#brides of strahd

[vanhelsingapologist]

Finally, we’ve come to the end. Our dear brides have made it all the way through, but lo, the people have resurrected a fan favorite champion to face them: Victor.

Hailing from Vallaki, Victor puts the ‘mad’ in ‘madwoman in the attic.’ He’s got wizardry, flair, and an iPod touch loaded with the dulcet sounds of MCR. Hot Topic membership? Intact. Lanyard? On. Warped Tour bracelets? Secured.

The Brides have been in a long fight for recognition of their rights in Ravenloft. Enduring with the resolve of angry coal miners, they’ve been pushing ever forward for access to vacation days, having secured dental and the ability to use their likenesses as they please.

And finally, some notes:

Victor will be discovering the following albums as he fights. They are queued onto his iPod touch, and around the thirty minute mark, he will receive the news there is a reunion tour. This may act as a rage.

The Brides can quote Eugene V. Debs at will. This acts as a stun. They do NOT have Escher. This is Ludmilla, Anastrasya, and Volenta.

ok fight.

#curse of strahd #curse of strahd spoilers #barovian battle royale #Victor vallakovich #brides of strahd #Vote on your phones now #If y’all have propaganda I don’t mind you putting it in like last time #This ended up taking the tone of adulthood versus youth but fuck it we ball

[tea-with-eleni]

Ludmilla Vilisevic

Pastel pencils on black paper with metallic gold watercolor, white acrylic for the brightest highlights.

My take on Ludmilla under the cut, from Ireena's point of view (aka "the least sympathetic point of view in Barovia, probably")

Ludmilla still doesn’t look directly at you, but she touches your knee. She probably understands why you fear Strahd as well as anyone. Hells, she…

“Why did you marry him?” You ask, before you can think better of it. Ludmilla slumps slightly.

“You won’t believe me, but he isn’t the same without you. It’s difficult to describe. It helps, I think, that I was alone when I came here. I wanted to learn, and he is the most brilliant man I’ve ever met. He was also lonely.” She isn’t telling the whole story. You try to drag your mind out of your past lives enough to figure out what you might be missing. The fact that you’re trying to figure something out about Strahd makes it difficult after centuries of lies and flattery and, if you believe Ludmilla, only seeing him a certain way. Ludmila seems to notice the shift in your demeanor and forces a smile. You can see her fangs. You try not to shudder. You hate Strahd, and you intellectually know that she’s a monster, but it’s easy to forget that right now.

You look back out the window. “Were you only ever alive or a true vampire?” You ask. Ludmila doesn’t answer for a long time.

“No,” she says with a sigh. “I was spawn for decades. He didn’t know how to even create true vampires; how would he? He was the first.”

Your stomach twists. “That must have been horrible,” you say. You shouldn’t. You don’t want to sympathize with her. She’s a monster. She made and sacrificed plenty of her own spawn in Vallaki. She made Doru. You should not sympathize with her.

“It could have been worse,” she says. She’s gone still. You’re suddenly conscious of how much living things move. She no longer resembles a living thing. She resembles a statue. “I did love him, after all. In his own way, he loved me. He didn’t know to what extent I had to obey him.” Her voice is flat. You watch her with growing concern until she shakes herself a little and forces another smile. She doesn’t try to meet your gaze but looks back towards you. “He learned with us. He would never make you spawn. When you were Marina, you would have been a true vampire if your horrible burgomaster hadn’t staked you. You wouldn’t have ever been spawn, not for a moment.”

It isn’t comforting, not if you think about what that means you must have done. She can tell, because she apologizes. Then, abruptly, she’s gone.

The mist is rising again outside. You shudder and retreat to the fireplace. You are grateful that there are some things you cannot remember.

#curse of strahd #dungeons and dragons #ludmilla vilisevic #brides of strahd #my art

[acephodel]

Some Curse of Strahd NPCs I commissioned from the amazingly talented @needlesslycryptic who also drew my party for me 💕

Here are the Brides of Strahd!

