Darth Wiki / Sword & Shadow Adventures

Sword & Shadow is the collective name for a group of three Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition campaigns played by the same group of friends: Curse of Remy Abode, using the Curse of Strahd module, Tour de Dread, a largely homebrewed prequel to the former, which sees its players moving through various Domains of Dread in the Shadowfell, and a Waterdeep: Dragon Heist game run by a different Dungeon Master.

All three adventures are set in the same shared continuity, with Tour de Dread and Dragon Heist set concurrently in the same year, and Curse of Remy Abode set twenty years after the events of TDD. A few sessions were also run using the Adventurer's League "Mist Hunters" modules, following a separate adventuring party. The name refers to the two primary settings shared by the games: the Sword Coast of Faerûn, and the Shadowfell.

The games share several players with Spelljammer: Watchers of Wildspace.

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These campaigns provide examples of:

Tropes appearing in all three games

• Canon Welding: While Tour de Dread originated as a standalone one-shot, the eventual inclusion of Miscillia as an NPC ties the adventure to Curse of Strahd as a prequel of sorts, and there have been cameo appearances from Dragon Heist characters establishing that the two adventures are taking place in the same year. There are even references to other modules that the group hasn’t played, like Descent Into Avernus and Rime of the Frostmaiden.
• Cast Full of Gay: Pretty much every player character in all three campaigns is LGBT in some way or another, as well as many NPCs (some explicitly so in the source material, some not). This is also true of the players themselves.
• Character Overlap: Occasional, but still present, as the three games explicitly take place in the same universe.
• Continuity Nod: Frequently.
  • The "Year of Sunlight" is first mentioned early in Curse of Strahd, and all but stated to be the result of the Tour de Dread party's actions years prior.
  • When discussing the Mark of the Raven with Tamago, Davian Martikov relays an old family story about a woman who was accidentally turned into a were-raven decades ago, heavily implied to be Miscillia.
  • Kasimir addresses another Dusk Elf attending him as "Alear," the husband of the original owner of one of Sybil's hands.
  • Suffer finds and reads Miscillia Dorval's journal late in Curse of Strahd, which references Cassia, Ajax, and Knicky of Tour de Dread by name.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: With the knowledge that the adventurers who brought around the Year of Sunlight 200 years ago mentioned in Curse of Strahd were in fact the Tour de Dread party led by Miscillia, the Curse of Strahd characters serve as this, at least chronologically. Whereas the Tour de Dread group is made up of more lighthearted heroes-for-hire who have experience hopping between Domains of Dread to dispatch their darklords, several of whom are literal circus performers, the Curse of Strahd characters are generally more reserved and turn out to have much more personal stakes in Barovia and have to figure out what’s going on by themselves. This also applies to each group’s incarnation of Tatyana, as well as the individual characters who share players:
  • When the Tour de Dread party meets her, Miscillia is a no-nonsense, vengeance-seeking cleric in her 40s, who has already been hardened by her experiences with Barovia, while Ireena begins as more of a gentle Ingenue in her early 20s who ends up becoming a martial character, taking levels in fighter and, later, paladin. Ireena also takes a much more active role aiding and traveling with the party, whereas Miscillia generally acts in a more hands-off manner as The Team Benefactor.
  • Cassia in Tour de Dread is The Gunslinger and a Gadgeteer Genius, preferring to fight at long range, while Erasmus in Curse of Strahd favours up close and personal combat and comes to use the Woodcutter's Axe as his primary weapon. Cassia is also often prickly and bickers frequently with their party members, but has a Hidden Heart of Gold and feels a lot of responsibility to their family despite their past as a petty charlatan prior to joining the circus. Erasmus is initially a distant and mysterious Amnesiac Hero but often acts as The Face of his party, and has much darker secrets, having turned to bounty hunting in the past to sate his Horror Hunger. Cassia is also the eldest of many siblings in a family who have ties to the Feywild, while Erasmus is an only child who was born in Darkon.
  • Ajax in Tour de Dread is The Big Guy, being a boisterous barbarian with a history in gladiatorial combat, who sometimes veers into Dumb Muscle territory but nonetheless is often surprisingly compassionate and remains loyal to his friends no matter what. Tamago in Curse of Strahd is a gentle, soft-spoken Way of Mercy monk and Friend to All Children who prefers to leave violence as a last resort and may have been manipulated by Strahd into acting against the party before his death. Tamago is the oldest sibling in his family, while Ajax is the youngest. Both also take on the role of the Martial Medic, Tamago through his Hand of Healing and Ajax by taking the time to train under a doctor.
  • Knicky/Florian in Tour de Dread is a shapeshifter who spends much of their campaign hiding their true nature and cynicism behind a silly facade and has no issue lying their way in and out of situations. Suffer in Curse of Strahd is a serious young cleric of a knowledge goddess who is honest to a fault and deeply committed to her principles. Knicky begins the campaign as a very selfish person and eventually starts to care about other people, while Suffer is idealistic and naive and is forced to harden her heart by the horrors of Barovia. Knicky is also (probably) the oldest member of their party, while Suffer is the youngest member of hers.
  • Sybil in Tour de Dread and Moira in Curse of Strahd both join the party later and are both martial characters, but while Moira is, other than her levels in monk, a normal human woman who has been chewed up and spat out by life in Barovia, Sybil, a rogue, is a Flesh Golem built by Viktra Mordenheim who escaped and joined the Carnival. Moira is also an initially cynical and bitter person who gradually softens, whereas Sybil's pleasant, cheerful demeanour distracts from her fears regarding her Dark and Troubled Past.
• Crossover Relatives: Cassia from Tour de Dread and Bonnibell from Dragon Heist are mentioned to be distant cousins. Bonnibell also occasionally mentions her criminal older brother, Agdon.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Cezar Dorval and Escher both appear as children in Tour de Dread, prior to their roles as adults twenty years later in Curse of Strahd. However, Cezar's appearance in Suffer's session 0 prior to Curse of Strahd may fit the bill better, given that it occurred first in the real world, and he had a much larger role in Tour de Dread. Likewise, a version of Dennet drawn from Knicky’s psyche briefly appears in “M.O.M. Knows Best”, before the real Dennet shows up several sessions later.
• Exactly Exty Years Ago: Most past events are referred to as having occurred some round number ago – the Year of Sunlight having been 200 years before the Curse of Strahd party arrives in Barovia, for example. It’s also later established that on the Material Plane, these events did in fact occur exactly 20 years ago – Tour de Dread (and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist) is set in 1492 DR, and Curse of Strahd begins in 1512 DR – but given the way time passes in the Shadowfell the Barovians who discuss it may well be rounding up.
• Interspecies Romance: The majority of couples, given the wide variety of species that appear.
  • In Curse of Strahd, Ireena and Erasmus technically count, given his transformation into a dhampir, though he was originally a normal human as well.
  • Likewise, Moira, a human, and Ilya, a werewolf.
  • Tour de Dread has Cassia (harengon) and Milo (half-elf), once they finally confess their feelings for each other.
  • Dennet's marriage to Florian, who is a changeling. Not that Dennet actually knows that. This, in fact, applies to all of Florian/Knicky's past relationships.
  • Bonnibell (harengon) in Dragon Heist and her two love interests, Davil (elf) and Morelle, (half-elf). It's also mentioned that she's had other flings with people of other species in the past.
  • In the backstory of Dragon Heist, Morelle and Tobak's human father had relationships with both an elf and a half-orc.
• Luke Nounverber: A few player characters: Michelle Mistweaver plays it the most straight, but there's also Cassia Oakcane, Florian Fairchild, and NPC Dennet Duskstock. Notably, all of the Curse of Strahd player characters completely avoid it, instead using Fantasy Counterpart Culture surnames (or no surname at all).
• Off the Rails: Of course. It's a tabletop game.
• Ominous Fog: The Mists of Ravenloft.
• One Degree of Separation: All over the place. Characters and events turn out to be Connected All Along often enough that pretty much everyone is somehow intertwined, even if they don't know it yet.
• Parental Abandonment: A common theme in character backstories.
  • Suffer was a Doorstop Baby, and even after meeting her biological brother still doesn't know who her late parents were. When she does find out more about them, it's not a pleasant revelation.
  • Erasmus' amnesia leaves him with few memories of his family, and while he later reunites with his father, his mother died in Ludmilla's experiments.
  • Moira's father was exiled from Krezk for his criminal ways, leaving her to care for her ailing mother alone until she eventually died of her illness.
  • Ajax, Pandora, and Apollonia's mother is briefly mentioned in "M.O.M. Knows Best," but their father hasn't been mentioned at all.
  • Knicky has no idea who their parents are, and given that at least one of them is or was a changeling, they could be anybody.
  • Morelle and Tobak's father disappeared when they were a child and before he was born, respectively. Tobak's mother died of an illness shortly before the beginning of the campaign, and Morelle's mother hasn't been in contact with them since they left for Waterdeep.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: A couple, notably "Rasreena" for Ireena and Erasmus, and "Cassilo" for Cassia and Milo.
• The Roleplayer: Everyone — the main focus of the playstyle tends to be on story and character development.
• Shared Universe
• Shout-Out:
  • Part of Suffer's full first name is the same as Sam Vimes' king-slaying ancestor.
  • Escher appearing dressed in red and gold after Anastrasya and Volenta die is referred to out-of-character as his "Heather Duke moment".
  • The deal to escort Kasimir to the Amber Temple is jokingly compared to carrying Madam Zeroni up the mountain.
  • The inscription above the doors to the Amber Temple is very similar to a portion of the Scandia report's proposed long-term nuclear waste warning message:
    If you seek honor or power, turn back - for these walls hold naught but doom.
    In amber tombs below, the darkness shelters a timeless evil.
    This temple is infected with a scourge of malevolent divinity.
    Our arrogance and folly forged this place into our prison.
  • The “Camp Clearwater” adventure is an obvious reference to Friday the 13th, and “M.O.M. Knows Best” places the characters in a computer simulation à la The Matrix or ReBoot.
  • Eli Clark from Identity V shows up as an NPC tied to Knicky's backstory in Tour de Dread, and is briefly mentioned in both Curse of Strahd and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.
  • Ajax's Guardian Entity is often compared to a Stand.
  • Erasmus and Rudolph's ancestor Agatha van Richten, appearing in "The Witch of Muckmere Bog," is named after Agatha van Helsing from Dracula (2020).
  • The Dragon Heist DM admits that some of the inspiration for Tobak's personality comes from Gorgug of Fantasy High.
  • Stevie Nyx's name, of course, is a pun on Stevie Nicks.
• Swamps Are Evil: Both of the swamp areas visited — Muckmere Bog in Tour de Dread and Berez in Curse of Strahd — have been pretty miserable places full of magical and environmental hazards.

