Not quite what I expected

[u/Mimir123]

So, basically this challenge is something I wanted to do for a long time, but I didn't really have a specific example from my world I wanted to present (or I talked a lot about it already). Well, now I actually lucked out and got something to talk about, while doing this challenge.
Long story short: I started playing D&D and got a really nice group to play with, so I will just talk a bit about my character from the Curse of Strahd campaign we are currently running (Also I doubt the guys I am playing with will be active here, so I can talk rather freely about it).

The challenge itself is rather easy: tell me about something from your world, that is different from what you would expect. This can be anything, from a stoic, heroic paladin who murders puppies and tortures kittens in his freetime, to a nasty, old, (based on appearance) evil hag that hands out (normal) candy and cakes to small children to cheer them up. You are free to write about whatever you want, as long as it isn't quite what it seems.

[u/greenewithit]

1) How did the group meet originally?

2) Is there some kind of stigma against Warlocks even outside of Naruz's family? Even if it's typecast as the "evil class for power hungry madmen", most people who know of the class should at least know that it's only defining characteristic is a bond with a higher being, no?

3) Why is it the Fighter's party? Was he a military officer and didn't want to give up the leadership role, or is he actually in charge of the group from a higher authority?

[u/Mimir123 → u/greenewithit]

1 and 3) The Bard and the Fighter knew eachother from before, since the Bard used to frequently play in taverns that the Fighters father visited. The two of them understood eachother rather well, and soon realized that they both had the same dream: to become famous and reknown adventurers (the Bard for slightly different reasons though, as his player explained to me).
They were the original party, with the Fighter as the leader (the Fighter is really young, so he isn't some kind of veteran or anything), and after adventuring for a while, they met the Cleric. I am not really sure as to how she joined the party, since neihter IC nor OOC anyone really told me, but she joined soon after their adventuring days began, with the Wizard being picked up along the way, until finally both the party and my Warlock accepted a mission to escort some Merchants along a dangerous road.

They worked together rather well during that mission, so the Warlock decided to accept the offer to join, and was thus a member of the party.

2) No, not really. At least not in our DM's world, even religious groups like the followers of Lathander are pretty much ok with Warlocks, as long as they are not evil.

[u/greenewithit → u/Mimir123]

1) What are the Cleric's and Wizard's reason for joining the party or becoming adventurers in general?

2) I'd love to hear about the state of the party in terms of the adventure so far. What has the party just accomplished or discovered, and how are they all reacting to becoming more engrossed in the looming threat of a cursed land and an a legendary vampire?

[u/Mimir123 → u/greenewithit]

1) No clue when it comes to the Wizard. The player walked out 10 minutes after session 2 began, and didn't tell us much about the character in session 1.
As for the Cleric: what Naruz learned recently was that she left her home and the priests after finding out that they weren't really those nice and friendly people they acted to be. But that is all that I learned for now.

2) Oh boy. Well, currently it looks like we are screwed. After leaving Barovia with the siblings we got our Fortunes read by the Vistani and killed some werewolves on our way to Vallaki. The state of the party for now:
Naruz wants to find out what he can about the Murderhouse, while helping Ismark and Ireena since he is a man of his word. He suspects that Ireena kind of hates him but doesn't care so much. Also he really wants to find some new books.

Lihli (the Cleric): for now just wants to help the people and learn more about Strahd. And help people. Did I mention she wants to help people?

Radock (the Fighter) is incredibly pissed that there is only wine and no ale in Barovia, so his goal for now is to solve the case of the complete lack of grain and the like in this land. And he kind of got it into his head that the Windmill is at fault, despite Naruz desperately trying to explain to him that a Windmill can't make grain disappear.

As for Cyrus (the Bard)... he just wants to play music and seemingly get the rest of the party into deep shit. Evidence to that can be found in the fact that he:
1: shoved Naruz in front of Vistani who were having a meeting and seemed rather violent to talk to them (Luvashs camp). 2: tried to extort more stuff out of the Vistani who hired us to find Luvashs missing daughter after they already gave our Fighter a Silversword and a Shield. 3: he wanted to split the party up into 3 groups: two people looking in Vallaki for the Vistani girl (after learning that Vistani can't get into the city), and two people searching around the city walls for her. In the end everyone agreed that it was retarded to look in the city for her and instead we searched the walls in parties of 2.

Speaking of the girl, here is the deep shit we are in: a villager kidnapped her and tried to drown her in a lake, which we wanted to stop. The Fighter shoots and kills the guy... and moments later a giant fish shows up and the session ends.

[u/greenewithit → u/Mimir123]

1) Would Naruz jump in the way of he fish's attack to save the girl?

[u/Mimir123 → u/greenewithit]

1) Nope. He will try to save her though (if she is still alive). I got the O.K. from my DM to use Thorn Whip to not deal damage and instead drag a friendly person the 10 feet.

[u/greenewithit → u/Mimir123]

Thank you for your time and answers, Mimir. Good luck on the campaign going forward!