A little light reading in the Demiplane of Dread

[Rock of the Fraternity]

'Dear travelers, do you ever feel bored on those long journeys across the Core?
Of course you do! Don't say you don't. It gets so stifling, being cooped up in a carriage, watching the bleak or foggy landscape pass by.
How often have you said to yourself, "I wish there was some way to pass the time?"
Well, Nebulosus Enterprises has you covered!
Just visit one of our friendly* kiosks at your local carriage station, and partake of our fine periodicals! Reading these should help the hours and the miles just rush past**.
Whether you prefer to read about the arcane sciences, the world of modern psychology, traditional therapy or foreign news, Nebulosus Enterprises has you covered***!'

* Nebulosus Enterprises staff is not obliged to be friendly to you until and unless you spend money at our trademarked kiosks, and if then, only for the duration of the financial transaction.
** Satisfaction not guaranteed anywhere Nebulosus Enterprises does business or has business interests.
*** Nebulosus Enterprises does not have you covered in any situation that requires financial, emotional, material or actual support.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

You pushed me down the rabbit hole of your homebrow content now. You write a lot. I'm impressed. How did you come up with 'The Divided States'?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Welcome to my corner of the Mists.
It just came to me over time.

[Speedwagon]

Thanks for posting, Rock! While I'll admit that I don't always keep up with your work, I do appreciate your passion for it. While I might not use the Centurions of the Night myself, I do enjoy the idea of there being more publications in the Mists. That and of an organization similar to theirs, but not as world-spanning, using periodicals to disseminate dark ideas---I've been on a Call of Cthulhu scenario binge and it's been nice reading up on the various cults and their ways, as well as asking myself how I can crossover one horror game with another. At least in high-culture domains, I can see periodicals and printing presses that would lead to some degree of magazines being published, and we know that the Books of S had the The Dead Travel Fast romance novels . I'm reminded of the fan-work on the Prisoners of the Mists server, with their own thread on periodicals (here: https://www.nwnravenloft.com/forum/inde ... ic=45075.0) so I can happily add some elements of these to my corner of the Mists, rife with its own eccentricities.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I've been on a Call of Cthulhu scenario binge and it's been nice reading up on the various cults and their ways, as well as asking myself how I can crossover one horror game with another.

I think the God Brain is supposed to fill the same niche as cthulhu in Ravenloft. Maybe we should build a similar adventure around him? Or maybe bring cthulhu in as well - two eldritch horrors had been plotting against eachother for millenias, and the party gets stuck in the middle?

[Speedwagon]

I've been on a Call of Cthulhu scenario binge and it's been nice reading up on the various cults and their ways, as well as asking myself how I can crossover one horror game with another.

I think the God Brain is supposed to fill the same niche as cthulhu in Ravenloft. Maybe we should build a similar adventure around him? Or maybe bring cthulhu in as well - two eldritch horrors had been plotting against eachother for millenias, and the party gets stuck in the middle?

Bluetspur is most definitely meant to fit the bill of "cosmic horror" domain, however I think you can do cosmic horror in places beyond Bluetspur. The Nightmare Court of the Nightmare Lands have their own surreal & psychological horror to draw from, and you can draw from the Dream Cycle/Dreamlands of Lovecraft and the broader mythos to fit the Nightmare Lands. And Gwydion & the strange nature of the Shadow Fey and the Shadow Rift can also fit the bill. What I was really trying to say is that I've been reading various scenarios of Call of Cthulhu and seeing if certain ones can be converted into Ravenloft with some work. So, instead of the cultists being to a greater Outer God or the monster being some tentacled mass like a Mi-Go or Shoggoth, seeing if monsters and factions from the Ravenloft bestiaries (like a bastellus or a backward man or a caller in darkness) can also fit.

But with how open-ended Bluetspur is, it's possible that a campaign there would mean working with a faction opposed to the God-Brain. Perhaps the rebellious High Master has found an aboleth or some other eldritch horror to pledge its allegiance to, and now you know that if your party vanquishes the God-Brain, something else may well take its place...

[Rock of the Fraternity]

'Dear readers, would you like to meet the editor of one your favourite magazines? Of course you would. And now you can!
Mr. Rowan Timothy is inviting one lucky guest to join him for an intimate get-together with family. He hopes you have a healthy appetite, because so do all of his guests.'

