am writing a extensive Ravenloft Campaign, and since you all know quite alot
about Ravenloft I was hoping u could send me some ideas on where to go and how
to run. Thanks! Aleisian@...
hat good is this club if no one ever posts anything?....I am just as bad but I
have noticed that alot of people have logged in and have posted nothing at all
that could be helpful to anyone
reetings from the Fraternity of
Shadows.<br><br>We would like to invite you to attend the very first
Fraternity of Shadows Fan Fic Contest, located at
<a href=http://www.geocities.com/area51/lair/2394/tod/contest.html.
target=new>http://www.geocities.com/area51/lair/2394/tod/contest.html.</a> All
you have to do is write up some kind of AD&D
supplement, preferably set in Ravenloft and preferable a fan
fic, and send it to me at raistlin86@.... This
can include fan fics, adventures, NPCs, character
classes, and so forth. The guidelines, prizes being given
out, and rules can be found at the address above. The
deadline for the contest is January 31, 1999, so get your
submissions in today.
That was a long time ago." he sighed as a faint
smile cracked on his lips as he looked back on how
proud he was to have the answers, It was on his advice
that they sought out other "independent" dead, and
living that with whom the thought of sharing a town with
the dead was not much of a problem. The town did
prosper and after the first two or three gerations of the
living finally were laid to rest then things calmed
down. The sage was always treated with some respect and
had even spent time on a panel where the living and
dead handled the law. <br> As those fleeting memories
passed he came to the most distrubing one, This one left
alot of questions and gave no real answers. It all had
to deal with the book that he had just closed. That
book was delivered just a week ago by a person that
was more shadows and mist than flesh or bone. The
book was a history of a secretive group, the cover had
only three words and an symbol of some sort. The
symbol matched the ring he had wore ever since the day
he woke on those steps. The words were "History of
Kargat". <br> Now that book lay closed on his desk, and
the sage Lynn snuffed the candle by which he had
read. If only he could make sence of the book but for
some reason the meaning of the words escaped him
whenever he tried to grasp them. "Maybe I will remember
more tomarrow." he moaned as he returned to his seat
staring at the dark with two small pen points of light
reflecting back from his mirror on the wall...
lt;Note this story is set in a time well ahead
of the present ravenloft and is partially based on
the events in my gaming group and the Grim harvest
modules by TSR>> <br> The sage of
SkullHaven,<br><br> The sage closed the book he was reading trying to
grasp the meaning of the words he had read. His little
house was filled with many books he collected or had
payed the living in the town for. "What happened all
those years ago?" he mummered. As images from waking
dreams Fluttered though his rotting head, the Images of
a Strange fire and shattering glass, of glowing
skulls, and a warrior with an Axe. Those images were all
he Remembered from the time he woke at the foot of
the library in A town of the Dead. <br> He sat back
in his chair and tried to remember all that he
could, but it was to no avail his life or should we say
unlife began on the Steps of a Library. He knew that he
was at one time a learned man maybe a Scholar or a
Sage of some sort. He recognized the fact that walking
dead all around the town was not the way things were
suppose to be, but how were how they were. Skeletons were
not suppose to show any interest in their
surroundings in fact were suppose to have no minds or will of
their own. This fact disturbed him deeply when he saw
one sweeping a porch, and three smaller ones playing
with a ball as if nothing was wrong. Those were his
first memories those and the cryptic images that
plagued him when ever he stopped thinking. <br> As he
reflected more he remembered his first action after rising
off the ground was entering the library, "Why is this
place so familiar?" he thought at the time. Upon
entering the library he proceeded to read all the books he
could get his hands on. They told him nothing of who he
was, only that he was in a city called Il Aluk, in a
country ruled by a king who practiced magics of some
sort. The referances to this king were vague but all
spoke of the king being a just and fair man. He felt
familiar with the stories as if some how in the back of
his mind he Knew that king personally.<br> He spent
the next few seasons in that library w/o any
disturbance until one day some one came in. It was a being
that must have once resembled a very muscular man and
was nothing more than lose skin on a solid frame of
bones. This man asked one question "Does anything seem
wrong?". To which sage replied at that time "Nope not a
thing unless you count everyone being Dead, can you
tell me what happened?". The man Never did give him an
answer, instead babbled something about the sage being in
grave danger if he were to stay in Il Aluk, that it
would be better if he went with this man and some
others the next day out of the town. <br> The Sage
placed his contorted hands together and closed them as
he forced his mind to remember more. He remembered
the day they left the town, the mob of the dead that
followed for three days and then left them alone. They
traveled to the south and the east, the only thing the
sage could remember of the flight was that something
important to him was off to the west somewhere but what he
couldn't remember. <br> The next thing he recalled was the
night in the barn how they held a meeting of all who
fled, it was there he learned everyones names everyone
but his own. When they asked him what his name was
before Il Aluk the only thing he could recall was Lynn.
