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Quoth the Raven Vol. 18 October 31st, 2011 Fraternity of Shadows® Dungeons and Dragons, D&D, and Ravenloft are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast Inc (WotC). These trademarks are used without permission. The book is made of 100% recycled orphans.

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Table of Contents

Natural Philosophy ...... 7 More Hidden Places ...... 45 Technology in the Dread Realms Dark Corners of the Demiplane By Stephen ―ScS‖ Sutton By Jack the Reaper Champions of the Mists ...... 17 Traits of the Mists ...... 55 The Van Richten Clan Pathfinder Traits in Ravenloft By David ―Jester‖ Gibson By David ―Jester‖ Gibson Antunia Papiècu ...... 29 Feasting with the Falcons ...... 61 Falkovnian super soldier A Ravenloft Adventure Joël Paquin of the FoS By Ron ―GonzoRon‖ Laufer Along the River ...... 39 Elements of Terror ...... 81 Mills and Industry in Ravenloft Dread Elemental Domains By Stephen ―ScS‖ Sutton Marc ―Galeros‖ Konigsberg

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Natural Philosophy Technology in the Dread Realms By Stephen “ScS” Sutton [email protected]

Humanity is best defined by its profit. These practical applications (or unceasing urge to transform the world. abominations) of natural law are termed Rather than live in harmony with nature, ―technology‖. man is driven to bend and warp his In my many years of studying this environment to fit his short term great, though doomed, species, I have interests. Humanity, it seems, is found mankind engaged in many novel possessed by an unrelenting means of bending the laws of the dissatisfaction with the world. Where universe to their petty will. Below I have flows a river, men see bridges; where recounted several of the most amusing grow forests, men see lumber; where projects. tower mountains, men dream of gold mines. Whereas the sylvan races revere - Ambrose Skully the forests, and the dwarves venerate the caverns of the Earth, man stands in A Stitch in Time contempt of crude nature and respects only his own artificial creations. It is this Some years ago I found myself trapped trait alone that I esteem in humanity and in a gloom shrouded slum know to the wish that my fellow gnomes shared. world as Ste. Ronges. So backwards and repressive was this city of decay that I Most attempts to alter nature are could find no civilized boarding house codified under the term ―Natural capable of appreciating the pleasure of Philosophy‖, though there is nothing my company and my philosophy towards natural in this human behavior and the payment of rent. After much precious little philosophy. A few self- searching I found some succor in a deluded scholars insist that their work is dilapidated tenement in the Tannery concentrated on the study of the natural district. The building was managed by a universe and its laws. However, the bulk mad half-deaf crone whose only virtue of mankind’s work is performed for that most ubiquitous motivation, material

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was that she was too infirm to collect of cloth. L’monte had blanketed the rent. walls with papers; some hastily scrawled Not long after moving into my notes, others crude sketches of apartment, I noticed the singularly machinery. Near to the window was irritating din coming from the attic L’monte’s workbench, the sole area apartment above me. The sounds of clear of refuse. Beside the bench, at the metal being hammered and scrapped calm eye in the center of the mad storm, carried day and night. Initially, I ignored stood the focus of L’monte’s mania; the the racket and consoled my ears with the Automatic Tailor. sound of a bottle being emptied. Yet It was difficult for me to feign patience, like whiskey, is a finite kindness to the greasy imbecile, but resource, so I began pounding on the eventually I wheedled out the story of ceiling with a broom handle and lending his descent into eccentricity. L’monte my prodigious vocabulary to entreaties was, and perhaps still is, a journeyman for silence. After a few moments of tailor. He claimed that a guild master, glorious quiet, I heard a pounding at my jealous of his abilities, crippled his hand. door. It was then, in that dingy sty, that I Though his hand healed, the muscles had the singular displeasure of meeting a proved incapable of the repetitive fine thoroughly disagreeable human name motions critical to sewing. The young Jean Claude L’monte. tailor worked at odd jobs for a smith and L’monte was a thin wraith of a man developed an incredible mechanical and ugly even by the low standards of aptitude. Since then, he has spent his humanity. I could barely understand his time nursing his hatred and developing dialect, and I feel that he must have his design for revenge. sensed this, for he mixed his speech with I had never before seen such an alien great sweeping gestures of his hands. implement; a demented fantasy of steel Somewhere in his tirade he accused me and wood. The bulk of it was a wooden of trying to interrupt his work. I was desk, though that was only the base of ready to dismiss this disgusting man the device. The functional components when I recognized something of interest of the machine sat above and below the in his deep sallow sockets. I saw a flat surface of the desk. It was made of quality in those bulging red rimmed black iron cones, wheels, pulleys, gears eyes; obsession. Those who know my and other mechanical apparatus vaguely work will know that I am a great student shaped like the pincer claw of a shellfish of human mental disorders. I put aside grasping the surface of the desk. The top my disgust for the pitiful creature and claw terminated in a curved needle used my considerable charms to sooth which contacted the lower claw through his temper. I wanted very much to see a hole in the desk surface. At the bottom this ―work‖ of his and hopefully learn a of the desk was a foot pedal, similar to little more about what forces can drive the one a blacksmith would use to power men insane. a grinding wheel. The garbage strewn streets of Ste. L’monte demonstrated his device Ronges did not prepare me for the with gusto: he pumped the foot pedal tangled mare’s nest that L’monte called and fed a piece of fabric between the home. The floor was an obstacle course claws of the machine. The curved needle of twisted metal, various tools and bolts darted in and out of the tip of the claw,

8 Quoth the Raven 18 drawing a loop of thread which have done well to remember what intertwined, leaving a stitch in the cloth. terrible feats a madman can accomplish. L’monte claimed that the machine Fortune and misfortune often arrive created a perfect continuous stitch, at together. My mad, half-deaf landlady several times the speed of a human died before collecting my rent, but sadly, tailor. He harangued me with a detailed her death was caused by a massive house description of the mechanism, though I fire which destroyed my apartment. Jean could neither understand his technical Claude also survived the fire, though prattling nor pretend to care. I was far only because he was dragged from the more interested in his plans for ultimate burning building by the fire brigade. It revenge upon the guild that had crushed was said that he clung to his prototype, his puny dreams. even as his rescuers tried to haul him L’monte explained that even a from the blazing inferno. novice apprentice, once trained and Having no success extricating the equipped with such a machine, would be madman, one fireman blessed with capable of performing the work of four brains as well as brawn tossed the master tailors. He described his plans to automatic tailor out the window and into build a dozen more such machines and the streets below. Only when his crude train assistants. Thus equipped, the device was safe from the flames did crippled tailor believes he will be able to L’monte allow his life to be saved. All undercut the prices of the guild and this I learned second hand, for I did not corner the garment market in Ste care to stay and watch. Unlike humans, Ronges. This disturbing dream was at fire holds no fascination for me, and once diabolical and pathetically petty, more importantly, I had to find new combing two of mankind’s most obvious accommodations. virtues. Had I a drink at the time, I I do not know what has become of would have toasted his ingenuity. As I L’monte and his invention, yet still I did not at the time, I satisfied myself to wish the best of luck to this twisted convince L’monte to give me what little misanthrope and to his diabolic device. I wine he had. An hour later I was back in am greatly in favor of any machine that my room and oblivious to whatever renders any type of human obsolete. racket Jean Claude was making. Over the next few days I avoided my unwashed neighbor but made a few Champion discrete inquiries. Jean Claude had tried If imitation is the most sincere flattery, to find financing for his scheme and then there is nothing that technology been less than successfully. As well, esteems more than humanity. L’monte had been making drunken Technological marvels often ape the boasts at taverns about town. Word must human form of their creators to fulfill a have reached the tailor’s guild, for a few twisted self-worship of humanity by members of that organization humanity. Tales abound of such approached me and asked for my simulacra, most notably the cautionary opinion of L’monte. I offered my tale of Howard Lumley’s Automatic truthful opinion; that L’monte was Man. Yet, in some rare instances, human clearly insane. For some reason, this designers actually rise above their own estimation comforted them. They might petty limitations and create a device that

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transcends mankind. The best known eyes made of blue-green glass. The such automaton is a technological artwork of the simulacrum was superb; sensation currently touring the courts close inspection revealed the most and salons of the civilized world. This impossibly fine details, from the tiniest creation is known far and wide as little hairs inserted in the eyebrows to the Champion. layered brushwork to simulate the I came face to face with this texture of skin. In retrospect, it is a clockwork contraption in Rivalis while tragedy that such a skilled hand was attending a dinner party hosted by a turned to imitating something as base former patron of mine. I had sworn to and common as a human. myself long ago that I would never At the base of the machine’s torso accept another invitation to a soiree, but was a cabinet made of the finest promises, like bones and blood oaths, are rosewood and adorned with guided meant to be broken at an expedient time. fixtures. Across the top of the cabinet After enduring the inanities of was carved the word ―Champion‖. conversing with human beings for During the demonstration, the several hours our host gathered us in the presenter opened the cabinet doors to games room to behold the amusements show to the audience that there was he had arranged. Sadly, there were naught inside the machine but neither card tables nor dice boards mechanical devices. And what devices present, but my curiosity was piqued there were! A complex network of gears when I noticed the most curious filled every nook and cranny of the contraption positioned behind a cabinet. chessboard. The device was pandemonium set to The marvelous device was an ordered rhythm. I saw gears, chaperoned by two presenters. The first camshafts, chains, pulleys, flywheels, was a handsome human with a bright disks, and screws meshing and spinning smile and sharp features that bordered on in a whirling dance of perfect order. I the sylvan. His graceful form was saw several contraptions that have no resplendent in the latest of human name and beheld devices that are Dementlieuese fashions. Every action beyond even the abilities of gnomes. and mannerism bespoke grace, Within that chamber were even confidence, gentility, taste and good apparatus detailed in the infamous breeding. Of course, I loathed him manual ―Notes on Animations‖, the immediately. His companion was a twice-banned book of the mad genius short, round human who fidgeted Creighton Arkwright. Truly this constantly. Like his partner, he was well mechanical chaos was obsession cast in dressed, though the clothes seemed ill brass and steel. I must confess that the fitted to him. He said nothing, but sight of the mechanism in motion seemed to watch over the machine as a excited feelings within my jaded soul. mother bird watches her eggs. Somewhere during the handsome The device was a mannequin of the man’s spiel I heard him say that the upper torso of a man in a militaristic coat purpose of this great device was to play trimmed in gold and wearing a white chess. I nearly choked on my drink to turban. The face and hands are rendered think of this fantastic engine being in porcelain with painted features and reduced to playing parlor games.

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The handsome man invited our host claim that I was inebriated and might to be the first to challenge ―Champion‖. damage the sensitive device. In response, The herd of gawkers and I watched the I stood up on a table and decided to game with rapt fascination. The prove to everyone present that I was in Champion moved with a smooth perfect control of my faculties. My economy of motion, much unlike the memory after that point is hazy, but as jerky motion of other clockwork devices. neither the host nor the other guests are I noticed that the chessboard itself was willing to discuss the incident, I deduce connected to the greater bulk of the that I won the argument. device, by way of a series of camshafts. Since that time, Champion has Each space upon the chessboard was appeared in a number of different equipped with a tiny pressure plate, venues, and has thus far trounced all which signaled the movement of the opponents. It seems that even a chess pieces. collection of gears serves as a superior The first match ended quickly, with replacement to the supposed human our host checkmated inside of an hour. brain. I hope that one day this ingenious Several other challengers matched their mechanism could be turned to a more wits against the Champion, and each was practical application. With suitable soundly defeated in turn. I noticed that reconfiguration, a mechanical mind such while the human players required a great as Champion may prove as adept a deal of time to contemplate their moves, general on a battlefield as it is in a games the machine took no time to compute its room. own efforts, as if it had anticipated its opponent’s actions. To Count the Stars Over the hours, I noticed that the mood of the dreary revel became Like all pseudo sciences, astrology depressed. Though intended as an flourishes in the interface between amusement, the Champion proved to be ignorance and wealth. The nation of an unsettling spectacle. Many of the Borca is thus the capital of astrological party guests seemed captivated with the study. The aristocrats of the land are mechanism’s eyes and their blank, both fantastically wealthy and disdainful unblinking stare. A few of the human of any knowledge beyond etiquette and players said that the mannequin’s gaze art. Yet each noble hopes to rise beyond seemed to burn into them. The handsome their fellows and so seeks advantage man laughed at this notion, and spoke from divining the future. Thus the bland platitudes to mollify the disturbed loftiest aristocrats retain private guests. I noticed that the short man grew prognosticators, and even the lowlier pale at these allegations, though he said merchants consult freelance stargazers. nothing. At dusk, an army of astronomers raise a Having observed the mechanical phalanx of sextants skyward to spot marvel at work, I felt it time to pose a celestial bodies, in a futile attempt to suitable challenge and matched my own predict coming events. considerable intellect against its Despite their puerile occupation, programming. The loathsome handsome some of these charlatans have developed man and his diminutive friend objected surprisingly sophisticated tools to assist most vociferously, making the ridiculous their research. Yet none of these devices

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compares to the creation of Maestro Entering the tower, I found myself Gaius Guillermo. perched upon a narrow catwalk hanging Gaius Guillermo is known far and in a black cavernous space. The interior wide for his contributions to of the tower is a vast hollow, running prognostication. He is held in highest from the top of the spire down into the esteem for his dousing compass, which bowels of the foundation. The walls are has been proven to point directly to coated in a dull matte black paint, water with nearly fifty percent accuracy. absorbing ambient light and obscuring As of late he has turned his genius all points of reference. Windows and towards a far more practical project; to lamps were absent from the building, the count and document every star in the only light allowed were candles carried sky. by the apprentices as they crawled across the ladders and catwalks. Even with my Sadly, this ambitious project is tainted with the quackery of astrology. superior visual faculties, I felt as though I were crawling through the void. Gaius Guillermo promises to use his star map to increase the accuracy of The tower, explained the Maestro, astrological predictions to an was not a workplace but rather it was its unparalleled degree. To accomplish this body of the telescope. Though vast, the daunting goal, this natural philosopher space was not empty; a vast spiral of has constructed the greatest telescope yet lenses and curved mirrors circled the conceived. No doubt this project has tower in a tight helix running from the incurred considerable expense, though top to the bottom. This complex the source of the Maestro’s funding progression of lenses magnified the remains a mystery. faintest light to perfect clarity. While touring Borca I made a brief Atop the tower perches ―The Iris‖, a visit to the Maestro’s workplace in the complicated clockwork mechanism built hills near Von Ziyden. The building is a into a dome of polished bronze. When great stone tower, covered in grey mortar the telescope is in use, the Iris opens, that has been worked into crenulated revealing the primary lens of the pattern so that the tower appears to be a telescope. The mechanism of the iris titanic pillar. Sadly, neither the Maestro automatically adjusts the angle and nor his apprentices have any direction of the lens and moves the appreciation for literary works, so I was aperture according to the manipulations initially refused admission. of the astronomers below. Undeterred, I preyed upon the one The spiral of lenses terminates deep weakness that all scientists share: a in the foundation of the tower. In this crippling deficit of money. I used my ―focal chamber‖ the Guillermo’s considerable charms to convince the assistants prepare small trays of astronomer that I represented very gelatinous fluids which are exposed to powerful clientele who might be the light that filters through the interested in subsidizing Guillermo’s telescope. Once exposed to light, the project. Whomever Guillermo’s mystery fluids solidify into spongy sheets of patron might be, he or she must have jelly, capturing the image to which they been frugal. The slightest hint of new were exposed. Guillermo and his money bought me access to the assistants then patch the sheets of gel astronomer’s tower.

12 Quoth the Raven 18 together into a great mosaic map of the even be begun until the Maestro has sky. found the utmost range of the stars. Until I was forbidden to see the map, then, Gaius Guillermo must increase the though I was permitted to inspect a few power of his telescope until all the stars of the gel images. The results were in the heavens are finally in the range of breath-taking. I cannot confirm that the his sight. In the meantime, his mystery images represented sections of the night patron has become impatient. No sky, for I have never beheld such images funding is to be forthcoming until results while stargazing. The black void seemed are delivered. Yet the Maestro must to bubble with points of light. The clarity make increasingly costly additions to of the images was impeccable and it boost the power of his observatory. seemed to show layers of intermixed Marius believes that the task is futile; clouds of stars. There seemed to be great the number of stars may be infinite and conglomerations of stars and faint blurs that only a tiny fraction of stars float that might have been collections of stars within visible range of even Guillermo’s even more distant than the powerful telescope. The Maestro violently rejects telescope could resolve. any such theories, and has dismissed any The tour of the facilities seemed apprentices who have voiced such most congenial, until I inquired as to conjecture. With each passing night, the how many stars the Maestro and his staff astronomer comes closer and closer to had counted. This question seemed to madness as he stares into the void, strike a raw nerve with Gaius Guillermo, searching for the end of the infinite sea and rather than answer, he demanded to of stars. know how much gold I could secure for him and when he could expect it. I tried Little Grey Cells to press him for more information, but he became extremely belligerent. After I have heard some people say that much argument, I was ejected from the Lamordians are wholly materialistic and tower. have little sense of spirituality. I, too, I made some inquiries in Von believed this to be the case, until the Ziyden, and was introduced to Marius dreadful night an angry throng chased De Mancha, a former assistant to me from Ludendorf. Maestro Guillermo. For a small fee, he The incident occurred several years related his experiences. Marius reported ago, before my literary genius was fully that the Maestro has become extremely recognized. I was destitute and had spent frustrated, and as of late, prone to fly my last few coppers to travel to into fits of rage. The telescope requires Lamordia in order to sell the publishing constant adjustment, for reference points rights to my novella, ―Lust for a in the heavens constantly shift and move Zombie‖. I was shocked to learn that in ways that defy logic. Moreover, for plagiarists had already saturated the each individual star identified, dozens market with poor imitations of my story. more blurred clouds of stars are sighted. I was badly in need of cash, when one of The true reason that I was not the typesetters recommended me to allowed to view the star map was scribe work for a local scholar, currently because it does not even exist. Marius engaged in scientific research. Of course, explained that a complete map cannot such work has always been beneath my

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dignity, but I was in desperate need of madman, I would be thoroughly funds. Thus I came to meet Professor entertained. Horst von Liber. Liber performed his experiments in a Von Liber was a rail thin man of perfectly morbid workshop within a thinning hair and an unchanging, severe sunken mausoleum. Snugly ensconced in expression. He spoke in a deep the cold earth, Liber performed his monotone voice and stared at the world experiments amidst the charnel ruin. I with unblinking deep-set eyes. He made must confess, I thrilled to explore that no idle conversation, nor did he bother lightless crypt, with its sepulchral me with the details of his work except miasmas, and its black vaults draped in for the parts that directly impacted my the questing tree roots that had broken employment. My duties were to tabulate though the crumbing masonry. It the results of all his research, to reminded me of home. catalogue the notes he had accumulated, Von Liber was assisted by a pair of and to assist in his experiments. coarse malingerers who were entrusted Under normal circumstances, a to gather the necessary materials for the scientist such as von Liber might have experiments. Silas and Hog were employed a student from one of malformed in both body and mind, Lamordia’s many academies. However, devoid of any cultural refinement, and Liber’s theories were controversial to willing to perform nearly any task in most faculties and were thus exchange for gold. In short, they were unsanctioned by Lamordian institutions typical specimens of the human species. of learning. This was because Professor The two obtained human craniums Liber’s research focused entirely upon directly from the graves of the nearby the function of brains of the deceased. potter’s field, and in a few instances The professor never discussed his sought fresher fruit from local hospitals. theories with assistants, but he had As Liber was focused upon the written extensive notes, which were mechanical properties of the brain, he mine to organize. The brain, Liber was unconcerned with disease or the believed, was the repository of all human physical condition of the body. knowledge and consciousness. This The majority of specimens were crenulated conglomerate of pasty grey carefully removed from their cranial matter recorded all thought and memory cases and stored in suspensions of grain within its labyrinthine jelly. Liber alcohol. If there were other chemicals hypothesized that while the fragile within the preservative fluid, I could not mortal body might die and decay, the detect them by taste. A few specimens information stored within the cerebrum were pickled while still in their heads, remained preserved – much as a book and a number of heads were left in open might survive the death of the scribe that air, adding a distinct charnel aroma to wrote it. that sepulchral laboratory. Though I chaffed at the degrading The Professor used a variety of labor, I found that the professor’s work techniques to search for the hidden neatly gelled with my own interests. information coded with the brain. He Should his theories prove correct, I made a number of cross sections of the would have gained a portal to knowledge brain and suspended the pieces between from beyond the grave; were he a plates of glass for careful study via a

14 Quoth the Raven 18 powerful microscope. Once, he injected number of bodies, and so no one would a brain with a chemical solution that remark the absence of a few nameless hardened and remained solid as the corpses. As we would later learn, Silas tissue decomposed, leaving behind a and Hog had made a colossal blunder: model of the veins and arteries within rather than raid the pauper’s vault, all the brain. A different time, Liber that winter they had been plundering the connected a quill to a guide needle, and receiving crypt of the town’s most tired to create a paper copy of the notable citizens. I might confess my own cerebrum’s shape by running the guide negligence in this regard, for I had needle over the surface of a brain. dwelled in Ludendorf for some time Liber’s experiments with electricity before then and many of those faces were his most ingenious. He created delivered to Liber looked familiar. series of electrical probes, which were By March a mortician made the inserted at key points within the brain discovery and raised the alarm. We and connected via copper wires to an might have escaped notice, had some apparatus similar to a common superstitious fools not spread rumors of physician’s stethoscope. As he the presence of ghouls, those disgusting stimulated the brain with alternating corpse eating demons that haunt currents of electricity, Liber listened graveyards. By April, a party had been with his head-phones for the tell-tale formed and begun searching the signs of reactivated thought. cemetery for the lair of the body- While his experiments bespoke cold, snatchers. Liber’s laboratory was analytical method, Liber’s notes revealed invaded by the band of do-gooders just the grand purpose to which he was in time to disrupt a promising attempt to working. He had sketched out the crude reactivate the cerebrum of a former details of a complex facility wherein the magistrate. brains of the world’s greatest scholars The Professor made some attempt to would be collected, preserved, and read. reason with the crowd. I, however, had Minds, both ancient and modern, would lower expectations from the human be collected and connected into a great species and its ability to recognize network, where they would be preserved genius. I slipped away through a little against time and calamity. Liber tunnel leading to an open grave at the believed that living men would edge of the cemetery. Sadly, my luck voluntarily donate their brains to further turned as I tried to sneak back into town. add to this body of ultimate knowledge. I was leaving the graveyard just as a I worked for Liber for some months, mob was arriving and, being caked in until one fateful April night. That earth and other graveyard debris, was previous winter, the city had stored its mistaken for a ghoul. I had never before dead within a waiting vault until the run so far, nor ever again since. spring thaw when graves could be dug. I do not know what became of Several times during the winter, Professor von Liber. Whether he escaped Professor Liber had sent Silas and Hog or was lynched is not recorded, and I am to fetch one of the coffins of a transient disinclined to return to return to ask who had died at the free hospital. As the questions. I suspect that if he lives, Liber paupers were to be buried in unmarked still practices his experiments. graves, the city did not record the

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I find it disturbing that base morality forego their ancestor’s insane still hampers the pursuit of knowledge. superstitions such as ―dignity‖ or Human ignorance stifles the search for ―respect for the dead‖. Until such a time, truth and shades the light of knowledge. men like Professor Liber must perform Perhaps, one day, mankind will evolve their work in secret, lest they be branded beyond its crude mental limitations and as madmen and sequestered away in be ruled by rationality. These uplifted stone prisons, to rot forever inside little men of the future will embrace the harsh grey cells. scientific realities of the universe and

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Champions of the Mists The Van Richten Clan for Pathfinder By David “Jester” Gibson [email protected]

The Land of the Mists is worth fighting Heroes are made, not born – van for; its inhabitants are worth defending. Richten began his career as a humble Many have given their lives in the surgeon until his beloved son was pursuit of the children of the night, and kidnapped and sold to an undead others pick up their legacy and continue monster. While van Richten might where the dead left off. always have carried a brilliant mind, he This article is on heroes, four had to earn his knowledge and develop champions that fought to defend the his relentless spirit. innocent from the dark. It presents three The following statistics represent van of the heroes in multiple eras, to be used Richten during the different phases of over different time periods and at his life: as an amateur investigator, an different levels. expert hunter and, at as a legend at the pinnacle of his career.

