#Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

[adam-sadmon]

So can we get a thread going of characters who are canoncially aromantic and/or asexual? Here I'll start us off, honestly I need more media to consume so this'll double as a reccomendations dump.

Jughead Jones from Archie Comics - Aromantic Asexual

Parvati Holcomb from Outer Worlds- Asexual Biromantic

Erasmus Van Richten from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft- Aromantic

#Aro #Aromantic #Ace #Asexual #Lgbt #Biromantic #Outer worlds #Parvati #Parvati Holcomb #Dnd #van richten's guide to ravenloft #Erasmus Van Richten #Curse of Strahd #Archie #Archie comics #Jughead #Jughead jones

[honourablejester]

5e Character Concept: Ravenloft Lovecraftian Dhampir

So a while back I had an idea for how to put a more lovecraftian spin on the dhampir, because Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft does give you some hunger and backstory options for dhampirs that aren’t your usual ‘bitten by a vampire’ or ‘half-breed child of a vampire’. Things like hungers for cerebral spine fluid and psychic energy, and origins like ‘a parasite lives inside you; you indulge its hunger’, ‘you are a diminished form of an otherworldly being; slaking your hunger hastens your renewal’, and ‘a radical experiment changed your body, making you reliant on others for vital fluids’. So. There’s carte blanche already to go lovecraftian here, and all I want to do is slightly reflavour the vampiric bite to be silvery feeding tendrils that lie along her jaw like scars and unfurl to dive into some poor saps ear canal to feed. You know. For fun.

But. VRGR also has several cosmic horror Domains of Dread, and one of them is Bluetspur. The mind flayer domain, whose Darklord is the God-Brain, an insane and mortal elder brain whose horrific experiments towards apotheosis resulted in its physical form rebelling against itself, giving it a slow, horrific wasting disease that it is desperately trying to fight. Which, fun. Bluetspur is completely inhospitable to human life, you won’t find characters from there. What you will find is characters who were abducted to there, experimented on, and thrown back without their memories if the experiments were unsatisfactory. Amnesiac characters with fragmented dreams of vast mountains under red suns, things moving inside their skin, and pallid tentacles wielding surgical instruments. You know, your standard alien abduction repressed memories.

And. Bluetspur is also the origin of vampiric mind flayers. Feral mind flayers infected with vampirism by the God-Brain, so that they can drain cerebral fluid from victims and return to be dissolved by the God-Brain along with their cargo to stave off its own degeneration and dementia. Hence the additional dhampir origins above. So. With that in mind …

Just while we’re here, I want to kit out a full Ravenloft lovecraftian dhampir, a survivor of the twisted experiments of Bluetspur. And, just because we’re going full Lovecraft here, I do think we’re going to go for Aberrant Sorcerer? Just to go full tentacle. But, also. Dhampir. Experiments that changed your body. Psychic infections from a mad, diseased God-Brain and its desperate servants. Aberrant fits pretty well? Our sorcery was not inborn, it absolutely came from massive physical and psychic trauma.

Do I want to go full partial ceremorphosis? Dhampir has the parasite option, and Aberrant Sorcerer also has ‘infected with mindflayer tadpole but transformation couldn’t complete’ as an origin option. And since I’m going full Ravenloft and giving her a Dark Gift as well, ‘Symbiotic Being’ is an option. But. I think I’d prefer ‘Gathered Whispers’ for the Dark Gift. Granted, that still has ‘an alien intelligence intrudes upon my thoughts’ or ‘a sibling I don’t have shares my body’ as spirit options, so it could still work. But I think …

I think she was an extremely flawed experiment. Instead of infecting a mind flayer with vampirism, or infecting a vampire with ceremorphosis, they were trying to do both at once, short-cut the process by infecting a human with both, and they sort of … cancelled each other out? Fully messed her up, rewrote her body, fucked up her mind to the point that Modify Memory was barely necessary, but she’s neither a mind flayer nor a vampire. There is no surviving tadpole. Instead, she’s a halfway thing, and the spirits of Gathered Whispers are the fragments, or ghosts, of so many unsuccessful experiments of Bluetspur. Some of them are mind flayers. (Maybe one of them is the ghost of the tadpole). Some of them were human. It’s all a mess, and so is she.

