I'm asking all the wrong questions during my "Shadowborn"- and "Chapelwaite"-fueled journey back into Ravenloft, and so - I wonder, do we have a Ravenloft spin on "Moby Dick"?
I believed there had been one, but it turned out to be this "generic" novel:
(I'm displaying this one here like I wanted to promote it. No offense to the author, but - that is not the case. )
...And if "Moby Dick" played out in Ravenloft, how would it?
...Seriously, weren't there at least some fan writeups with that idea in mind?
I've looked back into the "Nocturnal Sea" gaz, but if there were references, I must have missed them.
I mean Moby Dick is pretty well Ravenloft to start with. You got this guy hunting a beast that is going to kill him solely out of pride that Moby Dick took his leg. Never mind that the whole point was Ahab had gotten lucky because he was the only person to have faced Moby Dick and lived. Ahab, for those who don’t know, is the name of the wickedest man to ever live according to the Bible, and being that Ahab in the book makes a show of being a Quaker at one point we can safely assume this name choice was intentional.
Back tô the story though, he’s hidden an entire secret whaleboat crew of Zoroastrians on his ship who are only there to help him hunt Moby Dick. The reader finds out about them well into the book, and we learn that previously the regular crew had only seen them as half glimpsed figures out of the corner of their eyes. Now that they’re known to everyone there’s discussion that their leader is actually Satan, and I think on man even claims to have seen that he has hooves for feet.
Then there odds and ends of cryptic horror themed stuff. Queeqeg is covered in tattoos that the shaman on his island said contained the secrets of the universe. Ahab’s ship the Pequod is named after the first Indian tribe in the US to have been killed off by settlers. They chase a ghost whale for a time. They harpoon a whale covered in tumors which sprays pus and filth all over everyone. Ahab calls down lightning in a ceremony to make a new compass needle so they can continue the hunt. Ahab says he would strike the sun if it insulted him, and we are given to believe he means not just the sun but also Jesus. Our narrator who tells us he is giving the false name of Ishmael (outcast) is the only survivor of the final battle wherein Ahab becomes lashed to the whale by his harpoon line while Moby Dick swims in such a way to create a whirlpool and drag everything down to the bottom of the sea, and he survives by crawling inside a casket that floats to the surface.
So yeah it is already well set up for Ravenloft. It isn’t quite a horror novel, but it found its real audience 30 years or so after publication once the world had suffered through WWI, and its grim tone became more realistic. Ahab is the Dark Lord. His curse is his obsession which will end in his death if the heroes can’t dissuade him from it which almost happens at the end of the novel when Starbuck talking of his wife and children reminds Ahab he has his own young wife and child awaiting him. Ahab falters but makes his saving throw against Starbuck’s persuasion attempt. You basically only need the Pequod and a reasonably large space of sea for his domain. Perhaps the mists shift around its boundaries realistically or perhaps they do some sort of trick regarding perception like the holodeck on ST.
If you did want to expand it more there are a few things that could be done. First, you could have Nantucket Island or a stand in where the story starts. Maybe the characters have some low level adventures and here about Ahab. Once the DM thinks they’ve taken the hint and want to get on board guess who pulls into port looking to outfit the ship and pick up crew for a hunt? Second, you could add some other ships. They do meet a few ships while at sea, and history and the book tells us this was usually an occasion for an impromptu party as sailors traded news, souvineers, and got drunk all the more so if the other ship had single women on board. Plus one of the ships from the book was the Rachel whose captain sailing back and forth looking for his two young sons who had been swept overboard in a storm. Finally, you could add some Polynesian type islands which were a common place to stop for fresh fruit, meat, and water as well as for single sailors to find wives at the end of a successful hunt. Which leads us into
You might also combine Moby Dick with the story of the Essex which Melville likely knew. There is a nonfiction book called In the Heart of the Sea about this ship which was the only recorded instance of a whale ship being sank by an attacking whale. The real story only begins then though as the men embark on a suicidal attempt to sail to South America that led to death from starvation, dehydration, cannibalism, and men choosing to stay on a desert island (unbeknownst to them the HMS Bounty mutineers visited this island regularly). As the author points out at virtually any point in this trip they could have sailed to Tahiti in less than two weeks, but they repearedly chose not to out of fear of cannibals on the island. Iin fact missionaries had convinced the islanders to give up cannibalism nearly two decades prior as was mentioned in a report in the Nantucket paper just days before the ship set sail, and these men’s irrational fears led them to actually become cannibals. Quite a book to read if you want to learn about poor leadership, bad decisions, starvation, death by thirst, and cannibalism. It really is a true life horror story. Plus there’s always Lovecraft stuff when you get into South Pacific islands.
So those are some more elements that can be picked up if you want to have some land based sdventures. Plus the Falklands, Hawaii, and the arctic region were places regularly visited during the course of a whale ship voyage.
