Races of Mystoerth: Gypsy Elves

The Gypsy Elf

"Thousands of years ago the elves were a unified race.  The elven people stood strong and diverse.
Then the War came and the Elves were Sundered. The elves were divided by the war.
But some chose not to fight, some took in their brothers and sisters from all sides.
These elves were cursed by Corellon Larethian to wander the lands till the day when all elves stood as one people again.  The other elves took pity on them, calling them, in their own tongues The Wanderers.  But not the Wanderers themselves.  They knew a powerful secret.

They knew they were Free."
- From the Songs of the Ranagwithe

The Gypsy Elf, or as the call themselves "The Free Elves" (Ranagwithe in their own language) , has a long history in my game and one shared with the evolution of my Witch class.  Originally I was going to even make a few Gypsy Elf witches to play, but oddly enough I never did.   Though there are mythos of the gypsy elves that are tied indirectly with various occult, but mostly pagan, beliefs.

In the game Gypsy Elfs wander the world, in and out of the land of faerie, searching for their lost home.  They will find it only on the day when all the elves are reunited as a race.  Until then they wander.
I have pictured them as not being xenophobic as human gypsies are often portrayed, but rather as gregarious travelers.  Why this change?  It helps the taboos I have set up for them and it seemed to be more logical.  Plus I did not want to do another Romani or Irish Traveller clone.

Like their human counterparts, Gypsy Elves travel all over the known world. However, unlike the Human Gypsies, Gypsy Elves are much more gregarious. The origins of the Gypsy Elves (and Shadow Elves) date back to what has become to be known as the Sundering of the Elves. When the Dark elves broke free from the light elves they split into several races. The light elves of course became the Eladrin/High Elves and the dark became the Drow.

There were elves that remained outside of the conflict. One group was a band of light elves that protected both the dark and light elves from each other. When the gods split the elves apart, the gypsy elves were left without a home to call their own. Since they never harmed another elf before they were not forced into the dark underground. Ever since then the Gypsy Elves have wandered from place to place looking for a home. While Gypsy elves tend to be neutral to all other races, they are always treated as “good” to other elves. There are several universal elven customs that apply only to Gypsy Elves.

1. No Gypsy Elf may harm another Elf. Even Drow and Half-Elves.
2. No other elf, Drow or Half-, may harm a Gypsy Elf.
3. No Elven community may refuse lodging to a band of Gypsy Elves. The Gypsy then must agree to be on their way soon after.

At any point in time other elven species may be found in a group of Gypsy Elves, as they may freely travel as long as they abide by the Gypsy Elves rules and lifestyle. These “Free Wanderers” can make up to 10% of the tribe’s population.

As long as the other elves do not fight amongst themselves or the other Gypsy Elves they may remain with the tribe as long as they like. Also any Gypsy Elf is invited to remain in any Elf community, but few rarely do.

Consequently the racial make-up of Gypsy Elves is somewhat mixed. Actually there is no Gypsy Elf race. It is the human populations of the world call them “Gypsy”. The elves refer to them only as “Wandering Elves”. Gypsy Elves often refer to themselves as the “Free Elves. Either name in the elven language is Ranagwithe.

Gypsy Elves are on friendly terms with humans. They find Human Gypsies to be too xenophobic for their tastes. But they will travel with them for mutual benefit. This helps to explain the high amount of Half-Elves.

Gypsy Elves, like their Elf cousins, produce fine art, in particular music and dance. Many have excelled in woodcarving and sell these pieces of art in communities they pass through. What these elves cannot make, they buy. In this respect they are very good terms with humans.

Gypsy Elves are careful never to take more from the land or their hosts then they absolutely need. It has been said that there will be no evidence of a gypsy elf camp 24 hours after they leave.

4th Edition Gypsy Elves

Related to the elves, eladrin and drow, gypsy elves wander the world for their lost home and in hope that they elven races will be reunified.

Racial Traits

Avg. Height: 5'2"-5'10"
Avg. Weight: 90-150lb

Ability Scores: +2 Dex, +2 Cha
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Elvish, plus one other of the player’s choice
Skill Bonuses: +2 Nature, +2 Stealth

Gypsy Weapon Proficiency: You gain proficiency with the shortsword.
Elvish Reflexes: You gain a +1 racial bonus to your Reflex defense.
In addition, you gain a +5 racial bonus to saving throws against charm effects.

Versatile Linguist: You gain one extra language (above and beyond other bonuses) that you have learned in your travels.
Fey Origin: You are considered a fey creature for the purposes of effects that relate to creature origin.

Trance: Rather than sleep, eladrin enter a meditative state known as trance. You need to spend 4 hours in this state to gain the same benefits other races gain from taking a 6-hour extended rest. While in a trance, you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.

Elven Fate: You can use elven fate as an encounter power.

Elven Fate Gypsy Elf Racial Power
Your race has twisted the strands of fate for so long that every action can be foretold.
You may re-roll any one die and use the roll of your choice.

Encounter
Free Action Personal

Effect: Reroll any roll. Use either roll.


Play a gypsy elf if you want . . .
✦ to be good at stealth and moving in natural environments.
✦ to play a worldly hero with an air of mystery and mystique.
✦ to be a member of a race that favors the bard, ranger, rouge, sorcerer or warlock classes.

3.x/Pathfinder Gypsy Elves

+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Intelligence: Gypsy elves are agile of foot and hand. They also process a gregarious personality. Their lack of a permanent home and their ad-hoc means of education give the impression that they are unintelligent or uncouth.

Medium: Gypsy elves are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal Speed: Gypsy elves have a base speed of 30 feet.
Low-Light Vision: Gypsy elves can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Elven Immunities: Like Elves, gypsy elves are immune to magic sleep effects and get a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects.
Elven Magic: Gypsy elves receive a +2 racial bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance.
Keen Senses: Gypsy elves receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception skill checks.
Weapon Familiarity: Elves are proficient with crossbows, rapiers, shortbows (including composite shortbows), and short swords, and treat any weapon with the word “elven” in its name as a martial weapon.
Languages: Gypsy elves begin play speaking Common, Elven and one additional language of the player’s choice. Gypsy elves with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Celestial, Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan.

Note: In the Pathfinder RPG Gypsy elf spellcasters often choose the Oracle and Witch classes.

Physical Qualities

Gypsy Elves look much like their Elf cousins. Traveling and encountering different lands and peoples for more than a millennium has altered the appearance of the race. They stand about the same height as elves. They are typically darker completion, having an almost olive skin color, though darker shades are not uncommon. Their hair also tends to be dark. Blacks and browns are very common. Once in a great while a blond or redhead will be born, and this is usually a cause for great celebration. If a child is born with white hair then this is considered a great omen of change; good or ill.

Playing a Gypsy Elf

Gypsy Elves are natural born adventurers. Young Gypsy Elves are expected to spend some time away from their clans in order to see the world. It is expected that they will seek out other elves in order to share stories and news.

Special thanks to Jason Vey for coming up with the elven name Ranagwithe.

Sanctuary

You feel lost. Hurt. 
Helpless. Desperate. 
Alone.

Something happened to you or to people you love.
And no one understands. 
No one believes.
And no one can help.

But we understand. 
We believe.
We can help.

We are Sanctuary.
Someday everything is going to be alright.

Sanctuary

Sanctuary began in my 1st Edition AD&D game.  Located in the Principalities of Glantri (from Mystara and Basic D&D), Sanctuary was a group of healers that specifically dealt with the attacks on normal people by supernatural creatures, werewolves and undead in particular.  Since many of the rulers of the land were the very monsters they were fighting Sanctuary had to become covert and hidden.  The only way to know you were in a "Sanctuary" was by a open palm hand in blue paint.
Eventually they were one of the groups that lead to the political coup of Glantri, tuning it in to a Theocratic Monarchy, but that was many years ago.

I revived the idea of Sanctuary for modern horror games back around 2004 or so.  They are  group that helps people deal with the after-math of a supernatural creature attack.  You or your loved ones are attacked by a vampire or werewolf?  Well going to the police or the hospital won't be much help (even if they do know) and talking to a therapist will either get you a nice quiet rest or hooked up with enough anti-psychotics to dull every pain (and in fact many do just that).

But Sanctuary is different.  They staff doctors, social workers, psychologists and even an array of computer experts to help rebuild lives.  Like all social services they are understaff, over worked, under funded and at least six months behind on their case loads.

I had wanted to introduce them in Season 2 of my Willow and Tara game, Season of the Witch.  But it never worked out.  Instead they worked out much better in my Season 3 Willow and Tara game, Generation HEX. Here the girls could contribute to Sanctuary a little more.

