Castle Ravenloft was a project I originally undertook back in 2017 and slowly whittled away at over the course of several months; this 'rebirth' of the location was built from the ground up: entirely new textures, floor styles, painting methods, and lighting.

The Castle remains my most memorable location to date due in part both to the process of mapping such an enormous, interconnected layout, as well as to having ran it at my own table. I'm so glad to be able to release a new version of it that gives a vision more appropriately memorable as well.

If you're interested, I've got the whole set of the Castle up on DMsGuild right now--but you can also get a look at the full resolution view of the compiled main floor here for free!

Me: So my new character Elena is non-romanceable. She's a paladin, a straight shooter all she cares about is honour and duty.
My Dungeon Master: Yeah so anyway i'm gonna need you to draw Strahd hotter, younger with a full head of hair and sinking his fang into an apple.

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I was told to not think too much about it while drawing him, but here's some one liners:
"Let me take a bite."
"You taste sweeter."
"Do you want to take the apples place?"
"Have you ever wished to be an apple before?"

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The woman in the purple gambeson is my character Lady Elena, you can read the timeline backstory I made for her here . We just had our second session. she's 4 days into barovia. these are my in character notes.

I worked with my DM to pick the colours he liked for how he imagined his Strahd.

I'm doomed. Doomed.

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It's been a while since I posted so here's also Vampire Tatyana / Ireena which was a commission. i worked with Bread one of my patrons to design her how he imagined her using his references.

aaand here is Stella Wachter when shes cured of being a catgirl

I also spent some time hand writing one of Strahds letters, and used the wax seal from the beadle and & grimm set.

I painted another portrait of Strahd from the module. i changed his features a bit and got rid of the chair thing behind him for my personal taste.

when we move house i'm planning on setting up a Strahd shrine in my office and have the walls decorated with my paintings and other nerdy stuff. 🖤 🦇

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Gday, I'm Moonberry. I draw hot guys and waifus. If you like my art or use it in your campaigns and wish to help support me you can do so on Patreon or Kofi. If you can't support me monetarily but still want to help, please Like, Share and comment as word of mouth is the only way my art gets seen. Thank you 😃

Hi people

So, tomorrow my party will be playing the finale of our campaign. They are five 2024 players (rogue/ranger, paladin, monk, druid, bard), with a healthy mix of grizzled veterans and confused newbies. The campaign has been going on for almost exactly a year, and I've been doing some modifications to it. It has been really fun and I wanted to thank you all for all the help and ideas I've gotten from reading this subreddit. Without you this adventure would have been a lot less epic!

That's the main thing I wanted to say. Now, if you are interested, here are some of the main changes I made to the campaign

• Rictavio was helping Blinsky explore his ancestor's craft, which made him a full on clockwork engineer. Ezmerelda's horses are clockwork inventions of his. His ancestors had made a mobile tower design for Argynvost, which Lysaga had later taken for her creeping hut.
• Speaking about Lysaga, Queen Ravenia was in play. She had been killed by her sister Lysaga as a way to seal her own deal with the Dark Powers, and her soul was in the DP's possession. These later used the bard (which was getting corrupted) to implant Ravenia's soul into Vasilika' body. Ravenia immediately offered Ireena to free her soul from Barovia with the Dark Powers permission. I gave the players a choice of encouraging Ireena to accept or refuse Ravenia's offer. They encouraged her, so it happened. Strahd was, let's say, not a fan.
• Sergei was a knight of the silver dragon. In fact, while exploring Argynvostholt the players kept seeing flashbacks of his life in the order, his romance with Tatyana, Argynvost mentoring him, his departure to the castle to get married, and Argynvost arriving to the mansion badly injured, having been able to secure Sergei's sword but not his body, telling the knights to prepare for battle. In the end the Sunsword was lit with the light of all the sunrises that were taken from Sergei by Strahd's betrayal.
• The paladin actually found the silver dragon's vows and took them, so the order is back in business. Later on, he accepted Ismark into the order.
• Vallaki is completely in Lady Wachter's grasp. Strahd has allowed her to summon a bunch of imps, and the Martikovs have been driven out of the city. Father Lucian was driven mad by the revelations of the Tome of Strahd and tried to kill Ireena in the absence of the players only to be gutted by Kiril at the last moment. The werewolves took the orphans of St Andral as their next litter.
• The three fanes are also in. Lysaga was using the Weaver's power over fate to make sure Tatyana was properly killed each time. Morgantha was using the Hunter's power over renewal to make her meatbuns. The monk stuffed himself with meatbuns the first night in Barovia, which made him immediately addicted but gathered enough fae essence inside of him for the Hunter to form a face in his stomach and ask for help. Madam Eva was the seeker, and survived thanks to a deal with Strahd, by which she could help adventurers to take him down on the condition that she inserted some readings of his choosing on the mix.
• Rictavio had his cover blown helping the players survive the Coffin Maker Shop, and accelerated his schedule. While the party was dealing with Wintersplinter, he climbed to the Amber Temple in hopes of finding a way to take down Strahd for good. Instead, he found Vecna's relics had been taken, so he grabbed Mordenkainen, left Ezmerelda to help the party, and left Barovia immediately to prepare for the bigger threat to come (party is playing Eve of Ruin next)
• The relics were, in fact taken by Rahadin. He had grown increasingly skeptical of Strahd's plans to escape the Dark Powers grasp and was looking for a way out. He used the eye to dispatch Kasimir (the party's fake fated ally, planted as a reading by Strahd's orders) and teleported straight into next campaign.
• Gertruda's case is interesting. The party completely ignored Mad Mary during their stay in Barovia and later refused to save her while exploring castle Ravenloft since Strahd had just learned about Tatyana and they did not want to anger him further. As a consequence, she has been corrupted by the Dark Powers and will be Strahd's successor