I'll probably write something later, in greater detail, but for now: If this was my campaign, I would probably make Queequeg another tattooed Hazlani - just because it plays towards an established trope within the setting.
Also, I would probably make the whale the DL, not Ahab - if only because it emancipates the story from the ship and the crew. This gives you more options beyond the usual "doomed voyage" story á la "The Terror". I think one could do a pretty kickass storyline based around this premise.
A cannibalistic zombie whale would probably behave pretty much like another big fish - "The Meg":
That allows you to vary the tone of the campaign, as well - a journey in Ahab's company is always going to be some grimdark deathfest. A hunt for a sea monster allows you to insert comedy, and even lighthearted elements.
There was a writeup of an Ahab expy darklord/domain Captain Jacobi Robertson/Whal in the Kargatane's Book of Sorrows. It focuses on orca whales, however. Jacobi is cursed with orca whale lycanthropy.
Meredoth's horror from QtR 9 might potentially qualify in a whale role, but it's actually a dire shark of extreme size with several kracken tentacles grafted onto it. It's also animated by necromancy rather than vengeance.
The Lesser Evil wrote:There was a writeup of an Ahab expy darklord/domain Captain Jacobi Robertson/Whal in the Kargatane's Book of Sorrows. It focuses on orca whales, however. Jacobi is cursed with orca whale lycanthropy.
Meredoth's horror from QtR 9 might potentially qualify in a whale role, but it's actually a dire shark of extreme size with several kracken tentacles grafted onto it. It's also animated by necromancy rather than vengeance.
HA! Didn't I know I was hallucinating it! Thanks, mate! I will look this up in detail, and then get back to you. I think the one that I'm remembering was the one from QtR 9, actually, but I'm going to be looking into the "Book of Sorrows", as well. - Boy, it has been some time since I last thought of that one... I still have the "Haunted Sites" netbook of the Kargatane printed out and bound among my gaming books. Good times, those. I learned to DM with these books!
I mean Moby Dick is pretty well Ravenloft to start with. You got this guy hunting a beast that is going to kill him solely out of pride that Moby Dick took his leg.
I would agree with Pizza. You have the obsession, you have the dark themes, you have the Hubris. It is not gothic horror, but it fits Ravenloft.
No, what Ravenloft needs for fishy business is more Sahuagin.
And that Deep-one / Kuo-toa parallels from a long, long ago Quoth the Raven. Where Kuo-Toa were wizards. Frankly with the Kuo-toa as presented in Out of the Abyss, mad wizards replacing some of the mad priests would fit.
"You truly see what a person is made of, when you begin to slice into them" - Semirhage
"I am not mad, no matter what you're implying." - Litalia My DMGuild work!
I mean Moby Dick is pretty well Ravenloft to start with. You got this guy hunting a beast that is going to kill him solely out of pride that Moby Dick took his leg.
I would agree with Pizza. You have the obsession, you have the dark themes, you have the Hubris. It is not gothic horror, but it fits Ravenloft.
No, what Ravenloft needs for fishy business is more Sahuagin.
And that Deep-one / Kuo-toa parallels from a long, long ago Quoth the Raven. Where Kuo-Toa were wizards. Frankly with the Kuo-toa as presented in Out of the Abyss, mad wizards replacing some of the mad priests would fit.
Don't laugh but I got my fill of Kuo-Toa's in The Night Below a 2nd edition campaign I play in. One of our players has an intelligent sword created to battle Kuo-Toa's.
My pc is a SVirfneblin who speaks the tongue and we had a really hard time in the City of the Glass Pool vs many of the Kuo Tao but succeeded.
I've also played MoTRD and we battled Daegon's disciples in New York City *circa* 1920's. it was a blast cause we saved H.P Lovecraft's parents and their infant son H.P, thus saving H.P. himself!
Well, the problem with Sahuagin and Kuo-Toa is, you're always one step away from parody, or from Saturday morning cartoons. My current D&D campaign - one of the many successor games to the old Blackmoor games you participated in, back in the day, Steve - features cannibal polliwogs. For real. That's sweet, and all, but the dramatic potential of the threat is rather... Tiny.
Now - and this is a rather obscure reference - the rather Gothic and cold-blooded way merfolk, kuo-toa, and similar sea-creatures are portrayed in the old "Ogre Battle" video games, THAT would be something I'd like to see for Ravenloft.
(I'm displaying this one here like I wanted to promote it. No offense to the author, but - that is not the case. 
)
Thanks, mate! I will look this up in detail, and then get back to you. I think the one that I'm remembering was the one from QtR 9, actually, but I'm going to be looking into the "Book of Sorrows", as well. - Boy, it has been some time since I last thought of that one... 
I still have the "Haunted Sites" netbook of the Kargatane printed out and bound among my gaming books. 
Good times, those. I learned to DM with these books! 
