We finished our Curse of Strahd campaign, and through sheer force of personality, sincerity, and love, my vampire-romancing storyteller bard gave everyone the "good" ending... God, I'm gonna miss that boy.
My bard, Caprio Murggish, was a transman Tatyana incarnation from outside of Barovia.
He believed unfailingly that killing a person who's cursed is not the way to lift curses, and that monsters are sometimes just people who cracked under the pressures of life or have been bent against their will. The first thing he does in Barovia is feed Doru his own blood to save him. The second thing he does is catch Count Strahd von Zarovich's attention at the funeral of Ireena's father.
Cue him being pursued by Strahd, and Caprio is enticed because he's charming in all of his manipulative ways...
But over time, Caprio completely turns the tables on him. He visits the castle alone, does the dinner alone, staying the night. They play the organ together. They dance. He explores the castle, and it welcomes him like it's his own. He performs a song for Strahd, about an elf who never marries their human lover because they fear losing them to time. They lose their lover one day, but ultimately realize that every moment they spent with them had been worth it. The performance completely undoes Strahd, who pledges that nothing will separate them, neither death nor curse.
And with this, Caprio and Strahd are together in trying to free Strahd from his curse. In truth, Strahd is still who he always is. He's cruel, and controlling, looking to split Caprio from the party and have him to himself. But he never did turn Caprio, or charm him. And every time they meet, Caprio brings such a ferocious sincerity and warmth that Strahd can't help but let him walk away unharmed, uncharmed. After all, he doesn't need to cage Caprio when he keeps coming back.
They meet often through the Dream spell, with Strahd teaching Caprio how to cast it, himself. They speak through Sending, but can't meet again in the flesh with the party watching.
And then Caprio dies in the Amber Temple. The Dark Power, Vampyr, the evil entity that had pacted Strahd and made him into the vampire he is, offers to return Caprio to life if he'll only kill Strahd and take his place. He accepts, just to buy himself more time, knowing it'll damn him if the party eventually kills Strahd despite his wishes. He awakens not quite a vampire, but not quite a mortal, either.
He writes a song about the two of them, A Tale of Eternity. Their relationship is strained — Caprio has told Strahd of his pact, and Strahd tells him that they cannot continue with Vampyr hanging over their heads. Exasperated and hurt, Caprio performs his song for him to prove his good intentions, and Strahd caves. They will not be enemies, but something must be done.
And then he and Strahd have a falling out. Caprio believes that Strahd needs to cut his ties to the land through the Fanes, and the party must arm themselves against Vampyr, but Strahd is furious. They're weakening him, taking his artifacts, and he hurts Caprio in response.
Still, they are so close to the end. For the first time, Caprio enters Strahd's dream himself, despite the vampire lord's anger, the pain he inflicted on him. He tells Strahd his plan to force Vampyr to make him the new host without killing Strahd, shows him a vision of a sun-soaked, bustling Barovia, Ravenloft no longer a mausoleum but a home. He sacrifices flesh and blood, twisted magic to offer Strahd a gift of a simple rose, a promise. Again, Strahd bends, arrested by Caprio's compassion and determination to still save him. He pledges to help. He warns Caprio that he is not a man who is capable of building, of fixing. That he is not the man for this future, but that he wishes to try and be. That's enough for Caprio.
On the eve of the siege of Ravenloft, Caprio returns alone. He finds Strahd weeping in Sergei's tomb, shocked that Caprio is there and was able to reach him. He returns them both to his rooms. Caprio had come to warn him that there was a problem with their plan, that it may not work, but Strahd refuses to listen. He wants to spend this night with Caprio, and the lovesick fool agrees. There is a contested charisma roll... and they sleep together. Once more, Caprio awakes unscathed, his mind his own. Strahd could not bring himself, despite his desperation to keep the one good thing before him, to turn Caprio against his will. Strahd instead offers him eternal life, but Caprio declines — tomorrow, he says, when Barovia is free. Strahd leaves him in the morning, their parting words a pledge from Caprio that Strahd will see the next sunrise with him, and a sweet farewell from Strahd, for giving him this last precious memory.
Caprio rejoins the party as they reach the castle. They mistrust him for his relationship with the count, but he leads them to Strahd with the intention of exorcising Vampyr from him once and for all.
In Sergei's tomb, Strahd, tearful once more, asks if Caprio is finally going to put an end to all of this. Afraid, Caprio demands he explain why he's asking with the finality of a martyr. And then... Strahd begs for Caprio to run as Vampyr takes him over.