In the world they are a bit like occult social services and clinic as well as occult relocation program.

In an episode or adventure I use Sanctuary in my modern occult/supernatural games as part resource and part plot device.  Typically in their role of helping someone the monster of the week does not want helped.

I have not worked out any stats for the group, typically all I need is an NPC ready to go as a councilor or social worker and the monster.  Though in Generation HEX I did have an older Sarah Bailey working at Sanctuary.  She basically was there to yell at the cast saying she often had to clean up the messes and broken lives they left behind.

As a group they are not very old, game time wise.  I put their development around the 1990s.  Maybe they got their start up funds from the Clinton administration. But this goes along with my theory of supernatural games needing to up the ante each generation.  Back in the days of Chill monsters were rare, but as time went on more and more of the beasties were crawling out of the woodwork. So there has been more of an in-game and in-universe need for a group like this.

Those with a good memory might be able to guess where the name and the symbol of this group comes from.

More races of Mystoerth: Goblins

I have been thinking a bit about races, or rather species, in my world.  Last time I talked about D&D 4e and their 25 races.  I felt that was a bit much, but I got to thinking that my own home-brew efforts were just as bad. I have honestly no clue how many different types of elves I have.  And I don't just mean odd ones like grey, valley and grugach, but gypsy, rain-forest, snow and night elves too. I have at least 5 or 6 halfling subtypes and a couple of gnomes.

Hob-noblin with the Goblins

I have talked about races/species in general and a bit on orcs and elves.  But lately my thoughts have turned to Goblins.  I have to blame the work I did in Ghosts of Albion.  Pick up that game and you will see what my thoughts are currently on the various goblin type.  I have also been influenced of late by the goblins in Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic.  Part of the reasons too are that for the most part the monsters in D&D are taken from myth, legend and folklore, but a lot of monsters have more than one name and the same name sometime applies to very different creatures.  I talked about this briefly in my Succubus posts. Zak over at "Playing D&D With Porn Stars" is going over all this now with his alphabetical monster thing, and the posts on  Bugbears and Hobgoblins in particular.   Of course he is not the only one, we have ideas from Warhammer, regions from Greyhawk Grognard,  and the Asian inspired Hobgoblin.
I have also produced, mostly for Ghosts of Albion, a few goblin types such as the Blood Goblin and the goblin that is not a goblin at all, the Corn Goblin.

Goblins

Goblins in my world, and this is usually regardless of system, but *D&D, Ghosts of Albion and WitchGirls Adventures in particular, are short little nasties related to the faeries.  Goblins in fact share the same relationship to the fae that Tolkien Orcs share with Elves.  My initial concept of them was of course the 1986 Labyrinth movie.  Goblins are not outright evil, but certainly mischievous and opportunistic. They love commerce, not just the money, but all that brings with it; corruption, graft, drugs, crime.  So needless to say goblins are found in (and fond of) cities in my worlds. Back in the day we were playing in a lot of urban settings as opposed to dungeons per se.  Goblins were a big part of that.  As I moved on my goblins were influenced by Ferengi from Star Trek: TNG, GURPS Goblins, a bunch of other books and just a need to have a monster/humanoid type there.  So I like the Pathfinder Goblins better than the 4e ones, but they are really not that far off from each other.
In 4e and Ghosts of Albion, I place goblins in the Feywild and Avalon, respectively (different names for essentially the same thing).  Of course being goblins keeping them in one place is like trying to herd rats and they get out every chance they get.
Goblins have high infant mortality rates, which is probably a good thing given how quickly they reproduce.

In Ghosts of Albion and other modern supernatural games I run there is the Goblin Market.  Hidden from mundane eyes nearly everything and anything found in a magical world can be found here, for a price.  In *D&D the Market is more open, and more dangerous.  I will work this up one day, just need to figure out how to do it justice.

Hobgoblins

Somewhere along the line a hobgoblin went from trickster spirits like Puck to larger, military style goblins.  Of course we could thank (or blame) the Monster Manual for that, but it looks more like it is another bit of Tolkien in D&D. They do serve a certain roll in the game world.  Hobgoblins are larger, meaner, and certainly more evil. Maybe the Hob of Hobgoblin is not a "spirit" but "old Hob", the Devil.  In the 1st Ed Monster Manual they are lawful evil.  They are militaristic, big, evil, have redding skin.  Hobgoblins are devil-goblins.  Pretty easy I think. Plus I like the idea.  If we can have tieflings, alu-demons and cambions all as races then why not Hobgoblins as devil spawn among goblins.
Mağlubiyet,the god of the goblins then could be a type of devil. Maybe even a cast down fey god.

Maybe that helps explain why some goblins look so different, but most Hobgoblins all look the same.  The strict hierarchy and breeding program of the devils forces them to be more alike.  Now I would say that some of the more evil goblins, maybe the standard "D&D" goblin are goblin/hobgoblin hybrids. Or something.
The one thing they seem to be missing is horns.  I think Hobgoblins should have horns.  Like some of the orcs in the cartoon version of the Hobbit.

Bugbears
Many years ago I had a TRS-80 Color Computer with a Speech Pak and my DM at the time wrote a program for running a D&D game.  I added the speech parts to it.  Well it would always pronounce Bugbears  as "bug-beer".  It always made me think, what the hell is a Bugbear anyway?  A giant hairy goblin according to most of the books. For the longest time I thought why not just merge Bugbears and Hobgoblins into the same creature, their stats are not that off from each other really with the only big difference is that one is chaotic evil and the other lawful evil.    Well as I got into researching more I discovered that "bugbear" come from the same phonology that gives us boogies, boogey-man, bugaboos and the buckwan.  So another English fey type.  They are more animal like than Hobgoblin, which they are obviously related to.
I have been saying this for years, but I am now convinced after seeing their new Pathfinder incarnations, Bugbears are the offspring of goblins and demons. I can even see a situation where demons began impregnating their goblin slaves over the millennia till bugbears were produced.  Millennia more of letting them run amok in the planes of mortals has produced a race that is more or less stable.  Bugbears are then larger, nighmarish goblins that tend towards acts of random chaotic violence.  Given their chaotic nature, I might even introduce random mutations.  I have seen these for demons and for Gamma World, maybe their are some good ideas in the pages of Mutant Future for this.

Not to be outdone the Arch Dukes of Hell produce Hobgoblins in a strict engineered breeding program.

Other Goblins
Goblins are ripe for sorts of fun.  From the annoying to the dangerous to the outright evil, goblins can run the gambit.  Many years ago, so many in fact I was a kid ridding my bike listening to Thomas Dolby on my Walkman, I came up with a monster.  I have stats for him for various AD&D systems, but here is the most recent version.  I might do some retro stats for the little beastie for the various OSR books out there too.

Blood Goblin
The thing was no larger than a child, but no child could have such a malevolent countenance. It was nearly doubled over, with a hump on it’s back. It’s long gangly arms caused it to drag it’s knuckles like that of an ape. It’s face was piched, it’s mouth full of cruel sharp teeth, and it’s eyes empty pools of some milky substance. It’s skin was slick and glistening, it was only under closer inspection that we realised it was in fact covered in blood. The thing spoke to us, but it was incomprehensible. Not that we needed to understand it’s words when it’s actions were clear enough.
--From the Journal of Tamara Swift

Blood Goblins are nasty little beasties. Nominally part of the faerie, their essences have been corrupted by demonic power. The ritual to turn a faerie into a blood goblin is unknown to most mortals, but what is known is it is dark and evil and requires the demon binding the potential blood goblin to feed it some of it’s own demonic blood.
Once complete the faerie undergoes a horrible transformation. Their form becomes a twisted parody of what it once was. Wings (if they had them) wither and fall off. Teeth grow long and sharp. Their skin takes on the unhealthy look of a bruise or rotting flesh and thick acidic blood weeps from their pores. Arms grow long and their now taloned hands drag the ground. Their eyes turn completely milky white with no pupils visible.
They can speak, but it is difficult to understand them.
Blood goblins are bound to their master and will do his bidding. The trouble is most are far too dimwitted to be anything other than a nasty little killers. The enjoy hiding in alleys or darkened paths and ambush their targets. They have a keen sense of smell so often they need something that smells like the intended victim in order to attack them. A blood goblin can track their victim using an Observation check, modified as the Director needs to climate conditions and the like. Once on a mission they are too dim witted and too frightened of their masters to do anything else but complete it. Goblins that do not often will go rogue, preferring not to return their master in failure.

