History DarthWiki / SwordAndShadowAdventures

* TheBigGuy: As a goliath, he stands around seven feet tall.

A young Vistani girl the party first encounters when they rescue her from being drowned in Lake Zarovich. A powerful seer despite her age, she is Madam Eva's granddaughter and set to become the matron of her own caravan when she comes of age.

* CrazyJealousGuy: He responds ''violently'' to seeing that the fetch copies of Cassia and Ajax are apparently in a relationship, and is deeply upset by the idea that Cassia might leave the carnival.
* TheGhost: Despite his prominence in Cassia's backstory and regularly being discussed, the real Milo has yet to appear in the campaign.
** As of the Dark Carnival arc, this is no longer the case.

* StageMagician

* MyBelovedSmother: The entity that considers herself a “mother” to the Strazni siblings seems to be this, demanding blind obedience and labelling Suffer a “difficult child” for wanting to understand what’s happening rather than simply giving in.

* WildCard: The party really isn't sure how much they can trust him. In his own words, he doesn't "see anything wrong with betting on all the horses."

[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Tour de Dread'']]
!!Miscillia Dorval
The party's mysterious sponsor and benefactor, and, unfortunately for her, the current reincarnation of Strahd's lost love Tatyana at the time of ''Tour de Dread''. She has a history with Strahd that she initially does not care to divulge, but eventually reveals that her ultimate goal is for the group to travel to Barovia and take revenge on him.

* KilledOffForReal: Several major [=NPCs=]; notably the Vallakoviches, Tamago, and Volenta, though Viktor and Tamago's fates have been left semi-ambiguous.

* LukeNounverber: A few player characters: Michelle [[spoiler: Mistweaver]] plays it the most straight, but there's also Cassia Oakcane, Florian Fairchild, and [=NPC=] Dennet Duskstock. Notably, all of the Curse of Strahd player characters completely avoid it, instead using FantasyCounterpartCulture surnames (or no surname at all).

** Suffer was a DoorstopBaby, and even after meeting her biological brother still doesn't know who her late parents were.

* BlessedWithSuck

* RaisedInALab: Implied by Sybil's nature as a MixAndMatchMan and their terror at being returned to Lamordia.

%%* BadassBookworm: Comes with being a wizard.

* DarkSkinnedBlonde: His hair is white, but the effect is the same.
%%* FarmBoy

%%* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: [[{{Music/StevieNicks}} Of course.]]

%%* TheQuietOne
%%* RuggedScar: He has one at the corner of his mouth.

%%* SquishyWizard

%%* FortuneTeller

%%* MagneticMedium

%%* PintSizedPowerhouse

* DamselOutOfDistress

* ThePaladin

* {{Necromancer}}: At least part of his magical studies have been dedicated to reanimating dead cats.

* TeenGenius: Viktor is the same age as Suffer, and likewise, is a powerful spellcaster -- though his magic is flawed due to his lack of training, ''teleport'' is a ''very'' high level spell.
* TeleportationMisfire: No one is really sure where he ended up, but his teleportation spell almost certainly didn't succeed in getting him out of Barovia.

The oldest of Strahd's current brides and a scientist who spends most of her time working in her laboratory and keeping out of Strahd's way. Her experiments into a way of artificially creating vampire spawn are responsible for Erasmus' transformation into a dhampir and the death of his mother, Ingrid.

* FantasticScience: Ludmilla reveals to the party that she spent some time experimenting with a way to artificially create vampire spawn in her lab, but none of her test subjects survived the process long.

* EvilBrit

* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: Yivek was first an NPC in a different, homebrew game, then a character the DM played in a previous campaign; now he runs a mysterious shop selling magic items, among other things.

* HeroesWantRedheads: If Bonnibell and Morelle are any indication, at least.

* BloodStainedGlassWindows: The Feast of St. Andrals. The fight with Anastrasya also takes place in the courtyard of the Abbey.

* DreamSequence / NightmareSequence: Erasmus and Suffer have had several of these.

* InnateNightVision: At this point, Ireena is the only person traveling with the main party who lacks darkvision.

