#welcome to barovia

[immortalarizona-art]

“Come, my dear, and be a part of my home Missing stitch and flowers on a headstone But I will crawl like a sinner to be at your feet Should God or the devil ever ask for me Oh my love, oh my love.” — The Crane Wives, “October”

hehe new official art of Achlys >:) feat. her updated design, her cane, her bone lyre, her holy symbol of ravenkind, more Ravenloft motifs, and also her own gravestone. I'm super super proud of how this one turned out, especially the composition!! (it's something I've been trying to work on lately.)

pose is this one I found on pinterest:

and the hand is referenced from the same image from @adorkastock that I used for her last character art:

[immortalarizona]

“Many are the days I’ve wanted to cease

Lay myself down and find some release

Heavy is the head that gets no sleep

We carry around our lives in our memories

Take away this apathy

And bury it before it buries me.”

— The Oh Hellos, “Cold is the Night”

a full-body portrait of my disaster pan bard Achlys Ghost-Speaker, my beloooved <33

more party drawings to follow shortly!!

shoutout to @jookpubstock for the pose ref, @adorkastock for the hand ref, and whoever put together the amazing fabric ref that I found on google :]

[natalievoncatte]

There had been a time when Kara was almost relieved when she lost her powers to a solar flare. The silence was like a lover's kiss to her ear, the peace like the embrace warm maternal arms. It was almost like being home. When her powers were active, the sounds and sights and sensations were always there, just around a corner made of concentration, beyond a door made of discipline. Kara could never tune out the cacophony. She could only tame it, bend it to her will.

Now the world around her had shrunk, it seemed, to a span of twenty or thirty feet, occupied by her sister, Samantha Arias, and a bedraggled, harried Lena Luthor. Kara could barely tear her eyes from Lena. Her best friend looked like she'd been through something terrible, bloodshot eyes wide, the tracks of tears still fresh on her face. One hand was stuffed firmly in her pocket, clutched firmly around what was probably a gun.

Alex, by contrast, had her sidearm out, held in the low ready position, scanning the mists around them with seeking eyes. Kara turned slowly, feeling as boxed in by her lack of superhuman sight as she was by the oppressive silence of this place.

"Where the hell are we?" said Alex.

Sam cleared her throat. "We're not going to find that out standing here."

Alex looked at her. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

She gave that little roll of her neck, the way she did when she knew that they were in trouble, and smoothly holstered her gun under her jacket.

"My car is gone, somehow, so we're going to have to walk. Which way?"

They were standing in the middle of a road, maybe twenty feet wide and paved with smooth cobbles, slowly being swallowed by the mud beneath them. The road was lined on both sides by dense forest, mostly pines with a few bare deciduous trees clawing their way up between the dull gay-green branches. Between the trunks was a deep and dense thicket, with thorns as long as the smallest of Kara's fingers. They weren't going that way.

Lena tilted her head, pointing with her chin the way she sometimes did.

"That way. I think I see lights."

Kara stepped up beside her, peering into the mist with her natural Kryptonian eyesight. Her vision was more acute than that of a human, just as her skeleton was denser and had more bones and her muscles had different attachment points and denser fibers, all of which made her about fifty percent heavier than she looked. She still had strength. She could still protect Lena, and the others.

There was a little flutter in her chest. There always was.

"Lena," Kara said, turning to her. 

"Not now. Let's get home, then we'll talk," Lena said, a tremor beneath the professional chill in her voice.

"I'll go first," said Kara.

"I'm the one with the gun," said Alex. "Kara, maybe I should take point."

Kara shot her a sharp look and started forward. Lena hesitated for a brief moment, then took up position just behind Kara's left shoulder, so close that Kara thought she could feel the other woman's presence.

As she walked, Kara chewed her lip, fighting the urge to look back and try to strike up conversation again. It ended up a kind of walking fidget, with Kara worrying at her palms with her thumbs.

She's mad. She must be furious. I should have told her. Why didn't I tell her?

"Did you hear that?" said Sam.

They all stopped. Alex turned.

"Hear what?"

"I thought I heard... laughing," said Sam.

"I didn't," said Kara, "but then again, I don't have my powers."

That wasn't true. She had this maddening sense that it was all there, just out of her reach somehow. She scanned the mist again, feeling her frustration mount.

"I hear voices up ahead," said Lena. "Look."

