FoS Samhain news

[Joël of the FoS]

Esteemed members of the Fraternity,

While you were removing needles from candies, and eating what trick or treat you got last Friday, we were busy haunting the halls of our Souragne plantation for our offerings on Samhain. Not that we believe in such a thing, mind you, but here’s what we had on the slab.

We take this occasion to remind you of things we recently released:

First, we are extremely proud of the Nocturnal Sea Survey. This 400 pages netbook describes the six islands and waters of Ravenloft’s eastern sea, and a new place as well. Yes, Viktor had a bad week, but that is nothing compared to Dirac’s... When you read it, please add your comments on this thread here.

Then, as of last Friday, we also released the 15th edition of Quoth the Raven. This omnibus netbook has eleven new and original articles, all great options for your game. Have your PCs revisit Carnival or Barovia, or take a train, or hunt the Devil of the Deep Blue Sea, or more !

Please comment here.

You can get these two new netbooks in the Library room.

---

What are we going to do next year?

Our Projects for next year :


1) Following the FoS sea projects, Sharon’s cool sea monster netbook VRF: Terrors of the Deep, is in the work, and about 60% is written.

People wishing to help on this can contact Sharon, as there are still a few monsters that need writing – Kraken, morkoth, kopru, sea spawn, sea serpents/sea dragons, sea lycanthropes (seawolves is done), and we’d like to add a Saragoss overview (all the other seas have an introductory "natural history" piece about them, but not this place) and a sea-hunter PrC?

We always need Dread Possibilities on all sea monsters, the more we have, the more interesting those critters become.

This great netbook will be illustrated by Isabella, yes the one of the Starcrossed comic strip fame, but other artists can contact Sharon as well. Isabella's done wonders so far, but we’d feel bad asking her to do all of the book, so finding more artists would be good!

This project is a 3.5 edition netbook.

Sharon had a contest on sea monsters salient ability. We had about 25 entries, and Sharon revealed the winner here. Bravo!


2) The FoS will soon embark a boat again, for the Sea of Sorrows FoS report.

This is in a preliminary phase, and the writers are Markovia (Sharon), Dominia (Deepshadow), Blaustein (Joël), Ghastria (David) and last but not least, the Sea of Sorrow itself (Nathan).

As for the Nocturnal sea, we will make threads about these domains, to add ideas, witness reports, dread possibilities and other thoughts. Those ideas we pick will of course be credited in the writers page, of course.

This is a 3.5 edition netbook, with (most probably) 4e stats added to it.

We also heard of adventurers wishing to explore the Shadowlands. We support this fan project, as we did with the Zherisia netbook.


3) Witching Hour adventure. This cataclysmic adventure is in the work, and it’s not a secret part of it will be located in the dream lands.

So David is proud to release 3.5e dream rules.

The powers related to dreamscapes are finally updated to 3.5! Please review and comment!


4) don't forget the QtR 16, due Halloween 2009. Submit during all year, and know that the deadline is October 1st 2009. This is an omnibus issue again (no theme) and all editions are welcomed.


5) 4e is here. To test these new mechanics, we will soon start a 4e darklord conversion, with 3-5 darklords to be statted soon. Comments and suggestions welcomed. These will be collected on the site or perhaps in a separate 4e netbook. Expect this to be kicked off soon.


For these strange days where the fate of the setting is in limbo (or shadowfell), please be assured the Fraternity of Shadows community will remain energetic as long as fans will want to explore the mists.

Sincerely,

Joël Paquin
For the Souragne Fraternity of Shadows

[The Giamarga]

Will the dream rules be hosted on this site too or at least the link? Anyways i think they should be announced separately somewhere as many people are bound to overlook this thread.

What will the "Sea of Sorrows itself" encompass thematically ?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

We're just starting to examine the Sea of Sorrows' possibilities, so that region's themes are still taking form. It's clearly the oldest and most heavily-traveled of Ravenloft's seas, however, which will certainly affect things. And its darklords' original offenses seem to be more impersonal and cold-blooded than average, suggesting that callous cruelty may tend to outweigh dark passion there.