* FarmBoy: Cassia grew up on their family

An aging but prolific vampire hunter, initially travelling through Barovia in the guise of a half-elf performer named Rictavio. The party first encounters him at the Feast of St. Andrals, battling Ludmilla alongside them. [[spoiler: They eventually discover that he is Erasmus' father, who believed his son died long ago.]]

* TheTease: Moira and Ez's dynamic seems to be developing into this as they often tease or gossip the other. Ezmerelda often gets [[{{LuminescentBlush}}a rise]] out of Moira though.

* UpliftedAnimal: Being from Markovia, a Domain inspired by Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau, it's clarified that Amelia is not a human woman who was given bat-like features, but rather a bat who was transformed to appear more like a human woman.

* WonderBaby: If Ormir's story is any indication, Suffer and Izek are a very dark variation. Their mother's wish for children was granted, but said children were born monstrous, and she and her husband eventually went mad.

** ''Tour de Dread'' has Cassia (harengon) and Milo (half-elf), though [[{{TwiceShy}} neither ever actually confessed their feelings for each other]].

** The inscription above the doors to the Amber Temple is very similar to a portion of the Scandia report's proposed long-term nuclear waste warning message.
-->''If you seek honor or power, turn back - for these walls hold naught but doom.''
-->''In amber tombs below, the darkness shelters a timeless evil.''
-->''This temple is infected with a scourge of malevolent divinity.''
-->''Our arrogance and folly forged this place into our prison.''

* HunterOfMonsters

* PurpleIsPowerful

* TheBabyOfTheBunch: At 17, Suffer is the youngest of the party members. Erasmus, Tamago, and Ireena seem to treat her like a younger sister.

* Bittersweet17

* CuteBruiser

* RevengeByProxy

* TheBard: Their character class. Florian fits most

* HappyHarlequinHat

* MagicMusic

* NonHumanNonBinary

* ShapeshifterIdentityCrisis

* CircusBrat

* KnifeThrowingAct

* AmbiguouslyHuman

* DarkIsNotEvil

* DisappearedDad: Miscillia avoids mentioning Cezar's father if she can help it. [[spoiler: It's heavily implied (and confirmed [[{{InAndOutOfCharacter}} Out of Character]]) that his father is Strahd.]]

* SwampsAreEvil: Both of the swamp areas visited -- Muckmere Bog in ''Tour de Dread'' and Berez in ''Curse of Strahd'' -- have been pretty miserable places full of hazards.

* EveryonesBabySister: The party has this sort of relationship with Arabelle.

* FamilyOfChoice: In addition to the various revelations about biological family connections, the party as a whole seems to be shaping into this.

* IdenticalStranger: Apparently. Kaldur briefly [[{{DudeLooksLikeALady}} mistakes Erasmus for his older sister,]] Helwa.

** Viktor seems to have survived the explosion, given that he appears injured but alive in a vision Famine has.

* MysticalPregnancy: Implied to be the case with the Strazni sibling's mother, considering she apparently had to petition the Dark Powers to be able to have children in the first place.

* WeCanRuleTogether: Izek makes this offer to Suffer. She immediately turns him down.

-->'''Class:''' Ranger (Monster Slayer Conclave)

* FacialMarkings

* TheBard

* BadassBookworm: Comes with being a wizard.

* CoolGuns: Stevie's arcane focus is a specially made magic revolver that fires off spells.

* FarmBoy
* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: [[{{Music/StevieNicks}} Of course.]]

* TheQuietOne
* RuggedScar: He has one at the corner of his mouth.

* SquishyWizard

* TheAtoner

* FortuneTeller
* ISeeDeadPeople
* MagneticMedium

* PintSizedPowerhouse
* SmallNameBigEgo
* TheStoryteller

* AlliterativeName

* BlueBlood

* StreetUrchin: His background.

* TheBard

* CuteBookworm

* MagicMusic
* ShelteredAristocrat
* ShrinkingViolet
* UptownGirl: To Hart.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou

* InfernalRetaliation: As tieflings, both Suffer and Izek are innately capable of using Hellish Rebuke when they take damage – which is nearly disastrous for Ireena when she has to pop his shoulder back into its socket at one point. Hellish Rebuke is also how Suffer ultimately dispatches Baba Lysaga.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Tamago and Suffer occasionally have remarks made about them by the isolated and almost entirely human population of Barovia, who genuinely don’t know what a Tabaxi or a Tiefling is. Looking like a classical devil, Suffer tends to get the worst of it, with Burgomaster Vallakovich casually referring to her “deformity” over dinner and Burgomaster Krezkov assuming she’s come to see the Abbot in hopes of curing her “affliction”. On a lighter note, the children of both Vallaki and Krezk are fascinated and delighted by their non-human features.

