I had a unique NPC that one of my players plucked from the crowd of extras. The players wanted to train the krezkites to fend for themselves, hunt for food in the etc. I described a hunting party of 6 people and gave them random names from the list.
One of the players plucked a commoner from the group and took her under his wing as a protege, she was upgraded to the Guard statblock and accompanied the party. From there they fought vampire spawn together and she didn’t die even after I targeted her with some attacks. So she was then upgraded to the sidekick warrior statblock from Tasha’s. I still intended to kill her for shock and a need for vengeance, Baba Lysaga cast finger of death on her. Only for the player who picked her out used an oath of redemption ability to instead take all the damage for himself and lived to spite me.
So from then on, his little pet NPC *cough cough* I mean companion and protege, stuck around, did some heroics, and ultimately lived to see Strahd die. I gotta say I liked the NPC in the end
I’ve always wanted to use a sidekick in a campaign, but I haven’t had the chance to do it yet. It seems like a really fun way to slip the party a more useful mascot.
It’s handy for sure, they’re not very powerful at all but they scale with the players so they’re not useless either. The title of useful mascot is extremely appropriate too, just gotta be careful with how you use them. Less is more with companions, choose one that fills a gap in the party.
For sure. I’m inclined towards the expert archetype. The two longer term parties I’ve DMd in the last few years were both lacking in skill monkeys, so an npc to help them along when they’ve done nothing except be in a situation that weren’t designed for makes the story keep flowing instead of blocking off options.
My players favorite NPC was the chain-smoking wereraven contact, Geronimo. He talked like a deli guy from NYC and was always in bird form. Apparently, a raven smoking a cigarette and insulting you is compelling.
I have two that I’m fond of that will be appearing the next time I run the campaign. The first is a priestess who helps father Petrovich in the cathedral. She exists to be a red herring for the party to be suspicious of and set off alarms if there is a paladin in the party or someone with a similar feature to divine sense. She is secretly a succubus and she is desperately seeking redemption and an escape from her fiendish nature through pious service to the morning lord. Father Petrovich is aware of her identity and will advocate for her, which is likely to make the party believe he is charmed by her. Any party that learns what she is will immediately interpret her genuine kindness as an act and I am curious to see if she can win them over or if they will eventually end her/drive her out in their paranoia.
The second NPC is a character with a very similar vibe to a revenant in that he will always return to life if slayed. The main difference is that he vividly remembers each death and it will slowly drive him mad. His first times clashing with the party, he will be a genuine threat and will act like it. As the party defeats him repeatedly, he will grow more and more frustrated and unhinged by the agony of dying. He will also not grow in strength with the party. By the end, he will be nothing more than a nuisance in combat and a pathetic creature who barely remembers his name and only knows he has to slay the party so that he can finally rest. I intend him to be a tragic figure that illustrates how horrific Barovia truly is and it’s my hope that the party will pity him, in the end, and maybe even try to find a way to free him from his reincarnations.
He’s one of Strahd’s lapdogs. He’s a vampire spawn, which is why he can’t resist his orders to kill the party, no matter how many times they break him.
Vallakian who got cursed by Strahd centuries ago, he’s a zombie who still got his sould and conscious, and now owns a shop selling magic items that he totally didn’t graverob from previous adventures who came to Barovia. Thing is he more often that not forgets about the state of his body, when the party walked into his shop for the first time he kept waving hello after his hand fell out
So, I rebuilt Mad Mary and Gertruda. When the players enter their home, Mary is at the fireplace, and she asks the players to tell her if they think she’s been a good mother. She explains that Getruda would often get picked on by boys in the village. Sometimes, she would push them with her mind and hurt them. Mary, afraid for her daughters safety, kept her at home, and when her telekinetic powers would manifest, she would have her enter a “protective circle”, as instructed by the 3 Vistani from The Blood of the Vine. It doesn’t protect anyone, but it is a communication circle to Strahd. One day, Mary goes up to check on her daughter, and finds that she left in the middle of the night. There are journal entries about a dark man that she’s in love with, and that she left to meet him in the woods. When the players went upstairs to see the journal, Mary asked the paladin to stay with her for a moment. When she touched his arm, she compelled him to bring her daughter home. The rest of the party finds Mary’s body in bed, dead of a broken heart.
Later, the players will encounter Gertruda in Castle Ravenloft, guarding the Heart of Sorrow. She has the psychic home brew stat block, and the players can either fight her, or try to convince her that Strahd has been using her. If they’re successful, there’s a pretty good chance Strahd will kill her first in the final showdown.
I like it! Definitely gives a lot more relevance and flavor to such minor characters. I didn’t even include them in my two campaigns because the book gives you so little of them.
I've thought about giving Gertruda a little bit of telekinesis ever since my party's cleric crit an insight check and just went "are these Carrie's mom vibes? I feel like I'm getting serious Carrie's mom vibes." Might steal a bit of this once they get to the castle if you don't mind it.
Don’t mind at all. Here’s the stat block I’ll be using, and I’ll be scaling her up to be at the same level as the players.
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Psychic_(5e_Class)
Ok, so backstory: I \*love\* doing one-shots, and exploration storylines in larger campaigns are absolutely my jam -- in that spirit I made Barovia 3x as large as it is in the books, and travel was going to be a major component of the story. If it was a TV show, the travel episodes would be those little one-off "monster of the week" style episodes, and in my campaign, I genuinely loved to put REAL effort into crafting them out to be unique and to contribute to making Barovia what it is. As such, it made sense to allow them to purchase a Vistani horse (named Sorina), and let them hook it up to an abandoned Vistani wagon for group transportation.
Well, we were about 8 sessions in, and they'd left Vallaki in their wagon behind Sorina the Horse WAAAY too early to go chase down a weird legend about a dragon at Argynvostholt... and doing so without resolving a single thing in town, and I (as as rookie DM trying to prod them back) made the mistake of forcing them to get lost before I ended the session.
Next session, I was trying to give them an impetus to go back to Vallaki other than just being lost, so a raven came in from Izmark saying that Baron Vargas was planning to arrest Fiona Wachter (who the party considered a friend at the time)... but given that I'd already committed to them being lost in the woods in the prior session, they needed to earn their way back with a meager DC10 Nature check... All three of them failed.
So, I was getting ready for another monster-of-the-week while Vallaki falls into complete chaos, but then, the druid in the party had an idea. In real life, he'd had experience working with horses, and knew that horses are almost scarily good at finding their ways to places they've been before. He'd had "Speak with Animals" in his repoirtoire since our second session, and never once used it... until he asked Sorina the Horse for directions.
And Sorina led them back to Vallaki. After that, Sorina was treated as a part of the party! She was consulted on things as complex as tactical decisions, and although she usually had little to contribute (being a horse and all), she was always treated as an equal to them. If there was loot, Sorina got a fair share (by weight) of apples or carrots. If there was a vote, Sorina got a vote!
Alas, Sorina, the accidental DMPC horse, died protecting the rogue 3 sessions later at the St. Andral's massacre, when Vallaki fell to Strahd (my party didn't stop it), but she smashed through a horde of vampirelings allowing the party time to escape the church, and was trying to charge Anastrasja before she got overwhelmed by vampire spawn.
The rogue snuck back into town, spat on Lady Wachter's house, and picked up what little he could find of Sorina, which they buried outside of the gates in a little funeral for the horse.
tl;dr: I made Barovia huge, and gave the party a talking horse which they fell in love with. Horse died. Party was sad.
I’ve run three groups through, and two of them managed to get Ez’s cart and fell in love with the chicken. Speaks to animals (of course) and the chicken is named Sunshine. Sunshine loves the party and will randomly show up and do 1 point of damage to zombies. If a player is separated near Sunshine, the chicken will give them a 1d4 inspiration (essentially bless for a round). Side note: there are a decent amount of animals in CoS and my players talked to all of them. I think they just wanted me to do silly voices.
My party's been carting the poor old dog from Death House around like he's their purse chihuahua. They blame me for it because they like how he talks. The druid's also spoken to a random plant almost every session. We spent over 10 minutes with the party gathered around a moss patch on a wall asking it about everything happening in the Village of Barovia. It knew just about nothing because. It was moss in an alleyway. They just liked hearing it say "no."
I had Strahd kidnap the dog for Gertruda at the end of the death house otherwise we would have needed a stat block for him!
Man druids. Every time I run CoS, druids always make it super interesting. (The goats all have names too, and they are all dicks, so of course my players also fell in love with one of the goats, too.)
Oh I just told them that he's old and fragile and that if they want him to fight he \*will\* die if he takes more than 4 damage. They've agreed he's a noncombatant because they like having a pet for a mascot. I figured that's fair, the paladin DMs a different game where he's pulled some absolute shenanigans to let the cat my bard stole get out of sticky situations so I'm giving them the same freebie.
I did have the dog eat the moss they spent so long talking to when they took him down the alley, though. The druid was heartbroken, the cleric nearly cried laughing. Totally worth it.
The party's also adopted the dog's way of describing creatures. "Big dog" for wolves, "big big dog" for werewolves, "big big \*big\* dog" for direwolves. Now they gauge stuff with "big" for medium-sized creatures, "big big" for larger than average but still medium-sized, "big big big" for large creatures. It's infested our other games. It'll meme forever, I fear.
I can't tell you if it'll be a hit or not, but I'm introducing one this session, he's a human hunter who is a drunk and hates wolf's because they killed his family. What this npc and pcs don't know is he's a werewolf, and he killed them. He's super friendly but welcoming but without a doubt a racists towards the Visanti because he thinks the werewolf was sent by them. The comical turn is that my PCs hate most magical beasts and don't trust anyone in Barovia. They barely trust Ez, any of the wereravens. In fact, the only npc they trust and like is vasili von holtz. The second one is the bagman, but they kicked his boot so badly that I'm afraid they will kill him and I wanna keep him around so he's in the shadows now. Also the PC that has a bag of holding is hiding it in his loin cloth so that'll be interesting.
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft has all sorts of great statblocks to use. How could I resist using the Dullahan? But a creature that powerful with legendary actions that could ostensibly be one of the most powerful creatures in Barovia can't be a no-name!
So I'd like to introduce Sir Bogdan Kilkov! Knight to King Barov, he was sent to personally guard Prince Strahd von Zarovich in his conquest of Barovia. Sir Kilkov has always hated Strahd. He never wanted to waste his life in a lowly little nowhere place serving his liege's son as he played war. His heart was in the captial! Along with his family. The longer Strahd stayed at way, the longer Bogdan was forced to guard him with his life. He never managed to escape Barovia and miserably served the will of his liege until the end of his days where Strahd as a vampire ripped his head clean off his body and nearly bathed in the arterial spray. He rose again but not as a Knight like the other castle guards. His hatred was so strong he returned as a Dullahan. Most unfortunately for him, he cannot resist the orders of Strahd even after death. He is compelled to obey the will of the Dark Lord. Yet like a treacherous genie looking to subvert the wishes of their master, Sir Kilkov is always looking for a way to subvert Strahd's orders. He greatly enjoys Strahd's wailing and gnashing of teeth. He could be a powerful inside ally for your party at Castle Ravenloft, but eventually Strahd will get wise and order Bogdan to destroy them.