And then she was dumped back out into another Domain of Dread, or maybe just tossed into the Mists until she stumbled into whatever one was closest.

If I was playing her, obviously this would be whatever Domain the campaign is in. For this thought experiment, though, I think it would be really fun if she was spat back out into Lamordia? You know, the gothic, industrial, mad science, Frankenstein Domain? With all her fragmented memories of experimentation and bodily transformation, to land in a domain dominated by mutation, radiation, and bodily experimentation. Just to fully traumatise her, and also maybe to confuse her memories? Given that they’re so fragmentary, maybe she thinks her memories are of Lamordian experimentation, and it takes a good long while for her to realise that they’re from somewhere much further and more alien.

So. To pull all that pile of trauma together. Picture a tall, rangy, slightly wild-eyed woman, with a rather dark, healthy-looking complexion. Not vampiric pale. Tangled brown hair streaked with gray. Long, bony hands that shake slightly. Two thin, silvery scars, one on each side of her face, running along her jawbone. And if an enemy ever gets too close, well. Those scars unfurl. Twin tendrils, thin, silvery feeding tendrils, that dive into that enemy’s ears.

Is she Lamordian? Originally, I mean. Was she stolen from there? Do we want to give her a Germanic sort of name? Irma might be fun. It means whole, which is nicely cruel. Irma Hafner. Hafner means potter, from hafan, or vessel. Whole vessel. Or whole/great maker of vessels. Maybe the mind flayer who stole her way back when had a dark sense of humour. Heh.

I’m not sure on the background. Well, no. I do kind of want to take the Ruined background from The Book of Many Things again, mostly because it lets her take Tough at first level, which will be very handy since she’s built around Cha/Con for spells and her bite, and she’s a sorcerer and therefore has no hit points. It also gives her stealth and survival, which seem quite fitting for a wild amnesiac who wandered out of the mists with nothing but broken memories of being tortured. So, yes, her mechanical background is Ruined. As, well, she was. But I meant more … what’s her profession? What does she do? How is she trying to make her living right now. Is she just a wild beggar woman wandering around? (Has she met Elise?) Actually, that might not be a bad idea. Sorcerers don’t need much in the way of equipment. She’ll be using her bite and cantrips instead of weapons, and after that we can say she scrounged the makings of a component pouch and an explorer’s pack.

Sidenote: Bluetspur and Lamordia really do have a lot in common. Darklord Viktra’s desperation to defeat death and cure Elise’s wasting disease, the God-Brain’s desperation to defeat death and its own wasting disease. I bet Viktra would find the God-Brain fascinating. And it might, maybe, think her … useful. Heh.

But, yes. Mechanically. Irma is a Dhampir, and Aberrant Sorcerer, and Ruined. She has a dark gift, Gathered Whispers, which means she’s haunted by spirits, whispering voices, which will give her the Message cantrip, a reaction to add her proficiency to her AC for 1 attack if the opponent isn’t deaf, and some fun consequences whenever she rolls a 1. She’ll have 16 each in Charisma and Constitution, with probably Dexterity and Wisdom as her next highest, and Intelligence and Strength taking up the rear. Her vampiric bite has been reflavoured to feeding tendrils along her jaw, and she feeds on cerebral fluid. She’ll start out with a respectable 11 hit points, which is not bad on a sorcerer. Starting cantrips are Mind Sliver, Message, Mage Hand, Chill Touch, Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion. Starting spells are Arms of Hadar, Dissonant Whispers, Mage Armour and Sleep. She’s a beggar and a wild woman, and she has dark dreams and fractured memories of a strange red sun, and things pulling her apart to put her back together. And not much in the way of other memories, or at least not whole ones.

