ooc icebreaker/au workshop?

[alliegiance]

OOC STUFF

ok fellas, here's the situation:

- you've been trapped in the shitty valley of barovia by a megalomaniac vampire who is obsessed with one of his subjects (read more here or honestly just ask me if you want more info)
- the megalomaniac likes to play with his food
- so do the powers that be here
- the gods cannot help you
- your gods can't even contact you
- you're not getting out any time soon (the mists are poisonous and will kill you)
- (maybe) you have a modern character that you now have to establish a full dnd/fantasy au for
- what does your character do in this situation

use this post to give people a jumping off point for that, and also to get to know each other/plot stuff maybe

code bases by tricklet

Comments

ALLY

[alliegiance]

[alliegiance]

welcome, foolish mortals

im ally, ill be your overseer in and out of game. not only is this sandbox mine, i also get to play your prison warden, strahd von zarovich. he's a horrible monster in a nice suit with a smooth tongue.

i guess for the moment he's our npc so others i can bring in include ezmerelda d'avenir and ireena kolyana. potentially others bc ive been running this module for like 2+ years and theyre all my favourite but for now those are the guaranteed ones i could rope into this horrible mess

[gwilym]

but that's not all

i also have sir godfrey gwilym here, widower, do-gooder extraordinaire, and stepdad of the year every year

he's a funny one because if i feel like it, he technically is already an au of a cos npc, that being the godfrey gwilym in the 5e module. once i actually make some icons i can probably flip him from tav to npc

as tav, he's a big ol paladin of lathander who is dedicated to his devotion oath, the people around him, and doing the best he can even when it's difficult. he is a widower, having lost his husband some years ago, and is trying to raise his late husband's daughter by himself.

in cos, he's a big ol revenant paladin of the order of the silver dragon, which is dedicated theologically to serving the morninglord. he has retained his humanity by clutching on to the scraps of what made him human, that being his faith, his love for his husband and charges, and his dedication to doing the right thing. he was married to another knight of the order and they all died tragically when they came to war against strahd, only to be revived by the hellscape of barovia as immortal revenants bound to his death. his husband is bitter and angry and sees it as his purpose to keep strahd alive and suffering as long as possible, and so refuses to move the knights against him. sir godfrey goes against this to try and restore the order's honour and to grant rest to his comrades and husband.

they both have a cheeky lore connection to ravenloft through their great great great great grandpappy, alek gwilym, former commander of strahd's armies. also his close confidant and closest friend, so loyal that he would have probably helped him kill his brother if asked.

Erin

[ryugyo]

I don't like my name in all caps sue me

[ryugyo]

It's a DnDichi!!

In Barovia, Ichiban is a devotion oath paladin dragged into the cursed land by that shady aasimar bitch, the Abbott. Outside, he was an outcast from a knight's order after being falsely blamed and imprisoned for the mysterious disappearance of his captain. He was released after years in a dungeon, and then roamed as a hedge knight who had never really learned to wield his powers.

Following this habit, he found himself in Barovia Village, accepting the task to guard Ireena Kolyana on her ill-fated journey to Krezk along with his fellow out-of-towners. He maybe underestimated the weight of the job, as it has put him in the path of not just the hags, werewolves, and bandits, but every source of evil in Barovia, from Castle Ravenloft or otherwise.

However, Ireena's good nature in the midst of it all catches him like a moth to flame, and he soon dedicates himself not just to protect her, but to free her from the cursed fate the land has imposed on her. Saving Ireena, after all, means saving all the people of Barovia-- and for as much hatred and bitterness as he's seen, he has seen the good in them. Just as his captain didn't give up on a little street urchin that could be transformed into a knight, he refuses to surrender to the darkness.

At the very least, he wants to remain a thorn in Strahd's side for as long as possible, anyway.

This may also have to do with Strahd killing his captain, who was the guardian dragon of Barovia, Argynvost, all along. Ichiban struggles with the idea that he is just as much a pawn of fate as the people of Barovia believe Ireena to be, but good luck getting that out of him!!

