During my long-running campaign, one of my players asked if there was a way to earn xp. I always encourage my players to do things above and beyond for the game, so he offered to paint minis for the whole group, since he does so professionally. In any event, I thought I'd post them up here, along with a brief synopsis of how everything ended up going down.
All of my figs posing on our lovely Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles-
So, side note: if you invested in the Dwarven Forge Dungeon Tiles Kickstarter, then you'll be happy to know that two full sets will enable you to make any room in Castle Ravenloft. (They never wound up in a room we couldn't make, at any rate.)
The Group--Formed in 761, the initial group (referred to in my notes as the Wayward Sons, a name several NPCs called them behind their backs) was formed by a group of Outlanders who arrived together. Banding together for mutual protection, they attempted to settle down in Lamordia, only to find themselves unearthing dark conspiracies at every turn. Eventually one such plot would follow them back to their home town, turning the townsfolk against them, their most beloved friend Gretchen into an undead bent on their destruction, and forcing them to flee to Dementlieu.
There, they uncovered a foul murder plot. When traced back to its source, they were forced to kill the adopted son of Armand Pineau (now the Bastion of the faith) and once again flee.
The party thought that in the town of Carinford-Halldon they would find peace, two of them even accepting governing positions. Alas, it was at this point that internal differences would drive the party apart, sending two of their number away lest the internal rift come to unavoidable violence.
The two departing party members were picked up by Dr. Franz Grossman, an alienist who believed that all Outlanders were merely poor deluded souls who had been lost within the Mists for so long that their sanity had warped. (A condition he called 'delusions of origin.') Forming an alliance with several of their fellow inmates, the Wayward Sons emerged from the asylum stronger and more unified, and with the friendship of Laurie Weathermay-Foxgrove to boot!
Returning to Mordentshire, the group began a quest to establish permanent roots. The leader of the group finally learned the truth about his birthright, and accepted governance of Weathertan, the former home of the Holsworth family. Each of the Wayward Sons found a place within Weathertan to call their own. One final threat would arise, however, that would threaten this little family, an alliance of the loose ends left in the party's wake, brought together by the manipulative hand of an insidious specter.
Coming together in camaraderie, the Wayward Sons ventured at last into Castle Ravenloft to retrieve their kidnapped daughter, and although she was rescued and the plot against them at last uncovered, half of their number would never leave the castle alive.
The Heroes
Alastor Pruitt - The paladin of Lathander joined the party during the escape from Dr. Grossman's asylum. He wound up marrying his fellow escaped inmate, a Sunite Holy Liberator. To his own horror, Alastor eventually discovered the hideous truth: he had never been an Outlander at all; Dr. Grossman had been correct in his diagnosis. In Castle Ravenloft, Alastor and his wife reforged the Sunsword, defeated the devil Strahd in open combat, and gave their lives to hold off the assault of the undead Gretchen so that the rest of the group could escape. At the last, Alastor was pulled away by the deceased paladin Mirror, rescued in death from the Demiplane of Dread by the power of his unwavering faith.
Barlo - A one legged sailor from Mordent, he was the head lieutenant in Tasha's thieves guild. An unrepentant alcoholic, he had no desire but to sit behind a bar, trading interesting stories for booze and slowly drinking himself to death. When the Sons mustered to rescue the kidnapped Tasha, Barlo could do no less for the girl who had given him a second chance. He perished beneath the fangs of Gretchen. The group had no time to recover his body, so it is almost certain he has risen again, a footsoldier for Gretchen, if not for Strahd himself!
Frankie Drakeson - Part of the original group, Frankie's career was marred by sadness. He lost his sister, a pure and fragile soul, only to have her brought back again by Dr. Mordenheim's corrupt science, forever traumatized by her ordeal. Later, however, Frankie would find a loving wife and family. Eventually he became mayor of Carinford-Halldon. Although Joram and the group tolerated Frankie's lycanthropy, his marriage to Nathan Timothy's granddaughter would bring an unhealthy level of corruption to the town, eventually causing the split within the group. Nevertheless, Frankie would never forget his friends, later mounting a rescue on the asylum.
