I10: Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill (1e)
1e
Strahd Von Zarovich, The Creature, Vampire Mage 10: I am rebirth, I am flight. The troubles of my previous life fade into shadows alone. I was peace itself. I was good and just. I practiced my arts for the benefit of all and healed the land with the gifts of a just god but the torment of my own dark self followed me. Within me was darkness, and hatred and envy. As I looked about, so too did this black shadow of mankind's soul seep slowly into all that I did, diluting its power and sapping its strength.
My own darkness, my own doubting, hatred and rage poisoned me as well; with so much done in the service of others, my own spite and pride tore at me in the back of my mind. In the end, it said to me, all there is, is death, and all these good works will be for naught.
Then came the vision. I saw a way by which I might rid myself of my own darkness. Indeed, might I not rid all mankind of its darker self? This would surely be perfection, joy and treasure. This was the Apparatus and once my mind conceived it, I could not rest until its completion.
Many nights did I work in the darkness of my secluded laboratory, my mind fevered with the immensity of what I would accomplish. Yet did success elude me! Failure after failure did I suffer. The key to the banishment of our darker self was ever hanging before me, without shape or substance; ever in a haze of taunting obscurity.
One night my tortured soul boiled with hate and anger. I cried out! “Why had the gods made man so? Why must we be tortured by contrast in this life, faced constantly with the choice of light and dark?” I would conquer this if I could. I would defy such law!
Then came to me with clarity the knowledge of what I must do. I saw the missing piece, its rod of crystal hewn just so; its length just thus. The sulphur sphere . . . it all made sense. I vowed to leave thus for a time the paths decreed by the just gods, for in the end much good could be accomplished . . . surely the gods would understand the need of that.
Within a fortnight the deed was done. The Apparatus stood complete within my laboratory. The great sulphur ball in its mechanism, the receptors below all arranged properly about the lead glass sphere. The tests had all been successful . . . I could let no one but myself be the first within that chamber.
The power surged with the spinning sphere. Lightning laced the chamber. Arrows of brilliance flew from the receptors and pierced the glass . . . my soul! The darkness encompassed me . . . it screamed!
When at last I awoke, I was free. Yet the great experiment worked all too well.
I could marry with good conscience the woman I loved and know that the darker self within me would be no obstacle to our joy and happiness. We were betrothed and the date was set.
I gave no thought then to where my darker soul had been sent. Where that part of me lived, I did not know. My pride had played one last trick upon me.
I continued my questing to perfect my device when on a terrible night of storm the Apparatus fled from my control and black darkness solidified within the crystal globe. From whence I had sent my dark self . . . it had returned!
Now it has taken form, unbidden and terrible. The creature . . . for no other name would suit . . . emerged from the shattering globe. I fled from the house in terror that such horror should have existed within me, only to return!
I am the ancient, I am the land. My beginnings are lost in the darkness of the past. I was the warrior. I was good and just. I thundered across the land like the wrath of a just god, but the war years and the killing years wore down my soul as the wind wears stone into sand.
All goodness slipped from my life; I found my youth and strength gone and all I had left was death. My army settled in the valley of Barovia and took power over the people in the name of a just god, but with none of a god's grace or justice.
I called for my family, long unseated from their ancient thrones, and brought them here to settle in the castle Ravenloft. They came with a younger brother of mine, Sergei. He was handsome and youthful. I hated him for both.
From the families of the valley, one spirit shone above all others. A rare beauty, who was called “perfection,” “joy” and “treasure.” Her name was Tatyana and I longed for her to be mine.
I loved her with all my heart. I loved her for her youth. I loved her for her joy. But she spurned me! “Old One” was my name to her—”elder” and “brother” also. Her heart went to Sergei. They were betrothed. The date was set.
With words she called me “brother,” but when I looked into her eyes they reflected another name..death.. It was the death of the aged that she saw in me. She loved her youth and enjoyed it. But I had squandered mine.
The death she saw in me turned her from me. And so I came to hate death,my death. My hate is very strong. I would not be called “death” so soon.