[hannya]

Look it's a bonus Majima

Not your Barovia Majima, he's another guy under construction so don't worry about it

Unless you have ideas to share perhapsss

[ghouliecooper]

(Hm okay the Abbott might really need to start running background checks)

Though it is a legend that originates on some other Plane, contemptuous and awed whispers sometimes circulate in taverns about a figure known as The Ghoul. Barovia is hardly short on ghouls, but these stories are always quickly clarified. You will know The Ghoul without mistake, not by the stench of death, though he carries that like a badge of honor, but by a crack of thunder held in the hand and curious twang in his wit, wielded just as adroitly as his blade. Both cut to the quick, and to survive an encounter with him seems as rarely reported as verified sightings.

Some say he is in the employ of the Lord. Some say he has felled some of the Lord's cruelest champions. Others insist both are true, so long as he has been satisfied by coin. What remains consistent in the legends is his charred appearance, as if a survivor of a festival in Vallaki, and his refusal to harm a hair on the head of a child. Crying babes have been found in the smoldering aftermath of his work, as pure as they day they were born.

To seek him, one must be ready to pay a price. Whether it be from the purse, the flesh, or the soul, here are where the legends vary. But for those who seek vengeance, it is said that no better agent exists, whether you can swallow the lumps of consequence or not.

Belmont

[seemagicshit]

Seconding that remark

Zhulong

[seemagicshit]

Zhulong is an orange tiefling with a pair of broken horns, yellow eyes and black hair. He's the party's main source of combat magic as they trek through Strahd's version of Castlevania.

At the campaign start, he's busy trying to scam gold off people doing card readings. He's inadvertently brought on the journey, starting off sticking with the party due to convenience. However, somewhere along the way he grew more of conscience, got stolen and tortured by his long lost dad, set his dad ON FIRE in revenge and found out about his connection to the Vistani, among other things.

His criminal background does give him better insight into certain situations, but he's leaning more and more toward the side of good and even heroism with examples like Ichiban and Sir Godfrey to look up to. Along with gaining more compassion, he's gained more in magical ability. To the point that there is something out there that is pleased with his prowess with Dimension Door and he just teleported like Nightcrawler for the first time. The DM won't say who is pleased, so place your bets.

He's one of the more charismatic members of the party, whose silver tongue allowed Vasilka to join their dysfunctional band. He wasn't as close to Ireena at first, but they did have a bit of a sibling like bond. And due to dreams that might have been connections to past lives, perhaps there's a reason they had that kind of bond...

To sum up his actual character arc, he's gone from "I don't really give a shit" to "Hold up, actually I think I do."

chris

[netherese]

I'm here to cause problems. Which way to the nearest library?

🔮 gale dekarios

[netherese]

You know him, you possibly feel some kind of way about him, for better or for worse. The Wizard of Waterdeep is going to be his usual self, having been yoinked into Barovia when he's already in the middle of another crisis, so he's going to be rather put out about all of that, but as the threat of ceremorphosis will be on hold for a bit, he'll be holding on hard to that silver lining.

He'll be from somewhere in the dark, miserable stretch that is Act II, so compared to the Shadow-Cursed Lands, this place might almost feel like a reprieve (for all of five minutes). More importantly, what this means is that he still has a roiling ball of destructive netherese magic in his chest, which is stable for the time being but still doing steady damage, has been told to blow himself up and is seriously considering doing so. He's not yet acquired his potential god complex, but he's still got plenty of hubris to go around.

When he's not worrying about blowing up or becoming a mindflayer, Gale loves books, cats, cooking, wine, and long walks on the beach. He's also fond of astronomy and clever when it comes to lanceboard. He'll be eager to immediately start learning as much about this place and the people in it as possible, with the interest in getting to the bottom of things, but also, he's just that kind of nerd. Man has soulful cow eyes and an insatiable thirst for knowledge, the kind of thirst that leads a teenage boy to steal the Blackstaff for shits and giggles and accidentally create a portal to one of the hells. It was mostly fine.

🪦 reilani iltherron

[mortarch]

D&D OC, average grave cleric who has only recently graduated from mortarch to fledgling adventurer finds herself in Barovia and surrounded by undead at every turn, gentle panic ensues.

Reilani is a native of Waterdeep who was orphaned young, as many tieflings are, and taken in by a priest of Kelemvor named Tirion Iltherron. Once old enough, she studied to follow in his footsteps alongside her adoptive sister, Livia, with whom she is very close and admires. She's still on the young side and serves under her father, specializing in funerary rights and offering comfort to the bereft who come to the temple to see their loved ones into the next life, and also spends much of her time looking after sick or injured locals. Though not as gifted a healer as her sister, she's dedicated to the cause and is very concerned with proving herself to be worthy of the opportunities she's been granted.

