Characters / Fellowship of the Raven

Party Members

Tropes applying to the whole group

• Back-to-Back Badasses: Once she takes Paladin levels Ireena and Glaedr end up doing this frequently, since they're the two tanks and heavy weapon damage dealers of the group.
• Badass and Child Duo: Though Ireena is technically not a kid her and Glaedr have this dynamic, since he's much physically smaller than he is (5'2" to his being over 6'6") and her being the youngest party member at 18 while he's the oldest in his 40s, at least physically.
• Dysfunction Junction: Even the ones who started out relatively sane didn't stay that way for long. The party realized with horror at one point that the most mentally stable member was Ivan, who came into the game with PTSD and alcoholism.
• Family of Choice: All of them have lost or been separated from their families, but have found a new one in each other.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: The whole incident where Glaedr, Ivan and Riki took part in the theft of the bones of St. Flanderhal has become this, with them firmly deciding to never let Ireena know about it.
• Party Scattering: Following the battle at the Windmill, they get separated into three groups consisting of Glaedr and Ivan, Savana and Riki, and Ireena by herself.

Glaedr

Race: Dragonborn (Silver)

Class: Fighter (Battle Master)

Alignment: Neutral Good

A mercenary and grizzled veteran, Glaedr's main focus is keeping everyone alive... which is becoming increasingly difficult. Glaedr is from a clan of Dragonborn descended from Argynovst, a legendary silver dragon who fought and ultimately lost his life to Strahd, which resulted in his clan being exiled from Barovia for failing to protect it. He's the viewpoint character of Every Fortress Falls.

Tropes:

• Alas, Poor Yorick: He took to carrying around Lady Wachter's severed head for a bit, mostly using it to torment Karl.
• Amazon Chaser: Has stated this several times, declaring "I'd like to find that hot as a free action" in reaction to feats of badassery by a female. He also found Natasha genuinely attractive even though it was obvious she was up to no good.
• Badass Normal: With the exception of his cold breath (which is a racial ability) his abilities are all physically based instead of magical.
• Berserk Button: Do not abuse women with him around. After they find Karl Wachter's "harem" of unwilling women he's noticeably disgusted, especially when one (Karl's planned "entertainment" for the night) turns out to be only 16 years old, and he spends several minutes verbally berating and threatening Karl over it once they defeat him. To say nothing of how he feels about Strahd's actions towards Ireena...
• The Big Guy: The physically largest party member at over six and a half feet tall.
• Boring, but Practical: He's a straight Fighter build, but shows why it's lethal at later levels.
• Breath Weapon: Can breathe a 15 foot cone of cold.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: His Immovable Rod, which is bought early on in the game, keeps getting used in unexpected ways, such as pinning the Tombstone Golem beneath it and later a Cloaker, or his "salmon ladder" trick to get above an enemy and literally get the drop.
• Cool Old Guy: He's the oldest party member, being in the equivalent of his 40s.
• Cool Sword: The Sunsword, gained from beating Vladimir in an honor duel.
• Deadpan Snarker: Partly because of his draconic visage making him not particularly expressive by human standards, and his sense of humor is pretty dry anyway.
• Demihuman: He's a Dragonborn, which results in Yevgeny describing him as "A good man... so to speak."
• Draconic Humanoid: As a Dragonborn, specifically a silver variety.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Platonic example towards Ireena, since almost immediately after meeting her he decides to protect her. This causes some friction between the two once Ireena Took a Level in Badass and becomes a Paladin able to hold her own in combat, but eventually they sort it out and become quite an effective fighting duo.
• Dumb Muscle: Subverted, since while his Intelligence score is below average his Wisdom score is quite high, so while he may not be cunning or book smart he's certainly intuitive and observant. And he's a Battle Master for a reason.
• Establishing Character Moment: During his first encounter with Strahd, he killed one of his zombies by using the flat side of his axe to knock the head clean off and straight at Strahd, who phased through it but was clearly quite irritated when Glaedr proceeded to do a Babe Ruth kiss right on the end of the axe.
• Family of Choice: Considers the party this.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: When he had to dash through Vallaki pursued by an angry mob he resorted to just knocking over anyone who happened to be in the way.
• From a Certain Point of View: When he returns to the Church following the battle and escape from Wachterhaus he explains to Father Nedlovich that Lady Wachter was behind the theft of the bones and conveniently leaves out that his party were the ones who actually took them. Yevgeny also specifically suggested he return the bones since he, technically, wasn't the one who took them and had an alibi at the moment they were taken since he was talking to Nedlovich as a distraction. Became a moot point following their escape from Wachterhaus since Ivan was the one holding them and ultimately gave them back.
• Good Is Not Nice: He's firmly on the side of good, but can be downright vicious in the methods he uses to kill enemies. Not to mention how he kept pulling Lady Wachter's head out to torment Karl.
• Grin of Audacity: His "bitch, please" grin towards enemies.
• Heroic BSoD: When he's broken out of his Madness after attacking Ireena and realizes that he almost killed her. While it had happened before, first to Van Richten and then to Ivan, this was the first time it had almost resulted in the death of someone he cared about, and it being Ireena made it even worse.
• Heroic Lineage: As a descendant of Argynovst, which is the only reason Vladimir even entertains the possibility of giving him the Sunsword in exchange for an honor duel.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Has become this to Ireena, which is part of why he's so horrified when he attacks her when she accidentally triggers his Madness.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Frequently ends up throwing his shield over allies to give disadvantage on attacks against them.
• Mighty Glacier: Has a relatively slow movement speed, but makes up for it with the amount of damage he does, especially once he gains some Fighter levels and can take multiple actions in a single turn and do things like attack, shield bash to knock them prone, use Menace to Frighten them and attack again.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He has a massive one when his Madness gets triggered on Ireena, and he ends up knocking her down in a single hit (they had just been through a tough battle so she was low on health to begin with) and then continued with his multi-attacks until she had two death save failures and would have probably died had Savana's Hold Person not held him off long enough for Ivan to stabilize her. Afterwards he considers straight up leaving the party until Tatyana tells him that doing so would basically shatter Ireena.
• My Greatest Failure: The deaths of Ivan and Riki at the Vistani camp are this for him, even though the former later shows up (albeit amnesiac).
• Only Sane Man: Often comes off as this. And even he has his issues, more so as the game goes on.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When it comes to protecting his "clan", he's started to see some similarities between himself and Izek. And is not happy about this.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: When the party had to return to Vallaki despite being fugitives disguising Glaedr was absolutely necessary, so Muriel used her disguise kit on him. Her first attempt was... not good (and amounted to Groucho Marx glasses on what was very obviously still a humanoid dragon) but the second, with assistance from Ivan, was actually pretty convincing.
• Playing Drunk: To get information out of Natasha, who was clearly up to something, he pretended to be drunk and rolled a crit on his Performance check.
• Punch a Wall: After Ireena turns herself in to Izek, he takes out his anger and frustration on a nearby brick wall and demolishes it in one hit. Later, once the party flees Vallaki the first time, he does the same thing to a tree with his axe.
• Shield Bash: Is particularly effective with this, often knocking enemies to the ground if he beats their Strength roll (and since it's his highest stat, he usually does). He even managed this on Rahadin. Twice!
• Smarter Than You Look: His Intelligence score is below average, but he often comes up with the battle plans of the group and is pretty good at talking his way out of things.
• Stout Strength: As the designated heavy lifter of the group, and quite beefy due to his race.
• The Strategist: As part of his Battle Master specialty, he's often the one coming up with their plans in combat.
• Team Dad: His main goal is keeping everyone alive and at least trying to be the voice of reason.
• Too Clever by Half: He noticed Natasha attempting a Honey Trap at Madame Eva's camp and decided to play along to see what she wanted. Unfortunately after the two had sex she snuck away with his scales and some of Riki's hair, which allowed Strahd to Scry them.
• Unstoppable Rage: After temporarily dying from the Tombstone golem insulting or disagreeing with Savana is one for him, which sends him into a mindless rage attacking whoever did it. He has no memories of doing so if the rage is broken by something like a Calm Emotions spell. Eventually it gets cured in Krezk.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ivan, since the two are almost always busting on each other for their various poor decisions. It helps that they're the two designated old guys of the group.
• With Catlike Tread: The inevitable result when he tries to stealth, since his heavy armor gives him disadvantage on stealth checks, which is why they didn't even try to have him sneak into the Church's basement to steal the bones and instead had him upstairs talking to Father Nedlovich as a distraction. When the party had to escape Wachterhaus he was spotted even with Yevgeny's Pass Without Trace giving him a +10 to his Stealth check and had to flee on his own and meet up with the party later. It's even more on display when they have to sneak into the werewolf cave, and a couple bad rolls mean Glaedr's doing things like yelling "WE SHOULD HIDE" at the top of his lungs or taking golf swings at the skulls the find littering the cave floor, one of which he bats right at Zuleika.
• Worf Had the Flu: When Strahd attacked the Blue Water Inn he trapped Glaedr in a Phantasmal Sphere specifically to get him out of the way, since he had Scryed them prior to the battle.
• Worthy Opponent: To Vladimir after beating him and his Revenants in an honor duel.

Ireena Kolyana

Race: Human

Class: Cleric (Light Domain) / Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)

Alignment: Neutral Good

The 18 year old daughter of the deceased Burgomaster of the Village of Barovia, Kolyan Indirovich, Ireena begins the story simply wanting to leave to continue her Cleric training and have some respite from the attentions of one of Strahd von Zarovich, whose presence in her life has caused nothing but trouble. Along the way Ireena has discovered a lot more about herself and her place in the world than she ever wished to know.

