Azalin's Familiar

[Lord Cyclohexane]

What's silly about a giggling thing that can hide in shadows and kill a person with a touch (of his stinger)?

That's what I'd like to know, honestly.

Imps have so much potential for being fiendish, but for some reason never are... The petty stealing, dropping of random bottles on things, obscenities hurled, etc never lead to anything past that. There's so much raw potential for something that leads you astray with his silly mischeviousness until you underestimate it and then shows you its teeth... But for some reason they never do...

And it appears that it would violate everything ever written about imps if I seriously consider following through with that potential. As such, I'm sick of this idea and have given up on it.

[Gemathustra]

And it appears that it would violate everything ever written about imps if I seriously consider following through with that potential. As such, I'm sick of this idea and have given up on it.

And you didn't read Mr Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp" why?

[Bluebomber4evr]

Cyclohexane, remember that one of the best things about the Ravenloft setting is that monsters don't have to all behave like cookie-cutter creatures. In I6, Strahd didn't act like a standard vampire...that one difference helped to spawn the whole campaign setting!

Instead of fretting that Skeever didn't act like a normal imp, come up with a reason why he didn't (I personally like the idea that the Dark Powers cursed Azalin with an incompetant familiar).

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I don't think the idea is completely undoable, Cyclohexane. Just that Skeever (as presented in FtS, at least) isn't your guy. Check out Quist from Children of the Night: Demons (www.kargatane.com) for a much more pro-active and devious imp.

[Gemathustra]

Gonzoron is right.
Remember that imps are not only malicious, but they're subtly incarnate. What's stopping you from having Azalin use Skeever as a spy, assassin, saboteur and personal pet poltergeist on the PCs?
Morals?

[Lord Cyclohexane]

And you didn't read Mr Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp" why?

Sorry, I guess my rant was way too broad there. I'd been referring to D&D material as always having weak imps, as that's the canon I might be bound by.

Instead of fretting that Skeever didn't act like a normal imp, come up with a reason why he didn't (I personally like the idea that the Dark Powers cursed Azalin with an incompetant familiar).

Actually, I was more fretting about Skeever being exactly like a normal imp and wondering why that's the standard for proper imp behavior. Mostly, I was fretting over whether I should also bind myself to the typical model of the D&D imp or if I could move beyond that.

I don't think the idea is completely undoable, Cyclohexane. Just that Skeever (as presented in FtS, at least) isn't your guy. Check out Quist from Children of the Night: Demons (www.kargatane.com) for a much more pro-active and devious imp.

Cool, thanks! Seeing the typical mould broken makes me feel much better, especially if done by someone like Mr. Cermak, whose ideas I always loved from way back on the RAVENLOFT-L mailing list. That cures my main problem, of not being sure of just how binding I should allow the canon to be.

Gonzoron is right. Remember that imps are not only malicious, but they're subtly incarnate. What's stopping you from having Azalin use Skeever as a spy, assassin, saboteur and personal pet poltergeist on the PCs?
Morals?

Canon, actually. I realize that D&D is just a game and that the 3.5 PHB starts off by talking about "Rule 0", but I was still unsure of just how bound I should make myself be by the pre-existing canon. I realize that there's nothing forcing me to follow canon, but it still feels like pre-existing campaign settings belong to the writers and that I'm just making a weekend trip into their wonderlands, being privileged to see the world that exists in their imagination. That's why I treat anything written by Mangrum on these boards as canon, since Ravenloft is basically his baby. Perhaps that'll change as I create things, but for right now Ravenloft is something I'm merely borrowing a corner of and so I need to be careful not to mess it up since it's not mine. I guess that's the best way to describe it, in how we tend to be more careful with other peoples' stuff than we are with our own.

Anyway, so the overall problem was with canon. How much should be followed? Since D&D defined baatezu/tanar'ri in Planescape, should I be following the mould presented there? Since Skeever fit that mould, does that mean I should follow the Planescape stuff more, or follow it less? Since WotC decided not to continue Planescape, does that mean I should let that stuff go and follow whatever? Since there's no stories with Fiend Folio, does that mean I'm freed from the 2nd Ed Planescape or does the lack of story mean that everything from 2nd Ed still applies? Or should I purely refer to these books for stats of the beasties and ignore the personalities presented so as to keep Ravenloft a bit seperate from the Planescape?

