Dragna's Blog: The Problem with Patrina

The lore of Patrina Velikovna, Kasimir's archmage sister, is scattered across multiple locations of the RAW Curse of Strahd module. As far as we can discern from the book's lore, however, we can roughly summarize her history as follows:

In 245 BC, Rahadin refuses to bow to an unnamed dusk elf prince and is exiled. (All dates are approximate, and based off of rough guesswork and cross-referenced context clues.) Sixty-five years later, in 310 BC, the dusk elves declined to pay fealty to King Barov, who declares war. Rahadin helps Barov conquer the dusk elves, obliterating the elven royal line and subjugating the survivors (excepting those who go to live among the Vistani).

In 346 BC, King Barov dies, and the dusk elves stage a rebellion against his successor, his son Strahd. Strahd's armies make short work of the dusk elves' rebellion, however, nearly annihilating them and leaving the survivors to the mercy of the Vistani. One of those survivors, a man named Kasimir, joins the clan of the Vistani Velikov, whose name he takes to honor him. The Vistani then bear the dusk elves to the valley.

Within a year of their arrival in the valley (which would soon be called Barovia), Kasimir's sister, Patrina Velikovna, discovers the Amber Temple, where she completes her studies of the black arts. (Presumably, she does so under the tutelage of the lich Exethanter, who's dwelled at the Amber Temple for centuries by now.) A year later, after Strahd's defeat of the Order of the Silver Dragon and conquest of the valley, Patrina visits Strahd and tells him of the Amber Temple, which she promises holds the secret to immortality. She takes him to the Amber Temple, where Exethanter welcomes him and the vestiges and Dark Powers forge a pact with him. Patrina continues her relationship with Strahd, while Rahadin searches for a woman to distract Strahd from Patrina (presumably because he doesn't like other dusk elves and/or thinks she's a bad influence or distraction from Strahd's royal duties).

At some point, Patrina departs the castle and/or grows apart from Strahd. Five weeks after Sergei's wedding and Strahd's resurrection as a vampire, Patrina returns to Ravenloft to win Strahd's love and proposes a dark marriage, which Strahd accepts. Two weeks later, Kasimir catches wind of Strahd's relationship with Patrina. Kasimir leads the dusk elves in stoning her to death in order to thwart Strahd's plans to (presumably) turn her into a vampire spawn. Strahd demands Patrina's body, which he seals in the castle crypts, and sends Rahadin to punish the dusk elves. Rahadin slaughters the female dusk elves and cuts off Kasimir's ears.

Almost four hundred years later, in 716 BC, Patrina's spirit visits Kasimir in his dreams. Patrina, who now dwells in the castle crypts as a banshee, tells Kasimir that the years of regret have "cleansed her tortured soul." As their conversations unfold, Patrina tells Kasimir about the Amber Temple, sharing that it's the location where Strahd forged his pact with dark powers and learned the secret of vampirism. Kasimir comes to believe that the Temple holds the secret to resurrecting the ancient dead, and formulates a plan to travel there and resurrect Patrina (which is, secretly, exactly what she wants him to do).

Over the next several years, Kasimir spies on the Amber Temple and learns that it's dangerous and well-guarded. In 735 BC, despairing of ever penetrating to the Amber Temple's depths and obtaining the power to resurrect his sister, Kasimir meets the players and asks them to escort him there. Kasimir suggests that the secret to breaking Strahd's pact and freeing Barovia might be hidden there, but shares that his main objective is to find a way to bring Patrina back to life (though he doesn't explain her dreams in-depth—presumably because he doesn't want to reveal why she's dead).

The players and Kasimir proceed up Tsolenka Pass to the Amber Temple, where, if Kasimir survives long enough, he is able to accept the dark gift of Zhudun from the Amber Vault—the power to resurrect the ancient dead. Clever players willing to risk the (very big) risks and downsides of accepting Zhudun's gift can also accept the gift in order to, e.g., resurrect St. Markovia, Sergei, or Argynvost.

What happens next is a bit unclear, so I'll just paste the relevant text from the module:

• If she is restored to life by her brother (see "Kasimir's Dark Gift" in the "Special Events" section in chapter 13), Patrina (NE female dusk elf) returns as an archmage with no spells prepared. If the characters have her spellbook, she kindly asks them to give it back to her so that she can prepare her long-forgotten spells and help destroy Strahd (a lie). If the characters oblige, she repays their kindness by learning as much about them as possible before pursuing her own goals. (Crypt 21, p. 89)

