No, it's about getting rid of something that I find rather boring and unbelievable.Tobias Blackburn wrote:It's always about destroying what we don't understand.
If they made Godfroy into a decent threat, Falkovnia into a place you might actually want to adventure, and turned Verbrek into a place you can actually spend time in, we can make Sodo interesting. Remember, the Fang has nothing to do with his curse, it's only something that he does to keep himself invincible. Recentre your view of him. Instead of a 6 day spree every 13 years that has nothing to do with why he is a dark lord, concentrate on what he did to earn that title. We see him as a bad Jack the Ripper because we only see the domain during that tiny period. The Gazetteer is (I assume) working to make Paridon useful for adventures that don't centre on Bloody Jack. Since Sodo has 13 years (minus six days) where he isn't trying to become invincible, why not try fleshing that out.William Blackmoor wrote:No, it's about getting rid of something that I find rather boring and unbelievable.Tobias Blackburn wrote:
Doppelganger serial killer? Good idea. There are so many suspects to Jack the Ripper he could 've been one.
Sodo? A Good idea badly done. Why does it have to be this complicated?
You make an excellent point, Tobias, but I wouldn't go quite this far. In terms of Sodo becoming a darklord, the Fang and Bloody Jack are obviously much less than footnotes--they played no role at all. But the Fang (and, by extension, Bloody Jack) are now central to Sodo's power, and almost certainly to his conception of himself. I would say that the question we're looking at is how the Fang and the legend of Bloody Jack are emblematic of the darklord, and what his actions at those times says about what he does when the Fang and Bloody Jack are on the back-burner.Tobias Blackburn wrote: I ask that the person whoever writes up Sodo takes that into account. He didn't become a Darklord because of the Fang. The Fang and Bloody Jack are mere footnotes in the story of what makes Sodo tick.
But he isn't wasting his power on rabble, he's on top of the heap. Even though he can't take human form he controls the Doppelgangers and thus the city. It probably irks him that he can't do it personally (hence the curse) but he isn't working among peasents. I'll deal with your thing about replacing him below.Undead Cabbage wrote:My thoughts on how this reflects his being Bloody Jack are that the Bloody jack murders themselves were actually a physical reflection of murdering the clan , or at least in relavence to Sodo(I believe it was plural). To make this appropriate, as opposed to using his talents to obtain power, he's now wasting them on peasant rabble. For six nights every 13 years, he has to face losing power. If he doesn't make the killings, the doppleganger clan will 'replace' him (much like dopplegangers do). He is then forced into a reminder of why is he what he is.Sodo became a darklord by killing the Clan Elder and using a Hat of Disguise to copy his "natural" form. That was his sin and the punishment was the inability to control his shape.
According to the Ravenloft Player's Handbook Paridon formed in 551. Bloody Jack's first strike was in 586.I always pictured Sodo obtaining is knife as sort of like how Harkon Lukas was given his berserking sword. Upon becoming a Darklord, the doppleganger clan looked to Sodo for an answer to the problems he caused. To do this, he created the character 'Bloody Jack' upon recieving the knife (or more the Dark Powers created it for him, as far as he is concerned it was his own creation).-His sadism (while probably there in the first place) grew due his use of the Fang of the Nosferatu, not because of his curse. Bloody Jack did not exist until he got the knife and he did not get the knife until AFTER he was a Darklord
Once again, he already controls the city and he knows it. What gauls him is that he has to live in the shadows, instead of a palace, not that he has to deal with commoners.Once again, his role of Bloody Jack enhances his curse. He knows that he will not be able to strangle any of his victims (his favorite means of killing), and he knows that he (with all of his ambition) should be dealing with the upperclass members of Paridon, as opposed to the lower class members.
He can still kill and torture people by having them kidnapped and brought to him. There is nothing to suggest that Bloody Jack consumes everything he is.When I was thinking about Sodo being bloody Jack, I realized that there is the problem of this presenting him the ability to harm others, as you said Tobais he feeds on Pain and Fear. There's one solution to this though: Sodo is an ambitious Glutton (and I don't mean in terms of food). No matter how many killings he makes with the fang, he can never get enough. To make matters worse, these killings are confined to (as you reminded us), only 6 days every thirteen years. This short period of unsatisfactory killings, however, is just enough to keep him coming back for more. To cut him off completely would probably have sent him into depression, succumbing the same way as Soth did. This way, he's being suckered in every time.
That happened. His paranoia lead him to use the Fang and the only method that would work eventually lead to the people of Paridon learning of the clan's existance.We have to remember that the idea of a Darklord is that each Darklord traps itself. Ivana Boritsi constantly looks for love, but every time ends up killing her lovers. Vlad Drakov longs to conquer Darkon, but fails due to his own tacticle mistakes. Darklords are their own worst problem.