She is trying very hard to pretend to be sane and sort-of-normal. She is not succeeding very well. But, you know. She’d like some food, and some money, and she has this nagging impression that the worst has already happened to her, so she’s willing to brave a few terrors in pursuit of them. Just. Labs, laboratories, might be tricky for her. Medical procedures. Tentacles. Things like that. Heh.

Irma Hafner. A survivor of Bluetspur, a Ravenloft lovecraftian dhampir.

#character concepts #d&d #5e #sorcerers #dhampirs #ravenloft #bluetspur #lamordia #i do enjoy several of the domains of dread #van richten's guide to ravenloft

[lichromantic]

#van richten's guide to ravenloft #reborn lineage #tiefling #skeleton #gothic lolita

[oneshotsfunshots]

Homebrew DnD One-Shot #5

#dnd #dnd homebrew #dnd one shot #dnd oneshot #5e #dnd murder mystery #dnd mystery #cw murder #cw death #dnd vampires #van richten's guide to ravenloft #curse of strahd

[sinister-surname]

So anyone else think about Victor Mordenheim becoming Viktra Mordenheim between 2nd and 5th edition and wanna canonise it by making Viktra trans?

#Viktra Mordenheim #Victor Mordenheim #Lamordia #Ravenloft #Domains of dread #Domain of dread #Dnd #D&D #Dungeons and dragons #Horror #Fantasy horror #Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

[artsyarcane]

Ravenloft headcanons:

Both Rudolph and Erasmus van Richten are really good at trick shots. (It’s a skill that comes in handy surprisingly often.)

Alanik had a habit of pacing the room while in deep thought. This habit resulted in wearing pathways in the floor. Being wheelchair bound did not stop this habit.

Ez has terrible taste in romantic partners.

The only things Strahd is still capable of feeling genuine affection for are his nightmare and the bats that hang out in his castle.

Azalin Rex is a giant troll and was allowed by the dark powers to escape Darkon because he only ever wants to fuck with people and doesn’t actually do anything truely “evil”… anymore.

Alanik gets super excited when people try to kill him. It’s his favorite part of working a case because it’s an indicator that he’s close to the truth. He’s always deeply disappointed when it doesn’t happen. Arthur is usually terrified by his excitement but has slowly become accustomed to it.

Erasmus (as a ghost) enjoys making his loved ones laugh and it always confuses the hell out of his father.

Erasmus has a suspiciously fey-like affinity with animals. When he was alive, he’d befriended a flock of ravens. He even kept one as a pet. A one-eyed “hell bird” named Hades who had a habit of biting Rudolph for no particular reason. After Erasmus died, Hades stayed with Rudolph for almost 20 years before dying of natural causes.

Rudolph makes dad jokes. He actually has a rather dry sense of humor and is surprisingly funny if you can get him to open up.

If Erasmus is resurrected, Gennifer and Laurie smother him with an almost embarrassing amount of affection though he isn’t shy about reminding them that their “little cousin” is roughly 20 years older than they are. They do not care.

When the detective duo first started their relationship, it was Alanik who made the first move (spurred by Erasmus), causing Ez to lose a bet with Rudolph. Later Arthur proposed using a puzzle box.

Ez and Erasmus both have a massive sweet tooth.

Arthur has in-depth conversations with the corpses he autopsies and sometimes even tries to involve Alanik in said conversations. Alanik finds this practice entirely bizarre but deeply insightful.

(Part 2)

#van richten's guide to ravenloft #erasmus van richten #rudolph van richten #ezmerelda d'avenir #azalin rex #strahd von zarovich #alanik ray #arthur sedgwick #dnd npcs #headcanon #d&d shenanigans #i’m just having fun

[angeloftheeasterngate]

#dracula #dracula daily #curse of strahd #van richten's guide to ravenloft

[themostdangerouscampaign]

Random Encounter Table #3: Dinosaurs!

Had the party not gone down the Gasping Way and into Yaguara's Heart, they would have eventually found themselves in the dinosaur infested land of the Jeweled Basilisk Lakes. I'm honestly pretty disappointed we never got to have a Jurassic Park style adventure, but hey, we might see a giant reptile yet!