There were lights ahead, swaying gently as in a breeze. Kara squared herself up and led them all ahead, chin down, ready for a fight. She had to make sure they were all okay. 

The lights grew brighter. As they grew nearer, they began to flicker more clearly. Candles, or gas lamps. Shapes resolved in the mist, first the vague impression of vertical members and timbers, but as they grew nearer, Kara saw they were trellises and there were lamps strung between the uprights, swaying gently over rows of long picnic tables, each covered in an elegant silk cloth that must have cost a fortune. On the tables, a feast was laid out, half-eaten meals still on fine porcelain. Tall wine glasses stood still with their contents remaining, some half drained, the odd one here and there stained by the blush of wine or lipstick.

"Where is everybody?" said Alex. "I don't like this."

A larger shape formed in the mist as they walked between the tables. Kara glanced back and froze.

"That wasn't there before."

"What?" Alex started.

They all turned. There was a wall behind them, a high stone barrier topped with foot long wrought iron spikes, a tall barred gate in the center. Kara took a moment to work out the worked iron letters cresting the arched gate, as she was seeing them backwards: DURST MANOR.

[thetalesofno-one]

Played tag in a graveyard

You know, like you do in Barovia

[tea-with-eleni]

I have warned my players that my sister’s christmas present was an honest-to-Strahd ravenloft seal.

One of the players has already told me that he’s not opening anything sealed that way since he’d rather not be transported to Barovia. 

Gonna be really funny when I mail them all physical invitations to dinner. 

[immortalarizona]

TRUE

Get your "I went to Castle Dracula and all I got was deeply traumatized" mug here!

[wrraiith]

Heelloo first sketches of Dread in the Dark Viktor (and Salem)

[kolyyanas]

projecting my mental illnesses onto whoever i am at the moment so sorry to all my nonexistent curse of strahd mutuals who get to watch ireena discover the wonders of being anorexic

[grantihare]

pray for my players yall lmao

[immortalarizona]

yes, hello. I (the resident aroace) was the one who suggested seducing the guards to find the werewolf. I cannot explain myself

dnd arcventures continue… she wasn’t even the one who suggested the “seduce everyone” plan! she was extremely down to try it though.

it didn’t end up working very well, but she did get everyone a new place to stay, and has also learned what the colour green is.

[immortalarizona-art]

dinner at Castle Ravenloft, probably

(original meme under the cut)

[immortalarizona]

“I keep my closet free of skeletons ‘Cause I’m much better at digging graves But I always dig up bones in your sympathy I can’t trust a single thing you say.”

— The Crane Wives, “Metaphor”

bonus: the full piece without the tarokka frame, and with a higher resolution!!

kinda feel like I over-blended the highlights, but oh well :/

please pretend that I know how to draw feet

shoutout to @jookpubstock for enabling my Achlys brainrot once again by providing the pose I referenced for this drawing, as well as my reference for the skirt and shirt!!

[barovianchickenandwaffles]

This entire thread makes me very uncomfortable.

Enjoy!! ✨

WE USED TO BE A COUNTRY! HOW WILL I PROTECT MY FAMILY IF I AM NOT ALLOWED TO TWIST SOME NUTS? GODDAMN LIBERALS KEEP RUINING EVERYTHING.

[tea-with-eleni]

Paper came for my Ravenloft invitations and I got too excited by fun paper. So I printed a map of Barovia too. But the colors weren’t right so out come the watercolor. But the place names weren’t showing. So I dug out a quill our cleric gave me like seven years ago. And went over most of the major lines. Three hours later I surfaced from the hyperfocus with props I’m very proud of but also someone really should have stopped me…

[barovianblood]

Prime Meridian

@stcrmborne has been cordially invited to dine

The mist wafting off the ocean had been thicker than normal. The discolored grey soon blotted out even the rays of the sun, and the sounds of waves breaking beneath their ship had subsided. For no longer did the Aasimar stand on the familiar deck of the ship she traveled on but on the decrepit planks of a dock too small to harbor any sort of ship and that had not seen use in a very long time. A portly man sat legs crossed, dangling a fishing line off the side of the dock. Filthy sweat stained clothes clung to him like a second skin, though he paid the newcomer no mind, all too caught up in dangling the bait less string in the water. An other figure however approached baring lantern light. One arm hidden beneath his regal robes while the other held a lantern out in front of himself to illuminate the way. "Good evening" Spoke Strahd, with only the imitation of pleasantness in his tone. "You look so terribly lost, perhaps you will let me be of some assistance to you?".