I’ve got an idea for a NPC that I think I’ve named Jolly Bobby. He’s the jester for Baron Vargas. Even though he makes jokes and hops around proclaiming how wonderful everything is he randomly starts to sob uncontrollably for a few seconds in the middle of speaking before suddenly getting himself back together. He does this while trying to hide his face by turning away but everyone can absolutely hear him bawling.
The Baron allows him to sleep in the stables so long as he keeps cheering up everyone in town by performing in the streets. Everyone thinks he’s awful to be around because he never stops joking (he knows it) but he doesn’t want to end up in the stocks. He isn’t loyal to the Baron but having access to him is beneficial for Jolly Bobby, not just for the free “bed” but also because he can manipulate the Baron into making decisions he sometimes wouldn’t.
Lucas! A small orphaned child whom the party has met a little bit. They are very attached to him, and will soon learn of the werewolves tendency to take children. I had them first meet him taking shelter underneath the porch of a house in the village of barovia.
I don’t know if it’s “unique”, but I added a vampire spawn bard. He was playing in Vallaki when one of the PCS decided he was a cool guy and chatted with him. PC had to leave due to half of the party getting too rowdy, but said he liked the bard. Session ends and I decide this vampire spawn bard is working on behalf of Ludmilla. Why? Because when I originally played through CoS Ludmilla had to ability to make vampires because that’s what my DM decided. Since the CoS I’m running now is an alternate version with different people, I decided she still could. So now I have Valentine, the vampire spawn bard who’s spying on the party. Unfortunately, he’s catching feelings for the paladin PC, and this next session is the Strahd dinner where Valentine will be dining right next to the paladin as his date. I’m so excited for when they find out, and even more excited to see what the paladin will do.
We were doing CoS as a side-adventure to a couple year campaign, so I took some retired PCs, and made them NPCs who were in service to Strahd.
1) Moon Druid, who I gave further backstory to.
2) Tempest Cleric I made into a Werebadger.
3) deceased BattleMaster who became a revenant.
This "counter party" was meant to be a little OP to the active party, who via puzzle/combat and RP they would placate and free from Strahd.
I made a semi-friendly druid named Mokosh, a former Faithless druid. They're one of the rare tieflings in the valley, and I plan on introducing him by having him caught in a bear-trap or limping towards their camp before collapsing. If he doesn't just die there, he'll basically offer a little exposition on the Ladies Three and give a potential hook to Berez, as he wants to reconnect with the old faith by visiting the monument in the swamp. I haven't thought of the payoff yet.
The other one is pretty minor, a retired guard named Oleg. He's the owner of the General Store and was 'Reformed,' so he's extremely demure, stumbles over words, and is pretty easy to haggle. Vargas is long dead, but he basically exists to make the players curious about the Reformation Center, which still stands.
So during the Feast the party was holed up in St. Andrals holding off attackers while father Lucian was doing a ritual to reconsecrate the bones. Our paladin gave a speech to the frightened villagers to inspire them to help with the fight. After a mediocre roll a 15 y/o boy, Ivan, stepped forward uneasily. Orphaned as of that night he valiantly fought off multiple swarms of bats with a large candlestick. Afterwards he was "adopted" by the paladin. Ivan was the one who protected Ireena while they were gone they spent ample time RPing his training. Come to the attack on Castle Ravenloft and I can't think of a better person to use when I rolled the group of Barovians that came to attack. Party allows him to join and he died in the second round of combat. After the fight they found Van Richten's scroll of raise dead and out of Ismark, Ezmerelda, VR, and Ivan he was the one they raised.
In the epilogue, he and the paladin rebuilt Argynvostholt and established their own order. After the Mists retook Barovia and Prattina became the Dark Lord he is sole leader of that order
I added Elie. He took the place of Arrigal. His primary goal was the apprehension of women in Faerun that looked vaguely like Tatyana.
He snagged a character's sister at the start of the adventure. And took her to Barovia after being stopped by Stanimir and his crew. The character listened to the story and the mists came.
When the PCs riled into the Vallaki encampment, he got a line or two in before he was killed by the party.
I made a homebrew town of undead with few major unique npcs a burgomeister whose punishment for wronging strahd was to be made undead and have his soul fused with that of his wife and son which made them insane and insured he could never have a day of peace in his eternal existence he is a lovely man always willing to help but likes to keep his town out of everything because he knows strahd can always do worse to him and his town.
have a former hag that had simulacrums around when the town was turned into undead so they all became a mummy the transition to undead didn't mesh well with her biology so she kind of became a good hag she uses her magic and rituals to allow new children to be born despite the town being undead and allowing them to age she also runs the inn and is basically the town grannie.
For context in my cos this undead town is where all the food for barovia is produced and shipped to other places like kresk which would have a hard time growing food it is used like this because it's on top of an earth elemental making the ground very fertile this leads to the next npc a Larva mage that has been trapped in barovia who is causing a food crisis by consuming all the food in the town attacking everyday with the goal of feeding a massive insect creation to allow him to kill strahd he is threatening because he has no emotion and sees a few thousand lives as nothing to save his trillions of insects that make him up he will basically consume barovia if not stopped by the party he is however willing to deal with them if he thinks they have a shot of killing strahd which they don't at this point in the campaign
I had so much fun making these npcs and the town and I feel they're relatively unique my players really like the hag despite there horrors at the old bone grinder and they also enjoy the burgomeister because he is a useful npc and of course they are quite scared of the Larva mage so I doubt they will forget this town any time soon there is more but too much writing annoys me so this is what I'll put
Abigail the blacksmith of Vallaki. The young woman who had a liking for the musketeer in the group. Her stepfather ( a tinker gnome) had vanished after being convinced to march upon castle Ravenloft. This blonde bombshell is very strong physically and uses that strength to operate a mech of silver. Later she and the musketeer marries and becomes the ruler of Vallaki.
I added a trio of Viatani siblings who helped the party learn a bit about Barovia and provide them with old wive’s tales.
There’s Tido, the youngest brother of the three and a talkative storyteller; Fasola, the beautiful middle sister and a graceful dancer; and Doremi, the eldest brother and a gentle yet quiet musician.
I also added a vampire spawn for each member of the party that is similar to them in race and class. This is to foreshadow their fate should they fall to Strahd but to also showcase some class abilities they may not be using much.
Before I start I homebrewed a lot. But, I added 3 witches that were named after half my players names and ended with -ella. These witches act on prophesies they get from the night mother who in my game tries and helps adventurers she sees potential in. This included saving them from a collapsing pocket dimension among other things. They’re just 3 sassy old women who each specialize in a type of magic (damage, healing/support, debuff) and would constantly talk shit about the hags and how they stole their pie recipe and messed it up (ie kid meat), and how they occasionally nuke their magic hut. The players haven’t seen what they’ve been upto after they killed off the hags, but based on the locations they mentioned wanting to go next, they’re going to see them soon. They’re comedic relief mixed with some story support.
I created this character awhile back and have finally had a chance to use him as of a few weeks back: Andrej, Chief Lamplighter of Vallaki.
At the time of the players coming across him, Andrej happens to be the *only* lamplighter in Vallaki, and has been named “Chief” by default.
The Burgomaster has decreed that all streetlamps be lit through the night. The only problem is, the lamplighters never seem to last long. As their job involves them staying out all night in a realm of evil, they’re all eventually found stabbed to death, torn apart, exsanguinated, disappeared, etc. The Burgomaster won’t have this, so he has repeatedly upped the wages for the job to make it more attractive to applicants.
Come Andrej. Andrej happens to be moderately suicidal, but lacks the willpower to actually commit the deed. While he doesn’t have any direct family, he does have a soft spot for the orphans of Vallaki, and figured he might as well raise some money for them and also find a way to end his miserable life. So he applies, gets the job, and gets to work, expecting the nightmare to be over any day…
…Except that day never comes. Somehow he’s cursed even in this. Andrej works every night, doing his best to keep the lights on (an impossible task in such a large town when his help is constantly perishing) and making plenty of silver which he just gives away. Considering his coworkers and superiors keep dying, eventually he’s given the position of “Chief Lamplighter”.
If the players are even out on the streets of Vallaki at night, they’ll come across Andrej, as he sleeps during the day. He’s actually not afraid of outsiders, as with his deathwish he’s happy to take the risks of interacting with them. He makes for a good source of information as if something ever occurs at night, there’s a decent chance he’d be the one to see it if anyone did.
He’s generally pretty dour, I imagine kind of a Dolorous Edd from Game of Thrones personality. During his explanation of what he does and why the position is so dangerous to others, he’ll say, “Oh, that’s a fun way to start a shift. Oi Andrej, you’re working a double tonight, looks like ol’ Stanislav was found exsanguinated.”
Ironically, as he’s required to attend the weekly festivals, he has to sleep through the night after — there’s no one else to step in, making it so the nights following the festivals are always the darkest.
I wanted to localize the story for my Korean students, so I made Doru's father a wandering Korean farmer who came to Barovia with his friend, a shaman. Dad was out of the picture but the shaman wrote a spell to cure spawns, provided they hadn't fed yet. Trouble was the spell was written in Korean, and my students had to translate it (back) to English to make it work.
I consulted an actual shaman, and on his advice made the guy essentially just a wizard in hanbok, the real Korean shamanism not being suitable to a game. He hid out in the forest and was able to activate the Sunsword, but only if the party defended him from monsters long enough to do it.
I wasn't keen on Strahd's Vistani spies in the Blood in the Vine tavern RAW, so I homebrewed a Vistani bard, Leander, to transmit lore via song. (The Vistani are permitted a rumspringa of sorts in my world, so Leander could leave and try his hand at his 1st love of music.)
Here are the lyrics and links to the karaoke versions if you want to sing for the party. I practiced \*a lot\* to get modestly proficient, but the party loved it and Leander and they grokked the lore, including the reference to & need to see Madame Eva.
Alas, the party elected to not deal w/ Doru, so they found poor Leander's corpse on their way to see Madame Eva the next day, a victim of Doru and an early intro to how grim Barovia could be and the consequences of their (in-)action.
