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Product Type: DMing Tools
CoS-Required? Yes
Curse of Strahd is a popular campaign; perhaps one of the most popular. But it suffers from poor organization, some encounters of questionable balance, and less-than-progressive holdovers in portrayal of certain groups, among other things. There’s a cottage industry of what I like to call “overhaul guides” for this adventure, which are basically online advice articles and revisions for making a DM’s Curse of Strahd campaign the best it can be. There exist both free and paid-for overhaul guides, and given that Wyatt Trull’s Curse of Strahd Companion is currently a best-seller on the front page of the DM’s Guild, such products are a hot commodity.
She Is the Ancient, abbreviated SitA by me for brevity, is similar to such guides in that it makes changes and revisions to the campaign along with some general advice. But beyond just these details, it adds a rather interesting thematic change throughout the book: not only does it make Strahd Von Zarovich a woman, it changes up the genders of most NPCs in the module. These aren’t just surface-level changes, either. Motivations, backstories, and even personalities for various characters have been altered as well, albeit the crux of the module still remains the same. The PCs get stranded in an alien gothic valley ruled by a cruel vampire, and they must defeat her (plus or minus a few magic items and Destined Ally) should they hope to escape.
Unlike some other overhaul guides, SitA alters characters, and sometimes relevant subplots and stats, first and foremost. Each significant area has an NPC Map showing how most named characters connect to each other as well as organizations and locations. Additionally, most of them have full-page write-ups giving artwork and physical description, locations of interest where they can be found, their relationships with other NPCs, and common mannerisms.
Another strength of the book is that we have personally illustrated portraits for many NPCs, including ones that didn’t get unique art in the default adventure. SitA also isn’t stand-alone; beyond just needing the core rules and Curse of Strahd, regular references are made to Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. While there are helpful links to DND Beyond, it is a tad pricier in requiring the addition of the 2021 setting book on top of this product and the base adventure.
She Is the Ancient opens up with covering the most important NPC of this entire adventure. Female Strahd’s reimagining is intended to move her away from the traditional patriarchal male abuser/predator that is the original character while still maintaining her as a villain. In this version, Strahd von Zarovich* was still a fearsome general who helped colonize the valley that would become Barovia, but she sought to have her brother Sergei carry on in her example. Sergei sought another path, a path of settling down to a more peaceful life by marrying the woman of his dreams, a commoner by the name of Tatyana. Strahd seethed with anger that Sergei would give up all they fought for “a woman he barely even knows.” Strahd’s advisors reinforced her negative sentiments with conspiracies, such as ideas that Tatyana was after the family name and prestige and could even be plotting to overthrow her! At the advice of Kasimir, Strahd visited the Amber Temple to make a deal with a being known as Vampyr to cement her rule eternally over the valley, and soon she’d grow colder and more overtly resentful to her brother and his beloved. In the belief that Sergei was being brainwashed by Tatyana, Strahd did the unthinkable and murdered him, drinking his blood as she became a monster in every sense of the word, starting the massacre at Castle Ravenloft that saw the kingdom claimed by the Mists. Instead of jumping off the tower walls, Tatyana was killed by Lea Dilisnya, one of Strahd’s soldiers who sought to use the chaos to take power, only to become Strahd’s first vampire spawn and starve to death in a stone coffin.
*Should be Strahd von Zarov
na, if we’re following typical Barovian surname conventions.
History proceeded much as it did in Barovia’s default timeline. However, Tatyana’s reincarnations were met with pure hate rather than lust and longing, with Strahd growing increasingly hateful and resentful as the Dark Powers taunted her, bringing Tatyana back every lifetime in some other form. But over time, realizing what she had lost, Strahd’s hate transformed into something else: a warped sense of love, now seeing something in Tatyana that her brother did. And so, like male Strahd, she tried courting her, only for the Dark Powers to kill Tatyana in various fashions.
