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[The Dark]

For Borca, what if Rodjan Dilisnya decided to do away w/ both those troublesome Sef's? Fallen paladin turning into demon could be an interesting Darklord. Maybe he helped Malocchio & Drakov crush the place as hinted at in Gazetteer about war in the core.

I'm torn on this one because I like the various stories that Ivan and Ivana tie into. Both the "people who like each other from a distance but hate each other after time together" and Ivan's jealousy of Ivana's perpetual youth (and her complete lack of knowing anything about it and not being thrilled to be an eternal teenager) are fun for me. I think I'd prefer splitting Borca back into two domains, one for each of them, under the assumption Ivan was sulking at his manor during the Fragmentation.

I'd change him a bit, though, taking some inspiration from the 5e version. In pursuit of his lost childhood (and barely suppressed jealousy of Ivana's timelessness), he's become a toymaker and patron of similar tinkerers. New toys affect him like a potion of longevity, but he regresses back to his real age at a pace of one year per day. Once he's returned to his original age, he flies into a rage and breaks his toys. Ivan being Ivan, "toys" can include living beings. Rather than poisoning invaders, they'll run into an army of misfit toys, ranging from plush golems* to tin golems* to doll golems to clockwork swordsmen. Odiare can sometimes be reached from the new Dorvinia, either via Mistway or an occasional overlap of the Pocket Domain with the Core. Ivana still tries to poison him every once in a while, but it doesn't stick, while she's become paranoid about toys and toymakers after a couple gifts from her "loving cousin" turned violent.

*These were both in April Fool's issues of Dragon magazine back in the 2e era.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

For Borca, what if Rodjan Dilisnya decided to do away w/ both those troublesome Sef's? Fallen paladin turning into demon could be an interesting Darklord. Maybe he helped Malocchio & Drakov crush the place as hinted at in Gazetteer about war in the core.

I'm torn on this one because I like the various stories that Ivan and Ivana tie into. Both the "people who like each other from a distance but hate each other after time together" and Ivan's jealousy of Ivana's perpetual youth (and her complete lack of knowing anything about it and not being thrilled to be an eternal teenager) are fun for me. I think I'd prefer splitting Borca back into two domains, one for each of them, under the assumption Ivan was sulking at his manor during the Fragmentation.

I'd change him a bit, though, taking some inspiration from the 5e version. In pursuit of his lost childhood (and barely suppressed jealousy of Ivana's timelessness), he's become a toymaker and patron of similar tinkerers. New toys affect him like a potion of longevity, but he regresses back to his real age at a pace of one year per day. Once he's returned to his original age, he flies into a rage and breaks his toys. Ivan being Ivan, "toys" can include living beings. Rather than poisoning invaders, they'll run into an army of misfit toys, ranging from plush golems* to tin golems* to doll golems to clockwork swordsmen. Odiare can sometimes be reached from the new Dorvinia, either via Mistway or an occasional overlap of the Pocket Domain with the Core. Ivana still tries to poison him every once in a while, but it doesn't stick, while she's become paranoid about toys and toymakers after a couple gifts from her "loving cousin" turned violent.

*These were both in April Fool's issues of Dragon magazine back in the 2e era.

This is amazing
Also, as a plushie lover, plush golems would absolutely haunt my nightmares. Which is good, cause it's a horror game. Can you share more about those? Is there a statblock? Artwork?

[The Dark]

For Borca, what if Rodjan Dilisnya decided to do away w/ both those troublesome Sef's? Fallen paladin turning into demon could be an interesting Darklord. Maybe he helped Malocchio & Drakov crush the place as hinted at in Gazetteer about war in the core.

I'm torn on this one because I like the various stories that Ivan and Ivana tie into. Both the "people who like each other from a distance but hate each other after time together" and Ivan's jealousy of Ivana's perpetual youth (and her complete lack of knowing anything about it and not being thrilled to be an eternal teenager) are fun for me. I think I'd prefer splitting Borca back into two domains, one for each of them, under the assumption Ivan was sulking at his manor during the Fragmentation.