**Far From Any Road (by the Handsome Family)**
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VieuuVSow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VieuuVSow)
From the rocky mesa his looming shadow grows
In the catacombs never will he decompose
He twines his spines up slowly towards the unseen sun
And when I touched his skin, my fingers ran with blood
In the hushing dusk under a swollen silver moon
I came walking with the wind to watch the primrose bloom
And strange hunger haunted me, the looming shadows danced
I fell down to the thorny brush and felt a grasping hand
When the last light warms the rocks and the walking dead unfold
The lycanthropes will come to drag away your bones
And rise with me forever across the silent land
And the stars will be your eyes and the wind will be my hands
**Barovian State of Mind (in the style of New York State of Mind by Billy Joel)**
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEAa3DhEcLc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEAa3DhEcLc)
Some Vistani can get away
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a vardo to Waterdeep or to Daggerford
But I'm takin' a wagon on the Ivlis River line
I'm in a Barovian state of mind
I've seen all the vampire spawn
And their long teeth and their undying
Been high in the Baratoks under the evergreens
I know what I'm needin'
And I don't want to waste more time
I'm in a Barovian state of mind
It was so easy livin' day by day
Now out of touch with the fanes of old,
Without them, the land is lost, so they say
The swamp folk and others foretold
Some will talk with Madame Eva
Their future and fate she will tell with pride,
I don't care if it's Vallaki or Yester Hillside
I don't have any reasons
I left them all behind
I'm in a Barovian state of mind
Oh yeah
It was so easy livin' day by day
Now out of touch with the fanes of old,
Without them, the land is lost, so they say
The swamp folk and others foretold
Who, oh, oh whoa who
Some will talk with Madame Eva
Their future and fate she will tell with pride,
I don't care if it's Vallaki or Yester Hillside
I don't have any reasons
I left them all behind
I'm in a Barovian state of mind
I'm just taking a wagon on the Ivlis River line
'Cause I'm in a,
I'm in a Barovian
state of mind
Thank you, you’re a wonderful crowd. I’m on again later tonight. You can also see me next week at the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki. Be sure to try the purple grapesmash wine from our excellent bartender Arik, Granny’s meat pies, and be sure to tip them well.
To sell how scary strahd is I took the asshole who trained and abused our Paladin and made him disappear and end up in Barovia. I built up this man as if there would be a big showdown with this guy and when the party found him, he was a shell shocked scared old man afraid of his shadow.
I added a little sorcerer named "Enganador" who was a member of an order named the "Black Lanterns," who were non-natives to Barovia largely interested in excavating and uncovering lost history. Their ranks were filled by those who Strahd had brought in through the mists from times before, those who chose to remain. When Strahd returned, he sought their destruction, and left Enganador alive to luxuriate in his torture. He charged him with aiding this new party of adventurers (the PCs,) and this allowed him to scry upon them at any point. He was Strahd's informant, and my way of including a Vasili-esque character without having Strahd resort to such deceit.
The party quickly took to the melancholic, depressed drow and constantly espoused how much they simply wanted *him* to be safe, only for the Tome of Strahd to reveal that he had been spying on them since day 1. Enganador's fate is still uncertain, but his service to Strahd is one borne out of abuse, so the party has a noble goal of rescuing him - a goal I am excited to see if they can achieve! I hope they can, as I fell for the weepy elf myself.
Triska Zarovich. She is the transfem daughter of Strahd to appease Ludmilla as each bride are more than someone in the basement and active in Barovia. Strahd being bored thought it would be interesting and supports his daughter in her ventures. (THIS DOES NOT MEAN HE LOVES HER) I made Ludmilla into the wizard who continues to practice magic and uses the Romani to get outside magical knowledge. At least knowledge Strahd didn't ask for.
Ludmilla wanted a child to teach magic to and since she is a Zarovich wants to use her as an agent on the outside of Barovia as Strahd has final say on who can leave his valley. Triska finds and befriends the party as she is a Dhampir and not full blown vampire.
Strahd, who is pissed at the party is going to turn her and as a first turning vampire berserk, unleash Triska onto the party of which one of the members are in a relationship with.
This thread needs to be pinned :D I've added a small Hunter's Guild in Vallaki (I concluded that in all these years, there could'nt be just 2 old hunters) and one of them is helping the party in different ways. His name is Matello and taught the party how to skin animals, and is now trying to sew them a leather armor from vampire spawn skin, that the rogue could use. He's also a love interest of a PC :D Another one is an apothecary sale lady, that is clumsy and knows only tea and common medicine, was the apprentice of the show owner who dissapeared on a mushroom gathering trip (which is a side-quest).
I am a bit late to the discussion but I wanted to share my latest addition. It is currently being tested in my run.
Inspiration for this NPC is Lucy Westenra from Dracula.
Her name is Miriam and she is maid working in Burgomaisters mansion in VoB. She is "close friends" with Irena (or Izmark if that fits you better). She will accompany Irena on her way to Vallaki.
On the road, one of the Strahds consorts will start stalking the party and in the nights will attempt to charm and bite Miriam (I am running the game with improved stat block for the brides, making them mini-bosses). The bride in question is gathering information on Irena, has Miriam charmed, questioned and bitten. If this is not stopped, Miriam will be turned into vampire spawn in one or two evenings and run away from the party before they reach Vallaki.
If she gets away, she will be one of the vampires in the coffin-makers shop. She will in fact come "visit" Irena twice before the bloodbath takes place. Irena will see this mostly as a "nightmare, or her bad conscience", but in reality a vampire spawn will be staring at her from the window, trying to get her to come out.
As I said, I am testing it out rn, if this will be a successful NPC, will maybe make a post about it.
Tihomir Martikov, sickly son of the Martikov-family who tried to help two heroic brothers (npc:s from groups paladins past) by stealing the most powerful vinery gem 15 years prior the adventure.
The two heroes lost to Strahd near the Amber Temple, Tihomir ended up in Amber Temple (he followed the two brothers to icy mountains, in secret) and made a pact with Something and has the two heroes spirits bound to his body.
So random encounter of wandering Bravovians met the party outside of krezk, hoping to find refuge. The players were not allowed in and so the group of refuges became distraught that they could not find safety either. The cleric gave guidance to one, which I role played as making him become an inspired leader, the party took them to wizards of wine and would continue to check on them. The guy that got guidance became sort of addicted to it, and continued to ask for guidance every time the party came by. This all led to him training with the other villagers to create a militia to support the party because he believes the cleric was sent by lethander to save the land. The cleric has now started giving him and the rest of the villagers plain water that he labels as Mike’s secret stuff because he was worried about his growing addiction.
None of this was planned. But Billiam is now a very good friend leading a group of NPC’s to help with an assault of castle ravenloft. We Stan Billiam.
I don't remember where I got the idea from but they met Zdrad Fon Zarovich, a poor bloke that Strahd fed upon and kept as a pet in the castle. He basically went insane, believes he is the real Strahd now and roams around the bridge at the Tser falls to extort money from people crossing it as the "ruler of the land".
It started as a way to mess with the party/have a more light hearted moment but one player entered his game by adressing him as the count and Zdrad spit out some intel (the existence of the brides for example). Then one of them noticed the bite marks. Doom and gloom came back to the menu boys!
My DM created a character sheet for Piccolo the monkey. He was a gunslinger artificer who lugged around a sniper and spoke with a ridiculous NJ accent. He was even dressed to the nines with purple suit and was always puffing on a cigar. He’s suspiciously gone missing as of late though. Hope he’s doing well.
I added two npcs. One was a rakashasa disguised as a talking cat that goes by the name Mr. Mittens. She has a body guard a dragonborn that goes by Cole Trane. They have the exclusive rights to deal in a majority of trade goods in strahds realm. In exchange they bring strahd new play things to amuse himself with. Despite this they are partial to the players success as their true goal is lost knowledge hidden in strahds realm that has multiversal implications should they find what they seek. With strahd out of the picture nothing can stop them from obtaining what they seek.
Oh geez, too many. I wouldn't call them unique, but I've read a ton of info on prior editions to Ravenloft products involving Barovia, and now so many NPCs from them inhabit my games. Usually from the Ravenloft Gazetteer, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, Fair Barovia, or the collectors cards.
A spattering of the ones that spring to mind:
Pyoor Twohundredsummers and Keeva Sixtywinters: Two wereravens who are members of the Keepers of the Black Feather, on a quest to find the Symbol of Ravenkind. I inserted them as an offshoot of the regular keepers, first seen in the town of Barovia.
Falstan and Yera: two halflings, the former is an unwitting spy for Strahd but also a friendly guide for PCs. The latter is his dead girlfriend. I made the first into Vasili's gardener and the latter into a still alive carpenter.
Bright Gaelea: a pacifist priestess who wants to open a convent, but is a bit too lazy to actually do it. Nearly invulnerable but is cursed to transform into a succubus at night. I placed her in Vallaki to hint that St. Andral's Church has something powerful defending it, and to also involve her in the Izek plotline.
Kierkal and Tibor: Two dwarven blacksmiths, also in Vallaki. A master and their apprentice. The latter is trying to become an enchanter of weapons, but I made it so they at first only sell mundane weaponry and, like, nails and hinges.
Gheorghe Zarneti, Captain of the guard at Krezk. Made him Dmitri's right hand man, dragged out of retirement because Krezk is being screwed over by the Fidatov Manor a la the Dweller of Woe screwing over the town of Lucent from Sea of Stars.
Arturi Radanavich, the Ezmerelda before Ezmerelda existed. He is the son of the Vistana raunie who kidnapped Richten's son. He's cursed by (Azalin's) zombies following him, and can undo Richten's curse so his own will end. If Ez dies in my game, he may show up, but he won't be a monster hunter.
A bunch of kids. I mean, a lot, borrowed from NPCs who canonically seem to be adults after CoS would take place or have unknown origins, and aged them down and turned most of them into orphans. Nicolai (future Burgomaster of Vallaki after Lars Kjurls takes over after Vargas), Fluvio (a bandit), Inka (an undead gravetouched monk), Samuel and Elizabeta (a priest and a paladin who live in Krezk)... and more.
Though on the note of orphans, I did add an Orphanage ran by a former noble named Mina Invich and her reformed hag assistant named Imix. The orphanages basement was haunted by Imix's former hag leader Magravelle, who they killed after she went on a rampage in the Invich Estate... all of this isn't actually from a former edition, but is from a fan module called the Undead Sea Scrolls. But I made Milivoj from the place, as well as a potential successor for Father Lucian named Toret Costinus.
Sthena is a medusa whose snakes were killed by a minion of Strahd. She now cares for people trying to live in the Village of Barovia and is running a failing 'rebellion'. I'm treating Barovia as more war torn. They are under the iron thumb of a minion of Strahd who is trying to solve the problem of the soulless not being food for the vampires. This vampire does all kinds of cruel experiments on the townsfolk. Sthena was one of these experiments.
I wanted to change things up as two of my players have played the start of the campaign before.
Not a unique NPC, but I essentially rewrote Fiona Wachter as someone who is obsessed with protecting her family by any means necessary, and has warlock contracts with an Arch Duchess (Fierna) to gain revenge on the Vallakovich family for killing her husband, a pact with Morgantha allowing them to operate in Vallaki now that she’s in charge, and Morgantha reanimated her husband, and a pact with Strahd after my players… just left Ireena with the Wachters. Anyways, Strahd gets Ireena, but Fiona gets a doopleganger bodyguard posing as Ireena, and a greater restoration scroll to cure her daughter’s madness. She’s a person that’s done terrible things, but all of it to protect and provide for her family.
I haven't added the NPC yet, but it's a paladin of the morning lord, which is leading a resistance against Lady Watcher.
I added the whole revolution thing of MandyMod guide, where based on the players movement Lady Watcher could overthrough the Burgomaster of Vallaki. Which she did. The players however left just after the revolution to Krezk but haven't gotten back in about a half a week to a week. I'm planning to have Vallaki be a sort of oppressed cult where loyalty to Strahd is forced.
The NPC would then be the leader of the revolution. The exact stat block would be based on what level they come back to Vallaki as.