They accepted that as his name even though he knew for
some reason it was not correct. The group of dead in
that barn came up with the crazy Ideal to buy land
from the farmer and start a town, funny now that he
looked back on it, that was one of the best things that
happened in his existence so far. The group of dead turned
to him for advice, their questioned were so easily
answered from the supposly useless knowledge he had
gathered from the books in the Library of Il Aluk.
was wondering if perhaps you chaps would like
to post Necromancy spells here for all the other
members to see....if you would happen to want me to post
them on my site then say so.....full recognition would
be given of course.
just thought I would say hi to the other
members of the group....I found this "Group" on The
Kargatane website....I am sure I will find useful
information to use here and post some of my own as well
guess I'll break the ice by explaining a brief
description of one of my Darklord creations. I'll spare you
the long history though...<br><br>Harkolt is a
Necromancer, Human, and also an infected Werebat. His right
hand was severed in the past for his crimes of
Unnatural Raising of Dead, Desecration of graveyards, etc.
It is replaced with an oversized claw, a sickly
green color, with bulging blue veins crisscrossing
below the rigid skin. His dead, and very much so
insane, wife's soul is essentially entrapped inside the
Claw, and he is constantly hearing her anguished
screams and mad laughter inside his head. The Claw
occasionally can disentach itself from Harkolt's arm, and is
statisized as a beefed up Crawling Claw. The Claw then
proceeds to generally screw up any of Harkolt's current
plans for domination and expansion throughout his
domain. eg, it might murder his henchmen or unwitting
cronies, steal valuable magic items, leave a note on the
sheriffs desk with cryptic clues about Harkolt's plots,
etc. When the Claw is disentached, Harkolt is actually
quite pleased, he doesn't realize that the troubles
being caused for him are done by the claw; and when it
is disentached, he no longer hears the screams and
cries of anguish throughout his head. Unfortunately,
during this time he can't cast his formidable array of
Necromantic spells, having only one hand! Usually, the Claw
returns to him the same night it leaves, so when he wakes
up he often doesn't even realize it was ever gone,
then of course he hears the bad news of how his secret
warehouse was torched last night!!<br><br>Harkolt holds a
commanding level of authority over most of his domain,
Rooksombre, and is constantly attempting to expand his empire
of undead. He hates all Lycanthrope, except
Werebats, whom he feels akin to due to his own
affliction.<br><br>Currently, his engrossed in a silent, ambigous war against
an experiment gone out of control by a cult seeking
immortallity. The cult, in an attempt to become Vampires,
instead became the first of a blood drinking race based
on the WERESTIRGE (Terror from Above). They have a
stronghold in numerous hamlets along the Eternity Bog, and
have beaten off the recent attempts of Harkolt to
drive them off; of course, Harkolt already had a strike
against him once the Claw sabotaged his first to ambush
attempts.<br><br>Oh yes, the borders of Rooksombre can be closed by
Harkolt if he spends a full hour in ceremony. Anyone
crossing the borders will share with him the full extent
of his dead wife's mad ravings, screams, and cries,
which cause a Fear and Horror Checks to prevent the
victims from fleeing back away. Strangely enough, any
undead hearing this cry are attracted and appear
somewhat pleased.<br><br>So that's the very basic rundown
of my Darklord. Feel free to pick, poke, and prod it
all you want.