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

'Dear readers, would you like to meet the editor of one your favourite magazines? Of course you would. And now you can!
Mr. Rowan Timothy is inviting one lucky guest to join him for an intimate get-together with family. He hopes you have a healthy appetite, because so do all of his guests.'

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I've been on a Call of Cthulhu scenario binge and it's been nice reading up on the various cults and their ways, as well as asking myself how I can crossover one horror game with another.

I think the God Brain is supposed to fill the same niche as cthulhu in Ravenloft. Maybe we should build a similar adventure around him? Or maybe bring cthulhu in as well - two eldritch horrors had been plotting against eachother for millenias, and the party gets stuck in the middle?

Bluetspur is most definitely meant to fit the bill of "cosmic horror" domain, however I think you can do cosmic horror in places beyond Bluetspur. The Nightmare Court of the Nightmare Lands have their own surreal & psychological horror to draw from, and you can draw from the Dream Cycle/Dreamlands of Lovecraft and the broader mythos to fit the Nightmare Lands. And Gwydion & the strange nature of the Shadow Fey and the Shadow Rift can also fit the bill. What I was really trying to say is that I've been reading various scenarios of Call of Cthulhu and seeing if certain ones can be converted into Ravenloft with some work. So, instead of the cultists being to a greater Outer God or the monster being some tentacled mass like a Mi-Go or Shoggoth, seeing if monsters and factions from the Ravenloft bestiaries (like a bastellus or a backward man or a caller in darkness) can also fit.

But with how open-ended Bluetspur is, it's possible that a campaign there would mean working with a faction opposed to the God-Brain. Perhaps the rebellious High Master has found an aboleth or some other eldritch horror to pledge its allegiance to, and now you know that if your party vanquishes the God-Brain, something else may well take its place...

You know, I always thought The Dark Powers themselves are cosmic horror in all but aesthetic. They're unknowable, any other creature in Ravenloft - including darklords, who are by any other standard the game's bosses - is like a bug compared to them, and they can twist the memories of entire cultures. Imagine how an average citizen of Ravenloft would feel if they were exposed to the full truth of their world! What would that be like, to realise that your entire life, and the life of everyone you know, was only created to torture one person? That maybe the past you remember has never existed? That some of your family and friends aren't even real people? This is scarier than any abberration!

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I like to think the Dark Powers are very distinct from the great old ones and outer gods.
The essence of the tentacle-squad is that they generally don't understand or care about mortalkind; to them, we're just there to gobble up or step on, but they understand us as little as we do them. Some of their servitors understand a little better, true.
But the Dark Powers understand. They understand motivation, they understand ethics and morality, and they play with them, prey upon them, presumably for their own amusement. (Or possibly for some big project.)
Two flavours of unknowable, but the one is not just incomprehensible, it doesn't understand; the other is an incomprehensible force that understands us intimately.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Recently discovered in the library of the University in Kantora, a most unusual book on the comparative developmental psychologies of humans and red widows. Sadly, the author appears to have passed away some years ago...

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Recently discovered in the library of the University in Kantora, a most unusual book on the comparative developmental psychologies of humans and red widows. Sadly, the author appears to have passed away some years ago...

Now that was quite a rabbit hole... Nice one, nice one.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

We all tunnel down here...

[Mistmaster]

Recently discovered in the library of the University in Kantora, a most unusual book on the comparative developmental psychologies of humans and red widows. Sadly, the author appears to have passed away some years ago...

"It is actually perfectly valid scientifically, as the so called reproductive vibe is the fruct of a misunderstanding. Richelle is actually a sane exponent of her species. The ones who have been observed by van Richten and other scholars were suffering from a disorder which incurs in specific circumstances." A note from the exteemed Scholar Dr Archibald Everlast.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Recently discovered in the library of the University in Kantora, a most unusual book on the comparative developmental psychologies of humans and red widows. Sadly, the author appears to have passed away some years ago...

"It is actually perfectly valid scientifically, as the so called reproductive vibe is the fruct of a misunderstanding. Richelle is actually a sane exponent of her species. The ones who have been observed by von Richten and other scholars were suffering from a disorder which incurs in specific circumstances." A note from the exteemed Scholar Dr Archibald Everlast.

"*Van." - A note from the random reader Talyn Truefinder.