“Mom, Dad, I’m home!” Tasha called out as she opened the wood and glass panelled door, stepping into the hallway of a house that appeared to be a time-capsule of the early 80s. “I bought friends” Tasha added as she gestured Vecna and Strahd though the threshold.. welcoming both inside.
“Oh! WONDERFUL!” a women’s voice called out “will they be staying for dinner?” the voice was friendly, and not at all what Strahd and Vecna as expected.
“Yeah, um…” Tasha looked Vecna up and down, it had been a long day and tired as she was at least this would be a safe place “is it okay if they sleep over?” she felt silly asking but this was all part of the script.
“Of course darling” the voice said, warm and comforting.
Tasha gestured to the others to follow as she lead them though the hall, opening a door and down the stairs into the basement “It will be safe down here” she said, the room furnised with a couch, table and old TV set with a early gaming systems, shelves of board games,books, and a chess board set up to one corner.
Vecna noticed a red box stacked on top, the words “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” printed on the spine.
“Oh yeah.. we used to play that a lot back in the day with Garry, Mordie and Bigsby… Bigsby never could keep his hands to himself…” she added with a frown. Pulling out blankets and cushions Tasha turned her head slightly to the side and then hearing the sound of someone coming down the stairs clicked her finger.. in a moment her appearance changed into a teenage girl, dressed in pyjamas and Vecna back to the goth kid he’d become at the High School of horrors.

“I brought you kids some popcorn” a male voice called out as a man walked down the stairs, like the people outside he looked human and was dressed in the same style, jeans, a jumper and loafers… large bulky glasses covered his eyes as he walked into the room, seeing them while also being totally chill.
“Thanks Dad” Tasha said automatically, taking the bowel and shaking her head as he asked if they had enough blankets, behind his back she rolled her eyes, classic teenager embarrassed by her overly eager parents.. but the question remained.. who where these people, and why was Tasha doing this?
“Okay okay, well Dinner is in 30…” Tasha’s father informed them before taking his leave.

The three of them took the time to argue, Strahd trying to reform found his skin was now burning on top of his inability to breath. So far their efforts to ‘ride out and scare people into submission’ had lead to them losing The Invisible Man?? Thing?? Person??, getting lost in the mists, Daniel wandering off and Strahd infected with the Aboleth’s disease.
“Hummm…” Tasha tapped her finger as she thought, pacing in the room as they tried to make a plan to solve the issue “this disease, it is no matter, let me rest and tomorrow I shall simply wish it away”.
The others too had not had a easy day of it, Even in mistform Strahd was still hurt from the Aboleth and Vecna agreed that taking some time to rest, regroup and plan was worth it – even if he couldn’t abide the strangeness of Tasha’s house.. the story of Tasha being adopted by Baba Yaga was no great secret.

So when the call came for Dinner Vecna found himself walking into a dining table set out with a full roast dinner, a plesent looking human with blond hair gesturing him to take the spare seat next to Tasha.
“Come… now don’t be shy” the women Tasha had called “Mom” said, smiling to him before turning to ‘The Dad’ who sat at the other end of the table smiling in a inane fashion as he tried to make friendly chit-chat with Vecna who of course had no interest in the food. He couldn’t even remember the last time he ate, but beside him Tasha was ravenous, having been the only one of the group to have any interest in the popcorn and filling her glass from a pitcher containing a dark brown potion that bubbled.

Vecna couldn’t identify what it was, but it fizzed and seemed to give Tasha a bit more energy as she totally ignored her parents to return to the earlier topic of conversation – what had happened when her spell had gone wrong.
The father was trying to ask Vecna how he was doing at school, Vecna had totally forgotten that he again appeared as a foolish child and getting fed up with the pantomime of a happy family stood up, taking out his dagger he moved himself to stand behind Tasha’s “Dad”. With a evil glimmer in his eye he casually drew the dagger across the man’s neck… blood pouring out as he slashed his throat open.

Tasha watched, eyes first wide in shock but then narrowing in anger at Vecna being so rude as to murder someone in the middle of dinner!
Stranger was that Tasha’s Parent’s didn’t respond at all to the sudden shift into violence, the father simply continuing his question unaware as Vecna stabbed him over and over again until he slumped forward onto the table.. blood spattering the white tablecloth and staining the chair and carpet underneath.

“Enough” Vecna said, dagger still drawn he strode over to the Mother, killing her in anger as the untamed murderous rage was unstated. Yet again the body slumped forward. Vecna unsatisfied, what was the point of killing people if they didn’t appear to suffer at all.

“Great thanks a lot Vecna! Now I’m going to have to spend ages fixing this mess” Tasha said as her mother’s body slumped to the ground. Sighing she took another sip of pepsi as she watched the blood spread from the remains of the body that she had called Dad. Her face stony she finished her dinner then left Vecna and Strahd to make themselves comfortable down below as night fell in Strangerville. For a moment she almost missed Daniel, for while he was a idiot at least he was a helpful idiot. Only then did she realise that Daniel had wandered off after the fight… still in town full of secrets she was sure he would be just fine.