Pidlwick II and III 🎭

(👇 Possible Curse of Strahd spoilers below 👇)

Amento has been having a stressful journey figuring out his past as Pidlwick III. In the castle he met his first failed version Pidlwick II, which definitely creeped him out.

Now he lives in denial saying that they look nothing alike (they do).

I wasn't too keen on the official design of Pidlwick II, so I just drew how I imagined him instead. Also our DM added in the story that he has a second face in the back of his head, and the head rotates 180 degrees between happy and sad expression when needed. It's so creepy I love it.

Amento is my reborn druid in Curse of Strahd campaign. I had no idea what the story was when I was designing him and decided he would be a puppet. It fits so well with the story it's almost uncanny.

No spoilers in the tags please! 🙏

Peer pressure works.

Commissions for @sonntam

picture in your mind's eye: what if pidlwick ii had a chicken leg. excellent, now, whenever you feel comfortable, proceed to begin rotating him

We found this lil guy at the Vistani camp. We've been taking care of him. Brandy and I have started calling him our boy, but Draz does not seem to like him.

He gets a little wild, so we keep him in Brandy's bag a lot. We tried to have Danika watch him once, but when we got back to the Blue Water Inn, she'd locked him up in the building out back because he was scaring the kids. He did make us a little present from a dead squirrel. I'm 99% sure it wasn't dead until he got ahold of it, but it's the thought that counts.

Made the mistake of trying to flesh out the relationships of Castle Ravenloft's inhabitants. Didn't think at the time about the number of inhabitants that Castle Ravenloft has

Whyever the evil Pidlwick doll is lonely. Volenta would love that little shit. You can't tell me Pidlwick II is not her best worst friend. You can't tell me Volenta doesn't put on her weird little mask and pretend to also be a doll so they can both jumpscare somebody and happily commit terrible murder together. You can't tell me she doesn't prank Escher with it as often as possible.

7!!!

7. Most hated NPC

Strahd of course! All my homies hate that creep! Our hatred and fear of Strahd was so great that all the DM had to do was pick up the Strahd mini to make us start panicking. He’s very proud of himself. 😤

Also: the entire party hated Pidlwick II (who we renamed Iggy), except for Danris who found them delightful.

Stuff from the last session:

Nothing major to report except we managed to free Escher (not sure if he'll still want to flee with us but we shall see)

Rahadin had to mitigate things between the party and Strahd.

Pidlwick II was throwing hands with Strahd and did a whopping 4 damage.

Rahadin lowkey judged us as we struggled to transport the skull into a portable hole.

DM session recaps: year 2022

Oh boy, this year has been wild!

We haven't been playing as regularly as we'd like to, but the gang still managed to make significant progress. Currently they are level 11 and preparing for their expedition to the Amber Temple. Here's a brief summary of all the things that happened to them since the last time:

Dragon skull heist was A HUGE SUCCESS! The party had a really good plan and have been super careful to only discuss it inside the tiny hut so Strahd never suspected a thing. They scaled the cliff through Barov and Ravenovia's tomb, used their spells and familiars to stay hidden and scout ahead, avoided Rahadin by using divination spells and managed to dimension door to the hall of bones from the catacombs because they mapped out the familiar areas of the castle beforehand and triangulated the distance to it; they cast reduce on the skull and quickly dimension doored back, but not before Vincent left an insulting poem for Strahd in its place.

Needless to say, Strahd was SUPER PISSED - especially after they lit the beacon of Argynvostholt. Well, he can be mad all he wants, because now Argynvostholt is a hallowed ground warded against undead, and also revenants regained their memories and some of them stayed to help fight against Strahd. Lady Arisa became a head of the order and screamed at Vlad until he stopped being suicidal and agreed that he must atone for his wrongdoings by staying with the order and helping rebuild it, and maybe getting back with Godfrey as well.

Right after that, Strahd sent Sasha with a small army of wights to assault Argynvostholt and she got ABSOLUTELY DECIMATED. Rip to Sasha, my homebrew melee vampire knight who had no chance against a paladin with a sunsword. At least she died in battle against her crush instead of getting locked in the dungeons, I guess? Here's another art depicting this glorious scene. Afterwards, there was a really heartbreaking moment where Ferret tried to revivify Sasha while her bones crumbled into ashes, but to no avail. She always tries to save everyone, poor girl.

