Carver

At a glance

Carver Silvervine, almost always called simply Carver, is a tabaxi artificer and a member of the adventuring party.

Build overview

• Rules framework: 2024 revised rules
• Species: Tabaxi
• Class: Artificer 4 — Artillerist
• Background: Sage
• Starting ability scores: Strength 10, Dexterity 14, Constitution 14, Intelligence 17, Wisdom 12, Charisma 8
• Current permanent increase: Intelligence 18 after Fey Touched at level 4
• Languages: Common, Sylvan
• Origin feat: Magic Initiate (Wizard), granted by the Sage background
  • Spellcasting ability: Intelligence
  • Cantrips: mage hand, true strike
  • Level 1 spell: chromatic orb

Advancement

• Level 3 subclass: Artillerist
• Subclass expression: Carver summons Chip, a catlike Eldritch Cannon drawn from the Shroud and formed through a ritual involving gathered remains and the spirit of a lost friend.
• Later advancement choices will be recorded when they occur rather than projected in advance.
• Level 4 feat: Fey Touched
  • Ability increase: +1 Intelligence, raising it from 17 to 18
  • Granted spells: misty step and hunter’s mark
  • Spellcasting ability: Intelligence
• Session 14: Pledged himself to Irik Zal’honan’s path of discovery and truth within Castle Avernus.

Appearance and personality

• A tabaxi with markings resembling a Persian cat.
• Dresses in well-tailored clothes and wears goggles, a book satchel, and a tool belt.
• Intensely curious about mechanisms and processes, including the workings of an inn kitchen.
• Came to Rivalis while investigating and conducting research.

Portrait

• Primary reference: Carver Portrait
• Canonical status: Visual baseline for Carver’s face, fur, eyes, hat, goggles, and artificer’s silhouette. Chip’s presence reflects Carver’s appearance from Session 8 onward.

Abilities and equipment

• Trained as an artificer of the Artillerist specialization.
• His Sage background granted Magic Initiate (Wizard), providing mage hand, true strike, and chromatic orb using Intelligence.
• Summons Chip, a catlike Eldritch Cannon drawn from the Shroud and formed with gathered remains and the spirit of a lost friend.
• Uses a crossbow augmented by magic.
• Can produce elemental attacks and healing magic.
• Can enchant a carved wooden lute to play on its own.
• Surrendered the gray-root sample recovered in Rivalis to Chief Constable Von Anbach.
• Identified a Darkon Talisman made from corpse ash.
• Carries the Darkon Talisman and alien garden heart on the party’s behalf; both are currently treated as communal loot.
• Carries the party’s gray Bag of Tricks as communal loot.
• Carries a single-use orange leaf from Brambledu that casts protection from poison.
• Retained a sample of Screaming Cheese beneath his hat for possible examination.
• Can use artificer infusions; he currently enhanced Rage’s greataxe as a +1 weapon.
• Also maintains +1 handwraps for Ignatius; both this infusion and Rage’s enhanced greataxe are currently active.
• Uses his artificer ability to create single-use spellwrought tattoos. Both cure wounds tattoos created for Ignatius have now been expended.
• Carries the ivory urn marked Ingrid van Richten.
• Carries Ablander’s unusual blood vial; the growth on Rage’s hand reacted painfully to it.
• Wears a breastplate purchased from Ivor Stonebraid in Martira Bay.
• Generally carries the party’s Bag of Holding and much of the communal loot stored within it.
• Keeps the Grave-Elemental Crystal and serves as keeper of the elemental Pearl.
• Gained misty step and hunter’s mark through the Fey Touched feat.
• Wears a Ring of Protection recovered from Castle Avernus’s lower laboratory.
• Carries the body of Lafing’s slain werefox companion, hoping to find a way to save her.

