We need a books & stories list

[Rotipher of the FoS]

And a few more:

Mordenheim (novel)

The Sorcerer and the Succubus, by Mrs. Felicia Henry; adventurous romance-novel, one of a series* -- p. 8-9

[* - Looks like the Romance From Beyond The Grave books weren't the first trash-novel series of their kind, since Mordenheim took place shortly after Lamordia was created! ]

Quatrains of Loss, by Friedrich Kreutzer; self-published collection of somber poetry, only 50 copies ever produced -- p. 12-13

Prastonata-song of the Zsolty clan of Vistani -- lyrics, p. 145



Tower of Doom (novel)

Wort's enchanted book; ancient volume of Darkonian fairy tales -- passage read aloud, p. 7

Poem recited by Alys, a Lost One** -- p. 136, 198-199

[** - Unclear if this is Alys's own work, or a quotation from her poet-lover Robart, the sight of whose reanimated body drove her mad.]

Poem, written in blood by either Master Demaris or the Bell Spirits; found in Demaris's hand after the spirits killed him -- p. 225



Baroness of Blood (novel)

Guide to Kislovan plants and to plant-derived poisons & drugs, by Lord Jorani -- p. 100

Diary of Baroness Ilsabet -- exerpts, p. 171-174, 178, 180-186, 189-191, 204, 209-210, 234-235, 243, 246-247, 248-249, 251, 252, 291, 299-307, 308-309



Tales of Ravenloft (anthology)

Journal of Dr. Rudolph van Richten; opening passage, BC 735 -- "The Crucible of Van Richten", p. 16-17

History text***, favorite book of Lord Wilfred Godefroy -- "The Briar at the Window"; exerpts p. 84, 96

[*** - Possibly written by, but more likely only purchased from, a 'Harlan Attwood'.]

Death's Head Dice, Sithican variant of craps -- "The Rigor of the Game"; rules described, p. 179-180

Journal of Julio, Master Thief of Hazlan -- "The Glass Man", p. 266-278

Hazlik's lab notes, Experiment #27-13 -- "The Glass Man", p. 279-280



I wasn't sure if you'd be interested in the dice-game or not, Lord Cyc, but it's the same kind of setting-trivia as the book references, that DMs might find handy as similar "local color". If you do want to include it, I can look up which old Dragon issue presented the rules for "Geas" (a tarokka card-game), too.

[Lord Cyclohexane]

Cool, thanks for the above listings, Roti! And sorry that I've been slacking on my end. I'm back onto it, since I'm no longer working on that Werewolf the Apocalypse lookup tool anymore.

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The Nightmare Lands
None*

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* I haven't been putting journals, diaries, etc in my listing of books, unless that journal/diary/etc happens to be mass-produced. So even though there are a bajillion references to The Journal of Dr. Illhousen, I'm not putting that on the list as there is only the one copy floating around Ravenloft.

Why did I decide against that? Because the Van Richten Guides are drowning in personal diaries, all of which would be inaccessible to PCs, Ravenloftian natives who aren't inclined to raiding Van Richten's shop, etc. As such, doesn't seem like they're all that important.

[cure]

Do you have the list of works published by Doctor Abelhous Nicholis? I perhaps even supplied them, but I am no longer sure . . .

[Rotipher of the FoS]

You already listed them. Check the second page of this thread.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Here's a few more novels, though they're kinda sparse pickings:

Death of a Darklord (novel)

Ballad of Omartrag -- Kartakan folk song, p. 310



Scholar of Decay (novel)

The Dead Travel Fast, A Romance From Beyond The Grave -- brief plot summary, p. 249; apparently, Louise Renier loves reading this trash!



King of the Dead (novel)

None.



