Blood o' the vine

[Ail]

Hi,

I guess it was in Ravenloft I6, or perhaps Domains of Dread, that the description for this tavern said that the original name had been scratched and changed to something else.

Iirc, it passed from "Blood of the Vine" to "Blood on the vine". I don't know what I should make of this. What may have been the reason for the name change? And who took the liberty of making it? Was it imposed by someone else?

Honestly, I even feel dumb in asking this, but I've always felt there was some joke or some scary hint here that I was missing... and I still am today. Could it have to do with some expression common in English that I don't know? The best idea I have is that "Blood of the Vine" would simply be a metaphor for "Wine", but I'm not sure. And then, I don't see why that name would have to be changed.

Thank you all.

Alex

[Jonathan Winters]

''Blood ON the vine'' was vandalism on that sign IIRC.

Also there was more to the place than just an inn. But maybe not what you expected...

If you want spoilers, just let me know.

Patrick

And, no, you are not dumb for asking this. Where are you from Alex?

[Nathan of the FoS]

Honestly, I even feel dumb in asking this, but I've always felt there was some joke or some scary hint here that I was missing... and I still am today. Could it have to do with some expression common in English that I don't know? The best idea I have is that "Blood of the Vine" would simply be a metaphor for "Wine", but I'm not sure. And then, I don't see why that name would have to be changed.

Yep, "Blood of the Vine" is a metaphor for "wine" (kinda an old and abstruse one, but hey). The change is just meant to make the name weird and frightening. This is actually one of my favorite details from I6.

[Ail]

''Blood ON the vine'' was vandalism on that sign IIRC.

Also there was more to the place than just an inn. But maybe not what you expected...

If you want spoilers, just let me know.

Patrick

And, no, you are not dumb for asking this. Where are you from Alex?

Thanks, I know enough I've read a lot by now, as a large part of my campaign is/was in Barovia. So I've read VotM, I Strahd, Gaz 1, DoD, I6 and I10, although this last one only very cursorily. Guess I know the domain well, although I forget a few things now and then.

I just could't find I Strahd II anywhere, sadly I once was going to buy it but when I placed the order it wasn't available anymore. That evne implied a payment and its refund...

finally, I'm from Portugal. I hadn't noticed your question at the end of the mail, so I answered only now.

Alex

[LouisVendredi]

Just a thought:

Blood of the vine - Metaphor for wine.

Blood ON the vine - Blood ready for the picking? A vampire joke implying that the victims (blood) here are just hanging on the vine waiting to be harvested?

Just a connotation that came to me.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

FWIW, I once thought of an image for a dream-sequence that never quite made it into my campaign, in which a sleeping PC would get to see what Barovia might be like if evil's hold upon the land were broken once and for all. (The characters had been working with the Keepers of the Black Feather, and had been hearing lots of hyper-idealistic speeches from ravenkin lately.) In the dream, the PC would have gotten to see the village of Barovia looking bright and cheerful and unafraid, the way the Keepers aspire to make it.

In the dream, the inn's sign would have been altered again, as the faded image of a bunch of grapes would've been repainted to resemble eggs in a bird's nest, lined with black feathers. The dream-Inn's title? "Brood of the Vine".