Doctor Rudolph van Van Richten, the Amateur CR 3 XP 800 Richten Male human expert 2, rogue Famed across the entire Land of the (investigator) 2 Mists, there is no hero as well-known or LG Medium humanoid respected as Doctor Rudolph van Init +2; Senses Perception +6 Richten. No single adventurer has ever Defence brought so much hope to the land, or AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+3 banished so much evil as the good armour, +2 Dex) doctor; van Richten’s name is hp 20 (4d8 + 2 favoured class) synonymous with his three weapons: Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +4 knowledge, wisdom, and indomitable Defensive Abilities evasion willpower.

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Offence Using van Richten, the Amateur Speed 30 ft. Van Richten is new to his role as a Melee sabre +4 (1d6+1/19-20) monster hunter and shows his Melee short spear +4 (1d6+1) inexperience. At this period of his Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. career, van Richten is more likely to find Special Attacks sneak attack +1d6 himself in trouble than triumphant, and Statistics much more likely to require assistance. Abilities Str 12, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 16, He has yet to even encounter anything Wis 13, Cha 10 other than vampires, lesser undead, and Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 15 the Vistani. Feats Great Fortitude, Skill Focus (heal), First and foremost, van Richten Weapon Finesse wages a war against self-doubt. He is Skills Climb +6, Craft (alchemy) +8, neither as strong nor as young as other Diplomacy +5, Disable Device +7, adventurers he meets: this van Richten is Heal +9, Linguistics +8, Knowledge a doctor and healer, not a slayer of (local) +8, Knowledge (nature) +8, horrors. While still a force for good he Profession (apothecary) +6, Profession has not yet published any of the Guides (herbalist) +6, Sense Motive +8, that will make him famous and has not Stealth +6, Sleight of Hand +7, even thought about recording his Survival +6, Use Magic Device +5 experiences or methods. These are the Languages Darkonese, Balok, Draconic, formative years when van Richten Falkovian, Mordentish, Vaasi realizes he cannot simply charge into the SQ rogue talents (follow clues), follow lair of the beast armed with a sword, he up must arm himself with something more Gear healer’s kit, holy symbol, short powerful than bravado: knowledge. It is sword, 2x short spears (wooden also a time when player characters might stakes), studded leather influence the good doctor, shaping his destiny or aiding him on his quest. This is Rudolph van Richten shortly after he began his adventures, around the Van Richten is unaware he is under year 706 in the Barovian Calendar. the effects of a Vistani curse that dooms his loved ones while ensuring his long Van Richten resides in the city of life lived among monsters. While he may Corvia in central Darkon although he has fail and suffer defeat, unknowable forces not lived there long. He recently moved will keep him alive. from his ancestral home of Richten House in Rivalis after the death of his Van Richten, the Expert CR 8 family. Born in 671 BC, van Richten is rapidly approaching middle age but XP 4,800 barely shows it; he is active and alert and Male human expert 2, rogue his hair is blonde and neatly trimmed, (investigator) 7 although it’s showing signs of growing LG Medium humanoid sparse on top. He is a small and thin Init +0; Senses Perception +13 man with a crooked smile and a twinkle Defence in his eye that still shines through his AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 17 (+4 burden of grief; the loss of his son is still studded leather +1, +3 ring) a very fresh wound. hp 42 (9d8 + 9 + 2 favoured class -9)

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Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +8 The doctor currently resides in Defensive Abilities evasion, improved Mordent, after he fled Darkon having uncanny dodge, uncanny dodge discovered the true nature of Azalin Rex. Van Richten is now old; his face is well- Offence lined, his frame weary, and his blonde- Speed 30 ft. gray hair is balding but growing long in Melee Platock’s Legacy+7/+2 the back. Van Richten has seen so much (1d6+1/19-20) pain and over the years and lost Melee vitae seeker +7/+2 (1d6+1/19-20) everyone he has ever grown close to. Ranged heavy crossbow +6 (1d10/19- And yet the sparkle in his eye shines as 20) brightly as ever. When not investigating Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. evil, he maintains an herbalist shop in Special Attacks sneak attack +4d6 Mordentshire. Statistics His first text on the subject of Abilities Str 9, Dex 11, Con 8, Int 19, monsters, Van Richten's Guide to Wis 16, Cha 13 Vampires, was published in 735. Since Base Atk +6; CMB +6; CMD 19 then, van Richten has turned his pen to Feats Defensive Combat Training, Great the topics of ghosts, liches, lycanthropes Fortitude, Improved Great Fortitude, and the created. The guides to the Point Blank Shot, Skill Focus (heal), ancient dead and fiends have yet to see Toughness, Weapon Finesse publication. Skills Bluff +9, Climb +9, Craft (alchemy) +9, Craft (books) +12, Using van Richten, the Expert Diplomacy +11, Disable Device +10, Van Richten has survived his early years Escape Artist +8, Heal +11, and inspired a new generation of Linguistics +9, Knowledge (arcana) monster hunters. In this period, van +9, Knowledge (local) +9, Knowledge Richten works as a mentor or ally, (nature) +9, Knowledge (religion) +9, accompanying heroes on a mission or Profession (apothecary) +8, Profession training them in the skills needed to (herbalist) +8, Sense Motive +10, combat the creatures of the night. With Stealth +9, Sleight of Hand +10, his reputation established, van Richten Survival +8, Swim +7, Use Magic might be sought out by other heroes Device +6 looking for advice or assistance. Languages Darkonese, Balok, Draconic, Alternatively, van Richten might Falkovian, Mordentish, Vaasi seek out adventurers to help him SQ rogue talents (assault leader, follow research his next book or aid him on a clues, hard to fool), follow up, trap challenging hunt. As van Richten is well sense +2 known as a champion of good he is Gear amulet of Anubis, crimson frequently approached for help, and he obsidian ring, healer’s kit, 5x holy might seek established heroes to look water, Platock’s Legacy, short sword, into cases he does not have the time to 2x, silver dagger, small mirror, investigate. Van Richten is still unaware studded leather, vitae seeker he is the subject of a Vistani curse that These statistics represent van Richten targets his loved ones, and so he still during the period just after the Grand spends his days training youthful Conjunction, around 740 BC.

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adventurers and seeking allies, unaware Motive +16, Stealth +13, Sleight of that fate will conspire to end their lives. Hand +9, Survival +12, Swim +8, Use Magic Device +13 Van Richten, the Legend CR 13 Languages Darkonese, Balok, Draconic, XP 25,600 Falkovian, Mordentish, Vaasi Male human expert 2, rogue SQ rogue talents (assault leader, combat (investigator) 12 trick, follow clues, hard to fool, LG Medium humanoid hunter’s surprise, thoughtful re- Init -1; Senses Perception +19 examining), follow up, trap sense +4 Gear amulet of Anubis, crimson Defence obsidian ring, healer’s kit, 5x holy AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+4 water, Platock’s Legacy, pocket watch studded leather +1, +3 ring, -1 Dex) of Jugend, short sword, 2x short spears hp 37 (14d8 + 14 + 2 favoured class -42) (wooden stakes), silver dagger, small Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +11 mirror, studded leather, vitae seeker Defensive Abilities evasion, improved uncanny dodge, uncanny dodge This is the elder van Richten, from the period of 750BC, just before his Offence disappearance. Speed 30 ft. Van Richten still resides in Melee Platock’s Legacy +10/+5 Mordentshire, but has passed the day-to- (1d6/19-20) day operation of his herbalist shop onto Melee vitae seeker +10/+5 (1d6/19-20) assistants and friends. Age is creeping up Ranged heavy crossbow +9 (1d10/19- on the renowned slayer: his face is 20) heavily lined with both years and the Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. reminders of many roads, but his thin Special Attacks sneak attack +6d6 gray hair is once again well-trimmed. He Statistics is weak and lacking much of the vigor of Abilities Str 6, Dex 8, Con 5, Int 22, Wis his youth. If amused he still displays his 19, Cha 16 lopsided grin although much melancholy Base Atk +10; CMB +8; CMD 17 lurks in the expression and sadness soon Feats Combat Expertise, Defensive returns. Combat Training, Focused Shot, Great Recently, his health has taken a turn Fortitude, Improved Great Fortitude, for the worse and his own treatments are Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Skill proving ineffective. The good doctor is Focus (heal), Toughness, Weapon not just suffering physically; his sharp Finesse wits and keen mind have begun to fade Skills Acrobatics +7, Bluff +11, Climb under the weight of loss and his +11, Craft (alchemy) +11, Craft remaining friends worry about his sanity. (books) +14, Diplomacy +13, Disable He has lost almost all of those he once Device +14, Escape Artist +7, Heal called "friend", burying those who were +17, Linguistics +11, Knowledge to have carried on his legacy. His eyes (arcana) +16, Knowledge (local) +11, carry the deep burden of sadness and Knowledge (nature) +16, Knowledge survivor’s guilt. (planes) +16, Knowledge (religion) He has published all his guides save +16, Profession (apothecary) +9, one, and has made peace with both life Profession (herbalist) +9, Sense

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and the Radanavich clan. While he redeemed the family name, which had patiently awaits his end he has been become shadowed and grim. working on-and-off on side projects, but The darkness he faced weighed he does not expect to complete any. heavier on Weathermay than his companions. Every innocent lost, every Using van Richten, the Legend victim encounters ate away at his soul. Van Richten has been attempting to He began to divide the world into black maintain some semblance of a retirement and white, romanticizing those of purity for many years, however there are still and innocence and mercilessly slaying monsters to be vanquished and research those he saw as evil. Weathermay found to be accomplished. If asked for help the it harder and harder to see the light good doctor might still offer his aid, but between the darkness. Lacking the likely only as an advisor. More and motivational trauma of van Richten to more, when approached for help, he keep him focused, Weathermay found it passes on the cases to his few remaining more and more difficult to feel he was confidants and agents. When prompted making a difference and continue as a into action, van Richten is again likely to champion. This tension came to a head need assistance to make-up for his frail after he was betrayed by the woman he frame and ill health. loved, sending Weathermay down the In his twilight years van Richten path of revenge. faces many foes both old and new. Thanks to the Vistani curse, van Richten George Weathermay CR 12 has many more surviving enemies than XP 4,800 friends. With van Richten vulnerable he Male human ranger (beastmaster) 12 is facing increasing numbers of old N Medium humanoid adversaries seeking revenge. Similarly, Init +1; Senses Perception +18 villains looking to make a name for Defence themselves see the elder champion as an AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+4 easy way of garnering a reputation. If he studded leather +1, +1 Dodge, +1 is to survive long enough to meet his shield, +1 Dex) destiny, van Richten might need hp 102 (12d10 + 24 + 12 favoured class) assistance or guardians. Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +6 Defensive Abilities evasion George Weathermay Offence Socially awkward, the young George Speed 30 ft. Weathermay always felt more at ease Melee Gossamer +14/+9/+4 (1d8+3/19- among horses and dogs than the nobility. 20) George was inspired by Rudolph van Melee mwk silver hand axe +14 (1d6- Richten and offered his services to the 1/x3) good doctor. The young nobleman swore Ranged mwk heavy crossbow +14 to defend the innocent and became a (1d10/19-20) self-proclaimed ―hunter of evil‖. Often Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. known by the common folk as just Spells Known (CL 9; concentration "Weathermay", he singlehandedly +12) 3rd— cure moderate wounds, remove

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disease, strong jaw Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +2 2nd— barkskin, cat's grace, protection Defensive Abilities evasion from enemy Offence 1st—delay poison, endure elements, Speed 50 ft. longstrider Melee bite +6 (1d4+6) Special Attacks favoured enemy Melee 2 hooves +1 (1d6+4) (undead +4), favoured enemy (+2 Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. magical beast), favoured enemy (+4 shapechanger), quarry Statistics Statistics Abilities Str 19, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6 Abilities Str 13, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 10, Base Atk +3; CMB +10; CMD 25 Wis 16, Cha 8 Feats Armour proficiency (light), Run Base Atk +12; CMB +13; CMD 25 Skills Acrobatics +7, Survival +3 Feats Dodge, Endurance, Mounted Tricks combat trained (attack [all], Archery, Mounted Combat, Power come, defend, down, guard, and heel), Attack, Ride-by-Attack, Two-Weapon stay Defence, Two-Weapon Fighting, SQ scent Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (longsword) Cerebus CR - Skills Handle Animal +14, Heal +6, Knowledge (local) +6, Knowledge Female dog (animal companion) (nature) +15, Knowledge (religion) +6, N Medium animal Ride +16, Spellcraft +9, Stealth +10, Init +3; Senses Perception +1, low-light Survival +18 vision SQ favoured terrain (plains +4), Defence favoured terrain (forest +2), hunter’s AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+5 bond, improved empathic link, strong natural, +3 Dex) bond, track, wild empathy, woodland hp 34 (4d8 + 16) stride, swift tracker Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +2 Languages Mordentish, Balok Defensive Abilities evasion Gear Gossamer (+2 ghost touch longsword) 2x flasks of holy water, Offence silver dagger, silver holy symbol of Speed 40 ft. Ezra Melee bite +8 (1d6+6) Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Shadowchaser CR - Statistics Male horse (animal companion) Abilities Str 18, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 2, N Large animal Wis 12, Cha 6 Init +1; Senses Perception +1, low-light Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 20 vision Feats Improved Natural Armour, Defence Weapon Focus (bite) AC 21, touch 11, flat-footed 20 (+4 Skills Acrobatics +8, Climb +8, Swim chain barding, +6 natural, +2 Dex, -1 +8 size) Tricks Fighting (attack [all], down, hp 34 (4d8 + 16) stay), Guarding (defend, guard), heel, work

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SQ scent against a challenging opponent. Weathermay might seek out other Artemis CR - hunters if he believes they have Female dog (animal companion) information on his prey. N Medium animal Alternatively, as a fallen hero he Init +2; Senses Perception +1, low-light might be used as a cautionary tale. Some vision champions might make it their mission Defence to redeem Weathermay or stop him before he crosses a line from which he AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+4 cannot return. Or they may believe he natural, +3 Dex) has already crossed the line and needs to hp 30 (4d8 + 12) be stopped. This could be twisted if Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +2 Natalia Vhorishkova plays the victim, Defensive Abilities evasion directing adventurers towards Offence Weathermay whom she describes as an Speed 40 ft. obsessed stalker, in an effort to buy Melee bite +8 (1d6+6) herself enough time to escape. Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Statistics The Weathermay- Abilities Str 18, Dex 17, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6 Foxgrove Twins Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 10 Feats Skill Focus (survival), Stealthy The Weathermay-Foxgrove twins were Skills Escape Artist +5, Stealth +9, born into one of the last surviving Survival +7 Mordentish noble families and raised in Tricks Hunting (attack [all], down, wealth and luxury. After a brutal fetch, heel, seek, and track), stay werewolf attack almost cost the Gennifer SQ scent her life, the twins were exposed to the supernatural world of their Uncle George Using George Weathermay and family friend Rudolph van Richten. Having suffered through loss and After Dr. van Richten vanished, the tragedy, George Weathermay is a man twins took up his mantle, hunting the driven to the edge. He spends his days creatures of the night and penning new on the hunt, persuing the lycanthrope volumes for would-be hunters. The Natalia Vhorishkova. At times he still Twins are neither as driven as their dallies long enough to help those in need mentor van Richten, nor do they see – typically when he can exhaust his themselves as outsiders like their uncle anger on a monster. George. Regardless, the twins have Weathermay could be used as an ally proven themselves as a force of good. for a difficult quest. He is unlikely to They offer a renewed hope that light and take assistants or mentor an adventurer bravery did not perish with the good as this will only slow his pursuit, but he doctor. can be persuaded to join in quick hunts. The following statistics represent the Weathermay allows heroes to face a foe twins during two different phases of otherwise beyond them, or even the odds their life: as young, inexperienced

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hunters eager for adventure, and as more Languages Mordentish, Darkonese, tempered and experienced champions Draconic, Vaasi that have published three volumes and Gear 4x flasks of holy water, ring of are working on a fourth. protection +1, silver dagger, silver holy symbol of Ezra Gennifer Weathermay- Special Abilities Foxgrove CR 4 Arcane Bond (Su): Gennifer’s familiar XP 1,200 is a cat named Sebastien. It has the Female human (shapechanger) expert 2, following abilities: Alertness, wizard 3 improved evasion, share spells, CG Medium humanoid empathic link, deliver touch spells. Init +1; Senses Perception +1 Defence Laurie Weathermay- AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 11 (+1 Dex, Foxgrove CR 4 +1 ring) XP 1,200 hp 22 (2d8 + 3d6 + 3 favoured class) Female human expert 2, gunslinger Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +6 (pistolero) 3 LG Medium humanoid Offence Init +3; Senses Perception -1 Speed 30 ft. Melee dagger +1 (1d4-1/19-20) Defence Ranged mwk pistol +4 (1d8/x4) AC 17, touch 14, flat-footed 13 (+3 Special Attacks hand of the apprentice studded leather, +3 Dex, +1 dodge) (6/day) hp 33 (2d8 + 3d10 + 5 + 3 favoured Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. class) Spells Known (CL 3; concentration +6, Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +5 +10 when casting defensive) Defensive Abilities nimble +1 2nd—bear’s endurance, glitterdust Offence (DC 15) Speed 30 ft. 1st—burning hands (DC 14), magic Melee +1 Parthian rapier +9 (1d6/19- missile, protection from evil 20) 0—detect magic, disrupt undead, read Ranged +1 Parthian pistol +9 magic, resistance (1d10+1/x4) Statistics Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Abilities Str 8, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 17, Special Attacks deeds, grit 1 Wis 12, Cha 15 Statistics Base Atk +2; CMB +1; CMD 12 Abilities Str 10, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 12, Feats Combat Casting, Exotic Weapon Wis 8, Cha 15 Proficiency (Firearms), Scribe Scroll Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 18 Skills Appraise +11, Craft (alchemy) + Feats Exotic Weapon Proficiency 8, Diplomacy + 7, Disable Device + 3, (firearms), Exotic Weapon Proficiency Knowledge (arcana) +11, Knowledge (Parthian rapier), Gunsmithing, Point- (local) + 11, Knowledge (nature) +11 , Blank Shot, Two-weapon Fighting, Knowledge (religion) + 8, Profession Weapon Finesse (herbalist)+9, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +4

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Skills Acrobatics +11, Bluff +10, Climb Gennifer Weathermay- +8, Diplomacy +7, Disable Device Foxgrove CR 8 +8, Knowledge (local) +9, Ride +11, XP 4,800 Sense Motive +4 Female human (shapechanger) expert 2, Languages Mordentish, Balok wizard 7 Gear glove of storing, pocket watch, CG Medium humanoid silver holy symbol of Ezra, vest of Init +1; Senses Perception +1 escape Defence Using the Rookie Weathermay- AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 11 (+1 Dex, Foxgrove Twins +1 dodge, +1 ring) Unlike van Richten, who was motivated hp 40 (2d8 + 7d6 + 7 favoured class) by great personal loss, the Weathermay- Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +6 Foxgrove Twins became monster Offence hunters out of a combination of Speed 30 ft. curiosity, thrill seeking, and a small Melee +1 silver dagger +4 (1d4/19-20) desire to escape their social obligations Ranged +1 pistol +6 (1d8+1/x4) as nobles. While the Twins have an Special Attacks hand of the apprentice honest desire to help people and combat (6/day) evil, they lack the drive needed to keep Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. them fighting the good fight after failure Spells Known (CL 7; concentration +11, or confronted with a terrifying foe. And +15 when casting defensive) unlike their idols, the Twins have to 4th—scrying, shadow conjuration (DC prove themselves worthy, demonstrating 18) that they are adequate successors to the 3rd—dispel magic, lightning bolt (DC good doctor’s legacy. 17), tongues Heroes can encounter the Twins 2nd—bear’s endurance, glitterdust when recruited to assist them on a hunt; (DC 16), locate object, touch of idiocy just like van Richten, the Twins seek (DC 16) allies with skills they lack or to assist 1st—burning hands (DC 15), mage when pursuing particularly deadly prey. armour, magic missile, magic weapon, The Twins could also be encountered protection from evil after a failed hunt, when their confidence 0—detect magic, disrupt undead, read is injured and they are questioning their magic, resistance choice of profession. Alternatively, they Statistics might seek to prove their worth and Abilities Str 8, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 18, inadvertently take on a foe beyond their Wis 12, Cha 15 capabilities. The Twins have also limited Base Atk +4; CMB +3; CMD 14 their hunts to Mordent and the Feats Brew Potion, Combat Casting, surrounding lands, so other heroes might Dodge, Exotic Weapon Proficiency be contacted for quests that would (Firearms), Great Fortitude, Scribe extend far beyond their homeland or Scroll even lead outside the Core. Skills Appraise +12, Craft (alchemy) + 13, Diplomacy + 11, Disable Device + 7, Knowledge (arcana) +16,

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Knowledge (dungeoneering) +11, Melee +2 Parthian rapier +15/+10 Knowledge (local) + 12, Knowledge (1d6+2/19-20) (nature) +12 , Knowledge (planar) Ranged +2 Parthian pistol +15 +11, Knowledge (religion) + 13, (1d10+6/x4) Profession (herbalist)+9, Spellcraft Ranged +1 pistol +14 (1d10+6/x4) +16, Stealth +4 Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Languages Mordentish, Balok, Special Attacks deeds, grit 1 Darkonese, Draconic, Vaasi Statistics SQ stone grip Abilities Str 10, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 12, Gear Brooch of shielding, 4x flasks of Wis 8, Cha 15 holy water, ring of protection +1, Base Atk +9; CMB +9; CMD 23 silver holy symbol of Ezra Feats Exotic Weapon Proficiency Special Abilities (firearms), Exotic Weapon Proficiency Arcane Bond (Su): Gennifer’s familiar (Parthian rapier), Gunsmithing, Point- is a cat named Sebastien. It has the Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Snap Shot, following abilities: Alertness, Sword and Pistol, Two-weapon improved evasion, share spells, Fighting, Weapon Finesse empathic link, deliver touch spells, Skills Acrobatics +16, Bluff +10, Climb speak with master, speak with animals +8, Craft (gunsmithing) +8, of its kind Diplomacy +7, Disable Device +13, Stone Grip (Su): Gennifer’s right hand Knowledge (local) +9, Perception +6, has been twisted by an unknown form Profession (herbalist) +6, Ride +12, of magic, blackening and hardening Sense Motive +4 while still being articulate. Her hand SQ grit, pistol training has hardness 8. This confers no combat Languages Mordentish, Balok bonus but allows her to pick-up or Gear 4x flasks of holy water, glove of touch items that would damage a storing, pocket watch, silver holy normal hand. symbol of Ezra, vest of escape

Laurie Weathermay- Using the Experienced Foxgrove CR 8 Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins XP 4,800 After four years of hunting creatures of Female human expert 2, gunslinger the night, the Weathermay-Foxgrove (pistolero) 7 Twins have proven their worth, skill, and LG Medium humanoid intelligence. They have combated many Init +4; Senses Perception +6 potent foes and published four volumes of monster lore and are currently Defence planning a fifth. They have struggled AC 20, touch 16, flat-footed 14 (+4 against adversity and horrors and studded leather +1, +4 Dex, +2 dodge) emerged victorious and stronger. hp 33 (2d8 + 3d10 + 5 + 3 favoured class) The Twins are less likely to require Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +6 assistance or support, but might still seek Defensive Abilities nimble +2 additional allies for complicated hunters or when facing dangerous foes. As the Offence Twins expand their influence they Speed 30 ft.

