#serena dms strahd

[serene-elysium]

....been thinking over my characterizations of Strahd's brides (being Volenta, Ludmilla, and Escher in my game) and it just occurred to me that the 3 of them are strong reflections of Strahd himself. They each represent the different parts of him.

Volenta, who in my game is in love with violence for the sake of violence. No goals. She's just out for blood - she's all monster, all the time. Unhinged. Free. Mad.

Ludmilla, who presents herself as noble. A negotiator. A learned individual. Charismatic. She's manipulative, and a liar - though she'll manipulate without lying if she can. Not because she has morals about it - but because manipulation without lying is harder to be discovered, and presents more of a challenge. And challenges are entertainment.

And Escher, who is...dejected. Lost. Sad. He regrets his life choices. He regrets his betrayals. He thinks that perhaps he should have let himself die, but on the other hand he is so afraid of death that even now he can't face it. He used to be something more, he used to have ambition, and now he has nothing. He just stares out his window and wonders if someone will kill him someday.

As a whole, if they were a venn diagram, Strahd would be in the middle. He's just all 3 of these things, at varying intervals.

Which is really cool, because I didn't intend for that. I just wrote what felt right for them, and they decided to become mirrors.

[marcusbrutus]

serena obviously burnt the bridge w her relationship w ireena when she decided to take strahd’s invitation but it turns out she wasn’t interested in ireena. our dm said i was just interested in ireena. but the only reason i was pursuing ireena was so that serena could get w her. but now serena doesn’t even like her apparently. so if i don’t like ireena and serena doesnt like ireena then who’s flying the plane?

[serene-elysium]

My brother was thinking about Sergei's tomb again, wondering who this "Sergei von Zarovich" was. Why is he so well preserved and cared for? Then he had an idea and opened the notes to read over the fortune again—Strahd will be found in the tomb of the man he envied most.

He said to himself, fully in theory mode, "The man he envied most...........ah, no. He shows too much respect for this Sergei—Strahd seems to think highly of him, not envy him."

The poker face I had to maintain, my god

[serene-elysium]

I'm listening to "I, Strahd" to help myself get into the mindset of Strahd's personality/mannerisms for RP reasons, and I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it

I am feeling REAL emotions over Strahd's love and loyalty to Alec. He would never call it either thing, but like...that's what it is.

Strahd promising that if Alec sacrifices himself for Strahd's sake, he will throw himself over the edge after him. Like....damn dude

[serene-elysium]

Me: okay, Rahadin is really stealthy so I'm probably just gonna use his passive stealth for this encounter, but I'll still roll just to see if he gets higher than a 24

Roll20:

Me: ...............of COURSE he gets a natural twenty OF COURSE HE DOES

[serene-elysium]

Favourite parts of session 1 of Strahd:

The party buying 2 donkeys before departing on the adventure bc lately my brother has been absolutely obsessed with how cheap donkeys are in dnd

I now almost want the donkeys to be the only party members to survive from the start to the end of the campaign

(They almost certainly will not)

In a moment of spontaneous RP my brain decided the secret password Ireena made up to be sure Ismark was really Ismark, and not Strahd in disguise (she has no idea what his powers are), was "Ismark is very cool".

She unlocked the door after he quietly said it and was like "Yes, you are." Because I've apparently decided she has a cheesy brand of loving/poking fun

Two Donkeys In The Burgomaster Parlor

(one room away from the dead burgomaster)

The Absolute Certainty to which my friends thought Mad Mary was a trap. Like the crying? An unlocked door? A lady facing away from them, clutching something in her hands?

I think they were having flashbacks to L4D witches

(Though tbh they were scared before they even entered the house, just from her loud sobbing. They were so distrustful and terrified of everything, it was great to watch)

[serene-elysium]

me: *sends pictures of my Ireena and Ismark to friend*

friend: ........wow, either these two are not related, or Ismark aged terribly

friend: *seems to be leaning towards He Aged Terribly*

me: :)c

[serene-elysium]

Oh also I love living with my brother bc I get to witness all the realtime changes in his opinions/theories for CoS

He goes from "I trust only Ismark, I think Ireena let Strahd in as a bid for power. Or their father had a deal with Strahd that went wrong. Either way, I trust Ismark," to "I do not trust Ismark. I think he might have made a deal with Strahd and killed his father to keep it secret"

He so quickly shifts through what he thinks happened to Gertruda, too. He made some theories like "she met a benefactor who helped her escape" and "she's dead in the forest"

But his NEWEST theory is that she frequently snuck out, but the mom didn't notice. Her and Doru were secretly friends (or lovers) and after he got turned into a vampire spawn, she continued to visit him at night

Which, btw? I actually love that. I lowkey wanna make it canon. I don't think I will, since it would change a lot of things about Gertruda (she wouldn't be nearly so sheltered, unless Doru also fed her a sanitized version of the world) but it's definitely an interesting idea

[serene-elysium]

My players finished the fight at the Wizard of Wines this past week and my brother has already decided that the Martikrovs are the key to the party's salvation

He has big plans to go to Vallaki and rally the people and ask the burgomaster (whom they have not met yet) to lend the party the townguards. He wants them to help because Barovians clearly love their wine, so SURELY this is a worthwhile endeavor to spend town resources on. SURELY people will want to help

I love it. Almost none of this will go according to his plans, but I love the way he thinks. Like, he has no idea how tiny and pathetic the protective forces in Barovia are. There really isn't enough guards to hand out, and there are so painfully few people who would be willing to leave the towns...

But I really appreciate the drive/initiative he has - they're going to be introduced to the Baron and Lady Wachter in so much more of an interesting way than I could have planned myself. And they're gonna get SUCH a good taste of what both those households are like, seeing the misplaced priorities of the Baron and the distant manipulations of Lady Wachter. Very very exciting

[serene-elysium]

Logically, I know that my players are going to die at least once in Strahd. It might happen later, when they can cast revify and not have it be permanent, but it WILL happen. Hell, there's a good chance they'll mess up early on and die.

Emotionally, I look at my friends and I'm like "you guys are so good and smart, I have faith in you not to die c: y'all will do great :))"

And it's like, hey brain?? No. They don't know the danger zones like u do. They are GOING to do something DUMB. Players ALWAYS do something dumb. Or the dice are going to screw them over. SOMETHING is gonna happen and they're gonna die.