Ravenloft Monsters Suitable for Masque of the Red Death

[AlHazred]

So, I may be running a Masque of the Red Death game for some friends soon, and was looking at what I have available as far as resources. I was never a huge Ravenloft guy back in the day, but I enjoyed the Living Death campaign at conventions so I have some old books and modules I can use. But looking over the Ravenloft material it struck me that a lot of RL monsters are way too powerful for a MotRD campaign -- they're designed to be challenges for a group of more-or-less standard PCs lost in the Mists, not the relatively-lower-power characters you find a typical MotRD campaign (going by the 2E book).

I've picked up the 5E MotRD book on DTRPG, and several of the group have only played it, so system-wise I might be running it in 2E, 3.0/3.5E, or 5E; I've run a lot of D&D, so I'm comfortable converting. But the people on these boards are much more knowledgable about the source material than I. What monsters do you think make a good port to a MotRD campaign and what sorts of adventures have you used them in?

[AlHazred]

Partially answering my own question, it occurred to me to check the Dragon Magazine CD Archive I have. I remembered a series of articles on folkloric undead by Tom Moldvay, that I thought were pretty good at the time. They seem eminently suited to Gothic Earth campaigns:

• "Hearts of Darkness," about folkloric vampires: Dracula, the Baobhan Sith, and the Ch'ing Shih (Dragon #126, October 1987) [AD&D 1st edition]
• "The Ungrateful Dead," about folkloric and movie skeletons, zombies, and ghouls: Bloody Bones, Skleros, Dry Bones, Gem Eyes, Walking Dead, Hungry Dead, Le Grand Zombi, Ghula, Baka, Gelloudes, Spirit-Ghouls, the Wendigo, and Callicantzari (Dragon #138, October 1988) [AD&D 1st edition]
• "Out of the Shadows," about folkloric shadows: Skotos, Sluagh, and Ghost-stones. (Dragon #162, October 1990) [AD&D 1st edition]
• "Beyond the Grave," about folkloric mummies and wights: Ka, Angreden, King-wight, Wraith-king, and Vartha (Dragon #198, October 1993) [AD&D 2md edition]
• "Too Evil to Die," about folkloric spectres, ghosts, and liches: Ekimmu, Casurua, Keres, Charuntes, and Dark Lords (Dragon #210, October 1994) [AD&D 2md edition]

While tracking those down, I came across a few other articles about folkloric monsters that were probably suited for Gothic Earth, though some are fairly powerful.

• "Vampires A-Z," by William C. Connors: Aswang, Baobhan-sith, Civatateo, Dubbelsauger, Eretica, Fravashi, Gayal, Hannya, Impundulu, Jigarkhor, K'uei, Lemure, Moroii, Nelapsi, Ohyn, Pelesit, Qarlak, Remanga, Stregoni, Tlacique, Ustrel, Vetala, Wurdalak, Xloptuny, Yara-ma-yha-sho, and Zmeu (Dragon Annual #1, 1994) [AD&D 2nd edition]
• "The Horrors of M. R. James: Formidable Visitants," by Michael D. Winkle: Demonic Sawfly, Living Hair, Web-Spectre, and Death Linen (Dragon #252, October 1998) [AD&D 2nd edition]
• "La Petit Terrasque and Other Monsters," by Kyla Ward: The Terrasque, Basilisks & Cockatrices, Golems, Hags, Salamanders, (Dragon #329, March 2005) [D&D 3.5]

[AlHazred]

I may have found a solution I like. So, since this will likely be a one-shot, I feel it's an appropriate time to use Jack the Ripper (1888 instead of 1890, but that shouldn't cause any problems). There are several Jack the Ripper scenarios I was able to find in various games, but the Ravenloft module RM8 Hour of the Knife might work extremely well. It uses a whole group doppelgangers, but... I was planning to use Jeremy Forbing's Masque of the Red Death 5E product which I like a lot. Instead of a clan of doppelgangers (which is probably too much for even 4th level parties if they are played intelligently) I could use a secret society/cult of mystics who use their Red Death-given supernatural abilities of disguise self and telepathy to blend in with the crowd. That allows me to keep the Infiltration angle of the scenario and add in some more mystical elements to the ritual. Hmmm...