To Sleep With Evil (novel)

Secrets of Swordplay -- instruction-manual for fencers, p. 71

A Good Woman's Primer -- guide to formal ladies' etiquette, p. 72 & 99

Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani -- p. 72, 137, 184-186, 281

Legend of the Vistani Violin -- grim Vistani folktale about invention of the first violin, p. 203



Lord of the Necropolis (novel, non-canon)

Scientific Journal of K. Albemarl -- outlander reference consulted by Azalin in creating the Doomsday Device, p. 191 & 194 *

[* -- While you said that personal journals wouldn't make it onto the list, Lord Cyc, this one probably deserves to be included, due to its great historical importance and ominous content. Granted, the novel isn't canon, but the idea that the DD was partly a scientific device, built using outlander knowledge, does reconcile the issue of how Azalin could create the thing in the first place: it's only new magic that he can't utilize, not new engineering. ]



Shadowborn (novel)

The Book of Radiance -- holy text of Belenus, p. 11 **

Libram of Belenus -- another holy text of Belenus, written in ecclesiastical script; p. 26, 72 (quotation) **

[** - Another Belenus-text quotation appears on p. 176, but its source is not cited, so it could be from either book or neither. Note that these two books are cited by Belenus-worshippers from the Shadowborn homeworld, not by his followers in Ravenloft; it's possible -- maybe even likely -- that any such texts that exist in Nidala will contain errors and/or corrupted passages.]



That's nearly all of the novels done, assuming you'd prefer to tackle the Strahd books yourself. Or should I go ahead and skim those too?

[Lord Cyclohexane]

Your call if you want to skim the Strahd novels as well. I've got about half of Vampire of the Mists done (got distracted by reading Shadowborn when a friend lent it to me), but it's all up to you on how much you want to do. After all, everything with this project is volunteer work.

Me, I've still got a few more boxed sets to go through before I'll go on to the novels, so your call one way or the other. I've still got Requiem: The Grim Harvest, then The Shadow Rift, the two Monstrous Compendiums and finally Domains of Dread. I think I've got all of the 2E books and boxed sets done at that point, but I'll doublecheck to make sure. Anyway, point was, I've still got some things on my end if you want to keep skimming the novels anyway, or if you don't want to then the novels will still be there when I'm done with the boxed sets. Your call on what you wish to do.

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Bleak House
- van Richten, Rudolf. Guide to Vampires - Original manuscript, in library (p31)
- van Richten, Rudolf. Guide to Fiends - (p31)
- van Richten, Rudolf. Guide to the Lich - (p31)
- Protector of Darkon - Biography of Lord Azalin Rex (p53)


Requiem: the Grim Harvest
None

[Lord Cyclohexane]

Changed my mind. Roti, please leave the last novels to me, if you would. I'd prefer to do that myself, and have you open to work more on the VR's Legacy project. Now go! And thank you so much again for your assistance with the novels; I was honestly afraid that I'd have to track down all of the novels myself just to get this done, so you've been a greater help than you know.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Okay, VotM and "I, Strahd" are yours to do ... unless I just plain feel like reading them before you get to them, of course.

I tend to write in spurts -- cranking out 10-15 single-space pages straight over a marathon weekend, then not getting another word onto the screen until Wednesday -- so working on the VRF won't monopolize my attention so much that I can't do a bit, here and there, for other projects. So if and when I need a break from doppelgangers, I'll see about skimming SotBR and IS:WAA for references. (You said you didn't have those two, IIRC.)

I might even flip through the three pick-a-path kiddie books, while I'm at it, given that they're so short.

[Lord Cyclohexane]

Okay, VotM and "I, Strahd" are yours to do ... unless I just plain feel like reading them before you get to them, of course.

Sounds cool.

I tend to write in spurts -- cranking out 10-15 single-space pages straight over a marathon weekend, then not getting another word onto the screen until Wednesday -- so working on the VRF won't monopolize my attention so much that I can't do a bit, here and there, for other projects. So if and when I need a break from doppelgangers, I'll see about skimming SotBR and IS:WAA for references. (You said you didn't have those two, IIRC.)

