Strahd Von Zarovich. " The ancient, The land. "

And like either every daddy issue's girl dream and every girl with standards nightmare. Redrew the iconic Strahd painting to our game's version. Including the candles and mirror and everything. Tbh I should've just cut and pasted it and tried to re-render it. But. I'm very low IQ. (Ask first before using.)

So is Yharnam just a domain of dread? It's a horror-filled otherworld modelled after a place in reality and born as an eternal punishment for its Darklord (Gehrman) by eldritch and unknowable beings.

I know I'm omitting a bit here but c'maaaaaaaaaan

Strahd by Konstantin Porubov

dhampir hunger

They thirst for other's stories. The good, the bad, the ugly. It's great to be a bard.

If they can eat dreams they may as well eat stories of others. I kinda want it for a character from The Carnival Domain of Dread..

"You will ALWAYS be alone." - Flurry Windenmere

So this is one of many drawings to come of our dnd party. While I would love to talk about how cool we are, I am instead going to write a list of our worst moments.

Flurry Windenmere

- Let a man fall to his literal death, despite being able to prevent it.

- Told her name to an evil fairy

- Lost her job + got slapped on the street by her former boss

- Doesn't know what a god is

- Ate sus snow and "tea leaves"

Angel Seekers, Tracker, Hunter, Ambusher.

Angel Seekers are constructs created in the Mountains of Malgelus with a single purpose: to find, hunt and capture angelkin. The angel blood is prized in Malgelus as it helps stave off the Rot which can affect anyone living in the Valleys of Malgelus. A sickness that rots one from the inside leaving behind an empty shell of a person.

The Seekers have a built is sense that allows them to detect when any healing power is used, even if it is several miles away. They also posses the powers to negate healing abilities to easier take down their prey. 

Angel Seekers are homebrew monsters I created for my homebrewed Ravenloft Domain of Dread for DnD 5e.

Map of Marais d'Tarascon

Has anyone written an AU where Percy’s vengeful murders with The List and Orthax turn him into a Darklord with a Domain of Dread?

So for this upcoming Halloween season, I’ve decided to do something a little different than just my usual Promptober shenanigans. While I still hope to complete those, I’m also going to be running a month-long “challenge” of my own where I create a new Domain of Dread for the Ravenloft campaign setting, using input and feedback from fans. And instead of keeping the fun all to my patrons, I’ve decided to open up this month’s polls to the public, so that everyone can follow along and participate in making a terror-inducing Domain worthy of being added to the Ravenloft canon.

Dungeon: Valor's Refute

Past a wall of mist and into the bleak morass of the shadowfell there is a dreary and foreboding isle inhabited by the spirits of those who could not relinquish their blades, so driven by persistence and duty that they could not even rest in death.

Their armoured shades wander the isle's endless halls or stand sentinel over its crumbling, hollow gates, obeying long forgotten oaths to nations and sovereigns they can no longer recall. Some others find a corner in which to collapse in torpor, while others crash through the cavernous ruins, exhausting themselves in battle after pyrrhic battle.

Valor's Refute is not a haven or a hell, it is a purgatory, a place of slow forgetting and inevitable dissolution.... or atleast it would be if over the ages a bunch of darkness dabbling gods and mages didn't independently arrive at the idea that a labyrinthine shadow world full of memory eroding mist could double as a great vault, just as its the ever vigilant and honourbound inhabitants make for incorruptible guards. And so dotted throughout the solemn halls of Valor's Refute are traps and puzzles intended to safeguard artifacts deemed too precious or dangerous to entrust to mortal or material hideaways.

Challenges & Complications

Suffused with the waters of the river Lethe, Valor's Refute is cloaked in a chilling mist that imparts those it touches with lethargy and forgetfulness. Effects are minor at first, but a party can easily take a wrong turn and end up fighting through a fogbank for what turns out to be hours or plunging into the icy water that saps them of a whole day's strength. These effects are best tracked through my attrition system, available HERE.

