I had this post in my drafts for a while. Since January 2022, I have been playing in a semi-weekly campaign at Bad Wolf Adventure Studios. During that time, I grew attached to my character, Levenia, the half-elf Blood Hunter. While I have played TTRPGs, I feel like this was a new experience for me. I never reached a point where I felt a connection to the character that I was playing. Creating and crafting Levenia, I really liked playing as her. She’s fiercely intelligent, able to hold her own in combat, and at times, has been in peril where I genuinely wasn’t sure how she was going to survive. Last month, our group began the tumultuous battle against Strahd and I wanted to share how the battle went.

Our group began the session by defeating Rahadin, Strahd’s right-hand guard. Rahadin is an evil character, arguably eviler than Strahd since Rahadin helped Strahd slaughter the other female Dusk Elves. It was made aware to our group that Strahd may have the capability of bringing Rahadin back to life, so the situation became a “now or never” to take on Strahd once and for all.

Our group used our knowledge of Ravenloft to make a decision to travel to the top of one of the towers in Ravenloft. Sure enough, Strahd was there and our battle began. As a side note, my hands were so sweaty, I don’t think I have ever been more nervous to play a session of DnD before. Our cleric used the “Holy Symbol of Ravenkind” which is extremely powerful. The holy symbol can create sunlight for ten minutes which is a must-have for taking on a vampire. Strahd quickly became annoyed and ripped the amulet out of our cleric’s hands and threw it down the stairs. Rude. I came in with the “Sunsword” which is the closest thing to a lightsaber in Barovia. Levenia kept stabbing Strahd which worked great since the Sunsword deals extra damage to undead creatures. Strahd being super annoyed, ripped the Sunsword out of my hand as well.

Strahd quickly disappeared and began climbing higher up the tower. Our group raced after him. As we did, we noticed that we were at the top of the tower. Behind Strahd was this massive bird called “The Roc of Mount Ghakis”. Roc’s are massive birds in DnD and can be a real threat especially since we are on top of a tower and could be knocked off at any point. Our cleric pulled a quick move by utilizing “Divine Intervention”. Divine Intervention is an action in which our cleric could call upon The Raven Queen (or another deity) to act in a time of need. Having a gigantic bird acting as a servant to a Vampire feels like it fits this definition. Our DM rolled for us and it worked!! The Raven Queen appeared and pulled the Roc into a portal. Our group cheered because we did not think it would work and having to fight off an additional creature would have made this battle much more difficult.

After seeing The Raven Queen help, we returned to Strahd. Strahd did throw one of our allies off the tower which sucked since she’s a Barbarian / Rogue. However, we kept picking off Strahd and Levenia got the killing blow. I couldn’t believe that I was the one to take down Strahd. It was so satisfying. With Strahd’s demise, Strahd turns into mist and flew towards his coffin. If Strahd reached his coffin before we did, Strahd could be revived. It was one of those “oh shit” moments as our group ran to try and beat Strahd to his coffin. As our group approached, we realized that one of the NPCs that we brought with us, Rudolph Van Richton, permanently sealed Strahd’s coffin. Our DM revealed that since we brought Rudolph with us, he helped ensure that Strahd couldn’t be brought back to life meaning Strahd has officially been defeated. After defeating Strahd, we did have to fight a Lich, but that’s a story for a different time.

It’s bittersweet to say that Curse of Strahd is over. I have been encompassed by the story, seeing my character evolve, and seeing our group work together. Since finishing Curse of Strahd, I have had a month off from playing DnD which I think was needed. It helped solidify the memories of the final battle and allow for some time off. I am starting a new campaign this week, so I will share more about that once I know what character I will be playing and what the world will be like. I’m thankful to have discovered Bad Wolf Adventure Studios and I’m looking forward to playing more DnD in the future.