Gertruda Drüf
Gertruda was a 17-year-old girl from the village of Barovia who spent the last months of her life at Castle Ravenloft, after Strahd von Zarovich found her wandering the Old Svalich Road and took her into his care.
The party first met Gertruda during their dinner with Strahd, where she gleefully did her best to pretty them up, ribbons and all. Excitable, friendly, and more than a little naive, Gertruda viewed Strahd as her beneficent saviour, the first person to give her the freedom and luxury she'd longed for all her life. For some time, she, Doru, and Escher formed the bulk of Ireena Kolyana's social circle after she went to the castle with Strahd. The exact relationship between the four is unknown, but Ireena clearly had some fondness for the girl.
Despite that fondness, when the revelation came that Gertruda had been turned into vampire spawn after the party's initial assault on the castle, Ireena advised against working too hard to keep her alive in the final battle. She said that while she didn't believe Gertruda was a naturally malicious person, she was an impulsive, impressionable teenaged girl who would likely take more enthusiastically to her newfound power and bloodlust than the party might expect. This turned out to be true, as no one pursued Sylvain across the rooftops of Castle Ravenloft more fearsomely than dear, sweet Gertruda, who lectured the party for their newfound rudeness at length while trying to drink their blood.
Though she fought fearsomely and with glee, Gertruda was ultimately killed when wereraven Edita picked her up in her hybrid form talons, flew her over a chasm, and gave her a drop she couldn't recover from.
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