QtR 27 review thread

[Rock of the Fraternity]

First, let me once again thank everyone who contributed this year. Obviously, there would be no QTR without your submissions. Thank you for doing your part to keep our favorite setting alive. And this year was a particularly good one all around.

I'm always happy when I can contribute to QtR. ^_^ I don't always succeed, alas...

The Conferences of Victor Gagné IV - Another all-star. Loved it. Very glad to finally get the whole scoop on the Red Haunt, and who better to reveal it than poor Mr. Gagné? A beautifully done collaboration from Wolfglide and Rock.

Gosh, I'm flattered you still remembered the Red Haunt. She's one of my favourite villains, but it's been years since I first introduced her here on the forum.
Working with Wolfglide was a treat and a half.

Not sure I've ever seen a more complicated NPC backstory than the Red Haunt, but it all fits and it's a great way to have a whole cabal all in one "person". The addition of "Genevieve" to the group is particularly a genius twist.

Thanks again! Genevieve's existence opens up all sorts of interesting lines of speculation, not to mention storytelling opportunities.

Also, great to finally get a deeper glimpse into the Brightwell cosmology, and an appearance by "Mu" no less. Though now I still want to learn more.. what is the "Truth" of Brightwell's origin, if any?

It's great to see you were that interested in Brightwell - and Mu. Rest assured, there is more to learn, quite a lot of it's planned out, and I hope to reveal all. It'll take some time, though... ^^;

The World Engine is quite similar to where I was going with "The Gears" in my campaign. When I pick that thread back up eventually, I may incorporate some of this too.

Oh? I haven't read about The Gears yet. Can you tell me more?

Looking forward to hearing about the missing sisters eventually, I hope, in particular The Centurion.

Rest assured, they are scheduled to be revealed!

And though it's almost an afterthought, I really like "The Divinity in All" as a logical progression of the Doppelgangers report and as a nice ray of hope in the Demiplane.

Much obliged! Casting nothing but shadows makes for existential horror, not gothic horror. There need to be bright spots to relieve the gloom and help achieve those precious (and rare) truly happy endings.

The Tale of Ivar Skytte - Another incredibly impressive (and huge!) work from Bauml and Bartels. It somehow manages to take the fantastical wide world of D&D and somehow bring it down to earth in way that doesn't break my Ravenloft believability. Very creepy and useful NPCs. I especially like "Honored Mother" (and I wonder how the Overmaster she births gets chosen. Would like to know how conscious they are within her. Is there infighting among their spirits?) I actually read this before the main Conferences article, so I wasn't sure it needed the framing story, though I liked seeing The Red Haunt again and getting some further glimpse at the Brightwell cosmology. Little did I know how much more I'd get in the Conferences. So, in retrospect, I wonder if this would have been better more focused on Ivar's backstory than his current situation, leaving that part for the Conferences. But that's splitting hairs over the structure. The content is excellent. And the idea to have actual music included to spice up the text... inspired. I've never seen that before in a D&D supplement, that I recall. (not counting stuff like A Light in the Belfry).

I just realized I never told Wolfglide how impressed I was with him adding the music while we were working on our joint project, so... Let me just say it now: the music is all Wolfglide, and it's awesome as heck.

Honored Mother and the other NPCs in the tale of Ivar Skytte are all Wolfglide's creations (really, my contributions were limited to having the Red Haunt play her part and ruin the Order's day), so he has the answers to your questions. ^_^

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Errant Bloodlines - Very cute story. Not often we see the fun side of Azalin like this. And quite the last minute twist.

VIEW CONTENT:

Did not expect that we were watching a young "S".

Lost Souls - Again the rapid-fire nature of these makes them hit or miss, but it's easy to ignore the misses and enjoy the hits. Squeezer reminds me of the X-files' Tooms. Don't know if it was intentional. I like Justine White for the novel use of a weirdo monster, making it much more relatable and Ravenloft-y. I was prepared to dismiss the Nostra family as a simple mafia story, but then it took a delightful turn for the bizarre! love it! Cordelia, the taskmaster.... well, I feel like using this one in a game would only cause laughter. Alexander Merkorious... maybe I'm making connections that aren't there between the last few entries, but ... a redeemed vampire, a woman named Cordelia, and a teenager inserting themselves into a family via false memory... has someone been rewatching Buffy/Angel? And Robin Doyle ... CRRRREEPY!

