barovians | ooc icebreaker/au workshop?

ooc icebreaker/au workshop?

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

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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

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.

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

Seconding that remark

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!!

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

(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.

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

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.

My good fellow, do you mean to tell me you are going up against the forces of evil for true love, because he's so on board to support that kind of journey.

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.

Edited 2024-10-13 07:07 (UTC)

This is not the shadowy adventure we planned on going on, Tavfrey.

no dont listen to him mine's the love that's true

be the chaos you want to see in the world

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.

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."

Don't mind Zhulong as he admires everyone's actual favorite vampire.

Fawning is definitely the appropriate response.

Basically?? More or less??? He hasn't admitted to anyone directly that he's in love with Ireena, because he's afraid of: 1. projecting the hope of the entire land on her, as well as his own hopes 2. he's older than her and common so ew why would she want anything to do with his broke ass

Vampires are the actual worst, present company excluded.

Let's look at the bright side! Barovia hasn't seen direct sunlight in centuries.

Who rehydrated my guncle

whats with this sassy lost child

going from act 2 to this shit is gonna leave him terminally depressed tbh

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ooc icebreaker/au workshop?

ALLY

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Erin

Belmont

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chris

🔮 gale dekarios

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🪦 reilani iltherron

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fRAMES

Astarion

Zhulong

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