#in barovian blood. ( asks. )

[beeccoe]

[strvhd]

His hand clasps on his chin in thought. He and 'Prince Charming' have been dancing around and playing this game out for a while. Right now it was an exchange of bad pickup lines and every sickly sweet romantic line they may or may not have meant. "Hm. What if I said these little words? Everyone's favorite?" He smirks. "I love you." Now it was up to Strahd to determine whether or not he meant it or this was part of their game.

Strahd takes Astarion's hand. (<17>+7 = 24 insight) He knows. That Astarion's words are not completely without meaning. At least not this time. He knows there's more underlying emotions that are twisting in Astarion's gut. So he grips the hand using it to pull Astarion just a little bit closer to him. Strahd kisses the other's forehead, slow and calm. " i love you too. Make sure to make as much mischief for Rajadin as possible. "

[saribrum]

Art by @saribrum

Hello my friends! I have had a few of you ask to know the whole story of my group's Curse of Strahd campaign, so I thought instead of answering everyone individually that I would do a mass post here! This will be a long read It's so long omg so please be prepared for that! Feel free to ask any questions or hit me up about it too~

Context: Our campaign contains content from the Curse of Strahd module, “Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft”, extended lore from the “I, Strahd” novels, NPC additions and extensions, and homebrew from various CoS communities and from our DM’s wonderfully twisted mind.

Beware of spoilers going forward and please do not spoil anything for us as well!

TW: blood, death, emotional turmoil, attempted self harm, obsession, genocide, and other dark themes.

If you would like to read the long version (Like 3X longer with all the details, check out this link: Click Me!)

Now lets get into it!

The SABR Party Members:

Art by @systemendeavors, @saribrum, and @wintert-ide

Solomon C. Kulle: He/Him, 35 years old, Human Rogue, Mastermind

Personality- A slow to trust, Judgmental, Knowledgeable, Observant and Patient man. Solomon is a respected teacher and well known figure in Mordent. His prideful and blunt personality sometimes makes him hard to get along with, but those who can look past it gain a loyal and well-meaning friend.

Atropa Wixx: He/Him, 20 years old, Part-Tabaxi (Catboy) Warlock, The Undead- Pact of the Tome

Personality- A Friendly, Polite, Foolish, Sensitive, Reckless, Eager, Charming, and Silly young man who only wants to find his proper place in the world. Atropa has struggled with himself for years, feeling worthless to those around him and to himself. All of that changed one day when he stumbled across a book in his family library and began to unlock who he thought he was always meant to be with the help of someone who would soon be essential to his life going forward…

Belladonna “Bell” Wixx: She/Her, 23 years old, Part-Tabaxi (Catgirl) Wizard/Cleric, School of Necromancy/Death Domain

Personality- A Bold, Calm, Clever, Opinionated, Perfectionist of a young woman who was almost equally as friendly as she was judgmental. Bell has worked hard for everything she has ever gained in life and because of this, she can come off as hard and guarded. Really, Bell is a hardworking caring person who wants to save the world from death and make it a better place along the way.

Raisa Voltenescu: She/Her, 30 years old, Human Ranger, Swarmkeeper

Personality- A Positive, Optimistic, Air headed, Rash, Friendly, and Eager woman who is quick to see the good in all of the bad. Raisa is the group’s much needed sunshine cinnamon roll who keeps the group’s spirits up and guides them forward. Being the only native Barovian and having some tragedy of her own, you would think she too would be doom and gloom, but somehow this rare beauty carries the sun with her everywhere she goes and it is infectious.

Kidnapped by the Mists:

Solomon doesn’t remember how he got kidnapped by the mists. At first all he could remember was going to bed, then waking up in the dirt. He felt sore, tired, and extremely disoriented. He had the feeling something happened, but couldn’t fathom what. His immediate worries were his appearance (brushing the dirt off and fixing his necktie) but then… where was he? He didn’t notice the ax in the tree beside him at first, but once he did, he pulled it free and made his way to the crossroad.

Atropa and Bell, the Wixx siblings, were out collecting spell components in the woods near the Menagerie Coast of Wildemount when a sudden mist began to roll in. When the two siblings turned to head back, they found themselves instead at a crossroads.

Raisa was out playing in the woods near her Barovian home of Immol with one of her many ravens, Keelin, when she heard a voice say “they need your help”. The mysterious voice urged her forward until the mist suddenly swirled around her and brought the young Barovian to a crossroads.

----

THE CROSSROADS

The adventurers encounter a huge, cloaked figure with yellow eyes and a 12-foot wingspan at a crossroads. The figure flies away, leaving behind four large dark feathers. 

Shaken and confused, they introduce themselves.

The woman named Raisa urges the group to move forward, warning that the woods are especially dangerous at night.

HALVHREST MANOR/ HOUSE OF LAMENT

The adventurers find a large mansion with a wagon outside and learn from Raisa about the Vistani, who can travel safely through the mists.

They are greeted by Ireena, an armor-clad woman with auburn hair, who takes them inside to meet Ez, a dark-skinned, dark-haired Vistani woman with a prosthetic leg.

Ez tells them they are in Borca at Halvhrest Manor and that she and Ireena are investigating the haunted house.

For shelter and a possible ride in her wagon, Solomon offers the group's help in the investigation.

Spending a few days and getting to know one another, the group successfully solves the haunting of the house.

During that time they learned and accomplished:

That an old unfinished battle between the knight Mara Silvra and the horrible dictator Dranzorg was what was cursing the house

That Ez, Ireena, and Raisa’s home was rumored to be ruled by a vampire king 

They all get tarokka card readings from Ez with various troubling predictions.

Bell let Mara’s spirit inhabit her body so the unfinished battle could be fought 

The party destroyed a chunk of amber down in the basement and released some sort of laughing black mist that disappeared

And the battle was fought and won, and the house was cleansed

The group ran outside and looked around at the saved house, just as mist quickly began to surround them, and with panicked grasping at new found friends, the mists swallow the group up again, leaving Ez and Ireena staring after them as they were pulled away. 

BAROVIA VILLAGE

As the mist subsides, the four adventurers see each other and a giant winged creature flying away. They find themselves at the Barovian East Gate. Barovia?!

They make their way to Barovia Village, where they meet an old woman known as Babushka, who gives them a free apple pie.

They soon after meet Ismark Kolyanovich, Burgomaster of Barovia Village, who is relieved to hear that his sister Ireena is safe.

He tells them that his father has passed away and cannot be buried because everyone believes him to be cursed. 

A year ago, there was a raid on the castle that Ismark's father did not support, and when it went poorly, the village cursed him, thinking it his fault. A few days later he got sick.

Ismark and Ireena went to see the Vistani to get medicine for him, and an old seer told Ireena that she was in danger and needed to leave Barovia.

That was where they met Ez and the two were able to make it out of Barovia safely.

The group offers to help Ismark the next day.

That night, Atropa confronts Bell about her strange behavior, and Bell reveals that Mara is still with her as a companion and that she plans to keep her, much to her brother's worry.

BAROVIA VILLAGE CHURCH

The group meets Father Donavich and while they are waiting for nightfall, Bell confronts Atropa about his odd behavior and secretive writing. He shows her his unconventional spell book, which works off intention rather than runes. Bell questions if Atropa is truly a wizard as their magic seems so different.

As the sun fully sets, the group experiences a few disturbing events back to back (welcome to Barovia), including the cries of a locked up vampire in the church, a parade of glowing green spirits, and a zombie attack!

They are able to fight off the zombies, and Father Donovich tells the group that his son Doru returned from storming the castle and was changed into a vampire.

The group argues over what to do about Doru, but are interrupted as a dark skinned elven man shows up in a large black carriage and gives Ismark and the rest of them letters from Strahd Von Zarovich, the king. 

Ismark’s letter is full of sympathy and condolences for his father. 

The rest of the group receive personalized letters inviting them to dinner at Ravenloft Castle, prompting a lot of mixed feelings. 

DORU

Father Donovich reluctantly allows the group to confront his vampire son in the church cellar. 

Despite their best efforts to reason with Doru, he bites Raisa and the group is forced to kill him in self defense. 

Raisa panics, but Atropa reassures her that vampire bites don’t work the way she thinks. (???)

After cleaning up the cellar and Solomon fabricating a story that Doru's final sane wish was to die, they leave Father Donovich for Ismark's home. 

They hear church bells ringing as they go, but the off beat strange tone sends the group frantically running back. 

[TW: Self Harm] They find Father Donovich attempting to hang himself from the bell, but manage to save him. 

Ismark is called, and upon arrival promises to care for Father Donovich and make sure he is safe.

DURST CRYPTS

The group investigates the cemetery for a reason behind the zombies, which leads them into the Durst family's hidden grave tunnel.

Ismark had informed them that the Dursts once owned a mansion that burned down just over a year ago.

They end up in the basement of a house that was used for strange cult activity and are attacked by a sewage monster. They barely evade the monster's pursuit.

They watch in horror as the house burns around them, but make it outside, where they find a plaque calling the mansion "The Durst House," the place that had burned down.

They realize they are hours away from Barovia Village in the dead of night.

While sprinting back to Vallaki, the group is chased by wolves, but they see an old man who tells them to follow him down a misty path. 

They tell the man to follow them instead, but he doesn’t listen and is mauled.

The group makes it back to Ismark’s house, who tells them that the man they describe on the road sounds like the Mad Mage, aka the one who led the siege on the castle the year before.

The group doesn’t sleep well.

TSER POOL VISTANI CAMP

The next day, as they arrive at Tser Falls, the group is warmly greeted by the friendly Vistani. Raisa reconnects with some old friends and they all learn that Madam Eva, the Vistani seer, was expecting them later that evening.

As they rest, the Vistani recounted a story about a wounded prince who sought their aid in the past. Grateful for their help, he granted them the ability of mist travel. 

When Madam Eva calls them for a Tarokka reading, she refers to them collectively as SABR. She gives them a group Tarokka card reading, and warns them that they need to take caution with powerful people who pose as friends. 

Each member also received a reading warning them of cryptic and personal missions.

There are a lot of mixed feelings about these readings (check out the full document for details) 

The night continues with dancing and enjoyment, and SABR purchases various trinkets from the Vardo Vendors before they catch a ride with the Vistani to the west gate the next morning.

ROAD TO CASTLE RAVENLOFT

On the way, the Vistani tell SABR about the Mad Mage who challenged Strahd. He was struck with lightning and thrown off the bridge into Tser Falls. Since then, people have seen lightning shooting up into the sky from where he fell.

As they are crossing the bridge, they see a creepy man fishing. Bell and Atropa recognize him as the man killed by wolves. He smiles at them and pulls up a severed head.

The whole party is disturbed, and makes no move to stop, cause ew and yikes.

They arrive at the west gate and all climb inside the carriage waiting for them, as Solomon notices druids chasing them from his window. They watch as they block the path with a fallen tree.

Lightning cracks in the sky and the men are swiftly attacked by wolves and scared off.

“Raven bearer” Keelin reminds the group about Raisa, who is somehow asleep during the commotion. Maybe she was why they were being followed…

CASTLE RAVENLOFT

They arrive at the castle, and they are led to Rahadin, the elven man they had seen at the church. The chamberlain takes them up to a guest apartment where they meet Escher, a handsome vampire man. Escher charms the group, especially Atropa.

Escher arranges for servants to prepare SABR for dinner.

Atropa goes first for being dressed, and privately chats with Escher about vampires not all being monsters, which Escher appreciates. They discuss rumors about SABR in the castle, and Atropa is happy to hear that people seem to be excited to meet them. Escher says that Strahd seems to be excited most of all, making Atropa smile.

As they prepare Bell for dinner, her black stained hands and tired appearance surprise them. There may be something wrong with Bell...

As they ready themselves to go down for dinner, they meet Volenta, wearing a big cat skull on her head. She intrudes into their personal space, but apologizes for her mask when she realizes the tabaxi siblings. She transforms into a bat and flies away. Atropa thinks she seems nice, but Escher warns against assuming that.

Art by @wintert-ide

DINNER WITH THE FAMILY

SABR enters the dining room where Strahd is playing the organ and is met with the whole family. Rahadin, Volenta, and two other beautiful women introduced as Ludmilla and Anastrasya. 

Strahd warmly welcomes them and cracks jokes trying to lighten the mood, but SABR still seems unsure as to why they were there to begin with. What did this man want? 

“I would love to hear more about you all. I have heard a little from Atropa of course, but I would love to hear your views also.” Everyone is confused.

Strahd reveals that Atropa had visited him months ago, and that he saw great potential in Atropa’s magical abilities. The two formed a fast “friendship” and talk regularly. Atropa was asked to keep their connection a secret so as not to sway their own opinions.

After some dirty looks Atropa’s way, Strahd proposes an alliance: he needs SABR's help to break a curse trapping him in Barovia. He wants them to act as his emissaries to explore lands beyond the mists and retrieve items for his research. He promises rewards and assistance for all of their help, but they don’t need to give him an answer yet. 

The conversation shifts as the wine runs out, to which Atropa, Solomon, and Escher go to the cellar for more and discover a man upside down being drained of blood. Solomon is greatly disturbed, but Atropa seems unfazed, even going as far as to say that if the man was a criminal like Escher said, it was a good resource to have.

As dinner ends and they move to the audience hall for a dance, Bell accuses Atropa of being a warlock who made a deal with Strahd for power. Atropa defends himself, saying he's only helped Strahd with information and that no huge deal was struck.

Bell storms off angrily.

FANCY DANCY

The group enters the audience hall, and each is paired with one of Strahd's wives for dancing

Ludmilla discusses necromancy with Bell and invites her to join a sisterhood she has been running. 

Volenta teases Solomon about his cold hands and recounts the murder spree she went on that brought her to the castle.

Anastrasya and Raisa discuss people known as “helpers” in Barovia, and if Raisa knows anything about such a topic. 

Escher dances closely with Atropa to get Strahd’s attention, and questions how Atropa gained it in the first place. Atropa can’t provide him with an answer, so Escher ends the dance and goes to pout.

Strahd and Atropa dance next, and he apologizes for the awkwardness of dinner.

During their conversation, Strahd whispers to Atropa that he is more than welcome to join him again (yes I said again) in his bed for the evening. He also mentions that one of the wives could possibly join them. Strahd leaves the task to Atropa to do before the night ends and Atropa wanders away to panic in bisexual.

Bell and Solomon have a silent conversation by tracing words onto each other's hands to avoid super-vampire hearing and he asks her to meet later in his room, making Bell blush.

Atropa asks Anastrasya to dance and fumbles his attempts at flirting. She finds his attempts cute, and agrees to join him and Strahd later. 

Bell confronts Strahd about Atropa, and Strahd explains Atropa's desire for him to teach him, making Bell mad.

Strahd goes on to compliment Bell (totally flirting), and she is not shy to ask a favor of him, that he will protect Atropa and be there for him no matter what. 

Bell says the reason she is asking is because she is actively dying and does not know how long she has...

Strahd offers Bell vampirism, which she says she will think about, but only to placate him. The two part and Strahd says that she is always welcome to seek him out if she can’t sleep. (Stop trying to collect the siblings Strahddy!)

Raisa dances with Volenta, who invites Raisa and Solomon to see more of her art.

SABR is dragged away to check it out. 

VOLENTA’S MASTERPIECE

SABR is brought to a room decorated floor to ceiling in bones. A big one of note being a silver dragon’s skull. 

After some time, Solomon urges them all to leave.

Volenta happily shows the group back up to the main room, saying she really likes them and even if she had not been asked to be nice to them all, that she probably still wouldn’t kill them. 

The moment she is gone, the party drops their facade and the panic of all they just saw sets in.

FIRST NIGHT AT CASTLE RAVENLOFT

SABR locks themselves in a guest room and Raisa reveals Volenta killed a giant raven who she suspects has a connection to her grandmother's necklace.

The group discusses Atropa and Strahd, to which he defends himself, saying he only shared information as he would with a friend, and explains his communication with Strahd through his magical book that functions as a two-way communicator.

Bell and Atropa then have a private conversation in which Bell reveals she's dying from necrosis in her fingers due to practicing necromancy. Atropa is upset she didn't tell him sooner.

Bell questions if Atropa's deal with Strahd is why they're trapped in Barovia, but Atropa denies it, saying Strahd was surprised when he arrived.

Atropa says they could have asked Strahd to help them look into a solution for her sickness, and Bell says he offered vampirism, but she would rather not. Atropa states that her dying is such a waste and before he can finish, Bell storms off upset. 

Ludmilla finds her and takes her to her study.

Raisa and Solomon stop Atropa from following Bell and express concern and loss of trust in him. Atropa says he will be more careful in what he talks about with Strahd, before leaving to look for her.

He finds Strahd instead. He shares his frustrations about Bell, to which Strahd advises him to let it be for the night and invites Atropa to unwind.

Atropa keeps talking, and brings Strahd’s vampire offer to Bell. Atropa admits it made him a little jealous. 

Strahd explains that he offered it to her first because of the urgency, but that Atropa had never asked. He asks if Atropa wants that, and Atropa explains he’s torn. He wants to protect his sister, but he also wants to be with him.

Strahd shares his own experiences with wanting to protect his siblings and asks if Atropa trusts him. They both share their trust with one another, as well as a kiss before teleporting to Strahd's study.

Bell returns to the room later, and Solomon invites her to talk. He shares details about the body they found in the cellar, and expresses concern about Atropa's reaction.

Bell and Solomon discuss their tentative alliance with Strahd for safety and possible benefits, though they have to be careful what they tell Atropa from now on.

Bell and Solomon also talk about their dynamic, and Solomon apologizes for treating Bell like a child and she apologizes for coming off as cold. She also points out Solomon’s unintended flirtation, which he didn't realize and is flustered.

ATROPA’S LOST DAY

Atropa wakes up alone in Strahd's bedroom, feeling sore, exhausted (half HP), and hungry due to blood loss after an enjoyable night. (but where's my uber Strahd?!).

He checks himself in the bathroom mirror and sees that Anastrasya left four large bite marks on his neck and is not very happy. 

Moving Strahd's study, Atropa looks at some of the covered paintings on the walls, and is surprised to see that one portrait above the mantle resembles Ireena but is labeled "Tatyana". Atropa wonders if maybe she was a relative?

Another portrait is of a man named Alek Guylim. Atropa takes note but covers the paintings again.

Atropa does a lot of reading in the study and wandering around, and gets scared by various situations in the creepy castle as he tries to find his way back to the main area with his friends.

While exploring he finds a stone brazier emitting tall white flames with a bowl containing colored stones with an inscription suggesting teleportation to different locations within the castle. 

He also encounters a haunted painting marked with a glyph of warning. He hears a chilling voice sound out when he moves, saying. "How dare you." 

Glowing red eyes appear as Strahd descends the staircase, visibly angry and says that Atropa has worn out his welcome. Atropa desperately tries to explain, as Strahd tells him to pray to whatever gods he believes in… before melting to wax and disappearing into mist… Oh thank gods, the glyph of warning!

Atropa retreats from the room (cause wtf), gets chased by some knight statues (more wtf), and ends up having to use the teleportation cup to send him to the top of the tower on the north side of the castle (wtf!!!)

He goes down a hatch and starts to hear a deep, rhythmic sound like a slow heartbeat, but as he opens the door leading downstairs, he encounters Rahadin who is visibly angry to see him there. 

He yells at Atropa for breaking castle rules and warns him that Strahd may be merciful, but he wouldn’t be.

He blindfolds Atropa and leads him away, saying Atropa must be the one to tell Strahd of his morning adventures.