All that leading to Tatyana's funeral, to take place in Ravenloft's chapel tomorrow. Allies and foes have all gathered and will duke it out outside the castle, leaving the party + Ezmerelda (the actual fated ally) to deal with Strahd. Since the players left the raven amulet with their allies, I will reward them by not having vampire spawn accompany the count, but he has plenty of Ravenloft denizens to help him (Petrina's banshee and the animated armor at the very least I hope to use). Players also have to deal with their greatest foe: a crushing tendency towards splitting the party. My plan is to use colorglass shards for animate objects and when things start going sour bait the flying paladin out of the chapel through the balcony, close the door behind him, and then phase down to the rest of the party to steel wind strike them while the paladin has to deal with the animated armor. Afterwards, Strahd will start leading the party towards the catacombs by way of the cellar. Depending how things are going, the black ooze may spring into action to take on the sunsword wielding ranger. Once in the catacombs, Petrina will inflict her scream against a weakened party.

I am a bit worried because boss encounters in dnd can easily go from oppresive to cakewalk to tpk. With Lysaga, I had her use cloudkill centered on her creeping hut, making it obscured from view (advantage on all attacks) and forcing whoever tried to disarm the hut to do so from inside the cloudkill. It was a wipe. The Weaver fairy then had to spend her last lifeforce to alter fate and give them a repeat, upon which they easily rushed the witch. Players have never tried to attack Strahd yet, so they don't even know about the heart, which together with Strahd casting non-detection makes me fear they will think they are dealing with an illusion. I don't want it to become a grinding affair, which would be Strahd's smartest move but would take from the epicness of the final combat, so if the players do exceptionally well I'll just let them have it and play on the pathos of it all. Ideally Strahd takes down a couple of them before finally falling in the catacombs, grasping at Sergei's tomb (repurposed to be Tatyana's).

The party is finally ready to head back to Ravenloft at level 7 where they will return after exploring the upper levels after dinner. This will be the first time exploring the lower levels and have a sense of the size of the skull, the general location, but are still discussing how to enter. Strahd will be "away" during this time but I want his presence felt especially after they get the skull initially. What have other DMs had success with during the heist? What did you do with Rahadin?

My games Strahdanya's character token I commissioned from a player in my party! She came out STUNNING!

Huge thanks to Nokeio for this incredible art!!!

Good evening everyone,

I will soon be running CoS for 4 players and currently prepping Death House. I want to try to stay as close to the official book as possible, but i also recognise that Death House leaves alot of story holes, and is almost sure to TPK the party.

There are a ton of awesome resources and adjustments i found and honestly its a bit overwhelming.

My current plan is to cherry pick some things from other resources to make sure there is a story the party can figure out and complete, and to make a sort of time loop for when the party dies. I would basically make the party spawn out of the mist when they all die, a bit like the Until Dawn movie from '25. My only issue with that is that it would require the entire party to be killed in order to restart, or some other mechanic.

Would love some input on my plan, and if the module will be good as written, or that its really 'required' to adjust alot.

Thanks in advance for any help and insight 🙂

Hi everyone!

