Domain of 2009 - Ghastria

[Rotipher of the FoS]

But do we really need an extra dimensional gallery (as opposed to a real one perhaps filled with a hallucigenic airborne drug) and a Marquis with magical transformative powers affording immortality (rather than the elixir of youth being just a useful myth, fostered chiefly by his lack of aging and perhaps as Roti said some effective - and perhaps dangerous - anti-wrinkle cream)?

True, the extradimensional gallery was somewhat over-the-top. It might work better as a Dread Possibility than as an established fact. That way, DMs could choose whether to take Objets d'Art literally in their games, or to retcon that the narrator of the story had been drugged out of his mind at the banquet ... or, perhaps, sucked into the portrait and trapped in an unending oblivion, where his fraying mind makes up bizarre stories that account for his imprisonment.

(FWIW, I have a soft spot for that short story because it contains the first published reference to the Brautslava Institute, as well as to a previous "purge of illusionists" from Darkon's educational system. Yep, it's a veiled link to the in-game Fraternity of Shadows, that pre-dates Domains of Dread by three whole years! )

[InVinoVeritas]

Hello! I'm John Baker. I wrote the Unauthorized Biography, Pigments of Immortality, and Juste Desserts. (I also just finished up the Paridon: The Dark Metropolis online game at ENWorld, starting a new chapter soon, but that's off topic.)

The Unauthorized Biography was my attempt to fill in a number of questions about Ghastria that were not originally satisfied. What happened to the portrait's artist and spellcaster? How does a remote island in a chartless sea have a reputation for the best parties? What are the consequences of having food with no taste? What happens to all the dead bodies?

I felt that D'Polarno was semi-active, fully capable of carrying out anything that did not require nuance, passion, or personality--like the burning of the church in East Riding. I made D'Marosso as his seneschal and main ambassador, so that there was a way of getting his word out into the rest of the world.

Even if Ghastria is bland, it might still be picturesque. Not much to do, but plenty to see. The only "rich" resident is D'Polarno, with everyone else pretty much stuck to farming. A beautiful landscape would make Ghastria a good destination and a great source of inspiration for artists.

The sorceress ghost was another source for me as to why the church was destroyed. She started manifesting and pretending to be a visitation of Ezra--essentially becoming Our Lady of East Riding. D'Polarno had the church destroyed before she gained too much influence in the domain. I've used Our Lady of East Riding as a campaign twist and adventure source, and it's a lot of fun.

I'll add more when I have time. If you have any questions about anything I've written, feel free to ask.

[The Giamarga]

Hi John, good to have you back here for this topic. A few questions for you:

Do you mind if your material gets used/updated/altered in the Ghastria chapter of the next netbook?

Have you had access to the 2 RPGA tournaments featuring Ghastria? If yes, have you incorporated anything from them into your campaign?

One of you player characters happened to be the Marquis' daughter in your Juste Desserts campaign. How would you incorporate it into an article on Ghastria? How did your campaign end? Did the players ever leave Scaena again?

[The Giamarga]

John Baker's "The Unauthorized Biography of the Marquis Stezen D'Polarno" in the Book of Souls. is a must read imho. It's a great article adding lots of detail, ideas and flavour.

Here are a few more fan articles from Alanik Ray's old site that (might) relate to Ghastria, courtesy of the wayback machine:

Portraits of the Darklords by C. Phibbs
Ralpuchio by C. Phipps
Pigments of Immortality by J.M. Baker
Juste Desserts by John M. Baker. (This describes a very interesting campaign set in Ghastria and/or on Scaena - the theater of LeMot Sediam Juste )

As for the incorporation of the short story, i.e. how did the rumour of Polarno having found the secrets of youth start and where do the living paintings come from, check out the following links above for the articles on Ralpuchio and on the Pigments of Immortality.

W.r.t. the Juste Desserts campaign idea: Was Scaena ever updated to 3E anyhwere? How about intertwining it with the Ghastria chapter or having a sidebar about this combination?

[InVinoVeritas]

Juste Desserts was part of a campaign I ran: A Matter of Taste.

The party consisted of native Ghastrians who are suddenly transported to Borca. In Borca, the darklords discover that Ghastrian fare has no flavor, setting off a crazy-complex political game in which the PCs are the pawns caught in the center. Ivana Boritsi wants to plant a poison there that has a horrendously foul taste naturally, in an attempt to mask its flavor. Ivan Dilisnya is delighted to find something, anything that gets around his personal curse--instead of everything tasting ghastly, utterly bland is like heaven to him. However, of course, neither Ivan or Ivana wants the other to succeed--but the PCs are just the people to make sure that they do well.

