The Bloodknife

[The Giamarga]

The bloodknife artifact is presented in Van Richten's Arsenal with an intriguing backstory. And a little wonky mechanics. Did any of you use this in your campaign? What's the story behind it? How did you flesh it out?

Also how about a conversion/revision of the stats. Does the Wolf companion get awakened and get animal companion benefit? (The awaken spell specifically states that awakened animals cannot become animal companions) At what effective level does it get animal companion powers?

Where is the dagger? Where the Sunstone? Where is the Vampire Lord Velkaarn, that is was forged to slay? What happened to the obscure domain that he conquered?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

The Bloodknife appeared in one of those dorky little "pick-a-path" junior novels from the 80s. The story involved a young man and a wolf who were the reincarnated descendents of some royal line displaced by the vampire Velkaarn, IIRC, and the context was only superficially relevant to Ravenloft.

I do own the book, it's just so peripheral to the setting that I haven't looked at it in years. I'm not even sure of the exact title, but I'll take a peek over the weekend and see if I can answer your questions, Giam.

[The Giamarga]

Cool! I didn't know that. What's the title of the book?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I just checked Amazon, and "Castle of the Undead" (how's that for a title that tells you virtually nada about content? ) seems to be the only pick-a-path book that could be the one I remember. But there's no picture shown, so I'm not sure.

Again, I'll try to get back with more info this weekend.

[The Giamarga]

This is the book!

Castle of the Undead (2)- You are trapped! In the shadow world of Ravenloft, where dark creatures of legend prowl the village streets, Randar, a young adventurer, seeks the clues to his own mysterious identity... a path that has been forgotten in the mists... With Krug, a telepathic wolf who becomes his friend, Randar must discover the secret of the Bloodknife, an ancient artifact that holds the key to Randar's past and future. There, in Ravenloft, he must engage in the ultimate battle with the vampire Velkaarn, the evil lord who commands The Castle of the Undead...

I already have the Al'Qadim and the Greyhawk books of that line. I even like the Al'Qadim one quite well.

Off to ebay...

[Catman Jim]

Yes, that first one that has the artwork from 'From the Shadows'.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Hmm... I have that book, it's a recent acquisition. Haven't read it yet. Didn't know the bloodknife came from there. (nice research, VRA authors!) I did use it in my campaign, but only as a red herring folklore. I've got a 1/2 vistani orphan, and a ranger with a wolf companion in the party. The line about the prophecy was too fitting to pass up. I don't plan to actually use it, but I might after reading up in the book....

[The Giamarga]

So what about the rules part of the question:

Does the Wolf companion get awakened and get animal companion benefit? (The awaken spell specifically states that awakened animals cannot become animal companions) At what effective level does it get animal companion powers?

[DeepShadow of FoS]

I would probably rule that the awakened wolf is a companion who happens to be an animal, as opposed to an animal companion. IIRC that's in the spirit of what happens in the book.

[The Giamarga]

Well in the book the wolf is a polymorphed human. Polymorphed into a kind of wolf that has natural intelligence and telepathy, is a little larger than normal wolves, and can detect evil. (yes even in Ravenloft.)



So I read/played the whole thing through (with the g/f even!) and it was fun and interesting. Here's an annotated summary:


SPOILER ALERT!


Randar, an orphan foundling and the young apprentince of a Trader in Faerun flees through the Mists into Ravenloft as Vampires attack the trading caravan. His mentor entrusts him to take a mysterious dagger and save it from the evil ones.He is accompanied by Kurg, the intelligent telepathic wolf, who the Trader purchased together with the dagger, and who apparently can smell evil.

They arrive in the almost-ghost-town Vizharia, in a land clouded in almost neverending night and ruled by the evil vampire lord Velkaarn. In a tavern they're told that:

[...] Vizharia was once a village on the world of Oerth, until the evil vampire Velkaarn came and tried to take it as his own. After a ferocious battle that nearly wiped out the township, the village came to an uneasy truce with Velkaarn, who holed up in his castle licking his wounds. then the Mists descended. The village and the castle were surrounded, swallowed whole inside a gray limbo. When the Mists finally receded, Vizahria and Castle Velkaarn were here. And since then Velkaarn's evil power has grown, threatening to claim the village in his cold graps and squeeze the life out of it.

Well and where is here? Ravenloft obviously, probably a pocket domain. But where exactly? There's a reference implying neighboring domains and access to the Sea of Sorrows. It is the explanation of the stablemaster why he stays there even though all his horses are dead and he has practically no customers:

Where else would I go? You can never tell if the mists that surround this realm will let you pass into another realm.Unless you want to sail the Sea of Sorrows and risk falling of the end of the world, there is nowhere else. Oh there are other kingdoms but some foul creature runs each of them, and you may wind up in a place even worse than this one.

Of course the real reason he stays is that he cares for his vampire daughter and brings her the occasional young male victim.


