Dominiani's "Dark Keep" Cartography... (Feast of Goblyns)

[onmyoji]

I'm definitely missing something in FoG as I'm reading about Dominiani's castle. I get pretty much everything for areas 1-17, but I can't seem to figure out how the players can actually find their way to any of the areas marked 18-24.

I figured out that the black-and-white map in the book has a few omissions that the color map does amend. But I still can't figure out how the players are supposed to get to areas 18-24. If I didn't know any better, it looks like the players have to climb the battlements and work their way to one of the two major towers that flank the main entrance into the main courtyard of the keep and then slide down what appears to be a "bat tunnel" in each. The module seems to be completely silent on this, unless I missed the key passage in my frantic searching.

I mean, it makes sense that only Dominiani should get to some of these places, but those areas are clearly written out in a way that suggests that the players were meant find their way into them, and it's not like these areas seem to connect to areas 14a-17, which are on the same basement level, but under a completely different section of the castle with lots of nothing in between them. Curiously, at the bottom of the Areas 9-17 mini-map, there seems to be a door in the lower-right of area 16 leading to a staircase up that seems to go nowhere. Further, to the left of area 14a is a door that leads to a ladder up the battlements that also seems to go nowhere.

Can anyone help me make sense of this? I just kinda want to know at the very least what any logical player might assume was intended here.

Thanks!

— onmyoji

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I'm definitely missing something in FoG as I'm reading about Dominiani's castle. I get pretty much everything for areas 1-17, but I can't seem to figure out how the players can actually find their way to any of the areas marked 18-24.

I figured out that the black-and-white map in the book has a few omissions that the color map does amend. But I still can't figure out how the players are supposed to get to areas 18-24. If I didn't know any better, it looks like the players have to climb the battlements and work their way to one of the two major towers that flank the main entrance into the main courtyard of the keep and then slide down what appears to be a "bat tunnel" in each. The module seems to be completely silent on this, unless I missed the key passage in my frantic searching.

I mean, it makes sense that only Dominiani should get to some of these places, but those areas are clearly written out in a way that suggests that the players were meant find their way into them, and it's not like these areas seem to connect to areas 14a-17, which are on the same basement level, but under a completely different section of the castle with lots of nothing in between them. Curiously, at the bottom of the Areas 9-17 mini-map, there seems to be a door in the lower-right of area 16 leading to a staircase up that seems to go nowhere. Further, to the left of area 14a is a door that leads to a ladder up the battlements that also seems to go nowhere.

Area 14 is accessible from the curtain in room 13, note that in 14a someone can enter only in mist form or if they destroy the wall but the arrow slit is difficult to discover.
To enter area 18-20 they go down the ladderless shaft of the tower where there is a secret door on the wall leading to a corridor.

To enter room 21 it is trickier as the floor of the ladderless shaft has a trap door trap (making the floor to collapse 30 ft under. To continue in this section the PC's must trigger the trap, they can do it also with two Disable Device checks, they need one to discover the trap and one to disable/trigger it with safety. The floor collapses and a stone block is automatically placed there to block exiting the trap overhead. If the PC's trigger the trap with caution then the stone block is used as a floor and since the floor has collapsed so has the wall of the shaft giving access to room 21 and the statue with the shaft beneath it.

And we come to the conclusion that every time Dominiani wants to visit his lab he triggers the floor collapsing trap... (Oh s++it I forgot my keys...).
Either there has to be a hole for him to turn to mist form and enter area 21, or the cartographers have forgotten to place a secret door as in the shaft of the other tower, I vote the latter... (the text for the PC's ends with "No other doors can be seen".) so yes probably the writer or cartographer forgot the S door there.

I think that's it unless I am mistaken.

Anyway it would be very hard for PC's to find these areas next to impossible, unless they have a tracking device on Dominiani and he happens to be in one of these rooms. If they find these areas I would give them extra XP just for great imagination (unless if they happen to search for secret doors wherever they go).

