Café de Nuit

Been going through some old Marvel "What If..." comics lately. You know, the ones that change one small event, then try to show the consequences of that difference, with things like "What if Venom has possessed the Punisher?", or "What if the Hulk had Bruce Banner's brain?". These got me to thinking, what would change if some important event's had gone differently in Ravenloft? What would change?

A few I've been kicking around:
What if Van Richten had been able to save the extremely ill Vistani whose death lead to his son's abduction?
What if Jander had not saved the young boy who went on to form the Church of the Morninglord?
What if Gennifer Weathermay hadn't been attacked by Natalia?
What if Soth had not left?

If you have any hipothetical answers, or what if's of your own, I'd be interested to hear them.

To start off with here is the big one-

What if Strahd said no?

Ah, the old What Ifs.... well, I'll see if I can find my fing-longer and try to come up with some ideas:

For Jennifer, I think an interesting twist would be, instead of attacking the girl, Natalia went or Laurie. Knowing that the jig was up, and her shot at Van Richten blow, Natalia hatched a second scheme - take a hostage and run. Natalia makes off with Laurie and looses Van Richten and George. all that's found of laurie is her bloodied clothing. Van Richten and Weahtermay spend the next few years chasing Natalia.

Meanwhile, Jennifer mourns and makes a vow to track down her sister's killerm as well as all other creatures who plauge humanity. She delves headlessly into her arcane studies - until she begins to recieve strange nightmares. In her dreams, she is someone else - sometimes a woman, sometimes a wolf. She realizes that her sister is not dead, but rather a lycanthrope somewhere in Ravenloft.

Jennifer, the aging Van Richten and George delve into the wilds of Verbrek, tracking Laurie by the mystical connection between her and Jennifer. However, they do not suspect that the entire ploy is a trap - set by Natalia when she realized the connection between her slave and Jennifer.

The ensuing ambush takes Van Richten by suprise, though the old monster hunter and his allies manage to slay the first few waves of Natalias lycanthrope thralls. Natalia and the badly wounded Van Richten face off, while the transformed Laurie corners Jennifer.
Out of spells, Jennifer is defenceless... yet wolf-Laurie hesitates. The bond between them helps Laurie to finally break the grip of the blood-lust and control her savage side.

For his part, George Weathermay takes out nearly a dozen wolf-thralls, but is bitten on the arm and is forced to slice off the limb and cauterize the wound to avoid lycanthropy.

Van Richten manages to slay Natalia, though is mortally wounded. As he dies, he bids the girls to take up his mission - not just to slay the creatures of the night, but also to redeem them. And so, bloodied but experienced, the Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters are reunited - and with the help of their uncle George, they continue the struggle.

What if the Gentleman Caller preferred men?

What if Isolde never entered the Dread Realms?

What if Tatyanna has said yes to Strahd's proposal of love?

What if Dak was the true DL of Sithicus?

What if Hazlik had encouraged the use and training of magic sicne the inception of Hazlan?

Corrupted_Loremaster wrote: What if Van Richten had been able to save the extremely ill Vistani whose death lead to his son's abduction?

This is possibly my favorite of all of these. In all likelihood, that would mean that the Radanoviches would have gone on their merry way and left Van Richten to his own devices. Van Richten would have remained in Rivalis and lived a happy and fairly successful life as an herbalist and country doctor. Erasmus probably would have married some nice girl and given his father plenty of apple-cheeked grandchildren. After many years, Van Richten would have died peacefully in his sleep at a ripe old age. And in exchange for his comfort and happiness, people all over Ravenloft would have died because no one would know how to kill the monsters that had been preying on them. It's a great little It's a Wonderful Life scenario that really drives home one of the major themes of Ravenloft and of heroism in general: you suffer, and you sacrifice your own chances of ever having a comfortable life, but countless others get a chance at the very life you give up. Kickass. Somebody needs to write this story.

What if Heinfroth had failed to assassinate Gundar?

Dominique wrote:What if Heinfroth had failed to assassinate Gundar?

someone wouldve taken him out eventually, probably Jander or Anton the revolutionary.