I am looking to end my campaign with a wedding between Strahd and Ireena.

Strahd already has Ireena at his castle after the dinner invite and has given advance notice to the party to expect their invitation in the coming weeks.

To the actual question, I want to get actual wedding invitations printed out to give to my players, would Stradh put Irenna or Tatyana's name for this grand event?

Thanks!

in order, Ireena, Doru, ismark and Gertrude.

the spark of the raven rock disaster- ireena on expidition to try and find the source of haunting dreams was joined by her brother and his friends down deep into the depths- where they awoken the Tyrant- a horrific whale of absurd proportions that sent their lives spiraling. stranding ismark, curseing doru and causeing the disapperance of Gertrude...

GOD I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR THIS GAME!!!

(artist: https://www.tumblr.com/hareofhrair )

In my campaign, Wintersplinter destroyed the Wizard of Wines, eliminating Barovia's only wine source. This got me thinking: why does Strahd allow his own domain to deteriorate?

I get that he's evil and doesn't care about his subjects' happiness, but he's also supposed to be an intelligent ruler and experienced strategist.

Barovia has a tiny, isolated population that he essentially rules over and feeds upon. Wouldn't it be in his own interest to keep them alive, productive, and somewhat stable?

Between monsters killing villagers, dwindling resources, and the destruction of the winery, he's basically letting his own domain collapse.

So how do you interpret this in your campaigns?

Does Strahd deliberately keep Barovia on the brink of collapse? Does he simply not care about its long-term survival? Or do you portray him as someone who actively maintains a certain level of stability while still being a tyrant?

I'm genuinely curious how other DMs reconcile his intelligence and strategic thinking with the increasingly desperate state of his own domain.

My CoS is heavily homebrewed, to the point that instead of one Vallaki arc, there are two - with the second focusing on retaking the city from Strahd's minions. It is supposed to end with his retaliation - the Feast of St. Andral, a massive attack on Vallaki with the goal to kill as many civilians as possible. It directly leads into the endgame, with Castle Ravenloft and the final battle with Strahd following on the next day.

The problem is, this kind of a huge setpiece needs a boss to cap it off, and I kinda got carried away and ran out of Strahd's minions.
Anastrasya - dead. Ludmilla - dead. Volenta - dead. Rahadin - dead. A former PC vampirized - dead. Escher - alive, but I need him for a different thing. Arrigal - dead. A whole squad of evil opposites of the party - believe it or not, I've already killed them off too. Lysaga - dead.

The only thing that's still around is Wintersplinter (I want to use it for another thing, just before the Feast, but now I'm tempted to use him for this instead). And then there's Strahd himself, but he already briefly fought the party at the Tsolenka Pass. That doesn't mean I can't use him again, but I'm worried that if they've just briefly clahsed at the Pass, then they fight him in Vallaki, and on the next day they fight him again at the Castle, it might be too repetitive.

Maybe what I need is an entirely new character. Like some sort of a crazy, ridiculous secret weapon that Strahd was just waiting to unleash upon the populace. But who or what?

I'm using a module for the feast that involves a chase through the city of a vampire spawn that has the bones. My ending calls for the vampire spawn to bring the bones to Strahd at the church (this is Strahd's big introduction) and he destroys them.

The party, however, is very good at persuing this vampire spawn through the crowded streets and I'm afraid they'll actually get the bones before they can be delivered to Strahd. How should I do my big intro then?

It seems cheesy for Strahd to just charm the party member with the bones and make them hand them over. I wanted his intro to have a big impact, and I'm drawing a blank on what to do if he doesn't destroy the bones in front of the party at the church.

Any input is appreciated.

How could it be anyone but our favourite grieving lady, lady Wachter ?

My players are not done with Vallaki and have not investigated the Wachterhaus at all so I won't go in many details but... Can you see the little surprise hidden in the pic ? 👀

Am having trouble with the tome of strahd. Players have to go through alot to get it and its very underwhelming! They get the story if strahd (they already know tbis( and ithas the part about the stake thru heart and thats it. (They have already found out (. Any ideas to make it better Dont want something op, but then having a reason why he wants it back too much.if it helps the players have no idea about the Fey gems. But just throwing that out there . Thanks

Players don’t know about wareravens yet.

Goliath fighter says he tosses a piece of bread to the wierd raven that’s near them. I say the raven eats it. He says it’s part of the dream pastry he bought earlier. I say the raven calms down and actually falls asleep.

