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Character Information

Character: Adrian Silverleaf
Canon: OC (D&D)
Age: 28
History: I'm going to do my best to do a really broad summary of events to give enough context for Adrian specifically but I'm sorry if this is kind of long..... General content warning for mentions of child abuse, child death, murder, genocide, body horror, and abusive relationship dynamics (all of these are specific to the Curse of Strahd campaign). Lots of survivors' guilt and unhealthy coping mechanisms in his general backstory. Probably just anything you might expect in a gothic horror/fantasy setting (but surprisingly no incest).

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Adrian's childhood and adolescence were overall relatively ordinary for the son of rich nobility in the thriving city-state of Waterdeep. He was raised by a pair of Countesses: Carmilla, his biological mother, and Laura, the woman she married after Adrian's father died. I won't get too into the specifics of the family politics, but suffice to say that the Silverleaf family are properly tolerated, but not particularly well-liked among the nobles of Waterdeep.

His mother Carmilla was the black sheep of the family, having run away from her duties as a young woman in order to seek a life of adventure before returning home. Adrian is, in many ways, his mother's polar opposite. Quiet and bookish, he would have likely been happy to spend his entire life within Waterdeep. There was just one minor detail... Adrian was born aasimar.

Aasimar carry the bloodline of celestial creatures from the upper planes (ie. angels), which is all well and good except that the bloodline comes with certain expectations. Aasimar are expected to serve as champions of the gods, and to dedicate their lives to doing great deeds and fighting evil. From an early age, they receive visions and guidance from their celestial patron via dreams and intuition. Though his parents were delighted, they were also eager to support him in fulfilling his expected role, and he had a lot to prove. In short, Adrian grew up being told that he had to be god's most special little guy... and almost immediately fell short of that expectation. Though he was always willing to help people, he was never much of a fighter, or particularly keen on adventure. Though bright and curious, he wasn't extraordinarily smart, either.

Having grown up with Carmilla's stories of her own adventures, he saw much of the physical and emotional toll they took on her after her "retirement", and how Laura was so adept at easing her pain, as well as his own. Though he had no healing magic at all, he became determined to take that path, and learned much of what he knew from Laura before apprenticing with a doctor in the city. He was in no way remarkable even in this respect, but he could help those who couldn't help themselves, and he had no need of money or promises of worship as another doctor or some clerics might.

All the while, his patron grew more and more restless, sending dreams of righteous violence that Adrian did his best to ignore.

In his early 20s, he finally agreed to leave the city for the first time when his family's duties to the Lords' Alliance required someone from his house to personally mediate a trade dispute in the mountains at the Spine of the World. Adrian travelled with a small party of household guards, expecting little combat, but his arrival could not be more ill-timed.

Little did he know, talks had already fallen through, and a skirmish had broken out between both parties that would not be quelled. It was a small thing at first, but the conflict escalated as the Lords' Alliance sent further reinforcements and the tribes of the North banded together to repel them. Though Adrian tried his best, he eventually came to understand that the noble he was meant to broker peace with had never been interested in any kind of peaceable agreement, and his own presence there was little more than a political formality for the Lords' Alliance. He could have left soon after, but opted to stay and aid with the treatment of injured soldiers. Winter came, sealing off the mountain pass, and that was when things became truly dire.

Adrian was completely unprepared for the realities of a protracted battle, and while the border dispute wasn't grand, it was a drawn-out, brutal, and utterly pointless war of attrition that saw no shortage of needless suffering. He was taken under the wing of Captain Selene Ostren, who did her best to keep him alive and mostly sensible. He lost many of his newly-made friends, and his world devolved down into ice and blood and exhaustion. He had only mundane abilities to rely on, and when he slept he dreamed of his patron's disappointment, and the weight of those who died under his care.

Sometime in the midst of the conflict, Adrian was called to aid Captain Ostren, who had taken a mortal injury from a spellcaster. He knew immediately that it wasn't something he could heal on his own. Out of options, he desperately begged for help to save her life.