Name: Blood Goblin
Motivation: To serve their master
Creature Type: Faerie (goblin)
Attributes:
Strength 4, Dexterity 3, Constitution 3, Intelligence 1, Perception 4, Willpower 2
Ability Scores:
Muscle 12, Combat 13, Brains 9
Life Points: 38
Drama Points: 1
Special Abilities: Burning Blood (1 LP damage per contact with bare skin); Emotional Problems (Cruel); Faerie, Reduced Size (freakishly small); Unattractive (2)
Manoeuvres
Name Score Damage Notes
Dodge 13 — Defence action
Grapple 15 — Resisted by Dodge
Punch 13 8 Bash
Knife 13 8 Slash/Stab

Vampyres: Chill

CHILL (1st Edition)

The very first time Fran and Miriam made an appearance in one of my games was in Chill…sort of. I had planned to use them, and Mayfair’s was only a brief idea at this point, but never had the chance.

At this point Fran and Miriam had just left their home in the movie and were headed towards Barcelona. It was here that they are first spotted by S.A.V.E. agents.

In Chill, the supernatural and the mundane do not play as nice with each other as they do in other games. So Mayfair’s as a place for the PCs to find information is suddenly a much more dangerous place. Vampires in Chill are not social creatures, so it is not likely that this is a “vampire” hang out. It certainly will have a few, but almost all are one created by Fran and Miriam.

Vampires in the Chill “Vampires” book were all separated by type such as “Common Carpathian” or “Alpine”. These types typically described where they were from and what powers they had in common. Fran and Miriam could best be described as “English Vampires”.

Fran

STR 80 DEX 64 AGL 70
PER 110 WPR 122 PCN 64
STA 64 EWS 125 FEAR 5
ATT 1/75%

Movement: Can sprint without STA loss 75’ per round.

Evil Way Disciplines: Change Weather, Influence, Steal Memory, Time Stop

Skills: Acting/Drama (M) 123; Disguise (T) 102; History (M) 118; Legend Lore (M) 118; Modeling (M) 141;

IPs: 1000

Special Characteristics

1. Unlike other vampire Fran can cast a reflection and reproduces an image on film and video.

2. Fran can move around during daylight hours, but must avoid direct sunlight. She cannot use her Time Stop powers during the light of day.

3. Fran must rest eight hours to regain Stamina and Willpower. Fran prefers to be underground when resting. She appears to be dead when resting; she does not breathe, has not heartbeat and her body is cold.

4. Fran can be held at bay by any religious symbol.

5. Fran needs to feed on least 2 quarts of fresh blood a week. She does not have to kill to get this blood, but she often does.

6. In combat Fran uses a curved knife. She can attack once per round.

7. Those who wish to destroy Fran must bury her along with Miriam with proper rights.

Miriam

STR 90 DEX 75 AGL 80
PER 110 WPR 110 PCN 81
STA 64 EWS 125 FEAR 5
ATT 1/75%

Movement: Can sprint without STA loss 75’ per round.

Evil Way Disciplines: Influence, Steal Memory, Time Stop

Skills: Acting/Drama (M) 125; Dance (M) 125; Disguise (M) 117; History (T) 110; Legend Lore (T) 110; Modeling (M) 135;

IPs: 1000

Special Characteristics

1. Unlike other vampire Miriam can cast a reflection and reproduces an image on film and video.

2. Miriam can move around during daylight hours, but must avoid direct sunlight. She cannot use her Time Stop powers during the light of day.

3. Miriam must rest eight hours to regain Stamina and Willpower. Fran prefers to be underground when resting. She appears to be dead when resting; she does not breathe, has not heartbeat and her body is cold. Miriam is a light sleeper and can waken herself at the slightest noise.

4. Miriam can be held at bay by any religious symbol.

5. Miriam needs to feed on least 2 quarts of fresh blood a week. She does not have to kill to get this blood, but she often does.

6. In combat Miriam uses a curved knife. She can attack once per round.

7. Those who wish to destroy Miriam must bury her along with Fran with the proper rights.

Black Rose, Part 3

Sorry for the delay here.  Been really sick.

Now I want to look at the mechanics of how Black Rose will work.  I want to include as much of the Ravenloft feel as possible, so that means fear and horror checks.  To accommodate both Blue Rose and Ravenloft I also want to keep magic low.  In this respect I think the Adept role from True20 will work out fine.

Rules
I'll use the Revised True20 (T20-R) rules for this game.  I love the simplicity of the system and it "just works" well for me. Plus the Revised version allows you to craft roles to better suit your game world.  This would let me create a "Lesser Adept" that still has some spell casting, but also more skills or even combat.  I would use this for clerics and hedge witches or even PC magic-users.  Some of the Roles in the "Horror Adventures" chapter are a good choice.  I would in a sense try to re-create the roles found in Masque of the Red Death for Black Rose.

Magic is known, but rare.  This would not be D&D where you can go to the local "magic shop" to buy magic items or even get them appraised.  So to use the T20-R this would be a "Rising Tide" game.  I would make necromantic powers more difficult to obtain.

With less magic I can see more gun powder being used.  But hardly anything beyond a flint-lock.  I am thinking this is 16th or 17th century at the most, with places still around 14th or 15th, in terms of technology.  I like this idea because it also builds up the struggle of tech vs. magic as well as good vs. evil.  In Dracula, the heroes all were using "state of the art technology" in order to defeat Dracula, a creature of darkness and magic.  It is a pillar of the Gothic tradition.   Of course the other pillar of the Gothic tradition is Frankenstein, or how technology has lead humans to even greater evils.

Fear, Sanity and Dark Powers
Sanity and Fear checks have been part and parcel of horror games forever.  Black Rose would be no different.  I would use the Mental Health track from T20-R since it is very, very close to what characters would experience in Ravenloft.  In this case I would use Sanity as it's own Save.  Give the game it's own feel.

I would not however do Dark Powers checks.  I never really liked them in Ravenloft and feel they have less of a place in Black Rose.  The PCs are supposed to be heroes, and heroes of the highest caliber. Now I know sometimes PCs (and players) mess up, so for that I will use the True 20 Conviction mechanic.  Evil acts result in less conviction, but heroic acts can build more.

Feel
So far everything I describe could be done in games that already exist.  Witchhunter, Solomon Kane, Rippers or even Ghosts of Albion, could all do this and do it well.  What then does Black Rose do for me these other games don't.
Well foremost there is the battle of good vs an unrelenting evil.  But this is not a fight alone in the darkness, the heroes have a home, Aldea, and it is good and worth fighting for.    If nothing else I need to instill in the players or the characters that an attack on Aldea or their Queen is worse than attack against themselves.
Also in Black Rose, everyone knows about magic and the supernatural.  It is an accepted part of life.  People don't fear the bogeyman because he has magic, people fear him because he is evil.

If this were an on-going game I would like to come up with something for the heroes to work towards.   Maybe the eventual defeat of the Dark Lord?  Or finding a way to keep Ravenloft from seeping into Aldea.  No idea yet.  But I would want it to be big and worthy of characters than have been heroes to the land for s long.

Black Rose, Part 2

Continuing on one of the things I need to figure out is how Ravenloft and Aldea come together.  This is a two-parter really.  I need to figure out game-wise how the fit; is Aldea pulled into Ravenloft, is Ravenloft slowly seeping into Aldea?  And I need to figure it out story-wise; what event caused this to happen.

To start with I want to go back into Aldea's shadowed past.

Dread Exiles
We have all been told the tale of how the Exarchs of Shadow had been defeated at the hands of the Gods of Light. We were told that they were locked away with their only means of accessing the world was via the Shadowgates or through subtle influences in the world. This is mostly true, but there is much that is unknown. Even in Kern, the greatest scholars of the Lich King had not discovered all of the Exarch's secrets, nor were they willing to give them up so easily.
But it is not the end of their story, but only the beginning.

So I have decided is that the Dark Powers of Ravenloft are the Exarchs of Shadow.
Sure it removes some of the mystery. I have them trapped here, physical forms destroyed, they can only pull in other creatures that have a significant amount of evil/shadow to them.
They are not able to be selective though, nor wish too, so they end up scoping all sorts of innocents in with them.

Their Goal? Escape of course. There are Shadowgates that lead to Ravenloft (often Mist shrouded), but very few that lead out. And even then the Exarchs have an even more difficult time leaving than do the Dark Lords. What is their plan? Use the likes of Strahd and Azalin to replace them in their prison? Or are they experiments on how to escape? Maybe even the Exarchs are no more than spoiled children and are pulling others to share their prison because they can? Who knows. Just because I have ID'ed the Dark Powers doesn't mean I need to detail their motives.

