Café de Nuit

A golem shaped like a dragon to scare people...

Troile wrote:A golem shaped like a dragon to scare people...

Ugh, now I'm reminded of the "drolem" from the Mystara Monstrous Manual.

Gemathustra wrote:

Troile wrote:A golem shaped like a dragon to scare people...

Ugh, now I'm reminded of the "drolem" from the Mystara Monstrous Manual.

drol = poo (in dutch)
drôle = funny (in french)


Drolem don't scare me

Fido wrote:

Gemathustra wrote:

Troile wrote:A golem shaped like a dragon to scare people...

Ugh, now I'm reminded of the "drolem" from the Mystara Monstrous Manual.

drol = poo (in dutch)
drôle = funny (in french)


Drolem don't scare me

You'd be surprised how quickly the "Poopenstein" can slay PCs...

Don Fernando wrote:Then again, even though unique monsters are a Ravenloft Trademark, try to imagine the possibility of seeing a giant lizard using his breath weapon against a vampire...I guess it's not scary at all...

Open combat with its attendant gamespeak seldom is.

"The massive flying shadow, its wings spread as if to block out the mnoonlight, swoops low over the vardos of the Vistani and its maw gapes wide. Inky darkness pours forth from its jaws, seeming to leech the very life from the air, the very heat from the campfire. As the darkness settles upon the encampment like a shroud, the screams of the terrified gypsies are quickly silenced."

Lame and rushed, but do you see what I'm driving at?

The Spawn of the Lizard are a slight expansion on a reference in the 2e Domains of Dread book.

Chris Nichols

Ugh, now I'm reminded of the "drolem" from the Mystara Monstrous Manual.

We're trying to make dragons cool.

There really isn't much you can do.

(:

Troile wrote:

Ugh, now I'm reminded of the "drolem" from the Mystara Monstrous Manual.

We're trying to make dragons cool.

There really isn't much you can do.

(:

I know, it's just that I was reminded of something that I had hoped was repressed, and...
Well, it's that one step forward, two steps off a cliff situation

Cole Deschain wrote:

Don Fernando wrote:Then again, even though unique monsters are a Ravenloft Trademark, try to imagine the possibility of seeing a giant lizard using his breath weapon against a vampire...I guess it's not scary at all...

Open combat with its attendant gamespeak seldom is.

"The massive flying shadow, its wings spread as if to block out the mnoonlight, swoops low over the vardos of the Vistani and its maw gapes wide. Inky darkness pours forth from its jaws, seeming to leech the very life from the air, the very heat from the campfire. As the darkness settles upon the encampment like a shroud, the screams of the terrified gypsies are quickly silenced."

Lame and rushed, but do you see what I'm driving at?

Yeah, I see the point you're making--it's really all in how you DM, and how your description goes... you don't tell the players exactly what it is they're facing, you give them descriptions using shadows and flame and darkness and whatever else you need to evoke the horror. Shadow dragons like Ebb and Gloom, could (obviously) have a place in Ravenloft, regardless of how Gothic they are or aren't.

And what about Mist Dragons from the 2e Monstrous Manual? Creatures who can assume the form of mist and fog, use a fog/steam breath weapon, and "draw most of their sustenance directly from natural mist or spray" (imagine how corrupted one could become from dining on the Mists themselves).

Same goes for fog giants - white skinned behemoths that move with surprising stealth (-5 penalty to surprise rolls for foes when attacking in fog or mist). Even veteran PCs would be given pause when told that:

"The creature moving toward you easily dwarfs any other building in the village. Its sick, milky-white skin gleams under the moonlight as it strides forward out of the fog--seemingly a part of the mist itself. The ground beneath your own unsteady feet rumbles with each step the creature takes, rippling the collected rainwater in the wagon ruts and threatening to knock you off your feet.

"Looking up, you can see only the grotesquely-muscled frame of the creature--it is so tall that its head... if it has one... is completely concealed by the blade-shaped clouds above. Your eyes immediately are drawn to the wicked spiked club it carries, each barb oozing and dripping with thick, barely congealed red liquid."

Again, rushed and certainly bearing room for improvement--but do-able. I'd grant that having large groups of these creatures in Ravenloft would take away some of their impact (not to mention completely obliterating all but the most powerful RL parties), but single creatures like this could easily be adapted to the Land of the Mists... if not "in the flesh" so to speak, then as illusionary images to taunt the PCs and force fear/horror checks.

Chris Nichols wrote:The Spawn of the Lizard are a slight expansion on a reference in the 2e Domains of Dread book.

"...some claim that through brilliant hit-and-run tactics, a group of kobolds have more or less driven Drakov's troops from a region at the heart of the domain."--DoD p. 36

Thanks, Chris!

Other suggested options for why the Basilisk is unusually large include a failed experiment by Vjorn Horstmann and a dread flesh golem from kobold parts. While the name "Spawn of the Lizard" has half-dragon connotations, kobold mythology usually claims draconic descent for them, even without a half-dragon around to back it up. The name seems pretty stock in trade to me.

There was a tarnished copper dragon in the Forgotten Children netbook that I quite liked. Liked so much, in fact, I put him in my campaign.

As already said, it's all about presentation.

Ryan Naylor wrote:There was a tarnished copper dragon in the Forgotten Children netbook that I quite liked. Liked so much, in fact, I put him in my campaign.

As already said, it's all about presentation.

Where was this dragon? I looked through the netbook and couldn't find it...

Cole Deschain wrote:Kobolds rule.

Yep, and I played on once in the days of yore... 2E that is.

You want a cool dragon-like creature that fits Ravenloft like a glove?

Can anyone say...

...Beware the Jabberwock

ok folks, thanks for the comments

Given its nickname is the Basilisk and that beast was supposed to be very poisonous (back in the days before TSR gave it a petrifying ability), methink I'll go with a Kobold who has failed a few power checks and now has poison-related 'gifts'.

Hmm, or perhaps I could give him a weapon that poison/petrify.

I wonder if I could create a link with Althea of Lamordia...