I'm Kai, or Vamp.
The horrors persist but so do I.
Artist. Writer. Gamer. D&D. Catch me at the skate park breaking my ankles 🛼🛼
https://linktr.ee/vampiresympathizer
Saw @shadowvikingao3 do this but a 10-First-Lines Version. Well, I only have 5 fanfics posted. All are BG3, and all except "Anyway, Here's Wonderwall" (which is 1st Person Tav POV) are 2nd person Astarion POV.
You can pry 2nd person POV out of my cold, dead, Dungeon Master hands. (for shits and giggles I have a funny thing about this at the end)
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Sunrise : T-rated, 1k words. Astarion witnesses his first sunrise thanks to a lil mind flayer parasite. Little did he expect to have company from the wizard...
First lines: Your eyes flutter open.
Children of the Night: M-rated, 20k words. A dark, gothic horror character study of Astarion and his memories of the Szarr palace. There is light romance with Minthara/Astarion, but the story is focused more on the character study with Astarion & the Szarrs, namely Cazador.
First line: Crack!
Wish: T-rated, 12k words. Post-canon Gale/Astarion in which the boys travel to Candlekeep and cast Wish with help of the chaos-gremlin, all-powerful Archmage and Archfey Tasha. But big magic always comes at a big price...
First Line: You swirl your wine glass, watching the dark liquid catch the moonlight. (Though, technically the REAL first line is the Note at the beginning of Ch1 quoting the 5e D&D spell "Wish")
Anyway, Here's Wonderwall: M-rated, 4k words. Crack (treated seriously) comedy self insert isokai. I get home from a shit day of work to start the newly downloaded game Baldur's Gate 3. Little did I know that after I smoked a bowl and pressed start I would be sucked into the game, and oh hey look I'm the twink Drow Bard I made.
First Line: The fluorescent lights of the clinic are still burned into my retinas.
Into the Mists: M-rated, WIP est 200k-250k ending word count; currently have only published 37k words published). A post-canon BG3 crossover with Curse of Strahd. On a trip to the city to reunite with the other half of their old friends, Astarion, Gale, Shadowheart, & Halsin get whisked away to the mysterious undead land of Barovia, devoid of life and sun, cursed eternally by its ruler and vampire Strahd von Zarovich. Trapped unless they kill the "Devil" Strahd, they navigate the strange, horrifying land that is Barovia. Extremely lore heavy beat-by-beat exploration of the CoS module and I'll probably will be writing this for years to come, my word doc for this fic for this feels like this meme. For those of you familiar with the module, the team is about to arrive in Vallaki, where ALL IS WELL First Line: The warmth of the fire dances across your face as you cradle a glass of wine, fingers daintily tracing the rim.
Shits & Giggles funny thing cuz I love statistics: Speaking of the above fic, since it's the longest, I was curious how little Astarion's name appeared compared to the other main characters because the story is from his perspective, so below is my research's findings:
When I went skating yesterday, I thought, "Mmm... maybe I should wear longer shorts in case I fall."
I reasoned with myself that I would not fall, I'd be careful!
Famous last words. Not only did I get road rash from wearing SHORT SHORTS but the tumble was sltly backwards to the side so I didn't get to break the fall, thus bruisetown.
The funniest shit is I fell doing nothing in particular, just literally going forward on a rather easy flat part of the bowl. No cool jumps, no spinning and tricks, nope, just fell doing a fucking basic ass thing
But it is his eyes that freeze what little warmth remains in your unliving chest: a glowing, piercing red that makes every old scar on your back sting and ache in unison. Every slice of every whip you’ve ever felt seems to resurface at once under that gaze.
You don’t need an introduction. You know exactly who you are staring at.
“Good evening, my friends.” The voice is like velvet wrapped around a poisoned blade.
It is Strahd von Zarovich.
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With your recent fortunes heavy on your mind, you continue west, onwards to Vallaki. Along the way, you meet a few surprising guests—one of which is the very Lord of the Land himself, at last. Hopefully you don’t have a super embarrassing first encounter with him or anything.
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Ch10 of my Baldur's Gate 3 / Curse of Strahd crossover longfic is posted. Check it out on AO3!
