Café de Nuit

Rokushima Taiyoo was a good setting. It had clearly fantastic elements, but it felt like a true domain with economics and politics and a history. I'Cath, which I still cannot fathom the naming for any vaguely Chinese setting, was much more stereotypical and superficial. It would have been better sui...

A lot of thriller novels and horror novels proceed on the fact that there is only one hero or heroine. I'd think a 1 on 1 campaign can derive wonderfully from them.

One of Azalins more annoying barons asks his former companion from KotD how it is that he's lived so long and what he, the baron, can do to gain such favor. Azalin overhears this and, as an object lesson, drains the life force of the baron and gives it to his former companion. That seems like vinta...

1. Azalin: He's an excellent Darklord and very Gothic - scheming and manipulative, he comes the closest to escaping the Demiplane, and he'll never give up. 2. Strahd: He has the charisma and persuasion part of it down pat, convincing even the most skeptical of the justness of his actions... while ta...

Yes, I recall P. N. Elrod kept "Teleport" off Azalin's list. Then again, you have From the Shadows, which explicitly states that Azalin only ever teleports in and out of his laboratory under Castle Avernus. As Azalin himself of Kargatane.net fame would say, "DM's prerogative!", b...

Azalin’s Phylactery – Golden Dragon Skull This minor artifact is a gold-plated dragon skull, with rubies set into the eye sockets and a permanent green flame burning in the jaw opening. It measures about 4 feet 6 inches long, and weighs about 1,000 pounds (size category M). The skull can be reduced...

Level: Canon PHB/GazII -- non-canon PHB/GazII -- non-canon Spell Compendium. Level 0: Resistance, Acid Splash, Detect Poison, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Daze, Dancing Lights, Flare, Light, Ray of Frost, Ghost Sound, Disrupt Undead, Touch of Fatigue, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Open/Close, Arcane Mar...

Azalin, Post-Conjunction Archlich, former Darklord of Darkon Male human lich Wiz18, ArchMage2: CR 25; Size M undead (5’11” tall); HD 20d12; hp 145; Init +0; Spd 30’; AC 20 (touch 10, flatfooted 20); Atk +13/+7 melee touch (1d8+5 [Will save for half DC 33] and paralysis, negative energy) or +10/+5 r...

I finally overcame the conceptual problems with an undead arcane spellcaster - chief of which was the fact that healing would be a problem. According to the Libris Mortis, they have an arbitrary rate of healing damage, something like a hit point every 8 hours or so. However, negative energy magic al...

That depends. If you assume they're stuck in their domains, with all the attendant powers thereof, then Azalin is still far more powerful than what his level-18 lich powers would suggest. Even somebody as mighty as the level-20 Meredoth would have difficulty against an all-knowing lich who can A) lo...

At the time frame I was looking at, the PCs would stay within China and with a bit of travel from one city to another, they'd get enough variety to show that it's a very large place. At a time when warlords are rising and an empire is falling, there's also a wonderful capacity for finding ancient ma...

There is a thread on the Wizards board about this. If you go to the Ravenloft thread there's one called "Undying: A Ravenloft Conversion" . A few proposed stats for the Covenant family are there, as well as a couple of ideas as to how the final monstrous bosses can be incorporated into the...

Thanks for the feedback. Indeed, GazII has the "Steal Vitality" spell that Azalin used extensively while he was a human mage. Now that aging is a less problematic thing for him, however, I wonder that he still has it memorized as part of his Spell Mastery feat. Lately I bought the Spell Co...

Another idea that would work really well with a small number of players and a starting campaign would be the Darkon Memory Campaign. Do a search on the threads for the actual post itself, but here's a starting list: * Darkon, the domain, drains the true memories of its visitors and gives them fake o...

It is a pity that this never came out. I am trying to put together a late-Qing-dynasty style realm for Ravenloft, and it would have fit in even better if it were on Gothic Earth. The premise is that a great empire lies in stasis, wracked with natural and manmade disasters while foreign occupiers mak...