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require more help: there are often too many problems to investigate by Crimson Obsidian Ring themselves. They also acknowledge their Aura moderate necromancy; CL 9th responsibility to new champions, those Slot ring; Price 51,600 gp; Weight – inspired by their writings. They mentor Description and direct when possible, training inexperienced heroes and advising them This ring offers continual magical in methods of the hunt. protection in the form of a +3 deflection bonus to AC and protects the wearer from energy drain. The ring can absorb Van Richten’s Arsenal up to 4 negative levels. These recharge at a rate of one per day. A craftsman is only as good as his tools. This applies just as much to champions Construction Requirements of light. Forge Ring, death ward, shield of faith; After decades of fighting evil and Cost 25,800 gp journeys that took him from one end of the Core and back, Rudolph van Richten Platock’s Legacy accumulated a number of fantastic items, Aura moderate conjuration; CL 9th tools he used on his hunts, which have Slot none; Price 26,710 gp; Weight 2 saved his life numerous times. While lbs. much of her equipment is less fantastic, Laurie Weathermay-Foxgrove is known Description for her use of the exotic Parthian rapier This +2 magic short sword is also an which is also described below. undead bane weapon. Against undead, Background and further details of the the enhancement bonus increases to +4 items below can be found in Quoth the and it deals an extra 2d6 points of Raven #2. damage. The wielder also receives a +2 sacred bonus to saving throws against Amulet of Anubis the abilities of undead. Construction Requirements Aura faint abjuration; CL 1st Craft Magic Arms and Armour, summon Slot neck; Price 2,000 gp; Weight 2 lbs. monster I; Cost 13,510 gp Description This amulet is a holy symbol. It acts as a Pocket Watch of Jugend symbol of a god of the same alignment Aura strong evocation; CL 13th as the wielder. Slot none; Price 24,300 gp; Weight 4 As long as the wearer does not move, lbs. they are under the effect of the spell hide from undead. Once the wearer moves, Description they must remain motionless for an When this pocket watch is wound entire round for the effect to begin again. backwards it reverses the user’s personal Construction Requirements time. Once per day this allows the user Craft Wondrous Item, hide from undead; to ignore the physical penalties of being Cost 1,000 gp old or middle-aged, removing the penalties to Strength, Dexterity, and

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Constitution (-1 for middle-age or the If vitae seeker is used against a accumulated -3 for old age). The effects vampire the weapon’s critical modifier Str 13, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, increases to x3. If a critical hit deals Improved Sunder, Power Attack, shatter more damage than the target vampire’s last for twenty-four hours. Hit Dice + Constitution modifier, the If the watch is wound back again a vampire is staked and slain until the second time, the user reverts in stake is removed or it is completely appearance to when they were an adult. killed. Using this power reduces the remaining Construction Requirements duration by half. Craft Magic Arms and Armour, harm, Construction Requirements keen edge; Cost 2,611 gp Craft Wondrous Item, age resistance, youthful appearance; Cost 12,150 gp Parthian Rapier The anathema of honorable duels, this Vitae Seeker weapon is a rapier with a pistol built Aura strong necromancy; CL 13th into the hilt. Slot none; Price 26,401 gp; Weight 3 Benefit: Poorly balanced as a rapier, this lbs. weapon allows the wielder to fire without having to draw another weapon Description or fight with a weapon in each hand. This fire-hardened stake (short spear) is Additionally, the first time the pistol is a +2 keen weapon. The weapon hungers used in an encounter it does not provoke for blood; once per day the wielder can an attack of opportunity. A parthian make a touch attack with the weapon rapier is treated as a double weapon for that deals 1d6 points of Constitution enchanting. damage. Creatures immune to critical hits are immune to the Constitution damage dealt by this weapon.

(Exotic) Cost Dmg Dm Critical Range Misfire Capacity Weight Type Special One-Handed (S) g weapon (M) Parthian 1,350 gp 1d4 1d6 19-20/ – – – 5 lbs. P see text rapier, blade x2 Parthian '' 1d6 1d8 x4 15 ft. 1-2 (5 1 '' B '' rapier, pistol ft.) and P

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Antunia Papiècu Falkovnian super soldier Joël Paquin of the FoS [email protected]

Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +4 heart the absolute principle of self- Offense sacrifice. Speed: 20 ft. -Woodrow Wilson Base Atk: +4 Total loyalty is possible only when Melee: long sword +10 (1d8 +5, 19–20), fidelity is emptied of all concrete or slam +9 (1d6 +5, 20) content, from which changes of mind Ranged: heavy crossbow +4 (1d10/19– might naturally arise. 20) -Hannah Arendt Statistics Str 20, Dex 10, Con -, Int 11, Wis 16, Antunia Papiècu Cha 10 Feats: Alertness (+2 listen and spot LE medium humanoid (female human checks), Jaded RLCS (+4 vs. horror Falkovnian tar mummy, Warrior 4), saves), Power Attack, Toughness CR 7 Pathfinder, Weapon focus (+1 long sword) Init: +0 Skills: Climb +8, Handle Animal +7, Defense Hide +8, Intimidate +7, Jump + 9, AC: 25, touch 10, flat-footed 25 Listen +13, Move Silently +8, Ride Hp: 30 (4d12+4) +6, Spot +13 Resistance to Blows (Ex): Half SQ: Animal Command (Hawk and damage from physical attacks, applied ZweifalkGa2) (Su), Fear DC 12 (Su), before DR Hawk Loyalty (Su), Rejuvenation Damage reduction: 5/piercing 6/hour (Su), Undead Traits (Ex), Light Turn resistance: +4 Sensitivity (Ex) Immunity: Fire based attacks Languages: Falkovnian, Darkonese, Energy Vulnerability: Cold based Low Mordentish attacks (double damage)

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Combat Gear: Long sword, heavy Falkovnian insignia. After 5 years of crossbow, 20 bolts, and chain mail existence, her skin will wrinkle and Other Gear: None crack, showing her undead state. Special Abilities Hawk Loyalty (Su): Antunia (and all Background Falkovnian tar mummies) cannot Antunia Papiècu was born in Lekar’s attack anyone bearing a visible southern slum and raised in poverty. Falkovnian hawk brand, unless they Even as a young adult, she was stronger are attacked first. than many men. Few people picked on Light Sensitivity (Ex): Tar Mummies her because she would fight back are dazzled in areas of bright sunlight mercilessly. When she got older, she or within the radius of a daylight spell. knew that her goal was to become a Falkovnian Control Word (Ex): – see soldier: rank would raise her above template. At this point, Antunia is not poverty and she could use the strong controlled since she is completely physical abilities that nature gave her. trusted. Antunia enrolled in the military and Tactics during combat: Antunia (like liked it from the start. Even in the all Falkovnian tar mummies) prefers to chauvinistic Falkovnian army, she was use her martial weapon attack, able to fight for her place in the sun. reflecting her past as a Falkovnian Those soldiers that picked on her or tried fighter. Her goal is to kill her foe to force themselves upon her were found quickly so she often uses her power unconscious and bloodied from her attack feat when appropriate. If pummeling. needed, she uses her command of hawks and zweifalks (Ga2, p 119) to Antunia was not as cruel with the attack those opponents out of reach, commoners as the other Falkovnian while also attacking them with her soldiers, but she was deadly whenever crossbow. At any time, when outside, she was wronged. She fought savagely she has 2-4 hawks and 1-2 zweifalks for the state, twice as hard as any man, under her control. and her reputation grew. Her superiors Morale: Antunia fights to death. truly esteemed her fighting skills and her will to fight for Falkovnia, but her Appearance: With her armor on, advancement in the military was slow Antunia looks like a tanned and very thin because of her gender. fighter woman of about 40 years old, When her place in the army was with broad shoulders and short black secured, she complied with the duty of a hair. Antunia’s corpse is slightly woman in Falkovnia and gave two withered but not completely desiccated. children to the state. The fathers were The Falkovnian hawk brand on her soldiers whom Antonia chose for their forehead turned blackish during the physical strength. From then on, her life creation process. To most onlookers, she was divided between the military and mostly passes as human, unless people raising her two boys, Léopold and know about Falkovnian tar mummies. Niapud, to become future soldiers. When She is not wrapped in clothes or funerary she was on military duty, Antunia’s bandages like most mummies. Instead, mother helped raise the boys. she wears a suit of armor with the

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During this time, Falkfuhrer Vjorn al-Wawat was ready to test his formula Horstman, head of the Falkovnian with a real Falkovnian soldier. Ministry of Science, conducted research Otto Klockar, the Talon in charge of on mummification in order to create a the project, chose a test subject who was super soldier. The year before, the both proven in dedication to Falkovnia Falkovnian military had annihilated a and expendable: Antunia. She was temple of evil cultists near the Invidian stripped of her armor and weapons, border. The cultists left behind undead forced to drink a foul tasting brew, and Monsters of Faerun minions (Banedead ) that drowned in the tar pit while her former proved to be ferocious, cunning, and comrades laughed. atrociously dangerous. The elite More alchemical treatments were Falkovnians troops had trouble dealing applied by al-Wawat, and nearly a month with these powerful creatures and were after her immersion, Antunia was raised forced to use explosives on the entrance to unlife with terrible new powers. She to seal the horrible place forever under was still completely loyal to Falkovnia tones of rock. and her hate of the state’s enemies was Later, the Minister of Science as immense as her new strength. Antunia discovered a way to make similar remembered everything in her former ferocious unliving soldiers, but to make life as in a dream; her mind was them obedient to the state. The unliving completely focused on destruction for state of the creatures would not be the glory of her nation. obvious to the eye as are most undead. Antunia’s strength and obedience Though Vlad Drakov had little hope for were tested in many ways and she success, he approved the unliving proved to be perfect. Falkfuhrer übersoldier project. Horstman was extremely pleased by the A select group of Talons and elite preliminary results. His reports to soldiers, including Antunia, traveled to Drakov explained that a small shock the Amber Waste. In the town of Phiraz division of 40 to 60 of these obedient they found an embalming alchemical übersoldiers could easily seize a town, specialist, Rashid al-Wawat. From trade and then leave control to regular spy reports, Horstman knew this man Falkovnian troops while these shock was very close to creating obedient troops blitzkrieg elsewhere. Horstman mummy-like creature from immersion in also proposed an invasion of Darkon by tar pits. Al-Wawat’s wife and daughter these elite troops, to test how these were also brought to Falkovnia, to help unliving übersoldiers would battle the persuade him to work for Falkovnia. zombies raised at the Darkonian frontier. The Falkovnians established the As the first of her kind, Antunia was ―Teer Stahlmann‖ research camp in an charged with training the new tar abandoned mine, north-east of Morfenzi, mummy ―recruits‖ and test their near the Shadow Rift. The area was obedience before passing them on to secured by the military and only supply Otto Klockar. Antunia delighted in her caravans were allowed to enter. The new status and the fear of her former Akiri embalmer performed many comrades. experiments, killing many Falkovnian Antunia worked diligently until the prisoners. After a little more than a year, day her own sons taken out of the tar pit

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as new tar mummies. Old forgotten The informant urges the recipients to emotions returned to her dried flesh; she destroy the lab, the super soldiers, and felt pity for her sons and she began to all research notes so that the Falkovnians feel hate towards her superiors. She cannot rebuild the research camp after its realized that the government had taken destruction. from her all that she had ever possessed. The writer also describes Rashid al- From then on, she secretly hated the Wawat, a scholar kidnapped from the Ministry of Science and its leader, Vjorn Amber Wastes and forced to work on Horstman. this project. The informant proposes that the heroes rescue al-Wawat and his Current sketch family. As Antunia trained her sons, she The letter finishes with the claim that discovered that they have lost all ―this ill conceived experiment is a dreary emotion toward her and feel nothing but bleak spot in Falkovnia’s grandeur‖. The mindless devotion to the state. She is question of who wrote this anonymous deeply saddened by the loss but she letter remains a mystery for the moment, knows that she cannot turn them to her though the writing is in Falkovnian side. Antunia wants to end this secret script, written by a woman’s hand. experiment and destroy those responsible for it, especially Otto The Teer Stahlmann Project Klockar and Vjorn Horstman. Antunia The ―Teer Stahlmann project‖ camp is patiently plots her revenge in secret. As located on the top of a hill, in a deserted she cannot attack anyone with the hawk area of the Crumbling Hills, three miles brand unless attacked first, she needs north-east of the city of Morfenzi help. (Falkovnia). Only one road leads to this hill and military patrols of 2-4 soldiers Adventure hook: (F3) often scout the area half a mile around the camp. Traitor or tragic hero? There are three stone and mortar buildings on top of the hill: one is a The adventure begins when the heroes barrack for the soldiers during the day (or a trusted friend) receive a letter from (weapons and riding horses are stored an anonymous source. The message here; 3-4 guards on watch duty from the details a frightening Falkovnian ―super roof of this building). soldier‖ program, called the ―Teer The smallest of the three is Otto Stahlmann project‖ and claims that any Klockar’s house and the last building is a of these super soldiers can defeat 15 storage building, without windows. The ordinary soldiers. This program is close door to this building is heavily guarded to success and that would mean great (3-4 guards, F3). danger for Falkovnia’s neighbors. The writer identifies the exact location of the Otto’s house is simple and Morfenzi secret research camp, and hints undecorated. A desk contains coded that to destroy the soldiers: ―do not use letters from Horstman. If deciphered fire‖. (Decipher Script DC 25), the players learn among other things that Horstman is putting pressure on Klockar to quickly

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7. The soldiers sleep here and the room contains many camp beds. Many locked chests contain the soldiers’ pay (20 chests total, with 1-20 gp each). The newly created tar mummy recruits have a bed here too (in the second room number 7). increase the number of übersoldiers, 8. Antunia’s private room for rest and ―unless he wants to be transformed into rejuvenation. It contains nothing of one himself‖. value. Most of the research complex is underground and solely accessible from 9. Al-Wawat’s study (contains many a hidden trap door in the storage papers in Pharazian and building. Falkovnian, the sum total of his notes for the creation of übersoldiers). Hidden under a table Description of Underground is an envelope containing the Rooms: complete list of control words for the Falkovnian tar mummies. There 1. The ladder coming down from the are two other copies of this list; one storage building ends here. The is kept in Otto Klockar’s belt pouch corridors are lit by torches posted and the other filed with restricted every 30 feet. access at the Ministry of Science. 2. One guard is usually on duty here 10. Two laboratories. The scholar al- (F3). He has the key to the locked Wawat spends most of his time gate to restricted area 3. here, often alone. The rest of the 3. One guard is usually on duty here time, a (bored) guard watches him. (F3). He checks on his colleague in area 2 every 15 minutes. This guard has the key to the locked gates leading to area 4 and both 11 rooms. 4. This area is empty except of the smell of corpses and chemicals. 5. Additional storage (food (5a) and alchemical products (5b)) 6. Al-Wawat’s family [wife: Layali (Com1), and daughter Nuzha, 8 years old, (Com1)] is kept locked in this tiny room. They can go outside, under guard, once per day, for 15 minutes. At the end of his long workday, al-Wawat is brought here to sleep. (Room plan from a recycled and modified WotC map, taken from their website)

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A cage in one of these rooms creating an opportunity for the PCs to restrains a berserk mummy, its sneak in. mind uncontrollable, and kept here Optional event - 2: A squad of 6 for further study. powries (Redcap Arak) attacks the 11. Two empty rooms, with blood heroes while they are spying on the stains on the floor. They are used as camp (VR's Guide to the Shadow Fey). cells for people destined to be The redcaps were under orders to turn immersed under tar, or as Otto Klockar into a changeling, in order reanimating rooms for tar mummy to control the base. recruits. Optional random event - 3: Isolated Optional Event - 1: If the heroes are hills encounter with a Bloodmote cloud planning to spy on the camp for a period [Libris Mortis] (a swarm of undead of time before entering in it, you can add mosquitoes). this event. After they had located the camp, the When the heroes arrive in the area, heroes need to stealthily enter the camp, there are more than 200 soldiers and (hopefully) destroy all mummies, temporarily camped around the hill. the lab, and then save al-Wawat and his family. Falkovnian soldiers (200) The mummies attack all persons not Falkovnian officers (20) Falkovnian Talon (10) bearing a Falkovnian hawk brand. see Gazetteer II, p 101 for stats The following statistics details the number of soldiers of the camp at any time. Adjust Some kind of temporary stand has the numbers as you see fit for your group. been built in front of a cleared area, for Falkovnian soldiers (20) VIP to watch the demonstration. Vjorn Falkovnian officers (4) Horstman is in attendance, as are other Falkovnian Talon (1, Otto Klockar) top people from the government, and See Gazetteer II, p 101 for stats possibly Drakov (father or son)). Heroes

watching the camp are witness to a demonstration of strength from Antunia, Falkovnian Tar mummies (6): medium who is matched against two waves of 10 humanoid (human tar mummy, rank 2, soldiers (Falkovnians prisoners) in a Warrior 3), CR 6; HD 3d12+3, hp: 23; Init fight to the death. The demonstration is +0; Speed 30 ft.; AC 20 (touch 10, flat- footed 20); Atk +3 melee long sword +8 outstanding, and short, as Antunia easily (1d8 +5, 19–20), or slam +9 (1d6 +5, 20); destroys both waves of fighters. AL LE, SV Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +4; Str 20, This event should persuade the Dex 10, Con -, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 10. players to do all they can to stop this Skills: Climb +8, Handle Animal +6, Hide +8, supersoldier program and will make Intimidate +6, Jump + 9, Listen +13, Move things more interesting when the heroes Silently +8, Ride +5, Spot +13 encounter Antunia during a battle. Feats: Alertness, Power Attack, Toughness It would be foolish for the heroes to SQ: Resistance to Blows (Ex), Damage attack the camp this day. The next day reduction, Turn resistance, Immunity to the VIP guests and 200 soldiers leave the fire based attacks, Energy Vulnerability area for Lekar. Once the VIPs have left (cold), Fear (Su), Hawk Loyalty (Su), the camp, the guards become relaxed, Falkovnian Control Word (Ex),

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Rejuvenation (Su), Undead Traits (Ex), The heroes then have a difficult Light Sensitivity (Ex) choice: should they destroy Antunia, as Languages: Falkovnian she is a living dead creature, or should Gear: Long sword they help her get her revenge on Falkfuhrer Horstman? Antunia might eventually agree to, or At one point during the attack, things even ask, to be laid to her final rest by should look bad for the heroes. They will the PC’s, but not before she has her be overwhelmed by soldiers or tar revenge against Horstman. mummies. At that moment, they will get If al-Wawat and his family survive, help from Antunia who now has control the players may have to decide how to over three tar mummy recruits. Antunia get the embalmer and his family to cannot personally engage in any fight safety, away from the reaches of the with Falkovnians, but she has control Falkovnians. over the tar mummy recruits and can force them to stop fighting. Antunia is currently free willed, but Recurrence three people know of her secret control If Antunia is not killed during this world: Otto Klockar, Rashid al-Wawat adventure, she is declared an enemy of and Vjorn Hostman. Antunia does not Falkovnia. If she succeeded in the know that Horstman possess her control destruction of the ―Teer Stahlmann word. project‖ camp and the burning of the After the fight, Antunia states that creation process notes, she moves on to the heroes have ―erased a dreary bleak her next goal: planning the assassination spot in Falkovnia’s grandeur‖. The of Falkfuhrer Vjorn Horstman. heroes might realize she is the one who wrote the letter.

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Falkovnian Tar Mummies Falkovnian Tar mummy is a new type of Rejuvenation (Su): As if their physical Ravenloft Ancient Dead, based on the invulnerability weren't enough, Ravenloft Ancient Dead (rank 2) Falkovnian tar mummies are capable of template. drawing on the Positive Energy Plane to Compared to the ancient dead heal damage. This is a relatively slow template, the following features are process (6 HP per hour) and requires the modified because of the unusual tar mummy to be inert for one day before immersion creation process: the rejuvenation begins. The mummy is Appearance, DR (always piercing), always inert during rejuvenation. An higher turn resistance, higher speed. inert mummy is incapable of any action Weaknesses added: Hawk Loyalty (Su), and cannot perceive its surroundings; it Light Sensitivity (Ex) and Falkovnian is effectively helpless. A mummy that Control Word (Ex). has started the rejuvenation process cannot end it until it is completed. Also, these mummies do not protecting a place such as a tomb from Special Qualities: As base character, intruders, but instead fight at the plus the following: command of their creator (or anyone the Energy Vulnerability (Ex): Cold. The creator passes its control to, here being Falkovnian tar mummy suffers double the Falkovnian state). damage from attacks of this energy type. Immunity (Ex): This type of mummy is Template immune to fire energy attacks. Resistant to Blows (Ex): The Falkovnian "Falkovnian tar mummy" is a template tar mummy is incredibly resistant to that can be applied to any living creature physical attacks. Physical attacks only referred to hereafter as the "base do half damage, applied before damage character"). The creature's type changes reduction. to "undead." The ancient retains all the statistics of the base character except Turn Resistance (Ex): The mummy where noted. receives +4 turn resistance. Hit Dice: Increase to d12. Hawk Loyalty (Su): The tar mummy Speed: +10 ft cannot attack anyone bearing the AC: The base creature receives a bonus Falkovnian hawk brand, unless attacked of +8 to its natural armor class. first. The mummy could be fooled by Attacks and Damage: Retains all of the disguise, but it will attack anyone base creature's attacks and gains a slam bearing a false hawk brand, if it knows attack (1d6) if it didn't already have the brand to be false. one. Falkovnian Control Word (Ex): Special Attacks: As base character, plus Falkovnian Tar Mummies are created the following: with a secret control word known to the creator and the mummy to make it Damage Reduction (Ex): The mummy obedient and loyal to the Falkovnian receives damage reduction 5/piercing. state. At the time of their creation, the tar mummy makes a Will save against a DC

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24. If the mummy fails its Will save, the Feats: Same as base character, plus the control word takes effect. This control Alertness and Toughness Pathfinder feats. word can never be changed and is Climate/Terrain: any. usually known to very few people. The Organization: Solitary or squadron (4- mummy will obey all commands from a 40) Falkovnian controlling them with the Challenge Rating: +2. control word. Treasure: If any, masterwork or magical This control can be verbally passed martial weapons and armors. to another Falkovnian in front of the Alignment: Always lawful evil. mummy by this secret control word Advancement: By character class. exchange. If this person is ever killed or disappears, any Falkovnian with the Salient Powers control word could take control of the Animal Command (Su): Theses undead mummy. The mummies will never be are able to exert control over hawks, controlled by someone not bearing the eagles and Falkovnian zweifalksGa2. Falkovnian Hawk brand. If they succeed They can command animals of this the DC 24 check upon creation, this species just as an evil cleric can obedience is flawed (DM’s choice for command undead. This ability takes what happens and when). effect as if used by a cleric of level equal Light Sensitivity (Ex): The mummy is to the mummy's Hit Dice. dazzled in areas of bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell. Saves: Same as base character. Advancement Abilities: Refer to Table 5-3 of Falkovnian tar mummies are created to Ravenloft Campaign Setting. As an be particularly active and might be able undead creature, the base character no to advance in a warrior class: Fighter, longer has a Constitution score. Warrior, Barbarian, or other martially Skills: The tar mummy receives a +8 inclined class. racial bonus to the skills Climb, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot.