Goliath fighter says he puts sleeping raven in his pocket, pockets he describes as having buttons to keep them closed. It was night so they make camp and rest. In the early morning the alert party members realize there is an extra person in the tent as an angry hybrid form ware raven emerges from the Goliath’s now shredded pants pocket.

Muriel will need therapy.

The Headless Horseman is more than just an undead rider with a flaming pumpkin for a head. He's a vengeful spirit bound to the mortal world by an ancient curse, with his steed, armored body, and spectral jack-o'-lantern forming a single, inseparable entity.

Legends tell of a fallen soldier, executioner, or knight who was beheaded for his crimes and returned under a cursed harvest moon. Some believe his spirit is connected to Samhain, when the boundary between the living and the dead grows thin enough for restless spirits to cross.

Wherever he rides, crops rot, animals panic, and the air fills with the smell of smoke and freshly dug earth. And simply defeating him isn't enough. Unless a specific funerary ritual is performed, the Horseman eventually rises again to continue his hunt.

Mechanically, the Headless Horseman is a CR 14 undead built around mobility, relentless pursuit, and devastating attacks. His Fiery Greataxe deals slashing and fire damage, with additional necrotic damage against frightened enemies, while Laughing Skull allows him to hurl his flaming pumpkin head at enemies, unleashing a fiery explosion that deals 10d6 fire damage.

His Ghostride ability lets him pass through solid objects, while his legendary actions allow him to charge across the battlefield, stun enemies with Glare of Embers, or mark a target with Harvest Mark, making that creature especially vulnerable to his attacks.

I've also included four optional traits to customize the encounter, from leaving burning hoofprints behind to relentlessly tracking creatures that try to escape him.

The Headless Horseman is from Undead & Undead: The Ultimate Undead Handbook, available for 5E and the 2024 Edition on DriveThruRPG!

The manual includes 90+ undead statblocks, each with optional traits and variants, alongside an undead lair system, 50+ magic items, customizable templates, necromantic rituals, campaign tools, and VTT resources. It's designed to give DMs plenty of options for building undead encounters, from minor restless spirits to powerful necromantic horrors.

My Kickstarter for 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 2024 is also live now! The campaign includes a physical hardcover, as well as printed editions of my previous manuals.

You can find more of my creatures, magic items, and manuals on DriveThruRPG, my Linktree, or right here on r/JonnyDM!

Besides wanting to be with Tatyana for eternity and perhaps escaping his prision inside Barovia, is there anything else that Strahd could want?

I wanted to involve other domains of dread in my main CoS storyline and was thinking that perhaps Strahd had a bigger ambition for power or control.

Maybe Strahd figured that the only way to free himself from the Dark Power's grip was to become a Dark Power himself? So the players have to stop that besides just killing him to end the barovians suffering?

I just wanted a bigger plan for Strahd so I could make my players quest more grand and multiple domains-spanning.

So, we had our first PC death to Baba Lysaga, which means our first second character! This post is about that second character.

My player wanted to play the ranger Theo Rosevault, a vampire hunter who purposfully found his way into Barovia to hunt down Strahd.. Sound familiar to anyone we know? I decided to use this to slightly mess with my table.

My player and I agreed on a backstory from the time Theo decided to enter Barovia, up until now. About a year ago now, Theo met an excentric bard named Rictavio (yes that Rictavio). Smelling a good story, he imediatly took an interest to Theo and decided to help him find a way into Barovia. Over the next few months they worked together, researching the history of the von Zarovich line, stumbling upon something called the Domains of Dread, and finally learning that the borders of Barovia are open to a race of people called the Vistani.

Rictavio claimed to know a vistana, from way way back, named Ezmerelda d'Avenir. He dissapeared now for a few weeks (as he was prone to do) to find her and ask her to take them into Barovia. Ezmerelda doesn't recognize the bard, but agrees to take them. She is going there anyways, due to the rumour that her former master, Rudolph van Richten has traveled in to fight Strahd.

My players when they first heard of Rictavio almost instantly came to the conclusion he must be a vampire killer, even though they had very little evidence of this, outside of him being their fated ally. Then they met him, and put that idea to rest. I gave him a strange personality, he has no ability to read the room at all, enthusiasticly telling stories to anyone with at least one ear, no matter their disinterest, and most importantly, he speaks with a really nasal voice.