So now that I have established that the Dark Powers are part of Aldea, this opens me up to lot of tinkering. Since this is their "native" land they should be a bit more powerful and that power is translated down to the Dark Lords. Regardless of how Aldea and Ravenloft come together one of the side effects will be that Dark Lords can now leave their realms. They are not as powerful in other Realms and often at the mercy of the other Dark Lords, so even though they can "move about" few of them rarely do.

Now the in-game event that caused this.

The Lady and the Captain
Queen Jaellin in her first five years as Sovereign has become known as Queen Jaellin, The Beloved (3 years before the present day of the Core Book). Her temperament has been easy, her laws just and fair and her rulership everything that Aldisians would want. Though talk began, most likely rumors spread by the agents of Lord Sayvin that the Queen may be unfit to rule since she had not produced an heir to her legacies or even named her Consort. While an heir had no extra claim to the throne, as Sayvin himself could attest, it was considered to be proper behavior. In a dark jest she became known in some circles as “Queen Jaellin, the Unloved”.
The Queen was no fool. Her calm and rational demeanor disarmed most people and lead others to assume she was still a simple girl. Her mind was sharp and she knew of these rumors, the trouble was she was beginning to believe them herself.
During one of her outings to visit the outlying communities, she was joined by her royal guard. The Captain of the Guard, a young dashing rogue of a man that felt his duties to protect the Queen included disobeying her orders. They spend a long trek where they infuriate each other for days until their party is attacked by agents of Lord Sayvin. Her guard defend her heroically, but to no avail. She is though taken by her Captain and they are pursued through out the forest. They fight, fear and eventually come to fall in love. She is brought back safely, to surprise of Lord Sayvin and then to shock of all she names her Captain as her Beloved and Consort. They were happy for many years.
In this romance think Victoria and Albert. The young queen and the dashing prince consort. As their love grew, the land prospered and Sayvin grew darker. In a few years he discovered the means to get what he wanted.

Blood and Roses
Lord Sayvin had made a deal with the Dark Powers based on a scroll he found in Kern. The scroll gave him the means to enchant a crossbow arrow that would kill instantly whomever it struck (and deliver that soul to the Dark Powers) and give Sayvin what he most desired. This is Ravenloft, his displeasure at not being chosen Sovereign has turned into a blinding hate and jealousy.

Sayvin chooses the night of the Queen and her Consort's Anniversary, he crept into their bedchambers and prepared to kill the Queen. As fate would have it he missed the Queen in her lover’s embrace (yeah total symbolism here, but the ultimate horror in Aldea would be the horror of your beloved dying in your arms) and the arrow hit her Captain (yeah…I need to name the guy) instead. Jaellin screamed, Sayvin roared, and the Dark Powers laughed. Jaellin in a fit of insane rage summoned every ounce of power she had as an emerging Adept and as the Sovereign of the Land and struck down Lord Sayvin, blowing his body with blast of pure eldritch power. His body was never found with most claiming he escaped. Most claim that because the alternate choice was their Queen, Jaellin the Beloved, murdered him in a sorcerous rage.

That night the pact formed by Sayvin and the Dark Powers failed to complete. Jaellin was supposed to die but did not. The Dark Powers savored her pain and were allowed to come into the world just very slightly. As his reward, Sayvin was given what he desired. He was made the Dark Lord of Aldea and was cursed to the form of a Shadow.

During the day, when the sun is bright, Jaellin’s ministers rule the land in her name. But at night the land is ruled by Dark Lord Sayvin, only most people do not know this. They only know that the lands are more dangerous and evil seems to have the world in its grip. And the Queen? In the years since the attack she has said little and is rarely seen in court, and never outside the castle. She mourns and it seems the land mourns with her.

Today the Queen is still loved by her people and older residents remember the bright young girl she was and what promise she held for the land. But many feel like she has abandoned her duties and even life itself. Some, though not many but loud enough to be heard, say the Queen is a witch and this current situation is her fault.
There is unease in the land, monsters that were once only found in fairy tales are now found on the roads between towns. Strangers walk the lands now, with odd customs and accents. Once, such people would have been welcomed in Aldea, given a place to sleep in exchange for their stories of other lands. Now people turn their heads and no one is welcomed.

This in and of itself would be enough to get any character invested in the idea that Aldea is a beacon of light and hope motivated to find out what was going on, but this is Ravenloft and I have one more nasty dagger hidden in my sleeve.

The Company of the Hart
To do this I want characters deeply invested in what is going on. This is an "oncoming darkness" tale and things are not going to get better, they are going to get worse. Unless the PCs can do something about it. What can they do? That is the mystery to be solved. In the meantime they are also tasked with ridding the night of all the foul creatures of Shadow now invading the lands. I am imaging a small company of adventurers chosen by destiny to to Aldea's Champions. How? Here comes that dagger.

The characters are thrown together because some are in the Queen's court and others have found the Golden Hart in the woods with a black arrow in it's heart. They bring this to the Queen who immediately recognizes the arrow as of the same kind that killed her Beloved. The first task of the new group is to find the magical Rose that will heal it. After this quest they become an elite group answering only to the Queen and their job is to stop the oncoming darkness.

This allows me the court intrigue that I think/feel will be needed for this game, allow the Heroes to have access to various parts of the country they might need and give them first hand observation to the Queen's depression and the key to unlocking the truth; that this really began with the murder of the Queen's Consort by Lord Sayvin AND the fact that the Queen has withdrawn not just because of her lover's death, but because she herself feels tremendous guilt over using her own power to "kill" Sayvin.

That's where I am at so far.

Black Rose, Part 1

I had no idea people would like this one so much.  I mean to me it seems a no-brainer.   Let me roll back a bit and talk about why I think so.


I love Ravenloft.  It was *my* world for all of 2nd Ed.  I loved the Gothic horror feel, I loved that there were all these worlds and this was some sort of cosmic dumping ground of evil.  But mostly I loved the atmosphere, there was something about it that was different than all the other AD&D worlds out at the time.  Greyhawk was basically dead, I hated the Forgotten Realms, Planescape was cool but I hate stupid made up slang.
But I had a basic problem with Ravenloft.  A world drowning evil is not always the best one to play in.  Or as I used to say, Ravenloft was great at night, but during the day it was lacking.

Well I put Ravenloft away when I did my great D&D break of the late 90s.  When D&D 3 came out I purchased one of the limited editions Ravenloft core books.  After all it was being done by White Wolf and they know horror.  While it did make me interested in the lands again, the spark was gone.  Besides at this time the Kargatane was breaking up and Ravenloft was not as fun as before.

Then a new game came into my life.  Blue Rose.   In Blue Rose I felt there were a lot of the same things I liked about Ravenloft.  Emphasis on character development and story telling, less on combat.  One by nature the other by choice.  I know a lot of people disliked Blue Rose, but it did give us True 20.  And in True 20 I saw the answer to a lot of the problems I had with Ravenloft.  Ravenloft as an idea was Gothic Horror stapled on to a fantasy action adventure game.  True 20 was systemless.  It was much easier to represent more people with combinations of the Expert, Warrior and Adept classes than the standard D&D ones; or worse the 36 some odd classes we had in the d20 Masque of the Red Death.



Blue Rose also took on some of the same issues that Ravenloft did.  That of being an outsider for one, or working for a cause of light vs. darkness.  People criticized BR's morality, but that is a perfect morality for Romantic Fantasy or Gothic Horror.

In the last couple of years we have seen a surge of books that fall under the term "Urban Fantasy" or "Horror Romance" and even "Chick-Lit".   Typically these books feature a strong willed female protagonist who sometimes makes mistakes but in the end finds her own inner strength.  Sometimes she gets the guy (or girl, or both) all in a world where magic, vampires, werewolves and other horrors are real.  Maybe she is even one of those horrors herself.  Plus many of the authors of those early Ravenloft novels are now "names" in this market such as Elaine Bergstrom, Christie Golden, P. N. Elrod and Laurell K. Hamilton.  Modern urban gothic fantasy is in Ravenloft's DNA.   Blue Rose as a concept supports this type of roleplaying very well.

So I sat down with my Blue Rose book and my d20 Ravenloft book and I started to notice too all sorts of places where they were the same.  So I had this idea, blasphemous as it sounds, to mix in Ravenloft with Blue Rose. I wanted to cast a shadow of Aldea, something is not right any longer. The Queen still holds court, lovers still walk hand in hand, and there are still adventures to be had.   But I had questions I needed to answer. Why has Aldea and Ravenloft "merged"? Or were they always together?
If they merged what was the catalyst? Why now?
What is the effect on the populace with this new influx of evil and dread?