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Along the River Mills and Industry in Ravenloft By Stephen “ScS” Sutton [email protected]

direction. The structure is made of old Elora Textiles wooden beams, darkened by moisture from the river. Where the mill meets the Fed by rain run-off, the Grand River river rolls the titanic water wheel that flows down from the costal cliffs of powers the mill. The wheel is noticeably western Mordent, down into the low more recent than the rest of the building, boggy heartland and into the Elora having been installed by the current Gorge, a narrow canyon carved by the owners. river into the soft sandstone. The gorge is bordered by forest and farmsteads and The current mill has operated for crossed at its narrowest point by a nearly fifty years, starting when farmers wooden bridge. Near to that bridge, from the hamlet of Salem decided to perched treacherously on the side of that collect raw wool from the hills and crumbling chasm, is a wool mill. manufacture thread for export to neighboring Dementlieu and The building predates any historical Richemulot. Rather than construct their records from the area, though there are own structure, the farmers repurposed signs that suggest that the mill was once the old abandoned grain mill. Extensive employed to grind grain. Old masonry repairs were required, given the great shows that several buildings were age of the mill, the damp climate, and erected at the same spot on the river. The the unstable cliffs. remains suggest that successive structures collapsed as the river eroded The inside of the mill is dark, loud the cliffs. and hideously hot. Teamsters offload bags of raw wool down a chute, which The foundation of the Mill is made dumps the sacks into a sub-basement cut of stone and mortar, wedged into a notch into the cliff face. There, the wool is in the sandstone cliffs. Seated atop the washed and bleached. The white wool is stone foundation, the main building runs dumped into the ―carding‖ machinery, a along the side of the cliff in either bank of rollers studded with metal teeth.

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The wool fibers are formed into a rope Except for the first year of operation, of wool, known as a roving, which is no one who has owned the Mill has then run to the floor above where it is dared to set foot within its walls. Albert spun into thread. Warwick was the first manager and part- These finished threads are either owner of the Mill. He was killed in a collected and rolled for sale, or fed into horrific accident while repairing the the looms in the upper floors. Bolts of carding machine. Rumor has it that some cloth are constantly being wrapped in the of his hair and flesh made its way into topmost floor, and may be dumped from the thread and it is believed that to this the roof onto wagons waiting below. It is day there are people wearing clothes said that a on a good day, a merchant can made in part from Albert Warwick. exchange a bag of wool for a bolt of cloth without even stopping his wagon. Meaus Tannery A small town has grown alongside The waters of the Musarde River flow the mill, expanding and shrinking as the into the city of Mortigny clean and clear, demand for thread rises and falls. Nearly and flow out yellow and fouled. When a hundred spinners, weavers and general the wind blows from the south of the laborers work in the mill all year round. city, it is poisoned by a noxious miasma Several times, the Mill has been closed: made of equal parts sewage gas and once when a lamb-pox decimated the chemical stink. These foul pollutants can wool supply, and twice thereafter when be traced to a single building teetering at economics reduced the demand for cloth. the southern-most edge of town: the The original owners of the mill have Meaus Tannery. prospered, become wealthy, and The tannery processes the skins intermarried. The mill is owned by the collected by hunters from the Verbrek Wainrighte, the Warwick, and the forests and the Arkendale river valleys. Hammond families, though the day-to- The building teeters on the southern day operations of the mill are overseen edge of Mortigny, at the end of a block by a manager. The current overseer is of the sagging buildings. Apart from a Kent Johnson, a tall, lean man with slaughterhouse, the neighboring ghost-white hair. He is a fair manager buildings are vacant, due to the who begrudges any expense and overwhelming stench of the tannery. tolerates no nonsense. Johnson imported Once upon a time, the Meaus a clock from Dementlieu and forces the Tannery might have been a model of employees to work ten-hour shifts all utilitarian construction; it is tall and year round, regardless of daylight. rectangular brick building with a great A short time ago, Johnson gambrel roof. Today, the building is commissioned a Lamordian engineer to dilapidated, even by the standards of create a water-powered loom, so as to Richemulot. The masonry is black with make better use of the river and save on the centuries of soot and crumbling from the cost of spinners and weavers. Much the erosion of the rain. Not one single to the relief of the weavers, the wall stands straight, the ceilings sag, and engineer’s design failed. Johnson is the floors slope in multiple directions. looking for a new designer to finish the The whole worm-eaten edifice leans job, though he has had little luck. precipitously towards the river, as if

40 Quoth the Raven 18 contemplating a suicidal plunge into the merchant who was given the position by water. a rich relative. The drunkard would have The vicious stink of the tannery is been fired long ago, were there anyone caused by the process of turning hides more reliable willing to work in the into supple leather. Raw animal skins are noxious tannery. Most of the laborers are bathed in the river for a day before children, apprenticed to the tannery by workers use razors to scrape the skins of impoverished parents. what bits of rotting fat and meat remain. To remove the hairs, workers scrub the Ste. Marie Timber hides with a caustic solution made from Though there are many uses for bricks urine, salt, and acid. and stone and mortar, wood remains the The stripped skins are then dumped most important building material. Yet, in into rolling drums along with a noxious most domains, the forests are part of the mixture of raw sewage and cow brains holdings of feudal nobles. These lords obtained from a nearby slaughterhouse. and ladies seek to preserve their Water action turns the drums, allowing woodlands for their own use, rather than the skins to be evenly coated by the filth allow commoners to harvest the timber. as they fester for several days. Slowly, Thus, wood for building is dearly the vile stew breaks down the hide and expensive. However, nestled in the softens the skin. The supple hide is forests of Verbrek there is a forested kneaded, stretched, and rubbed with land where no man claims ownership wood oils to add color. and the forest’s bounty is free for the Waste chemicals from the industrial taking. process are dumped directly into the Ste. Marie Timber is a lumber camp river. This run-off gives the city a in the Arkendale valley, set on the rocky distinctive stench in far excess of most delta where the Red River and Lupin settlements. Even the rats shun the Creek feed into the Musarde River. A tannery, which is one reason that the consortium from Ste. Ronges founded slaughterhouse is located so close to it. Ste. Marie in 740, not as a lumber mill The finished leather is sold but as a trading post to supply the throughout the city, where it is made into farmsteads of settlers from Richemulot. everything from fine shoes to furniture. Almost all of these colonies failed, with Scrapings of leather are even boiled the settlers either fleeing, being down to make hide-glue. The city of devoured by beasts of the woods, or Mortigny depends on the leather vanishing without a trace. During that produced by the tannery, but the tanners time the site of Ste. Marie suffered themselves are reviled as pariahs. The constant attacks. The post was once tanners are segregated from the rest of razed by hostile Verbrekers, and in 746 town and are forced to live in a special all occupants of the post were slain by block of houses known as L’puanteur. beasts, most likely wolves. L’puanteur is a sorry block of Though the wave of colonists waned, ramshackle houses, downriver from the prospectors and lumberjacks continued Meaus. to flood down the Musarde, despite the When he is somber, Guy Legros frightening attrition. The consortium oversees the tannery. He is a failed rebuilt the camp as a lumber mill to

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refine the raw timbers harvested by Unfinished logs are then edged into camps along the Red River. The site was four-sided ―flitches‖ by water-powered reinforced on the landside and river whip-saws. These smaller saws are merchant Nathan Timothy was powered by waterwheels, which turn a contracted to deliver provisions to the crank to move a ―pitman arm‖ up and isolated camp. down, creating a continuous vertical Ste. Marie is fed a steady diet of raw sawing motion. Flitches are dried for logs by timber crews working along the several days and then planed into regular Red River, a tributary of the Musarde. planks by a whip-saw. The finished The timber crews have found that planks are stacked near the river, for maintaining permanent camps is later loading onto barges. hopeless in the Verbrek forests, so The vast majority of the camp instead they wander up and down the workers are laborers from Richemulot or river. Trees are felled at timber camps, civilized Verbrekers. There is no tavern dressed into logs, and floated down the in the camp, though the camp kitchen Red River in packed masses of logs sells meals to travelers, albeit at a cost called ―jams‖. Nimble log drivers walk bordering on the criminal. Bunks in the the log jams, using pikes to keep the jam laborer barracks are rented to travelers moving. The Ste. Marie Timber Mill sits too sensible to risk a night in the forest. at the mouth of the Red River where it An overseer from Ste. Ronges manages collects the logs as they flow down the the lumber camp, though these agents river. rarely stay for long. Each day, Ste. Marie Timber greets The camp is bordered by water to the the dawn with a cacophony of South and East sides, and a tall wooden screeching metal and splitting wood. By palisade on the West side. Ste. Marie is noontime, the air is infused with a haze thus protected from the beasts of the of fine wood particles so thick that forests, though it is completely anything left unattended is rapidly buried dependent on the river for supplies. in a coating of the sawdust. Timothy farms out the Ste. Marie The logs taken from the river are deliveries to lesser merchants, though he sorted by species, scaled to a common extorts a high percentage of the profits, length, and stripped of their bark. Raw forcing his cronies to charge criminal logs are cut at the ―drop mill‖, a great rates for the supplies they carry. Since saw powered by a water-wheel. The Nathan controls the river, Ste. Marie hefty blade and its frame is first lifted up must suffer him and his stooges or else by the water-wheel, then dropped, starve. cutting though the log and making a loud The summer months are a dangerous knocking noise that echoes for miles. time for the camp. The water level drops The largest logs are cut and planed by a dangerously low, slowing boat traffic two-man team in a ―saw pit‖. In this and delaying crucial deliveries of slow, laborious process, the log is supplies. Worse yet, the slower flow of suspended above a pit, with one man the Musarde allows wolves from the standing in the pit and pulling one end of woods to swim the river and circle the whip-saw, while the other man around the palisade. stands above the log, guiding the saw The only land route from the camp is and pulling the other end. Dead Man’s Path, a narrow trail leading

42 Quoth the Raven 18 west into the forests. In times long past, than simple beasts lurk along the trail. the trail was used by hunters, but as the The hunters say that they have found lumber camp grew, so too did wolf strange charms strung up from the trees, attacks. Those who dare Dead Man’s including the bleached bones of Path swear that something more malign unfortunate travelers.

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More Hidden Places Dark Corners of the Demiplane By Jack the Reaper [email protected]

Cenobites ("Hellraiser"), the Strangers Nightmare City ("Dark City") and Freddy Krueger ("Nightmare on Elm Street").] The Nightmare City is a place of The Nightmare City is a large perpetual night and horror. The skies are metropolis, but its actual population is perpetually overcast with dark clouds, much smaller than its capacity. About lightened by occasional blue and red 3000 Nightmare People live in the city, lightning flashes. The tall gothic along with about 100 human captives. buildings have a darkly twisted and There are also other nightmarish animals surreal look, like a setting taken from a and creatures in the city, and some other nightmare. Most of the city appears to be monsters as well. vacant, but a sense of imminent dread is in the air, and travelers get the The Nightmare People kidnap human impression that every shadow conceals babies and little children from the human some threat, that eyes are following them world and bring them to their city. They from every dark window. And this wrap their minds with a permanent impression is very much true. phantasmal enchantment, known as the Veil, which makes them perceive the The Nightmare City is the home of world around them as a normal human the Nightmare People. Those horrid world: the skies look blue, with a shining humanoids are all pale-skinned, bald, sun rising and setting regularly; the city's and have long, razor-sharp metallic buildings and streets appear like a fingernails and sharp silver teeth. Some normal human city; and the Nightmare of them display peculiar deformities, People look just like regular human such as patches of flayed skin, terribly beings. There's nothing to raise the scarred faces, burning marks, horns and human captives’ suspicions about the tails. They usually dress in black robes. true nature of the world they live in. [For inspiration, think of characters like the Gentlemen (Buffy episode "Hush"),

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The Nightmare People fill the roles almost all of the Nightmare City's human of the human's family and friends. They captives. are the perfect performers, and each of But this is not always the case. them plays his or her role to perfection, Sometimes, the Veil malfunctions, and pretends to be the human's parent, the captive gets glimpses of the world sibling, schoolmate, and with time, also around him as it truly is. It usually his or her spouse and children (the happens when the captive awakens from offspring of human and Nightmare sleep; he might open his eyes in the People are always Nightmare People). middle of the night, and find himself in When they are in a human captive's what seems to be a nightmarish parody presence, all nightmare people behave of his house, with some horrid being just like human beings, taking great lying in the bed next to him. caution not to do or say anything which The Nightmare People will try to may break their masquerade. Only when convince this captive that it was only a they are certain that no human is around nightmare, which he is most likely to do they revert to their natural behavior. believe. But the experience might repeat In addition to the Nightmare People, itself, in other places and during waking who play the central roles, the Veil also times, and some other disturbing clues fills the captive mind with illusionary may show up – fissures in the people and animals, which exist nowhere masquerade; an actor Nightmare Man but in his head; he may speak and might slip with his tongue, and say or do interact with them normally, but in fact something he is not supposed to, or the they are just like creations of a dreamer's captive may come upon Nightmare mind. Those illusions fill the roles of People who are not aware of his extras in a movie, and are meant to give presence, and see them behave very the otherwise rather vacant city the strangely… image of a bustling, lively human The captive may encounter other settlement. captives, who also have figured out some A captive might live all of his or her or all of the truth, and cooperate with life in the Nightmare City, without ever them. They must be careful to the suspecting that something is wrong. The extreme - as long as their Veils are exact purpose of the Nightmare People active, they can't even know whether in doing that is unclear, but it seems they anyone they meet (including someone produce some sustenance from the they’ve known all of their life) is a humans' spiritual energies. Other human captive, a Nightmare Man or just speculation is that Nightmare People an illusion; and if their captors would cannot reproduce between themselves, learn that their secret has been exposed, and they have to mate with humans in the captives’ lives would quickly come order to multiply. to a grisly end. Either way, when they decide for It might be easier to pretend that all some reason that a human captive has is as usual when the Veil is still outlived his usefulness, they remove the functioning, and everything at least Veil from his mind, exposing him to the appears normal (even if the captives true horror of his condition, and then kill already know that it's not), but him horribly and use his spirit in some eventually the Veil will collapse, and the unspeakable manner. This is the fate of captives will have to face the true horror

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of the Nightmare City, and try against all is bland, ugly and watery, and the odds to find a way out. The best option bedclothes are dank and filthy. And we is to find one of the ways the Nightmare haven't mentioned the water closets People use to get to the human world yet… and escape through it, but it is a most The inn's staff, and all the other difficult task. And even if the captives guests of the inn, seem to display every make it with their bodies intact, what possible kind and level of insanity and would happen to their minds? Can a weirdness. Some of them are gibbering human being discover that all of his life lunatics, others may look normal at first, has been a terrible illusion, his beloved but short conversation reveals their real ones inhuman monsters, and remain status. Most of the guests are harmless, sane? Will he ever be able to look at the but some might be dangerous, and others world without the fear that maybe it is are too friendly. They are all grotesque nothing but another illusion – to look at and bizarre in some way or another, with a human face without imagining that heavy makeup, old, unfashionable behind the smile lurks a demon? clothes, and all kind of strange appearances and behaviors. Some of the 'End of the Road' Inn guests don't look quite human; others don't look quite alive. The PCs are traveling in some unfamiliar The PCs might think that they can city, when a storm forces them to seek endure a night in this place, just until the shelter. The only place they come upon rain stops and the storm clears. They will is a large stone inn in one of the worst find out it's not going to be so easy to parts of the city, which looks as though it check out from this inn. Something is was a part of a fortress in its past. The really wrong with this place. After some name inscribed on a wooden sign time within, the PCs lose track of time. hanging over the entrance is "'End of the They won't be able to say how long they Road' Inn". have been in the inn, and how much time On the inside, the place is nothing has passed outside – hours? Days? It's but the most miserable, dismal inn the always dark in there, and the storm PCs have ever seen. Everything, from outside never seems to cease, so they basement to rooftop, is rotten, decaying, can't even know if it's day or night. dark, dank, dirty, filthy, and bad- It also becomes increasingly difficult smelling. The rooms and corridors are to find the way from one place to dark, with hardly a flickering candle here another inside the inn. Either the house and there, which serves only to cast itself shifts, or it plays tricks with the some moving shadows around. guests' minds. Every time a PC leaves The air is dense, water drips through his or her room, he finds it more difficult the ceilings, floorboards and window to find his way back to it, or to any other panes are covered with layers of grime, location in the building. and some corridors are flooded ankle- Corridors turn in endless circles, deep. Mold is growing freely on walls door numbers are arranged in senseless and ceilings, spider webs are on every order, and every sense of direction is corner, and huge roaches, moths and lost. A PC might descend several flights other vermin seem to be fiercely of stairs, only to find himself on the attracted to the guests. The food served upper floor. She might just leave her

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room for a moment, and then find a the PCs will have a most difficult time whole different room when she returns. trying to convince them otherwise – As a result, the PCs will find themselves perhaps they are not even sure of it wandering endlessly through the house, themselves; and so they may find coming in touch with other guests, and themselves quickly ushered back into the finding no rest or calm. Even when they asylum – and this time it will be the End are in their room, other guests might of the Road indeed… wander inside at any time – there are no locks on the doors. Quarter of the Dead When they decide to leave this place, the PCs will not be able to find the way The city of Neblus in Darkon is said to out. They can wander for hours without be built upon the site of an ancient finding the exit. Sometimes they even graveyard from a forgotten age. The forget what they are looking for. The locals say that by keeping the dead nature of the place, and the contacts with underfoot, they stop them from rising to the insane guests, will quickly gnaw at reclaim their land. One area, however, their sanity. They might be persuaded or has never been completely conquered by forced by other guests to take part in all the living. The Quarter of the Dead is a kind of bizarre and depraved activities. dead limb attached to the body of Some guests might tell them they know a Neblus, serving the denizens as a grim way out, but ask for some freakish reminder of the fact that the original favors in return, and finally only lead dwellers of the land have never truly left, them on another goose chase through the and are never far away. inn. One can live in Neblus for years, After some conversations and without even being aware of the activities with the insane, the PCs may existence of the Quarter of the Dead. start doubt their own sanities, memories Built on the down slope of Neblus' and identities – and the doubts will only northern hill, the Quarter was abandoned make them deteriorate further toward by (or emptied of) all its living residents madness. It also seems that their shortly after its population in unknown, appearances change; looking at mirrors mysterious circumstances. Some whisper or on each other, they seem to look more that the residents didn't leave, but and more like the other guests, grotesque disappeared; others murmur of some and bizarre. dark entity from the Grey Realm which Finally, the PCs shall find a way out was responsible to this evacuation. of the inn. But when they make their Most of the streets and entrances way through the streets outside, they will leading to the quarter have been sealed encounter the local police or city guard, and blocked with stone walls centuries and the truth shall be found out. The ago, giving the impression that there is denizens of the city consider the End of nothing but a dead end of the street. the Road Inn to be a mental asylum Denizens will never speak about the (whether it is – or was once - indeed so, District's existence, or even acknowledge or due to the inn’s influence on the they have ever heard of it; if asked about denizens' minds), and the guards are sure it, they will usually walk away with that the PCs are escapee inmates. In their blank face, fearful eyes and gestures of current mental and physical condition, protection from evil.

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There are some towers and tall At night, the Quarter of the Dead is structures in Neblus from which some all dark, though the lights of the city portion of the Quarter can be seen, but might be seen floating beyond the walls those towers are usually abandoned, or if like some ghostly lanterns. Sounds are populated, have all their windows facing carried through the air, seemingly from a the Quarter permanently sealed. Only by great distance, but their source is a careful study of the city's layout can unclear. Sometimes a lit candle is seen in one notice that there's a part of the city an alcove in the wall or on a windowsill. which is completely inaccessible; and Shadows slip swiftly along dark only by a thorough search – or a alleys, their murmurings fill the listener's complete coincidence – can one come mind with madness. On occasions, upon one of the few entrances left open parades of dark hooded figures are seen to the District. marching on the streets, carrying The destitute houses in the Quarter ornamented lanterns, appearing and of the Dead are all built of stone blocks, disappearing into lightless underground and all the streets are paved with openings, or some evil-looking temples. cobblestones. Those pale, white-grey Strange, unfamiliar stars and stones are always cool and somewhat constellations are seen in the night sky, slippery to the touch. Many doorways staring down on the travelers with cold, and windows are sealed and blocked, but baleful light. not all. Since the Quarter is built on a hill's slope, many streets are actually long stairways, leading to the next level. The Hall of Doors The streets themselves are narrow Usually considered the stuff of legends and labyrinthine, and one can easily lose and fairy-tales, the Hall of Doors is an his way in the maze of alleys. Some of extra-dimensional place with countless them are shadowed by large stone doors, which might be opened to arches, looming over the street. As in the anywhere in the world (or multiverse). rest of Neblus, tombstones and Every door, in every place, might cemetery-styled statuary can frequently become for a short time an opening to be seen among the pavestones and walls. the Hall of Doors. The whole area has a feeling of antiquity Nobody knows the pattern behind the about it. Eerie silence is in the air, Hall's manifestations, if there is any, and undisrupted even by the chirping of many scholars look for a way to birds, which seem to be completely intentionally transform a doorway into absent, along with any other living being an opening to the Hall. No such method – even insects can't be seen anywhere. has been discovered so far, but it seems There is a feeling of an almost that strong desire and need may "attract" palpable foulness in the stones and the the Hall of Doors and make an opening air, and a faint, sweet stench can appear. The door functions as a gateway sometimes be smelled, carried with the only for a short time, a few minutes at wind. Travelers find themselves walking most, after which it returns to normal. on their toes and speaking with hushed The Hall of Doors itself is composed voices, as if afraid to disturb the rest of of an endless complex of corridors, some sleeping malevolent presence. stairways and halls, the walls of which are lined with endless rows of doors of

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every possible description. Every door risking the Hall for a better exit might may lead to another part of the Hall, or bring far worse results. to any other doorway in the world. There It is unknown whether the Hall of is no way to know where any door leads Doors is a domain, an oubliette, or to, and all attempts to chart the Hall have something completely different. Who failed. Theoretically, one who knows built it? Does it have a will or mind of its how to navigate the Hall of Doors can own, is it controlled by some force, or make his way easily to any place across does it only twist chaotically between the world or universe, but it is doubtful if the worlds without purpose? The there is any being who knows how to do answers to all those questions are it. completely obscure. Some Vistani seem to know a way to It should be noted however, that use the Hall in order to reach some many travelers have reported a strange specific locations, some of them might figure, looking like a woman dressed in be unreachable by any other means. white robes and a hood concealing her Curiously enough, it seems that certain face, who sometimes reveals herself to children songs contain clues to the travelers and wordlessly gestures toward pattern and order of doors leading to some door or another. Others saw her some legendary places, clues disguised floating in the air along the Hall's as nonsensical lullabies and playing- passages, singing with a longing voice a songs. It is speculated that some song in a language nobody seems to bogeymen use the Hall to reach closets recognize. It is unclear though whether and bedroom doors, carrying away this figure is benign or malign (or children to some terrible kingdom. neither), and whether she leads those Traveling in the Hall of Doors is who follow her to their desired very dangerous. Creatures of any kind destination or to damnation. Some have might be encountered, as well as other named this character "The Lady of the travelers of any description, from across Hall of Doors", but this title – as well as many worlds. Even more dangerous its meaning - is dubious at best. though is the Hall itself. The longer travelers stay within the Hall, the greater the risk to remain trapped in it forever. The Pseudonatural Grove Doors might lead to rooms without Many travelers in the forests of exits, disappearing behind the traveler Falkovnia tell about a mysterious, and leaving him trapped for all eternity; beautiful Green Maiden, whose mere or a traveler may find himself in an sight induces blindness, and whose touch endless sequence of doors, in which deforms living beings into monsters (see every door leads only to another door, Ravenloft Gazetteer II). Some sages and so on endlessly. Creatures in the have speculated correctly that this Hall of Doors do not age, and do not Maiden is not a creature native to the require food or drink, so entrapment Lands of the Mists, but an alien invader might be literally forever. Travelers are from the strange plane known as the Far therefore recommended to leave the Hall Realm. None of them know however, at first opportunity, even if the exit they that the Green Maiden is only the herald find leads to an unfamiliar location, for of an invasion by a cosmic horror of a much greater scale.

