THE UIRAOO: The ftiuerboat of Captain Nathan Timothy

Lateen-rigged sail

Sample file

Length on keel: 45'

Ladder up

Down to cabin below

Locked door

Secret door Depth in hold: 5.5' t- •;•; ; h *?»'«,?*.

Credits Design by: Steve Kurtz Edited by: Steve Miller Project Coordination by: Harold Johnson Interior Art by: Mark Nelson Cover Art by: Jeff Easley Cartography by: David C. Sutherland HI Typesetting by: Nancy J. Kerkstra

Playtesters: Karen Kurtz, Peter Schmidt, Marketta Lillard, Josh Gerner, Daniel Quaroni, Chris Tapia, Abram Connelly & Svetozar Fung.

Special Thanks to David Wise for revealing the secrets of the Vistani

Sample file

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Contents Glossary of Uistani Terms Cutting the Deck 3 Blood rite. A mingling of blood, spiritualing For the Dungeon Master 3 joining two people. When a giorgio is invited to Adventure Background 4 engage in the blood rite, he becomes a giogoto. The Dukkar 5 Captain: The male leader of a caravan. Attributes of the Vistani 5 Dukkar, The: An abomination prophesied to bring I. Widower Once Again 7 doom to all Vistani Tasques. Getting to Invidia 7 Doroq. The ritualistic telling of stories and Dealing with Raul 9 legends around the campfire. Continuing the Adventure 13 Fulltide: The three days during which the moon is II. River Cruise 14 full. Arrival in Invidia 14 Giorgio. Any nonVistana. The Musarde River 15 Giogoto. A nonmember Vistana who is Matton's Hunting Party 15 considered a friend or ally. A Riverboat Captain 16 Lunaset: A ritual that begins at midnight on the Continuing the Adventure 21 third and last day of the full moon. III. Karina 22 Patterna: A Vistani dialect, made of words Invited to the Carnival 22 borrowed from many languages. The Town of Karina 22 Prastona: The girl or woman who dances the East Karina 22 prastonata. West Karina 30 Prastonata: The traditional evening dance around Continuing the Adventure 33 the campfire. IV. The Vistani 34 Raunie: The female leader of the caravan. The Zarovan 34 Tasque: A nation of Vistani, which is made up of The House of Mists 34 several tribes, which are in turn divided into A Ghost from the Past 35 caravans. Night with the Zarovan 37 Vardo: A Vistani, round-topped wagon. Continuing the Adventure Sample39 fileVishnadd. Justice. The vishnadd is actually an V. Dog Fights 40 obsedian knife which is a central figure to the Bloodsport 40 Vistani system of justice. Sponsors and Guests 40 Vistana: The singular form of Vistana. Getting There 42 123 Bog Street 42 Unwelcome Revelations 46 Continuing the Adventure 46 Reporting to the Zarovan 48 VI. Vishnadd 49 A Dark Lord's Residence 49 The Haptmeyer Estate 50 Concluding the Adventure 54 VII. Further Adventures in Invidia 56 The Domain of Invidia 56 Recurring Characters 58 VII. Dramatis Personae 60 n the shadowy Three of Swords, the Soldier, representing warfare seclusion of her and conflict. Above, in the pivot of alliances, boudoir, Gabrielle Gabrielle overturned the Seven of Coins, the Thief, Aderre drew a veil symbolic of acquisition. Finally, she barely paused across her face and over the card to the right, the point of the rising sun, inhaled the heavy the path to her son's future. The Mists. perfume cast by Gabrielle braced herself for the pain that would stunted candles on come, but when the Sight blinded her eyes, she the table before her. was still unprepared for its intensity. Stifling a Reaching down, she scream, the witch fell to the stone floor, her chair pulled open a small, clattering beside her. Only a full blooded Vistana hidden drawer and may invoke the most powerful tarokka with withdrew a worn impunity, and Gabrielle Aderre was only part wooden box. Vistani. She thrashed uncontrollably on the floor Reflexively, her left while the vision of her son ran its course. hand formed a sign to And in the soft shadows of her boudoir, a small ward off evil, while child laughed. her right opened the box and took out a faded deck of cards, for the Dungeon Master placing it on the table. • B^elcome to Invidia, where Vistani curses unfold Her hand briefly BBlto their terrible fruition. As the Dungeon visited the jade ^Wr Master, there are a few things you should amulets around her prepare before running this adventure. The goal of neck, invoking their magic to shield her from the any RAVENLOFT® scenario is to establish a mood of dark, invisible powers that moved around the mounting fear and dread in the players. By domains unhindered and unseen. familiarizing yourself with the adventure beforehand, With the smallest finger of her right hand, you can devote more time during play to describing shaking ever so slightly, Gabrielle touched the the details of sight, sound, and smell that will help tarokka deck and whispered her son's name. bring a gothic horror setting to life for your players. "Malocchio." SampleThe module' files major antagonists play changing Fighting an urge to look at the first card, she roles as the plot evolves, but their basic placed it face down on the table. Slowly, with the background and game statistics remain generally calm dread that preceded every reading, Gabrielle constant. This information is summarized in shuffled the remaining