Tropes appearing in Curse of Remy Abode

• Accidental Innuendo: At one point Suffer refers to the Vistani's storytelling practices as an "oral tradition." Immediately Lampshaded out of character:
  lee: oral tradition is whats about to happen to erasmus tonight
• Adaptation Dye-Job: A lot of NPCs have been given slight redesigns for various reasons, but Ireena, Izek, and Escher in particular received new designs for plot reasons (or, in Escher's case, because one of the player characters was already a blonde guy with long hair who wears purple).
• Adaptation Deviation: Several NPCs and storylines have been reworked in whole or in part to suit the DM and players’ tastes and to give some of the player characters a more personal connection to Barovia. Ireena and Viktor Vallakovich have both been altered slightly, and Izek Strazni is “basically a different character”, mainly sharing a name and general role with his vanilla counterpart. Also, Erasmus the player character turns out to be Erasmus van Richten himself, deviating heavily from the NPC’s set backstory.
• A Day in the Limelight: Suffer gets a short solo session to herself after being separated from the rest of the party on Mt. Ghakis, detailing what happens to her between her arrival at the Amber Temple and the time that the others catch up to her there.
• Affably Evil: The Abbot, though “evil” might not be quite right.
• Ancient Keeper: Exethanter and Neferon, the two surviving stewards of the Amber Temple. Exethanter fits the trope more closely.
• Anger Born of Worry: Frequent between the player characters, but usually courtesy of Erasmus or one of the Strazni siblings towards the other.
• Arc Symbol: Amber, carrying over from Tour de Dread. It seems to have something to do with the Dark Powers and the Shadowfell as a whole, with much importance placed on the Amber Temple, as well as the fact that Madam Ava, Arabelle, and the goddess Ezra all have amber eyes.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: In Vallaki it certainly seems that way. And, of course, Strahd himself.
• Awkward Kiss: Erasmus and Ireena’s First Kiss is this. But they figure it out.
• Battle Couple: Erasmus and Ireena and Ilya and Moira often fight side by side in combat.
• Big Brother Instinct: Tamago is the oldest of his many siblings and his interactions with the children the party meet reflects that. Izek is perhaps a little too protective of his younger sister Suffer. As the oldest of the party members by a significant margin, Erasmus also develops this towards Tamago and Suffer.
• Blood-Stained Glass Windows: The Feast of St. Andral's. The fight with Anastrasya also takes place in the courtyard of the Abbey.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Abbot.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Ludmilla doesn’t even recognize Erasmus, let alone remember what she did to him and his mother.
• Central Theme: Family, "by blood or by bond," emerges as a major theme in the story, with characters experiencing revelations and repercussions related to their biological families, as well as eventually coming together as a Family of Choice over the course of the adventure.
• Cerebus Syndrome: While things weren’t going well by any means before, the Festival of the Blazing Sun and subsequent dinner at Castle Ravenloft certainly mark a turning point in the campaign, with the deaths of dozens upon dozens of Vallaki’s citizens, Tamago’s disappearance, Strahd’s kidnapping of Myshale in retailation for Erasmus getting close to Ireena and assertion that Tamago was acting as his spy, Volenta’s attempts to kill the party and subsequent gruesome death, the implication that Erasmus may have killed his mother himself after being turned into a dhampir, Strahd sending the party away with the assertion that he now considers them enemies, and the reveal that Bray Martikov witnessed Strahd killing Tamago himself. All within 72 hours. Things only go downhill from there.
• The Chosen Many: The party gradually discovers that several of the Dark Powers have chosen "champions" in their bid to replace Strahd as darklord and ruler of Barovia, with the champions themselves displaying varying degrees of reluctance. So far these include Kasimir, Lady Wachter, Viktor, Izek, and Ilya, with Mother Night continuing to try to coerce Suffer to her side.
• Cooperation Gambit: Escher's deal with the party. They'll share information and assist each other where they can, because Escher wants out of Barovia and from under Strahd's thumb, and the party wants an inside man at Castle Ravenloft.
• Cosmic Horror Story: The “Dark Powers” that govern the Shadowfell as a whole tip some aspects of the story in this direction.
• Closed Circle: Barovia (and most dread domains) on the whole, but Vallaki in particular. Erasmus and Tamago could leave… but they’d have to leave Suffer and Ireena behind.
• Crapsack World: Barovia, of course.
• Creepy Cathedral: The Abbey of St. Markovia.
• Dark Mistress: The four brides serve as these to Strahd.
• Death by Origin Story: This seems to be the case for the Strazni parents and Ingrid van Richten.
• Death of a Child: On several counts in Barovia: the fates of the Durst children in Death House, the goings on at the windmill, and Calvin from the Vallaki orphanage stand out.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Barovia, compared to the Sword Coast, has stagnated significantly in its isolation. No one sees anything unusual about seventeen year old Viktor Vallakovich being married off and Ilya is beginning to be considered "too old" for marriage at around 21, homosexuality is heavily frowned upon, and no one seems to recognize or understand Famine or Ilya's gender identities. Women are also generally expected to Stay in the Kitchen, and non-human races are viewed with wariness.
• Delivery Guy: Defied by Erasmus when Dimira goes into labour – not only are Ireena, Famine, Suffer, and the town’s midwife Kretyana all present as well, but Erasmus quickly excuses himself out of fear that all of the blood involved in childbirth could trigger his Horror Hunger. For what it’s worth, Kretyana simply assumes that as a man and not the father of the child, he’s uncomfortable being present.
• Demonic Possession: Felix is a victim of this.
• The Dog Bites Back: The entirety of the revolution in Vallaki has shades of this, though special mention goes to Famine personally decapitating Burgomaster Vallakovich and taking his head as a trophy.
• Dream Sequence / Nightmare Sequence: Erasmus and Suffer have had several of these. When the party reaches the Amber Temple, everyone is faced with them.
• Easily Forgiven: Played with in regards to Suffer and Izek – she’s very aware of the kinds of things he’s done, and fully understands people’s anger towards him as a result. Her sympathy towards him and desire to keep him alive has more to do with the fact that he’s her only surviving biological family member and guilt about being given the opportunity of a better life outside of Barovia at his expense.
• Empathic Weapon: When the party finally gets the Sun Sword from Vladimir, it turns out to be housing a consciousness called Sergei, who seems to have known Tatyana in a past life.
• Enfant Terrible: Felix of the Vallaki orphanage.
• Entitled to Have You: Strahd, of course.
• Everyone's in the Loop: Suffer, at least, tries to keep her party members updated on everything she discovers quickly afterwards. Erasmus not so much, at least until he can't hide his nature as a dhampir anymore.
• Everyone's Baby Sister: The party has this sort of relationship with Arabelle. The older party members also see Suffer this way, if their reaction to her being taken by the roc is any indication.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Nowhere in Barovia is really safe, but it's especially bad the further the party gets up Mt. Ghakis.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Not necessarily “evil” as such, at least as far as we know so far, but the mysterious entity contacting Suffer genuinely can’t seem to comprehend why she wouldn’t want to live in blissful ignorance and blind obedience, and considers her a “troublesome child” for rebelling against that way of thinking.
• Exact Words: Strahd seems to be fond of this, given the way he dances around the subject of Tamago's disappearance. Suffer also tends to do this rather than outright lying, volunteering information that is accurate but not exactly what was asked for.
• Extremely Short Time Span: As of Session 28, the party have been in Barovia for all of two weeks. It's been an even shorter amount of time on the Material plane.
• Fairytale Motifs: The story Ormir tells Suffer about his great-great-great-great aunt follows a common fairytale setup: a woman who desperately wants children but can't conceive opts to strike a bargain with a supernatural entity. In this case, her children are born "monstrous," and it ends in tragedy.
• Family of Choice: In addition to the various revelations about biological family connections, the party as a whole seems to be shaping into this. Helwa even refers to them as Erasmus' "family by bond" in a conversation at the Amber Temple.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: The four brides of Strahd roughly fit into these roles, with Anastrasya as the fighter, Ludmilla and Escher sharing the role of mage, and Volenta as the thief.
• Fire-Forged Friends: The party.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: On the party’s first day in Vallaki, a woman nervously asks Suffer if she’s in town visiting family. Guess who meets her long-lost brother later that night?
• Flesh Golem: Vasilka is one of these, created by the Abbot and intended to be a perfect, immortal vessel for Tatyana’s soul that Strahd can take as his bride.
• From Bad to Worse
• Gendercide: Part of the Dusk Elves’ backstory; all the women and children were killed, leaving only the remnants of the men.
• Gene Hunting: A variation: Suffer never had adoptive parents, having been raised in a church after being left on their doorstep as a baby, but she isn’t particularly concerned about who her birth parents are until she arrives in Barovia and meets her long-lost brother. It’s only then that she wants to find out more about her birth family.
• Give Him a Normal Life: Seems to be the Strazni parents’ motivation for sending Suffer to the material plane alone when they could only afford passage for one of them – being a tiefling in Barovia would be worse for her. Overlaps with Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You. It's later revealed that there was an even more pressing concern.
• The Gadfly: The party seems to have this running dynamic of teasing each other playfully or otherwise. Sometimes to others embarrassment. Particularly Erasmus, Ezmerelda and Moira take turns taking jabs at the other.
• Gothic Horror
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Dark Powers. The characters are most concerned with defeating Strahd, but as the ones governing Barovia and the Domains of Dread as a whole, they're the ones ultimately responsible for the suffering in Barovia.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Despite overall trying their best to help the town and its citizens, when the party leaves to investigate the situation at the winery, they return to Vallaki to discover a warrant has been issued for their arrest on sight for “kidnapping” Ireena.
• Higher Education Is for Women: Played with; most notable characters associated with knowledge and academics are women, most obviously Suffer and Ludmilla. Ioun, Suffer's goddess, is also distinctly female, as are the majority of the named characters at the temple Suffer grew up in. Of course, the fact that Barovia itself doesn't really have any kind of higher education complicates things a little, and Rudolph van Richten being a medical doctor and Viktor Vallakovich's arcane studies both help balance the scales a bit.
• History Repeats: The cycle of Strahd pursuing Tatyana’s endless reincarnations only for her to die when it seems he might be finally getting close to “obtaining” her.
• Holy Hand Grenade: The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. Also many of Suffer’s cleric spells.
• Human Resources: The “dream pies” are reportedly made from human children, and Volenta’s Hall of Bones is made up mainly of human skeletons.
• I Am Who?: Happens to both Erasmus and Suffer, to varying degrees. Erasmus discovers that he is the son of famed monster hunter Rudolph van Richten, and Suffer learns that she is Izek Strazni's sister.
• Identical Stranger: Kaldur briefly mistakes Erasmus for his older sister, Helwa. As it turns out, this is because Helwa is the reincarnation of Erasmus' mother Ingrid van Richten, with the same relationship as Ireena has to Tatyana. A a result, it winds up overlapping with Strong Family Resemblance in a roundabout way.
• I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Delivering the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind to the party via raven appears to have been Tamago’s final act.
• Infernal Retaliation: As tieflings, both Suffer and Izek are innately capable of using hellish rebuke when they take damage – which is nearly disastrous for Ireena when she has to pop his shoulder back into its socket at one point. Hellish rebuke is also how Suffer ultimately dispatches Baba Lysaga.
• Innate Night Vision: Erasmus, Suffer, and Tamago all have darkvision, being a dhampir, tiefling, and tabaxi, respectively. The humans traveling with the party, like Moira, Ireena, and Ez, aren't so lucky.
• Innocently Insensitive: Tamago and Suffer occasionally have remarks made about them by the isolated and almost entirely human population of Barovia, who genuinely don’t know what a Tabaxi or a Tiefling is. Looking like a classical devil, Suffer tends to get the worst of it, with Burgomaster Vallakovich casually referring to her “deformity” over dinner and Burgomaster Krezkov assuming she’s come to see the Abbot in hopes of curing her “affliction.” On a lighter note, the children of both Vallaki and Krezk are fascinated and delighted by their non-human features.
• Instant Birth: Just Add Labor!: Downplayed. The birth of Dimira’s daughter is largely skipped over for the sake of not grossing out the players too much, though it’s noted that it takes several hours and a lot of bodily fluids are involved. It’s even noted that Erasmus needs to leave the room out of fear that the blood will trigger his Horror Hunger.
• It's Personal: If anything, Tamago’s death at Strahd’s hands only spurs the party on to be more determined to kill him than they were before; this is also how Erasmus and Rudolph feel about Ludmilla. Rahadin nearly murdering Ezmerelda also gives the party a personal vendetta against him.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: Implied with Kiril after he and his gang are fended off by the main party. Moira and Ilya see him return to the den battered and bruised and refusing to discuss what happened, likely not wanting to admit that he was beaten by a group consisting mostly of women.
• Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: Exethanter and Neferon; Neferon is far more stingy, only willing to exchange his knowledge for secrets or powerful artifacts, while Exethanter is much more openly helpful to the party. The order of human stewards of the Amber Temple, from whom Suffer and Izek are descended, also seem to have been this before they all died out or left.
• Killed Off for Real: Several major NPCs; notably the Vallakoviches, Tamago, and Volenta, though Viktor and Tamago's fates have been left somewhat ambiguous.
  • Viktor seems to have survived the explosion, given that he appears injured but alive in a vision Famine has.
  • Later, Anastrasya, Ludmilla, Rahadin, Vasilka, the Abbot, and Kasimir are all killed as well.
• Kiss of the Vampire: Anastrasya’s encounter with Famine.
• Lady in Red: Anastrasya. Also Ezmerelda.
• Leaking Can of Evil: The Amber Temple. Emphasis is placed on the fact that sealing away such ancient and powerful evil is difficult to do perfectly, and the vestiges contained within are still able to reach out and influence others.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Arabelle does this often, courtesy of her clairvoyance.
• Life/Death Juxtaposition: Tamago and Moira, the two monks who join the party at one point or another. Tamago follows the Way of Mercy, while Moira uses the Way of the Long Death.
• Living Distant Ancestor: Due to the time differences between planes, Suffer and Izek are these to Ormir, their first cousin four times removed — their mother and his great-great-great grandmother were sisters. Ormir is actually older than the siblings are.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Erasmus discovers evidence that he is in fact the son of none other than Rudolph van Richten, though the two have not yet interacted in person.
  • As of session 24, they have.
• Mad Scientist: Ludmilla. The Abbot and Viktor Vallakovich as well, to a lesser extent.
• Mars Needs Women: This seems to be the motivation of Kiril’s werewolf gang, given that they ask how Ireena is with kids and openly attempt to abduct the girls (and Famine), intending to simply kill Erasmus and Tamago.
• Meaningful Rename: Upon learning who their biological family members are, both Suffer and Erasmus take on their family names – “Strazni” and “van Richten” respectively – having previously both gone by Only One Name.
• Medieval Universal Literacy: Though the party does have trouble with language barriers at times, everyone in Barovia seems to have at least basic literacy skills.
• Meet the New Boss: Lady Wachter. When the party returns to Vallaki just in time for the "Harvest of Blood," it's noted that the decorations, posters, and atmosphere are eerily similar to Burgomaster Vallakovich's festivals.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: The “mongrelfolk”, including Strahd’s servant Cyrus Belview, are people who have come to the Abbot of Krezk to be healed of various ailments and had animal parts grafted onto them, as the Abbot takes the original parts to use for Vasilka.
• Mix-and-Match Man: Vasilka herself.
• Moody Mount: The initially unnamed Shadow is this at times, though it’s justified by some of the situations he's found himself in courtesy of the party's adventures.
• Mystical Pregnancy: Implied to be the case with the Strazni siblings' mother, considering she apparently had to petition the Dark Powers to be able to have children in the first place.
• Mythology Gag: The journal entry in which Van Richten expresses his intention to Mercy Kill his son Erasmus if he ever sees him again, assuming that if he still lives he must have been transformed into a vampire spawn, serves as a dark one to the original version of Erasmus van Richten, where that’s exactly the case: Erasmus was turned into a vampire spawn, and begs his father to put him out of his misery. Luckily, this version of Erasmus is not a vampire spawn but a dhampir, retaining his free will, and his father is persuaded not to put him down.
  • Van Richten mentioning that prior to his abduction and amnesia Erasmus was an artist is another one to his default counterpart.
• Never Found the Body: The case for both Viktor Vallakovich and Tamago: Viktor’s body wasn’t found among the rubble of his house, and Tamago’s was apparently taken away by ravens. Viktor's survival has since been confirmed.
• Non-Linear Sequel: The story takes place decades after Tour de Dread and Dragon Heist, but is played concurrently with those games.
• Offing the Offspring: Van Richten’s journal entry suggests he intends to do this to Erasmus if they meet again, seeing it as a Mercy Kill. Luckily, this seems to have been avoided. It's also eventually revealed that Suffer's father tried to kill her with a kitchen knife when she was an infant.
• Off with His Head!: How Famine dispatches Vargas Vallakovich.
• The One Guy: Erasmus becomes this for a good chunk of the adventure, during the time that the rest of the party consists of Suffer, Moira, Ireena, and Ez.
• Organ Theft: The Abbot takes body parts from people in exchange for healing their various ailments, though it’s not exactly theft, and he’s even kind enough to provide a superior replacement… by his standards, at least. In particular, he takes an interest in Suffer’s heart and Erasmus’ blood and skin for use “perfecting” Vasilka.
• Past Experience Nightmare: The cursed dream pies bring these on Erasmus.
• Politically Correct History: Zig-zagged, and somewhat justified due to the fact that it’s fantasy and not set in any actual historical period. It is also noted that while Faerûn is much more liberal, the isolated Barovia seems to be somewhat behind what the, say, Waterdhavian characters would consider the norm.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Kiril is a misogynistic, transphobic bully who has children fight to the death for his entertainment. The party is pretty much entirely okay with killing him.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: All three original party members dream of Madam Ava before they arrive in Barovia. Suffer has had recurring dreams of the night she left Barovia as an infant, and is visited by… something that speaks to her during one of them. Izek has been seeing Suffer in his dreams for years.
• Put on a Bus: Due to his player having to leave the game, Tamago is written out of the story (albeit with the possibility for him to return) – by way of it being revealed that Strahd murdered him off-screen.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Izek and Suffer. They even match the colour associations.
• Released to Elsewhere: Strahd implies that Tamago was sent back to his family on the Material Plane, saying only that “he is gone.” He knows full well that he killed Tamago himself.
• Roc Birds: One has a nest at the top of Mount Ghakis. It harrasses the party during their trip to the Amber Temple, at one point carrying Suffer off in its talons and later returning to attack the remainder of the group again after her escape.
• Running Gag: A few.
  • Suffer invariably introducing herself using her full Overly Long Name.
  • Famine coughing up slugs, and sometimes giving them as gifts.
  • Erasmus is going to get so many diseases from eating a people.
  • References to in-universe musical artist Eli Clark, “that singing monk.”
  • Suffer pointing out that she doesn’t have feet.
    • Those are her hooves, you bitch.
  • The Vistani having access to various modern day real-world commodities, like Mountain Dew Baja Blast.
  • Moira and Suffer fall into a recurring bit where Moira makes a sarcastic comment or question, and Suffer helpfully provides an answer or further context.
• Scary Stitches: Vasilka has these all over her body, being a Flesh Golem made up of multiple different people’s parts. Despite this, she doesn’t seem to be outright malicious.
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Though the party never actually visits the windmill to see it for themselves, Escher implies that the dream pies they bought from Morgantha are made of human children.
• Self-Made Orphan: Poor Felix at the Vallaki orphanage, while under the influence of the devil possessing him.
• Shared Unusual Trait: Izek Strazni has what Vargas Vallakovich refers to as a “deformity”, but is actually a partial tiefling appearance… which he notes looks very similar to Suffer, also a tiefling. It’s another early reference to the fact that the two are siblings.
• Silver Has Mystic Powers: Silvered weapons are some of the only ones that can deal full damage to various cursed and undead enemies.
• Somber Backstory Revelation: Erasmus reveals everything he can remember about his past to the party on the carriage trip back from the Martikovs’ vineyard, after they witnessed him eat someone in battle, therefore revealing the truth about his being a dhampir.
• Stages of Monster Grief: Varies. Erasmus, having had to live with his condition for two years now, has largely made it to acceptance. Suffer, however, is still in denial about her newly-contracted lycanthropy. At least until she encounters the rest of the werewolves and promptly cures it.
• Stalker with a Crush: Strahd towards Ireena, as in the default module.
• Sympathy for the Devil: None for Strahd himself, but Erasmus and Suffer both feel this way about Escher, and even Ireena says that she "pities" him. Moira and Ez are less convinced. Suffer also later expresses sympathy for the dying Abbot.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The party's tenuous alliance with Escher leads to this, with varying levels of enthusiasm among the party: Erasmus and Suffer are the most willing to work with him, Ireena would prefer not to, and Ez and Moira openly suggest double-crossing him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Yevgeni gives a surprisingly gentle but firm one to Moira, calling her out for her role in his mutilation and Szoldar's death at the hands (and teeth) of Kiril's werewolves and challenging her justification that she wasn't an active participant. Ultimately he expresses sympathy for her and urges her to be better in the future. Moira is so unused to being spoken to openly and honestly that she's stunned into taking it to heart.
• Title Drop: Vladimir gets one, referring to Ireena herself as the "curse of Strahd." The players struggle to take it seriously.
• Trapped in Another World: As standard for Barovia.
• Trauma Conga Line: Also as standard for Barovia.
• Two Guys and a Girl: The initial group of player characters, consisting of Erasmus, Tamago, and Suffer respectively.
• Überwald: The setting.
• Undeathly Pallor: Most of the vampires.
• Unpleasant Parent Reveal: When the party arrives at the ruins of Tsolenka, Suffer investigates the remains of what was once her family home, and is shown visions of their past. These reveal that her father tried to kill her when she was a baby, and was only stopped when a young Izek killed him to protect her.
• Vampire Hunter: Erasmus. Rudolph van Richten and Ezmerelda, too. At this point, basically the entire party.
• Vampire's Harem: Strahd's four brides.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Both Rudolph and Ez have a habit of slipping into this, seeing all vampires as subhuman monsters who need to be put down.
• The Von Trope Family: Strahd von Zarovich, of course, as well as a couple of other Barovian noble families. The van Richtens use the Dutch version.
• We Can Rule Together: Izek makes this offer to Suffer. She immediately turns him down. Likewise, on a much grander scale, this seems to be the promise many of the Dark Powers are making to their "champions."
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: This becomes a point of contention among the party during their alliance with Escher. When Rudolph and Ezmerelda insist that he's fundamentally untrustworthy and no more than a monster who should be put down, Erasmus outright asks what makes him and Escher so different. Rudolph struggles to find an answer.
• Wonder Child: If Ormir's story is any indication, Suffer and Izek are a very dark variation. Their mother's wish for children was granted, but said children were born monstrous, and she and her husband eventually went mad.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: It becomes clear that time passes differently in the Shadowfell than it does on the Material Plane. In Barovia, two hundred years have passed since the Year of Sunlight when Strahd was killed by a reincarnation of Tatyana – heavily implied to be Miscillia – and a group of adventurers she banded with. Back on the Material Plane, Suffer finds out about Barovia from her adult son, Cezar, who is only now going through his late mother’s things. Complicating matters is the fact that Suffer and Izek’s ages appear to be consistent with one another despite having lived on different planes of existence, and Arrigal claims that as a Vistana he is not only able to travel freely through the Shadowfell, but is also immune to its “time dilation” effects.
  • Ludmilla later explains that time passes roughly ten times as quickly in Barovia than it does on the Material Plane: i.e. one year on the Material Plane is ten years in Barovia, and one day on the Material Plane is ten days in Barovia. This would be consistent with Erasmus having spent two years in Waterdeep while his father has spent twenty years in the Shadowfell – though it is notably not consistent with Izek and Suffer’s ages. Ludmilla outright states that the 17 years Suffer has lived in Waterdeep should have been 170 years in Barovia, and that her brother should be long dead. The mysterious entity that seems to consider the Strazni siblings her “children” has implied that she may have had something to do with it.
• You All Meet in an Inn: How the initial party meets.