DM: You enter the Roarsting Pig one of the most famous tavernas in the city, the smell of good food and intoxicating beer pierces your senses. The tavern is packed, full of happy people celebrating the Spring Virgin Festival

Rogue PC: I am going to the bar and begin searching for secret doors

DM: You push your way to the bar and begin your search. As always there is a secret compartment on the utter surface of the bar leading to a cobwebbed staircase, you seem to be sceptical as to how this secret door remains unused for so long, while the people in the tavern continue to drink and laugh not paying attention to you.

Rogue PC: I enter the staircase

DM: Making your first step into the secret staircase your step triggers some kind of mechanism, you look with shock behind you as a large roaring noise is heard and the floor of the whole taverna collapses... You look down and you see all those previously happy drinking people laying motionless on the bottom of a 30 ft. pit covered with debris. The rest of the party arrives at that moment opening the tavern door"

Paladin PC: Did we miss happy hour?

[onmyoji]

Thanks so much for giving it a look, Mephisto. This was driving me crazy!

To enter area 18-20 they go down the ladderless shaft of the tower where there is a secret door on the wall leading to a corridor.

The two towers on either side of the main courtyard like I thought? If that's the case, then yeah, it'd be nearly impossible to find their way here.

The reason I'm asking about this is because it's clear (to me anyway) that the module doesn't expect the players to see Dominiani as a villain, though he is in the greater scheme of things, so it might become relevant later. As such, I am planning to play Dominiani off to my players very similarly to Van Richten: a medic, but also a scholar of knowledge very interested in learning about everything around him. As such, he needs a library the players can access, so I'll just write in a library that the players can easily find.

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What might be more interesting is to remove the whole three-floor curtain-pillar thing and put the secret entrance to the basement level via trapdoor under his throne. Unlike Strahd, I don't anticipate that other vampires will really be using this, and if that's the case, there's not much of a need for the other bats except for atmosphere.

Then I can put a two-floor library in areas 13 and 14 that the players can spend some downtime in while they think Dominiani is off to help a patient. They've dealt with one vampire so far, one of them is tracking a vampire (pre-Ravenloft backstory), and they've heard talk of vampires running Gundarak, but the duke isn't on their radar yet. So I plan for Dominiani to actually give them a copy of RVR's Guide to Vampires, which was canonically released only the previous year. But I also imagine Dominiani to be researching how the Core actually works, to be the one who comes up with the name "domains" and "dark lords" and so on. So the players will hopefully get a bunch of that info either form him or via his library.

But they can't exactly do that if the hidden library involves them flying to the top of a high tower, then sliding probably 50+ feet down a hidden tunnel to a basement level that is completely independent of the other basement level in the castle.

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Either there has to be a hole for him to turn to mist form and enter area 21, or the cartographers have forgotten to place a secret door as in the shaft of the other tower, I vote the latter... (the text for the PC's ends with "No other doors can be seen".) so yes probably the writer or cartographer forgot the S door there.

There's an S tunnel on the exact opposite tower also. That's how we presumably get to rooms 18, 19, and 20 (20 is the coffin unlabeled in the black and white map). But those rooms ALSO do not seem to connect to rooms 20-24. So he presumably still sets off the trap each time.

Either way, all of this brings us to the exact conclusion that I was fearing——the castle desperately needs a cartographic overhaul.

— onmyoji

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Yes better reform it as to what suits you.

I think I 've mention this to you before in some other discussion but I 'll say it again just in case I didn't. The last quoth the raven"s Sae of Sorrows gazetteer (Dominia) has really good stuff to enrich Dominiani and his keep.

Also I 've known of some guys playing Feast of Goblyns years ago and once I had mentioned Dominiani to them and they told me that when their DM presented Dominiani to them and showed them the picture from the module of him siting on his thrown they screamed "vampire" and attacked him...

I 've never played with these guys snce their gaming was overpowered PC's and hack and slash but maybe the picture although really good (with Fabian being my favourite Ravenloft illustrator) doesn't help, making him seam an innocent doctor.

[onmyoji]

Yes better reform it as to what suits you.

I think I 've mention this to you before in some other discussion but I 'll say it again just in case I didn't. The last quoth the raven"s Sae of Sorrows gazetteer (Dominia) has really good stuff to enrich Dominiani and his keep.

