Ladies and gent,
I've been looking for a while to insert a Red Widow in my game. But a problem I see is that the players will see it coming from miles ahead, since romance never really happened in our campaign so far.
And I do not want to make their first encounter with romance a deadly one, because afterward they will be warry of anything in the campaign going in this direction.
Any suggestions to make it work smoothly?
Joël
Red Widow
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Joël of the FoS
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Red Widow
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
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William Blackmoor
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One thing players are always looking for is the red hair of the red widow, so I suggest insering her in a setting where there are many natural redheads anyway. another option would be, that the red widow is clever enough to dye her hair.
I (our heros) once had an encounter with two red widows at once (mother and daughter) who claimed that the husband had died (he did, but not quite like they told the characters). They pleaded for help and where actually (!) threatend by another supernatural force (doppelgangers). We suspected red widows, especially after we spotted a rather large spider crossing the way at night, but thought it to be to obvious after we discovered the doppelgangers.
If you now built up the relationship between this "family", even letting the daughter suggest marriage after some time, the heros will quite possibly be in a surprise.
I always envisioned the Red Widow not as a simple "Spiderwer" but as a clever manipultor, the proverbial spider who lures the fly into her parlor.
I (our heros) once had an encounter with two red widows at once (mother and daughter) who claimed that the husband had died (he did, but not quite like they told the characters). They pleaded for help and where actually (!) threatend by another supernatural force (doppelgangers). We suspected red widows, especially after we spotted a rather large spider crossing the way at night, but thought it to be to obvious after we discovered the doppelgangers.
If you now built up the relationship between this "family", even letting the daughter suggest marriage after some time, the heros will quite possibly be in a surprise.
I always envisioned the Red Widow not as a simple "Spiderwer" but as a clever manipultor, the proverbial spider who lures the fly into her parlor.
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Jasper
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Two words- Hair dyes.
For me and most of my players the second you mention the the slinky uber hot woman has long red hair the warning lights go off and they think red widdow. But if you turn around and say she has blond or brunette hair they may still think vampire or witch but never Red Widdow.
In the short lived series Special Unit 2 there was an episode that you can rip off specificly using red widdows.
In it a young blond girl went ot the police and told her that her boyfriend was last seen leaving a party with a attractive redhead. Jellous she followed him only to find herself in a dark alley where she watched the woman turn into a spider and kill her boyfriend. She was able to excape as the spiderwoman chased her away. She impolored the unit to find these women and avenge her bodyfirends death. Over the course of the investigation the grief stricken woman latched on to the male lead even staying at his place for protection.
The twist:
There was several red widdows living in a abandoned house making it hard for the unit to hunt any one down. Every time they thought they had killed one of the girls another would pop up. Only when they saw two twin readheaded girls hunting at the same party did they realize anything. At the end they tracked the girls back to the house and set fire to it killing the whole nest.
The bigger twist:
When the male lead returned to his appartment to tell the witness they had killed all the spider women she wept with joy and embraced him. As they hugged four long spider legs slid out her back and she attempted to bite him with her new fangs. Pushing her away at the last moment he was able to get away while she told him of her plan. She wanted to get rid of her sisters as the hunting had become difficult due to over feeding. She dyed her hair blond and got some "heroes" to do the work for her.
For me and most of my players the second you mention the the slinky uber hot woman has long red hair the warning lights go off and they think red widdow. But if you turn around and say she has blond or brunette hair they may still think vampire or witch but never Red Widdow.
In the short lived series Special Unit 2 there was an episode that you can rip off specificly using red widdows.
In it a young blond girl went ot the police and told her that her boyfriend was last seen leaving a party with a attractive redhead. Jellous she followed him only to find herself in a dark alley where she watched the woman turn into a spider and kill her boyfriend. She was able to excape as the spiderwoman chased her away. She impolored the unit to find these women and avenge her bodyfirends death. Over the course of the investigation the grief stricken woman latched on to the male lead even staying at his place for protection.
