Which brings me to the topic of Bogeymen.
I liked Ryan's idea that Bogeymen are manifestations of the Demiplane itself, which were in his original article in the Book of Sacrifices and expanded/made officially canon in Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends.
However, looking at the definition of bogeymen, there are two entities that appeared in a 2E sourcebook which seem to fit this category - and not the "category" that they were originally placed in, namely the Headless Horseman and the Phantom Lover from Darklords.
Looking at the descriptions of both of these, whilst each of them appears to have a "Domain," neither of them has any history or details of what makes them a Darklord. Furthermore, each of these entities can appear in anywhere in Ravenloft, has a specific victim profile, has tales told about them in different domains and generally fit the profile of Bogeymen, rather than Darklords.
So, I will using them as such.
As some of the traditional "nursery bogies" here in the UK have already been translated into D&D monsters (Jenny Greenteeth is effectively a Hag), I can see why Ryan chose the particular entities he did (although Croquemitaine literally translates as "mitten cruncher", which is slightly more disturbing image than what is presented). However, a 1E article from Dragon Magazine (#138 The Ungratful Dead by Tom Moldvay) did give alternative variants of the skeleton, one of which was Rawhead and Bloody Bones, which wikipedia has this to say of; "Ruth Tongue said in Somerset Folklore that he "lived in a dark cupboard, usually under the stairs. If you were heroic enough to peep through a crack you would get a glimpse of the dreadful, crouching creature, with blood running down his face, seated waiting on a pile of raw bones that had belonged to children who told lies or said bad words. If you peeped through the keyhole he got you anyway."
Quite an effective image and a worthy addition to the Bogeymen of Ravenloft.
