Darkon memory campaigns

[HuManBing]

One aspect of the original Black Box setting (which has endured through today) is the memory loss that affects all newcomers. Not even Azalin himself was immune to this - he had to locate the Book of Names before he realized what was going on.

His own experience is interesting too. While searching for a way out of the realm, he challenged and fought a creature in Castle Avernus. This was an essential step towards regaining his memory, but all he learned was that he could have escaped if he had not defeated the creature!

I recently watched the movie Memento and although the plot left me unsatisfied, I thought it could be a compelling way to start off a campaign. With new PCs, your players would be unassuming bakers, millers, and maybe reeves in the Darkonian countryside, with troubling dreams and signs of a previous life turning up.

Then people start trying to kill them. They now have to piece together who they were, and what they did, to explain why they're targeted men and women. As they make each connection, the DM can gift them Skills and Feats they had forgotten. Even Spells and ability scores could change as a part of this.

The discoveries could be quite disturbing. Several possibilities:

1. They are political refugees from Dementlieu, or reformed members of The Brain's underground network from Lamordia. Maybe they survived an assassination attempt in Borca. Either way, they came to Darkon to regroup and return, but then while they were laying the plans for their return, their memories vanished and they took up simple jobs.

2. They're members of the Talons who deserted, earning the lasting emnity and hatred of the Kingsfuhrer and Darkonian citizen alike. They may even have joined the Darkonian army. Something will have to be done about those brands on their foreheads...

3. Something happened within the Kargatane or Kargat. Perhaps they had been working outside of Darkon for a while, maybe operating a small inobtrusive book store in Viaki, and then been summoned back to the nation. After reporting to their cell leader, they were told to "take some rest and recreation time" and simply were never called upon again - providing a convenient way of covering all evidence of their past misdeeds as their memories faded.

4. Something happened outside of the Kargatane or Kargat. It's not hard to imagine that somebody with a grudge may have sent counter agents to infiltrate the Darkonian secret service. Ulrich von Kharkov would certainly have reason (although perhaps not the means) to want to put a thumb in Azalin's metaphorical eyes and ears. What happens when the spy loses their memory and makes a blunder? Would both sides want to silence them?

5. Nothing political. Maybe an group of entrepreneurs went against the will of their aristocratic Lamordian families and decided to do business in the "stinking backwaters of darkest Darkon". Now they're doing very well, but are neglecting to send back money for their spouses and children for some strange reason. Their spouses want to know why, their children want them back, and envious suitors want them dead. Child support never looked so unappealing as when trained bailiffs are coming after you.

Currently, I'm thinking of a spy scenario where they learn about their past involvement with the Kargatane. Who knows? They may even have had a hand in the crafting of the Doomsday Device, and may hold some information about how to permanently contract (i.e., destroy) the troublesome blot called Necropolis...

[HuManBing]

Another thing I thought of.

The function of the Book of Names in Avernus doesn't stop just because you may rediscover your past life. Eventually, the quill will go back to your name and start re-writing over the previous entries, causing you to lose your memories all over again until you leave Darkon! Perhaps if the characters are enterprising enough, the final mission in their hurried campaign of rediscovering themselves would be to infiltrate Avernus and take the appropriate measure with the Book to prevent them from ever losing their memories again.

Of course, if Azalin himself is around, especially if the PCs have repeatedly been foiling his Kargat's plans, they may have more than they bargained for once they get into his castle...

[AdamGarou]

I greatly enjoyed the movie Memento and the short story it was based on ("Memento Mori"), and I definitely think it has some great inspirational ideas for use with Darkon's memory-drain.

If you've got the kinds of players who can handle it, I think the idea of having the PCs start out as bakers, millers, carpenters, etc. and then "rediscovering" their true identities as fighters, mages, thieves, etc. has a LOT of potential. My only caution would be, make sure your players ARE up for it. Depending on the type of campaign they're used to, you may have to put up with a lot of complaining eventually.

As another thought, the PCs could also be former members of Malken's criminal network, who fled Nova Vaasa because they failed their "boss" in some serious way. This has some other interesting possibilities, because presumably as criminals/spies/assassins/etc. they were "evil"; but suppose that with the Darkonian memory drain they actually became fairly decent people?

Not only would you have the suspense of finding out who you really are while people are trying to kill you (a la The Bourne Identity), but you have to deal with finding out that you really weren't a good person in this life you're just starting to remember. You killed/maimed/tortured your way through a dozen people because the "Boss" instructed you to. You have murderous family and friends of those you killed out for revenge, claiming you've done things so horrible that your mind can barely conceive of it.

