Community Mapping: Invidia

[Speedwagon]

Hey everyone!

I hope that everyone's Easter and April Fools and other holidays went well. I figured that things have been a bit quiet in recent days and wanted to do something that would involve the community.

It's pretty well-known that Ravenloft has a lot areas on the map that tend to be neglected. Whether that's due to the wacky demographics of the setting or the nature of mapping the Core in 2e and 3e, that leads to big or semi-important settlements being on the map while small ones that get mentioned in supplementary material or are homebrewed in tend to get the short stick. But it would be nice to come up with new places in the Core, even with all of that being taken into account. So, as I was rereading Gazetteer IV and remarking on how rural yet populated Invidia was suggested to be (given the Gabrielle vs. Malocchio conflict), I felt a bit disappointed at the amount of villages and locales. There's Karina and Curriculo and Tancos and Beltis and Valetta, sure, but I feel like the smaller villages that would be more fun for PCs to interact with and be even more affected by the choosing-of-loyalties within the domain got the short stick. That's when I hatched the idea: why not make more locales and sites of interest? In fact, instead of one person doing so, why not have this be something that more and more people can pitch into? So, with some editing software and use of Jester of the FoS's maps (thank you Jester!), I made this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F4Y ... sp=sharing

In this link, there's an annotated map of Invidia based on Jester's map that adds 19(!) places on the map to be explored. These could range from villages affiliated either with Gabrielle and the Gundarakite resistance or Malocchio's loyalists, to military outposts that Malocchio's mercenaries use, to mines, to farmlands/ranches/pastures/orchards, to lumber camps, to ruins, to trading posts, to more!

The goal would be for users to contribute however many sites of interest/locales to Invidia as they want (though I'd caution against doing more than, say, 5, as that might deprive other posters of chances if only 1-2 people are populating the thread), until we fill out all 19. It's a first-come, first-serve basis but I tried to add enough variety in placement that people will be able to find something else that interests them even if their ideal spot is taken. A write-up of each locale would consist of 2-3 sentences at minimum, 5-6 sentences at maximum, along with creating 1-3 NPCs for your write-up (and the sentence count for those NPCs don't count against the sentence count for the write-up proper so go wild!).

This is similar in idea to my Community Thread: Settlements (which I'll get back to, I swear) but instead of posting a settlement from anywhere in the Mists, this is a site of interest (so it doesn't have to be populated, though I have a bias for that, which you're free to ignore) specifically themed to Invidia. If this goes well, I'll be happy to make more threads for other domains in Ravenloft that might benefit from this (like Falkovnia, or Borca, or Valachan, or Sithicus, etc).

If this thread really takes off, I'd be willing to see if it would be possible to commission a cartographer for nice map of Invidia that added elements of all the settlements elaborated here, alongside the gazetteer description that Jester included in his map. Of course, I'd only do that with the explicit permission and approval of the posters here, and that's more a stretch-goal than anything else (it would be in the style of this Barovia map, for instance: https://www.deviantart.com/mapynieprakt ... -858206624) (or this Nova Vaasa map: https://www.deviantart.com/mapynieprakt ... -920722969) (Or this Dementlieu map:

Have fun folks!

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I figured that things have been a bit quiet in recent days and wanted to do something that would involve the community.

Quiet? How about our April Fools? It was a big success this year!

DEMENTLIEU MAP

The map is nicely done but it is missing the small town of Ravienne mentioned first in QtR#16 (Olerick's Collequial Guides).

Thibodeaux's Rest Home provides comfort to a decidedly different clientele. It is located on the coast of the Sea of Sorrows far north of Port-A-Lucine in the small town of Ravienne. It is run by Dame Dominique, an aging widow whose husband was lost at sea several years ago.

Then detailed by me in QtR#28 (Conch Cell of Sorrows).

The small fishing village of Ravienne is located on the coast of the Sea of Sorrows, north of Port-a-Lucine, close to the borders with Lamordia and the town of Leidenheim. This small fishing community is surrounded by large rocks around a natural bay and has been a safe haven for ships caught in storms between Ludendorf and Port-a-Lucine.

It could be replaced with Charbonne or be close to it

[Speedwagon]

Quiet? How about our April Fools? It was a big success this year!

I suppose you're right!

The map is nicely done but it is missing the small town of Ravienne mentioned first in QtR#16 (Olerick's Collequial Guides).

Thibodeaux's Rest Home provides comfort to a decidedly different clientele. It is located on the coast of the Sea of Sorrows far north of Port-A-Lucine in the small town of Ravienne. It is run by Dame Dominique, an aging widow whose husband was lost at sea several years ago.

Then detailed by me in QtR#28 (Conch Cell of Sorrows).

The small fishing village of Ravienne is located on the coast of the Sea of Sorrows, north of Port-a-Lucine, close to the borders with Lamordia and the town of Leidenheim. This small fishing community is surrounded by large rocks around a natural bay and has been a safe haven for ships caught in storms between Ludendorf and Port-a-Lucine.

It could be replaced with Charbonne or be close to it

For the Dementlieu map, I'm not surprised that it's missing Ravienne, as it's from the Prisoners of the Mists Ravenloft fan-server for Neverwinter Nights so I assume that the priority of locations is given to the ones that their own community members come up with (with references to canon of course). But yeah, Charbonne can be a replacement or it can be close to Charbonne.

Any thoughts on the Invidia project?

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Any thoughts on the Invidia project?

I haven't thought about Invidia much in general. I had never used it in a campaign, although The Evil Eye is a great adventure and I was always curious about Baron Bakholis, before his background story was presented in Gazetteer IV.

But there has to be a place connected to Phagius the wizard who created the six magical viruses (Combustion, Crystal, Petrification, Phobia, Psionic, Shadow).

Malocchio Aderre always reminded me of Modred (played by Jason Done) in the Merlin mini-TV-series.
With a combination of Mordred from the movie Excalibur (1981)

[Speedwagon]

Y’know, I never saw the Mordred similarity until you pointed it out, but I’ll definitely use it in my games!

And I agree, some place on the map should be dedicated to Phagius. And while I haven’t used Invidia yet in a campaign, I do have plans to and rereading its write-up made me appreciate it more. That and its importance (or hosting of important events and characters) to the 3e metaplot made me think about it more.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

That and its importance (or hosting of important events and characters) to the 3e metaplot made me think about it more.

Isabella Aderre + Vlad Drakov = Gabrielle Aderre

Isabella Aderre + The Gentleman Caller = Vigo Drakov

Gabrielle Aderre + The Gentleman Caller = Malocchio Aderre

That's really messed up!

Isabella Aderre killed by Alfred Timothy

[Mistmaster]

In the Mistworld Vigo Drakov is not Isabelle son, and Isabelle is still alive.

[Speedwagon]

In the Mistworld Vigo Drakov is not Isabelle son, and Isabelle is still alive.

I recall those details from your Invidia survey of the Mistworld, Mistmaster! Always nice to see your take on Ravenloft.

Any particular sites or locales for this project that you might have thought of?

[Mistmaster]

I usually leave villages and hamlet for individual masters toflash out but I did detail a town which does not canonically exist. Endari Koora is what remains of the ancient Vistani capital.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Grûlan

"One such young woman was the peasant girl Marta , to whom Bakholis took fancy when his hunting party passed through the village of Grûlan."
-p.44 Gazetteer IV

I believe it should be somewhere in Vulpwood as these were probably Bakholis private hunting grounds.

[Speedwagon]

Good find, Mephisto! I’ll make sure to add it then.