Role: Lord of Castle Ravenloft (true identity)
Publicly known as the reclusive Count Demetrius, this ancient and undying lord revealed his true name to Enki after being pressed: Strahd von Zarovich, the “Son of the Dragon.” He has conquered these lands for centuries and claims to have experienced everything there is to experience across countless lifetimes.
Strahd throws occasional lavish parties, bringing in outside “heroes” largely to relieve the tedium of his cursed existence — and perhaps, if they prove capable and willing, to lift the very curse that grips his domain. At the party’s climax, he raised a toast, struck a gong, and extinguished every torch in the hall at once, rendering the entire party unconscious and beginning the true trial he’d invited them for. He has secretly marked every member of the party with a vampiric curse.
The Diary
A rune-trapped diary recovered in Session 2 — one of the three prophesied artifacts capable of ending his power — lays out his own fall in his own hand: a landless seventh son who conquered this domain by force, married Tatiana, left her in the care of his older brother Sergei while off at war, and returned early to find (or believe he found) the two of them together. He dueled and killed Sergei, then killed Tatiana himself. That double act of fratricide and murder is what sealed the vampire’s curse onto him and everything he owns. The diary doubles as a spellbook, its words of power written in blood and usable by anyone.
Session 2
Before the session’s recording began, Enki cornered Strahd in bat form on a stairwell landing, catching him alone and uncharacteristically wistful, gazing out a window into the storm; the two traded words before Strahd laughed, turned to mist, and fled. Later, he received the party properly at a lavish, blood-soaked feast in his organ chamber, toying with them over stolen silverware and revealing, without naming names, that one of the party had already been turned to his purposes. When Randoah tried to force a charm on him, he shrugged it off and demonstrated — draining and instantly restoring the party’s vampiric curses — that none of it means anything in his presence, a weakness worth remembering for later. Cornered again near the night’s end in his own bedchamber, he offered Randoah a place among his brides (“I have room for more”) before letting the refusal go with a shrug, and warned the party, not incorrectly, that escape tends to run upward rather than down.
As of Session 2, the party has recovered two of the three prophesied artifacts said to be capable of ending his power for good: the tome (his own diary) and the ancient symbol of hope (the Mother’s Icon, pulled from his own mother’s crypt). Only the sword of vengeance remains unfound.
Session 3 — The Twelve Bells, and the Parting
Strahd did not appear in person until the very end of the night, but the castle’s midnight clock was him: the first bell brought hunting horns, the second the baying of dogs, the third a flood of bats out of the catacombs, and by the fourth the courtyard held a bonfire that had not been there before with Brother Kristoff burning on a cross at its heart. Everything that came afterward — Sister Geraldine, the wolves, the risen dead, Christine’s hunt in the forest — was the Count’s hospitality being revoked.
Contents of his own coffin, opened by Randoah: a black signet ring bearing the double-headed raven of the Zaroviches, tied to a letter. The letter itself turned out to be Randoah’s — one her dead brother had written her years ago and she had never received.
His brother Sergei confirmed that the Sword of Vengeance was never buried with him: Strahd keeps it at the top of the castle, and takes great pains to ensure nobody else ever holds it.
At the end of the night, as the party rode into the mist, Strahd met each of them alone — arms folded, no wine, no charm left. He opened by saying he was very disappointed in his wives, who haven’t failed this dramatically for a long time, and then made each of them a tailored offer:
- Enki — a countryside to ravage together, women, money, a castle of his own; you have already embraced a demon, you are more like me than you realise. Refused (“I don’t need this, but I will be back”). Strahd snapped his fingers and drew every scrap of stolen vampiric power out of him, the blood running from his face and nose and swirling into the air for the Count to inhale, then dismissed him as a weak mortal — with a parting jab about the farmer’s daughter he never saved, who would do for a snack on the way home.
- Ulfgar — as much of the finest drink in the universe as he could want, in exchange for his friends. Refused. So humble, so wholesome. Would have no place in my court anyway.
- Brielle — his vaults and cities left to conquer, plus the revelation that he had watched her since she was a small child hiding in the shadows, sensed her ability to change the rivers of fate, and made certain she found her way into his court. Refused. Thieves with a heart of gold are so frustrating. Such an overused trope. So boring.
- Ivek — true dominion over others rather than the indirect power of prophecy, libraries full of tomes, and absolution from guilt: lions do not fear the concern of sheep, and you, sir, are a lion. Refused.
- Randoah — her brother, conjured alive and bewildered in front of her, restored to her side for eternity. Refused a second time; she threw his signet ring at his feet. He beheaded her brother where he stood, set himself alight with a word, hurled the skull back at her, and said then begone from my realm.
He stripped every vampiric power the party had gained as they left. He did not take back the rune he apparently left on Randoah’s brother’s skull, which now speaks.
Status: Untouched. The party escaped him; they did not beat him, and they never found the Sword of Vengeance.