Gunder was one of the less-developed DL and pretty boring as well. RL didnt need anymore Vampire DL at that point.

Dominique wrote:

Corrupted_Loremaster wrote: What if Van Richten had been able to save the extremely ill Vistani whose death lead to his son's abduction?

This is possibly my favorite of all of these. In all likelihood, that would mean that the Radanoviches would have gone on their merry way and left Van Richten to his own devices. Van Richten would have remained in Rivalis and lived a happy and fairly successful life as an herbalist and country doctor. Erasmus probably would have married some nice girl and given his father plenty of apple-cheeked grandchildren. After many years, Van Richten would have died peacefully in his sleep at a ripe old age. And in exchange for his comfort and happiness, people all over Ravenloft would have died because no one would know how to kill the monsters that had been preying on them. It's a great little It's a Wonderful Life scenario that really drives home one of the major themes of Ravenloft and of heroism in general: you suffer, and you sacrifice your own chances of ever having a comfortable life, but countless others get a chance at the very life you give up. Kickass. Somebody needs to write this story.

Consider it stolen for QtR 13.
Actually, I have some other interesting ideas that popped into my head right after I read that "What if..." that would make the story more... interesting.

Now I'm all kinds of curious . . . Can't wait to read it.

Wiccy of the Fraternity wrote:What if the Gentleman Caller preferred men?

lol. Good question Wiccy. I think that he would demand compensation from the Dark Powers for all of the women he has impregnated.

Here are some serious and some not-so-serious questions. Enjoy!

What if Gwydion escaped?

What if one of Bluebeard's wives did not look in the closet?

What if Easan had a bad hair day?

What if Ivana Boritsi is Ivan Dilisnya in drag?

What if Hazlik took up smoking?

What if Tristessa stole one of the Gentleman Caller's children?

What if Vlad Drakov started wearing funny hats?

What if Azalin tears apart the Realm of Dread in an attempt to escape... Wait, he already did that.

What if 'The Brain' and 'The God-Brain' got together?

What if the Dark Powers were audited by the IRS?

What if Harkon Lukas opened his own clothing line entitled "Wolf in Bard's Clothing"?

What if the Puppetmaster was really Jim Henson?

What if the Dark Powers lost interest in Ravenloft?

What if all products with the Ravenloft label were canon?

What if there was a different Nova Vaasa for each version of Tristen Hiregaard's life?

Stygian Inquirer wrote: What if the Dark Powers lost interest in Ravenloft?

The place would go to Hell in a handbasket.

I am by no means a Ravenloft-scholar, but if the powers left, and relased the restirctions they'd put on the world, then it would be very interesting to see what would happen. Suddenly free, the darklords and other assorted powerful creatures formerly imprisoned would be able to roam the multiverse at their whim (if they have the means to, that is), or return home. A lot of worlds would be less than pleased to have a maniac return to haunt them again.

Especially if that maniac has had decades to build up his power:

Hazlik would benifit very greatly from that arrangement - he'd be finally able to unload his army of apprentices on the unsuspecting dynasty in Thay.

In a way, Ravenloft would become the launching pad from which the forces of evil would strike at various targets of the multiverse - which might have been the intention of the DPs all along....

how's this one?

What if Jander gave in to his inner darkness?

I think he has the potential of becoming more of a threat then Strahd. Especially since he could fool a lot of his past companions at first, hiding the fact that he has turned to the Dark Side.

Or

What if a group like the Fraternity of Shadows planned an organized attack on all darklords at once? Say, using illusion to appear as a neighboring Darklord or use their combined knowledge in some other way to take them all out... Would the Cabal become joint darklords of one large Domain, the Core?

What if...

-The Dilisynas stayed for Sergi's wedding party? We know that that we'd be short two DLs if they did.

-Lady Adele was the DL of Valachan. (A hideous DL trapped in a domain of beautiful, dark-skinned people who she is unable to mutilate.)

-Ivana decided to believe her lover (Pietor I think his name was) and not poison him like her mom wanted.

-Mary Shelly sued Mordinheim and Adam for copyright infringement?