The twist:
There was several red widdows living in a abandoned house making it hard for the unit to hunt any one down. Every time they thought they had killed one of the girls another would pop up. Only when they saw two twin readheaded girls hunting at the same party did they realize anything. At the end they tracked the girls back to the house and set fire to it killing the whole nest.
The bigger twist:
When the male lead returned to his appartment to tell the witness they had killed all the spider women she wept with joy and embraced him. As they hugged four long spider legs slid out her back and she attempted to bite him with her new fangs. Pushing her away at the last moment he was able to get away while she told him of her plan. She wanted to get rid of her sisters as the hunting had become difficult due to over feeding. She dyed her hair blond and got some "heroes" to do the work for her.
"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish it's source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings."
Anais Nin
Anais Nin
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Joël of the FoS
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They don't know what a red widow is, what I meant is that they will know something is wrong if I send them a possible flirt, since romance is usually out of the campaign so far.Hallow wrote:A minor question.. how do they know what a Red Widow is...?
On the other hand, dye is a good idea Wiliam, since flaming red hair could look even more suspicious to them.
I'd like them to feel safe with this NPC, before they learn the bad news about her.
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Jasper, funny idea. I didn't think of a nest of them
Joël
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
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doctor-evil
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I can certainly see that if a nubile femme fatale suddenly approaches the party as if from no where, it would send warning light off. My players would immediately get suspicious if someone was being nice to them, without a long history of getting to know the characters first, particularly bearing in mind teh xenophobia of most locals in Ravenloft.
So perhaps avoiding cliches, instead of a handsome widow, how about a cheerful, but seeming simple barmaid or dancing girl in a busy tavern. Maybe even play up the stereotypical nature of the barmaid, so the players are lulled into thinking that this is an off-the-cuff NPC the DM has thrown in. Perhaps she tells a few jokes, teases some of the characters, and gives a little comic relief, so when she turns it's even more of a pardigm shift.
All parties visit an inn at some time, so the event wouldn't seem as staged as coming across a secluded house in a clearing. Taverns on a busy thoroughfare would be used to seeing patrons only once, so if travellers disappeared, no-one would be any the wiser.
If the players are near Falkovnia, perhaps they meet some guards transporting captives into slavery. The red widow let herself get captured - a Falkovnian prison would be full of captive prey. The players would be less likely to think that a chain-bound woman would be a monster in disguise, particularly if she was well know by the other captives, all run of the mill peasants or towns folk.
My copper piece's worth...
So perhaps avoiding cliches, instead of a handsome widow, how about a cheerful, but seeming simple barmaid or dancing girl in a busy tavern. Maybe even play up the stereotypical nature of the barmaid, so the players are lulled into thinking that this is an off-the-cuff NPC the DM has thrown in. Perhaps she tells a few jokes, teases some of the characters, and gives a little comic relief, so when she turns it's even more of a pardigm shift.
All parties visit an inn at some time, so the event wouldn't seem as staged as coming across a secluded house in a clearing. Taverns on a busy thoroughfare would be used to seeing patrons only once, so if travellers disappeared, no-one would be any the wiser.
If the players are near Falkovnia, perhaps they meet some guards transporting captives into slavery. The red widow let herself get captured - a Falkovnian prison would be full of captive prey. The players would be less likely to think that a chain-bound woman would be a monster in disguise, particularly if she was well know by the other captives, all run of the mill peasants or towns folk.
My copper piece's worth...
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Gonzoron of the FoS
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I did something like this once with a Werefox. She was on the run from the Johnathan Flicker of the Hunt Club (CoD) who had captured her and released her for the Hunt. The fact that she was being pursued by a nasty seeming man with two huge mastiff's made her sympathatic. And when he tried to imply that she was a dangerous creature, the PC's just thought he was a typical elf-hating human.doctor-evil wrote:If the players are near Falkovnia, perhaps they meet some guards transporting captives into slavery. The red widow let herself get captured - a Falkovnian prison would be full of captive prey. The players would be less likely to think that a chain-bound woman would be a monster in disguise, particularly if she was well know by the other captives, all run of the mill peasants or towns folk.