Excerpts from “The Register of Monsters” - Weird article. Awesomely creative artwork. A few of the creatures/characters didn't land for me, but I really liked some of them. The various "virusbeasts" were particularly timely, and the story with the one called "Smiley" sadly seemed ripped from the headlines. :/ An oddly large amount of fungi, it seemed. And I can't decide whether comparing the size of something to that of a cow's femur is worrying or genius.

Dominia Survey - This one is DeepShadow's baby, but I think I can count myself at least an assitant-midwife. I've watched him expand and revise the piece for years, and piped in with my two cents here and there. I've always held out hope we could get it completed and finally finish the SoS gaz, now what, 12 years in the making? So I'm very excited to be able to share it here, even not quite finished. (though close!) I really love what DS has done with the place, fleshing it out and making it more than one-note. I know he labored to correct all the little inconsistencies in Dominiani's story and those of his minions. And I do love Feast of Goblyns and Bleak House a lot, so Dominiani has always been a favorite. Being so close to it and watching it form, I'm a little biased on this one, but I do think it's great work, and look forward to the final version, real soon now.

[Mistmaster]

Harrington Dale - (I hope you don't mind, Mistmaster, that I took the liberty of removing the extraneous "h" in the name Harringhton throughout. Maybe it was a deliberate addition, but it doesn't look right as a native English reader, and since this domain in particular is meant to reflect the U.S., I figure it should look right to me. ) Anyway... A huge update to the original. I'm curious what Wiccy would think of it. (His last visit here was 4 years ago... Wiccy, are you out there?) This definitely brings it from a weekend of hell domain to a full-fledged long-term domain, but in doing so, changes so much that it was a wise choice to change the name. (It's almost unrecognizable apart from the scarecrows.) On its own merits, the idea of a domain caught between stagnation and progress is very cool, and there are, like in all of Mistmaster's work, plenty of NPCs with adventure hooks. I could easily see this being a place for several adventures. I'm a bit confused to see Zhakata at the Lawgiver here when he was the Overseer in Darkon. Are they connected? I guess we could use a run-down on Mistmaster's version of the Ravenloft Pantheon. Maybe in a future QTR? (Also not sure what to make of the cats and the Bastet worship. (but then, I'm a dog person. ) An import from Nova Vaasa?) Well done.

You were absolutely correct in ediding away those hs; I thank you for that; I will surely make an article of the Religions in my Ravenloft; right now, however, I say that both the Overseer and the Lawgiver are Zhakata's aspects; both are deities of civilization and community, one is a kind and wise father-figure the other an harsh tyrant. Every deity has several aspects some even in opposition to each other.

It is an unusal domain by being heavily non-human but I like to go off the beaten path from time to time. Hobgoblins, at least my version of them, are very lawful. The whole society is run like an army. Hobgoblin soldiers would give Roman Legionaires a run for their money when it comes to order and discipline in my games.

I used the comment that hobgoblins saw orcs as "uncouth barbarians, an undisciplined rabbble they were amazed that were able to cross a room on the first try" in the game when describing the situation to the party half-orc LN cleric. The player was amused, the character obviously wasn't. He figured out I was using the same relationsships between orcs and hobs in this game as I did in the others. Hobs see orcs as mindless rabble and orcs see hobs as elitist snobs. This how I described he was treated in his home world, he was treated decently in this domain.

The backstory of the priestess is so large because she is one of my former PCs in a kind of jokey evil campaign. Her background is basically what happened in that campaign, prior to her winding up in Ravenloft which never happened in the game. I used her as the NPC written when I used her in my RL camaign using this domain. I didn't think of the fact she might overshadow the darklord in the article which I agree now is quite likely.

It's evidently my fault, I infected you with my lightlord fetish and that is the result, she is clearly the domain lightlord.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I was a little concerend that Adorjan's travels through the Core and learning the tales of various darklords could have come off very "Mary Sue/Gary Stu", but instead, by turning them into Operas it just works, and seems very cool.

