9496 ? 1 .$ Cr t dit s 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 d to the Demi 201 Sheridan Springs Road 120 Church End Lake Geneva Camblridge CB1 3L~5 United Kingdom Introduction ......................... .4 The Coruara ......................... .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 TheZarouan ................... ....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 11: Vistani Life ................. 13 TheScar .............. ....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 . .I7 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 Abiities 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 ........ .31 Conclusion ............ ....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 111: 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 ... .7" sfe 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 comPades have suffered-perished- -Edna St. Vincent Millay as I collected data for my infamous guidebooks? Was there ever so ignominious a For more than three decades, now, scholar as myself? 1 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 1 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 1 cannot deny awareness beaan 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! Perhaps Lord Azalin enjoys the mantle of nobility as he sits at Castle Avernus, but that quality is an albatross upon A Confession I my own neck, which grows heavier and more :xpect that those who think me a hero will rank each passing day. Even as my life :hange their minds when they know the hunting monsters began, I felt the weight of vhole trulh about my life as a hunter of the time upon my weary shoulders. Today I am a 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, I 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 I am vampires, ghosts, liches, lycanthropes, golems, the object of a baneful Vistani curse. More mummies, fiends, and all their ilk. Much have I tragically, the nature of this hex is such that I written concerning these evil creatures, and I 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 1 must wonder: How many brave became an unwitting tool of darkness, and I 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) An Old Tale Retold Vistana and bade me learn if it still possessed 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 latex What 1 have neglected Something inside me snapped. I went insane to illuminate is how I tracked those Vistani with fury and released the zombies, and the kidnappers through the Mists, or how I entire tribe was eaten alive! 1 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