The Nocturnal Sea FoS Report is now out!!!

[Jester of the FoS]

Chris Nichols really helped with Liffe giving the inspiration for 90% of the ideas (all the good stuff is his). His was the idea of a blender land and the church of a Thousand Gods (plus the baron's wife).

I just took the mish-mash and discontinuity of Book of Crypts and made the incohesiveness the signature of Liffe. It's the patchwork domain where you can find anything.

It was fun throwing little references to other NPCs and characters and past adventures.

[Tykus]

Finally finished reading the whole thing (rather than skimming). Meredoth is proof that it is possible to have a DL from a high-magic world and still be very RL. I am curious on how he would respond to Eberronites (especially warforged).

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Warforged don't always do exactly as they're told, which the necromancer would find intolerable. If Meredoth ever caught one of his constructs developing that kind of independence, he'd break it down for spare parts.

Which means, among other things, that Adam is darn lucky that he was created by a narrow-minded, unsociable jerk of a scientist, rather than a narrow-minded, unsociable jerk of a wizard.

[TwiceBorn]

In my defense, I'll say that part of why the Nebligtode text is so in-depth is because I meant for those chapters to appeal to Mystara fans as well as to Ravenlofters. I knew for a fact that the Mystara-buffs have been puzzled by Meredoth and his history for years, and that setting's fans are used to entire Gazetteers devoted to one nation, not books on three to five countries at a time.

Besides, TwiceBorn's text on Viktor's visit to Meerdorf was so fantastic, I didn't have the heart to trim it down by much, and it set the tone for the rest of my two chapters, where level of detail is concerned.

Wow, it's out, and it looks amazing! I've been away from these boards for a while, so it was a wonderful surprise to see the Gaz had been released. I never imagined that it would be 400+ pages long! I haven't had time to read it closely yet, but I've been impressed by what I've skimmed... and the art!!!

Anyway, thanks for the kind words, Roti. That's quite the compliment, coming from a writer of your caliber! I'm also happy to see that some of my contributions made it into the chapter on Liffe.

Great work, Frat leaders and fellow contributors!

[The Giamarga]

Great work everyone. I'm reading it now and it looks great so far. Meredoth and Colin Graben are awesome! Amazing stats and fluff.

Question: Where do we post questions nitpicks or errata? (For example is Meredoth's OR really 20 ? does Colin Graben really have Hide +24 ? )

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Glad you like Meredoth and his right-hand corpse, Giamarga! Nathan and I teamed up to work out the old grump's stats, while Colin was my own pet NPC baddie. (Colin did appear in Ship of Horror, FWIW, but only as one name among the many Grabens mentioned.)

Meredoth's OR shouldn't be 20. Unless it's Virundus you're thinking of there, it's a typo. Colin's Hide skill really is through the roof, however, partly due to his magic items.

[The Giamarga]

Nope it's Meredoth. Says OR 20 right there in his statblock. I'm guessing it should probably be OR 1 or 2, for his claws and frostbitten ears. (Does the Cold One feat normallyadd to OR? Anyways his Icy Rebirth states that his OR went up for the claws)

I missed Colins Hairstrap granting +5 to Hide, thanks. (max 15 ranks +4 from dex +5 from the strap = 24 perfect.) Colin's history and the perfectly fitting statblock are very evocative. He is a great plot hook in the making.

It's great to see this much though put into Meredoth's lair and tactics. It's almost as thorough as HMB Azalin treatise The sidebars come in very handy and I love the Thedmore Dread Possibility.

Oh and I'll have to reread SoH soon...

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Nope it's Meredoth. Says OR 20 right there in his statblock. I'm guessing it should probably be OR 1 or 2, for his claws and frostbitten ears. (Does the Cold One feat normallyadd to OR? Anyways his Icy Rebirth states that his OR went up for the claws)

Typo, then. IIRC, it should be 3 ... 2 points for his claws and complexion, and 1 point for his lack of personal hygiene and blatant refusal to blend in with the Land's native "riffraff" (= Culture Shock penalty for everybody).

Colin's history and the perfectly fitting statblock are very evocative. He is a great plot hook in the making.

Glad you like him! Every sizeable domain ought to have a potential darklord-in-waiting, IMO, and it's high time we saw an undead villain who loathes his condition every bit as much as a good guy would. Plus, too many folks have wanted the Apparatus for its soul-splitting powers; why not someone who wants it for its oft-forgotten body-swapping function?

And it's great to see this much thought put into Meredoth's lair and tactics. It's almost as thorough as HMB Azalin treatise

Heh heh. Well, anyone who's read anything about Alphatia would know that a real Alphatian wouldn't even use a dinky hole like the House of Bones as a closet! Meredoth's been in residence on Todstein for well over a century, and we always knew he had a knack for architecture; why wouldn't he construct some proper living quarters?

The sidebars come in very handy and I love the Thedmore Dread Possibility.

Heh heh, again. If the old grouch won't stick his nose out of the lab, why not let his runaway clone be mobile? Meredoth's isolationism limits his usefulness to DMs, but Thedmore can go where the game requires him.