Be warned that this sort of thing doesn't work too often in the long run. After this and Akriel, and Radaga, they stopped trusting damsels in distress.
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
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Nathan of the FoS
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Re: Red Widow
Maybe she really does fall in love with one of the PCs.Joël of the Fraternity wrote:Ladies and gent,
I've been looking for a while to insert a Red Widow in my game. But a problem I see is that the players will see it coming from miles ahead, since romance never really happened in our campaign so far.
And I do not want to make their first encounter with romance a deadly one, because afterward they will be warry of anything in the campaign going in this direction.
Any suggestions to make it work smoothly?
Joël
You could play it in the disgusting/frightening way, with the Red Widow having a fully red-widowish nature but a crush on the PC ("Come, my love! Let us SPAWN a BROOD OF DARKNESS!!!"). Or you could have her be almost human--she's really in love with whoever it is, but she's afraid and ashamed of her bestial nature. So she's going back and forth between, "If only he would love me, I might be happy," )or even "If he loved me, it might end this curse on me") and "I'm a freak. I might hurt him or even kill him--I have to go away so he'll be safe."
Or some combination of the two.
[b]FEAR JUSTICE.[/b] :elena:
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Lord Cyclohexane
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I totally agree. Why not slip the Red Widow in by having her be the love interest of a 100% trusted NPC? It'll help to get the PCs' guards down, because "Well, if Wilhelm trusts this lady, she must be alright."Carcer wrote:If your PC's are not accustomed to romance, why not have the Red Widow target a friendly NPC?
Better is if you play the "blinded by love" card, where the NPC never suspects the Red Widow because she's always there to comfort him after he hunts down whatever wicked beasts happen to be out there...
My name is lost to me
I know not who I am
And I await the crimson fires
That'll wash this world away!
- Wolfbait, "In My Lonely Time Of Dying"
I know not who I am
And I await the crimson fires
That'll wash this world away!
- Wolfbait, "In My Lonely Time Of Dying"
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CorvusCornix
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Even after a year of reading Ravenloft material I still don't feel very secure in my RL knowledge, so forgive me if my approach is absolutely non-canon and impossible.
However, I plan to have my players meet a red widow as well, later on in my campaign, but I don't want to have my players have a direct confrontation with her right from the start. So I plan to have them meet her on the road, she has decided that staying in one area is too dangerous and travels around a lot. Also, she performes a few dangerous tasks for the Red Vardo Traders, earning a few bucks on her travels, and giving her a legitimate reason for the constant travelling - she claims she deals in foreign goods to sell them in Barovia, which also gives her a good reason to travel around in a large wagon, so she can always keep a fresh 'snack' around.
So, even if the players stay in the same town as the Red Widow, you can make sure that they hear very little of her feedings, only giving them more hints after they have spent some time with her more beautiful form. Furthermore, the inhabitants of the towns can't tell them anything about the murderer, because quite simply there has never been any murder like this before. There's no need for her to actually try to kill the players, as long as she doesn't think they suspect something. After all, she prefers to kill when she is just passing through a town, making sure that the victim isn't found until she is already far away. This has the advantage that you won't need to insert romance into your campaign all of a sudden - I can imagine this really would make players quite suspicious.
However, I plan to have my players meet a red widow as well, later on in my campaign, but I don't want to have my players have a direct confrontation with her right from the start. So I plan to have them meet her on the road, she has decided that staying in one area is too dangerous and travels around a lot. Also, she performes a few dangerous tasks for the Red Vardo Traders, earning a few bucks on her travels, and giving her a legitimate reason for the constant travelling - she claims she deals in foreign goods to sell them in Barovia, which also gives her a good reason to travel around in a large wagon, so she can always keep a fresh 'snack' around.
So, even if the players stay in the same town as the Red Widow, you can make sure that they hear very little of her feedings, only giving them more hints after they have spent some time with her more beautiful form. Furthermore, the inhabitants of the towns can't tell them anything about the murderer, because quite simply there has never been any murder like this before. There's no need for her to actually try to kill the players, as long as she doesn't think they suspect something. After all, she prefers to kill when she is just passing through a town, making sure that the victim isn't found until she is already far away. This has the advantage that you won't need to insert romance into your campaign all of a sudden - I can imagine this really would make players quite suspicious.
