#im playing him in a strahd campaign

[saribrum]

Love seeing all of your Curse of Strahd work! Atropa is so so cute! Hes a vampire yeah, how did that happen? Sorry if you have already explained im just super curious!

Oh gosh, hi! Thank you so much, that’s so nice of you to say, I’m glad you enjoy my lil guy! He brings me a lot of joy, and no you’re totally fine! I think I only talked about it in the long recap doc I did but you’d have to dig for it haha. You can find a more in depth answer in there with the play by play, but I’m happy to answer any questions! 🥰

So, this is kind of a long explanation, so bear with me!

From the beginning for context, Atropa and Strahd worked together to “unlock” Atropa’s magic, and their pact was formed from Strahd drinking Atropa’s blood, and Atropa drinking a mixture of their blood in return. Strahd then did a ritual linking the two of them together and empowering Atropa’s tome with the ability to communicate directly with Strahd as pen pals. Strahd has also done a few experiments to give Atropa blood magic and what not by injecting his blood directly into his veins. So that’s the base of everything.

Later in our campaign, SABR had an encounter with a group of vampires in a cave outside of Vallaki, and a ton of them were targeting Atropa because they loved the smell of his blood. When we came face to face with an old vampire in the cave who had been imprisoned for a super long time, he got his hands on Atropa during the fight and ended up killing him. He drank Atropa almost dry, and though he was only dead for a couple seconds before he was brought back up again, and the vampire (Lacomie) was killed, that encounter started a chain reaction.

The next few days, Atropa wasn’t feeling well, but they chalked it up to all the blood loss, until he was helping to escort a guard back to Vallaki (another long story for another time). When Atropa didn’t come back for a while, the rest of the team went looking and found him acting feral in a small cave, drinking the unconscious man. Luckily they were able to stabilize the guard and get him back to Vallaki, not remembering a thing, but Atropa was distraught.

All of our Vallaki shenanigans and horrors happened after that, so he hasn’t really had a chance to process everything or even tell Strahd what happened, but he is going to be sending him a letter about it soon. He and I are both kinda nervous to see how he’ll react lol I’m pretty sure that Atropa is a vampire from Strahd’s influence with all the blood drinking and injecting, but in game Atropa thinks it was because of Lacomie draining him. He’ll be pissed if it’s because of Strahd, cause he told Strahd specifically that he didn’t want to be a vampire right now

We are just kinda getting back into playing and some more stuff has happened that is still being uncovered, but has basically turned this strange form of vampirism Atropa is experiencing into a homebrew Sorcerer subclass that I have the option of taking. I’ll let you know how that pans out when I know more, but yeah that’s the circumstances right now!

Thanks so much for asking :>

[lambpaca]

at last, act 3, the shorted of them all. The half-orc got his soul back, boyfriend got fucked by baba lysaga, and we always have room for last minute bickering before the final battle. which, unfortunately, as with our own dear hatsune miku. she teamed up with strahd, a move we should have seen coming- this was an ending we could have allegedly avoided but she was too far gone the comics above are from the actual last two sessions, and the rest are some extras i wanted to share for funsies. this campaign was the best thing that could have happened to me- i met some of my closest friends because of this story, and the story itself is so ridiculous and unforgettable- one of the most batshit reworkings of a prewritten campaign ever, and it all worked far too well. im so attached to my orc u guys. the idea of not playing him ever again makes me wanna cry, but that means i cant play Neebs the elf in the next one, so lmfao

[syrips]

hi bitch

its my escher pc, a french accented bard npc that im playing as a pc. his flower is the purple petunia, and his favorite gems are those toxic/radioactive to humans.

he's joining the party out of sheer spite due to strahd unintentionally making escher upset. something petty like not putting the trash away on time, or not putting a book in the right place, or not dusting the hallway. something very minor, one too many times. either way, escher HAD it, and hes going to spend the equivalent of 5 minutes in immortal time (aka the whole campaign in mortal time) to be a very rebellious guy, joining the 'loser' group in highschool equivalent, trashing his apartment equivalent, sabotaging his boyfriend equivalent. toxic toxic boy escher!!

im gonna rp him as a level 1 from intentionally nerfing himself because he does not believe in the party, and he does not care if they die. cue blatant uncaring monotone voice, 'yeah. go team!' behavior while he poses and flirts with others in the background. but, he does want to use them as long as possible, to make strahd upset. as escher says, longer isnt always better, but-

when escher falls/dies in combat, im gonna rp it as him dramatically babygirl 'dying', the 'oh woe is me, i am a fallen maiden, a saer in distress, oh me oh my oh if ONLY MY HUSBAND CARED FOR ME THIS WOULDNT HAVE HAPPENED' 'if only he... celebrated our decade-versary..' x eyes dramatic style. anyways yea he seems like hes gonna be fun. jasndxc

TY FOR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT TAGS: @hot0sauce @shrimpari @mistermango47 (mango hates escher) @lurkingdungeonmaster @crowholtz

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

im considering dming curse of strahd in the near future, got any tips or warnings? :-)

ABSOLUTELY

so first of all, disclaimer, this strahd campaign is my first ever attempt at dming. you'll hear a lot of people say it's not a good choice for a first time dm, but i disagree! maybe that's because all my players are newbies and don't catch when i mess up, or because i'm playing a very "the rules come second, the story comes first" kind of game, or because i've also done CoS as a player before so i was already familiar. either way, i'm having a blast, and the story is excellent

first tip: read the book. i recommend reading the chapters out of order, though - each chapter is a different location, and they're not in the order your players are likely to come across them (for instance, strahd's castle is chapter 4. literally why) so i looked at the map of barovia, looked at what locations my players were likely hit and when, and read in that order instead.