SOMETHING’S UP WITH SOLOMON

While Atropa is narrowly avoiding death, Solomon reveals his peculiar pocket watch with thirteen numbers on its face, and says that he believes he is under some sort of time limit. 

He explains that he noticed the clock only goes up to midnight then runs backwards, but the last two nights the clock went a few minutes past midnight.

Bell casts some magic and pulls Solomon aside to tell him that he is giving off necromantic magic, suggesting he may be undead…

Solomon gets upset and angrily asks them to drop the matter.

They head downstairs to start their day, and see Rahadin and a no longer blindfolded Atropa who claims that he got lost. 

As they all sit to eat, Solomon discovers a book titled "Van Richten and Kulle’s Guide to the Restless Undead," a co-authored book with his work colleague, Van Richten. The date on the book indicates he has been absent from Mordent longer than he realized.

Solomon slams the book shut and leaves the table even more upset.

Bell asks Atropa about his little adventure. She asks where he was all night, but Bell guesses.

“Did he proposition you too?! Did he ask to sleep with you?!” “Wait, he asked you?! What?!” Bell says she of course declined but that it doesn’t sound like Atropa did.

He admits that he spent time with Strahd and Anastraya in Strahd’s room, and Bell is bewildered and stalks off. Atropa follows after and the two bicker for a while.

Later, Raisa tells them about her father and how they never found his body and she is afraid that he is out there somewhere walking around undead. 

The topic shifts to Raisa’s 12 spirit raven’s that come from the green parade they saw marching up to the castle. She also says that her alive raven Keelin has been with her for 30 plus years, which seems long for a raven to live. Maybe Keelin is supposed to be Raisa’s guardian?

Raisa talks a little about her mama and Solomon mentions that he comes from a very close large family. Atropa also takes the time to share what he found during his lost morning.

He mentions the portrait of the woman who looked like Ireena but was labeled Tatyana. The group says they should talk about it later because of how scared Ismark was of a certain someone…

Solomon fills Atropa in on his pocket watch. Atropa casts identify and he learns that something is after Solomon, that the closer the watch gets to the 13th hour, the closer it is to finding him and if it reaches the number, it will have found him and it will be very very bad. 

Solomon is baffled and terrified and wishes to start moving on as soon as they are able.

A knock at the door startles them all as Escher comes in. The group asks him questions about himself and vampirism, and learns that he is a spawn, a very different type of vampire from the brides. The way he was made was by Strahd drinking him until he died, and then buried him. 

He explains that there are so many different types of vampires, some bestial, some that couldn’t pass for human and creatures that can’t turn back and are always monsters.

As the group goes down for dinner, Bell and Atropa apologize to one another, and Bell tells Atropa that Solomon is undead. The two talk about it through messages to speculate.

As they all sit down to eat and talk about what they want to do about Strahd’s offer/deal, the lord himself jumpscares them all and joins them. 

They are able to come to an agreement on an offer: SABR would transverse the mists outside of Barovia, Strahd would give them the details of what it is he is looking for, they would go to those places to collect items and information, and SABR would return to him for even more rewards. 

He asks them to think about it some more, and offers to give them a tour of the castle. 

CASTLE TOUR

The first place Strahd takes SABR is to his chapel of the Morninglord, and discusses his connection to the land as a citizen and ruler. He is the land itself.

Bell asks about Strahd's recent interactions with his people, to which he says it has been a long while. Atropa and Bell encourage Strahd to get out more, maybe people would be less afraid if they knew him.

Raisa asks if the animals of the land also listen to Strahd, to which he says yes, but that he would have to micromanage every wolf pack and cauldron of bats at all times. It was just impossible.

Strahd shows them to a garden and he tells them that he often wishes he had an heir or successor, but that no one seems to be up to the task just yet… Awkward

He leads the group to a small library next, where they all casually chat and look through books. Strahd then asks to speak to Solomon alone.

Strahd unlocks a memory for Solomon: He was on a horse, riding as fast as he could into the night, away from something. He was wearing a mask over his face, the pocket watch in his hand with both arms on the 13, and he is running from death. Something behind him flies through the air and then suddenly… he is waking up next to an ax in the tree near the crossroads. 

Solomon comes out of the memory and Strahd tells him that whatever he is running from, that he does not need to run alone when he has the others.

Volenta shows up after they return and urges them to come look at her room. It is like something out of a messed up Barbie’s death house, with cute decor and macabre paintings and of course her skull collection.

Raisa is upset by seeing a giant raven skull among them.

Volenta excuses herself and Strahd leaves them to their own devices as well. He asks that they meet him again before the night is over with their decision on the deal.

Raisa tells the group after they are both gone that she is going to break into Anastrasya’s room to read her diary. She thinks she knows something about the dead giant raven. Atropa is appalled, but the others decide to help her.

She finds a letter sitting out in the open, talking to her friend called L, and asks her to leave a man named Viktor alone as he is no longer a concern of theirs. 

In her diary Anastraya writes that one of her spies in Emol spotted a giant raven. When she and Volenta went there, they were able to kill it but a plan Anastraya had been working on was ruined. 

At dinner, Atropa has to sit next to Rahadin, who immediately outs him for “getting lost” in the castle. Strahd simply laughs and says that Atropa of course never meant to get lost did he? He wants to know what happened.

Atropa goes into detail, but Strahd stops him before he says anything about the teleportation. Strahd tells Atropa that maybe next time Atropa finds himself in a hole, that it may be best if he stops digging. The whole group flinches at that, the edge to his voice subtle.

Ludmilla asks Bell to join her in her study after dinner, and Bell says that she and Atropa wanted to ask her about black hair dye. She agrees, but that Atropa must leave after. (My poor boy getting hated on)

SABR tells Strahd that they would like to accept his deal and he is thrilled.

He encourages them to visit Vallaki before they leave Barovia, but to maybe stay out of Barovia Village, as everyone seems to be upset with Ismark at the moment. 

SABR now knows they are heading back to Ismark when they leave.

Soon after dinner, Strahd takes them to his trophy room upon Raisa’s request and they learn a lot about Strahd’s military days. 

One story that sticks out in particular is that of the Knights of Argynvost. Strahd had wanted to be allies with the silver dragon, but learned that they had betrayed him. They all put two and two together, that the silver dragon head in Volenta’s masterpiece room has to be his.

STUDY TIME

Strahd and Atropa go to Ludmilla’s lab to retrieve hair dye, then to Strahd’s study.

Strahd performs an experiment on Atropa that will enhance Atropa’s powers. By mixing their blood together like the first time (when he became a warlock), he says he is hoping to give Atropa vampire-like abilities without the usual drawbacks.

They perform the ritual, [TW: bodily harm] Strahd cuts Atropa’s arm open and pours their mixture directly into his veins.

Meanwhile, Bell shows Ludmilla her magic prowess, and she asks what is killing Bell (she can smell it) and learns that Bell is cursed by a book from Zal’Honen. She suspects Bell has some sort of a connection to Barovia just as Atropa does.

Ludmilla has Bell cast some magic and determines that she is connected to the mists and shadows, probably from Zal’Honen. 

Ludmilla offers to help Bell harness her shadow magic at the risk of possibly making her condition worse. Bell agrees.

Ludmilla begins a spell, and Bell is quickly overcome by shadowy tendrils that reach into the core of her being. Bell fights to hold onto herself, just barely, but she is given shadow magic.

Raisa, Solomon, Rahadin and Anastrasya stayed behind at the dining table and discuss history, including Rahadin’s time fighting alongside Strahd.

Anastrasya offers to write Raisa a letter of recommendation for the library in Immol, so she will have no problem in getting in in the future. (They wouldn’t let her in in the past)

Back in the study, Strahd and Atropa discuss Atropa's book and if Strahd has made any headway of who he thinks it may have belonged to. 

Strahd theorizes that it could have wound up in Atropa’s home, intentionally or not, by the will of the Dark Powers. Atropa asks for clarification, but Strahd says that he does not know what they are exactly. Whatever the cause, they have learned that Atropa being there was no mere coincidence.

Upon asking if there is anything specific Strahd would like Atropa to report while traversing the mists, the topic of amber comes up. Strahd says it seems to appear in significant places.

Atropa confesses to forgetting to mention the amber pillar in the basement of the Halvrest Manor.

Strahd, enraged and with glowing eyes, shatters his wine glass. The fire goes out, and Strahd confronts Atropa, demanding an account of the encounter. Atropa nervously recounts them destroying the amber and releasing a cackling smoke.

Strahd’s grip on Atropa’s arm tightens and mutters that they have freed something terrible. 

He predicts there will be dire consequences, instructing Atropa to abandon other tasks and focus on returning to Borca as soon as he is able. 

Atropa’s mind is reeling, and Strahd tries to comfort him, he says that Atropa should return to the guest rooms and rest.

He teleports the two of them back to the lounge, and when Strahd leaves, Atropa lets go of his calm mask and grips his arm out of pain. 

Meanwhile, Bell and Ludmilla bond over tea and cookies!

Ludmilla offers insights on Solomon's unusual condition with Bell as she dyes her hair. Bell says she has not been able to examine Solomon, so Ludmilla encourages her to seduce him.

Bell and Mara talk when Ludmilla leaves, and Mara seems pissed. She asks what the point of seducing Solomon is, and Bell just thinks she is being jealous.

Solomon and Raisa learn from their conversation with Rahadin and Anastrasya that Rahadin killed the prince of the Dusk Elves and swore himself to the Von Zarovich family soon after. 

They also learn that Anastrasya was a part of the Karelova family of Vallaki. Solomon mentions that they found a deed to the estate, but she insists that they keep and use it if they ever go.

Atropa finds Escher lounging dramatically nearby and asks him to help dye his hair. 

He confides in him about what happened with Strahd, to which Escher tries to comfort him and be supportive.

When the others come in, Atropa informs them all that they need to go back to Borca as soon as they can upon Strahd’s request. They all seem confused by the request but agree.

Atropa thanks Escher for dying his hair, and he asks if Atropa needs help with dying his tail too. They excuse themselves to go do that while Raisa and Solomon talk one on one about Raisa knowing exactly what happened during the carriage ride up to the castle even though she was asleep. She even said so to Anastrasya in passing.

Raisa explains that apparently she can see through Keelin’s eyes, but she doesn’t understand how. 

Atropa and Escher come stumbling out of one of the spare rooms, looking rather disheveled. Raisa sees the smirk on Escher’s face and smacks the hickey she spies on Atropa’s neck. He blushes and starts heading to his room when she asks if they had fun. Escher pokes fun, saying they could have had more fun if Atropa stuck around~

Raisa asks what the rules are with the castle’s relationship dynamic, and Escher says that it’s pretty open. Strahd is with everyone, and the others all have their favorites. He only prefers men, so it is usually just Strahd, unless Atropa stays… 

Atropa waits up for Bell to come back, and the two share their recent experiences (Smooching Escher, Ludmilla’s bias towards natural castors, Atropa’s morning adventure, the amber conversation and that he is currently writing up a more detailed report for Strahd, Bell’s curse being linked to the Shadowfell, Ludmilla wanting Bell to compete with her other students, etc)

Atropa asks Bell if being a warlock is bad, and she asks again what deal he made. He says that he just said he would help Strahd in return for magic, and Bell says he basically gave himself eternally to the man, especially if he becomes a vampire. 

Their conversation is interrupted by Keelin who comes out of Raisa’s room acting weird. They figure out that magic is coming off of Raisa and find that she is seeing through Keelin in her sleep.

Atropa hangs out with Keelin well into the night, but during the early morning, Escher shows up again and the two end up sitting on the roof of the castle together flirting and talking until Escher has to leave. Atropa reminds him again that he is welcome to join them on the road any time.

The next morning they all go down and meet with Strahd for breakfast and Strahd pulls Atropa aside to speak with him, and says that his reaction the night before was out of fear and worry for his safety. Atropa apologizes, and instead of doing the same, Strahd says he forgives the honest mistake (fucking gaslighting asshole). 

Strahd says that he was rash asking Atropa to drop everything for Borca, and says he would instead like everyone to write out what happened. Atropa agrees.

Strahd runs his hand through Atropa’s hair and says he likes the new color. Atropa shyly explains that they thought it would help them blend in. Strahd doesn’t miss a beat and says that Atropa still stands out in his eyes. (you smooth son of a bitch) He asks to kiss Atropa, who eagerly agrees.

When they head back into the dining room, Atropa’s whole demeanor has changed to a happy one. 

Strahd thanks them all for coming again and says he had a gift prepared for each of them that they can find waiting in the carriage out front.

As they finish breakfast, Bell and Solomon suggest (demand) returning to Barovia Village to visit Babushka. Atropa doesn't get their obsession with her pie and asks if Strahd has ever had it. He hasn’t but is curious. 

Atropa reaches into his bag of holding but the pie is mysteriously gone.

They all say goodbye to Strahd and beeline it to Barovia Village.

THE RIDE BACK

SABR sees Barovia Village in the distance engulfed in flames and try really hard not to panic.

They all try to distract themselves on the long ride with chitchat, and Raisa jokingly suggests that maybe  Atropa's bag of holding “ate" his missing pie, just like the butler from Halvrest Manor.

Solomon shares the memory that he had in the castle, and the group speculates if the event led to his disappearing in the mists, and possibly why he is dead.

Solomon is pissed to hear that Bell shared her theory.

Continuing to grow heated as they talk, Solomon snaps at them all and Atropa snaps back rather harshly, causing a huge fight..

They try to break the tension by talking about Raisa casting magic in her sleep, but nothing helps. They ride out the rest of the few hours in silence

BAROVIA VILLAGE PART 3

SABR arrives in town and Bell and Solomon go to get pie while Raisa and Atropa investigate some weird Crimson Vardos.

Atropa talks to a vardo merchant and hears town gossip: a young girl has gone missing and was found dead, Mad Mary's house burned down and she is missing, and that there's an angry mob after Ismark for his lack of control. Some are also accusing Dezdrelda, a healer, of being a witch.

TROUBLE AT ISMARK’S

SABR follows a mob to Ismark’s house, and team A (Solomon and Bell) try to calm them while team B (Atropa and Raisa) work to get inside and set up a plan.

Atropa takes the form of a vampire with his Form of Dead and when the mob breaks in, they “witness Ismark killing it”. They call him Ismark the Slayer and go to tell the town. 

They celebrate for a second before realizing there are two more people in the attic that heard the whole thing. They are yelling threats at Ismark and accuse him of befriending the devil. 

Solomon ends up shooting one man when he tries to attack, and they intimidate the other into silence.

Night falls and Raisa receives a letter from her Mama warning about trouble in Immol.

Atropa and Solomon apologize to each other and are better now.

The next day, they meet Teo Tavian at the church, and he is dragged into helping SABR, now better known as BRATS with the new addition (temp player character whoo!), investigate the murder of a young girl.

After a lot of picking up clues, they come to suspect the red vardo leader Jaquellin, is responsible and that she is a monster that wears the heads of young women.

The Vardos already left, but are heading to Vallaki, so BRATS decides to follow.

Back at Ismark’s house, Ismark finds a letter from Strahd telling him to get his shit together with Barovia Village, or Strahd will come take care of it himself.

The next morning, they talk to Father Donavich and he asks them to ask the church in Vallaki to send another Father to come take his place. He needs to retire. Teo takes on this task and BRATS heads off.

ROAD TO VALLAKI…

Raisa shares detailed information with Teo about SABR's activities, leaving him somewhat shocked, and along the way he finds a spyglass at an old battle ground.

They all make it to the West Gate and see a Windmill up ahead that belongs to that girl Dezdrelda’s family.

THE OLD BONEGRINDER

BRATS are welcomed inside by Dezdrelda and her family, and the women explain the windmill's history as a sacred place and their roles as medicine women.

Bell asks if they might be able to heal her curse, and they take her and Atropa upstairs to try.

While the women are distracted, the sibs find a dark magic candle made from a hand, and find bones of human children that are being used to make flour. They snatch the hand with plans to destroy it.

Atropa panics and uses Thunderstep without knowing how it works, and teleports himself and Bell outside. The spells blast causes half of the windmill to cave in, enraging the women.

Trying to get out of there, BRATS has to face the three women, wolves, zombies, and… Solomon?! Turn Undead is cast on Solomon, and it is sadly just the confirmation everyone needs to learn that he truly is undead. But now is not the time.

Teo is able to dispel the charm on Solomon and get him back on their side. 

They figure out how to extinguish the hand candle, causing the women to merge into a demonic creature who retreats to the Ethereal Plane, with a threat that she will be back.

With no place to stay and night falling, they decide to make a dash for Vallaki. They can process almost dying later.

Art by @wintert-ide

THE PROPHET IN BROWN

Following a path through the forest, BRATS is jumpscared by a small little man who calls himself the Prophet in Brown. 

Bell and Atropa immediately recognize him as the man they saw get mauled by wolves and fishing on the bridge. He tells them that he has been watching them for quite some time. 

They try to wave him off as distracting them with his cryptic garble, when Atropa is singled out. He claims Atropa has taken his advice before, which confuses the group as Atropa denies knowing the man at all. They accuse him otherwise.

Teo uses the spyglass he found on the Prophet, which does something to Teo’s mind.  (Out of character, we know he got a indefinite madness for looking at him and has a bit of a fourth wall break now)

The Prophet leaves, and BRATS seeks refuge in an abandoned boat shack for the night.

VALLAKI

BRATS arrives in Vallaki and undergoes city registration. They have a few weapons confiscated and lie about who they are just incase.

They are escorted around by a disturbingly chipper woman who portrayed Vallaki as a joyful place despite signs of oppression.

Raisa is super excited when she sees Blinsky’s Toys, a toymaker she has loved her whole life. He has a lot of toys making fun of Strahd, and Atropa is incredibly displeased. 

Raisa gets to meet Blinsky, and he talks a little bit about his monkey and that he got him from a traveling circus man named Riktavio.

The group is shown the rest of Vallaki, gets some new clothing, and run into a person yelling about dark magics coming from the Baron’s attic. He is grabbed by some guards and hauled off to somewhere called the Re-Education Center, where “repeat unhappy people” go.

Eventually BRATS is dropped off at the Blue Water Inn at Raisa’s request, and she shares that they will be staying with her family who run it, the Martikovs. 

They have introductions, but the group is quick to gets together to talk about the weird city. Bell tells them all about Mara and they all think Bell is being possessed by the sword she got at the Halvhrest Manor, as she refuses to part with it at all. Solomon is able to convince her to show it to him later.

Solomon asks Atropa about the portraits seen at the castle that resemble Ireena and Atropa suggests that maybe Tatiana was Ireena’s ancestor.

Solomon reveals that he noticed two prominent vampire bites on Ireena's neck under her scarf during their time at Halvhrest Manor. He had spoken with Ismark privately and had learned that Ireena left Barovia with Ez due to vampire bites appearing over several nights.

Atropa shares that he had a similar bite mark on his neck from night with Strahd and Anastrasya.

They speculate about Anastrasya, and Raisa shares that the timeline from her diary of the giant raven being killed was around the same time her father died. 

Raisa shares her last day with her father and how he told her to run when they were being chased by wolves. Something large got between her and the pack and saved her, but she lost her father. 

Bell asks Raisa if her family has any history of shapeshifting, suggesting her father could have turned into the raven. She has no idea, but she does believe that Strahd was involved in her father's death.

Atropa is shocked by Raisa's suspicion of Strahd and gets defensive when they all tell him that they don’t like or trust Strahd still. They think he somehow charmed them into liking him and agreeing to the deal. 

The group tries to convince Atropa to reconsider his view of Strahd, but Atropa remains steadfast in his beliefs and grows angry at the betrayal.

