Jacqueline Renier

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Jacqueline Renier is a fictional nonplayer character and villain in the Ravenloft campaign setting. As one of the "darklords", she is imprisoned inside her own domain, that of Richemulot. Debuting in the Realm of Terror (Black Boxed set), Jacqueline has appeared in every version of the campaign setting to date as well as Ravenloft Gazetteer III. Jacqueline is also featured in the short story Tales of Ravenloft: Nocturne and the novel Scholar of Decay.

A scion of the wererat branch of the Renier family, Jacqueline became darklord of Richemulot after murdering her grandfather Claude Renier. Jacqueline is the child of Claude's daughter Marie and the human nobleman Simon Audaire (Marie killed her husband and gave her children her maiden name, a family tradition in which Jacqueline has followed suit). Jacqueline resides in Chateau Delanuit with her twin sister Louise.

History

Family Information

Jacqueline Renier is the daughter of Marie Renier (a wererat) and Simon Audaire) (not a wererat); the granddaughter of Claude Renier and Isabelle Museau (both wererats); and the sister of Antoinette Renier, Louise Renier, and Raul Renier (all wererats). She married Dominic Soufel (not a wererat, deceased as of 732 BC) and had four children with him, one named Jacques Renier (born 725 BC) and four others (born 727 BC, 729 BC, and 732 BC) All of Jacqueline's children are wererats.[1]

Although the Renier family tree in the Realm of Terror boxed set erroneously puts her year of birth at 703 BC[1] (well after her family fled a Prime Material world in the year 691 BC of Ravenloft canon), Jacqueline Renier has been consistently described in various game products as an outlander along with much of the older Renier family members. As a child, Jacqueline and the wererat branch of her family were the target of wererat hunts[2][3][4][5] on their homeworld on the Prime Material Plane, the same world to where the domain of Mordent originally came from.[6] Driven beneath the sewers of their hometown with their pursuers hot on their heels, the Reniers fled into a portal of mist that took them to the Falkovnian city of Silbervas.[2][3][4][5] The year was 691 BC.

In Silbervas, the family thrived for a time under the leadership of Claude, then family patriarch.[2][3][4][5] Claude took control over the city's wererats and established his own thieves' guild. Yet under his leadership, the wererats grew emboldened and soon drew the ire of Vlad Drakov and his minions.[6] After three years of conflict known as the Years of Impaled Rats[7], the Reniers were expelled from Silberpas and forced to flee.[2][3][4][5] Claude led them once more into the Misty Border, and they came arrived in a new land, this time the domain of Richemulot. Claude took up control of that domain as both is darklord and its temporal leader.[2][3][4][5] The year was 694 BC.

Life Under Claude Renier

Claude Renier ruled the Reniers through fear and manipulation, and he pitted factions within the family against one another in order to prevent insurrections against his own leadership. By motivating family members to constantly compete for affections that he never gave out, Claude kept them constantly seeking his good graces. The strategy worked, at least for a while. Yet, it would eventually prove his downfall.[5]

The rivalry of the twin sisters Louise and Jacqueline was one of the disputes he encouraged. Jacqueline learned his her grandfather's lessons of intrigue well; she used guile and deception in killing the Pied Piper of Hamelin when he came to rid Ste. Ronges of its rats in 722 BC.[8] Although Jacqueline constantly outperformed her sister, Claude never rewarded her for her efforts. Wearied and bittered by the endless games her grandfather put them through, Jacqueline enlisted the aid of Louise in a conspiracy to kill their grandfather. At the last moment, Louise chickened out. Without her sister[9], Jacqueline murdered Claude in 726 BC.[2][3][4][5]

To end Claude's life, Jacqueline exploited his lycanthropic allergen, that of common lye. She called a servant to deliver a poisoned drink, though Jacqueline was there to ensure his demise. After the allergic reaction began to overtake him, Jacqueline coyly revealed her betrayal and thanked him for "teaching" her before she pushed him out the window of their residence. He perished even before he even hit the ground. With her grandfather's death, Jacqueline became both darklord and ruler of Richemulot.[6]

As Darklord

As ruler of Richemulot, Jacqueline has proved a shrewd and effective leader. Since Claude's demise, there has been no public questioning of her as the legitimate heir to Claude's rule. In diplomacy, her balance of cooperation and intimidation has been the glue that cemented Richemulot's power.[10] In 729 BC, she enriched Richemulot's prestige by being the last one to sign the Treaty of Four Towers, thus sealing the pact that would make a united defense against Falkovnian aggression.[11] In 743 BC, she defused a potential coup by the traitor for Girard Cavaillon whom would have conspired with Drakov by offering Drakov an unknown counteroffer that included Cavaillon's mistress as Drakov's personal concubine.[10] At home, she has instilled in the Richemuloise a new sense of love and common identity for and in their culture.[12] Unlike her grandfather, whom carried the old familial grudges, Jacqueline has decided to take advantage of the Darkonian Reniers. She invited them to stay in Richemulot with the secret hopes to exploit them as resources to cement her power even further.[13] Javier Renier is one such Renier to come to Richemulot.[14]

Despite her public victories, Jacqueline Renier has has had more difficulty in private relationships. Jacqueline came to love the Richemuloise nobleman Henri Dubois. She attempted (and failed) to infect him with lycanthropy[2][3][4][5] The year was 691 BC. but succumbed to her curse to transform into a rat in the presence of any person she romantically loves.[15] In the chaos of the moment, Henri disappeared, and his ultimate fate remains unknown.[2][3][4][5] The year was 691 BC.

