Baba Lysaga
Lysaga
Baba Lysaga was an almost mythic figure tied to Strahd's ancient past. A hermit, she spent most of her time crafting and animating scarecrows to hunt down and kill the ravens and the wereravens that infested Strahd's domain. When she wasn't working evil magic, Baba Lysaga sacrificed beasts to Night Mother and collected their blood, then bathed in the blood on nights of the new moon in a ritual to stave off the effects of extreme old age.
Baba Lysaga stole a magic gemstone from the Wizard of Wines vineyard, in the hope that the wereravens who protect the vineyard would try to reclaim it. She kept it in her hut as bait to lure her enemies to their deaths. The gem had given her hut a semblance of life.
The upside-down skull that floated next to her hut was a hill giant's skull that Baba Lysaga had hollowed out and transformed into a vehicle. It hovered in place until Baba Lysaga would command it to fly, which she could do only while inside it. No one else could control the skull. A creature inside the skull had three-quarters cover against attacks made from outside the skull. The skull was big enough to hold one Medium creature.
Inside Lysaga's hut was a child and a crib. The child and the crib were illusions created by Baba Lysaga using a Programmed Illusion spell. Baba Lysaga referred to the child as "Strahd" and created the illusion out of madness, because she considered herself a protective mother.
Beneath the hut's rotting floorboards was a 3-foot-deep cavity containing the magic, green-glowing gem that Baba Lysaga took from the Wizard of the Wines winery. This gem animated the hut. The floorboards were smashed open by Serana and Koko.
Baba Lysaga kept soiled robes in the wardrobe and assorted spell components in the wicker cabinet. The tub was where she ritually bathed in blood to prevent ageing.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Two women gave life to Strahd von Zarovich. The first was Queen Ravenovia van Roeyen, Strahd's biological mother. The second was the queen's midwife, a devout follower of Night Mother named Baba Lysaga. Although it was the former who raised Strahd and enabled him to follow in his father's footsteps, it was the latter who sensed potential for greatness and darkness in Strahd surpassing that of any other mortal. Lysaga believed then till the day she died that she was Strahd's true mother.
When Strahd was still a baby in his crib, Baba Lysaga cast protective spells on him and crept into his nursery on stormy nights to sing magical rhymes to him. She also placed the "spark of magic" in him, ensuring that he would become a spellcaster.
Baba Lysaga's unhealthy attachment to the baby Strahd did not go unnoticed. After she received several disturbing reports, Queen Ravenovia was forced to banish the midwife from the kingdom. Lysaga never saw Strahd again, but she had succeeded in staying alive to witness the triumphs of her beloved boy, who, in her mind, was eternally blessed. Despite the horrors Strahd had wrought, Lysaga still envisioned him as the perfect child she delivered into the world. Strahd was the only thing in her life that mattered to her.
During her exile, Baba Lysaga made countless sacrifices to Night Mother, pleading with the goddess to afflict Queen Ravenovia with ill health and visit death upon her. Lysaga eventually got her wish, and after Strahd settled in the valley of Barovia, Lysaga moved as close to him as she dared to.
In the filth-ridden depths of her heart, Lysaga knew that Strahd would never accept her as his true mother, nor could she have borne his rejection. As a result, she never confronted him. She preferred to exist in perpetual denial, whiling away the days, months, and years practicing fell magic and looking for ways to help her "son."
Baba Lysaga had allies in Castle Ravenloft—a coven of witches. Through the aid of these witches, Lysaga uncovered a potential threat to Strahd: a secret society of wereravens called the Keepers of the Feather, a group that used ordinary ravens as their spies.
Strahd didn't consider the wereravens a serious threat, but Lysaga had chosen to make them the bane of her existence. After much searching and scrying, she discovered a wereraven refuge at the Wizard of Wines winery, and she began to wage war against it. In addition, she forged an alliance with the mad druids that haunted Yester Hil, convincing them that she gave birth to Strahd, whom the druids consider a god. With the druids on her side, she expected to rid Barovia of its wereraven menace.
The goddess Night Mother had bestowed magical gifts on Baba Lysaga as rewards for her ceaseless devotion to Strahd. Her skin had the resilience of stone, she was resistant to harmful magic, and she was shielded against divination magic. Mother Night had also imparted to Lysaga the secret of longevity, which required her to bathe in the blood of beasts on nights of the new moon. Failure to do so caused Lysaga to age rapidly, becoming mere dust and bones in a matter of seconds.
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