Raisa tells Atropa to get out of her room, which he does in a huff.

Teo is overwhelmed by the sudden info dump.

RAISA HAS SECRETS 

Raisa sneaks down after everyone is in bed and joins a secret family meeting.

She meets Muriel Karlova, owner of the raven that helped BRATS back at the windmill. 

Her family, revealed to be members of the Keepers of the Feather, ask Raisa to share her experiences with BRATS, to which she tells them everything.

They reveal to Raisa that Keepers are helpers of those in need and guardians of knowledge and history. They hate Strahd.

Raisa admits that she has been pretending, claiming ignorance, and keeping secrets from BRATS. She never knew the details, but her parents were Keepers too.

They reveal to Raisa that her necklace contains spirits of ravens guiding her. The spirits are the ravens that belonged to keepers not from Barovia, but died there. The ravens stick around to help in death. 

They also discuss the significance of giant ravens like the one Volenta killed. They say they are creatures that appear when they are needed.

Raisa mentions Strahd's interest in artifacts called Mist Talismans from other domains, and they all wonder why. They need to keep a close eye and play nice for now.

They instruct Raisa to stay with BRATS, gather information, and watch for other keepers in the domains. She will be able to find help in people wearing feathers.

BELLS AND WHISTLES

Bell finds Solomon in his room, who is an anxious mess. His clock will hit the 13th hour tonight.

She tries to comfort him, ultimately shifting gears to Solomon asking Bell about her interest in him. “What do you want?” 

Bell directly asks if he likes her, to which he responds with non-romantic compliments, so she then asks bluntly if he wants to sleep with her, to which he says if that is all she wants, then she just has to say when. 

Bell tells Mara to leave (lmao)

Solomon asks if his current state of being will be a problem with her, as he reveals a severe unbleeding neck wound. His neck looks as if someone tried to cut his head off… probably from the ax that was thrown at him in his memory… Bell says not at all and offers to stitch it up, teasing him that he thinks a necromancer would have a problem with him being dead.

He reluctantly agrees to let her help him, and after more flirty banter, their encounter fades to black. (wink wonk~)

Art by @systemendeavors and @wintert-ide

THE THIRTEENTH HOUR

That night, Solomon’s pocket watch strikes the thirteenth hour, and a horse is heard galloping down the streets of Vallaki. Screams erupt from outside, and the Martikov family urgently calls for barricading the inn’s windows and doors.

Atropa opens his window and witnesses a headless horseman decapitating guards below.

The horseman, not finding what he wants among the heads, grows angrier, and Atropa quickly bars his window shut.

Solomon panics silently in his room, clutching Bell for support as the house goes quiet, fearing the horseman's presence. They can hear him stalking about outside, searching… searching for Solomon…

The tension eases as the horseman departs, and Solomon watches his pocket watch reverse. 

He gets violently sick from the stress.

Atropa rushes to Solomon’s room, taking note of Bell in there but deciding to leave that for later, and confronts him abrasively about the horseman, describing what he saw. "What did you do Solomon?!” He has no idea.

The Martikov’s say that it couldn’t find them because the dead can not see inside their home. The Inn is a safe place in Vallaki, making them all feel a bit more at ease.

Bell stays with Solomon, who is overwhelmed and passes out from stress.

Raisa and Teo share a room, and Raisa apologizes for involving him in their problems. He reassures her, but questions whether they can trust Atropa. Raisa admits that she isn’t sure. They both hope they can all make up soon.

HARD CONVERSATIONS

Atropa pouts and vents in his journal until Raisa comes to apologize for their fight. 

The two stay up and talk for a long time, trying to understand the others point of view until Atropa asks if Raisa wants him to ask Strahd about being charmed. Would that help them put that worry to rest? “Yes, maybe it would.”

The two work together to write a letter to him through Atropa’s journal and send it. 

They decide to retire for real after that, Atropa Raisa and Teo all sharing a room so no one is alone.

VALLAKI DAY 2: ALL OUT OF SPOONS

The inn is startled awake by the Captain of the guard, Izek. He demands to know if anyone saw the commotion from the night before. He blames it on horse thieves, and insists that two guards stole a horse and fled. No one is buying it and convince him that they saw nothing.

Bell shows Solomon her sword, and notices the name "Oathmaker" carved into it. Solomon warns Bell that the sword may be having an effect on her, even if it was Mara that made the oath long ago.

Over breakfast, BRATS chats with Raisa's family about their inherited estate outside Vallaki. It belonged to the Karelova family, but is long abandoned, but they are going to visit today to check it out.

When they are alone again, Atropa shows the group Strahd's response to he and Raisa’s letter, explaining that Strahd didn't cast a spell on the group, but that he has the ability to ease fears with his presence. The group reluctantly “accepts” his explanation.

BRATS checks their "lucky box" for the day and finds a cup with a trapped soul inside.. Atropa stores it in his bag of holding till they can release it, but is alarmed when he reaches in, and feels a hand pulling on the cup from inside his bag.

They figure out that whatever is in the bag has to be eating people. First the butler, then the people pie (the one made with bone flour), and now it tried to eat the soul. Atropa tries to identify the bag, but finds that his pearl component is missing, and that the bag ate it too! WTF!

On their way to their estate, BRATS discovers a man killed by wolves near Vallaki, who was searching for a specific spoon. 

They decide to investigate and find their new manor adorned with spoons.

Inside, they find a diary belonging to Wencensia Karelova, detailing her transformation into a monstrous rotting corpse.

When Wencensia arrives home, BRATS hides, but Teo steps forward and is nearly killed by a soup she serves him. 

The group manages to break her curse, restoring her to her old self. 

Raisa sends Keelin for her aunt's help, Atropa collects valuable silver spoons, and Teo and Bell watch Solomon angrily chopping a tree.

Muriel and other keepers help Wencensia into town, where she thanks them and offers her dowry as a reward.

AROUND TOWN

The group returns to town and head to the bookstore. Solomon meets a man named Yanavich, who shows him his printing press and discusses publishing a detective Alaric Ray fanfiction (for the father’s ghost at Halvrest Manor lol).

Solomon reads history books at the store but finds discrepancies compared to what he learned from Strahd. He is able to convince Yanavich to show him some other rare books after hours.

While in the store, Bell attracts attention from some upper-class women who invite her to a book club hosted by the Baron's wife.

Atropa and Teo visit a tea shop despite some people talking bad about it, and meet Andela, a tough, beautiful half-elven half-Vistani woman who is treated like an outcast in town.

After learning they mean her no harm, Andela informs them about Izek Stranzi being the Baron's adopted son, the Baroness's book club, and tensions between the Wachter and Vallokovich families.

There's a rivalry between the families due to a canceled betrothal between Viktor Vallokovich and Stella Wachter. Rumor is that Viktor hurt Stella in some way.

BELL OF THE BOOK CLUB

Bell gets to the mansion and is greeted by the Baroness, Lydia Petrovna who seems nervous but eager to meet her. 

She learns the group is reading “Gone with the Mists”, but learns that the event really seems to be focused on gossip rather than reading.

During the meeting, Izek enters with Viktor, who is holding what appears to be a stray cat. The Baroness speaks with Viktor in a stressed manner, but he is a dick back and retreats to his room.

TAKE ME TO CHURCH

Atropa and Teo head towards the church near the Baron’s house, and sit in the back until they get a chance to talk to Father Lucien Petrovich.

Teo asks him if he can spare someone to go to Barovia Village to replace the Father there. He suggests he speak to the Deacon about it as he has been wanting to leave Vallaki.

When they speak to him, he says he would be happy to, but that he has to wait for his son locked up in the Re-Education Center and will be for another two years. 

SOLO-MAN AT THE BOOKSTORE

Solomon goes back to the bookstore and does a lot of research, paying his new friend Yanavich so that he may linger around. The two start to form a great friendship.

Solomon looks at a lot of books to familiarize himself with what they may see in Barovia as they travel and anything that may be of importance.

RAISAING TO THE INN

Raisa heads back to the Blue Water Inn to help her family with the dinner rush, and while working, she meets Nikolai and Karl Wachter.

Nikolai, trying to flirt with Raisa, shares that Riktavio has a lot of animals with him in his caravan. He invites Raisa to sneak away and see the animals with him sometime.

Out of curiosity, Raisa agrees, making Nikolai believe he has landed a date.

During the conversation, Nikolai and Karl reluctantly reveal details about their sister, Stella, who they say is sick and heartbroken after everything with Viktor.

VIKTOR VALLAKOVICH 

Everyones goes to pick up Bell from the bookclub and notice a purple light coming from the attic window.

Inside Bell is discussing her efforts to regain her and Atropa’s family fortune with Lydia (a total lie to get them in with high society). 

Lydia decides to introduce Bell to Viktor, and hints that they should get acquainted. She leaves them alone to talk.

Viktor is super rude to Bell, but she is snarky right back, catching him off guard. (I’m not like other girls)

He lets her into the attic with him, and Bell is able to deduce that he is a magic user.

She admits that she and Atropa are as well, and learns that he has found some intense spells on a book page he found in the attic. He has been experimenting with necromancy and a teleportation circle.

On their way back to the inn, Viktor sneaks out and follows BRATS, causing them all to quickly get him inside before they are seen.

He reveals the book page once belonged to Strahd, and that if Atropa and Bell are magic users, that he needs their help deciphering it. 

The group is immediately interested

PIECE OF THE PUZZLE

BRATS deciphers a page from Strahd's journal detailing his relationship with Ludmilla who he was using, but eventually fell in love with.

The particular line of “As soon as I have no need of her assistance. She will be food like all the others” gives all of BRATS pause and all sideways glance Atropa.

They continue, and Strahd says he thought he would never love again after Patrina and Tatyana, but he makes Ludmilla the first of his undying companions.

Strahd's journal mentions experiments with teleportation to escape the mists.

When the night is done, Viktor leaves and BRATS reconnects to talk about what the hells just happened.

CHECK IN

Raisa learns from her uncle about an old wizard tower that may have more pages that belonged to Strahd and mentions people seeing "the Devil’s carriage" and a magic user near the swamp.

Raisa tells them all that she plans to skip a festival to investigate Riktavio, with Solomon joining her on her “date” with the Wachter brothers.

Atropa shares what he learned at a tea shop, and the topic turns to Stella. Teo is asked to check on her condition, using his holy man excuse to get in the door.

They discuss the Re-Education center's brutal practices in Vallaki with the Martikovs, and Teo says he will see if he can secure them an invite there as well to “give morning prayers”.

That evening, Atropa goes around and apologizes to the others about the other night's outburst. They all make up and talk about their goals moving forward.

Atropa talks with Bell about Strahd, coming to an understanding as Atropa opens up about his recent uncertainties. What is Strahd hiding?

They agree that the best course going forward is for Atropa to collect as much information about Strahd as he can, fact and rumor, to find out the truth. The heart to heart heals a little bit of their broken sibling bond <3 

Bell starts hearing voices talking to her in her head while studying, and both siblings wonder if this voice is similar to the voice Atropa heard on the way to the castle. They check to see if Zal's symbol is on the pendant Bell just got, but instead find a symbol of an eye and hand they don’t recognize.

Teo is able to recall it as a god whose name has been forgotten, it is so ancient and probably very bad. Yay.

Bell goes to bed and Raisa hatches an idea to break Bell’s sword curse. She is going to use a scroll! Instead, when they go in, they see a monster hand climbing towards Bell out of Atropa’s bag of holding. It gets scared and retreats back in.

BAG MAN! That’s the thing that took Atropa’s pearl! MORTAL ENEMIES FROM NOW ON!!

Raisa is able to suppress the sword, and Bell is thankful, but is tired from the horrors and goes back to sleep. (Big mood)

Atropa stays up all night and keeps watch over the bag. 

THE PASSENGER

Solomon calls a morning meeting after reading a book about monsters and theorizes that Bell and Atropa might be hearing voices due to an Allip, a creature of forbidden knowledge that can break one's mind. The Allip attaches itself to individuals until they break. It can only move on once knowledge is passed on and poses a danger to everyone around the infected person as it is very contagious if you talk about the information learned.

Atropa freaks out, because he and Strahd had just spent the night talking about what he had learned. Solomon tells him to check for anything odd he may have been writing without realizing it, as that is another symptom.

Atropa checks his journal and finds multiple entries repeating what the ring originally told him that he has no memory of. Fuck.

Solomon is frustrated that he didn’t get to Atropa in time, so the two write a letter to Strahd, warning him about the Allip and the potential danger.

THE WOLFHEAD JAMBOREE

BRATS does some shopping around town, and picks up a few missions, such as locating the stolen golden spoon and finding some ingredients for a few shop keeps.

They finish their errands just in time for the festival. Solomon, Raisa, and the brothers sneak away to Riktavio’s, while the others join the unsettling festival decorated with dead wolves and children running around in wolf pelts.

Lydia sends Viktor off with Bell to chat.

Atropa becomes “buddy buddy” with Viktor and starts calling him dude, to which Viktor is confused by but kind of likes?

They all play festival games to build trust, which starts to work until Re-Education Center testimonies begin.

A woman is brought up on stage in front of the crowd and gives a disturbing testimony about her experience in the center. It is clear that she means nothing she is saying and just wants to be free.

Atropa and Viktor exchange messages during the speech, to which Viktor expresses his anger and hatred towards Vallaki and his family.

Atropa tries to empathize with him about difficult family situations, but Viktor shuts down.

TO THE WAGONS

Solomon and Raisa follow the Wachter brothers over a wall into the area with the red vardos and Riktavio’s wagon, where the brothers antagonize a saber tooth tiger inside Riktavio's wagon.

Raisa tries to calm the animal, but the tiger breaks free and makes a mad dash towards the festival.

Raisa jumps onto the tiger's back to try calming it, while Solomon, who trusts Raisa to handle the situation, quickly investigates the red vardo and grabs anything he thinks looks important.

Solomon steals a horse and anticipating legal trouble, wakes up a kid who was tending the stables and feeds him a witness statement covering him and Raisa’s antics. 

The kid is confused, but agrees with Solomon before he rides off after Raisa.

As they are running, Izek Stranzi and guards come to intercept the situation.

BAT sneaks over to help Raisa as the Baron tries to calm the crowd, just as the tiger knocks Raisa free and turns down an alleyway, and  Riktavio appears and rides away on the creature's back.

Raisa and Solomon are quickly arrested by the guards while Izek and others pursue Riktavio.

ALL IS NOT WELL

Raisa and Solomon are brought to trial in front of the upset Baron at the festival, but the stable boy witness clears them of blame, and Solomon uses the city's own rules and papers to argue their case. They are let off the hook.

Afterwards, the Baron pulls BRATS aside and “invites” them all to dinner at his house in three days, which they reluctantly accept. 

Atropa and Teo introduce the group to Andela, and help her draw in some business to her stall, which she appreciates.

Meanwhile, Raisa notices they are being watched and learns from her aunt and uncle that it's an informant from the Wachter House. Very interesting… 

Back at the inn, Myriel tells the group that she tailed Rictavio and saw that he was wearing a disguise. His hat fell off and revealed him to have dark hair instead of his blonde, and he looked to be in his late 20’s. He cast a spell that quickly got him and the Sabertooth out of there.

BRATS has no idea who he could actually be.

Later in a room, Solomon tells the group about what he found in the red vardo: a book about interesting decapitations, domains beyond the mists and a note about them being places with new heads to grab, a shelf full of skulls, and a golden dragon comb. If it wasn’t obvious that she is the head thief, it certainly was now.

THE REEDUCATION CENTER

Teo, Atropa, Bell, and Father Lucien visit the Re-Education Center upon invite and under the pretext of offering “prayers and blessings”. 

They are taken to some restricted areas, such as the Hall of the Lost, where the most severely affected patients are kept, and the Sensory Deprivation Cells, which induce silence, blindness, and deafness to help “calm” wary people.

Bell convinces a guard to grant them access to higher floors and they manage to meet with the Decon’s son. 

After some persuasion, he agrees to play along with their plan to feign submission so he can be released.

Meanwhile, Atropa talks to an elven man imprisoned there, pretending to offer prayers. The man confesses that he is one of the “suitors” that was aggressively trying to court Andela because of her being one of the last female elves around. Atropa also learns that Andela got him sent to this place because he was being predatory and basically stalking her. 

The man tells Atropa to tell her, "She can forget me and let me rot in here, but she cannot let the extinction of our race be on her hands." Atropa decides against relaying this message, knowing it is not her fault and is untrue.

On their way out, the group meets the re-educators, clad in eerie black cloaks with hoods that obscure their faces. They introduce themselves as Ilimir and Ivalice, who arfe super creepy. They quickly get out of there, unsure of the re-educators' intentions.

After leaving the Re-Education Center, Atropa shares what he learned with Andela. She expresses sadness at how some men from her old village viewed her solely as a means to continue their race rather than as a person. Atropa is incredibly angry to hear that people could think in such a way.

MEET THE WACHTERS

BRATS visits the Wachter family after suspecting they were being followed at the festival.

The brothers are quick to thank Raisa and Solomon for not getting them in trouble over the wagon incident. They could have easily ratted them out.

Atropa challenges the already drinking Nikoli and Karl to a drinking contest to break the awkward ice, and it works. They all have a good time.

Lady Fiona Wachter joins them then, and dismisses her sons to speak with BRATS alone.

She introduces herself and explains that she keeps a close eye on new Vallaki visitors. 

She is quick to voice her frustration with the Baron's rule over the city and talks to them about her desire for a fair election so the people can choose instead of being dictated over.

BRATS cautiously listens but avoids showing clear support for either side of the argument.

After a lot of talking, Fiona trusts BRATS enough to meet Stella, and they learn that the girl has been cursed into believing she is a cat. (She is also only friendly to Bell and Atropa due to their tabaxi nature lol)

Bell is able to heal Stella, and the panicked girl starts to come back to herself slowly.

Fiona is eternally grateful and full of thanks, but she asks BRATS to give the family some space so they can care for Stella in privacy.They all agree and leave the reunited family.

Solomon suggests snooping while they're distracted, causing everyone to say “how could you?!” but they all do it anyway and find a hidden library.

They discover vampire romance novels and a document praising Strahd as the savior Vallaki and all of Barovia need.

Atropa takes a copy of the document to send to Strahd later.

They leave the house unnoticed, and now know that Fiona is even more of a fan of the devil than they thought.

Back at the inn, as everyone is settling down for the night they hear something super weird coming from the attic. When BRATS goes up to check, they see stepping back into their plane through some strange rift, Dexdrelda, the combined hags from the windmill!!!

They are able to fight her off, but she disappears into the ethereal plane again, vowing to make them all suffer.

The rest of the night was not very restful with the paranoia that she could pop out at any time. 

MAKING FRIENDS

The group decides to visit the wizard tower the next day but first enjoy a night of downtime.

Atropa befriends a local guard and a tax collector at the Bluewater Inn by challenging them to drinking contests. He wins a bet from each, earning their favor. (He has found his frat boy niche!)

Amidst the chaos at the bar, Solomon and Bell play chess, and Bell confides in Solomon about the curse that's killing her and her necrosed hands. She even goes as far to tell him that she believes it to have originated from Zal’Honen’s lost book. Solomon is his usual interested self, but there is concern there, more than he usually shows.

Raisa helps run the tavern during the rush, but later pulls Bell and Myriel aside. Bell has learned and observed a lot, so Raisa confirms for her that yes, she is a part of the Keepers now, and that keeper magic is extremely old and has been passed down from the Eldest Raven, the one who started the Keepers. She also says that Bell is correct in thinking that a lot of the mist domains were once connected and that the mists have not always been around. The Keepers believe the mists are alive somehow, which intrigues Bell.

