A little background. We'd just started the Curse of Strahd Campaign for 5th Edition D&D, and I had assembeld a group of "High Rollers" with decades of experience at the table and an emphasis on good role play and backstory. Everyone rolled up interesting characters and builds, but this story focuses on two, A High Elf Bladesinger that had been tortured by the red wizards of Thay, and a Human Circle of the Land Druid with a slight tweak to make his primary casting stat inteligence. The Last two Characters, Eiraviel and Albus Bearval, were both strong role players with very opinionated characters. After a few levels of play it was decided that Eiraviel needed to bow out, his character wasn't really meshing with the party dynamic and focus, and Albus was quickly becoming the de facto party leader. Eiraviel's player actually suggested bowing out, and so we hatched a plot. In the aftermath of dealing with the occupants of Barovia's infamous windmill, an argument quickly escalated into PVP, and as a parting gesture Eiraviel killed both a rescued child NPC, and another player. This other player had to bow out of the game for real world reasons, so he was cool with having his character go out with a bang! and became the catalyst to form a blood fued between Eiraviel and Albus. Sure enough Albus used every spell slot he had to try and kill the treacherous Bladesinger, but he managed to escape the windmill, and with a personal appearance of Strahd himself, evaded the party. It was several sessions later, as the party fled the Abby of Saint Markovia, that Eiraviel returned. Now a Vampire Spawn in service to Strahd, and gifted magics pulled from the Devil's own spell book, he returned to kill the party, and Albus in particular. A battle with a Balgura on the side of a cliff in the middle of thunder storm ensued, and while Eiraviel was able to damage the party, he ultimately had to fling himself from the cliff, falling away with a feather fall spell and laughing maniacally…but Albus wasn't going to let him get away so easily. Albus' player muttered "Okay, I did the math, and I should be good even if you roll max damage." Then in character shouted "Eiraviel you little Bitch your not getting away!" and proceeded to try and power slide down the cliff with a roll of… 6. Cue nearly max damage for the fall. After hitting nearly every rock on his way down, the druid survived, but was unable to catch Eiraviel, who continues to plague the party to this day! Best NPC Ever!
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