Magnum Opus - A Layers of Fear inspired Domain.

[Denizen]

He stood over the unfinished portrait on the easel. It had been an ill-defined outline of a woman’s face, the eyes still empty. Just the almond outline and eyebrows done, waiting for the artist to capture the hardest part of any woman. He pondered the direction he should take. Sleeping or awake. The calmness of sleep or the terror he’d seen swathing her face. This was the point of no return, he could always paint over if his viewpoint changed but he wanted to record her essence, if he could define what that was. He needed more time.

His sable brush danced over the canvas, creating cheeks flushed with red, lips open. Wisps of hair appearing like magic, blown by an unseen wind. Strand after strand appeared on the stretched canvas, his brush mixing an sheen in the hair as it peaked on her brow. Selecting a finer brush he dabbed it into a darker hue — an indescribable grey and worked on the neck, before defining the shoulders. With a damp cloth he smudged the oil — giving the illusion of the subject being caught mid turn, casting a glance backwards. The smudged paint ethereal in the twilight of the room.

As he turned to set aside his palette, he caught movement from the corner of his eye. There, near the edge of the canvas, a hint of red. One glance at the palette assured him he didn’t use any red, but it’s there.

Background: To be added later

The Domain

The Land: The House of the Artist is a classic Pocket Domain, consisting entirely of the Artist's former residence, the house in which the horrific events occurred. Originally the Artist and his tragic story may have had its origins on Gothic Earth. The accents and memorabilia suggest a North American origin - Boston perhaps.

The House floats randomly from place to place, manifesting in many different domains, sometimes usurping the place of an actual house for the time in which it exists in that land. These are nearly always decrepit and abandoned homes which already had a reputation for tragedy and rumors of being haunted.

The House may even appear within another lord's domain. As long as the lords are not concentrating on keeping the borders closed, the House can move through the various domains. The lords of the domains the House visits generally remain totally unaware of its presence. A pity because the Artist's talents would be of great interest to some of them -- particularly D'Polarno.

Once inside, visitors become fully entrapped. They cannot exit. Windows to the outside may show the streets and buildings of the domain they left or perhaps not, showing strange and unfamiliar alleyways and the sides of neighboring houses that didn't exist before. Regardless of the weather conditions before, it is now a raining. Whatever time of day, the visitors entered it is always night time in the Mad Artist's house; the dark night of the soul.

Bottles of beer and wine are scattered throughout the house; a reminder of the Artist's alcoholism. Morbid painting and statuary, such as Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son fill it. Upon first glance, other than the strangeness of the art, the house's rooms appear perfectly normal. Upon a second visit, a character will notice a few oddities. Firstly, paintings appear to have moved, although no one was present to move them. Second, statues appear to have shifted form. Seated figures may now be standing. Other statues may move close to the door and appear to be waiting for the characters’ return. A woman is heard crying in a room; when the door is opened, the crying stops. The unsettling cries of a desperate child can be heard throughout. Messages will often appear. Whether these were written by the artist to himself during a previous ‘loop’, or the house itself manifested them is unknown. Lone rats appear, then small groups, finally leading up to a massive horde.

As the madness takes over, the interior becomes larger and the layout shifts. Indeed the house becomes almost infinite in size. Hallways extend for dozens of feet beyond the layout of the house, and then hundreds of feet, and then thousands. Ceilings become as large as those of a cathedral or become as low as a tomb passage. If one walks through one door and then attempts to leave through it, they may find themselves in a completely different room than where they started - assuming, of course, that it didn't lock behind them. Sometimes the mere act of turning around changes details of the room, including making doorways vanish or appear elsewhere. Some doors will lead to nothing more than a brick wall.

The Folk: There is only one being that truly exists in the Domain, that being is the Mad Artist himself. Cursed to forever be alone, denied the companionship of those he discarded in his quest for perfection.

The restless spirit of the Artist’s wife haunts the endless maze of the house. She is a third magnitude specter. The Artist does not recognize the monster as his wife (indeed he has difficulty even remembering he was ever married). Every time the Artist sets out on his endless quest, she will attack him at least once, her mouth silently cursing him for her death. Alas she cannot find it in herself to destroy him. He merely suffers a loss of consciousness. Visitors will not be so fortunate.