hile I agree that the Kargat would likely try to
take political control of the domain, why would they
even bother with the (so called) "Demi Lords" of
Darkon? If I recall correctly, none of these Demi Lords
have any intrest in controling the land. One was the
head of a band of theives, one was a (undead) ships
captain, and another likes to pretend to be a kindly old
woman! In any case none of them seem to be the kind who
would care who the current ruler was; with the possible
exception of the vassilich who was Azalin's former student
(his name escapes me at the moment). Even this "Demi
Lord," however, thinks that Azalin will return, and
would likely not oppose the Kargat.
ntil the Grim Harvest... I'd have said Darkon
simply because of the overall power of the lord and his
border closing powers especially.<br><br>Come on, a full
army of undead ?<br><br>With Requiem comes the
disappearance of Azalin<br>which does weaken the land since no
longer is<br>there a strong central power which manages
to<br>put everyone in his/her place.<br><br>Imagine China
without a powerful central govern-<br>ment... it would
collapse into chaos in a day.<br>It's hard to maintain a
large piece of land and<br>a widely spread population
without heavy handed political tactics.<br><br>Stalin was
fond of trying to create perfect <br>heirs to his
power for example (though he might<br>have succeeded
too well with some). But that's<br>what Azalin didn't
need to do... he has magic<br>and the Dark powers to
make everyone in the land<br>bow down one way or
another and thus wasn't <br>afraid of being overthrown by
having the central<br>power too far removed
geographically from the<br>other corners of his domain. And
besides, the Kargat would be more than enough to
install<br>peace if anything were to happen.<br><br>From inner
affairs to foreign policies Darkon <br>was truly the king
of the hill... however, with <br>the new inept
rulers... one can only wonder what<br>can happen to the
land. It would seem it still<br>has some remaining
memory of it's former lord<br>and still reacts as it
used to... the dead still<br>rise to defend it for
example.<br><br>Thus I would bet that the new lords would take <br>it
easy and might go into making petty demands<br>from
neighboring domains even if it suits
their<br>personnalities... umm but then again, I doubt<br>anyone has much of
an idea on what to do with<br>those losers so...
^_^<br><br>In the end... Darkon is now boring... I
wouldn't<br>be surprised to see revolts from former Kargat
members who might try to push out these new <br>quasi
lords. If anyone can bring back the days<br>of Azalin's
reign it's the Kargat... they were<br>much more
organized and better equipped to deal<br>with ruling. I'm
sure some vampire general can<br>gain rulership by
default... perhaps the former Kargat members turned rulers
would have a truce based on mutual interests... who
knows...<br><br>All I know is that the quasi lords must go
^_^<br><br>So Darkon is still powerful defense wise, but
<br>weak politically...<br><br>With this in mind I'd say
that although Démentlieu is ruled by a smart
politician and probably a man<br>of great tactical ability
when it comes to games of power, the whole demiplane
is made so that such <br>rulers cannot gain more
influence. But pitting one<br>enemy against the other is the
type of thing the DP's would probably
allow...<br><br>But this again depends on your views of the DP's
interference... But Dementlieu is still weak military wise
compared to the southern core...<br><br>The southern core
isn't gifted with the best politicians and more gifted
rulers, instead it has powerful ones on an actual
physical/magical level.<br>Harkon is the exception... which is why
I mentionned him in the first place...<br><br>But I
would say that Hazlan is one of the most powerful
places due to one simple fact : magic. The only place in
the core where magic is actually seen in a very
positive light (as long as you're a red mage). Imagine
what a small contingency of mages could do to a
Falkovnian army... Plus they can actually fight many of the
supernatural creatures one might find in many southern
domains... Thus, on the level of offensive threat Hazlan
gets my vote. But only until Azalin comes back...
can see Dominic working towards expanding his
realm. He is a Politician at heart. I imagine him to be
making trade agreements, allies and enemies to expand
his base of power. Hmmm wonder who plays the part of
the USA the mightiest land in the Demiplane of
Dread????
agree with Asplagis totally in saying that
Azalin really takes little intrest in the day to day
affairs of his domain, and even less in diplomacy (unless
one of his underlings is getting out of
hand).<br><br>However, the said underlings might take an intrest in
forming alliances with nearby domains. Perhaps even
against Azalin. One might also take in to concideration
the recent.. eh.. diposing of Azalin as ruler (if
"Requim" has been run), most of his 'underlings' now have
a bit more power to throw around, unless 'Death' is
somehow taken over for Azalin in controling the
Government. (Although, I cannot envison *how* he would do
that.)<br><br>Very little has been written on this political
underlings to my knowledge (the demi-lords of Necropolis, or
whatever they're called, are hardly political), and so you
have free reign to do whatever you want with them.
