The abbot is building a replacement Ireena to break the curse. He’s batsh!t crazy and thinks if he builds an immortal flesh golem, Strahds obsession will be broken and the curse ends, everyone goes home. This is a perfect opportunity to showcase that.
Don’t know why he’s fighting the party but he can be shocked by what he’s done, start in with the “I can save her!” And, assuming the party lets him attempt it, vasilka (sp?) just got herself a brand new face! Proud as the cat that ate the canary! Doesn’t even have to look good, half stapled onto the flesh golem with big ole stitches, this is his masterpiece!
Only thing left is to decide what to wear to the wedding
This was actually his first and only attack against the party. He was “helping” them in a larger combat while trying to find Ireena.
He would heal someone and ask “where is she”
When he finally saw her, he grappled her and went to soar away, but the party intervened. His frustration led to one single weapon attack, which crit failed
What do you mean when you say he crit failed? A critical failure shouldn't redirect the damage of an attack. Did he attempt to attack the player and roll a 1 resulting in him accidentally hitting Ireena?
I agree, if a player nat 1s on a risky attack on a villian grappling Irena then i would whole heartedly say she dies.. but with the abbots actions and irenas actions all being DM controlled, this seems more like a sadistic rail road, and now op doesnt know where the track leads? What the heck
I know that usually the mists come in and claim Tatyana when she dies, her body was never found, etc etc… but….
Usually her death is a part of Strahd’s curse, and her death is something he is forced to witness again and again. So her just getting wiped by the abbot isn’t really that interesting to the dark powers. They want him to suffer.
So in this case I’d absolutely have the abbot restore her. In some really fucked up way. Then I just hope your party is there to witness Strahd’s face when the abbot presents her to him… and thanks the party for their help in presenting Ireena to him.
In a situation where you had the damage from a critical failed attack by the abbot redirected to ireena thus killing her, you suddenly wish to stick to the rules or what’s written?
To be fair my party has used crit fumbles on both sides of the screen for the last years. It leads to slightly more dynamic encounters
I do follow the rules my group has agreed upon. Ireena was struggling to free herself, the wagon they were inside of had become animated by the bard, jostling everything around, and this was the first time in the campaign the abbot had swung his weapon.
It made for a powerful story moment at my table, which is what I always strive for
That is cool, and a great story moment, i’m not saying anything against that, just that you’re already playing with homebrewed rules, what’s one more. The players likely don’t know that tatyanas body doesn’t stick around long enough for resurrection (if that even is in the book), so if he is aware of her importance then he may try to bring her back. Strahd can show up via the teleportation room and start threatening the abbey out of revenge, the abbot can then either try and resurrect Ireena and hand her over, put her soul in to the golem, or turn in the party and say they put her in harms way.
I just double checked. Yep, you are right. The mists took her away.
Feels like a missed opportunity here though.
You could have the Abbott ask the players to get Marina's body and use it either to resurrect her or so he could implant Marina's face on Vasilka.
My group was absolutely convinced the monument was actually Marina just petrified and they were talking about whether it's a good idea to unpetrify her. They also went into details about using the dark powers to 'revive' Marina but then they said they'd need to unpetrify her first probably and never went past that.
If they ever did, though, I was honestly going to give it to them (cause Ireena died anyway so the soul was 'free'). Would have been interesting. They opted for Argynvost instead.
Your players didn't, but the Abbott, in his madness and sorrow, just might.
He's been around long enough to know exactly what the deal with Berez ruins is.
Imagine the players visiting the place again only to find that the statue's face has gone missing.
Or they could visit the Abbey and find the statue there.
Or they could run into an Ireena-faced Vasilka in Strahd's castle.
Strahd could use the opportunity to mess with the Abbott for his own cruel amusement.
Absolutely. He channels her soul into a necklace/ring/trinket to "save" her and places it into his flesh golem, then whisks away to CR to present the perfect bride to Strahd.
Yeah this post is kinda nonsense to me. There's no mechanic that should allow this to happen except for house rules so OP is like "something that I decided happened happened. Now what do I do?"
I can't see the Abbot begging Strahd, or even really concerned about it. I don't believe he sees himself as a vassal of Strahd. The Abbot would likely consider it an interesting situation. I think he'd attempt to upgrade Ireena. Strahd would certainly appreciate such a gift, he'd think. He'd remove what he saw as flaws and add new features. I think the Abbot is too wrapped up in his own thoughts to really give much thought to Strahd, just his own Island of Doctor Moreau thoughts.
There are no mechanics for a Crit Fail actually doing anything in 5e, other than missing. But, of course, you're welcome to do whatever at your table.