One of the things I have wanted to do is bring Ravenloft out of "mists" and into a real world. Yeah I know that looses someof what makes Ravenloft unique, but I also like the idea of "horror is everywhere" and not needing to go someplace remote to find it.
By bringing Aldea and Ravenloft together I can have "days" and "nights" covered.  Aldea becomes a near perfect landscape with some deep seated malaise over it.  A dark cloud on the horizon.  Or as I call it in my games, "the oncoming darkness"

Here are my first thoughts.

The Races and other Groups
Humans are humans and remain untouched.

I plan to keep Sea Folk for now, but given my Lovecraftian background I will certainly introduce some dark spawn that plauges them. Something like the Shadows out Innsmouth or something.

Night People are the easiest to deal with since their creation is basically to fill that game playing niche of half-orcs. But they also serve other purposes as well, as a constant reminder of the dangers of dark magics and in the case of good and noble Night People, to remind the players and characters that you cannot judge a person by their birth. In all these regards they are nearly identical to the Ravenloft Calibans.

Both games describe these ersatz Half-Orcs much in the same manner. They are products of dark sorcery; they are feared, hulking brutes. I will use the Night People racial modifiers from the BR Core and the backgrounds of both races into one since there is no conflict between them.

Roamers will be replaced by the Vistani from Ravenloft. There is just so much information on the Vistani that it makes sense to use them in place of the Roamers. I will keep the Roamer name, that is what native Aldeans still call them. I will still use most of the information on Roamers from the World of Aldea book, in particular the sayings. Where they contradict is simple. The Vistani are a large group with many Tasques, something that is true for one in not true for the other. Or true depending on where they are. Or, let’s face it, neither group is very forthcoming with information to the giorgios. I have to decide whether or not to use the “Half-Vistani” race. In the Vistani lore there is ample evidence that these children are different than their full blooded cousins. And not using them robs me of a plot device where a young half-blooded Vistani goes on an epic quest to discover “her father’s people” and ends up discovering herself instead. Plus I love the Tarot work on backgrounds. So I will see if it can be adapted to use the Tarokka deck. Maybe when adventures get ready to go on their first epic quests a Vistani vardo comes to town and reads their fortunes to them (using the Ravenloft rules) and then shows them their character (Blue Rose rules).

Vata are still more or less Elves, or more to the point, the Sidhe of Aldea. Ravenloft has elves and half elves, but not a lot of them. My solution then is to go with Blue Roses’ idea and have all the Elves (Sidhe, Vata) be extinct. I have not decided with domains to pull in, but I have figured out that the Ravenloft Domain of Sithicus was the last Vata/Elf country before they were destroyed. Now it is a sad, haunted land.
I might remove the Vata’an and Vata’sha as races and instead use a feat to represent “Vata Touched”. Still thinking about that one really.

Dwarves, Halflings and Gnomes exist as rumors or fairy tales only. They might have existed somewhere in the past, but no longer.

More on the lands and bringing these worlds together later.

Drow should be Lawful Evil, among other things

I have been thinking about the Drow of late.  We are going through some of the classic modules and I really am looking forward to doing the GDQ series again.  Now I have every faith in DM to make it interesting and new to me while keeping the same thrill I originally had for me and the kids.

But I have a problem with Drow.  Actually, I have had a lot of problems with drow for a long time.  Let's work backward.  In the GDQ series, Drow are the "secret enemy" the big reveal is they are elves! who are evil!  It was like when we first saw Romulans in "The Balance of Terror".  Elves, especially to those who lived on a steady diet of Tolkien, were light and good.  The drow were evil and dark.  And that is the other problem.
Why are drow dark skinned?  Really shouldn't they be albino?  And let's not even go with the dark = evil meme.  I am not suggesting any sort of racism on the part of the creators here; this is something that has appeared in fantasy and fairy tales for thousands of years, but that still doesn't mean it has to be that way in my games. I prefer the "Shadow Elves" from Mystara in many respects over the Drow.  They are described as smaller and pale.

You can see a visual evolution of the Drow through the eyes of fellow bloggers, James Maliszewski and Eiglophian Press.

The next problem is frankly Drizzt.  He is a symbol of everything I felt was wrong with 2nd Edition and uber-munchkin playing in general.  Since his advent, the drow went from hidden secret evil to S&M fetish elves.  Now I am not against S&M or fetish of any sort, but what makes for an interesting diversion does not make for an interesting enemy.

Finally Drow are nearly universally described as an oppressive, hierarchal society ruled by the Priestess of Lolth in an iron-fisted dictatorship with harsh laws of behavior.  That sounds positively Lawful Evil to me.   This is not a new idea, it was mentioned in Mongoose's "Drow War" books (which I do not have). They are described here as being like Nazis. That works for me.  Plus if elves are freedom loving do-gooders (Chaotic Good) then the ultimate expression of evil to them must be an evil, rigid society of absolute laws.  Lolth then needs to be closer to a devil than a demon;  she was a Goddess then was "cast down" by her fellow gods.  That sounds more devil like to me.  Plus unlike demons, which are manifestations of anger, destruction and hate, devils have agendas.  So does Lolth.

So combining features of my "The Church of Lolth Ascendant" and "Going (Up) to Hell?" I think I have a way to work the Drow into my world.

Drow and Lolth in Mystoerth
The story of the fall of Lolth has been detailed by many.  Regardless of the reasons for her fall one thing is known for sure, she and her children the Night Elves were cursed.
The Night Elves were regarded by many to be the most beautiful of the elven races.  They were as Lolth herself was before the fall; described by Corellon as a "piece of pure midnight and her hair reflected the light of the stars above".  When Lolth fell her sons and daughters were cast out as well (Well there was that business with the Elven Civil War, but that is another lesson).  They resided in a place they called "The Abyss" and it eventually became known as the Demon-Web as Lolth's new form attracted spiders and arachnids of all sorts.
While the Church of Lolth Ascendant maintains that their Goddess awaits only the chance to reunite with the other Elven Gods, the Drow, as the Night Elves became to be known, decided that the only means of reunification was by violent take over to the point of killing all the other elven races.  For this they train. Their society is everything elven society is not.  Elves are free with equality to all; all drow are slaves to the hierarchy or cast above them, with the priestesshood of Lolth at the top.  Drow males are second class citizens, a concept most elves can't understand.  But like their cousins above Drow excel at magic.  Maybe they are even a little better.

Lolth does not reside in the Abyss.  That was an error from a mistranslated document.   Lolth resides on the first layer of Hell.  Here lair is still called the Demon Web and she does have some demons in her employ, but Lolth herself is not a demon but a fallen Goddess.  This makes her closer in nature to the Devils whose prison she shares.  In Dante's Inferno Lolth occupies the area of Pagans.  As can be expected she has great enmity  with Beelzebub, the Lord of Flies.  She is on well enough terms with Glassya, having supported her rise to power, but Lolth maintains her neutrality and her own agendas.

The Drow
The Drow of the underdark live close, not just in word but in relative proximity, to their Goddess.  With the Underdark as the Antechamber to Hell, the Drow are as cast out as race as one could hope to find.  Due to their prolonged sojourn in the darkest places of the world their one dark skin is now pale.  Some Drow are nearly white and others maintain a pale blue coloration.. Oddly enough it is Drow that make regular trips to the surface world that find their natural coloration returning.    These are the Drow that most surface dwellers are most common with.  It is no coincidence then that surface dwellers and Drow have prejudices regarding Drow skin color.  Surface dwellers see a dark skinned Drow and automatically think "evil elf".  While a Drow associate the darker color with a Drow that has become more "surface" or "elf" like and thus "good".
All Drow are born darker in color, but still no where near what their Night Elf ancestors looked like.  As they age their skill becomes more and more pale.  Since like elves they tend to alway look young the one true way to guess a Drow's age is to look at her skin.  The lighter the skin the older and usually the more evil the Drow.
Generally speaking Drow are smaller than elves or humans.  Shorter, smaller build.

Drow and Evil
Drow are completely lawful evil.  But they do not see themselves as being evil.  They are harsh because the survival of their race demands it.  There are rules and hierarchies because they live in a harsh, deadly environment.  The pogroms and breeding programs are in place for the good of the Drow species.  They are doing what they must do to survive.  They survive because they demand revenge on the wrongs committed on them by the elves. Killing a non-Drow is not a crime.  Killing a lower caste Drow is not a crime IF there is reason for it, but even the lowest Drow is more worthy of life than any elf.  Drow do not ally themselves with orcs under any circumstance.  They will work with like minded evil dwarf races, devils, demons or giants but Drow do not have allies, they have servants and minions.
Their ultimate goal is to retake the surface world from the elves killing them all (they are no longer satisfied with mere reunification). This way the gods would have to take them back as the only elven race.
Though there is something standing in their way and they are not quite sure how to deal with it. Humans.