But that's his keep in Dominia, not the one in Teufeldorf. My understanding is that the one in Teufeldorf remains, even when that area is subjugated by Barovia, and his keep goes unused and falls into ruin (or perhaps is repurposed). Though I guess there's no saying the Dark Forces didn't pattern the Dominia estate after the Teufeldorf one. I will definitely take a look at the QTR Gazetteer anyway though. Thanks!

Also I 've known of some guys playing Feast of Goblyns years ago and once I had mentioned Dominiani to them and they told me that when their DM presented Dominiani to them and showed them the picture from the module of him siting on his thrown they screamed "vampire" and attacked him...

I 've never played with these guys snce their gaming was overpowered PC's and hack and slash but maybe the picture although really good (with Fabian being my favourite Ravenloft illustrator) doesn't help, making him seam an innocent doctor.

Oh, I'm definitely not using the art from the original manuals except the maps in certain places. The art just doesn't hold up. The art I'm currently using for Dominiani is this:



Though keep in mind, I'm going to try to spin him off as a sort of Gundarakite version of Van Richten. He's a medic, but also a scholar—probably the first to coin the terms "domain" and "dark lord." I wanted to find one with a bit shaggier of a beard, but this still works just fine. Either way, he's not intending to get in the PCs' way—he merely wants them to get the Crown so that he can use it to overthrow Duke Gundar.

— onmyoji

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The cartography in Feast of Goblyns is Dominiani's Keep close to Teufeldorf.
After Gundar's assassination he retreated to the Keep continuing his research.

Dominia formed after the Grand Conjuction. He was rewarded with a domain, for his treachery but small because of his inability to rule since only his research was important to him.

Dominia was an island of terror for around a decade. The domain included his asylum and a wolf infested forest surrounded by mists (the attached photo).

Then it became a part of the Core as detailed in Bleak House Box Set.

The incomplete but so far really good article in QtR has also some info suitable for his close to Teufeldorf Keep but also on his background.

[Mistmaster]

I recently decided that I will put Dominiani and his Asylum in Markovia.

[onmyoji]

The cartography in Feast of Goblyns is Dominiani's Keep close to Teufeldorf.
After Gundar's assassination he retreated to the Keep continuing his research.

Dominia formed after the Grand Conjuction. He was rewarded with a domain, for his treachery but small because of his inability to rule since only his research was important to him.

Dominia was an island of terror for around a decade. The domain included his asylum and a wolf infested forest surrounded by mists (the attached photo).

Then it became a part of the Core as detailed in Bleak House Box Set.

The incomplete but so far really good article in QtR has also some info suitable for his close to Teufeldorf Keep but also on his background.

Sounds good. I'll look into the QTR. I guess it was just unclear to me whether or not his domain was crafted from the same asylum as in Teufeldorf, or if it was different altogether. I might opt for the latter myself as my characters will certainly be going to Teufeldorf in the Strahd campaign, so finding some lost ephemera of Dominiani's relevant to this campaign will be really nice.

Thanks for your constant help, Mephisto!

— onmyoji

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I guess it was just unclear to me whether or not his domain was crafted from the same asylum as in Teufeldorf, or if it was different altogether.

Definitely different!, Yes it is good to use it for the PC's to find info there when he is trapped in his own asylum island prison.

Thanks for your constant help, Mephisto!

Glad to help. Feast of Goblyns needs a lot of work as a module but is one of my favourite ones. I love the Old Kartakan inn, The Crown of "Soldiers", Dominiani as a character and the whole Gundar aftermath including Barovian occupation, it fleshes out a lot for the campaign. Even Daglan, a relly nightmarish domain and the image of Homlock with the magical pilar touching the heathens...
It might be the first official Ravenloft adventure but a lot of what happens later in the setting is based in this adventure, Gazetteer Vol.1 had a lot of references to this module as well. The only thing I miss is that the second hand module I bought around twenty years ago was incomplete without the poster in it

PS There are these kid magazines being sold here that give some parts to create a skeleton. The dimensions are perfect for the gargantuan skeleton and 25mm miniatures for Radagas caverns somewhere in the Arkalias Hills aka as the Dead Hills or Den Livlos Bakker. So when I collect the parts I hope to play the module again with new party.
Lots of pieces left to go though...

