Brannor

Race: Half Hill Giant/Half Dwarf

Class: Oath of Glory Paladin

Height: 8’6” (2.9 meters)

A towering warrior of mixed heritage, descended from a dwarf father and hill giant mother, Brannor brings both martial prowess and divine magic to the party. As a paladin sworn to an Oath of Glory, he channels divine power to protect and strengthen his allies.

Return to Barovia

This isn’t Brannor’s first time in Barovia. He previously visited Madame Eve, who prophesied that he would “lose the light.” That prophecy came true when he lost an eye. He cryptically mentioned being “another man” during that previous visit, suggesting a complicated history with this cursed land.

Brannor summoned a spectral direwolf made of mist named Vetjna to help the party travel.

Giant Form Transformation

In Session 20, Brannor revealed a previously unseen ability: transformation into giant form. When Grusnarv was grabbed by skeletal hands at the blood altar, Brannor grew to approximately 4 meters tall. His skin became completely earthy with tufts of grass growing from it, granting him advantage on strength checks. In this form, he was able to pull Grusnarv free from the skeletal grasp. He dropped the transformation when the party needed to flee from the animating skeletons.

Brannor also demonstrated his Divine Sense ability, which allows him to detect celestials, fiends, and undead within 60 feet, as well as consecrated or desecrated areas. In the bone crypt, the divine sense revealed overwhelming unholy energy that made him physically uncomfortable — he described everything as smelling like “unholyness.” In Session 21, his Divine Sense identified the amulet from the crypt as feeling “unholy.”

Marked by the Blood Altar

When Brannor touched Zoran during the blood altar incident, Zoran’s transformed blood left a mark. Brannor now bears a red rusty rash where he made contact with Zoran, as if the transformed blood burned him. The mark remains even after the wounds healed.

The Cooking Challenge

In Session 21, Brannor was challenged by Gluttony — one of the seven sins — to a cooking contest. If Brannor can prepare better food than Gluttony, the party goes free. If he loses, they become dinner. Gluttony swore “on meat” to honor the deal. Brannor’s favorite dish is fresh pork with honey glaze, rosemary, pepper, and his mother’s “jungle juice.”

However, in Session 22, Gluttony abandoned the cooking challenge and instead sent the party into the caverns below to retrieve a “special ingredient.” The cooking contest never happened.

The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind

During the short rest after negotiating with the Gauth in Session 22, Brannor attuned to the mysterious amulet the party had recovered from the wizard’s crypt. The amulet revealed itself as the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind — a legendary platinum amulet shaped like a sun with a large crystal embedded in its center.

This powerful artifact is specifically designed to fight vampires. It has 10 charges (recharging at dawn) and can only be attuned by creatures of good alignment. Its abilities include:

• Hold Vampire (1 charge): Vampires and vampire spawn within 30 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute
• Turn Undead Enhancement (3 charges): When using Turn Undead abilities, undead have disadvantage on their saving throws
• Sunlight (5 charges): Creates true sunlight in a 30-foot radius (with an additional 30 feet of dim light) for 10 minutes — vampires have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks in sunlight

Brannor now wears this legendary anti-Strahd weapon around his neck.

Combat Against the Gauth

In Session 22, Brannor faced a Gauth (a spectator-type beholder creature) in the deep caverns. During the fight, he revealed another aspect of his hill giant heritage: the Topple Foe ability. When he hit the floating creature with an attack roll, he was able to make it prone, causing it to tumble sideways in the air. This ability works on Large or smaller creatures, though flying creatures with the hover trait or those held aloft by magic are immune. The Gauth’s natural levitation made it immune to being knocked from the sky, but the impact still disrupted its positioning.

Notable Abilities

• Holy Symbol of Ravenkind — legendary anti-vampire artifact attuned to Brannor (see section above for full details)
• Giant Form transformation — grows to ~4 meters, earthy skin with grass, advantage on strength checks
• Enlarged Form (via Luan’s spell) — can be magically enlarged to huge size (Session 23: towering over the battlefield radiating golden sunlight)
• Topple Foe (Hill Giant ability) — when hitting Large or smaller creatures with an attack roll, can make them prone (flying creatures with hover trait or held aloft by magic are immune)
• Divine Sense — detects celestials, fiends, undead, and consecrated/desecrated areas within 60 feet
• Divine Smite — channels radiant energy through attacks (Session 23: created beacon of light on Gluttony)
• Wrathful Smite — marks target with glowing light, granting allies advantage on attacks against them
• Aura of Protection — his paladin aura helps protect nearby allies and pushes back the mist
• Aid spell — can boost allies’ maximum HP by 5 for 8 hours
• Paladin combat skills and divine smites
• Offensive spellcasting (Chromatic Orb)
• Summons spectral creatures (like Vetjna the mist wolf)
• Exceptional strength and durability

Session 23: The Kobold Revolution

In Session 23, Brannor became the party’s greatest weapon against Gluttony. Leading the Blasters platoon (20 kobolds with wind instruments providing +1d4 to attack rolls), he activated the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind at the start of combat, flooding the cursed ballroom with true sunlight for the first time in living memory. The kobolds wept at seeing the sun.

Luan cast Enlarge on Brannor, transforming him into a huge creature radiating golden light across a 30-foot radius. He became a towering warrior whose very presence weakened Gluttony — vampires suffer disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks in sunlight, and cannot regenerate.

During the brutal battle, Brannor used Divine Smite combined with Wrathful Smite (also called “Branding Smite” at times), creating a beacon of radiant light that marked Gluttony and granted all allies advantage on attacks against the sin. His attacks dealt devastating radiant damage while the sunlight prevented Gluttony’s regeneration.

However, the battle took a severe toll. Brannor was knocked unconscious multiple times by Gluttony’s lashing tongues and acid-filled bite attacks. Each time he fell, the sunlight from the Holy Symbol flickered out, plunging the battlefield into darkness again. The DM revealed special resurrection rules: the first revival is a medicine check, the second requires a potion, the third requires powerful magic, and the fourth means permanent death.

As the session ended, Brannor lay unconscious again, his fate uncertain as the battle raged on around him.