So that's a start on my little pointy eared, underdark Nazis.

Gods, Demigods and Heroes

I have been thinking about Gods and the like in my games for some time now.  Now that I am going to be playing Pathfinder as well as 4e I thought I would look into some gods for my Mystoerth world.

Now Mystara didn't have gods, but Greyhawk does and so do all the other worlds I am using here.
A few I know I am going to use and where they all fit.

Gods
Ancient beings of great power.  The next generation after the Titans and Primordials.  Gods differ from humans and the others in many respects.  Gods can have Aspects and Avatars, which are semi-independent versions of themselves that can interact in the world.  Demons and Devils can have Aspects too, but generally only one at a time and for them it is more like Astral Projection.
Gods also have the power of creation.  They created their specific races, or the lands, or even the world.

Bahmut and Tiamat -Bahmut (and his Dragonlance cousin Paladine) has become the god of Lawful Good paladins since the 3.0 days.  This is only reinforced in 4.0.  Plus he is a very D&;D god, with ties back to the first Monster Manual and featured in the Dragonlance sagas.

Tiamat is a given for the same reasons, but she was also a god in myth in her own right.  Though given that in Babylonian myth she was the god of Chaos, I would change her alignment from LE to CE and put her in the Abyss.  In fact the Abyss is there there because she was tossed into it.


 Sehanine / Selûne / Shar - Three aspects of the same moon goddess. Represent the Maiden, Mother and Crone aspects of the Triple Goddess. Neutral.

Wee Jas - Goddess of Magic and Death. The Witch Queen.  Worshiped by the Suel. Mix in bits of Hecate, Cardea, Isis and Mystra to her.  Her student was Ioun.  LN.

Others
Bast Egyptian - Goddess of Cats and the hunt. CG
Blibdoolpoolp (Greyhawk) - Goddess of the Kuo-toa and other deep see nasties. Maybe a daughter of Dagon and consort of Demogorgon (ick). CE
Camazotz (Aztec) - the Bat God, I like having him as the god Vampires too, great rivalry exists between him and Orcus. Camazorz doesn't control vampires, but some vampires and vampire cult pay him homage. CE
Celestian (Greyhawk)-  God of the stars.  Have to include him. Neutral
Corellon - God of Elves.
Gruumsh - God of Orcs. Neutral Evil.
Istus (Greyhawk) - Goddess of Fate. Neutral
Lovitar (Realms/Finnish) - Everyone needs a crazy S&M chick.
Set - God of Evil.
Surtur - Fire Giants and Thrym - Frost Giants, both from Norse myth, but folded into the D&D myths.
Vaprak, the Destroyer - God of Trolls and Ogres. Though I have considered having this just be an aspect of Demogorgon.

I plan to use Earth myths when I can.  For example my Desert Elves worship elven versions of the Egyptian Pantheon.  Isis is an elf, but Set is human since according to these elves humans are the greatest evils in the world.

Devils
The new editions of D&D (3.x, Pathfinder and 4) have Asmodeus listed as a god.  Now I have no issues with that per se.  I even think the back story of Asmodeus rising to power that started with the Dragon Mag article "Politics of Hell", on through the Blood War stuff and finally his triumph at becoming a Dark God is an interesting one.  But it does't work for me.   See I would rather set Devils up as the alternatives to Gods.  The devils temp mortals away from the "proper" religions to worship them.  Why would a mortal worship a lesser beign like a Devil?  Simple, the devils provide a quick avenue to power.  Gods, even evil ones, require faith and worship and service, the rewards then are given based on that faith.  Devils tell the mortals "hey, why do all that work when you can work with us and get all those benefits now."  Devils also side with mortals against the Gods.  They will remind mortals that the Gods have it easy while they work and toil.  They even try to promote kinship, "hey the Gods cast us out, so we are on your side."  Of course these are all lies, but situated in enough truth that mortals keep falling for them.   Asmodeus then is not a Dark God, but the most power Arch Duke there is and his power is equal to that of a god or goddess.  The Devils will even point out that one of their own rose to such power that is should be possible for everyone to do it.
The devils now have moved beyond the "Blood War" of 2nd ed and are now going to engage in a "Gods War" with the battlefield the mortal realms.  I think a good story for the PCs would be to become part of this "Gods War".  I alluded to it a little in my Buffy adventure, The Dragon and the Phoenix.
Afterall what would be more climatic than all the heroes, each representing their God, on the field of battle against the greatest foe in humanity.    I might drop my "Vs. Orcus" idea for this instead.

Demons
The Abyss is the sewer of the multi-cosm.  Everything that gets flushed, thrown out, discarded and forgotten ends up here.  Of courses there were plenty of things here to start with.  Demons are legion.  There are thousands of types, races, and varieties.  Some, like Orcus, are "dead" Gods.  Others, like Demogorogn, used to be Titans.   Others still are cast out gods (not sent to Hell), forgotten powers or even monsters that have become very, very powerful.  There are even ones that were spawned by the Abyss itself.  If the ultimate purpose of the Devils is the destruction of all the Gods, then for Demons it is just destruction.
The Blood War, the war between the Demons and the Devils, was a minor skirmish in the long range plans of the Devils.  In fact prior to the Blood Wars, demons and devils had been on working terms.  The devils would often use demons as grunts in their battles.  This went on for so long that some species of demon were once considered to be devils and visa-versa.   Graz'zt, the Demon lord, had been an Duke of Hell, till he went native.  Succubi are constantly switching allegiances between demons and devils that they are difficult to properly classify.

Demogorgon - Older than the gods.  A Titan that has become more demonlike.  Hates Orcus.  Only worshiped by non-humans and insane cultists.  Just wants to destroy everything. CE.

Jubilex - Demon lord of slimes.  Created from the Abyss itself.  It is as if all the waste and runoff of the Abyss collected into a conscious form.  Deeply, deeply insane.  Wants the entire multcosm covered in acidic slime.

Orcus - Was a god, then demonized, killed, came back as undead, became a demon again.  GEnerally just an angry dude.  Hates undead, but hates them less than he hates everything else.  Wants to become the God of the Dead.  CE.

Primordials and Titans
Like in Greek myths, the Titans were the "parents" of the Gods.   Some gods from other games might end up here.  I prefer to figure these out as I need them.  The Scarred Lands books from Sword and Sorcery Studios were good for this concept as well.  They had a lot of interesting titans.  Theirs though were outright evil, I prefer to have my titans more uncaring about humans.  The world was theirs, now it isn't anymore and they are not happy about it.  Most of the titans are dead, others are imprisoned or converted to demons.

Primordials came even before the Titans and represent raw nature or natural aspects of the world.  Earth, Sky, Night, Death.  These things are hard to personify into human terms so Primordials are not really like the gods or titans at all.  Primordials do not care about worship or humans although some are aware of such actions.  In some cases my "Titans" are what other games "Primordials" are and my Primordials are something different.

Mad Gods
Have to include these. Things like Leviathan, Cthulhu and the rest certainly will have a place in my game.

For me Gods need to be complicated.  The characters live in a world where they can travel to the planes, commune or other wise get "evidence" for their faith.  I think I might make this a bit tougher is some cases and even out right prohibit in others.

Taking a new path

So. I had a plan. It was a good plan as far as these things go. That is till my regular DM decided to do something unexpected.

We have a few games going, I have one with my kids (3.x), he has one with his (4.0), we have one together with some friends (4.0) and one with both families (4.0).   I was going to finish out my game with my boys and start up a 4.0 game with them to go through all the classic modules.

That is till last night.  Turns out that my DM now wants to use Pathfinder.

Now don't get me wrong, I like Pathfinder, it is a nice book and really a good looking game.  I also happen to think that there is some life left in the D&D 3.x game too.  But this does mess up my master plan. ;)

We were talking today about what adventures he wants to do with this group (him, his three boys, me and my two) and it was very, very similar to my plan I had for 4th Ed.

Last night I was less than thrilled about "going back" to 3.x, but today I am actually quite excited about it.

I have been on Paizo's website and there is a ton of fun stuff there. And the Pathfinder stuff is compatible with all my other 3.x stuff.   Plus I am going to get to play their witch (which is not exactly like mine for 3.x, but close enough).  So this could be very fun to be honest.  I can still use all my 4.0 stuff with my boys, I just might need a new plan on adventures.

So it looks like I'll be playing D&D 4.0 AND Pathfinder/D&D 3.65 (or something like that).
Anyone else playing Pathfinder? Any tips or advice?