Come to think of it, with both Meredoth's agents and Thedmore out scouring the Land of Mists for magic, the two of them might well have helped to make Ravenloft the magic-sparse setting it is. More than one would-be "arcane academy" in the past hundred years has probably been looted and vandalized by one or the other, if not both.

[The Giamarga]

Not a child, per se, but I think I just stumbled on a possible GC reference in Gaz II. page 24. "In the weeks precedding Azalin's return, Tavelia [Kargat vamp and cleric of the Overseer] engaged in incresingly odd behavior, eventually announcing her upcoming marriage to a gentleman she refused to name. Tavelia then disappeared without a trace once Azalin returned."

I might as well finally put this one to rest -- the mystery groom referenced here is Azalin. She was going to marry the king to become queen.

from this thread

I just stumbled on the above post by John Mangrum. And after rereading Mangrum's Death Undaunted outline and esp Tavelia's description therein, I wonder if the authors of the Liffe chapter were aware of all these facts ?

OTOH her new appearance in Liffe fit well with the "Heroes Triumphant" ending of Death Undaunted and her new curse fits astonishingly well with her very first incarnation on the 1993 collector's card, where she is said to have been cursed because "she broke the heart of a young man she cared nothing about".

Also i wonder if one can integrate all the different known incarnations and stats for Tavelia into a coherent whole. But that is for another thread...

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Or a QtR article. Anyone out there game to write Tavelia's complete biography?

[The Giamarga]

Well I'm certainly doing the legwork right now. Drinnik's Secrets of the Kargat thread already has much to start with. Add to that the background from Death Undaunted and there are very few missing details.

The strangest thing for me are her very differing stats in all those mentions. I wonder what kind of stats Mangrum had in mind for her.

[ChrisNichols]

I might as well finally put this one to rest -- the mystery groom referenced here is Azalin. She was going to marry the king to become queen.

from this thread

I just stumbled on the above post by John Mangrum. And after rereading Mangrum's Death Undaunted outline and esp Tavelia's description therein, I wonder if the authors of the Liffe chapter were aware of all these facts ?

OTOH her new appearance in Liffe fit well with the "Heroes Triumphant" ending of Death Undaunted and her new curse fits astonishingly well with her very first incarnation on the 1993 collector's card, where she is said to have been cursed because "she broke the heart of a young man she cared nothing about".

Also i wonder if one can integrate all the different known incarnations and stats for Tavelia into a coherent whole. But that is for another thread...

Yes, I was aware of John's intent regarding Azalin and Tavelia. Thus, her situation in Liffe reflect her aims in Death Undaunted, but her curse leaves her trapped in a disgustingly submissive and helpless role.

Personally, I would choose to merge the information from all of Tavelia's appearance together, since the TSR trading card is the only real outlier of the information (give her some levels of Illusionist, for example). Also, she still looks like the Clyde Caldwell painting they used for her art on that card...

Chris Nichols

[The Giamarga]

One could easily make her a Illusionist5/Exp4 or even Illusionist 9 or a Beguiler 9 and say that she posed as a mere Exp. The Manipulator PrC from CoD is another possibility that occured to me. I think i like Exp5/Manipulator4 the most.

One problems is that her alignment changes. On the cards it's CE and later LE.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

One problems is that her alignment changes. On the cards it's CE and later LE.

Well, fallen heroes and redeemed villains aren't the only alignment changes that happen in RL. You could easily say that she was conscripted into the Kargat and over time grew to respect the power of structure and control and drifted into LE. Her actions in DU show a bit of her rebellious CE nature bubbling to the surface, but alignment changes often have lapses...

[cure]

Well I have finished turning most of the pages and it is an incredibly impressive work.

Permit me to mention in particular some of the highpoints to my eye:

The Drowning Deep is something of a love letter to Lovecraft and is an addition to Ravenloft that I welcome hardily. If anything, I would have liked even more about this new domain. But what we are given, together with its Darklord and his agents, is excellent, particularly the union under one yoke of the various subdwellers and their ability to come ashore and masquerade still as men. In a word, a fabulous template that should give a whole new tenor to the ports of Nova Vaasa, among other places.

The old ice wizard of the Nocturnal Sea has been brought fully to life (clone or not) as an individual distinct from other high level spell-slingers and in particular Azalin. The note contrasting the two served to underline this achievement. He has personality, indeed in buckets, and places now quite respectably upon my list of the better Darklords.

Colin Graben was fleshed out both very interestingly and convincingly and Graben Island itself no longer wants for detail.

The werebat precursors of Monette were an excellent piece of thoroughness and the underlining of the captain's loneliness a vital revision in his demeanor.

The logical inferences about the history of Moondale were a nice touch and equally good was the fate of the local drawn and quarter lich.

The Doctor Tasker dread possibility in respect to the Isle of Ravens was very clever.

Vechor, which I have always wished would be swallowed up by the mists once and for all, is now at least graced with the very, very interesting lodging of Brother Shadowcloak.

The inclusion of the consequences of those 'troublesome adventurers' throughout the project was excellent and answers nicely to the complaints of some that Ravenloft is too stagnant.