Teo observes the festivities and eventually sets up his portable confession booth amongst the rowdy bar. Atropa, half drunk, confides in Teo about his insecurities regarding the Strahd situation, leading to a drunken heart-to-heart. 

Teo and Atropa have now achieved best friend status~ (A warlock and a holyman walk into a bar…)

DINNER WITH THE BARON

BRATS goes to meet the Baron and his family for dinner. Viktor is as grumpy as ever being around his family, Lydia appears stressed, and Izek keeps eyeing Solomon and Raisa suspiciously throughout the meal.

The dinner is tense, and eventually the Baron excuses his family so that he may speak with BRATS alone. 

TBaron asks them to spy on the Wachter family, suspecting Fiona's ambitions to replace him as Burgomaster. He also forbids BRATS from associating with his family publicly, which frustrates the group to no end.

They agree to his terms for now, but have their own plans in mind. When they all leave, they quietly talk about how they are totally going to stab the Baron in the back. This guy sucks.

THE WIZARD TOWER

BRATS leaves for the wizard tower the next day, and while traveling, they witness an old crazy magic man shooting lightning and watch as he transforms into a giant centipede creature and disappears. They suspect it was the Mad Mage. Wtf!

They come up on the tower and find that it has a magical lock and a mysterious code above the door.

Unable to unlock the door, the group triggers Gargoyles guarding the tower to come to life and are attacked.

Everything is looking bleak. Teo is captured and lifted into the sky, Bell and Solomon are heavily injured, and the situation looks dire.

As a last attempt to save everyone, Raisa uses emergency magic from her necklace to teleport everyone away from the tower to safety.

SABR lands in the snow on Mount Baratok, about a day's travel from Vallaki. They are battered but mostly unharmed, except for Teo… where is Teo?! 

Realization dawns on Raisa that her spell didn’t bring Teo with them, he was too far. The group panics. He was almost dead and was hoisted into the air by those monsters!!!

He has to be okay right?! They all decide to try to start trekking back to the tower though they are super far away. It isn’t looking good at all…

Before they can start out, the old man from before appeared to them and started talking crazy, but is also very adamant on keeping SABR’s attention and leading them. 

They followed him back to his house, and try to make some sort of sense out of his ramblings.

The group was able to fix whatever sanity he had lost, if only temporarily, and comes face to face with the Mad Mage, Zal’Honen. (WHOA)

THE MAD MAGE

Through talking with him for a little while, SABR learns that Zal’Honen hates Strahd, the two share the goal of trying to get out of the mists, he shares the same condition Bell does, and that there may be a powerful healer in Krezk that could help them.

During all of it, Bell gets her chance to get incredibly mad at him for what he did to her and smacks him across the face. He takes it, apologizing for what the mad version of himself must have done. 

After more talk, he asks if the group can take him to Borca whenever they go back, and to tell him if they find any pillars of amber anywhere. 

He also speaks about an alternative option for Bell, that perhaps a soul for a soul in the mists will be enough of an exchange of power to help save her. Bell hates the idea, and Atropa can’t help but feel like that is what he plans on doing with Bell already.

Atropa is super careful what he says to their new “pal” Zal, as he has no idea how he will react to him being Strahd’s warlock.

They leave after staying the night and bid Zal farewell, hoping he maintains his sanity.

FROGNAPPER

The group starts rushing back to Vallaki, hoping that Raisa’s spell somehow miss fired and took Teo there.

On their way, they see a scary little druid guy doing a ritual on top of Lake Zarovich and watch as he gets pulled under by something underwater. Monster in the lake. Cool.

The group nopes away from that, and as they continue, they see Rahadin of all people catching frogs and putting them in his bag. They all stare confused, but wave at him. He barely acknowledges them and gives them the feeling that he does not want them anywhere near him, so they leave him be. (The hate aura is strong)

TEO?!

Getting back to Vallaki, everyone rushes to the church, hoping that the Morninglord saved him. If not, next stop wizard tower. 

They get to the church and sit for the rest of service and hope Teo will appear. No such luck.

They start to make a plan of attack, when all of a sudden they  watch as the confessional booth curtain opens and reveals a confused Teo.

SABR pounces on him, ecstatic. The spell had worked!

Teo corrects them, explaining that he watched them get teleported away and remembers falling to his death. He woke up in the church not that long ago.

Did the Morninglord actually save him?

Relieved to be reunited whatever the case, BRATS takes Teo back to the Blue Water Inn to rest for the night.

THE WOLF DEN

After a night of relaxing, BRATS decides to investigate the missing golden spoon situation for the jeweler, which leads them to a wolf den.

They sneak past the sleeping wolves and explore some old mines, where they find gems and diamonds. Bell and Raisa spend some time extracting them.

Atropa sees movement while he is keeping watch and is attacked by vampires. A fight ensues.

BRATS fights and kills the vampires, and Bell uses Speak with Dead to learn about the master vampire of the cave named Lacomie, one of a group of seven old vampires.

They continue deeper into the cave and encounter Lacomie, who ambushes them.

Lacomie gets ahold of Atropa, lifts a wounded Warlock off the ground, bites into his neck, and drains his blood. 

Atropa dies

Teo is able to get to him quickly and resurrect him, but he is off and seems confused.

BRATS kills Lacomie after a tough struggle and finds the golden spoon.

They return the spoon to the jeweler and receive a discount at the shop. Atropa buys a new Pearl. (Yay! Fuck you Bag Man!)

BACK TO THE TOWER

BRATS returns to the wizard tower the next day, after learning how to avoid the gargoyles.

They complete a puzzle on the first floor that activates a talking elevator that shares facts about the tower's master, Kazhan, accompanied by calming music.

They reach the top floor to find the tower unoccupied. There is some evidence that Solomon’s colleague Van Richten may have been staying there at some point, and Solomon tells the group that he had seen evidence of him in town as well.

SABR finds more pages from Strahd's Tome on a desk and pockets them for later.

They explore the whole place, finding a few interesting things before heading back to their manor outside Vallaki.

They dump items they can't carry into Vallaki and plan their next moves.

TEO WAS BUSY

While SABR was at the tower, Teo had gone to the Re-Education Center and was able to get the Decon’s son out! He and his family will be leaving in the morning for Barovia Village. Teo has offered to go with them for protection. 

This is BRATS last night together for awhile. Sad. They all make the most of it and spend time together before seeing Teo off the next morning.

They say their goodbyes and promise to meet up again when they head to Immol. 

BACK TO  WACHTER HOUSE

SABR visits Fiona Wachter again, where she rewards them for helping Stella the last time they were there. She says she is doing a lot better.

Fiona goes into how she feels like SABR is special, and gets out of them that they are mist travelers. 

She shares a prophecy she received from Madam Eva when she was younger, predicting that an outsider would come through the mists and be welcomed by Strahd as a friend. She believes SABR fulfills this prophecy.

Atropa confirms that they are mist travelers and that Strahd is a friend to him and the group. Fiona is excited, believing they are what she has been waiting for.

Fiona recalls meeting Strahd when she was younger. She had snuck off to visit Castle Ravenloft, and he welcomed her. She found him to be not the monster others portrayed. Atropa couldn’t agree more, his loyalty to Strahd surging.

Atropa and Fiona bond over their shared perspective of Strahd, as the others look on, concerned.

SABR informs Fiona about the suspected vampires running the Re-Education Center, and they ask Atropa to write to Strahd for any info he may have. Fiona is impressed.

Strahd is quick to write back, and tells Atropa that the vampires have a history of threatening his family and says that he will send Volenta to Vallaki to help. 

SABR panics, cause please no not Volenta, but is able to convince Strahd not to send anyone… they think… 

Strahd considers intervening personally, due to the unrest in Vallaki and Barovia Village. Atropa and Bell had advised him to be more hands on after all… but he will leave it up to BRATS for now.

Back to the matter at hand, Fiona tells SABR that if they can take down Izek and find out what Viktor did to Stella, she will tell them the rest of her plans and they can work together to get the Baron out of office. 

They decide to attack Izek in a few days, on the day of the big Festival of the Burning Sun, so Fiona can challenge the Baron in front of the whole town.

ATROPA?

Atropa sets up a meeting with a guard who hates Izek, convincing him to join their plan against the Baron for Vallaki's greater good.

After meeting them at their estate outside of Vallaki and agreeing to their plan, Atropa offers to escort the guard back to Vallaki while the rest of SABR stays and prepares. 

An hour passes without Atropa returning, and the group immediately goes on alert. Has he arrested their favorite catboy?! Or worse? ...They find a blood trail leading to a nearby cave.

Everyone goes in ready for a fight and are met with a gruesome sight. Sitting with blood pooling around them, SABR sees Atropa drinking blood from the unconscious guard. His eyes are red and unfocused, making no move to stop as the others approach.

SABR manages to separate Atropa from the guard and Bell quickly heals him while Solomon smacks Atropa, snapping him out of his state. Atropa is horrified by what he's done and has no memory of the attack.

The group concocts a story about a wolf attack to explain the guard's injuries, hoping he won't remember what happened either.

Outside, Atropa is hysterical, expressing remorse and disbelief. He didn’t want this. Strahd promised it wouldn’t happen. He didn't want to be a vampire.

Solomon and Raisa suggest Atropa may have been turned by Lacomie's bite, killing him in the cave. 

SABR takes the Sergeant back to Vallaki.

ARGYNVOSTHOLT

Atropa asks to press on, as they have a lot to do, and SABR sets out for a graveyard rumored to harbor walking dead. 

En route, they encounter a body hung from a tree with a ram's skull replacing its head. The symbols carved into it indicate that it is being used as a shrine to death. Lovely.

They spot Argynvostholt, the home of the silver dragon knights who were once allies and then enemies of Strahd. Intrigued, they decide to investigate.

Inside, they see the shadow of a huge dragon fly overhead and follow it through the fortress.

While exploring, they are attacked by undead knights, who become aggressive upon learning Atropa serves Strahd. Atropa hides while the others clam the knights by convincing them they are allies. Atropa drops the form of dread he had put on and pretends to be someone entirely different to rejoin the group.

Deeper in Argynvostholt, they meet Sir Godfrey Gwilym, an undead knight who explains that intense emotions sustain the undead knights there and allow them to be reanimated.

Godfrey tells them how Strahd attacked the knights and the silver dragon, wiping them out because Strahd saw their kindness towards refugees he was fighting against as breaking their pact at being neutral in the war.

Godfrey says they may continue forward, but to be wary of some as not everyone there is nocile. 

LADY LUGDANA

Deeper within Argynvostholt, SABR encounters Lady Lugdana's spirit who singles out Raisa as she was once a Keeper in life.

Lady Lugdana explains that she was away from the knights hunting the last priests of Osybus when the Mists sapped her strength. She witnessed her comrades fall and spent years fighting.

During her battles, Lady Lugdana met a giant raven that gave her a relic, her greatest weapon. She believes the Eldest Raven still lives, and when he died fighting a secret sect of Osybus followers, she offered the relic back to the ravens, where it waits for a worthy person to claim it.

Lady Lugdana warns that some seek war with those marked by the raven. The forest folk druids, and witches in the swamps pose a threat to them.

SABR asks about the silhouette of the dragon they saw upon entering the hold, and Lady Lagdana says that she feels that even Argynvost may not be at rest. 

OSYBUS

SABR asks for more information about Osybus and are told that Osybus was an evil man who commanded followers and was ultimately defeated by Argynvost and his knights. 

Osybus's followers betrayed him, leading to him being sealed in amber. The amber was taken to the Laventz family… Wasn’t that the name of the castle owned by the Silvra family? The one back in Borca that was merged with Halvhrest manor where they fought Dranzorg and broke a giant piece of…

SABR remembers destroying the amber in Laventz Castle, releasing black smoke that mocked them. Strahd had a strong reaction to this incident, particularly yelling at Atropa over it.

SABR comes to a horrible realization. The amber they destroyed, the black smoke that came out of it and laughed at them all, the amber Strahd had yelled at Atropa over. Had it been housing Osybus the whole time!?

Lady Lugdana gives them a raven key, and tells them that if they are meant to find what it opens, then they will and she can say no more than that.

WTF IS A CHORT?!

As SABR is leaving, one of the knights joins them, as he is curious of the body they saw hanging from a tree on their way in. He says he has seen some of them and is insistent on taking them down, suspecting it to be connected to rituals performed by the forest folk.

While attempting to help the knight remove one of these bodies, they are suddenly attacked by a terrifying decaying Moose Monster emerging from the woods.

In a desperate attempt to flee, Atropa summons two steeds for the group, allowing them to ride away.

They manage to reach safety at a nearby Vistani camp, where the creature eventually stops pursuing them, leaving them all shaken but alive.

Raisa looks through her book and tells the group what the creature is called a Chort.

LAKES CURSED

Upon arriving at the camp, SABR hears that a child is missing. The little girl Arabella was last seen in Vallaki near the orphanage.

SABR hurries off to track her down for the worried family that aren’t able to get into the city walls.

At the orphanage, they learn that a man comes by every so often and tries to get the kids to play with him.

SABR gets his description and starts off towards Lake Von Zarovich where they find the man rowing out onto the water carrying a wiggling bag.

They knock the man out of the boat, and he is instantly torn apart and eaten by a monster in the lake….

All of SABR sees tentacles coming out of the lake and hear a voice they can’t really understand. The creature is sentient, and seems to be pleased with being fed. 

They all get the hells out of there.

ARABELLA OF THE VISTANI

SABR learns from Arabella that she is the seer they were meant to meet.

Back at the Vistani camp, Arabella plans to give the group a reading after they settle down and to find her when they are ready.

They take a moment to relax and open their lucky box, and are surprised when they pull out a leather book with the Von Zarovich crest on it. They all freak out that this is the journal they have been finding the pages from. This is the Tome of Strahd.

They all try to compose themselves and hide the book in their bags (not Atropa’s) before any of the Vistani see.

They go to Arabella to start their readings, and she gives one about artifacts they were asked to find. She names a few different domains to look in, such as Dementlieu, Richmulot, Mordent, and Darkon.

Each member receives a personal reading from Arabella:

Raisa's includes ominous references to Teo and a feeling of being manipulated.

Bell's suggests finding a new purpose, uncovering secrets, and protection.

Atropa's implies a changed fate and the importance of something he has seen.

Solomon reluctantly gets a reading indicating conflict and hidden potential for good.

Before Solomon’s reading, he makes a comment hoping he doesn’t get anymore terrible readings, but Arabella is able to convince him that it will be a good one. 

During Solomon's reading, Arabella draws the Broken One card, a recurring bad card for him, and slyly changes the card out for another without him noticing.

After the reading Bell and Atropa stay back and explain to Arabella reoccuring card.

She warns them that something terrible may be coming soon and that he needs to be incredibly careful.

THE TOME OF STRAHD

(Huge story spoilers. Read at your own risk my fellow players)

Getting back to the Blue Water in, SABR goes into one of the center rooms (no windows) and locks the door. 

They began pouring through Strahd’s Tome now that they were alone, Bell reading it aloud.

It talked about his life as a prince, fighting in the war, and leading men into battle from a young age. Recollections of his father’s love and cruelty, friendships he had made that were so strong they would die for one another, and feelings so intense that he began to twist as a person.

Tatyana, the woman from the portrait above Strahd’s mantle was a huge part of it. She had been his younger brother Sergei’s betrothed, and Strahd was insanely jealous. The journal was written in such a way that SABR could understand that what Strahd was saying could not have been the whole truth. 

He claims that he had been courting Tatyana, that she and Strahd had secretly been in love and that he was going to propose to her the moment he got back from an outing, only to find his brother had stolen her away from him.

Strahd was distraught, and that was when the Dark Powers found him…

THE DARK POWERS

After returning home and hearing the news from Rahadin that Sergei and Tatyana were to be married, Strahd locked himself in his study and did everything he could to distract himself. 

He noticed a book on his study shelf that he did not recognize, incomprehensible lore and diagrams of incredibly dark nature that both excited and filled Strahd with dread. That was when it found him.

The candles went out and Strahd heard a voice coming from everywhere and nowhere. All of his loved ones, their voices coming from every direction spoke to him about his heart's desire. Was he going to let Sergei take Tatyana from him? After everything Strahd had done for his family? Was he going to let his little brother charm her? She was meant to be with him. 

The powers said they could give him her and that he would never age another day. Everything the young prince wanted.

Strahd wanted to know what the dark powers wanted from him in return.

The darkness overwhelmed Strahd with their power and waited for his answer to its proposal. He said nothing for a long while, and only as his last chance was retreating, did he ask what he must do. A deal was struck.

As the powers go, Strahd finds that his dear friend Alek has overheard the whole thing. 

The men confront each other and a deadly battle ensues, ending with Strahd mortally wounding Alek after being stabbed himself.

As Alek lay dying, he told Strahd he would have helped him. He only had to ask. Alek was gone.

The voices urged Strahd to choose life then for himself, "No point in us both dying, Strahd." they urged on. All he had to do was drink. And he did.

Haunted by guilt of killing his best friend, Strahd hides Alek's body, only to find it gone the next day.

WEDDING DAY

Awhile later, on the day of the wedding, Strahd noticed one of his missing books in Sergei's room, a book of enchantments and charms.

He confronts his brother privately about the book and accuses Sergei of using spells on Tatyana to charm her into the wedding.

Strahd pulled out a dagger and stabs Sergei through, killing his younger brother in cold blood.

He would blame it on an assassin. It had to be done to save Tatyana.

Strahd went to find her, to tell her that Sergei was dead, just as the castle was attacked.

He watched as Tatyana was shot by an arrow and fell to her death over the side of the castle balcony. She was gone, and Strahd was consumed by darkness.

 A man named Leo Delisnya had orchestrated an assault and had turned some of Strahd’s loyal men against him. They were killing everyone they could.

Strahd was able to put a stop to them, embracing the monster he had become and fought to keep those loyal to him safe. He had them swear to never speak of it, and there has been no written account to that night besides this journal he wrote in now.

TATYANA

Strahd talks about the time he spent trying to find Tatyana’s body after her fall, but it seems like she disappeared just as Alek did. Is this the Dark Powers doing?

It has to be. All of it has to be the Dark Powers fault.

Strahd reveals that Tatyana has been being reincarnated, his true curse, and recounts the life times she has lived that he has found her in and tried to reconnect with her.

All of them have always ended horribly, her death inescapable… but he will save her. He must. He loves her. She is everything good and everything he could ever want. He has to, he must. He can not fail.

PATRINA

During his time of grief and isolation and waiting forf Tatyana to appear to hiim again, Strahd was visited by an old love he knew before his change into a vampire. Patrina, a dusk elven woman came to visit him and the two reconnected. She brought some hope back into Strahd’s very dark world and made him feel a bit more like himself again. 

The two planned to marry, but when Patrina returned back to her village to tell her family, she was killed. 

Kasimir, her brother and lord of the Dusk Elves had killed Patrina to keep her out of Strahd’s hands. “She is forever beyond your grasp, monster.” was what he said to Strahd when he came to collect her. 

Strahd took her body back to Ravenloft Castle and entombed her there as family.

He and Rahadin planned revenge then, no mere execution of Kasimir would be enough. (TW: Genocide) Strahd issued for Kasimir to “be marked” so everyone would know who was to blame, and ordered that the women of the Dusk Elves be slaughtered so that their race would struggle to survive and eventually die out.

Rahadin was far too pleased as he accepted the task.

HEART OF SORROW

Jumping forward in journal entries, Strahd and Ludmilla have combined their studies on the Amber Temple tomes and Azalin’s research to theorize a new spell variation.

