Dark Powers

Quick Info Recap

Each Dark Power wants to claim Barovia as their own domain, like a pantheon of gods fighting for real estate.reddit

In order to claim Barovia, a Dark Power must have a mortal champion in that realm to act as their conduit.reddit

Currently, the ruling Dark Power is a being called Vampyr and his chosen champion is Strahd. At the time of the campaign, Vampyr and a dozen or so other Dark Powers are sealed within the vestiges at the Amber Temple.reddit

Vampyr

Vampyr is currently the big baddy in charge of Barovia. In my first post, I talked about how a true ending for CoS might be defeating Vampyr, not Strahd.reddit

I haven’t yet created a character sheet for Vampyr, as my players are a long way off from summoning him (if they even want to), but it would have to be an epic thing. Vampyr is a god, after all. Should I ever get to his creation and/or if my party ever encounters him, I’ll be sure to share the results here.reddit

In appearance, I see Vampyr as the ultimate devil vampire. I picture Chernabog, from Disney’s Fantasia, personally. He’s a giant, horned, undead devil that rises from mists like a living shadow. That should make for a pretty epic boss fight, I’d say. ;)reddit

Other Dark Powers

Throughout the campaign, other Dark Powers are constantly on the lookout for champions that can help them take Barovia from Vampyr. Anyone of both exceptional power and questionable moral activity can draw the Dark Power’s attention. In other words, it won’t take long for your player characters to fall into their sights. As the story progresses, your players will both become stronger and come across horrific side plots meant to corrupt them, making them all the more favorable to a Dark Power.reddit

Customized Dark Powers

Unlike Vampyr, my players will never have to fight the other Dark Powers. They have no hold on Barovia, after all. They’re more like super powerful NPCs than outright villains.reddit

Before even beginning the campaign, I put together a Dark Power/god for each of my players to become attached to based on my player characters’ backstories and personality traits. I wanted to make sure these gods were individualized so that it would feel like my players were specifically chosen by their Dark Power. Not just anyone would do. Of course, my players had no idea I was tailoring their own personal devils from the get-go.reddit

I’m going to give you guys the details of these gods that I’ve designed. Feel free to use them in your campaign or as inspiration for another Dark Power for your own players. While I can’t help you personalize your own evil pantheon, maybe you can use what I’ve come up with as a jumping off point.reddit

Delban, the Star of Ice and Hate

This is the first Dark Power I customized. This guy actually appears as a vestige sealed inside the Amber Temple and gives the spell, Cone of Cold, to whoever accepts his gift.reddit

Attached Party Member

- My teifling warlock player was looking for an appropriate patron and she came to me for advice. I definitely wanted her patron to be a Dark Power and an existing one seemed like the best option at the time. Delban is a star and therefore a wonderful option for the Great Old One pact, which she wanted to take.reddit

- Story wise, the warlock doesn’t know exactly when she made her pact and she grew up as an orphan in Baldur’s Gate. What I’ve come up with privately is that she was actually born in Barovia. There was a tragic accident that would have cost her her infant life, but luckily Delban stepped in to save her. He gave her magic with one stipulation: the demand that she “free him.” My warlock still doesn’t know that her patron is sealed somewhere in the Amber Temple, but he’s been whispering to her all her life.reddit

Delban’s Personality

- I’ve made Delban into quite the demonic force. He’s got a deep, coarse voice that’s meant to make him sound like a goliath of a problem.reddit

- He’s also got no time for nonsense and no use for weakness. He actively puts down my warlock when she fails and says nothing when she succeeds, like a horrible father figure.reddit

- Delban is a real power hungry dick and my dear warlock is quite literally stuck with him. At his core, he’s meant to be abusive and apathetic. He gets a rush from bloodlusts and little else.reddit

Delban’s Powers

- Going from the “Ice and Hate” bit, I made sure Delban’s powers have everything to do with ice and cold. He’s pretty much the Elsa of the Dark Powers. Because my warlock is Delban’s champion, his cold powers have changed her too.reddit

- Tieflings are known to be associated with fire. My warlock is not because of her pact with Delban. For instance, she has a resistance to cold damage instead of fire and her Hellish Rebuke ability lets off a wave of piercing cold frost instead of fire. Overall, these changes are almost entirely cosmetic, but they make a huge difference story-wise.reddit

The Evening Glory

This particular Dark Power is described as “the embodiment of love made eternal through death.”reddit

The Evening Glory actually comes from the Adventure League CoS material. I used those modules to help inspire other things I added and/or changed throughout the main campaign as well. While I didn’t use everything the modules had surrounding the Evening Glory in my campaign, I drew my inspiration from them.reddit

Attached Party Member

- I customized the Evening Glory for my fighter character. In short, his backstory is that his beloved wife was brutally murdered and he’s on the hunt for her killers (werewolves). A dead lover made the Evening Glory a great match for this player.reddit