ell first off to the Duke, I believe the iron
fist in velvet glove was from the red box.<br><br>Now
then, Azalin's rule is not one of a man who enjoys
ruling all that much. The man basically holds power
because he was given it, he has much greater and lofty
goals and rulership is but a means to an
end.<br><br>His diplomacy would be probably handled by high
ranking officials rather than himself, but I would
suspect that the "don't bother us we won't bother you"
philosophy would apply.<br><br>Azalin has no formal need of
more land or people,<br>nor does he have that
expansionnist spirit of one Vlad Drakov.<br><br>I'd be willing
to say that Lamordia and the other core lands would
get along just fine with Darkon<br>unless they side
with Strahd and Drakov... The game of political
alliances would be intriguing indeed and I wouldn't be
surprised if Harkon Lukas wouldn't try to make the
relationships between domains part of some greater schemes
against one Strahd Von Zarovich... who "welcomed" him
into the land of the mists in his own way...
ahem...<br><br>I could easily see Dominic D'Honnaire and Harkon
Lukas working together in trying to augment each
other's power through political manipulations...
his makes me think about what his diplomatic
relations would be like. We have Lamordia and Falkovnia
close by. Essentially there would be no political
congress with Falknovia, but Lamordia would seem to be a
good neighbor.
can't remember where, but I know I read once
that Azalin's rule was described as "the iron hand in
the velvet glove."<br><br>His laws are harsh, but not
unjust. His evil stems more from his personal goals, and
his willingness to destroy anything to obtain them.
He has even compromised his own laws to do so,
although he'd never admit it!
wonder just how harsh a ruler he is. In I
Strahd: The War Against Azalin, Darkon doesnt seem that
harsh. He isnt much of a bigot, there are elves and
halflings running about. The Kargat seem to be embedded in
the military or so secretive that people dont
necessarily believe they exist.<br><br>I think if there was a
choice, living under Azalin would be much preferable than
living under Strahd.
k, well first of many repressive rulers have
been <br>around and a good number maintained their
power for some time... of course, eventually unless oyu
please the people you won't stay in power for long...
Problem is, in real life the Dark powers don't exist, but
in RL...<br><br>So again, if the dark powers feel
like letting one of their playthings keep his/her
power, then it shall be so wether the people like it or
not. It isn't very hard to force people into
acceptance<br>considering the huge ammount of power that Azalin and Strahd
and their ilk possess. Come now, who could go inside
Castle Ravenloft and behead Strahd ? What about Azalin
?<br><br>Although it's interesting to think about revolution, you
have to understand that when it comes to the actually
powerful core lords (Strahd, Hazlik, Azalin and Soth...
others are fairly weak in comparison) it becomes
terribly hard to have a succesful "storming of the
castle".<br><br>But again, in what ways is Azalin oppressive ? I
never read the Azalin novels, so couldn't know of his
rule, but from official products, his rule is fairly
typical of a king... which means as long as people have
enough to eat they won't complain and if they do... well
in Azalin's case, what are you going to do against a
powerful wizard king ? Can't flee the domain, and when you
think about it, life <br>there can't be all bad... at
least it's better than becoming a zombie... Same with
Strahd and Soth and such... while in real life any of
these tyrants could have been dethroned easily and
swiftly, in RL it's not quite as easy... and I haven't
even brushed what the DPs can do...<br><br>As for
expecting them to be "evil", well I would have a hard time
seeing one saying he/she is "evil", maybe acknowledge
that his/her behavior does not conform to the social
norms established<br>but evil would be judged according
to that person's view of this silly concept thus I
have a hard time believeing a ruler would believe
him/herself to be evil. And this is especially true when one
takes a long look at how power is maintained once it is
obtained... people won't follow someone they feel is "evil"
or doing things wrong, if they are forced to and
can't revolt, they'll be pushed into accepting the new
norms, self preservation winning in the end ("better be
alive and serving this guy, than being
dead...").<br><br>And I have yet to quite understand what the problem
was with lords being undeads and such...<br>I mean,
how is one supposed to know that a lord is undead,
heck, even that one is a lord to begin with ? It's not
written on their foreheads ^_^<br>(though in some cases
it just as well may be branded on...).<br><br>The
southern core to me has a different feel than the northern
one. It ressembles the old way, where "evil is evil"
(as in evil is a very thoroughly defined concept of
what is unacceptable and this being which is evil must
be unable of doing "good" and is always "evil", and
don't even think of adding "grey" areas...). The north
western core is a place where everything is more modern
and we find ourselves transported slowly into ethical
questioning (is acting for your own goals without a care of
what happens to others evil or chaotic ?).<br><br>I
would believe that this is a result of a desire to
provide diversity, since not everyone wants to play quite
the same way and such. I personnaly prefer a very
ethical game, where evil is something people define as
absolute, but doesn't exist as an absolute outside of their
own minds...<br>which does make the NW core a very
fun place for me, but the southern one does lose part
of it's original sense in the trade.
