Ravenloft (A Red Boxed Campaign)

[MadStepDad]

YEAR of the KNIFE
(an MSD Original Adventure)

In the Summer of 2002 I finally had the courage to undertake a full-length Ravenloft campaign. In name, setting, and official canon - not just themes and vibes that I bit for my entire homebrewed campaign anyway. I vowed I would take my players on a Tour of the Realms... exotic locations and timeline specifics. In my mind I envisioned a series of cataclysmic campaign-shaking events that would steer the overall arc of my game. Everything else would be building to these events in some capacity. I pictured:
1) Grand Conjunction
2) Grim Harvest
3) Vecna (Lives/Reborn/Die)
4) Bleak House (death of Rudolph van Richten)
5) Time of Unparalleled Darkness (segue into Ravenloft 5E)

Well of course, my 3-year IRL campaign got us from 735 to the end of the Grand Conjunction. That ended 2005. The very last session of that campaign was where we filmed the talking-heads footage for our amatuer-azz D&D "mockumentary" still available on Youtube somewhere.

Fast forward literally 10 years, and I'm in the process of continuing exactly where I left off - 740 moments after the events of the Grand Conjunction with a world in disarray. My Ravenloft Red Box (Juniors Edition) started with my two young boys and some of their friends and stretched for about 6 years or so IRL. Which sounds amazing, especially when we were playing weekly. But for some of those early years, plus pandemic interference, turned some of those sessions monthly or even slower. Everything we started from literally Session 0 of this campaign was steamrolling towards a Grim Harvest climax. Thus also continued my "Tour de Ravenloft", where I would familiarize brand-new players with a long-established (and glorious IMO) canon history. One of my favorite aspects of this type of campaign-building, is the ability to take footnote historical moments and flesh them out more thoroughly in-game... and making my players the personal catalysts of history. Which brings us to this moment in time - a unique adventure I call "YEAR of the KNIFE". It all started with this one innocuous quote from "Shadow of the Knife" (online adventure) -

"After the PC's left Paridon at the end of Hour of the Knife and Sdo destroyed his traitorous servant Roja, the doppleganger lord recovered the Fang of the Nosferatu and within days the killings started again. Everyone of age rememembers how "Bloody Jack" killed five people, stopped for a few days, then killed six more, as though he'd had to start over again"...

"YEAR of the KNIFE" (by MSD) is my unique twist on that specific historic event. Little did I know, this began the hastened descent of my Red Box Juniors Campaign. Read on...

After the events of "Hour of the Knife" my PC's did NOT flee the realm. Instead they stayed behind to help the City rebuild after the shocking Doppleganger reveal. Like I said, I was *hoping* to create another Odiare for my players (a good community they can feel a part of). But there is a BIG difference between a small Italian village and the grimy metropolis of Paridon. My players were learning the hard way. Each PC had an individual agenda that I would weave into a singular climatic moment at the end.

My Paladin son winds up working with Nayth Crickshaw who is elevated to Chief Inspector of the Paridon City Guard and put in charge of clearing out & investigating Bloodhaven Estates in the wake to "Hour of the Knife". On top of that he was dealing with all kinds of Newsbill-related paparazzi and TMZ like antics. "William Thompson" (Zherisia Gazetteer) and "Casters of the Bone" (Van Richten's Arsenal) made cameos in my Paladin PC's adventures. The Casters played a valuable part in helping stave off the Jackalwere aspect of the tale (ultimately locking a majority of the Jackalwere gang underground with the use of their magical "Bone of the Jackals" - as noted in the Zherisian Gazetteer)

My Elf druid was way over his head dealing with the politics of Man. In particular I leaned heavily on the Zherisian Gazetteer and characters like "Edward Windsor" and his brother David (with their acrimonious election of 742 playing a major backdrop). Everything from voting to grow food on rooftops (remnants of the Grand Conjunction fallout) to the "Child Labor Education Bill of 743" were aspects of my Elf Druid's personal story arc. Lots of corruption, intrigue, false flags and Black Swan events. Enough to make an already timid PC quickly lose faith in humanity.

While my Paladin PC is dealing with legal affairs, and my elf druid is working the political angle - my Monk PC has the Spiritual aspect of this tale covered. After already integrating himself into the Temple of Divine Form, he was drawn further into their theological schism in the wake of the grand Doppleganger reveal (see "Hour of the Knife") Characters from that module like Edward Chadwick and the Zherisian Gazetteer (Agnes Clairmont) resurfaced as my Monk PC dealt with virulent debates, illegal autopsies and metamorphosis gland horrors. Damn, and it was all good just a week ago!

