Curse of Srahd: Markovia Abbey replacement? Warning: CoS Spoilers!

[NRSASD]

Hey playground!

So I was wondering if anyone has run the Markovia abbey in Krezk. Specifically, the one packed to the brim with mongrel men, led by an insane Deva. How'd that go?

I'm a little hesitant to run it, given its theme of insane asylum patients. Doesn't seem like something that would fly well in my group. I do like the Deva, Flesh golem bride, and the rest.

Any suggestions what I should put in its place? Maybe make the Deva an insane taxidermist, bent on "preserving" life no matter the cost? What does the playground think?

As always, thanks for any and all help!

[Unoriginal]

You could make it an insane monastery, instead.

They pissed off Strahd, so he made them go crazy/turned them into monsters.

The horror would come from the monks and Deva being perfectly friendly and normal during the day, but from midnight til dawn they'd go murderous and bloodthirsty, without them ever realizing there is something wrong.

You could even have them hire the adventurers to figure out what kind of monster has been responsible for killing people around.

The flesh golem could have the bishop's soul trapped inside, without any control over this body, and during the day everyone, including the bishop, just believe they're sick, but during the night the bishop realizes what's going on, only to forgot again during the day.

[leogobsin]

If you want to avoid some of the more iffy implications around the mongrelfolk you could have them be instead of being the results of The Abbot trying to 'fix' an inbred family be the results of some of The Abbot's experiments surrounding the creation of Strahd's bride?

[Twigwit]

If you want to avoid some of the more iffy implications around the mongrelfolk you could have them be instead of being the results of The Abbot trying to 'fix' an inbred family be the results of some of The Abbot's experiments surrounding the creation of Strahd's bride?

This is the module with the evil magical Romani that will cut your purse and curse you for catching them cheating at cards, altering the Abbeys history does little to undo the deliberately backwards values of Barovia.

I didn't run it with any alterations and my players were both fascinated and repulsed by the locale. The more of the place they saw the more the group concencious became "we should burn this place down if we could get away with it." They only got into fights they didn't start (hostile mongrlemen and shadows) and generally went along with the Abbot, though not without argument. I found the area to be one of the most effective areas in the module for making the players get disturbed or angry at the injustice of Barovia. This reaction is due in part from the inherent disgustingness of the practice of jailing the deranged and the mongrelmen specifically being the byproduct of a kind of failed eugenics. Anyone familiar with the history of asylums will know that this kind of sordid tale is not so far off from the pseudoscience driven torture or mutilation that was inflicted on their inmates in the real world. The horror is more impactful because it has some basis in reality. It is a gross, reprehensible situation at the Abbey, and that's what makes it an effective area.

[Unoriginal]

This is the module with the evil magical Romani that will cut your purse and curse you for catching them cheating at cards, altering the Abbeys history does little to undo the deliberately backwards values of Barovia.

I didn't run it with any alterations and my players were both fascinated and repulsed by the locale. The more of the place they saw the more the group concencious became "we should burn this place down if we could get away with it." They only got into fights they didn't start (hostile mongrlemen and shadows) and generally went along with the Abbot, though not without argument. I found the area to be one of the most effective areas in the module for making the players get disturbed or angry at the injustice of Barovia. This reaction is due in part from the inherent disgustingness of the practice of jailing the deranged and the mongrelmen specifically being the byproduct of a kind of failed eugenics. Anyone familiar with the history of asylums will know that this kind of sordid tale is not so far off from the pseudoscience driven torture or mutilation that was inflicted on their inmates in the real world. The horror is more impactful because it has some basis in reality. It is a gross, reprehensible situation at the Abbey, and that's what makes it an effective area.

This is fair and true, but on the other hand, not all gaming groups like to get grossed out.

Though if it is the case for OP's group, I kind of question why they're playing CoS in the first place.

[NRSASD]

@Twigwit: Good point. I'm not entirely comfortable running it as is, but that's a very strong and compelling argument for keeping it intact. I'm already tweaking a couple other aspects of the module though (the aforementioned always evil Vistani is one of them), so I was just putting out feelers to see what other CoS veterans thought of this scene in particular. Thanks for the feedback!

@Unoriginal: Mostly cause it looks cool. And fun. And creepy. Just in time for October too!