious what’s happening. Strahd can’t get to her for some contrived reason but is sending her dreams telling her to leave the inn where she’s holed up to come find her alpha— unfortunately for Strahd, as far as her addled little brain is concerned, Borakov is her alpha. She sneaks out and finds Bork at the burgomaster’s manor and moves the Bork/ teddy sexual timeline up significantly. Everyone else is baffled that heat!teddy managed to secretly engineer her way out of the upper floor window of the inn while barely able to stand upright, but getting laid is a powerful motivator. For convoluted emotional reasons, Borakov refuses to claiming-bite her ~for her own good, which teddy takes very personally and becomes one of the reasons she later agrees to marry strahd, who is clear that he DEFINITELY wants to bite her for MULTIPLE reasons (and does).
Denethor is a beta. The consorts are a random assortment of designations. Doru is an omega and Miranda is a beta. Ez is a beta, Ireena an alpha, Kasimir an alpha but In An Elf Way. Van richten is drenched in suppressants and scent blockers, so good luck figuring that one out. The soulless inhabitants of Barovia don’t have designations— not even beta. They have no scents at all, which is unnerving.
Inspired by a Six of Crows ABO fic with really great worldbuilding, I was at one point brainstorming world-specific terms for "alpha" and "omega"-- I had loosely settled on "Volk" and "Ovechka" which translate to wolf and lamb in "old barovian". who doesn't love a hunting/ consumption motif for relationships in vampireland!
World torn: safiya is an alpha. Bo is a beta. Faraday is an omega and on some very strong magical suppressants. I go back and forth on tailor but I think I’d go with beta (but attracts so many omegas to his orbit you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise). Chess is an omega and slutty about it but extremely proficient in designation-fuckery magic— ever wanted to try being an alpha? They have something for that behind the bar at Cerise.
Brin is an omega. Most of the jacks officers are alphas. Nera Thorn was a beta who wore the most ghastly fake alpha scent you can imagine. Designations can affect how you get treated in some planes— fae tend to favor omegas and are more prone to tricking alphas, for example.
Unearthed remnants: Sev is a robot, so he does not have a designation. Clay is a beta (though depending on how his deal shakes out, I might make him an alpha who's disguising himself as a beta to support his 'bland' persona. I am not entirely convinced 'clay' is even his real name in actual canon) Aster is an omega and thinks the whole thing is stupid. Eon is a beta and Trollack is an alpha.
the end, if you read all this, wow, I am really impressed and sorry
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how did someone get away with playing someone from Barovia? seems like it would really fuck with the module or give the player unnecessary knowledge or metagaming power :/
love your blog though lol everyone else is so cute!
Thanks for the question!
Here are what the two in question have to say;
(yardyarm who plays Constantin) For starters, I had this discussion with the DM long before the game started and backstory, prior knowledge and anything that might otherwise be construed as metagaming was discussed, and as she’ll hopefully attest I’ve often checked in to ensure what Constantin knows makes sense. I’m normally a forever DM and have run CoS enough times that I have nightmares about running certain parts of it. I’ve even analyzed the module to the core for a spaghetti western rewrite called Spurs of Strahd. Constantin being a Barovian was initially meant to be a bit of a buffer to prevent accidental metagame slips IF THEY HAPPENED - not to enable it.
So, yeah. Constantin is a Barovian from Argynvostholt with a soul and motivations against Strahd. He’s more than a ‘metagame enabler’ and I resent the accusation as well as the implication of ‘everyone else being cute’ - constantin is goddamn adorable. Motherfucker.
What the DM (mysticmothi) had to say:
I will say that I as the Dungeon Mother, am not running Curse of Strahd 100% raw out of the book! I LOVE homebrew and currently I am running about 50/50 raw versus my own works. I have basically entirely rewritten a lot of the Forgotten Realms Faerun AND Barovia for my own pleasure lmao. So the possibility for metagaming is immediately cut in half! The fun part about being the God of this campaign is that my word is the final word, and only I can say whether or not something is true. In addition to that, even my truths are only viewed through the perception of my PCs. Another fun thing is that I am a master improvisor. Woah, I got a player who knows there is gonna be an ancient red dragon beneath the castle and in-game they are suspiciously trying to amass water-based weapons and magic? WHABAM suddenly the dragon is actually silver and now they know not to pull that on me. I have changed enough that I am fully prepared to pull the rug out from under anyone who tries to run MY game by trying to go behind my back, especially since that ruins the fun that is D&D! I am all-seeing, all omniscient, nothing can hide from my many, many keen eyes.