I see what you mean, didn't know the term "Mary Sue/Gary Stu" (now I know ) well for that I have to say that I ended up with this long journey for Adorjan throughout the Core to avoid his nemesis and to explain the knowledge he had acquired. At first the idea was for him to have traveled mostly around the more advanced domains and then be stationed in the monastery, but then I made him make this whole trip through the pre-Requiem maps and the journey became longer than I expected. Learning the tales of some darklords can be explained because of his ability to interact with ghosts so he might have learned information from people that have died or from libraries (like the Theodorus Archives) and not necessarily first hand and also his class ability of bardic knowledge helps. The most dangerous part of his journeys in my mind was Castle(s) Tristenoira, since as a DM I had made a campaign in Forlorn more than two decades ago and it was one of the most difficult domains for survival, and the castle is like a death trap.

I'm no opera fan, so I don't recognize whether any of these are inspired by real world opera stories, but they certainly feel "real" when reading them, while not being obvious step-by-step retellings of the darklord stories, which is no small feat. The artwork is also fantastic, particularly the NPC portraits.

All operas in the article are adaptations of Richard Wagner's operas and also some parts of his life are reflected in Adorjan (Wagner was inspired to write the Flying Dutchman opera following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London, he was self exiled to escape capture after the Dresden May Uprising in 1849, and he was associated with socialists and anarchists as Bakunin). As an idea it started with "Leo" originaly named "The Curse of the Ba'al Verzi" which was adapted as a backround setting in an adventure scenario (the "Affection of twins" dread possibility) around five years ago, with Adorjan being just a minor character (mentioned only as the librettist) in a masquarade ball organized in the Borcan consulate of Mortigny to promote the opera. The rest were written this September, every thing I wrote was leading me to something else and in the end an article about one opera became many more operas with various dread possibilities and adventure ideas. The main idea when I fist started writing was that I wanted to use a Bussengeist for this years issue, since I always wanted to make a scenario including one, as I always found it interesting as a monster (roleplaying wise) but difficult to incorporate into an adventure.

The "Mirror of Simple Souls" is an adaptation of the ideas of Marguerite Porete, a 13th century christian mystic, writer of the book by the same name, who was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1310 in Paris.

And yes most things are non-cannon, as I wrote a few days ago in this thread the date of Ivan killing his sister has different dates (it is written 710BC in his background in the Realm of Terror (black box) but 700BC in the bloodlines of the same product (where the name Edgar Leskovich appears), in domains of Dread is 710BC and in the 3rd edition gazetteer the date is 709BC, while in Mistipedia the date is 715BC in Ivans background but 700BC in the Dilisnya family chronology).

I have to say that Mistipedia was very helpful in writing this article as were past Quoth the Raven issues, especially the Gazetteer on the Sea of Sorrows.

Thanks for the feedback I 'm glad you enjoyed it

[Jack the Reaper]

Alexander Merkorious... maybe I'm making connections that aren't there between the last few entries, but ... a redeemed vampire, a woman named Cordelia, and a teenager inserting themselves into a family via false memory... has someone been rewatching Buffy/Angel?

Hehe, actually not, but I can see now why it looks like that. In truth, Cordelia is inspired by DO-S from One Punch Man, Alexander is inspired from V:tM: Gehenna, and Jacob from Waver from Fate/Zero.

As to the others you mentioned, Squeezer is inspired by Squiggle from the book Level 26: Dark Origins; Justine White is Christine Brown from the movie Drag me to Hell, and Robin Doyle is Dale from the movie Come Back to Me.

Anyway, thanks for your reviews! Hope to write some myself when I'll get to it.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

The Conferences of Victor Gagné IV - Another all-star. Loved it. Very glad to finally get the whole scoop on the Red Haunt, and who better to reveal it than poor Mr. Gagné? A beautifully done collaboration from Wolfglide and Rock.

Gosh, I'm flattered you still remembered the Red Haunt. She's one of my favourite villains, but it's been years since I first introduced her here on the forum.
Working with Wolfglide was a treat and a half.

Likewise, I had a great time working with Rock!