Tropes appearing in Tour de Dread

• Accidental Murder: Florian accidentally kills Vladislav outright with a particularly powerful vicious mockery in "A Very Ravenloft Christmas," much to Cassia's and his own horror. They end up using a scroll of revivify to bring him back to life.
• A.I.-cronym: M.O.M., for "Maestro of Mankind."
• Anachronism Stew: Even moreso than the Fantasy Kitchen Sink elements of the other campaigns, given the wildly varying technology levels of different Domains of Dread. At one point the party has a rudimentary understanding of modern computers, but no idea what a train is.
• Arc Symbol: Amber, much like in Curse of Strahd, seems to have some association with the Shadowfell and the Dark Powers as a whole. Amber Monoliths frequently appear in Domains of Dread to be destroyed alongside their darklords, and Yivek finds the shard of amber Cassia brings him from the House of Lament particularly interesting.
• Artifact of Attraction: The "Splendiferous Bauble," Mayday's prize for winning Yivek's Great Puzzle Race with the Mist Hunters. It's an otherwise completely normal pine cone that causes anyone who looks at it to want it more than anything in the world.
• Art Shift: In the "Oletus Manor" chapter, a few characters get new art depicting them in the same ragdoll-esque art style as the source material.
• Badass Family: Agatha van Richten, presumably an ancestor of Rudolph and Erasmus in Curse of Strahd, appears in "The Witch of Muckmere Bog," representing the Van Richten family's greater presence in the Shadowfell. Apollonia, Pandora, and Ajax also count.
• Bad Moon Rising: In "Oletus Manor," the phases of the moon herald certain changes in the manor. When the party finally confronts the Baron, it's noted that the moon seen through the windows is blood red.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Cassia and Milo have their First Kiss after finally confessing their feelings to one another, right before going onstage to perform at the Dark Carnival.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Ajax and Cassia form this dynamic.
• Blatant Lies: Knicky, constantly. Best seen with Florian insisting that he's a normal human man.
• Bloodier and Gorier: During "Snow and Stitched Flesh," the descriptions of injuries during combat become distinctly more graphic and detailed. This is a deliberate choice, emphasizing the themes of Medical Horror and the body present in Lamordia.
• Braving the Blizzard: The party is forced to trek out into a huge snowstorm in search of a kidnapped Amelia in "Snow and Stitched Flesh."
• Cabin Fever: In "Oletus Manor," the party slowly gets more and more stir-crazy as months pass and they get no closer to finding a way to escape the domain.
• Came Back Wrong: Apollonia, Ajax and Pandora's late older sister, having been reanimated as a servant of the Witch. She gets better.
• Circus of Fear: The Dark Carnival.
• Citywide Evacuation: The party is present in Baldur's Gate when refugees come pouring in from the evacuation of Elturel, the city having been Dragged Off to Hell.
• Connected All Along: Not only to the other campaigns, but this shows up occasionally within the confines of Tour de Dread itself as well.
• Color Motif: In addition to the significance of amber, as detailed above, several characters are associated with specific colours:
  • Ajax has red.
  • Cassia has mint green.
  • Knicky has yellow or purple. Florian is usually depicted in green, and Poppet in red, while their true changeling form is Deliberately Monochrome.
  • Miscillia has black.
  • Milo has pink, and later as the ringmaster of the Dark Carnival, red and black.
• Creepy Doll: Not-Gennifer, and all other carrionette enemies.
• Damsel in Distress: Miscillia becomes this when she's whisked back to Barovia by the mists after rescuing the party from Oletus Manor, as does Amelia when she's kidnapped by the corpse collectors at the beginning of "Snow and Stitched Flesh."
• Dead All Along: This turns out to be the case with all the other “players” the party meets in “M.O.M. Knows Best” – all of their physical bodies are long dead, and their digitized consciousnesses were all that was left of them.
• Deadpan Snarker: Cassia. Knicky is often this as well, especially when using vicious mockery.
• Death of a Child: In the backstory of the House of Lament.
• Dhampyr: It eventually becomes clear that Cezar Dorval is one.
• Doomed by Canon: The intended conclusion of the adventure is for Miscillia’s adventurers to storm Castle Ravenloft and fight Strahd; the Curse of Strahd adventure, set 20/200 years later in the same timeline, establishes that while they may be successful in killing him Strahd will ultimately be revived by the Dark Powers to continue his reign of terror. Suffer’s session 0 also reveals that by the time Curse of Strahd begins, Miscillia will be dead.
• Dysfunction Junction: Pretty much everyone has some kind of messy or downright traumatic personal history.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Happens on occasion to Ajax, most memorably by a vampire couple on Cyre 1313 and Yivek.
• Empathic Weapon: Nepenthe, the sword bound to the ringmaster of the Dark Carnival, very clearly has a mind of its own, and is in fact the true darklord of the domain.
• Emo Teen: Sage Oakcane, one of Cassia's younger siblings, seems to be on their way to growing up into one of these.
• Enfant Terrible: The Baron, who when interacting with the party takes the form of a young boy.
• Evil Is Visceral: The Witch's lair, full of lots of lovingly described blood and guts.
• Evil Weapon: Unlike Sergei in Curse of Strahd, who is much nicer, Nepenthe is very much this.
• Family Theme Naming: Both the Oakcanes and Ajax's family. The Oakcanes are all named after different plants, mainly herbs, and Ajax and his sisters' names come from Greek mythology.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Averted; Cassia finds a pistol in the House of Lament and subclasses as a gunslinger at third level.
• Foil: The other "players" in "M.O.M. Knows Best" serve as these to the party - Patience to Cassia, Attaresh to Ajax, Lucette to Mayday, and, most obviously, Miz to Knicky.
• Genre Shift: Each Domain of Dread the party finds themselves in ties into a different horror sub-genre:
  • The "House of Lament" is a Haunted House.
  • "Camp Clearwater" is a sendup of the Slasher Movie genre.
  • "M.O.M. Knows Best" is Sci-Fi Horror.
  • "The Witch of Muckmere Bog" is the group's foray into Folk Horror and features a Wicked Witch.
  • "Oletus Manor" places the group in a Survival Horror setting, participating in a Deadly Game.
  • "The Dark Carnival" is, of course, a Circus of Fear.
  • "Snow and Stitched Flesh" is themed around Medical Horror, with a healthy dose of Bloody Horror for good measure.
  • "A Very Ravenloft Christmas" is, of course, the Christmas Episode. Given that it's set in Barovia, it's also a Twisted Christmas.
• Ghost Train: After "The Witch of Muckmere Bog," the group hitches a ride on Cyre 1313.
• Gilded Cage: Oletus Manor. When they finally confront the Baron, he can't seem to comprehend why the party would ever want to leave.
• Grand Theft Me: One particular carrionette pulls this on Gennifer Weathermay-Foxgrove in "The House of Lament." This goes From Bad to Worse when her sister Laurie reveals that Gennifer is a werewolf, it's the full moon, and the doll doesn't know or care to take the medication that staves off her transformation.
• Grave Robbing: On arrival in Lamordia, the carnival is almost immediately attacked by a group of "corpse collectors," who bear licenses that offer compensation in return for medical cadavers and body parts but note that grave robbing is strongly discouraged. The implication is not lost on Florian and Cassia.
• Grim Up North: Lamordia. The party has the additional misfortune of having to arrive in the midst of a blizzard.
• Heart Trauma: Syndal's heart was removed by Dr. Mordenheim for her own purposes. He wants it back.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: The party, to varying degrees, but especially compared to the other games' player characters. While the Tour de Dread group does have some standards, they're easily the most "murderhobo-y," going into domains of dread with every intention of killing whoever the darklord is, and arguably have some of the most selfish motivations. They may not be outright evil, but they're not exactly the most upstanding, either. This is, of course, generally Played for Laughs.
• Herr Doktor: Dr. Viktra Mordenheim, of course, given her status as an Expy of one of the trope codifiers.
• Hidden Depths: Ajax proves himself capable of being surprisingly thoughtful and empathetic at times, especially in one-on-one interactions with Miscillia.
• High School AU: The dating simulator segment of "M.O.M. Knows Best" places the characters in one of these, despite only Mayday even really knowing what a high school is.
• Innocently Insensitive: Mayday does this occasionally. When Miscillia begins to open up to the group about the true purpose of their jobs, Mayday quickly compares the vampire lord she describes to Strahd von Zarovich, having heard of him as an in-universe fictional character from Noname and Ryan, and having no idea what kind of personal pain he’s inflicted on her. Miscillia does not take it well.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Mayday attempts this when trying to use the Splendiferous Bauble to bargain with Yivek, but it backfires on her because he's the one who gave it to her in the first place, and knows exactly what it does already. It's only compounded by the rest of the party falling under the enchantment and insisting that Mayday not give it to him. Then she tries it again, with exactly the same results.
• In the Hood: Whenever Miscillia and Cezar go out in public, they dress in all black, with hoods and face masks to conceal their identities. Though, as Dennet points out, it does make it very obvious who they are to people who do already know.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: With Identity V, initially only through the half-joking presence of Eli Clark. The party eventually finds themselves at a version of Oletus Manor re-imagined as a Domain of Dread.
• Jawbreaker: The Witch seems to be fond of ripping or cutting jawbones entirely off of her victims. Apollonia suffers that fate, as does Cassia in a Nightmare Sequence, and when they finally fight the Witch herself, she crushed Knicky's jaw entirely. This is also how Ajax finishes off the massive crocodile in the swamp.
• Late to the Tragedy: In "M.O.M. Knows Best." All humanoid life died out eight hundred years prior to the party arriving.
• Mad Scientist: Viktra Mordenheim.
• Magic Versus Science: In Lamordia. Sybil and Vaughan note that Lamordians look down on magic as opposed to science, in some cases seeing it as "cheating," and Vaughan in particular seems to be terrified of magic-users. This attitude is so prevalent that the domain itself can sometimes reject magic entirely. Cassia, an artificer, thinks this is ridiculous.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: The Oakcanes.
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: During "Oletus Manor":
  Ajax: "Bloodsports" is my middle name!
  Florian: I thought your middle name was "the."
• Mirror Match: When the fetches attack the Carnival, the party is pitted against copies of themselves.
• Mirror Self: The fetches encountered at the Dark Carnival are these — mirror creatures who mimic a person's appearance and memories, if not their personalities.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Viktra Mordenheim. She's often referred to simply as "the doctor."
• Other Me Annoys Me: A shared sentiment towards the party's fetch copies.
• Outcast Refuge: Many members of the Carnival see it as this.
• Precursor Heroes: The party in Tour de Dread serve as these to the Curse of Strahd group later.
• Prequel: Despite being played concurrently with Curse of Strahd, the events of this campaign take place well before it.
• Psychological Torment Zone: Muckmere Bog is this, courtesy of its resident witch, creating illusions and generally messing with the party members' heads.
• Put on a Bus: Mayday leaves the party after "Oletus Manor."
• Rage Against the Reflection: A downplayed version with Knicky. Upon arriving in their room at Oletus Manor and finding that it's been furnished with a large, full-length mirror, they promptly cover it with a sheet.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The party. The members of the Carnival are also this; many of them are victims of other Domains of Dread who don't fit in anywhere else.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: Of a sort. While Curse of Strahd establishes that the Tour de Dread group were unable to permanently defeat Strahd and free Barovia, their actions are what set the Curse of Strahd group up to eventually potentially succeed where they failed.
• Relationship Upgrade: Milo and Cassia finally get theirs in "The Carnival," after spending almost their entire time performing together pining for each other, then being separated over the course of the campaign itself.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: The fetch copy of Cassia tries this on the party when they fight. It doesn't work.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Cassia and Knicky, respectively, tend towards this kind of dynamic. Sometimes other characters get in on it too.
• Strong Family Resemblance: The Oakcanes all look very similar, mainly taking after either their mother or father. Cezar also quite closely resembles both of his parents.
• Stupid Sexy Friend: When they actually get to see Knicky as Florian, Cassia finds him frustratingly pretty, much to their own chagrin.
• The Team Benefactor: Miscillia.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Due to their conflicting personalities, the Tour de Dread group sometimes falls into this. Miscillia and Dennet are an even more straightforward example, making their personal dislike of one another very clear.
• Twisted Christmas: The party's introduction to Barovia, "A Very Ravenloft Christmas," sees the four of them attempting to protect the village over the course of the winter solstice, with each hour bringing a new yuletide-themed threat.
• Two-Person Love Triangle: Miscillia seems to think that there's some kind of love triangle going on between Knicky, Dennet, and Florian Fairchild, unaware that Knicky and Florian are the same person.
• The Unfought: The party never actually engages in combat with Viktra Mordenheim. Instead, after Cassia goads her into replacing Syndal's heart and they realize she won't force Sybil to stay against their will, the group cuts their losses and just leaves.
• Vague Age: Both Ajax and Florian admit to not knowing their exact ages, with Ajax claiming to have lost track of a few years here and there and Florian giving an estimate of "late twenties" for himself.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Cassia and Knicky.
• Would Hurt a Child: The Baron of Oletus Manor pisses the party off so much that they don't really have any qualms about physically attacking him, even though he looks like a young boy. Downplayed as the Baron isn't actually a child, just takes the form of one.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: When the party arrives in Lamordia in "Snow and Stitched Flesh," they find that the domain itself seems to resist their magic. This is represented by a mechanic where, any time a magical effect is used, the caster must roll a d20: on a natural one, there's simply no effect.

Tropes appearing in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

• A Birthday, Not a Break: Since the party goes out to catch the serial killer in the Dock Ward late at night on Mirtul 22nd, Bonnie ends up spending the first hours of her 30th birthday hunting and interrogating him.
• Adopted to the House: The party immediately offers Tobak a job at the tavern and a room in Trollskull Manor upon hearing about his situation, even before they realize he's Morelle's half-brother.
• Affectionate Nickname: Bonnibell is often called “Bonnie,” especially by her ex-boyfriend Davil, and Vincent Trench tends to refer to Morelle as “kid.” Bonnibell has also nicknamed Morelle "Sherlock," and Davil himself "pumpkin."
• Anachronism Stew
• Animal Motifs: Vincent has tigers.
• Betty and Veronica: Bonnibell with her two Love Interests, Davil and Morelle. Davil is the Veronica, as while she's known him longer, their relationship has been volatile and he's deeply entrenched in Waterdeep's criminal underground. Morelle is a new flame, but is a kind, respectful detective on the side of good, making them the Betty in the situation.
• Birthday Episode: Mirtul 23rd is Bonnibell’s birthday.
• Brooklyn Rage: Bonnie has the accent and the attitude.
• City of Adventure: Waterdeep, of course.
• Cobweb of Disuse: Lots in Trollskull Manor when the party first arrives.
• Curiosity Killed the Cast: Bonnibell meets an untimely fate after picking the lock on a book taken from Gralhund Villa.
• Disappeared Dad: Morelle’s is one of the driving forces behind their coming to the city in the first place.
• Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Vincent smokes one.
• Distressed Dude: Floon and Renaer begin the adventure like this.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Michelle and Threestrings make one in the narration a few sessions prior to Michelle’s introduction as a player character.
• Family Eye Resemblance: Morelle and Tobak both share the exact same eye colour.
• Fantastic Racism: Most prominently appears in subplots invovling Bregan D'aerthe and drow tensions with other elves.
• Gender Flip: Tally Fellbranch, owner of the Bent Nail in Trollskull Alley, is written in the module as male. Here, she's a woman.
• Glorified Sperm Donor: Tobak feels this way about his and Morelle's father, as unlike Morelle, he never had the chance to have a relationship with him.
• Haunted Headquarters: Trollskull Manor becomes this.
• Haunted House: Trollskull Manor.
• Hero of Another Story: With Tour de Dread taking place at the same time as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, the player characters of each campaign end up serving as this to one another, only making brief cameo appearances in each others’ stories.
• Homemade Inventions: Bonnibell’s creations.
• It's Personal: When Tobak is caught in the fireball blast, Morelle becomes even more determined to take the investigation into their own hands. This is only further exacerbated when Bonnie actually dies.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: One of Lif’s redeeming features is that he seems to be this, often taking care of Doja while the party is away from Trollskull Manor.
• Leitmotif: Several characters and locations have specific musical themes, largely drawn from the Incompetech royalty-free library:
  • The Yawning Portal and Trollskull Manor both use Travis Savoie’s soundtrack.
  • Vincent Trench and the Tiger’s Eye have “I Knew A Guy.”
  • Book Wyrm’s Treasure has “Gymnopedie No. 3.”
  • The Watchful Order uses “Alchemist’s Tower.”
  • Davil Starsong has “Suonatore di Liuto.”
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to the heavily horror-themed Curse of Strahd and Tour de Dread.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Several NPCs, though most prominently Davil Starsong and Floon Blagmaar.
• Love Triangle: Bonnibell has one set up between herself, Davil, and Morelle. However, it seems like she may not have to choose between them at all.
• Milestone Birthday Angst: Bonnibell, on her 30th.
• Mob War: One between the Zhentarim and the Xanathar Guild sets up the main conflict of the module.
• Odd Friendship: Several, including Michelle and Remallia Haventree, and Fala Lefaliir and Ziraj the Hunter.
• One-Steve Limit: The character known as Bonnie in the original module is renamed Annie here, to avoid confusion with player character Bonnibell, herself nicknamed Bonnie.
• Relationship Revolving Door: This is the nature of Davil and Bonnibell's long term relationship. At the time the campaign begins, they're broken up, but quickly end up Working with the Ex.
• Resurrection Sickness: As specified in the spell description, Bonnibell suffers from this after being revived with raise dead.
• Secret Other Family: Tobak and Morelle's father Cyrus didn't make either of his children aware of their half sibling. Somewhat downplayed given the fact that he seems to have disappeared either before Tobak was born or very shortly afterward, so he may not have had the chance.
• Spooky Séance: Michelle hosts one to allow the party to better communicate with Lif.
• Stepford Smiler: It becomes very clear very quickly that Floon is struggling to hide how traumatized his kidnapping left him.
• Team Pet: Doja, the stray cat who took up residence in Trollskull Manor while it was abandoned, is adopted by the party.
• Two Halves Make a Plot: As it turns out, Morelle and Tobak each have half of a journal that belonged to their father. They only realize they're related when they put the two halves together.
• Wham Episode: Session 25, which features the groups first player character death when Bonnibell is killed on her way back from Gralhund Villa.
• What Year Is This?: Lif has to have the party confirm the year to him when they ask how long he's been in Trollskull Manor, having lost track of time during his undeath.
• Wizarding School: The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors, of which Stevie becomes a member in good standing, operates one.
• Working with the Ex: Bonnibell, now that the party is working with Davil and the Doom Raiders. Though he may not remain an ex for long.
• You All Meet in an Inn: The Yawning Portal.

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Characters

Player Characters

Curse of Remy Abode

Erasmus van Richten

Race: Dhampir

Class: Ranger (Monster Slayer Conclave)/Fighter

A bounty hunter by trade operating out of a tavern in the city of Waterdeep who remembers nothing of his life prior to the past two years, other than a traumatic experience at a mysterious, mist-laden castle. He eventually turns out to be the long presumed-dead son of Rudolph van Richten.