That being said, I do see why many dms advise against a Barovian PC. If I ever dm another CoS campaign, I'm probably going to not have one! The metagaming isn't even a problem for me, I think it's more that the PC then has a pre-disposition to not like Strahd that occurs BEFORE the game begins, instead of their opinion developing as we play. And for me as a storyteller, it makes me have to pivot in my approaches to some things! Just a little hindsight thing I am stowing for later games I may dm.
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With Rahadin's marching orders on Vallaki divined by Alkali, there was just one thing left to do: prepare to murder an elf.
Alkali immediately got to work with setting Forbiddance across the town again and discovered the Martikovs had left the Inn in the care of Glita and Gaetor — the local general store owners who Alkali had previously married — while they took care of Family Business.
We grabbed some of Gaetor's egg mess breakfast (the halfling cannot cook yeesh), and whole lot of us joined the Newly Weds™ at their weird pocket fortress they stole from Kalina's attic.
Things needed to get done and we had to game plan - there were so many plans, also we looked over things we'd been stockpiling over the last few weeks.
Lots to do, not nearly enough time. But at least Bandit was vibing.
Before we split up, an octopus floated through the sky towards us. Taron learned new warlock things! Woo! But he was telling us things were ROUGH™ underwater with dead things pounding on their doors. Less Woo.
I sent a Sending to a merfolk vampire we has scared off — his name is Ricardo — and told them if they wanted to prove themselves, to protect the Sanctuaries from the outside. They were Not Thrilled™ but said they'd try. It was the best we could offer the lake until other things were dealt with.
Meanwhile, Tanner, somehow, being the face?? had a few more people to go check in on.
Lady Wachter for one and trying to explain to her that Holtz was Strahd was Something™ APPARENTLY Strahd is just TOO BUSY to meet his people, so she's never actually seen him before.
Busy my ass.
But she was shook enough to maybe believe it, and Tanner made sure she knew what was at stake and what would happen if she turned on us. Then he popped off to the wizard elves who were a little magic hung over in their home-shack (we sort of shoved them in Bluto's old place since he was fish food and Alkali doesn't like the elves anyway).
Kasimir did not want to believe there were People in the lake, and also was not convinced Alkali isn't a man-eating Sahuagin based on Tanner's descriptions on the creatures that terrorized the merfolk prior to Strahd picking up that mantle. But alas, they were warned Rahadin was coming.
Alkali meanwhile took care of updating a very tired Ismark on both the whole Rahadin thing and the whole 'btw two of your council people just got married' thing. Not sure what concerned him more. But he did promise to get her a drink after this and she's holding him to it.
While Tanner had more individual stops to make, she checked the walls, trying to get an idea of what waited for them outside and also told some guards to shove their fucking racism because there were definitely more dead peasants than Vistani out there.
But she DID see an unfortunately familiar Vistani corpse out there.
But the Newly Weds had some Frostwhispers to share the news with, and probably good to do that before war hit the town more so right? So to House Frostwhisper they went.
Faraga was cackling outside and chucking bottled storms at the house to taunt Ethel - Tanner wanted her to bring water to the town... so she got Weird about it. But points for creativity!
Inside, Papa Frostwhisper was shocked by news, a little sad he didn't get to see it, but happy for them. Also terrified for Tanner. GG. Grand/Mother-in-Law Ethel is a nightmare and he welcomed Tanner into the family, but also maybe advised him to run a little
They found Ethel using her current model boy toy to move mechanical bits around for her in her she-shed-workshop out on the grounds. SHE actually made the pump system Tanner was looking for.