ome of their nature seems over the top. It takes
a lot of mystery out of the game. I would think
that in Azalin's case, he would rely more and more on
a bureaucracy to handle politics, and concentrate
on his personal problems more.<br><br>I can see
though that Strahd probably would send out a patrol to
hunt down "the vampire" -- and in doing so, terminate
any followers that have been irritating him.<br><br>I
would like to see more intelligence, especially as it
relates to the changes that occur over time in Ravenloft.
ersonally, I think that alot of the darklords,
especially in the Core, are way overbalanced. I mean,
they're all either undead or lycanthropes or crazed
magicians!! Undead creatures are, more or less, obviously
evil. However, a human or demi-human can pass himself
off as a good guy and a friend to animals and all
that. When his true evil nature is revealed, the true
horror of the situation is revealed. <br><br>On another
point, some of the darklords rule their domains like
they're full of blabbering idiots, and to a certain
extent, they're right. Take the late, great King Azalin.
Even though not very many people, if any, know of his
true nature as one of the most powerful liches of all
time, he is still protrayed as an oppressive evil
sorcerer. And usually, oppressive evil sorcerers are the
subjects of witch-hunts and such. <br><br>A bigger example
of this is Count Strahd. He's even more vulnerable
than Azalin. As pointed out by Jander Sunstar in
Vampire of the Mists, "One farmer with a planting stick
is all it will take, Strahd." I mean, come on!!! The
Barovians are, in my opinion, afraid of nothing more than
the boogeyman. After all the "unexplained" deaths
that have occured in Barovia over the centuries, you
would think that someone would talk to the Lord of the
Land about sending some patrols out to hunt down the
"killers". If that didn't solve anything, (or the suggester
turned up with his head on a pike.) there would probably
be more than a few people convinced that Count
Strahd would be behind them. <br><br>Anyway, that's all
I have to say. If you wish to visit my Ravenloft
homepage, please go to
<a href=http://www.geocities.com/area51/lair/2394/frames.html.
target=new>http://www.geocities.com/area51/lair/2394/frames.html.</a><br><br>Dar\
kness falls, and Darkness rises again.<br>The
Fraternity of Shadows
think the revolution or at least a rebellion or
two is appropriate. Has anyone used this in
Falknovia? Has anyone used Gondegal for this?<br><br>I find
it interesting in that Vlad was never a true king,
but has been able to keep Falknovia in irons, yet
Gondegal, who was, for a short time, a king, is stuck being
the rebel.
mm well the thing about Vlad is that first of
all<br>who are his peers ? Drakov sought to be seen as a
king, but was perceived as a petty mercenary with a lot
of troops and power. Now the only actual "kings" or
even noblish lords would be Azalin, Kharkov and
Strahd, the rest being more "secret" rulers who do not
impose their rule openly.<br><br>So what would Drakov
think of all this ? Well, the three lords would be the
only "peers" he has, and even so... I would question
how much he would care about Vallachan.<br><br>So,
obviously he'll never get respect from Azalin,<br>and same
deal with Strahd. And Lynn is right, he might start to
lose face in front of his inferiors and troops. He
builds up an aura of fear and a mystique which allows
him to rule. After all, why else would people allow
him to keep the power ? Revolutionnaries would be
everywhere...<br>perhaps the Vampyres would have some fun during this
little temporary chaos... filling their dungeons with
future food sources. How does Vlad overcome this
?<br><br>Well KHV says that it is the land rather than the lord
which rules, that it is the ideology which is
important... interesting point. But not everyone is made out
to be a good dictator... not everyone has the will
to hold the reigns of power so tightly and at the
price of so many lives.<br><br>Thus the DPs want Vlad
to continue his existence,<br>not let such a good
lord go away by some quirk of life which is aging.
