🦇🥀🦇🥀

Ismark takes another long draw from his lukewarm coffee, then nervously taps his fingers against the tin mug. Doru flicks the book open and scrutinizes it as if he were reading a Vallakian gossip column. His top lip curls to expose his fangs, and Ismark’s stomach squeezes.

He’s spent far too much time staring at Doru’s mouth over the years, studying the way it ticks upward into a perpetual smirk. Even before his lips were hiding a mouthful of fangs, there was always a whisper of profanity on them, a dangerous promise. The fangs only add to Doru’s devil-may-care charm.

Ismark catches himself leaning forward as Doru tilts back, the front two feet of his chair teetering off the ground. “Can I ask you something?”

“Mhm.” Ismark swallows, his throat tight.

“Are you so eager to embrace Soris’s beliefs about vampires because you genuinely believe them—or because you feel like you have to?”

“Why would I have to?”

“Because if there really is no cure for me, and you won’t kill me, then…” He lets his chair fall back down and gestures over his chest. “Then this is a real problem.”

“You’ve always been a real problem.” Ismark rolls his eyes…

“Morninglord have mercy, golden boy. What am I going to do with you?” Doru rolls his eyes. “I swear, if you ever try to die for me again, I’ll make sure Soris revives you just so I can kill you myself. Understand?”

“I understand,” Ismark says on low laugh. He wraps an arm around Doru’s shoulders and leans in to kiss his forehead.

Doru makes a face. “Quit being cute when I’m irritated. You scared the piss out of me. And I—I don’t know what I would do without you. Both of you. It’s like…” He tugs at the edges of his cloak.

Soris senses something bothering him and presses, “What is it?”

“It’s just that I read in a… a book about how most vampires don’t start off evil. But over time, they evolve that way. Because as the years pile on and the loses stack up, the integrity of one’s soul gets worn down until... it breaks.”

“That won’t happen to you,” Ismark says. “You’re too good.”

“No, you are. And someday, you’ll be gone, and I’ll still be—”

“Someday,” Soris says. She slots her fingers between his and gives his cool palm a squeeze. “But not today. And to be honest, I’ve spent quite enough of my life worrying about death that I’m perfectly ready to just live for a while.”

Doru blows into his bangs. “Is forever ‘a while’ enough?”

“Nothing is forever, Doru. Not even vampires.”

“Hm,” he tuts and squeezes her hand back.

🦇 Continue Reading Chapter 21

cost of pity

paloma feeds doru quickly and secretly while helping him flee the wrath of the village of barovia.

aka the blood drinking chapter, including a game of F*ck, Marry, Kill in the Ravenloft crypts and a creative use for strahd's coffin

Doru looks down at his clawed hands splayed atop the polished wood and says quietly, “The night I stormed the castle, I thought the worst thing that could happen was I’d die a hero—or like the martyrs from Pop’s scriptures. The ones who are fashioned into icons and have hymns sung about them. The possibility of becoming one the monsters myself wasn’t even a mote of possibility.” He shakes his head. “I was a damned fool.”

“Why do you always say ‘monster’ like it’s the opposite of ‘hero’?” Soris asks, hovering over his shoulder.

He looks back at her. “Because it is. Heroes are forces for good. Monsters are forces for evil, and I— I’m…”

“You think you’re evil?” He feels her inquisitive gaze picking him apart. “Because you want to drink from me?”

He cringes away, too humiliated to form an answer.

“You can, you know,” she says with a baffling shrug. “I don’t mind.”

“I mind, Soris.” He balls his hands into fists. “It’s wicked to consume the blood of another. I’ve taken what you’ve given me because the alternative is to lose my mind. But this existence…” He feels frustration kindling inside him. “It’s nothing but a delicate balance of insanity or sin. How is my nature not evil?”

🦇 Continue Reading Chapter 14

Some Sunday Doru x Ismark Fluff

Doru stands as still as a wooden post, letting Ismark crush him. Tears that had been swimming in Ismark’s eyes come cascading down now. Doru can feel them dripping on his ear as the scruff of Ismark’s unshaven face rubs against his cheek. Slowly, after the shock wears off, Doru places an arm around Ismark’s back, drawing him in, his own throat tightening.

“It—it’s been such a nightmare.” His voice wavers.

“But you’re awake now.”

“Am I?” Doru swallows. “Ismark, I–I’m so scared.”

Ismark pulls back just enough to place his hands around Doru’s neck and meet his eyes. “The unknown is always scary, but it won’t be forever. You’re safe now, and you’re in more than capable hands. Soris says that once you’re stable, you’ll be able to live like this for… well, eternity.”

“Eternity?” Doru feels his stomach bottom out, and Ismark’s blood slosh around inside. “I don’t even know what’s happening tomorrow.”

11. What, in your opinion, is the wildest change you made from cannon?

Probably the wildest change is I added like a dozen hags that weren't in there originally -- so many hags I needed to justify in the narrative why there are so any hags in Barovia! (Basically a result of Strahd's desecration of the Fanes.)

I made Baba Lysaga a hag (she's already 90% there) who used to be a human woman, same with the coven in Ravenloft and Madame Eva. I added Jenny Greenteeth, and also added like three additional hags that are essentially OCs (one is now dead via curse but cursed every other hag in Barovia before dying so she'd be sure to get the one who killed her.) One can only be found in a random encounter!

3. What did your players do with Doru?

My party handled Doru SO WELL. The question of what to do with Doru led to excellent roleplay, revealing things about each character. In the end they gave him a little blood to calm him down and convinced Ismark and Donovich to keep feeding him while they left, hoping to find a cure. Some people do this and just leave Doru behind, but I ended up sending them back to the village on a plot hook, and I figured the teen vampire would require some maintenance. There was a whole thing where Bildrath and some of the other villagers were getting suspicious about the weird noises from the church.

My party ended up basically doing a haunted house, where they used Silent Image to create the impression of a ghost Doru who was haunting his father (correctly assuming that Barovians would be more chill about that than a vampire and leave him alone.)