Domain of the month - Tepest

[Joël of the FoS]

Esteemed members of the Fraternity,

Now, we turn our attention with dread to the land in the fey, and the inquisition chasing them ... Does it hide something else?

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Third ed. info: RL3E / RLPH, Gaz 5

Second edition: Black Box (Realm of Terror), Red Box (RL Campaign Setting), Domains of Dread, Darklords

Adventure: Chilling Tales (Through Darkened Eyes), Servants of Darkness

Novel: Tapestry of Dark Souls

Other selected interesting source: USS 2003 (The Inquisition Trials)

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Created in 691
Part of the Core.
Darklord: the Three Hags - Laveeda, Leticia, Lorinda

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Next time: the Telling Man!

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From now on, in these monthly adventure hook requests, we will eventually cover all domains, but will also offer brainstorming opportunity about famous NPCs of dread (back soon).

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So post here your adventure hooks or stories.

Reminder: This thread is not just for adventure hooks, it can also be to host short verbatim of local sayings or fireside tavern conversations, à la Gaz 1 web enhancement... or your DM thoughts about this domain.

This thread is for posting adventure hooks or comments / suggestion / improvements on another poster's hook. Other comments will be deleted.

Joël

[Dion of the Fraternity]

[Le Noir Faineant]

New smilies for the Frat?! How cool!!!

[NeoTiamat]

This thread is just bursting with cool Tepest-related ideas...

Does anyone use Tepest? One would think that the mix of a fanatical inquisition, malevolent hags, and creepy shadow fey would make for some marvelous campaigns.

[Little Ole Me]

Tepest is only used in my experience for campaigns revolving around the Araks of the Shadow Rift but even so, that is due to the proximity of Tepest to the Shadow Rift and Keening. I am toying with the idea of Tristressa snapping out of her insane funk to start a war on the Araks of the Shadow Rift to avenge herself on Loht and Tepest would figure in this campaign as usual, but only as a stopover for the adventurers.

Poor Tepest suffers from having too many things that the domains around it have in better and richer shades, IMO. The shadow fae? There are more in the Shadow Rift nearby. The undead? Keening is just nearby and are far more suited for adventures involving the undead. The inquisition? Why Tepest when Elena Faith-hold is waiting in Nidala?

Sure, Tepest has the three hags and the Lady in the small Castle domain but so far they are just developed as standard us-versus-the-monsters hooks rather than compelling Darklords with ambitions and sinister plans like Strahd, Azalin, and even Dominic. IMO, the Darklords of Tepest and the Lady have been overlooked completely in the makeover of Ravenloft since the GC. Even Alfred Timothy and von Kharkov are better developed than the three hags and these two are also often overlooked Darklords of the Core! Poor Tepest has been overshadowed by its neighbors.

Having said that, I'd love to hear from anyone who has ideas about making Tepest a more exciting place to set a campaign in!

[Le Noir Faineant]

Tepest in my games is more the place for very generic low fantasy rpg.

Things like: A child vanishes in the woods...

A magic fountain devours everyone who tries to take a wish coin from its ground...

Things like this, but nothing really worth to be named *plot*...

[Rotipher of the FoS]

The way I see Tepest, it's the "Little Red Riding Hood" domain. If Darkon is for Tolkeinesque elves-and-dwarves fantasy (with a scary twist), then Tepest is for classic fairy tales -- the original versions, before prim Victorian sensibilities cut out all the sex and gore -- with a little seasoning from Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery".

On the one hand, that makes it a relatively low-level domain -- something that Ravenloft needs -- and requires a level of isolation and insularity that unavoidably makes it seem "neglected" by the rest of the Core. OTOH, if you feel it's necessary to have the Hags' influence spread beyond their own domain, it's not that difficult to do so within the bounds of the fairy-tale format: plenty of classic tales involve wicked witches setting terrible events in motion -- laying curses, spreading lies, planting poisoned apples and baneful items where they'll cause harm -- without necessarily being on the scene, when those events come to a head.

[NeoTiamat]

To my mind, Hags are a remarkably effective and sadly underused villain (along with Ancient Dead). Vampires and Werewolves get all the fame (with due cause I will admit), and Lichs and Fiends seem to be setting malignant events in motion all over the place, but think about the Hag.

You have lifespans potentiall equivalent to those of vampires (Up to a thousand years I believe), a really nice creepy stereotypes (witches), sheer evil, a great deal of magic that can easily be as effective as that of a Lich...

I need to make a Hag the center of a campaign.

[Glim]

The spellcasting of individual hags is not _that_ good.

[vipera aspis]

I love the backwoods feel of this land. Tapestry of dark souls gives a good feel for the domain. very much cut off from the outside world. good for concerns of demihuman relations. a good way to do it would be think of a party searching for a missing demihuman from darkon on it's way to nova vassa who took a wrong turn and was caught by the witch hunters. and was taken off kicking and screaming. ever since then strange and horrible things are happening in a small village in tepest. people dissapearing, horrible screams in the dead of night, goblins making more daring raids; that sort of thing. while searching for the missing demihuman they come across this village and are begged to help with the horrible activities taking place lately. not wanting to tell of the run in with the demihuman(fey consort) for for fear of being abandoned in their hour of need or not actually seeing it happen; they avoid questions concerning it's dissappearence. or white rumors/lies"must have fallen prey to the beasties, old man willis saw him headin' towards the rift, he came in and left to the mountins' never said a word, and of course"never saw no strangers round these parts for years""
eventually they could tie up both loose ends and come to a number of answers or more questions...