So what is the backstory behind the Bloodknife you ask? Here's how the Vistani Raunie Magda tells the tale:

"Let me tell you a story Randar," Magda says returning her gaze to your palm.
"You were born under the Wolf Moon fourteen summers ago," she says. "Do you see the curvature of this line? It means you grew steadily and surely - until this point in time."
The gypsy's fingernail indicates a small wrinkle in a line on your palm. a gp that separates the line into two segments.
"This mark here,"she says, indicating the wrinklte, "shows a conflict in your life." she rubs her finger in a circle on your palm, and your skin starts to tingle with warmth. "Darkness", she says, her voice becoming a soft whisper, as though she were speaking in a dream.
"The darkness was overpowering. Something had to be done. Your father..."
[...]
"...your father was a Vistana ... a king. King Milarnus of Maridar. He was with your mother...Queen Velina, but she was not of the Vistani. the darkness had fallen heavily over Maridar, the darkness of the evil one, Velkaarn. Your father's kingdom was the last part of the realm that Velkaarn had not conquered, and Milarnus was determined not to let his land fall to the evil one.
"I can taste the tears your mother shed when her king told her of his plan to save the realm. For it depended on the ultimate sacrifice... the sacrifice of loved ones.
"Milarnus was wise. He knew that Velkaarn and his armies of the thirsty undead could't be beaten by them alone. He summoned the land's most powerful wizards and directed them to create a weapon that would not only destroy Velkaarn forever, but also the evil that he had placed upon the land."
The Vistana woman looks down at you, a tear in her eye. "That was the sacrifice," Magda says, tapping the break in your lifeline. "You and your brother were the sacrifice."
"I have a brother?" you whisper. But Magda, caught up in the past, does not hear you. She lowers your hand and looks into the misty distance, remembering instead of reading.
"Milarnus, the Vistana King, summoned the mage Rustanglius...and the Vistana seeress, Magda..."
"You?"
"Hush boy," she says. "Together, they were directed to muster the powers of the magical planes and imbue a weapon with such abilities as to destroy Velkaarn's evil."
"The Bloodknife," you say. Magda smiles , nodding silently.
"Milarnus summoned the wolf tribes of the land to him. Only a decade ago, they were much more powerful people than today. They communicated freely with humans and were the friends of the realm. when they were called uponto aid in the battle against evil, the entire wolf people gave a part of themselves for the cause.
"The mage and the seeress crafted a powerful spell. The wolf tribes sacrificed their mystical powers to imbue a weapon with power enough to eradicate Velkaarn. In this manner, the ruby blade was created, and it was forever linkes to the two who were chosen to leave their world, the return someday to save it."
She smiles at you. "the chose two were Randar, the youngest son of Velina and Milarnus, and Krug, his older brother."
Krug's ears prick up when he hears his name. Randar and I are brothers?
You say, "I'm beginning to remember vaguely now. the Bloodknife was laid on my stomach - "
"You were bonded with the Bloodknife, you who would grow up to save our land. Krug was bonded with the wolves to protect you from harm."
"So I am part Vistana," you say. "But why did I become different when I was brought here to this land?"
Magda looks away. "Krug was transformed into your wolf brother, and a spell was placed on you to change your appearance and block out your memory, so Velkaarn could never discover you. we threw the Bloodknife through the same portal, hoping that it would find the same world you had gone to.
"Our spell decreed that te two of you would someday return, when you ad Krug and the Bloodknife were finally reunited. The mists hunger after the power of the knife, and the three of you, ogether again, would prove impossible for the mists to resist.
"Our realm was soon overrun by Velkaarn and his undead minions, and the last of the free kingdoms fell to evil. Your parent, refusing to become Velkaarn's undead servants, were killed. The evil one took yor ancestral castle and made it his own, and the Vistani were forced from the villages and took refuge from the vampires in the forests, there to hise and wait...for you."
Magda gestures for the Bloodknife, and when you give it to her, she turns it around in her hand. She touches the silver hilt, tracing the lines of the wolf's head. "The wolf signifies your pact with our lupine friends. the bust of Velkaarn represents our sworn enemy. The crystal blade is able to drain vampires of their life-force in an imitation of their thirst for human blood. The three together - wolf, vampire, and blade - or the pact - Vistana,wolf, and human - are the components of this weapon of light. Now you must seek one final component that will bring about Velkaarn's destruction. Your birthright - the Diamond of the Sun."
[...]
"Your father, Milarnus, was the only one to know the whereabouts of the sun stone. He told no one about it. He only promised that the stone would be found when it was time, and if Randar wassmart enoughto find it. He said if Randar was his son, he would find it when he needed it."
The old woman stares at you quietly. "This is your destiny, Randar. I didn't have to read your palm to tell you who you are and why you are here. I was there whenyou were born, and I was there when you became orphaned ... both of you," she says, looking from you to Krug. "You see," she says quietly, "I am your grandmother."

A few hugs later she reinstalls the rest of the memory that have been locked and sends the young prince of the Vistani on his way to castle Velkaarn.

The prophecy comes true!" Magda shouts to her assembled brethren. "The night of greatest darkness will soon be dispelled! The evil of Velkaarn shall be erased from the land, for the one has been returned! Krug, wolf spirit and brother, and Randar, the prince, have returned to fulfill the legacy of my son Milarnus! Bow before your prince, Vistana people bow before Randar the orphaed prince!"

