The Abbot

The Abbot (aka Creepy Facesplicer) is a mysterious being who resides at the Abbey of St Markovia in Krezk. Both Sylvain and Osrin had heard rumours that the Abbot was capable of raising the dead, and after they found the body of Ismark Kolyanovich on their way to the winery, they had a chance to test those rumours out.

It immediately became evident that something strange was brewing at the abbey when our heroes got their first glimpses of the النغمات — strange people with mixtures of human and animal features. At this time, Rudolph admitted he'd heard rumours about the Abbot, in large part due to his having shown up at the gates of Krezk a century ago and allegedly not aged a day since.

The Abbot looks like an exceptionally handsome man with suspiciously bronzed skin at odds with the Barovian climate, just a little too smooth and a little too luminescent to seem naturally plausible (he probably steals people's skin and makes it his own tbh). He does not speak with a Barovian accent, and his disposition is mild to the point of detachment. He seems to have relatively little curiosity about or interest in our heroes, though he's demonstrated no particular antagonism towards them either. Indeed, the only time they saw him in any state of excitement was when they asked him about the وعاء of which he's so proud.

The Abbot can indeed raise the dead, as proven by Ismark's resurrection; in return he asked that they procure a fine dress for the وعاء for when he presents her to Strahd. Questions around whether he will be able to stop kissing Strahd's ass long enough to actually explain the gift to him have been raised.

His motivations are difficult to discern; he has explained his motivation in building the وعاء as wanting to restore Strahd's long-lost love to her by calling her soul into the prepared body (he's a little stupid and refused to listen when he said that soul likely already had a body), in the belief that once she and Strahd are reunited, his disposition will mellow, and he will treat his subjects with kindness (yeah because that's totally how it works). However, he seems quite unconcerned about suffering on a small scale, failing to pick up on basic social cues, referring to his "flock" as mongrels in Celestial, and not appearing at all disturbed by Ismark's grisly death.

Whether or not he is determined to be a suitable projectile will be determined when a sufficiently sized catapult is found or crafted. At the very least, he will make a nice splat-mark on Castle Dickhead.