Just. A compilation of my favorite sketches of Strahd without the rest of the sketch for context.

What if not only an unholy tree sprouted from a stake driven into the black heart of a long-dead vampire, but that tree actually had an equally unholy life cycle?

This is my first, rough sketch of this concept: Once it has gorged on enough lifeforce, the Gulthias Tree actually blooms!

All along its thorny branches, among the spiny leaves, blossom beautiful rose-like flowers, whose sickeningly sweet nectar attracts pollinators (in Barovia, these would be several species of bats, who grow positively addicted to the stuff), then the flowers' petals disperse in the wind, their mind-numbing perfume attracting more prey for the blights to turn into fertilizer.

Once pollinated, the flowers turn into fruits, roughly the size and shape of a human heart, whose flesh is like a persimmon's but much juicier, brims with diminutive jelly-coated seeds (so they easily slip between teeth and get swallowed), and tastes like strawberries dipped in rosewater, with a faint aftertaste of iron.

Several animals eat these fruits, and spread the seeds across Barovia, countless saplings are growing in the valley, ready to replace the one in Yester Hill should it be felled...

...anyway, both the flowers and fruits are edible, either raw or used as ingredients, flowers can be macerated or distilled into a perfume, while the fruits can be brewed into a sweet, thick, liquor-like wine.

More to come soon, including colored pics and some other extras regarding the blights...

[Linktree]

Honestly, I wasn't expecting it. I placed Strahd into Krezk in the middle of the night and charmed the burogmaster's wife to allow him inside their home, where the players chose to camp for the night. Some of the other players had fucked off for a bit, so I decided it would be a good time to try and get the Bard in Strahd's pocket.

I picked him for a reason. The character is very upset about being in Barovia and is something of a hedonist, and given the chance, would rather party and do drugs. Surely he would've agreed to some kind of deal where he'd get some relief from the horrors of this place, right?

Spits right in his god damn face.

sigh...

This game just went from casually exploring the horrors of Barovia to a straight up oppressive nightmare. Strahd immediately ripped the Burgomaster's wife's head off and left to basically ensure the town wouldn't let them in anymore, and they already basically destroyed Vallaki, and Barovia is a depressing nightmare, so they don't like that place either. Their last known bastion of safety was the tower, which Strahd immediately went and destroyed right after this encounter.

The hags are still alive, and I've turned to taking advantage of their ability to assail them in the night to rob them of their long-rest recovery and impose exhaustion. The tower was the only place the hags couldn't do this at, which they figured out, and had been using it as their rest location most nights.

They still don't know it's been annihilated, and they ran from Krezk in the middle of the night with zero plan lol.

Shit is going to get real for them next session, beyond what they already were dealing with.

Hello everyone !

It's Caroline and I am coming back with the new Hades series I wanted to do a long time ago, but since I did not continue the series 2 years ago, I decided to revamp the old characters. And I started with Ireena of course

If you are interested by the series and by my work, you can follow me on my socials right here : https://www.instagram.com/iriwinged_/

Thank you so much for your support, next one is going to be Ismark !

I have finally finished DMing a Dragnacarta style Curse of Strahd with my party of mostly 4, a fifth left halfway thru. Twas a party consisting of:

Ukabo the Shadarkai grave cleric.

Ding Ding the half dragon Kenku Creation bard.

Frug/Vulrin the insane two personality Dark Gnome arcane trickster.

Tordak the Duergar champion.

And River the escaped Santa sweat shop Elf alchemist.

I had them choose a relic at the beginning that they felt was appropriate and I worked with them to incorporate it into their background and their background into the story of Curse of Strahd. When they got to their part of the relics story they acquired some additional power appropriate to their them and their level. Before fighting strahd they had saved the Martikovs and were gifted the Wereraven abilities which I had activate in full once they had fallen once to strahd. Only Tordak didn't want that.

The fight with Strahd was truly epic with 3 phases of ass kicking and additional magic items for Strahd such as the Sword of Kas, Robes of the Archmagi, and a Ruby spell gem holding the 8th level maddening darkness spell. His final form I changed to that of a Huge bat creature stealing stats from the Sonari bat from DM stash. I also had ireena choose to become a vampire thru the Vampyr and properly accept the gift by slaying her father(who was brought back as an undead knight thru the Deck of many Things) and then slitting her own throat( this was to fulfil the original condition of needing to kill someone you love and be killed by someone you hate).

