Twilight's Children Campaign Log: Session 27

Discussing all things Ravenloft
Post Reply
User avatar
Gonzoron of the FoS
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 7555
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:02 pm
Gender: Male
Location: New Jersey
Contact:

Twilight's Children Campaign Log: Session 27

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

For those following my campaign, the latest installment, Session 27's Journal, is now up at the usual location:

http://www.TheMistway.com

as usual, with optional DM's commentary.

Featuring:
Waxing Horrific, part 2

Lots of fun character stuff this time, though we didn't get through the adventure yet. Hopefully we'll finish it up soon.

Comments always welcome...
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
User avatar
Zilfer
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 4230
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:14 pm
Gender: Male
Location: WA (Land of lots of trees)
Contact:

Re: Twilight's Children Campaign Log: Session 27

Post by Zilfer »

I'll try and get to it soon. :0
There's always something to lose.

Fraternity of Shadows Discord
https://discord.gg/AM6Kp95ekf
User avatar
Joël of the FoS
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 6643
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2003 1:24 pm
Gender: Male
Location: St-Damien, Québec

Re: Twilight's Children Campaign Log: Session 27

Post by Joël of the FoS »

Session 27 read!

;) @ love triangle. I also tried to add a few romance idea here and there in my campaign, but it was mostly ignored 99% of the time. I guess they fear the red widow... I had Tara Kolyana express an interest at the cleric in the group, but it wasn't pursued. But I had the WF twins express interest over some other men, to make the players jealous, and that worked ;)

Very cool revival for de Pénible corpse :) My player also have the habit of cutting heads to prevent returns like this ;)

Cool battle with devil Zorach! What level are they now? What is the source for this "fidele" magic thing?

Great washerwoman afterward cut scene too.

Interesting twist with Joel the Wolverine. Strange that they do not worry more about him.

Great curse idea. What did you have in mind to end this curse? Union of who? A wedding between themselves seems too easy to get rid of the curse, no?

Ah ah ah at the use of House of Wax theme music. That was great.

Fun wax displays too. I just wonder how du Cire got that close to Strahd, Drakov or Azalin to replicate them perfectly :)

Ah ah ah at Theroux for real at the wax museum. I saw a small web movie once of Ozzy doing that in a wax museum (just being immobile, seated on a bench, while people were seating on his side for a picture. Fun.).

Cool old ladies. You did a great job fleshing this adventure. I'm curious about the list ;)
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
User avatar
Gonzoron of the FoS
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 7555
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:02 pm
Gender: Male
Location: New Jersey
Contact:

Re: Twilight's Children Campaign Log: Session 27

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Joël of the FoS wrote:;) @ love triangle. I also tried to add a few romance idea here and there in my campaign, but it was mostly ignored 99% of the time.
Yeah, I try to put a bit in here and there. It hasn't gone very far, but I feel it's a bit of realism. I mean, most PCs start as late teens / early 20's. It's only natural that they'd have an interest. The adventuring life doesn't leave much time for it, of course, but it makes sense to throw some in when possible. The Red Widow-type betrayal is a concern, but I think my players are more concerned about Bad Things(tm) happening to anyone they get close to. (kidnapped by villains, etc.)
Cool battle with devil Zorach! What level are they now?
Still 11. Which reminds me, I probably should give some XP soon. They probably should be going to level 12. I'll admit that I get so caught up in the story aspects, I often forget to award XP. Also, they are reaching the point where I kind of dread them getting any more powerful because it's hard to challenge them without breaking the Ravenloft mood.
What is the source for this "fidele" magic thing?
"fidele" is Zorach's race. The source for the fidele is explained in Session 23 and 24's commentary, but I'll quote it here in the spoiler box for you to save you some digging. Fideles don't actually have much in the way of magic ability. I was making a bit of a joke saying that they would have an innate sense to detect True Love.
VIEW CONTENT:
The Fidele is from Dark Roads & Golden Hells from Kobold Quarterly. I needed to figure out what sort of fiend the thief was going to bind, and for reasons that will be explained later, it wasn't a simple question. The assorted ranks of the undead, I've got down, but on planar matters, I don't have much experience. So, I had to turn to the experts: The denizens of the forums at planewalker.com, the official Planescape fansite. Many thanks to Jem, Wicke, Mask, Viking Legion, Palomides, and Anetra from over there for helping out a "clueless berk" like myself. The fideles were actually created by Jem, and they fit the bill perfectly.
...
Ladies and Gentlemen, Zorach the Widower. I knew I wanted Cynthia to summon an extraplanar creature of some sort to preside over the ceremony that would resurrect Baron Metus. The problem was that I couldn't find a creature that seemed to fit. I could of course, have just made something up, but I was hoping to find something existing that fit, and was sure there was something out there in the whole wide D&D multiverse. But since my specialty is Ravenloft, I don't know much about the outer planes, and nothing in the Monster Manual seemed to be what I wanted.
So, first I asked my Fraternity of Shadows buddies, and we'd come up with the ice weird, but it just wasn't quite right for what I was picturing. So as mentioned in the previous commentary, I went to the experts, and posted on the official Planescape fansite, planewalker.com, asking for help. Thanks again to Jem, Wicke, Mask, Viking Legion, Palomides, and Anetra for their ideas, and particularly Jem for creating the fideles and Anetra for bringing them up in the thread.
My original thought was a male demon of some kind. Kind of something like The Gentlemen from Buffy, or Pinhead from Hellraiser, or the Utapauns from Revenge of the Sith. Sort of sinister, but clearly intelligent and not a monster. The sort of thing one might sell a soul to. My full criteria were as follows:
  • willing to be bound into service to higher powers
  • religious trappings or history of worshipping deities
  • willing to make deals with mortals
  • Relationship to undead/undeath
  • schemers/infiltrators as opposed to brutes
  • relationship to magic/ritual
  • aspect of fire/heat and/or ice/cold
  • creepy looking, but not over-the-top-monstrous
I figured, if I could hit 2 or 3 of those, I'd be happy. Turns out the fidele could fit around 5 or 6, plus their backstory of being the embodiments of eternal love fit right in with Cynthia and Evening Glory.