Through a litany of misapplied magic, Caprio manages to find his connection to Vampyr. He emboldens Strahd to push free, and pulls to bring Vampyr to himself. In the last moment when Strahd's puppeted body is struck down, he dissolves to mists and is replaced by the immaterial form of Vampyr, who demands entrance to Caprio's body in exchange for bringing back Strahd. Caprio refuses, knowing the cost and that Vampyr lies, and the party fights this manifestation of evil incarnate.
As Vampyr falls, Esmeralda wonders aloud what became of Strahd's corpse. In that moment, Caprio remembers the one place a wounded Strahd might go, and he runs to Strahd's tomb. There, he finds Van Richten over his coffin, a stake in hand. Caprio tackles him to the ground, fangs bared, threatening the monster hunter with his life. The party is torn between those who want to calm Caprio and those who want to strike him down.
Van Richten demands to know why he cares so much about a monster, accusing him of being swayed by shallow lust. The only monsters in Barovia are those things in the Amber Temple, Caprio tells him. Everything else here is just the handiwork of people wanting to live and survive, and buckling under dark influence. Everyone is worthy of saving, he insists.
And then Strahd wakes. He is old, and so frail. His mortality has returned, and with it the years are taking their toll. He beckons Caprio to him, holds his hands. Everything I have built is now lost, he tells him, but it would have all been worth it if you would live. Take heart.
By now, the castle is beginning to collapse around them. Van Richten and Esmeralda have fled, uncomfortable taking the fading life of the mortal Strahd. Caprio carries Strahd out of the castle himself, desperate to fulfill even one of the promises they had made together.
Outside, on the grassy side of Yester Hill, it becomes clear that Strahd will not make it. The future they had wanted together is impossible, but Caprio can make good on his very last promise to him. And so, Caprio holds Strahd as his body withers and his life fails, sobbing his way through a lullaby that insists there is always a better tomorrow, as Strahd witnesses his first and last sunrise in centuries. The party's paladin, in sympathy, performs an Atonement Ritual to save Strahd's soul from damnation.
The curse is lifted. Barovia is freed. Through Caprio's arrival to the land, through his unearned devotion to and trust in Strahd, Strahd had finally come to realize that all stories must end, and that he had become a man unworthy of the love he desired.
In the future, Caprio attempts to reincarnate Strahd. Strahd is... disappointed in him for trying, for attempting to once again defy death as he once had. But he knows that Caprio loves him, that his intentions are simply to give Strahd the chance at a happy life he never received, and that deep down, the two of them are so alike. How could he blame him? He thanks Caprio for ending the cycle, for being himself, and wishes for him to live a full life.
And then, with the reincarnation declined, he's gone for good.
Caprio resumes his travels, now with the party's Redemption paladin at his side, looking not to hunt monsters, but to save them in the way they once saved Strahd. Looking to share their stories.
But Caprio is a Half-Drow. He has a long life ahead of him, still, before he will find Strahd again. A hundred and fifty years more. In the quiet hours, he mourns the loss of the man he felt was his soulmate. He conjures illusions of his face, and his voice, so he never forgets them. He tells their story endlessly, so it's never lost.
He found Strahd once. In death, one day, he will find him again. But until then, he will live, just like Strand wanted for him.
Caprio was never afraid of Strahd. He admired his confidence, his passion for magic, his knowledge, his ferocity for life, delighted in his flair for the dramatic. He understood him too well, because in so many ways the two of them were the same. Caprio despised the idea of fate, that he was not the driving force of his own future. He lived every day to its fullest, so he would never regret his time on this plane. And then there was Strahd, robbed of his life, worn to coldness and cruelty by the violence of it, desperate to reclaimed what he had lost, seduced by the evil lurking in the Amber Temple. They had made the same deal, wanted the same things. Caprio could never fear that, never hate that. But he could love the ruin of him, and he could hold out his hand to him for whenever Strahd wanted to build something again.
And in the face of that from the person he'd always hoped would smile at him again with sincerity, Strahd couldn't bring himself to do less than take his hand. In truth, Strahd did not deserve Caprio. He knew this. But Caprio believed they did deserve each other, that they could be something good. He never stopped believing Strahd could be worth saving, regardless of who he had become.
Through love and compassion, the cycle of evil, of pain, of trauma is broken.
dededos
2087
annaxmalina
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
jacobvanloon
blakekathryn
