Reconciliation

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Rock of the Fraternity
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Okay! I have received my copy of the VRGtR ... and we have a lot of work before us if we're going to incorporate the bits that are worth keeping.

I like the ideas I suggested for Lamordia, Richemulot and Falkovnia.
The Lesser Evil's idea of using the 'Shadow City' dread possibility to explain the existence of 5e's altered domains is good; imagine an even bleaker nether realm that serves as a broken reflection of the Core.
Some of its residents - Firan, maybe Saidra and Viktra? - could have escaped from there to plague the Core.
Lorinda pulling a coup on her sisters works just fine, as do the rest of Leliel's proposed changes to Tepest.

Ivan Dilisnya, now... Does everyone know about PF 1E's cognatogens? Ivan was always experimenting with ways to extend his life. What if he found a tonic to expand his mind, instead? When the cognatogen rampages through his brain, Ivan is physically withered, but mentally superior: a great crsftsman inspiring a clockwork revolution and corresponding with other scholars. When his venom immunity kicks in, he reverts to his 3.5e version; physically attractive and venomous. He's insane either way, but each facet hungers for what the other has in terms of charm and physical energy, or intellectual genius and respect. Yet both sides equally repulse the other.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by kourkenko »

Rock wrote:Okay! I have received my copy of the VRGtR ... and we have a lot of work before us if we're going to incorporate the bits that are worth keeping.

I like the ideas I suggested for Lamordia, Richemulot and Falkovnia.
The Lesser Evil's idea of using the 'Shadow City' dread possibility to explain the existence of 5e's altered domains is good; imagine an even bleaker nether realm that serves as a broken reflection of the Core.
Some of its residents - Firan, maybe Saidra and Viktra? - could have escaped from there to plague the Core.
Lorinda pulling a coup on her sisters works just fine, as do the rest of Leliel's proposed changes to Tepest.

Ivan Dilisnya, now... Does everyone know about PF 1E's cognatogens? Ivan was always experimenting with ways to extend his life. What if he found a tonic to expand his mind, instead? When the cognatogen rampages through his brain, Ivan is physically withered, but mentally superior: a great crsftsman inspiring a clockwork revolution and corresponding with other scholars. When his venom immunity kicks in, he reverts to his 3.5e version; physically attractive and venomous. He's insane either way, but each facet hungers for what the other has in terms of charm and physical energy, or intellectual genius and respect. Yet both sides equally repulse the other.
I am thinking on a "Neverwhere" for some times, a place between the places where i could put domains that would not fit in a cluter (as Sunderheart, Monadhan and several others coming from netbooks (as Murilia) and the city of Thulanthar (Ulraunt's Guide to the Planes Shadowfell). A place where shadows and darkness are sentient and eating the traveler will to survive. I would use the rules of the Ulraunt's Guide about the shadowfell itself with "vanishing on the 13th street" (you don't have any light, you are dead, the shadows kills you and you join their ranks).
A very dangerous place where remains of domains with dead darklords can also be found, a kind of backdrop of the mist. I was working on it because my players are seasonned ones and needed more dangerous undertake for their characters and to maintain their interest.

Edit: i will try to use the new falkovnia as a separated domain. The darklord will be one of the dayghter of Vlad and will try to invade other countries but this time they strike back, i'm just looking to what domains i can use with this new falkovnia.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Don't get angry, but I kind of like the expansion to Harkon Lucas' backstory; his fall becomes all the sweeter if he was actually on the verge of getting the kingdom he wanted.
Turning him into a loup-garou? Nope.
Turning his kids into humans? Nope.
Making Harkon forgettable? BIG nope. His whole deal is that he's a big fish (though never as big as he thinks), forever trapped in a little pond.

I think we can do better with Bluetspur if we take cues from Lovecraft: hide the cosmic evil. Give the Thaani a thriving civilization on the surface, and trap the Illithid underground. Only let them - and the God-Brain - out to play during specific astronomical events.
The fear of Bluetspur will be all the greater if people live on a seesaw of relief and dread as they respectively move away from and closer to the nights 'when the stars are right'.
Dread grows stronger if there are secretive cults moving among the innocent, rather than if it is omnipresent.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

A suggestion: if we use the idea of new players appearing on the board because they came from the Shadow of Ravenloft (possibly an alternate timeline), then we could blame it all on Azalin.
(Why buck a trend, after all? He was responsible for mucking up the Grand Conjunction and setting off the Requiem.)

