Domain of the Month
Valachan
Adventure Hooks
Now we revisit the land plagued by the white fever!
Created in 625
Moved during the Grand Conjunction (year 740). Part of the Core.
Darklord: Baron Urik von Kharkov
Second edition: Black Box (Realm of Terror), Red Box (RL Campaign Setting), Domains of Dread, Darklords
Third ed. info: RL3E / RLPH, Gaz 4
Adventure: Chilling Tales (Family Feud), Dungeon # 50 (Felkovic’s Cat), Dungeon #42 (The Price of Revenge), Dungeon # 52 (Laughing Man)
Novel: Tales of Ravenloft (Von Kharkov)
Jeremy16
Here's a handful of characters I thought of for any number of articles or netbooks but never really got around to fleshing out. (As always, I'm not familiar with 3rd ed. rules, so I leave it to my betters to provide stats and such.)
The Lumberjack
There is an old wives tale still told in several of the smaller hamlets that dot the domain about a phantom lumberjack that prowls the forests searching for young maidens to carry away. Little girls are warned to run away if they ever hear the CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP of his axe. If they don’t, they are soon entranced by the rhythmic chopping and rush towards its source, never to be seen again. The Lumberjack resides in an enchanted grove deep within the forest. Anyone who succumbs to his charms is fated to join him there as part of an eerie gallery of trees that have anguished human faces carved within their trunks (which hold the souls of his victims).
For this one, I wanted to create a ghost using one of the unique forms outlined by Van Richten in his guide. I don’t feel that there’s enough non-standard ghosts out there…
The Moonchild
a giant orb of light that is said to wander the forests of Valachan. It is believed by some to be a sign of good luck, because its light can keep the creatures of the night at bay. Others say it drives whomever it comes in contact with mad. Actually, it is the ghost of a Sithican elf-maiden who was killed by a panther while on the way to a secret rendezvous with her Valachani lover. The great sense of loss she felt as she lay dying turned her into ghost of second magnitude. She cannot speak, but instead communicates by passing through a person’s body, revealing the scene of her death or the face of her lost love.
I originally planned on doing a QTR article on breweries of the Core. Here’s one example…
Butenlanse Brewery
A very profitable business based out of Rotwald that makes a heavy, but surprisingly sweet, lager that is popular all throughout Valachan as well the neighboring domains of Mordent and Verbrek. After drinking one or two bottles it produces a euphoric high. It is rumored that the owner, Frankin Butenlanse made a deal with the spirits of the forest, who actually add a potent hallucinogenic to the barrels in the middle of the night after all the workers have gone home.
I see Felkovic as a wonderful source of all sorts of aberrations that he developed as part of his scheme for revenge against Kharkov.
Felkovic’s Fungus Golem – one of the mad wizard’s more off beat experiments. Felkovic tried to create a being from the fungus that is so plentiful in the giant redwood forests around Helbenik. He worked for many years to find a stable formula, but eventually grew tired of the project and threw out all his materials. Out in the wild, however, his experiment took on a life of its own. It roams the forests now, looking like a walking patch of lichens. People are beginning to speak about a “Moss Man” that haunts the woods surrounding the city. It attacks anyone that comes near it by shooting spores that lodge in the victim’s throat and lungs. Its only weakness is fire.
This one’s kind of silly(based on a kid’s cartoon shown on Nickelodeon a few years back).
The Cat-Dog
An Invidian Paka that was infected by a Verbrek werewolf. Now, every full moon it turns into a vicious hybrid creature that is half-cat and half-wolf. It was exiled from its community, and has recently settled in Valachan (just across the border from Verbrek). The Black Leopards who patrol the area consider it to be nothing more than a legend told to new recruits. It is real, however, and is constantly seeking a way to cure its condition as well as protect its privacy.
Also, I've been toying with the idea of moving the domain closer to Darkon, so our not-so-lovable Baron will really have something to worry about with his old master right next door. Any other places you think it would fit in the Core? Maybe as an island in the Sea of Sorrows?
cure
The felines of Valachan and the canines of Verbrek are engaged in a low-grade guerilla war.
The felines take the matter quite seriously for two reasons: first lord von Kharkov mistakenly believes that the hand of his former master, Azalin Rex, is secretly directing efforts against him and his land; and second the paka of Valachan believe that man and dog made an alliance long ago against cats and deem the extermination of canines to be an important step towards the extermination of the human race.
The canines approach the matter with less forethought: for them it is principally a matter of good sport and racial hatred; Timothy, however, has added a religious element, seeking cats to sacrifice on the alter of the Wolf-God.
Adventurers are most likely to be drawn into the conflict by the felines who are looking for expendable 'claws' that might be sent on near suicidal missions as well as for fodder generally.
Alternatively, they may simply seek to see to the security of innocents harried by werewolves, only to discover that those who would 'help' them in this are as monstrous as said wolves.
Finally, the Invidian resistance might well have a hand in stirring the pot, for this keeps werewolves busy in the west and so it is more difficult for Malochio to recruit them into his ranks.
Jeremy16
There is an old wives tale that Valachani mothers pass on to their daughters that concerns giving birth. If a child is born on the full moon, it is said that a white-robed stranger will knock on the door of the house, asking to see the child mere minutes after birth. Mothers are obliged to welcome him in, for it is said that bad luck will fall on the entire family if he is turned away. If he is allowed in he examines the child by brushing a leaf of mistletoe all along the child from head to toe. No one knows exactly what he is looking for, but he always sends this strange ritual by shaking his head and quietly leaving. It is said a child so visited will grow up healthy and be safe from all harm from the wood spirits until they turn eighteen.
Who is this guy?
- Well, he could just be a figment of imagination.
- Or he could be a disaffected priest of Yutow, wandering the domain, waiting for the emergence of his god's reincarnated spirit that will come to restore the land and deliver his people from evil.
- Or better yet (and, of course, this my fave) he is a very powerful Halite warlock, searching for a special disciple that has the strength of the Panther-Spirit, who he will train in the ways of The Weave, and who will turn out to be the only one with the power to truly destroy Baron Kharkov's despotic regime.
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