Dark Lord: Teresa Bleysmith

The Horror: Endless Warfare, Repeating History, Been there-Done that

What the Hell is a Bluff?

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According to the gem that National Geographic is, “A bluff is a small, rounded cliff that usually overlooks a body of water, or where a body of water once stood. … A bluff is a type of broad, rounded cliff. Most bluffs border a river, beach, or other coastal area. Bluffs may form along a river where it meanders, or curves from side to side.” Neato

What the Hell is Staunton Bluffs?

Staunton Bluffs was once a part of a larger country called the Kingdom of Mourette, where the domain has a large ridge of bluffs.  The town of Willisford sits in ruin from the oncoming horde of faceless soldiers, heading toward the daunting castle Stonecrest where the Bleysmith family hides.

Now this is where things start to split from the old 1992 edition of Ravenloft: Islands of Terror released by Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.  In the original, Sir Torrence Bleysmith had a bitter rivalry with his brother Sir August Bleysmith during a war their father instigated. As daddy went off to war, August was told that he was the man of the house until his return.  Torrence was jealous. Like REALLY jealous.  I guess someone was the favorite huh? Well, good ol’ Torrence decided treason was a good way to get back at him, so he talked with his enemy, Commander Pierre Willis, and lured his brother and his war besties to a trap and slaughtered them.  Through this act, he doomed his family and his daddy’s land.  Ironically, this backstabber was backstabbed by Willis, forcing Torrence to flee for his life while his home and everything around him was burned and razed.  So what would a guilt-laden man do with the weight of his crimes? Use a perverted ritual with black magic to drive the peasants into becoming frenzied barbarians to fight against Willis and his men.  Obviously this didn’t work and instead just killed all the peasants. Torrence hanged himself and the mists said, “What up bro?” Ever since then, he just haunted his the old castle while everyone else still alive in Willisford just kinda moved on.

In the new version, in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, the Domain didn’t get as much love. In this modern version, Instead of Torrence being a dickbag, it’s actually Teresa that jealous of her brother with no real mention of a rivalry between them. Creepy faceless hordes are going through the countryside burning villages and killing peasants heading straight toward the castle Stonecrest. Teresa backstabs her family by giving the enemy the intelligence they need to raid Staunton Bluffs. Of course she regrets her actions as they were never supposed to go that far. Like, really? What the fuck did you think what happen? Long story short everyone dies, everything burns, baddies win, Teresa throws herself off the bluffs. She evermore haunts her own little domain reliving her final choices.

Check out the Fraternity of Shadows website for way more detail and cooler descriptions!

What can I do with this?

1. Well, Let’s take advantage of the endless war that seems to reset after Teresa throws herself off the bluffs. Imagine Groundhogs day where you keep reliving the same day over and over again.  With that info, the players can do pretty much anything they want.  TPKs just mean they get to restart the day, giving the group ample opportunity to explore ways to “fix” things, and time for you, the DM, to play around. Now, with that in mind, I imagine the player characters to be stumbling into the middle of a battle/massacre in a town where the side of the Bleysmiths are losing.  Literal faceless soldiers killing and burning the town with no emotion or mercy. Players may want to fight, and if so, let them.  This gives the group the perfect opportunity to learn that the day keeps happening over and over.  If the player try to escape, have some soldiers help them along with some refugees fleeing the town towards the castle.  There they can have the chance to meet the family and Teresa.  How they can talk to them is up to you, persuade their way inside or have the royal family look concerned about the plight of the people and help out. Either way, you will want to make sure that your characters see the jealousy from Teresa towards Torrence.  Maybe have Torrence be the “favorite” child.  Players stay the night. Players see Teresa sneak out. Players follow.  Players see Teresa talk to enemy.  From there, you follow with what your players want to do.  Either way, the castle should be assaulted by the faceless shortly after.  Never give the players more than a short rest to keep up the suspense.  Remember, everything lasts ONE DAY before history repeats itself.  Stop Teresa, Stop the rewind.
2. Branching off of idea number Uno, make sure that whatever the players do to stop Teresa, there is always a terrible end.  Stop Teresa from going to the enemy? She instead kills her family and the townspeople find out and panic leaving the castle to be overrun with no leadership.  Kill Teresa? Family finds out and is enraged, throwing everything they have towards the enemy to be slaughtered, castle is overrun, everyone dies.  Help fight the enemy straight up? Get overrun and die.  Try to convince Teresa that history keeps repeating itself? She won’t believe you (initially) and will find another way to foil her brother by murder, betrayal, or summoning a demon to destroy the enemy that backfires.  What really matters is that nothing seems to work, everyone dies, and history repeats itself for eternity no matter what you do.  On the plus side, the players can have endless ways to fuck up and keep coming back.  Its really up to you if you want the players to succeed or have it be unfixable.
3. When the players first arrive, have the players encounter Teresa as a ghost attempting to contact them for help.  At first, it’s subtle.  Whispers, a slight vision that’s garbled.  As time goes on, they get straight up flashbacks at pivotal moments on that fateful day.  Maybe have the players actually be there, or as Teresa herself.  This direction may be a bit more narrative that player driven, but it could give the players a good story to roll with if you can balance it out well.  Maybe using Teresa as a guide throughout?
4. If you wanna go full action, have the only way to fix this mess is to take the fight to the enemy to help stop Teresa from betraying her family.  Have the players encounter Teresa leaving towards the baddies and convince her that she could have the glory of having the idea to destroy whatever is creating these faceless drone clone warriors, and I’m sure that she accept wanting to look like the golden child after that.  Now what is making these evil Clone troopers?  Let’s go with cloning the BBEG by the use of magic.  Several wizards encircle this giant of a man in classic ritualistic form and dozens of flesh like balls appear like growing welts and boils that puss out and form into balls to roll off of him, and several hours later become full-fledged faceless drones.