While exploring the evertwisting corridors, the party encounter the ghost of Ser Zagaver, a knight errant who died uncovering a terrible secret regarding a great evil working in the shadows of the campaign. Having been unable to warn anyone of the unseen danger, she needs the party to swear to carry on her message, and she's willing to force them at the edge of swordpoint. If the party renege on their deal, or get too distracted with ongoing matters, they can expect to be haunted by an enranged ghost-knight until they're steered back on course.

A voice stirs the dreams of those who sleep on the isle, compelling them to seek it out and teasing at their hearts' desire. This voice originates in one of the dungeon's deeper vaults, and belongs to a cursed item known as the "chalice of want". Once the weddingcup of a pair of prideful demigods who later betrayed eachother, it grants those that drink from it visions of how their ambitions may come to pass. Such tastes of future glory are addictive, to say nothing of how dangerous the foreknowledge it grants may be in the hands of the wrong entities.

Art 1

Art 2

Obsession Once again this man is still ruining my life and career one step at a time.

So anyone else think about Victor Mordenheim becoming Viktra Mordenheim between 2nd and 5th edition and wanna canonise it by making Viktra trans?

Welcome to the Domains of Dread

THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE THE LORE

In Once fair Barovia, where we lay our scene...

The year is 356 in the Barovian Calendar, and the realm of Barovia continues to languish under a shroud of darkness and turmoil. The once gentle rule of its Burgomeisters has given way to a new era of harsh governance. Stricter taxation suffocates the already-weary populace, leaving them with scant resources to recover from the ravages of long years of war. The mists that enshroud the land have grown more pervasive, encroaching on every corner of Barovia like a creeping curse.

Whispers in the shadows speak of grim consequences for those Burgomeisters who fail to meet their taxing duties. Rumors abound of decapitations carried out without mercy, solidifying the notion of a ruthless and unchallenged ruler at the helm. The once-loyal armies that once fought valiantly in war are now used to crush any semblance of rebellion against this oppressive regime, quelling any spark of hope with unrelenting force.

Amidst this dark backdrop, the church has not been spared from the heavy hand of taxation. Its clergy, dedicated to providing solace and guidance to the people, find their resources further strained. In the face of a populace grappling with war-weariness and a scarcity of wealth, religion has become an essential pillar, offering regular services that fill the void left by the pervasive gloom.

As the year unfolds, the people of Barovia must navigate this treacherous landscape. Scarred by years of conflict and wary of the looming curse, they strive to regain some semblance of normalcy. Illiteracy prevails among the masses, but faith remains an unshakable cornerstone, a guiding force that provides both solace and strength.

In this era of unrest and uncertainty, the people of Barovia must find the courage to confront the malevolent forces that seek to bind them in darkness. Hope may be scarce, but it lingers still in the hearts of those who dare to dream of a brighter future.

Amidst the brooding atmosphere that blankets Barovia, the hallowed walls of the church stand as a fragile sanctuary, a bastion of light against the encroaching darkness. Within its sacred confines, the faithful seek solace and reassurance, their prayers a fervent plea for protection from the malevolent forces that haunt the land. Yet, even within the church's hallowed halls, an undercurrent of unease slithers through the pews.

As the days grow shorter and the nights stretch on, worshippers hesitate to venture far from the safety of their homes. The encroaching darkness casts long shadows that hide unspeakable horrors, and the once-familiar streets across Barovia are now uncertain.

Fear has become a constant companion.

Superstition is more prevalent than ever and spreading like a contagion. Whispers of curses, malevolent spirits, and shadowy creatures infect the minds of even the most stalwart believers. The line between reality and myth blurs and every rustling leaf or distant howl is perceived as a sinister omen. As the world outside becomes increasingly perilous, the boundaries between truth and legend have begun to crumble.

The night has become a canvas for the darkest imaginings.

