My idiot players 2020’d Sergei and Tatyana

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

I’m running Curse of Strahd at the moment, and my players done messed up(for themselves).

They just got to Krezk and Ireena was taken to the pool. I ran the “She remembers being Tatyana, and Sergei is in the pool to save her” encounter. I had the cleric make a religion check to see this was True Love and a divine force was aiding the reunion, I had Strahd appear in the clouds and demand “she is mine!”, I had Sergei shout, “leave her brother, she doesn’t love you.”

And they stopped Tatyana and Sergei reuniting. Is was there most 2020 outcome of the scene. It ended with Sergei starting to fade, the gazebo exploding and them wanting to take her to the Abbott and telling her to ignore her past life.

[The Lesser Evil]

It sounds like your players are of the "live in the now" persuasion, that the long distant ancient past can't or shouldn't necessarily be recreated. If that's the case, I could see their reasoning- that even if if it was at one time a true love, the spirits of the past don't necessarily have the right to impose themselves onto the present. They may believe that Ireena Kolyana deserves more of a chance to find her own way in the world without interference from spirits of bygone eras.

Wanting to taker to the Abbot is more puzzling. Obviously, they must not know of his truly dark nature. Has he managed to conceal his Tatyana-esque flesh golem and his transformation of the Belview family into mongrelfolk?

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

It sounds like your players are of the "live in the now" persuasion, that the long distant ancient past can't or shouldn't necessarily be recreated. If that's the case, I could see their reasoning- that even if if it was at one time a true love, the spirits of the past don't necessarily have the right to impose themselves onto the present. They may believe that Ireena Kolyana deserves more of a chance to find her own way in the world without interference from spirits of bygone eras.

Wanting to taker to the Abbot is more puzzling. Obviously, they must not know of his truly dark nature. Has he managed to conceal his Tatyana-esque flesh golem and his transformation of the Belview family into mongrelfolk?

They have no reason to suspect the Abbey is anything other than a monastery at this point. The tarroka reading placed the Tome of Strahd in the ruins of Berez, so they don’t have the full story yet either. I think it’s going to come back to bite them.

[ewancummins]

But how much XP did you award them for slaying that gazebo?

[DustBunny]

But how much XP did you award them for slaying that gazebo?

[Joël of the FoS]

High hit dice due to size
Can swallow whole
Hardness
Eight tentacles attacks per rounds.

At least CR14?

[Mistmaster]

I think it can attack only with 4 tentacles at a time or it collapses on itself, so CR 12. Beside it the Swallow whole attack inflicts piercing damage (from wooden splinters) not bludgeonig and acid.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

In all seriousness, I'm stumped on what to do now.

They haven't met Esmeralda yet, so I'm thinking she can react with a, "You did what?" reaction.

Also, I'm thinking of having Strahd win Ireena, turn her into a vampire and have the party have to kill her.

A third option is to have her there when they meet Baba Lysaga, or have Baba kidnap her, and have the hag fawn over her like a daughter in law (she's old enough to recognise Tatyana) and refer to her exclusively as Tatyana.

[DustBunny]

In all seriousness, I'm stumped on what to do now.

After a quick re-read of the module, if you are worried about the Tatyana/Sergei reuniting part, there is a mention at the end of the module on how to re-unite them (the original ending from I9) when they stake Strahd.

Though, turning it over in my head for way to long, and thinking on what Lesser Evil mentioned about 'spirits of the past' there could be a lot of interesting possibilities to pop up. The idea of the 'memories' of someone long dead overwriting my memories, to re-unite with someone else who is long dead is a terrifying one and a dark twist on the 'True Love Transcending Eternity' trope. Sure, the past gets its happy ending - it just required a human sacrifice.

Of course it gets complicated as Tatyana's soul is essentially recycled, which brings up all the metaphysical headaches of "are we more than our memories?", "if I was <insert evil person here> in a past life, am I responsible now for what I did then?", or even a simple "Who am I?". A similar thing occurred in the game 'Pillars of Eternity', where the memories of a past life in the protagonists soul 'woke up' and started causing problems and started their mind crumbling until they could put the past life back to 'sleep'. Cyberpunk 2077 has a similar story - an electronic ghost slowly replacing the protagonist after they 'died'.

But anyway, after that 10 cents of amateur philosophizing , perhaps you could take a similar route with Ireena. The PC's may have interrupted the reunion thus Ireena stays as who she is, but that doesn't mean that Tatyana's memories go back to quiet sleep. Events and places could poke those memories into wakefulness and Ireena has a flashback (or even full personality switch) allowing her to fill the PC's in on details they don’t know. Eventually Ireena will re-emerge but the effects will linger.