In recent months, she found herself tangled up with a group of adventurers and was pulled decidedly out of her comfort zone in the process, getting unexpectedly caught in the crossfire of faction tensions that had taken a hold on the underworld of Waterdeep, and while she gained some valuable experience outside her temple, she also bore the loss of a dear friend in the process. Dragon Heist was rough and tumble for that particular party, but when all was said and done, she requested the opportunity to take leave from her father's temple to spend some time traveling with new friends and try to figure out who she might be outside of the role she's held herself to all this time. She definitely didn't mean to find herself this far from home.

She'll be starting off trying to make herself useful as she finds her bearings; being a tiefling in Barovia will be even less convenient than it already is back home since Barovians aren't used to seeing them, which will probably make trying to earn good will a little difficult to start. Those are ripe conditions for one frustrated cleric, but Reilani is a stubborn do-gooder who doesn't like to take no for an answer, even when she really should.

She's just out here doing her best. Unfortunately, a lot of the time her best is just okay. Also I need to make icons happen for her eventually so ty BG3 character creator for the gift of tieflings.

🌒 koudelka iasant

[zlato]

placeholder, VISTANI AU INCOMING

fRAMES

[bloodtheft]

be the chaos you want to see in the world

Astarion

[bloodtheft]

Move over, Strahddy, it's everyone's actual favorite vampire (sources needed). He's snarky, has an opinion about everything, and might steal anything not nailed down if it pleases him.

As annoyed as he will be about being thrust into another unprecedented event, at least vampires are familiar territory. Astarion here will be somewhere in Act 3 before confronting Cazador, Ascension right there for the taking but just out of his grasp. He will be interested in Barovia due to the rumors he's heard, but he will also lean toward where he feels the biggest hitter is. Could be the people with brain worms, could be the man with the castle. Who's to say?

I mean, it's probably the people with the brain worms, vampires are the actual worst.

Rolan

[hellishretort]

Rolan is a red Asmodeus tiefling from Elturel who can't seem to shake a certain band of tadpoled miscreants every time he turns around. A cocky, self-taught wizard of great talent with an apprenticeship waiting for him in Baldur's Gate under Lorroakan of Ramazith's Tower. The only issue was getting there.

Shadowed by a group trying to make him a little less selfish along the way to Baldur's Gate, it's not as if he'd asked them for help! Fine, they freed his siblings from Moonrise Towers when he couldn't and they're actually annoyingly helpful with the shadow curse and smoothing out the bumps in the road trying to stop a hoard of tiefling refugees from getting a place of their own.

He'll be coming from Act 3 after his acquisition of Ramazith's Tower (because someone has to have their shit together) and his liberation from a toxic apprenticeship he never needed in the first place. He'll be stressed about leaving his siblings Cal and Lia behind, but also glad they're spared whatever nightmare this is.

Rikki

[corpsebride]

very demure, very mindful

Vasilka

[corpsebride]

Vasilka is the demure and reticent “daughter” of the Abbot, who presides over Saint Markovia’s Abbey in the village of Kresk. She enjoys cooking and sewing, and often takes in mending work for the villagers in exchange for small tokens and wine for the abbey's storehouse. She loves flowers and animals, spending a great deal of time tending to the gardens that provide food for the long-term patients confined to the abbey’s hospital.

In truth, Vasilka is not the Abbot's natural daughter but a "living doll" created for the express purpose of becoming Strahd's wife. Forbidden from leaving the abbey without her father to chaperone her, she has led a sheltered life, shielded from the many evils and untold suffering of the outside world. With only a crumbling library of half-deteriorated books to serve as her window to the world beyond the abbey's walls, her education is quite limited, and the Abbot has been carefully training her in social etiquette, with limited success. Though she strives to mimic human behaviors to the best of her ability, she is often confused by their irrational behavior and emotional outbursts.

Unbeknownst to her, she was crafted to resemble Tatyana, the woman whom Strahd yearns for, and Saint Markovia, whose portrait hangs above the mantle in the abbey's rectory. When the party first encountered her, they were shocked to see the uncanny resemblance between Vasilka and Ireena. Zhulong performed a Tarokka reading for Vasilka, which revealed that she is "a minion of a greater power" and that removing her from the abbey may allow her to "cut her own strings". Though Zhulong obscured the true meaning of the reading from her at the time, he did imply that she was being offered an opportunity to make her own choices.