The Tale of Ivar Skytte - Another incredibly impressive (and huge!) work from Bauml and Bartels. It somehow manages to take the fantastical wide world of D&D and somehow bring it down to earth in way that doesn't break my Ravenloft believability. Very creepy and useful NPCs. I especially like "Honored Mother" (and I wonder how the Overmaster she births gets chosen. Would like to know how conscious they are within her. Is there infighting among their spirits?) I actually read this before the main Conferences article, so I wasn't sure it needed the framing story, though I liked seeing The Red Haunt again and getting some further glimpse at the Brightwell cosmology. Little did I know how much more I'd get in the Conferences. So, in retrospect, I wonder if this would have been better more focused on Ivar's backstory than his current situation, leaving that part for the Conferences. But that's splitting hairs over the structure. The content is excellent. And the idea to have actual music included to spice up the text... inspired. I've never seen that before in a D&D supplement, that I recall. (not counting stuff like A Light in the Belfry).

I just realized I never told Wolfglide how impressed I was with him adding the music while we were working on our joint project, so... Let me just say it now: the music is all Wolfglide, and it's awesome as heck.

Honored Mother and the other NPCs in the tale of Ivar Skytte are all Wolfglide's creations (really, my contributions were limited to having the Red Haunt play her part and ruin the Order's day), so he has the answers to your questions. ^_^

Conversely, the vast majority of the writing in the Conferences was Rock's work.

I think I was inspired by the somber lullaby from Pan's Labyrinth to have a dark lullaby for Honored Mother, but I wanted to convey some tune with it rather than just the words. Otherwise, it wouldn't have carried quite the same emotions with it. I composed both the Lullaby and the Doxology of Xovaroth relatively recently. The Fanfare was a melody that had been in my head several years ago, and I thought it was a great opportunity to put it to use. I think my favorite part of arranging it was including the moving eighth-note lines in the Horn 3 and Horn 2 parts in the middle section.

As for Honored Mother and the spirits within her, I am not fully decided on how they are chosen or how they experience the world through her. The Overmasters rule the Order as equals (disregarding the influence of seniority), but beyond their core goal of complete deicide, most of them are motivated by a lust for power. If they are conscious within her, the long-term bodilessness and their selfish natures could conceivably start harming their cohesion. It would be quite interesting if this experience finally broke their unity, collapsing the hierarchy of the Order. At that point, whichever one is reborn might try to destroy Honored Mother to get rid of the others. I personally think that sort of breakdown would be far off in the future, likely past the point by which some adventurers are likely to intercede.
I imagine that a conscious collection of Overmasters would debate and vote to select which one will get reborn. Rallux strongly hopes that Tsaklat, his friend and mentor, will be the one. That collaboration might seem threatening, however, so there would be efforts to block that. Someone who was in favor of Xovaroth's ascension would be a logical choice, since it would provide more balance to the collection of living Overmasters. To have any one of them be reborn is a potentially catastrophic event, however, as Rallux is the weakest of their number. The others are all at epic levels of power, likely exceeding the strength of Xavan---in particular, Faxikae Zar has had hundreds of years to cultivate its power. That is why the Dark Powers are making it very difficult to successfully bring the Overmasters back to life.

I have read and enjoyed Errant Bloodlines so far. Keeping Erasmus in reserve to use against Van Richten makes me think about Star Trek: Nemesis, and the Romulan plot to use a clone of Jean-Luc Picard against the Federation.

I hope I can scrounge up some free time to read more, because so much sounds interesting. I am going to be working fast tomorrow to try and clear my schedule.

[brilliantlight]

It is an unusal domain by being heavily non-human but I like to go off the beaten path from time to time. Hobgoblins, at least my version of them, are very lawful. The whole society is run like an army. Hobgoblin soldiers would give Roman Legionaires a run for their money when it comes to order and discipline in my games.

I used the comment that hobgoblins saw orcs as "uncouth barbarians, an undisciplined rabbble they were amazed that were able to cross a room on the first try" in the game when describing the situation to the party half-orc LN cleric. The player was amused, the character obviously wasn't. He figured out I was using the same relationsships between orcs and hobs in this game as I did in the others. Hobs see orcs as mindless rabble and orcs see hobs as elitist snobs. This how I described he was treated in his home world, he was treated decently in this domain.