With S thwarting his scheme to gather all of the Gentleman Caller's kids in one spot to resurrect Irik, Azalin could have done what he always does: try to plow on through and push his will in defiance of all obstacles. If he gathered other outsiders and used some of his cursed artefacts to try and make up for the lack of the Gentleman Caller's kids, Azalin in his arrogance could have easily caused a reality break that let some of these new players slip in.

We could call the event the Night of the Tear.

The King's Tear described in VRGtR could actually appear in the night sky. Few people know what caused it, but its appearance heralded a shift.
For a time, doors swung open between what I would like to call Ravenloft Prime and one of its Shadows. (Call it Shadow 1313 if you like. :P )
Some of the domains expanded overnight, as new villains appeared and the Dark Powers spun land around them. Other domains changed. (Like Bluetspur, if you'll agree with my changes.) For instance, Viktra appeared in Lamordia-Prime, and decided to make Victor her object of study, which lead to her reviving Elise as an independent flesh golem and getting trapped on a new slab of land attached to main Lamordia.
(I really like the idea of Elise being out and about, causing her own mayhem, because it finally gets her out of the "woman in the fridge"-territory she's been occupying for so long.)
Some strange characters now walk the lands, to the confusion and dismay of others: Firan Zal'honan, the Late Visitor (the incubus/succubus counter to the Gentleman Caller).

Whatever other changes we agree to make to the setting, it's all Azalin's fault - again.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Mourning Rail is fairly clever, but not nearly expanded enough.
We need more information about the Last Passenger...

Still, if the shift that comes after the Night of the Tear could be seen as an impetus for the construction of actual railroads in the Core, Mourning Rail could appear as a ghost train on certain nights. That could be a bit of fun.

The appearance of the Tear of the King, as well as the expansions to the land, could herald a new era of scientific investigation and discovery. The great universities of the Core could - grudgingly - agree they need to work together more closely to catalogue and analyze all that has happened.
Perhaps the Red Academy could get in on the action, due to Hazlik wanting to find out what went wrong with his own plan to exterminate all of the Mulan in the multiverse.

(As a side-thought, maybe Azalin and Hazlik triggered their big, insane rituals at the same time due to brave adventurers manipulating them on Madam Eva's advice, and the interaction of their wizardly energies threw off the effects. Azalin stays trapped, the Mulan don't get whacked in one go, but there is a price to be paid.)

The universities could pay for the placement and construction of the first train tracks, to facilitate travel and communication. The Core's more ambitious governments get in on the action -- with the understanding that no tracks are to go anywhere near Falkovnia and Invidia. Vlad and Malocchio are left stewing in impotent fury, as they lack the kind of personnel needed to construct their own tracks and engines with the same speed and efficiency, and the Four Tower Nations make it very clear that they will sabotage any attempts in either case.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by Wolfglide of the Fraternity »

kourkenko wrote:A very dangerous place where remains of domains with dead darklords can also be found, a kind of backdrop of the mist.
As I have heard, isn't that the premise of the new domain of Klorr?
Rock wrote:A suggestion: if we use the idea of new players appearing on the board because they came from the Shadow of Ravenloft (possibly an alternate timeline), then we could blame it all on Azalin.
(Why buck a trend, after all? He was responsible for mucking up the Grand Conjunction and setting off the Requiem.)

With S thwarting his scheme to gather all of the Gentleman Caller's kids in one spot to resurrect Irik, Azalin could have done what he always does: try to plow on through and push his will in defiance of all obstacles. If he gathered other outsiders and used some of his cursed artefacts to try and make up for the lack of the Gentleman Caller's kids, Azalin in his arrogance could have easily caused a reality break that let some of these new players slip in.

We could call the event the Night of the Tear.

The King's Tear described in VRGtR could actually appear in the night sky. Few people know what caused it, but its appearance heralded a shift.
For a time, doors swung open between what I would like to call Ravenloft Prime and one of its Shadows. (Call it Shadow 1313 if you like. :P )
Some of the domains expanded overnight, as new villains appeared and the Dark Powers spun land around them. Other domains changed. (Like Bluetspur, if you'll agree with my changes.) For instance, Viktra appeared in Lamordia-Prime, and decided to make Victor her object of study, which lead to her reviving Elise as an independent flesh golem and getting trapped on a new slab of land attached to main Lamordia.
(I really like the idea of Elise being out and about, causing her own mayhem, because it finally gets her out of the "woman in the fridge"-territory she's been occupying for so long.)
Some strange characters now walk the lands, to the confusion and dismay of others: Firan Zal'honan, the Late Visitor (the incubus/succubus counter to the Gentleman Caller).