At her core, Vasilka is kind-hearted to a fault and believes herself to be a "holy vessel" containing the Morninglord's love for all the people of Barovia. She was made to love the unlovable and to forgive the unforgiven. Even when others treat her with disdain or outright disgust, she strives to meet them with love and acceptance within her heart. Emotions such as hate, anger, or envy are foreign concepts to her, yet the more time she spends around humans, the more she is beginning to learn how fragile the human heart truly is, and how easily it might be corrupted.

Now, with each new experience carved into her memory, Vasilka is beginning to awaken to her own latent emotions, a fact which deeply troubles her. For to become "human" means that she will be unable to fulfill her divine duty, and without that duty driving her every action, she will have no purpose. She views herself as a mere extension of the Abbot's will, and finds it difficult to take initiative or make her own decisions without his input.

Above all, Vasilka finds her true purpose in acts of service—both to her father and to those around her. She is fascinated by humans and wishes to learn more about them. Though naïve and awkward in social situations, she demonstrates great emotional intelligence at times and wisdom beyond her years. She is quite skilled as a healer, both through magical and mundane means, and functions as the party's medic.

Shadowheart

[moonlessblessing]

One of Shar's dark disciples, Shadowheart was sent on a suicide mission to steal an item of great power. While wrestling with her faith and strange, untamed magic, Shadowheart has enemies on all sides—and a long-buried secret to uncover.

Orphaned at a young age, Shadowheart was raised in one of Shar's secret covens in Baldur's Gate. She has spent much of her young life training to become a Dark Justiciar—an elite soldier who seeks to enforce Shar's dominion over the world. She has erased many of her memories in order to protect Lady Shar's secrets, and therefore finds it difficult to connect to others. Due to her devotion to the Lady of Loss, Shadowheart eschews love and affection, seeing it as no more than a distraction from her mission.

She's going to be drawn into Barovia during some point in Act 2, before she's actually completed the Gauntlet of Shar, perhaps even during the midst of undergoing the trials. At this point, she is beginning to question her faith, which causes her to cling even more fiercely to Shar's teachings in order to maintain her footing. This means that she will be searching desperately for any sign from the Lady of Loss that she is on the right path, and that this is merely another test of Shadowheart's devotion.

Surely, no one would possibly take advantage of this crisis of faith lmao

As a cleric devoted to trickery and darkness, she possesses many skills that will hopefully help her to survive in the blighted land of Barovia. She is extremely driven and not above using unsavory methods in order to obtain what she wants, though she's not nearly as cruel as she pretends to be. Despite her devotion to an unloving goddess, there is a softness at Shadowheart's core that she desperately tries to protect. She has an insatiable hunger for secrets, and while she keeps her cards close to her chest, she very much enjoys poking her nose into other people's affairs.

Shadowheart will very much be interested in investigating any leads that might lead to escaping Barovia and/or ridding herself of that pesky brainworm. She's also going to be very annoyed at all the vestiges of Morninglord worship lying around and will probably be unhappy to work with those devoted to His works, but if it means finding a way out of this hellhole, she will put her grudges aside to work with them, so long as they prove useful to her cause.

Halsin Silverbough

[polyfil]

Halsin is a 350 year old wood elf and the Archdruid of the Emerald Grove, a position he took up reluctantly after the passing of his predecessor. Somewhat brash and angry in his youth, he's matured into a wise and capable leader who seeks to maintain balance between the natural world and civilization.

Recently, he's forced himself to set aside personal desires in order to research a means of breaking the Shadow Curse that has blighted the land. He maintains a calm, level-headed demeanor, but when he or his loved ones are threatened, he can transform into a monstrously large cave bear capable of taking down even the most stalwart of foes. Outside of battle, he's the dad friend to the team, offering guidance (and warm hugs) to those who need it. He's far more gentle than his intimidating stature would have you believe, and his heart has a lot of love to give, provided no one attempts to tie him down and curtail his freedom.

He's also going to be pulled from Act 2, before he's managed to unite Thaniel and Oliver. So, basically going from one benighted, cursed land to another. Perfect. He is definitely not going to get a little antsy from the lack of sunlight and fresh air and green growing things, nope, whatever gave you that idea?