So now Argynvostholt is the party's home base, a place where they keep all their (numerous) friendly npcs and sort of a "rebuilding the keep" sidequest - because we all love those! They can send revenants on missions to gather resources and give them various tasks, and of course it will all pay off in the endgame.

Strahd, being Strahd and still pissed about the stolen dragon skull, started sending packages with other characters' body parts to Argynvostholt. He started small with disassembled Pidlwick II, and next day it was raven feathers from Blue Water Inn Martikovs he took as hostages. Party is super scared of Pidlwick and started burying his parts across Barovia so that he doesn't come to life again, and ended up selling his head to Jeny Greentheeth. This can only end well!

Claudia Belasco (the orphanage headmistress who got killed by Rahadin) was resurrected, since Lady Arisa kind of has a soft spot for her; they also got her to Argynvostholt, where she now helps with cooking and children, including reincarnated baby Abbot.

They finally had an epic battle with the aboleth of Lake Zarovich, reuniting Mordenkainen with his spellbook and staff and moving him to Argynvostholt. Now there is a mansion inside a mansion, and Victor has someone who can teach him more magic. Good for him!

The party had a spiritual seance with Patrina using a spirit board from VR's guide and it was super fun.

FINALLY after all this time and preparation they moved on to exploring Berez; they made arrangement for peace talks with Baba Lysaga but THEN just had to sneak around to the ruins of Berez and steal all her goats. WELL THEN. The "peace talks" happened? Kind of? They managed to talk to Lysaga at least, and also found out she revived Volenta, who is now a living witch (and has a crush on Vincent) - but then Lady Arisa just had to mention that they know about Lysaga being Strahd's former teacher, and it immediately got them thrown out. And as it turned out, while they were away, Stella Wachter got kidnapped - as a part of a devious plan to prepare a new young body for Lysaga during the following new moon.

Before fighting Lysaga, the party decided to hunt some werespiders - and it went pretty well, until Lysaga found them. Not that it went too badly, but she cast Feeblemind on Ferret, so it was time for tactical retreat. Since technically the Seeker occupied the same body as Ferret, she decided it was also time to resurface and talk to the party (specifically, Edena and Paelias) about how all that is not the best environment for a 10 year old child - and while maybe it’s too late to remove her from this situation physically, maybe she can make it so that Ferret’s mind remains dormant and unaware of all the horrors of Barovia, and she, the Seeker, will be the one to deal with them from now on. Edena and Paelias consider this for a bit, but ultimately decide that they don’t want to rob Ferret of her agency and that potentially losing her mother will break her heart; Seeker says that she understands, and that she wants to talk to others - but once she gets everyone in the room, she starts turning it into an ethereal forest, saying that if they don’t want to help her, she will trap Ferret’s friends in a dream with her and do everything herself. Well, now the party have to fight a dream version of the Seeker. They won, of course, and after Ferret got over her Feeblemind they had a very nice talk about what Ferret actually wants and how much she has grown; also, the Seeker told her the truth about her real parents, and eventually gave her back her memories about her childhood and her real name (Holly). It was a bittersweet moment, but for Ferret, it only solidified her belief that the Seeker is her real mother, and that she is no longer this halfling girl that was called by another name.

Eventually, the party caught up with Lysaga and her hut, fought her, and won - with another dramatic scene where Ferret was hugging her dying body and burning her to death. Only Stella was nowhere to be found. They went on to explore Lysaga's hut, which turned out to be a lot bigger on the inside. They found (and freed) captured wereravens - unfortunately, Muriel Vinshaw, despite being mentioned in Ferret's tarroka reading at the beginning of the campaign, was already killed, as well as many others, since the party took way too long to get to Berez. There was lots of other cool witchy stuff there, but ultimately they discovered that Stella got stolen by hags (yes, THOSE hags. they were still alive) and taken into their lair in the ethereal plane; after doing a quest to weave a fabric from the moonlight (thanks to Edena and her weaving skills!) they caught up to them, managed to save Stella, kill Bella and intimidate Offalia into surrendering but BIG SURPRISE Morgantha managed to get away AGAIN. She was THIS close to running away to Strahd and continuing with her evil schemes, but this party is absolutely relentless. They followed her without resting, rolled super high on all the tracking checks and finally caught and killed her - also in a super creative way, since she could always escape to the ethereal plane and they didn't have etherealness spell, they poisoned her with aboleth slime and she just. Suffocated to death. Fucking brutal. What a fitting end for such a horrible woman. For the record, this was their FIFTH encounter.