Connections

• Ignatius — fellow party member
• Rage — fellow party member

History

• Session 1: Shared a vision of a catastrophic ritual, visited an elderly great-aunt’s or great-uncle’s grave, investigated the Book of Names and strange gravelights, healed his companions during two dangerous encounters, and collected a sample of the corruption beneath a Rivalis garden.
• Session 2: Drew out the pale wandering ghost, questioned Sister Elda, detected the magical network beneath the Crystal Gardens, helped defeat its blight defenders, and identified a Darkon Talisman. Took custody of the talisman and alien heart as communal party loot and reached level 2.
• Session 3: Enhanced Rage’s greataxe, created Ignatius’s healing tattoo, detected transmutation magic on Vidic’s crow form, and determined that the cattle’s boils were biological rather than magical. Took custody of the gray Bag of Tricks.
• Session 4: Met potential sponsor Professor Shale, summoned a boar from the Bag of Tricks, took Ingrid van Richten’s urn, and helped defeat the dining-room mimic.
• Session 5: Interpreted Van Richten’s research, kept both companions alive during the cellar battle, destroyed its summoned creature with radiant magic, created Ignatius a new healing tattoo, and led the investigation of Richten House’s ghosts and ravens.
• Session 6: Attended Neblus’s midnight mass, accepted sacrificial blood, saw Erasmus again through Van Richten’s journal, drew additional gravelights with the offering, and infiltrated an Eternal Order lecture.
• Session 7: Questioned Duskren, took Ablander’s unusual blood vial, fought through the High Sentinel’s ambush, and improvised the grappling hooks used in the escape. Reached level 3.
• Session 8: Became an Artillerist, created Chip from the Shroud, investigated Martira Bay’s ordered rats, witnessed Erasmus’s expanded history of Van Richten, and acquired a breastplate.
• Session 9: Learned Vidic’s allegiance to the Keepers of the Feather, claimed credit before Darian for Ablander’s death, and saved Ignatius from the brink of death during the ratlike creatures’ ambush before directing Chip against them.
• Session 10: Restrained the captured wererat, joined the Keepers of the Feather, witnessed Erasmus’s vision of Darkon’s fractured powers, exposed a werebat, and detected an enchanted person hidden upstairs in Black Lily’s manor.
• Session 11: Helped prepare for the Castle Avernus expedition, summoned Chip during Vermoth’s ambush, restored Rage, and took custody of the party’s new Bag of Holding.
• Session 12: Preserved the expedition’s critical supplies when the coach was abandoned, treated Buddy’s wounds, guided the party through the forest, and discovered deep rot beneath Rivalis.
• Session 13: Shared the party’s discoveries with Vidic, received a Veteran’s Cane, traveled with Chip and Ooru to Castle Avernus, and presented the invitation that opened its drawbridge.
• Session 14: Studied the Book of Names, helped destroy the castle’s giant undead, pledged himself to Irik’s path of truth, and reached level 4.
• Session 15: Freed Slippery Siv, helped identify and activate Azalin’s elemental experiment, survived being knocked unconscious by the air elemental, carried the party’s treasury haul, became keeper of the grave elemental he named Pearl, and developed the Fey Touched feat with misty step and hunter’s mark.
• Session 16: Found the treasury’s hidden library and its Har’Akir record, restored Siv’s human form, calmed Voss with the dried black lily, summoned Pearl for the first time, and threw a Boom Stick that caught both the final beast and Ignatius in its blast.
• Session 17: Critically struck and then destroyed the bone golem with Chip’s aid, used a summon undead scroll to cover the party’s escape and scout a tunnel, recovered a Ring of Protection and strange laboratory supplies, and heard a dragon arrive above the castle.
• Session 18: Called Irik back to the Bone Chambers, lit the Beast Prison, was overcome by grief at Hyskosa’s reveal, killed the werebear with a radiant true strike, carried off Lafing’s slain companion in hope of saving her, and identified the activated chamber as magical torture apparatus.
• Session 19: Summoned Pearl for the brazier battle, helped defeat the released fire elemental, healed a wounded unicorn, and returned with the company to Martira Bay while carrying Lafing’s slain companion.
• Session 20: Used a raise dead scroll to restore Fling, gave Hyskosa an Ersatz Eye, acquired Walloping Ammunition and healing-wand reagents, helped confront and kill Black Lily, and arrived aboard the River Dancer to meet Captain Snowmane.
• Session 21: Met the River Dancer crew, helped escape a curfew patrol with a magically enhanced net, and fought Boneless and the rat-swarm creature outside the Rat House before escaping to the rooftops.
• Session 22: Took a pistol from a defeated guard patrol, boarded the River Dancer, and took the helm during its Mist passage at Snowmane’s request.

Current status

Active; level 4 Artillerist with the Fey Touched feat and a member of the Keepers of the Feather. Aboard the River Dancer during its Mist passage toward Barovia; Snowmane has begun teaching him the helm. Carver carries the party’s Bag of Holding, a newly acquired pistol, and other critical equipment. Pearl can be summoned through the grave-elemental crystal.

Goals and unresolved questions

• Study the magical network and alien heart recovered from the Crystal Gardens.
• Examine the retained Screaming Cheese and determine how a nonmagical substance produces its visions.
• Learn what happened within the Crystal Gardens.
• Understand why the gravelight responded to his enchanted lute.