Yamil Zacra: The Infernal Star

I have been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft since high school.  I like his works as much as the next gamer/horror geek (which is to say, a lot), but it was a chance discovery in my college library one day that I happened on a collection of unfinished stories by Clark Ashton Smith.  I had known of CAS for a long time.  I knew he was a friend of HPL and the D&D module X2: Castle Amber, was a pastiche of his ideas.   One story in this collection of unfinished tales was The Infernal Star, a story of a evil star.


Accursed forevermore is Yamil Zacra, star of perdition, who sitteth apart and weaveth the web of his rays like a spider spinning in a garden. Even as far as the light of Yamil Zacra falleth among the worlds, so goeth forth the bane and the bale thereof. And the seed of Yamil Zacra, like a fiery tare, is sown in planets that know him only as the least of the stars .... -Fragment of a Hyperborean tablet.

This story grabbed a hold of my imagination and never really let go.  I could never find that book again in the library, despite my best efforts at looking.  But a couple of years ago I discovered the story online at Eldritch Dark, a CAS devoted website.
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/101/the-infernal-star-%28fragment%29

This dredged up another half-forgotten memory of Nemesis, the hypothetical red- or brown-dwarf star that obits our sun.  The theory is that Nemesis causes extinction events about 26 million years or so.  The two certainly could be one and the same in a near-apocalyptic game.

Yamil Zacra: The Infernal Star
Somewhere between the stars Polaris and the acknowledged evil star Agol, lies a star nearly invisible to the naked eye; but a star whose ill light shines on Earth still.
The star, Yamil Zacra and it's darker, smaller companion Yuzh, though were once worshipped as evil gods by the Hyboreans and the twisted sorcerers of Mu. Astrologers say that it's foul light was visible when Atlantis sank and the contents moved. In the far future, when many stars have burned out their fuel, they will again be honored by the fell Necromancers of the last continent of Zothique when the Earth is dying.
The ancient Hyboreans believed that this evil star bore the seeds in which all foul magics have grown. That the greatest and most terrible of witches, necromancers and foul wizards were born under it's light.
These magics may be realized when certain amulets of black extraterrestrial metal are grafted into the skin, most often the chest, of those willing. These amulets fell to Earth in ancient times were from the solitary planetary body of Yamil Zacra, a twisted world know as Pnidleethon.

Once in the possession of one of these amulets the dreams of Pnidleethon and Yamil Zacra begin including the means to travel to this chthonic world. When the amulet is finally embedded into the prospective student's chest he forfeits forever his soul and Earthly shell in favor for a form to travel the distances across cold space to the immense world of Pnidleethon.

The scene of these latter dreams was not the Earth, but an immense planet revolving around the sun Yamil Zacra and its dark companion, Yuzh. The name of the world was Pnidleethon. It was a place of exuberant evil life, and its very poles were tropically fertile; and the lowliest of its people was more learned in wizardry, and mightier in necromancy, than the greatest of terrene sorcerers. How he had arrived there, the dreamer did not know, for he was faint and blinded with the glory of Yamil Zacra, burning in mid-heaven with insupportable whiteness beside the blackly flaming orb of Yuzh. He knew, however, that in Pnidleethon he was no longer the master of evil he had been on Earth, but was an humble neophyte who sought admission to a dark hierarchy. As a proof of his fitness, he was to undergo tremendous ordeals, and tests of unimaginable fire and night.

Yamil Zacra in WitchCraft/Buffy/Ghosts of Albion
It is rumored that the possession of such an amulet will increase one's magical energies ten-fold. In game terms increase the character's Sorcery/Magic by +10 or increase their Essence 10 times. While this seems to be great remember at this time there are only two amulets left in the world and the user forfeits their own soul for this power. The soul is not given to some demon or even otherworldly god, but it is consumed whole.

In the Armageddon game I would have Yamil Zacra appear in the nigh sky, a brownish-red blotch on the night sky.  It casts no light, save for those already under Leviathan's influence, but everyone can feel it's heat.

Yamil Zacra in All Tomorrow's Zombies In the present day it is difficult to travel to Yamil Zacra and Pnidleethon other than by eldritch or sorcererous means. But in the future worlds of ATZ such an expedition to a planet that is seemingly dead is different sort of tale.

Option 1: The planet is dead. The crew lands on a planet where there had once been a great, if evil, civilization. Yet something is still out there in the dark picking off the cast one by one. It's Cthulhu meets Aliens, or "Journey To The Seventh Planet" with less suck.

Option 2: The planet is alive. Here the civilization of seemingly advanced humans still thrives. But the cast is trapped. Think of the song Hotel California and apply it to the entire planet. Or, Planet Ravenloft.
Escaping in either case is the goal, the means in each option differ. In Option 1 it is just get back to the ship before you all die. In Option 2 it is figure out how to get back to the ship and get out.

Yamil Zacra in D&D4
Obviously one of the dread and fell stars that grant warlocks their power.

More Revelations of Melech
Yamil Zacra: When civilizations fall, it is the light of Yamil Zacra that falls on them. It is a dark red star barely seen by mortals, those that can see it know it is a portent of doom.

Level 23 Encounter Spell
The Doom of Yamil Zacra                                        Warlock Attack 23
For brief, horrible moment the light of Yamil Zacra shine on your enemy, revealing the doom that must come to all.
Encounter ✦ Arcane, Radiant, Fear, Implement
Standard Action                                                            Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 4d8 + Constitution modifier Radiant damage, and the target grants combat advantage to all your allies until the end of your next turn.
    Star Pact: If this attack hits, the target takes a penalty to Will equal to your Intelligence modifier until the end of your next turn.
    Infernal Pact: If this attack hits, target also takes Fire damage equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Monks come from Blackmoor, part 2

So reflecting on my previous post, Monks come from Blackmoor, I went back and looked over my new (new as of Gen Con) 4e Blackmoor book.  Right there, just as I remembered was the Mystic.  Not what I liked about this Mystic class is it reminded me so much of the old D&D Rules Cyclopedia Mystic.  I am not sure how they stack up against the official 4e Monks, but right now that doesn't matter much to me since these Mystic look like they fit the bill I want as is, right now.  So well in fact I am going over my 4e Blackmoor book with a renewed interest.

Their power source is "Spiritual" rather than "Psychic", but that could just be splitting hairs.  The effect is largely the same for my use.  Though Spiritual is a bit better sounding for what I want to do with them.

They do compare well to some of the other 3rd party monk classes I have seen for 4e, so I Am inclined to say, balance or not, they are roughly compatible with the 4e monks.

Given the roots that Blackmoor share with Mystara I might even go out on a limb here and say Blackmoor has no clerics in the traditional sense.  The people of Blackmoor worship, or at least honor, immortals.  They are not gods and don't grant spells.  Clerics, normally the healers of a group, can be replaced by nobles  who have healing powers and the wokan who also have healing powers and herbalism.  This is not really a big issue as one might think.  D&D4 is using the paths to immortality that was fairly common in Basic D&D and with the Leader roll and everyone having access to healing now, the cleric can be left be things other than the party medic.  Nobles then could gain this as part of their background fluff.  They are trained as both healer and soldier. This also gives the the Nobel class something to do. The hands of the king are the hands of the healer anyone? The msytic/monk then can focus on the spiritual aspects of life.

The people then of Blackmoor do not believe in gods per se. They know their are supper powerful beings out there, but they are hardly owed worship.  Honor in some cases yes, for their deeds, not their words.

I like this idea to be honest with you. Sets up a very different sort of culture for Blackmoor and I like that.

My game world is taking shape.

Ansalon: Terra Incognita?

My son is starting to read the "Gold Dragon Codex" from Mirrorstone books.  These are YA titles that are connected to the "Complete Guide to Dragons" the Mirrorstone/Wizards of the Coast has produced.  Basically they are YA D&D novels, but not overtly so.   Well I was flipping through it and I noticed that the map of area they were set in was Ansalon. I thought this was very cool to be honest.
It got me thinking about Mystoerth.  There is a area on the map that I have always wanted to put a Terra Incognita/a lost missing land.  I have roughly 2,000 miles east west and the same north south to play with.  Well that sounds perfect to fit Ansalon in.

Like many in my age group I read the Dragonlance novels and enjoyed them.  I read the second trilogy and enjoyed that one too.  I had some of the Dragonlance game books but it was never a world I spent much time in, but gladly used all sorts of things from it (like their elves, ideas on dragons, gods, having three moons).  When 3.x came around I looked at the Dragonlance stuff again and liked it in a whole different way.

Now the nice thing is Ansalon can fit in my little used southern region of my map.  It's not too big so I am not worried about it fitting.  It's far enough away that I can say that there has been no contact between the other continents for long enough to make it work for me.  A quick edit with Photoshop and I am sure it will fit nice.

