The Shadow

Autari grew among gears and brass, beneath the warm hum of his father’s workshop. A curious halfling with deft hands and a mind for mechanisms, he learned to pick locks as easily as others learned to pray.

When the stranger came, the man with eyes like burnt gold and a smile that never reached them, Autari’s world went up in green fire.

His father vanished into smoke and myth, leaving behind only a symbol burned into the boy’s memory and a promise: Find me, if you dare.

He followed that promise through rain and ruin, until the road led him into Barovia, a land where darkness devours even the best intentions.

And yet, among warriors, mages, and priests, it was Autari who remained kind.

Where others burned or broke, he endured.

He stole when he had to, but never from need of greed; he lied when he must, but never for malice.

His heart, small and stubborn, kept the light alive long after the holy men had fallen silent.

But in Barovia, even the brightest flame casts a long shadow.
When the moment came Autari, too, made a bargain.

A single whisper, a single choice, and the mists took a part of him.

His father was gone.

His friends were ghosts of who they once were.

The land was quiet.

So when a wanderer offered him a way out, a path towards a promise of redemption, Autari followed.

He crossed the border of Barovia with nothing but his will intact.
He never looked back.

But the Shadowfell remembers its own.

Shared Story

These are all characters from our Curse of Strahd campaign:

• Brenth, the Dwarf Paladin;
• Kerning, the Elf Mage;
• Emlon, the Elf Priest;
• Rand, the Vampire Elf Warlock;
• Autari, the Halfling Rogue.

Each ventured into the land of Barovia for their own reasons, yet none could escape its pull alone.

Bound by chance and broken by fate, they fought not only Strahd’s darkness, but the shadows within themselves.

Epilogue

The final image in the concept art section portrays their respective epilogues : the ending of their journey.