Female Strahd’s main goal in SitA is to find a means of escaping Barovia’s imprisonment, as well as a means of raising Sergei from the dead as something other than an undead abomination. She still wants Tatyana (now Ireena) to love her, but as a controlling tyrant with anger issues she doesn’t trust anyone else to keep her safe like she can, and will find ways to separate Ireena from the PCs. Should Ireena continue to reject her, Strahd will default to her prior goals of resurrecting Sergei and expanding her iron grip over Barovia.
Another big change is that Strahd’s consorts-turned-vampire-spawn are treated much better. The consorts at Castle Ravenloft are given their own luxurious rooms rather than coffins in the crypt. Female Strahd takes the carrot over stick approach as a means of encouraging loyalty and incentives to serve her. This is a particularly big change that the book espouses. It has this quote near the beginning:
“VAMPIRES SHOULD UNDERSTAND CONSENT BETTER THAN ANY MONSTER. THEY LITERALLY HAVE TO ASK FOR PERMISSION TO ENTER A HOME."
Jayden King
Which is then repeated regarding the treatment of her consorts:
Vampires understand consent well, being unable to enter a home without permission from its owner. This trait is prominent in Strahd von Zarovich. She will not take on a new partner as a vampire spawn unless they enthusiastically consent.
In a way, this is lessening the implied sexual predation and power imbalances that come with a vampire and their spawn: FemStrahd only wants people who know exactly what they’re in for to become vampire spawn and romantic partners. However, this approach kind of opens up some holes. As the head vampire, there’s still a power imbalance in their relationship dynamics. Secondly, there are cases where Strahd turns others into vampire spawn in this book against their will, but not to make into romantic partners. The consent in this case is speaking of a romantic/sexual nature, but in mentioning the “can’t enter homes without permission” this then ties back into the concept of consent in a non-sexual context. Which is then muddied, given that FemStrahd is still a brutal dictator who turns unwilling people into vampire spawn and commits other atrocities.
Female Strahd has her own stat block. It takes a lot of cues from default Strahd, but with some prominent changes: she’s Challenge Rating 20, is proficient in Intelligence saves, has a variety of immunities to common conditions (notably charmed and frightened), has Blindight out to 60 feet, can use an Arcane Burst as a ranged or melee spell attack dealing cold and necrotic damage she can combine with her Multiattacks, and has access to some higher-level magic than default Strahd such as Finger of Death and Power Word Pain. FemStrahd also has unique reactions, able to take up to 2 of them a round, and a potential third if she spends 2 Legendary Actions: Mistbound Counterspell is like the spell of the same name but is line of sight, and Unkind Rebuke lets her teleport after being hit by an attack as a flock of ravens damages the attacker with necrotic damage.
But the most important change from regular Strahd is her complete lack of Lair Actions.
Default Strahd’s dreaded noclipping through solid surfaces ability isn’t present in SitA, which alters her tactics in the final battle in Castle Ravenloft considerably. If anything, it makes FemStrahd weaker to the Wall of Force/Forcecage + Sunsword tactic, as she has no means of escaping with the abilities she has. While she can teleport away as a reaction, the specifics of that ability’s wording mention “being hit by an attack.” Taking damage from sunlight requires no attack roll and comes from the item’s environmental effect, not requiring a roll to hit.
FemStrahd is stronger in several areas, like a higher proficiency bonus, more hit points, and a more damaging ranged attack than Ray of Frost, but she is far less mobile and can’t easily summon additional undead like male Strahd can.
The next section provides revisions for two of the sample hooks leading into the campaign, such as Arrigal’s forged letter mentioning Ismark being threatened by a vampire rather than Ireena, or having a random encounter with wolves near the dead messenger in the Svalich Woods. An additional introductory hook, Between the Mists, is provided. It opens with each individual PC having dreams about a land covered in mists along with glimpses of the other PC’s faces. During their travels, the PCs end up crossing paths as they’re taken by the Mists, appearing in front of a twenty-house settlement known as Hapry Village. The place seems virtually abandoned, but they can find a dying man in one of the houses should they hear his pleas for help. Should they seek him out, he will tell them that it’s too late and they should save themselves. A procession of cultists worshiping Strahd (but don’t refer to her by name) come into the village square to conduct a human sacrifice in the belief it will keep monsters at bay. Instead, a pack of werewolves falls upon the cultists, and PCs have the opportunity to run away via Athletics checks. The book advises not infecting PCs with lycanthropy so soon in the campaign. And should the PCs fall in battle, they will wake up outside the road leading to the Village of Barovia.
