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nopanamaman · 5 months ago

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How does the stalker business work?

Loredump. October 2023

A web of alliances, insiders, clients, and territorial disputes - this is what forms the stalker business, a domain that’s as illegal as it is profitable.

Today, we’ll delve into the basic origins and inner workings of this peculiar profession. Let’s find out how these glorified marauders operate!

How did the stalker business develop?

The stalker business emerged almost as soon as the Zone itself was born. But, much like every structure based around the Zone itself, it became more refined - and more corrupt - as years went on.

What started as individuals travelling the Zone completely on their own accord grew into a network of organised groups with their own informants, clientele and designated territories. Yet when it looked like major alliances had become fully solidified with a couple of large groups operating across vast stretches of the Zone, the development of the internet put a dent in the system.

Yura: Do I really need to know the territorial policies of 70s factions Sergei: YES Olya: No.

As many information-gathering and order-related operations moved online, doing business in smaller groups became a more viable option. Nowadays, the majority choose to operate in gangs of up to 30 people.

Since the business has grown more decentralised and, in a way, accessible, the competition within it has increased dramatically. Territories are less clearly defined and run-ins with members of rivalling gangs are commonplace. When it comes to the human factor, it’s more dangerous than it ever was.

How are the little groups organised?

Modern stalker groups are typically formed around somebody who has direct connections to potential clients or those able to nicely aggregate information about the Zone’s current state. So any group needs at least one product reseller and one strategic leader, which can sometimes be the same person.

The latter is true for Sergei's group, for instance.

He is responsible for processing orders, evaluating the delivered artefacts, reselling them, gathering up to date information about the Zone’s landscape and traffic, and helping the available stalkers plan their trips accordingly. It’s a heavy workload, so having just one person performing all of those tasks wouldn’t be manageable on a larger scale.

Obviously enough, smaller groups are more reliant on the quality of their individual members, even more so when they have a specific role to fill. If we use known members of Sergei’s group as examples, they fit pretty neatly into the following roles:

Radar (радар). Formerly fulfilled by Kolya – a stalker with an outstanding sense for anomalies. Irreplaceable for navigating the more treacherous parts of the Zone. Yura was going to inherit that role.

Doctor (доктор). Self-explanatory. While it’s recommended that all stalkers undergo some form of first aid training, it never hurts to have someone with a deeper knowledge of medicine on the team. This role was filled by Nikita.

Insider (свояк). As the name suggests, it’s a person that helps in various aspects of stalker work by providing client contacts, guard post information, info about other gangs’ operations, and so on depending on their position. Insiders don’t usually take part in actual trips or even work with specific stalker groups, but Olya is built different.

Ram (таран). The muscle of the group. You don’t need to be especially physically fit to navigate the Zone,but when things become dire, it absolutely helps. This was Sergei’s role when he still travelled the Zone.

These are arbitrary designations and many don’t fit into one particular role. That said, creating a balanced group of 3 is easier when there’s a fair understanding of each person’s strengths.

Yura: Oh, kinda like video game classes! Sanya: Yeah, I guess. Yura: So who would I be? Sanya: Support.

What does the typical work cycle look like?

An order is either placed on an online marketplace or is mailed directly to a trusted trader. The trader then passes the information to the strategist, who analyses the current Zone layout, as well as the latest available information about the placements of various artefacts and anomalies.

The strategist then determines the optimal routes to retrieving the ordered goods. Some use special software to aid in the process. The service price is then estimated based on the difficulty of retrieval and transportation. If the initial price suggested in the order is lower than this estimate, price negotiations will ensue.

Once the minimal price is agreed on, the actual planning starts. A group of three is gathered from the pool of available stalkers. They are all informed about the mission specifics and the route they need to travel - this is when the team can discuss and make adjustments to the plan.

Nikita: No, no, this route will be way too stressful for Olyechka. Perhaps, she should sit this one out? Olya: If we don't make this route shorter, Nikita won't come back, I'm afraid. Nikita: Well, aren't you a treat. Anyways, Serozha, my leg has been getting worse and I won't make this climb. Olya: Perhaps, you should sit this one out.

After the artefacts are delivered to the trader, their quality is evaluated. Stalkers tend to pick up whatever valuables they find on the way, which means extra cash for them and more work for the trader.

Once the evaluation is complete, stalkers are paid off and the products are resold at a significantly higher price. The artefacts that were specifically ordered are exchanged for the agreed upon amount of money and the extra stuff is peddled to other high-paying customers.

