I'm running my first game, with mostly first time players, and ended up going with Curse of Strahd.
When reading about the Abbott at Krezk I decided to tweak it somewhat. There did not really seem to be a path to redeem him and his motivations with the flesh golem and asylum didn't really make much sense to me. Instead, the Abbott has slowly fallen into despair at the seeming hopelessness of his mission--to free Barovia from Strahd. In my campaign the abbott will be the one to have inspired and empowered Saint Markovia and Andral. In passing around his power (essentially a celestial warlock patron) his connection to the Dawnfather weakened over time and eventually "severed" (actually just caused by his self doubt and depression as the armed uprisings failed time after time). The sunsword was his heavenly weapon of choice but has grown dormant. This severed connection to the divine has caused him to seek out other power in desperation.
One of the more experienced players went cleric (the new players went for more "flashy" looking classes). As soon as I found out that he picked the Dawnfather as his god I knew I had a quest for him. To return the dawnfathers servant to him (redeem him). He's slowly worked out who this mysterious servant in Barovia is.
I'm currently unsure how to provide a realistic way for my player to redeem a Deva without it being trite. I also want there to be a possibility he fails triggering a fight with the Abbott. Both would end up completing his quest (the party has been slowly breaking Strahds absolute control in Barovia and so the Dawnfather would be able to claim the devas soul upon death).
I would be greatful for any ideas on how to plan this redemption or death in ways that aren't trite or anticlimactic.
The only way to avoid it being trite is to commit. Just embrace the unbelievably heavy metal quality of having to destroy an angel's corporeal form in order to free him from his vampire-related madness.
Anticlimactic is a problem. Once the players beat Strahd, everything else is cleanup. But you can't free the valley until you beat Strahd, and once you beat Strahd, the clock starts ticking until he's born again. So you have a limited window to go persuade the Abbott to come to his senses. The Abbott knows something the players don't, you see.
He knows this has happened before.
He knows that once in a long while, a St Markovia or a Mordenkainen or a group of players can actually lay the fiend low for a brief time, but he always always comes back. And the valley will be dragged into the mist again. And any mortal souls trapped inside when it happens are doomed to unthinkable centuries of horror. Since evacuating the valley is impossible, the Abbott is damn well staying until he finds a permanent way to break the spell. Crazy as he is, he still thinks there's something inside Strahd to "fix" which will lift the curse.
So here's how you avoid fighting the Abbott. You go to the Amber Temple library, you negotiate with the lich for the Contact Other Plane spell (if your players already have this, then make it a home-brew ritual. For centuries now, the Abbott has been communing with what he thought was the upper planes, not realizing that he was in communication with Strahd the whole time. Now that the valley is free, he's basically getting cell phone bars from Heaven for the first time in forever and can see just how far off-course he's gone.
But the key to making this exciting is the time pressure. No one knows when Strahd will be reborn. Weeks, days, hours? In saving the Abbott they may find themselves trapped all over again. And this time Strahd is going to take them very seriously indeed.
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I'm running my first game, with mostly first time players, and ended up going with Curse of Strahd.
When reading about the Abbott at Krezk I decided to tweak it somewhat. There did not really seem to be a path to redeem him and his motivations with the flesh golem and asylum didn't really make much sense to me. Instead, the Abbott has slowly fallen into despair at the seeming hopelessness of his mission--to free Barovia from Strahd. In my campaign the abbott will be the one to have inspired and empowered Saint Markovia and Andral. In passing around his power (essentially a celestial warlock patron) his connection to the Dawnfather weakened over time and eventually "severed" (actually just caused by his self doubt and depression as the armed uprisings failed time after time). The sunsword was his heavenly weapon of choice but has grown dormant. This severed connection to the divine has caused him to seek out other power in desperation.
One of the more experienced players went cleric (the new players went for more "flashy" looking classes). As soon as I found out that he picked the Dawnfather as his god I knew I had a quest for him. To return the dawnfathers servant to him (redeem him). He's slowly worked out who this mysterious servant in Barovia is.
I'm currently unsure how to provide a realistic way for my player to redeem a Deva without it being trite. I also want there to be a possibility he fails triggering a fight with the Abbott. Both would end up completing his quest (the party has been slowly breaking Strahds absolute control in Barovia and so the Dawnfather would be able to claim the devas soul upon death).
I would be greatful for any ideas on how to plan this redemption or death in ways that aren't trite or anticlimactic.
The only way to avoid it being trite is to commit. Just embrace the unbelievably heavy metal quality of having to destroy an angel's corporeal form in order to free him from his vampire-related madness.
Anticlimactic is a problem. Once the players beat Strahd, everything else is cleanup. But you can't free the valley until you beat Strahd, and once you beat Strahd, the clock starts ticking until he's born again. So you have a limited window to go persuade the Abbott to come to his senses. The Abbott knows something the players don't, you see.
He knows this has happened before.
He knows that once in a long while, a St Markovia or a Mordenkainen or a group of players can actually lay the fiend low for a brief time, but he always always comes back. And the valley will be dragged into the mist again. And any mortal souls trapped inside when it happens are doomed to unthinkable centuries of horror. Since evacuating the valley is impossible, the Abbott is damn well staying until he finds a permanent way to break the spell. Crazy as he is, he still thinks there's something inside Strahd to "fix" which will lift the curse.
So here's how you avoid fighting the Abbott. You go to the Amber Temple library, you negotiate with the lich for the Contact Other Plane spell (if your players already have this, then make it a home-brew ritual. For centuries now, the Abbott has been communing with what he thought was the upper planes, not realizing that he was in communication with Strahd the whole time. Now that the valley is free, he's basically getting cell phone bars from Heaven for the first time in forever and can see just how far off-course he's gone.
But the key to making this exciting is the time pressure. No one knows when Strahd will be reborn. Weeks, days, hours? In saving the Abbott they may find themselves trapped all over again. And this time Strahd is going to take them very seriously indeed.