There was an old TV series on a few years ago called "Viper" that has a similar scenario. This guy named Michael was an excellent driver, but he was also a violent criminal, a street thug who thought nothing of killing someone if they were in his way. However, he crashed his car at the end of a police chase and suffered a head injury wherein he lost his memory.

When he awoke, members of a government project (devoted to building a "supercar" for use in combating crime) had used plastic surgery to give him a new face and changed the color of his eyes with biochemical dyes. They then concocted this phony background of him as Detective Joe Astor--and he believed them, becoming a cop and a force for good.

Basically, he woke up in the hospital, and asked what had happened. A nurse attached to the project told him that he'd been in a car accident and suffered a head injury. He immediately asked if anyone else was hurt.

"No," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Do you care?"

He stared back, nonplussed. "Of course I care."

Basically, he'd forgotten whatever traumatic event occurred in his past that made him become a "bad guy"... and all that was left was the decent human being. The rest of the fairly short series was devoted to him discovering more and more terrible things about himself, and showing how it tore him up emotionally.

I think a scenario like this has a lot of potential for what you're talking about--again, if your players can handle it, it sounds like a LOT of fun.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Why limit yourself to just one of those great ideas? Maybe the baker is the Lamordian deadbeat dad, and the miller is an ex kargatane, and the weaver is on the run from the Brain, etc... ?


(I think this would be a really fun campaign with the right group, but I would let the players have some say in some of the Feats and skills they reaquire. At least a general guidline as to what class they would've played if it were a normal campaign, or something. I don't know if they would really like to play completely DM-generated characters.)

[Rucht Lilavivat]

Actually, this is the exact premise that my current campaign is running on...the idea that you wake up one day and find out that you are someone else.

I basicially told the players to come up with their own backgrounds for characters in Darkon, but explained to them that at some point and time, their "true" history would be revealed.

The reason it was important for me to tell them about the "surprise" ahead of time was because I didn't want to get my players angry at me by telling them: "Yeah, that history you spent 5 hours writing is all fake. Here's your real background." So far, it's worked out great. There's still going to very much be a surprise element, because no one knows what their "real" history is going to be yet.

HuMan Bing, my suggestion is that you have the players come up with their "false" histories first before you craft the real backgrounds. The reason is that you'll find that the false histories give you alot to work with.

For example, one of the PCs in the campaign is pregnant but doesn't know how. Another PCs has a necrotic cyst inside of their body, but doesn't know how. These are all things the players came up with themselves - so they've set up their characters to be messed up from the start. Trying letting the players get involved. See what happens.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Some other possibilities:

The PC was once involved in a disastrous adventure which left him or her as a "lost one", due to failed Madness checks. Lacking other options to cure the character, another survivor of that debacle brought the PC into Darkon and left them there, hoping that as the memory of the traumatic adventure faded, so would their insanity. (This option was actually used at the end of one of the Ravenloft novels.) The kicker for this one is that, while recovering the PC's memory might reveal vital information about this past adventure, it might also re-ignite the character's madness to be forced to recollect such horror again.

The PC was once the witness to a terrible crime, committed by someone who cared too much for the character to silence them by murder. Rather than killing the witness, the culprit lured the PC to Darkon and paid some thugs to hold him or her prisoner there for months, until the PC's memory of their crime (and everything else) was extinguished. Unbeknownst to the PC, the culprit is still out there, and working to keep the PC in Darkon so his or her memory won't return; they still value the character's life, so won't try to have the PC killed, but anyone who might help or encourage him/her to leave is fair game.

The entire PC party doesn't know it, but they are the latest of a whole series of non-Darkonian adventurers which a local Darkonian nobleman has been "collecting" from other domains, in hopes of gathering enough powerful adventurers to his landholdings to engineer some terrible plot (like draining high-level souls to extend his own life). Rather than keep his "acquisitions" imprisoned permanently, he has them held captive and drugged just long enough so their memories will be lost, then releases them to find work in the village near his manor house, knowing that they won't remember their confinement and will believe the village to be their hometown, even defending it against monsters and other threats. A PC party might well operate out of this village for several experience-levels of adventures in Darkon, treating it as their home base and as a refuge between expeditions, before they even begin to suspect it's not just your basic "Your PCs all grew up in this town and knew each other since you were kids..." cliched campaign backstory.