Since selling artefacts is a risky and complicated endeavour in itself, most stalkers are content with the paychecks they get from their trader.

Finally, when everything is done, stalkers may anonymously share information about their trip to the online community. But considering the competitive nature of the business, not everyone is willing to help out their fellow colleagues – or really, not everyone wants to talk about the things they’ve seen.

What is the online stalker community like?

As was already mentioned, the internet has majorly changed how stalkers went about receiving orders and information about the Zone. It has become an important channel for communication and securing deals.

Firstly, all of the relevant platforms are on the deep web. Secondly, all of them are invite-only.

The three major platforms are:

Doska (literally “the board” as in bulletin board)

A marketplace where orders are placed and taken up by anyone interested, as well as an auction platform for selling off artefacts. Widely used by groups and stalkers who have not yet gained established clients.

Krematorii (crematorium)

A closed forum. Discussions, rumours, shitposting.

10K Crematorium karma

14KKM (as in 14 thousand kilometers, the approximate area of the Zone)

A dynamically updated map of the Zone. User-managed, hence chaotic and unreliable.

Users can mark locations of witnessed anomalies and artefact positions, which others can confirm or downvote. A marking needs to be confirmed by at least 4 people before it is put down and is removed if at least 4 people downvote it. All markings can be commented on.

Most of the community tries to maintain it more or less accurately for the sake of their own future missions, but there are malefactors that will add false markers to it. Should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Of course, it bears mentioning that there are plenty of fake online communities on the surface web. Those are rife with people roleplaying as stalkers, scammers, kids, and just shitposters. No actual stalker uses those for business.

Rules regarding the Zone

Though the information side of things has changed a lot, the core methodology of travelling the Zone itself remained the same. Sets of universal rules became solidified over the years, which can be described as a mixture of operational protocols and esoteric beliefs.

What are the basic operational protocols?

Basic operational protocols outline best practices for dealing with simple anomalies, traversing the Zone, bypassing guard posts, and handling difficult situations (mercy kills, painless death, encountering other stalkers).

Some common recommendations include:

use projectiles (usually bolts with pieces of cloth attached for visibility) to check for gravitational anomalies;

operate in groups of three - two do the job, the third one watches on;

do not consume any food or drinks you find;

avoid unnatural shadows;

do not stay at the Hollow for over 20 minutes (your body will start to decay);

do not approach the Town (your body will permanently distort);

do not handle fizzy clay without rubber gloves (will leave you debilitated or addicted to the substance);

always send the draisine back;

don't photograph ghosts;

etc.

They are objective results of many years of trial and error. Going against them is likely to end in death or injury regardless of your personal qualities. In other words, there is little dispute over the validity of these rules. The same cannot be set for the second ruleset.

What are stalker beliefs?

The Zone favours the miserable. The desperate, the broken, the lonely. The Zone favours ones that are willing to give up their whole being to her, to completely entrust themselves to her whims. She rewards dejection.

These are common truths to some and hogwash to others. There is no solid proof for any of these claims - how can there be? However, there is no happy stalker, and there is no living stalker without a scar. To many, that's evidence enough.

On top of that, there are some group-specific philosophies. They include:

the Zone is a holy place that needs to be revered;

the Zone is an ulcer of the world that needs to be cleansed;

the Zone is the new stage of Earth’s evolution;

the Zone is divine punishment;

the Zone is a point of contact with a parallel universe;

and many others.

These philosophies dictate how people go about their activities in the Zone in a more ritualistic sense. It’s hard to devise whether or not those little rituals have any effect that isn’t purely psychological.

There is a good number of people that hold a purely cynical view of the Zone. But whether they admit it or not, everyone gradually develops a sense of fear and reverence for it. How they compartmentalise it is a different question.

Conclusion

I could write more about the topic, but as of now, I think this general outline should suffice. The stalker business is a multifaceted enterprise to say the least, so hopefully this article has shed the light on its most essential aspects.

Perhaps, there will one day be a more in-depth follow-up! Who knows. As we continue to unveil the enigmatic layers of the Zone, only time will reveal the full extent of its mysteries... And the engimatic layers of shitty Stalker forums, I guess.