While Halsin's first priority is to return home and break the curse plaguing his own land, he can't exactly turn a blind eye to the events plaguing Barovia, as well. Especially given his intimate connection to nature, he is going to have a bad time, being constantly surrounded by the feeling of suffering and blight from the very land itself. As someone leaning toward do-gooder behaviors, he'll be interested in learning about Strahd's connection to the land and his influence on the natural order.

Julien de Beaumont (BG3 Tav)

[elfenritter]

Julien de Beaumont, high elf eldritch knight, trans/nonbinary/genderfluid, they/them pronouns. 220 years old. Super duper queer, they'll kiss all the genders. More info here.

A haughty noble raised in Baldur's Gate, they dreamed of leaving the city to become an adventurer, but their family didn't support this notion and they were subsequently disowned. They were taken under the wing of a prominent elven patriar, Coran, and given the means necessary to train in swordsmanship and magic. While working under his patronage, they sought to build a reputation for themself as a knight-errant: a champion of the people who would defend the city from corruption.

Julien tends toward making good-aligned, heroic choices in most circumstances, but they're not above using subterfuge to bypass obstacles. They've fashioned themself after the wandering chivalric knights one reads of in faerie tales, which makes them a bit idealistic in their views. As a high elf noble, they can come off a bit haughty and conceited, but they're generally good-natured and open to new experiences. Loyal to a fault, they will stubbornly brute force the third option at every turn, seeking a means of helping their companions, no matter the personal cost. They try to resist the tadpole's allure, but if they can use that power to save those they love, then they'll gladly accept whatever consequences result of their choices.

Basically, they are the sort of glory-seeking adventurer that Barovia loves to chew up and spit out. They're extremely vain, especially concerning their glorious red hair, and this will in no way cause them any kind of trouble, nope. They're going to try to fumble their way through this whole hero business, but without someone more experienced to give them a reality check, they're very likely to end up dead, or worse. They'll probably end up with a stupid schoolkid crush on the likes of Ezmerelda d'Avenir, much to her annoyance.

Joon-gi Han

[joongipan]

Joon-gi Han is actually an assumed identity passed down among generations of Ba'al Verzi assassins, only bestowed upon the most ruthless and bloodthirsty members of the order. The most recent incarnation of Joon-gi Han was bestowed upon a pair of identical twins—Yeon-su and Yeon-ki. As children, they were sold to a nobleman by their alcoholic father for a pittance and two bottles of wine, but it turned out that the nobleman was secretly a member of the Ba'al Verzi order who saw potential in the brothers. They were subjected to grueling training in a secluded monastery, where they learned the art of hand-to-hand combat, moving silently in darkness, and other skills necessary to become assassins.

Though Yeon-ki was the more skilled of the two, the elder twin doted on his younger brother and promised to look after him, no matter what. Even if everyone else should abandon them, the brothers swore never to abandon each other. They trained hard to perfect their talents, often working together in order to take down the same target. They used their mirrored appearance to confuse their victims, taking turns flitting in and out of the shadows, so that it seemed as if they were a single figure moving faster than the eye could see.

As they grew into adulthood, the then-leader of the Ba'al Verzi acknowledged the elegance of their mirrored fighting style, the tenacity with with they hunted their targets, and their loyalty to the brotherhood itself. Along with their exceedingly high body count, they earned the right to assume the identity of Joon-gi Han, and eventually became the new leaders of the brotherhood.

One day, Yeon-su was called away from headquarters to take on a special assignment. Though reluctant to leave his brother's side, he relished the chance to prove himself just as capable as his brother in combat. His mission was successful, his target slain, but when he returned to headquarters, he was met with an eerie silence accompanied by a feeling of dread.

The Ba'al Verzi were slaughtered, down to a man. But strangely enough, it looked as if no struggle took place. The halls were littered with crumbled piles of clothing filled with silver ash. Forbidden magic? An unknown plague? Yeon-su was baffled.

He searched frantically for his brother, but by the time he located the body, it was too late. His twin was dying in his arms, a Ba'al Verzi blade thrust through his ribs. Through blood-flecked lips, he whispered to Yeon-su of betrayal and conspiracy, of the very darkness itself turning against them—a black shadow in the shape of a man. Its mere touch instantly drained one of life and reduced the body to ash.

The order was lost, but Yeon-ki swore vengeance on those responsible. But he would need his brother's help in order to accomplish that goal.