The final hit came from the rogue Vulrin, who overcame his insanity, and delt a Critical sneak attack of 70 damage with the last strike. In the final moments he rallied everyone to one last strike as the huge vampire lord fell from the sky, every one using their best signature attack, and driving Strahd to the ground of the towers balcony with the sword of sunlight in his chest.

The after party was quick and simple, with Ireena choosing to reuse the fallen castle Ravenloft, which was flying during the battle and had fallen after Strahds death in front of the amber temple. She uses the Amber temple to fix and power the flying castle once more and take these dark powers away from this land forever. Going with her is the Keepers of the Feather and Ezmeralda and a few others who will use the castle to enter other Domains of Dread and free them from their own Dark Powers.

And thus my players and their characters now go their separate ways in life and in game with me moving soon and two others having a baby like NEXT WEEK so I definitely felt the time crunch to finish this. Thank you for those that read all this and good luck with your own campaigns.

Three sessions into my fourth running of CoS, and we just had a banger of a session at the Barovia church. The four-person party had split up on the way there, leaving two at the mercantile and two continuing up to the church with the siblings. With her companion PC unexpectedly absent for this session, the reborn cleric was on her own to negotiate the mess of Doru and dad's relationship until the gents returned from their shopping trip.

Here's the thing. The cleric is reborn because of her own ruined relationship with her mother, who killed her and was eventually killed BY her reborn self. Purely by circumstance then, she had walked into this church to find an as-yet unrealized version of the same dynamic that annihilated her former life.

One false move, she thought, and Doru will be saddled with the same guilt that has plagued her since that day.

After an impassioned plea to the father to end his son's suffering fell on deaf ears, he demanded she and her late-arriving companions leave the church and tend to the burgomaster's last rites themselves.

And so the pressure continues to mount inside that little church on the hill. The outlanders have quietly resolved to pay the two another visit soon, intent on doing what the father cannot if they find Doru no closer to a miraculous faith healing.

I am DMing CoS this weekend and last session, my party of 4 (+ Fated Ally NPC) fled from the fight with Baba Lysaga. It is pretty important that they get her flying skull as I have flavored it to be Argynvost's skull needed to light the Beacon at Argynvostholt. So while they technically do not need to beat Baba, they do need to somehow steal the skull back. The original fight ended with one PC death and was getting close to a TPK before they fled.

They are level 8 and will be doing a part of the main quest that should bring them up to level 9 before I think they plan to return, so I have some time to plan... which means Baba has time to plan. Any suggestions on how Baba would be preparing for the party's eventual return? Should I slyly encourage the players to NOT fight Baba this time around? Any help is appreciated!

Being a good Lord he is, he prepared fine clothes for all of them... But not all of them made it to the destination... Tialia, an Owlin Sorceress died by the hellish fire of Izek at the Festival of the Blazing Sun the other day, but in her place arrived Ilri - Changeling Rogue(last drawing).

Hi!
I am a newbie DM, soon starting a CoS campaign (still reading through the book). As far as I read, I couldn’t find anything where or from whom players can purchase items, maps. Are there any?
I know it will be scarce since its a closed community. I read there’s a map in a vistani wagon however I wonder if a vistana would just sell/share a map to the group.

Hello everybody,
I need some DM suggestions. We are going to start a new campaign (I am the DM). We have 3 players who are new to DND. I am not going to start them from the Death House, I will follow the Mysterious Visitors adventure start.
For many classes there will be many additions between level 2 and 3. Here are my thoughts:

* I thought if they start at level 2, I can create a small-ish combat to level up after one or two session. So they can have more time to adjust to their character sheets. (If you have any suggestions for this, other than death house, I’d like to read your comment for an encounter in the areas before/ in / around the village). For example the random encounters, coming up to scouts and helping them for a search and fighting with some creatures.

* However, I don’t want to push any event unnatural just so they’d have an encounter. Therefore, I was also thinking if I should just start them at level 3.

If you're a member of the Mistfits, read no further.