They have successfully created a magical artifact referred to as the Heart, which acts as a shielding ward for Strahd.

The Heart is made from crystal and regenerates over time. It has become a living entity linked to Strahd’s own heart, similar in concept to a lich’s phylactery but with different implications for his mortality.

The Heart has a peculiar capability—it absorbs Strahd’s negative emotions such as hate, rage, grief, and sorrow, causing it to grow.

Strahd has placed the Heart in his tower, naming it the "Heart of Sorrow." It serves as a vessel to absorb his emotional pain, allowing him to detach from his feelings.

Was this what Atropa heard during his lost day in the tower?!

To wrap up his tome, Strahd reflected on his eternal fate bound to Barovia, a cycle of longing, loss, and unattainable desires. There must be some way to break this curse, and he would stop at nothing till he was free once more.

That was a lot to absorb.

SABR all agreed that what they just read changed A LOT of their views on many different topics. 

With everything currently going on, they decided to put a pin in those horrors until after they dealt with the Baron and Izek.

One thing they all agreed on though, was that no one was allowed to tell Strahd about Ireena.

THE STONEGARDEN

SABR heads to the graveyard, passed Argynvostholt, and finds Elizabeth Lightwood (the lady they heard rumor about in town to be a magic user). She is dressed in Mordentish attire and sipping tea amidst her magically animated skeletons 

To their surprise, SABR learns that Elizabeth was the person Anastrasya mentioned in her diary, the one who had been instructed to show Viktor a few things. They also learn that she is one of Ludmilla’s students 

Elizabeth regrets letting Viktor copy a scroll of Modify Memory from her, suspecting he used it on Stella frequently and that is what hurt the girl.

Elizabeth expresses a desire to return to Mordent and offers to share more information with SABR in exchange for their help in safely leaving Barovia. 

They agree and Elizabeth asks them to drink a tea that will erase their memories of their encounter (besides them offering to take her home) and hers of the information she is about to share. 

All of SABR drinks it, except Atropa.

Before the effects of the tea take hold, Elizabeth gives SABR more missing pages from Strahd's  tome and letters between her and Ludmilla. 

The pages from Strahd's tome detail his and Azalin's attempts to understand the Mists. They conducted experiments, sent creatures through the Mists, and even attempted to travel through themselves. 

Their successful venture took them to Mordentshire for 6 months before they were spit back into Barovia with no memory of their time there. 

On their last attempt, Azlin disappears

BACK TO THE BARON’S

Ready to accomplish the plan, SABR heads back to the Baron’s house.

Bell and Atropa distract the Baron by “relaying” information about Fiona while Solomon snoops. 

He finds a hidden closet where the Baron has been conducting personal acts of punishment and torture, and in another room Solomon discovers a collection of books and most importantly, Viktor's diary. 

The diary contains damning admissions of Viktor experimenting on Stella, manipulation, unethical experiments on cats and servants, and his work on teleportation magic. He is desperately trying to escape Barovia.

After seeing enough, SABR leaves with evidence in hand.

THE BONES?!

Morning of the Festival of the Blazing Sun, SABR was greeted by Father Lucian coming to the inn to tell them that there had been a theft at the church! The Bones of St. Andrul are missing!

They go and investigate, learning that the gravedigger may know more. 

After questioning the gravedigger, he admits to having been bribed by Viktor to move the bones to an open grave with the coffin maker’s help.

Bell says Ludmilla probably wanted the bones for spellwork, and Raisa thinks that someone wanted to be able to get into the church.

Father Lucien explains that the bones are supposed to keep dark forces out of Vallaki, or at least out of the church…

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

SABR goes to go Fiona to tell her about what they have learned and find a gathering of minor nobility and aristocrats.

They were shocked to see Lady Anastrasya among them, Atropa and Raisa particularly uncomfortable because of Raisa reading in her diary, and Atropa not yet telling Strahd about being a vampire…

Privately, SABR talks to Fiona about what they found. They ask for mercy toward the Baron's victim of a wife and provide Viktor's diary as evidence of his atrocities against Stella.

They also inform her of their plans for Izek and they get on the same page that the Baron must be stopped. 

SABR asks about Anastrasya being there, and are told that she is handling the vampires in the re-education center. Strahd must have sent someone after all…

Fiona says that the next step is to stage a coup at the festival when the Baron is giving his speech. She says SABR need do nothing more than take care of Izek and that she will see them all there when it is time.

STICK TO THE PLAN

Raisa runs to the Inn and tells her family everything. The family is concerned, but decides to stay away from the festival and plan for whatever may happen. Atropa warns Andela as well, and though confused, she agrees to stay with the Martikovs.

SABR calls upon their allied guards and orchestrates a diversion involving a fake Rictavio sighting. 

Izek takes the bait, leaving Vallaki to chase after the false lead, and SABR goes out to face him, to see if they can reason with him at all.

They can not. Izek is immediately hostile and a fight breaks out. 

SABR and their new guard friends through strategic tactics and teamwork are able to knock many of the men unconscious and kill Izek.

As they are cleaning up right after the fight and the men have retreated back to Vallaki, Atropa has a moment of weakness and is overcome by his vampiric thirst. He drinks from Izek’s freshly dead body and gains the knowledge of a new spell in the process. That’s a thing?!

Back to the plan, SABR starts back to the festival and to meet up with Fiona for step three of overthrowing Vargus. 

FESTIVAL OF THE BLAZING SUN

(More main story spoilers~)

SABR arrives in Vallaki just as Fiona, supported by Anastrasya, goes up on stage during the Baron’s speech and challenges his authority.

She accuses the Baron of tyranny, and urges for change in Vallaki. They must start over.

Vampire thralls suddenly appear, targeting the Baron and Viktor and shocking SABR. This wasn’t a part of the plan!

Viktor is able to get away and starts running back to his house

SABR knows exactly what he is going to try, and goes after him to stop him from teleporting and getting himself killed. 

SABR makes it to his house, but a flash of purple light and energy shock goes off. They run inside and find half of the bones of St. Andral amongst the blast. 

Did he just succeed?! FUCK!

They run back to the square, when they see the thrall holding Vargus down in front of Fiona and Anastrasya and the baroness being put into a black carriage.

Many of the villagers have run into the church of St. Andral to take shelter from the thrall, watching as some of them attack the guards.

SABR runs up to Fiona and questions why they are doing this. This isn’t what Fiona said would happen!

They are interrupted as they see Volenta and a few other spawn come down the road carrying the heads of the vampire twins. Oh shit.

Anastrasya instructs Volenta to take care of Vargus, and she happily tears out his throat in front of everyone.

Bell and Atropa confront Fiona again and demands an answer

Fiona justifies her actions, saying that the need for change in Vallaki is like lighting a fire that clears the way for new growth.

SABR prepares to fight Fiona and her allies, but are stopped short.

Everyone watches in shock and surprise as a flaming black horse comes riding down from the sky with a man upon its back. Strahd…

The villagers and combatants fall silent as Strahd dismounts and commands the spawn to stand down.

Strahd demands to know what is going on, allowing Fiona to explain herself enthusiastically before turning to SABR for their side of the story.

Atropa and Bell tell him the whole thing, of Fiona's plans and lies.

Strahd scolds Anastrasya and Volenta for their dishonorable actions and promises to deal with them later, visibly furious.

Turning back to Fiona, Strahd calmly asks if she has any children and in her silence says “I’ll take that as a yes. At least there will be someone to carry-on the allegiance to the Von Zarovich line.” 

Strahd leans forward and detaches her spine from her skull. Everyone watches as Fiona crumples to the ground dead.

Strahd turns and addresses the crowd and announces his return in a month to check on Vallaki, demanding that a new Burgomaster be chosen by then, or he will make the decision himself.

He tells Anastrasya and Volenta to go, before he turns into mist and is gone.

Bell goes off on Anastrasya, who is still looking smug. She says nothing as she and Volenta climb into her carriage and drive away.

INTO THE BUNKER

The vampire thrall continue to attack the people of Vallaki, so SABR grabs all the civilians they can and hightails it back to the Blue Water Inn.

When they get there, the Martokov’s welcome people into a secret basement bunker that they promise is even more heavily warded.

Andela is quick to find Atropa and hugs him, glad he is alright. He explains what happened, and she is shocked. She asks him how he knew to warn her, and Atropa doesn’t know what to say…

SABR realizes that Father Lucien isn’t in the bunker and takes off back towards the church. They must have missed a crowd.

With stealth and caution, they make it back to the church and manage to slip past distracted thralls. They find him huddled with a group of frightened villagers, trying to maintain calm amidst the terrifying events.

SABR swiftly guides Father Lucien and the villagers back through the streets towards the Blue Water Inn. The journey back is tense, with occasional close calls, but they manage to make it back with no other problems.

The sun has set. There is nothing else they can do. The night is full of stress, but with a lot of people now safe, and SABR licking their own wounds (both physically and mentally), they are able to bunk down and contemplate the future of Vallaki.

THE AFTERMATH

The day after the Festival of the Blazing Sun is a somber one as SABR deals with the aftermath, discovering numerous casualties and destruction.

SABR finds the Coffin Makers shop, with the man dead inside. There is a glyph of warding on the stairs and six empty upright coffins in one of the rooms with a blood stained floor. What did they miss?

A quick investigation reveals remnants of a magic circle and a gold-covered pinky bone belonging to St. Andrel stuck in the floorboards.

Using "speak with dead," they learn the Coffin Maker was coerced into his actions, placing the bones of St. Andrel in a place where his killer could get at them. He was promised his life, but they deceived him with false promises of safety.

Father Lucien entrusts SABR with the remaining Bones of St. Andral. He knows Bell and Atropa can make use of them and that those who are actively doing good should be the ones holding the miracles. 

Solomon goes to the bookstore again and asks his friend Yanvich to make copies of his notes on the events of what happened the previous day so that no one in Vallaki is left in the dark on the events.

Atropa takes one of the filers made and copies it to send to Strahd so he can know the full story as well. He is super nervous about a reply.

SABR collectively feels horrible about what happened to Vallaki on their watch and decide it is time to go. They have done enough and the city needs time to recover. The Martikov’s say that they did good, and that they are of course welcome back any time. SABR says they will try to be back before the next moon if they can.

Before leaving, they bid farewell to familiar faces like Blinsky and Andela, exchanging heartfelt goodbyes and promises to return.

They stay at the inn one last night and prepare for domain crossing in the morning.

Atropa confides in Bell about his dilemma regarding what to tell Strahd. He reveals he has been keeping A LOT from him out of fear of upsetting someone, but he has to keep up his part of the deal…

Together they carefully strategize. The only things they will tell Strahd is about Atropa becoming a vampire by Lacomie, the monster in Lake Zarovich along with the Druid sacrificial sites, the scary creature in the woods called the Chort, how they ran into Rahadin down at the lake catching frogs, and will ask what he is looking for from SABR when they get to Mordent.

Atropa hates that idea of keeping so much more from him (Osybus, the amber, Zal’Honen) mostly because of how bad it will be if he finds out on his own… but they have to maintain a balance between transparency and strategic discretion.

Meanwhile, Raisa confides in Solomon about her guilt over the recent events. Solomon tries to reassure her that it probably would have been worse without them, but she isn’t so sure. Fiona wouldn’t have felt as confident with Izek still in the picture…

INTO THE UNKNOWN

The next morning, SABR bids goodbye to the Martikovs and begins their journey towards the forest.

As they walk and discuss their strategy for crossing into Mordent, a caravan unexpectedly pulls up beside them. It's Arabella and her family, grateful for SABR's earlier aid and they offer to escort them safely through the mists to Mordent.

SABR accepts Arabella's offer, and as they traverse the misty crossing, something super strange starts to happen. 

They hear repeated explosions all through the mists, accompanied by flashes of bright purple light.

Right beside their vardo, they watch as Viktor materializes with a scream, is engulfed in a brilliant purple light, and then vanishes again. The cycle repeats over and over.

SABR instinctively moves to intervene, but the Vistani demand they stay in the cart and do nothing. The Mists are not bound by their views of right and wrong.

Even if he sucks for what he did to Stella and Vallaki, they can’t help but feel bad. No one deserves to be eternally trapped like that…

WELCOME TO MORDENT

Eventually, they all get through the Mists and start seeing the outlines of large, old manors. Solomon seems relieved to be home.

They take a ferry across a river, where they meet Mr. Smith, who recognizes Solomon. 

The topic moves to that of the Halloway House in the area, and he warns SABR not to go there. There is a fabled treasure there, but it’s not worth it, as only one has ever come back, but is now in the Sanitorium.

After crossing, they split ways from the Vistani and Solomon begins to explain the difference between Barovia and Mordent.

His home is less dangerous at night, but people don’t really talk about their superstitions, unless it is mutually brought up in a conversation. It can be considered rude and scandalous. Other than that, manners matter a lot.

They catch a stagecoach into Mordentshire and Solomon takes them straight to the tailor. Time to blend in again.

TO THE KULLE ESTATE!

Excited to bring his friends home, Solomon leads them up the hill to his family's estate.

Inside, Solomon's surprised family warmly welcomes him with hugs and relieved tears to see that he isn’t missing or dead after all.. 

SABR is introduced to his siblings: Dulcianna, Hexell, Penelope, and Endaline. Triston lives independently.

Penelope and Raisa instantly bond, sharing a lively, flirtatious energy, and Endaline introduces their basset hound, Princess Cinnabon, to everyone's delight.

Each of them wants to know what happened, but Solomon says he will explain everything in time, wanting to enjoy the reunion.

They keep pressing, and Solomon tells them all that he doesn’t remember. His eldest sister senses something amiss and has them drop it for now out of respect.

They update Solomon on what he has missed recently. Their father is old and requires constant care in the hospital now, rumors about Solomon's disappearance spread like wildfire, and he has a new little nephew to meet eventually as well. 

The group disperses to explore the house.

Atropa talks to Endaline for awhile, much to Solomon’s dismay. He is very adamant that Atropa not try anything with any of his sisters, which Atropa is respecting, but likes messing with Solomon. Raisa is the one getting close to one of his sisters~

The four plan to have a birthday/ welcome home party for Solomon since they have missed so many.

Solomon’s sisters plan a birthday/welcome home party with the help of ABR. He’s going to hate it, it’s going to be great.

While he was gone, Endaline took an interest in Solomon's magical studies, collecting his books in her room. He is touched.

As they spend more time in the house, Solomon says he wants to introduce them to someone else and takes them to meet his grandmother.

Solomon begins speaking to an empty rocking chair, and ABR is shocked to learn that Solomon is able to speak with his dead grandmother. For some reason, he can see and speak to her. 

Solomon asks her what they talked about before he disappeared, but she is unable to tell him anything.

The topic of the Godefroy’s comes up, and Solomon warns SABR of the curse surrounding the family. Tragic deaths and insanity followed them and anyone who dare go near.

Even Solomon refuses to go, and they all wonder if maybe he had and maybe that's why he was killed? Something to look into.

SABR settles in for the night and Raisa opts to bunk with Penelope during their stay in Mordent. (as a totally platonic friend. Sure)

WEATHERMAY-FOXGROVE HERBALIST SHOP

Solomon leads SABER (Endaline is tagging along) to Gen and Lori's herbalist shop in town where they notice the subtle wards and monster deterrents decorating the place.

They voice their concerns to Solomon, who tries to ease them. He’s undead too, they will suffer together if need be. It makes no one feel better.

Inside, Lori Weathermay-Foxgrove greets them but grows serious as she notices As they enter, the group is greeted by Lori Weathermay-Foxgrove who is behind the counter

Her face grows serious, as the mirrors in the room not only reveal Atropa as a vampire, but also that Solomon is undead, that Mara is attached to Bell, and that Raisa has a whole unkindness of ghostly ravens reflected in the mirrors. 

Lori calls for Gen, and they are instantly on edge and pointing weapons at them all, until Solomon is able to convince them of their identities.

After tension eases and introductions are made, Solomon asks if they saw him on the day he disappeared. 

Gen and Lori recall him rushing in and taking an emergency hunting kit from them before mentioning he'd learned something dangerous he couldn’t share. They allowed him into their family’s mausoleum for supplies.

One thing they do know is that Solomon got his strange pocket watch from a grave, the grave of William Blackburn-Bruce that he apparently dug up in Ash Tree Dale.

Upon talking further, SABR is surprised to learn that Gen and Lori have one of the items the Vistani told them about. The Morose Monocle. They say they will see about lending it to them all if they can.

Until then, SABER invites them to the welcome home party they are throwing Solomon. Solomon is surprised by this news but seems touched.

WELCOME HOME

Solomon says he would like to go see his father, and Endaline leads them to Soulbridge Hospital, which is connected to the Sanitorium

His reunion with his parents is emotional for them all.

Solomon gives them both a very brief explanation as to his absence before he promises to be back again soon.

After seeing his father, Solomon takes the group to go see his brother Tristan at his office.

SABR finds that Tristen is very charming and acts incredibly nice, but that there is a weird fakeness to it that they can’t totally understand.

They all agree to have dinner sometime soon…

SABR attracts attention as they walk back towards the Kulle estate as locals approach Solomon, expressing delight and some confusion at seeing him again.

Along the way, they stop at Solomon's older sibling's workplace (how many you got dude?!) who warmly embraces Solomon, admitting he was angry when he thought Solomon had stolen a horse and vanished.

Solomon learns this for the first time and asks if he mentioned anything else that day, but his brother doesn't recall. He promises to join them at the estate later for the celebration.

Back at the estate, Atropa and Endaline prepare a cake for the party.

The morning of the festivities, Atropa brings up his conversation with Bell about what information to give Strahd. 

He shares his draft with the group, and both Raisa and Solomon agree that it covers the necessary points and should suffice.

Solomon's friends and family gather to celebrate his return and it is a lively reunion filled with catching up and laughter.

Afterward, Lori and Gen invite SABR back to their place to talk some more.

THE WEATHERMAY-FOXGROVE’S

When they are alone again, Lori and Gen tell SABR that a rumor was spread about Solomon being a victim of a serial killer. He is surprised but laughs it off. 

They tell him that six murders have occurred in the area, confirmed non-supernatural, so maybe it is true.

Atropa asks the twins if they have any advice of him being a vampire in Mordent, and they mention that the Salbridge Sanitorium draws blood from patients. That may be a good way to avoid biting anyone.

Gen privately pulls Atropa aside and confides in him that she was bitten by a werewolf but hasn't transformed. She lives in fear of it. She understands what it's like to feel like a monster in waiting.

UNCLE GEORGE

BLARGS (lmao) all go to Lori and Gen’s uncle. George is a very charismatic man who is eager to meet all the new faces and to see Solomon again. 

He tells them rumors of strange occurrences he has been hearing about in Dementlieu, and that its domain and Richemulot have somehow merged within the mists.

After much talking and speculating, George says he wants a bit of fun and takes BLARGS out to do some weapons training.

When they talk later, George says he is happy to give them the Monocle but that he wants their help first. He wants a "photograph" of the Tepestian MothMan in exhange.

WEATHERMAY-FOXGROVE FAMILY CRYPT

The family leads SABR down into their family crypt and Solomon finds his missing journal.

The journal mentions a lot of different things, a lot about the BlackBurn Bruce family and the Moornsworths.

There is an Urban Legend about the Moornsworth Graveyard, that new graves are being added all the time despite nobody being buried there and it is perpetually covered in Mist. Dates and names often show up, but they don’t always make much sense.

Solomon has a lot to think about. Was any of this information why the horseman was after him? What had he found out?

MOURNSWORTH CEMETERY 

SABR decides to investigate the Moornsworth Cemetery for clues related to Solomon's findings and takes a carriage there first thing.