#parties are for losers #loredump #deepest lore #sergei #olya #yura #nikita #sanya #myart #scraps #the mill

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scherzokinn · 17 days ago

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tolstoy fucking insulted rachmaninoff the first time he met him lmao

You're talking about jealousy? I'll tell you about jealousy. Rachmaninoff knew Tchaikovsky, Tolstoj, Prokof'ev, Stravinsky and Arenskij.

#basically he said that his music was worthless #he apologized later on but damn. imagine doing this to a fan of yours #+ his apology was just an excuse #anyways #besides tchaikovsky and arensky the others didn't really praise him for his art #at some point prokofiev made a very awkward a what seems to have been a compliment toward rachmaninoff's performance of scriabin #and rachmaninoff took it REALLY badly #and he answered passive-aggressively #which is totally uncharacteristic of him so you know he was 100% pissed off #stravinsky wasn't the biggest fan of his music but he did defend it and also said rachmaninoff himself was awesome #he did admit he was a little unfriendly to rachmaninoff because it was hard to connect w/ him #rachmaninoff #sergei rachmaninoff

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royalsunshinehotel · 1 year ago

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a weaker woman (Sergei Kravinoff x Reader, 18+)

A/N: First of a hopefully productive kinktober. Breeding/lactation kink I guess, reader is kind of a captive on purpose (beauty and the beast)

Since coming to know Sergei Kravinoff, you had been the happiest you’d ever been. As his sweetheart, his mate, you’d wanted for nothing, and that included all of him.

Of course, it wasn’t always like this.

Here you sat, comfortably in your shared bed, having fallen asleep waiting for Kraven to come home. You’d expected him in the late afternoon, and here you were, at 10pm, alone.

It wasn’t just that he was late, it was the ache, deep in your heart. The only kind of pain you felt whenever Sergei was away.

It was nothing that couldn’t be managed with time with your son, or time alone with your hands, but pain would still be pain.

The air in your bedroom felt too hot. Combined with the hormones from your latest pregnancy, you didn’t wear many clothes anymore.

He’s in the corner, staring at you while you doze, while he did prefer you comfortable, it did nothing to stop him from salivating at your exposed form.

If he had a thousand years, he could never articulate how flawlessly and appetizing you looked. Your hair had grown long, your belly round, your tits fat. You could barely get up from a chair without help, and by some stroke of good fortune, you were all his.

By good fortune, he meant his father, but not entirely all things for him.

You were here, calm, and about to become the mother of his second child, and he owed all of it to a shoddy revenge plot.

A scientist, hired to distract him, had somehow worked out wonderfully well. Your eldest, almost one year, was across the hall, and your second, a little girl, was due within the next month. Timing was truly everything.

While he did fancy himself a reasonable man, after your true motives had been revealed, he thought he’d keep you as his whore. He’d already gotten you pregnant, and he’d intended to take the baby away, to punish you. As if any of this was your fault.

And, despite the betrayal, despite the distraction he’d wrought on his won mansion, you’d wanted for nothing. In ‘captivity’, you’d given birth at home, in the company of the best medical team he could buy…for his son, he’d told himself.

Sergei wanted to laugh, standing in the dark. He really thought he could keep you as a toy, something to breed to keep away the boredom.

You smelled like heaven when he filled you with him.

From the first moment Kraven watched your wide eyes roll, and struggle to stay open while he stretched you around him, he knew he simply wouldn’t be able to give you up. Breeding his father’s spy hadn’t been an accident. He’d gone and fallen in love.

Unfortunately for you, you’d felt this way almost since the beginning. Sergei hadn’t believed you when you came clean about your connection to his father, and your pregnancy, so you had decided to wait it out.

Maybe, if you were lucky, he could mourn the person he thought you were, and realize reality and fiction weren’t that different.

“The payoff would be worth it,” is something you’d whisper to yourself whenever the doubt crept in.

Sergei and his temper, making grand threats he’d never be able to complete, while you stayed by his side. He’d never actually wanted someone before, and he’d never had someone stay.

Sergei loved you too, this is what made your time in ‘captivity’ bearable. He could call you his whore, as long as he kept coming back to you.

The feeling of having such an angelic, ferocious man wake you in the night, to warm his cock while he sucked on your breasts, would make a weaker woman’s head spin.

He could hurl as many insults as he liked, have a tantrum if he wanted, but you wouldn’t budge. Though you were technically a captive, you love him, and you won’t move.

The payoff would be worth it.

Sergei was right there with you the day your son was born, and from that day, you knew it was only a matter of time before he’d bred you again properly.

God knows he would try.

