Café de Nuit

I know some don't like this cluster for being too high level but to be honest, it appeal to me because of the nostalgia effect. I began to play D&D in 1984, Vecna and Kass were already here, at least in the lore. They weren't fully developped before "Vecna Live !" in 1990 and Kass didn't even appear before the cluster itself in the 1997 Domain of Dread book. The appeal of this two characters were tied to the 1979 book Eldritch Wizardry, the lore was great for the time and i remember my team at the time going after the Dm for more about them. They were the first old archmage and big warrior fighting to death for an empire, destroying everything in their path for power.

For updating the cluster, i asked my first Dm and he was really happy to open his old books to help me finding good characters and stories. But he also found an unexpected answer about the nature of the Serpent (the one teaching Vecna how to get out of Ravenloft). it was written in 1992...

So for this update, i'll take the canon from the second and the third edition of Ravenloft because i don'tt like the fourth and fifth approach (a good god sending a whole country into the shadowfell to stop an evil mortal or being to spread evil. So condemning a whole country to suffer a lot of time is good... I've a hard time with that and it reduce the Dark Powers to nothing more than boogeymen).
The second edition canon was more strange, putting the domains of dread inside a crystal sphere that has been moved from the phlogiston to the deep etheral. Imo the phlogistion is too 80's ^^ (at his time, we didn't even had any proofs of other planets in the universe, Black hole existed in theory only etc...), i would compare a crystal sphere to the heliopause (the magnetic solar field frontier between our solar systeme and deep space and yes i'm a "spacenerd"^^) and almost all portals leading outside this sphere had been closed. Outside a crystal sphere, i would put a classical void populated by far realm entity and old ones.
A spelljammer spell was created to close a whole crystal spehre, it's an 11th level spell published in 1989. So to create a crystal sphere, move it from plane to plane and closing it is, imo, waaay more terrifying than just the explanation of the shadowfell. It lead players to ask questions about the power and the motivations of the beings behind the misty realms. It's why i found the "canon" explanation of "Lords of Necropolis" weird. Even Acererak, the most powerful demilich in D&d can't even scratch the level of power nedded to create all of this.

The only thing about the fifth edition i'll take is vestiges as the dark powers, i really like the idea but i will make them way more difficult to reach than describe in the last ravenloft book (a temple in a mountain and they're all here is too easy and simple). So the dark powers are using the mist but they didn't created it.

I explained the canon imc because the Burning Peaks are very high level in D&D 5th. I mean Vecna is an intermediate god, Kass is an demigod and among the five (for now) other darklords, two are elder evils, the third another demigod, the fourth was also a vestige before Vecna decided otherwise and the fith an immortal being nickamed the God Killer.
I would like to restrain the level of power but they would even be moustrously powerful. My old dm goes as far as creating a full storyline about why they would fight against each other. Of course, PC fighting against any of them is out of order i'm just no used to dm a story with high level NPCs.

So my players ask for high level content, i can provide but i don't really know how to handle it...
I'll post the stroy of Kas soon.

Where does it say that that Ravenloft was in a crystal sphere? To my knowledge, the Land of Mists has always just been a demiplane in the Ethereal.

Are you doing anything with Iuz or his followers for this cluster? I imagine they would have something to say or do. Or would including Iuz's cult distract too much from Kas being a rival to Vecna?

Is Kyuss one of the darklords inside of the cluster? (Vecna might be said to have a connection to Kyuss by way of Vecna's inclusion in the heretical Ebon Triad doctrine and its connection/alliance with Kyuss.)

I never liked the Burning Peaks myself. Not because it was "high level" but because it was frankly far too fantastic to create a proper horror game out of. A big city inside a giant skull...not exactly being subtle there.

But anyway....I have a solution for the enterprising DM who wants to keep the Peaks intact and still let the events in Die Vecna Die play out mostly the same.

I Vecna Reborn, the Chained God invokes a series of Words only gods can speak to try and escape his prison. These invocations ultimately would result in Vecna being reborn in Kas' domain as a baby. Naturally the PCs foil his plans.

However, unknown to Vecna, his plot again ties his essence to the mortal world. When he ascends to full godhood, a barely noticed piece of his existence is torn from him, that which once constituted the mortal being of his soul when he was so much smaller. That soul invades the body of the baby, who is transported back to Vecna's former domain. Vecna has been reborn, indeed. He is now a mortal spellcaster, powerful but obviously impotent compared to what he was. The greater part of himself is either turning a blind eye to this separate entity or deliberately avoiding it for fear that the demiplane might threaten its being again.