The backstory of the priestess is so large because she is one of my former PCs in a kind of jokey evil campaign. Her background is basically what happened in that campaign, prior to her winding up in Ravenloft which never happened in the game. I used her as the NPC written when I used her in my RL camaign using this domain. I didn't think of the fact she might overshadow the darklord in the article which I agree now is quite likely.

It's evidently my fault, I infected you with my lightlord fetish and that is the result, she is clearly the domain lightlord. [/quote]

Yeah, she is clearly lightlord material. I don't use the concept but for those that do she would be it. I did like your take on Darkon although I wouldn't have incuded Azalin's crafting of new magical items as part of the curse as he is known for that. That said it is far less heavy handed than canon, which I really like. I like my Dark Powers to be more subtle than canon. I also like the fact that the dwarf deities are clan based , the halfling deities are family based and the gnomes philosophy based which makes sense .

I assume the curse of the DL in Harrington Dale does not include getting attacked by Dread Scarecrows as it isn't mentioned. I think the addition of the cats a nice thing. They seem a useful addition to the game and I might use them elsewhere. I like the Dark Lord being strongly against knowledge. It is a definite personal flaw that deserves punishment, particularly since his being against it is largely due to his wanting to avoid responsability for his actions.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

I really loved the operas, really adds more life to the land of mists.

As for the Dominia article, anyone think the psychic conduit in room 319 connects to Nosos? Cause it "releases rats and belches noxious fumes" which fits the 2e description of Nosos.

Wait, did it not say exactly where it went? Crap...what version did they get?!

Ummmm....

Ah, it does say, in the "Peristalsis" sidebar: it's a Mistway to Bleutspur. The rats in question are cranium rats, not the typical Nosan variety.

I wanted to create a balance between isolation and accessibility for Dominia, hence there are LOTS of easy ways to get there, and a handful of hard ways to get out.

[brilliantlight]

I really loved the operas, really adds more life to the land of mists.

As for the Dominia article, anyone think the psychic conduit in room 319 connects to Nosos? Cause it "releases rats and belches noxious fumes" which fits the 2e description of Nosos.

Wait, did it not say exactly where it went? Crap...what version did they get?!

Ummmm....

Ah, it does say, in the "Peristalsis" sidebar: it's a Mistway to Bleutspur. The rats in question are cranium rats, not the typical Nosan variety.

I wanted to create a balance between isolation and accessibility for Dominia, hence there are LOTS of easy ways to get there, and a handful of hard ways to get out.

I really like the idea of a demon with multiple personalities in Conferences of Victor Gagné. What's more all the personalities are interesting. The operas sounded interesting and would likely be popular with the right music. It is interesting that Leo is made out to be a hero in the first one. Whatever Strahd did , Leo was still a villian in canon. Darland's fate seems appropriate in the opera. I would have made them somewhat more flattering to the Dark Lords, after all they have influence and would want that.
Forgotten Shades is interesting, the DLs the All Beloved, Galadria, The Amnesiac, the Sun Emperor,. The Seven Princes, the Forsaken Maiden, and Rama all stick out.

[Jack the Reaper]

So far, I've read the Dominia Survey and the Register of Monsters.
The Dominia Survey had some interesting stuff, I liked the links to other domains and Darklords, such as having Heinfroth's family murdered by Bloody Jack, and the gateway to Bluetspur. The alchemical clones are a wonderful answer to the question of how can the truth about Dominia be hidden from the inmates' relatives. What I missed was some more fleshing out of the asylum and the treatments/tortures practiced there - the examples in Bleak House were quite unimaginative IMO.
The monsters from the Register were unique and bizarre as always. I love the concept of creatures who don't look like anything human or animalistic, but rather like weird hallucinations or strange dreams, which you have no idea what they want and what they can do.
The are articles are quite long, so I don't know when I'll get to them.
Thanks for all the reviews about my articles! BTW, Bitter Victory was originally written as a political satire following Prime Minister Netanyahu's victory in the elections, and the people and organizations mentioned in it are references for Israeli political figures and parties. But I figured Ravenloft fans can enjoy the story even without understanding the satire

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The operas sounded interesting and would likely be popular with the right music.

