Café de Nuit

The book of vile darkness (blegh) gave us a tribe of downright monstrous halflings: a tribe that, when under attack by hobgoblins, embraced Evil in order to survive, only to turn so evil and vile that the hobgoblins withdrew in disgust - and fear. Alas for the hobbos, the halflings then pursued and eradicated them. As myth has it, the halflings remained monstrous, flesh-eating creatures, and one would do well to keep out of their lands.

But well before the BoVD, there was the Lord of the Rings and Sméagol. Poor, lost, corrupted Sméagol, who Gandalf believed had once been something much like a Hobbit - a halfling.
Imagine a group of halflings who settled somewhere they shouldn't. Somewhere someone buried a trove of Evil artefacts, but never returned to claim them. Now imagine the corruption seeping into the halflings' bloodline as the artefacts called for someone to wield them.
Imagine a community of Sméagols, Gollums, each with their own 'precious', all still living together. What would such a community be like? What would its effect be on its surroundings?

If they were all like Gollum, they would either have destroyed each other as competing predators, or have their holes set apart to avoid competition.

That is an interesting concept. I think that each of the Gollums would protect its precious even hiding what it is. Or they may have one big "Precious" that they kinda worship.

Baron Von Stanton wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 10:48 pm If they were all like Gollum, they would either have destroyed each other as competing predators, or have their holes set apart to avoid competition.

They might still loosely cooperate on ambushing groups, maybe, or hunting things too big for one.

alhoon wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 3:08 am That is an interesting concept. I think that each of the Gollums would protect its precious even hiding what it is. Or they may have one big "Precious" that they kinda worship.

Why not both? The little precious keeps them busy, the big precious gives them a cultural identity.

Vampire kenders of Kendralind

Mephisto of the FoS wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 3:36 am Vampire kenders of Kendralind

One of Soth's very worst sins... The bit about them regularly spending a whole night crying about being tied to their coffin and unable to roam freely really gets to me.
And they didn't even have a precious to give them a little bit of happiness down the long, cold years of darkness.

I wonder what kind of experiment Lord Soth did to drag the kender village to Sithicus and then turn them to vampires.

"Soth set bout the creation of anew breed of undead. Drawing a small kender village through the misty veils of Ravenloft and into his domain, he hd them killed one by one so that he could study their sufferings and invoke carefully designed magical rituals over their bodies in attempts to make them rise as undead. By the time he had finished with these kender, fully half of them had died horrible deaths and suffered unspeakable torment at the hand of the dreaded deathknight. The results of his experiments were, however, satisfactory to Soth, for he discovered a formula that would create a race of vampires utterly loyal to him."

"They are tied to that dark land (Sithicus) in some mystical way that, no doubt, relates to the evil magic used in their creation. It is possible that Lord Soth was required to invoke the favour of the Dark Powers in his creation of these dreaded monsters and, thus, that he has paid some horrible price for their loyalty to him."

I guess the horrible price was having another traitorous seneschal after Caradoc...

Following are Lord Soth's official 3.5e stats from Dragonlance, not really satisfactory for someone who was able to bring a whole village in Ravenloft and magically experiment on the inhabitants.

Lord Soth, Knight of the Black Rose
Male death knight, human fighter 7/rogue knight 10

I once did a writeup of Soth, using the Knights of the Crown, Sword and Rose prestige classes offered up in the Dragonlance campaign guide. It meant he'd need to have a rank in Cleric and some spellcasting power. Going on the theory that Soth 'converted' after becoming a death knight, or at least that the powers of darkness started sponsoring his spellcasting ability, he'd have far more potential to create undead.

Rock of the Fraternity wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:27 am I once did a writeup of Soth, using the Knights of the Crown, Sword and Rose prestige classes offered up in the Dragonlance campaign guide. It meant he'd need to have a rank in Cleric and some spellcasting power. Going on the theory that Soth 'converted' after becoming a death knight, or at least that the powers of darkness started sponsoring his spellcasting ability, he'd have far more potential to create undead.

This sounds better, in Ravenloft 3e canon he is a CE ex-Pal9/Blackguard 6.

I found this in another forum by someone named zombiegleemax

To Stat Soth, in 3.5e, you'll need the Dragonlance Book. In general, he would be

Neutral Evil Death Knight (Human) Male Fighter 5/Cleric 1/Crown Knight 1/Sword Knight 3/Rose Knight ?, he'd need a way to get a will save of +7 by then as well...

basically, he needs the Knight of the Rose Prestige Class, which has some stiff requirements (as he was a Knight of the Rose).

Failing that, Paly/Blackguard seems close enough (maybe with a few fighter levels), as Sword/Rose knights are essentially Paladins.

I did my writeup here, and it's a bit different than what was suggested by zombiegleemax.

Dungeon Magazine # 86 has a Dragonlance adventure by Tracy Hickman called Anvil of Time. It has stats for the living Lord Soth as a 10th level paladin.

I just read the Dragonlance campaign guide. It says the role of Paladins on Krynn is handled by the Solamnic Knight PrCs. *shrug* :-/
Where did the rogue knight PrC come from?

Rock of the Fraternity wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:44 pm I just read the Dragonlance campaign guide. It says the role of Paladins on Krynn is handled by the Solamnic Knight PrCs. *shrug* :-/
Where did the rogue knight PrC come from?

I haven't found it yet but I was thinking that being a mystic may be more appropriate for Soth to have been a mystic when he was a squire in the service of Holger Windsound?

He became a Knight of the Rose four years before the cataclysm and he cheated on his first wife Korinne the following year and murdered her and their infant son two years before the Cataclysm so he wouldn't have advanced much as a Knight of the Rose.

Mephisto of the FoS wrote: ↑Sun Nov 19, 2023 9:54 am

Rock of the Fraternity wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:44 pm I just read the Dragonlance campaign guide. It says the role of Paladins on Krynn is handled by the Solamnic Knight PrCs. *shrug* :-/
Where did the rogue knight PrC come from?

I haven't found it yet but I was thinking that being a mystic may be more appropriate for Soth to have been a mystic when he was a squire in the service of Holger Windsound?

He became a Knight of the Rose four years before the cataclysm and he cheated on his first wife Korinne the following year and murdered her and their infant son two years before the Cataclysm so he wouldn't have advanced much as a Knight of the Rose.

That would be difficult. Mysticism wasn't rediscovered until after the Chaos War, when Soth was already a death knight. Soth became a knight before the Cataclysm, when the church of Paladine was still very powerful.