More insidious than the loss of godhood is the feeling of being alive. Vecna has been an all powerful lich king then a god for longer than most beings can remember. He has, to put it simply, forgotten much of what it means to live. And now those feelings are returning to him- so many strange processes reexperienced for the first time. Blood moving in his veins, the rush of anger and desires unbidden, the taste of food in his mouth, the intoxicating sensation of wine. Vecna abandoned all these things millenia ago. Now they are his again. And for the first time, thinking with a mortal mind, he wonders if it is worth it to abandon them again. Mortality is such a pathetic, fragile thing- he once thought he needed to be rid of it. Now...he hesitates. Life is sweet. He earns for power, to reachieve arcane mastery and join with his greater self. Yet all he would lose...thus he hesitates. He is trapped between his disgust and new found love of the mortal form, and realizes either choice means losing something of value. And that hesitation is lethal, for the armies of Kas march on the borders and his undead minions have begun to notice his newfound weaknesses and have begun to plot against him. As a man, he has forgotten many truths he learned when he ascended, and those truths lie out in the ashen deserts, their bindings slowly failing as his power wanes.

I use Vecna as the first Emperor of Darkon. He ascended to godhood and his return is waited by the believers.

nothri wrote:I never liked the Burning Peaks myself. Not because it was "high level" but because it was frankly far too fantastic to create a proper horror game out of. A big city inside a giant skull...not exactly being subtle there.

I HATED it. I had a handful of quibbles with some of the domains, but that was the only one I outright rejected.

tomokaicho wrote:

nothri wrote:I never liked the Burning Peaks myself. Not because it was "high level" but because it was frankly far too fantastic to create a proper horror game out of. A big city inside a giant skull...not exactly being subtle there.

I HATED it. I had a handful of quibbles with some of the domains, but that was the only one I outright rejected.

I have never thought that (the published version of) Bluetspur was a good fit for the setting, and I could not muster much enthusiasm for the drow of Arak or their Shadow Fey replacements, but the Burning Peaks cluster was definitely the bottom of the published domains list for me. Vecna in Ravenloft? Naw.
It's not poorly-written or unimaginative. It's just so far out of line with my take on Ravenloft that I'd never seriously consider using it.

All that aside, I am interested to see what the OP does with the domains.

Phlogiston is so 1680s!

The Lesser Evil wrote:Where does it say that that Ravenloft was in a crystal sphere? To my knowledge, the Land of Mists has always just been a demiplane in the Ethereal.

Are you doing anything with Iuz or his followers for this cluster? I imagine they would have something to say or do. Or would including Iuz's cult distract too much from Kas being a rival to Vecna?

Is Kyuss one of the darklords inside of the cluster? (Vecna might be said to have a connection to Kyuss by way of Vecna's inclusion in the heretical Ebon Triad doctrine and its connection/alliance with Kyuss.)

I messed up the explanation about the crystal sphere. In the 4th edition canon (i don't have my otes here so i don't have the ref of the dragon magazine), in order to get ride of spelljammer, setting the phogliston was entierly discarded and the crystal spheres were moved into the astral plane. In fact, crystal spheres are just material planes now. So each material plane, infinite or not, are inside a crystal sphere in the astral plane. "Spelljammers" are also discarded, spelljamming (plane travel) can be made with a ship, an island, a fortress or even a moon . It's just a way to bring non magic user, or an army, in a planar travel from a material world to another.
Why it matter ? Because each crystal sphere has a portion of the elemental planes severed and tied to them, it give an explanation for the dread elementals and a possibility of plane travel. If anyone want, it can even have is own Sigil.

Kyuss is one of the darklord and Iuz another one (i'll use the cambion part of him rather than the 'old man'. To 80's again^^)

nothri wrote:I never liked the Burning Peaks myself. Not because it was "high level" but because it was frankly far too fantastic to create a proper horror game out of. A big city inside a giant skull...not exactly being subtle there.

Welcome to the 80's ^^. In fact Cavitus was at its beginning a jail. It's the place where Vecna locked his worst ennemies before judging them. All its apparence was made to scare people, nothing more. And i had this idea of an avatar or even a living Vecna left behind but it wouldn't go far. It would be crushed by Kas in a matter of months.

ewancummins wrote:Phlogiston is so 1680s!