We entered the world together, and together we'll leave it. But not before our fallen brothers have been avenged.

This was the dark promise forged between two brothers, and as Yeon-ki's body slowly dissolved into ash, his spirit entwined itself with Yeon-su's own. Two souls, one body, bound to a singular purpose. The brothers cast aside their former names to become the last incarnation of Joon-gi Han forevermore.

Now, Joon-gi Han travels Barovia, trading in secrets and rare antiquities in the hopes of finding the one responsible for wiping out the order. He continues to ply his trade as an assassin, for those with the means to pay. Rarely does he accept coin for his services. He often seeks out those newcomers drawn into Barovia, offering his services as a guide to those desperate for information on the lay of the land and important figures that might help or hinder them. In exchange, he hopes to leverage information that will help him to accomplish his own goals.

Joon-gi Han keeps his face covered at all times, wearing a black hood and cowl to hide his features, save for his eyes. Anyone who comes close enough will be able to note his deathly pale pallor and the glowing red pinpricks in his black eyes, indicative of his undead nature. Though not created in the typical manner as other revenants, he has bound himself to his brother's soul and cannot truly die until his thirst for vengeance has been sated. Those with a sensitivity to spirits may be able to catch glimpses of a silvery shadow lingering near his right shoulder, with some part of it always in physical contact with Joon-gi Han's body.

HELEN

[fangtabulous]

Welcome everyone's fucking favorite lady of all time

Lozelle

[fangtabulous]

Let's all sit in awe of everyone's real favorite vampire, one Lozelle Scrudd. A barbarian-rogue from the inciting DnD game, Lozelle is a vampire (spawn) possessed of her own mind and numerous extra-legally obtained goods.

She is 6'3", olive skinned though bloodlessly pale, rail thin and appears as though she's dying on a wasting disease. She has mud-red hair, not even close to the vibrate red of the one girl, cut in a hightop and shot with white. Her face is as emaciated as the rest of her and her large and heavily made up acid green eyes stand out from the hollowness surrounding them. She has corpse blue lips, a tall and slink figure that is usually without an ounce of fat, and a thick New Jersey accent.

Lozelle's story begins in Barovia, to which she is native although she is a Vistana and therefore not 'Barovian' in name. She and she two sisters were raised by their caravan and principally their mother, Batshiva Scrudd, who was a strong, unfulfilled and uncompromising personality. A late addition to this mobile family was Yan, Lozelle's half-brother and junior by five years who she was put in charge of raising. In a family of tough personalities Lozelle (then going by her given name 'Liis') and Yan were the light in one another's world. Lozelle adored and spoiled her baby brother, teaching him the slight of hand and card tricks she had learned from their aged uncle Dimitri, and Yan grew up surrounded by his sister's love and looking up to her. Lozelle and Yan were the black-sheep of their otherwise traditionally Vistani family, and that tension would break when, at age sixteen, Lozelle was caught stealing by her mother and was disowned in a raging mother-daughter fight.

Thrown out of her family (and thankfully outside the bounds of Barovia at that time), Lozelle never saw her mother or brother alive again. She traveled widely, learning on the road how to make a life for herself out on the edges of society. Between caravans, traveling shows, and criminal syndicates she became an adept thief and, because of her good looks, a prolific honeypot and occasional sex worker. Her career centered around the work of a small crew, her new patchwork family:

Stanzy Ope, an orcish ranger, poet, and body man. Nestor 'Ratlick' Ike, a tiefling rogue and the team's brain trust, chemist and leader. And Miriam Voika, a tiefling bard, team cook, voice of reason and the love of Lozelle's life. They were a merry, tumultuous, free-wheeling and ambitious band that worked primarily in Borca (Shadowfell's Italy). Lozelle and her crew spent their time and money on schemes, booze, and any substance that pleased them. They were, for all intents and purposes, a fantasy Always Sunny crew.

They were between jobs when Lozelle learned that her mother was on her deathbed back in Barovia. A long time substance abuser and alcoholic, and raised in a culture that did not mind the doomed land's mists, Lozelle did not think twice about bringing her rag-tag crew to the funeral. Upon arrival Lozelle attempted to see her mother's body and her family, only to be expelled from the funeral in another shouting match. In the shuffle she did not notice that Yan was nowhere to be seen.