This one took me a while to update because I changed a lot from the original draft, and I also struggled a little bit with how I wanted the first introduction with Strahd to go. But I am so happy with how it came out. I've already gotten a portion of the next chapter already written, I'm VERY excited for the team to go to Vallaki and meet the NPC's there... >:3
Continuation of my last posts! I just finished Chapter 5 today. Some thoughts below:
- Not me gripped onto my coffee mug on my commute white knuckled listening to Strahd pulling Tatyana close and kissing her, every cell in my body uncomfortable
- In my mind when I previously had heard the lore "Tatyana flung herself off Castle Ravenloft" I had always pictured from the top, yknow, at the ramparts all higher up. To learn that it was actually that little outlook near the chapel is actually so much more scenic and also now I get why one of Strahd locations in the D&D module from the Tarokka deck is there. I'd always thought it a strange spot like "Why is all the way OVER THERE." Well, he's BROODING, duh
- Yo imagine killing your brother and sacrificing ur life and being trapped in the same boring weird ass fucking valley for centuries only for the girl you do it for to just die immediately after you do it. what a fucking LOSER strahd is.
- There is a tiny moment in the chaos in which the colors of the chapel's stained window glass windows are described, and, it really stood out to me. I am so used to the setting of Barovia being gloomy grey and muted colors, whenever color is mentioned in the writing it always jumps out. Same when the sun was previously mentioned.... but u know that sun aint gon' shine no more now
- The way Strahd be describing the scent of blood of all the DEAD PEOPLE AROUND is making my vampire fic writer mouth watering. YEAH YEAH YEAH gimme this freak shit.
- I miss Sergei :( I'm still not over Chapter 4 and the "Oh but I will," line I mentioned in my last post. It's haunting me, man, that was SO evil. Just so evil. Wtf Strahd.
- Speaking of memorable lines, I really did enjoy the exchange when Lady Ilona (which I'm still like, bro you coulda had this fine ass piece of woman right THERE) asks him in horror "What have you done?" and Strahd says back to her, "Everything and nothing." Yeah. ....Yeah.
- All the assassin stuff is happening at the same time and things are nutso at the castle, my head is spinning. I do wonder how things are going to wrap up in the next few chapters.
- Small interesting moment where Strahd begins to say something very gross to his guard, catches Lady Ilona's disappointment, and cuts himself off to say something more empathetic. Strahd thinks some old-married-couple comment: Irritating woman. and I'm over here like, for fucks sake man, Lady Ilona and you would have made a GREAT couple. Right here. This woman. Around your age, your maturity, into magic. Wise, kind, I mean fuck. She would have whipped u into shape. Critical blunder, Strahd. Fr fr it did NOT have to be like this
The story so far has left me feeling this hollow kind of sadness for everyone involved. It's just so... ugh. UGHHHHH.
I still have 4 more chapters left so... Jesus take the wheel
Continuation of my last couple posts! I'm listening to the audiobook of I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire.
Some thoughts about the remaining of Ch3 and Ch 4 below.
I hardly remember the rest of Ch3 to be honest because Ch4 is BUZZING, absolutely screaming in my mind. This is it. THE DESCENT TO MADNESS
- When Strahd is arguing with Lady Ilona about Taytana I literally said in my head "I bet he's going to say 'that's not the point' " AND HE FUCKING DOES and I hate how I hear my goddamn MOM in him, that hag.
- The Dark POWERS.... StrAHD. STOP. nooooo. Also the creepy whispering of the voice actor was gooood at this parts. Especially the little, "Now, drink the blood..."
- ALEK, NO!!!! (Don't worry Kai, he's not canon, everything is okay, just remember Rahadin is really Strahd's--Wait--no, stop thinking about Rahadin, everything is not okay either there)
- SERGEI... NO...... MY CHILD. BABY BOY. Precious baby boy.
- Sergei's last words to Strahd being "I wish you had someone like Tatyana" absolutely broke me in so many ways.
- And then the next line was Strahd's inner thoughts: Oh, but I will. SO CREEPY, ew!
- I still cried. I literally know the story already and I still cried. I think simply the way the story was written, it's so tragically beautiful and moving. Precious Sergei deserved better. Strahd you asshole I love hate you
- The Chapter ended the moments after he killed Sergei, and he watches as his own reflection disappears in the mirror. Loved that part.
- Tatyana, girl. He comin' for you.
I have to say, the Curse of Strahd module does an excellent job conveying the story. Really loving how I get to see a more fleshed out version of Strahd rather than a version where I'm desperately scribbling notes in my D&D book. I love a good narrative tale.