I agree and i understant some don't like the burning peaks. As i said, its based on nostalgia, i'll use lot of "final bosses who kicked our old characters in the first and second editions. I know the cluster is a miss and it's why White Wolf didn't bought the right to use the characters.

To explain the cluster basics all darklords (who can leave when they want because they're so powerful the mist can't stop them) will fight to obtain an artifact hidden behind enigmas and trials. Vecna is the more powerful of them and one of the clever, being the god of secrets helped him to find the artifact but he saw the trap unlocking a mighty guardian, the one who started a war that burned the multiverse for eons. A creature so old and powerful a whole plane was created to contain it, it was carceri. So Vecna understood no one must win the war and he use everything to maintain the statu quo during the time he will need to find an escape. Vecna will leave an avatar at all time in Cavitus and will be torn between old ennemis he has the power to crush but can't because of the circumstances and an artifact that can make him the sole god of a crystal sphere....

Just a quick resume.


Edit: oh and btw, does anyone know how the weel of plane was destroyed ? I suppose it was to get rid of the PLanescape setting but i can't find any explaination.

Do you know where the Citadel Cavitius is originally discussed in the 1980s? Have me curious now.

I was rereading Vecna Reborn because it had this little gem near the beginning.

"The RAVENLOFT@ campaign setting exemplifies the
gothic, macabre fear of the classic horror tales.
It is suggestive rather than blatant, suspenseful
rather than graphic. When one thinks of the Land
of the Mists, a lonely, shadowed castle lit only by
a full, yet cloud-obscured, moon should come
to mind.
However, Vecna Reborn deviates from this
traditional mood slightly. The horror of this
adventure derives less from these classic themes
and more from ancient and arcane sorcery. Primal
evil and unknown (and unknowable) terrors lie at the heart of Vecna Reborn. The difference is subtle
but perhaps important to keep in mind. "

Apparently too subtle for the authors to keep in mind, since this reads like a bog standard D&D adventure. Ancient mythical rights or whatever can be scary. Lovecraft did it well, traditional mummy horror relies on it heavily. This adventure does not know what it frightening about ancient and terrible magic. It has plenty of powerful sorcery taking place....it just isn't scary.

So Kas the Destroyer. In fact no official artwork beside the one in domain of dread exist about Kas. The Ulraunt's Guide to the Planes : Shadowfell (a Dm guild book of incredible quality) depict him in a too classical way. After all he survived, some scars can't be magicly healed. It's why i choosed to make a pic of him not in a "classical and gothic way". And now beware of the wall of text ^^.
More than one millenium ago, the king sitting on the throne of Tovag was know as Kas of Tycheron. During his lifetime he would be know by many other names, The Terrible, The Destroyer, The Bloody Handed, The Betrayer and The Hateful. Today he’s The Immortal.
In life he was know for his skill and might as he was feared for his evil and vilainy. As the chief lieutenant of Vecna, Kas effectivly ruled a vast empire governed through fear, tyranny and terror. After years of loyal servitude from Kas, Vecna presentend him with an extremely powerful magical sword. Created by Vecna himself, this sword will become a symbol of defeat and pain on all battelfields and soon been know as the « Sword of Kass » and made an already legendary warrior into an archetype of evil.
In time, however, the magical blade began to take a toll on its master. It took some of the worst side of Vecna’s personnality during its creation and wanted to see its weilder sit on Vecna’s throne. The sword pushed Kas to turn on his master, determined to usurp the throne for himself.

The battle between Kas and Vecna was tremendous, laying waste in the kingdom until the civil war reached the Black Tower. The final confrontation took place at its peak. No one know what happened during the confrontation, no living or undead witness survived it and every divination or attempt to communicate with souls present at this time always fail. But the result was catastrophic, the black tower and everyone in and around it died in the magical explosion that put an end to the conflict and, apprently, destroying both combattants.
Some sages claim it was during this final battle that Kas severed Vecna’s left hand and left eye but nothing is sure.