You’d agree to marry him in the days after, and he’d fuck you full of him. You wouldn’t be a “whore” or a “pet”, you’d be his wife.

Sergei would treat you as such, in most ways at least.

You’d both come so far in such a short amount of time…

Gently pulling a strand of hair from your cheek, he pulls you from your rest. Taking a moment to admire your body, he pulls the blanket down to reveal more softness.

“Sergei?” You question, reaching in the dark.

“Yes my love, I'm here.”

His weight bends the mattress, hanging over you. He keeps most of his weight off to not distress your condition. You hum happily at his warmth, and Sergei sees fit to trace his sharp nose around your nipple, with a sharp inhale.

From the day your son was born, the tantalizing scent of your milk had brought Kraven back from the edge. He had been addicted to you the whole damn time. Yet, he perfectly balanced it with love, just as someone should.

It’s a sweet gesture, somehow, shoving his face into your breasts. It’s sweet, and just like your pussy, he uses his teeth.

You moan, almost a plea, as your husband holds you.

A chaste kiss to your lips, and you squirm. You’re still half-asleep when Sergei traces large, warm hands down your belly, right to where you need attention.

Long fingers tease your entrance, and you move your hips as best you could into him.

It’s just been too hard without him, and damn near ridiculous.

He’s made you stupid. All those years of school, all that work, and you were about to give birth to your second child in two years.

You have a PhD for fuck’s sake.

Sergei loves that he’s made you stupid. He swirls his tongue around your areola kneading as he pleased.

Your milk had come in, with plenty to spare, and he was taking his fill freely, in the way he usually would.

His mouth, god you loved his mouth, but “Cock! I wan’ cock!” You struggle to get words out, but you’re smiling. He always makes sure you’re smiling.

It’s not that complicated. You just want to feel him deep inside you, scraping against parts you never knew about. You could make as many children as he wanted as long as he never left.

As long as he kept touching you like this.

Sergei pulls off your breast, earning a whimper, your wide eyes make his hair stand on end, and he has to ask, “I want more,” he growls, “Will you give them to me?”

“Yes”

A/N: I can’t lie, not as kinky and graphic as I had hoped, but this is heavily based on conversations with @false-girl-prophet about her OC, Grace. I guess we’ll see Daddy Kraven next August

#sergei kravinoff #kraven #kraven the hunter #kraven x reader #kraven x you #kraven smut #aaron taylor johnson #smut #kinktober #ugh

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anthropologistfromentropy · 7 months ago

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I wasn't planning to make Sergey Razumovsky a horsegirl in my historical AU fic, but I kinda like it lol.

He/she also gets compared to a wild horse in 2 chapters, and that's actually so real.

#cavalry became a big theme #Yusupov and Urusova are both descendants of Edigu and the Nogai horde #they have an actual cavalry charge #also Yusupov names themselves after Nadezhda Durova #and then from war to solarpunk!#they can do farm stuff with horses #and romantic dates riding peacefully together in nature #glad I finally have a thread connecting the two very different parts of the story #romantic dates for Yusupov and Razumovsky I mean #sergey razumovsky #felix yusupov

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fridayyy-13th · 4 months ago

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gonna be honest, feeling very conflicted about this episode, lads. i've been really hoping Protocol won't explain away the (NARRATIVELY IMPORTANT) mystery left at the end of Archives, i.e. Jon and Martin's fate, so seeing as they're the next thing Sam and Celia are gonna be investigating, this is kinda gonna be the thing that makes or breaks Protocol, for me.

i do think there's a solid chance Chester and Norris are the Jon and Martin from Protocol's universe, and that is something i absolutely would not mind. but i haven't actually made a post explaining why i think that, and i should probably do that before it's explained, just so i can mayyyybe say i called it.

(for the record, i'm pretty sure i came up with most of this before the series even officially dropped, when all we had was the ARG and the trailer. i haven't done much to connect this theory to the further information we've learned, so it's probably not fully accurate (if accurate at all). and quite a bit of it is kinda baseless conjecture; i'm just throwing my thoughts out there. just a little disclaimer.)

so!

in Archives, Jonah's primary motivation is fear of death. turning to the Eye is what allows him to body-hop as he does for 200 years, trying to create a world where his Patron reigns supreme, where he is seated upon its throne and cannot die. assuming his motivation is the same in Protocol, this new universe is (likely until recently) untouched by the Entities. if Jonah wanted to evade death, how could he do that without the help of an eldritch fear god?

