A wonderful gift I received in the Misthoppers Server art exchange Secret Santa from the gorgeously talented @anae-art
This scene is so important to Helene and Strahd's relationship and I'm so so so happy I finally have art of it. Thank you. I'm over the moon with this!!!
(scene context under the cut. CoS spoilers)
It was somewhat early in their relationship, but it's such an important moment for them. No corruption, no mind-altering blood sharing, no using sexuality as a weapon, no manipulation or fighting… just. them being cute.
We call moments like this Strahd being "lucid", without Vampyr looming in the back of his mind. He's not Strahd the Wolf (warlord Strahd), he's not Strahd with Vampyr, he's not Strahd the mage, he's not the cursed Strahd obligated to chase the same woman for thousands of years… he's just… Strahd the man. Having a snowball fight with the woman he loves because she told him she's never had a snowball fight before. He looks so carefree in this piece. He's falling in love. And it's unraveling all of his plans.
okay I'll talk about Helene and Strahd a little let's go. I'm going to make some bullets of things about them, and I'll put under a read more more detail about how they met. This will have some spoilers for CoS so yeah woo
They have a red thread that links them together that can be seen in the ethereal plane
They both value propriety and politeness, though Helene hates politics
Their hearts literally beat as one. He gave her a necklace with a piece of the Heart of Sorrow but has since used Fabricate to encase her heart with the crystal, syncing her heart with his. He literally owns her heart
They're both huge nerds who like science and magic and poetry.
They write poems for each other
They were once racing horses back to the castle, and he tried cheating by just simply running, faster than her horse. So she cast Daylight (which my DM rules as sunlight) to stop him from running forward but he was running so fast that his momentum carried him into the Daylight and he burned up, turning to mist and flying back to his coffin. Later he was... Playfully miffed at her.
Helene was once tortured by a witch, so Strahd ripped the witch's arms from her body and gifted them to Helene. She loved it
He had his coffin expanded in size so she could sleep in it with him. They have slept in it together (among other things)
They're addicted to each other's blood
They stalk each other all the time. They catch each other stalking the other at the same time they are.
Strahd has gotten her to execute criminals
They once had a snowball fight
He's somehow managed to get Ireena and Helene angry with him, and then when they confronted him together he managed to verbally finesse and talk his way around not only calming them but seducing them. At the same time. All in the same night
He's showed her his secret lab with all his fucked up experiments and they've compared notes
they're both horse girls. They loves talking about horses
Both blood mages. He's always impressed by her talent with blood magic
He (and Ludmilla) have taught her arcane magic and contributed to her taking levels in wizard
Helene composed for him a song on piano
Knowing Strahd often is spying on her, she'll just do something ambiently to taunt, tease, or flirt with him. Once she killed something and mockingly bowed to him
They can mentally talk to each other at all times
One time they were cuddling and she said she wished she could hold his heart in her hand. He said she can and proceeded to rip his own ribcage open and guided her hand inside. She held his heart in her hand, pleased, and they kept cuddling 🥰
Strahd took her ice skating once
They love to fight each other. Literally. Whether it's an actual battle, a game of wits, a sparring match. They love it
Strahd brought Helene to Barovia because she's a cleric of the Red Knight and has a keen mind for strategy, and intended to groom her to be his General
Helene is an ever inquisitive young woman, she has to know everything. She also is the type to absolutely sit down with the most evil, misunderstood, or monstrous of figures to pick their brains. She intended to do this with Strahd as a way to information gather.
They first started in depth correspondence when the party rescued Doru from the church basement. since he was engaged to marry Strahd when he was locked in the basement, they thought to garner good will with Strahd. Helene contacted him and told him Doru was alive and indeed not destroyed, which prompted Strahd to immediately send a carriage to pick up Doru. Strahd told Helene that he owed them a favor for returning his love to him.
Strahd, on his part, also intended to seduce her. They started amicable conversation pretty soon after she arrived in Barovia, with her absolutely fascinated by him. She learned she could pray to him to contact him from a distance
This led to them forming a mental connection in which they communicate through the language of Supernal, able to contact each other at any time, see the other's immediate surroundings and sort of project the image of themselves to each other.
Eventually she started developing very intense feelings for him, an attraction, so he did indeed succeed in seducing her. She fell hard into his web. buuuut also, he fell way harder for Helene than he intended to. like we're talking Tatyana levels of obsession. he's actually very conflicted about it because he feels a little like he's betraying his dedication and love to Tatyana and the duty he feels to constantly chase her.
Their first intimate moment was at the dinner he forced the party to attend with him. He took her aside and had a private conversation, picked each other's brains. they played games of chess for hours, lost in their company of each other. She revealed to him she was a fallen aasimar (something he already knew, but she usually keeps it hidden), and she was always ashamed of her blackened, torn bat wings. but he told her they were magnificent and beautiful, and that sparked the first romantic feeling in her
Helene became very obsessive. she was always contacting him, always thinking about him - she'd done this in past relationships too. girl's unhealthy. she'd always try and spy on him, see what he's up to. and more often than not she'd catch him spying on her at the same time.
The Night It Boiled Over - St. Andral's Bones
eventually, during the fiasco with the bones of St. Andral in Vallaki, Helene was cornered alone by a group of vampire spawn. Strahd showed up and lectured the spawn, angry and annoyed, and then slaughtered them before they could hurt Helene. He quickly checked her over to make sure she was alright, then left. Helene caught up with the rest of the party who were running the bones back to the church. When they walked in, Strahd was there, covered in blood and ash from the vampires.
Strahd told them to hand over the bones. After a tense moment, Helene said "I call the favor." She was calling in the favor he owed them from saving Doru. this infuriated and impressed Strahd. She was playing on his propriety, on him being a man of his word, to directly thwart his plans. He left.
Later that night, Strahd asked Helene join him for dinner at her manor (previously Death House). they sat, ate, drank wine. they talked about blood wine, and she wondered if aasimar blood tasted different, and offered to put some of her blood in his wine. he accepted and savored it calmly.
He then asked her about what she did regarding calling in the favor, wondering how she felt about it. He was obviously upset, but impressed by her. She looked him dead-on and told him that she was not sorry for doing it. She achieved her goal. She won that battle.
The tension snapped then, and he moved across the table and kissed her. From there it was... a very enthusiastic, violent coupling. Both of them are kinda freaks.
The Rest of the Campaign (so far)
From there, Helene fell hard. She was persuaded to spend a week at castle ravenloft, during which he spent a fair bit of time (with Escher's help) corrupting her, trying to get her to give into her darker urges, getting her addicted to his blood. He gave her a bride necklace (necklace with a piece of the Heart of Sorrow) and she became engaged to him.
After she left, they've been having rendezvous, and he often tries to get her to give up and just come to the castle and be with him and her 'family' (she'd bonded quite a bit with the brides during her time there). But she knew that'd be a bad idea, she knew she'd end up becoming just another bride in this endless cycle of suffering in Barovia.
She's since officially declared war on him as tensions have only escalated and the party has collected all of the items they need. they love war and strategy, so this is somewhat of a mating dance between them as well lmao.
The more Helene grows, the more Helene realizes that Strahd isn't good for her, and she wonders even when Vampyr is no longer influencing him, will he still be bad for her? She's since leaned into her relationship with Vasili (Strahd's reincarnated soul in our campaign) because he's a better man.
But Strahd still gets under her skin. Strahd is in her thoughts constantly. He drives her insane. They aren't healthy by any stretch, but damn they are in a disgusting amount of love with each other