• If Kasimir succeeds in his quest, the newly resurrected Patrina (NE female dusk elf archmage) feigns repentance until she regains her strength and her spells, whereupon she travels to Castle Ravenloft and attempts to return to Strahd, seeking to become his vampire bride at last. The mutilation of her brother at the hands of Rahadin, Strahd's chamberlain, doesn't sit well with her. She hopes to avenge her brother and distract the characters by setting them on a path to killing Rahadin, who has long opposed her marriage to Strahd. (Kasimir's Dark Gift, p. 196)

• Strahd has lost interest in Patrina as a consort. Given the chance, he turns her into a vampire spawn and puts her back in her crypt—a fate she would do everything in her power to prevent. Her attraction to Strahd is outmatched by a desire to increase her own power. She is no one's plaything. (Kasimir's Dark Gift, p. 196)

• Upon his death, Strahd's vampire spawn are freed from his control, and each seeks a new destiny. Escher, in particular, leaves the realm, in search of new experiences and a way to become a vampire lord himself. If Patrina Velikovna lives, she begins to plunder arcane knowledge from Castle Ravenloft and the Amber Temple and prepares to become Barovia's new master. (Epilogue, Aftermath, Consorts Unleashed, p. 208)

• Kasimir has no inkling that Patrina is using him for exactly that purpose, and that her ultimate goal is to become as powerful a vampire as Strahd. (Kasimir Velikov, p. 232)

Overall, the critical path appears to be:

• The players meet Kasimir

• The players and Kasimir travel to the Amber Temple, where Kasimir accepts Zhudun's gift

• The players escort Kasimir to Castle Ravenloft, where they don't defeat Strahd, but instead resurrect Patrina

• Patrina accompanies the party, feigning repentance while she prepares her spells and gathers information about them.

• Patrina abandons the players and Kasimir to return to Ravenloft. At some point, she does something that makes them want to kill Rahadin.

• At some point, if Patrina returns to Castle Ravenloft, she and Strahd have an off-screen drama where Strahd tries to turn her into vampire spawn and/or Patrina resists him or escapes. (It's unclear what would swing the scales one way or another.)

• If the players kill Strahd and Patrina is still alive, she "plunders arcane knowledge" from Castle Ravenloft and the Amber Temple and, eventually, accepts the dark gift of the Vampyr. (Presumably, to fulfull the conditions of the gift, she then manipulates Kasimir into killing her, or maybe kills him first? It's unclear.)

Numerous issues plague this storyline. First, it's unclear why Kasimir would seek to resurrect his sister before Strahd is dead, given his (correct!) belief that Strahd has corrupted her and that Strahd must die before she can be redeemed.

Second, Patrina's storyline once she's raised is utterly incoherent. Is she supposed to become a vampire? Kill Rahadin? Under what circumstances does Strahd turn her into a spawn? It's entirely unclear. (Presumably, the developers just figured she'd make for a cool ingredient for DMs to play with and left her fate unresolved intentionally.)

Third, Patrina's post-resurrection, soap-opera narrative is placed at the exact worst time in the campaign. The Amber Temple is, usually, going to be one of the last places players complete (due to its danger and difficulty). By the time they come out of the Temple, they're probably ready to fight and kill Strahd anyway, which makes Patrina's entire post-resurrection plotline moot. (Even if they do resurrect her first, she needs to take a long rest before she can prepare her spells anyway . . . and at this point, they're already in Castle Ravenloft, with Strahd's final fight just a hop, skip, and a jump away.)

Fourth, Patrina's pre-death character arc makes no sense. Why, after Strahd and his father annihilated her people, would she immediately jump into his arms and ask to be his bride? Hell, why would she even bring him to the Amber Temple at all? Why not use the "dark arts" she picked up there to kill him outright?

Most significantly, however, Patrina's plotline is problematic because there is no win condition. There's no way to redeem Patrina. There's no way to even weaponize Patrina, who seemingly has no interest in aiding the players. Even if the players do somehow recruit her, she intends to become an evil vampire anyway, so they'd be better off killing her as soon as they get the chance. And no matter what they do, Kasimir always loses—either he doesn't get his sister back, or he gets his sister back and she turns to Strahd's side, either (1) becoming his vampire spawn, or (2) becoming a vampire herself.

Ultimately: Kasimir's story is utterly pointless, with no catharsis or real stakes; it's just a trick—a mirage, meant to give the players an extra excuse to go to the Amber Temple, but with no meaningful resolution or purpose. (When I rant about "content for the sake of content," this is exactly what I mean.) It's also completely unfair, punishing the players unless they figure out that the DM is actively trying to trick them.

So: Now that we know that Patrina's RAW storyline is pointless (if not actively counterproductive, since players will feel upset and betrayed at the fact that they've just wasted a half-dozen sessions doing something that only hurt them), what do we do now? Next week, we'll explore how I tried to fix Patrina's storyline—and how this process led me to permanently change the lore of the Amber Temple itself.