• Apologizes a Lot: Ireena sitting the party down to apologize is becoming a pattern. The first time it's for turning herself in to Izek, the second it's for keeping Tatyana's presence in her head a secret.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Her decision to turn herself in to Izek to try and save Sebastian is a classic example, since her mental state at the time simply wanted everything to STOP (which turned out to be subconsciously from Tatyana). She later admits what an incredibly stupid move that was.
• Aura Vision: Following Strahd's first bite she gains the ability to see if someone has a soul. She also gains Divine Sense as part of her Paladin powers, though she has to consciously activate it.
• Blinded by the Light: Warding Flare, which is part of the Light Cleric package, is essentially a flashbang that she can use a reaction to impose Disadvantage on an attack against her. She uses it repeatedly against Izek when he (yet again) tries to run off with her as they flee the Church.
• Braids of Action: One she becomes a Paladin she starts wearing her hair in a single long braid. She eventually cuts off the braid and leaves it with Izek's body when they cremate it.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: As they discovered at Madame Eva's camp, Ireena has no head for wine and got astoundingly drunk. Given what happened to her later probably counts as Throw the Dog a Bone since it was the last time she had an honest to god good time before things went even further to hell.
• Character Development: She goes from hotheaded and impulsive to a lot colder and calculating as the game goes on.
• Chekhov's Gun: She learns the Ceremony spell early on in the game, much much later after everyone else had forgotten about it she uses the Atonement portion of it to fix Ivan's alignment shift.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Subjected to this by the Baron after she alerts him to her presence. While part of it was him looking for information, an equal part was him just being an asshole. It's part of the reason she's a lot colder once she comes back to the party, and she's been struggling with nightmares and PTSD from it (and all the other crap she's had to deal with) ever since.
• Compelling Voice: Via the Command spell. Since it's way too similar to Strahd's Charm it's her spell of last resort. Unfortunately Izek, whose dump stat happens to be Wisdom, keeps saving against it.
• Cooldown Hug: How she's eventually able to break Jarek out of his madness, taking a fair bit of damage in the process since he sees her as a minion of Strahd.
• Cool Horse: She eventually gains the ability to summon a Celestial mount, a warhorse she names Little Boy.
• Covert Pervert: Ezalor had a VERY strong physical effect on her the first time they met, but she was incredibly conflicted about this and kept it a secret, up to and including sleeping away from the rest of the group not just because of her nightmares but to take care of the resulting frustration herself. She's also the instigator when they finally do have sex and rolled a 17 to his 7, meaning she was definitely the one on top.
• Crisis of Faith: Nearly has one following the events at the Blue Water Inn when she reached for her holy symbol for comfort and found the metal burning her flesh, which triggered her first bout of Unstoppable Rage directed at Riki. It nearly happens again at Van Richten's tower when, during her private heart to heart with the Doctor, she reaches for it and is prepared to rip it from her neck and fling it into the wall before she realizes it no longer hurts her.
• Crucified Hero Shot: She ends up strapped to a cross in the Baron's mansion when he decides to first beat and then interrogate her.
• Crush Blush: When they have to infiltrate Vallaki to get to Karl Wachter, Ezalor proposes dressing as a noble and having Ireena pretend to be his wife. Her reaction is to turn scarlet and start stammering.
• Cuddle Bug: She frequently ends up hugging her party members.
• Daddy's Girl: To Kolyan, which is why his death was especially hard on her.
• Damsel in Distress: To her great and eternal irritation, Ireena being kidnapped has become a Running Gag.
• Deconstruction: Her player states that she views Ireena as one to the whole MacGuffin Girl trope, showing that in real life someone with so little control over her life would be incredibly angry and resentful over her situation, and prone to hotheaded mistakes as a result.
• Determinator: The fact that she does not give up is both a bane and a boon to her. On the one hand, her determination eventually led her to develop an immunity Strahd's Charm from sheer willpower, but on the other she had to be practically dragged out of Vallaki because she was determined to fix the terrible situation the party had gotten into because of her reckless actions following Strahd's attack on her. She also manages to finally put down Izek while barely standing.
• Doom Magnet: She's come to believe that anyone who associates with her is destined for misfortune.
• Eating the Eye Candy: During her first conversation with Ezalor Ireena is transfixed by his abs. Only Ivan noticed.
• Elective Mute: For the first several years living with Kolyan and Ismark she barely spoke except to them, and would go silent for long periods if she met anyone new or was angry. She had a brief relapse of this following the first escape from Vallaki when she barely spoke a word or met anyone's eyes for an entire day until they reached Van Richten's tower.
• Emotion Bomb: Calm Emotions, which she now has permanently prepped in case Glaedr's madness gets triggered. Can also Frighten enemies using her Channel Divinity and reduce their speed to 0 as part of her Vengeance Paladin package.
• Entertainingly Wrong: A number of her more prominent mistakes are because of this. For instance, thinking the Baron would listen to her because she assumed he was like her father, and her belief that Tatyana was her mother's ghost, since she never got a clear look at her face until she was bitten the first time.
• Establishing Character Moment: When the party meets her and Ismark the first thing she does is angrily rebuke her brother for downplaying the role of Strahd in the nightmare their lives had become since he first appeared, which resulted in their father's death. Later, when Strahd appeared in person to crash her father's funeral her first reaction to seeing him was to Burning Hands him.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: At Van Richten's tower she was the last party member left standing after the second Tombstone golem wiped everyone else out. To make it worse, she had tried to stabilize her party members only to realize her magic didn't work because of the necromantic magic present in the building, so she was totally helpless to save them.
• Everyone's Baby Sister: Along with being seen this way by her actual brothers, both adopted and biological, she gets treated this way by the party, to her irritation. It's part of the reason she decided to become a Paladin so she could start holding her own. It doesn't help that she's still in her teens, since everyone else is at least in their 20s (Savana, Riki and Ezalor, with the last one being Older Than They Look and only physicall in his 20s) 30s (Ivan) or 40s (Glaedr) or that she is still very much a teenager when it comes to her emotional maturity.
• Fiery Redhead: Red-haired and as a Light Cleric most of her attack spells are fire based.
• First-Name Basis: Addresses almost everyone by first name, which makes the fact that she never calls Strahd by name (always calling him "he" or "him") especially telling. She'll also call people she respects by title, i.e. Van Richten is "Doctor", priests are "Father" and The Baron was called by his title by her. Since learning of their relationship she only ever addresses Izek as "Brother."
• Freudian Slip: Right before the final battle for Vallaki begins, Ireena tells Van Richten that she finally put down Izek and he praises her, causing her to unthinkingly say "Thanks, Dad." Unfortunately she rolled crap on her Insight check right after and wasn't even aware she did that or why he reacted by walking away with an odd look on his face.
• Glacier Waif: After taking her Paladin oath, Ireena wields a huge, two-handed axe that does absurd amounts of damage (specifically 2d10, which comes straight out of the sourcebook since it used to be Izek's) but she's an average-size 18 year old girl.
• Happily Adopted: She was very happy with Kolyan and Ismark, though she didn't know she wasn't their natural child.
• The Heart: Is the emotional center of the party. In terms of gameplay stats her Wisdom score eventually increases to 19, which means she's very empathic and intuitive.
• Heroic BSoD: Following Ismark’s death and being bit by Strahd the first time, which only ended after Van Richten gives her guidance and puts her on the path to becoming a Paladin.
  • Has another one following Strahd's attack on Argynovstholt, due to the combined effect of being forced to make a Sadistic Choice between Nedlovich and one of the children and having Tatyana's nature revealed to her. Later, in Krezk, the statue of Sergei von Zarovich sends her into another one.
• Holy Hand Grenade: Radiance of the Dawn, her Channel Divinity, is quite effective at taking out large groups of enemies, especially undead.
• Horrible Judge of Character: A recurring problem with her, perhaps best demonstrated when she thinks she can reason with The Baron only to get beaten, tortured and bit again for her trouble.
• Horsing Around: After summoning her Paladin mount for the first time, she attempts to jump him over a fence but he stops short, sending her flying through the air and into a bush. Part of it was her rolling a 1 on an Animal Handling check, while another was the summoned mount being far smarter than a regular horse (and being based on a real-life pony who would do exactly that).
• Hourglass Plot: Ireena and Tatyana eventually fall into this. When she's first revealed, Tatyana is the strong presence trying to protect Ireena and hold her up, but after learning the truth about what really happened to Sergei their roles invert and Ireena is now the one holding up Tatyana, who realizes now that the hatred for Strahd that was keeping her together was totally misdirected.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Following her first encounter with Izek, which left her terrified, she hid behind Glaedr's shield since he's over a foot and a half taller than she is and several times her weight.
• I Am Who?: Following Izek telling her she's his biological sister she's unsure of who she is anymore. The only thing she's reasonably sure of is her first name since that's what Izek calls her.
• Important Haircut: She cuts off her braid and leaves it with Izek's body when they cremate him. It not only makes her resemble her child self, who had short hair, but represents asserting herself as a different person from Tatyana, whose own hair is down to her waist.
• Interrogated for Nothing: When the Baron had her tortured for information on Lady Wachter it proves pointless since she had never so much as met the Lady and had nothing to offer besides the fact that she had sent the party an invitation.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Her justification for giving herself up to Izek, and seeing as she'd just been through the worst 24 hours of her life her judgment was not at its best. Similarly, her plan to bust herself out of the Baron's mansion by alerting him to her presence once she realized the sort of man he really was.
• It's All My Fault: Following the first escape from Vallaki, since the entire series of events that forced her to flee was kicked off by her turning herself in to Izek.
• Last of His Kind: After taking her Paladin Oath, she's officially the last living member of the Order of Vengeance, since they had all died out prior to the story.
• Lie Detector: Following the second escape from Vallaki, she's so desperate to be believed by the party about Tatyana and her experiences with her that she casts a Zone of Truth and steps into it while deliberately failing the save against it. Had the Baron not tortured her for information she was going to do this upon revealing her presence to him as part of her gambit to turn him and Izek on each other. It finally gets used for its intended purpose against Henrick at the Amber Temple and makes him squirm quite a bit.
• Locked Out of the Loop: She didn't know she was adopted. The party has also decided to keep her in the dark about the heist to steal St. Flanderhal's bones.
• MacGuffin Girl: In the original module, Ireena is an NPC and basically this. In this game as a PC she has a little more free will, but often ends up fulfilling this role, to her great irritation.
• Magic Knight: After becoming a Paladin can dish out a lot of damage, but still is primarily a spellcaster due to having levels in Cleric.
• Manipulative Bitch: During her second captivity in the Baron's mansion she starts developing into this, successfully figuring out what makes Izek tick and managing to alert the Baron to her presence. Unfortunately she severely underestimated how cruel and stupid the latter was. It works a little better against Saphirion, with her deliberately cowering behind Glaedr and pretending to be terrified as she handed over her gold, which covered up the fact that she only gave about a third of what she really had.
• Martyr Without a Cause: Due to an over-developed sense of personal responsibility, and at least partly from Tatyana, whose own desire to get out of Ravenloft manifests in Ireena as acting subconsciously suicidal.
• Mayfly–December Romance: With Ezalor, who's actually 150 years old to her 18.
• The Medic: As the Cleric of the group. Her player originally debated making her a Paladin right out of the gate but picked a Cleric because it a.) made more sense story wise and b.) she thought it was important to have a designated healer in the party early on. Which made it kind of funny when she became a Paladin anyway due to in-game events.
• Messy Hair: Her hair is horrendous when she first wakes up. After she cuts it and leaves her braid with Izek's body it's particularly messed up, even more so after she and Ezalor finally bang right before the final battle in Vallaki which is part of how Ivan figures out what just happened.
• Mundane Utility: She's used Silence (a 2nd level Cleric spell) on herself to avoid having to listen to particularly obnoxious or disgusting sounds. The first time she uses it when Ezalor is hammering to repair the winery and she's trying to sleep, then she does it again when Riki and Jenny reunite and have carnal relations within earshot of everyone in the tavern.
• No-Sell: She's given the Order of Vengeance armor by Van Richten, which gives her a high AC (22 with a shield, 20 without) and causes Crits to count as regular damage.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: When she first encountered Izek she was absolutely terrified of him and his seeming obsession with her, and following the Trauma Conga Line of being bitten by Strahd the first time gave herself up to him partly because she was tired of running. By the second time he captured her her attitude had changed completely and she pitied rather than feared him and was fairly successful in manipulating him.
• Now or Never Kiss: When Ezalor decides to leave after Riki returns, she walks up and kisses him, telling him that they'll sort it out if she survives.
• Oh, Crap!: At the Windmill, the second she hears someone calling her name in the distance she has this reaction since it could only be one person, and this is proven right when Izek shows up with a squad of guards, separates her from the rest of the party and manages to make off with her.
  • Also her reaction when she realizes that The Abbot is not only a Celestial but an extremely powerful one. She spends the next several minutes trying to keep a poker face while trying to make eye contact with her companions and warn them to not provoke him, and flat out panics when she realizes Savana tried to read his mind but got caught. Luckily she manages to smooth things over enough that they can continue to speak to him.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Following her heart-to-heart with Van Richten and finding out what Izek's lacking a soul means, she pulls Glaedr aside and asks that if they run into him again he let her make the killing blow, since she holds herself responsible for what happened to him and for preventing Glaedr from killing him when he was knocked out, something she now regrets. She makes good on it eventually and puts him down.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Ever since her experiences in the Baron's dungeon, has been experiencing these nightly, and often ends up screaming in her sleep as a result. She's taken to sleeping away from the group to keep them from finding out, but this doesn't last long.
• Past-Life Memories: Once she learns Tatyana's name, she starts getting bits and pieces, and gets all her memories of Sergei back at once upon seeing a statue of him.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: She's only 5'2" and rather thinly built, but once she gains enough Paladin levels she starts throwing high level smites around like nobody's business.
• Precision F-Strike: Ireena's well bred enough that she almost never swears. When she does it's usually a sign to watch out. She also responds to the news of the death of the Burgomaster of Krezk's son with a cluster S bomb, since she had debated visiting the previous day to offer her assistance only to find out he died during the night of his illness.
  • Happens again, with her outright declaring "Fuck!" when she figures out Ezalor was last seen headed to the Village of Barovia, where Madam Eva told them Izek now was.
• Pre-Climax Climax: Right before the party starts the final fight for Vallaki she takes Ezalor into a side room and jumps his bones.
• Pretend to Be Brainwashed: When Strahd tries to Charm her in the Baron's torture chamber she discovers that she's now immune to it, but with Tatyana's help plays along until they can strike at him.
• Rage Against the Heavens: When she confronts the vestiges in the Amber Temple she demands to know the reasons for their actions, and when they say she can never escape Ravenloft without their help she responds "Watch me" and smashes one of the sarcophagi with her axe
• Reincarnation: She's the latest incarnation of Tatyana
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Which marks her as a reincarnation of Tatyana
• Spotting the Thread: She realized Tatyana's memories were altered after noticing several inconsistencies, like the fact that when she saw the sword enter Sergei's body she never saw the attacker, because it was Tatyana's own hands on the blade.
• Stress Vomit: Her reaction to seeing The Abbot's flesh golem, which bears an unmistakable resemblance to her, is to go white as a sheet and run out into the hallway where she vomits. She fares a little better the second time they encounter the golem, but purposefully keeps from looking directly at it.
• Strolling Through the Chaos: After an outright melee ensues following Ivan shooting Victor Vallakovich in the leg, Ireena is freed by Van Richten and Savana from her restraints and is told to run, but she refuses and strides right into the chaos where she casts Calm Emotions with a yell of "Everyone, STOP!" and actually succeeds in halting the fight for a few moments. She repeats this in the final fight against Izek in the Village of Barovia yelling for her allies to not interfere after she uses a Compelled Duel to draw her quarry to her.
• Token Human: After Ivan is infected with lycanthropy she's the only full human of the party, and Strahd's two bites on her make even that somewhat questionable.
• Too Clever by Half: Her plan to break herself out of the Baron's mansion following being held there by Izek for the second time boils down to this, since while the the first part worked and she was able to attract the Baron's attention she severely underestimated just how cruel and stupid he really was.
• Took a Level in Badass: After becoming a Paladin, Ireena becomes one of the two heavy hitters of the group along with Glaedr.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: According to Daddy's Girl, prior to Strahd's arrival in her life the 18 year old Ireena was almost unrecognizable as the the mud-streaked, teary-eyed and nearly mute 4 year old Kolyan first encountered after she was found wandering in the woods.
• Trauma Conga Line: Good Lord where to start.
  • Before the game even began, she lost her father after he suffered a stroke from the stress of being under siege by Strahd's wolves and zombies, and initially encountered the party trying to find someone to help them bury him.
  • During her father's funeral Strahd appears and crashes it, then kidnaps Ismark and makes off with him.
  • In Vallaki at the Blue Water Inn Strahd first draws her into a dream where he tries to convince her to accept him, and when he's rebuffed again wakes her up (while keeping the rest of the party asleep) and threatens the life of Ismark, who she can see being held outside with two zombie guards standing over him with halberds, in exchange for letting him inside. Ireena refuses, and hears Ismark scream her name before the halberd comes down and takes off his head. Ireena can do nothing but weep in response.
  • Then Strahd breaks all the windows with his bats and ghouls and attacks the party, and to lure Ireena outside uses his Charm Person on her and forcing her to kiss him before he bites her. The party is only saved by the timely intervention of Van Richten.
  • Once she wakes up she discovers that she can now see if someone has a soul or not as a result of Strahd's bite and goes to identify Ismark's now headless body and breaks down, then outright attacks Riki when she sees that he had been fucking Jenny Greenteeth as she was doing that.
  • Turns herself in to Izek Strazni in exchange for letting Sebastian go, whereupon she finds out that he's her biological brother and that her family never told her she was adopted.
  • Ends up having to flee Vallaki and then witnesses the entire party save Ivan fall to the Tombstone golem, and is only saved by the intervention of Van Richten.
  • After Izek captures her again she succeeds in getting Baron Vallakovich's attention... whereupon her tortures her for information she was going to tell him voluntarily, reveals he already told Strahd she was there and panics when he realizes he had just damaged the woman Strahd's pursuing. And once Strahd actually shows up she sees the Baron's heart get ripped straight out of his chest, at which point she blacks out.
  • Gets bitten by Strahd again while pretending to be under the effects of his Charm with the guidance of Tatyana but is able to escape Vallaki with the help of the party.
  • Ends up triggering Glaedr's Madness by accident and ends up attacked and nearly killed by him, which brings out Tatyana for the second time.
  • Is forced into a Sadistic Choice between Father Nedlovich and one of the Martikov children by Strahd and chooses the latter, seeing the former suffer a Neck Snap, and then has Tatyana's name and true nature revealed to her by Strahd.
  • Sees a statue of Sergei von Zarovich and immediately remembers everything about him, being the beginning of getting memories from Tatyana.
• Tranquil Fury: Following taking her Vengeance Paladin Oath, Ireena becomes scarily quiet when she'e enraged. The only outward sign of this is the temperature of the air around her increasing several degrees because of her various fire powers.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: She has no clear memories before the age of 4, which was when she was found wandering in the woods near the Village of Barovia and adopted by Kolyan. She eventually finds out that she ended up fleeing when she saw Izek get attacked by a direwolf, which resulted in the loss of his arm, and she was assumed dead by her biological family.
• Unstoppable Rage: Especially after being bitten by Strahd for the first time has had moments of this, most prominently when she attacked Riki after she realized he'd been fucking Jenny Greentooth while she was identifying Ismark's body. Almost happened again at Van Richten's tower until she realized her holy symbol wasn't burning her any longer. This turns out to be Tatyana coming through something Yevgeny noticed the first time and tried to warn the party about.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's terrified of heights, and spent most of their trek up Mt. Baratok in some state of panic. Undoubtedly subconscious memory from Tatyana's suicide.
• Will Not Be a Victim: She tries, and specifically became a Paladin to try and hold her own, but she keeps having to be bailed out.
• With Catlike Tread: Almost as bad as Glaedr in this regard since she rolls with Disadvantage due to her armor, which is why she usually doesn't even try. When Zuleika asks her if she'll be stealthing ahead Ireena's response is to tap on her breastplate by way of explanation.
• Written-In Absence: Her player had to miss a session, so during the party's exploration of Argynovstholt Ireena was off chatting with Father Nedlovich, in-universe explaining why she'd taken another Cleric and a Paladin level (and officially taking her Oath) once she returned.