there are tons of online resources for curse of strahd. TONS. there's a huge community on the CoS subreddit, and it's chock full of tips, tricks, extras, new ideas, add-ons, fanart, you name it. look up maps for locations that aren't given maps in the book, and you'll find like five separate people have already done it and posted it online for anyone to use. speaking of which, i've recently made a powerpoint with a bunch of maps on it so i can hook up my laptop to my TV and project the maps up for my players to see while we're playing (complete with little animations to reveal secret rooms when/if they find them) and that's been working out great so far

there are also lots of videos on CoS, and i highly recommend lunch box heroes on youtube. i've watched every single video in this playlist and it has helped so, so much. i'm using a bunch of deviations from the book in my campaign that this guy specifically gave me the idea to use

my biggest tip: make sure your players all have a good reason to hate strahd. for a lot of them, this will come naturally (for instance, maybe one of your players will try romancing strahd's alter ego and unknowingly set themselves up for the heartbreak of the century 🙃) but for a lot of them, you may have to orchestrate a good reason. throw one of their spouses in the castle dungeon like my dm did to me! it helps so much in getting them invested in the plot if they want to kill that guy in the castle so fucking bad dude let me at him

but yeah, other than that... have fun! don't take what's in the book as gospel, just use it as a guideline for the story. ultimately your players are going to hugely affect how the story goes, so don't get too attached to certain plot hooks that may get turned on their head or may just never happen. roll with the punches, learn to improvise, and practice your best vaguely eastern european accent for the barovian npcs :)

[apricotzel]

oh i had An Idea for a post-cos cos concept regarding rahadin and strahd but be warned there's major spoilers so. after the cut

alright yall bear with me im about to go insane. so we know that at the end of cos even if the players kill and destroy strahd that the curse is only lifted for a few months before strahd reforms and it falls again, endless cycle, endless curse, dark powers galore etc etc. according to module book when i run cos, rahadin almost always ends up dead due to his loyalty to strahd, he's either killed before strahd or after trying to avenge him. this means when strahd reforms after the party has killed him, rahadin isn't there anymore. but elves reincarnate* so i'm not pitching you all the idea of a post-cos cos campaign where strahd reforms without rahadin there as his right hand only to have a reincarnated version of rahadin in the form of a party npc (or even pc if your dm is cool like that) wander into the fog with an adventuring party, proceeding to struggle to understand the dark lord's fascination with him, grapple with what his previous life could mean for him, fight on how to balance that life with this life, figure out where his new loyalties lie, and think how he parallels tatyana as a concept now. except i am pitching you all that idea. i think it's neat. modify and discuss and yell at me as you please *note: i almost always play pretty fast and loose with broader DnD lore, and am by no means an expert but i'm like. i'm 97% sure this is true. i dont know the complexities of it but i'm 97% give or take 2% depending on the day this at least is true.

[the-pale-chancellor]

i literally cant remember if i asked you about saer'llith yet so im just gonna ask/again cuz why not!! wooohoo!! obligatory answer as many/little as you want hehe 🧡🧡

🧼 Soap - Does OC have good hygiene? What is their routine or methods?

💸 Money With Wings - Would OC commit tax evasion?

🎮 Video Game - What would OC's gamertag/username be?

✍🏽 Writing Hand - Your OC is given five seconds to edit/alter/adjust something about themselves (or their story). What do they try to change?

📈 Chart Increasing - What company/nobility/etc. would sponsor OC?

🎨 Artist Palette - If OC was a color (or palette), what color would they be? Would others assign them the same color?

👔 Necktie - Does OC dress Modestly? Skimpy? Classy? etc. Do they have a dynamic, loud, quiet, etc. style?

👑 Crown - What textures are part of OC's clothes? Fluffy? Spiky? Leathery? Puffy? Feathery? What about shiny, silky, lacy, etc.?

🐬 Dolphin - Would OC be a JJBA character?

🎭 Performing Arts - If others wanted to join a cult devoted to OC, what choices would OC (or you) have in the style, theme, design?

📖 Open Book - Share a moodboard you associate/made for OC!

🛒 Shopping Cart - OC suddenly has a lot of money. What is most likely the cause of this? What do they spend it on?

🎼 Musical Score - Share an OC playlist you associate/made for OC!

🎸 Guitar - Someone hands OC a guitar and tells them to play Wonderwall. What do they do?

👂🏽 Ear - What sounds does OC enjoy? If OC likes ASMR, which types of ASMR?

💋 Kiss Mark - Is OC promiscuous? Do they have a lot of lovers, partners, and/or friends with benefits?

😏 Smirking Face - How freaky is OC? What does OC do that they believe is freaky?

🎓 Graduation Cap - OC is giving a motivational speech. What do they say? Who are they saying it to?

🥰 Smiling Face With Hearts - What do you love about OC? What events, art, work do you love to put OC in?

👩🏽‍⚖️ Woman Judge - Why don't some people like OC? What did they do?

💀 Skull - Is OC cursed? Haunted? Possessed? Fated to tragedy?

🔮 Crystal Ball - OC has witnessed a dark omen. What is the omen, superstition, or message that is witnessed?