Finally, something in his blood sang, and a cold white light filled the medical tent. Though he thought himself numb to emotion, Adrian was suddenly paralyzed with fear knowing he was in the presence of something well beyond his mortal comprehension. It was his patron, Raphael.

Raphael and Adrian struck a deal, then - a life for a life debt. Power, for the promise of wielding it. For the promise of more of it.

Captain Ostren's life was saved with that magic, as were many others, though he couldn't bring back those who had already died (yet).

Eventually, the winter thawed to spring, and after tallying the losses further conflict became too costly for the noble houses to sustain. Adrian went home with the rest, but he couldn't continue living the life he once had. He was full of shame and guilt, and abruptly abandoned by his patron despite their deal. He drifted from place to place, sometimes even finding himself on other battlefields, but never quite feeling at home again.

When the Lords' Alliance made their next request years later, he would hear Raphael's voice again for the first time. He was to aid in closing a portal that allowed a pack of Werewolves to prey upon a nearby town. This was where he would first meet his unexpected travelling companions, and be pulled into the mists of Barovia to face the vampire Strahd.

For over a month, Adrian served as the primary healer for a party of adventurers: Shump; a paladin dedicated to justice, Fern; a rogue assassin, Alden; a sorcerer and fellow Waterdeep noble, and later Taulok; a druid and master of puns.

After arriving in Barovia and getting their bearings, the party was initially tasked with escorting Ireena Kolyana, the daughter of the Burgomaster of Barovia (Barovia is a town as well as the name of the domain), to a town where she might be safe, and where they might find more information about their own quarry. They learned that her household in Barovia had been beset by Strahd and his minions night after night, which had indirectly caused the death of her father. Strahd believed that Ireena might be the reincarnation of his lost love, and was obsessed with her.

The mission to escort Ireena failed days into the journey when the party was set upon by vampire spawn and had a total party wipe. Ireena was taken to Strahd's castle, only for the party to find out later that she had bargained for their lives in exchange for her accepting Strahd's marriage proposal.

After that, it became their mission to rescue Ireena and defeat Strahd, after which they could try to find a way to return home and seal the portal between worlds. They were, however, not nearly strong enough.

Guided by fortunes revealed to them through tarokka cards (tarot cards), as well as stories of Barovia's past unearthed through exploration, the party hunted down various weapons, such as the Sun Sword, and powerful relics that would help them defeat Strahd and restore Barovia to the land it once was. The nearby town of Vallaki became something of a home base for them, having befriended the innkeepers at the Blue Water Inn. However, unrest continued to rise in the city, ranging from rampaging vampire spawn to an eventual fire that burned nearly half the city to the ground, to The Lady Watcher and her cult wresting control of the city from the Burgomaster.

The journey through Barovia was a difficult one, marked by tragedies great and small. A priest kept his son starving in a basement because the man has been turned into vampire spawn, and the party was forced to decide if there's mercy in killing the boy. Adrian helped a midwife safely deliver a child, only to find the child was silent and passive at birth, born without a soul. A starving city payed a tithe to an angelic Abbot who used his wealth to breed people and animals for foul experimentation, all in order to craft the perfect bride for Strahd. Adrian was forced to confront the idea that even a creature like his patron could be corrupted... And must be killed.

They learned, too, the fate of those who dared to defy Strahd: an elven man killed his sister in a desperate bid to free her from becoming Strahd's eternal thrall, and in return Strahd killed every last woman of his species, and left the men to die a slow death after being mutilated. It was a story repeated in other places across the land.

Even the werewolves they had come to hunt were, in the end, victims of Strahd's evil. Those who supported Strahd were aided by him in order to take control of the werewolf pack, their leaders forcing them to kidnap children to keep the pack from dying out. Though the party was able to intervene and support their werewolf friend Emil in getting far enough to challenge the leader and reclaim the pack, the pack couldn't be the same after what was done and would continue to be hunted. Fern was invited to stay with them and be among people who were very much like the ones she had lost, but declined in order to stay with the party and face Strahd together. Adrian was deeply moved by her loyalty and selflessness and even more determined to ensure that it wouldn't all be in vain.