So I'm running a modified CoS game using Mandymod's additions, among others, and am expanding the game to lvl 15. My players are level 9 (almost 10) and fought Baba Lysaga last session. Here's the issue: they just accidentally? restored the swamp fane (long story) to her full power by offering her Baba's heart. I had originally planned for restoring the fanes to kick off the war with Strahd because doing so threatens his power over the land, but that feels insane to do right now while he is still literally unkillable.

When initially planning act 3 I expected them to start restoring fanes after visiting the amber temple, by then they'd have all the knowledge they needed to defeat strahd and would know the consequences of their actions. I had planned to go all-out hostile with strahd, attacking them day and night, stopping the sun from rising so their magic items don't reset, stuff like that. But if I go that hostile right now they'll have to rush to the amber temple, skip dinner with strahd (which we were all looking forward to), and basically speed run the next 5 levels or otherwise truncate our game. The level of consequences I had envisioned for these actions are fun and interesting when the party has to deal with them for a few days, but there are weeks left of this game and it would be a slog. I'm also looking not to kidnap Ireena until after they restore the mountain fane, I'm doing some past life stuff with her in the gulthias dungeon and don't want my players to miss out in it.

So, what kind of consequences can I give my players for these actions that feel realistic to Strahd's character but dont fuck up my game for the next 6 months? Ive had a few ideas, like inviting them to dinner and threatening them or trying to trap them in the castle dungeons forever. But it's difficult to justify why Strahd wouldn't continue to harass them after that, especially because one of the PCs is (finally) openly dating Ireena. Any other DMs have ideas for Strahd's reaction to this situation? The players have stolen some of his power by restoring this fane and they've been keeping Ireena hidden from his scrying so he's definitely not happy with them, but how to express that in a fun and interesting way? Also one of my PCs is Strahd's son (the same one thats dating Ireena, juicy I know) so that could factor into his decision making, their relationship isn't great, because he's Strahd and the PC is a good person, but still.

They did it, they defeated Strahd!

Taking all guesses as to who is depicted in this celebratory portrait.

I'll change Sergei to a Paladin later

Hi! I'm considering having the castle be magically restored when the beacon is lit. If I were to do that, Strahd would eventually muster forces against it. There might be allies beyond the party, Argynvost's ghost, and Godfrey, that'll be up to my players. Just wondering how other people have handled such an attack.

Truthfully I'll probably run it anyway even if it remains a ruin as Strahd will not want the beacon to go unanswered I think.

The title kind of says it all. I'm a CoS DM to four players and I'm not really too sure how people run Castle Ravenloft at the final encounter. Strahd relies on being able to move through the castle with ease and I'm expecting the fight to take them through the whole castle, so just using theater of the mind isn't an option. So far when it came to combat it took place in spots that allowed just that, or I made a battle map on Paint by just pasting a grid and adding rooms/doors (we play online). Or I used some free battle map creators. But doing that for castle Ravenloft perhaps seems a bit unrealistic and like weeks of work..

The players are nowhere near finished with the campaign yet, so they still have time. They're in Argynvostholt, which is fated to have the Sunsword. However, Strahd and Ireena's wedding will be coming up soon and I will need to get a better grip on the castle again and it will definitely make good practice.

So my question is, how did you do it? Do I just have to accept that I will indeed need to map out the entire castle with digital tools?

TL;DR: The Mad Mage has cast mind blank on himself, and it has 3d6 hours left. He came to Barovia over a year ago, and Savnok's dark gift in the Amber Temple is a mind blank that lasts exactly one year. After Strahd threw him over Tser Falls, he went into the mountains to regain his power, and the temple is the only place in Barovia that offers that. Mordenkainen isn't a cameo. He's a wizard as proud as Strahd who lost, and chose a mind no one could reach.

Hello everyone,

Kyronite here again. Last time I wrote about the Sunsword (link).

I take Curse of Strahd as the main source, use other official books as support, and look for connections that follow logically from the text. This time I'm looking at the Mad Mage of Mount Baratok, and at why Mordenkainen fits Barovia far better than a cameo.

Mordenkainen has always been considered a bit of a loose ends for most Dm's. Most people don't think that he fits the narrative and give his role away to someone else or remove him entirely. When I worked on the mod for CoS we took the main canon of CoS as the centre of the mod. Where we wanted to incorporate as much of the existing narrative as possible. Hence we looked for ways to make them fit into the existing state. Which I thought was really fun and especially a challenge for this character. I don't think this ever made it into the game but still.

