#from our curse of strahd campaign

[leona-florianova]

@snejkha ...here..your horrible horrible wheezing beast..

[tantaliart]

a love immortal, such as mine

will come to me, eternally

[quillith]

Seeking Refuge

[tea-with-eleni]

Invitation to Dinner

Vasili knocked on the door to my room at the inn before Nyshka, for once. He smiled down at me. I know I looked unwell. I hadn’t slept, again. The nightmares were getting worse. Still, he was too polite to say, “Volenta, you look like hell.” Instead, he said, “Good morning, Miss Volenta. May I accompany you to breakfast?” I took the arm he offered and let him lead me downstairs to the inn’s common room.

“I’ve already eaten,” he said, pulling out my chair for me with a smile, “But I hope you won’t deny me the chance for your company.” I tried to smile back, but this morning, something about him made me uneasy. He looked as charming and as well put-together as ever. He set his bag on the table and began to dig through its contents. “This isn’t purely a social visit, I’m afraid to say,” he said. “I do have a message to deliver.”

“From your employer?” I asked. I was going to be very smug if I could get him to admit that he worked for Strahd. Nyshka still didn’t believe me, even though I’d convinced everyone else. “Something like that,” he said, pulling out an envelope. “I think it might be an invitation from the castle, actually. I’d hoped to receive something like it myself, but, alas.” He shrugged. “Perhaps another time.” I frowned at my toast. I’d eaten about half of it, but I hadn’t tasted it. The nightmares were still too fresh in my mind.

“Should we be worried?” I asked. “He isn’t inviting us to the castle to eat us or anything, right?” Vasili raised an eyebrow and almost looked like he was going to laugh. I tried to smile, to laugh it off, even though the question was entirely serious. “I mean, given the rumors…”

“I don’t think he has the habit of eating anyone like you,” he said gently, patting my hand. I met his eyes, then had to look away. There was something in his gaze that was… almost too intense for the conversation. “Are you alright, Miss Volenta?” he asked. I shrugged, wishing suddenly that I was anywhere else — or that anyone else had joined us! It was silly, I belonged to Lady Gold Heart herself, mother would laugh at me… but there was something about him.

“I’m fine,” I said, faking a cough. “Just… a little nervous. The lord of the land and his lady are supposed to be… intense.” He did laugh a little, then, and I knew I was blushing. He hadn’t let go of my hand. “You don’t have anything to worry about, I’m sure, Miss Volenta,” he said. “Just pretend I’m there. Or, if you mess anything up, feel free to blame me. My reputation can survive some tarnish from Lord Strahd.” I pulled my hand away. His hands were cold, and it left me wanting to bury my fingers in my skirts. He must have forgotten his gloves, despite the chill weather. “Your reputation might survive,” I said, “But if we accidentally insult his lady or something, will you? I mean…” I tried to sound more confident than I felt as I tapped my neck. He smiled and shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he promised. “Truly. You’ll be fine as well. He just invites interesting people to the castle sometimes. Maybe you'll secure a patron for your— what was it? Merry band of misfits?” It was my turn to shrug, laugh off how my sister had introduced us.

He left me shortly after that, so I could read the invitation myself. The wax seal looked official and the text told me almost nothing about what to expect, once I deciphered the antique style of handwriting. Strahd von Zarovich apparently thought it was time we met face-to-face and we were invited to join him for dinner in two evenings’ time. I had a feeling the invitation was going to prove compulsory. It wasn’t the most pleasant surprise with which to greet my sister and our friends when they finally joined me, but at least it was better than telling them that I had, once more, dreamed about amber and shadows and teeth and far, far, far too much blood.

[bucket-hat-benjamin]

Guess who has *poses and does jazzy hands* a new Strahd party member! Yayzers!

And! She’s the only person in the entire party with good charisma. She is also, by pure chance, an awful and chronic liar who Shiv is *sure* is werewolf (she is, in fact, not. At all. Just a half elf here.) (<- this was bc I rolled an insight check for myself to decide what Shiv would assume abt her, (I rolled a nat 1) and we were, tbf, in the middle of a forest, having just passed by the worlds most haunted castle. Gee, I wonder what that castle and these crows are about. )

Dnd was sadly cancelled this week and the next bc of exams 😔. but the DM must sleep

[mossrotts]

Sketches from when we finished a CoS campaign! Sial!!! did.... not have a good time. I wanna line and color this, but I think that'll be after commissions and this month in general.

[crouteann]

i made my first hard surface model in a looong time and finally am teaching myself blender please clap (concept art by me too, i love making a victorian inspired house)

alongside this i made a bunch of blocky filler houses so i could make a street and pop it into storyboard pro for the portfolio thing im working on rn, its been a lot of fun?!? i missed hard surface, it scratches an itch

ive never messed with 3d in storyboard pro so im already bumping into issues of course, HOW DO I DRAW OVER THE IT

[maddisandy]

is astarion and soleil going to be what drives me into becoming a 100k fic writer. is that what it took

[wehavekookies]

A couple of drawings of Ezra d'Avenir (an npc from our Curse of Strahd: She is the Ancient campaign) to establish his looks, and also my pale smol witch boy Vic for comparison :]

[iriwinged]

Moment we roleplayed in my Curse of Strahd campaign I am DMing ! The PC is Urielle Goldtower, a half elf paladin of Lathander. That is my player 2nd roll and she was jailed in the dungeons within Ravenloft. When Strahd learned she was a noble woman, he asked to free her from her jail and to treat her good. This is part of their first meeting who is one of our favorite moments !