The PCs do eventually make it out of Scaena--Nahasia utterly refused to step on stage, even when tempted with her dreams come true. Juste tried everything, from having her companions reappear and come off the stage to even having D'Polarno himself come forth, step off the stage, drop the "cold act," and explain with Juste that this was all simply necessary for the "second act" in the story of her life to be so rewarding. She recoiled from the warm, fatherly D'Polarno, declaring it untrue, no matter how pleasing it may seem. Juste howled that she knew nothing about truth, set fire to the theater, and let it burn. The party escaped--onto the streets of Levkarest.

Nahasia was able to escape with her "second act," which promised to tell her of her past and of the wonderful future she would have as the future Marquessa of Ghastria. Although she kept it as her most important treasure through thick and thin, she never read it.

Nahasia was interesting. She was, in fact, found at the church ruins and raised as a ward of D'Polarno. What she didn't know (although Juste figured it out) was that she had been Anneliese's (the sorceress mistress ghost's) daughter, preserved soon after birth by the Pigments of Immortality. Once her painting was found in the church rubble, D'Polarno was using Nahasia to spite Anneliese.

As for updates to my material for the next netbook, please, by all means, go ahead. I enjoy seeing parts of the Unauthorized Biography becoming intertwined with the Ravenloft canon, and I fully hope many others continue to build on what I've written.

It's funny how I never originally used Objets d'Art as source material for Ghastria, but then introduced the Pigments, which perform essentially the same function. The reason I stayed away from the short story is that the material presents a D'Polarno not tied to his own portrait, immortality as the goal for seeking out the Marquis (instead of just great parties), and took the focus off D'Polarno's story and onto the quest for immortality through art. I hadn't heard of A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Necromancer or its sequel at the time, so I hadn't used them. I'm still looking for a copy.

[InVinoVeritas]

So, Ghastria is supposed to be a sort of destination place, while still being relatively uninhabited. Food is not a draw.

The Domains of Dread describe East Riding as four miles inland from a natural harbor. It would make sense for there to be a second village at that harbor (West Riding, perhaps?)

So, the island has some size to it. Although D'Polarno is described in vaguely Mediterranean terms, perhaps it is more Hebridean in character?

Okay, I just got back from a vacation in Scotland.

In any case, perhaps the Isle of Mull would be a suitable place to get an idea on how Ghastria might look. It's small enough not to be overreaching, large enough for the scale, beautiful enough to make it a good destination, and sparsely populated enough to make it fit with previous population estimates. It also has a couple castles that can be used as a basis for Anthrazit Hall, and the nearby island of Iona has a ruined abbey.

[cure]

Discussion of the RPGA adventurer for possible data mining: http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... d1af9d5bee

[The Giamarga]

I hadn't heard of A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Necromancer or its sequel at the time, so I hadn't used them. I'm still looking for a copy.

You and me both. I've looked on ebay for a year or two now and not one of them has surfaced. I have tracked down a few people who have copies, but noone wants to sell. Jim Lowder of course has a copy, as has the user Daisu here on this board and ed healy (ephealy). Frank Mentzer offered one for sale last year on the acaeum, but we never heard back from him. I wonder what a fair price for one of these would be?

[ewancummins]

Ghastria!

The town by the harbor [I'm assuming there should be such]....what about calling it something like Westport? It's plain and simple, but so is East Riding. Maybe East Riding is so called because the eastern end of the island has the best pastures and horses are traditionally raised there. These Ghastrian ponies are smallish horses, but hardy and tractable. They are used as mounts, cart ponies,etc. I'd suggest the Irish Hobby as a model. It's an extinct breed, but there are horses today that carry the old blood:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rider ... _beach.jpg

[Nathan of the FoS]

Ghastria!