Ivan Stockholm

Race: Human / Werewolf

Class: Ranger / Rogue

Alignment: Neutral Good

A ranger with a particular vendetta against werewolves, prior to the story Ivan was forced to put down his wife Ramona after she acquired the curse.

• The Alcoholic: Never seen without his flask of spirit... until it was stolen, at least, at which point he ends up Nailed to the Wagon and detoxing from alcohol. Ironically his "death" and first transformation into a werewolf seem to have cured his alcoholism.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: His shooting of Victor Vallakovich, since he didn't realize his target was a.) a young boy b.) trying to heal Riki, not hurt him.
• Back from the Dead: Subverted, following his return Ireena confirms with Divine Sense that he's not an undead, since his lycanthropy actually saved him from the Assassins' poison by kickstarting his first transformation, so he never technically died.
• Bad Liar: Called such by Yevgeny, who not only figured out him and Muriel were an item but had already sussed out that Ivan had become infected with lycanthropy before he got Ivan to admit it.
• Brick Joke: Early in the campaign, Ivan shot out the eye of a Barbarian who swore revenge on him and fled. Many sessions later at the winery that same Barbarian appears and makes a beeline for Ivan... who has no idea who he is thanks to his amnesia.
• Cartwright Curse: His wife Ramona died prior to the game, and Muriel gets captured by Rahadin and assumed dead for a time. After he returns the party has decided to not tell him the details of the former (since he incorrectly believes "werewolves killed her" and doesn't remember he had to put her down himself) and not mention the latter, fearing what it would do to his already fragile mind. Eventually he does remember Muriel and reacts as expected.
• The Chew Toy: Partly because his player does great pain, and in-universe why no one in the party intervened when he was hitting on "Rika" aka Riki Disguised in Drag. They did at least buy him a round of drinks as penance for that one.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Tortured and then killed a werewolf for information in a scene straight from Reservoir Dogs.
• Crusading Widower: His life purpose is to hunt down the werewolves responsible for his wife's death.
• Determinator: At Van Richten's tower managed to wake himself up after taking a beating from the Tombstone golem out of sheer willpower (his player rolled a nat 20 on his Death Save).
• Did You Just Have Sex?: Right before the final battle in Vallaki, Ivan sees an unusually smiley Ireena with her hair clearly messed up return after going off with Ezalor for a bit, and he can smell it on her thanks to his werewolf senses.
• Driven to Suicide: Was almost pushed into this after his lyncanthropy infection. Ireena talked him out of it.
• Enemy Within: He refers to his lycanthropy as "the wolf" and views it this way. It becomes the dominant part of his personality after he fails a save against transforming and becomes Chaotic Evil as a result, and is the reason he gets his amnesia cured instead of the lycanthropy at the magic fountain in Krezk. Luckily Ireena manages to subdue it using the Atonement spell and send it back into his subconscious when she restores his usual alignment.
• Face–Heel Turn: He loses his save against resisting the effects of his lycanthropy when he starts to turn during the attack at Argynvostholt, and becomes both Chaotic Evil and beholden to Dormund as a result. His alignment is eventually fixed via an Atonement spell from Ireena.
• Forest Ranger: His specialty, mostly with tracking and finding wolves, his favored enemy.
• Forgot About His Powers: After coming back, he has to be reminded that the ring he picked up in the Baron's mansion can be used to cast Speak With Animals.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: After becoming a werewolf.
• Kill the Ones You Love: He was forced to put down his wife Ramona, and is forced to fight Muriel by Dormund.
• Loophole Abuse: The party eventually figures out a solution to his werewolf transformations this way. Mainly, he only transforms if there's a full moon present, but the Leomund's Tiny Hut spell creates an extradimensional space that doesn't have a moon. So their solution to the problem was to toss him into a hut on the night of the full moon and keep him from transforming.
• The Lost Lenore: His wife, Ramona.
• Lunacy: His first werewolf transformation was set to occur at the full moon. And in Barovia the lunar cycle is only four days.
• The Nose Knows: Has a greatly enhanced sense of smell following his infection with lycanthropy.
• Not Quite Dead: He appeared to have died from the effects of the wyvern poison used by the Vistani assassins who ambushed the party, but his imminent werewolf transformation saved him.
• Oh, Crap!: This was his reaction when Yevgeny pulled him aside and told him to treat Muriel well, at which point he figured out the wolfhunter had a thing for her and was not-at-all-subtly threatening him.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Shooting Victor Vallakovich had dire consequences for the entire party. When he comes back with no memory he's absolutely flabbergasted to hear about it and insists he would never do such a thing.
• Only Sane Man: Following the near TPK at Van Richten's tower, the widower, detoxing alcoholic, soon-to-be-werewolf Ranger was technically the most mentally stable of the party. To everyone's collective horror.
• Painful Transformation: As his first transformation approached he started exhibiting more and more physical effects.
• Pre-Climax Climax: Following the battle at the Windmill, he convinces Muriel to share his bed for the night knowing that even if he doesn't die in the attempt to retrieve his companions his imminent werewolf transformation gives him limited time.
• Resist the Beast: He asks the Martikovs for techniques to help him keep control the next time he transforms. He tries when he starts to shift at Argynvostholt, but fails to do so.
• The Sneaky Guy: As a Ranger with a level in Rogue, he tends to be the one who sneaks up on areas to get a clear view of what's going on. And given his high modifier he's known to roll Stealth in the 30's.
• Spiteful Spit: After he decapitates Dormund he spits in the head's face before flinging it off a cliff.
• Staking the Loved One: He was forced to put down his wife Ramona using their inherited silverware once she was turned. He in turn fashioned said silverware into an arrow he intends to use to take out the werewolves responsible. The party was also afraid they'd have to do this for him.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: He manages to bed Muriel before he believes he's set to turn into a werewolf. Turns into Yank the Dog's Chain given what happens later.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The combination of the poison daggers and his first werewolf transformation have left him with amnesia about everything but the basic facts. He knows who he is, but not who the party is or why they're there. He also ends up accidentally triggering Glaedr's Madness after meeting up with the party again and has to be pulled off by his companions.
• Trigger-Happy: The reason the party had to flee Vallaki the first time, since he shot Victor Vallakovich in the leg thinking he was trying to hurt Riki when Victor was actually trying to heal him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Glaedr, since the two are almost always busting on each other for their various poor decisions. It helps that they're the two designated old guys of the group.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: He has no memory of his werewolf rampage and only remembers waking up covered in blood.
• Why Am I Ticking?: His first werewolf transformation was set to trigger the same night the party had to rescue Savana from the gallows. He had already begun to show some physical effects by the time of the attack on the Vistani camp and his "death" via wyvern poison.
• Would Hurt a Child: Unintentionally, but he did end up shooting the 13 year old Victor Vallakovich in the leg.
• Written-In Absence: His player has had to miss a couple sessions, so Ivan was at one point off tracking werewolves and met up with the party later to explain this absence. He also wasn't present during the wedding, but had the justification that he was (supposedly) dead.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Ivan has horrible luck, often managing to get a brief glimmer of hope before things go terribly again.
• You Are What You Hate: He acquires lycanthropy during a battle with a werewolf, to his great distress. Ireena basically has to talk him out of suicide as a result.

Riki

Race: Tiefling

Class: Wizard (School of Necromancy)

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

A Wizard with a particular interest in Necromancy, Riki joins seeking information on Khazan, a legendary Lich.

• Animate Dead: One of his abilities.
• Back from the Dead: Rises during his funeral as a Revenant before being dispatched by the party again. Then shows up again later. Finally gets ressurected for real by the Abbot.
• Bad Liar: His attempts to manipulate their Vistani captors ends with Savana's hand being cut off.
• Chaotic Stupid: Very much defined by this, made worse when he and Savana end up going off together repeatedly.
• The Corruption: His curse takes this form, spreading from his hand up his arm and eventually to his whole body.
• Disguised in Drag: Ended up cross-dressing as "Rika" a female Tiefling to try and infiltrate the Wachter house. The disguise was so successful that not only did the Wachters not have a clue, but afterwards he tricked Ivan (who kept failing Perception checks) into buying him dinner before he revealed it was actually him.
• Distressed Dude: Ends up captured along with Savana by the Vistani, though Van Richten manages to rescue him when he's being sent back to Vallaki for execution for his role in Victor's injury.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: With the possible exception of Savana, who often ended up with him in various shenanigans, most of the party didn't really trust him, and with good reason. Nonetheless Ireena's first Fireball was cast in memory of "that asshole."
• Game-Breaking Injury: His broken ribs, which ended up hampering him in combat since he kept having to make Con saves against it (and usually failing because that's his Dump Stat).
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: His basic motivation when he decided to sleep with Jenny following Strahd's attack on the Blue Water Inn. When Ireena, who had just gotten back from identifying her brother's body, saw this she straight up assaulted him for disrespect.
• Glass Cannon: Has terrible Con but eventually learned Fireball, which was used to wipe out an entire group of Lady Wachter's cultists in a single hit after they were lured into an alleyway.
• Horned Humanoid: As a Tiefling.
• Horror Hunger: Part of his curse is the desire for human flesh. Losing a Con save when it starts to affect him results in him attacking the closest person.
• Inept Mage: The entire reason he's in Barovia was because he was attempting a ritual to turn himself into a Lich that backfired, resulting in his body starting to decay and gaining a hunger for living flesh. He seeks Khazan's knowledge to try and cure it.
• It Amused Me: The reason for 99% of what he does, due to his alignment.
• Jerkass: A lot of his actions towards the party are of this nature, either deliberately keeping things from them or acting on his own without thought for how it will affect them.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Part of the chain of events that got the party kicked out of Vallaki the first time was Riki failing to check for traps and triggering the Warding Glyph on Victor Vallakovich's study door, which knocked him out cold.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: During his imprisonment at the Vistani camp the fact that Riki kept being ignored, since the Vistani didn't actually care about him and tried to hand him over the Baron the first chance they got, turned into a Running Gag. Ireena is also quite open about her animosity towards him and at one point threatens to straight up decapitate him if he sells out Van Richten.
• Necromancer: His specific school of Wizardry.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Becomes this to Ireena, who is increasingly and openly disdainful of him to the point of regularly threatening to cut his head off.
• Squishy Wizard: His Dump Stat is Constitution, and following the near TPK a Van Richten's tower acquires broken ribs that require him to make a saving throw to use his abilities.
• Took a Level in Badass: When he comes back to life, he's the same level as everyone else and has picked up multiple new spells. He also finally took Mage Armor so is less squishy, and in fact Savana is now squishier than he is in terms of stats.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: The aforementioned crossdressing incident ended with him deciding the gag had gone on long enough and revealing the truth to an unwary Ivan.
• We Need a Distraction: Raises several of Lady Wachter's cult members as zombies and uses them a distraction to allow the party to escape Wachterhaus. Earlier used the two reanimated werewolves as part of their attempt to lure out the Hags at the Windmill so they could rescue the captive child.
• Wild Card: As the sole member of the party who's not Good aligned.