Solomon instructs them to look for Mournsworth graves or anything unusual.

The cemetery is larger than expected, shrouded in thick fog with endless rows of graves, so they split up to look around.

Unsettling things seem to be happening around them in the mist, and the duos begin to feel paranoid.

The Wixx duo find themselves surrounded by angel statues, some eerie and others beautiful with strange inscriptions carved into them, and it feels like they can almost hear them being said.

Suddenly, a ghostly figure emerges from one statue, and passes through Atropa and Bell, causing them to pass out.

Solomon and Raisa call out for their friends and eventually find them both unconscious.

Raisa stabilizes them, but Atropa becomes violently ill, vomiting blackish blood.

Concerned, they hastily return to the carriage and head back to Mordentshire as quickly as possible.

WAIT AND SEE...

Both sick, Atropa and Bell are checked over, but everyone is uncertain about the cause of what is making them so ill.

Everyone is baffled when they realize that Atropa may no longer be undead?!? 

Atropa falls unconscious for several days, clearly needing rest.

Hopefully to get Bell more help, she and Raisa go up to visit the Sanatorium. 

Raisa is asked to stay alongside Bell so that while they look over Bell’s illness, they may study Raisa as well. Something seems to be… off about her… just as a person…

Atropa wakes up a few days later feeling groggy, confused, and hungry for more than just blood. Solomon slips him a blood bag he swiped, but Atropa also asks for normal food.

Atropa finds he can still do all of the magic he had before, and then some? What was happening? Was he even a vampire anymore? Nothing was making sense…

Solomon and Atropa decide one day out of boredom that they should start trying to solve some of the smaller mysteries around Mordentshire to fill their days while the girls get treatment. 

SKAW (Solomon Kulle, Atropa Wixx), the Boo Boys are on the case!

------

And that's that for now! I say after so many pages. So. Many. Pages. hnng

Special thanks to @pigeon-princess for encouraging me to make this breakdown, @wintert-ide (Bell) @systemendeavors (Solomon) and @legendlorelibrary (Raisa) for being amazing playmates, @arasdain for being the worlds best DM and putting up with all of our craziness while sneaking his in too, and everyone here in the CoS community for being so wonderful <3

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, but I hope you enjoyed and thank you so much for all of your interest! Makes us all very happy~

I will keep this updated as the story goes on, and I'll add art to spots when it's applicable.

We are on a hiatus right now, but my brain rot is bad and I will not stop obsessing <3

[mx-lamour]

Alek Gwilym in our Curse of Strahd campaign:

We found Strahd's journal in-world, so of course we all read I, Strahd by P. N. Elrod.

We were all pretty taken with Alek Gwilym. But wtf happened to him after he disappeared? (The module apparently doesn't even include him. So our DM took some creative liberties.)

It's so complicated. It's great, but... yikes. It all begins with Vampyr, of course. Vampyr is an evil entity that was able to escape its prison within the Amber Temple by tempting Strahd into the deal that changed him and locked down Barovia.

Alek overheard the ordeal. Strahd ended up killing him, drinking his blood, and locking his body in a closet. Later, Strahd discovered that Alek's body had disappeared.

This is how our campaign addressed what happened next:

Vampyr took Alek's body to use as a puppet. He altered the body to look like a Dusk Elf, and somehow replaced people's memories/knowledge of Alek with... Rahadin. Rahadin has that screamy madness mind thing because it's Vampyr pulling the strings there, and Vampyr is a powerful old entity that snacks on despair. Trying to peek into that mess would drive you crazy.

Okay, so that's Alek's body... and a better role for Rahadin than just a weird Renfield stand-in like he seems to be in the mod book. (I was told there's a part where he eats toads? For like, no actual reason?)

What about Alek's soul? Does it get recycled or something?

In the Amber Temple, there's a clockwork robot guy. He's chained up and broken. We ask him what his name is and he just says "Pain." But we find out it's Alek. It's Alek, tortured and broken and in this weird form, but Vampyr hasn't been able to eat away at his soul like he has with other Barovians.

We find out Alek's soul is protected (to a degree, anyway) by the Traveler. The Traveler is the only deity actually truly present in Barovia, because they're Neutral and travelling is literally Their Thing. You can't keep the Traveler out of anywhere.

It was a really cool thing to find out, because I'm playing a trickster cleric whose patron is the Traveler. It retroactively gave me a cool in-game reason for my absolute craving to find Alek and get him back into the story. Like the Traveler was nudging my cleric toward him.

So, we discovered "Rahadin" is actually Alek's body. We found Alek's soul. And we are on friendly terms with the Abbott near Krezk, who is outright a Celestial entity.

I was wondering how exactly to get Alek's body out of Vampyr's control. How to get Rahadin out in the open again, and how to fight something that was clearly out of our depth...

But I'm happy to report that we did manage it. We are now (finally?) officially on Strahd's shit list for "murdering" his steward, and we're cut off from the towns now, but... Worth It. We're nearing the end game anyway.

As of now, we've brought the pieces of Alek to the Abbott, and asked him if he can put Alek back together. He said it'll take about a week to do it right. (A horribly long time to wait in-world at this point, but again... worth it.)

Alek Gwilym will be resurrected.

My hope is that he will help us defeat Vampyr. That's right. Not Strahd. We're not fighting Strahd. We're going at the root of this thing. We're taking on Vampyr. Honestly, I'm hoping (betting) we can (with Alek's help) get Strahd to fight Vampyr with us. Because Vampyr has been screwing Strahd over since the beginning of all this, too. In his weakest moment, he was driven to murder his most loyal ally. He never gets his "heart's desire". He's as much a victim as the rest of Barovia, despite his power.

It's time to undo what should never have been done.

Vampyr's reign began by Alek Gwilym's death. It will end by Alek Gwilym's life.

[dungeonsandblorbos]

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 😈

[theoscout]

So I finished reading all three of the Strahd stories written by PN Elrod and I have a lot of thoughts (btw I call her version 'Caretaker Strahd' and consider him a different character to 5e Strahd)

SPOILERS FOR THE STORIES UNDER THE CUT

strahd is so definitely a gamer, I could totally imagine him showing off his setup and pc if he lived in modern times

he'd have those cool ones that flash when you type on them and really expensive gear too, he's somehow found out how to play video games despite computers not even being invented in his time

That thing he does where he possess someone else is SO UNDERUSED omg, what are the limits? Can he possess wolves and bats if he turned into them first? Possess dire wolves?? Dragons???

since vampiric charm in 5e only works on humanoids I'd assume that his version of it also only works on humanoids, except that he was able to possess another vampire in the same way so maybe his works on undead too

WHICH MEANS HE CAN BUILD A FLESH GOLEM AND POSSESS IT

fanfic where Strahd builds a mecha and kicks ass

i'd imagine his first mecha would be a robotic version of himself that uses the weird potion as fuel so he can go to other domains (and also has a self destruct button to avoid another 'Azalin's ANGY' incident

his second one might be a giant wolf with him in wolf form piloting it with the magic ball, because a four legged mecha is easier to build than one with 2 legs

also I can't shake the thought of him asking for Barovians to pay taxes in the form of blood donations

I mean for one thing he wants to survive and not let people know he's a vampire but come on are you going to eat your townsfolk when you run out of prisoners?

it's slightly better when he says that he can use his mind control powers to make them forget that he drank from them but stillllllll :(

according to Azalin the most experimentation he's done about going into the mists is the thing with holding a string and running in, and tbh that's like the only thing I agree with Darcelus on

like dude you've been alive for hundreds of years and you're too horny about some redhead to investigate wtf is going on?

makes you wonder how much he knows about the sunlight burning him as well

if I were a vampire I would be testing this out every day and try to develop some kind of sunlight proof outfit to go outside with, and if people ask what I'm wearing I'll just say I have a skin condition

OH and since people are bound to take notice of his mechas he's building, maybe he can excuse this by saying he needs blood to power his mechas

so now he doesn't need to bite his villagers :D

and about the way he can make an outfit that sunlight proofs him- I have an experiment in mind. If he can metabolise, then he can cut pieces of his hair and put them under sunlight and look at them under a magnifying glass to see how they burn. And he can slot materials such as cloth etc between the sunlight and his hair to see if it blocks out the sun, and maybe he leaves it there for a few hours to see if it ACTUALLY blocks out the sun and isn't just burning there but slower

maybe the vision part will be harder to do since IDK if UV ray resistant glass even exists here, but maybe he just casts a spell on the costume so he can see out of it

and he can just put on an entire suit of armor over it assuming it's cloth and then he can go out in public in daylight- he doesn't need to breathe so suffocation isn't a problem

alternatively he can hide his ridiculous clothing by casting disguise self but he probably has already solved that problem

i sure hope vampires don't sweat

I don't think they do but if he does, I don't think he'll like it one bit

I lowkey headcanon him as autistic because he's good at keeping a straight face, hates being social (to the point where he will throw letters at people from the shadows rather than talking to them directly), once stared for ages at a wall because he was angy, identifies with animals more than people, and idk he probably has some sensory issues from how strongly he reacts to certain smells

or maybe I just can't feel pain idk lol

i wonder if Sergei and/or Tatyana were polyamorous, he sure as hell never asked them first

wonder how much it would explode his head if it turns out centuries later that they were poly all along and he killed Alek and Sergei for nothing

:(

but also >:]

Strahd said that kissing women felt nice but he doesn't really want to do it because he hungers for blood and he has to repress it, why does he hunger for people aside from Tatyana it seems?

hmmmmmm I have never ever seen ANYONE react to a person irl like how Strahd reacts to Tatyana, and it seems like I'm not the only one who finds it sus. Not just like in 'gee you really shouldn't be this obsessed over a girl' kind of sus, sus to the point where people theorise that she's a succubus or something. SO I'm thinking, does Strahd look inside and wonder why he's so attracted to Tatyana? like... he's not very curious or scientific the way Azalin is, so he probably didn't investigate it and he isn't the introspective type AT ALL so there maybe isn't a lot of looking into it that he did

my headcanon is that something happened between him and Tatyana in another life, maybe he was already cursed from there or something

because his crime wasn't that bad in comparison to other darklords.... killing two people vs mass murder

crack theory- Tatyana is a darklord as well and stuck in the same domain as Strahd, in a past life she cast a spell on him that made him fall in love with her madly, but her curse is that he will never be able to be with her and that she won't recognise him from the past life

because ngl her situation seems worse than Strahd in some ways

still I would REALLY love to know if there was any more background to Strahd's obsession over her other than 'tatyana's hot'

just scrolled to the top and remembered that since Strahd has some sick writing skillz, he would make an amazing youtuber as well

he'd be able to write something like the DSMP for money and entertainment purposes

that is a cursed line why did i write that lmao

wonder how he'd do as a streamer

I don't think he'd be a streamer since he seems to love his privacy and his autobiographies seem reserved for meeting people he really trusts and showing them his life story without having to sit down and explain it through because he hates social stuff

so his autobiographies are partially propaganda but really it has a lot of secrets so it's possibly to get people to like him

Azalin said that Strahd had a weird/ random sense of humor so I would really like to see how he responds to memes or if he would make them

Strahd REALLY goes out of his way whenever possible in his autobiographies to be like "actually no I'm not that nice, I'm doing this semi nice thing because of xyz" to the point where I'm suspecting he's trying to cover up the fact that he cares about stuff more than he actually does but he's trying to be intimidating

he obviously feels emotions and is sad about Sergei and Alek but he's an emotional repression person and probably tries to hide ANY kind of pain that isn't Tatyana related

I really want to know what would happen if he met Sergei or Alek's ghost.................................................

I feel like a bunch of scenes in the books may have been for fanservice to some degree lol (cough cough strahd taking off his shirt cause he doesn't want it to get ruined by swords cough)

idk what Strahd has going on for Van Richten but it's funny how he just saw one random guy and went 'ok I trust you, here's my entire life story' twice

another user said Strahd was trying to seduce Van Richten because of how he let him go free after Van Richten read his first autobiography, then probably arranged an illiterate thief to carry his other autobiography to the exact bookstore where Van Richten likes to hang out so he could read it in the perfect time frame, and then send a minion to pick it up afterwards lol

TWAA was so full of cartoon physics it was funny to imagine lol

Why did Strahd imagine such oddly specific scenarios such as Azalin going mountain climbing while casting spells and himself trying to grab a carrot off Azalin while Azalin twirls it around on a fishing rod like Strahd's a minecraft pig

Strahd's so done with Azalin by the end he just lets Azalin bow his spectral form like a sockpuppet :sob emoji:

[pigeon-princess]

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!

[barovianbitches]

Big Bear, Little Bear - Constantin & Bettany

The evening fog rolled over the forested hills and valleys of Barovia… Its cold mists spreading through the twisted trees and dark skies. The fog made everything appear subdued as if seen through a thin veil. Everything stood still, not a noise could be heard as it seemed like the silence would spread for eternity.

There was no sign of life in the forest, no chirping night bugs, chattering rodents, or howling wolves. The only identifiable confirmation of at least some living thing was a caravan parked near a cobbled street, two massive steeds tied to a nearby tree. What appeared to be the warm light of a candlestick flickering faintly from its shuttered windows.

The inhabitants of the cavern had left it, leaving but one member behind of his own volition.  

Bettany Blackstarr sat alone, the party having left to find somewhere to get a drink, led by the boisterous (and frankly insufferable) Winchester. The cowboy claimed that they needed to make a stop “to clear their minds”, which apparently meant getting drunk while on a race against time. 

Well, the caravan wasn’t entirely empty, the unconscious body of Constantin Vasiliev accompanied him, his friend lying motionless on the wooden floor. 

It was the first time Bettany had been truly alone long enough to look at the Barovian’s wounds, even now he struggled to look too deeply at the horror that had become of him.

Constantin didn’t look well. His skin had become chalky, and paler than normal, eyes having sunk into his sockets slightly. His body had been horrifically burned, twisted, and pulled skin melded with his chainmail. The puncture in his neck spread nasty tendrils of dark purple magic through his veins, spreading under his skin, creeping up onto his jawline and down his chest. His curly mop of dark hair lay flat and matted with blood across his forehead.

Bettany shuddered, looking at his friend in this state was upsetting… it should be him lying there, maybe if he hadn't been so weak.

Bettany crouched closer to Constantin, placing a single finger on his forehead.

Constantin’s corpse offered no response as it was poked. He was, for all intents and purposes, dead to the world.

He was tired… so tired from the journey,

He hadn't had any time to think about what happened. How his failure at the windmill led directly to the near murder of one of his only friends. Bettany shook his head, closing his eyes as he attempted to calm his mind from the thought.

His consciousness soon slipped into sleep, a grey environment made of smudged shapes, nothing distinguishable from the other blurry objects in the foreground. 

Inside the grey dreamscape, a figure loomed over Bettany. It was a gargantuan figure, clad in black iron armor, a weave of chains forming sturdy yet flexible panels of armor. Its face was obscured by a similarly tinted helmet, a flat panel of iron with grills to allow airflow, and slits in the visor for sight. It simply stared down at the Druid unblinkingly, silently, a veritable statue.

Bettany felt a presence creep behind him. He tensed, turning cautiously to face the intruder, the setting around him morphing into a faint cobbled street. 

Bettany was met with armor, having to crane his head upwards to meet the figure’s eyes… or where his eyes would be.

The armor was unfamiliar, not Constantin’s… not armor that Bettany had seen him adorn at the very least.

“… What?” Bettany muttered, slowly reaching a hand to touch the black-clad figure.

Two gloved hands shot upwards, a sudden movement. They came to rest on the sides of the helmet, lifting it from the armored man’s head. Under the steel bucket was… Constantin.

He looked… Different. His face wasn’t as gaunt, his eyes had a bit more life in them. He stared down at Bettany with not even the vaguest feeling on his face.

“You’re… here?” Bettany asked, his voice echoing through the dreamscape.

Bettany sighed with relief, rushing towards Constantin, throwing his arms around him.

The giant of a man glared down at Bettany. His arms raised wide, avoiding reciprocating the sudden embrace. He did not recoil or attack, but there was a tense air in the grey void. After a moment, he spoke in a dull, harsh accent.

“что ты делаешь, маленький человек?”

Bettany dropped the hug, backstepping in a panic.

‘He doesn’t think in common!’ Bettany recalled. Bettany didn’t speak Barovian, he’d picked up some of the linguistics but was still nowhere close to being fluent.

“Constantin?” He asked, the grey environment distorting momentarily as Bettany lost his focus trying to translate his words into Barovian. 

 “я нет.. имея…понимание?” Bettany stammered, looking confusedly at the paladin.

”кто ты.” The spectral form of Constantin said flatly, with a harshness to his tone that Bettany would know the living Constantin offered to those he found threatening.

Even a basic course of Barovian was overkill to understand Constantin, especially given the context of his expression. He was asking who Bettany was. He did not recognize his friend. Not here.

Bettany felt himself shake. The words had hit him like a punch, he pointed a trembling finger to his own chest.

“Друг,” Bettany muttered, “friend… I’m your friend.”

Bettany paused, searching Constantin’s cold gaze for any sort of recognition, his eyes welling with tears.

“Друг.” He repeated.

Constantin's unrecognizing glare softened, but only slightly. 

"Как тебя зовут, друг?" The interrogation continued. There was an air of hostility, but it did not project outward. It was reclusive... Defensive.

Bettany bit his lip, exhaling shakily, “Bettany Blackstarr? Mеня зовут черная звезда…”

Bettany shook his head, looking around desperately. Why didn’t it work? What did he do wrong?

“You don’t remember me?” Bettany asked, “помнить?”

His shoulders tensed, the scenery re-working itself like water spilling into ink, foggy structures forming a similar scene… the vague outline of a bank in the woods near a creek.

"Bettany." Constantin murmured in Common. As the name echoed through the forest, his shape changed. The tall black suit of armor morphed into a more familiar leather gambeson, Constantin returning to more of his normal height than the towering Knight. "What are you doing here?" Constantin asked vaguely, almost staring through Bettany.

The shift in Constantin’s appearance was enough to give Bettany a fleeting moment of comfort, as he was no longer staring at a hulking figure with his dying friend’s face. 

“I’m here to talk to you…” Bettany said, still craning his head to look up at Constantin. “Do you know what’s happening?”

Against the monochromatic world, Bettany’s eyes stood out like two gold ingots in a bed of salt, radiating a warm glow. 

“What do you seek from me?" Constantin asked, staring through Bettany and completely ignoring any mention of his dying. It was as if he was almost there, but not entirely. A recording of him, playing on loop.

The robotic-ness of Constantin’s presence frustrated Bettany. How could he save Constantin if he couldn’t even converse with his spirit? He owed his life to Constantin, and he was too weak to return the favor. Too frail and foolish.

What did he seek? He sought his friend… he sought…

“Guidance,” Bettany replied. He needed to know how to be strong, how to protect the party while Constantin’s life lay in limbo.

“I need you to teach me… I need to be strong, help me. Help me, please.” Bettany begged.

The spectral visage of the Barovian Paladin slowly knelt, bringing himself closer to Bettany's height. One of his large, gloved hands reached out, an index finger extending and tapping on Bettany's chest with a dull thud.

"Strength... Is here." Murmured the ghost. "Love is strength. Trust is strength. Isolation.... Is safety." He muttered, his voice a low, rumbling whisper. He cast his ice-blue eyes up to Bettany, and the Druid could see that they almost... Came alive. As if he was truly speaking to Constantin, rather than the emotionless guard, the keeper of the spirit.

“Strength begets burden..." The specter continued, before taking a deep breath.

