Maekon

Maekon is an evil vehrteig bard. Like the rest of her kind, she feeds on and fosters the growth of evil in vile individuals before ultimately pushing them over the edge into self-destructive homicidal furies. Unlike others of her kind, Maekon goes for the most heinous transgressors from the start. Such was the case with Lord Herod Ashington and his frequent nights of debauchery and perversion that often left passersby taken from the road killed in the name of entertainment. She played a key role in the sequence of events leading to the cursing of Ashington Manor and all within, though she escaped thanks to her curse immunity. Nonetheless, Maekon has returned to the manor once every 17 years to see the cycle of destruction at the manor continue anew.

History

Maekon's history in Ravenloft is a long and heinous one. Almost three centuries ago, she manipulated a Vallaki mob to lynch a Vistani, thereby earning the enmity of Strahd but nonetheless managed to escape it. She is the purported mistress of one of Vlad Drakov's viler subordinates- whose bloodthirst is known to have claimed both friends and family before his own untimely demise. She has allegedly been involved with Nova Vaasan cat cults in human sacrifice, and at one time she allegedly belong to Bakholis's court. As with other vehrteig, Maekon has often targeted Vistani for misery, in particular loathing the Zarovan Tribe.

Eight and a half decades ago, Maekon entertained at manor of the Ashington Family when two of Lord Ashington's degenerate cronies brought in a captive Vistani girl, Rozaleen. As Lord Ashington and his guests all abused her, Lord Ashington insisted she performed a fortune telling for the night's entertainment. She could not produce any readings of the tarokka deck. Unknowingly under the influence from Maekon's paranoia and homicidal rage inducing venom, Lord Ashington ultimately murdered her. Yet before she died she bound Ashington Manor and her tormentors with the Ashington Curse, made all the more powerful by her her magical tarokka deck. Later, Lord Ashington's paranoia the night after drove Lord Ashington to kill all of his guests for allegedly holding sympathies for the dead Vistani girl. Maekon in turn laid him low using her death gaze.

Ironically Maekon escaped the curse thanks to the curse immunity vehrteig all share. She was the sole one of Rozaleen's tormentors to exit the manor alive. When she departed, Maekon also took Rozaleen's tarokka deck with her. Since then, the deck has subconsciously drawn her Maekon back once every seventeen years on the anniversary of Rozaleen's death for a repeat mass murder reenactment of the past. During the Blessed Hall of Ashington era of the manor's history, she drove Gavel the mercenary leader and his closest subordinates into going on a murder spree through the halls before she ending his life. In the Jacks and Queens, she picked Jack Sallow the traitorous innkeeper as her target. And during the Ildgaard Asylum era, she simply loosed maddened inmates upon the manor, leaving the curse to claim the life of Dr. Karl Ildgaard.

Maekon has long known about the influence Rozaleen's deck has had upon her, but she has been content to play her role in the Ashington curse so long as she benefits from the death and destruction. However, she does not know that as the final anniversary of Rozaleen's death approaches, she will become trapped in the Mists along with the rest of the Manor.

Game Statistics

female vehrteig bard 6/rogue 4; Neutral Evil