I made a pact with death, a pact of blood. On the day of the wedding I killed Sergei, my brother. My pact was sealed with his blood.
I found Tatyana weeping in the garden east of chapel. She fled from me. She would not let me explain, and a great anger swelled within me. She had to understand the pact I made for her. I pursued her. Finally, in despair, she flung herself from the walls of Ravenloft and I watched everything I ever wanted fall from my grasp forever.
It was a thousand feet through the mists. No trace of her was ever found. Not even I know her final fate.
Arrows from the castle guards pierced me to my soul, but I did not die. Nor did I live. I became undead, forever.
Worse still, he had the audacity to use the machine on himself. Indeed, this enchanted engine drained all that was evil from the body of the Alchemist and cast it out. But the exiled evil did not dissolve into nothingness but rather gained a malignant nonlife of its own in a land far distant. Now, that abomination has returned to confront the Alchemist and to claim the life-rights it was denied by its creator. This is the vampire, the Creature Strahd.
Strahd Skeleton: These skeletons have been animated by the Creature.
Strahd Skeletal Steed: These are skeletal war horses that the creature has animated.
Strahd Zombie: These zombies are the creations of the Creature Strahd.
Azalin, Lich Magic-User 18: ?
Lich 18: ?
Master Ilmen, Strahd Zombie: ?
Caarey Gelthik, Ghast: ?
Jerimy Estmore, Wight: ?
Master Tangle, Wraith: ?
Wren Thims, Wraith: ?
Carl Ramm, Mummy: ?
Sharon Teece, Groaning Spirit: ?
Molly Grayswit, Vampire: Watching here is a vampire, a young woman who disappeared from town some weeks ago. Her parents presumed she had run off with a sailor, not realizing she had fallen victim to Strahd.
Thinn Balder, Zombie: ?
Badder Ghastling, Ghast: ?
Karen Edgerton, Wight: ?
Geam Welstap, Wraith: ?
Maquir Loft, Wraith: ?
Ellen Stinworthy, Mummy: ?
Miranda Langstry, Groaning Spirit: ?
Charity Bliss, Vampire: ?
Lord Godefry, Haunt: “...Tragedy has struck! This morn, Goodman Morris came winded from the Godefroy house. He says Lady Godefroy and her child are brutally slain and the blood clings to Lord Godefroy's hands..."
The only being found here is a haunt, the remains of Godefroy, who died here after slaying his wife and child.
Godefroy will seek to possess one of the characters that enters the room and force him to lay the spirits of his dead wife and daughter to rest.
Kelman Osterlaker, Spectre: ?
Penelope Godefry, Haunt: “...Tragedy has struck! This morn, Goodman Morris came winded from the Godefroy house. He says Lady Godefroy and her child are brutally slain and the blood clings to Lord Godefroy's hands..."
It will try to posses one of the characters and then complete its flight from its father.
Kattle Lisbury, Wight: ?
Emory Maus, Wight: ?
Marcus Lithe, Wraith: ?
Thellactin Mianns, Spectre: ?
Kelly Duncan, Groaning Spirit: ?
Emma Kelley, Vampire: ?
Millicent Hodgson, Zombie: ?
Natterly Knutnor, Ghast: ?
Momsin Alenny, Wight: ?
Shingol Tann, Wraith: ?
Yettergun Folie, Spectre: ?
Leslie Kale, Groaning Spirit: ?
Arlie Esterbridge, Vampire: ?
Lady Godefroy, Ghost: “...Tragedy has struck! This morn, Goodman Morris came winded from the Godefroy house. He says Lady Godefroy and her child are brutally slain and the blood clings to Lord Godefroy's hands..."
Slain by her husband.
Ogre Wight: ?
b]Ghast:[/b] ?
Ghost: ?
Groaning Spirit, Banshee: ?
Haunt: ?
Mummy: ?
Skeleton: ?
Spectre: ?
Vampire: ?
Wight: ?
Wraith: ?
Zombie: ?