“Guardians are chosen not because they are the strongest or the wisest... But because they have the force of will to bear the burden." Constantin intoned softly, looking up to Bettany with some sort of lucidity. The Druid could almost believe that he was truly speaking to his friend. "I cannot teach you to fight like me. I can only remind you of what you already know, младший брат."

Tears rolled down Bettany’s cheeks, “You’re hurt really bad… you’re hurt really bad and it’s my fault.”

Bettany buried his face in his hands, guilt overwhelming him.

“I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to help you.”

The spirit of Constantin removed a heavy leather glove, revealing a hand with a deep scar on the palm, as well as the brand of a chain around the wrist. This large appendage reached up to Bettany's face, wiping a tear as it fell, before gently patting the Druid's cheek a few times. Bettany initially winced at the touch but eventually found solace in the gesture.

“It was my duty." Constantin said, with a wan smile. Lucidity faded slightly from his gaze. "What must I teach you?" The specter asked, rising to his full height again.

Bettany looked to his feet, pondering. He scuffed his toe on the ground, the movement causing ripples in the surface of his illusion, rings spreading from the point like blood in water.

“What do I need to do? How do I learn to fight? How can I protect the party if I’m physically inept?” Bettany asked, gaze flicking back up to Constantin. It was now that Bettany felt the weight of his dual sickles strapped to his sides. He fumbled with the leather clasp, undoing the gold fastens and holding the weapons in each hand.

“Teach me more. Teach me to use these so that this doesn’t happen again.” Bettany instructed, his knuckles whitening on the wooden handles.

Constantin shook his head, smiling sadly.

 “I cannot teach you to be strong like me.” He rose to his full standing height. 

“We are different, you and I. You are strong in ways I am not.” His ice-blue eyes locked on Bettany’s, commanding focus. 

“Nature is your strength.” He intoned somewhat cryptically. “Your nature is your strength.”

Bettany protested, “I don’t understand. I can’t use nature to save the party. I- I can’t fight with it.” Bettany shook his head, his heart pounding in his chest as he turned his back on Constantin, fingers gripping at his long hair. “I can use spells, sure, but that’s… that's it. What if we enter another dead zone? I’m useless. I can’t even turn myself into something strong, just a stupid fucking bat! I turned into a panther once and I passed out, I passed out and you died.” Bettany’s words came out choppy as his quick breath turned to sobs, tears rolling down his cheeks as he sank to his knees, entirely crying now.

The hulking form of Constantin knelt beside Bettany, placing a hand on his shoulder again, pulling him upwards to meet his gaze. “I chose my fate.” He said plainly. “I died protecting what I cared about.” He continued. A moment of silence passed, as the dream form of Vasiliev smiled sadly. “You did all you could. You grew. Trees snap in storms, yet the roots remain... New life blooms. Weather this storm, little brother. You will grow firm bark and sharp branch again. Lean into your nature. Become the fanged beast again, and fight harder. Fight longer. Train as I do, and grow like you see the world grow.”

Bettany continued to cry, shaking his head. 

“I didn’t get to spend enough time with you… I wish I could have learned more of what you could’ve taught me, I should’ve listened to you more… you were my brother, the brother I never had until I did. And now you’re gone.”  Bettany stammered. 

Constantin sighed. “That is not true, little man.” He replied, tapping Bettany’s chest. “I am here. Just as you and your companions will always remain here.” He said, patting his own chest. “When you roar with the fury of the Bear, know I am there with you, lending you my might. As you walk these lands, I walk with you. I am Barovia, and Barovia is me. The ground is my flesh, the trees are my bones. The mist is my lifeblood. You are in my home, and my spirit will always go with you in this place, in life and in death.” 

His image began to wane slightly. “Father once said that a man would not die... So long as his name is spoken. As long as you remember me, little brother, I will be with you.” Kneeling there, Constantin did something inconceivable to those who knew him in life. He extended his arms, beckoning Bettany forward. 

Bettany threw himself into the paladin’s arms, burying himself into the thick leather jacket that clad Constantin’s torso. “Thank you… thank you for being my brother.” Bettany’s words were near unintelligible as he cried. The weight of Constantin began to fade as the dream began to weaken. Bettany desperately clung to Constantin, knowing this could very well be the last time he’d be able to... Even in this state of illusion. It could be the last time the two spoke. 

Bettany’s physical body stirred, the connection weakening as he woke. The world faded like fabric washed out from the sun, the surroundings blurring as it drew to an end. “I’m not ready,” Bettany said in a desperate attempt to stop what he knew he couldn’t prevent.

The last words Constantin said to Bettany rang in his mind, even as he awoke next to the Barovian’s dying body.

“I’m proud of you, little bear.”

[black-metal-bard]

Kind of want to draw some hypothetical children for Meliora and Evyrn(not that I ever actually want them to EXIST in game), but in universe have it be something STRAHD commissioned.

I can post freely here because none of my group are on Tumblr, but in the part of the campaign I’m DMing, one of Meliora’s lovers/friends is the Son of Strahd(explored further in my books, where Strahd’s name/parts of his origin have been changed to avoid Copyright infringement). Now, this places Strahd and Barovia as allies to the party at the start of things. If I feel like things are too chummy and we need to throw a wrench in the plot, I have plans for Evyrn to ask for Meliora’s hand(for political purposes), and be VERY offended when she declines.

Okay this is getting REALLY long and I’m just sort of Rambling about my campaign at this point, so it’s going under a cut. Keep in mind it takes place around 1000 years POST CoS events.

Evyrn’s intentions are “Marry me so I am officially an Oarthean Noble to get around some bullshit red tape to progress the invasion”, but Meliora isn’t 100% happy to BE a noblewoman in the first place(her Estranged Father abdicated his position to her), and she CERTAINLY doesn’t want to be Princess of the Barovian Empire. Being Strahd’s Son, Evyrn doesn’t take that well(because how could one of his best friends and frequent bed-partner NOT be Down to Marry him???), and he’s GOING to be insufferable about it—partly because he’s a strategist at heart and it WOULD make a lot of things easier, but also because his pride and his feelings are hurt, so he VERY MUCH wants to get her to agree.

I’m HOPING my players will be divided on whether they support Mel or Evyrn in that regard, Pragmatism VS Respecting Meliora—because making an enemy of EITHER of them would be FASCINATING. EVERYONE in my group has been deeply desiring a Meliora Villain Arc for a long time now, so with her as the new party’s mentor figure, having them insult her enough for her to cut ties with them would be a delicious way to start Mel’s Villain arc—especially since Mordakhesh is still bound to her via blood pact AND he feels loyal to her because he genuinely trusts her(Khesh also ACTIVELY distrusts Evyrn from the beginning, because his Epitaph is “The Dragon of Barovia”, and their attitudes about Meliora clash despite them having similar codes of Honor otherwise). It would also be fascinating to have the party sided with the Von Zarovich family and Barovia WITHOUT Meliora’s protection, because Strahd and Evyrn only care about ONE of the PCs for that campaign(one of them is the son of a “Rival” Darklord who Strahd “Adopted” after he tried to assassinate Strahd on behalf of his father—the PC’s greatest wish is to be a True Von Zarovich). But all the other PCs? If they slip up, Strahd IS still Strahd, despite him softening a bit in Fatherhood. Evyrn, unbeknownst to ANYONE save for perhaps Baba Lysaga, inherited his father’s SOUL when he was born, so he is not much better than his father—just with SIGNIFICANTLY less Trauma.

As far as Strahd feels in terms of Meliora—he very MUCH would like his son to marry her. Meliora’s estranged Father was the Head of the last living branch of Dilisnya’s before he abdicated to Mel—making Strahd feel like she is MORE than an appropriate match for his son—especially since she is an accomplished mage/Wizard in her own right, having developed her own class of Spirit Magic on Earth. He’s not put off by her being a Tiefling/Demi-Demon, since his own bloodline is already “Tainted” with Vampirism. In his eyes, Strahd believes that adding Meliora’s demonic bloodline to his would only strengthen it, and thus he has been envisioning Tiefling Grandchildren since Evyrn first brought Meliora to Castle Ravenloft(before the events of the original campaign).

Obviously, this puts Meliora in quite a dangerous position, as well as any PCs who choose to side with HER(as Evyrn will have ZERO qualms about hurting them—short of caring about Meliora’s opinion of him). Depending on where we are in the Barovian Invasion Plotline, siding with Mel can and WILL make Strahd and Evyrn NASTY BBEGs to be reckoned with.

Siding with Evyrn if this is after the two-hundred year time jump will make Meliora and Mordakhesh utterly terrifying—given her continuation of her Grandfather’s demonic research granting her a power boost and potentially unlocking held-back power from Khesh.

Should the party find some way to reconcile Meliora and Evyrn, I’m going to bring in Rak Tulkhesh(Mordakhesh’s former master) in as a BBEG. His goal will be to claim Mordakhesh, who no longer wishes to return to his service after finding genuine purpose and friendship with Meliora.

It’s worth noting that Meliora’s ultimate goal is to prevent World-Ender deities from being able to destroy Oarth the way Earth was destroyed—as she feels guilty for not returning to Earth, thinking she may have been able to help, or at least die with her friends. This is why she initially SUPPORTS the Barovian Invasion, because Strahd has reached Near-Godlike status at this point, and she feels the Barovian Imperial Army would be a good God-Buster should an outside force(such as Rak Tulkhesh) seek to harm Oarth.

I could even throw Rak Tulkhesh into the mix as an urgent “We need to team up again” if the party is SPLIT in their decision of who to support(as the PC who fancies himself a Von Zarovich is not likely to break away from Strahd and Evyrn).

I’m just VERY excited but all the potential plot threads and what my friends might end up doing—how they may end up surprising me. (I mean SHIT, I threw off our other DM when Mel ended up genuinely BEFRIENDING Mordakhesh in the first place—he was intended to be a BBEG in the original campaign. So I’m VERY excited for the curveballs they’re going to throw me if we actually get the chance to play again.)

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

I have to ask for 21, because I'm me

21. do they have an idea about how they’ll die? do you?

Ahahah, I love you being on brand. Never change.

She has in fact died died twice (so far). Once when refusing to give up the location of Strahd's much sought-after vampire hunter nemesis - being a stubborn righteous ass, she got pretty beat up and blood-sucked, then dropped off one of the towers of Castle Ravenloft to her death. She got brought back a few in-game days later thanks to said vampire hunter having a scroll of Raise Dead and being convinced by the party that, if nothing else, a glowy smitey paladin was pretty useful in the fight against a vampire, so it was worth it. Recovering from that is... well, still ongoing.

The second one happened when facing some extremely pissed off Strahd harassment just before the endgame, engaging him in melee and trying to keep his attention away from the rest of her exhausted companions as well as the Martikov family - great allies of the party who were at the moment providing desperately needed sanctuary in their winery (and also I love them). Strahd had a magical fire shield up which meant each attack on him was… costly, to say the least. This one was very brief, as one of the family's three precious magical gems was sacrificed to bring her back almost as soon as Strahd, that absolute bastard, left after a brief gloat and threat or twenty. This was also very costly for the artificer in our party, as the backlash of tinkering with the gem to unleash its magical properties ultimately led to him losing his arm. It was a very, very grim time and a real “darkest before the dawn” moment nearing the end of the whole Barovian misadventure.

I know player character death gets handled wildly differently depending on the table. Some folks love permadeath and going through a dozen characters and just rolling (haha) with whatever the dice decide, while some lean fully into playing in worlds where bringing someone back from the dead is just a couple of diamonds and a brief cleric visit away. I feel like I’ve played in games that fell all throughout the spectrum, but in this particular case we went more narrative focused than probably ever before. In our discussions with the DM about how we'd even handle character death in the campaign we all agreed bringing in new outsider characters would be kind of a pain and would ring pretty hollow, so we agreed we'd use the scarce and often very costly possibilities given in the adventure itself, and, if all else failed, we'd go the Revenant route - i.e. whoever dies can be some brand of Too Angry To Die, swear to do one last thing (probably defeating Strahd and freeing the land in this particular case), and come back as an extremely driven undead version of themselves, a sad kind of semi-existence, that, bittersweetly, is guaranteed to end when the task is accomplished. It never actually came to this, as it happens, though each member of the 3-strong party had a brush with it. But it was certainly a rather grim (and appropriate) possibility.

The Silver Flame, which Ramiel formally belongs to via her knightly order, believes that the souls of the worthy and faithful are supposed to join the flame after death and strengthen it in protecting the world from demons/fiends/all manner of evil - so essentially she expects the fight to never really end. Barovia, however, is a prison for a specific evil lord - which also happens to be a prison for the souls of anyone who dies within it. So not only was that hanging over her, but she experienced a small, brief taste of it (twice!) - the revenant option doesn’t seem so bad anymore, suddenly.

All of this is to say, the possibilities were and are many and varied, but I am absolutely certain this is not a person who is going to die peacefully in her sleep at a venerable age, and so is she.

[strvhd]

@ratkingszarr Cazador has simply written him a note left on Rajadin’s injured, nearly dead body. It read simply: I have him.

Was it Mortis? Was it Astarion? He didn’t bother to elaborate.

The roar that comes out of Strahd's mouth. He pours some of his own blood into Rajadin's mouth. " Get up! We have work to do. "

You've taken his beloved. His beautiful beloved? No. Not this time. He will not lose another beloved at anyone's hands. Not this. Not today. Barovia reacts accordingly. The mists turn cold, the weather bings to storm. The land itself seems to quiver with rage.

Strahd sends out the order. Every spawn and vampire in Barovia is currently searching for Cazador Szarr's head.

[rahadaddy]

Labor & Loss - A Blood Countess Fic

Summary: Strahd gives birth to twin boys and just as quickly surrenders them. The grief will haunt her more than she can guess.

Panting and pushing, drenched in sweat and half-delirious, I finally understood why they called it “labor.” So often one of my men would mention a wife or mistress’ lying in time with both pride and fear and I had always scoffed. Since my teenage years, I had known the pangs of battle – hunger, hardship, work, worry, injury – and I thought myself above such a pedestrian pain as childbirth. Now, delivering twins, I knew the gods must be punishing me for my hubris. I dug my nails into the nearest arm to me and I felt something slick run down my fingers.

“You’re doing wonderfully,” Alek said and I knew his must have been the arm from which I had drawn blood. His voice was strained and quiet and I could hear the wincing.

“I don’t need your approval,” I said between breaths. “I need your stubborn children to decide who will be first out of the birthing canal.”

He laughed.

“Ah, yes. My stubbornness, my lady.”

There is a reason fathers do not often remain in the chamber, instead getting embarrassingly sloshed with congratulatory friends. If the circumstances had been different, no doubt Alek would have relished the tradition. As it was, only he, Lady Ilona, and I stood in the chamber. Rahadin stood without guarding the door. Never had I felt more vulnerable and I cursed them all for watching me. I wanted to do as wolves did and bunker down somewhere dark and quiet, where the birth could be a quick and private thing and no one would see the pups until I was ready to let them into the world, away from my side. This could not be. We had discussed time and again the plan and I knew it well, for it was as much of my making as the twins I had carried for nearly nine months. I would give birth and not be allowed to know the fate of my children. Alek would hide them away from those who would call them bastards and those who would harm our little family and should I ask, I was to be told they had perished this day unless such a time came when I could legitimize my union with Alek and retroactively claim my children as rightful heirs to the Barovian throne. I had enemies. I was as close to a queen as I could be with a still-living mother, who preferred to distance herself from Court to raise my younger brother. More than that, Alek remained certain there was still a traitor in the castle, and if there truly was a Ba’al Verzi assassin he or she would not back down on the account of children. I respected such dedication to the craft of warfare. I shared it.

I wished I didn’t. I wished at this moment to be a wife and mother as much as I was a queen and conqueror. I wished the people would accept Alek as my husband as easily as they accepted him as my right hand and that our children would be safe in the castle I’d conquered, the land that was as sealed with my blood as they were. I wished for so many things and if I could have thought to pray for them then, I would have.

I should have. I would only know later how keenly my prayers in Barovia were heard and if I had prayed for the right things… Of course, when one is in the throes of childbirth, prayers are hard to speak aloud and words have power. Instead, I howled and screamed as finally, the first of the boys slicked his way into the world. Lady Ilona cleaned him and I lolled my head to see Alek holding the swaddled, fresh babe in his arms. Tears sprang to my eyes and I dared to ask my son’s name.

“Godfrey,” Alek said. “For my mother.”

I almost asked a wry question when the waves of pain began anew and the second of my sons pushed his way into the world. He was smaller than his brother, though they were both remarkably tiny, he balled his fists in such a way that I knew that of the two, my youngest would be the one to fight in this world. The eldest rested peacefully in his father’s arms and Ilona hesitated to lay the fitful younger one on my chest. I hesitated to take him. It is common enough knowledge among ladies’ circles that holding your child is the gateway to loving them irrevocably. I could not afford to love either of my sons. Ilona did not spare me a mother’s grief as she laid the little, youngest one on my chest. He was so soft and so fragile, with his fists clenched so tightly that I wanted to weep. He would fight all his life, but I would not be there to teach him all I knew about how to hold a sword and dodge an attack. Beyond today, he would not know a mother’s touch, although I did not and do not think of myself as the maternal sort. I named him “Alistor” which received a sly look from Alek.

“I will not give him anyone’s name but his own,” I said. “But I will honor his father just a little.”

My name was not tied to either son – not my given name or my family name, though I imagined Godfrey and Alistor von Zarovich as little princes more often than I would ever admit to anyone. Ilona lulled me to sleep with magic, and according to plan, when I awoke, both my sons were gone.

The intervening months bled together in a gray cloud of grief. I seldom ate and barely slept, thrusting myself deep into magical and legal tomes in the vain, vain hope that I could reunite my family. When I met with the boyars and burgomasters about Barovia’s laws, my petitions to allow female heirs the same degree of choice fell upon mostly deaf ears. Only Victor Wachter seemed to hear my good sense and others accused him of partiality, as his favorite child was his daughter, Lovina, who he wished would not only inherit but pass on the Wachter name one day.

“Our Lady Strahd bears the Von Zarovich name,” he said during one particularly heated meeting of Barovia’s House of Lords. “Would you ask that she take on a man’s name when she deigns to marry?”

A headache bloomed in my temple as my blood pressure rose.

“I would expect our lady to uphold traditions,” Reinhold Dilisnya, who also had plenty of daughters, but a different wish for them, said. “Besides, if Queen Ravenovia has her way, Lady Strahd will marry that Dusk Elf prince and Lord Sergei will inherit the Von Zarovich lands and titles.”

I cursed quietly. He was right. My mother had designs on my marrying High Mage Kasimir Velikov, a prince of the Dusk Elves. I found his company tolerable enough, but he inspired neither love nor loyalty in me. As the darkness that enveloped me refused to lift, he and his sister, Patrina, made many calls to Castle Ravenloft. I often thought my mother would do well to marry Rahadin to High Mage Patrina and allow me to do as I pleased. At first glance, they were not a suitable match. My half-brother cared little for the art of magic; Patrina lived and breathed for the wonders of the Weave. They both carried anger easily and well and it would have been a tempestuous union. At first glance, Kasimir and I had much in common, as we both loved magic and all it had to offer and could spend hours in companionable silence, researching our respective interests. However, I felt no real love for him – merely a mutual and abiding respect that others might have termed as friendship. Alek seethed upon watching us together. He pretended not to but I could feel the way the air shifted around him when Kasimir was in the room or even when his name was mentioned. I took some small satisfaction that I could cause Alek pain, even as I continued to love him. He had taken my sons, even if he had taken them on my order, and I doubted somehow that he suffered as I did from the loss. Kasimir was an inconvenient convenience for me. Patrina was a companion fit for Rahadin’s sullen ways. Of course, no one consulted me in the matter, not yet. No formal proposal had been made.