[onmyoji]

I guess it was just unclear to me whether or not his domain was crafted from the same asylum as in Teufeldorf, or if it was different altogether.

Definitely different!, Yes it is good to use it for the PC's to find info there when he is trapped in his own asylum island prison.

Thanks for your constant help, Mephisto!

Glad to help. Feast of Goblyns needs a lot of work as a module but is one of my favourite ones. I love the Old Kartakan inn, The Crown of "Soldiers", Dominiani as a character and the whole Gundar aftermath including Barovian occupation, it fleshes out a lot for the campaign. Even Daglan, a relly nightmarish domain and the image of Homlock with the magical pilar touching the heathens...
It might be the first official Ravenloft adventure but a lot of what happens later in the setting is based in this adventure, Gazetteer Vol.1 had a lot of references to this module as well. The only thing I miss is that the second hand module I bought around twenty years ago was incomplete without the poster in it

PS There are these kid magazines being sold here that give some parts to create a skeleton. The dimensions are perfect for the gargantuan skeleton and 25mm miniatures for Radagas caverns somewhere in the Arkalias Hills aka as the Dead Hills or Den Livlos Bakker. So when I collect the parts I hope to play the module again with new party.
Lots of pieces left to go though...

Nice! I have definitely been making very liberal use of Gaz 1 for Kartakass and what little there is on Gundarak, so no worries there. I just haven't quite made it into all the fan-based stuff yet. Most of the official stuff I'm pretty good on, or at least for the Kartakass section.

While I don't want to spoil it all too much, my Feast isn't going to be too Goblyn-y. To make a very long story short, I have plans for the Book of Vile Darkness as an important item in the two campaigns here, and since one appears in FoG as-written, I've kind of written around that (even though it's a throwaway item in FoG as-written). So the goblyns are going to end up being replaced (at least in my retelling) with something that sounds like it could be created with the powers of that book. I know goblyns are a classic Ravenloft monster, but with the exception of their brief mention in "I, Strahd," I think this is the only time in all the Ravenloft content relevant to my players that they ever appear.

I admit I haven't quite figured out what exactly I'd like them to be, but the BoVD is very undead-based. I don't exactly want to reduce them to something so basic as mindless undead, but if I can get whatever I use instead of goblyns to relate specifically to the BoVD, I can weave a deeper more engrossing narrative. I plan to look into that a bit more closely in the next week or so.

Also, I have to consider that by the time the module is done, the players will be level 4. Since I'm rewriting everything for Pathfinder 2, I figured I might as well fix the GC leveling issues while I was at it.

— onmyoji

[Mephisto of the FoS]

PS Also check Book of Secrets from the Kargatane site, it has an article about Gundar. I like the background story, he is a rebel turned tyrant and also explains in away why he can have children (before dhampirs appeared in the monstrous compedium, for me dhampirs should be extremely rare, made under peculiar circumstances).

I have to say that in general although called Feast of Goblyns there are not many in the adventure. There are not many references to goblyns in general appearing in FoG, Castles Forlorn, Gazetteer Vol.1, I Strahd as you mentioned and a short story in Tales of Ravenloft. If I am not mistaken they don't appear somewhere else.
Personally I really like goblyns and the idea of them being former humans turned to fearless minions through magic. If you've checked Castles Forlorn I believe you'll find them interesting too.

[onmyoji]

PS Also check Book of Secrets from the Kargatane site, it has an article about Gundar. I like the background story, he is a rebel turned tyrant and also explains in away why he can have children (before dhampirs appeared in the monstrous compedium, for me dhampirs should be extremely rare, made under peculiar circumstances).

Oh! Glad to know about Gundar. That's information that would certainly be important, especially since one of the PC's is looking for his mother, and she's going to be one of Gundar's vampire brides. So after Feast of Goblyns, we're probably moving right into Dominiani helping the characters assassinate Gundar. So that will be super useful, especially since he's never adequately described in official sources.

