Dragon #339

Discussing all things Ravenloft
Matthew L. Martin
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Post by Matthew L. Martin »

Aslan wrote:Speaking of Ravenloft poping back up. I noticed WoTC is rereleasing Death of a Darklord again. While I'm sure it's mainly just to cash in on the success of Laura K. Hamilton, I did happen to notice that it was part one of a new Ravenloft Trilogy. I'm wondering if they have either comishioned her to write the other 2 or if this the begining of a Ravenloft novel ressurection.
It's labelled as "Book One", but not of a fixed-length series, and I'm guessing that's only if it does well enough for them to want to reprint other books. I don't think they could afford Hamilton at this point, and given that DL and FR have had lots of reprints lately, why commission new stuff when you can reprint stuff that's been out of print for about a decade?

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Post by Kel-nage »

Well, I got hold of Dragon #339 yesterday. The monsters aren't bad. As Joel has said, we do have two in official sources, but I'd imagine this was also an article for newcomers to the setting as well as old-timers.

The Carrionette is harder (CR 3 in Dragon) than in DoDr (CR 1), whereas the Goblyn in Dragon has weaker statistics, but they are both CR 2. The death hand tree and the maggot golem seem pretty impressive, both of which I've not seen before. I should think I'll be able to get them into a campaign somehow though.

[Edit] Oops, the death hand tree is in DoDr. Must have missed that on my first read.

It was the Spellcraft: MotRD that interested me more. I'm not a MotRD owner however, so I can't say what's old or new.
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Post by Tobias Blackburn »

I just got my copy as well. The Spellcraft isn't actually Masque of the Red Death specific either. It's a few spells that you can find in "Dr. Heinfroth's Book of Methods" and includes a small intro piece where he writes a letter to Dr. Illhousen extoling the virtues of these methods and offering to "look" at a patient for him (and I seem to remember the patient from a Book of S_, but I can't recall which).

The spells are named things like Depression, Shock Therapy, Lobotomy, Submersion Therapy, and Tranfusion.

A sidebar describes the book and say s that Heinfroth could be found in Dominia in Ravenloft, and in the USA in Gothic Earth.

So this wasn't really a Gothic Earth support column, but I'm happy with it none the less. You just have to love Heinfroth.
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Post by alhoon »

In USS there was a very nice article about an asylum...
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Post by Tobias Blackburn »

alhoon wrote:In USS there was a very nice article about an asylum...
No, it was a patient who had a Bastellus or something watching him. Heinfroth was "offering" to take him in. The magazine calls the patient as Reymond S., and while I'm not sure if that was the name of the patient in the Book of S, I know that I've seen Heinfroth make similar offers to Illhousen before.
The Remnants have one saying to represent loss, disappearance, exile, and death. It is [i]Shiao Marests[/i], "Taken by The Shadows".
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Post by The Lesser Evil »

Interestingly, in the Spellcraft article, Dr. Heinfroth writes a letter to Dr. Illhousen, and there is a sidebar that says Dr. Heinfroth exists in Gothic Earth near Boston. This would imply a dual existence of Dr. Illhousen (and therefore the Nightmare Court) as well as Dr. Heinfroth in both Ravenloft and Masque of the Red Death. Thoughts?
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Post by Dion of the Fraternity »

Interestingly, in the Spellcraft article, Dr. Heinfroth writes a letter to Dr. Illhousen, and there is a sidebar that says Dr. Heinfroth exists in Gothic Earth near Boston. This would imply a dual existence of Dr. Illhousen (and therefore the Nightmare Court) as well as Dr. Heinfroth in both Ravenloft and Masque of the Red Death. Thoughts?
If a copy of various Prime Material stuff exist in RL, then I see no reason why it couldn't be the other way around. As an example, the Book of Souls mentions the discovery of Pharaoh Anhktepot's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. :wink:
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Post by Bluebomber4evr »

Anyone else notice they switched the artwork for the goblyn and the xvart?

The pieces are colored according to the entries but the art doesn't match--the goblyn art is used for the xvart but colored according to the xvart's description (blue skin, orange eyes).
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Post by Catman Jim »

It's hard to tell. I didn't care for the Goblyn piece, it doesn't look like the images we have had from Castles Forlorn, it looks like yet another M:TG 1/1 Raging-type Goblin instead. The Xvart piece, while quite different from the original work in 1E Fiend Folio, does show the bald-head-fringe-hair -connected-to-eye-brows, but fails to show the large ears (which the Goblyn piece does have). The Xvart is only supposed to be three feet tall, and the size of his weapon does seem to imply that. I always believed Goblyns to be man-sized to be able to 'feast' effectively, but I don't get that from this artwork. I do see your point that if you reversed colors on these two, they could easily be reversed. :?
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