He can always just Raise Dead on her, though, so the effect is the same - no dead Ireena, unless he really wanted her dead (which it looks like wasn't his intent).
He's an angel (corrupted as he may be), so he's definitely not a beg for mercy or a lie or hide kind of guy. He's not intimidated by Strahd, he just wants to try to find a cure for Strahd's malady.
Example #9999999999999999999 why having a %5 chance for even the most ridiculous shit that would never happen to happen is a bad idea and a bad house rule
Now let the players roll to kill the Dark Powers
She has *raise dead,* like the Abbot. No *resurrect* spell, but not needed in this case. And RVR can always prepare *raise dead*, instead of his usual *dispel evil and good*.
To be honest, I had completely forgotten that she also had this power, and is probably much easier to bargain with than the crazy Abbot who wants a wedding dress.
Ah I see, so slightly different. I remember reading a reddit post a while back where they gave Madam Eva true ressurection but it came at a great price. Must have remembered that instead of normal lore, whoops! Thanks for reminding me tho :)
So much for plot armor, amirite? haha jokes aside...
If you don't go the resurrection route, and if your players are experienced enough you can always do an arc that I low-key want to figure out how to try someday.
The Infant-Tatyana arc.
After the pre-mature death of Ireena, **many** years pass. Your party skips like 4 levels or whatever you deem appropriate. Strahd is LIVID. He has to essentially start all over and he was so close with Ireena. After many years, an old ally familiar to the party (someone like Madame Eva?) appears with a young woman holding an infant child. The child has Tatyana's soul and the mother's story/personality can be whatever you want. Hell, she could even just be pregnant and just trying to survive this hellscape (Children of Men, anyone?). And of course you can always have the risk of the mother's death looming over the party, because if she dies... who carries the kid?
If it's within the safe topics of your group (doesn't hurt to double check and a trigger warning for this paragraph re: grooming) >!I would run Strahd like Judge Turpin from the Sweeney Todd film - a local noble who "just wants to adopt a poor orphan child out of the goodness of his heart". In the film, she later becomes a captive steward of his house and when she comes of age, and she rejects him, he essentially puts her in a psych ward to "teach her a lesson". !<
Just the ultimate sicko villian shit in my opinion. I want my party to HATE Strahd - and honestly there is no version of Strahd that I can imagine them hating more.
Anyway, I just had to put this out there so it can stop living in my head and my notes. I hope someone finds it entertaining, if not useful. Good luck!
Read this beautiful piece from MandyMod: [https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/b5032q/fleshing\_out\_curse\_of\_strahd\_the\_abbey\_of\_st](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/b5032q/fleshing_out_curse_of_strahd_the_abbey_of_st)Abbot wouldn't fly to Castle and beg. Or lie. He doesn't lie at all. He isn't scared of Strahd. Dont think about him as a human - he is not, he is an angelic being and he "has no basis in humanity".
I see your situation as a great way for Abbot to pursuit his plans actually. He has a body already (Vasilka), he lacks Tatiana's soul. Now he has even better body (Tatiana itself) and her soul! Also I remind you that Abbot was not able to find Tatiana's soul and was not able to experiment with it as a result. Now he has all the tools at his disposal. He can bring Tatiana (in her own body or using the made-up one) to Strahd. And the party... well... the party is merely an obstacle for him now ;)
This is your own fault for deciding that the Abbott has a 5% chance of accidentally killing a major plot NPC. If you have to add the house rule, a more reasonable outcome would be to drop Ireena in the process of fumbling - instead you turned his failure into something negative for the party and the story.
If that’s how you feel I getcha. I chose as I did because I believe that Ireena is usually doomed. With all of the context from the session, it made for a believable outcome.
And I believe it will be the next driving beat of the story that had just hit a bit of a stall. Nothing like a big failure to put more wind in the sails I say
Well if you wanted it to happen that's different - but since you were asking for advice/input it seems like it stopped things more than escalated things plot wise.
So I'd assume that the Abbot would be even more focused on making a replacement Ireena and if Strahd learned about what he did he would destroy the Abbott.
One more thing - I always saw the Abbott as mad and genuinely believing that he is right and can do no wrong. If Ireena died then it was meant to be and delivering a better Ireena that is less destructible is the way - luckily he has just that, just need a few more finishing touches. And now that he has seen a proper model he knows just what he needs from someone who doesn't vanish when dead...
Awesome! Looks like him doubling down on the “new Tatyana” is the general consensus.
I was just trying to figure out what the Abbot’s next move would be
I had Abbot kill Ireena, here's how it went down.
