Scariest Monster Contest
["What IS Strahd anyway?"]
Iosef: Why he's a vrolok, a voishlacka, a vampire - a creature of the night. Wedded to darkness in an unholy union.
Want to know about the vampire, eh? Well…
At night, it can summon wolves and vermin to do its bidding. It can even join them!
In its humanoid form, it is supernaturally charming.
A vampire must rest in its coffin during the day.
Sunlight is harmful to the vampire, and causes it to burst into flame.
Running water burns a vampire like acid.
Holy symbols are also harmful to them.
A vampire can’t enter a residence without an invitation from one of the occupants.
Each vampire has unique abilities—and these only grow as they age. The older the vampire, the more powerful they are.
I have a challenge: who can tell our visitors about the scariest monsters of lore. And the Barovians have a lot of them! What might some of them be?
[The music begins with a syncopated beat that they clap on their knees, the storytellers needing to keep up with the rhythm and match their story to it]
We’re already heard about our vampire lord…
[Bela] The Mahr, a most bizarre and terrible demon. It has feathery wings and the body of a man. It lives in the west. It comes out rarely, but when it does its victims hear strange noises in their heads first, long before it draws near. But then once they are lost and alone it swoops in to carry them away. The residue it leaves behind is strange and brilliant, a glow like those strange mushrooms leave at night.
[Arahja] A Veela, the lake siren who tempts men - or women! - to her. She appears as a waify woman under the water, or she sings from a distance from across the lake. But there are legends that she can be reasoned with - some say that if she is given a proper sacrifice, she might give a boon. The sacrifice is almost always something terrible.
[Rozalina] The Nocnitsa, a bloodsucking crone that lives in the woods. She is bent over in half and walks on her hands as much as her feet. And she has a single horn growing out of her head. She sucks the blood but doesn’t eat it - she vomits it up later to bath in it.
[Sofia] Poludnitsa, an orchard nymph. She has long limbs that can stretch to strangle you. If you come and steal an apple, she comes and... Cuts off trespassers heads! Because she also has a sword! [waves hands around dramatically!]
[Lux] The two-headed black dragon that caused the suffering of many other chromatics including a small golden one, until the little ones blinded the two-headed one and broke free through their dark cave ceiling.
[Cobb tells the story of the hunter's lodge with the living taxidermy - as the subject of the mark on the door is mentioned the Vistani look at one another askance and take on more somber faces. But they applaud and quickly move on once the story is done.]
[Papusza] Oh, ha! Lux and Sofia inspired me. I can beat your stories, and even top your story of the Monster Hunter in Castle Raveloft… There are few tales of those who've entered the Castle alive—invited, let alone uninvited. Before the famed monster hunter, there was only one. Long ago. Though few would suggest it was a successful visit in the end, as no sane person would wish for such a tortured fate. Let me tell you of the the Many-Headed Monster—"
[At that there is a loud BANG that seems to echo as a thunderclap, the flap to Madam Eva's tent flings open. "We do not speak of such things here," Eva says with a staccato and steely command, sillhouetted in the doorway. She closes the flap again with intentional slowness, to stunned silence.
With that, the Doroq is over for the night, as are the festivities. The Vistani camp takes that as an excuse to get some sleep, under the crescent moon, a clear sky… and the looming spires of Castle Ravenloft across the pool.]