Actually, perhaps I should update my list. I picked up IS:WAA and SoD about three weeks ago, though I don't recall if I actually said anything about that. I also have HoM, which I'd forgotten I got for my last birthday. So my full list is:

Heart of Midnight
I, Strahd
I, Strahd: The War against Azalin
Knight of the Black Rose
Scholar of Decay
Vampire of the Mists

So please, do do SotBR (which I don't have), but it's your call on the IS:WAA. And I realize you've already done HoM and SoD (don't recall if you did KotBR or not...), but I can do the others. If you just enjoy skimming them, as I enjoy it as I find myself rereading the best passages and finding it good to revisit the story, then feel free. Whoever gets to it first will be the person who gets to it first.

I might even flip through the three pick-a-path kiddie books, while I'm at it, given that they're so short.

Three? Wow, I'm definitely not paying enough attention. I'd only heard of one (the one with the Vistani King and the vampire Velkaarn and the Bloodknife that was covered in Van Richten's Arsenal). So yes, if you could go through those, I'd really appreciate it.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

The book with the Bloodknife is the only Ravenloft-based 'Choose-Your-Own-Adventure' that's been acknowledged in the other game-products (in VRA), but there was also a 1E-era pick-a-path version of the old I6 module (just a dungeon-crawl really), and a second 2E kiddie-book set in Sri Raji. I seriously doubt if there are title-references in any of the three, but it's worth a peek anyway.

Yes, I'm an extremely compulsive Ravenloft-collector, to have tracked down such little-known materials ... thank Ezra for Amazon and eBay!

Another obscure source I might take a crack at later, FWIW, would be old Dragon articles about Ravenloft, and Dungeon issues with adventures set there. That'll probably have to wait until the doppelganger-book is close to finished, though.

[Lord Cyclohexane]

Another obscure source I might take a crack at later, FWIW, would be old Dragon articles about Ravenloft, and Dungeon issues with adventures set there. That'll probably have to wait until the doppelganger-book is close to finished, though.

Ooh, that's a good point that I'd completely forgotten about. And I can think of at least one Dragon article (about lost spellbooks, with new Ravenloft-specific spells and a good story about Azalin's doings in Darkon) that has a number of book listings in it.

I've tracked down all of the Dragon articles and can do those as well, but don't have access to any of the Dungeon adventures. So I can split that with you, if you'd like to add those as well (since I'm already planning to do the Kargatane and FoS netbooks, doing the Dragon and Dungeon makes sense).

Thanks for mentioning them, though! It definitely wouldn't have occurred to me to check them until long afterwards.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I can check the Dungeon issues. If it's just Dungeon and not both, I may not have to wait as long to tackle that as I would, both magazines.

IIRC, there'd been a MotRD adventure or two in Dungeon, in addition to the Ravenloft ones. I take it that's not something we need to check?

[cure]

I can try to track down the one's from the Vecna's library Dragon article.

Speaking of which, where there any in Die Vecna Die? Already catalogued perhaps?

[Lord Cyclohexane]

I can check the Dungeon issues. If it's just Dungeon and not both, I may not have to wait as long to tackle that as I would, both magazines.

Well, there's no rush on any of these; there's no set date where this needs to be done by, after all. I wouldn't worry about the speed on this.

IIRC, there'd been a MotRD adventure or two in Dungeon, in addition to the Ravenloft ones. I take it that's not something we need to check?

Correct. I was just going for things within Ravenloft. While technically some of those books might have been in Odiare when it was pulled from Gothic Earth's Italy, I'm not going to add those to the list.

I can try to track down the one's from the Vecna's library Dragon article.

If you'd like to check out the article on Vecna's library, cool, go for it. I've also got access to that, but would appreciate any help given.

Speaking of which, where there any in Die Vecna Die? Already catalogued perhaps?

I rather doubt there was anything in Die, Vecna, Die, though I admit I didn't get all that far in it. I found it to be a horrendously thick dungeon crawl and eventually stopped even skimming it (sorry to Mr. Miller, if you're reading this...). If you can get through DVD, though, please just focus on Chapter 2, which is in Cavitius; please ignore any book references in Tovag Baragu (Chapter 1) or in Sigil (Chapter 3).

I'll probably make another stab at DVD, mind, just for completeness's sake.

[Lord Cyclohexane]

The Shadow Rift
None