For music someone can use the original operas

Wagner's original opera / Adojan's opera
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Die Hochzeit (English: The Wedding) / The Wedding

Die Feen (English: The Fairies)/ “The Fey”

Das Liebesverbot (English: The Ban on Love)/ “Liebesverbot”

Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen (English: Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes)/ “Rennie”

Der fliegende Holländer (English: The Flying Dutchman)/ “The Relentless”

Tannhäuser (English: Tannhäuser and the Song Contest on the Wartburg)/ “Tannhäuser and the Meistersinger Contest of Harmonia”

Lohengrin/ “Leederick”

Tristan und Isolde (English: Tristan and Isolde)/ Tristen and Isold

Parsifal/ “Trillen”

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)/ “The Knife of the Ba’al Verzi”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part I, Das Rheingold (English: The Rhine Gold)/ “The Griesilver”
Part II, Die Walküre (English: The Valkyrie)/ “The Maiden”
Part III, Siegfried/ “Leo”
Part IV, Götterdämmerung (English: Twilight of the Gods)/ “Twilight of the Gods”

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I would have made them (the operas) somewhat more flattering to the Dark Lords, after all they have influence and would want that.

In the version I wrote the idea is that most of the Darklords used are either obsessed/ preoccupied with something else, uninterested or crippled because of their natures (Phantom Lover* is looking for specific victim's, another ghost darklord time shifts all the time while imprisoned in his castillo while there is one more who can meet land only if he has been specifically hired to go there) and Radaga has died twice and is non existent when the opera was written so she couldn't do anything about it. Only one darklord feels affected by the operas and uses his influence to ban one particular opera and also has sent many times assassins to kill the librettist (also there is one Fey who might want to get rid of a specific unperformed opera, but is no darklord). Also Adorjan's alignment would make it difficult to change something in his work since his ideology and religion make him above the laws of men (or women). The ones that the character of Strahd exist in are based on historical facts (from the Theodorus Archives) and are already part of the Demiplanes history. For instance in the Wedding Massacre as portraid in history Leo Dilisnya is the villain and there is no knowledge of Strahd's transformation, while other's were written at the time under the protection of another darklord who was using them for propaganda purposes. As for "Rennie" the influence of the darklord has already changed the ending of the opera through his obedient, but it can still be threatening when the original ending is performed.

*Phantom Lover : I always have an image of the Phantom Lover as an Antonio Banderas kind of lover, with a small disfigurment in some part of his body (not that... lower), the image in Darklords by Stephen Fabian helps a bit too, to imagine him as some kind of Spanish lover. There is also a Chinese movie "The Phantom Lover" with an interesting plot and also the cultural background of China could explain the bodily disfigurment that the Ravenloft Phantom Lover has (mentioned in the Darklords accessory). His first known appearance (and victim) was in Cormyr, of the Forgotten Realms setting, so he could have been first created in Kara-tur, then again his name doesn't sound too Far Eastern. Maybe something to ponder for the next years issue...

[Mischief]

I have been rather busy, so I am only now getting around to QTR27.

Jack the Reaper, Bitter Victory
An extremely strong opening. It's just like Strahd to turn the forces of light and laugh at their misery. And the despair of being used for evil, the forced tolerance of what you despise but are unable to vanquish, and the inability to resist someone so overwhelming, all too real.

John Berndt, Friedliches Königreich
5e primed me to see hobgoblins as more eastern, I remember the DMG mentioning them as an example wuxia plot and the art has samurai/ming-like spaulders/sode. They'd be special troops with flaming arrows ambushing boats at the Red Cliffs. So if I am reading this right, the dwarves are magically peaceful, so hobgoblins have nothing to fear, but the Darklord is trying to enact propaganda against them? Seems like a strict but nice domain, assuming you stay far from the Darklord's business. I'm curious if there are external threats that require military action? Seems like a good domain to plug part of the shadow rift with, because Drakov would hate all the demihumans.

Mark Bartels and Benjamin Bauml, Conferences of Victor Gagné Part the Fourth: Out of One, Many
Started and then skipped. I haven't read the first three, so I expected to be and was confused. I got hung up on the dream sequence so I decided to circle back once I had read the first three. I approve of the fancy stationary letters. I stopped at the spells and admired malicious acceleration and the loony tunes-like clumsiness inflicted.