Not that this will be a good thing, as the more Tatyana wakes up the more of a mess Ireena's mind becomes as conflicting and painful memories (like the day of the feast) mix together. And with one 'past life' awakening, what’s to stop the others like Marianna popping up. The PC's would have to work out a way to 'practice what they preach' by putting the past lives back to sleep and allowing Ireena to be herself - before she either is 'replaced' or becomes a lunatic with the memories of hundreds of people conflicting in her head.

A nice scene would be when the PC's finally confront Strahd, he starts on the boring 'Come to me, my love Tatyana and we will....blah blah blah", she stands tall - and in the echoes of Quaid from Total Recall or Éowyn from LotR, and other characters when they self-actualize into their own....

"I am _not_ Tatyana, vampire. I am Ireena Kolyana, daughter of Kolyan lndirovich. I am not your slave. I am not a puppet of the past. And you can GO TO HELL!"

Sometimes breaking the cycle, can be more fun that completing it.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Though, turning it over in my head for way to long, and thinking on what Lesser Evil mentioned about 'spirits of the past' there could be a lot of interesting possibilities to pop up. The idea of the 'memories' of someone long dead overwriting my memories, to re-unite with someone else who is long dead is a terrifying one and a dark twist on the 'True Love Transcending Eternity' trope. Sure, the past gets its happy ending - it just required a human sacrifice.

Of course it gets complicated as Tatyana's soul is essentially recycled, which brings up all the metaphysical headaches of "are we more than our memories?", "if I was <insert evil person here> in a past life, am I responsible now for what I did then?", or even a simple "Who am I?". A similar thing occurred in the game 'Pillars of Eternity', where the memories of a past life in the protagonists soul 'woke up' and started causing problems and started their mind crumbling until they could put the past life back to 'sleep'. Cyberpunk 2077 has a similar story - an electronic ghost slowly replacing the protagonist after they 'died'.

... and in the echoes of Quaid from Total Recall ...

Yes, thinking about it this way, the situation is very Total Recall. I really like this angle on the reincarnation of Tatyana.

[The Lesser Evil]

In all seriousness, I'm stumped on what to do now.

They haven't met Esmeralda yet, so I'm thinking she can react with a, "You did what?" reaction.

Also, I'm thinking of having Strahd win Ireena, turn her into a vampire and have the party have to kill her.

A third option is to have her there when they meet Baba Lysaga, or have Baba kidnap her, and have the hag fawn over her like a daughter in law (she's old enough to recognise Tatyana) and refer to her exclusively as Tatyana.

One way you might answer the question is to frame it in terms of answering how the world responds to the party's actions.

You mentioned the party musing on whether to bring her to the Abbot's. I wonder how he, and his flesh golem pseudo-Tatanya, would react to their arrival. Would the Abbot abandon his creation; would he turn Ireena over to Strahd? Would the golem get jealous? How would the Belview mongrelfolk react to a change in the Abbot's plans?

As for Ireena, the question for her is where does she go now? How does she feel about being separated from a destiny that might reunite a previous version of love long past the pale? Is there a longing there that can't be replaced elsewhere? The party is providing counsel for her to forget the past, so perhaps part of their challenge is helping her find a way for her to live in the present. Can they facilitate a way for her to find happiness in the midst of recurring flashes of the past?

Strahd, of course, will likely try to take advantage of the situation as best he can. The party might seemingly have done him a favor without a great amount of effort on his part. The question is, does he attempt to take her now in this moment of chaos, or does he wait for her to become increasingly unstable and despairing only to swoop in and take her with him when she would presumably be at her weakest? (Not that either tactic would necessarily be more effective, but the question is which Strahd feels, consciously or unconsciously, would be more effective.)

[ewancummins]

"I am _not_ Tatyana, vampire. I am Ireena Kolyana, daughter of Kolyan lndirovich. I am not your slave. I am not a puppet of the past. And you can GO TO HELL!"

Sometimes breaking the cycle, can be more fun that completing it.

FTW

Awwwwwwwww, yeah!!!

[ewancummins]

For the record, I don't think the players are in any way 'idiots' for not going with the scripted module stuff.

1 They don't know the script.

2 The script of a plot-heavy module is usually less interesting than the emergent story of actual play.


I'd just roll with it. Examine the personalities and motives of the NPCs, use random rolls where it seems best to do so, and adjudicate the situation accordingly. It might lead to tragedy, a bittersweet ending, a glorious triumph over evil and a new beginning. Who knows? Sounds like fun, no matter what.

[Manofevil]

I've often wondered if Tatyana isn't really reincarnated but is rather a different form of undead (I think it's called a haunt) that possesses every woman Strahd believes is her reincarnated in hopes that she can reunite with Sergei who is also a ghost of some kind somewhere. Perhaps she hopes Strahd can lead her to Sergei. I love the idea of Ireena scorning him to his face, too.