Personally speaking, Hapry Village feels like filler. Death House is still used in She Is the Ancient, and while there’s some freedom in how the PCs can go about things there is some oversight in that the victims don’t have any possible information to share should they be rescued or healed.One could argue that this is a safe means of showing the party that not all fights in Barovia should be engaged, but there are other means of illustrating that in the default campaign itself.
Village of Barovia is our first big section. The backdrop to much of the town is the same as it is in Curse of Strahd. However, it is Ismark and not Ireena (their genders are still the same) who was adopted by Kalya (genderswapped Kolyan) after being found lost in the woods. We first cover Durst Manor, aka Death House, which has some revisions to both its background and the dungeon itself. Elizabeth and Gustav Durst still had a death cult sacrificing people, but were inspired by the Priests of Osybus to gain Strahd’s favor. Strahd didn’t approve of this, as it deprived her of newcomers to tease and torment as well as part of a deal with the Hags of Old Bonegrinder.* The Dursts had already grown addicted to the curse of cannibalism, so they continued despite her warnings, and Strahd and her vampire spawn descended upon the manner to kill everyone inside. Including the innocent Durst children. Based on the author’s personal notes, she removed the elements of miscarriage and child neglect given it was a topic most of the people the author gamed with didn’t want in their elfgames, and also placing Strahd partially at fault for the house’s curse helps cement her villainous nature. Some smaller changes to Death House include replacing the nursemaid ghost with a dead adventurer’s spirit, finding out how the Dursts drugged their guests via Investigation in the dining room, and replacing the shambling mound with a pair of new monsters who are the Durst parents. They are reduced Nosferatu, like the 5e monster of the same name but weaker CR 3 versions.
*Which as far as I can tell is never elaborated on in the rest of the product, try as I might with a CTRL + F search.
And what of the rest of the village? Well, the PCs first meet Ireena and Ismark in the Blood on the Vine Tavern. In SitA, Ismark is a 12 year old boy, and given that the Village of Barovia is no longer safe for families or children Ireena wishes the PCs to help escort her and her brother to Saint Andral’s Church in Vallaki. The church will pay 200 gold upon arrival, so PCs don’t get the money upfront. While she’s technically the Burgomaster, between monster sieges, fleeing people, and the hags kidnapping folk, the Village of Barovia is now virtually a ghost town. Ireena still wishes to bury her mother Kalya at the local cemetery, so that plot point remains the same.
In regards to stats, Ireena has a big upgrade to her default counterpart. She is effectively an Oath of Redemption Paladin, starting play at 39 hit points, comes equipped with splint mail, a longsword, shortsword, and heavy crossbow. Her highest stats are in Strength and Charisma, and she happens to add double her proficiency bonus to Persuasion checks, making her an effective party face. She can use a 2d8 healing touch twice per day, smite twice per day, cast 4 1st-level spells once per day each (bless, detect evil and good, sanctuary, sleep), use the Rebuke the Violent channel energy once per day, and has the Interception Fighting Style from Tasha’s that recharges on a 4-6 on a d6 during battle but she only use it when wielding a martial weapon. This Ireena has much more staying power than the default character and can hold her own against some of Barovia’s native terrors.
As for little Ismark, he is a noncombatant escort who still has the optimistic and naive outlook of a child in this dreary realm of Barovia. Ismark is aware that he’s adopted, but is unaware that his biological sister is still alive in Vallaki.