I have to say that in general although called Feast of Goblyns there are not many in the adventure. There are not many references to goblyns in general appearing in FoG, Castles Forlorn, Gazetteer Vol.1, I Strahd as you mentioned and a short story in Tales of Ravenloft. If I am not mistaken they don't appear somewhere else.
Personally I really like goblyns and the idea of them being former humans turned to fearless minions through magic. If you've checked Castles Forlorn I believe you'll find them interesting too.

"Former humans turned to fearless minions" is still what I'm going for. Just whether they look like goblyns or will be called goblyns is up for debate.

— onmyoji

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Yeah, that map does have the feel of being unfinished. The part that bothered me were the large blank spaces on either side of the hall (room 9). What's up with that? I filled those with more rooms when I ran it, and liberally added some secret doors to get to the more inaccessible regions downstairs.

I agree that the art of Dominiani in the module is a bit scary, but if you crop it down to just his portrait, it's not too bad.

I find it best that the PCs trust Dominiani enough to give him the crown, but then quickly find reasons to mistrust him and get it back. I didn't like that the module had them go back to Skald to find out he was a bad guy, then back to the keep to confront him. I kept it all in one trip to the Keep.

The Akriel art had to go, though. She's beautiful, in a delightfully nostalgic 90's way, but no one is trusting that lady as a helpless damsel in distress.

[onmyoji]

I find it best that the PCs trust Dominiani enough to give him the crown, but then quickly find reasons to mistrust him and get it back. I didn't like that the module had them go back to Skald to find out he was a bad guy, then back to the keep to confront him. I kept it all in one trip to the Keep.

Yeah, I was very much influenced by your rewrite of FoG, so I will likely follow suit. My players haven't met Dominiani yet, but I wrote things in a bit differently. I'm planning on Akriel wanting to take them to the tomb, but then having it be sealed in a particular way, so then they need to go to Dominiani to figure out how to unseal it (since again, I'm playing him like a Van Richten). They'll figure it out in one of his books (there'll be an actually accessible library), and then go on to get the crown.

Once they get the crown, that'll give the PC's a LOT of time to think about whether or not they trust Dominiani and to plant the seeds that maybe his relationship to Akriel is one of convenience rather than love, as she believes. (I substantially reduced Radaga's narrative role, but transferred all the "I want to be beautiful" aspects over to Akriel. So she's basically the "high school girl that thinks she's ugly" who's finally found what she thinks is love, and thus should be all set. If the players sew doubt, she might become unwilling to give the crown to Dominiani, and just...... put it on herself. Which I'm kind of counting on. That would also mean not traveling back to Gundarak until FoG has ended and they're ready to go after Gundar.)

Either way, even though Dominiani is very much in a relationship of convenience, I'm not playing him as evil. His major goal right now is to break Gundar's hold over him somehow. Vampire or not, he has no interest in harming the PCs when they meet him. (And he already knows they'll be coming along soon.)

We shall see how it all works out. Either way, there are a lot of fun possibilities.

— onmyoji

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The Akriel art had to go, though. She's beautiful, in a delightfully nostalgic 90's way, but no one is trusting that lady as a helpless damsel in distress.

Also the beautiful version of Radaga attacking with a knife doesn't help...

The empty spaces you mentioned next to area 9, I guess they are supposed to be a walled section with the tube running through it.
The library could be there to avoid the "PC's must find the secret rooms" scenario to have this Van Richtenish effect.
Also what I always thought weird is that the access to his more private rooms (for experiments, relaxing etc) is through the outer wall. The only reason for that would be for an extra level of difficulty to find these as I guess most PC's will not check the towers unless they are locked inside the castle and search for the portcullis mechanism.

If I play it a second time I believe I will place the outer wall tubes where the others are. (there is still bat guano there but also the secret door to area 19-21 (there is also close proxmity to D's spare coffins), and I agree with the secret door leading to the tube from the unmarked rooms.

When I played the adventure one PC didn't survive and in the second part which was assassinating G that PC was a thrall of D. Also an NPC who was part of the group (so they would be 4) was transformed by the magical coffin, D manipulated them into thinking that to save the NPC they had to destroy G.