[PDF]

#most dangerous campaign #most dangerous pod #dnd campaign #dnd homebrew #halloween #spooky stories #dnd #dnd podcast #jurassic park #van richten's guide to ravenloft

[illastrologist]

"Divinity will stain your fingers and mouth like pomegranate."

reblogs > likes

#art #digitalart #artists on tumblr #dnd #dnd art #dungeons and dragons #dungeons and dragons art #darklord #ravenloft #van richten's guide to ravenloft #character art #original character #oc #oc art #Cyrilla Rochefort #my art #oc: cyrilla #KotNcampaign #setting: ravenloft

[garr9988]

Fanfic idea where Fjord and Jester's child/children get turned into Hexbloods by Isharnai or smth? According to Matt in the Campaign 2 Wrap-Up, she's no longer under the Modify Memory spell and has some amount of respect for and intrigue in Jester for being outplayed.

Maybe she kidnaps their kid(s) and turns them into a Hexblood out of vengeance, or she does it out of respect, as a sort of "gift". Or maybe even by imbuing them with hag magic while Jester's still pregnant.

#critical role #fjorester #fjord stone #jester lavorre #isharnai #hexblood #hag #dnd #d&d #mighty nein #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #original #van richten's guide to ravenloft

[theoctopigeon]

Angel Seekers, Tracker, Hunter, Ambusher.

Angel Seekers are constructs created in the Mountains of Malgelus with a single purpose: to find, hunt and capture angelkin. The angel blood is prized in Malgelus as it helps stave off the Rot which can affect anyone living in the Valleys of Malgelus. A sickness that rots one from the inside leaving behind an empty shell of a person.

The Seekers have a built is sense that allows them to detect when any healing power is used, even if it is several miles away. They also posses the powers to negate healing abilities to easier take down their prey. 

Angel Seekers are homebrew monsters I created for my homebrewed Ravenloft Domain of Dread for DnD 5e.

#monster #dnd monster #homebrew monster #ttrpg monster #monster art #undead #construct #ravenloft #domain of dread #malgelus #theoctopigeon #homebrew dnd #homebrew 5e #van richten's guide to ravenloft #my art #my artscapades

[honourablejester]

Thoughts for a Lovecraftian Dhampir (D&D 5e)

This sprang up because I’ve have a particular character concept percolating in the back of my head for a while, based around a particular trinket-type object in a very similar vein to the horror trinkets from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. Essentially the backstory focal point for this character is a length of old, stained rope they keep wrapped around one forearm – the remains of a rope that once bound them to a sacrificial altar and which they managed to cut free in order to survive and escape. Hyper-specific, I know, but it’s a nice knotty image, this strange nondescript bit of old rope wound nonsensically around a wrist, and the echoes of old trauma bound with it.

I’ve had various versions of this character, in particular one who became a (knowledge) cleric of the forgotten god she was almost sacrificed to. I was noodling around more of an idea of a lovecraftian sort of cult, though, aberrations and star gods and the Far Realm, and you could go the obvious GOOlock or aberrant sorcerer there, but it occurred to me, since I was in Van Richten’s territory already, that you could actually get a lot of that flavour from the race instead of the class, if you wanted?

Specifically, a lovecraftian variation on the dhampir.

The dhampir entry in Van Richten’s gives a couple of hunger and origin options if you want something a bit different from a standard ‘almost turned by a vampire’ or ‘half-blood child of a vampire parent’. To quote:

“Dhampirs often arise from encounters with vampires, but all manner of macabre bargains, necromantic influences, and encounters with mysterious immortals might have transformed your character.”

“While many dhampirs thirst for blood, your character might otherwise gain sustenance from the living.”

And the specific options that are interesting me here are psychic/life energy for the hunger, and a bit of a combination of the following origins: ‘your pact with a predatory deity, fiend, fey, or spirit causes you to share their hunger’, ‘a parasite lives inside you, you indulge its hunger’ and possibly ‘you are a diminished form of an otherworldly being, slaking your hunger hastens your renewal’.