Regarding the other locations of note, Arika the barkeep is actually a conduit for Strahd’s scrying spell, who will be using this connection to check in on Ireena while she interacts with the PCs in the tavern. The three Vistani owners of the tavern have one of their own slowly dying from exhaustion by the night hags’ influence from Old Bonegrinder, and can share some general knowledge about the town with the PCs. Morgan the night hag still sells dream pastries to townsfolk, but when kidnapping people* he transforms them into toads which he keeps in jars at the bottom of the pie cart. The book says that the author still tries to make Morgon look and act unintimidating by making him like a “sweet grandfather with a gentle older man’s voice.” But the first scene the PCs see is him pricking a child with a needle to transform them into a frog after their parents standing in the doorway bring him out in exchange for pastries. I don’t care how nice someone acts, most gamers witnessing this are going to know that this guy is bad news and likely try to intervene. Unless of course this narrative characterization is meant to stand as a creepy contrast, to show that the worst monsters in Barovia are the ones that smile the widest. But like the original module, this risks pitting the PCs against a disguised night hag!
*Adults as well as children are used for dream pastry ingredients.
Mad Mary has become Miserable Marek, whose son Geralt ran away from home and got kidnapped by the night hags. Marek’s body is inhabited by a gibbering mouther that will attack the party. Later on in the book it mentions that ravens will squawk at the PCs as they approach Marek’s house like they do in Old Bonegrinder, but this relevant information isn’t present in SitA’s Village of Barovia chapter.
Bathilda’s Mercantile has a full-page menu of items for sale, which are still wildly inflated. Penny, the female version of Parriwimple, has the text mention she has “low intelligence but a +10 to Strength.” +10 to the Strength score of default Parriwimple, which would be a 28? Or +10 Strength modifier, which would be a score of 30? Either way, this makes Penny an amazing Destined Ally. If I had to guess it’s a Pippi Longstocking reference, as SitA also makes her a redhead with braids.
The village’s church is managed by Mother Dona, whose daughter Sashenka trained alongside Ireena to become a knight. It was this mindset that inspired her to join Mordenkainen’s failed siege of Castle Ravenloft, and came back as a vampire spawn. Who, much like the default adventure, is locked in the church’s basement. What separates Dona from her male version is that she wants the PCs to spare her daughter’s life rather than asking them to kill her. Mother Dona hopes to find a cure for vampirism as a means of saving her daughter, but if Sashenka loses hope for a cure she will break out of the church and return to Castle Ravenloft in the belief this is the best way to protect the ones she loves. PCs who show Sashenka mercy can have her tell them a bit about the grounds and layout of said castle, an addition I rather like.
Another big change SitA does that many in the CoS fandom do is having Strahd show up at the former burgomaster’s funeral. This is a very brief outline, and the book says it can unfold in several ways, from a brief “I’m sorry for your loss” speech by Strahd, to her disappearing back into the Mists, to summoning 1d12 wolves or a released Sashenka should the party initiate hostilities.
Tser Pool Encampment and
Faction: the Vistani goes into detail on the nomadic culture that features prominently in the Ravenloft setting. The author gives a quick shoutout to DragnaCarta’s Curse of Strahd Reloaded document for adding details to Tser Pool.* The largest change SitA makes to the Vistani is that barring Arrigal they’re not allies to Strahd, having more of a nonaggression pact with her. They’re also not prone to alcoholism, a change that WotC themselves incorporated. The book also briefly touches on some examples of antiziganist rhetoric to avoid, like their ability to place curses on people with magic derived from their ethnicity, and mentioning that the g-word is a slur. The Vistani in Barovia are but small groups that regularly pass through the greater mist-shrouded lands, acting as traveling merchants, performers, shepherds, and other occupations that can differ between bands and caravans. In the SitA rewrite, Madam Eva isn’t just a wise mystical leader of the caravan at the Tser Pool Encampment: they’re nonbinary and also one of the Ladies Three, a trio of archfey who managed the lands of Barovia before the Dark Powers claimed it. The other archfey are Baba Lysaga and Nana Vodnici, with the latter being a rusalka that lives beneath Lake Zarovich. The book also mentions taking a page from MandyMod’s Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd, which gives Eva an alliance with the wereravens to better connect her to the fane domain of air.