Savana

Race: Half-Elf (Dusk Elf and Vistani)

Class: Bard / Warlock (Archfey Pact)

Alignment: Chaotic Good

A half-elf Bard, Savana tries to hide her heritage to avoid persecution. She is actually Savana Velikova, and was exiled from her tribe of Dusk Elves following Strahd's purge of their females because being half-Vistani from her father's side he couldn't actually kill her due to his deal with them. She eventually makes a pact with the Archfey, Titania, to become a Warlock.

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Her Leeroy Jenkins moment at the winery was blamed partly on her taking shelter in a room full of wine barrels for several hours after being separated from the party and having nothing better to do but drink it.
• Animals Hate Him: Or Sebastian at least, due to her Vistani heritage. She pretends to be ignorant of the reasons for this. Later on, Baba Lysaga starts sending hornets to repeatedly swarm and sting her.
• Arch-Enemy: Following the events at the Vistani camp she actually has two, one being Rahadin for killing her entire family, including Kasimir right in front of her, and Baba Lysaga due to her pact and the Fey betraying her great aunt Patrina.
• Attention Whore: Though she already had some of this (she is a Bard, after all) her Madness from temporarily dying has made Savana very much this. After Ivan reunites with the party with no memory she ends up causing Glaedr's own Madness to trigger when she complains that everyone's paying attention to Ireena, who was struggling to figure out how to explain the events in Vallaki to the party, and not her and Ivan calls her out on it.
• Chaotic Stupid: Often has shades of this, made worse when around Riki whose own Chaotic nature eggs her on. The other party members tried to avoid leaving them by themselves for this reason, but it kept happening anyway.
• Cool Big Sis: Is this to the Martikov children, since she often ends up going off to play with them.
• Damsel in Distress: Had to be rescued from the Vistani camp before she was set to be executed by Rahadin.
• Deal with the Devil: What her Pact boils down to, in her case she must bring "ultimate despair" to a rival Fey, Baba Lysaga.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: She has a bunch of posters made in Krezk insulting Baba Lysaga. Shortly afterwards she starts being followed and stung by hornets.
• Dope Slap: Ends up on the receiving end of this repeatedly from Ireena at the winery.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: As a result of her Vistani heritage has burgeoning Seer powers. So far she's only managed to get bits and pieces.
• The Exile: She learns that she was exiled because her Vistani heritage meant Strahd couldn't kill her due to his deal with them.
• The Fair Folk: The source of her Warlock powers, specifically from Titania, a particularly powerful Fey queen.
• Fingore: She loses all the fingers on her right hand while being held by the Vistani when her and Riki's attempts at persuasion fail.
• From Bad to Worse: Her captivity in the Vistani camp was this, since she ended up losing her hand and her grandfather by the end of it.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Her mutilated hand has hampered her repeatedly when it comes to certain ability checks like climbing, usually resulting in someone else having to help her up. She eventually gets it healed in Krezk.
• Generation Xerox: Her great aunt Patrina Velikova also made a pact with a powerful Fey. It did not end well for her.
• Go-Go Enslavement: She puts on this sort of outfit (specifically compared to Slave Leia) to get close enough to Karl Wachter to get the drop on him.
• Heroic BSoD: Following Kasimir's death. Yevgeny manages to pull her out of it.
• Heroic Seductress: She disguises herself as a member of Karl Wachter's harem, including what amounts to a Slave Leia costume, and convinces him to let her do a dance, which she uses as an opportunity to first cast Hold Person on him and then do a Lightning Bolt on him while he's paralyzed.
• I Am One of Those, Too: She managed to figure out that "Rictavio" was concealing some things since he claimed to be a half-elf who once ran a circus, and Savana is an actual half-elf who used to travel with a performing troupe.
• It's All About Me: Her specific Madness that she took after being temporarily killed by the Tombstone golem.
• It Is Personal With The Dragon: While she has plenty of reasons to want Strahd dead, his Number Two Rahadin has her special hatred for what he did to her family.
• Last of His Kind: She's the last (half)Dusk Elf female alive following Strahd and Rahadin's purge.
• Leeroy Jenkins: At the winery. The party eventually finds her after she ended up having to jump through a window to escape the army of plant monsters and Barbarians outside and got separated from the group, and with no on else around she proceeded to get wasted on the barrels of wine inside. (Out of game, her player was running late) When they later made their way to the basement and spied on a ritual with a Druid, several Barbarians and more plant creatures the group spent several minutes coming up with a plan on how to draw them through a narrow space and pick them off one by one... only for Savana to charge in front of everyone else to try and Hold Person the Druid, fail at it, and start the combat before anyone else was ready.
• Mind over Manners: Using her Detect Thoughts ability, she can either read just surface thoughts (which the target doesn't notice) or delve deeper, which can potentially be noticed. She tries this on The Abbot and nearly gets the party thrown out of the Abbey when he does notice.
• Mysterious Past: She had no idea she had any remaining family when she arrived in Barovia, and then once she found she did have some left saw Kasimir get murdered in front of her. The party had no idea her father had even survived the Dusk Elf genocide until nearly the end of the campaign since she rebuffed their early attempts to find out about her history.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: A recurring problem with her, since she doesn't think before she speaks.
• Out of Character Is Serious Business: She acts unusually subdued and cautious at Madame Eva's camp, a clue that she has history with the Vistani.
• Pass Fail: Usually keeps her ears covered by her hood but eventually revealed her heritage to the party, though it turns out Everybody Knew Already.
• Power at a Price: Her Warlock pact has bound her to serve Titania, up to and including giving up her soul if she fails in her task. She starts second-guessing her decision later.
• Quirky Bard: Her initial class, and she ended up becoming a Warlock mostly because she didn't feel useful or powerful enough to help the party after the events in Vallaki.
• Rapid Aging: Following her time in the Fey realm she literally aged 10 years overnight.
• Refuge in Audacity: Due to her high Charisma, and being a Bard. Plans that wouldn't work with anyone else manage to work because it's Savana.
• Secret Legacy: As a Velikov and the last surviving female Dusk Elf.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Once her Honey Trap ploy on Karl is over she's handed her clothes... and decides not to put them back on just yet. Earlier, she shamelessly lifted up her shirt to show her Warlock brand to the party.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Her response to Strahd trying to get her to turn on her friends in exchange for letting her people leave Barovia? Telling him to go fuck himself.
• Slave Brand: She gains Titania's symbol on her chest following making her Pact, and realizes with horror that it was the same mark she saw on the slaves during her time in the Fey realm.
• Sticky Fingers: She has a tendency to try and take anything that's not nailed down, especially when they find crates full of clothing is to start stuffing them into her bag of holding.
• Telepathy: She takes Detect Thoughts following her Warlock Pact.
• Took a Level in Badass: Since making her Pact.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Once her Madness takes hold she often ends up saying something insensitive or butting in on a conversation, which earns her a rebuke from Van Richten and activates Glaedr's Madness in turn.
• Trauma Conga Line: After her capture by the Vistani.
  • Thanks to Riki's failed attempt at manipulating their captors she loses her entire right hand and by extension her ability to play music, her one joy in life.
  • She discovers that her grandfather, Kasimir, is alive and learns of the fate of her mother and all the female Dusk Elves, who were killed by Rahadin at Strahd's orders.
  • Learns that her great aunt Patrina died as a result of being betrayed by her own patron Baba Lysaga, the very same fey Savana has contracted to bring "ultimate despair" to.
  • Watches as Kasimir is murdered in front of her by Rahadin and is forced to flee the camp.
• White-Haired Pretty Girl: Unlike most Dusk Elves, who tend to have dark hair, Savana has white hair.
• With Catlike Tread: Twice over at the winery. First, she called out to the cloaked figure in the woods and alerted a nearby patrol to their presence, which resulted in their first fight. Then she rolled a critical fail on a Stealth check as the party was attempting to sneak up to the building, resulting in her catching her foot on a root and doing a faceplant with a loud profanity, which alerted another group of enemies patrolling nearby. And unlike Glaedr and Ireena, both of whom roll with Disadvantage due to their armor, Savana is supposed to be stealthy.

Ezalor

Race: Wood Elf

Class: Monk

Alignment: Lawful Good

A high-elf Monk who joins after Riki's death, Ezalor is a Sun Monk from a distant land.

• And Show It to You: After spending multiple rounds wailing on a Barbarian who wouldn't go down Ezalor finally killed him by ripping his heart straight out of his back and chucking the heart at a nearby Twigblight as an improvised weapon, which killed it in one hit. Ireena nearly passed out because of witnessing the Baron's death in the same manner but kept it together.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Though he can wield weapons, he mostly just uses his fists.
• But Now I Must Go: After Riki rejoins, he leaves to go to Vallaki and help the monastery of Sun Monks that was inspired by seeing him in action.
• Butt-Monkey: He has an unfortunate habit of getting knocked out during fights, which seems to be a carry over from Riki, even if Ezalor is a much hardier character in terms of stats. He also ends up captured and tortured by Izek after he tries to escort Gertrude home to the Village of Barovia.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: He had no inkling that Ireena had a thing for him up until she kissed him as he was leaving.
• Death from Above: How he takes out Dormund after Glaedr shoots him off a cliff, jumping down said cliff directly onto the werewolf with his dagger in hand and then following it up with a point-blank 5th level Burning Hands.
• Distressed Dude: He ends up captured and tortured by Izek.
• Innocent Fanservice Guy: He had no idea about the effect his constant shirtlessness has on Ireena.
• Lightning Bruiser: Very fast (to the point the DM just has a policy of "Tell me where Ezalor is going and he can probably reach it regardless of distance") and does quite a bit of damage with his fists.
• Looks Like Jesus: With the exception of being able to grow a beard (since he's a full-blooded elf) has this appearance, which leads to the Running Gag about him being a Kung-Fu Jesus. And then when he leaves the party after wishing for Riki to be resurrected the parallels to Lazarus are quite apparent.
• Mayfly–December Romance: With Ireena, who's actually 18 years old to his 150.
• Naïve Newcomer: He's a complete stranger to Barovia and has no idea about its history or people.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His offering to escort Gertrude back to the Village of Barovia gets him captured and tortured by Izek.
• Older Than They Look: His player revealed Ezalor is actually about 150 years old. He looks about 20.
• Pre-Climax Climax: Right before the party starts the final fight for Vallaki Ieeena takes him into a side room and jumps his bones.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Consciously averted. He and Riki have the same player, but couldn't be more opposite in terms of morality and skill sets. While Riki was a spellcaster Ezalor is primarily a physical combatant, and while Riki was Chaotic Neutral Ezalor is Lawful Good.
• Token Good Teammate: Though all of the party is Good aligned, at least on paper, Ezalor is the only one who's explicitly Lawful Good. Which in Barovia makes him stand out quite a bit.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He has yet to put on a shirt the entire time he's been present. Which Ireena has found to be incredibly distracting.
• Walk on Water: Eventually gains this ability, which just adds to the Running Gag about him being Jesus.
• Walking Spoiler: His existence spoils that Riki stays dead, at least for a little while.
• Worf Had the Flu: He doesn't directly participate in the final battle in Vallaki because his arm got broken while he was being tortured by Izek. Humorously, this is also the explanation as for why he only rolled a 7 to Ireena's 17 when they finally bang.

Guest Party Members

Muriel Vinshaw

Race: Human / Wereraven

Class: Rogue

Alignment: Chaotic Good

A Wereraven and ally of the Martikov family, Savana's player took over Muriel while Savana was indisposed. Also became Ivan's girlfriend after first meeting him in raven form and helping him out from time to time.

• Action Girlfriend: To Ivan. After she goes stab happy all the males in the party find it hot as a free action.
• Animal Companion: Initially served as one to Ivan before revealing herself.
• Ascended Extra: Started as an NPC who occasionally interacted with Ivan in bird form, but briefly became a full-fledged PC when Savana was captured by the Vistani.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: As a Wereraven, is very distracted by shinies.
• Brainless Beauty: She's quite attractive and Yevgeny claims there are a ton of men in Vallaki who'd kill to be in Ivan's shoes, but even (or in Yevgeny's case, especially) the people who like her admit Muriel's a bit dim.
• Clever Crows: As a Wereraven.
• The Ditz: Not the sharpest tool in the shed by a long shot. When the party is trying to steal the bones from the Church, she makes both Ivan and Yevgeny facepalm at her complete ignorance of anything religious, to the bafflement of the altar boy keeping an eye on them.
• Happily Adopted: By the Martikovs, who took her in after finding her as an orphan.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Before being taken in by the Martikovs.
• In the Back: Her preferred method of attack, being a Rogue.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Didn't know Ivan was a werewolf until Yevgeny revealed it... after the two had already slept together. Whoops.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Though she already had Kleptomaniac Hero traits, being a former street urchin, becoming a wereraven definitely enhanced them.
• Morphic Resonance: Her teal hair streaks also show up in her raven form.
• Naked People Trapped Outside: Narrowly averted. The party first encountered Muriel in raven form and found her clothes stashed in a tree. Savana wanted to take them but was luckily talked out of it, and instead the party left a note stating they were friendly. This means there potentially could have been a very unhappy, naked Wereraven running about.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: She's a Wereraven, and has in addition to her humanoid Wereraven form a regular raven form she can assume.
• Perky Goth: Dresses in dark colors but very chipper and friendly.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Ivan. To Yevgeny's clear irritation.
• Sticky Fingers: Both from being a rogue and a Wereraven, things tend to go missing around her.
• Uncertain Doom: Last seen engaged with Rahadin as Ezmerelda flees the Vistani camp with Savana, leaving her fate unknown. She eventually turns up in Dormund's werewolf camp, where she's forced to fight Ivan.
• Voice Changeling: Her natural mimicry abilities as a raven helped the party considerably as they were being chased through Vallaki.
• We Need a Distraction: When the party is trying to sneak into the Church so they can steal the bones, she convinces her raven friends that Izek is in possession of precious shinies and gets them to mob him and clear a path for them to get inside.
• Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: She was quite displeased when Ivan called her by a male name back when she was pretending to be a regular raven.

