Durst Manor
The Durst family was an upper class family in Barovia around the time Strahd came to town. However, Mr. Durst had a bit of a fling with the nanny that accidentally produced a bastard baby. Mrs. Durst became insanely jealous and vindictive, convinced that her growing age was the reason for her husband’s adultery. She began her own little cult to try and find the secret to immorality and youth, dragging her husband along with her. They would lure travelers off the street and newly hired servants to sacrifice them on the altar in the basement. However, nothing ever worked. Each time Mr. and Mrs. Durst would perform these sacrifices, they would lock their children in their room to protect them. This was an honest attempt to spare Rose and Thorne’s innocence. Only a few months after Walter was born, Mrs. Durst completely lost her patience. She murdered the nanny and took Walter to the basement and sacrificed him without Mr. Durst’s knowledge. Because of the atrocity of this act, she attracted the notice of some dark power that cursed the entire house. Mrs. Durst and some of the other cultists present at the time were finally granted their immortality... by being turned into ghouls and ghasts. Mr. Durst, upon seeing what his wife had done, was overcome with guilt and grief and hanged himself in the basement. With no adults left to remember them, Rose and Thorne starved to death in their room. However, this last sacrifice created more than just some undead in the basement. It also turned Walter into a horrible monster that the players faced in order to free the house of its curse.