🪓 Axe - What tragic/dark events, art, work, do you love (or love to hate) to put OC in?

Nope, I haven't answered it yet mhwhahwhah. Here we go then :>

1. Does OC have good hygiene? What is their routine or methods? -We're in Barovia, what's a hygiene lmao /j -Everyone says that Saer'llith reminds them of a cat so he probably behaves like one in terms of cleaning himself. -Loves a good bath, sinks into the water like his life depends on it. -Would put a rubber duck there. Or Escher. -Never had enough shower products in the Underdark so when in Baldur's Gate, he'd just buy the whole stock. -Would also buy shimmering bath salt, not caring about the fact that he already shimmers in the dark because of his white freckles. A drama queen at his best.

2. Would OC commit tax evasion? -We've already committed it by entering Vallaki tbh. -Would do that again. -Only to irritate Strahd (and Vasili). -"Money? No, I don't have any :D"

3. What would OC's gamertag/username be? -Would either go for something simple or the most dramatic one you can find in the whole Internet. -Others would still call him nothing but Saira (rus for Saury fish). -Would always have the "Don't bother" sign in Discord and other social media. -No one would care and would write them 24/7. -Is somehow good at playing RPGs, would easily beat Dark Souls series or Elden ring but never a simple UNO game. -His own autocorrect hates his name so you get something like Safety'line Deer. (Our master's autocorrect called him Malolitrazhka which is like..a small car that doesn't need much fuel or smth)(We stan the autocorrect)(Has someone already called a drow a small car? I doubt)

4. Your OC is given five seconds to edit/alter/adjust something about themselves (or their story). What do they try to change? -Oof, I bet someone from our campaign is going to read this and thus I won't answer straight away. It's something Strahd will propose to him hehe. -But would also probably change his decision to enter Barovia. he hates it there lmao.

5. If OC was a color (or palette), what color would they be? Would others assign them the same color? -Dusty violet, pale red, white and black are totally his colours. -/insert Lex's joke about everyone being colourful bastards and him being just plain grey/ -Others in Barovia would just think that he's a dusk elf and not a drow and would call him "Oi, black elf!"...Despire him being slightly violet and having like 6 ears.

6. Does OC dress Modestly? Skimpy? Classy? etc. Do they have a dynamic, loud, quiet, etc. style? What textures are part of OC's clothes? Fluffy? Spiky? Leathery? Puffy? Feathery? What about shiny, silky, lacy, etc.? -Eh, it's more of a quiet classy style. He prefers to wear a white puffy-sleeved shirt tucked into black leather corset. Sometimes a coat over the shoulders. -But oh boy if he sees something shiny- Probably has little chains over his boots, chained earring, silver rings on his middle fingers and other trinkets that he collects for exactly zero reason and purpose. -Has a white crescent tattoo on his chest under the clothes. No one knows probably hehe. -Dinner!Saer'llith would have an awfully dramatic shirt with red beads stitched onto it to look like blood. Escher would probably be the one to offer him this.

7. Would OC be a JJBA character? -I had to google what this is. Ah yes, Jojo. -nO? I am bad at anime lmao, I have no idea about the plot whatsoever. -But his stand would totally be Lychdrow Dyrr.

8. If others wanted to join a cult devoted to OC, what choices would OC (or you) have in the style, theme, design? -First - he would hate it. >:D -Second - little crescent piercing over the right brow would totally be a symbol. Or anything moon-related overall, even the earrings. -No, he isn't a Selune enjoyer. In this house we stan Ilmater. -NO SPIDERS.

9. Share a moodboard you associate/made for OC!

10. Share an OC playlist you associate/made for OC! [ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqbNSCxPt0jzsz_Il_7apeWauF8AeJm8e&si=y3ep2ZyZRyKpUl3P ] [ https://vk.com/music/playlist/439090691_18 ] -The latter one may not be working if you don have a VK account so you just get the same one in youtube :(

11. Someone hands OC a guitar and tells them to play Wonderwall. What do they do? -"What's a guitar? What's a Wonder-..what?? Do you make up new words as we go or something?.." -Totally cannot play any musical instrument or sing..or dance. I doubt the Underdark had any of these, especially where he was imprisoned for like a hundred years. -Escher would make him learn the organ or a lyre. He wouldn't be able to say no. -We stan bard!Escher in this house.

12. What sounds does OC enjoy? If OC likes ASMR, which types of ASMR? -They enjoy running water, wind in the forest, crackling of a fire. Genuinely every sound that he's never heard before while in the Underdark. Everything fascinates him but he doesn't like to show much of these emotions on his face. -But not any voice ASMR, absolutely nope. Not even when someone whispers in his ears.

13. Is OC promiscuous? Do they have a lot of lovers, partners, and/or friends with benefits? -He's demiromantic asexual that leans more into aromantic spectrum. -He absolutely doesn't have any lovers or partners and it is difficult for him to form a relationship with anyone in general. -Though ever since he escaped Menzoberranzan one of his true wishes was to find his "Home". And that word alone does not mean a single place. He was looking for a person, someone he can finally be safe with. -And oh boy how painful it was for him to understand that his heart beats twice not only for some god forsaken human, but for a vampire who threatened them and the whole Vallaki at some point. -He still has hard time understanding himself honestly. -Bonus points!: [baldur's gate AU] where Escher actually died during the last battle with Strahd and the Emperor chose Escher's appearance to come into Saer'llith's dreams. The latter one hated it with all his heart but wished for nothing but to have another dream where he can see his Home.