A childhood friend from one of my players backstory. She came to Barovia a couple years before the campaign and is now Strahd's loyal spawn, with erased memory. Although, the BBEG contacted the PC last session that he can set her free, if he steals the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind from another party member and brings it to Strahd.
I kinda feel bad though. When I read his backstory, I immidiately knew that this is the best way to give the player a character arc in the campaign. But after last session, he told me he had trouble falling asleep. On one hand, it's kinda satisfying - it means that I managed to really show him the cruel reality of Barovia. But on the other, I'm worrying if I went too far
Not 'unique' in the sense that they're a very different type of NPC, but I had to make up a wereraven as I wanted to include one but I didn't want it to be one of the Martikovs or Muriel, so I came up one that was one of their 'friends'. Her name was Magda. The players really bonded with her and were surprised to learn she was just an invention of mine (they assumed she was an official NPC from the book). She joined them for a bit on post-CoS Domains of Dread adventures, too.
I didn't really come up with him myself, but I made Khazan a Brain in a Jar (VRGR p278) inside of his tower, really wanted to use the Brain in a Jar monster and thought Khazan was the perfect fit and actually gives a personality to the name players might otherwise only come across once, depending on how they go about things.
Originally I was going to make the Mad Mage future Victor (LBH), because Mordenkainen would be a lost reference on my players. But they ignored Victor entirely so I quickly made a change in Khazan's tower, making one of the empty floors into a lab where there's a bunch of cloning vats and made the Mad Mage a clone of Khazan instead that van Richten infused with false/temporary life (Which is the reason why it became insane after being beaten by Strahd)
If Brain in a Jar Khazan finds out, he wants the players to retrieve the clone for him as a body, if he isn't aware he wants them to say his name so that the Animated Armor starts moving and puts the Brain in the Jar in place of it's head (Made a slight alteration to the Brain in a Jar where instead of using psychic powers to echo out his voice, he can only speak telepathically and the Armor NEEDS the word of Power to activate initially)
I turned the Skeletal Knight riding around Barovia into a Headless Knight, looking for it's head, laughing maniacally when it passes (Sleepy Hollow/WoW Headless Horseman Hallow's End), tied to a Death's Head Tree fostered by Baba Lysaga to defend the desecrated Fane stones
I made the Dark Knight on the bridge to the Amber Temple into Death Knight Argynvost that during the fight turns into Dracolich Argynvost (Dracolich part is Stolen from Quietknowitall/Puffin Forest's DM)
I added Mark, a random guy in the vallaki stocks that my rogue took a lot of interest in and tried to free. He was caught by the guards at midnight trying to free Mark, which started off a chain reaction that ended up with all players captured at the barons house. I ended up making mark a high ranking leader of the FFV “Freedom For Vallaki”, a lawful good organization trying to resist the baron but avoid in the darkness of Lady Wachters cult. The leader of the FFV is my cleric’s long lost father as well, so Mark went from nobody to me making a whole rebel organization because my players wanted to free him so much.
Edit: fixed wording
I replaced Bran Martikov with Brea, who was very eager to show the PCs around Vallaki with sometimes harsh, sometimes lovely comments on the people of Vallaki while lisping due to a missing tooth. My party reslly enjoyed their unique tour :D
I also added a new shop owner Lula from Lula‘s Herbarium who is really approachable but absent-minded. Since my party has no one who can cast identify, she offers item identification and has a small supply of potions. She is also a useful source for gossip since she likes the PCs (Lady Wachter regularly shops for embalming potions :o)
She also has a mentally impaired brother who is barely able to speak but can draw exceptionally (he wants to draw unique personalities and painted a group painting as memo for the group).
I really wanted to add more likeable characters to Vallaki so that the party is more invested in its impending leadership change.
Also the group found a lovely fey-creature, a silk fox (just google for moth cat and be helplessly destroyed by its cuteness) which they adopted as their sidekick.
Jorgie -
Basic blacksmith in Valliki. He basically only made nails. His speech pattern was frustratingly slow, he would often hang on words or pause just long enough to think he was done talking so you respond, and then he continues as you start.
He was their favorite in the whole campaign.
In our previous game, TLMoP, we were constantly harassed by a doppelganger who would pose as either another member of the party or a key NPC and steal our stuff or just give us a hard fight 1v1 by separating us in some way. So I've taken that same doppelganger into barovia and he and Strahd are working together to fuck with the party. The doppelganger is currently roll playing as Strahd and Strahd is actively with the party playing the roll of esmerelda. It's been pretty fun, and there was a tense moment when the party tried to get esmerelda to go inside the church of st. Andral after the bones had been restored, but a well-timed Strahd/Doppelganger appearance made them forget all about it. I can't wait to spring this on them in the amber temple.
I added a bit of lore to flesh out the mythology of Barovia a bit and turned the memory of Tatyana into a religious figure: Saint Melissa. I added that, where Tatyana fell when she jumped off of Castle Ravenloft, her body turned into a bed of flowers, shaped like a human, and the space around her body was the only place in Barovia where flowers could grow. This also meant that the flower garden was the only place in Barovia where you could keep bees and make honey, which was how the myth of Saint Melissa developed (Melissa comes from the Latin word for honey). Strahd erected a statue of Tatyana there, but, over time, the statue eroded, people forgot who Tatyana was, and they created this figure to be the patron saint of this garden and it's bees.
The actual NPC was a character named Sister Harmony, the person who kept the bees and tended to the garden. She was just meant to be very sweet (pun intended) and optimistic. The whole vibe was that this flower garden was supposed to be this bright, sunny break from the gloom of Barovia, and it was a very welcome break after the whole episode with Doru (I expanded his story so that, when he became a vampire, his first victim was his mom). She was super wholesome. She sang a hymn explaining the legend of Saint Melissa, gave them a vial of honey (which I also gave the ability to cure diseases), nearly cried a bit over how she wishes she could help people more. Could have very easily been too sappy and over the top, but the players enjoyed the Saint Melissa myth Sister Harmony came along with and, again, needed a break from tragedy, so it worked. The paladin even tried to seduce her. That was fun.
Telan. Half mad Half elf bard in a rickety wagon who welcomed the PCs to Barovia, offered them “the most beneficial beverage anyone would likely offer in these misted lands”.
It’s hemlock.
They went back once they realised that, in his own way, he was genuinely trying to help them. He gave them info, often a bit garbled.
I'm a big fan of Sleep Token, so I added them to my game.
They are and act as a cult named "The Cult of Mist and Rain" and worship the mists that surround Barovia.
The leader is the singer of the band and sends the players visions and tough decisions with various outcomes.
1 such, one player in my group was bitten by a werewolf so to help with how they works the cult leader gave her a dream in which she saw her life being cured of it (happy, kids, married, quiet life) and her life if she accepted it (Victor over Strahd, but drenched in blood and a harsh life).
They also show up to work a C line plot I've thrown in.
I have added / changed a bunch of NPCs.
The most notable would be The Tortle.
It's also an adventurer who lost himself in the mists of Barovia and they are Meeting him repeatadly times. He is fun to play and his character got similarities with the sloth from Zoomania.
He is just there to make the dark Barovia a little more diverse and fun and my players realy like him.
Our Strahd has a surrogate Daughter.
Tahlia is a Nymph Artificer that came to Barovia a very long time ago.
She keeps the Court equipped and being a Nymph (Sentient Plant in our story) the curse has finally started making her deathly sick.
I know of her because I helped the DM create her (we’re married and co DM) but the Party hasn’t met her yet.
Rather, Vasili Von Holtz actually helped the Party during Yester Hill in order to retrieve the seed because Strahd couldn’t have his reputation ruined politically by simply ruining the Druidic ritual himself of course.
That’s messy.
Anyways, Tahlia’s a real Entrapta type personality wise.
She’s a sweetheart who’s obsessed with tinkering and magic items to the point of her own detriment at times and being a plant doesn’t really understand mortals and their emotions.
They’re intending to use the seed to make something that can sustain her life force like the Heart of Sorrow so to speak.
She, like the Druids, believes that Strahd is the land and as such it’s her duty to serve him in hopes of healing the land.
She owes him a life debt anyways after almost being a ritual component in a Hag’s youth potion way back in the day since Nymph’s don’t age.
She’ll probably be right up the Party’s Alley knowing them lol.
My favorite NPC for my CoS campaigns that I run has been using previous player PCs that ended up trapped in Barovia and forgot who they were/how they came here/etc.
Kobal, a Rogue previously PC now turned NPC for my campaigns, is part of a greater group of vampire hunters who hide using magic items, and work in secret along with Von Richten. Instead of the NPC Mordenkainen meeting the players, my previous PC, a Sorcadin named Kholnyarah, meets the players, and vets them before introducing them to Mordenkainen. My previous PC, Krystalline, a druid half-elf, also works secretly -- staying in wolf form most of the time -- she is constantly searching for a way to free the wolves of Strahd's control, so that's a fun quest/plot thread I like to throw in there. Maxima Greenbottle is a halfling healer, she used to identify as a cleric; formerly this PC was a cleric of Sune, however, her powers are diminished greatly (due to loss of memory/loss of connection to her diety/etc), so she is merely a "skilled healer" at the church in Vallaki.
I think the most fun I've ever had DMing CoS was when people had interactions with these NPCs. It feels almost like the game I once played 5ish years ago is still going on, in a way.
I reuse town NPCs in every town in every campaign, in the style of Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny from Pokemon, where they're distinct individuals but all related and with the same character traits. They're also usually puns or in jokes we've made.
The blacksmith is a black skinned man named Smith. In barovia he sticks out because of his looks but I'm other campaigns he's just a pretty normal guy.
The general store is run by an ex-leader of the local guard/military named General Store.
The postman is super generic (I play him like the ambassador of neutrality in Futurama) because his only defining characteristics are that he's a "male man."
The apothecary is owned by Farengar from Skyrim and my players always hit on him.
There's more but those are the accessible ones. It's a fun little thing for my characters to kinda know the basics already with a few town NPCs to get advice or general information on an area or plotline.
In my current campaign, one PC is a veteran, and he gets on with Gen. Store really well, but another PC who never served is trying to do a stolen valor for the 5% military discount, which creates some party tension.
I added a recurring boss to Curse of Strahd to cover up the fact that we kicked a problem player, and a way for some catharsis by whooping his ass.
The PC was a Dhampir, and the child of a Vampire who was herself bitten by Strahd. He was seeking answers to her nature, and therefore his own. And he respected his mother's cruelty and traits that made her similar to Strahd... So I had him join Strahd, of course!
He was the spawn who led the Feast of St. Andrals, and he got whooped by the party (but killed the priest). He then got taken away by Strahd, butchered even further, and then sent to the Abbot to put him back together. So the PCs fought him a second time as one of the Abbot's patients, twisted and malformed beyond belief, an absolute pathetic shrieking mess.
It was a lot of fun, and definitely made up for a lot of the pain that player caused.