There are already some good ideas above. I have two to throw in.
Does one of your male characters have a rival?
Try setting up a situation where a character is commiting with another guy for the attention of the red widow. Give the rival some minor vice, like he cheats at cards or something. That will give the character some justification to think the red widow diserves him instead of the rival. The character may be too caught up in the chase to win the girl over his rival to worry that she is a femme fatale.
Or change the image of the femme fatale of the red widow. Instead of an alluring young seductress, make her a grandmotherly figure. She seems a kindly old soul who lives on the edge of town. Always has treats for small children and offers a place to stay in her barn for strangers passing through.
Does one of your male characters have a rival?
Try setting up a situation where a character is commiting with another guy for the attention of the red widow. Give the rival some minor vice, like he cheats at cards or something. That will give the character some justification to think the red widow diserves him instead of the rival. The character may be too caught up in the chase to win the girl over his rival to worry that she is a femme fatale.
Or change the image of the femme fatale of the red widow. Instead of an alluring young seductress, make her a grandmotherly figure. She seems a kindly old soul who lives on the edge of town. Always has treats for small children and offers a place to stay in her barn for strangers passing through.
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Garudos Celestar
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Do any of your PCs have the Red-Headed feat? Give that to your red widow, and perhaps then you can throw them off a bit. Maybe you can develop her as a mystic or something before introducing the romance.
[i]"I too have begun to wonder about the legendary wisdom of our guardian angel and his pet rock."
~ Evee Beiderbecke[/i]
~ Evee Beiderbecke[/i]
Or you could try the layers-upon-layers approach...
Have the first love interst be just that: a romantic sidetrek. But her vampy friend... that's a whole 'nother story! You could have your red widow hang by her side, or just flutter around the background. Or you could feed your players clues to her activities through their true love's gossip. Then you can start up a murder-mystery story with all leads pointing to the true love, when in reality the red widow is orchestrating things.
Have the first love interst be just that: a romantic sidetrek. But her vampy friend... that's a whole 'nother story! You could have your red widow hang by her side, or just flutter around the background. Or you could feed your players clues to her activities through their true love's gossip. Then you can start up a murder-mystery story with all leads pointing to the true love, when in reality the red widow is orchestrating things.
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Jonathan Winters
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Options:
I think a reccuring character is a good thing, your PCs will let their guards down at some point.
Also, the "one night stand" approach could work. I once had a player who actually enjoyed that during our games He would always try to pick up the barmaid, and pretty often succeeded. It made for a funny moment at the table. Obviously it all happenned "off-screen" (it wasn't anything gross). But you could use that.
But I think getting to know the Widow slowly and then, maybe she or her mother would suggest mariage at some point. Depending on how much your PCs travel it could work. Maybe the widow has a business and is independant so it doesn't matter if the PC leaves for a week or two every once in a while. Tie in the business into your storyline. Maybe a business trip becomes something else entirely! Connect the widow to the Boritsi Trading Company!
That's all.
Gotta go!
Good luck Joël!
Patrick
I think a reccuring character is a good thing, your PCs will let their guards down at some point.
Also, the "one night stand" approach could work. I once had a player who actually enjoyed that during our games He would always try to pick up the barmaid, and pretty often succeeded. It made for a funny moment at the table. Obviously it all happenned "off-screen" (it wasn't anything gross). But you could use that.
But I think getting to know the Widow slowly and then, maybe she or her mother would suggest mariage at some point. Depending on how much your PCs travel it could work. Maybe the widow has a business and is independant so it doesn't matter if the PC leaves for a week or two every once in a while. Tie in the business into your storyline. Maybe a business trip becomes something else entirely! Connect the widow to the Boritsi Trading Company!
That's all.
Gotta go!
Good luck Joël!
Patrick