# Mother's Ninth Improvement

> From the Curse of Strahd game wiki (it covers the whole game, spoilers included): https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/mothers-ninth-improvement.html. Unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy, not approved or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.

> [!infobox]
> **Type:** Side quest
> **Region:** [The Abbey of St. Markovia](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/regions/the-abbey-of-st-markovia.md) · level 7
> **Given by:** [Mother](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/mother.md)
> **Starts at:** [The Wards of St. Markovia](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-wards-of-st-markovia.md)
> **Rewards:** [Boots of Levitation](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#boots-of-levitation)

## Summary

Mother, the Belviews' matriarch, hasn't left the abbey since she was carried up the mountain as a baby. Now that the Abbot is done improving, she wants to go down to Krezk.

## Walkthrough

### Getting the quest

Ask [Clovin Belview](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/clovin-belview.md) at the gate of [The Abbey of St. Markovia](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-abbey-of-st-markovia.md) *"Heard anything interesting?"*: Mother has been talking about Krezk (**Rumored**). [Mother](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/mother.md) herself sits under a blanket of sewn-together habits in the darkest corner of the Belviews' kitchen, in [The Wards of St. Markovia](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-wards-of-st-markovia.md).

She won't talk while the Abbot is still "improving": the quest really opens only once [The Abbot's Bride](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-abbots-bride.md) is over, whatever its ending. Then she takes the blanket off (**Asked**). Under it are a cat's eyes, a heron's long legs, and a pair of great grey wings bound shut with silver wire. She was the baby carried up the mountain sixty years ago. She doesn't want heaven; she wants to see the door she was born behind in Krezk. If you've finished [Clovin's Audience](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/clovins-audience.md), she also mentions that her uncle Pavel has asked her to Sunday soup.

### Step by step

1. **Her boys first.** Ask *"What do you need first?"*. She won't leave the loud ones in the cells behind bars. The cells line the wards' long corridor (use the cell bars):
   - *Animal Handling DC 13* or *Persuasion DC 14* lets them out calmly and they run up the mountain. She's glad.
   - A failed roll, or *"Draw the pins, and stand ready to fight"*, starts a fight with 2 Belview Brutes ([Berserker](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/berserker.md)s) and 6 [Mongrelfolk](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/mongrelfolk.md) at level 7, or 1 Brute and 4 Mongrelfolk below that. She grieves, but she still goes.

   Either way, go back and ask her again so she knows it's done. If you dealt with the cells before you met her, she knows already.
2. **Cut the wire.** *Sleight of Hand DC 14* (a stitch at a time) or *Medicine DC 13* (the way a surgeon would). Pass, and the wings open cleanly. Fail, and the wire still comes out, but painfully, with blood on the feathers. Either way she's free.
3. **The wall.** Choose *"(Help her up to the courtyard wall.)"*. At the top she's afraid: the Abbot said the wings would work if she believed, and she never believed anything he said. Any of these makes her jump: *Persuasion DC 13* ("He was wrong about everything else..."), letting Wren tell her how to fall (if Wren is in the party), or just holding her hand. She drops, the wings catch, and she lurches off down the mountain toward Krezk, laughing. The quest is **Done**.

![sq mother flies](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/cutscenes/sq-mother-flies.webp)

4. **Where she lands.** As she goes, *Nature DC 14* (shout down which way the wind is going) brings her down softly on Old Pavel's roof. Without it she crash-lands in Krezk's goat pens.

### Choices and endings

There's one ending. Clovin brings you her eighth gift from before the wings: [Boots of Levitation](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#boots-of-levitation). Wren +2, Liriel +2, Godrick +2, Ratatouille +2, Thistle and Kip +1. Afterwards she flies down to Krezk on Sundays and lands on [Old Pavel](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/old-pavel.md)'s roof, Pavel has had the roof mended twice and says he'd mend it every week, and Krezk's watchman has decided to be very calm about it.

### If you're stuck

- **"Not while he's improving."** Mother only talks once the Abbot's fate is settled.
- **Nothing to do yet?** The wire options only appear after you've asked what she needs and the cells are dealt with.

## Rewards

- [Boots of Levitation](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#boots-of-levitation)

**What your companions think**

- **Wren Featherfoot:** +2 you helped Mother fly down to Krezk
- **Liriel Dawnsong:** +2 you helped Mother fly down to Krezk
- **Godrick Pendlebrook:** +2 you helped Mother fly down to Krezk
- **Ratatouille:** +2 you helped Mother fly down to Krezk
- **Thistle:** +1 you helped Mother fly down to Krezk
- **Kip Smudgewick:** +1 you helped Mother fly down to Krezk

## Journal

> [!quote]- Every journal entry and hint
> **Rumored**: Clovin says Mother has been talking about Krezk, where she was born. She says she'll go down if somebody can tell her how.
> *Hint:* Once the Abbot is done improving, talk to Mother in the wards kitchen at the Abbey of St. Markovia.
>
> **Asked**: Mother's ninth gift is a pair of great grey wings, stitched shut with silver wire so she wouldn't fly to heaven early. She doesn't want heaven. She wants Krezk, and her heron's legs won't take the mountain.
> *Hint:* See to Mother's boys in the abbey's cells, take the wire out of her wings, then help her up to the courtyard wall.
>
> **Done** (the end: success): Mother flew down the mountain to Krezk, very badly, laughing the whole way. She gave us her eighth gift, a pair of boots she once floated about the ceiling in for a year.

> [!abstract]- Every skill check in its conversations
> - Sleight of Hand DC 14: (Cut the silver wire, a stitch at a time, without cutting her.)
> - Medicine DC 13: (Take the stitches out the way a surgeon would.)
> - Persuasion DC 13: He was wrong about everything else. He might have been right about this.
> - Nature DC 14: (Shout down which way the wind is going.)

## Related

- **People:** [Clovin Belview](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/clovin-belview.md), [Mother](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/mother.md)
- **Places:** [The Abbey of St. Markovia](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-abbey-of-st-markovia.md), [The Wards of St. Markovia](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-wards-of-st-markovia.md)
- **More in The Abbey of St. Markovia:** [The Abbot's Bride](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-abbots-bride.md)

> [!example]- Cutscenes
> **Mother Flies**: Mother jumps from the abbey wall, and her wings catch.
> ![sq mother flies](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/cutscenes/sq-mother-flies.webp)