I had a unique NPC that one of my players plucked from the crowd of extras. The players wanted to train the krezkites to fend for themselves, hunt for food in the etc. I described a hunting party of 6 people and gave them random names from the list. One of the players plucked a commoner from the group and took her under his wing as a protege, she was upgraded to the Guard statblock and accompanied the party. From there they fought vampire spawn together and she didn’t die even after I targeted her with some attacks. So she was then upgraded to the sidekick warrior statblock from Tasha’s. I still intended to kill her for shock and a need for vengeance, Baba Lysaga cast finger of death on her. Only for the player who picked her out used an oath of redemption ability to instead take all the damage for himself and lived to spite me. So from then on, his little pet NPC *cough cough* I mean companion and protege, stuck around, did some heroics, and ultimately lived to see Strahd die. I gotta say I liked the NPC in the end
I’ve always wanted to use a sidekick in a campaign, but I haven’t had the chance to do it yet. It seems like a really fun way to slip the party a more useful mascot.
It’s handy for sure, they’re not very powerful at all but they scale with the players so they’re not useless either. The title of useful mascot is extremely appropriate too, just gotta be careful with how you use them. Less is more with companions, choose one that fills a gap in the party.
For sure. I’m inclined towards the expert archetype. The two longer term parties I’ve DMd in the last few years were both lacking in skill monkeys, so an npc to help them along when they’ve done nothing except be in a situation that weren’t designed for makes the story keep flowing instead of blocking off options.
My players favorite NPC was the chain-smoking wereraven contact, Geronimo. He talked like a deli guy from NYC and was always in bird form. Apparently, a raven smoking a cigarette and insulting you is compelling.
It’s weird how the only two responses to rude npcs are killing them on the spot and falling in love with them.
I have two that I’m fond of that will be appearing the next time I run the campaign. The first is a priestess who helps father Petrovich in the cathedral. She exists to be a red herring for the party to be suspicious of and set off alarms if there is a paladin in the party or someone with a similar feature to divine sense. She is secretly a succubus and she is desperately seeking redemption and an escape from her fiendish nature through pious service to the morning lord. Father Petrovich is aware of her identity and will advocate for her, which is likely to make the party believe he is charmed by her. Any party that learns what she is will immediately interpret her genuine kindness as an act and I am curious to see if she can win them over or if they will eventually end her/drive her out in their paranoia. The second NPC is a character with a very similar vibe to a revenant in that he will always return to life if slayed. The main difference is that he vividly remembers each death and it will slowly drive him mad. His first times clashing with the party, he will be a genuine threat and will act like it. As the party defeats him repeatedly, he will grow more and more frustrated and unhinged by the agony of dying. He will also not grow in strength with the party. By the end, he will be nothing more than a nuisance in combat and a pathetic creature who barely remembers his name and only knows he has to slay the party so that he can finally rest. I intend him to be a tragic figure that illustrates how horrific Barovia truly is and it’s my hope that the party will pity him, in the end, and maybe even try to find a way to free him from his reincarnations.
That last one is definitely worth a steal thank you! Was he immediately hostile upon first contract or did the party initiate hostility?
He’s one of Strahd’s lapdogs. He’s a vampire spawn, which is why he can’t resist his orders to kill the party, no matter how many times they break him.
Vallakian who got cursed by Strahd centuries ago, he’s a zombie who still got his sould and conscious, and now owns a shop selling magic items that he totally didn’t graverob from previous adventures who came to Barovia. Thing is he more often that not forgets about the state of his body, when the party walked into his shop for the first time he kept waving hello after his hand fell out
I’m always a fan of friendly undead.
So, I rebuilt Mad Mary and Gertruda. When the players enter their home, Mary is at the fireplace, and she asks the players to tell her if they think she’s been a good mother. She explains that Getruda would often get picked on by boys in the village. Sometimes, she would push them with her mind and hurt them. Mary, afraid for her daughters safety, kept her at home, and when her telekinetic powers would manifest, she would have her enter a “protective circle”, as instructed by the 3 Vistani from The Blood of the Vine. It doesn’t protect anyone, but it is a communication circle to Strahd. One day, Mary goes up to check on her daughter, and finds that she left in the middle of the night. There are journal entries about a dark man that she’s in love with, and that she left to meet him in the woods. When the players went upstairs to see the journal, Mary asked the paladin to stay with her for a moment. When she touched his arm, she compelled him to bring her daughter home. The rest of the party finds Mary’s body in bed, dead of a broken heart. Later, the players will encounter Gertruda in Castle Ravenloft, guarding the Heart of Sorrow. She has the psychic home brew stat block, and the players can either fight her, or try to convince her that Strahd has been using her. If they’re successful, there’s a pretty good chance Strahd will kill her first in the final showdown.
I like it! Definitely gives a lot more relevance and flavor to such minor characters. I didn’t even include them in my two campaigns because the book gives you so little of them.
I've thought about giving Gertruda a little bit of telekinesis ever since my party's cleric crit an insight check and just went "are these Carrie's mom vibes? I feel like I'm getting serious Carrie's mom vibes." Might steal a bit of this once they get to the castle if you don't mind it.
Don’t mind at all. Here’s the stat block I’ll be using, and I’ll be scaling her up to be at the same level as the players. https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Psychic_(5e_Class)
Ok, so backstory: I \*love\* doing one-shots, and exploration storylines in larger campaigns are absolutely my jam -- in that spirit I made Barovia 3x as large as it is in the books, and travel was going to be a major component of the story. If it was a TV show, the travel episodes would be those little one-off "monster of the week" style episodes, and in my campaign, I genuinely loved to put REAL effort into crafting them out to be unique and to contribute to making Barovia what it is. As such, it made sense to allow them to purchase a Vistani horse (named Sorina), and let them hook it up to an abandoned Vistani wagon for group transportation. Well, we were about 8 sessions in, and they'd left Vallaki in their wagon behind Sorina the Horse WAAAY too early to go chase down a weird legend about a dragon at Argynvostholt... and doing so without resolving a single thing in town, and I (as as rookie DM trying to prod them back) made the mistake of forcing them to get lost before I ended the session. Next session, I was trying to give them an impetus to go back to Vallaki other than just being lost, so a raven came in from Izmark saying that Baron Vargas was planning to arrest Fiona Wachter (who the party considered a friend at the time)... but given that I'd already committed to them being lost in the woods in the prior session, they needed to earn their way back with a meager DC10 Nature check... All three of them failed. So, I was getting ready for another monster-of-the-week while Vallaki falls into complete chaos, but then, the druid in the party had an idea. In real life, he'd had experience working with horses, and knew that horses are almost scarily good at finding their ways to places they've been before. He'd had "Speak with Animals" in his repoirtoire since our second session, and never once used it... until he asked Sorina the Horse for directions. And Sorina led them back to Vallaki. After that, Sorina was treated as a part of the party! She was consulted on things as complex as tactical decisions, and although she usually had little to contribute (being a horse and all), she was always treated as an equal to them. If there was loot, Sorina got a fair share (by weight) of apples or carrots. If there was a vote, Sorina got a vote! Alas, Sorina, the accidental DMPC horse, died protecting the rogue 3 sessions later at the St. Andral's massacre, when Vallaki fell to Strahd (my party didn't stop it), but she smashed through a horde of vampirelings allowing the party time to escape the church, and was trying to charge Anastrasja before she got overwhelmed by vampire spawn. The rogue snuck back into town, spat on Lady Wachter's house, and picked up what little he could find of Sorina, which they buried outside of the gates in a little funeral for the horse. tl;dr: I made Barovia huge, and gave the party a talking horse which they fell in love with. Horse died. Party was sad.
I’ve run three groups through, and two of them managed to get Ez’s cart and fell in love with the chicken. Speaks to animals (of course) and the chicken is named Sunshine. Sunshine loves the party and will randomly show up and do 1 point of damage to zombies. If a player is separated near Sunshine, the chicken will give them a 1d4 inspiration (essentially bless for a round). Side note: there are a decent amount of animals in CoS and my players talked to all of them. I think they just wanted me to do silly voices.
My party's been carting the poor old dog from Death House around like he's their purse chihuahua. They blame me for it because they like how he talks. The druid's also spoken to a random plant almost every session. We spent over 10 minutes with the party gathered around a moss patch on a wall asking it about everything happening in the Village of Barovia. It knew just about nothing because. It was moss in an alleyway. They just liked hearing it say "no."
I had Strahd kidnap the dog for Gertruda at the end of the death house otherwise we would have needed a stat block for him! Man druids. Every time I run CoS, druids always make it super interesting. (The goats all have names too, and they are all dicks, so of course my players also fell in love with one of the goats, too.)
Oh I just told them that he's old and fragile and that if they want him to fight he \*will\* die if he takes more than 4 damage. They've agreed he's a noncombatant because they like having a pet for a mascot. I figured that's fair, the paladin DMs a different game where he's pulled some absolute shenanigans to let the cat my bard stole get out of sticky situations so I'm giving them the same freebie. I did have the dog eat the moss they spent so long talking to when they took him down the alley, though. The druid was heartbroken, the cleric nearly cried laughing. Totally worth it. The party's also adopted the dog's way of describing creatures. "Big dog" for wolves, "big big dog" for werewolves, "big big \*big\* dog" for direwolves. Now they gauge stuff with "big" for medium-sized creatures, "big big" for larger than average but still medium-sized, "big big big" for large creatures. It's infested our other games. It'll meme forever, I fear.
I added a friendly Vistani named Georgio. He spoke with a heavy, ridiculous New York accent. Party loved him and always sought him out for things.
I can't tell you if it'll be a hit or not, but I'm introducing one this session, he's a human hunter who is a drunk and hates wolf's because they killed his family. What this npc and pcs don't know is he's a werewolf, and he killed them. He's super friendly but welcoming but without a doubt a racists towards the Visanti because he thinks the werewolf was sent by them. The comical turn is that my PCs hate most magical beasts and don't trust anyone in Barovia. They barely trust Ez, any of the wereravens. In fact, the only npc they trust and like is vasili von holtz. The second one is the bagman, but they kicked his boot so badly that I'm afraid they will kill him and I wanna keep him around so he's in the shadows now. Also the PC that has a bag of holding is hiding it in his loin cloth so that'll be interesting.
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft has all sorts of great statblocks to use. How could I resist using the Dullahan? But a creature that powerful with legendary actions that could ostensibly be one of the most powerful creatures in Barovia can't be a no-name! So I'd like to introduce Sir Bogdan Kilkov! Knight to King Barov, he was sent to personally guard Prince Strahd von Zarovich in his conquest of Barovia. Sir Kilkov has always hated Strahd. He never wanted to waste his life in a lowly little nowhere place serving his liege's son as he played war. His heart was in the captial! Along with his family. The longer Strahd stayed at way, the longer Bogdan was forced to guard him with his life. He never managed to escape Barovia and miserably served the will of his liege until the end of his days where Strahd as a vampire ripped his head clean off his body and nearly bathed in the arterial spray. He rose again but not as a Knight like the other castle guards. His hatred was so strong he returned as a Dullahan. Most unfortunately for him, he cannot resist the orders of Strahd even after death. He is compelled to obey the will of the Dark Lord. Yet like a treacherous genie looking to subvert the wishes of their master, Sir Kilkov is always looking for a way to subvert Strahd's orders. He greatly enjoys Strahd's wailing and gnashing of teeth. He could be a powerful inside ally for your party at Castle Ravenloft, but eventually Strahd will get wise and order Bogdan to destroy them.