Current Sketch

Jacqueline Renier is something of a paradox. On the one hand, she represents the quintessence of the wererat: cunning, sadistic, cruel, having taken to heart what lessons learned from her grandfather and mother. On the other hand, she holds the ability to give, and the desire to receive, true unconditional love, psychological characteristics almost unknown to the wererat population. This ability to give and the desire to receive are ultimately thwarted both by her callous, manipulative ambition and by her aforementioned curse, to transform into rat form when in the presence of those she feels true love for.[16]

Minus an outlet for her unique psychological state, Jacqueline looks to other avenues to quell her suffering. Ironically, the void caused by her longing for love motivates her to inflict suffering upon others. Mixed with the communal wererat nature, Jacqueline's desire for love afflicts her with a strangling monophobia, driving her to ever be in the presence of other people, even those she has no positive feelings toward.[16] Her desire to avoid being alone extends to keeping her sister and traditional rival, Louise Renier, from straying too far away and breaking out on her own, despite the latter's best efforts thus far.[17]

Jacqueline's internal conflicts does not leave her a pushover. She is highly skilled, even habitual, exploiter of people and circumstances. Her skill at manipulation has made her, in the eyes of the common public, a figure of cultural and patriotic pride and admiration[12] (if one coupled by fear).[18] If anything, Jacqueline's desire for love may make her more dangerous, as she may seek to see this desire fulfilled with by unleashing a lycanthropic plague in order to make every person in Richemulot her fanatical adulator.[19]

Special Abilities

Although she was already a highly skilled blackmailer and manipulator, the Dark Powers have provided Jacqueline Renier a number of special abilities beyond those of a typical wererat. The Curse of Lycanthropy she inflicts is much harder to resist than other equivalent kinds. In her partial or full rat form, her teeth are unaffected by the hardness of the objects, and her climbing abilities have greatly been enhanced. Most spectacularly, she can turn into gaseous form like a vampire,

Lair

Jacqueline Renier resides in Chateau Delanuit with her family.[18]

Chronology

  • 694 BC - Shortly after Richemulot forms, the Darkonian Reniers reach out to Claude and ask if they're related. Carrying old grudges from the past, Claude vehemently rebuffs them and launches a campaign of assassinations against them.[9]
  • 710 BC - Creating a future precedent for Jacqueline, Marie Renier murders Simon Aundaire and gives the Renier surname to their children.[1] Simon Aundaire is buried in the catacombs under Ste. Ronges.[25]
  • 725 BC - Jacqueline Renier and Dominic Soufel have a child named Jacques Renier. He is a wererat.[1]
  • 727 BC - Jacqueline Renier and Dominic Soufel have a wererat child of unspecified name.[1]
  • 729 BC - Jacqueline Renier and Dominic Soufel have a second wererat child of unspecified name.[1]
  • 732 BC- Jacqueline Renier and Dominic Soufel have a third wererat child of unspecified name.

Game Statistics

2nd Edition

female human natural wererat, Hit Dice:3+1 Chaotic Evil[32][33][34]

3rd Edition

aristocrat 6/Rogue 5[35][36]


Pathfinder

Rogue (charlatan) 6/Courter 5[37]


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Realm of Terror p.125
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Realm of Terror p.110-111
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens (Red Boxed Set)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Domains of Dread p. 48-49
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Gazetteer III p. 136
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Gazetteer III p. 89
  7. ↑ Gazetteer II p. 93
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Domains of Dread p. 17, as told in Tales of Ravenloft: Nocturne
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Legacy of the Blood p. 106
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Gazetteer III p. 100
  11. ↑ Gazetteer III p. 88
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Gazetteer III p. 98
  13. ↑ Legacy of the Blood p. 107
  14. ↑ Legacy of the Blood p. 146
  15. ↑ Legacy of the Blood p. 108
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Gazetteer III p. 136-137
  17. ↑ Legacy of the Blood p. 148-149
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Gazetteer III p. 137
  19. ↑ Gazetteer III p. 139
  20. ↑ Gazetteer III p.136
  21. ↑ Gazetteer III p.89
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Gazetteer II p. 93
  23. ↑ Gazetteer III p.83
  24. ↑ Realm of Terror p.125. This date is after 694 BC, the year of formation for Richemulot. Jacqueline's origin story on p.110 and elsewhere describes her as being born before the Reniers entered Richemulot. Therefore, the 703 date of her birth is questionable.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Dragon Magazine #264 p. 53
  26. ↑ Realm of Terror Renier family card
  27. ↑ Gazetteer III p. 88-89
  28. ↑ Gazetteer III p.88
  29. ↑ Real of Terror p. 125, Scholar of Decay
  30. ↑ Gazetteer III p.103
  31. ↑ Legacy of the Blood p. 107, 147
  32. ↑ Realm of Terror p.110
  33. ↑ Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens p.80
  34. ↑ Domains of Dread p.47
  35. ↑ Secrets of the Dread Realms p.47
  36. ↑ Gazetteer III p. 136-136
  37. ↑ Pathfinder in the Mists p.45

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Secrets of the Dread Realms
Domains of Dread

Secrets of the Dread Realms - p48
Domains of Dread - p47
Realm of Terror - reference card

Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp47-49
Domains of Dread - p47
Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - p80
Realm of Terror - pp110-111,reference card

Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp7,47-49
Ravenloft Third Edition - p136
Dungeon #64: Last Dance
Domains of Dread - pp47-48
Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - pp26-28,80-81
Tales of Ravenloft:Nocturne - pp101-110
Realm of Terror - pp110-111,p125,reference card

Reinier


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