Joram Mournesworth - A Templar of Al-Akbar as well as a Weapon Master of the falchion, Joram enjoyed a long and checkered career. Drawn in by the Mists with the original group, he would come to take charge of the at times chaotic party. After liberating the opium-slave Tasha, he adopted the young girl, attempting to prevent her from becoming the sociopath he could see developing.
Although he was often discouraged with his failures, such as the loss of Gretchen or his inability to prevent the Timothy family from corrupting Frankie, Joram's successes were far more spectacular. He selflessly shared his soul with the mermaid Kiyoko, saving her life. He eventually accepted the truth: that he was in fact a scion of the Mournesworth family. In the absence of concrete knowledge of where the ancestral Mournesworth manor lay, Laurie Weathermay-Foxgrove, having inherited her father's title, charged Joram with taking governance of Weathertan, the former home of the Holsworths. When Tasha was later kidnapped by agents of Strahd, Joram led the rescue attempt. Selfless to the end, he volunteered to give his life fighting Gretchen so that the group could escape. Only Kiyoko's plea that he retreat, for the sake of their unborn child, allowed him to let Alastor take his place.
Juliette - Formerly known as Anippe, after a tragic accident, the reincarnated wife of Victor chose a new name. Although her career would be plagued by a slowly eroding sanity, Juliette would remain insistent in the supremacy of illusion over more destructive forms of magic. Following the foray into Castle Ravenloft, she took possession of a mystical cottage within Weathertan, providing mystical counsel to those with the wisdom to ask for it.
She even took on an apprentice, a headstrong boy named Stewen, who seemed more interested in crushing his enemies with a maul than with magic. Alas, his apprenticeship came to an end at the hands of Strahd's new coven, and it is likely the boy now serves the Darklord in death.
Kiyoko - The mermaid Kiyoko gambled her immortality on the certainty that the mortal she had fallen in love with, Thomas Camulen, would return her love and share with her his soul. When he denied her, willing to allow her to dissolve into sea-foam rather than admit his unfaithfulness to his human betrothed, the despondent Kiyoko was rescued by the sacrifice of Joram, who passed up the romantic overtures of Lady Weathermay-Foxgrove in order to marry Kiyoko.
Permanently mute as a result of her bargain with the sea hag, Kiyoko was nevertheless a potent druid, whose magic saved Joram and his friends time and again. When Joram told her that she should stay behind during the raid on Castle Ravenloft, to protect her unborn child, Kiyoko communicated that Tasha was her child as well as his, and that she too would be coming to Barovia.
Tasha - Rescued from a group of Falkovnian opium slaves, Tasha witnessed countless horrors, including an orgy of destruction that the group would come to call the Ludendorf Beach Cove Massacre. With the guidance of Joram, Tasha would eventually come to leave behind the nihilism and violence that had become her whole world. Although she would never discard the unicorn-hide armor she delighted in wearing in his presence, Tasha would even come to befriend and love the paladin Alastor. After founding the Barnacles Thieves' Guild, Tasha began to spread her influence up and down the western coast in the form of smuggling traffic. Much of her income was used to support armed rebellions in Falkovnia.
When Joram took office in Weathertan, Godefroy finally took action against Tasha, fearing that she might one day inherit rulership of the country should both Laurie and Joram perish. Through a series of manipulative letters, he brought together an alliance of the group's former foes, providing them enough information to convince Strahd that Tasha was the latest reincarnation of Tatyana. After kidnapping the girl through intermediaries, Strahd learned the truth the moment he laid eyes on her. His divinations revealed that one of the Wayward Sons would be bringing to him the blade of the hated Sunsword, however, so he shut the girl up within Castle Ravenloft in order to use her as bait to draw in the party, a choice that would prove very unfortunate for the Darklord.
Victor - Although he cannot remember a great many specifics about his time before the asylum, Victor clings to the relationship with his wife Juliette as the only real thing he has. Despite the fact that he appeared in the asylum mere days after the brutal serial killer known as the Puppeteer vanished from Port-a-Lucine, as well as his uncanny (and unexplainable) knowledge of flensing techniques, and his penchant for waking up concealed beneath some unsuspecting lady's bed, Victor maintains that he is what he believes himself to be: a horse rancher from Nova Vaasa, nothing more. The notion that Dr. Grossman might have used psychogenic drugs and illusory magic to rehabilitate a mass murderer through brainwashing is just silly...