The only issue was adjusting his abilities to reflect a widowed fidele, mad with grief, and not your standard bonded fidele. I gave him an ability I called "Forced Bond," which says:
"Forced Bond (Su): If a female is hit by one of Zorach’s arrows, she must make a DC 20 Will save or become bonded to Zorach as per the forced shared pain psionic power. This lasts for 7 rounds or until a dispel magic or similar spell is used on the target. When active, a glowing ring of energy appears on the target’s left ring finger. If another target fails their will save against this attack, any previous target is freed from the effect."
And I altered his "To my Lover's Side" ability to only allow him to move to the vicinity of the victim of his forced bond power. (Maybe if I want to be cruel, it can take him to his dead mate's grave too, but now that he's trapped in Ravenloft, that's moot.)
Other than that, he's a standard fidele Rgr3 with human as his favored enemy. Any ability to officiate over unholy rituals is a gift from Evening Glory, and not from any class abilities.
I didn't give much thought to who killed his spouse or how, since it wasn't relevant right now. Presumably, it was a human who killed her, hence the favored enemy choice. If I ever get around to writing him up for Quoth the Raven, maybe I'll come up with something.
Interesting twist with Joel the Wolverine. Strange that they do not worry more about him.
Oh, they are worried, for sure. They just haven't had time to really try dealing with it.
Great curse idea. What did you have in mind to end this curse? Union of who? A wedding between themselves seems too easy to get rid of the curse, no?
I have nothing in mind to end the curse. :twisted: If they come up with something, fine. If not, I'm happy to let it linger forever. I agree that a quick marriage of convenience would not fit the escape clause. It would have to be a real love match or it wouldn't count.
Fun wax displays too. I just wonder how du Cire got that close to Strahd, Drakov or Azalin to replicate them perfectly :)
Shhhh! :) Let's say he did them based on paintings he bought. Actually, I think at least Azalin puts his face on Darkon's money, right? Maybe Drakov and Strahd do the same? I wouldn't be too hard to get some foreign coins to base it on. The real tricky one is Madame Eva. Or actually, Tiyet for that matter. But Tiyet could just be based on travellers' wild stories and not actually look anything like her. Who would know?

Anyway... shhh... None of it makes any sense if you poke too far. ;)
Ah ah ah at Theroux for real at the wax museum. I saw a small web movie once of Ozzy doing that in a wax museum (just being immobile, seated on a bench, while people were seating on his side for a picture. Fun.).
Found it. Cute! There's a great one with Schwarzenegger too.
I'm curious about the list ;)
It's all the people du Cire plans to replace, with his successes crossed off. Obviously, some of these would be harder to achieve than he suspects...
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
User avatar
Gonzoron of the FoS
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 7555
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:02 pm
Gender: Male
Location: New Jersey
Contact:

Re: Twilight's Children Campaign Log: Session 27

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
User avatar
Starscream
Agent of the Fraternity
Agent of the Fraternity
Posts: 76
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 12:34 pm
Gender: Male
Location: Italy

Re: Twilight's Children Campaign Log: Session 27

Post by Starscream »

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Session 28:
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/vi ... =1&t=10378
Yippee ki-yay, new sessions!
Tomorrow morning (italian zone) i know what i will read on the train :D
Post Reply