14. What do you love about OC? What events, art, work do you love to put OC in? -I honestly created him randomly at some point of time. I just desperately wanted to play as a drow (and let me say that I've never played dnd before the CoS campaign we're having now). So 30 minutes in Wikipedia, House Agrach Dyrr and you have a Lychheir Wild Magic Sorcerer. -Love skribbling him on a piece of paper. Especially his 6 ears. No one can draw them properly lmao. Just imagine an axolotl and here you go. Why does he have 6? No one knows..apart from the Abbot apparently, do not ask. -He technically has a predcessor OC from another fandom that I never got to roleplay as so they were left as a rough idea. Their name was Xie Hentian (a scorpio who hates the skies, this is a translation of his current name atp), a MDZS character, Jin Guangshan's blind concubine (not by their choice), later a merciful demon who seeks for a Home. You get the idea. -But apart from this information you won't see Saer'llith in any other fandom other than DnD.

15. Why don't some people like OC? What did they do? -The fact that they're a drow is enough for like half of the Faerun population honestly. -That's why he hates this half of the population back. -In the Underdark the other drow were afraid of him (and hated him altogether) solely because of his lych powers as a sorcerer. -Yeah, you heard that right. His existence was enough for them to hate him. -mrdr

16 Is OC cursed? Haunted? Possessed? Fated to tragedy? -Again to the Lychdrow we go. If you google who that is, you'll probably know how powerful this guy was and that he's like...dead. The very day he died, a part of his soul merged with Saer'llith's, giving him his powers. -After that he literally has to supress this dark part of his soul, otherwise it can escape and make him its puppet. -If entering Barovia counts as a curse cuz we're playing Curse of Strahd then yes, he's cursed twice lmao

17. What tragic/dark events, art, work, do you love (or love to hate) to put OC in? -Again, that one Baldur's gate AU is the thing that makes me a mess. Especially when we consider the fact that I also befriended Astarion and killed Cazador. Like. If Saer'llith had a nickel every time he got stuck with a vampire and kill their master, he would have two nickels. That isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice. -He would also refuse to tell his companions about any of his time in Barovia. -At some point he would make a fake grave near Daggerfort and write Escher's name on it. Once a year he would come there, sit silently for all night and go back to the camp in the morning. Astarion wanted to ask a few times but never had enough strength to do it. -Also ever since his return from Barovia, he would never take his blindfold off. No, he doesn't need it at all, he's used to the sunlight already, but he wears it as a sign that he'll never open up to anyone anymore. Escher was his only Home.

[ike-mcswains-mortician]

HIHII LEABEEEE OKOKOK SO. first curse of strahd campaign play was today!! and if you would like i can give you a run down on the session if you would like BUT that is not the entire reason on why this ask is a thing

so my friend (dnd party member!!) made a character- (i literally put him in a post like a couple of minutes i’m so sorry i need you to understand the love i have for this guy)

POLLY MIGHT GET A BF. THIS GUY. his stage name is Lovebug Eddie *i am going to bite drywall*

hii leabe hru hru soo normal can you tell (i am so sorry for this)

H HHH HELLO.O..??? HELLO SIR????? I AM. NORMAL???! IM NORMAL YEAH YUP IM NORMAL

too late polly i stole him. he’s mine

[shatterstag]

I remember bellamy and indi from before you moved to twitter! I was always really interested in their story and you inspired me to create my own dnd character and patron! so i'm happy to see you posting about them again :D

This is the best and sweetest ask ever, thank you for responding to my thirsty desperado tweet about my ocs LOL.

THEIR STORY IS THE BEST AND ITS REALLY REALLY COOL I LOVE THEM SOOO MUCH IM NOT EVEN SCARED TO SAY THAT BECAUSE IT! RULES! they were both originally from a Curse of Strahd campaign i played in! Bellamy was my grave cleric Revenant plague doctor who was covered head to toe 24/7 because he was actually a dead wraith haunting the plague suit he died in, and none of the party characters OR the players themselves knew 💀

(I actually never got to do an in-game reveal of this because we stopped playing :))))

And Indrejk was his npc evil god (and my dm's beloved oc) Bellamy was in terrible thrall to who had brought him back to life, and history was made when i nervously asked my dm if they should kiss 🫣

Now, like, seven years later, they have an insanely complex original scifantasy post-post-apocalyptic story set on a mostly exploded planet cursed with a toxic atmosphere of miasmatic storms that MIGHT BE the blood of the god Bellamy is in love with who is slowly bleeding out

IM SO STOKED THEY INSPIRED YOU!!! PLEASE SHARE YOUR DND STORIES WITH ME, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR

[vampire-chokehold]

in a few weeks, we're starting a new campaign and it's going to be the wild beyond witchligh. since i was the absolute worst in our CoS campaign (betrayed the party, married strahd, technically became a darklord), my friends are really sketchy about my new character in this upcoming game so i decided to be the complete opposite of what i was: i'm going to be a scourge aasimar, paladin oath of redemption hehe

this time i wanted to play a male character so let's see how that goes!! i'm trying to do a rough sketch of him but i do not know how to draw armour... it's hell. so yea. but i have a moodboard on pinterest and his aesthetics are quite cool so i'm really excited.

let's just hope i don't run into some hot fairy cause... im god's weakest soldier and we know it