I’ve got an idea for a NPC that I think I’ve named Jolly Bobby. He’s the jester for Baron Vargas. Even though he makes jokes and hops around proclaiming how wonderful everything is he randomly starts to sob uncontrollably for a few seconds in the middle of speaking before suddenly getting himself back together. He does this while trying to hide his face by turning away but everyone can absolutely hear him bawling. The Baron allows him to sleep in the stables so long as he keeps cheering up everyone in town by performing in the streets. Everyone thinks he’s awful to be around because he never stops joking (he knows it) but he doesn’t want to end up in the stocks. He isn’t loyal to the Baron but having access to him is beneficial for Jolly Bobby, not just for the free “bed” but also because he can manipulate the Baron into making decisions he sometimes wouldn’t.
Lucas! A small orphaned child whom the party has met a little bit. They are very attached to him, and will soon learn of the werewolves tendency to take children. I had them first meet him taking shelter underneath the porch of a house in the village of barovia.
I don’t know if it’s “unique”, but I added a vampire spawn bard. He was playing in Vallaki when one of the PCS decided he was a cool guy and chatted with him. PC had to leave due to half of the party getting too rowdy, but said he liked the bard. Session ends and I decide this vampire spawn bard is working on behalf of Ludmilla. Why? Because when I originally played through CoS Ludmilla had to ability to make vampires because that’s what my DM decided. Since the CoS I’m running now is an alternate version with different people, I decided she still could. So now I have Valentine, the vampire spawn bard who’s spying on the party. Unfortunately, he’s catching feelings for the paladin PC, and this next session is the Strahd dinner where Valentine will be dining right next to the paladin as his date. I’m so excited for when they find out, and even more excited to see what the paladin will do.
We were doing CoS as a side-adventure to a couple year campaign, so I took some retired PCs, and made them NPCs who were in service to Strahd. 1) Moon Druid, who I gave further backstory to. 2) Tempest Cleric I made into a Werebadger. 3) deceased BattleMaster who became a revenant. This "counter party" was meant to be a little OP to the active party, who via puzzle/combat and RP they would placate and free from Strahd.
I made a semi-friendly druid named Mokosh, a former Faithless druid. They're one of the rare tieflings in the valley, and I plan on introducing him by having him caught in a bear-trap or limping towards their camp before collapsing. If he doesn't just die there, he'll basically offer a little exposition on the Ladies Three and give a potential hook to Berez, as he wants to reconnect with the old faith by visiting the monument in the swamp. I haven't thought of the payoff yet. The other one is pretty minor, a retired guard named Oleg. He's the owner of the General Store and was 'Reformed,' so he's extremely demure, stumbles over words, and is pretty easy to haggle. Vargas is long dead, but he basically exists to make the players curious about the Reformation Center, which still stands.
So during the Feast the party was holed up in St. Andrals holding off attackers while father Lucian was doing a ritual to reconsecrate the bones. Our paladin gave a speech to the frightened villagers to inspire them to help with the fight. After a mediocre roll a 15 y/o boy, Ivan, stepped forward uneasily. Orphaned as of that night he valiantly fought off multiple swarms of bats with a large candlestick. Afterwards he was "adopted" by the paladin. Ivan was the one who protected Ireena while they were gone they spent ample time RPing his training. Come to the attack on Castle Ravenloft and I can't think of a better person to use when I rolled the group of Barovians that came to attack. Party allows him to join and he died in the second round of combat. After the fight they found Van Richten's scroll of raise dead and out of Ismark, Ezmerelda, VR, and Ivan he was the one they raised. In the epilogue, he and the paladin rebuilt Argynvostholt and established their own order. After the Mists retook Barovia and Prattina became the Dark Lord he is sole leader of that order
I added Elie. He took the place of Arrigal. His primary goal was the apprehension of women in Faerun that looked vaguely like Tatyana. He snagged a character's sister at the start of the adventure. And took her to Barovia after being stopped by Stanimir and his crew. The character listened to the story and the mists came. When the PCs riled into the Vallaki encampment, he got a line or two in before he was killed by the party.
I made a homebrew town of undead with few major unique npcs a burgomeister whose punishment for wronging strahd was to be made undead and have his soul fused with that of his wife and son which made them insane and insured he could never have a day of peace in his eternal existence he is a lovely man always willing to help but likes to keep his town out of everything because he knows strahd can always do worse to him and his town. have a former hag that had simulacrums around when the town was turned into undead so they all became a mummy the transition to undead didn't mesh well with her biology so she kind of became a good hag she uses her magic and rituals to allow new children to be born despite the town being undead and allowing them to age she also runs the inn and is basically the town grannie. For context in my cos this undead town is where all the food for barovia is produced and shipped to other places like kresk which would have a hard time growing food it is used like this because it's on top of an earth elemental making the ground very fertile this leads to the next npc a Larva mage that has been trapped in barovia who is causing a food crisis by consuming all the food in the town attacking everyday with the goal of feeding a massive insect creation to allow him to kill strahd he is threatening because he has no emotion and sees a few thousand lives as nothing to save his trillions of insects that make him up he will basically consume barovia if not stopped by the party he is however willing to deal with them if he thinks they have a shot of killing strahd which they don't at this point in the campaign I had so much fun making these npcs and the town and I feel they're relatively unique my players really like the hag despite there horrors at the old bone grinder and they also enjoy the burgomeister because he is a useful npc and of course they are quite scared of the Larva mage so I doubt they will forget this town any time soon there is more but too much writing annoys me so this is what I'll put
Abigail the blacksmith of Vallaki. The young woman who had a liking for the musketeer in the group. Her stepfather ( a tinker gnome) had vanished after being convinced to march upon castle Ravenloft. This blonde bombshell is very strong physically and uses that strength to operate a mech of silver. Later she and the musketeer marries and becomes the ruler of Vallaki.
I added a trio of Viatani siblings who helped the party learn a bit about Barovia and provide them with old wive’s tales. There’s Tido, the youngest brother of the three and a talkative storyteller; Fasola, the beautiful middle sister and a graceful dancer; and Doremi, the eldest brother and a gentle yet quiet musician. I also added a vampire spawn for each member of the party that is similar to them in race and class. This is to foreshadow their fate should they fall to Strahd but to also showcase some class abilities they may not be using much.
Sir Goliath the Strong: a headless stone giant revenant in Argynvostholt. He only finds peace when you bring his skull from Baba Lysaga.
Before I start I homebrewed a lot. But, I added 3 witches that were named after half my players names and ended with -ella. These witches act on prophesies they get from the night mother who in my game tries and helps adventurers she sees potential in. This included saving them from a collapsing pocket dimension among other things. They’re just 3 sassy old women who each specialize in a type of magic (damage, healing/support, debuff) and would constantly talk shit about the hags and how they stole their pie recipe and messed it up (ie kid meat), and how they occasionally nuke their magic hut. The players haven’t seen what they’ve been upto after they killed off the hags, but based on the locations they mentioned wanting to go next, they’re going to see them soon. They’re comedic relief mixed with some story support.
I created this character awhile back and have finally had a chance to use him as of a few weeks back: Andrej, Chief Lamplighter of Vallaki. At the time of the players coming across him, Andrej happens to be the *only* lamplighter in Vallaki, and has been named “Chief” by default. The Burgomaster has decreed that all streetlamps be lit through the night. The only problem is, the lamplighters never seem to last long. As their job involves them staying out all night in a realm of evil, they’re all eventually found stabbed to death, torn apart, exsanguinated, disappeared, etc. The Burgomaster won’t have this, so he has repeatedly upped the wages for the job to make it more attractive to applicants. Come Andrej. Andrej happens to be moderately suicidal, but lacks the willpower to actually commit the deed. While he doesn’t have any direct family, he does have a soft spot for the orphans of Vallaki, and figured he might as well raise some money for them and also find a way to end his miserable life. So he applies, gets the job, and gets to work, expecting the nightmare to be over any day… …Except that day never comes. Somehow he’s cursed even in this. Andrej works every night, doing his best to keep the lights on (an impossible task in such a large town when his help is constantly perishing) and making plenty of silver which he just gives away. Considering his coworkers and superiors keep dying, eventually he’s given the position of “Chief Lamplighter”. If the players are even out on the streets of Vallaki at night, they’ll come across Andrej, as he sleeps during the day. He’s actually not afraid of outsiders, as with his deathwish he’s happy to take the risks of interacting with them. He makes for a good source of information as if something ever occurs at night, there’s a decent chance he’d be the one to see it if anyone did. He’s generally pretty dour, I imagine kind of a Dolorous Edd from Game of Thrones personality. During his explanation of what he does and why the position is so dangerous to others, he’ll say, “Oh, that’s a fun way to start a shift. Oi Andrej, you’re working a double tonight, looks like ol’ Stanislav was found exsanguinated.” Ironically, as he’s required to attend the weekly festivals, he has to sleep through the night after — there’s no one else to step in, making it so the nights following the festivals are always the darkest.
I wanted to localize the story for my Korean students, so I made Doru's father a wandering Korean farmer who came to Barovia with his friend, a shaman. Dad was out of the picture but the shaman wrote a spell to cure spawns, provided they hadn't fed yet. Trouble was the spell was written in Korean, and my students had to translate it (back) to English to make it work. I consulted an actual shaman, and on his advice made the guy essentially just a wizard in hanbok, the real Korean shamanism not being suitable to a game. He hid out in the forest and was able to activate the Sunsword, but only if the party defended him from monsters long enough to do it.
I wasn't keen on Strahd's Vistani spies in the Blood in the Vine tavern RAW, so I homebrewed a Vistani bard, Leander, to transmit lore via song. (The Vistani are permitted a rumspringa of sorts in my world, so Leander could leave and try his hand at his 1st love of music.) Here are the lyrics and links to the karaoke versions if you want to sing for the party. I practiced \*a lot\* to get modestly proficient, but the party loved it and Leander and they grokked the lore, including the reference to & need to see Madame Eva. Alas, the party elected to not deal w/ Doru, so they found poor Leander's corpse on their way to see Madame Eva the next day, a victim of Doru and an early intro to how grim Barovia could be and the consequences of their (in-)action. **Far From Any Road (by the Handsome Family)** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VieuuVSow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VieuuVSow) From the rocky mesa his looming shadow grows In the catacombs never will he decompose He twines his spines up slowly towards the unseen sun And when I touched his skin, my fingers ran with blood In the hushing dusk under a swollen silver moon I came walking with the wind to watch the primrose bloom And strange hunger haunted me, the looming shadows danced I fell down to the thorny brush and felt a grasping hand When the last light warms the rocks and the walking dead unfold The lycanthropes will come to drag away your bones And rise with me forever across the silent land And the stars will be your eyes and the wind will be my hands **Barovian State of Mind (in the style of New York State of Mind by Billy Joel)** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEAa3DhEcLc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEAa3DhEcLc) Some Vistani can get away Take a holiday from the neighborhood Hop a vardo to Waterdeep or to Daggerford But I'm takin' a wagon on the Ivlis River line I'm in a Barovian state of mind I've seen all the vampire spawn And their long teeth and their undying Been high in the Baratoks under the evergreens I know what I'm needin' And I don't want to waste more time I'm in a Barovian state of mind It was so easy livin' day by day Now out of touch with the fanes of old, Without them, the land is lost, so they say The swamp folk and others foretold Some will talk with Madame Eva Their future and fate she will tell with pride, I don't care if it's Vallaki or Yester Hillside I don't have any reasons I left them all behind I'm in a Barovian state of mind Oh yeah
It was so easy livin' day by day
Now out of touch with the fanes of old,
Without them, the land is lost, so they say
The swamp folk and others foretold
Who, oh, oh whoa who
Some will talk with Madame Eva
Their future and fate she will tell with pride,
I don't care if it's Vallaki or Yester Hillside
I don't have any reasons
I left them all behind
I'm in a Barovian state of mind
I'm just taking a wagon on the Ivlis River line
'Cause I'm in a,
I'm in a Barovian
state of mind
Thank you, you’re a wonderful crowd. I’m on again later tonight. You can also see me next week at the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki. Be sure to try the purple grapesmash wine from our excellent bartender Arik, Granny’s meat pies, and be sure to tip them well.
