#cos blogging

[sapphim]

sigh!!! rly hard when there's a narrative choice you can make that's haunting and resonant and couldn't be more thematic and then there's a mutually exclusive kind of silly narrative choice you've already grown self-indulgently attached to and you know very well what would be the correct choice to make. and you already know you're not going to make it lol

[crowholtz]

Count Strahd von Zarovich

First in a series of CoS portraits of NPCs from our campaign I commissioned from amazing lovely artist @kinothecleric. Outfit designed by lovely player @guardianinthemist

[one-mad-wolf]

Yo i also HATE papaya omg

Anti-papaya club

Wait i got one more person who also hates papaya. @idolsidle we gotta get a club going

[sapphim]

got a drive-by like last night on an old post in which I mentioned That Time (my favorite) Strahd Dungeonsanddragons von Zarovich Kidnapped a Bard (yoinked him right out the window (silly dracula style)) And (over the course of a business week) Monologued His Entire Life Story and. it's only just occurred to me to notice how funny the date on the timeline actually is. so. for posterity I'll reproduce The Incident:

April 8, 454: Fear—cold and dripping, like blood from a hanging corpse—has been my constant companion for several weeks. The closer I get to that accursed Castle Ravenloft, the stronger I feel the grip of terror's icy hand. There can be no doubt now as to the source of Barovia's plight. April 10, 454: I need search no longer. The object of my quest has not only appeared to me, but sequestered me away within his foul domicile! Late last night, he appeared in my room like some silent apparition from the grave. Ordering me to take up my quills, inks, and parchment, he seized me and leaped out my window to his waiting coach. This confirmed my suspicions that Strahd Von Zarovich is other than a natural man, you see, for my window is four stories from the ground! April 15, 454: For five days and nights I have literally been Strahd's prisoner in Castle Ravenloft. Strange how the castle seems so warm and cozy inside—not the lurking horror its external visage portrays. I have discovered many things about Strahd and may scribe them later in a tome dedicated to such an endeavor. I feel, however, that this task will never be accomplished, for how can this man allow me to live when I know such dark secrets about him. He has shared himself, all his intimate secrets, with me as if I were his dearest friend.

(Van Richten's Guide to Vampires (1991)) (don't worry, it was a catch and release)

ok so. it's like. really important to note that all that shit with the dusk elves and the revenants &c. wasn't introduced until 5e. (well ok the dusk elves were more or less added in 4e but not like. The Shit With The Dusk Elves (well ok patrina (elven maiden) did technically exist in the crypts all the way back in the the original 1e module but like. look that doesn't matter)). in 2e ravenloft, strahd simply did not have a rahadin. in 2e he spent several centuries of his unlife doing basically nothing but alternating between depression napping and scrabbling at the walls of his enclosure until the in-universe timeline caught up with the production timeline (because the writers couldn't (or wouldn't), like, retroactively introduce much of note that hadn't existed at the time of earlier publications).

454 BC (barovian calendar) was 16 years before the vistani, 21 years before jander sunstar, and 88 years before azalin rex. it would be 74 years before he'd murk that party of nameless adventurers in house of strahd and a whole 93 years before a second domain (forlorn) would join barovia in the mists. (and then tristen apblanc wasn't even like. fun or anything. so even then strahd and azalin were still left with nothing to do except eat hot chip, mad magiscience experiments, and petty psychological warfare at each other to pass the time)

during the whole 103 years prior to The Bardnappening, the only incidents worthy of note were that 1) strahd had finally (after a 47 year depression nap) hunted down leo dilisnya and 2) [SPOILERS] only about once or twice (sources differ). strahd had otherwise spent his time pacing restlessly around the perimeter waiting for hapless bandits to get randomly snatched up into the mists so he could kill them and take all their stuff and add it to his ariel thelittlemermaid-ass shrine to where the people are (where they walk (where they run (where they stay all day in the sun))). and, of course, depression napping.

Kidnapping That Bard was the most enrichment strahd barovich TSRovich von zarovich had introduced into his wretched enclosure in. I am not exaggerating. literal decades, easily

[crowholtz]

The majordomo of Castle Ravenloft, Rahadin.

I commissioned some art of our campaign's canon Rahadin - his age is showing and he's tired, but he'll still kick our asses. He needs a vacation.

(art once again by the lovely @deadbeatcleric on the bird site)

[crowholtz]

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I thought I'd post my embarrassing simpy squeals of joy from way back when we were fighting through the Winery, and my character Helene noticed some enemies getting pulled through walls and getting blasted with magical energy from time to time.

I had a sneaking suspicion it was him, and when it was confirmed I was SO giddy. don't look at me

Strahd was helping us out for shits and giggles

[crowholtz]

I got a romantic commission from @minshugart for Strahd and Helene. My favorite thing about them is how equally obsessed they are with one another. Just absolutely enamored. This is how you deal with two unhealthy weirdos so they can stop bothering everyone else - just let them go off on their own together.

[crowholtz]

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wanted to post a little audio snippet of last night's session. Strahd isn't fucking around y'all, and boy howdy it's messed up!! relevant post. basically he wants Helene (my pc) back in his possession and he's prepared to kill the rest of the party to do so! weewoo