Most importantly, since Skeever had appeared previously and his personality thus already defined, should I keep that same thing for continuity? (Personally, I say yes, hence the comments about getting rid of Skeever and creating a new familiar, either by defining the as-of-yet undefined Squalimous or by placing another imp inbetween Skeever and Squalimous)

Cermak obviously chose to follow the Planescape background (starting Quist's background in Baator) but break from the Planescape personality. That works just fine for me, as I like the overall idea of Baator but find the implementation poor (why not have horror writers when writing of Hell? Honestly, what is supposed to be more horrific than Hell???). But the main point is, Cermak broke away from the typical, meaning I have full freedom to as well. Or, I may have to sup from Kassandra's veins first, anyway.

So now I feel free to create this random imp, or at least mostly feel that way. Three concerns remain: 1) When did Squalimous appear? Did the "Ask Azalin" moderator ever define this, or Mangrum randomly muse about this? As I'm now not interested in defining Squalimous but will be creating a random familiar between, I'd like to know for sure if Squal appeared post-Requiem so I could have this familiar be the one when Az got nixed. (Why am I not interested in defining Squal? Because that might mess with some future writer who might have to either follow an idea for Squal different from what he/she wants to or else have to worry about fans feeling betrayed by writers who just don't pay attention to their ideas; in this case, worrying about being hated by one person, as I doubt this idea will go beyond me)

2) What happens to a familiar if the master dies? If the familiar dies, the master loses a goodly bit of XP. But there are no rules for the other way around... Biggest question: Does the familiar lose or keep the heightened INT, so should the familiar have INT 10 or INT 15? (Personality will be different depending, after all). And if it turns out that Squal didn't appear until post-Requiem, I also need to think of what alterations the infusion of negative energy through the familiar bond might provide. (I looked at the Fiendish Power Ritual section in CotN: Demons for Necropolis, but feel that's too powerful for my taste; I was thinking something simple like being able to control undead like a cleric of equal level to his hit dice)

3) Why Azalin? Exactly what are my own motivations for including Azalin into this? Why not a generic wizard visiting Il Aluk for the Requiem festival? Am I being just a foolish fanboy going "Dude, Azalin's cool, of course I'll use him!" or am I serious enough to not end up disparaging Azalin while doing so? And especially, can I resist the typical "Well, I made this imp, so I can say that Azalin told him whatever I want Azalin to have told him to, regardless of whether that would fit Azalin or not!" I've got to check my own motivations and make sure I'm using Azalin for Azalin and not simply because he's a big bad motha'.

So I still got a lot of concerns.

[HuManBing]

(The following parody requires apologies to Molesworth, by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle. The image also owes apologies to images.google.com.)

Scene: a forboading CARSTLE in a mountaintop in darkon in ravinglof in the plane of shadow, the solar system, the universe.

Tender blows the night breeze upon the balustradd (peotry) as our HERO, skeever the imp, recline on bed of nymph hides and prod sleepily at GRATE BOOK of MAGGIk. A fROWN of consintrashun furrow his brow as he studi elementari cantrip. Sometimes he si deeply. beside him lie viles of blood also dead lizzirds hexagrams pentagrams essence of incubus and copi of the finanshal tymz - rekwizzit ingrejints for the dark arts.

A loud THWAP as a SLIDERULE of thunder and litening hit the imp on the sholdr.

Hem hem o callo imp, sa AZALIN, the mad master of Avernus room 14B (c.f. level 2 color map), be thou shirking on thy cantrip studis? the donjon floors don't wash themselves you kno - and neither do you foul imp but that be another question entyrly.

AZALIN is like a BEAK only he hav none, his fleshy parts having gone missing in the GRATE ACCIDENT OF KNURL but his bony parts work fine and meny an underlings backside kno the pain of the masters STINGING FOOT gosh ouch boo hoo on my tail it is worse than being hit by a d20 dice bag.