Tragedy struck Victor in Castle Ravenloft. Following Joram's example, Victor had adopted a young boy named Zael. Alas, the child was struck down within the castle walls, reanimated by Strahd as a vampire, forcing the party to kill one of their own in the final confrontation!
After the events of Castle Ravenloft, the group returned to Weathertan, where they would live out a relatively normal life. Juliette and Victor would eventually establish a lucrative horse trading business, after Victor created, with Kiyoko's help, a more hardy breed of horse which found itself especially in demand in Lamordia. Now cognizant of the threat against her, Tasha publicly abdicated all claim to rulership of Joram's estate, thus removing any threat to Godefroy's wishes. Joram and Kiyoko would have several more children, noble-blooded backup plans should the aging Darklord be unable to manipulate either of the twins into bearing children of their own.
The Villains
Anippe - The horrible result of a resurrection gone wrong, Anippe was Juliette's evil twin, formed from the Mists in to the likeness of her the original. After slaying Juliette (forcing the group to Reincarnate the hero into her current form) and stealing her spellbook, Anippe fled. Separated from Victor, the truth eventually became known: Anippe and her husband were not who they appeared to be! A poor peasant who had found love and family only to have it torn away by vile magical experimentation, the real Anippe was a Hazlan terrorist, who had become intent on committing genocide against Mulan and Rashemi alike. After her capture, she had been given by Hazlik to Dr. Grossman in trade for magical knowledge. The good doctor brainwashed both her and Victor into believing that they were married, sharing a delusion that their co-dependent relationship would enforce should either of them start to overcome their conditioning.
Anippe joined Strahd's new coven at Godefroy's behest, believing that she could kill Victor and thus eventually restore Juliette's memory of their past, hopefully bringing her 'sister' around to once again murdering the people she believed had wronged her. Although her illusory magic worked wonders when the coven battled the Wayward Sons, Joram finally had enough of being haunted by the mistakes of his past, and executed her.
Sasha Drakesdottir - The naive and delightful sister of Frankie, Sasha was killed in a fit of rage by a villain the Sons confronted in Lamordia. Remembering the miracles that Dr. Mordenheim had worked for him earlier in his career (the doctor had cured his mummy rot with a set of transplanted lungs), Frankie brought his sister's body to Mordenheim, who successfully cloned the girl, although he attempted to transplant his wife's brain into Sasha's new body. The group managed to wrest her away from the doctor, but her amnesia about events before awaking in Mordenheim's vats, as well as the trauma of her 'birth,' led her to flee the Sons into a life of prostitution in Port-a-Lucine. Eventually, she would bind herself mystically with several of the realms of the Core, and after taking control of a group of mystic whores in Port-a-Lucine, she would return to attempt to destroy the party she blamed for all of her woes. As the leader of Strahd's new coven (along with Gretchen and Anippe), she was defeated, although at the last she teleported away, no doubt to plan a more elaborate revenge.
The Darklord Strahd - Wooed by a gift of a Mirror of Opposition given to him early in the party's career, Strahd was positively disposed towards the Wayward Sons. After he learned the truth of Godefroy's deception, he even allowed Tasha to live, offering to allow the entire party to go if they only gave him the Sunsword. He reasoned that allowing the group (especially Tasha and Joram) to live would be a major inconvenience to Godefroy, especially after he arranged for them to 'stumble across' items within his castle that would make them resistant to ghostly possession.
Although Alastor defeated Strahd in an epic battle on the terrace overlooking the misty gorge beneath Castle Ravenloft, the party did not have the time to pursue the monster to his coffin, leaving the vampire to rise the following evening, forced to content himself with the three Wayward Sons he had converted and the two that he had killed.
Lovely miniatures all, and I was extremely grateful to have them. Only the figure I used for Barlo is my own, all the remaining minis were painted by James, who portrayed Victor.
And with that, it is with no small amounts of both regret and relief that my campaign finally reaches...