My Barbarian had perhaps the most pure "fun" out of all the individual storyline threads. As with our Gnome thief, I relied on the Black Chapel area of Paridon and the undisclosed "shadowy thieves guild" headed up by Treech Gallant, his brother Scrags Gallant and their gang of scoundrels (including the fiesty but underaged Pickpocket Timmy) - all detailed to some minor degree in the "Hour of the Knife" module. Much like my reinvention of of Dorvinia is a pseduo-Godfather flavored domain during the Black Box campaign - here I stole heavily from Peaky Blinders for inspiration. In turn, that "shadowy thieves guild" became the "RUSTY DAGGERS" overseeing a slew of cool PC funhouse activities like horse racing, gambling, boxing and wrestling!) Meanwhile the "Ellie Mack" (Elucidating Museum of Anthropological Curiosities) with its Caliban managers all wanted a piece of the action (our Half orc Barbarian is one heck-of-a-fighter). All the while he's enjoying himself as he works his way up the rankings of an underground "fight club" and becomes a Hero Idol to the little Caliban outcasts and orphans.

Speaking of Rusty Daggers and the shadowy underworld of the Black Chapel area (infamous home to most of the Bloody Jack slayings), those streets become home for our wayward Gnome Rogue. At the conclusion to "Hour of the Knife" he struck a Dark Bargain with the Darklord Sodo himself. It was clear who the Doppleganger's new hand-chosen assassin was! Now in possession of the REAL Fang of the Nosferatu (and ostensibly researching ways to "destroy" the evil artifact), instead our Gnome Rogue set about failing literally every moral conundrum or challenge I threw his way. Living gloriously evil in a way that harmed the outlook of some other players.

Especially when poor little Pickpocket Timmy himself became Victim #1. A particularly heinous decision on our Gnome Rogue's part to perpetuate a growing gang war to alleviate suspicion from himself. The murder of little Pickpocket Timmy sent the Rusty Daggers into a violent, vengeful spiral - which our Gnome Rogue was more than happy to facilitate. Victim #2 in the new Bloody Jack slayings was Inspector Nayth Crickshaw himself - a stunning development that led to my Paladin PC becoming Captain of the Paridon City Guard in charge of the investigation. Victim #3 was a wealthy art dealer who appeared to commit "suicide" in the act. With all individual storyline threads heating up, I cranked up the heat and started making the victims more personal to my players. Victim #4 was Father Delborde from the Temple of Divine Form, which greatly affected my Monk Player. By the time I got to Victim #5 (the underground wrestler who befriended our Barbarian Half Orc and trained him to be a championship-caliber wrestler in their underground circuit) - tensions within my group were at an all-time high. It all culminated for my Barbarian in a match he was ordered to lose despite earning the admiration of the local Caliban community. His refusal to throw the fight led to a riot that sparked our grand finale.

I had managed to evade suspicion and keep things shadowy and mysterious by using note-passing and out of game discussions between players. The other players had their suspicion that the Gnome Rogue was behind some of these mysterious "accidents" and murders, but didn't catch the recurring trend until right around here. It wasn't until he slew the wrestler with the Fang of Nosferatu in front of our Barbarian character that things became rapidly apparent - the Gnome Rogue betrayed the party. He was now on a suicide mission. With riots breaking out all over the quarters (our Elf Druid had completely lost control of the political climate as well) and our Paladin PC and Monk PC's individual murder investigations all pointing towards the Gnome Rogue - the end chase began.

Souped up by a whole slew of failed Dark Power checks and Dark Gifts, our Gnome Rogue was now border-line super villain. Running any kind of PC vs. PC encounter can be dangerous, but doubly-so for players of my age (anywhere between 12 to 14 at this point). Sure enough it was definitely fun, super intense and ultra climatic as the PCs pursued the Gnome Rogue over rooftops and city streets in a race against time. In the end, with a twist of the Dark Powers perhaps, our Gnome Rogue himself became the 6th victim of the Fang of the Nosferatu, with the Half-orc Barbarian player (who had been an unwitting pawn of the Gnome Rogue player many times prior) striking the final death blow that led to the Gnome Rogues roof-top impalement (his body disappearing into the falling Mists below - the sound of his body hitting the street never came). So while my players thought they had finished the threat - indeed they had killed off the Gnome Rogue PC for good - they inadvertently played a part in a historical part of Ravenloft canon (Bloody Jack's 13th killing spree). With Paridon literally burning behind them the rest of the PCs used the vaunted Mistway (a clue dropped by their old allies the Casters of Bone) to flee the domain to good and bring this horrifying chapter to a close. The PC's had survived a betrayal from one of their own, but some players found it increasingly hard to separate fact from fiction. So while our (now-deceased and removed from play) Gnome Rogue player promised to play a more lawfully-aligned character and stop actively trying to sabotage the group - other players remained pessimistic.

To be continued!

[Lord_Pruitt]

Wow!

Not sure if "good job" is applicable; or "what a ride!" would be better - either way this sounds like a totally awesome campaign!