No one know how or why but Kas survived and was brought by vecna’s faithful servants to its citadel in the quasielemental plane of ash. They waited for their master to return in order to judge the betrayer. Years, decades and centuries passed without Vecna coming back. Its servants fought between themselves for petty reasons and forgot Kas in his cell. During his confinement, the mighty Kas changed… As the negative energies of the citadel took their toll on his body, he gradually became a vampire. In addition his love for conquest and battle became a hunger for death and destruction. No longer he was the Betrayer, now he would become the Destroyer.
After centuries of imprisonment, Kas knew that something was going weird. The citadel was full of sound of fighting and his hightened senses were able to discern the scent of blood and smoke. Unknow to him or his jailors, it took Vecna centuries to put in motion a plan to conquer all Oerth and it failed, Vecna was defeated, his phylactery destroyed and his soul nowhere to be found. After centuries of conspiracies and resentment, Vecna’s servant unleashed a full civil war against each others. And so, Kas was free…

[Dread Possibility] No record exist describing the timeline of Kas’s jail period. No one know how he was abble to survive this long without any magical aid and not even the servants of Vecna left after the fights are able to give any reliable way to explain how he became a vampire. If it was the energies of Cavitus, why other motals, above all magical studients extending their life, didn’t and don’t undergo the same transformation. Some speak about a pact made with a dark entity, others say a traitor in their ranks helped him but no answer is likely to provide a definitve explaination to the simple fact that Kas survived and grew in power and hate. No one is even able to answer how he obtained the Mask of Kas that is now part of his regalia today.

Lot of questions are left unanswered about Kas early life and imprisonement but he is perhaps the only one to know the truth. More is know about his time as the darklord of Tovag.
He waged war against his foe as Vecna reappeared as Cavitus’s darklord and both were stuck into an eternal war. Kas didn’t understood at this time what power holds him in place or how he came to be here but he found a meaning in his existence. This statu quo didn’t lasted long since Vecna managed to set a trap to lure Iuz the Mad into his fortress of Cavitus and absorb his divine energy.
Kas launched his final assault again the fortress, using Iuz’s armies to push inside the throne room and kill his nemesis. Iuz falled into the trap set by Vecna and his death resulted in a magical explosion that saw, again, everyone dead, or worse, inside the fortress.
Kas didn’t survived this time nor he was done for and for countless years, all that remained of him was a vestige, fragments of a soul lost outside space and time. Even Kas doesn’t remember a lot of thing occuring during this time, he compare his memory of this period as a miror broken in countless tiny pieces. Kas never speak to anyone about this time or how he managed to come back to « life », it’s one of the biggest mystery about him today. The strangest part is his bloodlust seem to be diminished, he seems more clever, calculating his every move and his strategies and political moves are way more subtles, sharps and efficients but always bring unexpected results. Even against all odds, he manage to win a battle, on a field or in his throne room.

Sometime it’s like he’s somewhere else, lost in his memories, looking at the misty border as he would be able to listen and understand peoples who aren’t even there. This trouble the few who knew him before his defeat in the cavitus citadel. Kas changed, he’s more powerful than ever but before his soldiers followed him by fear, now its admiration even adoration for lot of his officers. Tales about his history are told everywhere in the land of the Burning Peaks, how he managed to survive everything throwed at him and thrived each time. Stories abound about how Kas seems to speak to the mist, to bend it to his iron will and how he was able to leave it to recruit his more powerful allies in the War for the Stone.

[Dread Possibility] Even unknow by Vecna, the god of secrets, Kass was a dark power when he was a vestige, he was among them and remember some events from this time. He know something older and sinister lurke behind them. They use the mist and its power but didn’t created it. Kass don’t know what kind of creature can create a crystal sphere, destroy all exits and move it into the deep etheral but he find the simple idea of such tremendous power terrifying.
Or/And, as in the Ulraunt's Guide to the Planes : Shadowfell, soldiers and officers members of the Kass army are making shrines devoted to him, praying him for coming back alive and have a glorious death if not and, unknow the Kass himself, he’s beginning to acquire the powers of a demigod. He’s earing some of their payers and it make him remember what is was to simply be alive.

I fall within the minority of not minding the Burning peaks, as it is just a matter of adjusting your perspective when looking at it. Yes it does not dig into the gothic traditions for domains, but some other domains don't as well. Instead it opts for creating a domain setting that is much like of some Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, where the terror instead is a steady undercurrent of eldrich maleovence that the players can never really stop nor hope to truly understand, only fear and dread as they stand against it and pray they can hold the line for the light.

That said it does have elements that are really in your face, but thats where DMs come in to smooth out the faults in any domain and adjust them as needed. Heck even taken at face value from its description in the Domains of Dread it could be used as a Weekend in Hell for DMs who were runing a campaign in Ravenloft (as oppose to those from another setting who used ravenloft for a weekend in hell)

kourkenko wrote:In fact no official artwork beside the one in domain of dread exist about Kas.