Ethel being... Ethel. Did not accept that her ""fAiLuRe"" granddaughter had gotten married. Insisted this was a stupid prank. To which Kalina kissed Tanner to shut up her grandmother, and then dragged him out onto the street.
Grandmother was v angy but Tanner was proud.
Some of out friends had been out looking for supplies or bringing Tanner's things from the Inn to the Fortress, and so the two got to work as soon as they got back - artificers, man, they never stop.
But as the Clerics were rejoining the party.... war horns started to sound...
Rahadin had entered the chat.
With a force of 40~ and 2 fucking undead cyclops behind him, Rahadin had come to Vallaki.
And his grotesque little shouty friend was decreeing they were here to arrest Arabelle on grounds of treason. Like that was going to happen.
Tanner launched a paper bird with a wanted sign for Strahd saying we were investigating him on the grounds of impersonating a noble, but weirdly, that's a charge they didn't care about. So he launched a cold mold bomb at the shouty boi
See Tanner's built these horrific cold mold bombs that just CHASE open flames and do massive cold damage. And when Rowan shot a little bit of fire at it... That shouty bastard did not know what hit him.
Rahadin sent the cyclops forward, prepared to take down our walls, and Alkali simply said No to that, Turning Undead and sending both cyclops fleeing. And you know, Rahadin's not a happy fellow, but it SEEMED like that wasn't how he wanted that to go. Huh. Weird.
Tanner gave us all fly and we took the fucking fight to them, He put up an ice wall around Rahadin, sectioning him off from his army, and Alkali saw her chance.
See Alkali is a siren sort. She guards the ships that sink and she does not save sailors. She makes sure they go down with her ships.
And Rahadin... Rahadin wanted to drain a lake to catch a fish.
She didn't like that.
Rahadin fell, quickly. And one critical hit from our lady elven cleric he'd been quite rude to and one failed save and Rahadin was down.
... his cohorts didn't super want to leave it at that thoogh and called a fucking Undead Dragon down from the skies.
So for under a minute in real time (lol combat) there were two fights going on:
Tanner, Kalina, Mina, and Rowan were all focused on the FUCKING DRAGON.
Alkali and Arabelle focused on taking out the leadership that kept trying to reach Rahadin's body.
See I was going to make sure this genocidal dusk elf stayed DEAD.
And then the amazing happened...
Arabelle managed to counterspell a Revivify on Rahadin.
But the priestess was up to something. Something... I as the party cleric was intimately familiar with.
Y'all its rude to use your player's abilities against them!
The evil priestess got some Intervention. And while her god gave her some UMF, she still had to cast it again. Unfortunately for her, she was right in Sunbeam path and that second revivify never went off. Tragic.
Free diamond though!
Meanwhile, the dragon was doing some fucking damage, it hit like a fucking truck. But Kalina is a paladin now and she slammed some SMITES into those bones. The guards at the gate got to watch their councilwoman just DESTROY a dragon, it was beautiful.
And as the dust settled, Alkali lifted Rahadin's corpse from the field and flew up with it as she and Tanner addressed the army.
Rahadin was dead. Their dragon destroyed. Revaluate. Do you surrender or leave?
One of them got mouthy, so Tanner fire bolted their trebuchet...
...and we returned to the wall to a fucking sea of applause.
They were still concerned about the whole undead army thing outside, but we just cleared out hundreds of them, a dragon, and RAHADIN.
Instant Morale Boost.
Also: Rahadin's in a bag of holding!
That's always fun.
Over lunch, Alkali debated whether she was going to Animate him (SO TEMPTING. SHE REALLY WANTED TO SIC RAHADIN ON STRAHD OKAY) or do the sMaRt thing and funeral rite/curse him so he can't come back. She'd have to think on it more.
#barovian currents#dnd#curse of strahd#yes yes i know#drown is HELLA overpowered#but i made a deal with the DM to use it responsibly#it could only target breathing opponents anyway#so strahds off the table#butttttttt -eye emoji- she had her target planned anyway
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A bunch of sketches for our current DnD campaign, mostly about my beloved NPC bards
1- Wilhelm, a cute NPC bartender whom I’m romancing. Sweetest man. My ray of sunshine. I’d kill for him both as a player and a character. And our cat, Mr. Whiskey.