Countless paintings and works of art are displayed throughout the house. Many of these are cursed or inhabited by malign Mist-born entities. The disembodied spirits that normally roam the Mists have possessed the artwork, but are likewise imprisoned by it. These entities can make the art telekinetically move, teleport, and statues can even become animated, picking up their pedestals and marching around, but they can do none of that while more than one person is watching. These intelligences wish to escape their art-bodies to indulge in all the decadence and mayhem the outside world has to offer. They can only do this by consuming enough flesh to generate a new biological body for themselves. If the art is ever left alone with a single character that it has seen at least once before, and no other possessed art is present, it attacks, with stats identical to a Stone Golem. Sculptures do so literally, ripping and rending the flesh of their victims in a gory feast. The attacks and damage done by a sculpture , but assuming they are carved out of stone, they should have the toughness, endurance, and strength of several men. Swords and guns do little to harm stone statues, but hammers applied to weak points are very effective. Paintings are Living Walls - and act to absorb their victims into themselves. The victim of a painting appears in the painting, and will be digested fairly quickly, taking a number of minutes to be consumed equal to the character’s age.

Closing the Borders: Unlike other Darklords, the Artist has no control over sealing his Domain's borders. The front door is only the border, and it opens to admit new visitors and always locks itself after they've entered. The Artist cannot leave his Domain and neither can visitors. The front door cannot be opened or destroyed. Windows and exterior walls are likewise impervious to harm. Indeed, it could be said that the Domain is both always accessible and always sealed.

Encounters:

In addition to the spectre of the deceased wife and the animated artwork, a Black Dog (see Ravenloft Archetypes - Nightmare of Barovia) roams the mansion, a mockery of the family dog killed in the fire. Its panicked yelping can sometimes be heard echoing in rooms hung with artwork concerned with fire.There is also evidence of a werewolf stalking the halls. Messages carved in claw marks. Howling heard in the distance. Ominous shadows of a lupine figure cast across hallways where logically there should be nothing there.

The Artist[/size]

Current Sketch
Unable to finish the magnum opus to his satisfaction, he is trapped in a cycle of obsessive mental degradation alone in his ruined house, unable to come to terms with his own mistakes or move on from his failings.

The Artist has forgotten his name, just as he has forgotten the names of his wife and child. Scattered about the mansion are scraps of papers, notes, receipts and letters, many of which are addressed to the Artist or mention him. Alas every single instance of the recipient has been scratched out or crossed out by the Artist in his madness.

Originally he was driven to dismember the corpse of his deceased wife for the materials he required, other times he engaged in self-mutilation, in which he always regenerated. Nowadays he sees lone visitors as potential ‘donors’ for his magnum opus.

The Dark Powers have granted the Mad Artist the ability to assume the form of an Odem - an undead spirit that can take control of the bodies of others, but only when there are intruders available to possess in his domain. Once he takes control of that person, the person's body gradually transforms to resemble the Artist as he was in life: the victim's body acquires a limp. This transformation is permanent, incapable of being undone by anything less than a wish spell. Killing the host body merely releases the Odem to possess another.

Once the Artist is in possession of a new body, he becomes amnesic, relearning the details of his life and deeds through first-hand experience just as his host does. He moves through the mad labyinyth his house has become, braving its many dangers, solving its many puzzles to acquire the necessary materials to finish the Magnum Opus.

At the end of his quest, the Artist completes the painting of his wife's pre-accident face, only to watch her beauty deform and burn up into a skeletal horror. Enraged, he picks up the painting and tosses it into a room filled with identical paintings. Even if he actually succeeds, his own madness will only let him see the skeletal failure. After this, he walks through his house, finding it the trashed wreck that it really is, locks himself up in his studio again, and returns to a blank canvas, only for the process to repeat when a new visitor arrives.

Other times, the Artist completes a portrait of his wife and child, only to realize that his artistic efforts can't bring back either of them and instead he burns himself alive along with his many failures rather than go on living a lie. The Artist cannot escape his curse by burning himself. Although he feels the tremendous agony of death, he cannot be permanently killed. The Dark Powers always restore the house to its former state. When visitors arrive, the Artist possesses one of them and always reappears at the front entrance as though just arriving. Visitors who are in the House should the Artist set fire to it are not immune.