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Following the doppelganger plant The radius of the area affected by the which decimated the village of xenorganus spread further like a huge Delmunster during the events of Horror's spherical globe, and eventually reached Harvest (see Dungeon Magazine #38), the earth's surface. The ground then another meteorite fell down from the changed into a grey, rubbery fabric, night sky, crashing in a distant, reminiscent of the skin of a squid; trees uninhabited part of the vast Falkovnian became twisted tumors, their bark forests. Far from being a natural rock transformed into a dark, scaly hide, from outer space, this meteorite was mouths gaping on their trunks and actually the seed of a horrid entity from clusters of eyes sprouting from their the Far Realm, a being named branches; bushes became clusters of xenorganus by some ancient tomes. Sent tentacles, and even stranger things, like across the multiverse, the xeno-seeds brain-shaped giant mushrooms, started plant themselves in the soil of growing from the ground. unsuspecting worlds, and immediately Animals were driven insane, and start transforming the whole planet into a some of them were twisted into gigantic, living pseudonatural pseudonatural abominations. The lake in monstrosity. the middle of the grove became a The seed of the xenorganus buried bubbling pool of oily liquid, itself some hundreds of feet deep in the occasionally spawning bizarre beings. forest's soil, and quickly developed into This pseudonatural grove is the haven of a large, fleshy heart-like organ, the Green Maiden, and she will do surrounded by a spherical, protective everything in her power to protect it and hard tissue. Pulsing deep below the make it flourish. surface of the earth, the organ gradually The only way to stop the xenorganus transformed all matter in its from spreading its foul essence into the surroundings into organic matter, whole world is to travel deep forming the body of the xenorganus. underground into the creature's entrails, Earth transformed into a fleshy find its pulsing heart and destroy it. This substance; stalactites and stalagmites is not a simple task, for the creature will became teeth-like growths; lakes and protect itself in the same manner a living fountains started bubbling with body fights intruders, using tentacles and digestive, acidic liquids and other weird limbs, digestive fluids, and creatures substances; tentacles, antennas and spawned from its pools – not to mention eyestalks sprout from the ground, walls the Green Maiden. The heart itself, and ceiling; and so on. whose radius is about 5 meters, is The basic structure of the area surrounded by a hard, spherical envelope (tunnels, caves, pits etc.) didn't change of scaly tissue, which must be penetrated significantly, only its composition, so in order to reach it. Once the heart is that a cave now looked like a fleshy or destroyed, the xenorganus is dead, and intravenous tunnel, a pit like a suction- the whole area will revert to normal in mouth, etc. One who walks inside the few days. xenorganus will feel the pulsing and [For more inspiration on Far Realm pounding of the being, and rightfully get invasions and influence, see Dragon the sensation of being inside an Magazine #330.] enormous living creature.

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actually are all quite friendly and We Are One pleasant folk, though reclusive and mysterious. In a secluded piece of land, far from They always seem to be calm and in every human settlement, stands the self control, never losing their temper or monastery of Havern. It is a massive acting impulsively. Even the children building made of grey stone, simple and seem to be outstandingly mature and functional, decorated simply with angel intelligent, taking their part in the chores statues and murals. The inscription and hardly ever seen playing. When engraved over the heavy entrance doors speaking with one of the monks, even says "’TILL ALL ARE ONE". with the children, one always gets the Havern is the home of about 50 impression that there's some secret they monks, half male and half female, of hide, that they know something nobody various ages, including children. They else does. live in the monastery itself, or in the The story of Havern begins about 60 several wooden shacks surrounding it. years ago, in a small, quite normal Small wheat field, orchards and bee village named Ordwich. One night, a hives supply the monks with nutrition. strange, beautiful rain of liquid golden Havern's way of life is highly light poured down from the sky over the communal, and all possessions are the village. Feeling a strong sensation of shared property of all the denizens. bliss and happiness, the villagers of There are no distinct families, and all Ordwich came out of their homes, and children are raised together by the let the liquid light wash their bodies. The community. The monks spend most of rain stopped after one hour, but only a their time in meditation, study in their month later its results became apparent: extensive library, and prayers. It is said all capable girls and women in Ordwich that the perfect harmony of their choir found themselves unexplainably when they all sing the hymns together is pregnant, even those who had never been of unearthly quality, bringing tears to the with a man. eyes of the toughest listener. Nine months after this night, on the A visitor in Havern will be very same night, all of them gave birth, immediately struck by two outstanding each to a couple of golden haired, silver- features of all the denizens: they are all, eyed babies, one male and one female. A men, women and children, exceptionally few of the babies didn't survive, but most beautiful, with creamy skin, golden hair of them did. The villagers were and silvery eyes – and they all look mystified by the strange phenomena, but exceptionally similar to each other. All they felt that the children were not monks of the same age look quite dangerous, and many believed them to identical, and can hardly be discerned be a gift from their god. They became from each other – all males the same, known as "The Angel Children". and all females the same. It will also become apparent that none of the monks As the children grew, it became are ever seen speaking to each other, but apparent they were not regular children. it seems they share some kind of They seemed to have a telepathic link telepathic link between them all. They between all of them, so that when one of speak normally with outsiders, and them learned something new, all of them knew about it too, and when one of them

52 Quoth the Raven 18 was hurt or in danger, the others knew its goals. Each of his bodies can manifest immediately to come to his help or to half-celestial and psionic powers, and call the adults. They never spoke with may sprout wings of white light to fly each other, claiming they "don’t have with. Bizarrely enough, Cheruvim can to". They also seemed to have the power even multiply within itself, using its to affect the emotions and behavior of male and female components to create regular humans, but they never used it in new baby-like extensions. For outsiders a wicked manner; and they all were very it might look like incest, but Cheruvim is interested in learning, studying and actually a hermaphroditic being, and all experiencing new things, as every new its bodies are parts of itself. There is a piece of knowledge became the property limit to the number of bodies it can of them all. expand itself to, so it only creates Upon reaching the age of 16, the "offspring" in order to replace dead ones, children gathered the people of Ordwich, or in case of a great need, carefully thanked them warmly for the good keeping the balance. treatment, and said that it was time for Cheruvim is a benign entity, but its them to leave. They didn't say why and mind is alien and different from humans'. where they were going, only implied that It is actually appalled by the they were actually not of this world and individualistic nature of humans (and they had some mission to do. The most other creatures, barring, possibly, villagers were deeply sad about their bees and ants), and sees the fact that leaving, but they couldn't make them every human is a distinct being as an stay; and so the Angel Children have all unnatural mutation which must be left Ordwich and established the remedied. monastery of Havern. Individuality is the source of all The truth about the nature of the human strife, of hatred and envy and denizens of Havern is, that not only are competition, and should all human they not human, they are not even beings merge into one mind, harmony "denizens" at all. What appears to be a and peace shall prevail. Therefore community of several scores of men, Cheruvim devotes its existence to women and children, is actually just one finding a way to make all human minds being. A celestial entity known as merge into one. The concept might seem Cheruvim, it has a single mind shared by horrid for most people, but few can multiple bodies, which actually function argue persuasively against the rationality as the limbs of a single creature. The of Cheruvim's arguments. It sees the monks in Havern don't have a telepathic humans' irrational inclination toward link, for "they" are not distinct individual existence as part of their individuals, just multiple extensions of deformity, and it is sure that once the Cheruvim's hive mind. human minds shall merge together, The mental capacities of Cheruvim "they" will be grateful for what it has are powerful enough to enable it to done for them. control many bodies simultaneously, Therefore it permits itself to perform each in a different manner and in perfect certain experiments on human subjects, harmony with each other. It can send in the belief that the end justifies the parts of itself to distant locations, to means. The exact nature and scope of gather information or otherwise forward those experiments is unknown, but some

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of them seem to involve experts in the Cheruvim might be persuaded to field of mind and body, such as Dr. cooperate and help just causes, such as Dominiani, Victor Mordenheim and monster-hunting, especially when it Dominic D'Honnaire. None of those men thinks it might help it acquire new know the true nature of Cheruvim and its knowledge. It will gladly share its vast purposes. It also seems that Cheruvim's knowledge and experience with heroes, male bodies can mate with human and might even send several bodies to women, which on rare occasions results their help. It seems to have a particularly in the birth of twins, who are actually a strong antagonism toward the hideous single double-bodied being, like a small being known as Toben the Many, which version of Cheruvim itself. Those looks like a dark mockery of Cheruvim, "twins" are not mentally connected to and will go to great length to destroy as Cheruvim, and might live all their lives many of its bodies as possible. Some without knowledge of it. Some of them speculate that Cheruvim itself and its become great heroes or villains, using experiments have something to do with their double bodies to their advantage in the appearance of Toben, but it denies it ways normal twins could not. fervently.

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Traits of the Mists Pathfinder Traits in Ravenloft By David “Jester” Gibson [email protected]

Traits were introduced in the Advanced Monster Lore: You survived an Player's Guide and are small bonuses encounter with a creature and this drove that reflect a character's origin or back- you to learn of the legions of the night, story. Characters start with two traits, so you could face the same type of beast which are each about half as powerful as again and triumph. Choose a creature a feat. type (excluding humanoid and outsider), Below are new traits designed for the you gain a +1 trait bonus on damage Land of the Mists. rolls against creatures of this type. Combat Faith Cold One: Warmth is unknown to Destined: You have a purpose, a you, absent and forgotten after your destiny foretold by the stars or prophecy. encounter with the undead. You have When near death, fate intercedes on your little body heat and even your emotions behalf. You gain a +2 trait bonus on are muted. You gain a +1 trait bonus to Constitution checks to stabilize. Stealth checks. When facing undead, this Ghost Touched: You have bonus increases to +4 until you attack, encountered beings from the spirit world deal damage, or take any other offensive and have learned how to strike at them. action. You deal an additional 2 damage against Firearm Training: Hailing from the incorporeal creatures, applied after your Western Core, you’re familiar with damage is halved. This damage is firearms. Guns remain expensive doubled on a critical hit. luxuries in most of the continent but you’ve picked-up some limited training. Magic You gain a weapon proficiency in an early firearm of your choice. Cat's Eye: You have bile-yellow eyes, a rare trait only found among the

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people of Valachan. Once per day you in a new frame. While your memories of may communicate with felines as per the this past life are limited, sometimes speak with animals spell. information returns unbidden. Pick one Cursed: You have fallen into skill, it is always considered a class skill corruption or been punished for some for you. slight, but what does not kill you makes Town Guard: You served in the you stronger. While you are beset by ill militia or city watch of your hometown fortune, you have learned to endure your and the skills learned give you insight suffering. Once per day, the GM can ask into a guard’s life. You gain a +1 trait you to re-roll a skill or ability check, but bonus on Profession (soldier) checks. In you gain a +1 to Will saves. This bonus addition, Ride or Survival (your choice) increases to +2 against fear. is always a class skill for you. Redeemed: Once in the past you succumbed to your inner darkness. You Regional might have been a petty scoundrel or a consummate villain, but after a lengthy Amber Waster: The sun-blasted amount of soul searching or hitting rock deserts of the lands of Har'Akir or bottom, you sought redemption. You Pharazia were once your home. You gain gain a +2 trait bonus to Will saves a +1 trait bonus to Survival checks and a against enchantments. +2 trait bonus to Fortitude saves to resist damage from hot environments. Barovian: Raised on stories of the Social children of the night, you know the Lamplighter: You are one of the weaknesses of many creatures, having elite watchmen of Mordent. You were heard their tales all your life. You gain a trained to navigate through and fight in +2 trait bonus on monster knowledge fog-shrouded conditions of your checks. homeland. You reduce the miss chance Blausteiner: This tiny island nation for concealment by 10%. is known for fishermen and pirates, and Merchant Marine: You have spent typically the later. You gain a +1 trait your time atop the waves guarding bonus to Profession (sailor) and Swim cargo, defending ships, and fighting off checks. Swim is always a class skill for pirates. You know how to fight on the you. water, ignoring up to 3 points of armor Borcan: The land of Borca is known check penalty when trying to swim in for its poisons, the weapon of choice for armor. intrigue and the nobility. You gain a +2 Moor-Raised: Dim and dank trait bonus on saving throws against swamps were your home. You know poison. In addition, you are immune to how to move across the marsh, how to one poison of your choice with a cost of hide among the trees, and how to spot 150gp or less. that which does not belong. You gain a Darkonian: You've heard stories of +1 trait bonus to Perception, Stealth, and undead and the Pale all your life. Survival checks in swampland terrain. Because of this, your mind resists the Reincarnated: Your soul would not rigors of the world. You gain a +2 trait rest and has returned to the world, reborn

56 Quoth the Raven 18 bonus to Will saves against mind- Hazlani (Mulan): The tattooed elite affecting effects. Mulan of Hazlan rule over the Dementlieuse: Life at court is Rashemani. Like most, you received filled with half-truths and cunning lies some arcane training in the nation's while the streets are populated by schools of magic. You receive a +1 trait confidence men and thieves. You gain a bonus to Knowledge (Arcana) and +1 trait bonus on Bluff and Sense Spellcraft. Knowledge (Arcana) is Motive checks and one of these skills always a class skill for you. (your choice) is always a class skill for Hazlani (Rashemani): With darker you. complexions, those of the Rashemani Falkovnian: The militaristic nation ethnicity are laborers to the Mulan. You of Falkovnia is always looking for new spent your early life in the farms, mines, recruits, and much of the populace or poppy fields. You gain a +1 trait receives testing or training. You gain +2 bonus on Profession (laborer) and hit points and a +1 trait bonus to Climb Survival checks. Survival is always a or Swim checks (your choice) and that class skill for you. skill is always a class skill for you. Invidian: You have the fiery blood However, you take a -1 penalty to of your kin, quick to anger and the first Diplomacy skill checks with natives of to leap into battle. You are swift to react Barovia, Dementlieu, Lamordia, Darkon, to danger and gain a +1 trait bonus to and Richemulot. Initiative. Frozen Reacher: A land of eternal Lamordian: In a land of logic in winter was once your home, so the cold science there is no place for magic, no longer has as much sting. You gain a making you innately resistant. You gain +1 trait bonus to Survival checks and a a +2 trait bonus on saving throws against +2 trait bonus to Fortitude saves to resist spells. damage from cold environments. Liffen: The windswept island nation Ghastrian: The small island of of Liffe is your home. Music is the Ghastria was your home, a land of artists lifeblood of your people, from sea and poets. You gain a +1 trait bonus to shanties to operas. You gain a +1 trait Craft (sculpture, painting, poetry, or bonus to a Perform skill (your choice). writing). Craft is always a class for you. Perform is always a class skill for you. Graben: You hail from the cold and Nova Vaasan: Horses are common windswept island of Graben in the on the plains and ranches of your Nocturnal Sea. You are used to extreme homeland, and even city folk learn to weather and gain a +1 trait bonus to ride and care for the animals. You gain a Survival checks and a +2 trait bonus to +1 trait bonus to Handle Animal and Fortitude saves to resist damage from Ride checks (horses only) and one (your cold environments. choice) is always a class skill for you. Gundarakite: Raised under tyranny Outlander: You hail from another and oppression, first under the reign of world, a distant and more fantastic Duke Gundar and now under the yoke of Realm. Knowledge (local) is never Barovia. Regardless of whom your considered a class skill for you, but you master is, your spirit remains unbroken. gain a Knowledge skill of your choice in You gain a +1 trait bonus to Will Saves. its place. You gain a +1 trait bonus to

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Knowledge (planes) checks, and that flexibility and balance. You gain a +1 skill is always a class skill for you. trait bonus to Reflex saves. Richemuloise: You've been raised in Tepestani: The fearful land of a life of courtly intrigue and Tepest is threatened by witches, dark backstabbing. You gain a +1 trait bonus fey, and goblins. Its inhabitants learn as to Knowledge (nobility) and Bluff much as they can about combating the checks. Knowledge (nobility) is always a creatures of the night, hunting out evil class skill for you. wherever it may hide. You can use Rokushima Taiyoo: Your land is Knowledge (Nature) for monster one of honor, duty, and obligation. You knowledge checks in place of Arcana, were raised to respect clan and family Local, and Religion (but not above all else. You gain a +1 trait bonus Dungeoneering or Planes). to Knowledge (nobility) and Sense Valachani: The disease, white fever, Motive checks. Knowledge (nobility) is has long ravaged your nation. To combat always a class skill for you. the disease you have learned to combat Shadowlander: The nation of infection and avoid illness. You gain a Nidala, also known as the Shadowlands, +2 trait bonus on saving throws against is where you were raised. The Knight disease. Protector and her soldiers defend the Vechorite: The ever-shifting world nation, hunting down criminals, traitors, of Vechor was your home, ruled by a and sinners. You have learned how to mad god-king whose every whim or keep your head down and hide your mood altered the very land. Because of feelings, lest you be judged as befouled your experiences with the maddening or corrupt. You gain a +1 trait bonus to realm, you gain a +1 trait bonus to Will Bluff and it is always a class skill for saves. you. Verbreker: Raised in an uncivilized Sithican: The magical misted forests land, you are experienced with the wilds. of the Fey were your home, and you You gain a +1 trait bonus to Survival have learned the Fair Folk's art of and Knowledge (Nature) checks. One of moving unseen. You gain a +1 trait these skills (your choice) is always a bonus to Stealth checks. In addition, you class skill for you. gain Elven as a bonus language. If you Zherisian: The folk of Paridon already speak Elven you gain an maintain a characteristic stiff upper lip, additional bonus language. and are known as stoic and difficult to Souragnien: The swampy land of discourage and even harder to influence. Souragne is known for its swampland There is also a deep class divide. and undead as well as for its widespread Aristocrats always have Diplomacy as a faiths. You receive a +1 trait bonus to class skill, while commoners always Knowledge (religion) checks, and have Bluff as a class skill. In addition, Knowledge (religion) is always a class you gain a +1 trait bonus to saving skill for you. throws against enchantment effects. Sri Rajian: This exotic and colorful land is known for its spiced food, exotic gods, and bright clothing. But is also known for its art of yoga, which teaches

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associated with a recognizable name, but Religion this has often be more of a burden to you than a boon: not every family has a Anchorite of Home Faith positive reputation. (Ezra): You have been tasked with Choose one of the following noble healing and protecting the faithful. Once families and associated benefits. per day you can invoke the shield of Ezra, a misty defense that grants you DR de Boistribue: One of the oldest 1/- until the start of your next turn. bloodlines in the realm, and noted for their reclusive natures. Much of the Faith of Iron (Lawgiver): The Iron family died in a brutal attack two- Tyrant rewards obedience and allows his hundred and fifty years ago leaving the faithful to resist corruption and family scattered. Characters gain a +1 influence. You gain a +1 trait bonus to trait bonus to Bluff checks. Bluff is Sense Motive checks and saving throws always a class skill for you. against charm and compulsion effects. Blackburn-Bruce: A union of Herald of Dawn (Morninglord): two merchant families. The family has a The Cult of the Morninglord teaches that history of alchemy and accompanying followers must treat others with kindness dark reputation. Characters gain a +1 and defend people against the night. trait bonus on Craft (Alchemy) checks Whenever you channel positive energy and Diplomacy is always a class skill for to harm undead creatures, add your you. Charisma modifier to the damage dealt. Gauldamon: Once the lords of Light of the Sun (Belenus): the Lightless Forests, the family gave Your god is one of holy light and divine anyone sanctuary in exchange for fire, and you are tasked with eliminating servitude. The heads of the family died a the sinful and evil. Whenever you cast a century ago after slipping into diabolism. spell with the fire descriptor it deals 2 You gain a +2 trait bonus on all additional damage. Diplomacy checks made to deal with Witch of the Weave (Hala): Your outsiders and a +1 trait bonus on Will are knowledgablein the Weave, the saves made against their spells and magic of nature, and have experience supernatural abilities. with the natural world. You gain a +1 Godefroy: Few remain of this trait bonus on Knowledge (geography) bloodline after its patriarch died in a and Knowledge (nature) checks, and one murder/suicide. They were famous for of these skills (your choice) is always a their tempers and stubborn, inflexible class skill for you. natures. You gain a +1 trait bonus to Will saves. Campaign Holsworth: The original lords of Noble Born (limited to human the western coast, the family was characters): You claim a tangential but renowned for their love of the sea. You legitimate connection to one of the gain a +1 trait bonus to Swim checks. declining noble families of Mordent or Swim is always a class skill for you. Dementlieu’s. You’ve likely had a Scottmatter: Great farmers and comfortable life, far from the wealth and landowners on the Gray Hearthlands, obligations of your cousins. You are they were respected for being down-to-

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earth. You gain a +1 trait bonus to Weathermay: One of the few Profession (Farmer) and Knowledge noble families to retain wealth and (Nature) checks. power, the Weathermay's own much of Halloway: Once humble Mordentshire. Once a family of ill innkeepers, this family earned a great repute, the family name has been deal on money on the river trade. They redeemed when one of its members quickly became known for their opulent became a hero of the people. Your displays of wealth, until it was said ―the starting cash increases to 300 gp. river turned against them‖. You gain a Westcotes: Rumor says the +2 trait bonus to Sense Motive checks Westcote family is cursed and their but take a -1 penalty to Swim checks. numbers have been dwindling for a Sense Motive is always a class skill for century. The few that remain are used to you. struggling against ill fortune. You gain a Mournesworth: Landlords in +1 trait bonus to Fortitude saves and a name only, the Mournesworth were Survival skill checks, but take a -2 more interested in the divine and penalty on Handle Animal checks with spiritual. You gain a +1 trait bonus to canines. Knowledge (Religion) checks and it is always a class skill.