Glory’s Personality

- I really wanted the Evening Glory to be a more deceptive Dark Power. Delban, for instance, is quite obviously evil. Glory, however, appears as an angelic woman with long, radiant hair and wears a white dress. She’s deceptively beautiful and convinces others that she’s good.reddit

- Glory is meant to play the innocent, not the seductress. She doesn’t flirt with the players or anything, but rather convinces them to fight for her in the same way a princess might dote on a gallant knight.reddit

- The Evening Glory is inspired by true love. She believes in the bonds between individuals more than anything else. However, this belief is completely tainted, for Glory also thinks that anything left alive too long will inevitably erode and tarnish… even love. Because of this, she believes that the greatest mercy to be given is death. Anything bright and wonderful and good must be killed before can be corrupted. And that’s what makes her evil.reddit

Glory’s Powers

- The Evening Glory’s powers are meant to be as deceptive as her appearance. She specializes in light/radiant attacks and magic.reddit

- Her abilities also grant a lot of instant death. For instance, if your player has a bond with Glory and tries to go for a non-lethal kill, it will automatically kill the target anyway.reddit

- Glory also has a lot of petrification abilities that can turn figures into marble or glass statues. After all, a statue cannot age or tarnish. Remember, she wants to preserve beautiful things.reddit

Turian, Whisperer of Words and Handsomeness

Turian is essentially the ultimate trickster who plays in the shadows. This is the only Dark Power that I made up entirely from scratch. I’ve got no basis for him, except that he’s meant to fit my player character.reddit

Attached Party Member

- I’ve got a wisecracking rogue in my party who’s friggin hilarious. He gets himself into more trouble than any person should, but he’s wily enough to also get himself out of trouble too. I wanted to give him a god that he could relate to so that he’d be more inclined to fall for the Dark Power.reddit

Turian’s Personality

- Turian is a god of chaos. He’s the kind that likes to push the “Do Not Push” button just to see what will happen. He pretends to make friends with mortals but in reality feels no connection to them, preferring to use them and turn brother against brother for his own entertainment. What he hates the most is the boring and mundane.reddit

- Turian physically appears the most human in my lot of Dark Powers. If my players come in contact with him, I want them to like him. He’s sort of that cynical friend that curses all the time and that should make him somewhat endearing to them. However, they won’t know that’s he’s actively playing to their whims and desires to turn them against one another.reddit

- Turian is, above all things, the ultimate liar. He’s chaos incarnate; a version of Loki from old Norse mythology.reddit

Turian’s Powers

- Turian’s powers center around 2 things: deceit and speed. I made him for my rogue player, after all.reddit

- Any power having to do with Turian is going to be fast paced, allowing his champion to zip around and sneak like a boss. They’ll also have levels of enchantment and illusion magic, allowing them to trick and manipulate multiple enemies at once.reddit

Super Saiyan/Beast Mode

This is by far the best thing I’ve done with the Dark Powers. Throughout the campaign, I’ve placed certain story markers and triggers that will summon a Dark Power to a character. These instances will usually occur at a place of great turmoil and desperation, where the player is more likely to want the help a god can give them, evil or not. Upon acceptance, the player will effectively enter a temporary Beast Mode version of themselves, complete with super powers reflective of their Dark Power patron.reddit

For these instances, I secretly made a copy of each of my player’s character sheets and then leveled them up to level 19. Their stats went through the roof and they had more traits than even I knew what to do with. But on top of all that, I gave them extra abilities that suited their Dark Power. I’ve been quietly keeping these beefed up character sheets to myself until the right time story-wise.reddit

When to break out these powerful, temporary character sheets is up to you as the DM.reddit

- I would recommend you plan for them, though. Set up some “if, then” scenarios. ‘If my players do this at this location, then the druid will hit Beast Mode’, for example.reddit

- Also, use these sparingly. You don’t want to overindulge your players after all. You want them to feel like Beast Mode is a wonderful, one-time reward.reddit

An example from my campaign:

- So far, I’ve only had the opportunity to use one Beast Mode character and boy-howdy did my players have fun. I purposefully pushed them into an encounter that was far beyond their limits and it was looking really grim. They were all fleeing for their lives when I brutally murdered the warlock. In her dying breaths, Delban came to her and offered her a “cure for her weakness.” And then…. BEAST MODE ACTIVATE. She had level 9 spells and her eldritch blast was a minor weapon of mass destruction. She went to town and utterly crushed the enemies that had just tried to kill her. The session ended wonderfully. She’d never gotten to use a level 5 character sheet before, let alone a level 19. This was actually one of my most successful sessions.reddit

And that’s what I’ve got on fleshing out the Dark Powers. Make them characters and tailor them to your players. Then, when the time is right, bestow certain gifts on your players from their Dark Power. This can enhance your campaign and be super fun for everyone involved. It also pushes towards possible endings for the campaign, as I outlined in my first post. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!reddit