Yevgeny Pavlovich

Race: Human

Class: Ranger

Alignment: True Neutral

A wolf hunter and occasional hunting buddy of Ivan, Ireena's player took over Yevgeny while Ireena was captured.

• Acting for Two: Averted, since both Yevgeny and Ireena ended up in the fight at the wedding, but Ireena's player found it too complicated to control both characters at once so the DM had Yevgeny tackle a vampire spawn into a room to get him offstage and make the board a little easier to follow. The most the two interacted was Yevgeny shouting "Good to see you again, девушка!" as they ran from the Church. They only formally interact in the side story Dark Eyes set during session 14.
• Ascended Extra: Started as an NPC who occasionally interacted with Ivan, but briefly became a full-fledged PC when Ireena was captured again.
• Badass Normal: Yevgeny is the only one of the group to be a normal baseline human, since Muriel and Ivan are a wereraven and werewolf respectively. Besides a few Ranger spells all of his skills are based around shooting and tracking.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: A firm believer in this, and offers to put down Ivan if he turns and can't control his transformation into a werewolf to spare his companions from having to do it. Ends up being unnecessary.
• Bad Liar: Calls himself one, which is why he tries to avoid it whenever possible and leave it to Szoldozar. When trying to infiltrate the church he attempts to get the invisible Jenny's attention by quietly singing to her, not realizing that she was unable to enter the grounds at all due to the active wards, and instead attracts the attention of the altar boy following them who wants to know what he's doing. He stammers a quick explanation about it being a song from his homeland and when pressed quickly has to make one up, performing it badly, which just makes the altar boy more suspicious. In terms of gameplay stats his Charisma is a 10, completely average, and he has no bonuses to any of his Charisma abilities with the exception of Persuasion.
• Being Personal Isn't Professional: His method of reconciling his two sides, since he's Neutral Good in his personal life and Neutral Evil professionally, with the only difference between him and Izek being that he doesn't enjoy being cruel. He makes an exception when he kills Arrigal and Luvash, stating he enjoyed those kills because they killed Ivan and Riki.
• Berserk Button: Liars. The fact that Ivan admitted to being infected with lycanthropy when confronted earned him a lot of points with Yevgeny.
• The Big Guy: After Glaedr, he's the physically largest party member at over six feet tall. At the Wachterhaus he let Muriel do the talking when they were interrogating a maid and simply stood behind her with a vaguely threatening expression.
• Bilingual Bonus: A lot of his dialog and nicknames for the party are actual Russian. Because his player can actually speak it.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He loves women and makes no secret of it, but if one turns him down that's the end of it. He considers Ireena completely off limits due to her age, hence referring to her as "девушка"^note girl. He also asked out Muriel prior to the story and was turned down (in part because he's old enough to be her dad) and at least outwardly accepted it, though it's clear he's still carrying a torch for her.
• Comicbook Fantasy Casting: His player says she pictures him as being played by Jerome Flynn.
• Cool Old Guy: He's 46, which he points out in Barovia is like dog years. And he hasn't survived that long without dirtying his hands a lot.
• Crazy-Prepared: He was coming up with plans to put Ivan down if he turned as soon as he figured out he'd been infected with lycanthropy. When Ivan's impending transformation started causing obvious physical effects Yevgeny strode right over to him to get between him and Muriel, with his hand hovering over the handle of his silver hatchet in case he had to pull it.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Is used to working as a team with Szoldozar, a Rogue, so is mainly focused on long range combat. When forced into a close quarters battle in the basement of Wachterhaus he admits he's out of his element.
• Cross Player: Despite being a male character, Yevgeny was played in real life by a female. Which resulted in occasional moments of Pronoun Trouble, including an inevitable "Did you just misgender that Russian?" (based off the previous "Did you just misgender that raven?" Running Gag)
• Dying Curse: Arrigal and Luvash both tried to inflict these on him after he gave them an Impromptu Tracheotomy, but he made the save both times and mocked their attempts.
• Ethical Slut: He's very much the "if everyone's aware of it and okay with it, anything goes" type of hedonist. Between the different towns and villages in Barovia he has quite a few lovers who are all aware of each other, and says he's still on friendly terms with another who decided it wasn't working out and is now her son's godfather.
• Friendly Sniper / Cold Sniper: Yevgeny's skills are mostly based on noticing and shooting things from a safe distance. He's pleasant enough in person, but if he's out for your life he's cold as ice.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Izek Strazni and Strahd von Zarovich are the only characters he refers to by full name, which is because he absolutely hates both of them.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Stepped in a bear trap while stealthing towards the Vistani encampment, the pain of which which distracted him and allowed Arrigal and Luvash to get the drop on the party (out of game, his player misunderstood how the Observant feat worked and forgot to add the bonus to Passive Perception and Investigation checks).
• Glass Cannon: Does an absurd amount of damage via his arrows, but doesn't do well at close quarters combat.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Towards Ivan once he sees he and Muriel are an item. He's still able to be civil to him but makes it crystal clear that he'll put Ivan down if he hurts Muriel or his werewolf curse endangers her in any way.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Szoldozar, to the point Yevgeny jokes they should just get married already since Szoldozar is already getting all his stuff if he croaks first and vice versa. They also refer to each other as "Szolya" and "Zhenya" in private.
• Hidden Depths: There's a lot more to this guy than meets the eye.
• Hyper-Awareness: Due to taking the Observant feat, has a Passive Perception of 20. Not much gets by him. He realizes Ivan had contracted lycanthropy almost immediately after meeting up with him again, correctly pegs the Baron as not being a "good man", citing his employment of Izek as evidence, and was also the first to notice Tatyana beginning to come through Ireena, and while he didn't know what he was seeing he definitely didn't like it and attempted to warn the party. His player (who also plays Ireena) admitted doing this was borderline breaking the fourth wall, but there was no way he would have missed it.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Rather blatantly threatens Ivan with this once he realizes he's gotten together with Muriel.
• Impromptu Tracheotomy: Inflicts this on Arrigal and Luvash for killing Ivan and Riki, and intentionally chosen because of how painful it is.
• Insistent Terminology: "Good men/women" are a very distinct group in his mind. And he's equally insistent that he's not one.
• Kubrick Stare: Gave Ivan one from the time he first realized that he was now an item with Muriel to when he was finally able to pull him aside and confront him about the latter, which was a double play that also got him to admit the former.
• Motor Mouth: Both times he and Szoldozar met back up with each other after their individual missions they proceeded to fill each other in with rapid-fire Not!Russian.
• The Nicknamer: Almost never calls anyone by their actual name, instead calling them a literal nickname, i.e. Savana is "серебрения"^note silver Riki is "красный" ^note red and later "Walking Disaster Area" once he gets to know him better, and Ireena is "девушка"^note girl. When he actually calls someone by name it's to get them to pay attention to him, and with Muriel, always addresses her by name because she always need to pay attention. He also refers to Szoldozar as "Szolya" in private and is called "Zhenya" by him in turn.
• Only Sane Man: Reacts to the party's various issues the way most people would, with complete and utter bafflement.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Accidentally outed Ivan as a werewolf to Muriel, who didn't know, during a rant about the party's various dysfunctions. He did apologize to Ivan later and assured him it wasn't deliberate relationship sabotage, but also pointed out that he only said it thinking Muriel already knew, which she should have.
• Protectorate: Towards Muriel, since despite their history he cares a lot about her. When Ivan starts being affected by his impending transformation and acting aggressively Yevgeny immediately interposes himself between him and Muriel with his hand hovering over the handle of his silver hatchet, just in case he has to use it.
• Punch-Clock Villain: What he previously was, telling himself that his evil actions were purely professional. Until he couldn't live with himself anymore and left.
• Rage Breaking Point: After Riki attacks Glaedr due to his curse Yevgeny has enough and starts laying out the party's various dysfunctions, accidentally outing Ivan as a werewolf to Muriel in the process.
• Retired Monster: He's done some very fucked up stuff in his life and tells Glaedr as much, with his player noting out of character that when looking into his eyes Glaedr would have gotten a similar effect to Rahadin (a guy who has killed so many people that he's surrounded by constant screaming voices) but on a much smaller scale. In fact, his player states that she headcanons him as once working for one Vlad Drakov, who in a previous Ravenloft version was the real-life Vlad Tepes to Strahd's Dracula in terms of brutality and actions towards civilians.
• Rousing Speech: Gives one to Savana following her rescue at the Vistani camp and the traumas she experienced there, essentially telling her to acknowledge her despair but push it aside until she can deal with it properly once they get Ireena back.
• Secret Test of Character: His "do you think I'm stupid?" routine to Ivan was one of these, since it was ostensibly about Muriel but actually about getting Ivan to admit being infected with lycanthropy. Luckily Ivan passed, otherwise their later interactions would have gone very differently.
• See You in Hell: His Pre-Mortem One-Liner to both Arrigal and Luvash after he deals them the killing blow.
• The Sneaky Guy: A number of his spells are based around getting in and out of a place without attracting attention and making a quick getaway. During the bone heist it's clear this isn't his first rodeo.
• Stealth Insult: Occasionally calls Muriel "кури́ная же́нщина", literally, "bird woman" but with the exact same connotations that "bird-brain" has in English.
• Terms of Endangerment: Refers to Ivan and Glaedr as "Ива́нычка"^note more or less "little Ivan"and "драконычка"^note more or less "little dragon" respectively when he's talking down to them and/or threatening them.
• Throw It In!: According to his player, the entire history between him and Muriel was one of these, since originally he was going to do his whole "do you think I'm stupid?" routine on Ivan under the pretext of asking about Muriel to try and get him to admit to being a werewolf, but as she was planning it his player realized that he actually had feelings for Muriel and filled in Muriel's player on what she was going to do in an out of game aside. Also counts as I Just Write the Thing.

Savid

Race: Dusk Elf

Class: Barbarian

Alignment: Neutral Good

A Dusk Elf originally encountered in the camp outside Vallaki, he allies with the party to help rescue Savana from the Vistani camp. Ivan's player took control of him twice, first following Ivan's "death" and then later when he undergoes his Face–Heel Turn and leaves with the werewolves.

• The Berserker: As a Barbarian, this is a class ability.
• Number Two: He's effectively the new leader of the Dusk Elves after Kasimir dies, since he was this to Kasimir when he was alive.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He remembers the time before the land was conquered by Strahd's father, and not only lived through that but also the genocide of the female members of his race. He's rather taciturn as a result.

Jenny Greentooth

Race: Green Hag

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Riki's criminal contact and a Green Hag, Riki's player took over Jenny temporarily when Riki was captured at the Vistani camp.

• Abhorrent Admirer: She's disgusting, but Riki decides to sleep with her anyway.
• Ascended Extra: Started as an NPC who occasionally interacted with Riki, but briefly became a full-fledged PC when Riki was captured by the Vistani.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: First seen dining on wolfsteak and toenail fungus.
• Brick Joke: Her burning woman gambit comes in handy later during the chase from the Wachterhaus when Muriel uses her mimicry to imitate a guard's voice saying they found her, causing a group of townspeople and guards to race off in pursuit and clear a path for them to the Church.
• Dirty Old Woman: Hits on Riki from the moment they meet and eventually succeeds in getting him into bed.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Is very fond of her "Riki-iki" and takes his death very hard.
• Fetch Quest: Gives one to Riki by asking him to get a particular enchanted mirror from the Baron's house. After he dies Ezalor encounters her at the Inn peering into what may or may not be that same mirror and watching the party.
• Man on Fire: She creates the illusion of a burning woman to draw attention away from the party as they're stealing the bones from the church, creating an urban legend in the process.
• Master of Disguise: One of her inherent abilities as a Green Hag.
• We Need a Distraction: Provides one during the bone heist after discovering that, as a Fey, she can't actually enter the church because of the active wards.
• Wild Card: Helps the party purely because of their connection to Riki. As a Green Hag, her canon alignment is Neutral Evil.

Allies

Kolyan Indirovich

Race: Human

The deceased Burgomaster of the Village of Barovia and Ireena's father. He's the viewpoint character of the short story "Daddy's Girl" set prior to the events of the game.

• Broken Pedestal: Ireena adored him, so she took the news that she had been adopted and he never told her especially poorly.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: After he slammed the door in Strahd's face he had to take a moment to recover from the realization of what he'd done. Unfortunately he paid for it in a big way.
• Heroic RRoD: The stress of repelling the nightly wolf and ghoul attacks eventually caused him to have a stroke and die. His narration during "Daddy's Girl" implies he already had issues with high blood pressure since he mentions frequent headaches.
• Papa Wolf: His reaction to Strahd arriving at their house to court Ireena was to explicitly deny him entry and slam the door in his face.
• Posthumous Character: He died three days before the game began and his children have been trying to bury him ever since.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Which unfortunately set a bad precedent with Ireena's dealings with The Baron.
• Secret-Keeper: The short story Daddy's Girl implies that he had started to put together the connection between Ireena and Tatyana. He also regretted never telling her she was adopted.

Ismark Kolyanovich

Race: Human

Ireena's older brother, Ismark became the acting Burgomaster of the Village of Barovia following his father Kolyan Indirovich's death. He's the viewpoint character of the sidestory Separation.

