The good, the bad, the ugly . The hopeful that can be grown into a good adventure or stay as a good mini-adventure and the hopeless that must be cast down unto the depths of Tartarus and must be used as a seed to build a new adventure of any size. Talk about your experiences, victories and defeat and how you improved things.
A "monster of the week" or rather monster themed adventure, mini or normal sized, can be good if done right. Like "Night of the Walking Dead" as a fun zombie adventure. This can be used as an example for an adventure per monster or another Book of Crypts, one that does not have too many bad adventures that make you want to hide in a crypt yourself. But i like the book as a seed book to build upon.
What do you think about the Book of Crypts? Any suggestions?
Some of the Creatures https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/rv/9336/
It also has a Phantom, Vampiric at pages 71-73 with art for it at page 69 but they forgot to put in a monster entry page [Error; this is from Darklords, used an online pdf from archive org for convenience, it does not exist in the printed book]
https://www.tsrarchive.com/rv/rv-rr.html
the mini-adventures in it;
Bride of Mordenheim
Blood in Moondale
The Dark Minstrel
The Cedar Chest
Corrupted Innocents
The Rite of Terror
The Man With Three Faces
The Living Crypt
Death's Cold Laughter
Last edited by Isolde on Sun Mar 09, 2025 1:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Phantom, Vampiric (as it has no other epithet to differentiate it from the spectral or ghostly phantoms). This is the "new" monster that was kind of lost. Incubus-like, a deceiver and seducer.
Phantom Lover, Lawful Evil
Str 16 [errata? +1 to damage]
Dex 12
Con 17
Int 17
Wis 14
Cha 12 (18*)
Armor Class 0
Movement 12
Level/Hit Dice 5
Hit Points 6 [errata? hit points are very few for 5 hit die and con 17]
THACO 15
No. of Attacks 1
Damage/Attack: 2d4
Special Attacks: Strength drain (1 pt./night), charm (—4 penalty for victim), control over doors (see text), sleep, etc.
Special Defenses: Change to mist, snake, gargoyle; command snakes and gargoyles (2d8); 75% Hide in Shadows; +1 or better blessed weapon to hit; control over doors (see text)
Magic Resistance: 10%
* Charisma in the eyes of his victim
The phantom shares many traits with vampires, and is classified as one by some scholars. Like a vampire, he drains the life from his victims and erodes their will. Though he drains spirit rather than blood, the effect is virtually the same. He erodes their willingness to live and brings them fully under his influence. His victims, like those of a vampire, begin to shun the daylight, wanting only the dark. They become addicted to his attentions, so much so that they are blinded to all but their desire for him. Eventually, they will sacrifice anyone—killing family and friends, even themselves—to do the phantom’s will.
These are not the only similarities between the phantom and common drinkers of blood. Like a vampire, the phantom can assume many shapes. He can become mist. In addition, he may take the form of an animal—although not the traditional wolf or bat, but rather a black, vile reptile. The phantom may appear to be a large black snake, for example, among a swarm of smaller, identical snakes that do his bidding. Or he may take the shape of a small black dragon, among many similar grotesque, living gargoyles that he can summon from the skies in his realm to protect him.
Those who watch a woman grow more listless with the passing of each night may suspect she is the victim of some unholy visitation. (She loses one Strength point per night, as desired by the phantom.) If it is a vampire they imagine, they may place garlic over her windows, or place a holy symbol around her neck. Garlic does nothing to deter him. The holy symbol offends him, and it may cause him to hesitate momentarily, but if the phantom asks her, the victim is certain to remove it.
Moving the woman to another room does not thwart the phantom; he simply invades the new chamber. Only keeping her in the open air can dissuade him. The victim must be kept outdoors for three consecutive nights, else the phantom will return. The victim will resist staying outside until his spell is broken; she will steal away to her chamber if she can.
A protection from evil spell will not sway or halt the phantom unless he fails a saving throw vs. spell with a +2 bonus. Negative plane protection has no effect.
As noted above, those who attempt to check on the woman during the night will find the door to her chamber locked; only acts of extraordinary strength or magic will budge it. (For example, a successful open doors attempt or knock spell would do the trick.) This is not the only door the phantom can affect. He can cause any portal in the house he visits to shut and lock, one following the other, though anyone can open these doors with a key or a
brawny shoulder.
The door to his victim's room may do more than simply prevent access from the outside. When someone’s hand is on the knob, the phantom can change the knob's shape, so that it holds fast to the person's hand and strives to crush it even as it heats to sear the skin. The wood of the door may twist and warp to form another hand that reaches for the throat of someone nearby, gouging the skin with shards of wood (THACO 20; damage 1d6 points). If someone attempts to guard the woman by staying in her room, the phantom still comes, darkening the room as he arrives. He attempts to puts the onlookers to sleep (they must roll a successful saving throw vs. spell with a —5 penalty; elves and half-elves have a 45% resistance to this spell). Those able to resist his power may be paralyzed with horror (roll a horror check with a —4 penalty; a failed roll results in paralysis) as they watch the phantom’s actions and feel their own bodies growing cold by the nearness of death (1d6 points of damage per round). In this vulnerable position, their throats may be cut by the phantom’'s intended, for she will do it if he asks.
In the Graveyard: If the phantom is in danger, he retreats to the cemetery. The nearer he is to his domain in Ravenloft, the more powerful he becomes. In the graveyard, he can create a force that hurls a victim through the air (if a Strength check is failed) and slams him against a tombstone (1d4 points of damage). The phantom can also animate the dead, who will claw their way out of the earth to grasp the ankles of passersby, and then slowly rise up to attack, like common zombies.