If you put all that together, and you could play the dhampir not as an undead scion, but as a person who was almost sacrificed to a far realm entity, and into whom some echo was implanted by the experience. Some mote or fragment of an alien entity, a piece of their hunger, that now lives in and warps your flesh, and drives you to feed as they feed. On life itself, or perhaps thoughts, feelings, the psychic emanations of thinking beings.

And you can feed that flavour back into the mechanical chassis of the dhampir. Deathless nature, the lack of a need to breathe, might be less because you’re dead, and more because the creature whose spark lives inside you exists within an airless void or a realm in which life has many meanings. Spider climb and the dhampir’s heightened move speed might be the influence of the far realm mildly warping gravity and time around them.

And the vampiric bite. I feel like I want to have a lot of fun with this one:

“Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite. It deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite.

When you attack with this bite and hit a creature that isn't a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice:

You regain hit points equal to the piercing damage dealt by the bite.

You gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make; the bonus equals the piercing damage dealt by the bite

You can empower yourself with this bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.”

See, I kind of want to reflavour this so, instead of a fanged bite … I have a very clear picture here. Not fangs. When this character goes to bite, thin, silvery feeding tendrils unfurl from along the base of her jawbone, one on each side. Or two on each side, for a total of four tendrils. Because then the 1d4 is a signifier of how many of them land. You make a successful attack, you roll damage, and whatever number is on the d4 is how many tendrils manage to land and bite in. Then the extra damage from your Con mod is the damage done by the feeding.

(I’d be tempted to ask the DM if the Con mod damage could be changed to psychic damage, just to carry that flavour better, but it’d only be worth it if they’d also change the wording on the empowering options to ‘equal to the damage dealt by the bite’ rather than specifically the piercing damage dealt. It’d fit the image, if the d4 is the piercing damage as the tendrils land and the Con damage is the psychic damage as the dhampir feeds, but if I’m cutting the potential bonus/HP gained into probably less than half, it might not be worth it. Eh. A thing to discuss).

And I feel like that gives a nice little lovecraftian package to feed through the background of the character. I mean, are you ever going to use vampiric bite? Maybe it won’t show up too often, but the first time it does, isn’t that a lovely little combat visual to abruptly show your party? Maybe the character has seemed pretty much normal up to then, they keep their hunger locked down tight, the tendrils when they’re quiescent are just silvery lines on their jaw that might be scars, and then something gets too close to them and does too much damage, and their control slips, and these little silvery things flash out and into some poor bastard’s ear canal and they’re feeding. IDK, it’s just a nice little horrifying character detail to have up your sleeve. Your trauma rope on your wrist and the silvery scars under your jaw. Heh.

And then you can put the class of your choice onto the chassis. My knowledge cleric, that’ll work. Soulknife rogue, that could be nicely thematic. Psi warrior fighter, either, extra attack might give you more opportunities to actually use the bite. And, on that line, I feel like wild magic barbarian could also be a lot of fun, with the wild magic being a far realm influence, just warping reality around you based on your rage and your hunger.

If you do want a magic user, you can go the classic and use goolock/aberrant sorcerer, lean heavy on the theme. I also feel like conjuration wizard could do a lot thematically. Especially given the way the subclass levels. It starts out the magic of utility and escape, something that might be very attractive to a traumatised cult sacrifice survivor. The ability to magically create a knife to cut your bonds, the magic to get away. But then as conjuration goes up, you start to realise that it’s also the magic of calling things. Summoning things. Maybe the urge to study this particular school of magic wasn’t wholly their own idea. Maybe the thing now inside them was urging them towards it. A seed of calling planted in their blood. A whisper of a future summons, failsafe against the failed, or perhaps merely delayed, sacrifice. Heh.

(And, you know, might not be the worst use of a turn, if you get stuck in melee, to vampiric bite for your action, get some HP back from whatever just hit you, and then misty step the fuck out for your bonus action. Which goes for any spellcaster with access, yeah, but conjuration wizard gets to use their signature school to do it).

