Cast · House of Wachter

Stella Wachter

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The girl behind the moaning door. Victor Vallakovich broke her mind on purpose, and wrote it down. We are looking for someone who can mend it.

Catatonic, at Wachterhaus. Her mother is dead. We promised her brothers she'd be looked after.

Last seen: Vallaki
First met: Session 13
Last seen in: Session 13

What we owe, and what we are doing about it

A Cure for Stella and Lydia

Victor broke Stella's mind, and the Baroness only smiles. We told Stella's brothers we would look after her.

Stella Wachter has lain barely awake for three years. Victor's own book says why: he wiped her memory once by accident, was horrified, noticed nothing bad came of it, and kept going, "round and round and round until it eventually broke her". When their mother died in the square, Karl and Nikolai asked us what would happen to their sister. We said Ireena is her friend and we would look after her, while somebody muttered "When are we good at taking care of people?"

The Baroness, Lydia, failed Sirius's Zone of Truth without seeming to notice it, sang a hymn to the crowd in a voice like clockwork, and smiled at nothing with her husband's blood on her. Father Lucian has taken her into the burned church. He gave us the only lead we have for either of them: "there's an abbey near Krezk, which has someone of great priestly might who can do great healings of both the body and minds." Headmistress Claudia told us the same about the abbot, and added that he helps nobody. A lead, not a promise, on the road we were taking anyway.

Krezk since Session 14
Find Victor

The Baron's son. His own book says what he did to Stella, and he left by a door that only opens once.

Victor Vallakovich took half an hour out of Sirius, two days out of Fëanor ("a nice boy, boy height"), and, we think, something out of Izek, who cannot remember ever climbing the stairs to his attic: "Every time I go up there, things seem to change around." He skipped the festival, which nobody was allowed to skip. When we kicked in his door that afternoon, the room was empty apart from his book and a teleportation circle on the floor, still warm. Fëanor read it as single-use, damaged and untraceable. The book is his own account of breaking Stella Wachter, one memory wipe after another, "and that's how he learned how to be a good mind mage."

We have no idea where he went, and no trail to follow. Barovia does not let people out, so he is somewhere in it. Stella, and her brothers, deserve to see him answer for it.

since Session 14

Who: Lady Wachter's daughter, sister to Karl and Nikolai. The baby girl in her father's arms in the family portrait.
Where: Her room on the upper floor of Wachterhaus, behind the door we heard moaning.
Status: Alive, catatonic, and three years gone. Her mother is dead.
First seen: Session 13. We had heard about her since our first night in Vallaki.

Stella has been the quiet centre of Vallaki's war for three years. Her mother blamed the Baron's son for what happened to her and wanted his whole family dead for it. We found out, too late to matter to her mother, that she was right. Stella can't tell anyone what was done to her. Victor wrote it down for her.

What we heard

Her brothers told us first, on our first night in Vallaki. She had been betrothed to the Baron's son about three years before. "His son drove our sister mad. The Baron says it was a preexisting condition, a nervous break. We know what happened. Victor, he did stuff to her." She was at home, in her room. "She is not currently fit for public." They would have their revenge, they said, eventually, once they got themselves together.

Roger had heard the rumour: the daughter was betrothed to the Baron's son, and then she disappeared, with no funeral, and nobody has seen her in years. Her mother told us the rest at dinner. She had arranged the match herself, "to gain a foothold," and "that beast of a son broke my daughter in some way." It was "merely her mind." Her body was fine. Father Lucian had not been able to help. Lady Wachter offered us fifty gold for proof of what Victor did, and we planted the idea, as gently as we could, that we might come back one day and try to heal her.

The Baron's version: "I think the lady was trying to pass off damaged goods."

The moaning door

When we broke into Wachterhaus, one door on the upper floor had moaning behind it. Drew opened it. Ireena was inside, sitting with a young woman on the bed who was nearly insensate, murmuring words none of us got close enough to hear. Lady Wachter had asked Ireena to look after Stella while she looked after everyone else. Ireena thought the lady was a saint. Drew told her otherwise, and Ireena showed us where the bones were, but she would not leave Stella for long: "I can't leave Stella. She's infirm." Later a woman sat with her, knitting, quite unbothered, while we went out through the windows.

What was done to her

At the festival, from the fountain, Lady Wachter told the whole town: "A tyrant whose own son abused my daughter and has avoided any and all consequences of that crime."

The proof turned up after she was dead, in Victor's empty attic. His book says he found Stella annoying. He wiped her memory once by accident, and was horrified. Then he saw that nothing happened to him, and did it again on purpose, and again, experimenting on her mind and wiping it each time, round and round until it broke her. It was how he learned to be a good mind mage.

Two of us have had half an hour and two days taken by him. She has had three years.

What we promised

After the square, her brothers asked us two things. Did their mother have to die? We had no good answer. And: "What's gonna happen to Stella? What's gonna happen to our sister?" To that one we did have an answer. Ireena is her friend, and we will look after her.

The only lead for a cure is the abbot above Krezk, who is said to heal minds as well as bodies. Father Lucian thinks so too, and has taken the Baroness in with the same hope. See A Cure for Stella and Lydia.