*And shouts out several other ideas they wrote up in other places in this book, such as the Fanes of Barovia.
We got some kickass artwork of Ezmerelda d’Avenir standing over a werewolf corpse, which is amusing to me. For in SitA, Ezmerelda is a male simply known as Ez and has a different-looking unique portrait. Ez’s backstory is in line with the one in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, where Ez’s family weren’t actually Vistani but instead posing as them while committing evil deeds. Additionally, while Van Richten is a woman in this version, she still has the masculine name Rudolph but has a female half-elf guise known as Rictavia. She’s still racist against Vistani in SitA, believing that all of them are in league with Strahd, but there’s no mention of that harebrained tiger plot.
The twist that SitA throws into Ez’s backstory is that when he lost his leg to a werewolf, he was also infected with lycanthropy and was offered by a disembodied whisper the means to cure it. That mysterious voice belonged to Azalin Rex, the Witch Tyrant, inadvertently binding Ez to her in a pact. The very same Azalin who Van Richten entreated to kill the Radavich clan, Ez’s original family.
Ez also gets a reworked stat block. He’s still a CR 8 martial spellcaster with proficiency in a lot of skills. However, instead of having Vancian casting like a wizard, he has several at-will cantrips and 1st level spells (including detect magic, protection from evil and good, and silent image) and can cast clairvoyance, greater invisibility, and magic circle once per day each. Instead of the typical Curse and Evil Eye of Vistani, Ez has a Dread Curse that deals 1d8 extra damage of a struck weapon type against the target, and has two bonus actions where he can use said curse in conjunction with either teleporting or dealing AoE psychic damage to nearby targets. Ez also has a special ability called Blade Swarm, generating an AoE cone of spectral blades dealing piercing and force damage to targets.
In terms of stats SitA’s Ez gets a power boost, much like Ireena and Penny. Blade Swarm deals a pretty good amount of damage, averaging more than his multiattack provided that targets fail their saves. Additionally, at-will Detect Magic and Silent Image are incredibly good for utility purposes, and given that this Ez uses Charisma as his casting modifier I presume that he’s a warlock rather than a wizard in this version. That being said…
What was that about Vistani using curses being a stereotype to avoid? I mean, it’s renamed and different from the curse ability that shows up in Vistani stat blocks, but there’s no indication in SitA Ez’s backstory where he learned this ability if it’s not tied to “Vistani magic.” Azalin, if I had to guess, but its vagueness is another thing that jumps out at me.
The Vistani section ends with an in-character tale of one of them talking about being witness to the battle between Strahd and Mordenkainen. The latter referred to merely as “a mighty wizard” in the tale.
Thoughts So Far: She is the Ancient is one of the most popular DM’s Guild products I’m reviewing, and it is a pretty faithful overhaul on a popular idea of making Strahd a woman. But it goes much farther than a simple genderswap, seeking to make a modified campaign with more progressive representation and messaging, detailed NPCs, and an Ireena who can hold her own in battle at middle-to-higher levels.
That being said, this initial foray into the book is quite rough. Like the original module, some of the information is either not where it needs to be or mentions something that doesn’t exist elsewhere in the product. And while the table of contents can take you to the pages clicked on, there are no bookmarks throughout this product which hurts navigation. Playing Strahd up as being less sexually predatory and who “cares about consent” feels less than successful for the reasons I mentioned above. Avoiding child neglect and miscarriage as triggers for Death House is a good idea, but it still has murdered children which can still be a common trigger for parents and others. Finally, the guide incorporates the Fanes of Barovia as a plot point as suggested by MandyMod and DragnaCarta’s overhaul guides. But given they both take different approaches to use of the Fanes this is a setback in that such a vital part of draining Strahd’s power is not in the book itself, but hyperlinked online resources with two different interpretations.
Join us next time as we visit the three old men at Old Bonegrinder, see the genderswapped NPCs populating Vallaki, and an alternate Lake Zarovich encounter!