* MedievalUniversalLiteracy

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Zig-zagged, and somewhat justified due to the fact that it’s fantasy and not set in any actual historical period. It is also noted that while Faerun is much more liberal, the isolated Barovia seems to be somewhat behind what the, say, Waterdhavian characters would consider the norm.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: This becomes a point of contention among the party during their alliance with Escher. When Rudolph and Ezmerelda insist that he's fundamentally untrustworthy and no more than a monster who should be put down, Erasmus outright asks [[{{Dhampyr}} what makes him so different.]] Rudolph [[{{ArmorPiercingQuestion}} struggles to find an answer.]]

* BlatantLies: Knicky, constantly.

* ConnectedAllAlong: Not only to the other campaigns, but this shows up occasionally within the confines of Tour de Dread itself as well.

* DeadpanSnarker: Cassia. Knicky is often this using Vicious Mockery.

* DoomedByCanon: The intended conclusion of the adventure is for Miscillia’s adventurers to storm Castle Ravenloft and fight Strahd; the Curse of Strahd adventure, set 20/200 years later in the same timeline, establishes that while they may be successful in killing him Strahd will ultimately be revived by the Dark Powers to continue his reign of terror. Suffer’s session 0 also reveals that by the time Curse of Strahd begins, Miscillia will be dead.

* EmpathicWeapon: Nepenthe, the sword bound to the ringmaster of the Dark Carnival, very clearly has a mind of its own, [[spoiler: and is in fact the true darklord of the domain.]].

* PrecursorHeroes: The party in Tour de Dread serve as these to the Curse of Strahd group later.
* {{Prequel}}: Despite being played concurrently with Curse of Strahd, the events of this campaign take place well before it.

* RayOfHopeEnding: Of a sort. While ''Curse of Strahd'' establishes that the ''Tour de Dread'' group were unable to permanently defeat Strahd and free Barovia, their actions are what set the Curse of Strahd group up to eventually potentially succeed where they failed.

* AmnesiacHero

* CanonCharacterAllAlong

* DualWielding: His two-handed fighting style.

* EscapedFromTheLab

* ForgotTheirOwnBirthday

* LongHairedPrettyBoy

* QuestForIdentity
* ReluctantMonster
* ScarilyCompetentTracker
* StepfordSmiler

* TrackingSpell: Erasmus’ ranger spell Hunter’s Mark can serve as this.

* VampireHunter

* DarkIsNotEvil

* DoesntKnowTheirOwnBirthday

* LongLostRelative: She turns out to be Izek Strazni's younger sister.
* MonstrousHumanoid

* PiousMonster
* PlayingWithFire: Though most of her magic takes on the appearance of holy light, as a tiefling she’s also able to use Hellish Rebuke – much like her brother.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Suffer’s appearance has a ''lot'' in common with her brother Izek’s tiefling traits, sharing solid white eyes, curly dark reddish hair, and mouths full of pointed teeth. [[spoiler: The siblings' mother also had dark red hair.]]

* HealingHands

* KilledOffForReal

* NayTheist

* OnlyOneName

* BraidsOfAction

* FarmBoy
* TheGunslinger

** Eli Clark from ''VideoGame/IdentityV'' shows up as an NPC tied to Knicky's backstory in Tour de Dread, and is briefly mentioned in both Curse of Strahd and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.

** Part of Suffer's [[{{OverlyLongName}} full first name]] is the same as [[{{Literature/Discworld}} Sam Vimes' king-slaying ancestor.]]

** Escher appearing dressed in red and gold after [[spoiler: Anastrasya and Volenta die]] is referred to out-of-character as his "[[{{Film/Heathers}} Heather Duke]] moment".

