Café de Nuit

So had a weird thought while answering another question, but Strahd usually tries when Tatyana is a certain age. (Probably due to not trying to wonder down certain paths of thinking.) So I had a thought in that direction of. "Huh..... what he if tried raising her?"

Anyone ever had anything like that in their campaign? Think it would give a different dynamic to it, and obvious some chilling implications for the future of that relationship that I won't explicitly say.

It's appropriately Gothic. The evil aristocrat works to corrupt an innocent girl who has come to live in his household.

I must admit I do not have a firm grip of the "Gothic" themes which I blame to not having read much gothic literature. It is encouraging to be told that however! Must be starting to think along the right lines. xD

I wonder how much of Ravenloft might be changed for this endeavour? Would a suite of rooms be turned over to the task, or might the whole castle be affected somewhat? Would Strahd wish to attend to every aspect of her education? Might he hire a suitably stern Governess?

How young was the infant when taken? If the child was still suckling then Strahd would require a wet nurse, women who were employed to lactate on behalf of those who could not. Such a woman would be unlikely to willingly enter service in the castle presumably so would be a thrall or otherwise imprisoned, disposed of once the infant was weaned, might her ghost still haunt the nursery?

As the young Tatyana was raised, one would assume Strahd would wish her to be raised in the fashion of the nobility. That might require the employment of a whipping boy, a playmate and companion who would be punished in the place of the "princess". That child might have been the son of the wet nurse, held as hostage against his mother's loyalty.

Given Strahd's aim here, I'm imagining a distant figure, if a regular visitor with gifts, it always being made clear that he was not her father, but her betrothed.

The possible effect of being raised in such a manner in such a place is interesting. Does the young Tatyana accept the existence of undead as a simple truth, or has Strahd successfully hidden the nature of his home from the fosterling? (Even if he orders all his minions to hide, there is an enormous heart in the tower) Might the young Tatyana be something of a Wednesday Addams?

You would imagine that Strahd would be hoping to raise a version of Tatyana with an outlook similar to that of Gertruda, and that might be the point of Gertruda ("Why can't you be more like your friend Gertruda, she gets it!")

not much to add, except that this gets my, "Yup, that's creepy, alright!" stamp of approval

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:not much to add, except that this gets my, "Yup, that's creepy, alright!" stamp of approval

It's either creepy or something like the plot to Hotel Transylvania

blah blah blah

thekristhomas wrote:It's either creepy or something like the plot to Hotel Transylvania

blah blah blah

I don't say 'blah blah blah'!

Oh dear... now you've got me thinking about using Blobby in Ravenloft.
(My daughter was Mavis for Halloween this year. We watch these a lot at our house...)

So what your telling me is I need to watch that for potential ideas!?!??!? xD

Kristhomas I really like the way you took the idea and fleshed it out much further than my Idea had gone. I think it hits the key tone of 'wrongness' just right.

After hundreds of years of pining after a woman who clearly doesn't like him, he should just grow a pair and move on already.

Dion of the Fraternity wrote:After hundreds of years of pining after a woman who clearly doesn't like him, he should just grow a pair and move on already.

True!

Strahd escaped from the friend zone by entering the stalker zone.

He's a bit pathetic in that regard. Or would be, if it weren't for the whole literal fratricide, pact with Death, mass murder at the wedding, centuries of batcrap crazy obsessive actions thing...

The mass murder was largely Leo Dilisniya fault thought, but the rest is true;

Good old Leo!

Dion of the Fraternity wrote:After hundreds of years of pining after a woman who clearly doesn't like him, he should just grow a pair and move on already.

If I were running the game and you somehow got Strahd to do that I would have his curse broken and his domain would leave the Mists. By accepting his fate he would break the curse. The idea that the Mists themselves would dissolve would be his own conceit. For one thing in my version the Mistlands are infinite in size and there are an infinite number of cores. Strahd's domain was just the "starter piece" on a new core.

Kinda OT but a thought led to a thought.

There's something of the Miss Haversham about Strahd in this set up, raising a beautiful child for his own dark purposes while wedding cake moulders in the other room...

thekristhomas wrote:Kinda OT but a thought led to a thought.

There's something of the Miss Haversham about Strahd in this set up, raising a beautiful child for his own dark purposes while wedding cake moulders in the other room...

had to do some research to understand what you were meaning there. I had never heard of "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens before. Sad story it seems.