Ravenloft Archive Part 9: Jonenmark

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Jonenmark

By A. Cermak

Website: Alanik Ray's Library


The Land: Jonenmark has been in Ravenloft since BC 632. It is an Island of Terror, completely surrounded by the Mists. It is a large and populous domain, the core of which is dotted with settlements. The largest of these is the capital Braunenburg, home to the current duke of Jonenmark, the political ruler of the domain; it is closely rivaled by the large town Federburg, the geographic center of the domain. The interior of the domain is mostly settled; these settlements are surrounded by lush forests to the south and west, a mountain range, rich in iron, silver and gold to the east, and the Sea of Jonenmark to the north. On the whole, the very land of Jonenmark gives a sense of vibrancy and life. In fact, the domain seems to be physically growing, as if it were seeking to accommodate the expansions of the people within. The truth, however, is that every life taken by Karl Britter causes the domain to grow imperceptibly; though he does not realize it, his attempts to enhance entropy within his domain only cause it to further recede.



Cultural Level: Chivalric



The Folk: The people of Jonenmark tend to be fair-haired and skinned, though exceptions are not at all uncommon. They are remarkably healthy, robust and jovial. They are extremely fertile; multiple births are fairly common events, and the mild climate of the domain combined with the natural health of its people allow most of the children to survive to adulthood.

The large number of people in Jonenmark results in a mostly agrarian society, as large amounts of food are needed to sustain them. The fields are fertile, however, and starvation is rare, save amongst the poor.

The people are bold and adventurous on the surface, but the large number of mysterious disappearances, seemingly at random, has created an underscore of fear and suspicion. Magic-users are particularly suspect, as few believe the disappearances could be the result of anything but magic. The priests of the domain have adopted the doctrine that the disappearances are punishment for impiety; however, the occasional disappearance of a high-ranking clergyman has caused the Church some embarrassment as a result of this teaching. Also contributing to the people's distrust are the strange Mists surrounding the duchy; though they have been there for four generations, the Jonenmarkians remain unable to see them as anything but unnatural. Despite the official church explanations, most of the folk blame the disappearances on the Mists; the rest tend to blame them on outsiders, particularly the Vistani, who have been known to wander into the domain from time to time.

The people of the domain are active in trade with the Core; merchants sailing from the Sea of Jonenmark are frequently able to navigate to the Sea of Sorrows, or, more commonly, the Nocturnal Sea. Most are even able to find their way back, though none could explain how.

The language of Jonenmark is unique in Ravenloft.



The Law: The duke of Jonenmark creates all the laws of the domain; for the most part, these laws are fair and just, and the Duke is well-liked. His laws are particularly favorable toward merchants and traders.



Encounters: Most encounters in the domain will be with its people, or with the animals of the forest. Strangely, the animals of Jonenmark are quite malicious; for example, it is not at all unusual for wolf-packs to bring down far much more game than they could possibly eat, leaving the rest to rot. Attacks on people who venture within are very common, but the timber of the forest is too valuable to forego. More rarely encountered are werewolves and wereboars.

There are several bands of reavers living nomadically in the Sea of Jonenmark, and they have been known to attack trading ships; the price of hiring a vessel and crew to go out to sea is very high to compensate for the risk of attack.

There are rumors of small but dangerous creatures living in caves beneath the mountains, but these are unconfirmed.

Karl Britter


History

Karl Britter was born a member of the fledgling middle class of the duchy of Jonenmark, a prosperous, bustling land on an obscure Prime Material world. His father was a merchant and trader of moderate success, traveling the duchy making purchases, exchanges and sales for whatever profit he could. Young Karl followed him in this path, apprenticing himself to his father and learning the "art of trade", as his father called it.

As Karl approached the age of independence, it became clear that he would outstrip the modest success of his father. He had a keen mind, especially for accountancy and logistics, a sharp eye, particularly in the evaluation of goods, and a smooth tongue, aiding him in haggling and the acquiring of information. Perhaps the only barrier to his success was his relative honesty in his dealings; his father was a deeply religious man, and tried to raise his son with those same convictions.

Karl was never quite a believer; the concept of a god or an afterlife was in some way foreign to his very nature. Still, he respected his father and tried to uphold the moral code, if not the theological tenets of belief, that his father instructed him in. Most of all, his father's lessons on the value of hard work and honesty, and the peace they eventually brought, resonated with the young Britter.

Generally, Karl was successful in adhering to the firm morals of his father, and took some amount of pride in that fact. It pleased him to succeed through diligence and effort where other merchants required intrigues and fraud. However, as with many men, there was one area of his life where Karl had great difficulty in remaining upright. His growing wealth and reputation attracted a large number of interested females, and he eagerly returned this interest...to each and all of them. Eventually, his lustful nature caught up with him. At the age of 19, an indiscretion with the youngest daughter of the powerful burgomeister of Federburg ended in pregnancy, and Karl was forced to take roots and settle, considerably earlier than he would have liked.