Now with this final proof that Rictavio really is just some dude with a bunch of stories, I imagine the reveal will be even more shocking. Also to maybe hasten the reveal a bit, I also added in the lore dump document I gave to Theo, the detail that Rictavio generally distrusts the Vistani, due to one cursing him to never be able to remove his very silly hat!

Edited: sorry, I meant skull, not crane. A mistranslation from Catalan...

Hi, I am running soon the dinner with Strahd and prepping thir first visit to Ravenloft. They already hav ethe sidequest abour retrieving The Skull of Argynvost.

They will be at lvl 6 once there and there is no wizard in the party. There is a sorcerer, Druid, , Bard, cleric, Rogue, Barbarian in the party.

I have no clue about how can they manage to retrieve the skull out of the castle. I know it is up to them to find a solution, but also don't like the idea of giving them an impossible quest, and as for now I don't see a way they can manage it.

I often get inspiration by Dragnacarta's Reloaded, there the carriage has a trunk that acts as a bag of holding if the enigma is deciphered. But feels too obvious and railroading to me.

I'd like to hear your experiences with the Ravenloft-skull quest in your campaigns. How did you play it? How did your players manage to retrieve it? I know there is the possibility that the Skull is at Baba's (and maybe still on time to change the location if Strahd finally gave it to the witch). But for now i made it as described RAW.

TW: Suicide, self harm

Ok, my players are in the midst of their final assault on Strahd in Castle Ravenloft.

There's a lot going on, so to keep the post from being a wall of text let me just say this - Ireena, seeing no way out, having agency over her life in a way that finally matters, has decided to leap from a tall landing in the tower with the Heart of Sorrow, right in front of Strahd.

Other players are there, and Strahd and some minions (gargoyles) are there as well, so here is what I need help with.

How would you run something that

A) Doesn't erase the decision Ireena made (one of the players was controlling her)

B) Gives them a chance to intervene/help/interact with her in this very dramatic way

C) Allows Strahd to also intervene and save her (for himself)

I already have an idea for IF she goes full Gwen Stacey at the bottom of the tower, she will be apprached by a Vestige or Dark Power and maybe turn into someone the PCs have to deal with in the future... so its ok if she doesnt make it. Just curious if anyone has any thoughts on mechanically how to run it.

She jumped from a couple hundred feet up (I think, dont have it in front of me... the landing right by the heart). Strahd was above her on the steps, and two gargoyles are in flight about 100' below her.

Multiple other player charactes are spread around the tower (above and below)

Arrigal Yevkos from the 5th edition of Curse of strahd

Class - Rogue (bastard)

Subclass - assassin

He's a sarcastic dummy. he's impulsive, he's rough and tumble and when he has his eye on something, he gets it.

And he cares deeply about the few he gets close to, his brother Luvash and neice Arabelle, and is a leader of the Vistani peoples. he has a red ribbon, as those are Vistani colors.

He gained a black raven familiar named Gwyndolin. which just so happens to be Grim's mate (Elemira's white raven familiar i posted her some time ago).

Thank you guys for looking at my work!

I want to put the Tome of Strahd with the Keepers of the Feather in Vallaki, who won’t give it to them until they’ve dealt with the winery. This lets them get on the trail of the Tome early, without getting it immediately. It also gives them an easy quest hook to follow once they leave Vallaki, which can also lead to quests to Berez and Yester Hill through the gems.

The issue I have is with the wording of the reading. It says “I see a nest of ravens There you will find the prize.” This is SUPER vague, and I dislike it for two reasons. First, nothing about it really points to the inn. “Ravens” is all they get, and those are everywhere in this game. Second, even if they realize it’s at the inn, this wording feels like it encourages the characters to search the inn themselves rather than talking to Urwin.

I want to reword it to something that A) Points to the BWI without being too obvious, and B) encourages the characters to ask the Martikovs about it rather than tear the inn apart searching.

I’m thinking of borrowing the beginning of the wording from the burgomaster’s mansion location. Something like “There is a town where all is not well, and within it, a bastion of hope. The keepers there have what you seek.” This could lead them to the church instead, but I can easily have Father Lucian point them to the inn.

Any ideas for how to word this better?

Like the title says. The tome of Strahd in my game can be found in the werewolf den. My party is there now. I am not sure yet how I want to tackle this. I am leaning towards making a physical tome but also want to do an sort of deep dive per chapter where my party dives in his past and lives out the scenes.

How did you do it. And do you have tips for me. I want to dedicate atleast a session to the tome. And have it hint towards the amber temple and also incorporate the heart of sorrow.