Monster Party Book 3 Commentary.

Fiction about Ravenloft or Gothic Earth
jamesfirecat
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Re: Monster Party Book 3 Commentary.

Post by jamesfirecat »

Finally, as the cherry on top, the party that Edmund was throwing to gather together a bunch of possible victims for killing and replacement by his fellow doppelgangers, Cal uses as a way to get all the doppelgangers in Roja's clan together in one room before he and his friends lay the smack down on them.

That is why that particular event ended up being one of the longest chapters (as in actual story chapters I don't count these author commentary "chapters" that wouldn't be fair since I use these to sum up the entire story from start to finish) I've written yet for Monster Party because I had to reveal (including some flashbacks and we're not likely to see those again for a good long while) Cal's plan both to the villain and to the reader to give his genius some time to sink in.

Compared to Cal managing to successfully pull off his plot to trap all the doppelgangers in one room and then "arrest them" forcing them to resist arrest allowing him to respond in kind (granted I suppose one can argue the nature of resisting arrest against a force you consider to be unlawful (not to mention I'll admit the "lawfulness" of Cal's actions is entirely dependent upon how successful they are, but how successful they end up being is to a large degree determined by how "lawful" he is able to present his actions as being AND HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULLBERY, BUSH THE MULLBERY BUSH!) is possibly some sort of a gray (or at least very complicated) area in Dark Powers Checks, I mean do you take DPCs every time you kill/a Falkovinian soldier who is only going about their duty trying to arrest/capture you? ) and bag the whole bunch while maintaining a pretty clear moral high ground, the actual fight between him and Bloody Jack may seem a bit anti-climatic.

If it did seem that way, well what can I say, it is the natural result of that fight being the literay equivalent of a man with a mortal wound refusing to lay down and die yet, we already know what is going to happen, it is clear that Bloody Jack has been utterly out-thought (and Roja was always a more cerebral than physical threat) and with that done, watching him get out-fought can't possibly be as interesting.

Which takes us to the epilogue.

Sodo tries to betray the group with a HILARIOUS number of mooks (this comes directly from the adventure book, three score, that's 60 for those of you playing at home) which is entirely the right call on his part, because if he/he and his minions are going to have any chance to win they're going to need to be ready to bury Alexander and company in dead doppelgangers.

Honestly in retrospect even if Sodo is invincible, I'm not sure why exactly he's still the darklord, or at least why he's managed to maintain power this long. Yes he can't be killed, but Sodo utterly lacks the ability to "project" his power. I mean as Cal points out, if you make Sodo angry with you in person, what is he going to do, strangle you so hard you come back to life?

In theory he's got a bunch of doppelgangers who are loyal to him, but why are they loyal when in theory if they formed a "doppelganger union" of sorts and all said "no" to Sodo at the same time, what could he possibly do to them?

I'll mark this down to an unwritten but assumed fact that most doppelgangers are INCREDIBLY loyal to their clan leaders. Roja's followers are described that way after all, and they're willing to risk their lives on a plan that if it works will really only benefit him.

If we assume that, it does help fill in some blanks for why Sodo became a darklord, since killing his own clan's leader wasn't just an act of murder, it as crossing a previously unbreakable cultural line, you just don't do things like that, much like how Shadow Fey aren't supposed to permanently kill other Shadow Fey by staking them out in the sunlight!

Of course before he springs the trap Sodo has to show the group the way out of Paridon for... reasons.

He shows them the way out in the adventure book as well when realistically he could spring his trap/ambush just about anywhere in the sewers.

I'll mark this down to him wanting to get in an ironically pithy quip more than he wants to be effective/he is so over the moon about getting the Fang of Nosferatu back and knowing he is not about to be stalked by an invincible doppelganger intent on killing him (oh irony), that he didn't think through the next part of his plan all that clearly.

The ending of the story is as geographically vague as it is in the adventure book, but lets be honest at least half the time (and that may actually be underselling it) Ravenloft adventures end with the group being sent SOMEWHERE with that SOMEWHERE completely up to the GM.

That's probably because once again Hour of the Knife is clearly designed to be a Weekend in Hell adventure. I mean that's especially obvious in these adventures that take place on an Island of Terror which has nothing to do with Ravenloft's Core.

On the other hand, strap yourself in and prepare to be shocked, because the next Monster Party Book takes place in Ravenloft's Core unlike the ones that came before it!
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