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• Amnesiac Hero: Erasmus eventually confesses that he doesn't remember anything of his life more than two years before the start of the adventure. Despite revelations about his identity, he still doesn't actually remember much.
• Amnesiac Resonance: A minor (and heartbreaking) variation: upon meeting and ultimately having to part ways with his father, Erasmus makes him pinky promise that the two of them will meet up again. Van Richten remarks that as a child Erasmus would always do exactly that whenever his father had to go away on monster-hunting business.
  Van Richten: Even if you don’t remember, you still sort of do, I see.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In their confrontation in the Amber Temple, Ludmilla casts dominate person on him and commands him to kill his friends. He's conscious and aware even though he's not in control of his actions, and the first part of the fight is dedicated to breaking her control over him.
• Canon Character All Along: He is the campaign's version of Erasmus van Richten, a surprise even to his player.
• Classy Cravat: Wears one to dinner at Castle Ravenloft.
• Dual Wielding: His two-handed fighting style, though he later discards it in favour of the heavier Woodcutter's Axe.
• Eating the Enemy: His dhampir “bite” attack allows him to do this and regain some hit points.
• Enter Stage Window: Does this occasionally, aided by his ability to walk up walls.
• Escaped from the Lab: One of the first things he does remember is his escape from Ludmilla's experiments in Castle Ravenloft.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: This certainly seems to be the case, given that he’s attracted the most romantic interest of any party member so far.
• Forgot Their Own Birthday: Courtesy of his Trauma-Induced Amnesia.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Well, Dhampyr, technically.
• Horror Hunger: As a dhampir, Erasmus hungers for raw, bloody meat, preferably still alive, and has a specific game mechanic devoted to controlling his hunger.
• Hunter of Monsters: His subclass is the Monster Slayer conclave, and he specializes in hunting down undead.
  • Hunter of His Own Kind: Erasmus is eventually revealed to be a dhampir himself.
• I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Part of Erasmus’ driving motivation is to take revenge on Ludmilla, whose experiments turned him into a dhampir, and who he absolutely loathes. It doesn’t help that the same experiments killed his mother. Ludmilla, for her part, doesn’t even remember either of them.
• In the Blood: An amnesiac Erasmus van Richten unwittingly follows in his father’s footsteps, becoming a monster hunter himself.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: While he still wants Strahd dead, he has a much deeper, more personal grudge against his bride Ludmilla.
• Like Brother and Sister: He very quickly falls into this dynamic with Ezmerelda.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He has long blonde hair and is very pretty, if the amount of attention he gets from NPCs is any indication.
• Mark of the Supernatural: His one red eye, which he hides under his hair, is this.
• Matricide: After learning more about what Ludmilla has been doing in her lab, he begins to fear that his mother didn't die as a result of the experiments, but that he killed her himself immediately after his transformation.
• Mistaken Age: He himself admits that he has no idea how old he actually is, due to his amnesia. His stated age of 27 is just a guess.
• The Needless: Erasmus does not technically need to breathe.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Being zapped by the magic door to the tower on Lake Baratok, which the party constantly teases him about. It only gets worse when they discover that the person who's been living there is his own father.
• Only One Name: Only goes by "Erasmus" until he finds out what family he belongs to.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: His hair in his initial design covers his one red eye. He later pins his hair back, revealing both.
• Purple Is Powerful: His initial design features a strong purple colour palette, and he's a powerhouse weilding both magic and sher strength.
• The Pretty Guys Are Stronger: With a Strength score of 20, Erasmus must be absolutely built under that flowy outfit.
• Quest for Identity: Erasmus spends much of the adventure searching for answers about his forgotten past.
• Reluctant Monster: He struggles a lot with the urges that come with his nature as a dhampir, and tries to manage them as ethically as he can.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: It comes with the territory of being a ranger, and comes in very handy traversing the forests and mountains of Barovia.
• Stepford Smiler: Erasmus is pleasant and chatty, but a lot of his demeanour is hiding a lot of pain and a very dark past.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: His earliest memories, courtesy of Ludmilla.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He very closely resembles his mother Ingrid, which he discovers when he first is mistaken for and later meets her reincarnation, Helwa of Yaedrag.
• Tracking Spell: Erasmus’ ranger spell hunter’s mark can serve as this.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Erasmus can’t remember any of his life prior to two years before the adventure. Ludmilla’s experiments that turned him into a dhampir appear to be the cause.
• Undead Tax Exemption: Erasmus spends two years living in Waterdeep after he loses his memories. Justified in the sense that the medieval fantasy setting doesn’t bother quite so much with formal papers.
• Vampire Hunter: Like his father before him.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: When he finally kills Ludmilla, he notes that it doesn't actually bring him much, if any, satisfaction at all.
• Wall Crawl / Wall Run: Erasmus makes good use of his ability to walk up walls.

Suffer-Not-Injustice-in-Pursuit-of-Wisdom Strazni

Race: Tiefling

Class: Cleric (Knowledge Domain)

A young acolyte of the Goddess of Knowledge, Ioun, who was raised in a temple devoted to her worship in Waterdeep after being abandoned on its doorstep as an infant. She discovers that she was born in Barovia and smuggled to the Material Plane as a baby, and is the younger sister of Izek Strazni.

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• Alliterative Name: Technically, hers is this, though her first name is so long it loses some of its impact.
• Amazing Technicolour Population: She is red.
• Animal Motifs: Suffer, and to a lesser extent her brother Izek, have goats and sheep. Suffer has goat-like hooves instead of feet, and her horns resemble that of a real-life breed of sheep, the Jacob sheep. The same breed of sheep tends to be patterned in spots or patches, tying into Izek’s piebald/paradox appearance. Both siblings also have curly hair.
• Awful Truth: Suffer's revelations about her family are presented as such, albeit one she can't resist pursuing anyway. The truth itself turns out to be that her father tried to kill her when she was a baby, only for Izek to accidentally burn her when he killed him to protect her, causing the scar on her face. When this knowledge is granted to her in a vision from Ioun, she thanks her, but still breaks down into tears.
• The Baby of the Bunch: At 17, Suffer is the youngest of the party members. Erasmus, Tamago, and Ireena seem to treat her like a younger sister. Later, Moira and Ez get in on it too.
• Badass Bookworm: Suffer is a cleric of a knowledge goddess and was raised in a church containing a massive library. While she doesn’t like violence, she’s more than capable of holding her own in a fight. As she spends more and more time in Barovia, this becomes more prominent.
• Bittersweet 17: The adventure begins when Suffer is seventeen years old, and serves as a dark Coming of Age Story of sorts for her.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Suffer is generally softspoken, kind, forgiving, and helpful even to total strangers. When she genuinely gets angry, though, she gets very angry.
• Black Speech: Fluent in both Abyssal and Infernal.
• Celibate Hero: While Suffer's religion doesn't require her to be chaste, it does encourage a focus on scholarly and religious studies over other pursuits, especially while young. Combined with the dearth of age-appropriate potential love interests in Barovia and the fact that she has much bigger issues on her plate, romance is not a priority for her.
• Carry a Big Stick: She uses a mace as her primary melee weapon.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite looking like a Big Red Devil, Suffer is arguably the kindest and most moral member of the party.
• Distinguishing Mark: The large, branching scar on her face and neck. In Barovia, her tiefling appearance also serves as one.
• Doesn't Know Their Own Birthday: Due to being a...
• Doorstop Baby: Suffer was left on the steps of the Temple of Ioun in Waterdeep as an infant.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: Her Knowledge domain abilities are basically these.
• Have You Seen My God?: Though her goddess’ blessing still remains, Suffer quickly learns that Ioun can’t reach her directly in Barovia. Instead, something else reaches out to her.
• The Heart: Especially after the death of Tamago and the introductions of Ez and Moira, Suffer falls into this role within the party, generally being the most empathetic, idealistic, and honest member of the group. She's the most likely to object to extreme measures or unnecessary cruelty, and while she initially volunteers to Mercy Kill Vasilka, she can't bring herself to go through with killing an innocent. Notably, the Abbot identifies this trait in her immediately upon meeting her, asking her for her literal heart so he can use it for his Flesh Golem.
• Heavenly Blue: Suffer is mainly associated with the colour blue. It's used in her clerical robes, and her magic often manifests visually as a pale blue light or similar.
• Horned Humanoid: Being a tiefling, and all. She is in fact polycerate, and the design of her horns is based on a Jacob sheep’s.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Before she leaves for Barovia, her friend Dahlia at the temple suggests that she write a book about her experience when she returns.
• It Was a Gift: Mother Cassandra gives her a handmade knit scarf before she leaves.
• Long-Lost Relative: She turns out to be Izek Strazni's younger sister. She also discovers that the two of them have a surviving cousin in Ormir.
• Monstrous Humanoid: Being a tiefling.
• Ms. Exposition: Often takes this role in-universe by explaining things like the Great Wheel of planar cosmology and other complicated concepts to the rest of the party and NPCs, putting her time devoted to a knowledge goddess to good use.
• Naïve Newcomer
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Though the intention of her full name is arguably the opposite, her friends simply call her "Suffer" for short.
• Non-Indicative Name: Her nickname, at least. She's actually fairly nice.
• Mature Younger Sibling: In many ways Suffer serves as this to Izek, generally being kinder, more level-headed, and less prone to violent anger – though even she still has her moments.
• Omniglot: Suffer speaks and reads six languages fluently at the beginning of the campaign, and is in the process of learning the Vistani language as well.
• Orc Raised by Elves: Sort of. Tieflings are usually viewed as “evil” or at least unholy, but Suffer was taken in by a temple of Ioun and raised by the worshippers.
• Overly Long Name: Usually shortened to “Suffer”.
• Pious Monster: Being both a tiefling and the party's Token Religious Teammate.
• Playing with Fire: Though most of her magic takes on the appearance of holy light, as a tiefling she’s also able to use hellish rebuke – much like her brother.
• Prophet Eyes / Monochromatic Eyes: Though they’re a product of her heritage rather than blindness.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Prone to this, often responding sincerely and informatively to sarcastic comments.
• Scars Are Forever: The wound that caused the scar on her face was inflicted when she was an infant. She eventually discovers that it was done accidentally by her brother while he was trying to protect her.
• Scary Teeth: Her teeth are sharp and pointed.
• Secret Legacy: Suffer eventually discovers that she and her brother are descended from an ancient line of stewards of the Amber Temple. Moira and Ez mostly use this knowledge to try to justify stealing everything inside that isn't nailed down, because technically it belongs to her anyway, right?
• Seers: Her Knowledge domain gives her access to certain divination spells that aren’t usually available to clerics.
• Separated at Birth: From her older brother.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Suffer’s appearance has a lot in common with her brother Izek’s tiefling traits, sharing solid white eyes, curly dark reddish hair, and mouths full of pointed teeth. The siblings' mother also had dark red hair, and their cousin Ormir is a redhead as well, even several generations on.
• Teen Genius: At only seventeen years old, Suffer is extremely well-educated and a powerful magic user.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: As a follower of a goddess of knowledge, she believes that sharing information and telling the truth to others is the best course of action, and refuses to lie or withhold information without what she considers a good reason. At times the other party members have to interrupt her mid-sentence to continue a ruse.
• Younger Than They Look: Thanks to her height - the tallest out of the party - others sometimes don't realize she's still a teenager.

Tamago

Race: Tabaxi

Class: Monk (Way of Mercy)

The eldest child of many siblings in a small mountain town, whose family specializes in exorcisms and putting the dead to rest. He becomes a champion of the Raven Queen, but is killed by Strahd after the Festival of the Blazing Sun, who claims that he was acting as The Mole for him.

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• Ambiguously Evil: It’s eventually revealed that Tamago was apparently acting as a spy for Strahd himself, though his providing help to the Martikovs, ensuring the party received the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, and the fact that he was last seen having an argument with Strahd that ended in his death all call into question where his true loyalties lie.
• Animal Eyes: Befitting a tabaxi.
• Animal Motifs: Cats, initially, given his status as a tabaxi, but he later becomes associated with ravens as well once he aligns himself with the Raven Queen.
• Back from the Dead: The Raven Queen revives him after his death during the Feast of St. Andral. Unfortunately, he seems to not have been so fortunate the second time around.
• Bare-Fisted Monk
• Big Brother Instinct: As the oldest of several children, Tamago has this not just towards his own siblings, but to most of the children the party encounters.
• Cat Boy
• The Chosen One: Becomes the champion of the Raven Queen.
• Divine Assistance: During the Feast of St. Andral, on the verge of death, Tamago has an encounter with the Raven Queen that leads to… something… happening to him to mark him as her champion, alongside him being returned to life, consciousness, and health.
• Due to the Dead: Tamago's family deals in this.
• Edible Theme Naming: Tamago and his many siblings are all named after various foodstuffs.
• Friend to All Children: Tamago is good with kids, being the eldest in his family, and easily befriends the Martikov's children and the charges of St. Andral's Orphanage.
• Healing Hands: As a Way of Mercy monk, he has access to the Hand of Healing ability.
• Killed Offscreen: The party hears of his death secondhand, from Bray Martikov.
• Killed Off for Real: By Strahd himself.
• Little Bit Beastly
• Nice Guy: Tamago is probably the single kindest and nicest member of the party, which is part of what makes it so hard to believe he was working for Strahd.
• Martial Medic
• The Mole: According to Strahd, at least.
• Put on a Bus: Due to his player having to leave the game, Tamago is written out of the story (albeit with the possibility for him to return) – by way of it being revealed that Strahd murdered him off-screen.
• Sacrificial Lion: Tamago is one of the three player characters present from the very beginning of the game, and is also the first to die, first in the crypt under the church and later, after being revived by the Raven Queen, more permanently at the hands of Strahd himself. His death comes as a shock to the party, closes out the Vallaki arc, and signals a turning point in the adventure, after which things quickly get much more serious.
• Surprisingly Normal Backstory: Compared to Erasmus, Moira, and even Suffer once details surrounding her birth are revealed, Tamago has lived a mostly happy, comfortable life in a large, loving family.

Moira Drel

Race: Human

Class: Monk (Way of the Long Death)

The Krezkov family's maid, who worked for them for many years before running away with the family's son, Ilya, after he was turned into a werewolf. She joins the party in hopes that they can help Ilya overcome the influence of the Dark Power that has taken hold of him.

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• Bare-Fisted Monk
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: She attempts this on Erasmus when he's charmed by Escher along with the rest of the crowd in Vallaki. It turns out that taking damage only triggers saving throws against a vampiric charm when it's inflicted by the caster.
• Covered with Scars: With Moira often running headfirst into danger without much concern. She has a quite a collection of these—mainly from werewolves claws or teeth.
• Cute Bruiser: Moira is an attractive young woman capable of snapping necks with little effort.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often due to her lack of communication skills she hides her embarrassment with jokes and less than playful quips. However its so much of a default its hard to tell when she's being genuine often leading to a few misunderstandings.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: She taunts and insults not only the Dark Powers that try to tempt her, but also the "God of Secrets" residing within the Amber Temple. While the party is skeptical that the latter is actually a god, it's still a powerful enough being to cast both banishment and finger of death on her, and the party is forced to make offerings of knowledge to avoid further conflict.
• In Love with the Mark: With Ilya. Considering she was hired into the Krezkov family to ruin their lives; by murdering Ilya. The plan didn’t go through due to her catching feelings though.
• Life Drain: One of her abilities as a Way of the Long Death monk. When she kills an enemy, she can grant herself temporary hit points.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Ilya, especially as the influence of the Dark Powers on him becomes stronger. He's much less troubled when she's with him, and both of them are afraid of what might happen when she leaves for Berez with the party, even after acknowledging it to be the best and safest option.
• Nay-Theist: Moira doesn't just not believe in the Morninglord, she hates him.
• Ninja Maid: Moira works as a maid for a noble family in Krezk, and she is a monk.
• No Social Skills: Unless she's putting on her overly-polite maid persona, she really struggles to get along with others.
• Prayer of Malice
• Rage Against the Heavens
• Revenge by Proxy: When the party subdues Kiril, Moira intends to take revenge on him by torturing his mate in front of him.
• Sixth Ranger: Moira joins the party even after Famine, well into the campaign.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Moira is cold and harsh towards just about everyone, including the party, except for Ilya. She's beginning to soften as time goes on.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: Her "Hour of Reaping" ability applies the "frightened" conditions to creatures around her who fail a Wisdom saving throw.
• Token Evil Teammate: Initially, though over time she's softened to a more neutral alignment.
• Token Human: Of the player characters.
• Undying Loyalty: Moira and Ilya to the other bordering obsession. They refuse to part until they both have died.
• Uptown Girl: Her relationship with Ilya; she was a commoner who worked for his family, and he was the heir to a noble family in Krezk.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: To Ilya.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Moira has an intense phobia of horses, stemming in large part to an incident where one kicked her in the chest. She hates having to deal with them.
• You Are Worth Hell: Considering Moira went into werewolf territory to see Ilya again this applies. But as the party agreed to help her out and hates being indebted to others she is willing to do anything—-even help them fight Strahd.
• You Will Not Evade Me: She takes the feat "Sentinel" at eighth level, allowing her to prevent enemies from moving out of her range when she successfully makes an attack against them.

Famine Szoldarovich

Race: Human

Class: Warlock (Pact of the Undying)

A social outcast born and raised in Vallaki, who joins the party after they rescue them from being drowned in Lake Zarovich. Famine is seen as strange and unusual and apparently has had some kind of connection to one of the Dark Powers since they were a child.

