Café de Nuit

Something lurks below...

Something alien to light, and hungry...

Something utterly unknown...

...until now.





VRS Research Files: Terrors of the Deep


A new netbook for 2008, now seeking writers, artists, and ideas for the horrors of the Mist-touched waves.


"Dread skies at morning, sailors take warning."

So is this a theme now--do a Gazetteer, then follow it up with a VRS project on the critters that call said Gazetteer setting home (i.e. Zherisia/dopplegangers, Nocturnal Sea/sea monsters)?

YES!



I hope you aren't even *thinking* of doing this without me? I'm all in for whatever fiendish writing you require. And probably twenty pages more.

*Cavorts in gleeful malice*

==============================================

I doubt this'll be much of a plan, if only since most of the other un-statted domains don't have monsters as intimately associated with them. What monster is iconic of the Amber Wastes? The Frozen Reaches? The Shadowlands?

And somehow, I am not seeing a VRS Files: Carrionettes in the offing.

Ideas:

WIGHT WHALE
I had never hunted whales but I certainly knew men who did. They were a brave and superstitious lot, invariably with yarns to spin. An especially grim one concerned a great and venerable sperm whale. Its heavily scarred flesh was a sickly off white. The creature was said to never bleed, to be capable of holding its breath far longer than any of its kind, and to give every evidence of being misanthropic in the extreme. But it was the fate of the few men who had faced it in close quarters and had survived the encounter that made me shutter with recognition. For far too many of them had returned from the fight as shadows of their former selves, weakened or broken in body and spirit.

-From the journal of Rudolf van Richten

JOLLY ROGER
“Mournsworth was ever a jolly fellow. He loved a good joke. He loved a bad joke. He loved a malicious joke and a vicious prank too. To sign on with his crew a mate had to demonstrate a sense of humour. A sailor who in truth lacked one or, for that matter, a thick skin wasn’t long for his company. Roger punned constantly and swore incessantly. He named his ship the HMS Esra and he was oft heard whispering and chuckling to himself, “By the deep, she’s a fine lass, my lady of the Mists.” The details of his birth were obscure and there were whispers of Darkonese, Sri Rajan, Vistani, even fiendish blood. Others suggested that he was born of a woman long secreted away in the sanatarium. By Ezra he was eccentric, but his judgement upon the waves was inspired. For his callousness I can imagine that he was cursed a dozen times, thrice in my presence at least, once by meself. I’d wager that one of those curses stuck, for he is still out there, long beyond his time, chuckling upon the sorrowful sea.”

-Interview with retired Captain Walford Halloway

BONE OOZE AND SEA DEVILS
Our nearly hysterical biologist had not overstated in the least the unnaturalness of the sight. In the span of a handful of hours sea lions, dolphins, sharks, small whales and even a pair of immense ones, the likes of which we had never seen, swam listlessly into the shallow bay and threw themselves upon the mass of undulating goo which blanketed the beach. The bleached stuff would seize upon the unfortunate creatures and set to ripping their very bones from them, the searing pain rousing the prey too late from the stupor that was its undoing. Perhaps worse still, waist deep in water, witnessing the spectacle or presiding over it, were fishmen, some coming, some going, some spellbound, others chanting, if you could call it that, as though at High Mass. At last Ensign Campbell pondered aloud whether a rifle shot might be in order. Saving the bullet seemed the wiser course. We crawled back from the hill crest, then ran for our lives, desperate for the imaginary safety of our ship. Reaching it, we implored Captain Gladstone to raise anchor and put with all haste the island, which I believe is Todstein, far over the horizon.

-From Bristol to Mordentshire, an outsider's tale, the autobiography of James Duegon

WILL-O’-SEA
“The installation of brightly coloured buoys along the channel considerably reduced the number of vessels claimed each year by the Maiden’s Rock. And the addition to the buoys of lamps, effective in all but the thickest mist, spared many more lives. But our good work has come to naught in the last year. Ships, in all but the clearest weather, are again frequently impaling themselves upon that foul black spear. Worse, not so much as a single man has escaped the wrecks and reached the docks alive. When we find the bloated corpses terror is invariably etched upon their faces. And we know to row out in search of bodies the day after hearing thunder in the fog.”

-Milton Hargrove, Assistant Harbour Master of Paridon

REAVERS
They had swarmed up from the deep, taking us by surprise, as we sat becalmed. Well placed bullets could fell them but frightened them not in the least. Rather it was us who were panicked, organising ourselves not at all, mistaking every glimmer in the night for their fish eyes and tiger claws. They might have carried us - separated and cowering - off to the last. But never was the ransacking of a ship less well orchestrated.

