RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away OOC

[ewancummins]

He's worried about Klokulf, despite his bluster.

But the others? Scorn.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Well, he is about to find out that Klokulf is tired of him.

[RocEter]

Ewan, sent a pm to you.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

I will roll intimidate again, since I am doing something scary.
0
Whatever the result--even if he starts talking--Klokulf will pitch that wizard into the gate if no one stops him.

[RocEter]

Oops,

It appears we have conflicting posts? I will change mine if necessary, Ewan.

[ewancummins]

Oops,

It appears we have conflicting posts? I will change mine if necessary, Ewan.

No, it's cooler this way. Check out my latest IC response.
BAD COP

WORSE COP

[ewancummins]

Your actions actually worked togther for greater effect.

[ewancummins]

SPOILER WARNING


L.A. CONFIDENTIAL
FILM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brgQy3DsZQg

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

I agree. This escalation is more entertaining.

[ewancummins]

long post forthcoming

needs some edits

I'm going to cut the chapter here and open the new chapter after players have had a chance to catch up.

[ewancummins]

This brief pause also gives you all time to check current hit point totals, spells/spell slots used, etc.

Make sure you have that info up to date. Then we can cross-check our numbers. Just use PM.

[alhoon]

I haven't kept tab on hp, sorry.
Spells I've used 3 1st lvl spells and a 3rd lvl spell. And I've used 2 scrolls this battle but I may have missed one.

[ewancummins]

INCANTATION




The Dark Road
Conjuration
Effective level: 6
Skill check: Knowledge Arcana DC 20, 6 successes, Knowledge Dread Realms 20, 2 successes, Knowledge Planes DC 20, 1 success
Failure: death/discorporation
Components: V, S, M, F, SC, B
Casting Time: 90 minutes
Range: touch
Effect: one portal and the immediate area about it
Duration: 1d6 rounds
Saving Throw: reflex DC 20 to avoid being drawn in
Spell Resistance: yes
---------------


This ritual requires two additional casters (minimum of three).

Failure:
Casters’ spirits detach from their bodies to join the Lost, becoming bodiless entities caught in the interstices between worlds.
Leaving the ritual unfinished short of the final success needed activates a one-way, uncontrolled portal with potentially disastrous results. The ritual must be done again, from the beginning, to regain control of the portal.
Backlash: Casters are left exhausted by the psychic drain at the very end of the incantation, when the Dark Road appears.
Focus:
a stable magical portal between domains (the Border Mists are too capricious) that is also:
• completely shielded from the light of the sun and moon
• a dungeon, place of execution, battlefield, or other site linked with passage into the underworld
material components:
torches, candles, braziers of coals and incense
chalked pentacles and magic circles (must be erased and redrawn if the ritual failed or was disrupted/broken off)
a human or demihuman corpse

This incantation involves ‘forking’ of the ethereal route of a portal between domains, stepping sideways through reality onto the path that souls of the dead follow into other worlds, the heavens and hells of myth (or into a final dissolution in the Mists, if certain pessimistic Lamordians are correct).

[ewancummins]

The mechanical notes above are just that--mechanical notes.

The ritual itself will get further description in gameplay.
The text you find in a book of demonology describes what to do, but is rather vague about what to expect upon successful completion.


''The Dark Road shall appear, and the chanters be drawn onto it, able in living flesh to walk the ways the Dead travel to the Realms Beyond.
Any who stray from the Road will never return, but wander for eternity in the Mists of Death.''


The text contains vague references, left unexplained, to

''The Tempters, who beckon fools off the Dark Road''

[ewancummins]

The small library:




[*]
Lands Beyond the Mists, and the Ways Thither (the incantation is in this book)

The Watcher in the Porphyry Chamber

The Wisdom of Abraxas

Daemonologie of Erasmus Kant

a notebook, untitled, but signed 'M.' It contains necromantic lore, much of it about spirits and attempts to reach through the Mists to conjure them.
(includes some additional notes about the incantation)

Rites of Zhakata

Theory and Practice of Gate Magic
by Rary of Lopolla

Notes on the History of Pont-a-Mouseau, vol. 2
Isabeau Saimpt-Loup
(surname matches a suspect in the murders of two women from the Lorelei, but Isabeau is a woman's name)