Café de Nuit

The Fraternity of Shadows is now accepting submissions for the next Quoth the Raven, our annual Ravenloft netbook.

This year’s issue bears the number 33… and its theme is whispered rather than spoken.

The Omen Watchers of Sidnar are silent figures who haunt the horizon, their eyes fixed on the heavens. They chart every aberrant star, every bleeding comet, sifting through Vistani prophecies for signs of the next unraveling… the one they fear has already begun.

Miles to the west, in Nevuchar Springs, Bastion Teodorus Raines no longer predicts the end—he proclaims it! His sermons echo through empty streets, naming the coming cataclysm the Time of Unparalleled Darkness. Many dismiss… yet fewer sleep soundly.

The people of Darkon remember. They remember Ill Aluk, when the Gray Realm rose and the dead laid claim to the living. They also remember Arak, where the Scourge erased an entire people, leaving Marbh-Cathair to rot in the grip of the undead. Memory, here, is not just history—it is a warning.

The Vistani do not wait for the end. For them, it has already drawn breath. They name it Malocchio Aderre, a doom contained… for now… within Invidia.

In Sithicus, when the Hour of Screaming Shadows came, Nedragaard Keep did not fall—it shattered.

In Tepest, the Inquisition burns anything that even whispers of the fey, desperate to prevent another calamity like the ones that swallowed G'Henna and Markovia and tore open the Shadow Rift.

And beneath it all, the Arak tremble, for they know a truth others dare not speak: when the Sorcerer-Fiend Gwydion stirs, darkness will not fall—it will consume.

This year’s theme is not merely the Apocalypse. It is the certainty that it is already unfolding.

What form will the next catastrophe take in the Domains of Dread—born of nature’s fury, or shaped by mortal hands?

And more importantly…

As always, we are looking for anything related to Ravenloft, Masque of the Red Death, or horror in general. The theme is deliberately open ended, but still a suggestion, not a restriction. If you have something great that doesn't fit in with the theme, send it in anyway!

Ruleset doesn't matter! We accept articles using any edition of D&D rules, or even other systems. Some of the best articles don't have any rules text at all! And if you're interested in having your rules converted to another system, let us know. There are lots of volunteers eager to help.

See our submission guidelines for official rules.

Submit your articles to QTR@fraternityofshadows.com. The deadline is September 30th, 2026, but feel free to send your articles in early, especially if you're looking for feedback.

Huzzah! 'tis time to start getting my Dire Ducks in a row, then.

I'm splitting my latest stuff into two smaller articles. One now needs a tie-in to the theme... I guess I can do that! I imply Time of Unparalleled Darkness content for my cluster already. Hmm, that could be a third shorter article. Honestly? I think I prefer shorter articles over one big one.

IanFordam wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2026 1:15 pm Huzzah! 'tis time to start getting my Dire Ducks in a row, then.

Dire Ducks?
-draw a deep breath-
Do I want to know?

They're ducks... but dire! Larger. Savage. More hit dice. And they have fangs! Duck fangs, I tell you! Also, apparently they qvack. Fearsome qvacks!

9/8, 770 BC, supposedly noon.
This cannot, possibly, be Sri Raji, nor any island nearby. I cannot fathom why, by the moon, the mists stranded us in the middle of this queer realm.
'Queer' does not suffice.
We're explorers, Captains of the Mists - we eat 'queer' for breakfast. All five of us might be described as 'queer' ourselves, one way or another.
This place is more than that - it just doesn't make any sense. I could do with the barren wasteland, the occasional thunder in the distance or the purplish hue of everything; What bothers me is the way everything is a little off in direction: The impossibly-high mountains twist and bend in bizzare shapes; The ground we tread seems flat but feels curved, or vice verse; Lunadi - A stone I throw in the air moves aside a little before it falls!
Jane says we should all relax. Our job is to discover new lands, isn't it? And this place is clearly the most fascinating discovery we've made in quite a while. But on the other hand, Jane is the sort of person who can look at a gelatinous cube and say 'Oh, what a cutie!'.
Harrold blames me for our navigation error. He has the experience, they should have let him lead the expedition - not some half-elf gypsy who can't even decide whether sea's a man or a woman. And Arturo, of course, has to agree with anything Harrold says, and Sofya has to argue with them, and - lunadi, does commanding an expedition have to be like herding cats?
I told the party we'll survey this land and look for a way home - home, in this case, meaning any realm where the gravity is normal. I try to convince myself this is quite a discovery. Whole new scientific theories - a whole new genre of math, perhaps - would have to be invented to describe this place. We'll return to the Crimson Club with quite a story to tell. But I can't escape the eerie whisper in the back of my head - perhaps some remain of my ancestors' spirit of prophecy, perhaps simply my suppressed anxiety - telling me there's little chance, if any, I'll ever see the streets of Southshore again.
Endari vitr,
Captain Bela Naiat.

As the good folks in 'Tales from The Stinky Dragon' say, "D&D is mostly improv and math."
When running a cosmic horror adventure, said math will at some point be non-Euclidian geometry.
So how do you run it?
How do you explore and fight in a domain where space itself is 'wrong'?
Luckily for you, a group of Zhestrian explorers almost (?) got killed trying to find out so you, my beloved DMs, won't have to!
In this geographical survey of Bluetspur by your loyal servant and Speedwagon, you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about alien rocks, gravitational anomalies and suggested mechanics for exploration and combat in non-Euclidian space!

IanFordam wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2026 3:34 pm They're ducks... but dire! Larger. Savage. More hit dice. And they have fangs! Duck fangs, I tell you! Also, apparently they qvack. Fearsome qvacks!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1XcFGqLtfB/

This... Thing... Is... Real?!
It has stats?!
What do you mean it has stats?!!!!

-draws another deep breath-

Gentlemen, I hereby present to you the D&D fandom - the people who's homebrew literally every ridiculous creature that the human or non-human imagintaion is possibly capable of creating.

Joël of the FoS wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2026 10:40 am This year’s theme is not merely the Apocalypse. It is the certainty that it is already unfolding.

Some of my latest monsters are suspected of potentially ending everything.

gets back to work on the Weregazebo

Baron Von Stanton wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2026 7:49 pm Some of my latest monsters are suspected of potentially ending everything.

gets back to work on the Weregazebo

Weregazebo?!?! I shoot it with a silver arrow!!

IanFordam wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2026 7:56 pm

Baron Von Stanton wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2026 7:49 pm Some of my latest monsters are suspected of potentially ending everything.

gets back to work on the Weregazebo

Weregazebo?!?! I shoot it with a silver arrow!!

You're making him mad, Ian... You won't like him when he's mad...

How especially dreadful

I hope I will be able to submit something this year.

Great. I will have submission this year. I have already finished 16 entries so far. I think people will be surprised.

Well, my article has split from one long article, to three shorter articles. We have a small player primer on using Kits in the Broken Cog plus ally NPCs, followed by a rogue's gallery of non-Darklord villains, and a look at a possible fate of the Broken Cog Cluster amidst the Time of Unparalleled Darkness... also looking at who survives.