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Feasting with the Falcons A Ravenloft Adventure for 2-5 Characters of any level By Ron “GonzoRon” Laufer [email protected]

In this adventure, a band of heroes finds can even be removed or replaced with themselves involved in a web of intrigue, someone similar if their presence would where a simple dinner party among the be too disruptive. nobility turns into a murder mystery that Due to the many NPCs, it is strongly could bring two nations to the brink of recommended that each one be given a war. Much of the adventure is based on picture to serve as an anchoring point for investigation, social skills, and role the players. It is also recommended to playing. Since the only combat is likely use miniatures and a battle map, even to be with the exposed murderer at the outside of combat, as the party guests end, it can be easily adapted to the level will be milling about the Chantreaux of the party simply by changing the DC's estate throughout the evening. Who is of the skill checks throughout, and the where at what time will determine the CR of the single foe at the end. (The participants in conversations, and will module as written assumes 6th level also provide vital clues to solve the PCs.) murder. Each NPC is given a letter and The guest list at the dinner party is number, so labeled tokens can be used to long, and includes many established represent them on the map, and on the NPCs from other adventures. This pictures. allows Feasting with the Falcons to serve as a jumping off point for any of those other modules, or as a sequel to any that Background you've already run, where the PCs can The Fine Arts department of the catch up with old friends or foes. Of University of Port-a-Lucine is offering a course, some adaptation may be grant to an aspiring artist, in any necessary depending on which of these discipline, and will hold a competition to NPCs has been encountered earlier in the determine the lucky recipient. The campaign. Most of these "guest stars" Council of Brilliance has taken an

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interest in the contest, and Councilor as the plans of The Brain, duSuis, Josephine Chantreaux has graciously Vedarrak, and Gondegal. offered to host a dinner party at her home, where the final exhibition and judging will take place. To complicate Guest List matters, a delegation of Falkovnian ambassadors is in town, looking to The Council of Brilliance: establish a trading enclave, and the two heads of the delegation have been C1: Lord-Governor Marcel invited to Chantreaux's soiree, much to Guignol her personal chagrin. Of course, this Aging leader of Dementlieu being Dementlieu, that's only the surface Infirm and quiet. Attending as a situation, and hidden plots lurk beneath. formality. Recently, the Falkovnian (See Ravenloft Gazetteer, vol III) government intercepted a delivery of firearms bound for the Falkovnian [Possible picture: Alchemical rebellion. Meanwhile, a verified list of Philosopher from Van Richten's Arsenal high ranking leaders in the resistance has with chemicals cropped out] fallen into the hands of one of the Dementlieuse Councilors. The C2: Dominic d'Honaire ambassadors' secret mission is to arrange Darklord of Dementlieu, Councilor of an exchange: King Drakov wants that Justice. list and he wants the guns out of his Slippery, aloof, in control. Attending domain for good. Councilor Helene as a formality. duSuis wants peace with the (See Ravenloft Gazetteer, vol III) Falkovnians, and has arranged with [Pictured in: Gaz III, Domains of Ambassador Vedarrak to trade the list Dread, Red Box, Black Box] tonight for the weapons and the ensuing Falkovnian goodwill. But Gondegal, the C3: Josephine Chantreaux leader of the resistance, has learned about the impending exchange, and is Councilor of Defense desperate to keep that list out of Heavy-set, middle-aged, grim, Falkovnian hands. socially uncomfortable. Hates the Falkovnians and seethes with barely contained rage at hosting them in her The other major plot afoot is the own home. Tense and snappish when work of The Living Brain. In an attempt they are near. Secretly hiding a village to unseat his arch-rival, Dominic of Falkovnian refugees in the northern d'Honaire, The Brain wants to provoke part of Dementlieu. Will serve as one of Falkovnia into war. To this end, he has the judges for the contest. ordered one of his quislings to infiltrate the dinner party and murder one of the (See Ravenloft Gazetteer, vol III, ambassadors, creating an international "Faces of Deception" from The Book of incident. Sorrows) Naturally, nearly every guest has an [Possible picture: Any portrait of agenda of his or her own as well, though Catherine de Medici in her later years] none with political ramifications as large

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C4: Jean-Pierre Mont-Michel (See "Marcos Vedarrak" from The Theroux Book of Sacrifices) Councilor of the Arts [Possible picture: Ezekiel Preston Outlandish, dramatic fop with a from Children of the Night: Ghosts, with hideous laugh. Head judge of the added hawk brand on forehead] contest. Mostly oblivious to the surrounding intrigue. F2: Commander Anton Regress (See Ravenloft Gazetteer, vol III, Former head of the Falkovnian trade "Faces of Deception" from The Book of enclave in Karina, Invidia Sorrows) Brusque, condescending, short- [Possible picture: "Cavalier" By tempered, offensive, and uncomfortable, Ferdinand Victor Roybet] the "bad cop" to Vedarrak's "good cop." Tasked by Minister of Economics, C5: Helene duSuis Falkfuhrer Jardian Kovedknochen, to repeat his success in Invidia here in Councilor of Public Institutions Dementlieu. Target of the murder Thin, distant, severe, and ambitious. attempt. Attempting to curry favor with the (See The Evil Eye) Falkovnians, and to exchange the list of rebel leaders for the confiscated [Pictured in: The Evil Eye p.32] firearms. Open to the idea of a Falkovnian trade enclave. The Artists: (See Ravenloft Gazetteer, vol III, "Faces of Deception" from The Book of A1: Alexandre du Cire Sorrows) Wax Sculptor [Possible picture: Portrait crop of Creepy, moves slowly, silently, and "L'Épée" (The Sword) by Alfred deliberately, but friendly when given a Agache] chance at conversation. Constantly trying to perfect his art, he is very observant of details. Secretly building The remaining Councilor, Claude wax golems, though that shouldn't affect LaGrange, will not be attending due to this adventure. "illness". (See Children of the Night: The The Falkovnian Ambassadors: Created) [Pictured in Children of the Night: F1: Marcos Vedarrak The Created, though cropping out the candle will make him slightly less Lead Ambassador from Falkovnia creepy] A dashing perfectionist, but vindictive if crossed. A rarity among his A2: Raphael Vetighetto countrymen, his parents were Landscape Painter Dementlieuse, and he is suave and sophisticated. A Talon, but also an Pompous, self-absorbed, amorous, enchanter, and a member of The vain. Claims to be the son of Borigia Fraternity of Shadows. Vetighetto, the famous Borcan painter,

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but actually an imposter using the name all, but a gunsmith from the Rue des to his advantage. Pistolets. Recruited by Helene duSuis to (See "Art in the Land" from The inspect the guns that Vedarrak has Book of Souls for details on Borigia promised her; she used her influence to Vetighetto) get him entered into the contest. But [Possible picture: Esteban from unbeknownst to duSuis, after he agreed Champions of Darkness] to her charade, he was approached by agents of The Brain, who recruited him A3: Conrad Shadowlands to murder Commander Regress at the party, convincing him that a war would Stone Sculptor be good for his business. Widowed Nidalan, rough and rustic, (See Ravenloft Dungeon Master's a weary man with a vacant stare. Guide for details on Maigny and the Rue Brusque and distracted. Originally a des Pistolets. See Gaz II or Ravenloft miner, now pushed into stonework by his Monstrous Compendium, vol II for ambitious new bride. Coughs often, due details on The Brain.) to inhaled dust. Secretly under the control of his vorlog wife, Cynthia [Possible picture: Bare-chested DeGreives, though that shouldn't affect caliban from Ravenloft Player's this adventure. Handbook, photoshopped with suit from the male dwarf in the same book] [Possible picture: "An-Havva Constable" by Dan Frazier, with the A6: Angel Pajaro sword cropped out] Opera Singer A4: Francois de Penible Elven, beautiful. Outwardly delicate, Disturbing Prose Writer but bitter and vain inside. Featured singer at the Port-a-lucine Opera House. Intense, well-spoken, bitter, Secretly a werefox, though that shouldn't disillusioned with the nobility. Believes affect this adventure. that nobles must learn the pain of the masses, lest society collapse. Talks of (See Children of the Night: very little other than the plight of the Werebeasts) common classes, and how the nobility is [Pictured in Children of the Night: blind to their suffering. Secretly Werebeasts, though her wolf aspect undergoing transposession by a kyton needs to be cropped out.] (devil), though that shouldn't affect this adventure. A7: Lady Veronica Blackstone (See Children of the Night: Demons) Tragic Poet [Pictured in Children of the Night: Nova Vaasan, young, haunted, Demons, though some Photoshop may brooding. Dressed all in black. be needed to remove the chains] Originally from Falkovnia, her family fled to Bergovitsa while she was in the A5: Hugues Maigny womb. Her father was slain by a young Abstract Metal Sculptor Commander Regress during the escape, and her mother eventually remarried to a Caliban, surly, taciturn, Vaasi Lord, who raised her as his own uncomfortable. Actually not an artist at daughter. But Veronica's mother always

64 Quoth the Raven 18 remembered the man who killed her first Desperate for acceptance in the husband and drilled her daughter with upper crust. Sad, pensive, anxious. thoughts of revenge from an early age. Keeps up a good facade of a prim and Her works are inspired by the ghost of a proper lady, but hides a manic paranoia dead lover, Sir Rowan Falstone. beneath it. Using her reluctant husband's (See "Art in the Land" from The sculpting ability to get her foot in the Book of Souls for details) door. Her husband is physically the [Possible picture: The Propagandist spitting image of the dashing vampire from Champions of Darkness] nobleman, now deceased, whom she once loved. She is trying to fashion his rustic ways into those of a proper Honored Guests: gentleman to more closely match her lost love. Secretly a vorlog, though that G1: Lord Balfour de Casteelle shouldn't affect this adventure. President of the University [Possible picture: The Vorlog from Pompous, elderly, elitist. Often refers Denizens of Dread with the tears and to self in the 3rd person. Will serve as blood painted out.] one of the judges and award the grant to the winner on behalf of the University. G4: Marie Delacourte Wizard, high-ranking member of the Socialite and Humanitarian Fraternity of Shadows. Though both Naïve, sweet, caring, smitten. Now Lord Balfour and Ambassador Vedarrak recovered from the death of her fiancé, are Fraternity members, they are both Jean, and after inheriting her late father's here for their "day jobs." The Fraternity mill, Marie has found love again, with has little interest in tonight's events, and Francois de Penible. (She has not seen the two will not betray any more her ghostly protector, Nikolai Melentha, familiarity with each other than would since her father's death at the hands of otherwise be expected, nor will they adventurers.) partake in any private discussions with one another. Having dedicated much of her time to helping the poor, volunteering at the (See Van Richten's Arsenal) local Halan hospice, she first latched [Pictured in Van Richten's Arsenal] onto Francois's controversial ideas upon reading his first book. She became one G2: Lady Cassilda de Casteelle of the most captivated fans of his work, Wife and protégée of Lord Balfour. before ultimately meeting the man Eager behind the words at a public reading and Driven, in her early 30's. Sorceress becoming smitten with him as well. The and faculty member at the University. pair are recently engaged, and she has (See Van Richten's Arsenal) not yet told anyone, so she is giddy with anticipation of spreading the happy [Possible picture: The Dilettante news. If desired, Marie can be replaced from Champions of Darkness, with the with Louise Chantelle, from the Francois elf ears removed.] de Penible adventure in Children of the Night: Demons. G3: Cynthia DeGreives (See Children of the Night: Ghosts) Scribe

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[Possible picture: The Pistoleer from solve, so care should be taken not to Van Richten's Arsenal with the pistol throw much suspicion on the household cropped out.] staff. Chantreaux will personally vouch for G5: Captain Reynard any of them as incorruptible, and players A captain of the Town Guard should be encouraged to take that as Slender human. Controlled and gospel, for purposes of finding the charming when sober. Jovial and murderer.) In case anyone questions the boisterous when drunk. Has been known staff, a short list of named characters to earn extra income by providing follows. Any of these can be assumed to private protection services for the speak for their colleagues: wealthy. Already rather intoxicated at  Jean Paul - Butler the start of the party, and passed out  Lynette - Maid drunk by the time of the murder.  Eloise - Maid (See Children of the Night: The Created)  Celeste - Cook [Possible picture: "The Laughing  Alphonse - Harpsichordist Cavalier" by Franz Hals]  Bertrand - Cellist The only exception to this rule is the G6: Antoinette Reynard maid, Eloise. She is under the control of Daughter of Captain Reynard The Brain and will be serving as an Young and giggly. Taking after her accomplice to Maigny. She has only father in imbibing, she is tipsy and recently been hired, to replace another impressionable. maid who disappeared under mysterious [Possible picture: "Portrait Of A circumstances. She comes with Lady" by Edouard Louis Dubufe] impeccable references, but Chantreaux cannot personally vouch for her. Uninvited Guest: Synopsis G7: Gondegal The adventure begins when the PCs are Knight of the Shadows, and Leader of invited to a dinner party. Ideally, they the Shadow Insurrection, a Falkovnian have some prior connection to one or resistance organization. more of the artists competing for the (See Ravenloft Gazetteer, vol II) University grant, and are invited to [Pictured in: Gaz II, Champions of attend in their support. the Mists, Black Box] Alternatively, if they have recently succeeded in a high-profile adventure, Servants: that might catch the attention of one of the Councilors, and they may be invited Chantreaux has a large staff, as befitting as a reward. In any case, the pretense to a person of her stature. Most will be get them there is not important, just that unnamed masses, and stay out of the that attend. Once at the party, there will adventure. (Too many suspects will be time to mingle and get to know the make the mystery overly difficult to guests. At some point, the adventurers

66 Quoth the Raven 18 will be contacted by Gondegal and told "Friday, 7 o'clock" is the start time about the list of rebels. for the party. If, for some reason, you Dinner will be served, then the artists need to move the party, change this will present their works to be judged. conversation to match. If Maigny or While the Judges deliberate, the party duSuis are approached, neither will continues, and Maigny sneaks off to discuss their conversation or admit to murder Regress. The PCs find the body any dealings with the other. If pressed, and must solve the murder before the Maigny will close his shop's door and contest winner is announced and the turn the sign to "Closed." guests all leave. On a DC20 Spot, Listen, or Gather Information check in the bustling Rue, Optional Setup Encounter characters may notice or hear gossip about another unusual visitor to the If the DM wants to give the party some neighborhood. Gondegal is looking for a early clues, they might find themselves merchant willing to supply his resistance at the Rue des Pistolets (see Ravenloft movement with firearms. His former Dungeon Master's Guide) a day or two supplier in Borca went missing, and his before the dinner party. On this street last shipment was seized by the full of gunsmiths and ammunition shops, Falkovnians. But new laws prohibit they notice a lady, in attire way too fine anyone here from doing business with for the neighborhood, discussing him, lest the guns fall into Falkovnian something with a shady looking caliban hands. If the party meets with Gondegal in his gun shop. Councilor duSuis is or has a prior relationship with him, he meeting with gunsmith Hugues Maigny, may also inform them at this point about and hiring him to come to the dinner the list, especially if they mention that party to inspect the guns that the they are invited to the party at Falkovnians promised her. Chantreaux's manor. She will arrange for him to be "I have just learned from a local presented as a sculptor and enter the contact that a list of Falkovnian competition. All he has to do is throw resistance leaders has fallen into the some bits of scrap metal together into a hands of one of the Dementlieuse sculpture and show up in suitably fancy Councilors, and the Councilor has clothes, and he will be paid handsomely. agreed to trade it to the Falkovnian With a DC20 Listen check, ambassadors in exchange for an eavesdropping PCs can hear a scrap of unknown favor. The trade is scheduled the conversation. The Lady says, "... to happen at a party, Friday night, at can't risk bringing them here." The Chancellor Chantreaux's estate. I must caliban replies, "You can't possibly think find a way into the manor to intercept they'll believe me." If the Listen check that list, but security will be tight, and beats a DC25, they will hear a bit more. the Falkovnian ambassadors would The Lady says, "They will believe what I recognize me on sight." tell them to believe. Friday, 7 o'clock. Hopefully, the party will volunteer to Dress nicely and don't be late. Do this help. He will implore them to save the service for me and you will be well implicated rebels, and ask the group to rewarded." switch the list with a false one, which he gives them. (If anyone expresses

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concern about setting the Falkovnians on Stadtfuhrers, all loyal cogs in Drakov's a list of innocents, he assures them that fascist machine.) Importantly, Gondegal no one on the false list is "innocent." A does not know which Councilor has the quick scan of the list shows several list, nor which Ambassador will be Talons, a Falkfuhrer, and several accepting it.

Map The Chantreaux estate is a massive intrusion or exit. But Chantreaux is not mansion, with outbuildings and gardens a darklord and the estate is not a domain sprawling beside it, all enveloped in with closed borders, so escape or thick stone walls. The walls have iron- invasion is possible with sufficient barred windows at irregular intervals, effort. and the top of the walls are set with glass Ornate gabled roofs sprawl over the shards, making climbing over dangerous manor house proper, with towers, and difficult. Wide wrought-iron gates archways, and buttresses, most bar the only break in the wall at the ornamental. Throughout the house, the south entrance. At the DM's option, polished wooden floors are mostly Chantreaux may have purchased arcane covered with ornate carpets. There are protective measures from the wizards of three stories and an attic, though only the the University preventing magical main floor is mapped. Guards will be

68 Quoth the Raven 18 posted at the landings on the second M3: Foyer floor, preventing access. If the PCs are The Guards stationed here will relieve persistent, the DM may have to the arriving guests of their weapons, improvise a map, but nothing of interest locking them in a stout chest, or peace- to the adventure should be found on the bonding them. Servants will take cloaks upper floors, and the PCs should be or other personal items to the cloakroom encouraged to return to the action (M19). downstairs. M4: Game Room Room Descriptions A fireplace dominates the north wall. The only furniture is a billiard table and M1: Library two game tables, with chairs. A drotche Bookshelves line the south and west (Vistani chess) board is laid out on one walls, containing a wide variety of well- table. The other holds a deck of cards. kept books. In the southeast corner is a A dart board is hanging on the south reading desk and comfortable chair. If wall, near the southeast corner. the PCs are nosy, pull some titles from the "Index of all Canon Printed Material M5: Ballroom in Ravenloft" on the Fraternity of Most of the room is taken up by an inlaid Shadows' Mausoleum page. Chantreaux wooden dancing floor. A harpsichord is not much of a reader herself, keeping sits on the dance floor, which Alphonse the library mainly for the sake of plays throughout the party. Bertrand sits appearances, so there are no particular near him on a stool playing the cello. subjects that dominate the books. There are several couches, chairs and divans for those who aren't dancing, and M2: Main Hall/Gallery a self service, well-stocked bar is in the This wide entry hall also serves as a northeast corner. A fireplace takes up gallery of artwork. Several paintings of most of the south wall. Much of the east no importance are on the walls, but four wall is glass, and a door leads outside. works that are part of the competition wait here under white cloths. M6: Conservatory The sculpture in the southwest corner This glass-walled room houses many belongs to Conrad (A3), the one on the exotic plants. Two benches sit in the east wall is du Cire's (A1), and the one center of the room for admirers of the beside the small table on the west wall is flora. Much as the PCs may search, Maigny's (A5). The covered painting on there is no secret passage from here to the eastern wall beside the stairs is the Salon (M11). Raphael's (A2). On the small table rests a vase of flowers. (Mention it M7: Art Studio nonchalantly. It will be important later.) Two easels are set up here, holding Both large sweeping staircases lead to works in progress. There are three stools the same landing on the second floor. for models stacked in one corner, and a Guards posted at the top will not allow cabinet containing art supplies in anyone other than Chantreaux or the another. Paintings line the walls, some servants onto the second floor. by artists sponsored by Chantreaux, and

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some by Chantreaux herself. (She has a brandy snifter and several glasses. Two passable amount of skill, though never windows look out on the south wall, and found the time to work seriously on the north wall holds the fireplace. perfecting it.) One of the paintings on the south wall covers a secret slot in the M12: Gazebo wall. Opening the slot reveals two small At the end of this dirt path sits a wooden holes at eye level, which allow someone gazebo. Don't make it angry. to peer into the Office (M8) and observe secretly. From the office, the holes look M13: Patio out through the eyes of a portrait A stone porch abuts the house, with two mounted behind Chantreaux's desk. sets of stairs leading down to a stone patio. The main feature of the patio is M8: Office the dueling circle inscribed in the stones. An ornate desk with many drawers sits There is nothing sinister about this in the middle of the room. Like most of symbol, it is merely an aid to practicing the house, paintings line the walls. fencing forms. (But if the PCs jump to There is one comfortable chair behind conclusions involving demon the desk, and two much less comfortable summoning, that's perfectly acceptable.) chairs in front of it. A portable wooden rack of blunted dueling weapons is set out near the M9: Kitchen circle, but will be pulled indoors by the Dinner cooks in the massive fireplace. servants at nightfall (8PM). Dirt paths The only furniture is a preparation table, lead through the gardens to the covered in knives, platters, and other outbuildings. The grass off the paths is cooking tools. A trap door (not hidden) damp and muddy from recent summer reveals stairs leading down to the root rains. The gardens stretch off to the cellar and wine cellar. back beyond the borders of the map, but nothing of interest is back there other M10: Dining Room then trails through the assorted plants, A massive table is the primary feature of and a small amount of personal crops for this room. The table can fit 28 seats (2 the household. people to a 5' square). There are enough settings and chairs laid out for the 20 M14: Outhouse NPC guests plus the party of PCs. The A wooden outhouse, with a crescent western wall is mostly glass, but has moon carved in the door. only an unfortunate view of the stone wall outside. Chantreaux has dressed up M15: Aviary the view a bit with some sculptures Several exotic birds roost in the aviary, outside between the house and the wall. along with a coop of messenger pigeons. The dining hall is warmed by the fireplace in the south wall. M16: Kennels M11: Salon Chantreaux's prized hunting dogs reside here. This cozy room holds several couches, chairs and small tables. A selection of cigars is in a box on one table, beside a

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M17: Stable will not be allowed to bring their pet Chantreaux's own horses are kept here, inside, but the use of Lady Chantreaux's along with any brought by the guests. A kennels (M16), aviary (M15), or stables staircase on the north side leads up to the (M17) will be offered, if appropriate. loft. An ornate arch connects the stable Once inside, the butler will escort to the house, and the road passes beneath them into the main hall (M2), and invite it, allowing carriages to enter the large them to enjoy themselves in the doors toward the back. On rainy days, a Ballroom (M5), Garden Patio (M13), carriage can park beneath the arch and a Library (M1), Game Room (M4), Salon door (not shown) underneath provides (M11) or Conservatory(M6). dry access to the cloakroom (M19). Events M18: Closet The party runs according to a schedule, The servants keep cleaning supplies in but it's not necessary to ruthlessly track here. time. If the players are having fun with M19: Cloakroom a portion of the evening, feel free to linger on it. If something is stalling out, Cloaks and other personal items of the move on to the next section. The guests may be stored here by the staff. important thing is to cover all the There is also a servants' entrance to the important events in each section of the manor on the south wall, and a door (not schedule. shown) leading out under the archway to Events that add flavor, but are of the stable. lesser importance are listed as "skippable events." In each section, a list of NPC The Party starting positions is given by number. It is recommended to position miniatures Arriving at the Chantreaux estate, in the of some sort or numbered tokens on the Domaines de la Vie Éclairée, just outside map where each NPC is located. the city proper, guests will be greeted by two guards (War4) stationed at the front door. Weapons will not be allowed in 7:00PM - Mingling, Dancing the manor, unless peace-bonded. Any M2 - Main Hall: A3,G3 (checking on weapons that might be on the party's tarp-covered entries) person may be checked at the door in a M5 - Ballroom: C1,C2 (by fireplace) locked chest. At the DM's option, spell A4,G4 (dancing) G5 (drinking) component pouches might be considered C3,F2 (talking) weapons, and confiscated as well. M1 - Library: G1 (examining books) Of course, PCs are likely to try to M13 - Garden Patio (Fencing Circle): sneak some concealed weapons in. Use G2,G6 (sparring) the rules for concealing a weapon with M13 - Garden: F1,C5 the Sleight of Hand skill. The guards M4 – Game room: A1,A5 (playing have a +4 Spot, +2 Search, and will not billiards) A7 (watching them) frisk anyone unless given a good reason M6 - Conservatory: A2,A6 to suspect hidden weapons. Anyone Not yet arrived: C4,G7 who might have brought along an animal companion, familiar, mount, or the like

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Important events: contest. He walks out into the  If Gondegal (G7) has not yet told the garden (M13) from the rear door, and PCs about the list and given them the enters the small back door near the false replacement list, he is lurking kitchen, picking the lock to do so. outside the garden wall, and will try  If any of the PCs are demihumans, to get their attention as soon as they calibans, or half-Vistani, Regress are alone in the gardens (M13). He (F2) will find something insulting to can pass them the list through a say about them. barred window in the wall. (If they  Antoinette (G6) and Cassilda (G2) have already accepted this mission are fencing in the outside dueling from him earlier, he doesn't have to circle. Antoinette is a bit tipsy, and actually appear at the party in giggling at her own mistakes. person.) Cassilda challenges one of the PCs to  Regress (F2) tries to convince do better, and secretly casts True Chantreaux (C3) to allow a Strike behind her back (Spot check Falkovnian trade outpost to be built opposed by her +8 Sleight of Hand to in Port-a-lucine. She rebuffs him, notice). The epees are blunted and and he does not take it well, storming no blood will be drawn. out of the room.  The PCs may be invited to dance  Theroux (C4) arrives fashionably with any of the guests in the late, proclaiming loudly "I have Ballroom (M5), or to play darts, arrived!" as he enters. billiards or drotche (Vistani Chess, see the Book of Sorrows) with guests Skippable events: in the Game room (M4), or discuss  Captain Reynard (G5) gets literature in the Library (M1). increasingly intoxicated, and offers a  Vedarrak (F1) and duSuis (C5) may drink from the carafe he's carrying to be spotted conversing in the garden anyone who passes by. (M13). They are agreeing to meet  Angel (A6) storms out of the later in private to make the trade, conservatory (M6) in a huff. after dinner. Raphael (A2) has made an unwanted  Maigny (A5) has lace ruffles on the pass at her and gotten a slap for his end of his shirt sleeves, and they are troubles. Undeterred, he will turn his getting in the way of his billiard focus on any female PC that he playing. He becomes frustrated as he encounters. Whether he is successful constantly pushes them out of the romantically or not, he will be sure way, grunting under his breath, to ask his quarry to speak well of "Stupid fancy clothes! How do they him with the judges. wear these blasted things?"  Sometime later Vetighetto (A2) will sneak off to the Kitchen (M9) in 8:00PM - Dinner is served order to spike the food with All guests filter into the Dining Room Dapplewort seeds (See Gazetteer vol (M10). Servants will collect any III, p 12). He hopes to make the stragglers. Guests will be seated such judges more susceptible to his that the PCs are split up, allowing for suggestions so he can win the