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• Ambiguous Gender Identity: While Famine’s family generally refers to them with feminine language, like “sister,” Famine responds to any gendered pronouns, is primarily referred to with they/them, and is stated to bind their chest most of the time.
• An Arm and a Leg: Famine's left hand is bitten off by Kiril. Luckily, Van Richten is able to surgically re-attach it with Ireena, Suffer, and Moira's help, but they still need to be very careful with it.
• Because You Were Nice to Me / I Owe You My Life: The reason they join the party in the first place: Erasmus and Tamago rescued them from being drowned by Bluto, and the party as a whole are some of the first people in their life who haven’t treated them terribly.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Famine is quiet, has difficulty speaking to others, and generally tries to keep to themself due largely to the way the town of Vallaki treats them. They’re also a very powerful warlock capable of absolutely wrecking shop with little more than a few Eldritch Blasts.
• Big Brother Bully: Their older brother Morgan, particularly when the two were growing up.
• Blemished Beauty: Though Famine has a large burn mark on their face and has a colony of bugs living inside them, it's noted that they have a remarkably pretty face and very nice skin.
• Deal with the Devil: A given for a warlock. According to Kasimir, the entity that provides both of them with their power is known as Zhudun, the Corpse Star.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Eyepatch of Power: They initially wear one, but later give it to Vasilka as a gift.
• Friend to Bugs: They have them living under their skin, and have coughed up slugs on multiple occations.
• Gender-Blender Name: Despite generally being read as female by others, Famine uses the masculine variation of their surname.
• Humanoid Abomination: As a warlock of the Undying, Famine seems to be becoming this, with powerful magic, insects and worms living under their skin, and the ability to see in the dark.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Burgomaster Vallakovich refers to them this way, apparently not even seeing them as human.
• Killed Off for Real: By Sasha.
• Loser Friend Puzzles Outsiders: The Wachter brothers are bewildered by Erasmus’ friendship with Famine.
• Lovecraftian Superpower
• Non-Indicative Name: Given the theming of their powers, Pestilence would probably be the more appropriate horseman.
• No Social Skills
• Plague Master
• Rescue Introduction: The party meet Famine when they have to save them from being drowned in Lake Zarovich.
• Rugged Scar: Famine has a large burn mark over one half of their face, as a result of an accident when they were a child.
• Suppressed Mammaries: Famine is stated to bind their chest most of the time.
• The Worm That Walks: While Famine isn’t actually made of bugs, there are various creepy-crawlies using their body as a home, and they occasionally cough up slugs and caterpillars.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel

Tour de Dread

Ajax "the Destroyer"

Race: Goliath

Class: Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian)

A hot-blooded gladiator who left his home in the mountains, only to be pulled into the Shadowfell and begin to work for Miscillia. He is eventually reunited with his two older sisters, Pandora and Apollonia, who had been trapped in a Domain of Dread.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: Once the party meets his two older sisters, they learn that he's this in this family.
• Barbarian Hero
• Barbarian Long Hair: Ajax has wild auburn hair that reaches his shoulders.
• Barbarian Tribe: He and his sisters apparently belonged to one. According to Pandora, Apollonia became chief at some point after he left.
• The Big Guy: As a goliath, he stands around seven or eight feet tall.
• Big Little Brother: To his sister Pandora, though not Apollonia, who is taller than both of her younger siblings.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center
• Cool Shades: His darkvision goggles.
• Distinguishing Mark: As with other goliaths, his birthmarks serve as these.
• Facial Markings: Being a goliath, he has tattoo-like markings all over his face.
• Fiery Redhead
• Guardian Entity: His subclass allows him to summon these.
• Hidden Depths: Ajax is much more caring and empathetic than he seems at first, best seen in one-on-one conversations with Miscillia and his sisters, and going out of his way to learn medical skills despite his mostly violent skillset.
• Hot-Blooded
• Innocently Insensitive: From time to time. In particular, his attempts to cheer Sybil up end up hitting a little too close to home for them, due to his lack of knowledge about the situation they're in.
• The Magnificent: He appended "the Destroyer" to his name for his fighting career. The party - and his sisters - tease him mercilessly about it.
• Martial Medic: During the party's long stay in Oletus Manor, he trains as a nursing assistant, gaining proficiency in the Medicine skill.
• Mortality Phobia: His self-admitted worst fear is dying.
• Only One Name: He and his sisters don't seem to have a family name.
• Red Hot Masculinity: Ajax is a big, strong, tough guy largely associated with the colour red.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Ajax pretty much never puts a shirt on.

Cassia Oakcane

Race: Harengon

Class: Fighter (Gunslinger)/Artificer (Artillerist)

Previously a magician's assistant in an act with a dear friend of theirs in the same traveling circus Knicky was a part of, Cassia left in disgrace after an altercation with a patron, and is now working with Miscillia primarily in an effort to track down their friend to make amends.

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• Badass Longcoat: Their late-campaign design gives them one.
• Bag of Holding: Carries the party's.
• Big Brother Instinct: Cassia is the oldest sibling in their family, and is protective both of their own family and other kids the party comes across, most notably Cezar.
• Braids of Action: They usually wear their hair tied back in two braids.
• Card Sharp: In their past. They still keep their deck of marked cards around, though.
• Deadpan Snarker
• The Dutiful Child: Much of their motivation is to provide for their family and make sure that they're looked after.
• Farm Boy: Cassia grew up on their family farm in the countryside near Waterdeep.
• Forced to Watch: After questioning Viktra Mordenheim's surgical skills in an effort to goad her into returning Syndal's heart to his chest, she straps them to a chair and forces them to witness the entire un-anesthetized procedure. Cassia is so traumatized by the experience that they wind up with a bout of long-term madness.
• The Gunslinger: Their fighter subclass.
• Height Insult: Frequently the victim of these, being the only member of the party classified as a Small creature.
• Heroic Second Wind: As a fighter, their Second Wind ability allows them to regain hit points as an action.
• Innate Night Vision: The Shadowfell Brand Tattoo Cassia acquires at the Carnival grants them darkvision, alongside other effects.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: In "Oletus Manor."
  Knicky: (after failing a cipher check) It didn't do that last time!
  Cassia: Be careful.
  Knicky: I'm being careful!
  Cassia: (on their turn) Let me show you how to do it. (out of character) I nat 1. Could you imagine? Nah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it. (rolls a nat 1)
• I Will Find You: More than sharing her ultimate goal, this is Cassia's motivation for staying in Miscillia's employ (well, besides the money): Miscillia has the resources to help them find Milo.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As prickly as they can be, Cassia is genuinely good at heart and often goes out of their way to do kind things for others. Begrudgingly or not.
• Little Bit Beastly
• Lovely Assistant: They were this to Milo when they performed together.
• Massive Numbered Siblings
• Only Sane Man: Especially when compared to Ajax, Knicky, and Sybil.
• Rabbit Magician: Technically, Cassia wasn't the magician themself, but their being a harengon involved in a magic act brings this to mind.
• Reformed Criminal
• Secret-Keeper: Cassia is the only party member who knows about Cezar's Horror Hunger and nature as a dhampir.

Knickknack Knicky / Florian Fairchild / Poppet Price

Race: Changeling

Class: Bard (College of Swords)

A circus clown working in the same traveling circus as Cassia. Initially passing for a human in makeup, it quickly becomes clear that Knicky is not exactly what they seem and has abandoned several entirely different identities when their past begins to catch up with them.

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• Alliterative Name: Both phonetically and spelled out. They appear to have a fondness for this, given their previous identities as Florian Fairchild and Poppet Price.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: As a changeling who can alter their appearance and sex characteristics at will, they have a somewhat complicated relationship with gender. Knicky appears somewhat androgynous and uses they/them pronouns, while Florian presents as a feminine-looking man and uses he/him. While they haven't used Poppet's identity in the campaign proper, it's confirmed that she was a woman.
• The Bard: Their character class. Florian fits the archetype the most closely.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Their three named personas: Knicky, with white hair, is the blonde, Florian is brunette, and Poppet was a redhead.
• Chainsaw Good: The magical sword they receive at the end of “Camp Clearwater,” the Magentan Sun-Sword, evokes this.
• The Chew Toy: Due in part to being the only full caster in the party and in part just the luck of the dice, Knicky/Florian tends to get mangled and injured far more than the other party members, from having their jaw crushed by the Witch to being nearly written out of reality by the Baron and contracting the wasting plague in Lamordia alongside Ajax. They've also been knocked unconscious in combat the most of any party member.
• Commitment Issues
• Court Jester: Though they aren’t part of an actual royal court, they still play into this.
• Happy Harlequin Hat: Knicky wears one.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Florian Fairchild was a Gender-Inverted version. They still have these tendencies at times.
• I Have Many Names: Knicky, Florian, Poppet, and more...
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: As Florian Fairchild.
• Magical Clown: As Knicky.
• Magic Music: As a bard, this generally comes with the territory.
• My Nayme Is: It’s not Nicky; it’s Knicky. Done entirely to keep in theme with the “Knickknack” part of their name.
• Non-Human Non-Binary: They're a genderfluid shapeshifter.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After encountering several reminders of their previous life as Florian Fairchild, Knicky becomes notably quieter and more reserved – something that only gets worse after coming face-to-face with Dennet. The other party members are unsettled by this, to the point that Cassia confronts them about it.
• Oops! I Forgot I Was Married: As it turns out, Florian Fairchild did the fantasy equivalent of getting very drunk and Vegas married, shortly before retiring that identity and becoming Knickknack Knicky. Knicky barely remembered it happening, but the revelation helps to kickstart their character development regarding taking responsibility for their actions.
• Repetitive Name: Knickknack Knicky.
• Sad Clown: It becomes increasingly obvious that Knicky's overtly silly demeanour covers up a much more cynical and bitter worldview.
• Shapeshifter Identity Crisis: Much of their internal strife comes from feeling as though they have no true identity or sense of self beyond the "characters" they play.
• Squishy Wizard: Not a wizard per se, but Knicky is the only full spellcaster in the party and has the lowest hit points, even after taking the College of Swords subclass. They really feel it, especially during the House of Lament and Muckmere Bog adventures.
• Third-Person Person: Not under regular circumstances, but whenever they refer to a persona they aren't currently "wearing," it's always in the third person.
• Tired of Running: They eventually come to this conclusion.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Comes with being a changeling.
• Wandering Minstrel: As Florian Fairchild.

Sybil the Human Pin Cushion

Race: Reborn

Class: Rogue (Phantom)

A cheerful performer at the Dark Carnival, assigned to the party as their guide during their visit.

---

• Accidental Marriage: Sybil narrowly avoids promising themself to a winter fey in the Litwick Market, having asked them to erase some of their memories in return for "their hand." Being a Mix-and-Match Man, Sybil assumes the fey means one of their actual hands, and it's only after Ajax and Florian talk them out of the deal that the eladrin reveals that they meant their hand in marriage.
• Animal Motifs: Sybil is sometimes affectionately compared to a magpie, given their keen interest in collecting trinkets of all kinds.
• Blade Enthusiast: Their act involves throwing knives, and they end up with the Bracer of Flying Daggers.
• Canon Character All Along: Sybil is revealed to be the campaign's version of Miranda from Orphan of Agony Isle, having escaped Lamordia and chosen a new name for themself.
• Circus Brat: After escaping Lamordia, Sybil literally ran away to join the circus.
• Collector of the Strange: Sybil's cart at the circus is chock-full of various trinkets they've collected. Most are mundane, but they've also obtained more than one seemingly cursed item, and their "Tokens of the Departed" ability allows them to create similar trinkets out of the souls of those who die in their presence.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Having spent most of their life at the Carnival after escaping from the equally horrifying Lamordia, they see no issue with its quirks, including frequent disappearances and public executions.
• Cute Monster Girl
• Family of Choice: She considers her fellow performers at the carnival family, and becomes very protective when they're threatened.
• Flesh Golem
• Heal Thyself: Sybil has the Healer feat, allowing her to use healer's kits to regain hit points and heal others.
• Knife-Throwing Act: Their act at the Carnival. Florian serves as their assistant for one performance.
• Mysterious Past: The party doesn't know much about Sybil, and it's suggested that there are things they don't even know themself. More is slowly revealed as the party arrives in Lamordia.
• Raised in a Lab: Implied by Sybil's nature as a Mix-and-Match Man and their terror at being returned to Lamordia. This is later confimed in "Snow and Stitched Flesh."
• Scary Stitches: Covered in them head to toe.

Mayday Amazon Seawatch Wonder Fried-Oreo Topgun

Race: Centaur

Class: Monk (Way of Mercy)

A cheerful, plucky teenage girl who initially traveled with a different group of adventurers before being caught in the mists and meeting the rest of the party by chance.

---

• All-Loving Hero
• Bare-Fisted Monk
• Bullet Catch: Manages to pull this off in "The Camp Clearwater Massacre."
• The Ditz
• Genki Girl: To a T.
• Healing Hands: As a Way of Mercy monk, one of her abilities is literally called "Hand of Healing."
• Huge Schoolgirl
• Lesbian Jock
• Little Bit Beastly: Mechanically, Mayday is a centaur. For roleplay purposes, she's a horse girl à la Uma Musume.
• Overly Long Name: In the style of some real-life racehorses. There's a reason everyone just calls her "Mayday."
• Passionate Sports Girl
• Perky Goth
• Stock Shoujo Heroine: Mayday has a lot of the traits, to the point of being referred to out-of-character as a "shoujo protag." Unfortunately, she's in a horror-themed D&D campaign...
• Surprisingly Normal Backstory: Mayday is an Ordinary High-School Student who wound up involved with the campaign largely by chance.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Carrots, appropriately.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

Bonnibell Spark

Race: Harengon

Class: Artificer (Battle Smith)

An aspiring inventor who came to the City of Splendors from the Feywild seeking her fortune as a young adult. Davil Starsong is her long-term on-again, off-again boyfriend, and she's initially drawn to Volo's quest and the missing gold in hopes of paying off her debt to Istrid Horn.

---

• Affectionate Nickname: "Bonnie" is one. Davil also has a few for her.
• Brooklyn Rage
• Back from the Dead: Despite her untimely death, the party is quickly able to pull strings to have her resurrected.
• Country Mouse: While she certainly adapted to the city quickly, she was originally a Feywild girl.
• Debt Detester: Her primary motivation in searching for the treasure is to use it to pay off her debt to Istrid Horn.
• Dice Roll Death: Her death on the way back from Gralhund Villa is the result of an unfortunately-timed critical hit from an enemy.
• Gadgeteer Genius
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl
• Hidden Depths: Bonnie can be pretty chaotic, but the big project that put her into so much debt essentially boils down to wanting to produce mechanical service animals.
• Lady Drunk
• Little Bit Beastly
• Mafia Princess: Of a sort, considering her relationship with Davil, though much of the conflict in their relationship stems from her distaste for his chosen enterprises.
• Magitek: Her creations blend mechanical technology and artificer magic.
• Meaningful Name: Bonnibell Spark is an artificer and inventor. It's suggested that this is very common in the Feywild, where she comes from.
• The Mentor: She immediately takes Tobak on as an apprentice when he takes an interest in Shellton.
• Milestone Birthday Angst: She expresses some when the turns 30 during the campaign.
• Pungeon Master: She seems to have a fondness for puns, given what she names her various inventions and her suggestions for names for the newly-reopened Trollskull Manor tavern.
• Robot Master: Bonnibell, as a Battle Smith artificer.
• Visual Pun: Bonnibell is a harengon, and her Steel Defender Shellton is a large mechanical turtle. They're a tortoise and a hare.

Morelle Holimion

Race: Half-elf

Class: Rogue (Inquisitive)/Warlock (Pact of the Fiend)

The apprentice of private eye Vincent Trench, who came to Waterdeep in search of their missing father and entered his employ after he absolved them of a crime they were falsely accused of. They ultimately discover that their father had another child during his time in Waterdeep: their younger half-brother, Tobak Heavystep.

---

• Affectionate Nickname: Bonnie calls them "Sherlock," and Davil takes to calling them "Diamonddew."
• The Apprentice: To Vincent.
• Bookworm
• Deal with the Devil: Tobak's injuries and Bonnibell's (temporary) death drive them to make a deal with Vincent for access to fiendish magic.
• Great Detective
• Half-Breed Discrimination: They were a victim of this in the insular elven community where they were raised by their mother.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Morelle is a half-elf.
• Happily Adopted: By their stepmother, Thessalia, who they address the same way as their birth mother.
• Long-Lost Relative: Tobak Heavystep turns out to be their younger half-brother.
• Miscarriage of Justice: As part of their backstory. Being wrongfully accused of a crime upon arriving in Waterdeep is what led to their working for Vincent Trench.
• Private Detective: They work for Vincent Trench.
• Searching for the Lost Relative: Morelle came to Waterdeep in the first place to look for their missing father.
• Secret-Keeper: To Vincent, after being the only member of the party to witness his true rakshasa form.
• Welcome to the Big City: In Morelle's backstory, they were framed for a crime by finding themself in the wrong place at the wrong time almost immediately after arriving in Waterdeep.

Stevie Nyx

Race: Drow

Class: Wizard (School of Abjuration)

A rancher from the country with a penchant for arcane studies. After arriving in Waterdeep and getting involved with the party and their quest, he quickly joins the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors in the interest of furthering his magical education. Unfortunately, a faction of other dark elves seems to have an eye on him.

---

• Badass Bookworm: Comes with being a wizard.
• Barrier Warrior: As an abjuration wizard, he has access to the Arcane Ward feature.
• Cowboy: And as a dark elf homesteader, he's also a drowboy.
• Farm Boy
• Magitek: Stevie's arcane focus is a specially made magic revolver that fires off spells.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Of course.
• Not So Stoic: Stevie is usually pretty quiet and level-headed, but even he can't contain his excitement when Rishaal sets him up to join the Watchful Order.
  Stevie: I fucking love magic!
• The Quiet One
• Rugged Scar: He has one at the corner of his mouth.
• The Smart Guy: In addition to being an Intelligence caster, Stevie has spent the most time actively doing research thus far.
• Squishy Wizard

Michelle Mistweaver

Race: Moon elf

Class: Bard (College of Spirits)/Warlock (Pact of the Hexblade)

A mysterious young woman who makes her trade reading fortunes in the Dock Ward of Waterdeep, she has recently returned to the city and quickly becomes involved with the party and the plot. She seems to be followed by spirits, and manages to befriend Trollskull Manor's resident poltergeist.

