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Mod version used for review: 1.2.

Occasionally I will play a mod for Baldur’s Gate that surprises me with the depth of its quality, the thoughtfulness of its design, and its willingness to tread new ground. This praise is easily granted to The Dreadful Tales series of mods by Lava Del’Vortel, with ‘The Bloodied Stings of Barovia’ potentially being the weirdest and most intriguing one yet.

This is a new quest, taking the player to a new land from which they cannot leave until they have completed the necessary steps. It’s designed for full parties of at least level 12, and arcane casters are especially useful along the way. It took me just under four hours to complete the entire quest.

While I cannot confess any more than a passing familiarity with Ravenloft, the setting in which the adventure takes place, The Bloodied Stings doesn’t require any prior knowledge from the player to enjoy or understand the quest. It’s a self-contained adventure that focuses on immersing the player in a few of hours of gothic horror, difficult battles, and thoughtfully crafted puzzles.

While playing this mod, you will see a lot of things that you haven’t seen in Baldur’s Gate before, yet they all feel as though they belong. There are new areas which look fantastic, original music that feels like it could have been in the original game, voice acting that I actually enjoyed, new enemies to fight, and a full inventory’s worth of thoughtfully designed items to take with you after the adventure is complete.

If anything, The Bloodied Stings feels more like a Baldur’s Gate 2 ‘Premium Module’ ala Neverwinter Nights. That is to say, I would happily pay a few dollars for this. It is the most ‘premium‘ feeling quest mod that I’ve played, and it makes me excited for the future of Infinity Engine modding to know that there are such talented people out there working on projects like this.

I often find it difficult to brush away my own critiques of a work and only focus on what I like. My media-consuming brain is overly sensitive and if it takes a bite of something bitter then it will often refuse to eat the entire meal. Thus, it often goes hungry. This is not the case for this mod, but I’ll talk on my criticisms briefly.

The oddest moments of the adventure come in its very first moments. I understand that there are only so many unused doors available in the game, but the solution of simply cutting a door-shaped hole in the wall can result in a doorway that is… well…

Like I said: there are only so many doors, and my eyesight is sub-optimal. Now that I’ve shown you where the entrance is, the likelihood that you’ll miss it is negligible. Hoorah!

Upon entering this door cutout, we’re greeted by a mage attempting to open a portal to Barovia. It doesn’t truly matter why, because wizards in the Forgotten Realms are always working on some random plot or another, and he dies when a swarm of bees sting him to death. Upon entering Barovia, we are granted a little voice-over describing the experience. The mage is also voiced. These two performances, in my opinion, stuck out the most compared to the rest of the voice work in the mod. Despite this, I feel as though it enhances the experience more than it takes away from it, and it’s not long before you’re off exploring in Barovia.

All of the voice acting from this point forward is great, other than a talking tree who doesn’t give me tree-vibes in the same way that a set of talking bones give me bone-vibes. Overall, I very much appreciated the inclusion of voice acting, and I think the best performances from the central characters elevate the experience significantly.

The only other aspect I may venture to critique is the flow of the adventure. It’s not entirely clear what’s relevant to the main quest of ‘getting the hell out of here‘ and what’s just present for side-quest stuff or thematic purposes.

Journal entries tend to suggest paths forward with equal significance, with phrases like “perhaps we should investigate the mansion?” rather than “perhaps this mansion has the answers we seek,” the second of which gives the impression that this in particular is the main quest. This is probably a matter of preference, but I like to know what the significance of my current task is in relation to everything else. While exploring Firkraag’s dungeon, it’s easy to assume that the treasure hunting quest is side-content. The same assumptions can’t really be made here.

This is bordering on nitpicking, though, and to focus on nitpicks would be to do this work a great disservice, because it is thoroughly fantastic. I was consistently wowed by the experience. Just look at these areas.

The standout is the Mansion. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and I believe it to be entirely new. It was an absolute joy to explore and to solve the puzzles surrounding it. I would pay for an entire game that had this aesthetic.

Gothic horror, as a genre, is an area that the Infinity Engine games haven’t really explored. The games can get spooky sometimes, but this mod takes the game to an entirely new area, both visually and narratively. The actions of the main antagonist almost reminded me of an X-Files episode, where sometimes implications were a lot creepier than what was being shown on the surface.

I rather like that this mod doesn’t lean too heavily on vampires either. There are some mentions of Strahd here and there, but the only vampire actually present in the adventure isn’t hostile. He’s kind of a chill dude. The themes of death and love present in this mod tie into the other mods in The Dreadful Tales, and they interconnect at points that you may wish to experience. If you do, I recommend bringing Xzelë to Barovia.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a massive number of items to take home with you if you complete all the content available. My favourite type of items are those that aren’t particularly overpowered, but that still provide incentive for their use. Better yet if they change the way the game is played in some small way. These are a few of my favourites that I found.

The Four Hundred Teeth is a scimitar that protects from Level Drain, which immediately makes it one of the best items for Monk characters, since Monks have no way to protect against Level Drain by themselves. The other effects are a bit meaningless (16% to deal 1 or 2 bonus damage and 3% to deal 2d2 damage) but the protection from Level Drain is so useful that it incentivises playing a Monk just a little bit. And that’s good enough for me.

Samvina’s Tiara allows you to cast Haste, centered on the wearer, twice per day. It still has its regular casting time, but it’s a headpiece that thieves, mages, bards, and monks can wear, giving them a tiny bit of extra utility. It also makes you immune to slow, which is neat. I really like walking fast and hitting more, so more hastes are always welcome.

Cherries of the Dead is a belt that improves Luck, a very useful, mostly hidden mechanic. There aren’t that many good belts other than strength-boosting ones, and you’ll likely be giving this belt to someone who doesn’t need any more strength, like Aerie, who can benefit from the Cleric-only boost (+1 AC) and the Mage-only boost (Caster level +1, which is helpful for a multiclass). Alternatively, you can also give this to Juniper, also from The Dreadful Tales, who is a Fighter/Mage/Cleric.

Beautiful Strangler is a necklace that the player character can never wear, because equipping it will end the game instantly. This, of course, makes the item less powerful, but much more interesting. It lends its equipped abilities well to a Bard, with the additional Lore and Charisma, but it will work perfectly well on anyone that you’d like to give some Save vs. Death bonuses to.

Scissors of Clean Cuts +1 is the dagger version of Belm, and it’s easily arguable that this weapon is better. Both weapons grant +1 attack per round, which is exceptionally useful for anyone engaging in melee combat, and the +1 to Dexterity from the dagger seems far more useful than 1d4 extra damage to me. This is a weapon that would serve well in the off-hand of a Monk. An additional attack per round is so useful that you’ll likely also want another character to be wielding Belm at the same time, too, so it doesn’t ‘erase’ the weapon simply by being slightly better than it.

There are plenty more items that I haven’t listed, many of which you’ll likely sell (which is normal and is good design), but more that you’ll undoubtedly find a use for. They all have pretty new icons as well, which I feel is an area of art in these mods that go somewhat unappreciated.

The worst thing about The Bloodied Stings of Barovia is that there isn’t more of it. As it stands, it is a statement to the quality of Baldur’s Gate 2 as a game that one of the best pieces of fan-made content was created twenty-three years after its original release. Play this mod with my full recommendation. I know I’ll likely play it many times over in the future.

Thanks for reading.

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