That's why he moves around constantly, only having guards he has guarenteed to be loyal (with the heart eating medallions) working for him. He can send out his messages, but he never lets most of the Doppelgangers see him or know where he is. He is probably a boogeyman to them in many respects, but the stories of his inability to die and his power over death (and the implicite threat it holds) would be legendary.A very good point Tobais, and one that I've still got to get my head around a little. He needs to still be able to manipulate the doppleganger clan, or at least be leader in title (as the canon material states). At the same time, he should constantly be on his toes from them.
Sodo was able to stay in power long before the Fang fell into his hands. It's safe to say that he could stay in power even without it (though there is no way he would test it out). He's a Vampire that found a way to enjoy garlic. He's paranoid enough to believe that he needs it, but he wouldn't disappear without it.Nathan of the Frat wrote:You make an excellent point, Tobias, but I wouldn't go quite this far. In terms of Sodo becoming a darklord, the Fang and Bloody Jack are obviously much less than footnotes--they played no role at all. But the Fang (and, by extension, Bloody Jack) are now central to Sodo's power, and almost certainly to his conception of himself. I would say that the question we're looking at is how the Fang and the legend of Bloody Jack are emblematic of the darklord, and what his actions at those times says about what he does when the Fang and Bloody Jack are on the back-burner.Tobias Blackburn wrote: I ask that the person whoever writes up Sodo takes that into account. He didn't become a Darklord because of the Fang. The Fang and Bloody Jack are mere footnotes in the story of what makes Sodo tick.
I'm confident I showed why he's more than that above.Jasper wrote:I agree with William.
Sodo as he is is nearly unusable other then as a "Look a scarry monster! Lets kill it!" type of encounter. His very nature and lust for violence keeps him from being a voice from the shadows type of villain like the Brain or Dominic while his curse of healing with every hit removes him from being a oppressive foe like Adam or Timothy.
He's lord because he killed the last leader and masqueraded as him. He's not the strongest, but he's obviously smart enough to have lasted as long as he did with his disabilities.He doesn’t even have a good reason why he is in control of the rest of Doppelganger clans. He is not the strongest, the smartest or even the most powerful. The only thing i see in his favor is he is now the eldest.
The flickering form curse doesn’t even truly echo his crime. All the other darklord have a curse that takes way what they thought they won by evil -
Strahd gave up life to be with Tityana but will never have her, Dominic evilly charmed his way into power only to find the women he loved repulsed by him, Vlad killed inocents in the name of war only to find himself unable to win any battles etc:
But he cannot enjoy the most basic part of being chief, which is having the choice life in the city. He has to live in the shadows and control from there, always afraid of being killed for his position.Sodo does not have such a curse. He is now the (nearly) uncontested lord of the Doppelgangers. His curse does not remove or lessen this in any way. He got what he wanted and the darkpowers did nothing to stop it.
As I said above, he suffers from crippling paranoia and is unable to enjoy ALL of the benefits of being the Chieftan. Those are as much a curse as Hazlik's nightmares. If anything the inability to hold shape is one of the main reasons he has to seperate himself from the other Doppelgangers who he hasn't forcibly made loyal.His cannon writeup says nothing about wanting human society or even wanting anything to do with the city of Paridon. He would be just as content ruling over any city in all of Ravenloft as long as he has a way to vent his bloodlust and lesser doppels to lord over.
It's never enough!But enough ranting about that-
I agree that he's afraid of being overthrown and is willing to torture the other Doppelgangers if he thinks there are plots against him (another reason they do their best to be loyal), but he really is a sadist. His write-up says that he feeds on pain and fear, a by-product of his use of the Bloody Jack ritual.As I see it the driving force for Sodo need not to the need for sadisic acts but a overwhelming paranoia. Having ruled for 200 years the youngest of the original clan are now older then Sodo was when he made his move and he fears every day that he will be replaced the same way. To add to this he can never be sure the person he put his trust into one day is the same person he is talking to today.
Many of his torture victims could easily be those in his madness he feels have tried to overthrow him. Many crack after being killed and resurrected many times and confess to hidden motives and secrete plans feeding Sodo's delusions even more.
And his constantly shifting form should give him one hell of an Intimidate bonus.Mortavius wrote:Sodo has an Intelligence of 18 and a Wisdom of 17. He's very intelligent and very cautious with that knowledge. He has a Strength of 19, a Dexterity of 18, and a Constitution of 16. Thus, he's physically tough too. The only place he falls short on is Charisma, and even that is a 10.
It would seem that Sodo is a bit more than a brutish thug...
).Would an OR of 10 be too much? too little?And his constantly shifting form should give him one hell of an Intimidate bonus.
. Not in a Gollum sort of way though...