Shattered by grief and a thirty year rage at her broken relationship with her mother, Lozelle contrived to prove her family wrong. She was not their cast-off, their disgrace, a nothing person stripped of history and legitimacy at their leisure. She was better than that, better than all of them!, and she would prove it.

Given the strong cultural ties between the Vistani and one Strahd Von Zarovich, Lozelle determined she would impersonate the mythical girl the ancient vampire obsessed over, marry him and prove her family fools for rejecting her. This plan was put into motion, primarily with Ratlick's help as he and Lozelle both saw it as a profound and unending payday. It did not go well. After weeks of the charade, Lozelle's ostensible wedding day came and culminated with the death (at the dinner table) of Stanzy and Lozelle herself when Strahd split open her chest, bit through her heart and turned her into a vampire.

Ratlick, it was later revealed, survived the rest of the crew by a year as a prisoner in Ravenloft. Lozelle and Miriam were walled up together in the crypts below the castle and, after an indeterminable time in the dark and a slow spiral into mad hunger, Lozelle eventually drained Miriam. Both died at age thirty-seven. She remained underground for about twenty years, tunneling through Barovia's bedrock and by turns going mad and piecing her mind back together.

She joined our party after burrowing out of an open grave, and has stayed with them ever since. In their adventures she found out her beloved brother Yan was killed by Rudolph Van Richten in an attempted robbery when young Yan was endeavoring to find his big sister after his own expulsion from their family. Yan's head was removed and kept in a box in Van Richten's tower, after a tearful reunion between the siblings Lozelle laid him to rest.

Lozelle's purpose in unlife is to kill Strahd, but the work she has most concerned herself with in the interim is putting to rest the wayward dead of Barovia. Bodies abandoned, people cast aside, and especially anyone Lozelle might convince herself she was responsible for, have all come to be buried outside the tower where the party takes refuge. Among them is Escher, a paramour of Strahd who attempted to save Ireena and who Strahd compelled Lozelle to brutally kill. Lozelle learned of the rate of Ratlick, who had been reincarnated into the twisted Victor Vallakovich, and she has collected and interred several bodies from his early works as a young psychopath. She was not able to bury Victor himself, nor even to speak with him, a hurt that weighs heavily on her. In learning about the vampire Doru, a young man seduced by Strahd and trapped unground by his priest father for Doru ate him, Lozelle saw a kindred spirit and a potential surrogate kid brother. They have yet to converse more than a blowout when Doru extricated himself from the party.

Altogether, Lozelle has improved since her death. She survives in a state of forced sobriety, abstaining from humanoid blood whenever possible, and she tries to be better thanks to the guidance of the party and particularly Sir Godfrey. As the party's junkyard dog she tries to do as much of the violence and dirty work as needed, and to be the fall guy whenever she can. Not a political mastermind, her endeavors go array more often than they succeed by hey, that's life in Barovia.

TLDR: Lozelle is an old school Brooklynite gossip turned fantasy vampire thief. She is hardheaded, big hearted, slow to trust and quick to react. She does not drink humanoid blood and therefore looks starved, however when she does drink it she recovers her beauty from her former life. She loves a scheme, makes jewelry and other trinkets out of whatever crap she can get her mits on, and she will kill Strahd or die trying.

London

[menzoberranzan]

Oh, god. Don't perceive me. I've already fucked up.

Minthy Fresh

[menzoberranzan]

Uh.
I feel like I've forgotten how to do this kind of stuff.

Minthara was the fresh prince of Lolth is a drow who has seen a lot of shit. Previously an inhabitant of Menzoberranzan who sort of got into things too deeply to the point where she couldn't get out. Some could call her a victim of circumstance. Some could just apply to her a logical drow assessment of very untrustworthy and will probably kill someone in their sleep.

She is very hard on the outside, coloured by her circumstances and experiences. Beneath that stone-like exterior, Minthara actually has very intense and deep feelings, revealing insecurities about her person and a loneliness that she normally and openly doesn't like to share. She is a fiercely pragmatic woman and largely driven by her need to exact revenge, which could be interpreted as an inadvertently noble undertaking, but in many ways is likely just driven more by selfish hatred than wanting to help others.

Extremely sardonic and to the point, Minthara can come across as being somewhat poisonous in demeanour, unwelcoming, and an intimidating presence, however, for the patient she is capable of developing an adamant loyalty, making her a valuable asset. She has a tactical mindset, making her a formidable opponent, but also a reliable ally.