I’m enjoying this thought. If you want a more cosmic than gothic horror slant on the dhampir, there’s a lot of fun to be had. Hunger’s hunger, whether it’s from beyond the gates of death, or the void beyond the stars.

#d&d #dhampirs #lovecraftian #cosmic horror #flavouring mechanics #i'm having fun #trinkets #van richten's guide to ravenloft #long post

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft - It's Alive! by Katerina Ladon

#Fantasy #Art #Dungeons and Dragons #Dungeons & Dragons #D&D #Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft #Zombie #Undead #Katerina Ladon #Wizards of the Coast #WotC

[royalvorpal]

#ravenloft #viktra mordenheim #elise #orphan of agony isle #van richten's guide to ravenloft

[acrowamongsparrows]

Alfred Klaudin

The Basics ––– – Name: Alfred Klaudin Nickname(s): Al; 'This' Brother'; Wally Age: 26 Birthday: Harvest Race: Human Gender: Male Marital Status: Single

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Black Eyes: Green Height: 5'10 Build: Like a tree trunk Distinguishing Marks: Multiple scars on his hands and face; walrus mustache Tattoos: A winding vine of red and white roses along his left arm; a strange rune over his heart in dark blue Piercings: Earrings Common Accessories: a silver adorned rapier; a wide black hat   Likeness: Aaron Taylor Johnson

Personal Information––– – Profession: Rover; Duelist; Monster Hunter Hobbies: Swordfighting, poetry, cooking, cartography   Languages: Common, heavily accented Residence: Nomadic Birthplace: The back of a caravan Religion: The Road Patron Deity: Tymora Fears: Losing his brother; being forgotten

Relationships ––– - Spouse: None Children: None Parents: Gregor Klaudin (father); Wilmina Klaudin (mother)   Siblings: Janus Kaludin (brother) Other Relatives: Arther Klaudin (grandfather; deceased); Verida Klaudin (grandmother; deceased); Eldridge of Kovir (godfather) Pets: Felix (hedgehog)

Sex & Romance ––– - Sexual Orientation: Hetero Preferred Emotional Role: submissive | dominant | switch Preferred Sexual Role: submissive | dominant | switch Libido: Normal Turn ons: Eyes, smiles, dark hair Turn offs: Foolhardiness; pettiness Love Language: Touch Relationship Tendencies: Far and in-between

Traits ––– - * Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted Disorganized / In Between / Organized Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded Calm / In Between / Anxious Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable Cautious / In Between / Reckless Patient / In Between /  Impatient Outspoken / In Between / Reserved Leader / In Between / Follower Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic Traditional / In Between / Modern Hard-working / In Between / Lazy Cultured / In Between / Uncultured Loyal / In Between / Disloyal Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– – Smoking Habit: Occasionally Drugs: Not often Alcohol: Socially

RP Hooks ––– – A Mother's Guidance Alfred, though young still, is an accomplished swordsman.  Having trained for many years under the tutelage of his mother Wilmina, the art of fencing is not entirely based on luck.  A warrior's blood runs thick in his veins as he still goes through the drills every morning along with the routines from his youth.  After his mother's accident and upon the brother's leave-taking she bequeathed her own blade to him.  The rapier is from her own domain of Richemulot and was used during days as a 'ratcatcher'.  Basic in most parts with a swept hilt, the true power comes from the inlaid of silver along the fuller.  A beautiful and ancient weapon, it's Alfred's pride and responsibility to bring the same honor she carried with it.

A Father's Gift The ability to wander the Mists is a special gift and skill, that Gregor Klaudin felt was all the more necessary to share with his sons.  Janus took to it like a fish to water, but Alfred seemed to struggle as he tried his best to guide his steps through their treacherous means.  With enough concentration, the ways become more clearer but nothing like his kin who seem to see the clinging fog as a dangerous friend.  For Alfred, the Mists that cloud the domains are always a danger.  Time and patience as his grandfather would say, are what he needs.