Actually, there is an illustration of him in Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead for 4th edition. The book has a whole section for classic undead villains, including Acererak, Ctenmiir the Cursed (from White Plume Mountain), Kyuss, Osterneth (actually a new villain in service of Vecna), Strahd von Zarovich, and Vecna. I managed to find the image of Kas on the internet: That being said, I really like the picture you made. That is a quintessential vampire warlord.

Wolfglide wrote:

kourkenko wrote:In fact no official artwork beside the one in domain of dread exist about Kas.

Actually, there is an illustration of him in Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead for 4th edition. The book has a whole section for classic undead villains, including Acererak, Ctenmiir the Cursed (from White Plume Mountain), Kyuss, Osterneth (actually a new villain in service of Vecna), Strahd von Zarovich, and Vecna. I managed to find the image of Kas on the internet:

VIEW CONTENT:

That being said, I really like the picture you made. That is a quintessential vampire warlord.

In fact this artwork is recycled for the monster manual 5, it was made for the black duke entry under "vampires". The only official i was able to find was from the old D&D card game spellfire and it was... Bad.

I made Kas's allies in its fight, the first one is an old badass who came from the old minis. He was updated in the 3.5 area with a backstoy, before he was just a mercenary kicking adventurers, he was only doing this but he was really good at it.
He's only know as the Warduke One of the first classical vilain to appear in d&d history, mortal ennemi of Iuz the Mad, his history apparead in Dungeon magazine 105. A mercenary having fought against Iuz, Vacna, Kyuss and in the Blood War, he's never paid in money but in magic item or fiendish craft.

And now the two last of Kas allies. The first is a very obscur NPC, the first who applied a TPK on us in just five rounds. She's way more powerful than her stats show because she has access to a simple tiny thing: the whole treasure of Iggwilv.
Here is Drezna, the sister of Iuz, first child of Iggwilv with an unknow father, imprisonned by her mother to be the immortal guardian of her treasure. Shes appeared only once in the whole history of D&D on just a half page but she was so destructive she's featured in all wiki about greyhawk and classified as one of the most deadly boss of the first edition.
Drezna appeared in S4 - Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth in 1992 and to have access to the end of the scenary, players had to fight her and oh my goood it was a massacre. Being the daughter of the Witch Queen, she possess the original and most complete Demonomicon written by Tsojcanth and expanded by her mother, with uniques spells and knowledge about demon lords. It's the most complete Demonomicon since after she was vanquished, she disapeared with it and Iggwilv had to rewritte it a second time but it's not over, she had another artefact, the Daoud's Wondrous Lanthorn (hey you're level 6 ? Take this sprismatic ray ! ). She's dead in the canon but imo, it's simply impossible, the way she hide after the fight make her too hard to find and kill.
She hate her mother and her half brother. Her mother because she sacrified her to be a mere guardian and her brother to be the spoiled one. Eager for revenge and fully equipped with her mother treasure's weapons, she a force to take in consideration before attacking Kas.
She's vampire fighter 13 with an intelligent weapon designed to kill good priests and that give her spells like flying, spimber climb, detect magic, read magic and true seeing.

The last one is Edward the Black. Yeahn the edward who created a spell about tentacles ^^. A master spy using darkness and shadow spells to obtain informations about his ennemis. His history and stats were made in dungeon magazine 107. Edward is stiding the remain of the black tower were Kas and Vecna fought to death for the first time and put a spy network to exchange informations to advance is way to obtain Vecna's secrets. I put him with Kas because no others darklords need him. Iuz and Kyuss aren't so clever and the other ones don't care about subtility. He was an information dealer during the first edition era.

I will write all their background and how Kas recruited them in a pdf because i don't really like wall of textes.

kourkenko wrote:

Wolfglide wrote:I managed to find the image of Kas on the internet:

VIEW CONTENT:

In fact this artwork is recycled for the monster manual 5, it was made for the black duke entry under "vampires". The only official i was able to find was from the old D&D card game spellfire and it was... Bad.

I always think it is interesting to find recycled artwork. The Zombie Lord in Denizens of Dread is Vecna from Domains of Dread, and there are at least two pictures in Fiendish Codex I: Hordes if the Abyss that were reused (a babau crossing out of the abyss is reused in the 4e Demonomicon, and fighting armies of demons were reused in the 4e Book of Vile Darkness to represent a battle in the Blood War between demons and devils).