Pidlwick II was a small Living Doll, resembling a Construct of wood and brass but shaped like a boy jester with a grinning mask, brass joints, and a red-feathered cap. Somehow possessing a Spirit, he had been built by the famed toymaker Fritz von Weerg at the command of Count Strahd von Zarovich, who sought to amuse his brother Sergei von Zarovich and the lady Tatyana Federovna. The real jester, Pidlwick Pilensky, had delighted them both, though Strahd himself remained unmoved. Hoping to please them in turn, Strahd commissioned the toymaker to create a likeness of the fool.
The imitation possessed magical intelligence, making it a true Synthborn and an inarguable act of genius; however, he lacked the grace and humor of its living namesake. Pidlwick II knew he could never equal the original, and in a fit of jealous rage, pushed the true Pidlwick down the stairs of Castle Ravenloft's high tower to his death. The act left the castle haunted by the murdered jester’s Ghost, while the doll continued to caper through the halls, mocking the life it could not possess.
After the Wedding That Never Was and Strahd’s transformation into a Vampire, the lord of Barovia found in the violent little automaton a new kind of amusement. Pidlwick II was kept below the high tower of Ravenloft and allowed to roam freely through the castle, where he broke things, caused mischief, and sometimes tried to kill guests in jest. Most of the castle’s denizens, especially Strahd’s consort Escher Chernykh, regarded him as a nuisance and a threat rather than a fool, however, and would routinely return the boy to his room at the high tower if he was making too much nuisance.
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