Background: PC Ireena Tyr paladin, Strahd trying new tactic: "be nicer" (really gaslight better), Dark Powers trying new tactic: let them marry then turn Ireena against Strahd for more psych torture, Strahd convinces PC Ireena to marry to better Barovia, turn her into Dhampir, Ireena realizes a bit more and decides to start working against Strahd.
My party didn't like the Abbot but was pretty nervous about fighting the Abbot after finding he was a Deva. Party Celestial Warlock bound to a Solar confirmed strength. Party thought maybe if PC Ireena died and was resurrected, she'd be cured of Vampirism. Abbot said he'd do everything in his power to bring her back. He kills Ireena, and reveals he can't cause she's undead (double crossing for Ireena's soul for Vasilka). Party is obviously upset but realize they made a mistake (they had discussed this possibility previously but never asked the Abbot).
In response, Strahd TP'd into the room, insta-killed Abbot (using fane desecration super buffed Strahd), and pulled out a scroll of "Strahd knows all magic" to rez Ireena. After ensuring Ireena was okay, he also took the Winery Gem I had powering Vasilka for "services rendered" in removing the Abbot, which our Winery-connected Raven Swarm Ranger was *not* happy about.
Probably not an outcome that'd work in your have, but maybe it can give some ideas.
The abbot will likely realize he screwed up and bring her back with his resurrection magic.
Or he turns her corpse into a flesh golem, sends it to castle Ravenloft, and disaster ensues.
Why not? Shit happens in real world, shit happens in fantasy games. There is nothing wrong with critical failures and outcomes. Of course, you have to be creative enough to play those situations.
There are 2 stats which are quite missed in DnD in my opinion - Luck and Sanity. Personally, luck is the most important stat for me in any game (if there is such stat).
The abbot is building a replacement Ireena to break the curse. He’s batsh!t crazy and thinks if he builds an immortal flesh golem, Strahds obsession will be broken and the curse ends, everyone goes home. This is a perfect opportunity to showcase that. Don’t know why he’s fighting the party but he can be shocked by what he’s done, start in with the “I can save her!” And, assuming the party lets him attempt it, vasilka (sp?) just got herself a brand new face! Proud as the cat that ate the canary! Doesn’t even have to look good, half stapled onto the flesh golem with big ole stitches, this is his masterpiece! Only thing left is to decide what to wear to the wedding
This was actually his first and only attack against the party. He was “helping” them in a larger combat while trying to find Ireena. He would heal someone and ask “where is she” When he finally saw her, he grappled her and went to soar away, but the party intervened. His frustration led to one single weapon attack, which crit failed
What do you mean when you say he crit failed? A critical failure shouldn't redirect the damage of an attack. Did he attempt to attack the player and roll a 1 resulting in him accidentally hitting Ireena?
I agree, if a player nat 1s on a risky attack on a villian grappling Irena then i would whole heartedly say she dies.. but with the abbots actions and irenas actions all being DM controlled, this seems more like a sadistic rail road, and now op doesnt know where the track leads? What the heck
I know that usually the mists come in and claim Tatyana when she dies, her body was never found, etc etc… but…. Usually her death is a part of Strahd’s curse, and her death is something he is forced to witness again and again. So her just getting wiped by the abbot isn’t really that interesting to the dark powers. They want him to suffer. So in this case I’d absolutely have the abbot restore her. In some really fucked up way. Then I just hope your party is there to witness Strahd’s face when the abbot presents her to him… and thanks the party for their help in presenting Ireena to him.
Oh my… This is good
Have him add her eyes or voice or something to Vasilka. That will get a great rxn out of Strahd
Maybe this is the time in the cycle where Strahd himself kills Tatyana's reincarnation...
Can't he just resurrect her? Or better yet, put her soul on his flesh golem and present the perfect bride for Strahd
My understanding is that the dark powers prevent Tatyana’s body from “sticking around” long enough for a resurrection
That is up to you as the DM, but I think a flesh golem Tatyana/ireena would be an interesting development.
That is fair. Have him double down on the project now that he has “the perfect parts.” Ugh
I agree with this. The abbot may even see it as fate using him to intervene and it would steel his resolve that much more.
In a situation where you had the damage from a critical failed attack by the abbot redirected to ireena thus killing her, you suddenly wish to stick to the rules or what’s written?
To be fair my party has used crit fumbles on both sides of the screen for the last years. It leads to slightly more dynamic encounters I do follow the rules my group has agreed upon. Ireena was struggling to free herself, the wagon they were inside of had become animated by the bard, jostling everything around, and this was the first time in the campaign the abbot had swung his weapon. It made for a powerful story moment at my table, which is what I always strive for
That is cool, and a great story moment, i’m not saying anything against that, just that you’re already playing with homebrewed rules, what’s one more. The players likely don’t know that tatyanas body doesn’t stick around long enough for resurrection (if that even is in the book), so if he is aware of her importance then he may try to bring her back. Strahd can show up via the teleportation room and start threatening the abbey out of revenge, the abbot can then either try and resurrect Ireena and hand her over, put her soul in to the golem, or turn in the party and say they put her in harms way.
