Café de Nuit

DeepShadow of FoS wrote: 2) Pleasure golems. To give it a gothic twist, it's been suggested that one could "go bad." This has been done before--Season 5 of Buffy had a robot episode like this--but in having one go bad, you lose the horror that already exists when it's working just fine--objectification, simulated perfection, and the dehumanization of the opposite sex. In the Buffy episode, the horror is not the the robot goes berserk and hurts Warren's new girlfriend, but that Warren built himself a girlfriend in the first place.

This just reminded me of a very twisted, comedic, and bizarre movie I was made to watch in college called "Frankenhooker" in which a scientist preserves his dead wifes head in a special solution and then rebuilds her from the flesh of times square hookers. It was crude in the extreme. Not much intelectual humor there. I can't read this without it fixing in my head. I don't know if you should seethis movie or not, but you may well encounter gamers whe have if you run this scenario. Fair warning.

For that matter, "Pleasure Golems" sound like something out of Undead Cabbage's Paradise Found web-comic.

Although presumably these versions wouldn't feed thugs' kidneys to their pet zombie vegetables...

Rotipher of the FoS wrote:For that matter, "Pleasure Golems" sound like something out of Undead Cabbage's Paradise Found web-comic.

Although presumably these versions wouldn't feed thugs' kidneys to their pet zombie vegetables...

I've never read the comic, but a stitched-together cadaver reanimated by a fire elemental spirit (to simulate heat and passion) does sound like it'd fit.

Yeah, I'm thinking Borcan nobility, a young couple forced into a loveless marriage, until the husband hears of a unique solution...

Perhaps if he still wants children, he can keep a young mistress hidden while his wife-golem simulates pregnancy using pillows. Hey, it worked for V.C. Andrews until she beat it to death.

Rotipher of the FoS wrote:For that matter, "Pleasure Golems" sound like something out of Undead Cabbage's Paradise Found web-comic.

Although presumably these versions wouldn't feed thugs' kidneys to their pet zombie vegetables...

With the state of gardening in Ravenloft, I'd not be too surprised.

I'd actually rather set it somewhere in Mordent, or maybe Lamordia. In Dementlieu and Borca, PCs are conditioned to expect some kind of aristocratic intrigue. But the same situation in Mordent (or heck, Mordentshire), could make for interesting situations.

Well, it's possible to have it transcend a single domain. Mordentshire has been cultivated by Godefroy as a resort area in the hopes of getting ailing aristocrats from all over to die close to the HoGH. Surely it would expedite that plan if some of those aristocrats were murdered and replaced with alchemical replicants. This might actually give Godefroy a hold on the husband and/or the replacement.

If you're not inclined to suspect aristocratic intrigue in Mordent, how much less would you expect Godefroy to be at the bottom of a plot involving alchemical replicants?

It's even possible to implant some of Godefroy's servant spirits in the bodies of the alchemical children....

I like the way you think....

He'd need an alchemist to do it though. Pity Mr. Emil Bollenbach is no longer among us.

Feh, Emil was never an alchemist. Godefroy's got the House, though, and the house has collected souls throughout the ages. I don't think it too big a stretch for a few of those souls to be Blackburn-Bruces, the greatest alchemists of their day. If just a few of them got their bodies back, well, there could be some serious blowblack, is all I'm saying.

All it would take is one Blackburn-Bruce with the Malevolence power, who could make alchemical children for his kin without the power, and eventually transfer himself into a permanent body. Matter of fact, that would allow the family to escape the House forever, because the vortex would no longer affect them. It would be hilarious for Godefroy to be a dupe in all of this, and the Blackburns to be the real cultprits.

I'll keep working on it.

Ghosts animating golems? You're beginning to scare me, DeepShadow. Do it again, do it again! It'd also be nice to see Godefroy get his snooty nose rubbed in the dirt by his own "slaves."

*reanimates thread*

Okay, we're going to see Blackburn-Bruce family members in Season 2 of Kara's Daughters, so I thought I'd dig up this thread and continue discussion where we left off.

Step 1: Godefroy fosters ideas of Mordent-resorts for the aging.
Step 2: He uses a BB-ghost to step up the collection process by killing and duplicating people.
Step 3: BB-ghost implants other BB ghosts in some bodies, to help them escape.
Step 4: The BB family rescues the creator-ghost, putting him in a body, and they all flee Mordentshire.
Step 5: The Core gets a resurgence of alchemy.

How about Markovia? The wizard does a deal with Diosamblet to establish a tropical resort and the wives (or husbands--the wizard might do both to increase profits) are turned over to the darklord for HIS experiments while the replacement goes home with her/his spouse.

Or you could use Dominia, and instead of golems Domini just sort of 'adjusts' their way of thinking. Might be a better place for a resort, though I like the idea of a hunting resort being sponsored by Markov as a ready source of experiment subjects and a training field.

I think I want to get into spiritual splittng, a la real-world voodoo, where you can take only part of a person's soul, and leave the rest. RL parallels exist in Ghastria, and in Nova Vaasa with the color-coded bits of soul for the mummy in The Awakening. Something like that: the golem gets all the dead person's memories, but has no self-will.

You know all this discussion about Mordentshire and body swapping to golems has gotten me thinking that the Apparatus could be involved here again!!! Seems like a fairly logical tie in and as an adventure hook it gives the players a reason to confront Godefroy to perhaps fix such a transference if the original body is found. If you wish Godefroy may be able to use it to escape at least the house but most likely not the domain and perhaps only temporarily. The other alternative is that he cannot benefit at all and when he finds out that he himself cannot benefit from the Apparatus directly once past his rage he may find some use for it. As it gives the ghosts of his house some sort of way to escape or perhaps try and bargain for a new body there is potential. This can be great for deals with hades type things where a new body must be found for a soul trapped in the house and payment rendered to Godefroy. Also by attracting more interesting or less broken spirits for Godefroy he may let the broken toys he no longer cares for leave in the body in exchange.

DeepShadow of FoS wrote:*reanimates thread*

Okay, we're going to see Blackburn-Bruce family members in Season 2 of Kara's Daughters, so I thought I'd dig up this thread and continue discussion where we left off.

Step 1: Godefroy fosters ideas of Mordent-resorts for the aging.
Step 2: He uses a BB-ghost to step up the collection process by killing and duplicating people.
Step 3: BB-ghost implants other BB ghosts in some bodies, to help them escape.
Step 4: The BB family rescues the creator-ghost, putting him in a body, and they all flee Mordentshire.
Step 5: The Core gets a resurgence of alchemy.

*re-reanimates thread*

Just call me Herbert West

I would like to know how this worked out for you. I saw this discussion years back, and it was one of the things that convinced my GF and I to try a Ravenloft game. We may include some of your Stepford-bots in our adventures.