Long story short after skulking around the castle a bit they meet the ghostly librarian, Ayre, who gives them the book Legends of the Vistani (which Ayre claims to have penned) to read. He points out a certain page and goes on to his final rest, his duty fulfilled, whispering with his last breath "The brithright of the sun..." As it turns out he actually meant birthright of the son, and when Randar realizes that he suddennly knows where the sunstone is hidden: In the golden necklace around Krug's neck that has a thick silver cameo depicting a boy's silhouette, that looks exactly like the picture that Ayre pointed out in his book. So Randar breaks the necklace inserts the sunstone into the knife and destroys Veelkarn, his vampires, ghosts, and zombies. Afterwards the Bloodknife is "free of it's ruby color, dispelled or bruned away when the final component completed the weapon and the purifying light of the sun was unleashed."

"You will be our new king," Magda says, smiling down at you. "When you come of age, the land shall have a new king... King Randar."

The castle crumbles to dust.

You turn to your Vistana grandmother. "Is it finally over?" you ask. "Is the evil truly gone?"
Your grandmother looks away. "The evil of Velkaarn has been destroyed," she says, patting your knee. "But there will come another darklord, in time," she says. "That is the nature of this realm: evil begets evil.
"And that is why the Vistani have kings such as you - to fight evil wherever it appears, and to keep the land safe for people who live under the sun."

The end.

[The Giamarga]

So, anyone interested in fleshing out/revising the basic story so that it fits with Ravenloft better?

My problems:
Oerth = original Vistani homeworld ?
Resident Vistani? A Vistani King?
Vistani with wolf companions? And a race of helpful intelligent telepathic wolves? Only 20 years ago? Perhaps they were Mist wolves (from the 2E MC Greyhawk appendix!) but without the mist-breath weapon and with telepathy instead. Those can also detect/sniff out evil just as Krug can throughout the book. (yes even in Ravenloft!?!)

Where is the Darklord's curse? Just being a vampire and evil doesn't suffice. The whole story does not have enough tragedy for me. Though the sacrifice thing could be worked upon I think. This could perhaps also tie into the story how a Vistana/Gypsy became a king! There#s got to be a hook somewhere...

Discrepancies with the VRA entry for the Bloodknife:
-Obscure domain --> well the info is obscure enough. Was the domain lost? Or does it still float somewhere in the Mists?
-Reincarnation angle --> Randar is the original son! So VRA assumes he didn't fulfill his destiny and that lots fo time went by since then. Which is ok I guess.
-Lycanthropy angle? --> A red herring? Or a nod to White Wolf: Werewolves vs. Vampires? I like this idea somehow. It could make the backstory a bit more cursed. So instead of being turned into a telepathic wolf , perhaps Krug was inflicted with lycanthropy? But he is helpful and rather good throughout the book. This would also contradict my Mist wolf theory. Perhaps it is not a case of true lycanthropy but rather the necklace is a golden version of the Amulet of the Beast. (Which would then turn him into ...a Mist wolf? ...a good/neutral Mountain Loup-garou?) Or the lycanthropy simply got introduced later on in the story...


I somehow like the idea of a Gypsy King who is scouring the Demiplane trying to rid it of evil ones. An enigmatic (Half-)Vistani Hero similar to the legend of Kulchek which I find very cool. Maybe an idea for a native epic PC for the Reckonings campaign? Perhaps I could combine it with my ideas for The Giamarga...
One could also tie him to the Vilushka Secret Society somehow.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I somehow like the idea of a Gypsy King who is scouring the Demiplane trying to rid it of evil ones. An enigmatic (Half-)Vistani Hero similar to the legend of Kulchek which I find very cool.

It's also reminiscent of the Barovian legend of the "piece of the sun" from VotM. Perhaps that folk tale wasn't solely a reference to the HSoR, but a blending of the Holy Symbol's legend with other elements of Vistani lore.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Very, very interesting...

[Ail]

In all of this, I just couldn't buy very well the whole excuse of sending the sons somewhere else so they can come back some they and save us.
I know it's like making an initiatory trip, but it seemed rather weak to me.

I always have problems with things like this:
- the spell will be completed when A, B and C are united and then it will be powerful enough to destroy evil
- we have A, B and C here and now, but we choose not to unite them (without explaining why this can't be made) and so we'll send A, B and C separately through a portal HOPING that they will end in the same world
- of course, even if they do they have to land at separate places so taht there actually has to be a story of A, B and C looking for each other (or in this case, A and B looking for C).
- no one explains what else changes during this search, for when A, B and C are finally joined again the spell already works, whereas it didn't initially.

Also I never like this in stories
- to make this crucial saving device work, piece D is ncessary
- the only person who knows what and where D is refuses to say it because that it will all be found if the pre-destined saviour is smart enough
- why does this person never consider the case that the saviour is NOT smart enough? Because if he's not, then D will never be found due to stubborness and in my view stupidity.

I may be being a bit harsh in this, but these things combined make some silly points in the story.

That's just me, anyway.

Alex

[Le Noir Faineant]

I must say that, from what I read so far, I really want to get my hands on this book - a RL solo adventure, jay!