Café de Nuit

Anyone spend any time thinking about this domain. I feel like it could be a sort of hub for adventuring around the mists almost. I do enjoy the black and white color palate effect it has, though I'm not exactly sure what to make of the darklord. I think she could be a good quest giver though the last sentence or so seems to imply two things for me. A) She's a detective turned criminal presumably still pretending to be good. Easily usable for adventures kinda like Lord Balfour, however it also then goes to say it's all in her head which almost seems contradictory to me. Anyone have thoughts on how you might use this domain / Darklord. I have some thoughts brewing but curious to see what immediately pops into the mind of others. It is one of the mini domain descriptions in Van Richten's Guide if you're looking for the information, and I think has the paragraph put up onto the wiki at the moment.

Are you talking about that one tiny domain in the VrGttM? Or was it somewhere else?
The one where the darklord is the guy in the office?

That would be correct Alhoon.

As far as I know it is a new domain, from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Just a small short paragraph is all, and was wondering if anything jumped to mind for anyone else at how it might be used, or how they would use it. Currently thinking about using it as almost a Hub for a campaign with the split core, and running a campaign about trying to get the interconnectedness back to normal.

I think that domain needs a better defined darklord. I am not sure what to do with this, or why it is a domain in the first place.

You forgot to mention that anyone who steps in the domain/office becomes grayscaled as in a non contrasted black and white photo.

Film Noir domain, it's darklord was Humphrey Bogart before they decided to change his gender and name to Flimira Vhage, better known as "Film era".

By far the worst idea for a domain I ever heard. They spend the equivalent of eleven lines for this domain while they could have described who Timothy Nathan is or have some Sea of Sorrows islands better described. Then again better that they didn't who knows what written abomination would have come out of these.

Well, the idea of a darklord getting letters of "I know what you did last summer" from the depths of her own mind and sending people to investigate the crimes she left behind is interesting. But unless Vhage is looong lived, those cases are certainly not countless.
There is not enough material to come up with much and the "frosted glass" thing doesn't ring "enlightment era" but Interwar period.

What I had overlooked is that "Memory loss" is part of the description. So perhaps the Darklord is not aware of the enormity of her criminal career and perhaps those reports the PCs give her on the letters she receives (from herself or the mists or whatever) help her form the puzzle.

I believe Vhage would be better if she was not a darklord trapped in a room, but a villain cursed with memory loss and a kind of "split personality". Not exactly like Malken/Sir Tristen though, as I am not talking about a different entity but a different personality.
In her hunt of her nemesis, criminal XXX, she chooses to overlook the signs that XXX was her past self and that her mind fragmented to protect her from a big bad something she did, something that she cannot atone for (Gothic horror) and taints everything.
I would say that if/when she finds out she would snap and try to kill those that know. Then, later on she will wake up and think that evil XXX did it and hire another bunch of adventurers to help her track that evil nemesis...
More like a Fight-Club situation but with much more death and taboo and a few curses involved.

But for that to work, she needs to be more mobile than being in an office. So... perhaps someone that appears (and thinks she is) cripple, wheelchair and all, only to be able to move in her evil persona. Can move when she has to, but can't go investigate herself.

alhoon wrote:In her hunt of her nemesis, criminal XXX, she chooses to overlook the signs that XXX was her past self and that her mind fragmented to protect her from a big bad something she did, something that she cannot atone for (Gothic horror) and taints everything.
I would say that if/when she finds out she would snap and try to kill those that know. Then, later on she will wake up and think that evil XXX did it and hire another bunch of adventurers to help her track that evil nemesis...
More like a Fight-Club situation but with much more death and taboo and a few curses involved.

To me, this sounds like Shutter Island.

More or less but with many more murders.

Wolfglide wrote: To me, this sounds like Shutter Island.

VIEW CONTENT:

The investigator searching an asylum for the firebug who killed his wife is actually a patient who has repressed his memories of shooting his wife after she murdered their children.

!!!!! I had forgotten about that movie. I see what you mean where you could do something akin to Malken and Tristen here, definitely some things for me to ponder over. Thanks for taking the time to write out your thoughts Alhoon! I was definitely thinking of having said NPC act like there were a wider world beyond her office, and through the window being a city scape. I was also sort of imagining her office might change layout something akin to a room of requirement if you catch my drift. Now to let some of what has been said stew.

Seemed a cool jumping off point for me, much like the "50 Shades" articles our own Jack the Reaper has done in QtR. The grayscale thing is a cute wink, but I wouldn't bother using it.