• Big Brother Instinct: Towards Ireena, and he was vocally displeased that she planned to leave the village to pursue her Cleric training.
• Butt-Monkey: Over the course of the side story from his point of view he gets imprisoned, ignored completely for days, belittled by Rahadin, dragged off by zombie guards, ignored and then choked by Strahd, and finally decapitated.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: He was kidnapped in the first session, so of course he showed up again at the worst possible time as a hostage to get Ireena to let Strahd in. To say nothing of his still-missing head.
• Chickification: Amusingly since he's a male character, Ismark in the usual module is a pretty powerful NPC who often ends up joining the party. Here he's present for one battle, promptly gets knocked out and kidnapped, and dies not long after. He and Ireena essentially switch roles.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: He tries, but Strahd responds to his attempts to insult him by giving him a Neck Lift.
• Distressed Dude: Following his capture by Strahd in the first session.
• Foreshadowing: During one sidestory he's described as physically hefting a young Ireena over his shoulder to bring her downstairs to a dinner she doesn't want to attend, a move very reminiscent of a certain biological brother of hers years later...
• Off with His Head!: Decapitated by one of Strahd's zombies a punishment for Ireena when she again refused to let Strahd enter. Unfortunately, his head is still missing...
• Secret-Keeper: Ismark knew Ireena was adopted, since he was 10 when she joined their family.
• Sound-Only Death: Ireena didn't actually see him die, instead just hearing him scream her name followed by the swish of the blade and a heavy thud. This allowed her to hold out some hope it had all been a trick until she positively identified his headless body.
• Undignified Death: He spends his last moments on his knees, sobbing and afraid.

Father Nedlovich

Race: Human

The priest of the Church of Saint Flanderhal in Vallaki, and totally not a caricature of Ned Flanders.

• Good Shepherd: One of the few genuinely good characters in the entire setting. Yevgeny even cites him as someone worthy of protection because of this despite his quirks.
• Heroic BSoD: Once Glaedr tells him that the pastries being made at the Windmill were made with human children Nedlovich devolves into diddly-oddilys of remorse and horror.
• Locked Out of the Loop: He has no idea that the party was responsible for stealing Saint Flanderhal's bones, even if they were returned by the party themselves later. And they never intend to tell him.
• Neck Snap: How Strahd kills him.
• Sadistic Choice: He's used as one of these for Ireena, who's forced to pick between him and one of the Martikov children. Her choice was obvious, and afterwards Sarvana uses Speak With Dead and he says that he would have made the same choice.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: His death coincides with the party getting an ultimatum and time limit from Strahd.
• Throw It In!: The entire Ned Flanders connection was entirely spontaneous after a throwaway reference to the character made by a player, at which point the gag ran loose. The DM offered to retcon it for being a Level Breaker but the players found it too funny to get rid of since it provided much needed comic relief.
• Verbal Tic: Diddily-oddily.

The Martikovs

Race: Human / Wereraven

A family consisting of Urwin, Danika and their children Brom and Bray that runs the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki, the Martikovs are secretly part of the Order of the Feather, a network of Good-aligned Wereravens who fight against Strahd. Later they meet another branch of the family consisting of patriarch Davian, his daughter Stefania and her husband Dag as well as their two children.

• An Arm and a Leg: Urwin loses his leg to torture while being interrogated in the Baron's dungeon about the party's whereabouts. When he sees Ireena being dragged down as well he swears to her that he didn't break under the torture or reveal anything.
• Bus Full of Innocents: Danika and the boys ended up being one along with the parishioners at the Church, since even with the Lady Wachter eliminated some of her cultists were still lying in wait preparing to massacre them. The party managed to talk her and Father Nedlovich into leaving for the safety of the Argynovstholt barracks while they took care of the remaining cultists, and that turned out to be a good thing when Strahd eventually made his way to the Church anyway and would have doubtlessly slaughtered everyone inside had they still been there.
• Declaration of Protection: Following the second escape from Vallaki, Ireena has sworn one to the Martikovs and their entire family. They're somewhat puzzled by this but accept it.
• Distressed Dude: Urwin ends up held in the Baron's torture room after being arrested for helping the party flee Vallaki. Later, Dag ends up bitten by a werewolf and has to be taken to Krezk before the combined curses kill him.
• Happily Married: Urwin and Danika.
• La Résistance: Their organization works against Strahd in the shadows and helps the party out several times before formally revealing themselves.
• Let Them Die Happy: When he was being held with Ireena in the Baron's torture room he deliriously asked Ireena about his wife and children, and while she had no idea what had actually happened to them Ireena assured him they were safe to bring him some measure of comfort, since she believed they were both going to die. Luckily it turned out to be the truth and the family was eventually reunited.
• Morphic Resonance: One of the clues the party had to Urwin's wereraven nature was the fact that in her prophetic dreams Savana kept seeing a raven with a scar under its eye in the exact same place he has one.
• Papa Wolf: Even while bound and missing a leg Urwin's reaction to seeing Strahd start to take a Charmed Ireena away was to scream at him to leave her alone, despite knowing this would only anger the vampire lord and probably result in his death. Strahd intended to do just that and was about to kill Urwin before Ireena who it turned out was faking being Charmed managed to lure him away.
• Spit Take: The party had already pretty much figured out the Martikovs were wereravens, but when they bluntly asked Urwin if he was one this was his reaction.
• Under New Management: Urwin eventually takes over as the leader of Vallaki, since he was one of the few people left with an established enough bloodline to qualify for the post.

Doctor Rudolph Van Richten

Race: Human

Initially posing as a half-elf entertainer named "Rictavio", Van Richten is actually a legendary vampire hunter lying low in Vallaki under an assumed name and appearance when the party first meets him. He becomes a major ally to them during their first escape from Vallaki.

• The Aloner: He's used to operating solo, believing that he only brings trouble to those he gets close to. It's implied he basically drove away Ezmerelda because of this.
• Berserk Button: When he hears that Ivan fled the Windmill after seeing a kid was held inside he becomes noticeably irate.
• But Now I Must Go: Leaves the party following their second escape from Vallaki, believing his curse will cause them more trouble.
• Catchphrase: "No more half measures" adopted by Ireena.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: He was going to let Ireena fall to the Tombstone golem, but had a last minute change of heart and deactivated it before it could deliver the final blow.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Alluded to, but so far not extensively covered. Ireena has her suspicions about some of what it might have entailed.
• Deadpan Snarker: Very critical of the party's various idiocies. He usually has a point.
• Deus ex Machina: Almost literally, since he interrupted Strahd's attack on the Blue Water Inn via a very well timed Cleric spell as he called out the name of the Morninglord.
• Doom Magnet: The nature of his curse, and the reason he leaves after the party's second escape from Vallaki.
• Expy: This version of Van Richten is based heavily on Mike Ehrmantraut.
• Fantastic Racism: Towards Vistani, to the point Sebastian is trained to attack them on sight. Which doesn't stop him from having Vistani apprentice in Ezmerelda, to Ireena's visible confusion.
• Foreign Cuss Word: Him swearing in Celestial (usually because of the party getting themselves into yet more trouble) becomes a Running Gag.
• Good Is Not Nice: Most of his interactions with the party involve him chewing them out for their latest bit of stupidity, and he minces no words doing so. Ireena is the only party member who actually likes him, and that's at least half because she's projecting hardcore onto him in place of her deceased father.
• Holy Hand Grenade: Whatever he did to drive off Strahd at the Blue Water Inn seems to have been of this nature.
• Master of Disguise: His "Rictavio" persona is so convincing that not even Yevgeny, whose stated specialty is noticing things, was able to suss him out despite knowing him for years. Even Savana only managed to get him to crack a little bit before he voluntarily revealed himself.
• Mission Control: Has access to the Sending spell, and ends up contacting various party members through it to coordinate the assault on firs the Vistani camp to free Savana and Riki and then Ireena.
• Mysterious Protector: Originally, since the party initially wasn't sure who had saved them during Strahd's attack on the Blue Water Inn. Once Ireena ended up in Izek's hands as a result of trying to help him he revealed himself fully.
• Nerves of Steel: After Glaedr's Madness gets triggered on him and he gets unexpectedly shield bashed into a wall he immediately pulls out a crossbow, levels it at Glaedr and responds "I am calm" as Ireena shouts for everyone to calm down.
• Panthera Awesome: His tiger, Sebastian, who he rides into battle first to rescue Riki and then into Vallaki.
• Parental Substitute: Ireena has come to see him as this. It's implied he's figured this out already, but she hasn't. There's definitely no doubt in his mind about it once she has a Freudian Slip and outright calls him "Dad" prior to the final battle for Vallaki.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: When he casts a spell on Savana before she goes in to seduce Karl Wachter he's covering his eyes with one hand and comments that he feels like a Dirty Old Man. He also hurriedly hands her clothes to her when they knock out Wachter.
• Poke in the Third Eye: Once the party realizes Strahd has been scrying them Van Richten makes them scrolls of Nondetection that they use to block his sight until someone can properly learn the spell.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: The purpose of his Tower challenge, which resulted in the party almost getting TPK'd (again). Once he brought them back he bluntly pointed out how they failed it miserably.
• Stern Teacher: Has this dynamic with Ireena as he tries to give her something to focus her anger on.
• Sword Cane: Possesses one that does absurd amounts of damage, usually resulting in a Single-Stroke Battle whenever he brings it out.

Ezmerelda d'Avenir

Race: Human

Van Richten's Vistani apprentice, Van Richten contacts her when he's helping the party infiltrate Vallaki for the second time.

• Artificial Limbs: One of her legs is artificial.
• But Now I Must Go: Before the party departs Argynvostholt she leaves a note saying that she's grown concerned for Van Richten and has gone off to find him.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Everyone reacted to her with extreme enthusiasm, especially Ireena, who was outright speechless for a moment upon meeting her.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Briefly joins up with the group twice, first to break Savana out of the Vistani camp and then again in Argynvostholt, when in real life Ireena's player was absent for a session and they needed a fifth member.
• Handicapped Badass: Missing one leg does nothing to slow her down.
• Hot Gypsy Woman: As a Vistani.
• Hot Witch: She's a Wizard and noted to be very physically attractive. Out of character the players immediately called dibs when they first saw a picture of her.
• Merlin and Nimue: Has this dynamic with Van Richten, her mentor. When the party first meets her she and Van Richten are actively arguing with each other.
• Noodle Incident: The exact details of how she came to be Van Richten's apprentice are this so far, with her only vaguely alluding to the reasons making sense in context.
• White Sheep: Among her family, and Arrigal even refers to her as a traitor when they end up fighting at the Vistani camp when rescuing Savana.

Kasimir Velikov

Race: Dusk Elf

Kasimir is the leader of the Dusk Elves settled around the Vistani encampment southwest of Vallaki. He's also Savana's maternal grandfather and one of the few living people who remembers Barovia before it became consumed by Strahd's darkness.

• Elderly Immortal: He looks visibly aged compared to the other Dusk Elves, and remembers Barovia before Strahd became a vampire.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Killed by Rahadin via a sword to the stomach.
• Info Dump: Gives one to Savana about her family, specifically the fate of his sister, Patrina.
• Long-Lost Relative: He's actually Savana's grandfather.
• Papa Wolf: He promises Savana that he'll do whatever he can to prevent Rahadin from killing her, since he was unable to save his own daughter from The Purge inflicted on them by Strahd and Rahadin.

Antagonists

Strahd von Zarovich

Race: Vampire

The main antagonist, the plot of the story is kicked off when Strahd first sees Ireena Kolyana at a festival in Vallaki and begins to pursue her. He finally gets a viewpoint in The Other Side, which contains massive, massive spoilers for the entire campaign.