Undead ? Possibilty, but it is as KHV said, that much of
the "human" element is lost in this thesis. What
makes dictatorship (like capitalism and Stalin
communism) so disgusting on a human level is the fact that a
human does this to a human. The human has no need to do
this, but he chose to do it anyways. Power<br>is so
important to humans that we are willing to step over anyone
for it. Undeads have little choice in their course of
actions, therefor making them boring (unless, like me, you
allow everyone and everything free will in it's course
of actions and beliefs with no need for improbable
and ethnocentrical "good"/"evil"
terminology).<br><br>Thus Vlad needs two things :<br><br>a) eternal life,
which is easily granted by the DPs.<br><br>b) Control
of his domain, which isn't that easy, since if the
DPs help out too much he might feel resentful for the
interference of this "invisible hand". Thus a character like
Matthew/Mathieu Rousselle, who fills in the void of Vlad's
dictatorship. A person created from scratch by the DPs in order
to fufill specific tasks within the reign of Vlad
Drakov. A person who will make the population accept
their lot in life and their existence in
Falkovnia.<br><br>In my campaign (if I ever run one again) Vlad is
indeed immortal, though he will age up to a certain
point and stop afterwards, I'd say he's close to that
point now. And a sidekick in Matthew Rousselle, who
slowly modernizes the reign of Drakov, much to the
dismay of the ruler himself.
mm The Ideal is good IMHO up until he becomes
undead, I am sorry I can not see Vlad like that, instead
in his last years of life one of his most trusted
officers decides that he can do alot better than this weak
feable ruler they have now thus Vlad gets to to say "et
tu Brutia"<forrget the spelling><br><br> This
would keep falklovia a totalarian dictaorship and not
the domain of another undead critter, You see I
personally don't think that Vlad is Falklovia, I think that
Falklovia is Vlad for now, The real Darklord of that land
is the Ideals and Philosophy not the person. It is
the whole Might makes Right thinking in sort of a
control game if you catch my meaning. <br><br>Hmm well
enough for me about Vlad, how about Dominic he is a fat
polotiction type darklord In my campaign I have his powers
based on subvocalization which he does not know he
does, somewhat akin to useing two voices at one, where
what he thinks everyone hears is the louder one, while
his thought stream is let out in a sound softer than
a whisper. This soft stream of sound acts on
peoples sub-con. mind and thus slowly influences them.
Personally I play dominic like he hasn't got a clue that he
has that power, as for the ladies not liking him well
that could be that he sweats when he is nervois and
well ladies make him nervois, problely beacuse he has
been burned by a lady before, hence the closer he is
to letting a lady near his black heart the more he
stinks from his sweat. This expalins the repluser
action. What about the rest of yall? any comments,
ideals?
n my campaign, Vlad is growing old and somewhat
senile (enough to know that his memory is slipping).
Since his internal pain comes from the fact that he has
not had the respect of his peers, he is slowing
losing the respect of his inferiors. In order to shore
up popularity, he has mellowed, stopped branding
babies and gone to a tattoo.<br><br>He will eventually
go the way of King Lear, and be usurped. However, I
am thinking about having him come back as a kind of
undead that lives in the secret passage ways of his
former castle, advising the new ruler (but remaining the
darklord) but not always being taken seriously.<br><br>What
do you think about this? Have others done anything
to change Vlad?
am positive That there will be people showing
up on this list later so I guess I will through out
the first meat for the dogs of war, <br><br>Hmm I
seem to remeber a town called skullhaven that I was
working on so look for that to start coming here and then
there is of course the vote for darklords but that is
over done. Lets see how about therioes on darklords
yes what makes them tick open opions not text open a
new can of worms lets hear about your adaptations to
the darklords not just the "word for word out of the
manuels versions". well there are some starters hope that
gets thing stirring.