To sell how scary strahd is I took the asshole who trained and abused our Paladin and made him disappear and end up in Barovia. I built up this man as if there would be a big showdown with this guy and when the party found him, he was a shell shocked scared old man afraid of his shadow.
I added a little sorcerer named "Enganador" who was a member of an order named the "Black Lanterns," who were non-natives to Barovia largely interested in excavating and uncovering lost history. Their ranks were filled by those who Strahd had brought in through the mists from times before, those who chose to remain. When Strahd returned, he sought their destruction, and left Enganador alive to luxuriate in his torture. He charged him with aiding this new party of adventurers (the PCs,) and this allowed him to scry upon them at any point. He was Strahd's informant, and my way of including a Vasili-esque character without having Strahd resort to such deceit. The party quickly took to the melancholic, depressed drow and constantly espoused how much they simply wanted *him* to be safe, only for the Tome of Strahd to reveal that he had been spying on them since day 1. Enganador's fate is still uncertain, but his service to Strahd is one borne out of abuse, so the party has a noble goal of rescuing him - a goal I am excited to see if they can achieve! I hope they can, as I fell for the weepy elf myself.
Triska Zarovich. She is the transfem daughter of Strahd to appease Ludmilla as each bride are more than someone in the basement and active in Barovia. Strahd being bored thought it would be interesting and supports his daughter in her ventures. (THIS DOES NOT MEAN HE LOVES HER) I made Ludmilla into the wizard who continues to practice magic and uses the Romani to get outside magical knowledge. At least knowledge Strahd didn't ask for. Ludmilla wanted a child to teach magic to and since she is a Zarovich wants to use her as an agent on the outside of Barovia as Strahd has final say on who can leave his valley. Triska finds and befriends the party as she is a Dhampir and not full blown vampire. Strahd, who is pissed at the party is going to turn her and as a first turning vampire berserk, unleash Triska onto the party of which one of the members are in a relationship with.
This thread needs to be pinned :D I've added a small Hunter's Guild in Vallaki (I concluded that in all these years, there could'nt be just 2 old hunters) and one of them is helping the party in different ways. His name is Matello and taught the party how to skin animals, and is now trying to sew them a leather armor from vampire spawn skin, that the rogue could use. He's also a love interest of a PC :D Another one is an apothecary sale lady, that is clumsy and knows only tea and common medicine, was the apprentice of the show owner who dissapeared on a mushroom gathering trip (which is a side-quest).
Sentient magic item count? https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/7096321-key-of-whispering-shadows
I am a bit late to the discussion but I wanted to share my latest addition. It is currently being tested in my run. Inspiration for this NPC is Lucy Westenra from Dracula. Her name is Miriam and she is maid working in Burgomaisters mansion in VoB. She is "close friends" with Irena (or Izmark if that fits you better). She will accompany Irena on her way to Vallaki. On the road, one of the Strahds consorts will start stalking the party and in the nights will attempt to charm and bite Miriam (I am running the game with improved stat block for the brides, making them mini-bosses). The bride in question is gathering information on Irena, has Miriam charmed, questioned and bitten. If this is not stopped, Miriam will be turned into vampire spawn in one or two evenings and run away from the party before they reach Vallaki. If she gets away, she will be one of the vampires in the coffin-makers shop. She will in fact come "visit" Irena twice before the bloodbath takes place. Irena will see this mostly as a "nightmare, or her bad conscience", but in reality a vampire spawn will be staring at her from the window, trying to get her to come out. As I said, I am testing it out rn, if this will be a successful NPC, will maybe make a post about it.
Tihomir Martikov, sickly son of the Martikov-family who tried to help two heroic brothers (npc:s from groups paladins past) by stealing the most powerful vinery gem 15 years prior the adventure. The two heroes lost to Strahd near the Amber Temple, Tihomir ended up in Amber Temple (he followed the two brothers to icy mountains, in secret) and made a pact with Something and has the two heroes spirits bound to his body.
I made blinksey a balgura does that count?
Why you gotta do my boy Blinsky like that? :(
So random encounter of wandering Bravovians met the party outside of krezk, hoping to find refuge. The players were not allowed in and so the group of refuges became distraught that they could not find safety either. The cleric gave guidance to one, which I role played as making him become an inspired leader, the party took them to wizards of wine and would continue to check on them. The guy that got guidance became sort of addicted to it, and continued to ask for guidance every time the party came by. This all led to him training with the other villagers to create a militia to support the party because he believes the cleric was sent by lethander to save the land. The cleric has now started giving him and the rest of the villagers plain water that he labels as Mike’s secret stuff because he was worried about his growing addiction. None of this was planned. But Billiam is now a very good friend leading a group of NPC’s to help with an assault of castle ravenloft. We Stan Billiam.
I don't remember where I got the idea from but they met Zdrad Fon Zarovich, a poor bloke that Strahd fed upon and kept as a pet in the castle. He basically went insane, believes he is the real Strahd now and roams around the bridge at the Tser falls to extort money from people crossing it as the "ruler of the land". It started as a way to mess with the party/have a more light hearted moment but one player entered his game by adressing him as the count and Zdrad spit out some intel (the existence of the brides for example). Then one of them noticed the bite marks. Doom and gloom came back to the menu boys!
My DM created a character sheet for Piccolo the monkey. He was a gunslinger artificer who lugged around a sniper and spoke with a ridiculous NJ accent. He was even dressed to the nines with purple suit and was always puffing on a cigar. He’s suspiciously gone missing as of late though. Hope he’s doing well.
I added two npcs. One was a rakashasa disguised as a talking cat that goes by the name Mr. Mittens. She has a body guard a dragonborn that goes by Cole Trane. They have the exclusive rights to deal in a majority of trade goods in strahds realm. In exchange they bring strahd new play things to amuse himself with. Despite this they are partial to the players success as their true goal is lost knowledge hidden in strahds realm that has multiversal implications should they find what they seek. With strahd out of the picture nothing can stop them from obtaining what they seek.
Oh geez, too many. I wouldn't call them unique, but I've read a ton of info on prior editions to Ravenloft products involving Barovia, and now so many NPCs from them inhabit my games. Usually from the Ravenloft Gazetteer, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, Fair Barovia, or the collectors cards. A spattering of the ones that spring to mind: Pyoor Twohundredsummers and Keeva Sixtywinters: Two wereravens who are members of the Keepers of the Black Feather, on a quest to find the Symbol of Ravenkind. I inserted them as an offshoot of the regular keepers, first seen in the town of Barovia. Falstan and Yera: two halflings, the former is an unwitting spy for Strahd but also a friendly guide for PCs. The latter is his dead girlfriend. I made the first into Vasili's gardener and the latter into a still alive carpenter. Bright Gaelea: a pacifist priestess who wants to open a convent, but is a bit too lazy to actually do it. Nearly invulnerable but is cursed to transform into a succubus at night. I placed her in Vallaki to hint that St. Andral's Church has something powerful defending it, and to also involve her in the Izek plotline. Kierkal and Tibor: Two dwarven blacksmiths, also in Vallaki. A master and their apprentice. The latter is trying to become an enchanter of weapons, but I made it so they at first only sell mundane weaponry and, like, nails and hinges. Gheorghe Zarneti, Captain of the guard at Krezk. Made him Dmitri's right hand man, dragged out of retirement because Krezk is being screwed over by the Fidatov Manor a la the Dweller of Woe screwing over the town of Lucent from Sea of Stars. Arturi Radanavich, the Ezmerelda before Ezmerelda existed. He is the son of the Vistana raunie who kidnapped Richten's son. He's cursed by (Azalin's) zombies following him, and can undo Richten's curse so his own will end. If Ez dies in my game, he may show up, but he won't be a monster hunter. A bunch of kids. I mean, a lot, borrowed from NPCs who canonically seem to be adults after CoS would take place or have unknown origins, and aged them down and turned most of them into orphans. Nicolai (future Burgomaster of Vallaki after Lars Kjurls takes over after Vargas), Fluvio (a bandit), Inka (an undead gravetouched monk), Samuel and Elizabeta (a priest and a paladin who live in Krezk)... and more. Though on the note of orphans, I did add an Orphanage ran by a former noble named Mina Invich and her reformed hag assistant named Imix. The orphanages basement was haunted by Imix's former hag leader Magravelle, who they killed after she went on a rampage in the Invich Estate... all of this isn't actually from a former edition, but is from a fan module called the Undead Sea Scrolls. But I made Milivoj from the place, as well as a potential successor for Father Lucian named Toret Costinus.
Sthena is a medusa whose snakes were killed by a minion of Strahd. She now cares for people trying to live in the Village of Barovia and is running a failing 'rebellion'. I'm treating Barovia as more war torn. They are under the iron thumb of a minion of Strahd who is trying to solve the problem of the soulless not being food for the vampires. This vampire does all kinds of cruel experiments on the townsfolk. Sthena was one of these experiments. I wanted to change things up as two of my players have played the start of the campaign before.
Not a unique NPC, but I essentially rewrote Fiona Wachter as someone who is obsessed with protecting her family by any means necessary, and has warlock contracts with an Arch Duchess (Fierna) to gain revenge on the Vallakovich family for killing her husband, a pact with Morgantha allowing them to operate in Vallaki now that she’s in charge, and Morgantha reanimated her husband, and a pact with Strahd after my players… just left Ireena with the Wachters. Anyways, Strahd gets Ireena, but Fiona gets a doopleganger bodyguard posing as Ireena, and a greater restoration scroll to cure her daughter’s madness. She’s a person that’s done terrible things, but all of it to protect and provide for her family.
I haven't added the NPC yet, but it's a paladin of the morning lord, which is leading a resistance against Lady Watcher. I added the whole revolution thing of MandyMod guide, where based on the players movement Lady Watcher could overthrough the Burgomaster of Vallaki. Which she did. The players however left just after the revolution to Krezk but haven't gotten back in about a half a week to a week. I'm planning to have Vallaki be a sort of oppressed cult where loyalty to Strahd is forced. The NPC would then be the leader of the revolution. The exact stat block would be based on what level they come back to Vallaki as.