Gallery

• Darkon Party Portrait — Carver stands with Rage and Ignatius in the party’s original group portrait.
• Gravelights at the Graves — Carver studies the blue gravelights among Rivalis’s graves.
• Roots Beneath Rivalis — Carver fights beside Rage and Ignatius against the blights in a Rivalis garden.
• Haunted Visage at the Coachman’s Rest — Carver confronts the pale halfling apparition outside the inn.
• The Gardens Swallow Their Dead — Carver reaches for the alien heart as the Gardens reclaim the fallen blight.
• Vidic Reveals Himself — Carver witnesses Vidic’s first transformation before the party.
• The House Beyond the Mists — Carver approaches Richten House through the Shroud with the party.
• The Chair Bites Back — Carver readies fire magic while the party frees Rage from the mimic.
• Erasmus Paints the Past — Carver watches Erasmus reveal Van Richten’s memories.
• Carver’s Last Radiant Bolt — Carver ends the cellar horror after both companions fall.
• Blood and Memory at Midnight — Carver receives sacrificial blood and witnesses Erasmus’s vision in Neblus.
• The Domain Takes What You Were — Carver questions Duskren about Darkon’s missing memories.
• Ablander’s Last Midnight — Carver casts from the edge of the battle in Ablander’s quarters.
• Into the Mists, Willingly or Not — Carver races toward the Mists during the escape from Neblus.
• Chip, It Answered — Carver summons Chip from the Shroud at Richten House.
• The First Fruits of Advancement — Carver stands with Chip as the party displays its level 3 abilities.
• The Roads Only Rats Can See — Carver studies the ordered rats of Martira Bay while a summoned badger pursues them.
• The Pale Lantern Will Not Burn — Carver and Chip wait outside while Rage attempts to burn the Kargatane lounge.
• One Dead, One Taken — Carver saves Ignatius while Chip attacks the ratlike creatures.
• Hundreds of Talons — Carver places a furred tabaxi hand upon the Keepers’ seer’s stone as Chip watches.
• The Heckler Takes Wing — Carver recognizes the heckler’s leathery cape as a werebat’s wings.
• The Twitch upon the Chain — Carver calmly negotiates for explosives while Rage appalls the workshop behind him.
• The Road Out of Martira Bay — Carver rides within the coach as Martira Bay falls behind.
• Ride Through the Dead — Carver and Chip strike from the coach as it breaks through the undead.
• Mercy Born of Fear — Carver treats Buddy’s single amputated forearm within the Silent Sanctum.
• Battle Within the Shroud — Carver directs Chip’s Force Ballista against the horned skeleton.
• The Shroud Takes Rivalis — Carver and Chip behold the Shroud consuming Rivalis.
• Beneath the Broken Spire — Carver raises the red invitation as a corpse-like raven judges it before Castle Avernus.
• The Book That Remembered Rage — Carver studies the immense index while Rage reads thoughts Darkon stole from him.
• Three Futures for Darkon — Carver stands with Ignatius in choosing Irik’s path of truth.
• Ooru Says What? — Carver prepares a Boom Stick just as Ooru opens the trapdoor.
• What Rose in the Slaughterhouse — Carver directs Chip’s Flamethrower against the flesh-built dead.
• Slippery Siv Steps Free — Carver picks the cage lock as Siv takes his first step into freedom.
• Rage Loots the Treasury — Carver holds open the Bag of Holding while Rage pours the treasury into it.
• Birth of Pearl — Carver studies the hand-sized crystal at the moment Pearl enters his keeping.
• The Portrait Cape — Carver considers Rage’s improvised portrait cape amid the treasury wealth.
• Slippery Siv Is Back — Carver completes the restoration that returns Siv to human form.
• The Man Who Remembered Nothing — Carver releases the black lily’s calming magic before the newly freed Voss.
• To the Bone Room! — Carver directs the battle as Pearl meets the surviving bone beast.
• Chip Brings Down the Bone Golem — Carver stands beside Chip as the spectral cat’s Flamethrower destroys the bone golem.
• Flight from the Endless Dead — Carver leads Rage and Ignatius through the tunnel away from the endless skeleton horde.
• The Red Sun Blade — Carver studies the laboratory spellbook and Ring of Protection while Rage examines the Sun Blade.
• Carver Strikes the Werebear — Carver’s radiant true strike drops the werebear as Lafing grieves beside his companion.
• Hyskosa’s Revelation — Carver is overcome by grief when Hyskosa’s illusory face dissolves.
• Hyskosa’s Scrying Pool — Carver watches as Hyskosa’s basin reveals Ankhtepot’s golden vision.
• Carver Heals the Unicorn — Carver’s cure wounds steadies the wounded unicorn near her cave.
• Pearl Strikes the Fire Elemental — Carver attacks beside Pearl as the grave elemental delivers the final blow.
• Carver Restores Fling — Carver reads the raise dead scroll as Fling returns to life before Lafing.
• Black Lily’s Reckoning — Carver presents Darian’s sealed letter during the confrontation at Black Lily’s manor.
• The Attic Coffins Open — Carver aims his crossbow as the manor attic’s coffins release two aberrations.
• Snowmane Approaches the River Dancer — Carver, unarmed with Chip at his shoulder, meets Snowmane aboard the River Dancer.
• The River Dancer Awakens — Carver watches Snowmane’s living-wood reaction inside the River Dancer lounge.
• The Rat House Erupts — Carver fires his compact crossbow as three Boneless and a rising rat swarm attack.
• Above the Guard Search — Carver hides with the party above the Rat House guard search.
• Alley Patrol Ambush — Carver readies his compact crossbow as a guard captain checks the party’s path.