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Credits

Design: David Wise Editing: Jonatha Ariadne Caspian Product Coordination: Harold Johnson and Steve Miller Cover Art: Scott Burdick Interior Art: Stephan Fabian Art Coordination: Peggy Cooper and Paul Jaquays Graphics Coordination: Sarah Feggestad Electronic Pre-press Coordination: Tim Coumbe Typographer: Nancy J. Kerkstra

This book is affectionately dedicated to the Demipiane of Dread itself, for the author is one of several Frankensteins who have looked upon Ravenloft and proudly proclaimed, "It—is—alive!"

Sample file TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd. 201 Sheridan Springs Road 120 Church End Lake Geneva Cherry Hinton WI 53147 Cambridge CB1 3LB U.S.A. United Kingdom

9496XXX1501

ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, RAVENLOFT, MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM, and AD&D are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. MONSTROUS MANUAL, and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. All TSR characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. © 1995 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

Random House and its affiliate companies have worldwide distribution rights in the book trade for English-language products of TSR, Inc. Distributed to the book trade in the United Kingdom by TSR Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of this material or artwork herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc.

<** Introduction 4 The Corvara 56 A Confession 4 The Manusa 57 An Old Tale Retold 5 Attitudes and Behavior 59 The First Glimmer of Hope 6 Beliefs Concerning Time 61 Chapter I: History and Legends 8 Specific Powers 61 The Vanquished Conqueror 9 The Defining Craft 62 The Tale of Vistan 10 The Canjar 63 The Forlorn Wanderer 10 The Zarooan 66 The Splintering 11 Conclusion 68 The Spiteful Gods 11 Chapter IV: Curses and the Evil Eye 70 The War for All Time 12 Curse Types 70 Chapter II: Vistani Life 13 The Scar 71 Rituals 14 The Poisonous Carrot 71 Setting and Striking Camp 15 Doombringer 72 The Prastonata 15 Alienation 73 The Doroq 16 Torture and Terror 73 Moon Rituals 17 Focus Items 74 Tribal Organization 19 Breaking a Curse 75 Adoption 20 The Evil Eye 75 Exclusion 21 Known Effects 77 Everyday Life 22 Chapter V: Salient Abilities and Vulnerabilities. . 78 Living Off the Land 22 Prescient Sight 78 Love and Marriage 23 The Tribal Seer 79 Death and Funeral Rites 23 The Legend of the Dukkar 79 Nomadism 25 A Key Weakness 80 The Vardo 26 Mist Navigation 81 No Trace of Their Passing 27 Tracking Magic 82 Dark Neutrality 27 Slowing the Prey 82 Law and Justice 28 Vista-chiri and Other Minions 83 Punishment 30 Powers Over Monsters 83 Banishment 30 Static Burn 85 Exile 31SampleConclusio filen 87 Communication 31 The Last Steps 87 The Patterna 32 A Final Farewell 90 Tralaks 33 Appendix: Vistani Player Character Kits 91 Paaterns 33 Character Background 91 Conclusion 33 Public Image 91 Chapter III: The Tasques 34 Alignment 92 Overview 35 Race 92 The Kaldresh 36 Universal Abilities 92 Attitudes and Behavior 37 Universal Drawbacks 92 Beliefs Concerning Time 38 Tribal Abilities 93 Specific Powers 38 Kamii 93 The Defining Craft 39 Equaar 93 The Kamii 40 Vatraska 93 The Equaar 42 Naiat 94 The Vatraska 45 Corvara 94 The Boem 49 Canjar 94 Attitudes and Behavior 50 Zarovan 95 Beliefs Concerning Time 51 Conclusion 95 Specific Powers 51 Glossary 96 The Defining Craft 52 The Naiat 53 Evil Eye Check Modifier Table 77 afe upon the solid rock the ugly through some crucial omission of fact, some houses stand: subtle failure to report the whole truth about Come and see my shining palace one of those monsters? How many of my own, built upon the sand! precious comrades have suffered—perished— —Edna St. Vincent Millay as 1 collected data for my infamous guidebooks? Was there ever so ignominious a For more than three decades, now, scholar as myself? I have undertaken to investigate It matters little that my beloved friends and and expose creatures of darkness comrades-at-arms entered freely into my to the purifying light of truth and company. Small compensation that many of knowledge. "Hero" I am named in them have expressed a profound sense of some circles; "sage" and "master fulfillment in aiding my cause, even in the hunter" I am called in others. That midst of their premature death throes. The I have survived countless indisputable fact remains that I am ever supernatural assaults is a marvel awash in their blood, drowning in guilt, surely among my peers; my name is lost to redemption for my part in their spoken with fear and loathing demises. among my foes. Without doubt, to accept my company is to In truth, this "virtuous" calling embrace doom, and I cannot deny awareness began as an obsessive effort to of that fact. From the very beginning of my destroy a vampire who murdered quest to destroy creatures of evil, I have carried my child, and it has become for Death itself with me like a virulent disease, me a tedious and bleak career. infecting all who dared to walk with me! , ''"Hi Perhaps Lord Azalin enjoys the mantle of nobility as he sits at Castle Avernus, but that quality is an albatross upon A Confession my own neck, which grows heavier and more expect that those who think me a hero will rank each passing day. Even as Samplemy life file change their minds when they know the hunting monsters began, I felt the weight of whole truth about my life as a hunter of the time upon my weary shoulders. Today I am a I unnatural. Nevertheless, I must reveal, here man who has simply lived too long. Like a and now, that 1 have been the indirect yet regretful lich, I find myself inextricably bound certain cause of many deaths, and the loss of to an existence I sought in madness and, many good friends. Mistake me not! I do not seemingly, must now endure for all eternity. merely feel sorry for myself. Rather, 1 come to Of course I shall die, but whether I shall ever grips with a devastating realization: rest in my grave haunts my idle thoughts, and Though I would not at first acknowledge torments me in my dreams. it, and for quite some time could not even By now, I can consider myself an expert on concede the possibility, I now see that / am vampires, ghosts, liches, lycanthropes, golems, the object of a baneful Vistani curse. More mummies, fiends, and all their ilk. Much have 1 tragically, the nature of this hex is such that written concerning these evil creatures, and 1 have not borne the brunt; instead, far many of them have been properly expunged worse, those who surround me have fallen from the world as a result. Yet I do not believe victim to it! that this land of Mists is any purer for my Let me go back to the beginning, to the day I efforts. And I must wonder: How many brave became an unwitting tool of darkness, and young heroes have sought glory, armed with enhance the reader's perspective with the my research, and met unspeakable ends in whole truth, withheld until now. spite of it? How many have died (and worse) '"&&