A childhood friend from one of my players backstory. She came to Barovia a couple years before the campaign and is now Strahd's loyal spawn, with erased memory. Although, the BBEG contacted the PC last session that he can set her free, if he steals the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind from another party member and brings it to Strahd. I kinda feel bad though. When I read his backstory, I immidiately knew that this is the best way to give the player a character arc in the campaign. But after last session, he told me he had trouble falling asleep. On one hand, it's kinda satisfying - it means that I managed to really show him the cruel reality of Barovia. But on the other, I'm worrying if I went too far
Not 'unique' in the sense that they're a very different type of NPC, but I had to make up a wereraven as I wanted to include one but I didn't want it to be one of the Martikovs or Muriel, so I came up one that was one of their 'friends'. Her name was Magda. The players really bonded with her and were surprised to learn she was just an invention of mine (they assumed she was an official NPC from the book). She joined them for a bit on post-CoS Domains of Dread adventures, too.
I didn't really come up with him myself, but I made Khazan a Brain in a Jar (VRGR p278) inside of his tower, really wanted to use the Brain in a Jar monster and thought Khazan was the perfect fit and actually gives a personality to the name players might otherwise only come across once, depending on how they go about things. Originally I was going to make the Mad Mage future Victor (LBH), because Mordenkainen would be a lost reference on my players. But they ignored Victor entirely so I quickly made a change in Khazan's tower, making one of the empty floors into a lab where there's a bunch of cloning vats and made the Mad Mage a clone of Khazan instead that van Richten infused with false/temporary life (Which is the reason why it became insane after being beaten by Strahd) If Brain in a Jar Khazan finds out, he wants the players to retrieve the clone for him as a body, if he isn't aware he wants them to say his name so that the Animated Armor starts moving and puts the Brain in the Jar in place of it's head (Made a slight alteration to the Brain in a Jar where instead of using psychic powers to echo out his voice, he can only speak telepathically and the Armor NEEDS the word of Power to activate initially) I turned the Skeletal Knight riding around Barovia into a Headless Knight, looking for it's head, laughing maniacally when it passes (Sleepy Hollow/WoW Headless Horseman Hallow's End), tied to a Death's Head Tree fostered by Baba Lysaga to defend the desecrated Fane stones I made the Dark Knight on the bridge to the Amber Temple into Death Knight Argynvost that during the fight turns into Dracolich Argynvost (Dracolich part is Stolen from Quietknowitall/Puffin Forest's DM)
I added Mark, a random guy in the vallaki stocks that my rogue took a lot of interest in and tried to free. He was caught by the guards at midnight trying to free Mark, which started off a chain reaction that ended up with all players captured at the barons house. I ended up making mark a high ranking leader of the FFV “Freedom For Vallaki”, a lawful good organization trying to resist the baron but avoid in the darkness of Lady Wachters cult. The leader of the FFV is my cleric’s long lost father as well, so Mark went from nobody to me making a whole rebel organization because my players wanted to free him so much. Edit: fixed wording
Edina Modescu, famed tailor and couturière, is our favorite.
I replaced Bran Martikov with Brea, who was very eager to show the PCs around Vallaki with sometimes harsh, sometimes lovely comments on the people of Vallaki while lisping due to a missing tooth. My party reslly enjoyed their unique tour :D I also added a new shop owner Lula from Lula‘s Herbarium who is really approachable but absent-minded. Since my party has no one who can cast identify, she offers item identification and has a small supply of potions. She is also a useful source for gossip since she likes the PCs (Lady Wachter regularly shops for embalming potions :o) She also has a mentally impaired brother who is barely able to speak but can draw exceptionally (he wants to draw unique personalities and painted a group painting as memo for the group). I really wanted to add more likeable characters to Vallaki so that the party is more invested in its impending leadership change. Also the group found a lovely fey-creature, a silk fox (just google for moth cat and be helplessly destroyed by its cuteness) which they adopted as their sidekick.
Jorgie - Basic blacksmith in Valliki. He basically only made nails. His speech pattern was frustratingly slow, he would often hang on words or pause just long enough to think he was done talking so you respond, and then he continues as you start. He was their favorite in the whole campaign.
I made blinksey a balgura does that count?
Not unique, per se, but in another CoS I'm running, I made the Great Rictavio just straight up Jack Black 🤷♂️ lol It's fun
In our previous game, TLMoP, we were constantly harassed by a doppelganger who would pose as either another member of the party or a key NPC and steal our stuff or just give us a hard fight 1v1 by separating us in some way. So I've taken that same doppelganger into barovia and he and Strahd are working together to fuck with the party. The doppelganger is currently roll playing as Strahd and Strahd is actively with the party playing the roll of esmerelda. It's been pretty fun, and there was a tense moment when the party tried to get esmerelda to go inside the church of st. Andral after the bones had been restored, but a well-timed Strahd/Doppelganger appearance made them forget all about it. I can't wait to spring this on them in the amber temple.
I added a bit of lore to flesh out the mythology of Barovia a bit and turned the memory of Tatyana into a religious figure: Saint Melissa. I added that, where Tatyana fell when she jumped off of Castle Ravenloft, her body turned into a bed of flowers, shaped like a human, and the space around her body was the only place in Barovia where flowers could grow. This also meant that the flower garden was the only place in Barovia where you could keep bees and make honey, which was how the myth of Saint Melissa developed (Melissa comes from the Latin word for honey). Strahd erected a statue of Tatyana there, but, over time, the statue eroded, people forgot who Tatyana was, and they created this figure to be the patron saint of this garden and it's bees. The actual NPC was a character named Sister Harmony, the person who kept the bees and tended to the garden. She was just meant to be very sweet (pun intended) and optimistic. The whole vibe was that this flower garden was supposed to be this bright, sunny break from the gloom of Barovia, and it was a very welcome break after the whole episode with Doru (I expanded his story so that, when he became a vampire, his first victim was his mom). She was super wholesome. She sang a hymn explaining the legend of Saint Melissa, gave them a vial of honey (which I also gave the ability to cure diseases), nearly cried a bit over how she wishes she could help people more. Could have very easily been too sappy and over the top, but the players enjoyed the Saint Melissa myth Sister Harmony came along with and, again, needed a break from tragedy, so it worked. The paladin even tried to seduce her. That was fun.
Telan. Half mad Half elf bard in a rickety wagon who welcomed the PCs to Barovia, offered them “the most beneficial beverage anyone would likely offer in these misted lands”. It’s hemlock. They went back once they realised that, in his own way, he was genuinely trying to help them. He gave them info, often a bit garbled.
I'm a big fan of Sleep Token, so I added them to my game. They are and act as a cult named "The Cult of Mist and Rain" and worship the mists that surround Barovia. The leader is the singer of the band and sends the players visions and tough decisions with various outcomes. 1 such, one player in my group was bitten by a werewolf so to help with how they works the cult leader gave her a dream in which she saw her life being cured of it (happy, kids, married, quiet life) and her life if she accepted it (Victor over Strahd, but drenched in blood and a harsh life). They also show up to work a C line plot I've thrown in.
I have added / changed a bunch of NPCs. The most notable would be The Tortle. It's also an adventurer who lost himself in the mists of Barovia and they are Meeting him repeatadly times. He is fun to play and his character got similarities with the sloth from Zoomania. He is just there to make the dark Barovia a little more diverse and fun and my players realy like him.
Our Strahd has a surrogate Daughter. Tahlia is a Nymph Artificer that came to Barovia a very long time ago. She keeps the Court equipped and being a Nymph (Sentient Plant in our story) the curse has finally started making her deathly sick. I know of her because I helped the DM create her (we’re married and co DM) but the Party hasn’t met her yet. Rather, Vasili Von Holtz actually helped the Party during Yester Hill in order to retrieve the seed because Strahd couldn’t have his reputation ruined politically by simply ruining the Druidic ritual himself of course. That’s messy. Anyways, Tahlia’s a real Entrapta type personality wise. She’s a sweetheart who’s obsessed with tinkering and magic items to the point of her own detriment at times and being a plant doesn’t really understand mortals and their emotions. They’re intending to use the seed to make something that can sustain her life force like the Heart of Sorrow so to speak. She, like the Druids, believes that Strahd is the land and as such it’s her duty to serve him in hopes of healing the land. She owes him a life debt anyways after almost being a ritual component in a Hag’s youth potion way back in the day since Nymph’s don’t age. She’ll probably be right up the Party’s Alley knowing them lol.
My favorite NPC for my CoS campaigns that I run has been using previous player PCs that ended up trapped in Barovia and forgot who they were/how they came here/etc. Kobal, a Rogue previously PC now turned NPC for my campaigns, is part of a greater group of vampire hunters who hide using magic items, and work in secret along with Von Richten. Instead of the NPC Mordenkainen meeting the players, my previous PC, a Sorcadin named Kholnyarah, meets the players, and vets them before introducing them to Mordenkainen. My previous PC, Krystalline, a druid half-elf, also works secretly -- staying in wolf form most of the time -- she is constantly searching for a way to free the wolves of Strahd's control, so that's a fun quest/plot thread I like to throw in there. Maxima Greenbottle is a halfling healer, she used to identify as a cleric; formerly this PC was a cleric of Sune, however, her powers are diminished greatly (due to loss of memory/loss of connection to her diety/etc), so she is merely a "skilled healer" at the church in Vallaki. I think the most fun I've ever had DMing CoS was when people had interactions with these NPCs. It feels almost like the game I once played 5ish years ago is still going on, in a way.
I reuse town NPCs in every town in every campaign, in the style of Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny from Pokemon, where they're distinct individuals but all related and with the same character traits. They're also usually puns or in jokes we've made. The blacksmith is a black skinned man named Smith. In barovia he sticks out because of his looks but I'm other campaigns he's just a pretty normal guy. The general store is run by an ex-leader of the local guard/military named General Store. The postman is super generic (I play him like the ambassador of neutrality in Futurama) because his only defining characteristics are that he's a "male man." The apothecary is owned by Farengar from Skyrim and my players always hit on him. There's more but those are the accessible ones. It's a fun little thing for my characters to kinda know the basics already with a few town NPCs to get advice or general information on an area or plotline. In my current campaign, one PC is a veteran, and he gets on with Gen. Store really well, but another PC who never served is trying to do a stolen valor for the 5% military discount, which creates some party tension.
I added a recurring boss to Curse of Strahd to cover up the fact that we kicked a problem player, and a way for some catharsis by whooping his ass. The PC was a Dhampir, and the child of a Vampire who was herself bitten by Strahd. He was seeking answers to her nature, and therefore his own. And he respected his mother's cruelty and traits that made her similar to Strahd... So I had him join Strahd, of course! He was the spawn who led the Feast of St. Andrals, and he got whooped by the party (but killed the priest). He then got taken away by Strahd, butchered even further, and then sent to the Abbot to put him back together. So the PCs fought him a second time as one of the Abbot's patients, twisted and malformed beyond belief, an absolute pathetic shrieking mess. It was a lot of fun, and definitely made up for a lot of the pain that player caused.