-From Bristol to Mordentshire, an outsider's tale, the autobiography of James Duegon

KRAKEN (slain by and carying the PHAGIAN SHADOW VIRUS and under the command of Azalin Rex)
I could not bring myself to share Drakov’s enthusiasm. Darkon, even if the Rex was gone, was not a fruit ripe for the picking. As ever, the conflict began well enough but soon took the grimmest of turns. The sun that we fought under was blotted out as a storm gathered at the enemy’s back. And at its head, reaching far into the sky, floating towards us upon the wind, was a shadowy horror the likes of which none of us had ever seen . . . or even imagined in our most twisted dreams. I learned subsequently from a Lamordian doctor that it was, or at least had the shape of, a sea monster, supposedly of sailors’ invention, whispered to be able to drag whole ships down to their doom. He named it a kraken. Our ranks did not break before it, though it might have been better that they had. The thing bore down upon me. Its presence drove my charger mad. Then it struck with one of its immense, intangible tentacles. The chill of death pierced my heart and my armour was as chains hung about a drowning man. I crashed to the ground, unable to lift myself, even as the terrible spectacle unfolded above me. My lieutenants were similarly laid low. The storm was then upon us, mercifully banishing the abomination from sight, but the rain nearly drowning me and the winds sweeping away my army. A lieutenant, himself badly weakened, found me and dragged me away. But he now lies dead beside me, by his own hand, and I will likewise join him. For although our strength returned, we soon realised that our shadows were dissolving. And this was followed implacably by our flesh.

-From the last will and testament of General Demietri Kreig

well i'm in for this as love see monsters and the like. Also i think your right Tiamat, the next VRS file is likely to be abominations or madmen

Will there be a thread/post collecting the major sources for this kind of theme? (Which one is the sea-themed netbook again?)

What's the outline? A complete treatment like with the dopplegangers or the 2E The Sea Devils won't work so well as we have a whole menagerie of different creatures here.

Which creatures do we cover?

I'm curious as to the scope as well. Will this cover both Seas but only the seas? Can it also cover aquatic horrors from the Core's rivers and lakes? Is it mostly focusing on monsters or will it also include monstrous humanoids?

(I'm tempted to expand on one of the ideas I submitted to the Nocturnal Sea Gazetter...)

Okay, here's the scoop:

- Yes, the other mods and I chose "Terrors of the Deep" as a companion-book for the Nocturnal Sea Survey, as well as the Sea of Sorrows book that will follow it. There's a chronic shortage of sea monsters in D&D in general, and this netbook will help to expand the available possibilities beyond the usual "pirates, ghost ships, and scaley things with teeth".

- Yes, this netbook's format will be different from the doppelganger book, as it's addressing a variety of monsters which are less socially complex, less devious, and less controversial to run than the imposters. Instead of a complete book on one topic, it'll be a series of annotated field-reports from all over the Ravenloft seas, which the W-F twins have compiled in one place in preparation for a possible VRGtSeaMonsters. If anything, it'll most resemble the Walking Dead book, with its separate chapters on the Obedient, Hungry, and Restless corporeal undead.

- Rather than a single narrator, this book's entries will have come to the twins, or Van Richten before them, from a variety of sources. With little need to connect its various monsters to one another, each contributor can pick their own monster to write a chapter on, and invent an appropriate in-character "author" or adopt an existing Ravenloft NPC's POV.

- The emphasis here will be on monsters that aren't part of complex and settled societies, but on creepy things that can reach up from the depths or crawl onto the beaches and eat your character. Sentience is optional, and civilized races like sahuagin are off-limits, as they'd be better dealt with in a Gazetteer-style treatment than a monster-book. Things already addressed in other VRGs, such as ghosts or sea hags, may be given a nod, but it's things that haven't been covered at all yet (sea spawn, soul kraken, etc) that most need descriptions and expansion. Freshwater monsters are also a possibility, although the focus of the book will be critters from the various dread seas.

- This will be a 3.5-rules netbook, and I'd like to get it written before the Big Changeover gets underway in June. That means that the sooner folks declare their choice of critters/topics, the better. (A 4E-conversion web enhancement might follow, depending on how Ravenloft-friendly the new system turns out to be, but it's not a priority.)


Gotta go teach now, but I'll have a list of eligible critters and topics up later today. (Oh, and BTW, "Cory J. Rookhausen" won't be appearing in this book: his fingers are probably still sore, from penning the last one. )

Great. I have some idea about it.

Who (in-game, I mean) will be writing the survey? I mean... C'mon, you know... For the tone of the writing.

Hmm.... WotC's Stormwrack will be invaluable for this, I think, as will the QTR from a few years gone by.

I'm a little sad that Crow won't be making a reappearance, he'd have added a nice sense of continuity to the thing.

I've a number of other random thoughts, but I'll wait till I see the full list. If it's permissible, I may take a few seperate monsters and weave them into a larger plot (idea of a nautical research expedition is floating about my brain).

Hmm.... so many thoughts.... brain is about to explode.... must write them down somewhere.

I'm in. There are several things that I proposed too late for the NSGaz that will fit in nicely here, especially when I incorporate things that relate to the Sea of Sorrows.