The canon

Curse of Strahd (5e)

A Vistana at the Tser Pool camp remembers the wizard well. He stood at that same fire, sure he could rally Barovia against Strahd:

A mighty wizard came to this land over a year ago. I remember him like it was yesterday. He stood exactly where you're standing. A very charismatic man, he was. He thought he could rally the people of Barovia against the devil Strahd. He stirred them with thoughts of revolt and bore them to the castle en masse. "When the vampire appeared, the wizard's peasant army fled in terror. A few stood their ground and were never seen again.

"The wizard and the vampire cast spells at each other. Their battle flew from the courtyards of Ravenloft to a precipice overlooking the falls. I saw the battle with my own eyes. Thunder shook the mountainside, and great rocks tumbled down upon the wizard, yet by his magic he survived. Lightning from the heavens struck the wizard, and again he stood his ground. But when the devil Strahd fell upon him, the wizard's magic couldn't save him. I saw him thrown a thousand feet to his death. I climbed down to the river to search for the wizard's body, to see if, you know, he had anything of value, but the River Ivlis had already spirited him away."

The DM text tells the rest: He survived the fall without his staff and spellbook, and retreated into the mountains:

The Mad Mage of Mount Baratok (CN male human archmage) came to Barovia more than a year ago to free its people from Strahd's tyranny, but he underestimated Strahd's hold over the land and the creatures in it.
After a battle between the two in Castle Ravenloft, Strahd drove the Mad Mage to the mountains and sent the wizard hurling over Tser Falls (area H). The wizard, his staff and spellbook lost, survived the fall and retreated into the mountains, hoping to regain his power, only to be driven mad by the realization that he no longer has any hope of defeating Strahd or freeing the people of the vampire's damned realm.

He has forgotten his name and his world, and he's sure enemies are watching him everywhere. Then comes the detail this post is about:

Under normal circumstances, a greater restoration spell cast on the Mad Mage would restore his wits and ends the madness, allowing him to remember that he is none other than Mordenkainen, an archmage of Oerth and the leader of a powerful group of adventurers called the Circle of Eight. But in this case, the Mad Mage has cast a mind blank spell on himself. As long as that spell remains in effect, his sanity can't be restored by any spell.

Late in the text it states that the spell has 3d6 hours left.

Who he was before Strahd

To understand why he breaks, you have to know who he was before Barovia.

Mordenkainen is one of the most feared wizards of Oerth and the leader of the Circle of Eight. He doesn’t believe in prophecy. He believes in the Balance, and his Balance isn’t a creed but a formal theory he built over decades of arcane research. When he meets a problem, he studies it, and then he solves it.

He is also a proud man. He’s irritated when his authority is questioned, and he rarely treats anyone as his equal. Behind that pride sits something the books mention almost in passing: on the rare occasions he fears defeat, his emotions can overwhelm him. And he is suspicious by nature. In his later years he even destroys wands and staves that might one day be used against him. In Barovia, he loses his own.

He has lost before. Vecna’s plot killed his entire Circle of Eight, and Mordenkainen brought them back through clones. Even his worst defeat had a way back.

And he isn’t bound to one world. He travels the multiverse in his iron Tower of Urm and studies how the planes bend magic. Curse of Strahd itself notes that he knows worlds beyond his own.

Now picture Barovia through his eyes. A demiplane wrapped in Mists, where not even wish gets you out. The same Mists that once caged Vecna, the lich who destroyed his Circle, and couldn’t hold him. If anyone would see the Domains of Dread as a problem to be solved, it’s Mordenkainen. Maybe the mists appeared in his home world and took a domain back to the mists and he wanted to study them or bring them back, who knows what brought him to the mists in general. Not only Barovia.

Player's Handbook

Mind blank makes one creature immune to psychic damage, to being charmed, to divination, and to anything that would read its thoughts or emotions. It even foils wish (p. 259). But what it not does is make a character mad and forget about his past. Here is what mind blank as a spell actually does.

