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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jackdaw" data-source="post: 6862500" data-attributes="member: 6789113">I should elaborate. He's bestial but he can assume a facade of civility. He's eloquent, though its disturbing to witness because sociopathy emanates from him like a stench. Animals, children and adults (with a decent Wisdom score) recognize it and know he's a monster regardless of his careful manners.  Naming his horse after a famous steed in Earth’s antiquity pulls me out of the story. It's akin to the goofy names on the crypts beneath the castle. I also like the idea of nightmare being an actual mare.The circumstances of the Abbot/deva's corruption don't work for me. He came to Barovia to investigate Saint Markovia's death and ends up spending his time body-modding an inbred family? Yes, he does it to make them happy but his priorities are bizarre. As a servant of The Morninglord he would have brought the fight directly to Strahd, with righteous vengeance. I’m fine with him being cloistered now but something must have happened in that first encounter centuries ago that caused the deva to lose his nerve. Here’s a twisted idea: Strahd defeated the deva after a titanic battle in the castle. He amputated his wings (later to be made into a feather cape for one of his brides) and chained him to the desecrated altar in the chapel. This was during the first decades of his undeath so the notion that the god the Von Zaroviches once worshipped would send an angel to assassinate him was staggering, a feeling ricocheting between doubt and pride. When the weeping angel cast Commune it was the first time Strahd experienced his ability to interrupt a direct plea to the divine. It shocked both of them. Strahd laughed and exalted, feeling like a god. He decided not to slay the angel, so he could experience the rush each time the angel searched for divine reassurance. Strahd kept him a prisoner for decades, a testament to his ultimate mastery of the land and ether. Eventually the angel stopped trying, his mind lost to hopelessness. Strahd bade him to attempt it one more time with a promise that he wouldn’t intercede. He kept his word, but only to grant the briefest glimpse of The Morninglord and snatch it away. It was enough to make the angel choke with longing and slip into a drug like stupor. That’s how Strahd learned to tame a deva, stringing him out on a trickle of potent divinity, controlling his connection.The deva eventually escaped the castle, assisted by adventurers (who didn’t survive the effort) and made his way to Krezk to recuperate. He joined the monastic order there and rose to the position of Abbot years later, hiding his true nature and helping the villagers in modest ways. Strahd never pursued him knowing he would be Communed with soon enough, the angel addicted and unable to help himself. The Abbot now exists in a sad state of Stockholm syndrome, seeing Strahd as a tragic god whose will must be appeased rather than a beast who must be slain. He knows Strahd has the ability to release individuals from Barovia so he occasionally constructs elaborate offerings (like the flesh golem bride) in exchange for the safe passage of “the deserving”. Strahd has made a show of magnanimity when accepting these gifts but the released emigrants just die deeper in the mists regardless.I guess the idea doesn’t contradict the existence of the mongrelfolk, but the brainstorm took me on a tangent.Strahd still has a point. He’s certain Tatyana’s reincarnation will be physically beautiful (his ego demands it) and he knows it’s only a matter of time before he finds her. She jumped to her death to avoid him and yet her soul became eternally trapped in his realm. How are they not meant to be together? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />My players are very bored with  zombies, in movies, books, jokes and adventures. If they’re going to be in my game I need an interesting reason for them.</blockquote>

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