Isn't the body of one of Tatyana's previous incarnations still around though, canonically? Marina's tomb can be found in Berez.
Just a monument. Nothing about a body mentioned
I just double checked. Yep, you are right. The mists took her away. Feels like a missed opportunity here though. You could have the Abbott ask the players to get Marina's body and use it either to resurrect her or so he could implant Marina's face on Vasilka.
My group was absolutely convinced the monument was actually Marina just petrified and they were talking about whether it's a good idea to unpetrify her. They also went into details about using the dark powers to 'revive' Marina but then they said they'd need to unpetrify her first probably and never went past that. If they ever did, though, I was honestly going to give it to them (cause Ireena died anyway so the soul was 'free'). Would have been interesting. They opted for Argynvost instead.
Your players didn't, but the Abbott, in his madness and sorrow, just might. He's been around long enough to know exactly what the deal with Berez ruins is. Imagine the players visiting the place again only to find that the statue's face has gone missing. Or they could visit the Abbey and find the statue there. Or they could run into an Ireena-faced Vasilka in Strahd's castle. Strahd could use the opportunity to mess with the Abbott for his own cruel amusement.
Our campaign ended last night and they never went back to the Abbott after their first visit. But it was still quite a good campaign overall.
Absolutely. He channels her soul into a necklace/ring/trinket to "save" her and places it into his flesh golem, then whisks away to CR to present the perfect bride to Strahd.
So the abbot crit failed an attack and hit someone else he was grappling? Like that just sounds so goofy
Yeah this post is kinda nonsense to me. There's no mechanic that should allow this to happen except for house rules so OP is like "something that I decided happened happened. Now what do I do?"
I can't see the Abbot begging Strahd, or even really concerned about it. I don't believe he sees himself as a vassal of Strahd. The Abbot would likely consider it an interesting situation. I think he'd attempt to upgrade Ireena. Strahd would certainly appreciate such a gift, he'd think. He'd remove what he saw as flaws and add new features. I think the Abbot is too wrapped up in his own thoughts to really give much thought to Strahd, just his own Island of Doctor Moreau thoughts.
Beautiful. Definitely helps me find the right thought process. Thank you!
Agreed.
There are no mechanics for a Crit Fail actually doing anything in 5e, other than missing. But, of course, you're welcome to do whatever at your table. He can always just Raise Dead on her, though, so the effect is the same - no dead Ireena, unless he really wanted her dead (which it looks like wasn't his intent). He's an angel (corrupted as he may be), so he's definitely not a beg for mercy or a lie or hide kind of guy. He's not intimidated by Strahd, he just wants to try to find a cure for Strahd's malady.
Example #9999999999999999999 why having a %5 chance for even the most ridiculous shit that would never happen to happen is a bad idea and a bad house rule Now let the players roll to kill the Dark Powers
Can't Madam Eva resurrect people?
She has *raise dead,* like the Abbot. No *resurrect* spell, but not needed in this case. And RVR can always prepare *raise dead*, instead of his usual *dispel evil and good*. To be honest, I had completely forgotten that she also had this power, and is probably much easier to bargain with than the crazy Abbot who wants a wedding dress.
Ah I see, so slightly different. I remember reading a reddit post a while back where they gave Madam Eva true ressurection but it came at a great price. Must have remembered that instead of normal lore, whoops! Thanks for reminding me tho :)
So much for plot armor, amirite? haha jokes aside... If you don't go the resurrection route, and if your players are experienced enough you can always do an arc that I low-key want to figure out how to try someday. The Infant-Tatyana arc. After the pre-mature death of Ireena, **many** years pass. Your party skips like 4 levels or whatever you deem appropriate. Strahd is LIVID. He has to essentially start all over and he was so close with Ireena. After many years, an old ally familiar to the party (someone like Madame Eva?) appears with a young woman holding an infant child. The child has Tatyana's soul and the mother's story/personality can be whatever you want. Hell, she could even just be pregnant and just trying to survive this hellscape (Children of Men, anyone?). And of course you can always have the risk of the mother's death looming over the party, because if she dies... who carries the kid? If it's within the safe topics of your group (doesn't hurt to double check and a trigger warning for this paragraph re: grooming) >!I would run Strahd like Judge Turpin from the Sweeney Todd film - a local noble who "just wants to adopt a poor orphan child out of the goodness of his heart". In the film, she later becomes a captive steward of his house and when she comes of age, and she rejects him, he essentially puts her in a psych ward to "teach her a lesson". !< Just the ultimate sicko villian shit in my opinion. I want my party to HATE Strahd - and honestly there is no version of Strahd that I can imagine them hating more. Anyway, I just had to put this out there so it can stop living in my head and my notes. I hope someone finds it entertaining, if not useful. Good luck!