* SympathyForTheDevil: None for Strahd himself, but [[{{FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire}} Erasmus]] and [[{{MonstrousHumanoid}} Suffer]] both feel this way about Escher, and even Ireena says that she "pities" him. Moira and Ez are less convinced.

* RayOfHopeEnding: Of a sort. While Curse of Strahd establishes that the Tour de Dread group were unable to permanently defeat Strahd and free Barovia, their actions are what set the Curse of Strahd group up to eventually potentially succeed where they failed.

-->'''Cassia:'''''(on their turn)'' Let me show you how to do it. ''(out of character)'' [[{{TemptingFate}} I nat 1. Could you imagine?]] Nah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it. ''(rolls a nat 1)''

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: As a changeling who can alter their appearance and sex characteristics at will, they have a somewhat complicated relationship with gender. Knicky appears somewhat androgynous and uses they/them pronouns, while Florian presents as a feminine man and uses he/him. While they haven't used Poppet's identity in the campaign proper, it's confirmed that she was a woman.

* IJustWantToBeFree

* TextileWorkIsFeminine

* AmbiguiouslyHuman
* AmbiguousGender: The Abbot appears to be a human man and is referred to with a masculine title and pronouns by the people of Krezk, but never uses gendered terms to refer to himself, and doesn't seem to distinguish gender in others, either. As a [[spoiler: deva, [[{{OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous}} he probably doesn't have the same grasp on gender and sex as humanoids do.]]]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality

* OurAngelsAreDifferent

* FourthWallObserver: Likely tied to his DimensionalTraveler status and knowledge of [[{{TabletopGame/Planescape}} the Infinite Staircase,]] Yivek is aware of the players, and is prone to AsideGlances and comments that their characters won't understand, but they will.

* OnlySaneMan: Especially when compared to [[{{HotBlooded}} Ajax],] [[{{TheGadfly}} Knicky]], and [[{{ConditionedToAcceptHorror}} Sybil]].

* OnlySaneMan: Especially when compared to [[{{HotBlooded}} Ajax,]][[{{TheGadfly}} Knicky,]] and .

* BigBrotherInstinct: As the oldest of several children. Tamago has this not just towards his own siblings, but to most of the children the party encounters.

* FriendToAllChildren

* SurprisinglyNormalBackstory: Compared to Erasmus, Famine, and even Suffer once details surrounding her birth are revealed, Tamago has lived a mostly happy, comfortable life in a large, loving family.

* CreepyGood

* GuestStarPartyMember: After taking a few levels as a fighter, she becomes this whenever she accompanies the party.

* HealingHands: Once she becomes a paladin, she gains the Lay on Hands ability, which allows her to magically heal others.

* {{Reincarnation}}: Ireena is the current incarnation of Strahd's lost love Tatyana.

* FantasticScience

* DelightfulDragon

* HotInHumanForm

[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Tour de Dread'']]
!!Miscillia Dorval
The party's mysterious sponsor and benefactor, and, unfortunately for her, the current reincarnation of Strahd's lost love Tatyana at the time of ''Tour de Dread''. She has a history with Strahd that she initially does not care to divulge, but eventually reveals that her ultimate goal is for the group to travel to Barovia and take revenge on him.

* DimensionalTraveler: Yivek is a planewalker, to an even greater extent than the Shadowfell-traveling party: he apparently hops betwen alternate Material Planes, and originally hails from [[{{TabletopGame/Eberron}} Eberron]].

* ArcSymbol: [[{{GemstoneMotifs}} Amber,]] carrying over from ''Tour de Dread.'' It seems to have something to do with the Dark Powers and the Shadowfell as a whole, with much importance placed on the Amber Temple, as well as the fact that Madam Eva, Arabelle, and the goddess Ezra all have [[{{SupernaturalGoldEyes}} amber eyes.]]

* GiveHimANormalLife: Seems to be the Strazni parents’ motivation for sending Suffer to the material plane alone when they could only afford passage for one of them – being a tiefling in Barovia would be worse for her. Overlaps with DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou.

* OffingTheOffspring: Van Richten’s journal entry suggests he intends to do this to Erasmus if they meet again, seeing it as a MercyKill. Luckily, this seems to have been avoided.

