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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MostlyHarmless42" data-source="post: 7516036" data-attributes="member: 6845520">To each their own. For our game the Abbot was an absolutely indespensbile character and was nearly as important to the story as Strahd himself. He made it clear that the only two ways this could end happy for the souls lost to Barovia was either a) Strahd gets Ireena and basically beats the "monkey's paw" sort of game I implied the dark powers contracts to be and thus the prison ceases fo be, or b) I gave the players the opportunity to destroy the Amber Temple and to basically end the cycle. The latter of which the Abbot was unable to even attempt as I had the whole temple desecrated and warded against celestials from entering. He made it clear the temple would offer them dark gifts in some way and that they should turn them down...something which every party member except one (including the group's Paladin) failed to heed, and so they basically "locked" themselves out of that happy ending. It really did reinforce the whole "barovia corrupts everyone theme" better than I could have hoped. The Abbot also helped serve as a second example of a warning to the party's paladin of what he couple become of not careful, and in the end he did actually become essentially another variation of Strahd....that all said, I can understand why the Abbot might not work as well for your game, and if you are in fact going to use him to introduce future plot by making him a friend, go nuts. I just enjoyed the concept of him showing the players that even truly good actions could have disastrous results in barovia if not being self-reflected. For VanRichtem, I have a slight suggestion you may consider. If a player is heavily involved with him, consider making it less than he has been trapped the whole time and maybe that he trained the player character outside of Barovia if possible. If you've issue with him escaping, remember up until recently he had a Vistani apprentice Ezmerelda, who herself or her people could have facilitated an "escape" in the past if he really did kill Strahd, or alternatively he could have left after that and have now come back. The story really does work well with the characters being fish out of water to barovia, especially if you are having them back in Faerun after. I personally also just like that as an idea because I feel VanRichten works better narratively as a mortal who is obsessed with the concept of him fearing that he is too old to succeed this time but doesnt like trusting anyone else to do it right, and by default it is implied that a) he is foreign to barovia and b) hundreds of years pass before strahd returns (i.e. like how it depicts Berez as a few centuries before), and even as a half-elf VanRichten should be dead without some magical shenanigans afoot. It could also subtly let the players know that time passes differently across different planes, something which could be welded to delicious effect if they are eventually returning home to the sword coast and then headed into the hells. Ending a la "Army of Darkness" perhaps (the world ending one)?Related amusing tangent regarding the wonky flow of time with my game: I make Rahadin and Kassimir twin brothers, and their sister lady Petrova the half-elven ranger's mother. I also made Rahadin a mentor who taught the above paladin how to fight before killing his entire family and then returning to Barovia to eventually kill Kassimir and impersonate him as of the time the game took place. In my game the facial scar was self-inflicted to be part of this disguise, show just how deep his loyalty to Strahd goes. It led to a darkly humorous moment when ranger and paladin learned their connection to rahadin and each other and that the ranger's mother had been dead for over 150 years even though the ranger was only about 23 and smuggled out as a baby. Vistani time shenanigans.</blockquote>

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