Volenta, Ludmilla, Anastrasya 🥰

#curse of strahd #brides of strahd #dnd #dnd art #dnd npc #volenta popofsky #anastrasya karelova #ludmilla vilisevic #but most of them have different last names in my campaign #and also i switched the names of Volenta and Anastrasya in my campaign #and their personalities and backstories are completely rewritten

[theravenloftwanderers]

Keeping up with the Von Zarovich's

#strahd #strahd von zarovich #sergei von zarovich #rudolph van richten #ludmilla vilisevic #anastrasya karelova #volenta popfsky #brides of strahd #barovia #ravenloft #the ravenloft wanderers #gothic #vampire #dnd5e #dnd #dungeons and dragons art #slay ludmilla slayyyy #rip sergei tho #rahadin

[mx-lamour]

Fellow CoS DMs (and players),

I call upon ye once more, to tell me all your Brides of Strahd lore!

There's nothing in the module. I do not know how to work with this.

(I do have some stuff for past love interest Patrina Velikovna and forgotten bride Sasha Ivliskova. It's the Main Three plus Escher I'm worried about.)

Thanks in advance team. ♡

#curse of strahd #strahd von zarovich #send help #dm problems #brides of strahd #vampire brides #escher #volenta popofsky #ludmilla vilisevic #anastrasya karelova #lamour dms cos

[anae-art]

More sketches of vampire brides made for the dinner session Which one do you like the most? During my campaign, unfortunately, I didn't have much opportunity to meet with them, but Escher captivated me

#cos #curse of strahd #vampire #vampire brides #dnd #sketch #volenta popofsky #anastrasya karelova #ludmilla vilisevic #escher belasco #ravenloft

[ladiemars]

i’m dming curse of strahd right now and i decided to yassify his brides 🖤

#i sketched these real quick so my players have a reference #curse of strahd #dungeons and dragons #escher #escher belasco #volenta popofsky #anastrasya karelova #ludmilla vilisevic #dnd #dnd art #high elf #half elf #tiefling #dnd strahd #strahd’s brides #mars draws #my art

[nouveaumoon]

♥ happy valentine's day! ♥

#animatic #curse of strahd #rahadin #strahd von zarovich #hrmm i guess i should tag the brides.. #escher #ludmilla vilisevic #anastrasya karelova #volenta popofsky #chicago #volenta is my gfs favorite so she has a little extra spice. and escher is now a player character and another friends favorite so he does to #i have a few other chicago songs i have animatics for... but i really want to work on gestalt for a long time before doing them! #i know this is not the ideal posting hour but if i dont send it out today ill cry #ill reblog in the morning or whatever!! goodnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tantaliart]

the real housewives of castle ravenloft

#i just have not bothered to color them #you can probably tell who is who based on colors <3 #curse of strahd #escher #escher von preshlow #anastrasya karelova #ludmilla vilisevic #volenta popofsky #art #character design #brides #d&d #escher is teal instead of purple because I wanted to reserve purple for tatyana 🥳

[missbaphomet]

We're making lore breakthroughs people

#baph bleats #gamer goat girl cred #dnd lore #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #baldurs gate astarion #curse of strahd #vampire brides #ascended astarion #baph and friends

[beetlebabby]

strahd spending quality time with the brides 😍

#and also rahadin is there. or hes part of the brides #i'll never tell #curse of strahd #cos #strahd von zarovich #escher #ludmilla vilisevic #anastrasya karelova #rahadin #dungeons and dragons #dnd #my art

[they-call-me-veral]

POV: you don't want to be bride No. 5

#curse of strahd #cos #dnd #dungeons and dragons #strahd von zarovich #ireena kolyana #yeah i said no 5 #because escher deserves to be bride no 4

[tea-with-eleni]

Party Dhampir needs an alibi

Context: Our Curse of Strahd party contains a dhampir wizard. That’s great. The player is going to italy for a month and I need to come up with a reason for him not to be in the party until November. Less great. Our usual strategy of player absences (”He drank an ENTIRE BOTTLE of red dragon crush” or “he overslept” or “he was keeping Ireena company”) isn’t robust enough for a solid month.