[utilitycaster]

You've mentioned a few times about Matt making this the Moon Plot Campaign and the cast not realizing it was the Moon Plot Campaign and how the characters aren't necessarily the best for a Moon Plot Campaign and I'm just curious: if you could pick what type of character build the cast played to best fit a Moon Plot how might that look?

Oh man I think I've answered this before but I will always answer it again because my answer is evolving.

The first two things are just general advice:

In retrospect I think Matt should have treated this campaign as sort of a semi-module format. If you will be playing a module (eg: Curse of Strahd, Call of the Netherdeep, etc), your DM should tell you this and essentially say "you can have your own character struggles - in fact you should - but they should be largely internal/things that can be addressed without you going on an extended quest." For example, you can (and should) play a character in Curse of Strahd who is struggling with self-esteem, or religious faith, or cowardice; but you can't have a character who, to address these things, must confront their father, because they're going to be in Barovia and he's not going to be there. I recommend checking out the rivals in Call of the Netherdeep, because their throughlines are great examples - they' develop and engage with the story, but it's very much driven by the plot of the story and not a delving into their backstory. So essentially, have simpler backstories or backstories that inherently tie into the quest, and let the players come up with that by giving them the most spoiler free outline. I think Matt tried to do all that tying up himself, and at times it made things a little too pat; or those characters who had elements that couldn't be woven in as gracefully (Chetney and the Gorgynei; Laudna with Delilah; some of Ashton's stuff) got very brief arcs so we could get back to the main moon plot.

Do not dump intelligence. DO NOT DUMP INTELLIGENCE. Have at least one PC in your party who is not just intelligent but like, educated. Percy, Beau, and Caleb all fit this. Chetney's pretty smart but not terribly educated so he's great at investigation but he's not going to do very well on religion checks. This party should have had a fucking wizard or artificer or cobalt soul monk or knowledge cleric, but also every party should unless you're going full murder hobo. I think it's valid to be into actual play (or d&d itself) for the character moments and the romance but you know what makes that possible? FIGURING OUT WHAT'S FUCKING HAPPENING INSTEAD OF DICKING AROUND CLUELESSLY. My one true house rule for myself as a DM is that one person in the party has to have high intelligence (or like, be a bard or rogue with decent intelligence but expertise/jack of all trades in everything). Play a high int character for the sake of your DM, PLEASE.

On a more specific note:

would have been good to have more Marquesian characters, but also someone from the Empire would have added a significant dimension. I do love Chetney, and I think Travis is the player who pivoted fastest to fit better within this campaign and has a good understanding of what it could have been with a bit more commitment, but yeah I think if Matt had told them a bit more of what was going on he'd have made like, a more serious werewolf member of the Gorgynei who had noticed lycanthropes becoming susceptible to Ruidus and decided to investigate, for example.

I think having more divinely aligned characters would have just made for much more fun interactions. The issue with the god debates wasn't that they were having them, for all I think that anyone who wants to kill the gods is a fucking idiot. It was that none of them knew jack shit about what they were talking about so it turned into an unending Emperor's Nose discussion. Having either someone who was actually trained (a la Braius, who is a welcome addition for this reason, among others) or again just. a person with religion proficiency and a decent INT score would have made it an actual compelling argument of different perspectives, and not a bunch of idiots yelling out nonsense.

It honestly wouldn't have looked much different. In fact, I think you could have kept the bottom table mostly as is with just tiny alterations, and done the following:

Make Chetney a Marquesian member of the Gorgynei with a mission tied to investigating what's going on with Ruidus. He could still be a weird woodworker.

Entirely rework Laudna's premise. You could have kept her creepy and undead, even, but get rid of Delilah and make her a wizard instead. Make her tied to the Grim Verity or an archaeologist who got kicked off the Tishtan site. You could even keep her aligned with Imogen although I'd have made it a more recent meet up of her being on the run and having gone through Gelvaan in trying to avoid the Grey Assassins

I like what happened with FCG ultimately but I think a different subclass would have still helped; make them a knowledge cleric and more intelligent.

Make Imogen and Ashton much more aware of the Apex War and Otohan's history from the get go. Also give Laura a heads up that her character's going to be super central and she will be in the hot seat for much of the campaign.