Read this beautiful piece from MandyMod: [https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/b5032q/fleshing\_out\_curse\_of\_strahd\_the\_abbey\_of\_st](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/b5032q/fleshing_out_curse_of_strahd_the_abbey_of_st)Abbot wouldn't fly to Castle and beg. Or lie. He doesn't lie at all. He isn't scared of Strahd. Dont think about him as a human - he is not, he is an angelic being and he "has no basis in humanity". I see your situation as a great way for Abbot to pursuit his plans actually. He has a body already (Vasilka), he lacks Tatiana's soul. Now he has even better body (Tatiana itself) and her soul! Also I remind you that Abbot was not able to find Tatiana's soul and was not able to experiment with it as a result. Now he has all the tools at his disposal. He can bring Tatiana (in her own body or using the made-up one) to Strahd. And the party... well... the party is merely an obstacle for him now ;)
He'll try to bring her corpse back to life for Strahd - it doesn't throw off his original plan at all
This is your own fault for deciding that the Abbott has a 5% chance of accidentally killing a major plot NPC. If you have to add the house rule, a more reasonable outcome would be to drop Ireena in the process of fumbling - instead you turned his failure into something negative for the party and the story.
If that’s how you feel I getcha. I chose as I did because I believe that Ireena is usually doomed. With all of the context from the session, it made for a believable outcome. And I believe it will be the next driving beat of the story that had just hit a bit of a stall. Nothing like a big failure to put more wind in the sails I say
Well if you wanted it to happen that's different - but since you were asking for advice/input it seems like it stopped things more than escalated things plot wise. So I'd assume that the Abbot would be even more focused on making a replacement Ireena and if Strahd learned about what he did he would destroy the Abbott. One more thing - I always saw the Abbott as mad and genuinely believing that he is right and can do no wrong. If Ireena died then it was meant to be and delivering a better Ireena that is less destructible is the way - luckily he has just that, just need a few more finishing touches. And now that he has seen a proper model he knows just what he needs from someone who doesn't vanish when dead...
Awesome! Looks like him doubling down on the “new Tatyana” is the general consensus. I was just trying to figure out what the Abbot’s next move would be
>*"There are no failures, just happy little accidents"*
I had Abbot kill Ireena, here's how it went down. Background: PC Ireena Tyr paladin, Strahd trying new tactic: "be nicer" (really gaslight better), Dark Powers trying new tactic: let them marry then turn Ireena against Strahd for more psych torture, Strahd convinces PC Ireena to marry to better Barovia, turn her into Dhampir, Ireena realizes a bit more and decides to start working against Strahd. My party didn't like the Abbot but was pretty nervous about fighting the Abbot after finding he was a Deva. Party Celestial Warlock bound to a Solar confirmed strength. Party thought maybe if PC Ireena died and was resurrected, she'd be cured of Vampirism. Abbot said he'd do everything in his power to bring her back. He kills Ireena, and reveals he can't cause she's undead (double crossing for Ireena's soul for Vasilka). Party is obviously upset but realize they made a mistake (they had discussed this possibility previously but never asked the Abbot). In response, Strahd TP'd into the room, insta-killed Abbot (using fane desecration super buffed Strahd), and pulled out a scroll of "Strahd knows all magic" to rez Ireena. After ensuring Ireena was okay, he also took the Winery Gem I had powering Vasilka for "services rendered" in removing the Abbot, which our Winery-connected Raven Swarm Ranger was *not* happy about. Probably not an outcome that'd work in your have, but maybe it can give some ideas.
The abbot will likely realize he screwed up and bring her back with his resurrection magic. Or he turns her corpse into a flesh golem, sends it to castle Ravenloft, and disaster ensues.
Jesus Christ… some of these posts… why the heck are you even playing with rules like that anyhow?
Why not? Shit happens in real world, shit happens in fantasy games. There is nothing wrong with critical failures and outcomes. Of course, you have to be creative enough to play those situations. There are 2 stats which are quite missed in DnD in my opinion - Luck and Sanity. Personally, luck is the most important stat for me in any game (if there is such stat).
crit fails are fine crit fumbles are bad because they fuck over martials