-elf, with a weight tied round the ankels and hurled into a river to see if drowning would expose the evil hidden they brought on a ghost, water logged vampire influencing the goblins that sort of thing.

-dwarf, taken to a near cliff he was launched or asked to take a leap of faith for his stone gods of old. falling to his doom he unleashed a horrible curse on the close minded town. his terror and screams and crys of revenge and honor have awoken a great evil buried in the side of the cliff. an ancient dead or alhoon long ago trapped or slumbering now walks again.

-halfling/gnome, given as sacrafice to the goblins or burned alive in a cage over a fire ala' ToDS for good harvest. the halfings talk of improving the local greens or the gnomes dark and morbid jokes rubbed the priests the wrong way. cursing them for qwenching the sweetness of life it's deathcry(and fantastic smell) gathers the attention of a group of gremishka. "what kind of goblins are those? what the hell happen to my cat?"

-calbain, beaten, dragged though the woods and hung in the woods. discovered by the hags or blackroot and sent back to replace itself with the ones who condemed it to death. many templates can be used on for this. and it could lead to future evils.
sadly, you could also use a redheaded human druid for this one.

[ewancummins]

I was listening to a CD in my collection, Ballads of England, Scotland, and Wales. It's a Smithsonian recording of actual old folk singers[made in the 30's I believe] from the British Isles. There was a song [Scottish] about a false knight who is actually the Devil in disguise. He confronts a small boy , coming home from school , and demands propitiation. The boy refuses and stands his ground. He stalls till the churchbells ring, calling the fiend back to hell. Anyhoo, I thought that sounded cool, so maybe we can adapt it?

The false knight might be a fey with the fiendish template added.He is vulnerable to being turned by clerics, and is unable to enter holy places or abide the sound of church bells. Perhaps it is a sort of allergen for him? He haunts the roads of Tepest , seeking whom he may seduce or cow into his service. Mortals who accept his protection or do him homage may find themsleves enchanted to his service. What does he do with them? I don't know yet. This idea needs more work. Does it sound like a promising start to anyone else?

His background[always very important with Ravenloft NPCs/monsters] might be that his mother was a shadow fey and his father a demonic being drawn into Ravenloft by Gwydion, or else summoned by some foolish sorcerer, then trapped in the Demiplane. If his mother was of the upper castes of the Fey, that might explain his predilection for appearing as a knightly figure. Perhaps his half fiend status made him an outcast from Fey society, so he alternately preys upon and seduces mortals to gain the respect he so desires, but was denied in his mother's court? I know that is very sketchy, but it's been a long day for me.


Where are you going now
said the Knight on the Road?
I go to meet my God
said the child as he stood.

CHORUS: And he stood, and he stood-
And 'twere well that he stood.


I go to meet my God
said the child as he stood.

How will you go by land
said the knight on the road,
With a strong staff in my hand
said the child as he stood.

CHORUS

With a strong staff in my hand
said the child as he stood.

And how will you go by sea said the knight on the road.
With a good boat under me said the child as he stood.

CHORUS

With a good boat under me
said the child as he stood.

Methinks I hear a bell
said the knight on the road.
Aye it's ringing you to hell
said the child as he stood.


- this is the song, as much as I can remember anyway.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Tepest would be a good domain for an adventure or character based on "Tam Lin", too.

(Tam Lin is a human knight ensorceled by the queen of Faerie who is saved by his lover--it's one of those stories with about a zillion variations, so you could use it as a starting point for all kinds of adventures leading from Tepest to the Shadow Rift or vice versa.

[ewancummins]

La Bellle Dam sans Merci, by Keats- now there is a poem for Tepest! If you aren't familiar with it , it easy to look up. It's on englishverse.com , as well as a gazillion other sites. I am sure something like that peom's subject would fit in very well.

[Baduin9]

John Keats
La Belle Dame sans Merci

'O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.
'O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest 's done.

'I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew;
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.'

'I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery's child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

'I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look'd at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

'I set her on my pacing steed
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sideways would she lean, and sing
A faery's song.

'She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said,
"I love thee true!"

'She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sigh'd full sore;
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes
With kisses four.

'And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dream'd—Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill's side.

'I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—"La belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

'I saw their starved lips in the gloam
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.

'And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.'


And a kind of sequel

Edwin Muir

The Enchanted Knight

LULLED by La Belle Dame Sans Merci he lies
In the bare wood below the blackening hill.
The plough drives nearer now, the shadow flies
Past him across the plain, but he lies still.

Long since the rust its gardens here has planted,
Flowering his armour like an autumn field.
From his sharp breast-plate to his iron hand
A spider's web is stretched, a phantom shield.

When footsteps pound the turf beside his ear
Armies pass through his dream in endless line,
And one by one his ancient friends appear;
They pass all day, but he can make no sign.

When a bird cries within the silent grove
The long-lost voice goes by, he makes to rise
And follow, but his cold limbs never move,
And on the turf unstirred his shadow lies.

But if a withered leaf should drift
Across his face and rest, the dread drops start
Chill on his forehead. Now he tries to lift
The insulting weight that stays and breaks his heart.

[Little Ole Me]

I love the idea of a Gothic fairytale-like setting of doomed knights for Tepest. Already I have a mind of adapting a dark version of Sleeping Beauty for a next campaign set in Tepest. Haunted woods, a dark castle with a wicked witch and a magic mirror, and seven... um, something (I'll think about this later).

This thread rocks!