2 - The three of bards: Wilhelm, Dorian (former PC, you might remember him from my Barovian post), and Davil Starsong (homebrewed and in a new fancy outfit). They are childhood friends and kinda a found family, and it’s killing me every goddamn time. Also, I got an inspiration point for their boots being so unique and personality-revealing :D
3 - My PC Marcella and disguised Dorian gossip about Wilhelm, because YOUR HONOR HE’S CUTE. Few words about Dorian’s dress: our DM described the classy evening dress with a side cutout and a deep neckline, but I still wanted it to have a Renaissance style, so now he wears this kinda-Renaissance gown with a side cutout and asymmetrical thing-that-is-supposed-to-be-giornea-but-im-not-sure-anymore
4 - we agreed that this cursed emoji represents Marcella quite well, so I did a redraw
5-6 - quick NPC sketch portraits
#dnd#dnd npc#waterdeep#waterdeep dragon heist#Davil Starsong#Marcella Matsovets#Dorian#Wilhelm#mr Whiskey#digital sketch#artist on tumblr#dungeons and drawings#they are so cute#goddamit why are they so cute#i'm dying every now and then#our DM once asked me about the outfits of the trio#and I wrote a goddamn essay#and that's how I got that inspirational point
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what is ophelia's basic backstory? she was a bride of strahd, yea?
The better question is what ISNT Ophelia’s backstory. The fun thing about Barovia is that if you’re from there you’ve been reincarnating for 550 years with no fucking clue who you used to be 💖
Ophelia’s original backstory when I first made her for a cos game that never got off the ground in 2018 was only a chunk (that I’ve modified since) of what her backstory is now but the original concept was: fantasy catholic lesbian gets turned into a vampire and loses her #chosen one best friend she was in love with and only survives because of her. Now goes on a revenge trip to kill the person that murdered Luce and turned her— Strahd.
So. Parts of that stuck. The big part that’s changed from that is originally Luce was just dead dead and it was a shorter period of time between when the campaign was happening / when ophelia was turned. When i got the chance to play cos again I had decided <3 no happy ending <3 and so i moved some stuff around.
We start playing. And quickly in i start having to change the way I’m thinking about ophelia because of the way i grew as a dnd player and the way i ended up playing her. My DM and I are very good friends and bounce off of each other really well at the table and we quickly realized that whatever the fuck vibe was going on with Ophelia and Strahd after their first interaction was NOT what we thought it was
So, i went “you know what I’ve never thought about besides for the purpose of Luce being back now wherever she is ( I Did Not Know <3)? Reincarnation” so after the second session of cos Ophelia’s backstory had a major patch update.
Current ophelia backstory in the quickest terms is
First Life (550ish) years prior) Ophelia’s family were luthiers, she ran away and joined the militia still fighting Strahd, BAILED because uh, war sucks, and met Luce, a very closed off and frustrated nun in a priory to Lathander, and eventually got executed for desertion. Meeting Ophelia and her execution is what sent Luce down the path of following who she wants to be.
Bride Era (350-300ish? Somewhere in there) Ophelia’s third life, the youngest daughter of the Wachter family with very low prospects, terrible self esteem, and a talent for playing and composing music on the cello. Attracts Strahd’s attention because of their shared love of music, cue whirlwind romance that is totally normal and she ends up marrying Strahd and was with her for 35 years. Luce rolls up, a bold paladin exploring castle Ravenloft, meets Ophelia and basically is like. Girl. Your marriage is fucked. They fall in love. It gets complicated. Luce gets #murdered, Ophelia is reeled into staying with Strahd for a bit after but she becomes increasingly harder to manipulate and eventually they get into an argument where Ophelia is so adamant about leaving, Strahd doesn’t know what to do and pushes her out a window. Goodbye wife!