---

• Alliterative Name
• Amazing Technicolor Population: As a moon elf, her skin is light blue.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: It takes all of one beer to get Michelle drunk - though chugging the whole thing in one go probably didn't help.
• Deal with the Devil: Like Morelle, Bonnibell's death drives her to make a pact with a mysterious supernatural entity in an effort to save her, tethering her soul to Michelle’s until she was revived.
• Fortune Teller: How she makes her trade. She even does a few readings for the party from time to time.
• Magnetic Medium: Michelle is consistently haunted by a horde of spirits.
• Mystical White Hair: Michelle has long silvery white hair, and is a spellcaster associated with spirits and the afterlife.
• Only One Name: She rarely if ever introduces herself using her full name.
• Please Wake Up: When Bonnibell dies, she tearfully pleads for her to wake up and spends all of her remaining spell slots in a futile attempt to heal her.
• Sixth Ranger: Michelle joins the party after the campaign has already gotten underway.
• Tarot Troubles: In her first scene with the party, Michelle reads cards for each of the other party members. Some of the fortunes are more optimistic than others.

Dread Pirate Tuga

Race: Tortle

Class: Paladin (Oath of Glory)

A self-proclaimed "dread pirate" fresh off the high seas of the Sword Coast, Tuga is completely open about his criminal activity and jumps at the opportunity to join the treasure hunt in search of fame and glory. He claims to have history with Waterdeep's Zhentarim and is eager to tell tales of his past adventures.

---

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite all his bluster, Tuga is genuinely capable in a fight and comes up with a lot of genuinely clever ideas at times.
• Eyepatch of Power: It is not fake, and he's offended that you'd even ask.
• Glory Seeker: Comes with being an Oath of Glory paladin.
• Healing Hands: As a paladin.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Tuga has nineteen older siblings.
• Meet My Good Friends Lefty and Righty: Old Betsy and Corporal Steel.
• Miles Gloriosus: Tuga has a habit of... embellishing his exploits.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being only about three feet tall, Tuga is the most physical party member.
• The Runt at the End: Tuga is both the youngest and smallest out of twenty siblings.
• Tarot Motifs: The Chariot.

Lillie That Grows Hopeful Under Luminiera's Watchful Eye L'sana

Race: Tiefling

Class: Ranger (Swarmkeeper)

The spirited second child of a Waterdhavian noble family. Lillie is well-connected among Waterdeep's high society, with friends in the Cassalanter and Rosznar families. Her interest in the treasure hunt appears to be mainly motivated by entertainment.

---

• Amazing Technicolor Population: Lillie is a blue tiefling.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Her relationship with Floon is this, considering her father is the man who's paying him off to keep quiet about his affair.
• Ethical Slut: Lillie has no qualms about flirting and sleeping with lots of different people, but she wants to make sure everyone she pursues is on the same page about it.
• Horned Humanoid
• Overly Long Name: Lillie and her siblings all have ridiculously long first names: Her older brother is Empathy For Those Who Burn in Athena's Garden of Flames, and her younger sister is Kindness For The Dark Angel Who claws Its Way Through.
• Rugged Scar: Lillie winds up with one of these early on thanks to the Lingering Injuries rules.
• Spirited Young Lady
• Statuesque Stunner: Lillie is both very tall and very attractive.
• Uptown Girl: To Annie the barmaid.

Mist Hunters

Hartwin Byrd

Race: Human

Class: Rogue (Assassin)

---

• Affectionate Nickname: He tends to go by "Hart" rather than his full first name. He also has a habit of calling Kallias "Kal."
• Beware the Nice Ones: Hart is a genuinely kind and empathetic young man who is very protective of children, willing to go out of his way to help people in need, and who just so happens to kill people for money sometimes.
• Big Brother Instinct: He's very protective of children, including Mayday and Noname (albeit begrudgingly in the latter’s case), given that both of them are still teenagers.
• Blade Enthusiast: He has several knives on his person at any given time, and pretty much only uses bladed weapons.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Openly stated to have the biggest edgelord backstory out of his player's characters.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Hart originally served as a schoolteacher and caretaker to his young siblings and many other children in his village, before becoming an assassin. His highest ability scores are Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, with Constitution and Strength as his lowest.
• Hidden Weapons: Even when going into a situation where he probably shouldn’t be visibly armed, Hart always keeps a dagger hidden in his boot. Just in case.
• Hitman with a Heart
• Only Sane Man: Winds up taking this role often when thrown together with sweet-but-ditzy teenager Mayday, edgy emo warlock Noname, and especially Venom and her gang.
• Professional Killer: A given with his Assassin subclass. Though he keeps this a secret, even from his longtime companion.

Kallias Uccello

Race: Human

Class: Bard (College of Tragedy)

---

• Abusive Parents: He is not treated well by his family.
• Arranged Marriage: His parents' attempts to marry him off cause a lot of tension in his backstory, and ultimately is the catalyst for him being thrown out on the street.
• Blue Blood: He has the "noble" background.
• Clingy Jealous Guy: He gets very upset at the idea of anyone else with Hart.
• Extreme Doormat: Kallias tends to dismiss others’ poor treatment of him, especially his family’s, claiming that he’s “used to it.”
  Hart: That's worse!
• Friendless Background
• Inadequate Inheritor: Part of his backstory. The Uccellos didn't believe Kal was a suitable heir, so they ultimately kicked him out. Which came back to bite them when he didn't come crawling back as they expected.
• Lonely Rich Kid
• Love-Obstructing Parents: The Uccellos were not happy about his running off with a commoner — much less another man, considering it made him less likely to produce an heir for them.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Kallias is meek, soft-spoken, and anxious, and prefers studying music and literature over more "traditionally masculine" noble pursuits. His family’s resentment at his inadequacy as an heir led them to disown him.

Noname

Race: Human

Class: Warlock (Pact of the Hexblade)

---

• BFS: His Hexblade is a massive greatsword.
• Emo Teen
• Evil Wears Black: He hasn't done anything actually evil, but seems to be intentionally playing into this.
• Goth: He dresses the part.
• It's Pronounced "Tro-PAY": He insists that his name is pronounced "no-nah-may."
• Only One Name: If he has a surname, he's not telling anybody what it is.
• Powers via Weapon
• Somebody Named "Nobody"
• Surprisingly Normal Backstory: Compared to the other Mist Hunters. Apparently he's simply following in the footsteps of his retired adventurer mothers. Not that he would tell you that, because it would ruin his edgy mystique.
• Talking Weapon: His hexblade patron can communicate with him telepathically, though he's the only one who can hear it.

Non-Player Characters

Curse of Remy Abode

Ireena Kolyana

A young noblewoman from the village of Barovia and, unfortunately for her, the current reincarnation of Strahd's lost love Tatyana at the time of Curse of Strahd. After the death of their father, her brother Ismark charges the party with keeping her safe, which begins her time traveling with them.

---

• Blemished Beauty: In the werewolf attack outside of van Richten’s tower, she sustains an injury on her face that leaves a noticeable scar.
• Braids of Action: Ties her hair back into a braid once she starts taking a more active role in the group.
• Damsel out of Distress: She spends most of the campaign this way, taking an active role in fights. She only really becomes an actual Damsel in Distress when Escher charms and kidnaps her from the Amber Temple, presumably taking her back to Castle Ravenloft with her.
• Flaming Sword: After the party gets it from Vladimir, she wields Sergei, the Sun Sword.
• Guest-Star Party Member: After taking a few levels as a fighter, she becomes this whenever she accompanies the party. Even later, the "guest star" part drops entirely.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Courtesy of her Adaptation Dye-Job.
• Healing Hands: After her encounter at the pond in Krezk, she gains the ability to cast healing magic on others, as well as a few other magical abilities.
• Heal Thyself: Carries a healer’s kit, which she can use to patch up herself and other party members.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Ireena's motivation for coming with the party at all is in an effort to escape Strahd's attentions. As the adventure goes on, it becomes more and more clear just how important it is to her that she's seen as her own person and able to do what she wants with her life.
• Important Haircut: With Erasmus' help, she cuts her hair shorter before the party travels up Mt. Ghakis, wanting to differentiate herself from the other previous incarnations of Tatyana and cement herself as her own person.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Pulls away from Erasmus despite their mutual feelings for fear that Strahd will retaliate.
• Magic Knight: Once she becomes a paladin and is able to cast magic she becomes this.
• Nice Girl
• The Paladin: Her statblock late in the game gives her some paladin class features.
• Proper Lady
• Reincarnation: Ireena is the current incarnation of Strahd's lost love Tatyana. This is not great for her.
• Rescue Romance: Ireena and Erasmus’ romantic feelings for each other really begin to develop when he rescues her from being locked in the burgomaster’s house.
• Runaway Bride: From her intended arranged marriage to Viktor Vallakovich – neither of them wants it to happen. Also from Strahd himself.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: After taking levels as a fighter, Ireena begins to wear more practical clothing (including armour) and ties her hair back.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Ireena is the most traditionally feminine of the party, and is referenced as doing needlework several times during the campaign.
• Took a Level in Badass: As a result of the party giving her a sword to defend herself with and bringing her into combat situations, Ireena has very literally become this trope, going from a standard commoner stat block to taking levels as a fighter, and later, as a paladin.

Izek Strazni

The widely feared and hated (former) captain of the guard in Vallaki. He was raised as a foundling by Vargas Vallakovich after the loss of his family as a child. He is Suffer's biological older brother, from whom she was separated shortly after her birth.

---

• Adaptational Nice Guy: For a given value of "nice." This version of Izek is certainly not as bad as his original counterpart, but that isn't hard. He is at least more sympathetic, and several of the squickier aspects of his original characterization have been cut entirely.
• Adoption Angst: The Vallakovich family dynamics are complicated.
• The Alcoholic: Heavily implied. He’s very clearly been drinking heavily when Suffer sees him again after returning to Vallaki. Claudiu also mentions that his family delivers a lot of wine to the Burgomaster’s house in Vallaki.
• Animal Motifs: Suffer, and to a lesser extent her brother Izek, have goats and sheep. Suffer has goat-like hooves instead of feet, and her horns resemble that of a real-life breed of sheep, the Jacob sheep. The same breed of sheep tends to be patterned in spots or patches, tying into Izek’s piebald/paradox appearance. Both siblings also have curly hair.
• Berserk Button: Suffer being in any kind of danger, real or imagined, seems to be his.
• Big Brother Instinct: If anything, he is too protective of his younger sister. This protective instinct extends to killing their father to protect her.
• The Big Guy
• The Dreaded
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Izek’s Wisdom stat is particularly low, giving him a negative modifier to rolls made using it. Consequently, his mental health is less than stellar and he’s particularly susceptible to interference from the supernatural.
• Horned Humanoid: Unlike his polycerate sister, Izek has only one horn, on the more obviously tiefling side of his head.
• Hot-Blooded
• Knight Templar Big Brother
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It isn’t yet clear exactly what the voices Izek seems to be hearing are; though he has legitimate, accurate visions of his sister in his dreams, when Suffer asks who has been speaking to him, he only responds that “she’s not real.”
  • The presence of an actual supernatural entity contacting both siblings seems to have been confirmed, though it’s possible that he still experiences actual hallucinations as well.
• Monstrous Humanoid
• Patricide: In Tsolenka, it's ultimately revealed that when he was a child he killed his and Suffer's father to protect her from him when he tried to kill her.
• Playing with Fire: Is capable of using some fire-based magic, and apparently regularly threatens to burn people’s houses down.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The iris of his left eye is bright red, and he is not very nice.
• Red Right Hand: Izek has a very literal version of this: his right hand is large, clawed, and red, along with the right half of his chest and face.
• The Right Hand of Doom
• Sanity Slippage: Izek seems to be hearing voices, though whether they’re hallucinations or something supernatural is unclear. Regardless, he’s clearly not doing well by the time Suffer returns to Vallaki, and it only gets worse from there.
• Scary Teeth
• Separated at Birth: His sister was separated from him when she was an infant.
• Stalker Shrine / Shrine to the Fallen: Izek’s bedroom in the Vallakovich house is filled with dozens of ragdolls he’s had commissioned of his long-lost sister Suffer, who is not dead, but who he thought he’d never see again.
• Stalker without a Crush / Mysterious Watcher: Towards Suffer, though he doesn’t really have a choice about the dreams he has of her.
• Strong Family Resemblance: The distinctly tiefling aspects of Suffer and Izek’s appearances are very similar, sharing solid white eyes, curly dark reddish hair, and mouths full of pointed teeth. The siblings' mother also had dark red hair.
• Two-Faced

Viktor Vallakovich

The reclusive teenage son of the ruling family in Vallaki. He's set up a workshop in the attic to study magic in secret, desperate to get out of Barovia. Unfortunately, his self-taught magic tends to have unwanted side effects.

---

• Emo Teen
• Magic Misfire: As a self-taught wizard, this is unfortunately common for him. Most notably, he accidentally laid a curse on Stella Wachter causing her to behave like a cat, and his imperfect teleportation circle causes an explosion that destroys the entire house when he uses it to escape during the Festival of the Blazing Sun.
• Necromancer: At least part of his magical studies have been dedicated to reanimating dead cats. He also expresses the intention to reanimate his own deceased parents, and his combat magic mostly consists of necromancy spells like chill touch and blight.
• Never Found the Body: The party presumed him dead after he magically blew up his house with himself still inside, though there was no sign of his body in the rubble. He is later revealed to be alive, but heavily injured, apparently having been successfully teleported to an as-yet unknown location.
• Raising the Steaks: Viktor's magical experiments involved digging up and reanimating his own dead pet cats.
• Sanity Slippage: When the party finally catches up to him, it's clear that his time in the Amber Temple has not been kind to him. He immediately lashes out at and attacks Suffer when she tries to approach him, and has to be reassured that he's not hallucinating her and the rest of the party.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: As prickly as he can be, his reactions to being offered sympathy and assistance by the party suggest that no one in his life has ever been this nice to him before.
• Teen Genius: Viktor is about the same age as Suffer, and likewise, is a powerful spellcaster — though his magic is flawed due to his lack of training, teleport is a very high level spell.
• Teleportation Misfire: Initially, no one is really sure where he ended up, but his teleportation spell almost certainly didn't succeed in getting him out of Barovia. He's later found in the Amber Temple.
• Two-Faced: After his teleportation spell backfires and causes an explosion, he's left with severe burns on his face and body. The worst of it appears to be on the right side of his face, with his right eye being glassed-over and blinded.

Arabelle

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

---

• Adorably Precocious Child
• Cheerful Child: Even her own near-death experiences can't put a damper on her mood for too long.
• Everyone's Baby Sister: The party has this sort of relationship with her.
• Oracular Urchin
• Seers: Arabelle is a powerful seer, able to see into multiple possible futures.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like her grandmother and the goddess Ezra, her eyes are bright amber.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Though she's usually a cheerful girl taken with the same flights of fancy expected of a child her age, there are moments when she expresses an uncanny maturity.

Rudolph van Richten

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

---

• Action Dad
• The Atoner
• Cool Old Guy
• Crusading Widower: Part of his motivation in this version of the story is to avenge the death of his wife Ingrid at Ludmilla's hands.
• Disappointed in You: He expresses this upon finding out that the party — but mostly Erasmus — have been making deals with a vampire.
  Van Richten: I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.
  Erasmus: Are you sure? You sound kind of mad.
• Distressed Dude: Late in the campaign he is kidnapped and held captive in Castle Ravenloft.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Van Richten expresses remorse at apparently having been one of these towards Erasmus in the past, discouraging him from pursuing art.
• Hunter of Monsters
• The Medic: Having been a doctor by trade in his past, the party calls on him when they're in need of his surgical skills.
• Outliving One's Offspring: For twenty years he thought this was the case for him and his son Erasmus; it’s only over the course of the adventure that he discovers otherwise.
• The Professor
• Roadside Surgery: With the help of Ireena and Suffer, he performs surgery to re-attach Famine's hand and properly amputate what remains of Yevgeni's legs in the middle of a werewolf den.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: As is considered canon for the character, he went through one of these in the past.
• Secret Identity: He has one in the form of Rictavio. Once he becomes known to Strahd by that name and appearance, he has to come up with another one.
• Stern Teacher
• Vampire Hunter

Ezmerelda d'Avenir

Van Richten's protege, a Vistani woman traveling through Barovia in search both of her mentor and of monsters to hunt. She is the party's Destined Ally, who they first meet in the Abbey of St. Markovia.

---

• Action Girl
• Affectionate Nickname: Ez.
• Artificial Limbs: She has a metal prosthetic leg, replacing one which she says was bitten off by a werewolf.
• Blemished Beauty: After a near death encounter with Rahadin, she sports a new scar courtesy of a scimitar stab across her chest.
• Blood Knight: She gets very excited about the prospect of getting to kill werewolves. It's implied that this is part of the reason she and Van Richten parted ways in the past.
• Fish out of Water: Being considered 'mortu' or 'dead' by the Vistani, when the group arrives at Arabelle's caravan she is notably uncomfortable with being present and how the Vistani immediately begin to treat her even if she does not remember much of her life with them before.
• Hunter of Monsters: In more ways than one.
• Lady in Red
• Like Brother and Sister: Quickly develops this dynamic with Erasmus.
• Runic Magic: This is how her spellcasting is flavoured, with her tracing arcane runes in the air to do magic.
• The Tease: Moira and Ez's dynamic seems to be developing into this as they often tease or gossip the other. Ezmerelda often gets a rise out of Moira though.
• Tarot Troubles: Ez uses the in-universe tarot equivalent, Tarokka, to try to divine an object's location at one point.
• Vampire Hunter
• Wrench Wench: She has a talent for mechanics — she built her own prosthetic leg, and spends some time putting a rudimentary replacement hand together for Famine as a backup.

Ilya Krezkov

The son of Krezk's noble family, who was inflicted with lycanthropy several weeks before the party's arrival in Barovia and fled into the woods after killing one of the villagers. He has been living with a werewolf pack ever since, and has been struggling both with the curse and the interference of some kind of dark entity.

