Azalin and Lord Soth
Azalin and Lord Soth
I have been away from Ravenloft since 3.0 started, and wanted to know where Azalin was, where Lord Soth has gone, if anyone can help me out that'd be great, and lookiong forward to coming here often as Ravenloft is by far the best D&D World !!!
Welcome back to the fold, ts-d! I also missed out on the start of 3rd edition, and only came back within a year or so.
To answer your question, Azalin was restored to the throne of Darkon by the efforts of a band of mercenaries. This was supposed to be an official adventure, but the project never made it past the planning stages. All we know of the storyline is that Death (Lord of Necropolis) vied with Tavelia (Kargat leader) for the opportunity to assume Azalin's power. Neither result is quite as attractive as returning the king himself.
Soth's situation depends on whether you like canon or not. The official story (which doesn't even mention him by name, because of copyright issues) is that he lost all interest in his situation in Sithicus. Because the Dark Powers found him to be a boring prisoner, they released him during a storm when screaming shadows crashed into Nedgragaard Keep, destroying him. He returned to Krynn, and I believe Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman wrote that A) he never went to Ravenloft to begin with, and B) he is now truly dead.
Canon also holds that Azrael, Soth's werebadger dwarven seneschal, took political power of Sithicus, but the actual darklordship is uncertain. One possibility is that a Vistani matriarch wields the actual power.
Here ends the canon.
Here begins the personal op/ed of this poster, which states for the most part that canon is A) dictated by petty jealousies between authors and refusal to share copyright, and therefore B) is crap.
Basically the end result is it's up to the DM what happened to Soth. As a prisoner darklord, the only canonical 2nd ed. use he got was in the adventure module "When Black Roses Bloom". I did not like that adventure, because I believe he was drastically underused and very passive as a villain.
A more interesting possibility would be if he was still trapped in Ravenloft but ceased to be a darklord. He has quarrels with Strahd and (arguably) Dr. Dominiani (q.v. Knight of the Black Rose for his dealings in Gundarak) and could be a compelling anti-paladin wandering knight.
Hope that helps. Welcome back and don't forget to shake the mists from your cloak as you enter the mansion!
To answer your question, Azalin was restored to the throne of Darkon by the efforts of a band of mercenaries. This was supposed to be an official adventure, but the project never made it past the planning stages. All we know of the storyline is that Death (Lord of Necropolis) vied with Tavelia (Kargat leader) for the opportunity to assume Azalin's power. Neither result is quite as attractive as returning the king himself.
Soth's situation depends on whether you like canon or not. The official story (which doesn't even mention him by name, because of copyright issues) is that he lost all interest in his situation in Sithicus. Because the Dark Powers found him to be a boring prisoner, they released him during a storm when screaming shadows crashed into Nedgragaard Keep, destroying him. He returned to Krynn, and I believe Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman wrote that A) he never went to Ravenloft to begin with, and B) he is now truly dead.
Canon also holds that Azrael, Soth's werebadger dwarven seneschal, took political power of Sithicus, but the actual darklordship is uncertain. One possibility is that a Vistani matriarch wields the actual power.
Here ends the canon.
Here begins the personal op/ed of this poster, which states for the most part that canon is A) dictated by petty jealousies between authors and refusal to share copyright, and therefore B) is crap.
Basically the end result is it's up to the DM what happened to Soth. As a prisoner darklord, the only canonical 2nd ed. use he got was in the adventure module "When Black Roses Bloom". I did not like that adventure, because I believe he was drastically underused and very passive as a villain.
A more interesting possibility would be if he was still trapped in Ravenloft but ceased to be a darklord. He has quarrels with Strahd and (arguably) Dr. Dominiani (q.v. Knight of the Black Rose for his dealings in Gundarak) and could be a compelling anti-paladin wandering knight.
Hope that helps. Welcome back and don't forget to shake the mists from your cloak as you enter the mansion!
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I wouldn't say it's uncertain. As of Gazetteer IV, it's clear that Inza (the evil Vistani girl from Spectre of the Black Rose) is in fact the new darklord. (It was first mentioned in Secrets of the Dread realms, although I suppose you could argue that was just Azreal's guess. But it was confirmed in Gaz IV and the RL DMG.)HuManBing wrote:Canon also holds that Azrael, Soth's werebadger dwarven seneschal, took political power of Sithicus, but the actual darklordship is uncertain. One possibility is that a Vistani matriarch wields the actual power.
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Or make it a double-darklord domain, like post-Conjunction Borca. Soth on his own is a do-nothing moper, but if Inza's contesting with him for sole dominion, the old boy might actually rouse himself to action (gasp!) once in a while, and we can sit back and watch the fur fly.
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Making some mileage with the idea: And that way, Azrael contines to be a pain for the populace. His anger at now being third doesn't make him more happy.
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