• Accidental Murder: The truth about Sergei's death.
• Abhorrent Admirer: For Ireena, who considers him the worst thing that's ever happened to her.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Attempted to marry Ireena after Baron Vallakovich told him her location and led him straight to her.
• Berserk Button: While he's usually pretty detached and icily calm, any time Ireena or anyone else rejects or insults him his true, monstrous form comes out and he starts shouting. His Hannibal Lecture at Argynvostholt is also momentarily derailed when Tatyana tells him he has no right to speak Sergei's name and for a moment the two devolve into a screaming match until he's able to regain his composure.
• Big Bad: Directly or indirectly, every bit of misfortune and pain in the story can be traced back to him. And because Ireena is part of the adventuring party he's far more directly involved than he tends to be in most games.
• Cain and Abel: He murdered his own brother, Sergei, when the two became part of a Sibling Triangle with Tatyana at the center. Or so everyone thought, these are actually Fake Memories.
• Cassandra Truth: All of his attempts to get through to Tatyana and make her see the truth, since everyone, including her, just brushes them off as him trying to manipulate her
• Charm Person: One of his innate abilities as a vampire. He's used it against Ireena four times, the first two times the resisted, the third time she failed and was bitten, and the fourth she realized she was immune but played along anyway.
• Crazy-Prepared: When he attacked the Blue Water Inn he used his Scry to prep a scroll of Counterspell and Phantasmal Sphere to deal with Riki and Glaedr respectively.
• Deal with the Devil: The source of his powers, since he made a deal with the vestiges of the Gods in the Amber Temple, gaining the powers of a vampire in exchange for killing Sergei. Or so the story goes, in reality Sergei's death was an accident and it was only after he called out to the Dark Powers to get Tatyana back that he became a vampire.
• Despair Event Horizon: Tatyana's death in the wake of their accidental murder of Sergei was this, and drove him to call out to the Dark Powers and turn him into a vampire.
• Didn't See That Coming: He clearly didn't expect Ireena to become immune to his Charm and roll a surprise Crit on him.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: His attacks on Ireena, specifically his use of his Charm abilities on her and the way he bites her, are clearly intended to invoke rape imagery, to the point several of the players have stated that they're treating it as one, and when describing who he is to an amnesiac Ivan they even outright call him a rapist.
• Entitled to Have You: As the Lord of Barovia, feels it's his right to have Ireena, no matter what she or anyone else says to the contrary.
• Evil Is Petty: He didn't actually care about Ismark, and only killed him as punishment for Ireena refusing him again.
• Expy: Kilgrave has been cited as a major influence on his version of Strahd.
• Fallen Hero: Strahd the human was actually a good man
• Flowery Insults: When the party shows up to crash the wedding, he refers to them as "The Knights of Nevermore" as an insult.
• Forced to Watch: Once he Charms Ireena he has her run forward to kiss him and then bites her right in front of the party, who are still engaged with his ghouls and unable to stop it. He also used Levitate on Izek during the wedding when he bursts inside to try and retrieve her, and tells him to be a good boy and watch his sister get married.
• Foreshadowing: The truth about Sergei's death was foreshadowed a few times, such as his reaction to Tatyana telling him he has no right to speak his name being an emphatic "He was my BROTHER!"
• Gaslighting: He's been a long term victim of this by the Dark Powers, who altered Tatyana's memories to make her think Strahd murdered Sergei and hid the fact that they were both responsible for it so she would always try to run from him, driving him insane.
• Green-Eyed Monster: The idea of anyone interacting with Ireena sends him into a rage, to the point he admits to keeping the soulless citizens of Barovia away from her to keep her "pure." This was also why Ireena kept her crush on Ezalor a secret, since she feared what Strahd would do if he found out about it.
• Ironic Hell: Ravenloft itself is this for him, since he asked the Dark Powers to give him back Tatyana after she killed herself, but they in turn gave her Fake Memories that make her flee from him and despise him, which has driven him to become the monster he now is.
• Just Toying with Them: When he attacked the Blue Water Inn he deliberately stayed around even after Charming and biting Ireena just so he could see the party suffer and rub his victory in their faces, which allowed Van Richten to intervene and drive him off before he could leave with Ireena.
  • He does it again at Argynvostholt, having set the party up for a TPK but withdrawing his forces and giving Ireena a week to get her affairs in order before he starts killing her party members.
• Kick the Dog: Just about every appearance he has in the campaign has him doing this, from indirectly killing Kolyan via a stroke from the stress of his nightly attacks, to decapitating Ismark to punish Ireena for refusing him entry, to turning Father Donovich into a vampire and then reanimating Kolyan's body to give her away at the altar.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: By that same token, his murder of Baron Vallakovich lost most of its sting considering who the victim was.
• Must Be Invited: One of his constraints, which results in him having to use alternate methods if he's refused, such as sending ghouls and wolves to do his dirty work or using his Charm Person abilities to bring his victim to him.
• Necromancer: His forte. He even reanimated the body of Kolyan Indirovich to give away Ireena at the altar when he attempted to marry her.
• Never My Fault: Besides his arrogance, this is his defining character flaw, since he never takes responsibility for his actions and always tries to find an excuse, perhaps most notably when he rebuffs Ireena's claims that he caused her father's death (albeit indirectly) by citing the fact that Kolyan was trying to keep them apart. He also completely denies any responsibility for the fate of the Dusk Elves or Rahadin's actions towards them, saying that the first purge was ordered by his father and completely glossing over his Gendercide of them when he's trying to get Savana to betray her allies. He also completely denies responsibility for murdering his own brother, Sergei. This last one is ultimately a subversion, since while Tatyana thinks this is what he did he actually wasn't trying to kill Sergei and she shares responsibility with him for it, so his denials of being solely responsible are genuine. His own account as show in the Tome of Strahd shows him to be genuinely remorseful for what happened.
• Not Good with Rejection: He reacts extremely poorly to all of Ireena's attempts to rebuff his advances.
• The Purge: Twice. First he had the Dusk Elf royalty hunted down like dogs when he first conquered them on behalf of his father. Then he ordered Rahadin to carry out another one on the remaining Dusk Elves when they stoned his prospective bride Patrina Velikova to death, specifically targeting the females so the race would be unable to breed and die out within a generation.
• Race Against the Clock: At Argynvostholt he gives Ireena or Tatyana at that moment a week to get her affairs in order before he dedicates himself to hunting down and killing her companions.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: At the wedding Ireena (or more accurately, Tatyana) delivers a brutal one to him after surprising him with a Critical Searing Smite, which leaves him on fire for a few rounds and writhing in agony, during which she, among other things, mocks him for his arrogance, falling for her act, and repeatedly insults his sexual prowess.
• The Sociopath: High-functioning, but still a classic example. Ireena (or more accurately Tatyana) reacts to his arrival at the Baron's mansion by telling him that she thought he'd be quicker responding to threats to his property.
• Stalker with a Crush: Towards Ireena. There's some evidence he's been after her since she was four years old, and he outright admits to keeping the soulless citizens of Barovia from interacting with her, which left her feeling isolated growing up.
• Tranquil Fury: When he shows up at the Baron's mansion and sees the state Ireena's in, he's outwardly calm but everyone can practically feel the anger radiating from him, at least until he rips the Baron's heart out.
• Troll: Just because he gave Ireena a week to sort out her affairs before he starts killing her party doesn't mean he can't still fuck with them, as demonstrated when he has an illusion of himself appear at Tsolenka Pass and act like he's about to attack before it's dispelled.
• Yandere: Towards Ireena, in the worst way. He's usually a lot more detached and unemotional when interacting with PCs, but Ireena's presence brings out the worst in him so this is a lot more evident in this campaign.

Rahadin

Race: Dusk Elf

Strahd's Chamberlain, Rahadin served Strahd's father and ended up being formally adopted into the family in return for his service.

• Arch-Enemy: Is this to Savana, since he killed her people, her mother, and now Kasimir right after she found out she did have some living family.
• Dark Is Evil: Wears pure black and is Strahd's Number Two.
• The Dragon: As Strahd's chamberlain and Number Two.
• The Dreaded: Rahadin has killed so many people over the course of his life that he is surrounded by screaming voices at all times.
• Genocide from the Inside: He killed every female Dusk Elf at Strahd's order. Before that, he betrayed his own people and helped hunt down the Dusk Elf royalty.
• Not So Above It All: He generally comes off as an unstoppable, unflappable badass, so when he fumbles his attempt to climb the fortress wall at Argynvostholt it has this effect.
• Single-Stroke Battle: His preferred style of fighting.
• Turncoat: Kasimir reveals that Rahadin once served Prince Haramun, the ruler of the lands that would become Barovia after Strahd's invasion, but that Rahadin turned on his own ruler and people in favor of Strahd and was granted his position as a reward.

Baron Vargas Vallakovich

Race: Human

The Baron of Vallaki, obsessed with keeping order in his town and has been repeatedly subjecting his people to festivals to keep them "happy."

• And Show It to You: How Strahd kills him, followed by feeding his body to his vampire spawn.
• Arch-Enemy: The Wachters are this to him, and during his dinner with the party he offers his aid in exchange for any dirt they can dig up on them since they've been a thorn in his side for years.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Very concerned with status and very evil.
• Asshole Victim: His death was definitely deserved, but it was still quite gruesome.
• The Caligula: As the leader of Vallaki he's incredibly cruel towards anyone who disrupts the peace or doesn't tow his "all will be well" party line, with his usual solution to anyone caught committing "malicious unhappiness" being to have them publicly tortured.
• Catchphrase: "All will be well!"
• Control Freak: He has anyone who doesn't tow his "all will be well" party line beaten, tortured and/or killed.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He takes the "assassination attempt" on Victor extremely poorly, offering a bounty on the party for it and saying he'll execute Ireena once she reveals her presence to him and proves to be useless when it comes to providing information on the activities of the Wachters.
• Evil Versus Evil: What the conflict between him and Lady Wachter ultimately boils down to. Both ultimately end up dead.
• Happiness Is Mandatory: His subjects are described as suffering through his constant festivals and attempts to force the people to be happy.
• Hypocrite: For all of his talk of freeing his people and resisting Strahd through mandatory happiness, the second he realizes that Ireena is the woman Strahd's after he immediately starts trying to kiss up to him to avoid his wrath by giving her to him.
• Not Enough to Bury: Once the vampire spawn are done with his body there's nothing left to identify.
• Oh, Crap!: Once he realizes that Ireena is the woman Strahd's been pursuing. And that he just damaged her by torturing her, after he already told Strahd he had her.
• Stupid Evil: What he ultimately proves to be.
• Too Dumb to Live: He decides to lie to Strahd and blame the injuries Ireena sustained from his torture of her on Izek, without even making an effort to heal her or so much as take her off the cross he'd strapped her to, insuring that Strahd would see her in the worst state he possibly could. Strahd sees through the deception immediately and tears the Baron's heart straight out of his chest.
• Torture First, Ask Questions Later: The ultimate cause of his demise, since he decides to first beat, then torture Ireena for information she was already going to tell him voluntarily, and only then realizes that she's the woman Strahd's after.

Izek Strazni

Race: Human

Baron Vallakovich's head enforcer and executioner, Izek is also Ireena's biological brother, having been separated from her after he was attacked by a wolf and lost his arm and the then 4-years-old Ireena fled into the woods in terror.

• The Alcoholic: He was seen drinking heavily following the foiled wedding before he disappeared.
• Berserk Button: Ireena successfully manages to turn him on Strahd by revealing that Strahd bit her.
• Big Brother Instinct: A very warped example.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Averted, thank goodness, since Izek's attachment to Ireena is a purely childish one with nothing sexual about it. Hasn't stopped the players from joking about it, though.
• The Brute: Very physically strong and fights with an enormous axe.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: One of his hobbies.
• Consummate Liar: He has a very high Deception modifier, which allowed him to lie to Baron Vallakovich's face with his master none the wiser. Ireena's plan was to reveal this to the Baron to turn them against each other, and while it did work she still got tortured for her trouble.
• The Dragon: To The Baron, being his main enforcer and torturer. At least until The Baron sells him out and decides to blame Ireena's injuries on him, which is the one thing Izek would never do.
• Dragon with an Agenda: When the party casts Speak With Dead on him after he's defeated, he reveals he planned to kill Ireena's party members, betray Strahd and try to escape with her.
• Enemy Mine: Makes a temporary true with the party to rescue Ireena when Strahd tries to marry her.
• Eye Scream: He gets repeated Warding Flares in the face when he attempts to run off with Ireena again following the foiled wedding.
• Face–Heel Turn: Though it's arguable he was ever a "face" in the typical sense, he shows up at Argynvostholt leading a group of Vistani horsemen on Strahd's behalf, a complete 180 from when he swore he'd kill Strahd after finding out what he did to Ireena. Turns out he was planning on double-crossing Strahd to try and make off with Ireena once he killed her party members.
• Karmic Death: Killed by his own sister, with his own greataxe
• Leeroy Jenkins: While the party reached the Church and paused to come up with a plan to crash the wedding, Izek charged right inside and demanded his sister back.
• Mercy Kill: Ireena sees her eventual defeat of him as this, since it couldn't properly be called a fight.
• Moral Myopia: The only thing he cares about is Ireena. The Baron and his family are an important but still secondary concern, but he straight up tells Ireena that she's his first priority. She tried to use this to turn him and the Baron against each other.
• Protectorate: Towards Ireena, though is idea of "protecting" her is locking her in a room and straight-jacketing her to a chair.
• Psychopathic Manchild: His emotional development definitely stagnated (if it didn't outright regress) following Ireena's disappearance.
• Red Right Hand: After losing his right arm as a child it grew back one day as a demon arm that allows him to use fire spells.
• Say My Name: His appearance has been preceded by a shout of "IREENA!" more than once.
• Serial Killer: After the loss of Ireena, his arm and his parents he endured the taunts of the other children for years until he finally snapped and started killing them, leaving their bodies in the Slavich Woods.
• Shadow Archetype: To Ismark, being Ireena's biological brother with a strong urge to protect her. But that desire has been twisted into something truly monstrous.
• The Sociopath: As a result of the traumas he experienced as a child. Ireena says that before that she remembers him as being more or less normal.
• The Soulless: Like many Barovians, he has no soul.
• Too Dumb to Fool: Ireena attempts to get him to let her loose by pointing out that the longer she stays in the Baron's mansion the higher the chance that Strahd will come for her, making her a danger to everyone, but the cunning doesn't work on Izek. She realizes she has to manipulate his base instincts instead, which is more successful.
• Trauma Conga Line: Following Ireena's disappearance and the loss of his arm in the wolf attack, their parents committed suicide out of despair at losing their daughter, leaving Izek alone. He ended up on the street and came to enjoy killing to survive, and was eventually taken in by The Baron and turned into his enforcer and personal killing machine.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: According to Ireena, from what little she's started to remember of him he was a normal child.

Lady Fiona Wachter

Race: Human

The second most powerful person in Vallaki after The Baron, Lady Wachter contacts the party to enlist them for a task, only for them to have to flee the city before meeting her. Eventually they contact her again when trying to rescue Ireena for the second time, at which point she tasks the party with stealing the bones of Saint Flanderhal from the church.

• Arch-Enemy: The Baron is this to her, and she contacts the party to enlist their aid in helping her depose him.
• Bad Samaritan: She offered the party the aid of her cult to free Savana and Ireena in exchange for the bones of St. Flanderhal. The party smelled a rat but played along until they could figure out what she was really after.
• The Coup: Intended to pull one on the Baron via her cult, before the party killed them all.
• Evil Matriarch: Of the Wachter family, the second most influential family in Vallaki after the Vallakovichs.
• Evil Versus Evil: What the conflict between her and the Baron ultimately boils down to. Both ultimately end up dead.
• Necromantic: The reason she's working for Strahd is in the hopes of reviving her dead husband, whose body she keeps preserved via Eternal Repose upstairs.
• Obviously Evil: Was clearly up to no good, but the party decided to play along.
• Off with His Head!: How Glaedr kills her, and ends up using her head to torment her surviving son.
• Parental Neglect: Once Stella was driven mad and believed she was a cat she locked her daughter in a room upstairs. It's a safe bet she wasn't a much better parent to her two sons given how they turned out.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Tried to pull this on the party once she had the bones, but the killed her and most of her cultists.

Karl and Nikolai Wachter

Race: Human

Lady Wachter's sons, who the party encounters first in the Blue Water Inn.

