Pretense was loosely adapted from The Witcher comic book "The Glass House".

The group of players can be of a beginner level or more confirmed, this is not a problem. I just
advise to have at least within the group a socio-oriented character, and a combat-oriented
character.

Location: You can realize this scenario in the place you want, indeed the different places
addressed in this scenario are quite common (sea, forest, castle) to allow you to make a step in a
campaign, or to make a simple OS.

- The sea: a simple but meaningful place in this scenario. Possibility to add walnut players if
necessary.
- The forest: the place where the castle is hidden. You can add the monsters of your
choice. I decided on my side to leave the leshen present in the book. It is not meant to be
beaten.
- The castle: A magical place, which seems from the outside dilapidated, and abandoned,
but once you cross the threshold, you discover countless rooms, each more decorated
than the last. The walls are carpeted, paintings of great masters are there. And above all,
the tables are always full of victuals, and rare wines. (We can find a resemblance to the
castle of Nivellen). Martha has nevertheless taken up residence over time, she has chosen
a room, as well as a cellar where she stores the corpses of her deceased partners. She
wears the key around her neck. When Martha is not under her curse, she makes stained
glass windows for the castle, and continues to collect shells to assemble them with her
glass works. The stained glass windows also change themselves. In a room, a work can be
displayed, and if one leaves and returns, the stained glass window has changed. Overall,
these stained glass windows display Martha's life and thus give indications to the players.

Synopsis: The group meets an old man and sympathizes with him. After a few exchanges, the old
man says that he is here, to stay with his wife, Marta, and will point to a female figure in the
distance. He will then tell his story (see below). The old man will ask to be accompanied by the
group, to reach the nearest city, old age beginning to make him suffer too much to remain in the
countryside. During your journey in the forest, the group goes astray, approaches the territory of
a leshen, and will be narrowly saved by Marta. It will guide them by symbol, to an abandoned
castle. The building seems in a state of ruin by its external appearance, but inside, they are
sumptuous rooms, all more richly decorated than the others. Players will have to understand
what this place hides, as well as the strange bond between the old man and his wife Marta.

History:

- According to Jakob: The man will say that he stays here, forever to be with his late wife
Marta. Indeed, Jakob will explain the meeting with Marta; A young woman from his native
village, with whom he fell madly in love. He reportedly met her on the beach while she
was collecting shells. Marta is younger than Jakob, but she too seems sensitive to the
man's charm, and they decide to bond through the sacred bonds of marriage. Marta will
have offered Jakob for their wedding, a sword with a pommel entirely encrusted with
shells. They decide to celebrate their honeymoon with a trip. During this one, the couple
is attacked by monsters. Jakob will claim that they are vampires. They will take Marta, and
under Jakob's eyes, will "transform" her in turn. Jakob said he stayed at the scene of the
attack for days trying to catch a glimpse of his wife. He says he is convinced that there
remains a human part deep inside her, and that the love she had for him, will be enough
for her not to attack him, or even to become ordinary again. Jakob will then resolve to
 stay as long as he lives close to this place, because Marta shows herself to her husband
almost every day, without him being able to approach her. Aware of the danger that
Marta represents for the human species, Jakob will devote his days to warn all the
travelers, to avoid the place, and thus hope to preserve their lives, from the insatiable
thirst of his late wife. Jakob says today he is too old, to stay out constantly in all weathers,
his body and his strength are only they were and he is ready today to leave this place to
go finish his old days in the city. Jakob will specify with watery eyes, that he knows that if
he leaves this place, he will never see his wife again.
- According to Marta: The woman will not show herself to the players if they are in Jakob's
presence. Especially until the group reaches the castle. If the players manage to create
enough bond with her, she can in turn give the version of the couple she formed with
Jakob. Marta then introduces herself as a young and attractive young woman. From a
poor family, very early her parents thought of marrying her, with a man who would have
a better situation. The family announced that they proposed Marta in marriage in
exchange for land, or any other valuables. Jakob immediately introduced himself to the
family. He possessed a certain nest egg, and a good situation within the village, moreover,
he had been eyeing the teenager, since she began to be "trained". Despite Marta's pleas,
she was sold for a plot of land, and some animals to Jakob. He would have watched over
her jealously, leaving her no freedom, or any way out. The first months of their marriages
were sordid, Jakob locked his wife in their home, humiliated her, beat her, and abused
her daily. At first Martha defended herself, begged her husband, but, deaf to his tears,
Jakob, continued without showing signs of remorse. The young woman gradually lost
herself in a deep torpor which, neither the blows nor the assaults of her husband could
get her out. Jakob saw that his wife was wasting away, and allowed, on specific schedules,
that his wife could go for a walk on the beach and collect the shells, as she did, while they
were not husband and wife. Martha seized these moments of freedom, and although she
had thought several times of fleeing, she always returned at the appointed time to her
husband. Jakob expressed the wish that his sword pommel be decorated with the shells
that Martha collected on the seashore, and he ordered her to go and bring this request to
the new blacksmith, installed in the village for a few weeks. It was with this blacksmith
that Martha discovered what love was, what real love was. First they were looks,
exchanges, smiles, then the bodies came closer, and the blacksmith and Martha became
amants.es. Jakob suspected something, but Martha was very careful and scrupulously
respected her release schedules. Jakob felt that his order from the blacksmith was taking
longer than expected, but the blacksmith claimed that it was a one-time order, and that
he had never had such a request before, which explained the latency of his creation.
Doubt gripping him more than reason, Jakob decided to follow his wife, and discover the
clandestine couple consuming their love by the sea, close to the place where Martha took
pleasure in harvesting her shells. Enraged, Jakob rushed to the blacksmith, which he hit
hard. The man could not defend himself, taken by surprise, sounded, he was dragged to
the edge of the salt water, and Jakob maintained his face, until the last breath that
animated him, no longer produced any bubble under the sea surf. The water was red,
Jakob as mad, turned to his wife, grabbed her by the throat, cursed her for her infidelity,
and strangled her. When he thought he had finished his service, he wiped his hands full of
sand, and left there the two bodies, one floating like a wreck in the water, the other
shaken with violent spasms, tense in the sand. Jakob left his wife, thinking she would die
from her wounds, but she survived.
Main characters:

Jakob: The old man, his name is Jakob, is a man on the decline. His age is not easily identifiable,
and the fact that he has a wanderer appearance (long beard, rags, parchment skin), does not help.
He is affable, and gladly offers his meal to the group, exchanging with them, without being in the
least aggressive. Jakob seems totally omnibulated by his wife. He speaks of her by portraying a
gentle, loving woman with a special attraction to the sea. The man committed a crime against his
wife's lover, and attempted to murder her, leaving her as dead. At the time of his crime, he cursed
Martha (see "Curse"). While Jakob is in the castle, he will think that she resides in this place and
will try to find her to talk to her.

Marta: uses starlings, to make her presence known. A magnetic, almost vulgar beauty emerges
from her. She is a woman who looks young, but seems to be several decades old. She is extremely
made up and is dressed to put her body forward. She will try above all to seduce all the characters
in your group, quite to sleep with. All means are good for it to achieve its ends (use of drugs,
alcohol, ...). Marta can be reminiscent of a succubus (although she does not have the
physiognomy of these), and if necessary a witcher can specify that Marta is indeed a human, even
if she exudes an aura of magic. She is also not a magician, Marta is under a curse of her husband
Jakob. She doesn't know exactly what a curse is, she just knows that she is related to Jakob, a
second time, against his will.

The Curse: While Jakob strangled his wife, he cursed her, for her infidelity, and wished her that
her body could never find rest, as long as she could submit to the desires of men, she would have
to give herself, again and again, finding no pleasure in these acts. Nevertheless, by uttering this
curse, Jakob definitively binds himself to his wife, he could not go anywhere but close to her.

Martha healed faster than she would have thought, and quickly understood what her husband
had said to her. Martha found herself, roaming the moor, looking impulsively for a man with
whom to share her diaper. With time Martha also understood that she had stopped aging, and
that the years flowed on her, without that causing her wrinkles, and other pains. Martha, already
damaged by the trials of marriage to Jakob, as well as the death of her only love, became devoid
of pity, or compassion. No matter the age, social class, physique, intellect, Martha beat the
countryside in search of a sexual partner. She observed that her husband, far from fleeing the
place of his crimes, remained on his land. She also quickly understood that the man had sunk into
latent madness. Jakob imagined a life as a couple, far from the misdeeds he had committed (see
"story according to Jakob"), he ended up being driven out of the village, suspected of having killed
his wife and the blacksmith, a death sentence common on him in his native region. Jakob will
wander like a troubled soul, having lost everything. Martha will follow him taking a dark pleasure
in the decadence of her husband. She will get caught up in her game, that she too would be a
vampire, and that her thirst for fresh blood was always taking her further ashore. Jakob warned
unlucky travelers, to deviate their paths and avoid the dreadful vampire that was Martha. She
even went sometimes, until she approached without noise the camp where Jakob rested, and
where other travelers also slept, and acting her curse, set her sights on the men. Martha then
exercised herself so well, that she woke Jakob, and that the latter, tenacious by the same
jealousy, came to massacre the poor people who had fallen under the spell of his wife.
Nevertheless, over time, this game tired her, because Jakob clung to the story he had imagined.
Martha decided to establish her quarters in a strange castle deep in a forest. Something had
attracted her to this place, she did not explain the magical phenomena that reigned there, but she
felt safe there. This also allowed him to attract more and more men, venturing on the paths and
taking advantage of the castle grounds to rest. Martha, ever more eager for sex, also became a
being of anger and suffering, each report reminding her of the words spoken by her husband, as
well as the rapes she had suffered. During yet another mating, she exploded with rage and killed
her partner, which gave her a sweet feeling of satisfaction, thinking thus to quench the rage and
pain that Jakob had done to her. She became intoxicated by her crimes, and even decided to
choose a cellar in the castle and deposit the bodies of all those men who had succumbed to her
charm. The bodies of the victims may simply be stored, dead, or still half-alive, begging for death.

Possible scenario resolutions:

- Martha will offer players unimaginable riches to kill Jakob and free her from her curse.
- Jakob will ask the players to let him end his old age in the castle with his beloved wife. To
thank them, he will offer them a deal (which will actually be a bluff, because the man has
lost everything in his decline), to each player (land, works, weapons, armor, ...)
- Lift Martha's curse, without killing Jakob.