easy—alchemy.

i'm not particularly knowledgeable about the subject as a whole, but i'm certainly familiar with the Philosopher's Stone (the symbol of which is also present in the OIAR's/podcast's logo, though it seems the OIAR is more focused on balance than on experimentation).

i also know that the seven metals used in alchemy (gold, silver, mercury, copper, lead, iron, and tin) are all components of computer chips. i've been thinking Jonah, or maybe his successors, saw that and began turning their research to how it could be utilized to extend—or preserve—life.

to cut to the chase, bc frankly it's hard trying to sound like i know what i'm talking about and this post would take forever to write otherwise, i think Jonah tried to Sergei Ushanka himself into a computer, because metal and plastic are a hell of a lot longer-lasting than a human being.

but he wouldn't shove his consciousness into some random motherboard without making sure it was safe, what do you take him for?? he is a man of academia. obviously he had to test it on others first, and then he'd do it himself.

cue the thought experiments the Institute ran on kids. the things the experiments quantify are empathy and obedience to authority, which to me screams that they were trying to find kids who were easy to manipulate into more dangerous experiments.

and who are two characters who were kids in the 90s, with circumstances that left them lonely, isolated, and who, even as adults, are desperate to please (whether a parent or a bad boss)? Jon and Martin.

i posit that Jon and Martin were both victims of these experiments, perhaps the first (and only) successful subjects, and Jonah uploaded his consciousness to the computer soon after. their records could have been stricken from the spreadsheet to hide that they'd even been part of the program, and given the Institute burned down soon after, and there were no survivors—it could have been assumed that they'd died in the fire. it isn't like they had the most doting guardians to worry over them.

...but Chester and Norris's voices are those of adult Jon and Martin.

best i can figure, Jonah's plan might have worked in the short term, but computers have had date/time hardware in them since the 80s, so they—and Augustus—are still aging. so they've been trapped in computer software since 1999, and now that Sam and Celia are digging into what happened, they're desperate to catch their attention and find a way out.

(and lastly, a fun little thought—given Jon and Martin were both born circa 1987, they would have been twelve in 1999. they didn't even get to be teenagers.)

#i could be way off base with this!! who knows. but i'm throwing it out there anyway Just In Case I'm Right #and if i am i will never shut up about it for the rest of forever. just so y'all know.#if this isn't what happens i do in fact already have notes for a fanfic lmao. childhood best friends anyone??#friday chats #the magnus protocol #tmagp spoilers #tmagp 22 #tmagp theory #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #jonah magnus #chester tmagp #norris tmagp #augustus tmagp

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cartoon-thembo · 1 year ago

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you're kinda right in that the specifics of what happened with your party are VASTLY different on what i had planned with mine, but that advice was truly SO so helpful!

CURSE OF STRAHD SPOILERS AS WELL

That part about him not being able to connect with others even when sporting a "kind, well-meaning noble" façade… it WOULD feel kind of coming out of left field if his personality was so different. And, to me, strahd isn't a great liar. If he's doing this to try to woo ireena "without any 'preconceptions'" like he will be in my game, he shouldn't be a completely different person, but instead try (and fail) to highlight traits that he knows Tatyana admired?? and THAT is what makes Vasili look suspiciously like Sergei???

Anyway thank you so much!! im gonna have fun planting little clues and giveaways hehe

how did ur party discover jackie daytona vasili von holtz? im a dm that wants it to be a cool reveal, but not impossible to deduce

CAUTION TO THOSE WHO NEED IT— this will contain spoilers, both explicit and vague.

In this, I’m explaining our Vasili’s whole thing and how it made us suspicious of him. It’s just a big ol’ dive into him and my thoughts as a player. I also just fucking love talking about our campaign so I ramble like hell. If you just wanna skim through the whole thing— which is totally fine— i did add a little tl;dr at the end thats a little more question-specific so you can just go there :~]

When the party was off for about a week with Ismark and Co., Vasili, as he claimed, walked through the fog and entered the town of Barovia. He was a charming man who decided to take it upon himself to help the town, which was falling into ruin from the werewolves that ran amok every night.

He also took it upon himself to, by some miracle, revive Kolyan. This, I think, was the second red flag. The first was the normal suspicion that comes with a random stranger who claims to have walked through the fog and was suddenly Kolyan’s right hand man after only a week.

I think everyone was also very quickly suspicious of Vasili because the party +Ismark had expected his house to be completely empty. It was definitely a shock to hear laughter coming from inside.