The phantom can summon the black snakes whose form he mimics, using them to confound his pursuers. (Use combat statistics for a common poisonous snake; the phantom’s creatures are no more than a foot long, however.) These creatures may either slither up from the graves or drop down from the trees.
The phantom'’s gargoyles (he can summon 2d8) come with him into the cemetery each night, and wait there for his return. If he is in danger, they attack; otherwise they usually only threaten. They favor swooping onto a victim from behind, landing on his back, and then raking his face and neck with their claws. Even after the phantom himself has left the graveyard, the gargoyles may remain behind until the portal disappears. They lurk in the trees and atop mausoleums, their leathery wings fluttering occasionally.
None of these brute actions may be necessary, however. The phantom may well elude his pursuers. Wherever he goes, he can create low, drifting veils of mist that help to conceal him. In the graveyard, he can slip from shadow to shadow, with a 75% chance of seemingly disappearing (though pursuers may still hear a rustle of leaves, marking his—or a minion’s—progress).
In the Lair: Characters who follow the phantom into his lair are unlikely to encounter him there; he avoids combat. If forced to do battle there, he takes on the visage of someone his attackers know—either one of them, or a companion who recently died.
Destroying the Phantom: Only magical weapons with a +1 bonus or better can harm the phantom. These must be blessed, however, or they have no effect. Holy water thrown upon him causes him to halt for one round, but inflicts no damage. If he is reduced to 0 hit points, he retreats to a hiding place in his lair. A dispel evil or sunray spell will also drive him back into his realm, although he can make a saving throw vs. spell to avoid it. It is unlikely that he will return to the same victim again after this is accomplished.
Despite such efforts, the Phantom Lover can never truly be destroyed. As long as there are sorrows and grief of immense proportion, he will return to the realm of the innocent, seeking out a new victim.
While the adventure gives a domain lord (has extra domain powers etc) specific version of the creature with a bit of work the Phantom, Vampiric monster can be extracted
I once ran a campaign centered on Liffe, the island where most of the adventures from Book of Crypts eventually got placed by the FoS in the Nocturnal Sea Survey. I wanted to use all of the present-day goodness which the NSS had introduced, so my plan for running the mini-adventures from Book of Crypts involved Sinara Doom casting a spell (it involved lots of incense) which sent the party back in time to inhabit the bodies of other adventurers and witness the history of Liffe through their eyes.
However, the only mini-adventure which I actually ran was "Blood in Moondale" before we got interrupted by a pandemic. I ran "Blood" largely by the book, and my players figured out early on that
VIEW CONTENT:
Alec Rapacion was the likely villain
. On the other hand, they had already run into Dante Lysin in the present day, and so his revelation
VIEW CONTENT:
as a nosferatu
was a well-received surprise.
I'm still sure that "Death's Cold Laughter" is not salvageable as an adventure. You know, speaking of the good, the bad, and the so very, very ugly.
the only thing to "salvage" would indeed be only the title and a the empty space between words. Making a new adventure from the title would be the only path to "salvage" for what truly is the waste of a crypt.
Huh, so I'm guessing the vampiric phantom is actually Leederik of the eponymous Tower, then. And IIRC Liffe's association with the Book of Crypts dates back to the Domain of Dread hardcover, what with Moondale, Armeikos and Claveria being mentioned there as settlements.
Also, never played or read it, but wow, Death's Cold Laughter must be BAD to cause such reactions. Pretty sure they salvaged Puncheron in the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer, though.
Isolde wrote: Wed Mar 05, 2025 9:24 am
the only thing to "salvage" would indeed be only the title and a the empty space between words. Making a new adventure from the title would be the only path to "salvage" for what truly is the waste of a crypt.
To be fair, most of the individual words are perfectly good words when used in another context.
paireon wrote: Wed Mar 05, 2025 6:49 pm
And IIRC Liffe's association with the Book of Crypts dates back to the Domain of Dread hardcover, what with Moondale, Armeikos and Claveria being mentioned there as settlements.
You do recall correctly. The Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer added Risibilos to the mix, but the three locations that you call out were indeed all Domains of Dread. Thanks for the correction.
paireon wrote: Wed Mar 05, 2025 6:49 pm
Also, never played or read it, but wow, Death's Cold Laughter must be BAD to cause such reactions. Pretty sure they salvaged Puncheron in the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer, though.
The Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer did some amazing work with some unpromising material.
i was thinking about a Telchur adventure (or some other winter-cold deity) with the same title. There is art of a shaman dancing during the winter in some mountain in the book of crypts.
This phantom lover indeed does not exist in the paper adventure, only in some pdf that is on archive org. Did someone scan this and on purpose or by mistake stick the wrong pages in (from darklords indeed, i checked the paper and pdf version)? This replaced pages from the man with 3 faces.
I thought there was something strange about it. This is pretty weird.
Isolde wrote: Sun Mar 09, 2025 12:04 pm
This phantom lover indeed does not exist in the paper adventure, only in some pdf that is on archive org. Did someone scan this and on purpose or by mistake stick the wrong pages in (from darklords indeed, i checked the paper and pdf version)? This replaced pages from the man with 3 faces.
I thought there was something strange about it. This is pretty weird.
Yes definitely a scan mistake, I have both physical books, and Stephen Fabian did none of the Book of Crypts illustrations but he made the whole of Darklords (Bluebeard and Von Kharkov are my two favourite ones from that book).
"I am not omniscient, but I know a lot."
-Mephistopheles from Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
. The hopeful that can be grown into a good adventure or stay as a good mini-adventure and the hopeless that must be cast down unto the depths of Tartarus and must be used as a seed to build a new adventure of any size. Talk about your experiences, victories and defeat and how you improved things. 
