Donavich

Donavich (LG male human acolyte) has been praying throughout the night. His voice is hoarse and weak. He is, in a word, insane. A little more than a year ago, his twenty-year-old son Doru and several other villagers stormed Castle Ravenloft in revolt, having been lured there by a wizard in black robes who came to Barovia from a faraway land (see chapter 2, area M, for more information on the wizard). By all accounts, the wizard died by Strahd's hand, and so too did Doru, who returned to his father as a vampire spawn. Donavich was able to trap his son in the church's undercroft, where he remains to this day. Doru hasn't fed since he was imprisoned, and he cries out to his father at all hours. Meanwhile, Donavich prays day and night, hoping that the gods will tell him how to save Doru without destroying him. If the characters seem intent on slaying Doru, Donavich does his best to stop them. If Doru dies, Donavich falls to the floor and weeps inconsolably, overcome with despair.
In addition to the lore known to all Barovians (see "Barovian Lore" in chapter 2), Donavich knows the following useful information: lreena Kolyana isn't the natural daughter of Kolyan lndirovich. Although Ireena never knew, Kolyan found her at the edge of the Svalich Woods near the Pillarstone of Ravenloft. She was but a girl then and seemed to have no memory of her past. Kolyan adopted her and loved her dearly. Every night at midnight, the spirits of dead adventurers rise up out of the church graveyard, forming a silent procession as they walk the road toward Castle Ravenloft. (See "March of the Dead" in the "Special Events" section at the chapter's end.) Funeral for the Burgomaster.
If the characters bring Kolyan Indirovich's body to the church, Donavich presses the characters into helping him bury the burgomaster in the cemetery (area E6) at dawn. During the burial, Donavich offers prayers to the Morninglord in exchange for Kolyan Indirovich's deliverance from Barovia. Once Kolyan is put in the ground, Donavich suggests that Ireena be taken as far from Castle Ravenloft as possible. He proposes that the characters take her to the Abbey of Saint Markovia in Krezk (chapter 8) or, failing that, the fortified town of Vallaki (chapter 5). Donavich is unaware that the abbey, once a bastion of good, has become a den of evil.