Also, Victor was with them for this mission. Their relationship with Stella is... complicated. She got kidnapped in the first place because they had a fight with Victor and she stormed off from the mansion; so Vincent decided to talk to Victor about what happened, figuring it was just a regular teenage fight, but he was like "well yeah she read my thoughts and I got upset and tried to use magic on her so that she wouldn't do that anymore". They kind of made up after Victor took part in saving her, but who knows for how long? Are they even good for each other? The party might have conflicting feelings about that.

After their triumphant return to Argynvostholt, Lady Arisa declared a grand party to celebrate the victory against Baba Lysaga. Also, Kasimir finally made it there! Among all the fun, drinking and dancing, there was plenty of drama as well. Ezmerelda attempted to gain Vincent's approval to hook up with his brother, but before it got to that she got way too drunk and started a fight with van Richten; he promptly left the party, lady Arisa followed him with a bottle of wine, and with a very nice heartfelt conversation and some high persuasion rolls she finally unlocked his tragic backstory! Meanwhile, Paelias, being insightful as always, discovered that Kasimir hasn't been quiet honest with him, and all this time he told him he's been hiding in the forest to avoid detection? He was actually captured by Strahd and only just managed to escape. Oops. Also, Vincent went to Mordenkainen and drank his Experimental Aboleth Brain Potion and Edena got mad at him because once again he's drinking risky liquids without warning his girlfriend. After midnight, everyone went to watch the party plant the bag of beans they got from Lysaga's hut. Two of them turned into statues of Paelias and Vincent that promptly started insulting them. A fitting end to this fun evening.

Also, remember how Strahd was occasionally sending dead body parts to Argynvostholt? Well, his last package ended up in one big mess. The party discovered it way too late - because the first one to discover it was Illyria. And the package was the coffin with the body of her brother, Dmitry Krezkov. And Illyria is... not known for her restraint, to put it mildly. She viciously mauled the vistana who delivered the coffin, and, unsurprisingly, got cursed. This might have been Strahd's plan. Or not, and he’s just stirring shit up. Regardless, this is super inconvenient, because she has to deal with being the avatar of the Huntress - and before heading to Mount Ghakis, the party was going to explore the source of strange howling from the mountains that Illyria was hearing recently. Well, they headed there and discovered a mountain folk shrine to the Huntress occupied by hostile winter wolves and some kind of an ice wolf-shaped spirit. In reality, the spirit was possessing the protectors of the shrine - but of course, Illyria, being Illyria, immediately attacked them, and only Paelias and Ferret prevented her from slaughtering them all and desecrating the shrine for good. After defeating the hostile spirit, she made peace with the wolves, and the party might come back to visit the mountain folk tribe when they head to mount Ghakis.

But first, there is one thing left for them - to consecrate the Swamp Fane. And one little problem - they don’t really know who is going to become an avatar of the Weaver. Maybe Paelias, because he is already has a strong connection to the goddesses? But he is not a woman (although maybe it won’t be a problem?), and also becoming his wife’s sister is going to be awkward. Maybe Edena, because she is good at weaving, promised Kavan to protect the Fanes and seemed like she was really connecting with the Berez witches? But she hates the gods, how you can ask her to become an avatar of the goddess? Choices, choices.

Ireena: girlboss

Ismark: soft girlfail

Godfrey: girlfail

Donavich: fail

Davian: generational trauma girlboss

Arrigal: girlboss

Arabelle: girlboss slay

Kasimir: the original girlfail and now girlfails as a living

Clovin: tentative girlboss

Ezmerelda: girlboss

Van Richten: girlfail

Nikolai Wachter, Sr.: controversial but girlboss

Parriwimple: girlboss

Pidlwick II: girlCEO

Sir Klutz: girlfail by name but girlboss in all else

Victor Vallakovich: girlfailure. he girlfails so hard that he gets the full word

Stella Wachter: girlboss by Fiona Wachter association

Vasilka: guys I’m so sorry but she’s a girlfail. Her life is girlfail

Zuleika: girlboss AWOOO

Curse of Strahd: Interlude

Party cook, who has not played Strahd before: "....who's Pidlwick II?"