So now if you have cast mind blank on yourself each and every day that makes sure that you might become a little crazy after a while. Spending a 8 lvl spell slot each day. But curiously the game in CoS tells of another way to gain the mind blank spell as a result, an easier way.

The road he took

But first, take a step back and look at the path Mordenkainen actually took after his fight with strahd. He didn't end up at mount Baratok immediately.

(First take in the amazement in my Windows snippet and paint skills, which I realised after posting were over Tser pool instead of Tser Falls. Well the idea is still that it is a different mountain than Baratok).

Strahd threw him over Tser Falls, and he retreated into the mountains, hoping to regain his power. The first place he ends up is the slopes of Mount Ghakis, not Baratok. And what do you know lies in these mountains? The Amber Temple, Strahd’s most closely guarded secret: a temple of forbidden lore. For a wizard who wants his power back, there’s nowhere else to go. And the temple has one gift that fits his story perfectly.

Curse of Strahd, chapter 13: the Amber Temple

In the Vault of Maverus, one vestige offers exactly this spell:

North Sarcophagus. The vestige within this sarcophagus offers the dark gift of Savnok the Inscrutable. Savnok's gift is the power to shield the mind. This dark gift takes the form of a mind blank spell cast on the beneficiary. The spell has an extended duration of 1 year, after which the dark gift vanishes.

The beneficiary's eyes melt away upon receiving this dark gift, leaving empty sockets that can still see.

The eyes

There’s one problem: Mordenkainen still has his eyes, as you can see in the first picture of this post. But two things in the text caught my attention. The first is how the book introduces him:

You see an elk standing on a rocky spur about sixty feet away. Suddenly, it assumes the form of a man in tattered black robes. His hair and beard are long, black, and streaked with gray, and his eyes crackle with eldritch power. (CoS p. 39)

Why this particular sentence? It seems similar to as a reference to his eyes. We don't see his nose or ears crackle with eldritch power.

Secondly, if you look at the card for the enemy of strahd and you find Mordenkainen you find the following text.

A. Broken One (King of Diamonds) Your greatest ally will be a wizard. His mind is broken, but his spells are strong.
But if you take a look at the card:

You clearly see something is wrong with his eyes. Now I know that it is not a direct reference of the trait that his eyes are melted away. But I love the idea that the vestiges slowly corrupt the people of the land like i explained with my Izek Strazni post. Where the vestiges have more subtle ways of reaching people.

So you could play it that Savnok slowly corrupted Mordenkainen, the same way Taar Haak did Izek. Or you could play it that he went to the Amber Temple and made the deal himself. My own reading is the second.

The timing

• He came to Barovia more than a year ago.
• Savnok’s mind blank lasts exactly one year.
• His mind blank has 3d6 hours left. The year runs out on the day the party finds him.

What the mind blank buys him

The madness fits this road too. He wasn’t broken by the fall. He was broken by the realization that there was no hope. The temple is where Strahd’s pact was made, and where you learn that the curse is bigger than Strahd himself. The whole land is corrupted and full of evil vestiges and influences.

And the mind blank does two things in Barovia. It shields him from exactly what Strahd uses: his Charm, his scrying and his spies. His magnificent mansion does the same for his body, as a sanctuary from Strahd’s prying eyes. But it also locks out the cure. A man hiding from Strahd has also hidden himself from help.

How I read it

A wizard as proud as Strahd comes to Barovia, not as a hero, but to solve the Mists at their root. He stands at Madam Eva's fire, and I don't think he ever steps into her tent. He trusts logic, not cards. Thinks by himself that he alone could stand against this darkness and that he could "solve" Barovia.

He prepares as well as anyone could, leads the (presumably Barovian) villagers to the castle, and fails miserably. They pay for his pride, and Strahd throws him over the falls.

With no staff, no spellbook and no way home, he does what Strahd once did and climbs to the temple. What he finds there is the truth: this prison is bigger than its prisoner.

He has lost before, but never without a way back. He can't live with the shame. So the proudest wizard in the multiverse makes one bargain: a mind no one can reach. Not Strahd, and not himself. His card of the broken one fits that too, he isn't merely defeated he is hopelessly shattered.

