Re: Quoth the Raven #24: reactions
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 10:57 pm
OK, here is my rundown. I should have done this earlier but I was glad most people seemed to like my changes to Tepest. I hope I didn't change the theme of it. The story line is pretty much the same , just somewhat embellished. I made the hags considerably more powerful and developed differences between them. It was easy to mix them up with the original description of them. They are pretty much clones with slightly different stats. There are definite differences between the personalities of the sisters and you would know whether you are dealing with one sister or the other.
The Jungle of Fire and Rain taking The Jungle Book as its inspiration is a good idea. I haven't seen the cartoon since a little kid but from what little I remember of it the story line is similar.
The one change I would make is that there would be decent sized villages of men on the outskirts. S'Khan not only has to deal with Oongli but men in villages who are a threat to the jungle. He is still obsessed with Oongli as he sees him as a sign of betrayal by some of the animals. The other animals are upset at him for his obsession with one kid when there are entire villages that are a threat.
He now has two curses, he will never find the kid nor will he ever be able to wipe out the villages. They all have fire to keep him at bay and he is real pyrophobic. His being merged with a pyre elemental has no effect on that.
The Three Fairies are great and it is a hell of a coincidence that we have two fairy based articles. I don't know Tiamat personally and so we didn't communicate at all. Despite that we have two fairy based articles and fey aren't the most common aspect of Ravenloft.
Cecil is the best of the lot. I like subtle villains and Cecil is great at being that. He is a real mastermind who appears to be really helpful. It might not be obvious to the mark that Cecil is behind everything crashing down on them. He is behind the scenes pulling strings. They might even have short rallies as he gives them "good advice" once in a while to drag things out. You have to feel sorry for the poor schleps who Cecil is messing with.
Brum is quite a good idea. Not all opponents have to be truly evil. Some can be misguided or short tempered. Brum can be a bit of both. I like the idea of whoever stole the coins planting them on other people. That could well be their motive for stealing them in the first place. It wasn't to get the handful of coins , it was to get Brum after their enemies. The real villain wouldn't be Brum but the thief.
Elegist would work best in the Nightmare Lands IMO. Although not officially part of the court he could well work for them, particularly the dancer. Another place he would work well are in very cultured lands like Dementlieu or Kartakass. He would be found in graveyards there close to singer and musician graves.
Linking the undead with alchemy is a unique idea and it seems to have been done well. Only one completely insane would use the Alchemical Animator which is why I like it. It is for the many inane beings running around RL.
Zeindost is quite interesting. You have a bunch of good undead and lycanthropes running around but not all of them are good. I like that as it makes them people not just good versions of the standard. For one thing after figuring out there are good undead running around the PCs might think they are all good and are far too trusting of them. If they are then tricked by one of the evil ones they might decide they are all evil but very tricky. It is a good way to mess with their heads which is very good.
I like the fact that the Dark Lord is an undead that is prejudiced against other undead. It is part of his self loathing. Like you said he would be in the perfect spot in Ravenloft for himself if he simply accepted his condition. I would also make it so that any indirect control he has in politics will always break down. His blackmail material will go missing, any hold he has over anyone will be broken, his plots will fail. However this will take time and he can be quite successful with it for some time. Unlike Drakov he isn't "kicked to the curb" every time but is usually on the verge of success just before everything comes crashing down.
The Marauder's Legacy is a number of really good magic items that I might use. The fact that they look benign is what I like. On the surface they look like good devices but I can see them causing RL power checks as it says in the article. I would reduce it somewhat because it is strictly voluntary and normally used for good purposes.
Archibald Everlast would be a real useful ally for the PCs if he ever really got involved. He would be more than a match for the vast majority of Dark Lords. However with his personality he probably has to be pushed very hard to get involved. I see Azaln seeing him as an enemy but also a sleeping giant. He is well aware if Archibald really came after him he would be a real threat. He is one of the few beings that would have a shot at taking down Azalin. As such I see the various Dark Lords being very wary of him and making sure they don't provoke him.
Buck is the least interesting one for me, maybe because he is still too much of an animal and I like bright villains but to each his own.
The Jungle of Fire and Rain taking The Jungle Book as its inspiration is a good idea. I haven't seen the cartoon since a little kid but from what little I remember of it the story line is similar.
The one change I would make is that there would be decent sized villages of men on the outskirts. S'Khan not only has to deal with Oongli but men in villages who are a threat to the jungle. He is still obsessed with Oongli as he sees him as a sign of betrayal by some of the animals. The other animals are upset at him for his obsession with one kid when there are entire villages that are a threat.
He now has two curses, he will never find the kid nor will he ever be able to wipe out the villages. They all have fire to keep him at bay and he is real pyrophobic. His being merged with a pyre elemental has no effect on that.
The Three Fairies are great and it is a hell of a coincidence that we have two fairy based articles. I don't know Tiamat personally and so we didn't communicate at all. Despite that we have two fairy based articles and fey aren't the most common aspect of Ravenloft.
Cecil is the best of the lot. I like subtle villains and Cecil is great at being that. He is a real mastermind who appears to be really helpful. It might not be obvious to the mark that Cecil is behind everything crashing down on them. He is behind the scenes pulling strings. They might even have short rallies as he gives them "good advice" once in a while to drag things out. You have to feel sorry for the poor schleps who Cecil is messing with.
Brum is quite a good idea. Not all opponents have to be truly evil. Some can be misguided or short tempered. Brum can be a bit of both. I like the idea of whoever stole the coins planting them on other people. That could well be their motive for stealing them in the first place. It wasn't to get the handful of coins , it was to get Brum after their enemies. The real villain wouldn't be Brum but the thief.
Elegist would work best in the Nightmare Lands IMO. Although not officially part of the court he could well work for them, particularly the dancer. Another place he would work well are in very cultured lands like Dementlieu or Kartakass. He would be found in graveyards there close to singer and musician graves.
Linking the undead with alchemy is a unique idea and it seems to have been done well. Only one completely insane would use the Alchemical Animator which is why I like it. It is for the many inane beings running around RL.
Zeindost is quite interesting. You have a bunch of good undead and lycanthropes running around but not all of them are good. I like that as it makes them people not just good versions of the standard. For one thing after figuring out there are good undead running around the PCs might think they are all good and are far too trusting of them. If they are then tricked by one of the evil ones they might decide they are all evil but very tricky. It is a good way to mess with their heads which is very good.
I like the fact that the Dark Lord is an undead that is prejudiced against other undead. It is part of his self loathing. Like you said he would be in the perfect spot in Ravenloft for himself if he simply accepted his condition. I would also make it so that any indirect control he has in politics will always break down. His blackmail material will go missing, any hold he has over anyone will be broken, his plots will fail. However this will take time and he can be quite successful with it for some time. Unlike Drakov he isn't "kicked to the curb" every time but is usually on the verge of success just before everything comes crashing down.
The Marauder's Legacy is a number of really good magic items that I might use. The fact that they look benign is what I like. On the surface they look like good devices but I can see them causing RL power checks as it says in the article. I would reduce it somewhat because it is strictly voluntary and normally used for good purposes.
Archibald Everlast would be a real useful ally for the PCs if he ever really got involved. He would be more than a match for the vast majority of Dark Lords. However with his personality he probably has to be pushed very hard to get involved. I see Azaln seeing him as an enemy but also a sleeping giant. He is well aware if Archibald really came after him he would be a real threat. He is one of the few beings that would have a shot at taking down Azalin. As such I see the various Dark Lords being very wary of him and making sure they don't provoke him.
Buck is the least interesting one for me, maybe because he is still too much of an animal and I like bright villains but to each his own.