All of the evils they experienced in Barovia, and the bitterness they found even in success, it all tied back, in some way or another, to Strahd and his foul influence.

Though previously disinclined towards killing, Adrian began to accept the idea in general, and became convinced that there was no other way to deal with Strahd. He was equally convinced that the party simply didn't have the power to do that, and that they might die before ever reaching that point. Because of this, he became more and more reckless and obsessive in his pursuit of power, desperate to protect the friends who had become like family to him.

Through all this, Strahd taunted the party and... courted Adrian, sometimes even offering him gifts. He'd cut off Adrian's communication with his patron, but he offered to take Raphael's place and become Adrian's patron instead, promising to answer his prayers and give him what he needed to unlock his true potential. He saw Adrian's hunger for power and recognized himself in it. Adrian came very close to accepting Strahd's offer (in the hopes that he might turn that potential against Strahd in the end) but refused him eventually.

That desire for power still remained, however. When the party visited the Amber Temple, they found Barovia's old gods entombed there. To touch their coffins would be to make a pact with them, and despite the pleading of his friends and several attempts to restrain him, Adrian managed to do exactly that. Laneth gifted him with some of her power in his quest against Strahd. Because of her "gift", he could no longer touch people without making them deathly ill, but he could rip out their hearts and gain an extra spell slot so... checkmate, atheists? The rest of the party was NOT thrilled about this for some reason, though at least Adrian wasn't the only one who did it. Taulok also touched a coffin and gained the power of an ancient druid and that was about when they became Adrian's favourite party member.

All of these gothic fantasy horror shenanigans culminated in Strahd's wedding with Ireena. After receiving an invitation written by Ireena herself — a last attempt at seeking the party's aid in freeing her from her coming fate — the party reconnected with allies they had made on the journey and finally made their way to Strahd's castle to face him.

Since we're still playing out the end of this campaign, I'll be taking Adrian from just before he enters the castle grounds.

Possessions: He's possessed by like 3 guys I'm sorry I didn't plan this—

Anyway I'm cutting out his spell focus, which allows him to mostly ignore material components in his spells, because I want him to work a bit for spellcraft materials. Aside from that, his other nonmagical items are:
- Travelling Cloak & an adventurer's pack with all the standard accoutrements (rope, a few days of rations, torches, a bedroll, etc)
- A handful of gold and silver coins
- A few books (non-magical, including Snow Dwarf and the Seven Whytes)
- 1 pot of rare ink + pen, which can be used to inscribe ritual spells on his skin (but is just ordinary ink if he doesn't find any ritual spells)
- Does his eye count as an item..? It's technically a cursed item that's bonded to him. It usually stays in his eye socket.

Weapon: N/A - he has magic

Powers/Abilities: I'm sorry, but I'm putting in the coded power section to (hopefully?) make it easy to read. I will be rolling checks for any spells that normally require it in D&D just for fun and just handwaving him whiffing the spells or having them not work if I run into situations where they might conflict with an event or, you know, for the bit.

I had a couple of questions/notes to ask about:

Flying - Adrian can magical girl transform into an angel and fly for exactly 1 minute per day. Is that something you want me to nerf in any way (outside of the aforementioned 'doesn't work if conflicting with an event') or is that kind of fine since it has a hard limit anyway?

Speak with Dead / Animate Dead - tl;dr Adrian can ask dead people questions and also raise humanoid skeletons or a corpses as undead servants if he chooses. He typically avoids using these because he thinks it's deeply disrespectful to the dead, but he will still turn to them in dire situations, and usually bury the corpse as soon as it's no longer needed for a specific task. I know there aren't any specific rules against this, but even so it's kinda weird so I just want to double check if I should nerf this in any way or if it's fine as-is!