Assumptions

• He went to the Amber Temple. The book never says so. The case rests on "regain his power", the timing, and the missing road.
• The mind blank is Savnok's gift. CoS has him cast it with his own 8th-level slot. I read the 3d6 hours as the last of Savnok's year.
• The gift keeps him mad; it doesn't make him mad. The forgetting is his madness. The mind blank only stops anyone from curing it.
• His older lore applies. CoS is the baseline; the Greyhawk and later 5e books are support.

At the table

• The last hours. Greater restoration fails. Persuasion (DC 15) or Arcana (DC 18) reveals why. Now the party waits out the 3d6 hours with a paranoid archmage.
• The year ends. When the mind blank fades, the crackle in his eyes dies, and he remembers everything, including the villagers who followed him.
• Exposed. For the first time in a year, Strahd's Charm and scrying can reach him. That night, bats circle the mountain.
• Staff and spellbook. Once cured, he goes looking for them. The Tser Pool Vistana climbed down to the river looking for valuables. Maybe he found more than he admits. And is there a young, keen wizard in Barovia with a mysterious spellbook who wants nothing more than to escape?

What did I miss? Did your party ever try to cure the Mad Mage? What happened when greater restoration failed? Did you even try to include the mad mage or did you use something else entirely.

The Barovian Archives: Between the Mist

1. Izek Strazni
2. Pidlwick II & Gadof Blinsky
3. Sunsword, the hidden holy avenger
4. The Mad Mage (this post)
5. Something Auburn

Sources: Curse of Strahd ch. 1 (tarokka, Broken One); ch. 2 p. 24 (Alterations to Magic), area G (A Vistana’s Tale), pp. 39–40 (area M, Mad Mage of Mount Baratok); ch. 3 (Dream Pastries); ch. 13 (introduction, X33b Vault of Maverus); app. D (Strahd). Player’s Handbook p. 259 (mind blank). Epic Level Handbook p. 308; Living Greyhawk Gazetteer pp. 156–157; Living Greyhawk Journal #0 p. 9; Vecna Lives! pp. 15–18; Rary the Traitor p. 31; Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium p. 38; Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus pp. 97–98; Domains of Dread (1997); Die Vecna Die! (2000).

Howdy! It's lovely to be in the CoS reddit! This js my first time posting here! I've also read the rules and I hope this one doesn't break the rules since it's player themed.

My friend convinced me to officially join in d&d and I've managed to find a wonderful dm hosting a pbp (play by post) curse of strahd campaign! From what I've seen curse of strahd is maxed out at level 10 but shes upped it to fifteen by adding some additional content! But thats not why im here for.

I've been green lit to play my first tabaxi and I was hoping to see if you folks had any tips or class suggestions for me! I've seen in the greater d&d reddits that tabaxi monks are amongst the most popular but i want to make sure im being a good team player! If anyone has any tips id gladly take em 😭🙌!!!

I run Strahd Must Die Tonight every year for Halloween for the same group of friends. We love replaying Castle Ravenloft. But even with its replay value, I try to add or change something each year so that it feels different. Sometimes I change the contents of the rooms, or lock certain areas with puzzles. Sometimes I give the three items additional or different powers, or remove one or all of them.

For those who have run Ravenloft repeatedly, what are some ways you’ve made it different on subsequent runs?

I actually feel so silly writing this, but it just occured to me. I have played five different campaigns as a player, but NEVER had a random encounter. It was always a part of the story. The book says to do it (based on location) every 10 do 30 minutes or so. Do you actually do this? I feel like it would be so overwhelming in like castle Ravenloft with all the other encounters...

Hi all. Today my players gave me the feedback of disliking me telling them they don't recognize something without rolling.

Such as, today my playets made it to Baratok Tower and I gave them the name Khazan. One of my players ask if they recognize it, I told them no. I have told them in the past when they might recognize something they could roll, like my player who is a monster hunter recognizes the name Rudolph van Richten. However, I guess I seem to be shutting them down more than I think.

I don't want to have my players roll, get a nat 20 and still be told "nope, you don't recognize" because that sucks imo. Any suggestions?

"Very well. But understand this," he added, quieter now, and somehow clearer. "This is not a battle, it is a duel, duels are lessons... And lessons are rarely gentle"

Every single time I see this image I think of Mr. Zarovich. Maybe I've played too much CoS.