Sometime in between Luce has a life as St. Andral 🥴
Ward Era (75-80ish years prior) Ophelia and Luce grow up as wards of the Barovian church, close as can be, Luce starts getting that Sunny Sunny Magic and is put under a lot of pressure to succeed but its pressure she’s willing to take. Ophelia cannot seem to form any connection to Lathander no matter how hard she tries and it further effects her sense of self worth. Luce starts traveling with a party of adventurers from outside of Barovia; Ophelia stays in Barovia and is a woodcutter. When they’re about 27-29ish (I’m allergic to solid timelines), Luce’s party is back in Barovia and she tells Ophelia they’re going to Ravenloft to try to kill Strahd lol. Ofc, Ophelia’s not going to let her do that alone. It goes about as well as you think it would— particularly when Strahd sees that its Ophelia and Luce. Luce is disintegrated and Ophelia gets tossed out a window (three pointer!!! 💃����) and survives the fall to become a vampire because Luce gave her her holy symbol & cast death ward on her.
Woods era! (50 to current) Ophelia spends a few decades in the woods with absolutely no help trying to figure out navigating being a vampire and is having a fucking terrible time. She didn’t really know exactly how long she had been alone in the woods until she met the party because half of the time she wasn’t really herself. This is when she got her mask : ) that is now shattered : ( / some point in the latter half luce gets reincarnated and has that #divine soul)
Current - ophelia meets the party and gets an anvil dropped on her nearly ever day. She’s doing fine i promise.
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Hello! I wanted to do one of those 'meet the party' introduction posts for PCs and major recurring NPCs. Info below the cut, and best viewed on a blog :D Spoilers beware!
MEET THE PARTY
Robin “Basil” Cantemir (circle of dreams druid/wood half-elf feytouched) (PC) he/him
STATUS: Alive
CONDITIONS: Dark Power (Dahlver-nar)
Cradle-robbed (literal) and forced into fey servitude. Party dad and default party face because no one else is remotely qualified. Romantically involved with Ireena and currently has her as a tooth in his mouth.
Ireena Kolyana (NPC) she/her
STATUS: Deceased
CONDITIONS: is tooth
A sweetheart. Party darling and moral center before her untimely death, undeath, and disintegration. Currently brought back as a tooth in Basil’s mouth.
Vicelinus aka Vice (grave cleric/variant human aka lizard) (PC) he/him
STATUS: Alive
CONDITIONS: none
Wandering holyman and servant of the Raven Queen. Self serving coward turned reluctant protagonist. Major arsonist tendencies. Party healer and part time devout follower (sorry Raven Queen.)
Milivoj (champion fighter/human) (PC) he/him
STATUS: Alive
CONDITIONS: Dark Power (Taar Haak), Dark Power (Tarakamedes)
Barovian and former oniichan. Extremely normal mcnormie normalson when he’s not shaking like a frightened chihuahua or being racist against Vistani. Party tank and Basil’s figurative son.
Roma (gloomstalker ranger/human) (PC) he/him
STATUS: Alive
CONDITIONS: Dark Power (Osybus)
Party dog with anger issues and primary DPS. Raised by wolves and socialized via Fey and it shows. Smells awful.
Maraschino aka Elle aka Kristiana aka Twothka etc. (trickster rogue/changeling) (PC) he/him
STATUS: Deceased
CONDITIONS: Dark Power (Vaund)
Resident carefree prettyboy, wannabe gentleman, and former face of the party. Cluelessly insensitive. Roma’s closest friend in the party before he was consumed by Vaund. Haunts the narrative.
Van Richten (NPC) he/him
STATUS: Alive
Tsundere old man and verified Sadgirl (TM). Roma and Ez’s mentor, and the former’s favorite person ever.
Ez (NPC) she/her
STATUS: Alive
Too cool for the party. Puts “the fool” in “fools go where angels fear to tread.” Roma’s maybe friend and not-girlfriend.
Stella Wachter (Fated Ally) (NPC) she/her
STATUS: Alive
CONDITIONS: Existing (The Stella Condition)
Doing bad! Keeps DDLG-ing the party and giving them psychic damage because of it. Party’s fated ally that they want to teach counterspell to so bad.
