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What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2017 10:01 pm
by Hell_Born
We all know that Jacqueline Renier, Darklord of Richemulot, is cursed to unwillingly shift to her dire rat form when alone with someone that she truly loves. We also know, or at least infer from the canon, that when her swains understandably freak as a result of the transformation, she attacks them and usually kills them, either intentionally or accidentally as part of her desperate attempt to infect them so they will "understand her".

But... what would happen if Jacqueline fell for someone who didn't freak out at seeing the transformation? Love is a powerful force indeed in a Gothic Fantasy realm like the Demiplane of Dread and, let's be honest/cynical; there are people in the real world who would actually be the opposite of turned off by seeing Jacqueline in hybrid rat/dire rat form.

So... what would she do if she transformed, and the man she's in love with doesn't seem even slightly bothered by it? He may need to make one hell of a Persuasion check (or slap her with a Hold Monster spell) to keep her from the literal "panic attack", but the end result is that he knows and isn't bothered. How would that affect her life?

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 3:06 am
by Rock of the Fraternity
She'd probably cling to him like a burr and grow hideously paranoid that he might change his mind or be taken away from her. Any family member who so much as looked at him funny would be bound for a world of pain at the very least.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:22 am
by Mistmaster
Jaqueline is another of those Darklords I find interesting but not really deserving or tragical; I mean, a natural Wererat who kills her tyrannical, abusive grandfather and takes his place? And where is the tragedy here? She is someone who, I think, could be easily redeemed should she find love; She would abdicate and go and leave happily with her new husband in a hut on the Musarde river, with Jaques. And the Powers would have to find another Darklord, like Sophie Renier, or maybe, bring back old Claude.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:34 am
by Five
I'd say the rat-loving mate of hers would probably enjoy a brief and torrid love affair with Jackie, only to eventually fall victim to another aspect of her doomed force of personality. A political rival seeking to leverage her comes immediately to mind but there could be any number of ways for the Dark Powers to maintain their grip (punishment) on her.

I see her becoming so fully commited to that love that she becomes politically sloppy. And in that distraction moves are made and Jackie trips. She snaps out of the honeymoon phase of her love and begins to focus more and more on regaining her clout (alpha position) and eventually, ultimately, she sacrifices her love through her maneuvering/neglect (not that she could ever see it that way). Just another cosmic tease. Wickedness/revenge like that never before seen begins to boil over and civil war is imminent...

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 3:01 am
by nothri
I think Renier's own fears would kill her chance at a happy ending. I can't see her accepting apparent love directed towards her at face value. They MUST be up to something! How could they possibly love a monster like her? Are they looking to replace her? A pawn of some rival faction? Are they insane? What's really going on here?

Then too, loving Jaqueline Renier might prove difficult. If she isn't using you for her own ends, she's probably obsessing over you to a unhealthy extent. Afraid you'll try to run. Afraid someone will try to hurt you. Renier more than many darklords strikes me as the type to "love" someone by chaining them up in her basement to keep them "safe".

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 11:19 am
by brilliantlight
nothri wrote:I think Renier's own fears would kill her chance at a happy ending. I can't see her accepting apparent love directed towards her at face value. They MUST be up to something! How could they possibly love a monster like her? Are they looking to replace her? A pawn of some rival faction? Are they insane? What's really going on here?

Then too, loving Jaqueline Renier might prove difficult. If she isn't using you for her own ends, she's probably obsessing over you to a unhealthy extent. Afraid you'll try to run. Afraid someone will try to hurt you. Renier more than many darklords strikes me as the type to "love" someone by chaining them up in her basement to keep them "safe".
Pretty much, otherwise her curse is broken and she leaves Ravenloft. Jaqueline would then be the first redeemed Dark Lord. Her sister Louise would then take over IMO.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 12:10 pm
by Mistmaster
Well, it would be fitting, as Love is the greatest power which there iř.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 8:32 pm
by The Lesser Evil
I could see several scenarios playing out. It's highly possible that her jealous sister Louise may arrange the potential lover's death. Or he might simply disappear, as happened with Henri DuBois when she tried to infect him with lycanthropy. The lover may be taken by the Mists or through more mundane means.

It would be an interesting development if the disappearance of a second lover might clue her into the nature of the Dark Powers and the Demiplane of Dread. (One person simply disappearing may just be chance, but with two you have a potential pattern.) She might become more interested in the metaphysical nature of the Demiplane and Dark Powers and may wish to thwart them or find some other way of escaping her curse. In turn, Jackie might turn to her mystically inclined sister for assistance, which could have interesting repercussions for their relationship. Would Louise, with Jackie's formal assistance, be able to find a better mentor? Would Louise (or some other figure) take advantage of this newfound dependence?

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 6:50 pm
by alhoon
Mistmaster wrote:Jaqueline is another of those Darklords I find interesting but not really deserving or tragical; I mean, a natural Wererat who kills her tyrannical, abusive grandfather and takes his place? And where is the tragedy here? She is someone who, I think, could be easily redeemed should she find love; She would abdicate and go and leave happily with her new husband in a hut on the Musarde river, with Jaques. And the Powers would have to find another Darklord, like Sophie Renier, or maybe, bring back old Claude.
The tragedy is not that she killed her grandfather to steal his place. The tragedy is that she can't find love.