This is wen our HERO make his first mistaek.

It is too hard, i sa, this spellbok is crumy and old i don't kno why the kargat bothered to stele it from Malokio's bedrume and there are dog ears and other unsavory spell componints in the pages. Also the sucubus sumoning sektion hav problem, the pages are stuck togevver hav you by eny charnce a counterspell for sekrit page?*

* Sekrit page being how AZALIN hid vital information from Strahd's diary making pages vannish much to strahd's annoyens he coulde no longer check his adres book for barovian homeowners assoshiashun contaks also no more delivery fude. i did not make this up i promis it is all in I Strahd: the war agens AZALIN by P N Elrod whose name sound like a man but she is akshully a lade orthur and her riting is topp unlike mine which Azalin say look like a phase spider fell in the inkwel and stager akros the page hem hem.

LOOK ARE YOU PAEING ATENSHUN rore Azalin with thwap of his slide rule. This is the sekind century you hav wasted on cantrips wich in my da we masterd as fair limbed youths by the stream of time (peotry) and then onto level two for knock, levi, and invis for the infiltration of the girl's dorms hem hem. enywa the point i am making is you are dull as a plank of wode and twise as thick if i wer to cast touch of idiocy it would make you brighter now do 1000000000000 lines and THINK POSITIVELY.

Here is where our HERO make his sekind mistake.

I care not for cantrips it is uterly wet and weedy and make 0 sense and I diskard them, i sa, for an imp reli on INATE abiliti not pax with the dark unspekuble arts. Only lowli MORTULS need to make PAK with Asmodeus. To me he is like a doting GRANFATHER who give me larvae every time he see me and sa how are you toda my good son you littluns are deliteful and GET YOUR FEET OFF MY SOFA YOU WILL RUIN IT SKEEVER.

AZALIN giv grate belo of anger and tear acros lab with spelbuk and grate thwap to skul of yore brav hero with SLIDERULE of thundring and litening.

impudent imp, quasiintelligent quasit, he deklare, thou hav a face like a squished virago and are twice as smelli THWAP you will studi thy maggik to beter kepe this place clene unles you want me to consume yore very sole THWAP if you even hav one which i hav been told is debatable THWAP

hence i am back in the jug agane with ebb the mitey DRAGGON who smell of wet sand and cobwebs pooh gosh and she sa don't mind the master he is only sore becos of the cashflo of this magnifisint institution. Wayte until he get bak his crown of detectig maggik and comprehedng languages from the pornbroker shop in Il Aluke or win munney in a fluter on the nova vassa horseraces.

befor i can sa sanctuary, i spi the stelthi shado of Van Ricktin belo. i give cakle of glee, aha! he is still with us, oviously i must bribe the innkeepers to increase the dosage. ebb dive down and stretch claws whizz bang and mitey TEEF snap clap gulp and we are awa once more to hav a spot of fun with the advneturers, cantrips and Azalin forgoten for the nonnes (Shakespeare).

www.geocities.com/enixine/howtobeimpp.jpg

[Garudos Celestar]

If you want a pretty good deptiction of an imp that seems more in line with your concept, I recommend R.A.Salvatore's Cleric's Quintet for the Forgotten Realms, specifically Canticle and The Chaos Curse (the first and fifth books of the series, although he is present throughout the other three as well.) It's certainly not Ravenloft-style, but Druzil is an appropriately manipulative little bugger, hiding in the shadows, giving malicious advice, and periodically striking out when opportunity presents itself.

2) What happens to a familiar if the master dies? If the familiar dies, the master loses a goodly bit of XP. But there are no rules for the other way around... Biggest question: Does the familiar lose or keep the heightened INT, so should the familiar have INT 10 or INT 15? (Personality will be different depending, after all).

Well, I would say that, if the imp is no longer a familiar, then it loses all the abilities that being a familiar would have granted it - including the heightened Int.

Really, that's probably one of the main reasons imps are willing to subject themselves to being the lackeys of mere mortals: they get a power boost for doing so.