[Dominique]

Another possibility with a political bent: the PCs were Barovians sent by Strahd to search for Tatyana's reincarnation (although he of course gave them some kind of ulterior reason for wanting her brought to him, not wanting them to know his weakness). Strahd was particularly keen on sending spies to Darkon, since he's beginning to suspect that Azalin has captured her to torment him. The Darkonian spies, however, lost their memories and began to live as commoners. Now they face a twofold threat: Strahd, who is furious with them for abandoning their quest (and perhaps suspects them of defecting, or of having done something to Tatyana?), and Azalin, who wonders why Strahd is sending him spies and wants to have them interrogated.

An interesting twist to this one might be that the PCs are still looking for a beautiful redheaded girl, but the reasoning is completely changed in their false memories. One might believe that she's his long-lost sister; another might think that she's a wanted criminal, and that finding her would lead to undreamed-of rewards. They still wouldn't find her, since they're in completely the wrong domain and all, but it could add some fuel to the fire of the darklords' machinations.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I doubt if Strahd would take the PCs' failure to return that personally, as he surely figured out Darkon's effect on visitors' memories a long time ago (even if he can't set foot in the place himself). Instead, he'd be well aware that the PCs must've lost their memories, but will send messages and/or other agents of his to try to lure them out of Darkon (although not necessarily all the way back to Barovia) long enough so they'll recall their mission.

[Dominique]

A phenomenal idea from my brother (I wish I could claim credit for this, but it would be wrong ):

The PCs are dopplegangers from Paridon who ticked off Sodo in some serious way. Knowing that they were going to be tortured to death, brought back to life, and tortured to death again for a good three weeks IF they were lucky, they fled through the mistway to Darkon. When they got there, they killed a few random peasants, hid the bodies, and took their shapes, hoping that they could just hide in Darkon until Sodo forgot about them. But after a few months, they ended up actually believing that they were nothing more than the peasants they'd killed, and other dopplegangers are still searching for them . . .

This scenario has particularly good potential for mindgames because the PCs would actually have proof that they'd lived there all their lives. Forget adopting random gravestones and claiming that they belonged to their parents--these PCs would have an entire village who clearly remembered watching "them" grow up! They might even have happy families who are blissfully unaware that anything has changed. And what happens if the bones of the person they killed and replaced are unearthed? What happens when the dopplegangers who hunt them start to insinuate themselves throughout the village as well?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Wow, that IS a fantastic idea! Kudos to your brother, Dominique ... and I suppose I can at least applaud you for submitting the idea.

Come to think of it, that might possibly work better if the PCs are actually changelings (a la Eberron) rather than full-fledged dopplegangers: their game-stats would be much closer to human, thus reducing the amount of deceit which you as DM would need to engage in (e.g. no need to fib on their character-sheets), and changelings lack the Detect Thoughts power which even a memory-wiped 'ganger would surely retain some vestiges of. It'd also make the players slightly less peeved when they find out the truth, if they're still members of a (setting-specific) PC race.

Maybe the PCs are all the members of a changeling criminal gang, Mist-napped from Eberron, who found themselves in Paridon -- Ravenloft's closest approximation to Eberron's pseudo-industrial setting -- and were captured by Sodo's minions? Sodo gave these strange "half-humans" a chance to prove themselves worthy of inclusion in his clan; they failed, for reasons of squeamishness and/or ignorance about local conditions (e.g. by relying on spells that don't work the same in Ravenloft). They flee into the Mists, hoping to get back home, but find themselves in yet another domain instead. In an attempt to learn what's going on, they impersonate some locals -- not necessarily killing them; perhaps the real NPCs got killed by local monsters, and the PCs learned about their deaths before the authorities found out? -- until they can assess the situation....

This would not only set them up for a memory-drained adoption of the replaced humans' identities, but it would even give you an excuse to give them identities which are well-positioned for in-game investigations (a scholar-mage with University connections, a police detective, a reporter for Darkon's just-debuted first broadsheet, etc), as these changelings would've taken identities that could discreetly find out more about Darkon and the Land of Mists. If they'd taken some of the race-emulating feats available in the "Races of Eberron" book, they might even be able to use abilities that are race-specific (like stonecunning), thus making their impersonations even more convincing -- even to the players -- than a full-blooded doppleganger's!

[Tobias Blackburn]

Another take (to prevent the campaign from eventually becoming the search for the way out) is to make changelings a form of doppelganger caliban. There's human blood in them, so it's quite possible that there are certain effects that twist them further to the human side than to their doppelganger nature. They're born in Paridon to the lowest rungs of Doppelganger society and have to run when things start to go bad for them.