Vistana and bade me learn if it still possessed An Old Tale Retold the ability to travel through the Mists and find In my Guide to Vampires, I related the tragic its people. Unfortunately, I say in hindsight, it story of how my only child Erasmus was taken worked. I found the child stealers, but my by Vistani and sold to the vampire Baron unwelcome entourage included a growing Metus. I explained how Erasmus was made a horde of voracious undead which could not minion of the nightstalker, and how it was my touch me due to Azalin's ward. miserable part to free him from that fate at the There is only a little more to tell, but it is the point of a stake. Finally, I recounted the woeful most difficult to report. I make no excuses for loss of my beautiful wife Ingrid, murdered by my actions: indeed, none can be made. When I that same Baron Metus in retaliation for my found the caravan, I threatened to set the successful (if one could call it that) reclaiming zombies upon the Vistani unless they returned of my son. my dear boy. They replied that he had been All that is true enough, and it pains me still sold to Baron Metus. these many years later. What I have neglected Something inside me snapped. I went insane to illuminate is how 1 tracked those Vistani with fury and released the zombies, and the kidnappers through the Mists, or how I entire tribe was eaten alive! I cannot— "extracted" Erasmus's whereabouts from them. But this is the crucial moment of the tale. To think back on it fills me with remorse and As she died, the leader cursed me, saying, self-loathing, yet 1 must let the full truth be told "Live you always among monsters, and see before I can proceed to the subject of this, my everyone you love die beneath their claws." latest treatise. Even now, so many years later, I can hear her In fact, the Vistani took Erasmus with my words with a clarity that rivals the present own, unwitting permission. They had brought sound of my own voice. A short time later, an extremely ill member of their tribe to me when both Erasmus and Ingrid had been one evening and insisted that I treat him, but I ruthlessly torn from my loving arms, I believed was unable to save the young man's life. In that the curse had exacted its deadly toll, and I fear of their retribution, I begged the Vistani wept until insatiate vengeance filled the to take anything of mine if they would only Samplevoluminou files rift in my heart. withhold their terrifying powers, of which I Now, after more than three decades of knew nothing. To my lasting astonishment, bloodshed and agony and loss, it has slowly they chose to surreptitiously take my son in dawned upon me that the Vistana's curse had exchange for their loss! By the time I realized never slaked its own thirst for revenge. Greatly what had occurred, they were already an hour reluctant yet determined to know the truth, I at gone. last consulted with Inarin Alster—a diviner Incensed beyond reason, I strapped the body wizard of no small ability—and he confirmed of the dead Vistana to my horse and doggedly my worst fears! followed that caravan through the woods of The curse lingers even to this day, and all western Darkon, naively allowing the sun to set the true and stalwart friends I have known and before me without seeking shelter from the lost are victims, not of outrageous fortune, but night. Shortly after darkness fell, I was beset by of my actions. True to the words of the dying monsters who would have slain me, had not Vistana, my life has been shielded from fate Lord Azalin himself intervened and spared my again and again, while those whom I esteem life. With his powerful magic, he took control of above any treasure have taken my place! For a pack of zombies that wandered in the forest, my nearly forgotten act of hatred, 1 have served and he spoke to me through them. In short, up the flesh of my most cherished companions Lord Azalin placed a magical ward against to