Party artificer, who has played Strahd before, although I think I'm still managing to throw him off his rhythm at times: "It is best you do not know."

Me, the DM whose Strahd thought it'd be funny to let them explore the upper levels of the Castle after dinner: "You've actually been in the same room with him before! Not telling you when or where though."

Party cook: "O.o Oh. Okay."

Sadly we may not get to play this week because the cook is in Hell Essay season of law school, the wizard is in east tennessee for some reason, the rogue has flaked out for the last three sessions, and I probably have covid (again) and my voice is even lower than usual.

Which would do wonders for roleplaying all these male (or in the case of the Abbott, male-ish) characters, but I also sound like I am trying to hack up a lung for closer examination. Which would do wonders for Vasilka, but would probably upset my players somewhat.

Saw, but it's Pidlwick ii instead of Billy the puppet.

Session 48

Session doc

Folder

Beware, potential spoilers for the Curse of Strahd campaign may lie ahead, read with caution.

Save the Last Dance for Me

The party begins session with discussing their options. They have been here for quite a few days now and its wearing on all of them. They feel like they have bought Evelyn an adequate amount time to finish Vasilka. They found the traitorous bride: all of them.

That was the other big question I felt like was hanging in the air. What were they going to do about it? Apparently nothing. They decided not to turn in that quest.

They were also reluctant to leave without Pidlwick II. They took the “if you love something let it go, if it comes back it was always yours” approach and just hoped for the best. 

With some of that dealt with, they decided to attend their last dance at the castle, which was a fun masquerade theme. We spent a long time just kind of looking at masquerade masks and coming up with cool motifs for each other, so that was a really fun little waste of time!

They all danced with their favorite wives and said their goodbyes. Bedlam stood on the outskirts of the room playing it cool, waiting for Anastraya to approach him. Anastraya, who was also playing hard to get, never approached but cast several glances in his direction. At the end of the night, he went up to her and said that he wasn’t in the mood for playing these games tonight and that he was leaving tomorrow. He shot his shot so the ball was in her court. He turned and walked out of the dance hall without looking back at her. 

On their way back to their quarters, they find a giant cocoon blocking their way. They call for Helga who appears in a nearby doorway and rolls her eyes and mutters “those damn giant spiders.”

The party proceeds to attack the wiggling mass of web. It splits open and a corpse falls out receiving a resounding “Ewww” from the party and then faces of disgust as I describe the swarms of little spiders pouring out of its mouth. With the help of Helga, they fend off the pests. She bids them a good morning and disappears as they make their way to their room.

They spend their last long rest in the castle, during which, everyone feels something lick their hand while they slept. They awoke to nothing there. They all spoke to each other about their experiences when everyone was awake and were thoroughly crept out. Vel calls for Helga, places an order for breakfast and asks about the weird experiences during their rest. She tells him that it was probably Volenta’s weird little man-pet that Strahd lets her keep, you know, the one that crawls around on all fours? Vel thanks her for the information, although I doubt his gratitude. She explains that the carriage will be waiting for them and will take them wherever they would like to go and bids him a final farewell before disappearing into the shadows.

They all file downstairs, through the entryway, and out into the courtyard where the carriage awaits. They pile in and head to their destination: Tser Pool. The carriage flies down Svalich Road in a very fast, chaotic, and bumpy manner. It felt like no time at all before the familiar vardos and tents came into view. What the party doesn’t know is that Savra followed them here by clinging to the underside of the carriage.

They poured out of the carriage and approached the encampment they had been at just 25 days before. 

We felt like that was a good place to end the session for the day. It was a very nice time to reflect on everything that has happened since they first came to Tser Pool.

PIDLWICKED..

my curse of strahd party keeps corduroy-ing me. so i curse of strahded them.