The Curse: Desperation in Ravenloft (Strahd and So Much MORE!)

About the adventure

Come and play D&D as you've never experienced it before! Exciting role-play, dynamic storytelling, deep character building, and gritty homebrew combat rules! Though the campaign begins in Barovia, under the shadow of Count Strahd von Zarovich, our stories will carry us throughout the Mists, into Domains of Dread beyond your wildest comprehension. Will you survive the daunting horrors that lie hidden within the Mists, or will you succumb to the darkness? Barovia, an ancient mountain valley locked away in the swirling Mists for countless generations, it's name and beauty long forgotten in the realms of Man. The residents of this weary place eke out a tenuous existence beneath the perpetually gray skies, no one in living memory has seen an unobscured sun. Even in death escape is forbidden, souls locked away, forced to return again and again to life in a new age, a new body. Yet more children are born than the souls that are trapped for all eternity, and so many are born the Soulless, moving through their tedious half-life never knowing joy or laughter, tears or pain. Barovians carry their fear with them in every moment, wearing it like a heavy, burdensome cloak. But when the nebulous sun goes down and the valley grows truly dark, even those with the lightest cloaks huddle around their fires, sheltered and pretending their walls protect them. Over them all looms the spectre of Ravenloft, the forbidding fortress that myth, legend, and rumor claim is the home of their cursed Lord, Strahd von Zarovich. The stories say that in every sixth generation the soul of the Lord's ancient love is reborn and he will once again stalk the land and it's people. But none has even a story of their grandmother's grandmother viewing Count Strahd in the flesh, and the gates of Ravenloft have remained closed and barred. Many believe him dead, rotted away in his crumbling keep, but still his name is only uttered in trembling whispers, lest his presence be roused upon the speaker. What does it mean to live in this sunless land, can it even be called a life? Every day much the same as the one before, until it is not... ***IMPORTANT - MUST READ*** Curse of Strahd is a dark, brutal adventure that will test your prowess, fortitude, and ingenuity in very extreme ways. I intend to run this game with a level of gritty realism that will likely wear down your character's will to live. What is right will not always be obvious, and all morality will be heavily obscured in the mists that permeate Ravenloft. This is NOT a game for the faint of heart. Do you have what it takes to survive the horrors of Ravenloft and the other Domains of Dread? “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” - Friedrick Neitzsche