How do we go about laying claims to topics? I've got several ideas floating around, only a few of which come from the Reckonings foray into Saragoss.

NeoTiamat wrote:Hmm.... WotC's Stormwrack will be invaluable for this, I think, as will the QTR from a few years gone by.

Stormwrack creatures are certainly fair game, although Ravenloft-specific monsters like sea spawn will be given top priority. If you'd like to write about a creature from QtR9 or other netbooks, asking permission from the person who invented it is, of course, only polite. (Who knows? They may volunteer further ideas, or want to write it with you! )

I'm a little sad that Crow won't be making a reappearance, he'd have added a nice sense of continuity to the thing.

Crow/Rookhausen was singularly qualified to narrate the dopp-book, but I didn't want to tie these VRF books down to just one source. Continuity isn't as important as setting the right mood for each book, IMHO, and Crow's penchant for duplicity would be distracting in a book on sea monsters, rather than a reflection of the monsters described. It's the Van Richten Society Research Files, after all, not the Rookhausen Research Files, and it's an excuse to develop the VRS in the process, if the narrators change.

(Besides, Nathan might decide to kill Crow off in the EwtF game, and then where would we be? )

The VRS may not have the same magical firepower as the FoS, but it has members and sympathetic contacts in a wider range of domains (i.e. not so Renaissance-biased), and its relationship with the "common people" is far more amicable than the Fraternity's. For a topic like this one, drawing on that link seems like the way to go: chilling anecdotes from coarse-spoken stevedores and grizzled old salts should predominate, although an element of scientific analysis should be applied after-the-fact, by whomsoever collects a given story and sends it on to the twins.

If it's permissible, I may take a few seperate monsters and weave them into a larger plot (idea of a nautical research expedition is floating about my brain).

Ooooo, more NeoTiamat ideas!

Before you get too carried away, though, I suspect that more people will be involved in this book than the dopps', so it'll probably be one critter or topic to a customer, for starters. Let's see how many folks take an interest, before you commit yourself to tackling too much.

If you want to have a nautical research expedition that encounters one monster after another, that may work better as a serial framing-fiction piece, like the dopp-book's Diary of Deborah Creede, than as a metaplot for the chapters. In fact, starting out each chapter with a logbook-entry from the expedition's captain -- some describing actual encounters, some with just a passing hint that implies the presence of the chapter's monster -- could provide a handy framework for the book.

Hmm.... so many thoughts.... brain is about to explode.... must write them down somewhere.

Well, we can't have peoples' brains exploding, now can we? (Not until the illithids' netbook, anyway! ) If you have to write, write them in an e-mail and send it to my hotmail account: it's going into monster-book-related-message withdrawal, I think.

DeepShadow wrote: How do we go about laying claims to topics? I've got several ideas floating around, only a few of which come from the Reckonings foray into Saragoss.

For starters, if there's a creature you're interested in writing about, you can post here and voice your interest. Don't worry if someone else has already picked the same monster: that just means that you and they can collaborate and split the workload.

Not every sea monster will require a full chapter to address, and some of the possibilities might work better if they're grouped together. I'll give it a few days to see what creatures attract the most interest, before I write up a chapter-list, or choose which monsters' descriptions will be combined.

Ah, okay!

First off, I'd love to recycle some of my Saragoss material. That's one domain that is practically designed to "leak" bits of itself into the other seas. Certain native plants such as sea-mire are known to break off and float rotting through the misty borders. Not to mention the fact that the sahuagin in Saragoss are too crowded in those shallow seas, so there should be a decent amount of rogues and explorers.

In other areas, I think I could offer something to the sea spawn.


In the interests of laying out all the work, I'll kick off a list of things that I could see in such a work, in random order. Note that I am not laying claim to any of these:

Reavers
Remnants
Jolly Rogers
Wererays
Sea stalkers
Weresharks
Kelpies
Those undead mermaid things from Death Undaunted.

On second thought, I WILL lay claim to kelpies. They are only mentioned in Saragoss AFAIK, and they are the most obvious candidates for escaping in a patch of sea-mire. OTOH, I don't have their stats in 3.5, so I'm definitely interested in sharing them with someone else.

DeepShadow wrote: In the interests of laying out all the work, I'll kick off a list of things that I could see in such a work, in random order. Note that I am not laying claim to any of these:

Reavers
Remnants
Jolly Rogers
Wererays
Sea stalkers
Weresharks
Kelpies
Those undead mermaid things from Death Undaunted.

Oh man, Sea Stalkers. I'd like to request/suggest that whomever takes those bases them (or at least a strain of them) off the infinitely horrifying Leopard Seal instead of the weird wolf-headed thing that got put together, I guess because any mention of a seal would make players roll their eyes.

Seriously, the Leopard Seal feeds by thrashing its prey around the surface of the water until its skin comes off and its torn to pieces - tell me that doesn't belong in Ravenloft.