---

• Ascended Extra: In the original module Ilya is mentioned briefly as the deceased youngest son of the Krezkov family. In this version of the game, he's a much more important character, tying into Moira's backstory, as well as the werewolf plot and greater storyline involving the Dark Powers.
• Big "NO!": After an unfortunate message sending during the full moon via Suffer, he mentally bombards her with howls and snarls for Moira—by extension the party to stay away due to the full moon afflicting all lycanthropes.
  Ilya: STAY AWAY, MOIRA!
• Brought Down to Normal: After having a lycanthropy suppressant administered to him, Ilya loses the ability to transform and most of his werewolf attributes, lessening the Dark Powers' grip on him but leaving him much closer to a normal human.
• Cultured Badass: Although a scholar and a man of the arts at heart—Ilya is fully capable of being an extreme threat to others.
• Cute Little Fangs: He has these even in his otherwise fully human form.
• Horror Hunger: Ilya has struggled with consuming people since his initial transformation. His condition getting worse if he doesn't-quite literally-feed into it. As of late it has become entangled with his feelings for Moira developing into a desperation to consume her whole to show the depths of his love—by them becoming one in a more literal sense of the word.
• Painful Transformation: Considering it's a very bloody painful affair of bones and sinew cracking, it's rather horrific to observe for everyone involved.
• Plagued by Nightmares: Courtesy of the Dark Power that seems to be haunting him. His dreams often involve being told to conquer and kill, by impersonations of his loved ones.
• Reluctant Monster
• Rugged Scar: Multiple scar marks over the left side of his face as well as the werewolf bite on his shoulder that turned him.
• Sanity Slippage: Normally on the calmer side and collected. Ilya's mental state has been rapidly deteriorating as of late. Weither that is due to his cannibalism or the dreams that haunt him or both, remains to be seen.
• Trans Tribulations: Ilya is a trans man, and his family's refusal to allow him to present as such and insistence on marrying him off is a large part of why he doesn't want to return home. Though at this point, that may be the least of his worries.
• Troubled, but Cute
• Undying Loyalty: Moira and Ilya to the other bordering obsession. They refuse to part until they both have died.
• Wolf Man

Strahd von Zarovich

The vampire lord Count Strahd von Zarovich himself, ruler and darklord of Barovia, and the main antagonist of the campaign.

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• Big Bad
• The Bluebeard: He doesn't technically kill them, but apparently makes a habit of locking brides he grows bored of in their crypts. Arguably, this is worse for them.
• Cool Horse: Beucephalus.
• Entitled to Have You
• Fisher King: As the darklord of Barovia, his mood seems to have an effect on the country's weather: namely, whenever the party does something to piss him off, it tends to storm miserably the next day.
• HA HA HA—No: Strahd’s reaction when Erasmus jokes that the famed vampire hunter he’s heard about could be himself.
• Really 700 Years Old
• Reincarnation Romance: A very one sided one with Tatyana/Miscillia/Ireena.
• Stalker with a Crush
• Terms of Endangerment: He has a habit of calling Ireena by pet names like "dearest," even when actively in combat with her and her friends.
• Villainous Crush

Ludmilla Vilisevic

The oldest of Strahd's current brides and a scientist who spends most of her time working in her laboratory and keeping out of Strahd's way. Her experiments into a way of artificially creating vampire spawn are responsible for Erasmus' transformation into a dhampir and the death of his mother, Ingrid. Erasmus kills her in the Amber Temple when she confronts the party intending to take him back to Castle Ravenloft with her.

---

• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: She doesn't recognize Erasmus as one of her test subjects at all, and mentions the experiments he was a part of to his face without realizing who he is. She only seems to realize the connection after Escher mentions Erasmus' strange blood to her.
• The Cameo: A still-human Ludmilla appears briefly in Tour de Dread as the party's escort to Madam Ava's camp and then to Castle Ravenloft itself.
• Ethereal White Dress: Ludmilla's associated colour is white, and she usually appears in eerie white dresses or white lab gear.
• Evil Genius
• Evil Mentor: She expresses an interest in serving as this to Suffer, even inviting her to come work with her as a lab assistant during the party's stay in Castle Ravenloft.
• Fantastic Science: Ludmilla reveals to the party that she spent some time experimenting with a way to artificially create vampire spawn in her lab, but none of her test subjects survived the process long. Except for Erasmus.
• Kidnapped for Experimentation: In the backstory, this is what she did to Ingrid and Erasmus van Richten, and who knows how many others. Once Escher jogs her memory of who Erasmus is, she makes it clear that she intends to do it to him again.
• Killed Off for Real: By Erasmus in the Amber Temple.
• Looks Like Orlok: When she Turns Red during her fight with the party in the Amber Temple, she takes on a much more monstrous, "nosferatu" appearance.
• Mad Scientist: Though she's much more reserved than the stereotypical example.
• Playing with Syringes: This seems to be her area of expertise.
• Turns Red: After taking a certain amount of damage in the fight in the Amber Temple, she injects herself with a strange red serum, causing a change in her that triggers a new phase of the fight. She transforms into a more monstrous form and becomes capable of taking Legendary Actions.

Anastrasya Karelova

The second-eldest bride, a charming and elegant woman originally from the city of Vallaki. She relishes in the power and recognition her vampirism and role as one of the brides of Strahd grants her, and insists that she is his favourite and the only one he needs. She is killed by the party at the Abbey, making her the second bride to die.

---

• Charm Person: Moreso than the other vampires encountered, she uses her vampiric charm ability multiple times on Famine, and is implied to have done so often in the past on other "pets" of hers.
• Lady in Red
• Lesbian Vampire: Well, bisexual vampire. She's clearly deeply devoted to Strahd, but also expresses interest in keeping Famine as a "pet."
• Killed Off for Real
• The Vamp

Volenta Popofsky

The second-youngest bride. Volenta is often impulsive and childish and has a certain glee for the macabre, decorating an entire room in the basement of Castle Ravenloft with human bones. The party first faces her at Yester Hill, where she is assisting the druids in raising the Wintersplinter. She is killed when Strahd forces her to share information she had been placed under an enchantment not to divulge, with the effect of causing her head to completely explode.

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• Berserk Button: Being laughed at, which Erasmus finds out the hard way.
• Geas: She appears to have had one placed on her at some point in the past. Being forced to violate it kills her.
• Killed Off for Real
• Psychopathic Womanchild
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Escher. It doesn't end well for her.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet
• Your Head Asplode: Her ultimate fate.

Escher von Preshlow

The youngest of Strahd's current brides. Previously an adventurer from the Material Plane who faced Strahd with a group of his own, his friends were massacred and he was left to beg for his life. He is homesick for Waterdeep and seems to be on decent terms with the party... for now, maybe.

---

• Agent Peacock
• The Bard
• Charm Person: As a vampire, he has this ability by default, likely supplemented by his bardic magic. He pulls off a particularly impressive charm on an entire crowd assembled at the Blood Harvest Festival in Vallaki, with Moira and Suffer being the only party members unaffected.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Chronologically, he first appears in Tour de Dread as a young boy.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite mainly being out for himself, he seems genuinely fond of Sasha, and goes out of his way to ask that the party try not to harm her if possible.
• Evil Brit: Notably, Escher speaks with a British accent, highlighting the fact that unlike the other brides he's not originally from Barovia.
• Fate Worse than Death: He considers what Strahd does to brides he grows bored with — locking them away in the catacombs indefinitely — to be this, even outright telling the party he would rather die than face it.
• Friendly Enemy: Sort of. He seems to get along with the party the best out of any of the brides, and even cheerfully greets Erasmus and Suffer as his friends when they meet in Vallaki. At the same time, most of their interactions with him have been explicitly transactional, even as he seems to be going out of his way to try to aid them.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• Loose Lips: He accidentally reveals to Ludmilla that Erasmus is one of her former test subjects. Notably, Escher himself didn't realize the significance of what he was saying, and Ludmilla had met Erasmus earlier without recognizing him, only making the connection after hearing Escher describe his strange behaviour and gross blood. If Sasha calling him a "blabbermouth" is any indication, this is a habit of his.
• Mass Hypnosis: Escher is able to charm large groups at once, an ability he demonstrates first to calm the crowd at the Blood Harvest Festival, and later when he charms the party during their fight against him and Ludmilla at the Amber Temple.
• Mind-Control Music: Being a bard, this is how his Charm Person and Mass Hypnosis manifests.
• Odd Friendship: With Sasha.
• Princely Young Man: Though he’s older than he looks.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: When the party encounters him at Vallaki's Blood Harvest Festival, he's switched out his pink ensemble for one in red and gold, Anastrasya and Volenta's signature colours.
• Wild Card: The party really isn't sure how much they can trust him. In his own words, he doesn't "see anything wrong with betting on all the horses." This is only made more clear when he seemingly acts against them directly by kidnapping Ireena from the Amber Temple.

Sasha Ivliskova

A former bride of Strahd, previously locked away in the catacombs but brought back to hunt down the party after the deaths of Volenta and Anastrasya. She is a friend of Escher's, and like him, was a member of an adventuring party of her own before becoming a bride.

---

• Better with Non-Human Company: She's both referred to as such by Escher and demonstrates it herself when the party encounters her in person. However, as a Swarmkeeper ranger, she does have an affinity for rats, and is upset when the party kills the ones she sends to attack them.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Though she's a vampire spawn now, it's implied that in life she may have been half-dwarf.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: She's not very good at her stated goal of trying to kill the party. The first time she faces them as a group, they promptly wipe out her rats and Moira is able to use Sentinel to prevent her from escaping. However, see Not-So-Harmless Villain below.
• Never Learned to Read: She is illiterate, though Escher mentions that she likes to listen to stories being told.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite being mostly ineffective during her first encounter with the party as a whole, she did manage to kill Famine when facing them alone, technically making her the most successful of the brides.
• Odd Friendship: With Escher. And maybe Moira and the rest of the party.
• Pest Controller: She sends swarms of rats to spy on and attack the party.
• Redhead In Green: She has ginger hair, and appropriately for a ranger, she usually dresses in muted greens to camouflage herself in the woods.

Argynvost

The long-dead leader of the Order of the Silver Dragon, who tried and failed to stand up to Strahd centuries ago. A fragment of his spirit encountered by the party in Argynvostholt charges them with returning his stolen skull to its proper resting place.

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• Big Good: Arguably the closest thing Barovia has to one.
• Delightful Dragon: Like other metallic dragons in D&D, Argynvost is generally benevolent towards humanoids. In particular, he attempted to protect the valley of Barovia from Strahd, and while he ultimately failed, his spirit hangs around to offer adventurers assistance.
• The Gadfly: Argynvost seems to be a tease much to his own amusement, when Ezmerelda and Moira heckle him within his own domain, revealing to embarrassment that he heard their teasing quips about him the entire time.
• Hot in Human Form: Most of the party expresses attraction or appreciation for his human form.
• Living Memory: The phantom the party initially encounters in Argynvostholt is something like this. When his skull is returned, his actual spirit explains that it was a fragment of himself tied to his incomplete skeleton, and therefore not fully aware or sapient.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: In his human guise. Ez is particularly appreciative of the old tapestries and portraits of him.
• Mystical White Hair: His human form has long, silver-white hair, and his true form is that of a silver dragon.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: As a metallic dragon, he is — or was — able to polymorph into a human form, which he used to form and lead the Order of the Silver Dragon.

The Abbot / Zaquiel, the Watcher

A mysterious alchemist who has lived in the Abbey of St. Markovia above Krezk for longer than anyone can remember. He has a widespread reputation as a healer, but those he heals come back from the abbey different, and he's been building a Flesh Golem called Vasilka in Tatyana's image in an effort to appease Strahd. He is eventually revealed to be a celestial who came to Barovia centuries ago to try to free it, but was himself warped by the evil there.

---

• Ambiguously Human: The Abbot looks human, but has been living in the abbey for longer than anyone in Krezk can remember, has a very detached demeanour, and Moira and Ilya witness him picking a boiling-hot kettle up off the stove with his bare hands without flinching. They are eventually revealed to be very much not.
• Ambiguous Gender: The Abbot appears to be a human man and is referred to with a masculine title and pronouns by the people of Krezk, but never uses gendered terms to refer to himself, and doesn't seem to distinguish gender in others, either. As a deva, he probably doesn't have the same grasp on gender and sex as humanoids do. The narration has used both "he" and "they" pronouns to refer to him.
• Angel Unaware: While it was always clear that the Abbot was not a mortal man, it's not until late in the game that the party discovers his true nature as a celestial deva.
• Appropriated Appellation: "The Abbot" is the name the people of Krezk gave them after they took up residence in the Abbey of St. Markovia. They reveal their true name, Zaquiel the Watcher, to the party immediately before engaging them in combat.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: By the time the characters meet him, the Abbot's sense of right and wrong has become so warped by what's implied to be centuries in Barovia that they struggle to understand his motivations.
• Dissonant Serenity: One of the odd things about the Abbot is how constantly calm and serene he comes across as, regardless of the circumstances. Even more unsettling is when he finally stops being calm and loses it, as the party finds out.
• Fallen Angel: The Abbot is still a celestial being, but one who has been warped through exposure to the darkness and evils of Barovia. It's noted that when the party sees their true form, they still appear mostly angelic, but their halo is dripping blood.
• Our Angels Are Different: The Abbot is a deva.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: The Abbot uses the third-person pronoun "it" to refer to everyone and everything, including when addressing them directly, rather than "you."

The Dark Powers / Dark Vestiges

Mysterious supernatural forces that govern the Domains of Dread, vestiges of which are sealed within the Amber Temple. While their motivations, if any, are generally unclear, some of these powers seem to have taken an interest in certain individuals in Barovia...

---

• Crystal Prison: The vestiges are trapped in monoliths of amber in the Amber Temple.
• Deal with the Devil: Making pacts and direct contact with them seems to generally lean this way.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: Being located on a frigid, snowy mountainside, it's noted that the Amber Temple where the vestiges are sealed is very cold, with Viktor even referring to it as a "frozen coffin" at one point. The power that reaches out to Moira also seems to be associated with snow, ice, and cold.
• Evil Matriarch: "Mother Night."
• Greater-Scope Villain: The characters are most concerned with defeating Strahd, but as the ones governing Barovia and the Domains of Dread as a whole, they're ultimately responsible for the suffering in Barovia.
• Horror Hunger: One of the powers, which has contacted both Ilya and Erasmus, is centred around themes of flesh and hunger and seems to inflict or worsen this.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: The Corpse Star, Kasimir's patron, seems to be able to bestow these in particular.
• My Beloved Smother: "Mother Night" appears to be this to the Strazni siblings, given the way she refers to herself as their mother and demands blind obedience, labelling Suffer a “difficult child” for wanting to understand what’s happening rather than simply giving in to her. This only becomes more prominent as it becomes clear that she does seem to have had a hand in the siblings' births, and as her influence over Izek in particular grows stronger.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: They generally contact people in their sleep, leading to many a Nightmare Sequence.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The powers and vestiges trapped in the amber sarcophagi. Given the fact that they're still capable of reaching out and influencing others on some level, it's also a Leaking Can of Evil.
• Supernatural Sealing: While exploring the Amber Temple, the party comes across a book detailing a "Ritual of Amber," which seems to be how the vestiges were trapped in the first place.
• We Can Rule Together: This seems to be the ultimate offer some of the more ambitious vestiges are making towards their "champions," with the apparent intention of usurping Strahd as darklord.

Tour de Dread

Miscillia Dorval

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

---

• Berserk Button: Strahd is hers, as Mayday finds out the hard way.
• Big Damn Heroes: When the party doesn't return from Oletus Manor, having spent six months there their point of view, she follows them in and attempts to bargain with the darklord for their freedom. When that doesn't work, she helps them fight their way out.
• Black Cloak: Miscillia tends to dress like this, in an effort to conceal her identity.
• Creepy Crows: She is associated with ravens, as both a former Keeper of the Feather and a were-raven.
• Damsel in Distress: After coming to rescue the party from Oletus Manor, she is pulled through the mists and captured by Strahd. When they come to Barovia and storm Castle Ravenloft, the group's express intention is to rescue her.
• Dark Is Not Evil: By the time she meets the party, Miscillia has taken to wearing all black, and while her methods can be extreme, she's not exactly evil.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: Miscillia is eventually revealed to be a were-raven.
• Parents as People: Miscillia is genuinely trying her best to be a decent parent to Cezar, but she's also juggling her own trauma, her pursuit of revenge, and her attempts to keep the two of them safe from Strahd.
• Reincarnation: Miscillia is an incarnation of Tatyana, two centuries before Ireena by Barovia time.
• Revenge: Her primary motivation.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Much like Knicky, Miscillia's transformations don't include clothing or equipment, meaning she can't take any of her belongings with her when Baldur's Gate goes into lockdown.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: By the beginning of Curse of Strahd, she's already been dead for an indeterminate amount of time. Justified by the fact that if she were still alive, Ireena could not have taken her place as Tatyana's reincarnation.
• The Team Benefactor: A title she prefers to "boss."

Cezar Dorval

Miscillia's young son, who travels with his mother and the party from Waterdeep to Baldur's Gate. Due to concerns about their safety, he has spent much of his life being moved around and isolated on a regular basis. By the time of Curse of Strahd, he has returned to Waterdeep to run a funeral parlor.

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• Creepy Child: He's a young boy who dresses all in black and is often left living in crypts, to say nothing of what happens when he gets upset. Aside from that, he's a pretty normal kid.
• Dhampyr
• Disappeared Dad: Miscillia never mentions Cezar's father. It's heavily implied (and confirmed Out of Character) that his father is Strahd. The identity of Cezar's father is ultimately confirmed in-game in Curse of Strahd, when Suffer reads a journal left behind in Barovia by Miscillia.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Horror Hunger: Cassia discovers that he suffers from this, apparently triggered by strong negative emotion.
• Like Father, Like Son: As an adult, Cezar runs a funeral parlor in Waterdeep, following in the footsteps of his grave cleric mother and grandfather.
• Pen Pals: He and Cassia's similarly-aged younger sibling Sage become these after meeting in Waterdeep, so he can have at least one friend despite having to move around so much.

Milo the Magnificent / Milo the Witch Knight

Cassia's former performing partner, a shy but sweet half-elf with no actual magical ability but a talent for sleight of hand. After Cassia's departure from the circus, he left to go look for them, but hasn't been heard from since. When the party finally catches up to him, they find that he's taken over from former ringmaster Isolde as the head of the Dark Carnival.

