Diana Zephyrus

Backstory

Diana was born to adventuring parents, a human father and goblin mother, who were lured into Barovia but were unable to escape. Having grown bored of them, Strahd let them be and they eventually settled down in the village of Barovia. Human males being human males, Diana's father quickly made a move on her Goblin mother after being unsettled by the Barovian natives and his urges...getting the better of him. Diana's parents would always tell stories of Faerun to Diana, of how it was a glorious place with endless opportunities.While perhaps cruel, this left Diana with a strong desire to escape to Faerun no matter what. Her parents were murdered when Diana was only 6 by a group of adventurers who entered Barovia and decided to murder anyone they came across. After this, Diana took to studying all forms of magic and alchemy she found sources available for in Barovia. She vowed to find a way to escape the mist and return to her parent's country of origin.

Implementation

My players had a character attacked by the mound in the Death house and be seriously injured. After searching the town for help and no basic medicine or spells making any difference, they were directed to the eccentric alchemist who lives on the outskirts of town (top right of the map of the village has a house that fits perfectly). You could just have people talk about the outsider born of adventurers, have her as the place to buy potions, etc. I feel there is a lot of ways you could get the players interested in checking her out.

She is able to help them with whatever but requests that they take care of a problem she has in her basement. (maybe offers discounts if they do or will brew a certain potion etc).

Campaign Spanning Quest/Idea For Giving Players More Motivation Early On

She will also offer a quest (either before or after the problem is dealt with) to get some ingredients to help her create a potion that will allow anyone who drinks it to be immune to the mist. The purpose for this is to give the players more motive to go exploring Barovia and you can use it to foreshadow some of the things they will find on the adventure and can be used as mini hooks. Eg The list has a demon's eye on it, there are reports of a demon over in X area so let's go check it out. (crass example but you know what I mean). On top of that, how you choose to implement this potion is up to you. Maybe it works perfectly and allows them to escape. Maybe it works but they realise even if they can walk through the mists there is nowhere to go. Maybe it doesn't work at all (mean!) or maybe it could be used to give them a boost fighting Strahd. Here is what I have used:

Locks of hair from two long lost siblings

Liver of a man wolf

Crow beak

Body part of an ancient witch

Heart of a soulless man

Scale of a dragon

Eye of a demonic follower

The blood of betrayed

nightshade berries

elemental water

Sweat of a chimera

giant goat horn

Sample of the mist

A second mother's fingernail

Diana's Problem

She had a subject get loose in her basement workshop and she was scared so escaped, locking the door behind her and trapping her assistant. If pressed she mentions the subject was a wolf monster. I made sure her skittish personality kept everything vague while not seeming so. The subject is a werewolf she is trying to turn reverse the side effects of and the "assistant" is a wolf she has been using to counter act the condition. Through blood samples or something. However when they get down there and make it through the locked door to the workshop they see a man sleeping in a cage (the werewolf but in human form) and a large wolf also sleeping in it's own separate cage. The idea is that people would initially assume the human is the assistant and the wolf is the wolf monster. The man can lie and take advantage of the adventurer's lack of knowledge (Diana is too scared so refuses to follow them) to bide his time to escape. This can either result in straight up combat with the werewolf or an RPing situation where the werewolf convinces them the sleeping wolf is dangerous and needs to be killed, but they must be careful before it wakes up.

Here is how I set it up on roll20: Set up Map and Clear Map

The slab on the right had an engraving "The only tool which sharper grow, when used in any row" The answer is tongue, but the door should be open already (Why would she leave her door locked like that, she is just too scatter brained to bother mentioning it to the party because to her it's so obvious) However I set up red herrings in the alchemist workshop and had them try work out the riddle for awhile, but if they go back and ask Diana or just push the door, they find out what to do.

The room in the north has a locked door. I planned to have Diana give the party the wrong key and come down after they fumble a bit to give them the right one. At that point a black ooze that escaped from her supplies will drop down and Diana can be a liability/help depending on how you want to play it. However my players just picked the lock and the black pudding dropped down.

After that they enter the room and you play it how you play it. The door in the south looks like a wall from the ladder entrance but can be opened if you go all the way around and find a hidden button.

How to play Diana

Crazy, eccentric, and completely scatter brained.

Coward

Very skilled so confident in her abilities

Aware of adventurers and what they do so can make jokes about the party/expectations/break the 4th wall a little

Over the top, good to break up the tension of the rest of Barovia/Death House

Bonus Magic Item

I had an idea of having Diana reward this magic item to the party to make using potions a bit easier while not being too over powered.

Bracers of Potion Administration

These bracers are able to contain the equivalent of one potion's contents. Through a covered needle in the underside of the bracers you are able to administer the potion to yourself by pushing down on the container on top.

Using the bracers takes a bonus action and refilling in combat takes a whole action. You are unable to wear these bracers with any other kind of two armed bracers eg Bracers of Defense.

That would come pre equipped with this:

No More Pain Serum

Pain, pain, go away. Come again another day.

This incredibly powerful serum is able to suppress any kind of pain you have experienced for a very short time, However, forcing yourself to function beyond your limits has its price.

A downed person can consume this as a bonus action to automatically take two (one?)failed death saving throws, but is able to take an action for this round, before falling back to the ground at the end of their turn.

Needs to be confirmed with DM first. eg if the character is very clearly unconscious they can't use it, but if they are just on the floor bleeding out it is ok.

The reason the serum can be applied and no other potion can while downed is the dosage needed for the serum is so small a slight push will be enough while the potion requires more time.

Source

https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/83ly3e/curse_of_strahd_diana_zephyrus_half_goblin/