A Family Business For what Alfred may lack in the power of the mysticism, he has never shied away from learning all he can about the darkness that creeps the edge of the peripheral.  Books line the wagon he shares with is brother, some mere fairy tales or mythology while others darker and bearing marks to be only uttered in bright of day.  His 'uncle' may have begun the spark of the need to hunt those that would prey on the innocent but it was his mother's tale that helped seal what he had to do.  Her sword was not meant to be shaken at brigands and drunks, it was meant to deal with those dark powers.  Combined with Wilmina's training and Eld's knowledge, Alfred has gained enough skill and wisdom to be a powerful force in dealing with those that would go bump in the night.

A Brothers Journey The Brothers Klaudin have recently broken off from their family and struck off on their own into the domains of the universe.  Their wagon loaded with the strange and exotic of other worlds, the pair have hit the misty trails in search of fortune and glory.  As much Alfred would like to rely on the trade aspect of their journey, he can't help but note how much influence and income they gather thanks to Janus's own skills.  But for all the song and dance might line their pockets, there were always jealous boyfriends or angry fathers or just a drunk who thinks he can get away with being rude.  Thus where the muscle that is Alfred earns his keep in protecting his brother and their assets.

HOW TO CONTACT:

OoC tumblr (https://acrowamongsparrows.tumblr.com/) Discord ( Mogwai Kraken#7988)

IC It was only a few from the wagon seat to the ground, but the splash that rose from the mud and water was enough to coat up to to his knees.  Alfred didn't mind though.

"You got this?" Janus asked calmly from the other seat, his hand already beginning to edge for the crossbow beneath the seat.

The mustachioed swordsman would only grunt as he let the rain water from above spill about the wide brim of his hat.  His left hand reaching up to smooth his mustache as he moved forward with quick steps down the road.  The four men ahead did not move.

"That's far enough," said one of the middle men.  Alfred stopped.  "Good boy."

The four men were dressed for the rain, much like Alfred with heavy cloaks and hoods compared to his own cape and hat.  The glint of the steel in hand was an advantage they thought they had.  Three swords and a crossbow.  It wasn't great odds.

One of the middle man stepped ahead of his three compatriots, the far left keeping his crossbow trained beyond him on Janus at the wagon.  "Yer money or your life."

A frown was hidden behind the thick mustache as he tilted his head at the gauche phrase.  A gentle turn of his cloak would reveal Alfred's one hand resting on the pommel of his sword.  Being a man of few words, the duelist would gently respond in kind.  "No."

"No?  Well I'll give it to ya, mate," the middle one laughed as his friends snickered as well.  "Ya got ba-"

The middle man never got a chance to finish his snide remark as thick knife lay buried deep at the base of his throat. Shock and alarm was etched on his face as his own fingers wet nerveless and he dropped his sword into the mud.  His eyes stared at the blade in his chest before had time to look up as the the shining point brought darkness quickly to his left eye.

Alfred grabbed hold of the man's cloak as he easily yanked his rapier from the man's skull and heard the cries of anger from the bandits.  No discipline or skill for sure as he felt a thunk of the crossbow bolt in the body he held.  He needed to move faster.

Teeth gritted he would lift the body and carry it as a shield from any other shots before throwing it with a yell at the bow.  There was little time as the body landed somewhere near the shooter before the other two men rushed Alfred.

Two on one was never easy but hardly impossible.  Just needed to separate them as Alfred turned his body sideways to engage the faster of the men.  The short sword was slashed wide and wild, angry at the death of their 'face' as Alfred bounced back before bearing the riposte.  The sword point easily delved through the old cloak and cloth to find flesh.  A gurgled cry and slump as the bandit fell over clutching his chest where the sword had likely pierced a lung.  Disappoint ached in Alfred as he should have been a little more to the left on his thrust.