72 Quoth the Raven 18 each player to have different neighboring knock over some food onto another NPCs to converse with. guest. The appetizers are quail eggs over  Eloise the maid leaves a note with foie gras. The main course is a hearty Regress's (F2) meal. The note reads, crustacean stew, which is followed by a "Meet me outside at 9 to discuss cheese course, including several shipment." She is just following the varieties, along with fresh, crusty bread. orders she was given by associates of A crisp golden wine is served The Brain, and in fact, can't even throughout. By the end of dinner, the read the note herself. A Spot check PCs should have met all of the party (DC20) will allow an observer to guests and conversed enough with them notice Regress finding a piece of to at least put a face to each of their paper beside his napkin, reading it names. quickly and pocketing it. If the spot check exceeds DC25, Eloise will be Important events: noticed as the one who left the note.  Soon after the appetizer is served, Guignol (C1) and d'Honaire (C2) 8:30PM - Presentations: leave the party, to attend to some The remaining guests file into the Main important matters of state. They will Hall (M2) for the presentations from the not return. artists.  Regress (F2) continues to insult the other guests, and Vedarrak (F1) must Important events: smooth things over. He may mock  First up is du Cire (A1), who reveals Cynthia’s (G3) lack of manners, as a perfect wax replica of Lord- she unknowingly uses the wrong Governor Guignol (C1) fork, or lambast Theroux (C4) for wasting government money on  Next, de Penible (A4) reads an something as frivolous as art. Or he excerpt from his new book, The Pain may find another insult for any "half- of Plenty. It gets excited applause breed" or "inhuman" PC. The point from Marie (G4), but uncomfortable is to give as many people as possible glances from most of the nobles. a motive for killing him.  With a flourish, Vetighetto (A2)  Astute observers may notice that reveals his painting, "Parnault Bay at Councilor duSuis (C5) has a rolled Night," a haunting and beautiful piece of paper (the list) sticking out a landscape. bit from her purse. (Spot DC23  With detached disinterest, Maigny unless someone is actively (A5) reveals his piece, a tangled scrutinizing her, in which case it mass of welded metal. When asked becomes a DC19). She may touch it what it is, he says gruffly, "It's from time to time to make sure it's untitled. It represents my soul." still there.  The group adjourns to the ballroom (M5) where the band accompanies Skippable events: Angel (A6), who sings the aria from  Captain Reynard (G5) has become Le Mort de mon Couer. Regress quite drunk and clumsy. He may (F2) gruffly blurts out, "Acceptable,

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for an elf." Vetighetto (A2) steps up allowed. With is +11 modifier, that to defend her, saying, "In makes a DC31 Spot check, hopefully Dementlieu, we do not speak so to a unachievable. However, with a lady." Regress storms off, retorting, DC20 Spot check, one might notice "In Falkovnia, we do not dress water dripping from his sleeve livestock in a lady’s clothing." He ruffles later. heads to the Gardens (M13) to cool off. Getting a bit lost in the Skippable events: unfamiliar manor, he exits the house  Reynard (G5) is hopelessly drunk, from the door near the kitchen (M9), and stumbles to a couch in the which is now unlocked. ballroom (M5) to pass out. He won't  Blackstone (A7) reads a dark, wake until morning. brooding poem from her work, Love Songs and Grave Poems, dedicated 9:00PM - More mingling while the to Sir Rowan Falstone. councilors deliberate  Conrad (A3) shyly explains that his sculpture is of a folktale from his After dinner, the guests split up to homeland, Banemaw the Dragon. He various locales: removes the tarp, revealing the M4 – Game room: A1, A5 (Playing rough-hewn, almost tribal, stonework drotche) column, depicting a great reptilian M12 - Gazebo: A2, G6 (Courting) beast with a menacing mouth of M13 - Garden: A6, F2 (Arguing) fangs. It is vibrant, and heart-felt, but M11 - Salon: C3,C4,G1 (Deliberating) gets a cool reception from the M8 - Chantreaux's Office: F1,C5 nobility, with a few mutters of M5 - Ballroom: G5 (passed out on "barbaric," and "amateur." Conrad couch) A3,G3,A4,G4 (dancing) G2, A7 takes everything in stride, but (Talking) Cynthia (G3) is distraught. Left the estate: C1,C2,G7  While other contestants are Important Events: presenting, Maigny (A5) lingers near the vase on the table in the Main Hall  The most important event in the (M2). As arranged by The Brain, an adventure occurs now: Maigny (A5) accomplice amongst the servants murders Regress (F2). First, Angel (Eloise, the maid) has left a weapon (A6) gives Regress a piece of her in the vase. It is a dagger made of mind; she doesn't want to risk psionically hardened glass. Crystal exposure but threatens to make him clear, and covered by the water in the regret his words when next they glass vase, it is virtually meet, and leaves him with a undetectable, but Maigny knows it scratching slap across the face before will be there, and when he's sure no huffily stalking around the east side one is looking, he will slip it into his of the house and back inside through pocket. Since he can bide his time a the ballroom door. Regress remains bit, and wait for just the right outside, stewing, and waiting for de moment, consider him to have "taken Suis, whom he expects to meet him 20" on the Sleight of Hand check, there, thanks to the note Eloise even though that's not usually slipped him at dinner.

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 Maigny (A5) is going to use his garden. If they aren't heading out unwitting drotche partner, du Cire back for any reason, this event can (A1) as his alibi. The Brain has be used to lure them in that direction. provided him with a psionically If they are already in the garden, the charged item to assist him. A small screams can temporarily make them doll, wrapped with wire, holding a think the murderer has struck again. small crystal, the item functions in a similar fashion to a psionic tattoo (or Skippable events: magic potion), allowing anyone who  Vedarrak (F1) and DuSuis (C5) are thinks the word "continue" while meeting to make the trade. holding it to trigger a one-time Hopefully by this point, the PCs have manifestation of the "False Sensory identified DuSuis as the Councilor Input" power. This power will affect with the list, and somehow swapped only one target, and will feed that lists with her. If not, Gondegal will target false sensory input that results not be happy, and his people will be in an illusion of the user continuing in danger. (The real list includes whatever task he was doing when he Falktalon Oswald Vorbel (from the triggered it. In this case, du Cire will Book of Secrets) and several lower be made to think that Maigny is still level officers in the Falkovnian playing drotche, even if he leaves the military. If the real list makes its room. As a psionically created item, way back to Drakov, everyone on it the doll retains just enough will be rounded up and executed. intelligence to make reasonable The same is true of the false list, of moves for the duration of the effect, course, but everyone on the false list which is 9 minutes, (rather than is an evil Falkovnian loyalist.) This "Concentration"). At the expiration meeting will likely take place of the 9 minutes, the crystal will without notice by the PCs, but if shatter, and the target's senses will someone listens at the door, or finds return seamlessly to normal. By that the spy hole in the art studio (M7) time, Maigny will have sneaked out that looks in on the office (M8), they to the garden, stabbed Regress in the might witness it. She passes him the back with the glass dagger, slipped false list of rebels, and asks for her the dagger back into the vase and payment: the cache of captured guns. returned to the game, where he will He is surprised that she expected him concede and take du Cire to the bar to personally bring them here. in the Ballroom (M5) for a Instead he passes her an address congratulatory drink. where the guns are being kept (a  A woman can be heard screaming warehouse in the Quartier out back. Following the sound leads Merchand). When Vedarrak leaves, to the gazebo (M12) nestled at the DuSuis searches Chantreaux's desk back of the garden. Vetighetto (A2) and pockets a large rolled paper from and a very drunk Antoinette (G6) are the drawer. (The map showing enjoying each others’ company there, where Chantreaux's village of and the screams are sounds of refugees is located.) pleasure, not pain. The PCs will  Cynthia (G3) finds an excuse to need a reason to find the body in the leave the dance floor and sneaks over

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to the door of the Salon (M11) to secret and investigate the matter quietly. listen in on the deliberations. She doesn't want to alarm the other (Leaving her husband bewildered guests until the murder is solved. If the and awkward in the company of Falkovnians find out, and there is no Cassilda (G2) and Veronica (A7), or appropriate scapegoat, it could mean perhaps dancing with Angel (A6) war! She will tell Vedarrak that Regress when she returns from the garden.) If took ill and order her servants to hide the noticed near the Salon, she will duck body. Since Captain Reynard has passed into the Library (M1) and feign out drunk in the ballroom (M5), it is up interest in a random book. to the PCs to solve the murder and avert  Dessert is served on silver platters by an international incident! the staff, using rolling carts to bring pastries to each room. (Eloise brings The Clues the dessert to the Game room (M4), A PC with the Track feat can find so that none of the other staff sees du several different tracks with a successful Cire playing drotche by himself.) Survival check. A DC10 shows signs of a brief struggle near the body. A DC15 Investigation shows boot prints leading to the body It is difficult to predict what tactics the from the kitchen door, and then back to PCs will use in their investigation of the the kitchen door. A DC20 shows that murder. Lacking modern forensics, it the prints to and from the door are not will be hard to come up with conclusive the same, and that the prints to the door proof that Maigny is the murderer. actually start at the patio (M13), not the body, and only pass by the body on the The DM is encouraged to allow any way to the kitchen door. (The prints to sufficient circumstantial evidence that the door are Vetighetto's from earlier. points them at the correct perpetrator to The prints from the door are Regress's be enough to "convict" Maigny, even if himself, coming out here.) A DC25 it wouldn't normally stand up in a court shows another set of prints (Maigny's) of law. Several clues are presented coming from the patio to the body and below (both true clues and red herrings), back. These prints can't be followed but if they PCs pursue an unexpected farther than the patio, since the stones tactic, the DM is encouraged to reward hold no prints, unless the PCs have them with some sort of clue, even if it access to the Scent Special Quality or needs to be made up on the fly. Careful other means to follow the trail. monitoring on the DM's part will be required during the investigation. If the If the tracker makes a DC15 PCs piece the clues together too quickly, Knowledge (nature) check, he or she will some distractions and red herrings will also notice some bird footprints near the need to be used. If they are floundering, body. These belong to Lord Balfour's more hints will need to be dropped. owl familiar, Lupzig, who witnessed the murder, then flew down to inspect the Upon first finding the body, Regress body. Lupzig is now hiding in the trees will be face-down in the mud, near in the garden, and if anyone in the party where the rack of fencing weapons used has access to speak with animals, he to be. If the PCs contact Chantreaux, could be questioned as to what he saw. she will beg them to keep the murder a Lupzig is not too helpful in identifying

76 Quoth the Raven 18 the murderer, however, since all humans the Main Hall (M2) will notice the red looks similar to him. He can confirm tinge to the water, and a close that the murderer was male, at least, or examination of the vase will reveal the perhaps more if the PCs seem in need of clear glass dagger outlined by the red help. water around it. A Gather Information Examining the body with a Heal check of DC20 will find someone who check of DC15 shows the cause of death: noticed Eloise, the maid, near the vase a puncture wound to the back of the early in the evening. neck, entering above the edge of his If enough clues point to Eloise and armor, pointing downward into the vital she is interrogated, with a successful organs. It seems to have been done by intimidate check (DC20) she will break someone tall and strong. and implicate Maigny. If pushed further, Searching the body can provide two she will reveal the involvement of The more clues, with a Search check of Brain. However, doing so will trigger a DC15. First, the note passed to Regress psionic trap that will shut down her brain by Eloise, which lured him out to the and kill her. garden. Second, if the mud is wiped Du Cire is utterly convinced that he from his face, several fresh scratch was playing drotche with Maigny, but if marks can be seen on his cheek (left by the game room (M4) is searched, a Angel). Search check of DC15 will notice that The dogs in the kennels (M16) saw the red pieces on the drotche board Angel stalk by, but didn't smell any (Maigny's) are undisturbed from their blood on her. If the party can speak with starting positions, while the black pieces animals, this should exonerate her of the (du Cire's) are positioned as though they murder. played out most of a game. A search Magically inclined PCs might check of DC20 will reveal the small attempt to use speak with dead, Ethereal wire-wrapped doll holding a broken Empathy or other similar abilities on the crystal on Maigny’s seat. A DC25 corpse. Thankfully, this won't ruin the Psicraft check (or Spellcraft, if using the adventure, because Regress doesn't know psionics-magic transparency rule) can who killed him. Maigny came from detect the residual energy in the doll and behind, with a silent sneak attack. determine its use. Between the darkness and pain, he didn't Regress's blood spattered on see his attacker during their final Maigny’s shirt ruffles during the murder. struggle. Having no reason to suspect He ripped them off and threw them in Maigny, he would assume his enemy, the ballroom fireplace. With a Spot Chantreaux is responsible, either directly check of DC25 or a Search check of or through a lackey. He believes the DC20, the bloody ruffles will be seen note is from duSuis, so he might also smoldering in the ashes. If anyone assume she double-crossed him. noticed him struggling with the ruffles Since Maigny returned the glass earlier, upon viewing Maigny after the dagger to the vase without washing it, murder, they may realize that they are the blood on the dagger has dissolved missing with a DC15 Spot check. into the water in the vase. A Spot check Vetighetto's scheme to influence the of DC20 or a Search check of DC15 in judges with Dapplewort can be a source of red herrings. In addition to the boot

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prints, the lock on the garden door near to get out, and she doesn't want to lose the kitchen (M9) shows signs of picking his services when she goes to get the (Disable Device check DC10 or Search guns from the warehouse. check DC20 to find). Also Dapplewort seeds can be found in the kitchen and sticky Dapplewort residue on the kitchen Conclusion doorknob. (Search DC20 or Profession The judges will finish their deliberations (Herbalist) DC10) around 10PM, and the guests will be If the PCs attempt to search the called together in the ballroom (M5) by guests for the murder weapon, or get the the servants for the announcement of the guards to do so, they find a few winners. Hopefully, the PCs will have concealed weapons. Cynthia has a solved the murder by now. If so, this is Stiletto tucked in her bodice, and Penible a fine time for a "big reveal" scene in has a dagger in his boot. Neither which the investigators announce that weapon shows signs of recent use, but Regress has been murdered and present they could have been cleaned. Conrad their evidence against the killer. If they and Marie swear by their respective don't realize this, Chantreaux may lovers and provide alibis, if they can be pressure them for an answer. believed. When Maigny is accused, he will Maigny, Chantreaux, and Angel are first indignantly deny his involvement, not the only ones who would want "Oh, of course, blame the caliban! So Regress dead. He has insulted nearly much for Dementlieuse enlightenment! everyone at the party by this point, My whore of a mother crosses a witch including the PCs. In addition, while with child, and I have to live with Blackstone has a personal grudge. If this face and the prejudice of fools. I questions, she will crack quickly and don’t see any fingers pointed at the exclaim dramatically, "My father was pretty elf-maid." Presented with any killed by Regress! We fled Falkovnia in evidence, he will continue to sneer the black of night when I was a babe in sarcastically, "That’s your evidence? the womb. I didn't kill him, but I'm glad Oh, very good, Alanik Ray, Sedgewick he's dead." will be proud." But if pressed further, One of the guests may offer the perhaps with one last piece of evidence, "helpful" idea that a ghost might be he will attempt to barrel past his accusers responsible. All these old manor houses and escape, running into the main hall are haunted, everyone knows it. (M2), or barreling through the ballroom window. This should be taken as Several books have been disturbed in "proof" of his guilt, even if the case is the Library (M1). It's a Library, so this otherwise shaky. isn't that unusual, but might send overeager investigators on the wrong A fight will probably ensue path. (remember that the PCs are probably weaponless) and Maigny will fight to the If the secret of the murder gets out death. If Eloise's cover is blown, she somehow, DuSuis might implicate one will attempt to aid him. Though she is of the PCs to divert attention from not at all trained in combat, she will have Maigny. Though she doesn't know he a sharp kitchen knife hidden on her did it, she doesn't want their arrangement person and can provide flanking to allow

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Maigny to sneak attack. If subdued and captured, he will first claim to have NPCs thought up the idea on his own, to spur a war and help his business. But when Most of the NPCs shouldn't need confronted with evidence that he had detailed stats. If needed, some can be high-powered help, he will implicate pulled from the books that reference The Brain. However, doing so will them. Otherwise, the following trigger a psionic trap that will shut down summaries should suffice. Since his brain and kill him. Maigny will probably be fought in the climax, full stats for him are provided. The party will obviously have a pall cast over it, but Theroux will not be  C1: Lord-Governor Marcel Guignol denied the opportunity to announce that (Male Human Obedient Ari5) Raphael Vetighetto is the winner of the  C2: Dominic d'Honaire (Male contest. Human Ari10 + darklord abilities) As the party breaks up and the guests  C3: Josephine Chantreaux (Female start to leave, DuSuis offers the rolled up Human Obedient Ari4/Pis2) paper from Chantreaux’s desk to  C4: Jean-Pierre Mont-Michel Vedarrak. "Josephine’s little bird Theroux (Male Human Obedient sanctuary. It’s right here. I trust you’ll Ari5) have no difficulty dealing with it?" She hopes that revealing Chantreaux's refuge  C5: Helene duSuis (Female Human will appease the Falkovnians as a show Ari7) of good faith and apology for the death  F1: Marcos Vedarrak (Male Human of Regress. Ftr6/Enc10) If the PCs solve the murder,  F2: Commander Anton Regress Chantreaux will reward them with a (Male Human Ftr5) payment of 4000gp, delivered to  A1: Alexandre du Cire (Male Human wherever they are staying via messenger Ari6) the next morning, and they will have  A2: Raphael Vetighetto (Male made an ally of her. If the PCs Human Ari4/Rog2) successfully switched the lists and report back to Gondegal, he is shocked to hear  A3: Conrad Shadowlands (Male that Vorbel's name was on the list. He is Human Com6) a well known, high-ranking Falkovnian,  A4: Francois de Penible (Human thought to be firmly on Drakov's side. If Male Ari5 [Transpossessed with he is truly a sympathizer, he would be a Kyton (Devil)]) valuable ally. Gondegal thanks the  A6: Angel Pajaro (Female Elf group and plans to return to Falkovnia to Werefox Wiz4) {Though originally a warn the people on the list that they have Half-Elf, the "Elfmaid" SQ of the been discovered. While he doesn't Werefox template has made her reward them monetarily, they have indistinguishable from an Elf.} secured a great ally for the future.  A7: Lady Veronica Blackstone (Female Human Ari4)  G1: Lord Balfour de Casteelle (Male Human Ill18)

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 G2: Lady Cassilda de Casteelle Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (Female Human Sor9) Base Atk +5; Grp +8  G3: Cynthia DeGreives (Female Atk Options Sneak Attack +3d6, Power Human Vorlog Com2/Rog6) Attack, Improved Bull Rush

 G4: Marie Delacourte (Female Abilities Str 16, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 12, Human Ari2) Wis 10, Cha 6  G5: Captain Reynard (Male Human SQ Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, Ftr6/Due2) Trapfinding, Trap Sense +2  G6: Antoinette Reynard (Female Feats Improved Unarmed Attack, Power Human Ari1) Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Firearms  G7: Gondegal (Male Human Skills Bluff +6, Craft (firearms) +13, Ftr10/KoS6) Craft (Clockworks) +11, Disable Device  All servants: Human Com1 +11, Forgery +11, Open Lock +13, Sleight of Hand +11, Tumble +4 A5: Hugues Maigny CR7 Male Caliban Ftr1/Rog6 Without access to weapons, Maigny will CE Medium Humanoid use his unarmed strikes (preferably with Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Listen Power Attack and Sneak Attack damage +0, Spot +0 if possible) or attempt to Bull Rush his Languages Balok, Mordentish, way out of the estate. If he manages to Darkonese, Falkovnian secure a firearm from somewhere, (like the locked weapons chest, or maybe a AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 display on the wall) he will use that hp 40 (7 HD) instead. He has no desire to fight to the Fort +5, Ref +8, Will +2 death, and will take any opportunity to escape, or hide in the manor until he can Speed 30 ft. (6 squares) do so. Melee Unarmed Strike +8 (1d3+3) Ranged Pistol +8 (1d10)

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Elements of Terror Dread Elemental Domains Marc “Galeros” Konigsberg [email protected]

Thanks and credit: with thanks to Ewan Land of Mists. The sky is pitch-black Cummins (he helped write the Dread with no stars in sight. This is because the Elemental Domain of Pyre and helped ―sky‖ is actually tons of rock that make me think through the other domains as up the surface of the Land of Mists. well), Rafael (for thinking of a This domain’s origins lie in the pyromaniac treant) and Rotipher of the realm of Darkon, about a century or so FoS (for helping me with the Mists back, during the 7th century on the domain). Barovian calendar. In that realm, there was a man named Adros Janol, who was Domain of Grave quite an adventurer. He traveled all throughout the land, braving the Mists The Dread Elemental Domain of Grave and the dangers that lurked within to win is known to few in the Land of Mists. It glory and riches. And he did all of this is always found underneath the earth. It alone, facing down horrors that would sometimes appears only if one delves send even hardened adventurers running. deep into the earth; other times it can be His adventuring career proved quite found just by digging a shallow hole. profitable and he enjoyed it immensely The domain itself is a seemingly endless for a decade. To him, it seemed as if field of graves and mausoleums, with a none of the horrors that lurk throughout few dead trees every few hundred feet. the land could truly threaten him. This Gravelights can sometimes be seen all changed when on one of his journeys floating above some of the graves. This in Darkon he ran afoul of a powerful and domain is the only place other than hideous creature of the Mists. He refuses Darkon where gravelights can be found. to speak of the encounter, but it is known Packs of ghouls and other undead that he nearly died and that afterwards he roam the massive graveyard. This quit his adventuring career. domain is also the home of all grave elementals that are summoned in the

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Adros had a younger sister, Serisia appropriate weapons and armor for Janol. She would stay at home in the herself when she reached a major city. town of Maykle while Adros was off Adros awoke the next morning to exploring. Adros deeply cared for her find his sister gone and some of his old and would take care of her and see to equipment missing as well. He did find a any need or want she had. He would note left for him that said she was going bring her gifts back from distant cities to go traveling for a while, and that she and towns he had visited. She loved him could handle herself. Adros was furious dearly for taking care of her and for with her and ripped up the note in anger. being so kind as to bring her gifts. He chose not to pursue her, figuring There is no account of their parents, that she would come back after a day at and it is not known if they were living or most, but a day passed and she did not deceased during this time. She always return. Then a week passed, and then a envied her brother for his journeys, but month, and a month became a year. At she knew that he would never permit her this point, he had still convinced himself to go with him, as he was far too that she would be coming back soon, protective of her. even though he had said the same thing Still, despite this, she decided one to himself months ago. He eventually day to ask him if she could go with him decided to set out after her, though he on his travels. He refused to take her feared he had let too much time pass with him, as she expected. It was shortly already, and that he would not be able to after this that he had his brush with death find her. and returned home. Serisia noticed that He set out from their home and as he he stayed home for an unusually long passed through small communities he time after this adventure and asked him asked if anyone had seen a young why he was not leaving to explore the woman who matched her description. At land again, as usual. He responded that first, he found no one who knew who she the adventuring life was not his was, and he feared he may have to leave anymore, and that he would be staying Darkon to find her. But while he was home with her. She was disappointed by traveling down a road one day, he ran this, as she always loved to hear tales of across a rather strange group of his heroics. individuals: a human man who wore the One day she decided to ask him if symbol of Ezra in the form of an amulet she could travel the land herself, if he around his neck, an elf who wore a went with her (she was unaware of his colorful robe, and a halfling who carried near death experience, as he never told a multitude of weapons on his small her about it). He refused and told her that frame. it was not safe to travel far in the Land When he spoke to them and asked of Mists, and that it would be best for about his sister, much to his surprise, her if she stayed home. they said they had seen her, but also that Despite his warnings, she chose to she was no longer among the living. She set out one night when he was asleep. had joined up with them and had helped She took some of his old adventuring them deal with a number of problems, gear, food, and some money she had such as exterminating a nest of undead saved up, figuring she could buy more that were causing trouble for a small community. She also helped them fight

82 Quoth the Raven 18 of a band of lycanthropes that attacked had put her in a grave that was also them in the wilderness. They told him someone else’s. He began hiring that she had died fighting off a human unscrupulous people to help him with his necromancer; the necromancer used a task, but he knew that he had to silence spell that instantly slew her. them afterwards, as graverobbing often They were able to kill the carried a severe punishment in Darkon necromancer, but because of the nature because of the fear of the disrespected of the spell the necromancer used on her, dead rising to attack the living. So he the priest of Ezra was unable to even murdered every person he hired and attempt a resurrection, and he knew of simply tossed their bodies in the graves no one else who could try. They had they had dug up, leaving town the next entrusted her body to a local small day. community and went on their way. They During the time he was doing these told him that they were sorry for his loss, dreadful tasks he sometimes would but that there was nothing they could do. notice that his skin would feel a bit They did give him the name of the small strange. It would feel cold and lose its community so that he might go and see color a bit; other times it itched fiercely. her grave. He also noticed that his teeth appeared to Adros left them in a daze and be just a little bit larger and sharper than decided to go and find her place of rest. normal. He quickly dismissed the He found the community that the group oddities with his skin as the result of had told him about, but when he talked having perhaps rubbed it on some to the people who lived there, they said poisonous plant by accident. He that they hadn’t seen anyone who dismissed the slightly larger and sharper matched his sister’s description in the teeth to be his imagination; he was sure past year. Adros insisted that she must his teeth had always been like that and be buried in the community’s small he had just never noticed before. He also graveyard. He went to look himself, but started to take any valuable he found in could find no tombstone with her name the graves he dug up; they would be gifts on it. for his sister, even though she could no He asked if maybe she had been longer enjoy them. buried without one, but the locals told One night, while he was performing him that everyone who is buried in town, his task of searching through graves, he even outsiders, would have a tombstone and the people he had hired to help him made for them as a sign of respect. came across a mausoleum in a cemetery. Adros left the community thinking that They had already dug through all of the perhaps he had the wrong town, and other graves that Ardos suspected might continued looking for his sister’s resting have contained his sister’s body (He place. His search eventually took on a never had any real explanation for why dark side as he began sneaking into he chose to dig up certain graves and not graveyards at night and digging up others; perhaps he had some sort of bodies to see if they belonged to his secret criteria he chose by). He had a sister. feeling his sister had to be in the At this point, he began to believe mausoleum, so he and his hirelings went someone or something was hiding her in and began searching through the from him, and further, that this entity remains of the people inside.

