New Domains

[Scarycount]

That sounds interesting. I think cool names for the brothers would be Carl and Terrence. Not sure what you would call the domain.

On kitchen realm, I still think the best idea is to have Cake's aura be one he can't control. A couple more questions about the realm itself. You say it is a giant Kitchen, but how giant? How much is the size magnified from a normal kitchen. Also, how do you get from the outside, to the KR to the Shadow rift. Do you crawl into an oven, find youself in a giant kitchen on the other side, and then get to the rift though a trap door in Cake's palace? Is it possible to get back to the outside if you find yourself in a fracture by accident?

On the Parrot, who is this Darklord based on Morgan, what's his domain like? Also, you said the Parrot was fairly accomplished, he was obviously powerful enough to cast polymorph other (unless he got that from a failed powers check), how accomplished "fairly accomplished" sounds like level 10 to me.

On the "Darklord Club", what goals does this group pursue, what did they do to get themselves stranded in RL?

[Igor the Henchman]

On kitchen realm, I still think the best idea is to have Cake's aura be one he can't control. A couple more questions about the realm itself. You say it is a giant Kitchen, but how giant? How much is the size magnified from a normal kitchen. Also, how do you get from the outside, to the KR to the Shadow rift. Do you crawl into an oven, find youself in a giant kitchen on the other side, and then get to the rift though a trap door in Cake's palace? Is it possible to get back to the outside if you find yourself in a fracture by accident?

You're asking a lot of the questions which I was just pondering when my interest in the domain waned off.

On shape and size, the thing to remember is that its not really a giant kitchen. Its a bizarre realm that reminds of a giant kitchen by the shape of its natural terrain. I don't really know what the ideal size would be, but probably rather small.

On ways to get in, I guess you simply have to be inside a given kitchen at the time of the connection. Anyone exiting out of the kitchen during this time, be it by the door, the root cellar stairs or the chimney, find themselves inside the Fracture.

I don't like the idea of the exit being inside Lord Cake's palace, because it would make the villain very difficult to ignore, and I want the DM to feel free as to whether to use him or not. There's plenty of other stuff to do inside Kitchen Realm besides dealing with the machinations of its ruler: there's an intelligent dire rat prince plotting to seize control of the domains' delicious resources, ghost problems (mostly eaten children), unique magical food to be purchased (such as a unique expensive pastry that shields from thought and memory tempering), conflict between various fey factions, the Seelie, the Unseelie and the Gwydion supporters... lots of stuff.

In fact, I don't want Lord Cake to necessarily act as an opponent. I was toying with the idea of allowing him to assume his old shape for a very limited time (that of a dandy, overweight sith favoring jewelry made of sweets), enough to entertain guests once a week or so. For a price, he might provide the PCs with wells of useful information on the inside intrigues of the Shadow Rift.

Getting out of the Realm if you find yourself stuck there by accident is certainly feasable (and indeed, may act as the main motive for the adventure). Unfortunately, comings and goings in and out of the domain is tightly controlled by Lord Cake's toadies, so the PCs might need to wait an indefinite amount of time, provide payment, accomplish a minor quest, etc, to purchase the passage rights. When all else fails, you have the option of sneaking out unlawfully, but you wouldn't control your destination, not to mention risking a heated encounter with Pot and Kettle.

Actually, passage into *the Rift* is far easier than passage into the mortal realms. If the PCs are desperate to get out, they may always try their luck inside the Land of the Arak.

[Scarycount]

I have an idea, or rather the beginning of an idea. I thought a domain based on the old American West might be cool. It would have huge open wilderness, but also lots of settlements that keep it from being just the wildlands set in America. I thought the darlord should be something like bigfoot. Perhaps a werebear?

Also, I've been wondering about the possility of making a domain with a dragon as a Darklord, just because I have a feeling dragons could be used effectively in Ravenloft if used correctly. Any ideas on how to make a dragon darklord work?

[ewancummins]

I like the idea of a dragon as darklord. It would be hard to pull off. In Norse myth , the dragon Fafnir was once a man, but his greed cursed him to slowly transform into a dragon. Maybe that could be the basis of a draklord? There aren't many greed based lords out there. Dragons are an archetypal symbol of both greed and destruction. Instead of the classic firebreathing dragon, I'd consider using a shadow dragon. They have a cool ennnervating cone o' darkness breath weapon and seem to fit into Ravenloft pretty well, thematically speaking. Just a couple of suggestions for you.

[ewancummins]

Oh, someone on these boards was working on a ''Trainmaster'' idea that incorporated some Western themes. You might look around for that.

[Scarycount]

Fafnir was once a man?! Cool!! This could get me a Dragon domain, a greed domain, and a viking domain all at once! There go three potential projects in one shot. Thanks!

[Le Noir Faineant]

Yeah, amazing that noone had earlier thought of using the Nibelungs as background for a RL campaign...

[Gemathustra]

Fafnir was never a man.
He was once a dwarf, and conspired with his brother, Regin, to steal the cursed gold of Andvari given to their father, Hriedmar, as blood money from Loki, to make amends for the slaying of Otr, Regin's and Fafnir's brother.
Once Hriedmar was murdered, Fafnir drove Regin away, and transformed into a dragon in order to keep his ill-gotten gold safe, though, one source said that he did so on purpose, using his own sorcery, and another source suggested that, being filled with such avariciousness, he found himself transforming into a dragon as he slept upon the gold.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Correct. Had forgotten to correct that earlier. I personally would build such a Fafnir plot for Falkovnia...

[Lord Cyclohexane]

Oh, as it might also help with your dragon darklord idea, you might want to check out the old thread PHB 2 for Ravenloft - Thoughts?, as it had some ideas for using the Dragon-based PrCs (Dragon Shaman, Dragon Disciple, etc).

Plus it's got the cool Dread Possibility from John Mangrum dealing with Sithicus and the start of a cult around Takhisis.