[lostjudgmnt]

tell me about nadya

hiiii ^_^ okay so i originally made nadya for a dnd curse of strahd campaign that never got finished because our group had a major falling out mid-campaign. it was a disaster. but nadya is still very close to my heart so im sorta in the process of finishing his story on my own lol

nadya lives alone with her sister, a girl named hope, in a barovian village (barovia is where the campaign took place). she supported the two of them by working as both a hunter and an adventurer/mercenary. nadya’s class is barbarian but she’s very level-headed and patient. she’s slow to anger, but when she gets mad, she gets MAD (aka she rages, so, barbarian). shes very large and very strong and is very protective of hope, not in an overbearing way per se but like, you know. Don’t Touch Hope. you’ll die.

nadya’s had scars all over for as long as they could remember, likely from a dire wolf attack when they small. as their and hope’s parents had also passed away when the two were young, nadya didn’t really have many details on about the attack itself, but they didn’t really mind. the scars had never really bothered them that much anyway.

the details of the attack that caused nadya’s scars are kind of a big deal though, and had actually been revealed to him like right before the campaign died LOL. he had actually been found in the woods after being attacked by dire wolves by hope’s parents, so hope and her parents weren’t actually biologically related to nadya at all. as he was too young to remember his parents, nadya had no idea about this. he did, however, have an older brother who not only remembered her, but was still able to recognize her decades later because he had been dreaming about her the whole time 👍🏻 so nadya has two siblings now. she’s still reeling from it a little bit.

nadya had also been hired to protect / guard a woman names ireena, who had been attacked by a fearsome vampire not long before the campaign started. nadya thinks ireena is really beautiful but she’s being sooo professional about it. she does have a lot of feelings about how ireena’s father is running his village and none of them are really good ones. she gets that he’s afraid since the vampire is like Looming Over Them but the place is like a police state no one there has like any freedom whatsoever and nadya thinks it’s a little much.

ummm thats all i have for her for now since that’s as far as the campaign got but i love her and i want to figure out more for her and her story he’s very important to me :] thank you for sending an ask about them i love them

OH ALSO nadya’s name also translates to “hope”. this was not an intentional decision between me and the person who played hope and i actually didn’t even discover this until long after the campaign fell apart :”) i think its sweet though

[asexu-alto]

Im putting shit under a read more because im probably gonna talk alot though I'll try not to go into detail about everything. Spoilers for Curse of Strahd under the cut as well, though my DM did use alot of homebrew.

So, Playing Curse of Strahd right? Its a horror campaign and I had an idea that would fit perfect, and from that my sweet baby Maple was made! I apologize in advance because I will not explain everything that happens, just whats relevant when needed. Sorry if its confusing, some knowledge of Curse of Strahd may be required or else this would go on forever. I drew her alot so I will be providing pictures as well.

Heres the first art I made of her. She is a Tiefling Wild Magic Sorceress! The fun idea thing I mentioned earlier is the fact she is actually a Carrionette. If you are unfamiliar with that creature, they are dolls that are given life from the wish of a child. They have the ability to use a silver needle to take bodies for themselves, with the soul of the person entering and staying in the doll. She took the body of her creator, Madelyne who was 12 at the time, the day before she was meant to go to a magic school in a different town. Maple then buried Madelyne, now in her doll body, in the garden under a maple tree. Because Maple inhabits a body that is not her own, the magic in it revolts against her, causing wild magic surges. 6 years later, when Madelyne would be 18, Maple is getting kicked out of the magic school due to her inability to control her wild magic. She packs her bags, ready to leave the next morning, but as she went to sleep she had a dream of Madam Eva and got her Tarokka card, The Charlatan. She woke up in the forest next to Raldira, a cleric of Lathander, Desmond, a hobo wizard, Zethius, a monk of the cobalt soul, and Talmor, a farmer native to Barovia. And their adventure began. The party accepted her and her wild magic quirks and through them, she learned to accept the surges as a part of her. Everyone was given personal quests from Madam Eva and hers lead to a toy store owner in Vallaki, who was opening an toy store island and already moved a bunch of his favorite things there. (Blinksy's toy store on dmguild if anyone wants a creepy toystore, though spoilers ahead.) It took a couple of days before the store was opened, we had dinner with Strahd where Maple was grilled about her childhood, the burning sun festival where shit went south and we saved a child from being drowned. When we do finally get to the store, Maple find her Tarokka card, proof that this is her quest and they enter. All the toys have come to life because of a sentient tiara holding an evil mage that has been placed on a monkey and possessed it. The party deals with the toys and save the employees of the store and make it up the tower to Blinskys room. We save him from illusions and he shares the details of what happened, including how he has a living doll named Madelyne upstairs with the monkey. This is where Maple freaks out, and she tells everyone in the party about who and what she is. They, to Maple's surprise, accept her, with a lil bit of hesitance from the cleric but it turns around. They go upstairs, deal with the monkey/tiara and Maple and Madelyne have a talk. This mostly involved Madelyne begging for her body back and being mad that her childhood was taken from her. This ended with Maple promising to return Madelynes body to her the first chance she gets (thinking that would be the end of campaign).

More art of her at this time, because shes cute and part of her personality is knowing she can't eat, sleep, drink, or dress how she likes as her normal doll form so she takes every opportunity to indulge. (And i like drawing her in cute dresses.) The party continues on, doing all the fun things to thwart Strahd and his plans. During which, a particular wild magic surge goes off. One which ages Maple/Madelyne's body down 9 years to be 9 years old.