"Just as I begin to make my fortune and prepare to strike out on my own, I find myself shackled to a woman and child. Now I shall surely never find the peace my father insisted I would some day earn" Karl thought during the wedding, as he stared at his bride's rounding belly.



However, Karl's young bride, Elsa, was a lovely, charming woman, enough so to make any man proud, and with a sweetness and innocence that persisted despite the loss of her chastity. Karl eventually found himself succumbing to her charms; by the time his twin sons were born, Karl found himself truly in love, and excited about the prospect of sharing his prosperity with his new family. While his marriage limited his ability to travel, he was able to continue in his business by taking several partners to travel for him to the more distant regions of Jonenmark, including his closest friend and virtual brother, one Werner Bissel. Though these partnerships cut into his profits somewhat, he was confident in his ability to expand his dealings and certain that he would be able to provide for his children.

Unfortunately, the fates did not conspire as Britter wished. Karl was a loyal, faithful husband, but his lusty nature remained, and his wife was of very fertile, healthy stock. Shortly after the birth of his first children, the next had been conceived. Karl had planned a peaceful life with a small family, yet after little more than a year of marriage he was the father of three children. A year after that, and he was the father of six.



Suddenly, Karl's once prosperous trading was serving simply to keep his family fed. Karl was forced to work that much harder and plan that much more to maintain the lifestyle to which he had grown accustomed. A few more years and a few more children later, and hard work was, for the first time, no longer enough. Karl began to accrue debts, and his humble pleas to his burgomeister father-in-law fell on deaf ears; the man wanted nothing to do with Britter and his brood. Though he was ashamed and disgusted with himself for it, he was forced to began cheating his customers, selling inferior goods at high prices, using faulty weights and measures, and paying in clipped coins, all in order to make ends meet. Worst of all, he found himself deprived of the peace he had envisioned. The crying of his babes, the burdens of his wife, the toils of his work and the torment of his actions constantly weighed on his mine, made worse by the robbery and murder of his father and mother on the night of his 10th child's birth.

As the children kept coming (for it never seemed to occur to Karl that a modicum of carnal forbearance on his part might ease his burdens), and without the shining example his father had provided, his activities escalated into bribery, extortion, theft and forgery, with the reluctant aid of his partners. His dealings reached their odious peak when he contrived the murder of a troublesome excise officer. Soon, many more of those who proved an obstacle or competitor to Karl found themselves the victims of unfortunate "accidents".



Eventually, Karl's good friend and partner's conscience got the best of him, and that night he invited Britter to his home to end their association in person. Karl was terrified that his friend would betray him to the law, and in desperation stabbed Bissel's in the back as he turned to lead Britter to the door.

He knew there was no way to cover up his involvement; the local law had been suspicious of him and his activities for a long while, and his association with Bissel was well-known (actually, given Britter's growing "connections", it is very likely that he could, in fact, have covered up his involvement, but desperation and guilt prevented him from realizing it). He hurried to his home to make preparations for flight.

After he quietly rummaged through the various rooms of his home gathering supplies, he paused and took a long look at the sleeping faces of some of his many children (by this time he had 19, none older than 12). A deep feeling of rage and resentment boiled up inside of him. He had worked his entire life and sacrificed everything he once believed to feed these little brats, and now it had cost him his good name and, in many ways, his very life. Within an hour, each of his children and his wife were dead, individually and quietly smothered in their sleep, and so was Britter. Climbing to the roof of his stately home, eager for the promised peace he had so long been denied and for freedom from the terrible guilt building inside of him, he leapt to his death on the cobblestones below, fully prepared to meet oblivion.

And, as his body lay there, a quiet mist rolled in...



Herr Karl Britter

5th Magnitude Ghost, Chaotic Evil


Armor Class: 0 Str: 17
Movement: 12 Dex: 13
Level/Hit Dice: 13 Con: 14
Hit Points: 192 (see Combat) Int: 15
THAC0: 7 Wis: 7
No. of Attacks: 1 Cha: 15
Damage/Attack: 1d6 damage+STR bonus, drain 5 levels (see Combat)
Special Attacks: Level drain, memory drain, cause despair, entrance victims
Special Defenses: +2 or gold or silver weapon to hit, ethereality
Magic Resistance: None, other than standard undead immunities

Note: Britter is a corporeal ghost; he can only become ethereal once per hour, for no more than 1 round, before he must become solid again.

Appearance:

Karl Britter appears as he did in life. He is of medium height and stocky build, with dark, thick hair beginning to recede and a thick mustache. His shoulders stoop somewhat, as if under a burden, and his face is riddled with lines of exhaustion. His eyes have a haunted, desperate look that frequently gives way to smoldering rage.


Quotes (to his various victims):

"Shhh, shhh. Do not cry. Soon, all pains, all fears shall cease.

(long sigh as he reaches out) How I envy you..."



"Why do you struggle so? The harder you try, the more you work, the greater the waste. Everything comes to nothing: my work, my family, my reputation, my life, all carefully crafted, all worth nothing in the end. Why not welcome it sooner rather than later?"



