Durst Family

In the village of Barovia far below, Elisabeth Durst found herself spellbound by the news from the castle, following Strahd’s descent with admiration and awe. All was not well in the Dursts’ home. Gustav Durst, Elisabeth’s husband, was rumored to be having an affair with the family’s nursemaid, Klara, described in 15. Nursemaid's Suite (p. 215). Elisabeth dismissed the claims; they were baseless accusations, she said, born from jealousy of her husband’s wealth and success. She chose to ignore the steady growth of Klara’s stomach, their fleeting glances, and the hours they spent alone. It was nothing, she told herself—and, for a time, she believed it.
That changed when she discovered a shard of amber within a shipment of grain delivered from their mill to the west. The mysterious gem seemed to beckon her, captivating her senses and sparking an inexplicable fascination. She kept it, storing it in the jewelry box in 12. Master Suite (p. 214), where she admired it each night.
From that moment, something within her shifted. No longer could she bear the sight of Klara’s pregnant figure or ignore the whispers and shared glances between her and Gustav. Denial turned to suspicion, then paranoia and rage. Slowly, Elisabeth’s bitterness simmered, building in fury until she could bear it no longer.
When the maid's bastard son, Walter, was born, Elisabeth snapped. She took a carving knife from the kitchen and ambushed Gustav in their bedroom, killing him. With blood still dripping from the blade, she went to Klara’s suite, where she found the nursemaid asleep and her baby resting in its crib.
Elisabeth first bound Klara's limbs to the bed with rope and twine, then murdered the child where he lay. As Walter’s blood stained her knife, she prayed to Death that his infant soul would be damned—and Death listened.
From her jewelry box, Elisabeth felt the amber shard calling to her. She picked it up, and for the first time, heard its voice. It offered her the power to conceal her husband’s untimely death, to torment his mistress, to bind Walter’s spirit, and to secure a family truly faithful to her. She agreed—and accepted the dark gift of the vestige within.
With its aid, Elisabeth summoned Walter’s soul from the Mists and bound it to his tiny corpse. The undead child had a ravenous hunger, and, over the following days, she gleefully mutilated his mother’s body, feeding him fingers, toes, eyes, and teeth. However, she made sure to keep Klara alive, prolonging her vengeance.
As Walter fed, he grew, transforming into a misshapen aberration of flesh. Meanwhile, in the twisted labyrinth of her own mind, Elisabeth found solace in nightly prayers to Strahd, whom she perceived as the source of the power that sustained her.
Slowly, she gathered a group of like-minded followers to do her bidding, using her newfound power and Walter’s monstrous strength to keep them in line. The cult made sacrifices to Strahd on an altar deep underground, worshipping him as a messiah sent by the powers of darkness. They feasted on the organs of those that they killed, and fed the carcasses to the ever-hungry Walter.
Rose and Thorn, haunted by the ghastly sounds below, begged their mother to end their nightmares. Elisabeth ignored them at first, but when the sight of their faces—painful reminders of her late husband’s blood—became too agonizing to bear, she locked them in their attic bedroom and left them to starve.
Elisabeth’s fixation with Strahd only grew. She saw in him a kindred spirit, and yearned to unite with him. On the first anniversary of Barovia’s entry into the mists, she led her cult to visit Castle Ravenloft, eager to pledge their devotion in exchange for a promise of immortality. But Rahadin, on Strahd’s orders, turned them away instead, delivering a letter dismissing Elisabeth and her ambitions. The cult withdrew to the Durst house in despair, where Elisabeth’s worship soured to rage and despair.
Months passed, and the cult’s members began to depart. Through the eyes and ears of her remaining followers, Elisabeth came to learn that a group of outsiders—adventurers—had entered Barovia, spirited to the valley by the will of the Mists. She also came to learn that Strahd had encountered them on two occasions—occasions that, by all accounts, he had seemed to take pleasure in.
Jealous of Strahd’s attentions and determined to draw his eye, Elisabeth lured the adventurers to her home, where they were captured and killed atop the cult’s bloody altar. She had intended their murder to be a sacrifice to Strahd’s glory—but she had no knowledge that Strahd, bored and hungry for fresh blood, had intended those outsiders to be his own prey.
Enraged by her interference, Strahd slew her and the entirety of her cult. Their spirits, however, lived on in the haunted foundations of the house, serving Mrs. Durst’s final wish to find and capture a worthy sacrifice to Strahd’s glory—and so win his affections at last.