(Also She did get a wild magic surge to make her feet blue) At that moment, Maple swore that she would return to Madelyne to return her body. The party returns to Vallaki to warn Ireena that Strahd is making plans and they intend to bring her out of Vallaki to Kresk. After they tell Ireena this, they go on the long trip to the island (2hr-ish round trip, great business location i know) and Maple returns Madelynes body to her (Which is also how we learn Dark gifts/all curses stay with bodies, i will explain more about dark gifts a bit later.) Maple is now in her Original doll body, with the intention of taking the body of a soulless person next chance they get (There are soulless people in barovia because Barovia is cut off from the rest of the planes). And while Maple is like this, she cannot cast any spells, though she retains all mental stats she has.

Of course during this time, Ireena gets kidnapped and Maple is 100% useless (she does try and stab strahd to steal his body though, which wouldve been funny as hell if it worked) The party, mostly the monk through some fucking wild ass rolls, save Ireena and we quickly head to Kresk. In Kresk, Ireena's soul is protected from Strahd via a pool of Lathander's Magic, and Maple is able to take the body of a soulless human. Due to the magic of Barovia, this body still has magic but still wild. (I like wild magic sorc and didnt wanna swap classes/subclasses) And she got another dark gift because she took someone elses body. (dark gift gonna be fully explained in next section)

Now that she has a body of her own, she can finally do stuff she never felt comfortable with when she had a body that was "on loan". This included some romance. Which, happened very suddenly. I didnt mention much of the party up to this point other than introduction, but some personal quests happen here. Raldira, the cleric of Lathander redeems a Deva/angel of Lathander who was the Abbot of Kresk. Talmor has the job of restoring the fey of the land, though we all help, and along the way we discover Talmor is the son of Strahd due a dark elf who took some dark gift power to temporarily make Strahd mortal long enough for some conceiving hanky panky. Zethius the monk is following the trail of his teacher who entered Barovia willing to attempt to help out. And the Dirty hobo Wizard Desmond, who got alot cleaner after effort on his part and Maple using prestidigitation on all the party every morning. His personal quest happens next.

From Kresk, we go to speak with a pack of werewolves who stolen many children from around Barovia, and they have an item we need to restore the fey for Talmors quest. While there, Desmond found his Tarokka card to show this is his personal quest. Once in the cave, we learn he is infact the grandchild of a werewolf there, his parents having left to try and be safe during a time of turmoil/power shift within the pack. Desmond mother, while pregnant with him, was able to leave Barovia, but lost half of a spellscroll she had in order return when times were better. She later died in Faerun, leaving Desmond to fend for himself and learn what magic he could to understand this scroll that his mother had. Desmond is at this point, bit by his grandma and becomes a werewolf.

So, at this point, we still need the item for the fey restoration. We try to convince the Alpha, who is an asshole that kidnaps kids, to let us have it. That fails. Maple tries to steal it with an construct she had, but he is caught. We discuss options and end up falling on "Desmond challenges the alpha to a fight and we use the distraction to steal the item." The fight starts and it does not go well. Desmond is a wizard and became a werewolf literally hours before, he is a bladesinger but he is not well suited for hand to hand combat. The alpha almost kills Desmond on his first turn. Desmond at that point, opens himself to the dark vestiges for a gift in order to survive. This is where I will explain dark gifts like I promised. In this game, if you do something evil to innocent people, you get a dark gift from a dark vestige/deity of Barovia. If you already have one, it gets upgraded. Maple had 2 dark gifts, she lightning bolted a man in the back after she threatened the party but was leaving peaceful and when she got her human body for stealing a body. Talmor joined the killing the dude who threatened us and his became worse when he committed a genocide (in the middle of the night so we couldnt stop him). Raldira and Zethius both tried to negotiate hostage situations and failed to the point of the hostage being hurt/killed, though they did join in killed the dude, but their gift didnt not upgrade. While we were with the redeemed Deva, he mentioned how our given dark gifts can be removed. Desmond however, never got one, and he opened himself up to a gift. In asking for one instead of being given, he got a stronger one, with stronger drawbacks and the inability for the connection to severed like the Deva mentioned. He was linked with a dark god of the Werewolves and became a loup garou. Desmond killed the alpha and ate his heart, becoming the Alpha of the pack. Which required him to also have a mate. Which is where we get back to Maple. The 2 arcane casters were good friends and Desmond is a very paranoid person. When Desmond was being forced to pick someone to be linked with for the rest of his life, Maple volunteered herself so that he wouldnt have to pick a complete stranger. After that point they were together, with Maple helping him with controlling himself when he transformed (wall of force is a great spell) and him protecting her and her doll body. After they discuss a bit, and Maple nearly becomes a vampire spawn because of a crit that was canceled via cleric magic, Desmond bites her and she instantly becomes a werewolf due to Loup garou magic.