[tateringss]

The Holy Vestments of Mornmaster Sergei von Zarovich

The nights in this valley are deep and treacherous, the darkness suffocating and choking out the very air that we breathe. My brothers-in-arms have fallen to those things from the woods. Every time their cries were smothered and their lights quickly extinguished, I thought I would surely perish the same. But that gold and white gleam splendidly in conjured daylight, the blue as vibrant as the noon sky. I never thought I would see red and not think of blood, but of fire. Warm and soothing. Mornmaster Sergei continues to keep us safe, and for as long as he holds the sun over this dark valley, I will hold my loyalty to him. -- Knight Tudorus of the Holy Office of Barovia, Ordo Solis

"Raven's Inquisition" is a Curse of Strahd prequel campaign I am currently playing in where we get to explore setting elements and character relations that otherwise could not have been explored in the canon module. The DM @emp-roar is constructing the campaign as an adaptation of the "I, Strahd" novel, where Barovia has yet been established, Strahd is still human, and the players are all inquisitors overtaking the Tsolenka Valley under the von Zarovich crest and the banner of the Morninglord.

I am personally interested in Sergei von Zarovich as a character due to his interactions with our party and my player character, Omen, specifically. I then decided to create a concise concept sheet displaying the various layers of his holy vestments.

Credit due to Aciduous' Paladin player that has created the rank insignias for the Morninglord Church!

Edit: how could I forget? SOL INVICTUS! ☼

[zeiinoviahh]

Vanya, @punkh4zrd's dhampir divination wizard from our Curse of Strahd campaign 🔮🩸｜ #myart #dndoc #curseofstrahd

[anae-art]

Day 19 - Monster hunter For this one, I wanted to redraw one of the scenes from our Curse of Strahd adventure, when we were just before the fight with Strahd One of my favorite scenes I must point out Well it will be a long story below (Prop list is from @crowholtz ) (Spoilers for Curse of Strahd below)

Just before the planned attack on the castle, we gathered everyone who wanted to help us to devise a plan. A little late arrived van Richten telling us that Esmeralda would arrive later and that we should start without her.

We spent an hour-long session planning the steps and when we had everything figured out, van Richten asked one of the characters to talk. After a while our friend came back to us, saying that the monster hunter would return later and indeed, after a while he practically ran into the inn with Esmeralda saying:

-Sorry, we couldn't come earlier, we were attacked by vampire spawns on the way. What is the plan?

And our reaction after a moment of consternation looked more or less like this:

-Oh, but you were here a moment ag…. OH NO

Yes, so as you can probably guess this previous van Richten was Strahd. He changed his appearance and insured the outing of my detection of the undead. And when he went outside with our friend charmed him and took the item that was supposed to help us in the fight.

Funnily enough, while we were talking, my character Gabrielle pulled out a sun sword, which dealt damage to him and our GM had to see if he would lose concentration and look like Strahd again. Unfortunately, he didn't lose it (although it could have been fun)

So we ended up with Strahd knowing our plan from us, taking items from us and our morale dropping to zero just before fighting him. A brilliant move. I still think it was one of the better scenes in the entire campaign

Although I must admit that our GM gave us some hints -Before Strahd entered the inn and he asked if he could enter -He stood up and moved away from me when I pulled out a sun sword -On top of that, van Richten talking about how much garlic helps fight vampires was suspicious…. But we were too excited to fight Strahd to notice it, ok...?

[itsguysnightitsironic]

The horrors (the clowns) keep following me home (Curse of Strahdanya)

Fun fact I throw myself down the stairs for reference-

I did not, just the floor-

Bring them back

[yellowsyro]

That’s our team for Curse of Strahd Campaign

Me as a Nix Silverose, Tiefling Paladin of Ruby Rose! From Neverwinter, the village of Nightsage

Other characters belongs to my friends:

Lindria as a Barny Khokhaibov, Bard baby Boy from Barovia village, protect that child what is he doing in this dangerous place, using violin

Maria as a Wojtek Khokhaibov, Barbarian big brother of Barny, also Barovia local, dude got some beef! Not much words from him. Sleeps with his hood on always, uses axe as weapon

Wicked Ingo as an Ingo, short and mischievous Sorcerer Tiefling, some wild dude from Neverwinter, always flies around as an annoying mosquito, talks with himself

Candymint as a Chup Marblemane, quite Half-elf warlock, Barovia local as well, got some cantrips that barely works, got some fancy sword

Ayumumum as a Tarsi Latrangrif, genasi Druid old woman, met her in Neverwinter forest, act like an angry annoyed hag, crazy around animals.

[pigeon-princess]

A collection of goofy sketches I've made from our Curse of Strahd campaign