In this landscape of growing dread, the church stands as a fragile bastion of hope; its flickering torches defiance against the consuming shadows. But even here, the fear remains, a constant reminder of the tenuous balance between faith and the ever-present threat that looms beyond the sanctuary's protective embrace.

The mists are ever-present.

5e Character Concept: Ravenloft Lovecraftian Dhampir

So a while back I had an idea for how to put a more lovecraftian spin on the dhampir, because Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft does give you some hunger and backstory options for dhampirs that aren’t your usual ‘bitten by a vampire’ or ‘half-breed child of a vampire’. Things like hungers for cerebral spine fluid and psychic energy, and origins like ‘a parasite lives inside you; you indulge its hunger’, ‘you are a diminished form of an otherworldly being; slaking your hunger hastens your renewal’, and ‘a radical experiment changed your body, making you reliant on others for vital fluids’. So. There’s carte blanche already to go lovecraftian here, and all I want to do is slightly reflavour the vampiric bite to be silvery feeding tendrils that lie along her jaw like scars and unfurl to dive into some poor saps ear canal to feed. You know. For fun.

But. VRGR also has several cosmic horror Domains of Dread, and one of them is Bluetspur. The mind flayer domain, whose Darklord is the God-Brain, an insane and mortal elder brain whose horrific experiments towards apotheosis resulted in its physical form rebelling against itself, giving it a slow, horrific wasting disease that it is desperately trying to fight. Which, fun. Bluetspur is completely inhospitable to human life, you won’t find characters from there. What you will find is characters who were abducted to there, experimented on, and thrown back without their memories if the experiments were unsatisfactory. Amnesiac characters with fragmented dreams of vast mountains under red suns, things moving inside their skin, and pallid tentacles wielding surgical instruments. You know, your standard alien abduction repressed memories.

And. Bluetspur is also the origin of vampiric mind flayers. Feral mind flayers infected with vampirism by the God-Brain, so that they can drain cerebral fluid from victims and return to be dissolved by the God-Brain along with their cargo to stave off its own degeneration and dementia. Hence the additional dhampir origins above. So. With that in mind …

Just while we’re here, I want to kit out a full Ravenloft lovecraftian dhampir, a survivor of the twisted experiments of Bluetspur. And, just because we’re going full Lovecraft here, I do think we’re going to go for Aberrant Sorcerer? Just to go full tentacle. But, also. Dhampir. Experiments that changed your body. Psychic infections from a mad, diseased God-Brain and its desperate servants. Aberrant fits pretty well? Our sorcery was not inborn, it absolutely came from massive physical and psychic trauma.

Do I want to go full partial ceremorphosis? Dhampir has the parasite option, and Aberrant Sorcerer also has ‘infected with mindflayer tadpole but transformation couldn’t complete’ as an origin option. And since I’m going full Ravenloft and giving her a Dark Gift as well, ‘Symbiotic Being’ is an option. But. I think I’d prefer ‘Gathered Whispers’ for the Dark Gift. Granted, that still has ‘an alien intelligence intrudes upon my thoughts’ or ‘a sibling I don’t have shares my body’ as spirit options, so it could still work. But I think …

I think she was an extremely flawed experiment. Instead of infecting a mind flayer with vampirism, or infecting a vampire with ceremorphosis, they were trying to do both at once, short-cut the process by infecting a human with both, and they sort of … cancelled each other out? Fully messed her up, rewrote her body, fucked up her mind to the point that Modify Memory was barely necessary, but she’s neither a mind flayer nor a vampire. There is no surviving tadpole. Instead, she’s a halfway thing, and the spirits of Gathered Whispers are the fragments, or ghosts, of so many unsuccessful experiments of Bluetspur. Some of them are mind flayers. (Maybe one of them is the ghost of the tadpole). Some of them were human. It’s all a mess, and so is she.

And then she was dumped back out into another Domain of Dread, or maybe just tossed into the Mists until she stumbled into whatever one was closest.