The town by the harbor [I'm assuming there should be such]....what about calling it something like Westport? It's plain and simple, but so is East Riding. Maybe East Riding is so called because the eastern end of the island has the best pastures and horses are traditionally raised there. These Ghastrian ponies are smallish horses, but hardy and tractable. They are used as mounts, cart ponies,etc. I'd suggest the Irish Hobby as a model. It's an extinct breed, but there are horses today that carry the old blood:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rider ... _beach.jpg

"Riding" in this context is probably based on the division of Yorkshire into West Riding, East Riding, and North Riding, and means "one third" in that context. So on that basis there should be two counterparts, which wouldn't have to be called "ridings" but could be. So, East Riding, Westport, North Point. Or whatever.

[The Giamarga]

Ah, thanks Nathan. Good advice.

[ewancummins]

Ghastria!

The town by the harbor [I'm assuming there should be such]....what about calling it something like Westport? It's plain and simple, but so is East Riding. Maybe East Riding is so called because the eastern end of the island has the best pastures and horses are traditionally raised there. These Ghastrian ponies are smallish horses, but hardy and tractable. They are used as mounts, cart ponies,etc. I'd suggest the Irish Hobby as a model. It's an extinct breed, but there are horses today that carry the old blood:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rider ... _beach.jpg

"Riding" in this context is probably based on the division of Yorkshire into West Riding, East Riding, and North Riding, and means "one third" in that context. So on that basis there should be two counterparts, which wouldn't have to be called "ridings" but could be. So, East Riding, Westport, North Point. Or whatever.

Ah! Place name fun!


In any case, I humbly suggest we keep the ponies. Just a passing mention of them might be nice. Domains aren't all darklords and dread possibilities- a little local color goes a long way.

[The Giamarga]

Here's a great post from days past on Stezen & Gastria by John Baker:

Ghastria? Did someone say Ghastria?

As some members of the list know, I've been one of Ghastria's biggest fans. I've tried to come up with ways to include Ghastria in my campaigns, stories, etc. I'd like to share some of my thoughts about it here, and get some input from Ghastria's creator, Mr. Lowder, who I'm really glad to have joined the list! I've always enjoyed your work, Mr. Lowder, and look forward to seeing more of it.

I'd also like to pick your brain about your thoughts that went into the creation of Ghastria. Stezen D'Polarno seems to contain elements of both the Marquis de Sade and Dorian Gray. Is this what you were thinking? Were there any other literary references you had?

I do have a very crude sketch of some of my ideas in the expansion of Ghastria, which can be read in the "Unauthorized Biography of the Marquis Stezen D'Polarno" in the first netbook. Admittedly, it's little more than a skeleton, and it's poorly presented, but it lines up some of the ideas I had for the place.

Firstly, there's the issue of the change in location. Ghastria used to be connected by land to the Core, but it's now an island in the Sea of Sorrows. I assumed this means that the traffic to Ghastria is considerably less nowadays, greatly annoying D'Polarno. Even art's major patrons would be put off by a trip to Ghastria nowadays--can you even find the place? As a "consolation prize" for D'Polarno, IMC I gave him the power to see through the eyes and hear through the ears of any painting in Ghastria. As you can guess, D'Polarno remains a great patron of the arts.

In addition, the earlier border closing of huge paintings made sense while Ghastria was landlocked, but it makes considerably less sense now that the place is an island. There's a lot less one can do with a painting in the water than a painting of the land. Perhaps this should change? I suggest that anyone reaching the closed border suddenly gets a change of heart. He or she no longer sees any purpose in continuing, and simply stays in Ghastria because the drive to leave has dissipated. Any other ideas?

Also, I wanted to examine the reason D'Polarno burned down the church and slaughtered the clerics there. Since D'Polarno likes to keep the happiness of the people, such an action would have to be weighed against the resentment destroying East Riding's only church would cause. I decided to tie this in to D'Polarno's earlier curse of his soul in the painting. His soul was trapped by his king's mistress at the king's request. So, we have this majorly powerful mage who sees fit to increase her power base by sleeping with the king. She's clearly a good candidate for being in Ravenloft with D'Polarno. So, I had her killed at about the same time as when the remaining royal court was killed, and had her rise as a ghost. She had been leading the local clerics of the church to move against D'Polarno, but he caught wind of the plot and destroyed the church before she could have any effect.

Now with the development on the Church of Ezra, I've thought about taking this to a new level. I have a story idea where a band of Borcan merchants from Ivana Boritsi approach D'Polarno, asking for permission to grow a specific poisonous herb in Ghastrian soil so as to mask its otherwise putrid flavor. However, one or two of the merchants are actually working for Ivan Dilisnya, who would like to purchase Ghastrian produce (figuring no flavor is better than a bad flavor) and also make sure that Ivana's agricultural plans are ruined.