Now, the next relevant step of there journey was going to the amber temple. This temple is the home of the dark vestiges that can reach out to the people in the land. Inside you can touch amber to talk directly to a vestige and get a stronger power like Desmond did. In the temple, Maple finds and attunes to a staff that is curses her with the flaw "I crave power above all else, and will do anything to obtain more of it" After this, the party ends up split. Raldira and Maple remain in the temple as Raldira found a tome of +2 Wisdom but needed to read it for 48 hours. Desmond, Zethius and Talmor go to collect an item for us to trade with the protector of the temple for what we need. They are gone for about 24 hours, and during this time, Maple makes a deal with a vestige named the Kingmaker, gains +3 to charisma and is cursed with red skin, a 6th finger, horns and a tail. She became a discount tiefling, which was very funny considering her past. After some more time, she takes a 2nd gift, from a vestige named The Lady of Delights, her charisma is now added to her ac, she has a 24 hr long charm and Maple becomes part succubus with red hair, which brings alot of quirks. Both gifts also gave an activatable power that if Maple failed a check, she would become the creature she took the deal from until she was able to succeed, Cambion for Kingmaker, Succubus for Lady of Delights. (I will also add as a funny aside, with a magic robe item she had her ac was 10+her spellcasting mod, which as a sorcerer is her charisma. So with that and the succubus ac boost, she had 10+5+5, so an Ac of 20 without wearing armor as a sorcerer.)

I decided to make her final art her Tarokka card. Red skin, new horns and tail, and 6 fingers (though its hard to see). I added her needle since shes a carrionette and a moon like in Coraline because i think its neat.

This brings us to the end of the campaign. Last session we killed Strahd in a long, 4 hour final battle. Next session we seal Vampyr once more inside the Amber temple and our almost 2 year campaign ends.

Post campaign plans for her is she wants to become the Last queen of Barovia, bring the land into stability, make it so no one in the land goes hungry and after she feels the time is right, give up her current body to travel the world with Desmond. There is my long and rambling timeline of my sweet "was a teifling, is now a diet tiefling" baby gorl, I missed alot of little detail but this shit is long enough. I want to make an animatic of her backstory and I might do a long rambling thing for some of my other characters. if you made it this far, drink some water and thanks. Im sorry for how confusing some of it is but hey, thats what happens when you explain your dnd campaign to someone else. lmao

hey im drunk and love my dnd characters. If this get any notes im gonna make a timeline of my Curse of Strahd dnd character cause shes cute and I love her.

[kouprii]

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cole! your local mayonnaise dealer :p

[syrips]

What are your fave canon-divergent Strahd headcanons? And/or what lore changes has a DM made in your CoS campaign that you really liked?

ooh ty for the ask! 🧡🧡

im not sure if my stuff is canon-divergent or compliant because its a mix of potential-canon or random things that could be explained with lore but either way!!-

obviously potential spoilers and l o n g !

thank you for the ask, i kinda rambled but i enjoyed writing it all hehee; i swear these are my favs, didnt realize i have so many

headcanonish list and cos dm list below:

Headcanon-ish(?) list in no specific order:

strahd can invent, alternate, or customize spells

strahd passively charms people (requiring a DC save) without realizing it

strahd 4th wall breaks constantly; anything the DM knows, strahd knows

alek gwilym was the first sacrifice in strahd's ritual, not tatyana or sergei

during the ritual, alek, sergei, and tatyana's physical bodies were all taken by the mists; they can/have reincarnated many times, similar to tatyana, but are usually lost/unaware because strahd only focuses on tatyana

strahd genuinely wants a family, but attempts in desperately unhinged ways (necromancy/kidnapping/adopting)

good-aligned strahd exists, because evil-aligned tatyanas also exist

strahd's tome/i, strahd books have an unintentional charm on the reader (in an in-game sense)

all visual depictions/art/portrayals of strahd are legitimate (in an in-game sense), we just view strahd differently, and draw/see him in our perspective

all versions/campaigns of strahd are canonical, because strahd's soul also got split with tatyana's, albeit in a different 4th wall way

strahd's birthday is in june

strahd was/is neurodivergent

strahd has empathy/sympathy and suffers from his actions, yet is torn between his desires, passion, and desperation

strahd does love, but he views 'love' as synonymous with 'passion'; in his eyes, his actions are justified because the more intense/passionate he is, the more he is expressing his love

alek, sergei, and tatyana all love strahd (in the 'normal' way), but are unable to fully understand how his mind/brain works

alek, rahadin, and strahd's consorts/partners are ones closest to understanding/loving strahd

strahd converting the consorts to vampires allow them to experience love in the same way strahd does - as passion; this is also why he is so adamant in wanting to convert tatyana or just try to help her understand in his bizarre ways

rahadin existed pre-vampire strahd, but strahd wrote about alek because he was closer to alek than rahadin