I'd change him a bit, though, taking some inspiration from the 5e version. In pursuit of his lost childhood (and barely suppressed jealousy of Ivana's timelessness), he's become a toymaker and patron of similar tinkerers. New toys affect him like a potion of longevity, but he regresses back to his real age at a pace of one year per day. Once he's returned to his original age, he flies into a rage and breaks his toys. Ivan being Ivan, "toys" can include living beings. Rather than poisoning invaders, they'll run into an army of misfit toys, ranging from plush golems* to tin golems* to doll golems to clockwork swordsmen. Odiare can sometimes be reached from the new Dorvinia, either via Mistway or an occasional overlap of the Pocket Domain with the Core. Ivana still tries to poison him every once in a while, but it doesn't stick, while she's become paranoid about toys and toymakers after a couple gifts from her "loving cousin" turned violent.

*These were both in April Fool's issues of Dragon magazine back in the 2e era.

This is amazing
Also, as a plushie lover, plush golems would absolutely haunt my nightmares. Which is good, cause it's a horror game. Can you share more about those? Is there a statblock? Artwork?

They get both in Dragon #228. It's a joke article (the other monsters in it are the Chocolate Golem and the Chia Golem), but they're done up as proper monsters for second edition AD&D. The artwork is just a big teddy bear.

To help with any conversions to other editions, they have the same AC as an unarmored human, move the same speed as an unencumbered halfling, and have the Hit Dice/Hit Points of a Carnivorous Ape (5d8 in 2e) or a tiny bit more than an Ogre (which has 4d8+1 in 2e). Two attacks a round that each do half the damage of a dagger means they're not really a huge offensive threat. They're immune to sleep, hold, paralysis, cold, and heat (but not fire), and take half damage from bludgeoning attacks. They tend to attack from surprise by looking like an inanimate plush until a target is within reach. Some have additional effects, like purple dinosaur plush golems that cause anyone over the age of 12 to need to make a save or else they can't act for 2 rounds out of fear/horror.

[Mistmaster]

Well, in the Mistworld's Mordent(shire) the most powerful evil alternative to Godfrey is Lord Hiram Mournsworth a reclusive, elderly necromancer.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Well, in the Mistworld's Mordent(shire) the most powerful evil alternative to Godfrey is Lord Hiram Mournsworth a reclusive, elderly necromancer.

Care to elaborate?

[Mistmaster]

Check QtR 26 Pagg 157-177. Hiram is fleshed out at page 170.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I thought maybe we'd do a lil roleplay and make up more stuff as we go?
viewtopic.php?t=12178

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I'd like the Time of Ultimate Darkness to expand some horizons.

We know Azalin wanted to use the Gentleman Caller's children to create an area the Dark Powers couldn't operate in, so he could "S"'s body to give birth to a new version of his son.
But "S" denied him the opportunity, and he'd never get his boney mitts on the Familiar, thanks to the skurra-vera and the child being under Isolde's protection.

So he doubles down. He always does. And something goes wrong.
Instead of getting a DP-free zone, Azalin locally overtaxes the planar fabric.
The "Ultimate Darkness" is caused by a connection being made to alternate versions of Ravenloft, as per the many-worlds interpretation. Somewhere in Darkon, a gate swings open on alternate realities, and there is ... seepage and leakage.

New domains appear, expansions on existing ones. False history prevents the average Joe from noticing. Alternate versions of existing people appear as dark or bright mirrors of the ones we know and love or loathe.
Firan Zal'honan wanders the Core, a troubled man who struggles to redeem himself while Azalin remains trapped in Darkon. A reincarnated (?) version of Sergei flees Barovia, in search of Tatyana. Elise Mordenheim is healed in body but not in mind, and wanders expanded Lamordia like a wild beast.
And so on and so forth.

Those who realize things are different start to investigate. And the gate - doorway on the ultimate darkness, and endless number of versions of the Demiplane - still ecists. Sometimes it swings open...

[alhoon]

Meanwhile... happy new year!

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I also think some other domains could "move up" their CL's. Maybe Barovia moves up to CL 8, etc. Just to show technology changing in the realms. How would a CR 8, with firearms appearing and a middle class, already hinted at in Gazetteer, blooming in Barovia. How does Strahd deal with that?