feed the appetites of darkest powers over undead upon me, then animated the dead these many, many years! When the horrifying enormity of my waited for the name to sink in. Sink in it did. revelation swept over me, I railed bitterly at the Radanavich was the surname of the Vistani cruel irony of my life. I recklessly swore to burn tribe that stole my son, and whom I every word I had ever written, and very nearly slaughtered in revenge! My jaw dropped in did so. I even contemplated deliberately ending remembered horror. my wretched existence in the most violent of "Yes, the same," he said in response. "I am ways. Most of all, I cursed the Vistani, who had the sole survivor of that terrible night so long made a monster of me and a mockery of my ago, when you gave my people to the undead, most noble aspirations, and I swore to murder though I was only a child then." every last gypsy I could find. New tears welled in my eyes. "I thought no Thankfully, patience and wisdom stayed my one had survived." hand. Drained of all spirit, I cast myself into "I hid in my Nana's vardo, in a chest of bed and wept, as I had not done since my magical clothing. The monsters would not former, blissful life was forever ripped from me. touch it." After an awkward moment of silence, I mumbled, "What do you want of me?" The first Glimmer of Hope "As I said, I am come to heal you." That very same night, I awakened from my "Heal me? What do you mean?" nightmares with a start, for my well-ingrained "You are cursed by my tribe, Dr. Rudolph instincts told me I was not alone. 1 sat up van Richten, as you now finally realize, to live abruptly and stared about my bedroom, forever among monsters and see all whom you quickly focusing upon a dark figure seated in love die by them." the corner chair. As I struggled to part the void "Yes," I gritted through clenched teeth. "I between sleep and wakefulness, the remnants know." of my night terrors took the intruder's shape "But I, too, am cursed—by you." and seemed to advance upon me with deadly "By . . . me?" intent. Witless and frightened, I cried out like a "Do you not recall? No sooner did Nana lay snatched babe in the jaws of a fleeing wolf. her curse upon you, than you returned a deadly "Fear not, Rudolph van Richten,Sample" said a file curse of your own. I will never forget the sound gravelly, male voice. "I am come to heal you. I of your voice as you cried, CJndead take you am come to heal us both." as you have taken my son!' Hastily I lit a lantern by my bed and held up "Yes, I have been pursued these thirty-six the light to see my uninvited visitor. By then 1 years by the walking dead. They follow me had steeled myself against the unexpected. Yet wherever I go, like a golem tracking its creator, still I gasped aloud, for the man had the look of and they make me an outcast. No tribe will a darkling, a creature who was once Vistana, grant me asylum. No Vistana or giorgio will but who, for some crime or taboo, was cast out take pity upon me. Nothing removes the taint of his tribe. My first thought was that he had you have put upon the name of Radanavich!" come to murder me as a means to appease his Giorgio. I recognized the term Vistani use former people. Dark-skinned and gaunt, he among themselves to signify outsiders, but gazed at me with eyes that burned cold. His vocabulary was not my overriding concern. bony hands rested in his lap, yet his long, "Can you blame me?" I cried, suddenly jagged fingers flexed slightly, as if he might transported to the past. "You stole my child and suddenly lash out at me. sold him to a vampire!" I seized the silver dagger which I keep Arturi winced as he struggled with his own beneath my pillow and brandished it at him, yet wrath, but he held up his hand in a gesture of he made no move except to smile grimly. placation. "I know, I know, and that is why I am "I am Arturi Radanavich," he told me, and here. I wish to break our mutual curse."