When the party did go inside they had quickly decided to do an arcana check on him and very conveniently rolled well. So, we understood that inside Vasili was a suppressed dark energy, along with a dull sunlight. Vasili also referred to the sun god with a different name.

I think at this point, or a little further in, we had been saying that Vasili was Strahd. The more we said it, the more it became a little bit of a joke to me? Obviously, I considered the fact that Vasili was Strahd and kept it in my head as a definite possibility, and even argued in favor of it a few times in private with the DM (they were doing a very good job pretending to not understand why I thought Vasili was Strahd honestly), but I had never fully convinced myself that Vasili was Strahd.

I think the main reason I was never fully convinced was… actually because Vasili was very reciprocal with my characters flirting, and even initiated it somewhat (…yes, they slept together, and my character woke up to Strahd above him telling him he was a broken man 💀).

But anyways, after that first night, when everyone regrouped back at Ismark’s house, Kolyan refused to let Ismark come with us to find Doru. Vasili quickly volunteered himself to go… half of the party didn’t like that, but decided to let him come anyways.

After a day of travel and an experience with Strahd himself stealing the symbol of ravenkind while one party member was on watch, my character realized that he was missing his special item from Ezra. Everyone was instantly suspicious of Vasili and had my character go search him in private. As my character was about to touch him, he said “touch me and I fucking kill you,” in a completely different accent. There’s a bit of back and forth, but my character promised that he won’t tell anyone in the party. That was when Vasili morphed back into Strahd.

And, again, I was still shocked even though we had been saying Vasili was Strahd the entire time! I think that was part of the fun of it, being suspicious of him and making jokes about it and such.

But the shock isn’t only that Vasili is Strahd, but also that Strahd made his alter ego look exactly like Sergei. It’s a big double whammy that really emphasizes Vasili’s character and the meaning behind him.

TL;DR bullet point list on what made us suspicious of Vasili, leading to his… honestly surprisingly quick reveal:

Vasili’s sudden appearance and seemingly quick relationship with Kolyan in the time we were gone

Directly because of that initial suspicion, the various (and conveniently high-rolled) checks we did on him basically told us that Vasili was hiding something, not necessarily that he was Strahd, but that he was working with him

Him referring to the sun god with a different name (i think; maybe not necessarily important but i think it definitely made some of us a little confused)

An important magical item that connected one of the characters to Ezra going missing around the time they re-entered Barovia. This one only really added suspicion on Vasili because we already were suspicious that he was, at the absolute least, working with Strahd (also due to some conveniently high rolls).

All in all, your players will always surprise you. What may have been a red flag for us may not necessarily be a red flag for them. I think we were a little lucky with getting information on Vasili because we were rolling fairly well during our interactions with him. And I will reiterate, even with everything that made me suspicious, I figured that Vasili worked closely with Strahd, not that he quite literally was Strahd. And even though I guessed that he wasn’t as good of a person as he tried making himself seem, he still was technically making an effort to help us in our travels, which i think was also important.

I can’t give you very specific advice or anything because I don’t know anything about your Strahd or how your players view him. All I can say is to defy their expectations enough to make them think he’s somewhat of an ally, but keep some hints of Strahd’s key traits so he’s not a completely different character. Maybe there’s a little something Strahd is known to like or dislike and Vasili is unable to hide it. Maybe, if Strahd has already met some of them, Strahd dislikes or likes one of the pc’s more than the others and Vasili subconsciously reflects that!

Final reflection: Vasili, to me, has an inherent disconnection from other people. Whether it’s due to entitlement or due to just a flat out lack of understanding how other people work, there’s a disconnection. That’s what links him to Strahd, because when you don’t truly understand other people, it gets hard to pretend to be someone else. Unless, maybe, the thing you’re pretending to be is something you’ve always wanted... I also find it a bit comical

Whatever you come up with, no matter how it turns out or how fast your players solve it, I’m sure it will end up being very fun :~)

#thinking if they find the tome or any pictures of sergei BEFORE they find out vasili is strahd maybe they connect the dots wrongly #and start to believe vasili is the reincarnation of sergei... would strahd be too proud to let them think that?#or would he take advantage of the situation somehow... UGH I HATE SPECULATING BC MY PLAYERS IGNORE SO MANY PLOT HOOKS (love em to bits tho)#curse of strahd #curse of strahd spoilers

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