It being pride month and the Sun Festival rapidly approaching our group in game, two lines of thinking crossed over into deranged territory in my mind.
Somehow this doesn't seem too out of character that he'd jump at the opportunity though (Happy pride y'all 🏳️🌈💕)
I'm finally audio-reading I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire by P. N. Elrod. The book was written in 1993, 10 years after the original I6 Ravenloft module, and 23 years before Curse of Strahd.
I'm halfway through Ch3! Here's my thoughts below.
- Sergei is just as pure and beautiful and babyboy as I knew he would be and I love him.
- ALEK ALMOST FALLING AND DYING OFF THE CLIFF AND STRAHD RESCUING HIM AND SERGEI RESCUING STRAHD?! be still my heart. These boys. I love them all. I sure hope nothing bad ever happens to any of them or anything.
- At the end of the above scene, the author writes "we all lay there panting in the sun" And every time the sun in Barovia is mentioned it is a sad reminder ;.;
- The foreshadowing is thickening. Strahd's inner monologues about death, aging, and Sergei's youth and innocent are picking up. The seeds are there before Tatyana even comes into the story; it is very obvious how envious and resentful he is.
- Sturm von Zarovich the distant family accountant lol
- I burst out laughing when Strahd calls Tatyana a "female" before he meets her lmfao help if that isn't the most Strahd thing I've heard.
- despite the incel vibes, when he does meet Tatyana, I was absolutely smitten by his own description of her, even if it's misguided he does truly believes he loves her. The audioreading part of this was *PERFECT*. The pacing with the way it's written was so beautiful, and the way his voice got so soft for Strahd when he first spoke to Tatyana made ME fall in love with her too, damn
- There was a brief moment in the chapel of C.Ravenloft in which which Sergei and Strahd are on the upper balcony looking down to a ceremony. I love how I can envision the exact room and size and orientation and where they are in the Castle because of how damn familiar I am with it in the D&D module. It's super cool, to see the scenes play out in a movie in my head that I already know the set of but I'm not certain what scenes will be next! ah.
- still really adore Alek, but now I'm also finding myself super intrigued in Lady Ilona too. She's lovely.
Can't wait to keep on continuing though at the same time my heart aches knowing the ending of this tale </3 My morning commutes have felt more like mourning commutes amiright.
I just started audio-reading I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire by P. N. Elrod.
It is a book written in 1993, 10 years after the original I6 Ravenloft module by Tracy and Laura Hickman, who made what we now know and love is Strahd von Zarovich aka D&D Drac Daddy, and Ravenloft.
I've only read chapter 1 and currently starting Ch2. here's my thoughts below so don't read if you don't want spoilers.
So far I adore it, but, I generally adore anything Strahd being a huge fan of the 2016 Curse of Strahd module. I'm still warming up to the writing style combined with the actor's voice, but so far really enjoying it.
Some thoughts:
- I LOVED how the opening prologue of the book was a little blurb with our boy Dr. Van Richten doin a little jaunt through the castle. Yesss.
- I EAT UP the foreshadowing anytime Strahd reflects on his mortal functions such as aging, bleeding, etc. After all, readers know going into the story that Strahd will eventually turn into a vampire, so those segments stand out.
- A little dopamine hit surges through me every time I hear an iconic location such as the Old Svalich Road or the Tser Falls or Balinok Mountains. I can visualize the map from the module in my mind every time.
- A smaller but still great dopamine hit comes when I recognize some of the surnames Elrod uses as ones that the 2016 module yoinked for some NPC's (ie Wachter and Gwilym).
- I get just as excited to notice the differences as I do the similarities. The plot line of the Ba'al Verzi really had me going, and I really enjoy Alek and Strad's relationship so far (Do I ship it? Yes), so much so that I don't mind there is a lack of my favie elf freak Rahadin.
- Only got a few minutes into Ch2 but I nearly cried of laughter when Strahd called the Barovian villagers' flower offerings WEEDS brooooooo LOL. I love this asshole; it's so delightful to read a story from his perspective.
- I can't wait for Tatyanna and Sergei to come into the story, so far we are still in conquest era but I'm sure we'll see them soon....
super excited to keep reading it! Maybe I'll post more about it maybe not we shall see.