So. Time to employ the brides of Strahd.

Strahd knows, more or less, what the dhampir is. He’s not stupid and nobody knows vampirism better. There is a one-in-one chance he’s seen this before. He has likely talked about this in the hearing of his various brides. Some, like Ludmilla, probably know exactly what he’s talking about. Others, like Escher, don’t. 

Escher has become convinced that the party dhampir is a full blooded honest-to-Strahd VAMPIRE and he’s willing to take his chances in asking him for help with something since he MUST be nearly as powerful as Strahd! Strahd did not, shall we say, choose Escher for his brains. 

So, anyway, Escher snuck into Vallaki (Strahd does it all the time, it’s not THAT HARD) and asked Lorenzo if he can please help him rescue Doru Donovich. He made it very emotional and pointed out (correctly) that Doru is being starved to death by his father (something the dhampir was already super uncomfortable with) and needs to be “brought home”. Exact details of the rescue are to be worked out later. 

Meanwhile, the dhampir was the main competitor with Vasili von Holtz for Ireena’s affections. So while Strahd has been more than a little annoyed with Anastraya’s stunt where she tried to impress him by destroying the wizard of wines winery, he entirely approves of Escher’s scheme. 

...I will say, I didn’t expect to know the brides when I started this campaign.

#curse of strahd #brides of strahd #player absences #dungeons and dragons

[thatratgo]

Banter I think Esmerela and the brides would have :D

#curse of strahd meme #curse of strahd #dnd strahd #dnd curse of strahd #cos brides #cos strhad #barovia #ravenloft #another day in barovia #cos esmerelda #cos esmeralda #cos #dnd #dnd memes

[theravenloftwanderers]

Curse of Strahd: The Ravenloft Wanderers (NPC and PC SKETCH LINEUP) Wakey wakey babes. New (old) art just dropped. Please don't use for your campaign before asking.

#strahd #strahd von zarovich #sergei von zarovich #tatyana federovna #ireena kolyanovich #ismark kolyanovich #rudolph van richten #ezmerelda d'avenir #ludmilla vilisevic #anastrasya karelova #volenta popfsky #escher belasco #ophelia wellings #mendax renatus #selari of tyrus #brides of strahd #barovia #ravenloft #the ravenloft wanderers #i made a height chart from shortest to tallest and im still disappointed strahd was the tallest #gothic #vampire #dnd5e #dnd #dungeons and dragons art

[mx-lamour]

I've got another one for ye.

How often do you suppose adventurers come in through the mists and do their thing?

When (like, what year) do you suppose was the first?

When do you suppose Strahd starts creating vampire spawn? And like, how does he pick them? We know he makes zombies out of a lot of folk. Which people get to be spawn, other than the brides?

Strahd had three different "vampire slaves" (essentially also brides; very Dracula), Irina, Marya, and Sura, who were apparently killed in Vampire of the Mists (I'm relying on Mistipedia right now; haven't had a chance to read it yet). So like, he's been busy between Tatyanas.

I don't necessarily need to flesh out every spawn who ever was (especially since the adventurers certainly won't encounter them all), but I am trying to create a timeline history of things, and I got pretty stuck after Olya (Tatyana reincarnation #2).

I think Ana is Tatyana reincarnation #3, and like, damn that's early. I would have thought it would take longer for her to get even partially out of the mists. Was Jander then the first outlander to get sucked into Barovia?

I've been trying to figure out where to fit the four brides from the module into the timeline, and layering in some other events between them, but I've been having a weird time with it. I'm also not 100% sure when will be best to bring Alek back into the picture, although I am definitely going to.

#curse of strahd #continuity editing #losing my mind #strahd von zarovich #brides of strahd #vampire spawn #a historian's work is never done #lamour dms cos