Otherwise, I think everything is detailed in the power section below.




Application Questions

Who is the most important person in their life and why? What might be different if this person hadn't been around?

Though I think his mothers both influenced him heavily in different ways, it's probably Laura. Adrian had a pretty specific path that he was expected to go down, and she was one of the only people who supported him in pursing his own goals and interests, even if they weren't in any way extraordinary. He has since lost his way, but Laura is still someone he looks up to and takes after. Even his choice to take on his warlock pact ultimately came from a place of love and self-sacrifice, largely because of the values they share.

He'd be too ashamed of his current situation to seek her advice or return any of her letters even if he could, but if she hadn't been around things would have gone very differently for him far earlier in his life. That mix of privilege and insecurity that he was born into could have made him the sort of person who treated the people around him as stepping stones in his path, or closed himself off to protect himself from pain and disappointment. If anything, his problem is that he's over-corrected in the other direction by trying to emulate her, and his compulsion to care for and protect others is the reason for a lot of his Problems.

Is there an event in your character's life that they'd do differently? How so and why?

Probably the whole mediator situation in the mountains. In retrospect, he was hopelessly naive in trusting the Lords' Alliance to have noble goals. He thinks that the whole thing was at least partly his fault because of that. He should have realized sooner that he was a just a decorative chess piece, or attempted to wield his family's influence to put a stop to things before winter came. If pressed, he might acknowledge that it was out of his hands, but even so — it's easier to blame himself than to feel powerless. He just thinks that the real tragedy of that situation is that the suffering was all so petty and needless.

He probably should regret his warlock deals and how they altered the trajectory of his life, but despite the significant cost of the power he's gained, he wouldn't make another choice if he had the option, if only because it would mean allowing people he loved to die or be hurt when he had some other recourse.

What's the greatest challenge you foresee your character facing in the setting?

Not clicking on any 'hot single eldritch horrors in your area want to give you power' ads.

This is only mostly a joke.

He's had it reinforced to him over and over that the only way to stop truly evil people from just doing whatever the hell they want, which is making everyone miserable under their heels, is to be more powerful than them so you can 1. Protect your friends from that fate and 2. Kill The Bastards. What's one more little pact? What's a few more spells? How much worse can he do to himself?

Adrian is still actually a pretty decent person. He's still reluctant to kill (people other than Strahd) even despite everything. But he's walking a line that gets thinner and thinner by the day, and I'm interested in seeing how far he's pushed by the circumstances of this new setting that has both power and danger to offer.

I'm also very excited to put him in a situation where he no longer has enough resources to survive as a given, and actually has to figure out how to get by day-to-day like someone who isn't rich or well-furnished with adventuring supplies. He worked at a grocery store in one of my tdm threads and he still doesn't know how much a cabbage is supposed to cost. This is his 'not looking at the bill' to 'tallying every item on the list in his head before checkout' arc. What do you MEAN he can't just get more money?

Technology will also be a barrier for him, but I don't think it's SUPER high up on the list, all told.

What's the easiest thing you foresee your character adapting to in the setting?

Probably the idea of not going home? That might change, but at the moment he's already made his peace with the idea of never returning home after everything he's done (mostly to himself), and whether that's from Diadem or Barovia doesn't really make a huge difference to him. While he doesn't really regret what he's done, he still can't bear the idea of showing his face to his family and friends as he is now, or seeing them and not even being able to embrace them.

Otherwise, Adrian is actually surprisingly hardy despite looking like he has the constitution of an orchid. Long, gruelling shifts and even longer travel (on foot) aren't new to him. Though he still lacks self-preservation instincts, he has enough wherewithal to take precautions and makes up for his lack of insight (sometimes) with observational and investigative skills. He's very people-oriented and tends to form bonds quickly and encourage others to do the same, like an outdoor cat that really wants to be brought inside. This will probably get him into a lot of trouble in this setting, but being able to form those bonds will also help him survive and maybe not lose himself completely.


Samples

Sample: TDM top level