As the intrigue surrounding the deals grow, a direct representative of the Church of Ezra examines the ruins of the temple of East Riding. Here, he comes across the ghost of the mistress, who through cunning discovers the existence and purpose of the Church of Ezra, and convinces the cleric that she in fact is a vision of Ezra.

I'm not entirely sure I know where I want to take the story, but does anyone have any thoughts about it?

John Baker

And here are some of the aswers to it:

>I suggest that anyone reaching the closed border suddenly gets a change of
>heart. He or she no longer sees any purpose in continuing, and simply stays
>in Ghastria because the drive to leave has dissipated. Any other ideas?

I think that if played properly, this could be one of the best border closures yet.

>As the intrigue surrounding the deals grow, a direct representative of the
>Church of Ezra examines the ruins of the temple of East Riding. Here, he
>comes across the ghost of the mistress, who through cunning discovers the
>existence and purpose of the Church of Ezra, and convinces the cleric that
>she in fact is a vision of Ezra.

I'd just like to say that I like DLs to have an adversary like this. I believe that it adds dimension to the game. Some, like the Aderres, Ivan and Ivana, Mordenheim and Adam, etc., are like co-DLs, but I don't think this is necessary or wise to do it often. Instead, just have some hard-to-fight nemesis, such as with Dominic and the Living Brain. Could you post some stats for this ghost?

Matthew Barrett

<<Stezen D'Polarno seems to contain elements of both the Marquis de Sade and Dorian Gray. Is this what you were thinking? Were there any other literary references you had?>>

Those were the main two archetypes, more de Sade than Dorian Gray.

<<Firstly, there's the issue of the change in location. Ghastria used to be connected by land to the Core, but it's now an island in the Sea of Sorrows. I assumed this means that the traffic to Ghastria is considerably less nowadays, greatly annoying D'Polarno. Even art's major patrons would be put off by a trip to Ghastria nowadays--can you even find the place? As a "consolation prize" for D'Polarno, IMC I gave him the power to see through the eyes and hear through the ears of any painting in Ghastria. As you can guess, D'Polarno remains a great patron of the arts.>>

Nice idea. It's a solid expansion of the character's "hook." In terms of game mechanics, though, would there be a limit on types of paintings? Would kiddie finger paints count?

<<In addition, the earlier border closing of huge paintings made sense while Ghastria was landlocked, but it makes considerably less sense now that the place is an island. There's a lot less one can do with a painting in the water than a painting of the land.>>

I'd still think the border closing would have to tie to art and painting. That's integral to Stezen's character.

<<Also, I wanted to examine the reason D'Polarno burned down the church and slaughtered the clerics there. Since D'Polarno likes to keep the happiness of the people, such an action would have to be weighed against the resentment destroying East Riding's only church would cause.>>

Unless, of course, he could convince the people the church was really hurting them. The victor writes the history.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

I think if you want to replace the border closing of the "wall of paintings" try this...let the landscape around the PCs gradually change into something more surreal, like a Salvador Dali painting. Then as they advance the landscape becomes less and less real, and the PCs realize that THEY are changing as well, becoming painted figures or other works of art! This continues until they return to Ghastria.

-Andrew Hauptman <:-(}

> Then as they advance the
> landscape becomes less and less real, and the PCs realize that THEY are
> changing as well, becoming painted figures or other works of art!
>
A nice thought. Certainly in keeping with my idea for Stezen's land. In
the second RL tourney I wrote set in Ghastria, something like this
happens to the PCs. They end up inside the "art dimension" as stick
figures and sort of work their way back from there.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

This of course refers to the second RPGA tournament "The Return of Stezen D'Polarno: A portrait of the artist as a young necromancer". Now that I think about it, the title probably refers to the name of Stezen's self portrait ! :shock: I really need to get my hands on this tournament...

James Lowder wrote:

>> IMC I gave him the power to see through
>>the eyes and hear through the ears of any painting in Ghastria. As you
>>can guess, D'Polarno remains a great patron of the arts.
>
>Nice idea. It's a solid expansion of the character's "hook." In terms of
>game mechanics, though, would there be a limit on types of paintings?
>Would kiddie finger paints count?
>
DebiHuman had my idea right. Stezen can see through the painted eyes and the hear through the painted ears of every painting. So, a child's finger painting counts, as long as it has eyes and ears. I think it adds to the horror, since a pure innocent can easily open a door for Stezen this way.
This makes him more inclined to support portrait painting, but since there
were very few landscape paintings without some human/animal/otherworldly interaction during the Renaissance, that shouldn't be much of a stretch.
Perhaps Stezen does not like still life?