[brothersale]

Will the Sea of Sorrows section cover the Finger of Lamordia (excuding the Isle of Agony) and the Island of Eternal Night (darklord: Lord Blake Ramsay) from Dung#76?

Also will the fan-made domains of Whal, The Raging Tears and Carcharodon Isle and any others i've missed be mentioned?

[Joël of the FoS]

Will the Sea of Sorrows section cover the Finger of Lamordia (excuding the Isle of Agony) and the Island of Eternal Night (darklord: Lord Blake Ramsay) from Dung#76?

Also will the fan-made domains of Whal, The Raging Tears and Carcharodon Isle and any others i've missed be mentioned?

Yep, yep, may be, may be, may be.



As we did with the other FoS reports, we try to merge all canon sources into a coherent lot, adding as much quality fan made material as we can.

But from the previous list, I think the only one that will make a sizeable portion of the book is Demise, where the medusa is waiting. Anyone wants to explore this place?

Joël

[Rotipher of the FoS]

We don't want to go over old ground from the Arthaus books, so the Finger (briefly discussed in Gaz II) probably won't be described in the same detail as the big domains. Althea will be statted up in the DM Appendix, as an important NPC for the region, but she may have to be content with a large sidebar rather than a chapter, where the main text is concerned. Unless someone wants to volunteer to help, that is....

Like the Nocturnal Sea book, the SoS book will certainly mention the fan-written domains, including the one from Dungeon #76, but in an Interlude rather than a full chapter. Rest assured, we won't oust those minor domains from their place on the map, by inserting another big surprise like the Drowning Deep at the exact same location.

Note that the sea-monster book will also say a bit about each of the seas, the Sea of Sorrows included.

[WolfKook]

Will the Sea of Sorrows section cover the Finger of Lamordia (excuding the Isle of Agony) and the Island of Eternal Night (darklord: Lord Blake Ramsay) from Dung#76?

Also will the fan-made domains of Whal, The Raging Tears and Carcharodon Isle and any others i've missed be mentioned?

Yep, yep, may be, may be, may be.



As we did with the other FoS reports, we try to merge all canon sources into a coherent lot, adding as much quality fan made material as we can.

But from the previous list, I think the only one that will make a sizeable portion of the book is Demise, where the medusa is waiting. Anyone wants to explore this place?

Joël

I would love to, but I'm afraid I don't have enough source information to do so. Where's the info about this island?

I would also beg you to include at least a small mention of Carcharodon Island. It got 2nd place in the favorite fan-made domain poll, after all.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Althea's domain is discussed in her RLMC entry. Again, there's not much there, so she (like Ms. Montarri) may wind up with a sidebar rather than a chapter.

[A G Thing]

Any idea on when the sea monsters book will be released? You say about 60%, so perhaps a time frame is drawing into focus? If not then eagerly anticipating it along with the others...

[Jester of the FoS]

Will the dream rules be hosted on this site too or at least the link? Anyways i think they should be announced separately somewhere as many people are bound to overlook this thread.

What will the "Sea of Sorrows itself" encompass thematically ?

I've been meaning to see if I could get my 4e rules and my dreamwalking rules hosted for a while now.

Thematically, the Sea is unlikely to have a strong single thematic element. I tried pushing this for the Nocturnal sea but it worked for 3/4ths of the domains and was square-pegging the rest.
A similar effect would happen with the Sea of Sorrows. The domains weren't brought together with a shared theme or common element.

[brothersale]

We don't want to go over old ground from the Arthaus books, so the Finger (briefly discussed in Gaz II) probably won't be described in the same detail as the big domains.

true, but the other than the isle of agony (adam's home) the others two isles were going to be covered,at least from what S said later when she put to sea. so they should have a little air time at least

[Joël of the FoS]

Interesting. Do you have the ref for this?

Joël

[brothersale]

Ravenloft Gaz II pg 67 second paragraph

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Any idea on when the sea monsters book will be released? You say about 60%, so perhaps a time frame is drawing into focus?

It depends how much help we get with the remaining material, and how overloaded Stephen and I are with IRL work, during the final stages of the process. Not before next year, for certain, but hopefully some time in the spring.

[cure]

If I have some Sea of Sorrows snipits, where do I submit them or should I hold out for an eventual contest.