But here is the question.  Am I giving up on the uniqueness of the land by just making it another continent?  Can the stories I want to tell still be done if for example I am missing Taladas?

So now my world has Blackmoor, Mystara, Greyhawk and  now Dragonlance.  Not too bad really.

Going (Up) to Hell? Cosmology

I was reading a very interesting post by Mike Mearls the other day about dropping the structure of the planes in favor of something more local. Read his post here, http://kotgl.blogspot.com/2010/01/kill-planes-abyss.html.

Ok? good.

I think his reasons of course are sound and fit nicely with something I have wanted to do forever. When I first picked up that 1^st Ed copy of Deities and Demigods I loved the Planes. It had so many interesting places and so many things to do. I got very attached to the Great Wheel cosmology that I began to evaluate fantasy and later horror on how closely it fit that model. Then I began to get lazy. Not in the sense that would not write, quite the opposite, I would come up with elaborate schemes to make things fit the model or not. Whether it needed to or not. Even in my AD&D Grand Opus Adventure the characters went to Hell to confront the evils that invaded their world there was still the Great Wheel. It worked, then, but now I feel it's limitations. Well along came 3^rd Edition and suddenly the planes are mutable, changing and even expected to be different depending on how you look at them; 4E changes this even more.

Mike Mearls mentions in his blog that one of the issues of the planes being "out there" that they lose some of their value. History tells us that demons, devils and other bad things came from under-ground, or beyond that mountain or from across the sea; here there be monsters. Monsters come from "beyond the sky" in Lovecraft related fiction, which is fine for tentacle horrors, but devils at least are concerned with the same things humans are. Devils need to be close. They need to be something the common man, woman and child fears. Not just because they are evil, but because they are nearby.

Mike says move the Abyss to your world, I say move Hell.

Hell in 4e now seems to be a planet floating somewhere in the Astral Sea. This puts it on par with everything else, even Heaven. Now I am not a religious person, but doesn't Hell lose some of what makes it Hell if it just a planet with bad environmental conditions? They describe it as planet some 7,000 miles in diameter with the "layers" lower and lower subterranean continent sized caverns. Like Mearls, I say take all that and shove it inside your world. Drill down a few hundred miles and there is the entry way to Hell. Just like Dante described. What keeps the devils in? Same thing that keeps them there now, gates. Like the roach motel it is, it is easy to get, impossible to get out. Or nearly such. Of course the point between the Underdark and Abyss sharing a nature is sound, I think I can get the same thing with the Nine Hells really. In fact I might even make Lolth more like a devil (she is more devil like than demon like anyway) given her status as former Goddess, cast out and down. Sound familiar? It certainly fits with what Hell is supposed to be better, an underground dungeon for the damned. The Abyss is a maelstrom of evil and chaos, it fits better in the planes.
Of course this is not without issues. First, and the one that concerns multi-versal games the most, is that Hell inside a planet means that for every copy/twin/multiverse that planet is in there is a corresponding Hell. This might be fine really. I don't care for some of the changes made to some of the Arch Dukes in the last few books (3 & 4), but I can write that off as that is just the way things are in that universe. Which is something we all do anyway, I am just making it explicit. Of course the new 4e cosmology also gives us the Shadowfell and the Feywild, which I like, but if they are dark and twisted reflections of our own world then what about the Hell for those worlds? I say that their Hells are ours. That if you drill down in the Shadowfell you end up in the same Hell as if you did it in the Feywild or the campaign world.
Back in the day there was a great series of Dragon articles about the various Arch Dukes and Dukes of Hell. The article began with a bit of fiction about a Paladin (a holy warrior for good) marching on to Hell to defeat evil at the source. This scene works better today than it even did then with Devils now generally evil rather than exclusively "Lawful Evil". And it works better if the Paladin is marching to Hell, not paying a wizard for an Astral Projection spell.

Sure *where* it is physically located might mean little to PCs and DMs with access to magical means of travel, but the world should make sense to normal people too. What is there to fear about a creature, evil and immortal or not, if it takes a great amount of magic to get them here.

Gygax was a reader of Dante, Milton and of Ovid. These authors, as much as anything and maybe more so, shaped what we think of when we think of Hell. "Planet Hell" inside the Earth/World then fits very well with all these writers. More than a plane "out there" somewhere. Which does bring up an interesting point. Here is a quote from Milton's "Paradise Lost",

"Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon."

— John Milton, Paradise Lost II. 966.

So. Lucifer is cast out of Heaven and down into Hell, he meets up with these demons in some…what, ante-chamber of Hell, a place where Chaos rules with Night. Sounds like the Abyss, but where is that again? I have often wanted to merge Hell and they Abyss into one place where demons are the masses of creatures and devil are the upper-class. If I put Hell inside my world (or the Abyss like Mearls) then do I have room for both? Do I need both? Are they the same thing with different names? Then there are other issues I have avoided because of the aforementioned laziness. Tiamat is described in myth as "chaos" and her body is destroyed to make the firmament of the Earth. But then she gets tossed into Hell? Sure, it fits the outcast god model, but Tiamat is chaos. Lilith is also cast out, but she wants order, her own order, but order all the same; at least that is how I read it. Grazzt looks like a Devil, but is a Demon or maybe he is not. And there is the bit from Milton. So what is a world builder to do? And where is this antechamber of Hell were Demogorgon and Orcus act as the Welcome Wagon for Lucifer and the cast out Angels, now Devils? Hell has the River Styx, where the souls of the dead are ferried across, but now the souls of the dead move through the Shadowfell. This makes me want to break out the WitchCraft RPG seprioths and see if I can't make it all work.

Well here is my stab at it. The Antechamber is of course the Underdark. It is hundreds of miles below the surface of the planet. Here in the deepest pit was where the fallen angels were cast. It is here that they meet the demons. There is a great battle, Orcus (then a dark god) is killed only to come back from the dead, Demogorgon has his head cleaved in half (to regrow as two heads) and Ades…well that was the last anyone heard of him. The devils (as they are now known) take the realm once controlled by demons. Once there though the devils discover that Hell is not the home of the demons, it was only the realm they could control this close to the world. The devils seal the opening to the Abyss, place Tiamat there to guard against demonic entry and the devils themselves descend lower into Hell. Physically the Abyss and Hell (and Tarterus and Pluton and Gehenna) are all the same place locked deep within the Earth in a area were the Prime Material, Shadowfell and Feywild all intersect. The nine layers controlled by the Arch Dukes and Devils is known as Hell. Everything else is simply "The Underworld". The conditions are, well Hellish, it is inside a planet afterall, but great and powerful magics keep the denizens alive, though it warps other magic and prevents them from escaping. The areas known as the Abyss are open and there is much fighting, the area known as Hell is gated. It is supposed to be a prison after all.

At the bottom there is a dark chasm who feeds into the elemental chaos. I like the description of the Abyss in the new Manual of the Planes, it makes it sound like a black hole in the Astral.

It needs some work to be sure. Demons, like Demogorgon, Orcus, Pazuzu and others have more interest in human affairs than the mindless hoards of demons because they are more devil like, and thus, more human like. Older demons such as Dagon are more elemental chaos. Even Tiamat now is more demonic than diabolic. This helps explain the Bloodwar a bit better, explains the similarity between demons and devils and why in popular parlance (in the world) they are often confused. It also helps explain why some seem to switch sides every now and then. Or simply put, devils are the cast out immortals of good that betrayed or otherwise became evil. Demons always were evil.

Of course I could keep the Abyss as is in 4^th Ed. There are plenty of good reasons to keep it in the elemental chaos in the Astral. Demons are more elemental, more chaotic obviously and more alien. Of "demon" can just be a term to refer to anything that is evil that is not a devil. If I go that route then "Devils" would refer only to the Fallen and things like Ice Devils, Malebranche and the like are demons, just a different kind. After all, Succubi were demons and now they are devils, so it's not like there isn't precedent.
What does removing the demons and devils from the "outer planes" rob us of in D&D? Well, Planescape to a large degree would need to be rethought. To a lesser extent the nature of Tieflings will need to be changed, though maybe not. Typically to get to those outer planes takes characters of some power, so there is the build up to go to their home turf and fight that is now gone; ie. anyone can find the opening to Hell and stumble in.

OR maybe demons come the "Hells" of the Shadowfell and Feywild.

Of course there is one huge advantage of reshaping the planes. I can shape them in a way to work with either my 4^th Ed game or my OSR/Basic game or even something like Ghosts of Albion.

That is the fun thing about fantasy cosmology, it can be a mutable as I need it to be.