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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6861825" data-attributes="member: 2067">It's a fair critique. But I'm leaning into the shambling mound (replacing the grick with a bunch of skellingtons from the bone fragments on the floor of the dining room). I'm leaning into the shambling mound for this reason:The Durst house? That windmill? That deed? That's Old Bonegrinder, where the hags make sacrifices to Ceithlinn of the Broken Teeth.IMC, Morgantha and her coven were using the Dursts' failed Strahd cult to fuel a fey cult at the location. That cult had some success - enough to conjure a blood-hungry shambling mound that infests the walls of the place. This gives Morgantha a reason aside form selling her wares to be in town (checking up on the gestating thing), and, since I'm making the coven a rival for Strahd, it gives Strahd a reason to want the house cleansed (so that the monster doesn't add to their power). I've got it prefigured by having rests trigger things like "blood-red vines reach up through the floorboards."I think I'm going to link it to the stillborn child, as well - that site is the site where Walter Durts's fetal body lays, mummified, in a cradle of vines. It's "Walter" that turns the thing into a Shambling Mound. I want to telegraph that the encounter is NOT survivable, but it IS something you can flee from, so I'm contemplating including some cultists' notes to the effect of "The Thing is what keeps us in this house. It opens the door when feeding, or when hunting. At any other time, it keeps us here, awaiting its next meal."</blockquote>

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