If I was playing her, obviously this would be whatever Domain the campaign is in. For this thought experiment, though, I think it would be really fun if she was spat back out into Lamordia? You know, the gothic, industrial, mad science, Frankenstein Domain? With all her fragmented memories of experimentation and bodily transformation, to land in a domain dominated by mutation, radiation, and bodily experimentation. Just to fully traumatise her, and also maybe to confuse her memories? Given that they’re so fragmentary, maybe she thinks her memories are of Lamordian experimentation, and it takes a good long while for her to realise that they’re from somewhere much further and more alien.

So. To pull all that pile of trauma together. Picture a tall, rangy, slightly wild-eyed woman, with a rather dark, healthy-looking complexion. Not vampiric pale. Tangled brown hair streaked with gray. Long, bony hands that shake slightly. Two thin, silvery scars, one on each side of her face, running along her jawbone. And if an enemy ever gets too close, well. Those scars unfurl. Twin tendrils, thin, silvery feeding tendrils, that dive into that enemy’s ears.

Is she Lamordian? Originally, I mean. Was she stolen from there? Do we want to give her a Germanic sort of name? Irma might be fun. It means whole, which is nicely cruel. Irma Hafner. Hafner means potter, from hafan, or vessel. Whole vessel. Or whole/great maker of vessels. Maybe the mind flayer who stole her way back when had a dark sense of humour. Heh.

I’m not sure on the background. Well, no. I do kind of want to take the Ruined background from The Book of Many Things again, mostly because it lets her take Tough at first level, which will be very handy since she’s built around Cha/Con for spells and her bite, and she’s a sorcerer and therefore has no hit points. It also gives her stealth and survival, which seem quite fitting for a wild amnesiac who wandered out of the mists with nothing but broken memories of being tortured. So, yes, her mechanical background is Ruined. As, well, she was. But I meant more … what’s her profession? What does she do? How is she trying to make her living right now. Is she just a wild beggar woman wandering around? (Has she met Elise?) Actually, that might not be a bad idea. Sorcerers don’t need much in the way of equipment. She’ll be using her bite and cantrips instead of weapons, and after that we can say she scrounged the makings of a component pouch and an explorer’s pack.

Sidenote: Bluetspur and Lamordia really do have a lot in common. Darklord Viktra’s desperation to defeat death and cure Elise’s wasting disease, the God-Brain’s desperation to defeat death and its own wasting disease. I bet Viktra would find the God-Brain fascinating. And it might, maybe, think her … useful. Heh.

But, yes. Mechanically. Irma is a Dhampir, and Aberrant Sorcerer, and Ruined. She has a dark gift, Gathered Whispers, which means she’s haunted by spirits, whispering voices, which will give her the Message cantrip, a reaction to add her proficiency to her AC for 1 attack if the opponent isn’t deaf, and some fun consequences whenever she rolls a 1. She’ll have 16 each in Charisma and Constitution, with probably Dexterity and Wisdom as her next highest, and Intelligence and Strength taking up the rear. Her vampiric bite has been reflavoured to feeding tendrils along her jaw, and she feeds on cerebral fluid. She’ll start out with a respectable 11 hit points, which is not bad on a sorcerer. Starting cantrips are Mind Sliver, Message, Mage Hand, Chill Touch, Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion. Starting spells are Arms of Hadar, Dissonant Whispers, Mage Armour and Sleep. She’s a beggar and a wild woman, and she has dark dreams and fractured memories of a strange red sun, and things pulling her apart to put her back together. And not much in the way of other memories, or at least not whole ones.

She is trying very hard to pretend to be sane and sort-of-normal. She is not succeeding very well. But, you know. She’d like some food, and some money, and she has this nagging impression that the worst has already happened to her, so she’s willing to brave a few terrors in pursuit of them. Just. Labs, laboratories, might be tricky for her. Medical procedures. Tentacles. Things like that. Heh.

Irma Hafner. A survivor of Bluetspur, a Ravenloft lovecraftian dhampir.