Café de Nuit

At no point did I say that liches et al were not created by the Shroud.

The templates already existed so there was no value in reproducing them.

John,

Where precisely did you envision the Watcher's Stronghold from JAM? Right on the edge of the frontier with G'Henna, now overlooking the Shadow Rift? Nearer to the new Transumbra Road? On the Vale of Tears or the Mountains of Misery side of the political line dividing the G'Hennan-Darkonian frontier? Near the road leading from Mayvin into G'Henna (well the Shadow Rift now) that appears on old Gryphonhill.com map (and for which I sadly cannot find any cannon support)? The article says a day's trek into the Mountains of Misery. Would that be from Stangengrad as the brother was arriving from Mordent?

I don't have the book in front of me, so I'm going off some very old memories here, but I dimly recall that the strronghold was intended to have originally been a checkpoint on the old road through Arak that's now being rebuilt as the Strigos Road.

Where you asked to use the Whistling Fiend or were you given free-reign and decided to?

I do like the adventure and would really like to run it one day.

I was given free rein.

Drinnik Shoehorn wrote:I do like the adventure and would really like to run it one day.

It is a great adventure.

Mangrum wrote:I was given free rein.

Was it always your intention to use the Fiend, or did you run through a couple of ideas first?

As I very dimly recall, I got the assignment after another writer fell through, so I had something like a week between getting the project and the deadline. There wasn't a lot of time to mull over ideas.

Dr. Vilhelm Mikki, the foreign alienist who moved to Chateaufaux and set up shop, is from Lamordia, Falkovnia, somewhere else?

Is Abfalduz vine in the Falkovnian section of Gaz II based on coca leaves?

Did each author make up his/her own contribution to herbalism in the Lands of Mist or was there some overarching plan, perhaps with that information all gathered in one place? For example, with the entry in the Falkovnian section above the healer's kit is explained. And in at DM's section of the Borca info of Gaz IV making poison using the profession (herbalism) is explained.

No overarching plan.

That's probably a general rule, particularly as the line went on. The Kargatane coordinated amongst themselves, but there was no real line oversight after the first couple of books.

Were there ever plans to visit the clusters and other non-core domains? such as Hara'akir or Sri Raji?

If you mean in the gazetteers, yes. There's more on this in my Illustrated History thread (around page 10).

If you don't, then... what do you mean?

Mangrum wrote:

The Giamarga wrote:Speaking of which: Mangrum, would you retain Knowledge (the planes) being cross class for all or go with the core rules?

Core rules. Really not a fan of any of the new rules added in the 3.5 Ravenloft Player's Handbook.

Would you, however, dump the 3.5 core rule that made spellcasting ability a prerequisite for craft (alchemy)?

cure wrote:Would you, however, dump the 3.5 core rule that made spellcasting ability a prerequisite for craft (alchemy)?

I believe John answered this already (albeit indirectly)
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/vi ... 65#p131565