No time to lament his lack of aim as the third bandit reached him, this one a bit wiser as he thrust with his own sword.  A strong parry followed by a riposte was Alfred's easiest response as the steel clacked.  The bandit was quick to as he back up, using his own thicker blade to batter the thin rapier away.  There was a tack of resistance, but Alfred was far better trained and at home with this deadly work.

A quick series of back and forth with steel was unworthy of noting before Alfred ducked down for a quick thrust at his opponent's knee.  The sharp point once again did it's duty as it slipped through the cap causing the would be robber to pitch forward with a scream.  His blade dropping to the mud while he grabbed his bleeding leg, the bandit had little time to worry over it before a slash of the rapier took his eyes.  The screaming continued as he fell back clutching at his face beckoning death to come hither.

A bounce forward ended the screams with another thrust to the chest of the dying man.  Alfred turned to his final assailant.

Fortunatly he already lay still on the ground, a large bolt protruding from his chest as his legs quivered in the mud.  Snorting Alfred turned back to the cart, finding the seat empty by Janus only a few feet away with the unloaded weapon in hand. "I told you to stay at the wagon."

Janus shrugged softly before resting the crossbow on a shoulder.  "Maybe, but four on one is not great odds for you brother."

Snorting Alfred would wiped his sword clean on the dead man's cloak and sheathed it with practiced ease.  "Well you are here, let us move them off the road.  I'll check these two, check the others."

"All in a days work," Janus would smile as he stalked over to the two Alfred had taken just before.  Alfred did not smile as he fetched his knife from the 'face'.

#alfred klaudin #the brothers klaudin #vistani #witcher oc #van richten's guide to ravenloft #silvered steel #basic information #roleplay #there are other worlds than these

[actaea-p-y]

The Demiplane of Dril (5e)

Soth Literally Any Darklord: now i will be the first to admit that im an irredeemable son of a bitch/. however, i am also a piece of shit with no brain.

Strahd: girls always love to telling people not to" Mansplain" but they do not care of, "Man's Pain"

Harkon: Politic's is back baby. It's good again. Awoouu (wolf Howl)

Ivana: twitter is granting me the world's first Dark Verified Account because shit pumps through my veins like blood and i have a shitty attitude

Ivan: Im not playing games with your ass. Anser my god damn emails or i will fuck up your world

Vladeska: i can be a friend of you. but piss me off and i will become your Enemy. The Art of War

Wilfred: damn it to piss. my wife replaced all of my anti-wife reading materials with Pro-Wife bullshit

Jacqueline: fairly confident that even if i became a rat some how, i still would not want to fuck any of the other rats

Saidra: Sovereign Citizens Getting Owned Compilation

Lemot: ((SPILLING BLOOD ALL OVER KEYBOARD) THIS IS WHAT U WANT. THIS IS WHAT U FUCKING BASTARDS WANT RIGHT (1 WEEK LATER) WHY ARE THE KEYS STICKING Ankhtepot: you ever see one of those preserved bog men or mummies on the news and think "now theres a guy who looks like he got an ass kicking"

Tristen: mother nature and father time arre not real. theyre fake people who were invented to explain trees and clocks to shitheads

Viktra: oh youve been to therapy? Dumb. yeah you havent even scratched the surface of my Level. i bet none of you even know your own brain weight

Pietra: my body is 70% water mother fucker. guns cannot harm me

Ramya: sending special kind of energy to my followers that is good/poweful energy normally but immediately becomes dog shit energy if you betray me

Hazlik: the desert has never helped any one and i am going to go throw poison at it

Caroline: *all horrors begotten by the desire of man flash before eyes* woha! this is awkward *the cries of millions suffering echo* Damn That's Weird

The God-Brain: the air is rusty and im dead

Chiang: people please, all i ask for is one town hall meeting which doesnt reference The Matrix

Chakuna: some of mother fuckers think to win the Dumb Ass award is a GOOD thing!

Azalin: *reclines in chair a nd ages 2 ,000 years instantly turning into a skeleton and then pile of shit* ah everything's going according to plan

#ravenloft #shitpost #swearing! #van richten's guide to ravenloft #dril tweets #text meme