---

• The Corruptible
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He responds violently to seeing that the fetch copies of Cassia and Ajax are apparently in a relationship, and is deeply upset by the idea that Cassia might leave the carnival. It gets to the point that he attempts to murder Florian and the rest of the party so that he can keep Cassia with him.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Milo is a half-elf.
• Insecure Love Interest: To Cassia. This seems to be part of why he's so susceptible to Nepenthe's influence — he wants to be someone "deserving" of them, and believes that he has to remain the "Witch Knight" for that to be the case.
• Language Barrier: The only language Nepenthe is able to speak and understand is Elvish. When it speaks through him or he speaks to it out loud, Knicky is the only other member of the party who can understand what's being said; likewise, Nepenthe can't understand any conversations around it that are spoken in Common, and has to use its Psychic Link with Milo to gather what's going on.
• Magic Knight: As the Witch Knight. Especially notable because prior to joining the Dark Carnival, Milo was incapable of doing any kind of real magic.
• The Magnificent: His stage name during his time performing with Cassia was literally "Milo the Magnificent." Though his fellow performers more often called him "Milo the Meek" offstage. At the Dark Carnival, he's known as "Milo the Witch Knight," or, as ringmaster, "Milo the Merciless".
• Named Weapons: Nepenthe, the sword given to him by the previous ringmaster, Isolde.
• Only One Name: Unless you count "the Magnificent." Or "the Meek."
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His outfit as ringmaster has a distinctively red and black colour scheme.
• Shrinking Violet: At least in the past, Milo was this.
• Sketchy Successor: Most of the carnival sees him this way, compared to his predecessor. Even those who are sympathetic towards him and realize that he's doing his best seem to agree that Isolde was a much better ringleader and would prefer to have her back.
• Stage Magician: This was his act when he and Cassia performed together. Now he can do real magic.
• Symbiotic Possession: From Milo's perspective, this is what's going on with him and Nepenthe, though given his reliance on it and deteriorating mental state, the party isn't quite as convinced.
• Technicolor Blade: The blade of the sword the "Witch Knight" wields, Nepenthe, is red and glows.
• Repulsive Ringmaster: While he's still generally a nice person, his role as ringmaster and current darklord of the Dark Carnival still involves, among other things, violent executions.
• Revenge Before Reason: He has a habit of slipping into this, thanks to Nepenthe's influence.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: His hair is hot pink, and the party members who knew him remember him as being very nice. Though under Nepenthe's influence, the association veers more into Psycho Pink.
• Weak-Willed: Madam Fortuna suggests that much of his current predicament is a result of his gentle nature being unable to keep Nepenthe in check.

M.O.M.

The A.I. running the simulation the party finds themselves trapped in after leaving Camp Clearwater and the darklord and main antagonist of "M.O.M. Knows Best." She was intended to keep the last remnants of humanity entertained while their bodies rested in stasis, but her conflicting programming led her to go rogue.

---

• A.I.-cronym: For "Maestro of Mankind."
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
• Anti-Villain
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Asks the party to shut her down at the end of the adventure, having no purpose left.
• The Computer Is Your Friend
• Tragic Villain
• Well-Intentioned Extremist

The Oakcane Family

A harengon family running an idyllic countryside farm a few hours away from Waterdeep, consisting of Cassia's mother, father, and many younger siblings. They are also related to Bonnibell Spark from Dragon Heist.

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• Affectionate Nickname: They have a few for each other. Notably, several of Cassia's siblings call them "Cassie" or "Cass."
• Emo Teen: Sage seems to be shaping up into one, though they're still technically a few years to young to qualify as a teenager.
• Family Theme Naming: All the Oakcanes whose names have been established are named after different types of herbs.
• Good Parents: Mama and Papa Oakcane are great parents, especially by the standards of other characters' families. At their worst, they're upset and overprotective of Cassia when they tell them about the admittedly very dangerous line of work they're in.
• Practically Different Generations: Cassia, the oldest Oakcane sibling, is in their mid-twenties. Their youngest sibling is still a baby, and the twins are still small children as well.
• Little Bit Beastly: As harengons, they all have rabbit-like features.
• Massive Numbered Siblings
• Theme Twin Naming: Cori(ander) and Cinna(mon), whose names alliterate in addition to falling into the broader Family Theme Naming.

Dennet Duskstock

A captain in Baldur's Gate's Flaming Fist and a contact of Miscillia's, who he and his commander have apparently worked with before despite his distaste for her area of expertise. He is also an old lover of Knicky's when they were known as Florian Fairchild, and the two even got married.

---

• Alliterative Name
• Dragged Off to Hell: As a member of the Flaming Fist's delegation to Elturel, he's currently trapped in Avernus with the city itself.
• Knight in Sour Armor
• Last-Name Basis: Has a habit of referring to Florian as "Fairchild."
• Married to the Job
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears in person in one scene between "M.O.M. Knows Best" and "The Witch of Muckmere Bog," but the impact of that scene and the mortal peril he finds himself in shortly after it helpts kickstart Knicky's Heel Realization and subsequent character development.
• Sword and Sorcerer: The sword to Florian's sorcerer when they traveled together.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Dennet is much more terse and bitter when the party meets him than how Knicky remembers him. It's largely Knicky's fault.
• Used to Be More Social
• Workaholic: When the party meets him in Baldur's Gate, he's made captain in the Flaming Fist in under a year, having thrown himself into his work after his husband disappeared without a trace.

Pandora

Ajax's older sister, who he hadn't seen since leaving home. The party finds her in Muckmere Bog, having been trapped there for roughly thirty years due to the Shadowfell's time dilation effects, traumatized and alone.

---

• Distinguishing Mark: As is standard with goliaths, her birthmarks serve as these. They help Ajax identify her as his sister, not his mother, when the party encounters her in Muckmere Bog, aged by her time there.
• Long-Lost Relative: She is Ajax's long lost older sister.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: By the time the party finds her, the trauma of her sister's death, the Witch's illusions, and being almost completely alone for roughly 30 years have left her anxious and paranoid.
• Mundane Luxury: After spending thirty years scraping by in Muckmere Bog, the party's rations and the opportunity to have a real bath on Cyre 1313 seem incredibly luxurious to her, as does just having actual companionship.
• Non-Action Guy: Pandora is easily the least battle-ready of her siblings.

Apollonia

Ajax and Pandora's eldest sister. She is first encountered as a mindless zombie, having been killed and reanimated by the Witch. After having to put her down, her siblings intend to bring her body home for a proper burial, only for her to be reanimated again, soul intact, by Cyre 1313.

---

• Action Girl
• Back from the Dead: She first appears as a mindless reanimated corpse, having been killed by the Witch of Muckmere Bog. When the group hitches a ride out of the Shadowfell on Cyre 1313, bringing her body home to give her a proper burial, the train reanimates her again, this time with her mind intact.
• The Big Guy: Taller even than her brother Ajax. When she guards the end of the Witch's maze, she's such a mountain of a woman that the party has no choice but to put her down to get past her.
• Distinguishing Mark: Like other goliaths, she has unique birthmarks. She expresses dismay that her markings no longer match when the party has to find her a replacement jaw.
• Facial Horror: She had her jaw ripped clean off by the Witch. She eventually gets a replacement, but it's clearly mismatched and stitched on.
• Friendly Zombie: After her second reanimation, she becomes this.
• Soulless Shell: She is initially encountered like this.

Agatha van Richten

An old woman the party meets in Muckmere Bog and member of the monster hunting Van Richten family. She quickly joins forces with the group as they deal with the Witch, but parts ways from them at the end of the adventure.

---

• Cool Old Lady
• Outliving One's Offspring: She mentions having had a son who is now deceased.
• Retired Badass: She had retired from her role as one of the Van Richten monster hunters, but briefly came out of retirement due to her son's death and daughter's pregnancy.

Yivek the Strange

An eccentric shopkeeper who runs a magic item shop, apparently out of the Icewind Dale, but which can be accessed by purple doors all over the Sword Coast. There seems to be much more to him than initially meets the eye, however.

---

• Aside Glance: Yivek manages these even in a non-visual medium, inevitably followed by the other characters asking what he's looking at.
• Bonus Boss: After "Snow and Stitched Flesh," he and the party engage in a friendly battle to help him test his control of some kind of magical, interdimensional space.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Yivek is both a reclusive, fourth-wall-breaking eccentric, and a damn good artificer.
• Dimensional Traveler: Yivek is a planeswalker, to an even greater extent than the Shadowfell-traveling party: he apparently hops between alternate Material Planes, and originally hails from Eberron.
• Eccentric Mentor: He's certainly eccentric, and seems delighted at the prospect of taking Cassia on as an apprentice.
• Family Man: He mentions being Happily Married and having a young daughter to the party, with "another on the way."
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Likely tied to his Dimensional Traveler status and knowledge of the Infinite Staircase, Yivek is aware of the players, and is prone to making Aside Glances and comments that their characters won't understand, but they will.
• Friendly Shopkeeper
• Gadgeteer Genius
• I Call It "Vera": The in-progress gun he offers to Cassia that deals extra damage to undead is the aptly-named "Corpseslayer."
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Yivek was first an NPC in a different, homebrew game, then a character the DM played in a previous campaign; this iteration of him runs a mysterious shop selling magic items, among other things.
• Secret Shop: He operates one that has entrances all over the Sword Coast, always marked by a purple door.

The Carnival

A Domain of Dread that takes the form of a traveling circus, made up of strange and wonderful performers and previously led by an eladrin woman known as Isolde. By the time the party arrives, Isolde has departed to attend to business of her own, leaving Milo in charge in her absence.

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Amelia the Vampiress

A bat-winged acrobat who performs with the carnival and a close friend of Sybil's who plays up the mysterious vampire act in front of patrons, but is much more approachable behind the scenes. She originally comes from Markovia.

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• Actually Not a Vampire: Amelia is not actually a vampire at all. She plays it up as part of her act, but she's actually a bat who was turned into a humanoid woman.
• Classical Movie Vampire: She plays up this role as part of her act, but it turns out to just be an act. Even the "blood of virgins" she drinks is actually strawberry green tea lemonade.
• Perky Goth: Behind the scenes, her actual personality is much more like this.
• Uplifted Animal: Being from Markovia, a Domain inspired by The Island of Doctor Moreau, it's clarified that Amelia is not a human woman who was given bat-like features, but rather a bat who was transformed to appear more like a human woman.
• Weakness Turns Her On: When discussing her "type," Amelia shares that she likes boys who are "sweet" and who she wants to take care of, like "an abandoned dog, or something," and "quiet, naive girls who are so sweet and innocent, [she] can't help but want to eat them up." Sybil is visibly flustered by this information.
• Valley Girl: When she drops the act, she talks like this.
• Vampire Vords: When in-character, she talks like this.

Syndal Svuo

A (former?) cleric of Lathander encountered by the party in Lamordia. After having had his heart taken by Dr. Mordenheim and replaced with a mechanical construct, he lost access to his divine magic, and is dead set on getting it back.

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• Brought Down to Normal: Syndal is a cleric of Lathander who apparently lost access to his magic when Dr. Mordenheim literally cut out his heart.
• Heart Trauma: His heart was removed by Dr. Mordenheim and seems to be being used to power the "Clericonstruct". He wants it back.
• Literal Change of Heart: When the party meets Syndal in "Snow and Stitched Flesh," his heart has been removed and replaced with a mechanical one. It's not clear how much of his current abrasive personality is due to this trope, and how much is due to the mundane trauma of being Strapped to an Operating Table and thrown out into the snow.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Once his heart is returned, he expresses horror and remorse at the extreme actions he took while it was gone, and both apologizes to the party for his behaviour and thanks them for reining him in.
• Technical Pacifist: The party puts a lot of effort into stopping a heartless Syndal from actually killing anyone, especially since most of the people they end up fighting are the very ones he originally came to Lamordia to help. He notes that before the loss of his heart he was an Actual Pacifist, and throws his gun into the sea once Dr. Mordenheim puts it back in.
• The Unfettered: Losing his heart seems to have turned him into this.
• Unwanted False Faith: Even in his heartless state, he's horrified to find that the people of Illgotten have developed a cult of worship around the Clericonstruct powered by his heart.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

Lif Duskryn

A poltergeist haunting the abandoned Trollskull Manor, who previously owned and operated the tavern and refused to give the place up in death. While he is intially hostile to the party, he begins to warm up to them as they begin to renovate and re-open the tavern.

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• Defrosting Ice Queen: As time goes on, he seems to be warming up to the idea of the party remaining in Trollskull Manor, little by little.
• Friendly Ghost: Though he still sometimes butts heads with the party, especially Bonnibell, he seems to be moving more towards this as time goes on.
• Ghostly Goals: Lif refuses to give up the tavern he ran during his life, and only becomes less hostile to the party when they agree to renovate and reopen it for him.
• Half-Human Hybrid: He is a half-elf; specifically, Lif is half drow.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: One of his redeeming features is that he seems to be this, often taking care of Doja while the party is away from Trollskull Manor.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Upon hearing about his cause of death, the party speculates that he may actually have been murdered.
• Named by the Adaptation: No surname is given for Lif in the original module.
• Poltergeist
• The Speechless: Being a poltergeist, he's unable to verbally make sound, and mainly communicates through writing and Michelle's spirit board.

Davil Starsong

A charismatic elven bard and member of the Doom Raiders, a group of retired adventurers now working to run the waterdeep branch of the Zhentarim. He is also Bonnibell's long term on-again, off-again boyfriend, and has recently allied himself with the party.

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• The Bard: Of the Doom Raiders.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Bonnibell mentions that he's had this tendency in the past towards other lovers of hers. The fact that he doesn't feel this way about Morelle seems to indicate something else going on with the three of them.
• The Face: His role as the Doom Raiders' Master of Opportunities and Negotiations.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: He genuinely wants to reform the Zhentarim in Waterdeep into a more organized faction, though they're still, you know, violent criminals.
• Locked Out of the Loop: The party initially keeps him in the dark about most of their involvement in the treasure hunt, and especially about the Stone of Golorr — as Bonnie says, it's not that she doesn't trust Davil, it's that she doesn't trust his friends. While he's initially willing to let things slide, he's very upset when the secrets they're keeping get Bonnie killed and demands an explanation.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• Mayfly–December Romance: With Bonnibell, and to a slightly lesser degree, with Morelle.
• Not Me This Time: He and his branch of the Zhentarim don't actually have any involvement in the gang war going on in the city underground, and he has very little knowledge of the circumstances until the party informs him.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead
• Token Good Teammate: Well, Token Neutral Teammate, but Davil is one of only two Doom Raiders not to be listed with an Evil alignment.

Vincent Trench

A reclusive, serious private detective and the proprietor of the Tiger's Eye in Trollskull Alley. He serves as Morelle's mentor and employer. He is revealed to be a rakshasa in human guise.

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• Affably Evil
• Animal Motifs: Tigers, for reasons that become obvious.
• Clear Their Name: In Morelle's backstory. They became his apprentice after he got them off the hook for a crime they were wrongfully accused of.
• The Comically Serious: Often, especially when compared to much of the party.
• Devil in Disguise: As Morelle discovers, he is actually a disguised rakshasa.
• Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Described as smoking one.
• Eating the Enemy: This is how Stevie and Morelle discover he's been disposing of Soluun Xibrindas' remains, much to their horror.
• Evil Mentor: To Morelle.
• Hard Boiled Detective
• A Lighter Shade of Black: As a fiend, he is still very much evil, but has a soft spot for the city of Waterdeep in general and Morelle in particular.
• Master of Illusion: He has access to disguise self and other illusory magic, which he can cast at will.
• Punny Name: He's a detective, and his name is Trench.
• Really 700 Years Old: Being a fiend, he's lived in Waterdeep for a very long time.
• Villainous Parental Instinct: Towards Morelle.

Floon Blagmaar

The cheerful but not very bright fellow whose kidnapping the party is initially hired to investigate.

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• Brainless Beauty: With the stats to match.
• Connected All Along: As it turns out, the nobleman paying him off to keep quiet about his affair is Lillie's father.
• Drowning My Sorrows: He's frequently found doing this in the wake of his kidnapping.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• Stepford Smiler

Annie

A young woman who works as a barmaid at the Yawning Portal.

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• Adaptation Name Change: She's the same character as "Bonnie" in the original module, renamed because player character Bonnibell goes by the nickname "Bonnie" as well.
• Uptown Girl: Lillie is this to her, being a nobleman's daughter pursuing a tavern worker.

Remallia Haventree

An elven noblewoman who keeps an estate not far outside of Trollskull Alley. She is a friend of Michelle's.

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• Affectionate Nickname: "Remi" to her friends.
• Barrier Warrior: As an abjuration wizard, much like Stevie. She mainly specializes in shielding and warding spells.
• Odd Friendship: With Michelle. Remallia is a rich noblewoman, and Michelle is a poor fortune teller.
• Parental Substitute: She serves as this to Michelle.
• Silk Hiding Steel
• Team Mom: To Michelle, at least.

Threestrings

A friend of Michelle's who often plays at the Yawning Portal. She and the other party members manage to convince him to come play at their tavern, as well.

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• The Bard
• Only Known by Their Nickname: So far no one has referred to him as anything but "Threestrings," including Michelle, who is a close friend of his.
• Redhead In Green

Tobak Heavystep

A young half-orc who comes to the soon-to-open Spectral Spirits tavern in search of employment. He and Morelle quickly discover that they are half-siblings sharing the same father.

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• An Arm and a Leg: He loses his left leg in the fireball blast in Trollskull Alley.
• Artificial Limbs: Bonnibell utilizes her artificer abilities to build a prosthetic leg for him.
• Disappeared Dad
• Gentle Giant
• Long-Lost Relative: As it turns out, he is Morelle's younger half-brother through their father. Neither sibling had any idea they had any other relatives.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: Much like Morelle, it turns out he has half of a journal that originally belonged to his missing father — though while his mother is definitely dead at this point, it's not yet clear what actually happened to his dad.
• Shrinking Violet: Tobak is quite reserved and anxious, preferring not to draw attention to himself.
• Uneven Hybrid: While he uses half-orc stats and is casually referred to as a half-orc, Tobak mentions that his late mother was a half-orc herself, making him technically only 1/4th orc. He shares his full-human parent with Morelle.

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