"Look at you. Afraid, just like that coward who betrayed me. Helpless, just like that cow and her simpering brats! Just like them, you are nothing but a leech, a vampire spending your whole worthless life suckling from the hard work and sweat of your betters, draining them by your insistence on drawing further breath! (snarls as he grips his/her wrist) Well, NO MORE!





Current Sketch:

Britter awoke to find, to his deep disappointment and anger, that the peaceful oblivion he had hoped for was not to be. Instead, the Mists had deposited him just outside the town where he had lived, and had taken the entire duchy of Jonenmark into Ravenloft.

Britter is not sure what exactly has happened to him. He does not know that he is a ghost, and has no explanation for why he no longer needs food or sleep or why he no longer ages or breathes.

What Britter does know is that fate has cheated him. Every additional second he exists enrages him. He has tried to commit suicide hundreds of times, but nothing he has tried has damaged his ghostly body. Frustrated by his repeated failures, Britter has turned his rage outward, and has begun sending innocents into the oblivion he desires for himself; he pursues it like an addiction, as it is the only thing that temporarily lessens the pain of his unlife. He desires to pull the entire domain and all within it into nothingness, believing that this will perhaps aid his own descent into true death, but has been frustrated in this goal so far.

Britter is further tortured with the full burden of his living life. He constantly feels the frustration of his life as a crushing weight on his shoulders, and as a deep, unyielding pain in his limbs. Killing someone with his touch eases this pain for a time, but even during these times he is still tormented by the memory of his crimes. He often sees the faces of his wife, children and best friend at the edge of his vision, or peering from distant shadows, and can hear their muffled screams echoing in his mind. This combination of physical and mental torment has left him an empty shell filled with little but anger and shame, eagerly hungering for an end to everything.

Except when hunting for victims, which he does often, Britter avoids the people of his domain. He has no permanent residence, instead wandering as he pleases.



Closing the Borders:

When Britter closes his borders, he does it with his subconscious will without realizing it. When the borders are closed, the Mists rise and all who enter become disoriented, returning the way they came.



Combat:

Britter's touch is extremely deadly, draining 5 levels and memories of the past 1d10x10 years from the victim. Victims drained of all levels literally vanish into nothingness, leaving their clothing behind. They cannot be resurrected by any means, as their very souls have vanished.

Survivors can regain levels through the normal means. Each level drained gives Britter an additional permanent hit point, pulling him further away from the oblivion he seeks, though he has not yet realized this. His touch only affects humans, demi-humans and humanoids; animals and plant-life are immune to it. He can also cause despair and entrance victims as a ghost of the 5th magnitude, as described in VRG to Ghosts.

Britter can only be turned by priests of gods of hard work, honesty, trade, children or peace. Britter can be damaged by +2 or better weapons, or by silver weapons. Gold weapons, if any are found to use against him, cause him double damage. Gold and silver coins serve as a reminder of how his life was wasted, and he abhors them; if any are forcefully presented to him he must flee. If they are pushed against his skin they cause 1d6 damage per turn. Even if he is "killed", however, he will reform within the domain the next day. These short, tantalizing periods of oblivion only frustrate him further with their brevity.

Britter is different from most ghosts in that he does not haunt the place of his demise; in fact, he cannot stand the site. Britter cannot approach with 100 feet of his former home, making it the only place in Jonenmark safe from his predations. The home was bought at a bargain price by a local merchant, Hans von Bachmann, who then usurped many of Britter's business dealings and forged them into a veritable trading empire. His descendants still live within, forming a large, extended family and his large family (larger even than Britter's had been, as it encompasses several generations; they have added many rooms to fit the family), and are well respected and very prosperous. Britter despises them all, yet cannot harm them; their strong ties to the home protect them even when they are outside it.



Britter can only be permanently killed if a memorial gravestone bearing the names of his wife Elsa and his 19 children is erected in the cemetery of Federburg. After his death, the burgomeister had the bodies of his daughter and grand-children cremated and dumped unceremoniously in the Kristal river that runs through Federburg, for he had no desire to cover the cost of a funeral for 20; as such, no proper marker to their deaths exists. If one is erected, Britter will be drawn to it irresistibly, and will stand before it, consumed with grief, for a period of three days. During this time, he will neither acknowledge others nor defend himself if attacked, and if slain by a gold weapon he will not reform.

However, once three days have passed, Britter will have won his internal war with his guilt, and the spell the memorial has over him will be forever broken. The mists will engulf him and deposit him at the spot of his death. Having overcome many of his feelings of guilt and shame, Britter will no longer be barred from approaching his former home, and will proceed to slaughter everyone within. Furthermore, Britter will have regained much of the cunning and subtlety that served him so well in life. No longer will he be content to destroy Jonenmark one citizen at a time; rather, he will seek to plunge the domain into a bloody civil war through manipulation and intrigue. However, even after the three days of grief have passed, if killed by a gold weapon he will be permanently retired.



Unlike other ghosts, Britter has no ability to rejuvenate himself, nor would he use it if he did.