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Party doesn't have a group name, but the dynamic is four (formerly five) socially nerfed individuals and one (1) token girl. Practiced situation escalators. Frequent bickering and infighting due to conflicting value differences, stubborn egos, and the general stress of Barovia. Extremely rough around the edges, but through trial and error settled on a tenuous alliance and mutual understanding.
#strahdposting#meet the party#ez#roma#vr#going to add one of those relationship charts to the end at some point :)#real reason i made those portraits was because i wanted to do this LOL#full party! full party! gangs all here :)
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Session 43
Session doc
Session folder
May contain spoilers for the dnd campaign Curse of Strahd, read at your own risk!
Ghostbusters
We begin in the study. There is a lot of table talk about what the next move is. Bedlam is hoping that they can use the lightning rail carriage to zip around barovia to do some tasks really quick. They consider whether or not they should start working on the ritual to cure Vondal and Ireena’s lycanthropy. They decide to take the conversation to the comfort of the guest lounge.
Bedlam took some time to attune the very cool lute Veledrel had found. He decided to name it Dorfinya. Okrin handed off the newly acquired glowing sword to Ireena. They check on Jander’s status and find he’s still resting. Kasimir is lounging and reading.
Bedlam steps out into the portrait hall and calls for Helga who eerily appears out of the shadows of the stairwell. He asks her if it would be okay if they used the carriage to run some errands, to which she tells him “No.” He asks if there are any Vistani staying here in the castle and Helga explains that “Ms Ludmilla is the only Vistana staying in the castle currently.” He asks if he might be able to speak to Ludmilla, and she tells him “No, she and the others are resting right now, and I would really rather not wake them. You can find her reading in the King’s Hall after sundown.” Bedlam, irritated that the interaction didn’t go as planned, asks for some food. She tells him she’ll send some up. Not long after, several unseen servants bring silver platters of warm, delicious, meats, cheeses, and breads. After their meal, they decided to go back to the crypts to investigate Piddlwick’s crypt, and well, the rest of them.
They made their way back into the dungeon. A series of rolls were made to avoid the traps in the hallway. Bedlam and Veledrel failed the first round and were teleported into a prison cell. Bedlam was able to pick the lock and release them. On the second round of rolls, Veledrel and Ireena failed and were teleported into cells, which Bedlam was kind enough to release them from.
They notice that all the doors are once again locked. They weigh the pros and cons of this: on one hand, maybe that covers their tracks, on the other, they sure hated this song and dance.
They made their way through the torture chamber again and into the room behind the curtain containing the brazier with colorful stones.
They unlock the door to the long, dark hallway and cautiously make their way to the end, rolling perception frequently since they are expecting the chute trap to have reset. They were correct, though they were able to locate it before falling victim to it.
They spill out of the tunnel into the familiar catacombs. They want to explore as many crypts as possible, though they know that sundown will be upon them soon. They want to speak with each of the brides, hoping that they each might have a request for the party. They are very keen to attend whatever Anastrasya has going on in the Audience Hall. The party was also very concerned about getting caught where they shouldn’t be. They know they’ve been very fortunate thus far, and aren’t sure when to stop pushing their luck. We decide what time it is in-game and that each crypt will take 30 minutes to explore for the sake of tracking time. They get to it.
They start off with the ones that stuck out to them. Piddlewick’s crypt revealed a deck of illusions. The party also wanted to visit the crypt that housed the remains of a Barovian Navy Admiral. Inside that one, they found a boat, taking up so much space that it was lodged in the room at a diagonal. The remains were resting in the boat. There was little of value in this crypt, other than the laughs we had imagining the boat jammed into that small space.
They found paints and brushes, a whole bunch of antiques (hilarious considering one of my players used to work in an antique store), and wine bottles.
They removed the heavy stone slab of one of the crypts and found the wild looking ghost of a large man with some kind of wing contraption on his back. Okrin and Vondal moved the slab back in an effort to avoid conflict. The spirit phased through the wall and disappeared right before their eyes as it possessed Vondal.