strahd's father was abusive/strict to strahd; strahd is attracted to people who act opposite to his father

~~~~~

CoS/DM list (im the DM but some of these i love when other DMs do too):

everyone strahd pursues, romances, or charms are adults

for pcs, all (good/neutral/evil) npcs are romanceable without the consequence of death

campaign's 'soft cap' is 20, with boons

strahd's abilities/CR level up with the party

Vampyr is a legitimate entity/creature, that can be fought or haggled with

you do not need to kill/defeat strahd to 'beat' CoS; 'beating' CoS just means making it out of barovia or 'unlocking' access to enter other domains

can communicate/interact with other domains/darklords via spells/magic items

classic DM move of 'tome of strahd is DMified i, strahd 1 and/or 2'

players can play multiple PCs, but only one PC is able to interact in combat (unless a player is missing/unable to make the session)

classic DM move of tatyana PCs

(my favorite one:) CoS+, aka repeatable CoS games where we develop the story/lore/events based on previous CoS games (although its not really just CoS anymore but ravenloft campaigns)

[gaberoothekangaroo]

so we started a short campaign and it had been going pretty decently. it was a newbie campaign. get the one common friend and the one new person more comfortable with playing. common friend had played with us before but in a different campaign and the dm was a turd and we all got burned

we start, we’ve been playing for like 3-4 months no issue. everyones having fun. theres some banter. theres relationships and bonds and growth between people. and sure theres some above table talk where we’re all good naturedly ribbing one another. no ones getting mad or pissy about some jabs or comments. like none of us are taking it that way. we’re all here to just have fun

we’re almost done with the campaign. last few sessions.

in game, during the night, the bad guy came to us all in our dreams and our dm pulled us into a different voice channel on discord and had a one on one with us. basically do you want to turn on your party and be evil. none of us are evil aligned and for the most part everyone has a good alignment. im pretty sure im the only neutral aligned character.

our new guy fails a saving throw and gets charmed. so now hes doing the bidding of the bad guy. not really a big deal cause if you damage that person and they make the save, theyre no longer charmed. ive been backseat dm the whole time so we can help everyone have more fun and not forget certain rules and that they can rush into situations and try new things if they want and im sitting back there with all my healing spells available to get them back in gear. and i damage the new guy so he can have a chance to get back in the game. he succeeds and is no longer charmed.

YET. he proceeds to continue to assault us. and then takes us down one by one while the dm is pulling their punches on the actual bad guy and npcs we were fighting.

new guy proceeds to stay ON MUTE messaging the dm what hes doing throughout the entire game (4+ hours). and even at the end when we’re all kinda discussing what to do next hes STILL on mute

come to find out that new guy and our friend i guess had some issues in a game they were playing an hour before? or something? and he got butthurt and was mad by some of the above table talk jabs and ribbing, none of which was particularly harmful cause most of it was focused on shitty dice rolls. like thats not something a person can control. you make a jab at it and everyone laughs and moves on cause it happens to everyone. literally 2 of our party members couldnt roll above a 10 half the time. like its just chance and probability and its not a persona slight. but apparently this guy took it that way

and now hes all butthurt that the campaign is over. my dm offered we could all come back at a different level and fight new guy and new guy promptly vetoed that. and is not understanding why everyones mad at him and sees that he hasnt done anything wrong

and its been almost a day and im STILL mad about it. like he was mad at our friend and took it out on the entire party. didnt just kill them and walk away. no he took the time to single us out while we were busy being swarmed by like 9 npcs. dude has also had the balls to gloat to our dm that he was such a badass taking out a whole party by himself when he really didnt because the dm was pulling punches and the party wasnt focused on attacking new guy.

godddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

[violet-dolboyob]

So, im prompted by my previous reblog to also write about something from our Curse of Strahd campaign, because when i thought about it, we seem to have done some shit apparently.

Disclaimer: Im a player at the table and not a dm and generally just a menace

As i stated previously we said to the local priest that we will “definitely” resolve a problem with his son being a vampire spawn, then just killed said spawn and were like “problem solved dont need to thank us”

Our fighter notoriously fucks up every opportunity of romance with Ireena he gets and it got to the point of a running joke

Because at one time he was doing very good at flirting, and Ireena asked him if there could be any person who she could rely on, with the “person she could rely on” not getting a hint and saying that he knows a good and trustworthy priest called Father Lykian.

We will never let him forget that incident ever again

My character sold one of the party members (a sentient cube from a plane of order) to a shop keeper who was being kind of a dick, and said cube robbed him when he was put in a shop storage

Our party met Rahadin and of course my rogue and the bard started flirting with him at the same time 

My rogue was so covered in glitter and just generally slaying it at Strahd’s wedding that he prompted two vampires fighting over him

Also at the same wedding when there was an “incident” involving a lot of human death and 3 of our players getting a trauma, my rogue just played a funny song at the stage in the mean time

For some reason nobody appreciated that

Except Strahd

Our priestess was flirting with Strahd by calling him a bitch and saying that she hates him more than anything

Strahd liked it (obviously)

We stole (with consent) the son of the Baron of Valaki and we keep forgetting that he exists in the most dangerous situations possible

We are not responsible adults

[palidoozy-art]

random variety sketches, as a bunch of weird shit has happened over the past few sessions.

context:

1) One of the PCs is determined to become a world-famous dancer, and blew like 3,500 gold on a fancy dress. The player asked me to draw it.

2, 3, 4) Literally 3/4 of the PCs either got pregnant or got their spouses pregnant, with Ellerian rolling triplets. So I drew all their kids. The cool thing is that all of the players are ripshit pumped to play their characters’ kids, meaning this will be a legacy campaign. Also Kelogul’s kid is a fuckin’ half-elf, quarter orc, quarter human. 

That said -- the players want their characters to take time off to raise their kids, so they’ll be making new ones temporarily so plots can keep going/the one PC who isn’t having kids isn’t punished into waiting years. Basically Rahadin, Ireena, and Nelke will be running around with a new party temporarily while the rest go be family mans. all i can say is boy im glad my players are into legacy shit as much as I am.

also 100% those kids are gonna get sucked into Barovia at some point too.

5) the party found out Barov had another kid and met Sturm. Sturm did not believe Rahadin was related to him. Either way they sold all of Strahd’s like 80,000 gold worth of books to that dude, and Kelogul took a bath in his fountain. Also war broke out.

6) i have no comment for this, other than it was like 4 am and please let me have this.