Café de Nuit

Giant sea scorpions anyone http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071121/ap_ ... t_bug_ever?

QTR9 says that the male offspring of dread sirenes are reavers. Is this canon? Is there any known relationship in canon?

Thanks a lot, Mr. Mangrum!

DeepShadow wrote:QTR9 says that the male offspring of dread sirenes are reavers. Is this canon? Is there any known relationship in canon?

Not any more canon than other QtR material, but it's an interesting spin on things. I wouldn't want to declare that to be the origin of the reaver race, though: more a mark of how deeply their existence in the Land of Mists has corrupted the local sirines.

I was cruising through my library dollar-a-book bin when I found the following beauty:



Useful resource, lots of little nautical notes and such, not to mention an endless source of Dread Possibilities. I'll be posting random notes of interest here as I find them.

First one is something whoever is handling Selkies can consider. Apparently children with webbed hands or feet were considered to be 'Selkie-Born'. Now, does anyone else think this is a splendid opportunity to create a Ravenloft-centered aquatic PC race? A modified Fey template, or something like that?

NeoTiamat wrote: First one is something whoever is handling Selkies can consider. Apparently children with webbed hands or feet were considered to be 'Selkie-Born'. Now, does anyone else think this is a splendid opportunity to create a Ravenloft-centered aquatic PC race? A modified Fey template, or something like that?

In truth, they wouldn't be much different from water genasi. Webbed-hands appear to be their only defining feature.

Likely I will write in a dread possibility, although a PC race won't work very well with the direction I went. Thanks, NeoTiamat.

I sea all manner of monsters and animals but, what about plants?
Perhaps an animate/intelligent Sargasso?
Coral mimics?
Fun Fact - Coconuts float and use that to get from place to place, surely some kind of monster could look like an innocent coconut until someone takes it and loses a hand.

Rotipher of the FoS wrote:Essays: Every monster in a gothic setting is, at some level, a parable for humanity's broader fears and insecurities. The obvious theme to explore in sea monster adventures is "Nature is not friendly" -- a classic Ravenloft motif -- but there might be other spins to put on the concept, depending on the creatures involved.

I think I can handle this if it is not already taken.
Word/page count?

Dhampire wrote:I sea all manner of monsters and animals but, what about plants?
Perhaps an animate/intelligent Sargasso?
Coral mimics?
Fun Fact - Coconuts float and use that to get from place to place, surely some kind of monster could look like an innocent coconut until someone takes it and loses a hand.

Rotipher of the FoS wrote:Essays: Every monster in a gothic setting is, at some level, a parable for humanity's broader fears and insecurities. The obvious theme to explore in sea monster adventures is "Nature is not friendly" -- a classic Ravenloft motif -- but there might be other spins to put on the concept, depending on the creatures involved.

I think I can handle this if it is not already taken.
Word/page count?

I'm doing sea-mire as a plant hazard, not a creature. It's a kind of saragosso seaweed that grows in Saragoss and has been slowly spreading to the other seas.

Also, I'm 90% certain that the "kelpies" of Saragoss will actually be intelligent plants, not fey. Like the sea-mire, a few of them have escaped Saragoss to other seas. I'll be statting up both types, so that will give us two plants--one a creature and one a hazard.

Dhampire wrote:I sea all manner of monsters and animals but, what about plants?
Perhaps an animate/intelligent Sargasso?

I think I already saw something like that... I don't remember the name, but it was in the Fiend Folio.

I am in the middle (maybe, it is early and I only just started) of an essay on the importance and use of sailing superstitions in horror fiction.

That said, I need a defined word count and where it goes when its done if its wanted.

Dhampire wrote:Fun Fact - Coconuts float and use that to get from place to place, surely some kind of monster could look like an innocent coconut until someone takes it and loses a hand.

Perhaps a weaker relative of the head hunter (Denizens of Dread)? One that normally parasitizes palm trees, but isn't averse to chomping on animal prey if it encounters some while it's drifting to a new stretch of shoreline?

DeepShadow wrote:I'm doing sea-mire as a plant hazard, not a creature. It's a kind of saragosso seaweed that grows in Saragoss and has been slowly spreading to the other seas.

Also, I'm 90% certain that the "kelpies" of Saragoss will actually be intelligent plants, not fey. Like the sea-mire, a few of them have escaped Saragoss to other seas. I'll be statting up both types, so that will give us two plants--one a creature and one a hazard.

If you're presenting kelpies in their old 2E form, it might be better if we give them a different name. The 3E kelpie (Fiend Folio) is definitely a fey, and we don't want to confuse people who are relatively new to the game as to which monster we're talking about. Something like "kelp-woman" would be more descriptive. There's also the kelp angler (also FF), if we're looking for additional killer algae to include, or if you need something to base the plant-kelpie's stats on.

Either way, it might be best to write about such plant-type threats in a modular way (i.e. their own sub-heading and anecdotes that don't specify a narrator) and/or in a sidebar. They might need to be relocated to the Unnatural Beasts chapter, depending on how the rest of your section turns out.

Dhampire wrote:I am in the middle (maybe, it is early and I only just started) of an essay on the importance and use of sailing superstitions in horror fiction.

That said, I need a defined word count and where it goes when its done if its wanted.

Sounds great! DeepShadow's already offered to tackle an essay on the moods and themes of sea-based Ravenloft adventures, so another, more practical/historical account of maritime motifs in horror will be a super match for that one.

Word count I'm not sure of, but I know Stephen will cry if I bury him in 380+ pages again. Perhaps four or five pages (1.5-spaced) for the essay, plus a page or so of sidebars (if needed) would be all right; if you think you'll need more space, e-mail me a copy and I'll see if that's warranted.

Essays will be included in the DM Appendix, so feel free to use OOC terms and "gamespeak", and to write for an audience of DMs, not players. You can check Sorti's and DeepShadow's essays in the VRF: Doppelgangers for examples of what this book needs.

Rotipher of the FoS wrote: If you're presenting kelpies in their old 2E form, it might be better if we give them a different name.

There's an Orkney beastie known as a "nuggle" which is pretty much a kelpie.

Speaking of Orkney,

Shouldn't we present the Nuckelavee somewhere?

Actually, the nuckalavee is one I might work up myself. Stay tuned....