tarokka, sensing the flow Chapter XIII: "Dramatis Personae." You may find it of time and place as the painted cards danced convenient to photocopy these pages and keep with their neighbors. She stared into the yellow them readily accessible during play. flame of the candle. This module assumes that you, as the Life is a web, her mother Isabella once told her. Dungeon Master, have access to the DUNGEON Pull the right thread and you can see the center. MASTER® Guide (DMG), the Player's Handbook Pull on the wrong string and you will be trapped (PHB), and either the two basic appendices of the and devoured. For the web is not yours. It belongs MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM (MCI-2) or the to the spider. MONSTROUS MANUAL™ (MM). We also assume that A shuffled deck stood waiting on the table. you have access to the campaign setting. Either Gabrielle dealt four cards face down around the old Realm of Terror or the new Ravenloft the focus to form a minor cross: the simplest boxed sets will suffice: this adventure can be pattern for the most straightforward answers. incorporated into any gothic horror campaign Clearing her mind, Gabrielle turned over the setting. Finally, "The Evil Eye" has been designed focus and stared at... the Beast. Alarmed but not to accompany Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani. surprised, she flipped over the card to the left, While enough detail has been included so that representing the past the Ghost Below, in the VR's Vistani will not be necessary to play the position of opposition, Gabrielle's fingers revealed the adventure, a few encounters will have greater depth if you have access to that resource. in Falkovnia. My master was a sadistic monster. To a lesser extent, the adventure also includes For amusement each night he would gather a a number of ghosts, apparitions, and other group of slaves and impale them before his monsters that are fully detailed in Van Richten's castle. Their dying screams would mingle with the Guide to Ghosts and the RAVENLOFT appendices to chamber music and polite dinner conversation. the MOHSTROUS COMPENDIUM. Though details about But because of my beauty and Vistani gifts, he these creatures have been included in the refused to kill me. Many nights I wished he had. adventure, feel free to substitute other monsters Years later, when I finally escaped, I was two and creatures if these resources are not readily months pregnant with you. available. "I have told you enough of your father. Bring my potions before the wolf kills us both." Gabrielle was stunned. For years she had Adventure Background fantasized about her mysterious father, and her s a young girl, Gabrielle Aderre was warned romantic dream was shattered. She stumbled by her mother Isabella to never have children: away from Isabella into the vardo, packing her A"A man, a babe, a home—these things can mother's prized tarokka and potions in a sack. never be for you, Gabrielle, for tragedy will be the The wolf still convulsed in its enfeebled state, only result." For many years, while the bitter pair helplessly charmed by the evil eye. Gabrielle wandered the wilds of Ravenloft, Gabrielle returned to her mother's pool of blood. By then pressed her mother for details about her future she had made up her mind. and her mysterious father, though Isabella forbade "I don't believe your lies, Mother. I'm leaving to it. Gabrielle learned nothing more until she turned find my father." 19, on the eve of her mother's death. As Gabrielle fled into the darkness, her While traveling in Arkandale (a domain that mother's pleading voice slowly faded and the dissolved during the Grand Conjunction), Isabella screams began. Suddenly, Isabella's voice rang allowed Gabrielle to set the warding circle around out close by through the gathering mists. "The their camp. They had argued that day, and (as Mists take you, traitor. May you know your child's usual) Gabrielle had lost. Tired and seething with betrayal and realize too late the depths of its evil!" anger, Gabrielle wove the protective charms too Then the Mists closed around Gabrielle, and she hastily, and by the light of a rising moon, a was gone. werewolf stormed into camp througSampleh the file The Mists brought Gabrielle to Invidia, which at imperfect wardings. the time was ruled by a werewolf lord named Before Isabella could ready an assault, the Bakholis. The werewolf's retainers captured creature knocked her down and ripped open a Gabrielle and brought her to Castle Loupet for an huge gash in her leg with its jaws. Crawling audience. Proud and overconfident, Bakholis frantically away, Isabella fixed the werewolf with sought to enslave Gabrielle, but the witch her evil eye, blasting the creature with the full managed to enfeeble the darklord with her evil force of her hate and malice. The lycanthrope fell eye, exactly as Isabella had struck down the dazed to the ground while Isabella's enchantment werewolf in Arkandale. Thinking she was seized him. As the blood pulsed out of her gashed successfully averting her mother's curse, leg, Isabella called to Gabrielle for help, but the Gabrielle pulled out a silver-edged dagger and slit cruel daughter saw only a window of