• Abhorrent Admirer: Both of them towards Savana, offering her access to their mother's library in exchange for sexual favors. She (wisely) declines.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: The two of them got drunk and knocked over Sebastian's cage, and got mauled by the tiger for their trouble.
• Anti-Climax Boss: While built up as potentially being a tough fight, Karl can't even get an attack off before he's first paralyzed by a Hold Person spell, gets a Lightning Bolt in his face and then gets beaten unconscious.
• Deal with the Devil: Karl made a Pact with a being he describes as an "old God" after finding a scroll in Victor's study made of human skin.
• Dirty Coward: Karl flees from the Wachter house to summon the city guard and later from the church.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: They're both quite distressed to see Glaedr cut their mother's head off.
• Fantastic Drug: Karl was seen taking some mysterious powder that enhanced his magical abilities.
• Groin Attack: How Nikolai dies, via an axe from Glaedr to his pelvis.
• Humiliation Conga: Karl's defeat at the hands of the party, where Savana tricks him into thinking he's a member of his harem so she can take him by surprise. Once they beat him unconscious they then interrogate him and let the women of his "harem" have a go at him before dragging him outside.
• Jerkass: Both of them, including creepily hitting on both Ireena and Savana.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Averted, the being Karl made a pact with would have manifested a physical avatar on his death as part of their contract, but the party decided to keep him alive.
• Paper Tiger: Despite being built up as someone with dangerous magic and a cult at his back, Karl gets taken by complete surprise and can't even get an attack off before he's knocked out and humiliated.
• Sex Slave: Karl has an entire harem that he keeps once he takes over Vallaki. Comments by the women indicate he doesn't treat them well.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Following the Baron's death, Karl took over the town by deposing the Baroness and having her publicly stoned.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By drunkenly knocking over Sebastian's cage and setting him loose in the town, they kickstarted the series of events that eventually led to the party being forced to flee Vallaki.

Dormund

Race: Werewolf

The vicious leader of Barovia's main werewolf pack, Dormund was responsible for the death of Ivan's wife Ramona and is his arch-nemesis as a result.

• Anti-Climax Boss: The party manages to take him out in a round in a half with a combination of Glaedr's pushing attack with a crossbow bolt, which sends him over an 80 foot cliff (taking 8d6 fall damage in the process) followed by Ezalor's Death from Above attack when he throws himself down and onto Dormund (which does another 8d6 damage before the dagger) and follows it up with a point blank 5th level Burning Hands. Dormund never even gets to fight back.
• Evil Redhead: His werewolf form is distinctly red-furred, and as a human he has a red mohawk.
• Let's You and Him Fight: He throws Muriel in with werewolf!Ivan to see them fight to the death.
• Off with His Head!: Ivan finally kills him first by shooting his special silver arrow into his heart, and then as the coup de grace cuts off his head with his silver sword, spits in his face and flings it off a cliff.
• The Starscream: He killed the previous pack leader and turned over the pack's beta, Zuleika's mate Emil, to Strahd in exchange for an alliance with the vampire lord.
• Would Hurt a Child: In addition to kidnapping children so he can unwillingly turn them, he takes the two captured Martikov children and throws them into a cage with Ivan so he can kill them. Zuleika says he also forces the captured children to fight to the death to weed out the weak ones.

Saphirion

Race: Dragon (Blue)

Alignment: Lawful Evil

A young Blue Dragon that the party ended up unleashing during the battle with Wintersplinter, Saphirion reappears as the party prepares to enter the Amber Temple and basically shakes them down for money and make them clear out the Temple so it can serve as his new lair.

• Killed Offscreen: Rahadin killed him on his way to the Amber Temple.
• Large Ham: His entire speech to the party is nothing but ham.
• Paper Tiger: Talked a big talk, but Rahadin killed him with barely any effort at all.
• Summon Bigger Fish: The entire reason he was summoned in the first place against Wintersplinter, and demonstrated again when he swoops in and finishes off the Roc.

Tatyana

Tatyana Federovna

Race: Human

Alignment: True Neutral

Tatyana was once an ordinary woman who happened to gain the attentions of both Strahd von Zarovich and his younger brother Sergei, and a series of terrible events led to Sergei's death and drove her to take her own life. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of it, and thanks to the Dark Powers Tatyana has found herself repeatedly reincarnated and pursued by Strahd for centuries, with her latest incarnation being Ireena Kolyana. She exists as a consciousness within Ireena and has tried to keep her latest incarnation in the dark about their real history and purpose in the world.

• Awful Truth: She and Strahd killed Sergei, her memories of Strahd murdering him were implanted.
• Barefoot Suicide: Tatyana purposefully removed her shoes and her engagement ring and left them on the ledge before she killed herself.
• Bastard Angst: Tatyana was illegitimate and raised by a single mother, and grew up isolated as a result.
• Berserk Button: When Strahd says Sergei's name her reaction is to angrily tell him he has no right to speak it, which quickly devolves into a screaming match between the two of them.
• Broken Bird: Tatyana generally displays one of two emotions: complete indifference or sheer contempt, with the latter mostly reserved for Strahd.
• Defiant to the End: Prior to realizing Ireena was now immune to his Charm, Tatyana's last words to Strahd before he cast it on her were "Go to Hell." According to her player Tatyana's plan was to use her last bit of her willpower to take her own life right after Strahd bit her the third time and before she fully turned.
• Despair Event Horizon: She passed it long ago, and most of what's left of her is multiple lifetimes worth of rage and resentment.
• Didn't See That Coming: She did not expect Ireena to be able to resist Strahd's Charm or eventually build an immunity to it, which changed her entire game plan. She admits to the party that the fact that she actually cares about Ireena is another thing she never expected.
• Driven to Suicide: Her original method of escaping Strahd, and the typical way her incarnations end up dying. Except that's not actually what happened, in reality she killed herself because she couldn't bear the guilt of having betrayed Sergei and having a hand in his death, even if it was an accident.
• Expy: Both Bernkastel and Anthy Himemiya have been cited as influences. Her player has admitted that the voice and body language she uses for Tatyana has a fair bit of Revy in there as well.
• Fake Memories: Her memories of what happened to cause Sergei's death, specifically Strahd murdering him deliberately and chasing her, turn out to have been implanted by the Dark Powers
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Originally, Tatyana was a completely ordinary woman, a mere baker's daughter, where the only thing of note about her was attracting the attention of both of the von Zarovich brothers. Now she's a borderline monster herself, with only a very thin thread of her humanity remaining.
• Hourglass Plot: Eventually, she and Ireena fall into this, once Tatyana finds out she and Strahd both killed Sergei, and the hatred for Strahd that's been driving her has been totally misdirected because her memories were tampered with to make her hate him. Ireena describes Tatyana as barely holding herself together in the wake of this revelation.
• Kick the Dog: Her reaction to Van Richten stating he was cursed can be summed up as "bitch, please" by telling him he doesn't know the meaning of the word "cursed." In retrospect, her verbal beatdown on Strahd at the wedding was this too considering what actually happened between them.
• Identical Stranger: Ireena figured out Tatyana wasn't her mother following Strahd's first bite when she saw they looked just like each other. Ireena however has it backwards and assumes Tatyana has her face when it's the other way around. Her player states that while the two might be physically identical Tatyana's mannerisms and body language come off as those of a much older woman (Tatyana was 23 when she died but all the lifetimes lived have had a cumulative effect on how she acts) and are not at all like Ireena's. When she was actually alive her personality was much more similar to Ireena's.
• I Shall Taunt You: Pretty much literally every line she has directed at Strahd is an insult, especially once she drops the act of being Charmed and mocks him for falling for it. Several are also literal below the belt insults that mock his sexual prowess.
• Madden Into Misanthropy: Being stuck in Ravenloft for so many lifetimes has not been kind to her.
• Manipulative Bitch: While Ireena has only just started learning how to do it and found some success with Izek, Tatyana is a master at it.
• Marriage Before Romance: She didn't actually love Sergei, but hoped that her feelings for him would grow over time once he proposed to her and she felt pressured to accept. Unfortunately then Strahd came into the picture and she realized she did genuinely love him instead of Sergei, but by then it was too late
• Master Actor: Tatyana helped Ireena pretend to be under the effects of Strahd's Charm, and even took control and kissed him to keep the illusion convincing so Ireena didn't have to do it.
• Mirthless Laughter: Her laugh is described as very bitter and unpleasant. While she doesn't fully take control, this is what comes through Ireena when she hears Vladimir's explanation of how Strahd became a vampire and why Sergei died.
• The Mourning After: She's still mourning Sergei, and has never forgiven Strahd for killing him and trapping them all in Ravenloft. Or so she thought.
• Neutral No Longer: She initially intended to just sit back and let this cycle play itself out yet again, but when Ireena is confronted by Strahd in the Baron's torture room she's moved enough to offer to face Strahd for Ireena and spare her. Once she realizes Ireena is immune to the Charm she takes a more direct role and agrees to help her.
• No Name Given: Was referred to as "the woman" until her name was formally revealed. Her surname (or more accurately, her patronymic) hasn't been formally revealed, but it's what she was called in previous editions.
• Not So Stoic: One of the few things to get an emotion besides anger out of her is the statue of Sergei, which she walks up to and puts a hand on while visibly suppressing a sob. She's much more openly emotional after reading the Tome of Strahd and realizing the truth about what really happened with the three of them.
• The Ophelia: Tatyana appears in Ireena's mind with long, unbound hair that goes to her waist and bare feet, because this was how she looked when she died.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Though no one realized it at the time, the fact that Tatyana was the one speaking before, during and after the foiled wedding was hinted at by her actually calling Strahd by name (something Ireena never does) and her general attitude being far nastier than Ireena's.
• Pet the Dog: Almost immediately after her "bitch, please" at Van Richten she tells him to be careful because he means a lot to Ireena. She also sympathizes with Ivan due to his lycanthropy making him the party member who best understands her own struggles to retain her humanity.
• The Power of Hate: Most of what's sustained her existence over the centuries is her hatred for Strahd and anyone responsible for keeping her soul trapped in Ravenloft. Now that she's confirmed their existence, this extends to the Dark Powers as well. Finding out her hatred of Strahd has been entirely misdirected and he didn't actually murder Sergei, they both accidentally killed him, leaves her almost completely catatonic.
• Protectorate: Towards Ireena, to the point of actually taking direct action for the first time in centuries in order to help her. And she's utterly pissed when Glaedr's madness causes him to almost kill Ireena to the point of jumping in specifically to insult him for it.
• Reincarnation: Ireena and all of her other incarnations are this to her. She herself has lost count of how many times she's lived and died since Ravenloft was created, though the implications are it's upwards of a dozen.
• The Reveal: Multiple times. First by Strahd revealing to Savana in a dream that Ireena is the vessel for Tatyana's soul, and then during the attack on Argynovstholt Strahd openly addresses her by name. Then she finds out her memories of Sergei's death are false, and both she and Strahd were responsible for what was ultimately a terrible accident.
• Shipper on Deck: She very much ships Ireena/Ezalor and egged on Ireena to kiss him before he left the party.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Compared to Ireena, who almost never curses, Tatyana is far saltier. Best demonstrated the second time she manifests and the party immediately realizes it's not Ireena as a result:
  "Good job, Asshole. You almost killed her."
• Slut-Shaming: Because she grew up illegitimate and with a single mother Tatyana was petrified of being subjected to this, which is part of why she accepted Sergei's proposal even though she didn't love him, only for this to backfire horribly when Sergei walked in on her and Strahd kissing and called her a whore, which she reacted to like she'd been physically stuck.
• Smug Smiler: One of the major tells of her being in control is that Ireena gains an uncharacteristically menacing, lopsided smirk. One that bears a not-coincidental resemblance to Strahd's own smirk.
• Spirit Advisor: What Ireena believes her to be, since Tatyana was guiding her during her Pretend to Be Brainwashed play and helped her keep it together.
• Split Personality: Is this to Ireena, though the truth is a little complicated. Basically, Tatyana is the soul and Ireena is the physical body, meaning Tatyana is aware of everything Ireena does but not vice versa, and she's deliberately kept her own memories from Ireena to spare her the trauma of remembering her multiple lives and deaths, though she slips a little and isn't able to prevent Ireena from remembering Sergei when Ireena sees the statue of him in Krezk, something she's incredibly sorry about.
• Stopped Caring: The state she was in prior to the game. It even shocked her when she realized she actually gave a damn about something, mainly Ireena. And only Ireena.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Sure, she cheated on her fiance, but she was pressured into accepting the proposal even though she didn't actually have feelings for him, and her punishment of being reincarnated at least a dozen times and suffering and dying every time is so disproportionate to the crime that you can't help but feel bad for her. It helps that she's genuinely remorseful and doesn't try to make excuses for it
• That Liar Lies: Her reaction to the Tome of Strahd and the story within is an emphatic "That's a lie!"
• Took a Level in Kindness: She's still pretty nasty, but once Ireena resisted Strahd's Charm even she was surprised to realize she actually cared about the girl and agreed to help her.
• Unwitting Pawn: For the Dark Powers, who altered her memories so she would hate Strahd and have used her to torment him and drive him further and further into evil.
• The Uriah Gambit: She specifically mentioned Izek to Strahd while pretending to be under the effect of his Charm with the intention of getting him killed, since she sees him as being nothing but a source of trouble for Ireena. Unfortunately while Izek did eventually make his way to the Church, Strahd cast Levitate on him and made him watch the ceremony instead of straight up killing him, to Tatyana's displeasure.
• Walking Spoiler: Her name alone is a spoiler, to say nothing of her role in the backstory of the entire setting, and Ireena in-universe just calls her "the woman" since she doesn't know who she is.
• Wild Card: Clearly has her own agenda, but so far isn't talking.