Definitive Encounters

[HuManBing]

Darkon: People use a variety of phrases to avoid talking about death.

Gone over
Taken the veil
On the other side of the curtain
Resting in the arms of our deity
Taken the fight to the spirits (this one derives from this thread)
Gathered in the fullness of time to their ancestors
Returned to the land

Perhaps even something as clinical and neutral as today's military jargon could have found its way to Darkon, centuries before press relations was even understood.

Neutralized enemy forces
Eliminated hostile targets
Prepared the way for allied advances
Secured enemy hardpoints (with no mention of the softpoints that once defended them)


If memory loss is fairly well documented, there could be a polite gesture of scratching your head in a slightly unusual way, say scratching right above your eyebrows (where people usually don't scratch). This sign could be a covert signal to somebody else about the effects of mindloss. E.g.:

Maiden: So, Father Lantos, where did you go to your vocational school?

Lantos: I went... Hmm. That's the strangest thing. I really can't tell you. I feel like I should have been in a seminary, but somehow I think I was actually on a farm during that time.

Maiden: How very odd, Father!

Maiden's mother (makes this gesture to her daughter): Come, Elyssa, let us leave Father Lantos to prepare for evensong...

Maiden (catching on): Ah of course, good Father. I hope you get a good night's sleep.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Valachan:

While dining late at an inn or waystop, the PCs spot a pair of gleaming, feline eyes watching them through the window. It's hard to judge scale in the darkness, but they seem too large to be a domestic cat's. If they go outside to investigate, they find no animal and no tracks, and the window is too high for a cat to have looked into.

No one else in the inn claims to have spotted it ... but next morning, as the PCs set out for the day, a trio of Black Leopards pass by on the road, and one of the soldiers smirks at them.

[Dominique]

Barovia: The PCs are in the inn where they're spending the night, and as the sun begins to set, the innkeeper throws a bar down over the door and locks and bars the windows. A little while later, the PCs hear screams coming from outside. A few of the other patrons in the inn look at the door nervously before turning back to their conversations, but most of them just start talking more loudly to try and drown out the sound.

Mordent: The PCs go into an inn or store or something, which is empty except for the shop/innkeeper. (Let's say shopkeeper for ease of reference.) The shopkeeper engages them in conversation, but his speech seems oddly stilted and archaic, and the PCs notice that his clothes are quite out-of-date. A moment later, the store room door opens, and another shopkeeper comes out, this one in more modern clothes. When he does, the original shopkeeper disappears.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

My key points for Darkon would be: a) cosmopolitan, b) respect for the undead. Something about curfew or whatnot would be effective.

I would also try to include c) increased tolerance of magic (compared to other domains). Darned if I can come up with something that includes all of those, though.

I'll give it a try:

At a common roadside inn, the innkeeper (possibly a half-elf) refers to the more expensive hot water baths as "halfling baths" and simple cold water baths as "dwarven baths." He points out that the hanging lamps in the common room have continual flames for all hours, but that they lock the doors at sunset "to give the dead their due."

Now, does that sound like Darkon?