* ScarsAreForever: The wound that caused the scar on her face was inflicted when she was an infant.
* ScaryTeeth

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Suffer’s appearance has a ''lot'' in common with her brother Izek’s tiefling traits, sharing solid white eyes, curly dark reddish hair, and mouths full of pointed teeth.

* SugarAndIcePersonality: Moira is cold and harsh towards just about everyone, including the party, except for Ilya.
* SupernaturalFearInducer
* TokenEvilTeammate

* UptownGirl

* OnlySaneMan: Especially when compared to [[{{HotBlooded}} Ajax]] and [[{{TheGadfly}} Knicky]].

* BladeEnthusiast: Their act involves throwing knives, and they end up with the Bracer of Flying Daggers.
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Having spent most, if not all, of their life at the Carnival, they see no issue with its quirks, inluding frequent disappearances and public executions.

* BigBrotherInstinct: If anything, he is ''too'' protective of his younger sister.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: The distinctly tiefling aspects of Suffer and Izek’s appearances are ''very'' similar, sharing solid white eyes, curly dark reddish hair, and mouths full of pointed teeth.

* HorrorHunger: Ilya has struggled with consuming people since his initial transformation. His condition getting worse if he doesn't-quite literally-feed into it. As of late it has become entangled with his feelings for Moira developing into a desperation to[[{{ConsumingPassion}} consume her whole to show the depths of his love]]---by them becoming one in a more literal sense of the word.

* HorrorHunger: Ilya has struggled with consuming people since his initial transformation. His condition getting worse if he doesn't-quite literally-feed into it.

* CanonCharacterAllAlong: Sybil is revealed to be [[spoiler: the campaign's version of Miranda from [[{{ComicBook/DungeonsAndDragons}} ''Orphan of Agony Isle,'']] having escaped Lamordia and chosen a new name for themself.]]

* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: With the implication that the adventurers who brought around the Year of Sunlight 200 years ago were in fact the Tour de Dread party led by Miscillia, the Curse of Strahd characters serve as this, at least chronologically. Whereas the Tour de Dread group is made up of more lighthearted heroes-for-hire who have experience hopping between Domains of Dread to dispatch their darklords, several of whom are literal circus performers, the Curse of Strahd characters are generally more reserved and turn out to have much more personal stakes in Barovia and have to figure out what’s going on by themselves. This also applies to each group’s incarnation of Tatyana: Miscillia is a somewhat hardened, no-nonsense cleric in her 40s, while Ireena begins as more of an [[{{TheIngenue}} Ingenue]] in her early 20s who ends up taking levels as a fighter.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Cezar Dorval and Escher both appear as children in Tour de Dread, prior to their roles as adults twenty years later in Curse of Strahd. However, Cezar's appearance in Suffer's session 0 prior to Curse of Strahd may fit the bill better, given that it occurred first in the real world, and he had a much larger role in Tour de Dread. Likewise, a version of Dennet drawn from Knicky’s psyche briefly appears in “M.O.M. Knows Best”, before the real Dennet shows up several sessions later.

* NeverFoundTheBody: The case for both Viktor Vallakovich and Tamago: Viktor’s body wasn’t found among the rubble of his house, and Tamago’s was apparently taken away by ravens.

* ActuallyNotAVampire: Amelia "the Vampiress." She plays it up as part of her act, but she's actually a [[{{UpliftedAnimal}} bat who was]] [[{{AnthropomorphicTransformation}} turned into a humanoid woman]].

* BroughtDownToNormal: Syndal is a cleric of Lathander who apparently lost access to his magic when Dr. Mordenheim [[{{HeartTrauma}} literally cut out his heart.]]

* LiteralChangeOfHeart: When the party meets Syndal in "Snow and Stitched Flesh," his heart has been removed and replaced with a mechanical one. It's not clear how much of his current abrasive personality is due to this trope, and how much is due to the mundane trauma of being StrappedToAnOperatingTable and thrown out into the snow.

* UpliftedAnimal: Amelia. Being from Markovia, a Domain inspired by Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau, it's clarified that she's not a human woman who was given bat-like features, but rather a bat who was transformed to appear more like a human woman.

* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Once the party meets his two older sisters, the party learns that he's this in this family.

* BarbarianLongHair

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The party.