I messaged Vondal’s player, telling him that the ghost possessing him want to run up the nearby stairs to the peak of the tower and throw himself off in an attempt to fly. I showed him where on the map he was and where he was trying to get to. The player thought it was really funny and said that if this was how he was gonna die, he was more than fine with that.
Vondal made an attempt to run. Okrin and Bedlam see this and try to trip him to knock him prone. They roll and succeed. They move on to the next crypt as Vondal picks himself up and bolts away from the group.
Okrin tries to grapple him but Vondal is able to avoid it. He uses the dash action to get as far away as possible. Bedlam asks Sergei the parameters of ghostly possession. He finds out that they don’t have the appropriate spells to evict the ghost, so they just have to use brute force to drop Vondal to 0 hp. He starts slinging spells. Veledrel readies an action and Ireena runs to try and catch up to Vondal. A mist begins coalescing on the ground near the party, making them all nervous.
There is a lot of talk out of character and speculation as to what is happening, or what is trying to happen. Vondal’s player won’t tell the group until the issue is resolved, so all they can really do is guess. They suspect that the ghost is going to explode Vondal like a Left 4 Dead Boomer. We all laughed at the thought of them trying to explain to Strahd why everyone was crying and covered in Vondal bits.
Okrin throws his spear, and it lands in the ground before Vondal, the ensnaring strike splintering from it and incapacitating him. While he is trapped, they all take turns hacking away at his health. He breaks free the next round and once again, bolts toward the staircase. They lob ranged attacks. The mist at their feet forms into a golden wolf they recognize as Jander and he dashes within reach of Vondal. They hurl a slew of attacks at Vondal until they nonlethally knock him to 0 hit points.
It is now at this point that the ghost is ejected from Vondal’s body. They focus their attacks on the spirit, and Veledrel ends up finishing off its last 35 hit points with a delicious 38 damage from his scorching ray. As soon as the ghost disintegrates, everyone is utilizing every healing spell available to get Vondal some hp. Before too long they get him back on his feet and they make the decision to press on.
The next crypt belonged to Lady Ilona, who they recognized from the Tome. They removed the slab and found a single thigh bone resting on the marble slab inside. There was a lot of discussion about what to do. Since it was just the thigh bone, they probably wouldn’t be able to bring her back, nor would they be able to use Speak with Dead on her. Bedlam ultimately decided to go for it and take the bone. He reasoned that it seems like a lot of the people here in these crypts don’t actually want to be here.
As he entered the crypt, he was hit with three poison darts. This guy and poison darts, I swear. After calculating a ridiculous amount of damage, Bedlam is still standing. He goes to take the bone and he is visited by a vision of Lady Ilona who tells him that whoever can best her in battle may use her as a weapon against the vampire.
I explain to them that this is a 1v1 encounter and that it doesn’t have to happen right now. So Bedlam passed the bone over to Vondal and told him he could do that whenever he felt like it.
We decided that would be a good place to end the session for the night!
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Curse of Strahd Campaign ask thing for @mandisawesome:
As for spoilers: we have finished the campaign are our characters are somewhere in the feywild for further chaos
1. Introduce your party: who are they at the start of the campaign?
Elin--half elf feylock whose pact involves being the star of a fey reality TV show
Sariel-Elin’s best friend and a half elf lore bard who is the flesh prison of a demon barbarian that sometimes escapes containment
Narzzy--noble dragonborn thief who learned his trade by stealing food from his family’s kitchens
Sparkle-Narzzy’s forest gnome fighter best friend/self proclaimed bodyguard who is easily distracted by basically everything.
Shaumar-human devotion paladin that was trying to get into fantasy lawschool and did not sign up for this shit
2. How/why did you come to Barovia?
Everyone but the paladin got an invitation to help via a fancy lady that may or may not have been a fey in disguise. The paladin got sucked into Barovia to be the personal plaything of Strahd (aka played came in late and we DM ex machina-ed him in)
3. What did your Tarokka reading reveal?
(The Anarchist) This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy: I see walls of bones, a chandelier of bones, and a table of bones—all that remains of enemies long forgotten.