Whatever other changes we agree to make to the setting, it's all Azalin's fault - again.
Rock wrote:The appearance of the Tear of the King, as well as the expansions to the land, could herald a new era of scientific investigation and discovery. The great universities of the Core could - grudgingly - agree they need to work together more closely to catalogue and analyze all that has happened.
Perhaps the Red Academy could get in on the action, due to Hazlik wanting to find out what went wrong with his own plan to exterminate all of the Mulan in the multiverse.

(As a side-thought, maybe Azalin and Hazlik triggered their big, insane rituals at the same time due to brave adventurers manipulating them on Madam Eva's advice, and the interaction of their wizardly energies threw off the effects. Azalin stays trapped, the Mulan don't get whacked in one go, but there is a price to be paid.)
Perhaps the two interacting rituals managed to pull discarded versions of current domains (the new Lamordia, Dementlieu, and Falkovnia, for instance) out of Klorr on accident.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by kourkenko »

Wolfglide wrote:
kourkenko wrote:A very dangerous place where remains of domains with dead darklords can also be found, a kind of backdrop of the mist.
As I have heard, isn't that the premise of the new domain of Klorr?
Nope, Klorr is the bin of the mist, it is just a renamed Oubliette imo.
Edit: and we have so little info about it, lot of works is needed before even thinking about using it.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by Resonant Curse »

If we're pulling from an alternate dimension Ravenloft you could always pull one from the Forgotten Realms 4e playbook and have the affected domains swap with eachother. Not that I think 4e FR was a positive time for that setting.
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Re: Reconciliation

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This guy has some good ideas concerning the subject at hand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1VE3pGbbk0
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by Wolfglide of the Fraternity »

kourkenko wrote:
Wolfglide wrote:
kourkenko wrote:A very dangerous place where remains of domains with dead darklords can also be found, a kind of backdrop of the mist.
As I have heard, isn't that the premise of the new domain of Klorr?
Nope, Klorr is the bin of the mist, it is just a renamed Oubliette imo.
Edit: and we have so little info about it, lot of works is needed before even thinking about using it.
I am just going off of what I heard here (which, admittedly, wasn't very much): http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... 81#p246781
Igor the Henchman wrote:There's a passing mention of a "tower like a blackened rose" within the domain of Klorr, which is an apocalyptic realm where darklord-less domains go to die.
It sounded rather similar to me.
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Re: Reconciliation

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Wolfglide wrote:snip
It sounded rather similar to me.
I don't want the remain of domains to be "apocalyptic", i want them to be reduced to dust by being forgotten. Even if the darklord isn't dead, if he is forgotten or refuse to rule or act (as soth for example), his domain can be sent here. And rather than an apocalypse (which remind me of a michael bay movie), i prefer them to face the Void of the neverending story. A more grimm fate.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Or maybe something like the memory dump in Inside Out? Not an aggressive hollowing-out, but a steady, unstoppable slide into dust and oblivion.
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Re: Reconciliation

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Rock wrote:Or maybe something like the memory dump in Inside Out? Not an aggressive hollowing-out, but a steady, unstoppable slide into dust and oblivion.
This is the very description of what i'm wanting to create with this "neverwhere". A backdrop where i can put any domains that doesn't "fit" any cluster or the themes of the setting itself (a majority of 4th domains for example...) where the mist is making place to a sentient darkness swallowing little by little domains without darklords or with an unworthy one. The concept of an "unworthy" darklords watching his domain, and himself, "going into an unstoppable slide into dust and oblivion" (i'll keep this sentence !) would fit.
I want to create domains as isles in the darkness and let the players travel among them, crossing ruinsn forgotten lands and npcs in their paths, gattering clues and lore about the mist and their history at the price of being swallowed by the darkness if they are not clever enough.
I worked on this idea for several years.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by CrackedMack »

Potentially noobish question/suggestion, but could all of this be conceivably the start of the Time of Unparalleled Darkness? With all the weirdness going on - alternate realities and variant darklords appearing, some domains (Darkon) slowly collapsing, the (potential) reliance on Mist Talismans to get between places, etc. - it seems like a decent herald of how the demiplane as a whole is becoming unstable.

The Grand Conjunction on steroids, if you will.
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Re: Reconciliation

Post by Mephisto of the FoS »

CrackedMack wrote:Potentially noobish question/suggestion, but could all of this be conceivably the start of the Time of Unparalleled Darkness? With all the weirdness going on - alternate realities and variant darklords appearing, some domains (Darkon) slowly collapsing, the (potential) reliance on Mist Talismans to get between places, etc. - it seems like a decent herald of how the demiplane as a whole is becoming unstable.

The Grand Conjunction on steroids, if you will.
Wouldn't it be mentioned somewhere?
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