Generally I love it when fantasy worlds advance in technology over the course of the franchise rather than bring frozen in the middle ages for millennia (Say I love Mistborn without saying I love Mistborn).
But.
Barovia is the oldest domain in the core, by 200 years. And once other domains popped up, Barovia controlled the main trading route.
They had every opportunity to adopt and develop new technologies. By any real-world logic, they should be far more advanced than they are.
If they're still stuck in the same CL as when they were claimed by the mists, something is fishy.
Either Strahd self-sabotages every chance he has of making his domain prosper (either intentionally as a mean of oppressing his population or unwittingly by not investing in them and by having a horrible business sense), or the Dark Powers are actively interfering to prevent any kind of change in Barovia, cause part of Strahd's curse is to be stuck in the past.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

If I recall correctly, Strahd deliberately keeps his domain as much of a backwater as he can.
He doesn't want his people getting so prosperous that they start getting uppity, for one thing. And for another, Barovia is surrounded on all sides and is not that big. Strahd capitalized on Gundar's death by annexing part of Gundarak, but has not otherwise made moves on his neighbours because it's too much of a risk.
If Barovia becomes too significant or too much of a threat, someone could decide to stomp on his little country - and Strahd can't get out. Keeping Barovia viable, but too much of a pain to conquer allows him to carry on.

At least that's how I interpreted it.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

If I recall correctly, Strahd deliberately keeps his domain as much of a backwater as he can.
He doesn't want his people getting so prosperous that they start getting uppity, for one thing. And for another, Barovia is surrounded on all sides and is not that big. Strahd capitalized on Gundar's death by annexing part of Gundarak, but has not otherwise made moves on his neighbours because it's too much of a risk.
If Barovia becomes too significant or too much of a threat, someone could decide to stomp on his little country - and Strahd can't get out. Keeping Barovia viable, but too much of a pain to conquer allows him to carry on.

At least that's how I interpreted it.

Makes sense.

Anyway, I love the idea of Barovia being socially and technologically frozen in time, whatever the cause, because it's so thematically appropriate.


Strahd spent the majority of his youth at war against the Tergs - not the most pleasant environment - but as an admired commander, a symbol of freedom, a hero.
And then he wins.
He got what he wanted. Now what?
He realises that the exciting part of his life, the glorious part, the 'making history' part, is behind him - and he sees young people around him just starting theirs. He sees the world moving on, progressing, and is terrified of being left behind. Tatanya just unwittingly reflects to him how out-of-touch he is with the new generation.
Now, almost everyone has that experience in some point in their life. It's a universal fear, (which is what makes villains like him so alluring). But I think most of us eventually accept it, more or less grudgingly - or never face a real choice in the matter that affects other people.
Strahd doesn't.
He chooses to make his mid-life crisis everyone else's problem. He seeks to put a stick through the wheels of time. He'd let his successors suffer, even kill them, only so he can stay relevant.
How suitable, isn't it, that he does the same -willingly or not - to his entire domain? Stucking them at the same period as when he was alive, because allowing progress would mean acknowledging his own age? Freezing the entire ocean to save one wave, if to paraphrase Le Guin?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Some other ideas: Drakov dies, killed by Victor Helsinger. Maybe Vladdy shouldn't have brought him into the fold. Helsinger decides to give himself a new title...Kaiser.

A note about Vlad's death:
War is everything to Vlad. That's how he lived, that's what led him to evil, that's what his curse is about and what his domain is designed around.
And this is exactly why I abhor the idea that he should be killed by an enemy in battle.
Why?
Cause types like him usually consider death in combat 'honorable', and Vlad doesn't deserve honor.
I have three ideas for how he could die:
1) Poisoned by a woman. I just love the irony of that. It could be Ivana Boristi's job (out of fear he'd finally invade Borca, or as part of an agreement with Helsinger), but I like the idea of a bunch of the peasant women he r@ped deciding to take their revenge.
2) Out of natural causes, preferably after a long period of sickness depriving him of every bit of his martial prowess.
3) In a ridiculously random and underwhelming way, like chocking on water.

[Mistmaster]

The odds a poison works on him are low. I can see him only killed in one on one combat against Gondagal.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Not necessarily. We could do to him as Strahd did to Lyssa: send in a golem - a woman-shaped one in Drakov's case - full of something nasty. Regular poison might not take, but acid or a swarm of undead spiders that inject negative energy-laced venom should do just fine.