Café de Nuit

It might have been asked before, but how do you figure Jacqueline Montarri lives her daily life without being recognized as the monster she is? Has she been an all-powerful darklord, it's possible she shouldn't have hide her nature, living openly like Princess Mombi in Return to Oz and terrorizing her people. But since she isn't, how can she walk around wearing the head of the last murder victim without getting into troubles? What should her neighbors think when they see her with different head every day? Unlike so many vampires and werebeasts, her curse is the type which can hardly be hidden away. She might be traveling a lot, as described in To Sleep with Evil, but it still doesn't solve all her problems. The best solution I can think of is for her to be acknowledged by Strahd as one of his servants and get permission to live openly as a monster, but it is very unlikely considering their relationship. Any other plausible ideas?

There is a forum topic not too far down about Montarri.
http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... =1&t=10263
In it, Joël suggested giving her a general use head that does not decay, but grants her no powers.

I'd just make her a recluse of sorts. She may have a head reserved for public outings that she uses for a while before discarding it and moving on to another location. Her inner circle of the RVT probably know what's up, but the general populace has no reason to know what she looks like, and if she goes out one day with one head and another with another, who's to say it's the same woman? She'd meet clients in private, if not through intermediaries, so it doesn't matter whether it's the same head today as the one she met a different client with yesterday. She probably has a catalogue of who's seen which head, whether mental or written, so she will use the same one for future meeting with the same person. I doubt she'd openly wear a head in the same place she acquired it, at least until anyone who would have known the prior owner is dead.

heh, I bet she'd be especially eager to collect a set of pretty twins or triplets to extend how long she can keep "one" public face. Watch out, Laurie & Gen!

I would go with what is presented in the Gazeteer. She travels a lot, she lives in a secluded villa with her thugs and doesn't say she is J.Montari to those doing business with her company. She's "a different client" each time and those that do business with her company don't know they have spoken to the same woman each time or, when she meets them again she wears the same head.

And if all else fails, she could just wear a widow's veil and dress.
So long as she speaks softly and keeps her distance from people 'in her grief', she'd be all set.

Rock wrote:And if all else fails, she could just wear a widow's veil and dress.
So long as she speaks softly and keeps her distance from people 'in her grief', she'd be all set.

Yeah, but it would be quite a waste of her potential as a character.
I still think it would be best if she'll be granted authority from some darklord to live openly as a local ruler, terrorizing the populace, taking any head she likes and wearing them publicly.
Ivan Dilisnya, with his twisted sense of humor, can easily be such a patron. Or Vlad Drakov, who can supply her with lots of fresh heads. Or Azalin, who can give her position in the Kargat. It would be much better IMO than forcing her to live reclusive and secret life.

Drakov is a mysoginist and would probably think Jacqueline is some kind of undead. No power there, more likely a stake and/or a fire.

Azalin would outright enslave her and might use her as a lab specimen.

Ivan... yeah. Ivan might do it.

Azalin is a better boss than most and know talent, when he saw it. She would be a valuable asset for him.

Jack the Reaper wrote:

Rock wrote:And if all else fails, she could just wear a widow's veil and dress.
So long as she speaks softly and keeps her distance from people 'in her grief', she'd be all set.

Yeah, but it would be quite a waste of her potential as a character.

Depends on what potential you see in her character. A monstrous despot and and a behind the scenes manipulator are two very different character concepts. If she works within her limitations, keeps on the move, and under the radar, she can easily be the latter. The former would require some powerful (likely darklord) patron, certainly, to get her past the "torches and pitchforks" phase and into unchallenged power. But despite the obvious inspiration, she's not Mombi, she's as much a different character from her inspiration as Malken is from Hyde, etc. It's up to you if you want to change things, as always, but as written, the recluse angle works for her.

IMC, I had Jacqueline M as a well known public figure in Krezk. Everybody knows her, and respect/fear her, because all those rumours about the Traders. That is why I didn't keep the "she is a mystery, we never see her or her face" possibility.

Also, by giving her an ordinary-no-power head, I make sure there are less headless female bodies found here and there... If you follow the rules, she kills and behead an awful lot of woman each year, and that would make people investigate these numerous beheading and murders. She can't always hide all the bodies.

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But if you keep her in the shadows in your campaign, the other option (no such ordinary head available) works too I guess.

Joël

She could also BE a Dark Lord. She has certainly earned her own domain , make one up and put her in charge of it. She can be as open as she wants then. The DPs would grant her a populous domain in that case as she would still go through too many heads otherwise. The people there could also grow supernaturally fast.

Something in this thread reminds of high society ladies who never wear the same dress twice in public. Although it's not as easy to acquired heads as it is to acquire dresses, of course.
That said, could she have a network of suppliers bringing in heads from distant lands?

Ail wrote:Something in this thread reminds of high society ladies who never wear the same dress twice in public. Although it's not as easy to acquired heads as it is to acquire dresses, of course.
That said, could she have a network of suppliers bringing in heads from distant lands?

That is certainly an idea.

I give her a hat of disguise to appear with her old face. She was already using it as a thief, it's just her own vanity that demands it not be an illusion.