Then, of course, there was the issue of my younger brother inheriting. I had only met Sergei a few, brief times and then he had been a child and I had been a general. Even beyond that, he had been a boy and I a young woman. Though I walked well among the men in my armies, I could not help but feel the disparity between Sergei and myself. He had the luxury of living with my mother in Huldefolk, near our Dusk Elf kin, where Rahadin had been ousted years ago and I had never known as a home. He must have been a young man now, but I was not so old that he could swoop in and take what was rightfully mine. He would, however, inherit my sons’ birthright or, one day, when he found a princess suitable for marriage, their children would. Some days I hoped that this younger brother I scarcely knew never married and that I would live forever to preserve what little I was allowed to have in this world.

I could not have Alek and I could not have our sons, so I prayed that I would be allowed to have Barovia and sometimes I even prayed that I would be given everything that Sergei took so easily for granted.

They say to be careful what you wish for. What they never tell you is who or what might be listening.

When my torpor did not lift after a few years and my father passed, only further miring me into despair, Lady Ilona sent for my brother Sergei in Huldefolk. He arrived with a prince’s welcome, dressed in bright colors and looking for all the world like a fairytale hero. I noticed he wore the gold and sky blue of the Morning Lord’s priesthood. I wore solemn black, as had been my habit since my father’s death and, indeed, since the loss of my sons. Grief had weathered my features and beside him, I felt that I must have looked like a matron. However, I still kept in daily practice with the blade and it further contrasted with Sergei’s lithe and lean figure. He threw himself from his horse and embraced me without ceremony, which surprised me. Of course, my court would be horrified if I rejected the boy or if I reacted with unwomanly coldness. No one but I seemed to realize it was the first embrace I had known since Alek absconded with my children. No one else cared. I embraced Sergei in return.

“Welcome to Ravenloft,” I said. “I hope you find it to your liking, Prince Sergei.”

“Sister,” he said warmly, “I have spent my youth gobbling up tales of your accomplishments. I have dreamed of this moment for longer than you can know.”

“Not so long. You may be much taller since I last saw you, but it cannot have been so many years.”

A lifetime’s worth of sorrow had passed for me since Sergei’s birth. In twenty years, I had become a commander, led armies to victory, reclaimed a long-lost stronghold for the Von Zarovich family, and a throne for myself. I had lost my father and both my sons. I was older than my years. In that time, the milestones Sergei had lived through were closer to what my sons must have experienced if they lived. Walking, talking… They would be six now if they lived.

“I remember it like it was yesterday, too,” Sergei said, not seeming to denote my derision. “The last time I saw you, your second in command had all but forced you to take a holiday to Huldefolk. It had been risky for you to visit because of the war with the Tergs, but you made it just in time for my birthday. I remember watching you and Rahadin spar. You let me have a swing at you before knocking me to the ground. I learned the taste of humility that day. It tastes like dirt and grass.”

I laughed despite myself and I clapped my brother on the back. I remembered that day in a very distant way but Sergei spoke of it with such fierce fondness and joy that I could not help myself.

“I hope you’ve gotten better with the blade since,” I said.

He looked a little sheepish. “I do practice. Mother commissioned a sword for my birthday in the hopes that I would be as good as you are one day.”

I saw it then: a glorious, elven blade strapped to the side of his horse for easy access. I was a collector of beautiful things and I coveted it for a moment. Its platinum hilt gleamed in the afternoon sun as if it was made of radiant light itself. Its polished finish indicated that it might not have seen much battle action, but I knew those at Huldefolk were fierce warriors who took pristine care of their weapons. It occurred to me then the advantages Sergei had that I was denied: Elvish bladesong lessons, an education in the Church, the rights of a son, the rights of a man… Even Rahadin had been denied such gifts. How lucky to be the youngest son of a family who had already conquered vast tracts of land.

“You are welcome at Ravenloft,” I reiterated. “Come. Let’s feast.”

[rodimissliveblogs]

I love Mae, and have a lot more developed to her character than I've gotten around to elaborating on, but I'm also still obsessed with the cleric I played in Curse of Strahd and keep imagining how she'd be doing in Baldur's Gate 3. The answer is not great. But I'm specifically making this post because I was thinking about her dynamic with Astarion (again, thinking about it again) and realized. Here's Withers, offering to resurrect any fallen friends. Here's Maiacah, a grave cleric who did a stint in Barovia, and knows I think she would refer to as "the Barovian vampire cure", which is when you just fucking kill the vampire and then resurrect them with Raise Dead, Resurrection, or True Resurrection, depending on how long they've been a vampire. (Since those spells work based on how long a creature has been dead, and that "death" is being counted as when they died and became a vampire, not when they were killed as a vampire.)

Now, Withers would be typically tight-lipped when Maiacah asks him about his powers of resurrection - which she would have many, many questions for him! But Maiacah would still suppose - well, he's offering, for a small price, to resurrect any of us who may fall. He's not excluding our undead companion from this. "So, Astarion, if I kill you and then have Withers--"

"No," says Astarion, because Maiacah has the Charisma of a wet paper bag and is awful at both lying and convincing people of the truth, and while Maiacah did not stake him when he tried to drink her blood, he still does not trust that a grave cleric with vampire bite scars on her neck before he even got to her is not lying to him so that she can kill him with no resistance and then never bring him back.

The punchline is that somewhere in the adventure, if Astarion does die, Maiacah would pass on the Revivify scroll - she'snot convinced it will work on him anyway - and drag his body back to Withers to test her hypothesis.

Withers resurrects him and he's still an undead vampire. Maiacah has so many questions. Withers refuses to answer any of them.

[generic-cleric]

Session 40

I have unfortunately been slacking when it comes to posting my session write ups here, so I’ll slowly be posting them over the next several days to catch up!

You can find the folder for all my write-ups here

The google doc version of this session can be found here

Obligatory “This may contain spoilers for the Dungeons and Dragons campaign Curse of Strahd so read at your own risk” warning.

Why Can’t We Be Friends

The session starts with dinner. 

Overall I have mixed feelings about this session. I could tell that my players were anxious because there was a lot of nervous out of character table talk.

When Strahd spoke to them, they kept their answers short. He asked them how they liked Barovia and it took them a long time to speak up with an answer.

They seemed to loosen up more when Sasha asked them about deities, or when Escher asked them about performances, or when Gertruda asked them about weddings. Anastrasya and Veledrel playfully banter back and forth about ruining each other's clothes during the scuffle in Vallaki, Bedlam steps in to remind everyone that we’re friends right now.

Ireena is absolutely shocked and angered to see Gertruda in the castle and so excited to be there. She looked like she wanted to say a million things to Gertruda but refrained, fearing it would push her away.

Jander, sitting in between Strahd and Ireena, did his best to hold Strahd in conversation to pull his aggro from Ireena. 

Kasimir seemed anxious but was playing it off well. It helped that Rahadin was nowhere to be seen, but the other guy who had a hand in genociding his people was sitting at the table so… you know.

Each course the characters ate was served by the unseen servants and Helga. Wine glasses were constantly being refilled. There were many bottles circulating around the table, but the characters noticed that the same “wine” that was poured for the undead at the table was never poured for the living guests, and vice versa.

At one point during the palate cleanser course, Helga notifies Strahd that the wine upstairs is running a little dry and Strahd asks if anyone would like to volunteer to go get another barrel. Out of character I explain to the table that this is not a strength test, anyone can do it, and the idea is that someone from the castle will go, and someone from the party will go, and I let them choose who they would like to take.

Bedlam offered to go, and chose to take Ludmilla. They walked their way downstairs to the wine cellar. He had the pleasure of seeing Cryus doing all the cooking next to a barovian commoner who is being drained of his blood. Bedlam takes the opportunity to ask Ludmilla to give Evelyn more time with Vasilka. Ludmilla says that she thinks they can work something out. 

She explains that she suspects there is a traitor within the walls of Castle Ravenloft, and that if Bedlam can oust them and find irrefutable evidence, she would be more than happy to help him out. He agrees and they haul more barrels upstairs.

The details of the conversation are a little spotty, because I’m writing this quite a bit of time after it happened, and I don’t think there was much of a resolution to the conversation before they got uncomfortable and changed the subject.

They wanted to know why they were all here and how he knew about them. He alluded to a few of their pasts. Okrin has Arvid, who Okrin shunned from their Goliath community, so Arvid joined the werewolves that do Strahd’s bidding. Bedlam has something that belongs to Barovia. He wasn’t sure if Strahd was alluding to the gemstone that was given to him by his mentor or if he was referring to Sergei’s soul. Veledrel’s parents are both here in Barovia, Evelyn, his mother, is at the abbey in Krezk and his father has been confirmed to be a prisoner in the castle. We didn’t get to delve into Vondal and his amber sarcophagus before they started asking how he brought them together.

Which he didn’t. “The strands of fate have an interesting way of intertwining, don’t they?”

The campaign began with a small town in the Dalelands of Faerun. It was late at night, and all the characters were in their respective places for the evening. All of a sudden, a loud bell rings out. When they look, they see the townspeople gathering in front of the mayor who announces that wolves are attacking the village. The characters gladly jump into combat and resolve the issue. Once they returned to the town square, the blacksmith rushed out frantically saying that his children haven’t been found since the scuffle. The mayor randomly grouped everyone into search parties, and thus, we have our group.

Eventually the topic of the party leaving came up. Strahd said he found them very entertaining and wouldn’t let them leave for free. When they got the sense that the price was Ireena, they quickly became uncomfortable and changed the subject to a more lighthearted one.

They got to know each of the denizens a little bit and asked about their backstories. Ludmilla was the first, she was a vistana who wanted more out of life and the arcane arts so she sought them out and found them in Strahd.

Ludmilla later sought out Anastrasya, an heiress with a growing reputation for throwing baller parties and having quite the attitude.

Escher was a traveling bard that got swept off to Barovia and happily joined Strahd’s court to live a lavish lifestyle. He doesn’t exactly know how long he’s been here or even remembers where he’s from. 

Volenta a former sex worker who was shunned out of the village for torturing clients in her basement. She threw herself at the mercy of the count and he took her in.

Sasha is an oathbreaker paladin from Staunton Bluffs and a victim of the mercenaries terrorizing the countryside. She escaped, stowing away with the Vistani passing through. She forsook her oaths and joined Strahd’s ranks. 

There was so much more to say, but dinner had to come to a close. Anastrasya explained that she would be throwing banger parties the next few nights, and that if they weren’t to tired, they could join the denizens in the audience hall, but It’s already so late, so if they’re tired that’s understandable. Strahd and his posse make their way to the audience hall, talking and having a nice time, while the party makes their way to their room to recuperate.

Bedlam catches everyone up to speed on his conversation with Ludmilla and they decide what they want to do next. At first they wanted to split the party, Bedlam and Veledrel would go to the dance while Okrin and Vondal go exploring for a piece of Patrina and keep an eye out for Vel’s dad. I told them I loved the idea, but I was worried it would compromise the quality of the session. 

I’m not the type of DM to kill a party just because they split the group, I actually really like it when they do because usually it means they all have information to bring back to the group and share, which encourages great roleplay. This was a little bit different. With the Castle being so big I wasn’t confident in my ability to give everyone the screen time that they deserved, at least for now. They all understood and decided to, as a group, go exploring. Jander, Ireena, and Kasimir decided to stay behind, mostly because they didn’t want to go, and also I wanted the group to explore without NPCs for a little bit. 

They take the stairs as far down as they can go and find themselves in a flooded hallway. The flooded hallway contains a right and left wing of prison cells. Vondal turns into an octopus to explore the murky waters below. One of the cells contained an ooze that attacked. The party easily handled it, but not before Bedlam loses some durability on one of his daggers from striking it. They found some money, a magic glowing sword, a bunch of dead guys, and then a live prisoner.

He says his name is Emil, he lives in Vallaki and was attacked by dire wolves in the woods and imprisoned in the castle. The group doesn’t entirely trust him, and Bedlam doesn’t feel like Emil has really given them a reason to let him out because the risks for them would be too high. When they start to leave and say they’re busy looking for someone, he asks who, maybe he can help, he’s seen a lot of people come through here. 

Veledrel describes his father, Venda, and Emil recognizes the description. He explains that the musical man was imprisoned a while ago, and was escorted out. The party leaves him with some food and tells him that they’ll release him when they decide to leave the castle. He seemed crestfallen like he doesn’t believe them.

That’s pretty much where we ended things for the night! They had a long discussion out of character about Emil. What he might be hiding, if his character art was picked out by me or provided by the book, what could the purpose of this character be? All really good stuff!

[dungeonsandblorbos]

BLOOD - What would they do if they saw a stranger's corpse?

thank you for the ask!

hmm, we'll answer this one for all of my main four, and assume this is a fresh corpse that's in decent shape. oddly enough for TTRPG characters, only one of them has actually encountered a stranger's corpse in the wild before. can you guess who?

Nina would freak out just a little and call 911. immediately after hanging up she'd open up the group chat with Beatrice and Chuck to text them "i know what it's like to be that person at the beginning of a crime show now," and then go silent on them for three hours because, ya know, the cops showed up and interviewed her and she got distracted.

Jun would grimace and make a mental note of the body's location, then immediately go to the nearest temple and tell them about it. she'd try to keep her distance and would wash her hands afterwards, even if she didn't touch the body. she studied medicine a bit while living at one of her goddess's temples, so she's fine with things like severe burns and putrefying wounds and stuff, but once they're dead she's just kinda like "nope!" after getting home she'd probably vent to Tim about it in the hopes he'd offer her some of his pipe weed.

Ariel would calmly check the body's vitals to confirm they're dead and look for any kind of identifying factors or relevant information to whatever quest the party is on. he might reflexively offer a little prayer himself before moving on with his day, and notifying whatever authority seems most appropriate (e.g., local church or law enforcement) as soon as he's able to. he's not all that phased by death unless it's someone he knows, and he'd want to make sure they received proper funerary rites. if he's with his party, he'd probably also make a gentle effort to stop the two rogues from looting the corpse, but ultimately he has more pressing concerns most of the time and it's really not worth the risk of Maria trying to stab him with her dagger of many curses for daring to tell her what to do.

Cerris would give the corpse a cursory examination in case there's anything of note, and give the surrounding area a cursory examination as well, wary that whatever (or whoever) killed them could still be close by. and then he'd just continue on his way. there's little to no point in attempting to notify Barovian authorities or temples, and even if there was, he's not exactly on good terms with most of them. but he'd do what he could for them, like moving their body to the side of the road so it's not in danger of getting run over, closing their eyes, and covering or sheltering the body in some way, if possible.

[nevermoretoleave]

SESSION XXIII. a cry of ice and fire.

in-game date: 26–27th day of gnilyana. 

having just arrived at the gates of vallaki covered in blood and with two orphaned barovian children in tow, the group has a guard find izek. elya tells him that the children were given away by their parents in exchange for pies; this softens izek's demeanor, and he leads them to the church to deliver them to ireena. she's concerned to see them here but gladly welcomes them into her arms. izek mentions an orphanage across the street, with a stern but kind enough headmistress. since he's been praying to the morning lord, elya asks if kai wants to stay behind as they scope out the orphanage, which he does.

kai asks father lucian if people dream of the morning lord, that he hasn't been feeling well so he prayed for peace but started having dreams with fire motifs, he wants to know if this is normal. father lucian doesn't believe the morning lord manifests through fire, and when asked about other deities, he tells kai this might instead be something nefarious in nature. kai tells him that his dreams gave him what his subconscious wants, to burn them all. he warns kai about which instincts he follows, and kai derides his reliance on faith alone.

at the orphanage, the rest of the party speaks to headmistress belasco — they have children that need accomodations. vane picks up a tension in the air, and the group asks to see the premises first. the twins pick up on bruises on a child's arm, which they telepathically communicate amongs themselves. vane joins the kids to talk to them, and learns the girl doesn't know how she got the bruises. elya detects a thinking creature in one of the rooms, sick and out of it.

suspicious, but not wanting to interfere with the children's bedtime, they leave, and will return with the children later.

the party goes to dinner at the tavern, where they meet muriel, connecting the dots between her and the bird they saw at the old windmill. she tells them they should listen to ravens in barovia, winks, and takes her leave, glad they're all alive despite not heeding her warning.

valar brings up the fact that elya is weaker than before. he tells them that this has been happening since their first night in barovia, and vane leaves for the burgomaster's. he assures the party that he's got a contingency plan and expects privacy.

after dinner, valar goes to jeny. he inquires as to how to reconsecrate the fanes, and takes her deal — a greater restoration spell for elya, in exchange for help getting laura back.

vane reaches out telepathically to elya one last time before settling into bed, tells him he's all she has left, and he tells her that's the reason he hid this from her before severing their connection.

in the night, a few dreams come to them. elya dreams of the effigy that's being built in yesterhill, a second leg now built. lev once again dreams of his human form constricting his wolf form, and wakes up howling. kai returns to his village, and is greeted by a figure too bright to look upon. delban, the star of fire and hate, eggs on his wrath, tells him to set the champion of this land on fire. without asking any questions, he takes delban at his word, and takes his deal. he leaves a burn mark on kai's arm where they shook hands, and kai wakes up screaming. elya casts silence to quiet everything, and the questioning begins. lev dreams of more of the same, and kai tells them about the star of fire and hate, and that he took the offered deal, since their objectives aligned.

rictavio knocks at their door, having heard the commotion, and does not believe their lies, but doesn't press them about it either.

vane wakes up with izek, accuses him of being softer than he looks after he sat to play dolls at the orphanage with her the day before, and they talk about the possibility of ireena and him being related before joining the others at the inn. she tells kai off for taking a deal without questioning furhter, and discloses her own dream. elya suggests postponing these arguments, and asks for privacy to write some letters, ostensibly to ismark, but really to strahd.

not too long after, the party convenes in the square for the festival, where most of them meet victor vallakovich for the first time, and ireena joins them with vasili von holtz.

the festival begins, and rain descends upon the wicker ball as the burgomaster tries, in vain, to light it on fire. one of the guards laughs, and the burgomaster swiftly has him arrested for spite and tied to his horse, for the "amusement" of the crowd. elya steps in then, mentioning to the baron that the children seem upset, to let this go, and offers to lend him fire. valar heals the injured militia on their way out, and the baron decides to take elya up on his offer. he goes to light it with magic, but a thunder that hides a laugh goes off and the rain increases. elya suggests making a pyre, and the baron agrees — which leads to him pointing out fiona wachter's absense, and that she keeps the devil's ear, before ordering the guards to bring her out.

from there, chaos ensues, and a riot begins to break out.

elya continues his efforts to reason with vargas, who has no proof against lady wachter, and appeals against a civil war. vane attempts to connect with rictavio telepathically, which fails, and then takes off in the direction of the wachterhaus, later managing to convince the guards that the burgomaster changed his mind and, backed up by izek, they put her in house arrest instead. lev and valar set to physically protecting elya from being taken by the guards. kai joins the martikovs and rictavio in aiding injured people.

elya purposefully allows strahd to scry on him, and, in a show of his political leanings, delivers a speech against holding an execution without trial, still attempting to assuage the crowd. finally, izek joins in on trying to dissuade the baron, trying to appeal to the fact that he raised him, and gets backhanded for his insolence. elya asks if they think anyone is safe from the baron's wrath, and izek lashes out in bitterness and anger, reaches for the baron's throat and casting a newly-acquired ice spell, using it to freeze the baron's neck and snap it in two.