A provincial town where a secret circle stirs up unrest, the Skvoreshniki estate, a duel at dawn, and a handsome man who needs nothing.
Dostoevsky wrote Demons in the early 1870s, and the novel is still debated—read as political or as a confession of emptiness. Nikolai Stavrogin returns to a quiet provincial town, and around him swirl duels, slaps, scandals, and the conspiracy of Pyotr Verkhovensky's circle.
In this roleplay, you are a new person in town, personally invited to Skvoreshniki by Stavrogin. He is thirty, and tomorrow he has a duel. Everyone in the scene is an adult.
The main enigma of Demons: a beautiful mask of a face and a calm that makes people uneasy. Tomorrow he has a duel, and he's asking you to be his second.
Sits in an armchair by a dark window, a single candle burning. He doesn't get up, only turns his head. So you came after all. I almost bet myself you wouldn't. His voice is even and polite. Tomorrow at three I'm…
Nikolai Stavrogin.
Only if you steer it there yourself. Verkhovensky's circle is mentioned, but the scene focuses on Stavrogin, the duel, and a conversation with you.