>>In addition, the earlier border closing of huge paintings made sense
>>while Ghastria was landlocked, but it makes considerably less sense now
>>that the place is an island. There's a lot less one can do with a painting
>>in the water than a painting of the land.
>
>I'd still think the border closing would have to tie to art and
>painting. That's integral to Stezen's character.
>
I did like the idea that anyone who ventures forward finds themselves moving
into a painting world. I'll probably adopt that in my campaign as well.
So, you wrote two tournaments set in Ghastria? What were they like? When
were they performed?

Perhaps this means Stezen keeps a number of paintings of ships in his
gallery now?

John Baker

I haven't really read much up on Stezen and Ghastria, but from what
I've heard this is a little twist that might be interesting.

When a character attempts to cross the border while Stezen has closed
the borders, they get the sudden urge to start painting, even if they
have never attempted it before. The character crossing the border will
turn back around, and sit down at an easel that just appeared, and will
become so involved in his painting that he won't realize that he is no
longer near the border anymore, but in some other location in the
domain. Of course the personality of the character will influence how
the painting will turn out, such as a berserker will paint pictures
that has no actual form, yet when you look at it, you can see the
wildness contained within. Even better than just being moved to
another area of the domain, the character will want to travel back to
the town, to display his portrait (at which time he is no longer under
the effects of the border closure).


Well, what do you think ?



===
Lord Korath,
Knight of the Rose

<<Well, what do you think ?>>

Some nifty idea there, but I would have the paintings not just
indicative of the PCs personality, but somehow damaging or dangerous.
Sort of like the people singing their sins when Soth closes the border
of Sithicus.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

I think an important consideration for this whole border-closing
thing is that Ghastria is an island in the Sea of Sorrows now. Depending on
where the border actually closes, this means that the seashore might have
many artists, or that the yen for art occurs after everyone's on a boat.

I personally prefer the border closing to occur a slight distance out from
the shore, so that people on a boat moored just offshore would still be in
Ghastria, not the Sea of Sorrows. What would happen on the outside of
Ghastria? The simple solution is that no one could find Ghastria while
the borders were closed. I could even imagine a boat approaching Ghastria
might see it disappear if the borders them closed. However, I don't want
the closing to conflict too much with the fact that the borders will be
in the water.

Here's a suggestion, combining the ideas of the other listmembers:

As a boat reaches the closed border, their perceptions change slightly.
Colors appear vibrant, edges run into each other more, and the water takes
on a very paint-like quality. If the ship continues, its crew notices that
it changes, too. Their lines become less crisp, and their hues change.
The crew starts transforming to reflect their inner natures. Simpler,
more one-dimensional characters lose considerable visual complexity. People
appear to give in to their basal natures. Assuming the ship still wishes
to continue, the world becomes more flat. Depth perception disppears, and
the world takes on a "woven" appearance, with fibers extending horizontally
and vertically. If by then the ship is foolish enough to continue, everything
slows to an eventual stop, and the ship becomes a new painting for Stezen's
gallery, with everyone aboard represented by their allegorical image.

Thoughts?

John Baker

[Rotipher of the FoS]

With regards to the burning of the church, it occurs to me that there's no reason to assume d'Polarno wasn't justified in doing so. Even in a place as small as Ghastria, the darklord doesn't have to be the bad guy in every situation; if the priests were actually guilty of something very bad indeed -- something which even Stezen couldn't tolerate, if only due to the threat posed to his life-force supply -- that could be an interesting twist.

[The Giamarga]

From the Book of Souls article Art in the Land by Chris Nichols:

"The most extensive collection of paintings and other art in Ravenloft, lies in the extensive collections of Comte [sic] Stezen D’Polarno of Ghastria. His collection contains art from all the ages of the Land as well as many pieces by today’s most coveted artisans. Visitations are conducted on a quarterly basis."
-- from "Art in the Land" by Prof. Noah Morgan, Mordentshire University, School of Arts

Apparently the professor got D'Polarno's title wrong.