Wepwawet
Explorer
That would fit the 10 year time frame. To make the best bride golem he can he's taking it very slowly and picking only the best parts he can find.I've seen it suggested elsewhere that the lost gem is in the Abbott's flesh golem bride. I like that idea and I'm leaning toward running with it. I don't know exactly what it's doing in there; maybe its magic makes her more believably human in some way than a regular flesh golem. (I actually don't know much about flesh golems at all yet.) I don't know how to hint at that fact, or how it might be rediscovered. The PCs aren't likely to fight the bride are they?
Yeah, I thought about the 10 years too. Maybe Strahd got fed up with Adventurers almost killing him (like Mordenkainen) and decided to develop an extra level of protection. The gem can be in the center of the Heart, which is a crystal grown around it (the book implies it's a crystal, doesn't it?). However it can perfectly be an actual oversized organic heart, with the gem in the center powering it. I like the idea of the characters slashing at it and blood gushing out.I'm not in love with the gem powering Strahd's Heart of Sorrow; wouldn't it be much older than the 10 years the gem has been missing? Plus I love the art in the book showing the spiral staircase with the heart at the top; that thing looks way too big and impressive to be powered by a magic pinecone.
Oh no, there are Loads of Dead Children. The book says the secret ingredient for the dream pastries is ground children's bones. Apart from that they're normal mince pies, which are made of fruit. The hags eat the children and leave only the bones.I do like the idea that it's at Old Bonegrinder. Sounds like you're doing a Fewer Dead Children variant where the pastries are made from fruit not children's teeth? (In which case why is it called Old Bonegrinder?) I think that's an elegant solution to a couple of problems. In my case we whizzed past the windmill trying to get to Vallaki before dark, and we never encountered Morgantha in Barovia in the first place, so we will probably never even visit the windmill. I doubt they'll ever be east of the Castle again.
EDIT: Actually, Strahd would also be the best at stealing the gem so effectively that no one has a clue where it went. And he would have known about the gems. After that Baba Lysaga could have learned about something being stolen and how the vineyard got weaker and eventually find out about gems.
Regarding the hags, a healthy orchard next to the dark windmill would be extremely suspicious, there are ravens everywhere after all. Being hags it will look much cooler if it's a crooked and sickly orchard with tiny fruit.
I'm inclined to put it in the Heart of Sorrow, it's a simple and efective solution.
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