Mischief's 5e Forward Ravenloft Revisions

[ewancummins]

[Mischief]

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[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Well, I'm not particularly bug-phobic, but I did have a hard time getting through that one, so... kudos?

If you have some suggestions for...

• the domain name (Must be short. I am so sick of "Dementlieu" especially because I can never spell it.)

Yeah, while I agree with the sentiment within it, Fnope's got to go. Maybe something derived from a bug-related root like Entomology, Chitin, or Arthropod. Entodia? Archit? Gom-Arthan? I take it you're looking for something fantastical and not really rooted in a real-world language. correct?

[*] things for S to send back to Azalin**[/list]

Certainly any number of ground up bug varieties would serve for spell components and/or potion ingredients.

So... how did things get this way. Any ideas on a darklord? Do the inhabitants see anything odd about their land, or are they too isolated and stockholm-syndromed to notice?

[Mischief]

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[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

If you have some suggestions for...

• the domain name (Must be short. I am so sick of "Dementlieu" especially because I can never spell it.)
• place names
• NPCs
• things to see and do
• creatures
• magic items
• things for S to send back to Azalin**

In terms of creatures, have you heard of Cymothoa exigua? The tongue-eating louse is my favorite parasite! It removes and replaces the tongues of fish, which gives it some horror potential. Also, either Cymothoa or Exigua sound like fun place names to me.

Any ideas on a darklord?

I was thinking of doing a Star Spawn or a more pathfindery Worm that Walks. A body-snatcher, cockroaches and worms writhing in a sack of skin sort.
If I do go this path, and I am not sure, the Darklord is stuck in the deepest crevasse right in the middle of domain. I could play it as "cast down from the stars, Fnope's deepest slimy clefts are the most stifling place to be." Or I could do something like "Wishing domination over humanity by devouring them from the inside out, the Darklord didn't count on being a low rung in the food chain. Humanity has domesticated insects as food, resources, and beasts of burden, but if only mankind could be prised from their arthropod "allies", the Darklord could feast and achieve the conquest it desires." I'm still not sure yet.

Until I can settle on a good gameplay and story mechanic - how the Darklord would interact with the PCs - I can't firm up the Darklord. I need something with more depth than scary icky bugs because that's covered by the creatures of the daylight. In terms of inspiration: cordyceps, nematodes, parasitoid wasps, hive minds. Any thoughts would be welcome.

As an alternative, perhaps the darklord has some particular hatred of bugs (perhaps from a traumatic experience, or perhaps some more philosophical reason), which makes its domain extremely loathsome to it.

As an example, Patrick Hockstetter from Stephen King's It was a solipsistic sadist who murdered his younger brother to reclaim his parents' attention, and killed animals for pleasure. His only fear was of leeches, because he once went swimming with his parents and emerged covered in the creatures. Thus, when It killed him, It took the form of many large, flying leeches and sucked him dry. The domain of FNope (assuming there are plenty of leeches) would be a hellish place for him.

[Mistmaster]

What about Maeling? Is insect in Thai language, it's short and exotic.

[Mischief]

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[Five]

Any ideas on a darklord?

I was thinking of doing a Star Spawn or a more pathfindery Worm that Walks. A body-snatcher, cockroaches and worms writhing in a sack of skin sort.
If I do go this path, and I am not sure, the Darklord is stuck in the deepest crevasse right in the middle of domain. I could play it as "cast down from the stars, Fnope's deepest slimy clefts are the most stifling place to be." Or I could do something like "Wishing domination over humanity by devouring them from the inside out, the Darklord didn't count on being a low rung in the food chain. Humanity has domesticated insects as food, resources, and beasts of burden, but if only mankind could be prised from their arthropod "allies", the Darklord could feast and achieve the conquest it desires." I'm still not sure yet.

Until I can settle on a good gameplay and story mechanic - how the Darklord would interact with the PCs - I can't firm up the Darklord. I need something with more depth than scary icky bugs because that's covered by the creatures of the daylight. In terms of inspiration: cordyceps, nematodes, parasitoid wasps, hive minds. Any thoughts would be welcome.

It doesn't really look like you need a whole lot of inspiration, but may these two links can help:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausica ... nd_(manga)

Or check out the film of the same name.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectaurs

You'll have to Ravenloft both of course, but a sectaur-ish Dark Lord who is a Star Spawn, as you've mentioned, or as the last remaining member of its species (now imprisoned in RL) could be a cool and very unique twist!

The picture attached is a result of a resize of one of my ongoing Writing Aides visual searches, which was renamed for a then working title I had. Kinda hard to back track for artist credit now so if anybody knows please say. Either way, if you want a more human-looking DL, then maybe something like this?

Edit: Art by Marc Simonetti

[Pacal of Palenque]

Some thoughts on naming related to your idea of Inca-esque:

The Inca empire was split into quarters, the Inca word for quarter was Suyu. If the domain were named Suyu it could also infer that it was once part of a larger empire / land saw well if you wanted.

Another interesting thought I had was implementing a derivative of the quipu. I’m not thinking of a direct historic comparison but rather something inspired by it. This is a bit off the top of my head so pardon the unrefined quality but maybe the quipu somehow is the entirety of their writing system. So unlike the historic one, maybe it can be actually read after a fashion like a form of prose. Of course it wouldn’t be phonetic at the level of how individual thoughts/ words are recorded.

Furthermore, maybe legend has it that the quipu (their writing) was given to them by an ancient monstrous spider - maybe as a reward, maybe they served it, whatever fits into their methodology. Those that come into contact with other cultures are obviously completely capable of learning to read written words in other languages. But their tongue can’t be written because the symbolism to describe it evolved as a 3D art form.

Given the giant bug focus, A quipu like writing system also echoes the webs of the great spiders that inhabit the domain.

I hope some of those ideas are helpful!

[Mischief]

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[Mischief]

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[Mischief]

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[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

I googled Wittenberg Schwabacher, and I think it does have an s but it looks more like and f.

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That font assortment is neat. How do you get the page background imagery?

[Mischief]

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[Mischief]

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