Your thoughts? Suggestions?

[KingCorn]

It would be interesting as a one-off encounter, as it is an interesting curse. The problem is, if the players have ever played layers of fear, they're gonna know whats going on almost immediately. As for the painter himself, while theirs the mutilation of his wife's body (and the implied murder of her), he shows too much clear regret for his actions. While he is cursed, he is also repentant enough to burn rather than live in an illusion. If his curse is to burn himself again and again, its just punishing him for doing the right thing.
As well, his powers could be fleshed out more. If his obsession is with creating a masterpiece, perhaps his house is filled with his "lesser works", paintings of morbid scenes painted from blood and bile that draw you into them, or cause the horrid monsters on the canvas to come to life. Or marble statues of his wife and child wandering around.

As well, he could use some tweeking for reuse. Cause beyond the amnesia adventure, theres not much being done with him. Maybe he sells off some of his work, with all of it being cursed? Perhaps Ivan or a Dark Fey have some of his pieces in there collection?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

It's an interesting premise, but I strongly feel it needs an escape clause. Maybe there's a way to force an exit by splashing the doors/windows with turpentine. Maybe the black dog is actually a grim, whose bark can repel and exorcize the Artist.

[The Lesser Evil]

The possession/eventual transformation element is a clever take on how the player comes to take on the traits of the Artist in the game (e.g. the limp). I might add a way of repulsing/banishing the artist (like an allergen from Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts.) The additions of the living walls, stone statues, and other killer art are also nice to mix things up. Some of the art spirits could try (futilely) to use the bodies of the living to assume a fleshy existence- stone statues wearing the flesh of the dead, for example. Others need not be totally hostile and could be important sources of information on the Artist/domain background, however fragmented (in addition to the notes you've already posted). I imagine a number of them would haunt and torment the Artist.

Otherwise, I echo the others' comments. As written, it's probably useful mostly for a one-shot with players you definitely know haven't played layers of fear. One thing you might do is take similar elements from other video games and shows to create an admixture that is less a takeoff on a single game. The Evil Within 2 seems like it would be a good video game to take ideas from, as it has a seemingly warped reality and some estranged family dynamics that you could get inspiration from. Also from that game, Stefano Valentini could be a Mad Artist you could take some more villainous characteristics from. Grimm (from the Netflix anime Hero Mask) is another similarly villainous and insane mad artist.

[Denizen]

As for the painter himself, while theirs the mutilation of his wife's body (and the implied murder of her), he shows too much clear regret for his actions. While he is cursed, he is also repentant enough to burn rather than live in an illusion. If his curse is to burn himself again and again, its just punishing him for doing the right thing.

I'm seen plenty of Darklords cursed even when they appear repentent. Perhaps it is not enough that he experience regret (that he will forget once he is restored) since that would be for his own benefit, perhaps he must also make amends to those he hurt. Since the wife is dead and is now a vengeful ghost, that leaves only the daughter.



Now I'm thinking using the DLC Inheritance aspect involving the Artist's daughter returning to the house. Perhaps the only way the curse can be broken is if the Artist is forgiven by his daughter (or descendant or reincarnation or someone who looks like her - all possibilities) who is still alive and has wandering the Core, mastering her own craft in artistry while dealing with the mental and emotional drama of having been born in such a horrible situation

If she comes to the house, the Artist might fail to recognize her, seeing her as only another intruder or donor for parts for the Magnum Opus. It is up to the PCs to convince him that this is his offspring and that he must make amends with her and reconcile. Then there's the dread possibility that the Artist, ever the perfectionist, is disappointed in how little she has progressed as an artist and puts her through several trials to test her skill. This of course is further damnation because instead of reconciliation, it is simply more of his ego and quest for perfection. His one chance at redemption squandered. And then they may have to battle him. The daughter might have some special way of permanently harming him, but the PCs have to protect her from the Artist and the animated artpieces.

Assuming she and the PCs break the curse, the Artist's soul is put to rest.

But then remember that becoming a Dark Lord is sometimes a hereditary position which runs in families...

The daughter might take over the Domain and the house and continue his work.