Michail Adamis, Borcan Epic and other Operas.
Adorjan Bognar right away stands out as an interesting character. He seems like the type to have fits of passion and then melancholy. Right when he works up the nerve to sharpen his knives and get ready for a murder plot, some minor mishap ruins his momentum. Ghost dad sounds like the worst cheerleader.
The Mirror of Simple Souls - it's sounds like a Greek philosophy mixed with an obscure Catholic order. Edit, looked it up, it's a real Christian thing. Huh!
#Dragon 252, thanks for the reference. Is Matthew Martin a member of the Fraternity?
... Wait a minute. These are based on real operas, aren't they? I knew for sure when you got to Tristan and Isolde. (And isn't Soth's character based on this tale?)
Dread Possibility: The Affection of Twins. These two. SMDH
Play#1 Leo. Is Ravenia male or female? There is a switch between she and he.
Really impressive writing so far.
The Relentless: Poor huntsman Erik, falling in love with such an emptyheaded waif. Solid tragic plot.
Leederick. Can you explain in more detail why this one is banned?
Liebesverbot: Ponzio Pilato is Pontius Pilate right?
Pictures are on point.
Singing ghost dad is great. Edgar and Adorjan could easily be transplanted into a completely different setting. They also have a certain feeling of authenticity. Want to reiterate great character design.

Jack the Reaper, Forgotten Shades
Who doesn't love more NPCs? The sheer quantity you have come up with over the years is impressive.
Will point out ones I liked in particular....
1. Ravenloft K-pop. 2. I think snails are neat so I can't hate this one. 3. Sounds like a good eastern-themed domain with Oni and such. I imagine the Darklord transforms back at inopportune moments or cannot use full strength while being scary. 4. This one would be a good multipart domain and play out pretty well - I might demilord him for Falkovnia. 6. Galadria seems like an easy character to build a domain around. I assume she likes to hear herself talk. 8. This one I viscerally loathe. A good Darklord concept, but definitely table dependent in its playability. 9. Seems like a good demilord for a village in Dementlieu. 10. Someone work with me and invent Ravenloft does Hogwarts 11. I had a similar concept but it was for a small political democracy adjacent to Richemulot. The Darklord is charismatic but always sidelined on the rise to power. 12. This would be a really hard fight. Blinded, deafened, and covered head to toe. 15. Smells like a good dark sun crossover. 17. The hotel seems like a great oneshot, but I don't prefer "feed the devil" domains. 19. This sounds like an awesome haunted house. 24. This is a great one, especially if he PCs wind up the same as the Darklord for infiltration. 27. Furniture thieves as adventuring profession. 30. Reminds me of some real life news stories or killer nurses. 37. I wouldn't this use the tree as a Darklord, but a wandering haunt. 44. Subtly creepy somehow, maybe because treating the stars like a chessboard is overwhelmingly powerful yet mundane.
--- STOPPING HERE.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Mark Bartels and Benjamin Bauml, Conferences of Victor Gagné Part the Fourth: Out of One, Many
Started and then skipped. I haven't read the first three, so I expected to be and was confused. I got hung up on the dream sequence so I decided to circle back once I had read the first three. I approve of the fancy stationary letters. I stopped at the spells and admired malicious acceleration and the loony tunes-like clumsiness inflicted.

Come to think of it, the Red Haunt would probably enjoy Bugs Bunny's cheerful malice.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The Mirror of Simple Souls - it's sounds like a Greek philosophy mixed with an obscure Catholic order.

You are right it was Catholic mysticism influenced by Neoplatonic ideas

Tristan and Isolde. (And isn't Soth's character based on this tale?)

Soth's sword of wounding might be influenced by Melot wounding Tristan, and Tristan dying from bleeding in the next act.
Tristan travels to Ireland to bring back Isolde for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, to marry. Along the way, they ingest a love potion which causes the pair to fall madly in love. This could have influenced his meeting with Isold after saving her from the ogres.
Tristan and Isolde's original story resemble more the story of Lancelot, Guinevere and king Arthur.

Play#1 Leo. Is Ravenia male or female? There is a switch between she and he.

Typo... my bad. It's a SHE since she is supposed to be a witch, the name taken from Ravenia Von Zarovich (Strahd's mother) as Dilisnyan propaganda.