"Black Crusade" lives!

[Lucius]

An amazing chapter of an amazing novel!
I´m Dying to run a campaign set in Malosia.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Only one more to go...

Yippee! Soon, I'll actually be able to read this thing!*


[* - I'm far too impatient with cliffhangers to have started before the whole novel was available.]

[Mouseferatu]

And so the Crusade comes to an end.

Chapter nineteen: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4dnd/20090529

While I'll always regret that this book never saw actual print, I'm delighted that you were able to see it in some form. I had a blast writing this one; I hope you had as much fun reading it.

[Hell_Born]

This was a pleasure of a story to read. But... while I'm ashamed to have to ask this, could I ask two questions?

Precisely what did Sir Diederic de Wyndt do earn his damnation? I must have missed some subtle nuance, or perhaps the fact I've been reading it as it comes out is standing against me, as the only deeds I see are his ruthless murders of countless Redbreasts, and his coldhearted massacre of the mad during his final march to Lambrecht... or is it the fact he chose to bring the Grimoire to Lambrecht in his quest for vengeance, thus unleashing the swathe of red madness upon the people of the city? Hmm... yes, that's it, isn't it? I just wasn't thinking straight...

Do you have any particular Curse in mind for the former Christan Crusader? What blight is now laid upon his soul by the Dark Powers?

[Mouseferatu]

or is it the fact he chose to bring the Grimoire to Lambrecht in his quest for vengeance, thus unleashing the swathe of red madness upon the people of the city? Hmm... yes, that's it, isn't it? I just wasn't thinking straight...

That's the most blatant example of it, yes. And you're right, the book's "weekly serial" format makes it a little harder to see.

But... (spoiler text) if you go back through it, you'll find a repeating pattern of behavior on Diederic's part, where he constantly puts his own desires ahead of what's good for others. (Sure, he justifies it because he's trying to catch and punish Lambrecht, but his need for vengeance overrides everything else.) It starts when he uses the guy in Jerusalem to lie for him, to make sure Lambrecht is found guilty. He abandons Leona's cousin to death because he's angry that Leona lied to him. He murders redbreasts without hesitation even though not all of them are evil, and not even all standing in his way. But of course the example you cite is certainly the largest and most blatant of them. By bringing the Grimoire to Lambrecht, he causes far more death than Lambrecht himself ever did.

It's more subtle than some dark lords' sins, but I think it holds together. I certainly tried to make sure it did.

Do you have any particular Curse in mind for the former Christan Crusader? What blight is now laid upon his soul by the Dark Powers?

I do, but it's not fleshed out. (I was hoping to explore it further in additional novels, back when we thought the Dominion line was going to continue.) It basically has to do with faith--the domain rendered it impossible for Diederic to ever experience anything resembling faith. It's not that he couldn't feel it, but anything in which he ever put his trust, his hopes, or even his true religious faith would eventually betray or turn on him in some fashion.

Like I said, it's not tightly defined yet, but that's the direction I was planning to go in.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Well now. I must say, when Diederic insisted on following Lambrecht into the Mists I thought something like this might happen in the end. But it was still a bit surprising to see how it happened.

Am I right in thinking if Lambrecht had won the fight at the end that he would have been "elected"?

And remember, kids, never kill the darklord if you have been even a little bit naughty on your way there!

[Mouseferatu]

Am I right in thinking...

Well, it depends on how you look at things like how fate interacts with the Dark Powers. I think one could make an argument that if/when the Dark Powers chose Diederic, there was no longer any possibility of Lambrecht winning.

But if you don't want to get that metaphysical about it, sure, you could argue that Lambrecht would've been Dark Lord if he'd won.

[Mouseferatu]

By the way, for those who might be interested, the editorial calendar says that they'll be putting up a compiled version of the entire book next Friday.

[Catman Jim]

That will be good, I've been collecting them all onto a Word document & it would have been 189 pages to print out as is.

[A G Thing]

Same here on the word being extremely long... I have been spacing it and formating it for better reading... 266 pages...

By the way it was GREAT! Thank you for sharing it with us and I will have to look for more of your work in the future... Ravenloft or not!!!

[Mouseferatu]

By the way it was GREAT! Thank you for sharing it with us and I will have to look for more of your work in the future... Ravenloft or not!!!

I appreciate that.

And, well, if you'll forgive the sales pitch...

They're not Ravenloft, but I do have a few other novels, written in a somewhat similar style, if you're truly interested. Agents of Artifice is a Magic: the Gathering novel, but it requires no real familiarity with M:tG; it was written to appeal to newcomers as well as old fans. That one's available right now.

And I've got a completely original, non-shared-world novel, called The Conqueror's Shadow, coming out from Bantam Spectra in February.

[cure]

Thank you for a worthy edition to Ravenloft canon.

The corruption of Diederic was brought about so slowly and skillfully that the reader would be surprised emotionally by the outcome even as he could see it coming intellectually.

The words put into the mouth of Thomas Moore in respect to axes and getting after the Devil come to mind:

"William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake! "

Or the words of Nietzsche: "When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."

Equally, there is the character Javert from Les Miserable, who too is on a hunt that raises questions of morality and who, tragically, ends up damning himself, from the Catholic perspective at least, in making the right rather than the wrong decision.

The irony is that Diederic clearly is intelligent, capable of reflecting upon the actions of others, yet in the end fails to do so in respect to himself. And as you suggest, this is a character flaw and a fatal one at that.

Incidently, did you have a level in mind for Diederic?

[Mouseferatu]

Thank you for a worthy edition to Ravenloft canon.

And that is about the best review I could ask for (and a very thoughtful commentary, as well). Thank you.

Incidently, did you have a level in mind for Diederic?

Hmm. To be honest, I hadn't really thought about that, since the focus of the new books was characters from historical Earth, not a D&D world. But giving it some brief thought, if I were to stat him up, I'd probably put him at the low end of "mid-level" at the start, with an increase to "true" mid-level by the end.

In 3E terms, that'd be starting at around maybe 6th or 7th, and going through maybe 12th. in 4E, starting probably around 9th-ish, and going through maybe 15th.

In other words, skilled, but "real-world" skilled, not "legendary hero" skilled.

Of course, this is off the top of my head, and I might change my mind with further consideration. But this is what first comes to mind.

[EO]

I wonder. How would you foresee him as a Darklord? Would he be in a position of power or shy away from it? The end of the novel left that pretty open.

[Mouseferatu]

I wonder. How would you foresee him as a Darklord? Would he be in a position of power or shy away from it? The end of the novel left that pretty open.

Yep, that was one of the things I was going to develop further. In short, I see him at first trying to shy away from power, to get away from the demands of his people and the domain, and seeking some means of escape. But as he grows more and more bitter--due to his Curse, and his inability to escape--he begins to accept more and more of the power that the domain and the people have given him, just so as not to feel so helpless. And in turn, he'd slowly grow colder and more vicious, partly because of the Curse--where everyone he trusts turns on him--and partly to avoid the curse--since the only way he can keep power over the populace is by not putting any real faith or trust in them, so he'd start deliberately mistreating them, or at least ignoring their needs and desires, so as not to start feeling any care for them.

The end result being a Dark Lord who slowly becomes darker and more brutal as time passes. At the end of Black Crusade, Diederic obviously isn't a "good guy," but he's not hard-core evil like most Lords. That would slowly have changed, over the years.