She would never abdicate, cause she's not a woman that made hard choices but is redeemable. She's an evil, tyrannical, powerhungry monster that was cursed to be able to feel real love.
Jaques is also a spoiled sadistic cruel monster that likes see people suffer. Including his relatives. He would be among the first to kill his mother's beau to see her suffer knowing she would not kill him because of her fear of loneliness.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 8:37 am
by Mistmaster
That's your hopinion, I see things differently.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 2:19 pm
by Rock of the Fraternity
alhoon wrote:
Mistmaster wrote:Jaqueline is another of those Darklords I find interesting but not really deserving or tragical; I mean, a natural Wererat who kills her tyrannical, abusive grandfather and takes his place? And where is the tragedy here? She is someone who, I think, could be easily redeemed should she find love; She would abdicate and go and leave happily with her new husband in a hut on the Musarde river, with Jaques. And the Powers would have to find another Darklord, like Sophie Renier, or maybe, bring back old Claude.
The tragedy is not that she killed her grandfather to steal his place. The tragedy is that she can't find love.

She would never abdicate, cause she's not a woman that made hard choices but is redeemable. She's an evil, tyrannical, powerhungry monster that was cursed to be able to feel real love.
Jaques is also a spoiled sadistic cruel monster that likes see people suffer. Including his relatives. He would be among the first to kill his mother's beau to see her suffer knowing she would not kill him because of her fear of loneliness.
I have to admit, I was a little surprised to read Jacques had grown up to be an actual contendor for his mom's throne in Legacy of the Blood.
By his tante Louise's estimation in Scholar of Decay, Jacqueline had trained her son so he wouldn't even dare to think of inconveniencing his maman.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:44 pm
by alhoon
Mistmaster wrote:That's your hopinion, I see things differently.
Of course.
Rock wrote: I have to admit, I was a little surprised to read Jacques had grown up to be an actual contendor for his mom's throne in Legacy of the Blood.
By his tante Louise's estimation in Scholar of Decay, Jacqueline had trained her son so he wouldn't even dare to think of inconveniencing his maman.
It wouldn't be the first time Louise was wrong. For that matter, it wouldn't be the first time that Jacqueline didn't succeed on an important task. Jacqueline isn't presented as a near omnipotent schemer like Azalin.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 7:51 am
by Rock of the Fraternity
I'd have estimated Jacqueline as being more on the ball than Azalin, to be honest. He gets so fixated on his goals that he starts overlooking small fluctuations which can build into destructive cascades. Jacqueline seems more flexible, and detail-oriented.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 1:44 pm
by jamesfirecat
alhoon wrote:
The tragedy is not that she killed her grandfather to steal his place. The tragedy is that she can't find love.

She would never abdicate, cause she's not a woman that made hard choices but is redeemable. She's an evil, tyrannical, powerhungry monster that was cursed to be able to feel real love.
Jaques is also a spoiled sadistic cruel monster that likes see people suffer. Including his relatives. He would be among the first to kill his mother's beau to see her suffer knowing she would not kill him because of her fear of loneliness.
I agree with Minmaster and Rock below when they say they prefer Scholar of Decay Jacques to Legacy of Blood Jacques.

I would see him/prefer to see him grow into a somewhat vapid but relatively well meaning (for wererat) pretty boy, possibly with a greater interest than normal for a wererat in certain activities (horse riding, sword fighting) who can set every pretty girl's heart a flutter with his smile a flip of his dashing black hair who is more interested in bedding human girls than eating them.

Of course with his family he'd probably have been dead years ago if it wasn't for the fact that he's still under his mother's protection, and in turn he does genuinely love his mother (in a traditional son to mother familial love) not because she keeps him alive, but for the more traditional reasons most of us love our mothers.

In short the Jacqueline to Jacques relationship is one of warm hearted affection, an island of stability and tranquility among the rolling sea of backstabbery that otherwise is the Renier family.

This creates the irony that Jacqueline could be perfectly happy with a son who loves her... if it weren't for the rest of her family always ready to drag her (and by extension him) down the first chance they get.

The ultimate dramatic curse that Jacqueline is suffering from (in my opinion) is that the human population of Richemulot will on average go to extreme lengths to show her nothing but loyalty, love and affection, while her family is... her family.

Thus it is Jacqueline's own wererat supremacy agenda that is making her life such a horrible living hell, she does everything in her power to make Richemulot a great place for wererats to live and become "apex scavengers" for lack of a better turn, and she only gets cowed obedience when her attention is focused on them and backbiting when it isn't.

If she somehow all the other wererats (except Jacques) were exiled from Richemulot she'd live a much happier and more stress free life.... but Jacqueline would never do that, because she's always going to be loyal to the idea of family, no matter how many individual family members she needs to kill.

Re: What if Jacqueline found returned love?

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 3:30 pm
by Rock of the Fraternity
*applauds* That works admirably!