opportunity. Bakholis' throat while he was still helpless. "Tell me about my father," Gabrielle bargained, Instead of assuring her freedom, Gabrielle thereby "and I will save your life." became the new lord of Invidia, forever Isabella was furious. "The charm will not hold imprisoned within the domain and prevented from the wolf for long! His strength will return, and he seeking out her unknown father. will kill us both!" Years passed and bitter Gabrielle slowly But Gabrielle would not be swayed, and as became accustomed to her imprisonment. She Isabella's vision began to blur, she told her took many lovers from the small town of Korinna daughter vaguely about her past. Isabella's voice in her domain, but the passage of time could not was calm and strong in the cool night air. erase her mother's curse from memory. Gabrielle "I was captured as a child and sold as a slave was careful to use the medicinal arts thought by her mother to prevent her from becoming incubus. Gabrielle named her son Malocchio, pregnant. She treated her lovers with disdain, after the strangers evil eye (for surely that was enslaving them with her evil eye and discarding what robbed her of reason). Reassuring her vague them when she eventually grew tired or bored, but recollections a "handsome gentleman," Malocchio none were able to comfort her terrible loneliness. was born appearing human, except for a slight Then, one day, a dark traveler appeared at the defect: a sixth finger on hand. In all other gates of Castle Loupet. From the moment he respects, Malocchio appeared to be a regular locked eyes with Gabrielle in the great hall, her baby. iron-hard heart melted under his hypnotic gaze. Despite his cherubic appearance, which was a She soon invited the handsome stranger into her small comfort to Gabrielle while recovering from boudoir. her three days of excruciating hard labor, it was Before mounting the stairs to Gabrielle's quickly apparent the Malocchio was not a normal private chambers, they were confronted by child. Most obviously, the child was growing much Matton, the lover Gabrielle had just replaced. too quickly to be normal. By the time Gabrielle Secretly a wolfwere, Matton was the only one of had recovered from childbirth, Malocchio was Gabrielle's lovers who felt genuine effection for, already walking and talking. And as the boy grew, having never been enslaved by her evil eye his fiendish nature became increasingly apparent. (although the witch had never realized this). Now, When he thought no one was looking, he would hurt and jealous, Matton transformed into a wolf cause flocks of birds around the castle to fly into and hurled himself at the stranger. The gentleman walls. He would call wolves from the forest and caught the wolfwere and hurled him to the ground command them to attack villagers for his with stunning, superhuman strength. Gabrielle, amusement. However, not all of Malocchio's meanwhile, overcame her shock and paralyzed cruelties went unnoticed by his mother. her former lover with the evil eye. At the strangers Once Gabrielle's suspicions were aroused, she suggestion, they left Matton paralyzed and used Eva's Tarokka Deck to perform a reading on convulsing in the great hall as they climbed to her son, with the results described in the Gabrielle's private chambers. introduction to this chapter. When the adventure In the privacy of her boudoir, Gabrielle begins, Gabrielle knows the full range of her son's succumbed completely to the strangers fiendish evil powers—through she does not want to believe charms. And when the handsome gentleman his true identity—and she has begun a scheme to disrobed, she thought it hardly unusual to see a Sampleuse Malocchi fileo in her own selfish plans. Her hope pair of black, bat-like wings unfolding into a is that through her son, she will finally be able to canopy of darkness. Gabrielle welcomed the strike directly at the hated Vistani who have incubus into her embrace. shunned her. "You will remember me only as the handsome gentleman," the stranger said afterward, once she had stopped screaming. The fiend's voice carried Attributes of the Uistani the weight of compulsion. And then he was gone. hroughout this adventure the heroes interact with Vistani who can read the tarokka or cast Tthe evil eye. Both attributes are fully detailed The Ouhhar in the RAVENLOFT Campaign Setting and Van mong Vistani legends, there is the tale of a Richten's Guide to the Vistani, so only an beast known only as the Dukkar, a name overview will be given here. Awhose meaning has been lost in the aeonic swirl of time. According to this apocalyptic tale, the Dukkar brings about the destruction of the The Tarohha entire Vistani people. Not every Vistana knows of Unlike several other modules that have involved this legend, but for ages a tribe known as the the Vistani, the tarokka does not advance the plot Zarovan have been watching and waiting for the in the adventure (though you, as the DM, may Dukkar's appearance. wish to make it seem as though the tarokka has The Dukkar is none other than the monstrous an effect). For this scenario, the cards are merely issue of a union between Gabrielle and an "window dressing." You can use the tarokka to