(the mercenary) This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope. The thing you seek lies with the dead, under mountains of gold coins.
(the illusionist) This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight. A man is not what he seems. He comes here in a carnival wagon. Therein lies what you seek
(the Broken one) Your greatest ally will be a wizard. His mind is broken, but his spells are strong.
(the Beast) Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him! The Beast sits on his dark throne.
4. Did your DM make any major changes to the module?
Not really, just let character’s backstories cause chaos. Fey patrons asked for some shit for their show and the bard’s inner demon caused chaos a few times. Paladin almost died of exhaustion from refusing to sleep because of Strahd’s torment, but that was just a slight modification to RAW.
5. Did your party travel with any NPCs?
We tried to travel with Rictavio, but he wanted nothing to do with us. We did the last fourth of the campaign with Ezmeralda.
6. Who is your/the party's favorite NPC?
Blinksy--we bought every toy he would sell us. We were basically Barovian Santa by the end of the campaign. We were also fond of Escher, but he died before we could form as strong a bond as we did with Blinksy
7. Most hated NPC?
The Hags. We hated them so bad. The paladin hated Ez, but even he admitted that the Hags were worse on paper.
8. How did your first meeting with Strahd go?
No one died, but it was at a funeral. We also got our poor tormented Paladin who would have tried to murder him if he wasn’t on like five HP.
9. Did you attend dinner at Castle Ravenloft?
We did. We were polite until the fey patrons insisted on asking the warlock to cause a little chaos by casting remove curse on Strahd. We definitely got thrown into the dungeons and had to escape.
10. What was your favorite location to visit?
The Dread Castle was our favorite place as players. We snuck in at least twice after the dinner. PCs liked Mordenkeinen’s Magnificent Mansion the best because it wasn’t Barovia.
11. What was the scariest thing your party went through?
Baba Lysaga nearly killed everyone in the first round with a well placed spell. Which meant we ended up losing our only healer AND dealing with a demon on top of everything.
12. Did any player characters or beloved NPCs die?
Escher. RIP to a gentleman and writer of moste excellent fictions (which are currently being published and enjoyed by the fey fans). Bard would have died three times if she wasn’t a prison for a demon, Rogue would have died by goat if not for the Fey Patrons.
13. Did anyone find love?
Ismark fell for Paladin. Paladin fell for Bard. Bard rolled shit to spot his feelings, so she fell for Ez, who doesn’t do relationships. Warlock tried her hand at matchmaking and botched it so bad that no one knew who they liked for a while. Escher fell for Rogue. Fighter fell in love with magic and friendship (which is obviously the best ship)
14. What is your favorite memory from the campaign?
Funniest momenst were when Narzzy the rogue botched a slight of hand check to steal from Strahd and grabbed the wrong rod of power and when the warlock bitch-slapped the paladin with eldritch blast because he needed to sleep before he got so exhausted that we had to carry him.
Favorite moment was when we all flew in to stay at one of the player’s houses for the final three sessions for a Strahd murder sleepover complete with creepy snacks and cats (everything’s better with cats).
15. Did you defeat Strahd???
Yes...but we all rolled shit to put that final stake in. Three nat 1s and no rolls above 5 between 5 PC and 2 NPCs for two rounds.
16. Re-introduce your party: who are they currently, or at the end of the campaign?
Narzzy is now a gentleman thief and cook who has started a very successful chocolate trade route into Barovia.
Sparkle is a fighter with more smarts than strength or sense, but now with super shiny sword and a fey familiar that has almost caused two separate inter-planar incidents.
Elin’s show has been renewed for a second season and has a steady stream of fan mail that gives her minor boons (or curses) as she does her thing.
Sariel has gotten a decent hold on her inner demon and accidentally summoned a pegasus. She’s the current fey favorite and the Witchlight monarch.
Shaumar is looking into the feylock’s contract to see if his personal life can stop being broadcast to the entire feywild, especially now since he finally got the bard of his dreams to roll higher than a ten insight to realize that he loved her romantically.
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