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D&D 5E Help me define Mother Night (CoS)

Ganymede81

First Post
I just said, "She reminds you a little of Wee Jas, a little of the Raven Queen, and maybe a little of Nerull."

But yeah, while you might have the denizens of Ravenloft answer your PCs prayers in lieu of their own gods/patrons, I wouldn't do any rules tweaking to them.
 

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pukunui

Legend
I can't remember where I read it, but I seem to recall seeing something equating Mother Night with the Faerûnian deity Shar (just like how the Morninglord is an analog of Lathander).
 

hastur_nz

First Post
For me, these are the key quotes from CoS, about Mother Night - she doesn't seem especially "nice", in the scheme of things...
Baba Lysaga made countless sacrifices to Mother Night, pleading with the goddess to afflict Queen Ravenovia with ill health and visit death upon her. Lysaga eventually got her wish [...]
The goddess Mother Night has bestowed magical gifts on Baba Lysaga as rewards for her ceaseless devotion to Strahd.
 

darjr

I crit!
Mother Night is the true ruler of all things. Of death, of rot, of the end to you and I.

Even the morning lord hides his face in shame, do you, do any of you, remember seeing his warm smile upon the land? No? No!

He hides from her as she calls his name. He knows his doom!

Mother Night takes more than she ever gives and she gave him everything.
 

Well, since the gods don't actually have influence in Ravenloft, and it's the Dark Powers who grant clerics their spells - I'd have them grant the drow her heart's desire. But in a way that will lead her down a path most dark, if she's not careful.

(What is it with Ed Greenwood and naked dancing women anyway?)
 

Wepwawet

Explorer
Thank you all for your ideas.

Ok, so Mother Night is a bit more unpleasant than I was thinking. Shar is a very good analog. With some Wee Jas and Raven Queen. Still, I'm not making her outright evil.

The Dark Powers as its source could work, but I haven't thought much about them and honestly I'm not really that interested in them.

The Blessing of Mother Night will consist of:

  • Her hair will become frizzy and grey, like an old woman's;
  • Her weapons become Vicious Weapons. That is, they become magic attacks with extra damage on a crit;
  • As an action, she can touch another creature to transfer the Vicious attacks to them. Only one creature can have the vicious attacks;
  • Werewolves recognise that she has been blessed by Mother Night. They won't be hostile towards her and her allies;
  • When in melee combat, the vicious attacker must make a DC 13 Charisma saving throw, every turn. If she fails she must use her bonus action to bite one enemy (13's not that difficult, she's a Bard). The character is proficient with the bite, it deals 1d4 damage and is also magical and vicious.

See, I don't want to make it that good. I like how Curse of Strahd is a low magic campaign and I resent that this player used her gamer knowledge to try to sneak in extra power into her character, while everyone else is a beginner and following the normal rules. She's very experienced and often uses player knowledge to fight monsters and stuff.
Although, in her defense she kind of expects the blessing to fall on every party member... And the drow been dancing naked outside in the cold for more than a week already.

She doesn't have any magic weapons yet, so that's a cool way to giver one anyway. With a bit of a cursed blessing.

EDIT: This player also DMs, and from what I heard about her games it seems like she enjoys empowering her players, like, a lot.
 
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77IM

Explorer!!!
Supporter
I don't like the whole "Demiplane of Dread" angle so I created a campaign setting into which Barovia could be placed. Here is my deity write up for Mother Night:

Mother Night. Mother Night leads the spirits of the dead to the underworld. She watches over those inflicted with insanity, illness, and ill fortune. Many criminals, madmen, and evil creatures follow Mother Night. DOGMA: Life is suffering; death is peace. PORTFOLIO: moon, darkness, death, disease, insanity, secrets, monsters. SYMBOLS: moon, spider, dagger, black and silver. DOMAINS: Death,Trickery.

So she's not exactly evil, but she is the most tolerant of evil; your Mother loves all her children, even the monstrous ones.
 


BenHomer

First Post
Well, I went the rout of making the Night Mother a triple goddess, Dresden Files style. You got yourself a Mother, a Lady and a Queen, with different godesses being diferent things to each people.
 

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