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However, the mausoleum was sharper teeth had been warnings for him enchanted to seal itself up and not open to turn from the path he was taking, up again until a certain word was spoken warnings that went unheeded. outside its doors. Trapped, Adros and his He ran back into the mausoleum, companions tried to figure a way out, but shut the doors, curled up into a ball and no matter where they looked or what tried to cry, but he could not. He closed they tried, they found no route of escape. and opened the doors to the mausoleum Whoever knew the word to open the again, hoping that he would emerge back mausoleum was either long dead, or had in the cemetery he had been in before, forgotten about the mausoleum and did and also hoping that he would be not come to check on it anymore. restored to normal, but he only saw the Eventually hunger and thirst began to endless field of graves and the pitch- set in. Adros decided to silence the men black sky. He was now trapped in this he had hired at this time, both because he dead realm for eternity. had been planning to do so anyway, and so that he could have a food source. He managed to kill the two men he had Adros Janol brought with him without much trouble, Male Human Ghoul Lord Fighter and he feasted on their flesh. 7/Rogue 5, AL CE After he did this, he heard a Adros Janol can actually be fairly rumbling sound, and looked to the doors civil when encountered, if he does not of the mausoleum. He was astonished, have a craving for living flesh at the and horrified, to find them opening. He time. If he is in a ―good‖ mood he may thought it was whoever maintained the ask anyone who enters his domain for cemetery coming to see why the news of the outside world, and invite mausoleum had sealed itself off. Instead, them to try and find a way out for he found no one was at the doors. themselves. If he desires living flesh, however, he will attack any living person He tentatively stepped outside and and devour their flesh. He has no control noticed that the cemetery he was in was over the undead or grave elementals in much larger than the one where he had his domain, but they will also never entered the mausoleum. He also noticed attack him. that the sky was pitch-black and the air was completely still. He did not take many steps out of the mausoleum when Border Closure he felt his entire body being enveloped Adors Janol cannot close the borders of in excruciating pain and he fell to the his domain, so people who enter can ground, crying in agony. leave as soon as they can find a way out, He writhed on the ground for what be it via magic or by being lucky enough seemed like hours, and when the pain to find a portal that leads out. (There are finally subsided, he looked at his hand about a half a dozen portals out of the and noticed the flesh was now domain known to Adros, he may share desiccated. He felt his face and felt his the location of at least one of them if he skin drawn tightly over his skull. His can be convinced to do so). teeth were also much larger than they had been before. He finally realized that his cold and itchy skin and larger,

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throughout Ansalon, a profitable Domain of Blood business in the post-cataclysmic world of Krynn.

As the two of them got older they The Dread Elemental Domain of Blood were not able to spend as much time is a swampy realm filled with noxious together as they would have liked, due to gases that rise from the red water. Red Jorah’s chosen profession taking him all fog can frequently be seen in the air. over Ansalon. Jorah still liked to stop by Stirges can often be found in swarms, Palanthas every chance he got to see his especially around the pools of pure friend Firal, however, and it was on one blood that are scattered about the red of these visits to Palanthas, after he was soil. coming back from a trip to Nordmaar, The origins of this domain lie on the that he fell ill with some kind of fever. world of Krynn on the continent of He felt as if his blood was burning in his Ansalon. The world had suffered from veins and arteries. an event called the Cataclysm, in which He went to see his friend Firal, the gods hurled down a fiery mountain to certain that his friend could heal his restore balance to the world. The gods malady. Firal had never seen the sort of took their priests with them, away from illness that plagued his friend before, but the world, and since that time the world he was certain it had something to do has not seen any new priests. The most with his blood. He thought that if he profound effect this had on the world could replace his friend’s ―bad blood‖ was that healing magic was no longer with healthy blood, he would be able to available to mortals. People dying from cure him. He ran into a dilemma of disease became far more common than where exactly to get this healthy blood. before. People did start to become more He certainly could not give his own skilled at mundane methods of healing, because he estimated that he would need but these were nothing compared to the to drain and replace nearly all of Jorah’s healing power once wielded by the blood. clerics of the gods. He at first tried to get people to In the city of Palanthas, about one donate small amounts of blood. He hundred and fifty years after the would use some medical apparatus that Cataclysm, there was a young man he himself had crafted for the procedure, named Firal, who worked as a healer. He but he had no luck in convincing anyone was skilled in herbology and even knew to donate any amount of their blood. how to perform some surgical With Jorah’s condition worsening by the procedures. He was well-known and hour, he knew what he had to do. well-liked throughout the city because of Firal would take in patients as he his knowledge of healing procedures. normally did. He would take them into Although he never charged much for his his home, where he did all of his work, healing services, he still managed to under the pretenses of helping them with make a comfortable living for himself in whatever was making them ill. He Palanthas. He had a friend named Jorah, checked to make sure they were not whom he had known since they both suffering from anything that might were young boys. Jorah was a merchant potentially make their blood bad for who mostly sold weapons and armor transfusion, and then he would render

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them unconscious with a chemical began to cast suspicion on even concoction. It was easy to do this as he Palanthas’s beloved doctor. was a trusted man in the city of He soon found the Palanthas City Palanthas, so if he thought people Guard knocking on his door, asking to needed to be put under for whatever do a search of his house. He let them in, procedure he needed to do, they would but they were unable to find the bodies believe him. buried in his garden. Firal did the He performed the procedure to drain procedure to replace Jorah’s blood again, the blood from several patients, with with the same results as the previous complete success. He buried the bodies attempt. Jorah recovered for a short in his garden of medicinal herbs. He while before becoming ill again. Firal stored the blood in sealed metal was nearly driven to despair at this point. containers, chilled with ice he purchased He thought that maybe he should try and at great expense. No one suspected a gather more blood, but he was uncertain thing, at first. He did get people asking whether repeating the procedure would after friends or family members who had have any more effect than it had before. come to him, but he simply told them He also felt terrible guilt over murdering that he had treated them, they had left, his patients to help Jorah, but he did not and he had no idea where the missing regret his decision. people could be. For the time being, He was trying to fall asleep one night everyone who talked to him accepted when he heard someone knocking at the this. He was finally ready to try to door of his home. At first, he thought it replace Jorah’s bad blood with the was someone who was desperate to be healthy blood that he had drained from treated, but when he went downstairs to his patients. check, he noticed the noise was not Using the medical apparatus that he coming from the front door, but from the himself had made, he slowly drained his door in the back of the house that led to friend’s blood and began to replace it the garden. Jorah was still sleeping with the blood from his now dead fitfully in one of the rooms he treated his patients. Jorah was delirious at this point patients in, so he knew he could not have and had no idea what Firal was doing. At gotten up and wandered outside. first, it seemed the process had worked. He went and opened the door to his When he was done, Jorah was finally garden only to be confronted with the able to talk coherently, and his fever had horrific sight of his once buried patients gone down. all shambling around his garden. They However, only a day after the were twisted, rotted, disgusting procedure had been performed, Jorah’s creatures. One must have bumped condition began to worsen again. Firal against the door. They soon saw him and was convinced that he needed more began to advance on him. Firal only had healthy blood, so he again began to drain a mace for protection, so he barricaded the blood from his patients in order to the garden door. He could not run away use it to cure Jorah. He did the procedure into the streets, as they would follow, on ten patients before people began to and his secret would be found out if notice that something was amiss. The anyone recognized their twisted features news of so many people having gone for one of the missing people. missing when they went to see Firal

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He barricaded himself inside Jorah’s knows he is not a warrior, and so will room and waited, trying to figure out usually not attack anyone who enters his what he should do. Soon enough, the domain. He has somehow managed to undead creatures broke though his get a hold of some medical instruments, garden door and began to pound on the perhaps taken from some hapless soul door to Jorah’s room. Jorah was who found himself trapped in Firal’s sleeping, but not very restfully. He domain. tossed and turned in his sleep and Curiously, most who enter the mumbled incomprehensible sounds. domain find themselves taken by an Firal grasped his mace, as he knew the illness very similar to the blood sickness undead creatures would soon break that afflicted Firal’s friend. If Firal through the door and the furniture he had comes across any of these sick people, put in front of it. In just a few moments’ he will offer to heal them, but only if time, they came bursting through. they can first find a way out of the Firal began to lay into them with his domain for him. Many have died mace; he managed to kill four of them searching for an exit to the domain for before the other six overwhelmed him him, either from their illness, or from the and pulled him to the ground. They creatures that lurk in the swamp, and began to rip and bite into him. He tried even those who did find a way out for fending them off, but they were too themselves, soon found out that Firal strong for him and he soon felt the could not exit the domain at all. excruciating pain of being devoured Firal has all but given up finding a alive. The creatures seemed especially way out and now spends most of his fond of his blood. He lost consciousness, time wandering the domain, when he is his only regret that they might begin to not in his shack fiddling about with his feast on Jorah when they were done with medical tools. He has actually tried to him. cure the illness in a few of those who To Firal’s surprise, he found himself entered the domain, and he has noticed waking in damp soil. He opened his eyes that it is very similar to the illness that and looked around to see red soil with a afflicted his friend, but all of his large marsh in front of him. He also attempts to cure the illness have failed, noticed there was a strange red fog in the and in all cases, the person has died, air. He saw some fat, red, mosquito-like often screaming in pain. creatures that he had never seen before, He has even begun to try the same flying above the red marsh water. He got process that he tried on Jorah, by luring up and decided to explore his in people who have not yet been afflicted surroundings, and perhaps find a way out with the illness and draining their blood of this strange swamp. to cure someone who has been afflicted. But all of his few attempts have ended in Firal failure. Male Human Expert 10, AL NE Firal has no command over the blood elementals in his domain or any other Firal can be frequently found creature, but they will also never attack wandering the domain; he has set up a him, and so he can wander freely small shack built out of what few without ever coming to harm. materials he can find in the swamp. Firal

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Border Closure Tindertwig grew angry and bitter at humans, and even at any other races that Firal cannot close the borders of his took up residence in towns and cities. An domain. He knows the location of idea formed in his mind. If he could start several exits, but he will rarely, if ever, a fire in a city, and then stop it from give out this information to outsiders going out of control, surely he would be because he likes to have subjects to test hailed as a hero and finally find out his medical procedures on. complete acceptance among town and city dwellers. Domain of Pyre Twindetwig decided that he would start a small fire in a nearby city, then let The Dread Elemental Domain of Pyre it grow for a bit, just enough to be came to be when a young treant named noticed. Then he would put it out. His Tindertwig thought that his fellow plan might have gone perfectly had it not treants had become too stagnant and set been for an unexpected windstorm which in their ways. This thought was spurred blew through the area the night he set the by his interest in humans, who seemed to fire in the slums of the city. The fire live life at a much faster pace than grew too great for him to control and he treants did. He found their fast-paced was badly burned while he was lives fascinating, and he wished to learn desperately trying to put it out. more about them. He also thought the Tindertwig fled the city and took refuge forests he lived in could benefit from in a nearby river to assuage his burns. controlled burnings to help new life grow. He got the idea when he heard Meanwhile, in the city, the fire from a friendly druid that in some forests continued to rage out of control. in other lands natural forest fires would Hundreds lost their lives and many more occur so that old, dead wood and plant lost their homes. Someone must have life could be cleared out to make room seen Tindertwig setting the fire, as he for new plant life. soon found groups of men coming to look for him. He had gone from a He proposed the idea to the Elder freakish curiosity to a hated and hunted Treants, but they ended up expelling him public enemy. from the forest because they thought his ideas dangerous. Tindertwig was able to The first men that came for him were find some welcome in rural communities found crushed to death. Tindertwig then that had a druid or ranger in residence, ran to the woods of the city’s remaining but he found that he found no welcome park, but he was smoked out by the in large cities, or even rural communities humans in the city. He escaped by without a druid or ranger. People ran floating down the river and hiding in the away from him in terror, or ran him out forested hills south of town. There, he of any town he approached. decided he would return to the city and explain his error, and hopefully regain Tindertwig began to grow bitter; he his chance to teach. came to see that the people from the world outside the forest were just as The people of the city would not unable to accept something new, as were listen to him, and he had to flee from the the Elder Treants. city once again when he tried to approach it. The people of the city began

88 Quoth the Raven 18 to cut down trees to rebuild what of the small forest. Tindertwig tried to Tindertwig’s blaze had destroyed. escape from the forest, but he found Tindertwig grew even more upset at there was no end to it. the people of the city. He decided that it He soon found himself back at the would be better to burn them out and site where he had burned the grow new people who he could teach woodcutters to death. Their remains and guide: people who would listen to were still smoldering. Much to his him and not be tainted by the ignorant surprise, their remains caught fire views of the current city dwellers. Soon suddenly and rose in a great fires began to break out on the outskirts conflagration. They formed into what of the city and nearby farms, always at looked like fire elementals, but had the night. A charred, twisted giant of living woodcutters’ remains visible in their wood was seen stalking the lonely hills bodies. and creeping along the riverbanks to They began to chase Tindertwig, so hole and sink boats with his mighty fists. he ran from them, but soon, more of Dozens of men and women were killed these strange fire creatures began to join or driven from their homes in terror. in the chase and no matter how much he Tindertwig eventually began to study ran, he could only find temporary fire magic, so that he could better learn reprieve from them. Tindertwig was now the nature of the element and start fires caught in an eternal chase, one from without the aid of any tools. It was which he may never escape. during this period of time when a group of humans came to cut wood from the forest where Tindertwig was staying. Tindertwig Treant Wizard 5, AL CE Tindertwig knew them to be from the city he had nearly destroyed the night he Tindertwig can often be found was burned. In anger, he decided he running from the pyre elementals that would use his newly learned fire magic eternally chase him. Tindertwig has little to burn them alive. He carefully patience for outsiders and will often approached the group of human simply attack anyone who is in his way, woodcutters, the words to a fire spell on as he has come to hate nearly every his wooden lips. The woodcutters sentient being. recognized who he was and began to flee in terror, but Tindertwig let loose his Border Closure spell and brought forth a great column of Tindertwig can close the borders of his fire on them. They all died, screaming in domain, by causing a wall of pain. impenetrable smoke to rise up near any The fire from his spell was stronger exits. He rarely chooses to do so, than it usually was, and the surrounding however, as he is often more focused on area was caught in flames. Tindertwig escaping from the pyre elementals. began to panic, as the fire was spreading quickly and too fast from him to control, just like that night in the city. He tried to Domain of Mists put out the fire using some water magic It is believed the Dread Elemental he had also learned, but it was no use, Domain of Mists came to be about two and soon the fire had engulfed nearly all

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centuries after the Demiplane first making friends with Giorgios. She made formed, a little over four centuries ago. close friends with one particular Giorgio The domain itself simply appears to be man and always came to visit him when an endless foggy plain, with a single, she could manage to sneak away. small town on its landscape. Most people Her friendship with this man who enter the domain do so by getting eventually grew into a romantic lost in the Mists. relationship, and one day she found The people of the town are mostly herself with child. She searched for him human, and they all have no memory of when she visited the town he lived in, so their lives before they came to be in the she could tell him that he would soon be domain of Mists. They are all terrified of a father. Unfortunately she could not a ghost who is said to roam the endless find him. foggy plain on which their town is She heard rumors that he had situated. They are also frightened of disappeared one night on the way back wandering mist elementals that are often to his dwelling from a tavern, perhaps found near sites where The Ghost, as the victim of some the many creatures they simply know him, has been. that dwell in the Land of Mists. She The Vistani can sometimes be found despaired at not being able to find him, traveling across the domain; it is but accepted it and eventually she had rumored that they utilize this land to the child. travel quickly across the Core. The She kept him and named him Tirian, origins of this land are a mystery to most after his father. She raised the boy and everyone in the Demiplane, but the although he never quite fit into Vistani following is the truth of this land’s society, he still managed to make friends origin. with the full-blooded Vistani. He was There was once a Vistani woman good friends in particular with a Vistani named Veria. She was known to often youth named Leran and the two boys get close to Giorgio men and women. spent many hours together playing as She found the lives of Giorgios, who so youths. While Tirian may not have had often stayed in one place for their whole access to all of the gifts that full-blooded lives, fascinating. She often wondered Vistani receive, he still did quite well for what they did to keep themselves from himself as he had quite the talent for being bored, besides their daily toils. She tracking, both mundane forest creatures would often spend time in Giorgio cities and also the dangerous creatures that can whenever her tribe stopped to stay roam the Land of Mists. nearby one for a while. While she found On more than one occasion, Tirian the idea of staying put in one place for so managed to notice the signs of a long rather boring, she did find the cities dangerous creature such as a werewolf that the Giorgios built amazing and full nearby before anyone else noticed. This of surprises. earned him great respect amongst the She made friends quickly, and so she Vistani he lived with, and he truly felt had a number of friends in every city she like a full-blooded Vistani. visited, and she always made a point to One day he noticed what looked like visit them again when she returned to the deer tracks leading to a nearby creek. area. Other Vistani looked upon her The tribe needed more food, so he strangely, but they did not stop her from

90 Quoth the Raven 18 decided to go and see if he could find the best, but that she could not go with him, deer and bring it back for food. His as she had duties to the tribe. friend Leran went with him. A short Tirian become angry with her and while later, Tirian came back to the tribe began to yell at her that she was just like without Leran. He told his mother that the rest of them. In his anger he drew the he could not find the deer. His mother very dagger that was the supposed asked where Leran was, and Tirian told murder weapon used on Leran and her that Leran said he was going to stay stabbed his mother with it. She fell to the behind for a bit to have some time to floor of their Vardo, and as she lay dying himself. Tirian looked upon his bloodstained His mother accepted this hands in horror. explanation. Hours passed and Leran did He ran from the Vardo and into the not return, so another Vistana decided to nearby woods. He was seen, and soon go and look for him, as they were going there were shouts from the campsite that to leave their current campsite soon. The Veria had been murdered by Tirian, her Vistana came upon Leran’s corpse; own son. Tirian ran, but a group of Leran looked to have died from a stab Vistani caught up with him and he was wound between his ribs. shot in the leg with an arrow. Despite The Vistana returned and this, he still managed to continue immediately asked to see Tirian. Tirian running on pure adrenaline and hide asked him what was wrong and the from the Vistani. Vistana accused him of murdering His leg wound was bad, and he had Leran. Tirian was confused, as he left no way of treating it. The wound soon Leran perfectly alive by the creek became infected and he was forced to several hours ago, and he saw no tracks limp about to even move. While he was of anything dangerous nearby. Tirian’s in this state, he came upon a lone mother defended him, saying he would campfire with a man sitting before it. never hurt anyone, let alone any of his The man was wearing expensive- friends. looking armor and was polishing a finely The accusing Vistana pointed out crafted dagger. He noticed Tirian that Tirian always carried a dagger with approaching and immediately got up and him, and that Leran had died from a stab threatened him with the dagger, saying wound. The Vistana asked to see he had run across another one of his kind Tirian’s dagger; it was perfectly clean, (Vistani) earlier and he had killed him, but the Vistana said that that just meant but was disappointed that he had no gold Tirian had cleaned it off in the creek on him. before he came back. The elders of Tirian looked upon the man in anger, Tirian’s tribe met and agreed that with but could not do anything to harm him as what evidence they had, Tirian had to be he was too badly injured. The man took the culprit. Tirian’s anger to mean that Tirian was They decided Tirian’s punishment angry at him for threatening him. He would be exile from the tribe. Tirian was killed Tirian with a quick thrust of his furious with them, and tried to argue he dagger into Tirian’s ribs and spat some would never harm his friends, but the slur against Vistani. Tirian’s last sight evidence was against him. His mother before he died was of the man rifling tearfully told him that leaving would be

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through his pockets looking for gold or anything else of value, but with his Tirian dying breath, Tirian cast a curse on the Male Vistani Ghost Ranger 9, AL CE entire tribe of Vistani he belonged to. He Tirian can be found wandering the cursed them so that no one would ever domain. He will rarely engage in civil believe a word they said. Vistani were conversation and will instead lash out at already distrusted, but the reputation of anyone who even comes near him. On his tribe(who were regarded as actually the rare occasions that he does not lash being fairly trustworthy) would be out and attack, he will usually be utterly ruined. weeping and endlessly repeating the His entire tribe was driven to ruin words ―I didn’t do it‖ to himself. He has because of his curse, as they could not command of the mist elementals that get anyone else, even other Vistani, to wander the domain, and he will not cooperate with them. No one would lend hesitate in calling some to help him them assistance, and the entire tribe was fight. killed when set upon by a pack of werewolves. They tried sending Border Closure someone to another nearby Vistani tribe Tirian can close the borders of his for aid while they holed up in their domain and even shrink the size of his vardos, but because of the curse the domain by causing Mists to rise up and messenger was not believed. And so the close off any area he chooses. Anyone tribe was slain by the werewolves, as who enters the Mists is simply turned was the messenger himself, when he back. Otherwise, it is possible to leave returned to the tribe to see if they had the domain by wandering into any fog managed to fend off the creatures. bank, but where the person will end up is Tirian awoke on an endless foggy unknown. They may be deposited back plain. He thought he was in the afterlife, into the demiplane proper, or they may but he soon found out that he was still in end up elsewhere. No one who has the mortal realm when he noticed he exited via these means has ever returned could pass through a nearby tree. He to the land, which is why those who live clenched his ghostly fists and let out a in the small town do not leave using this wail of anger. Now, he is an angry ghost method, as they are terrified of what may who lashes out at anyone who comes happen to them. near him. He wanders the endless plain, never to know rest.

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