Café de Nuit

I was reading the original Masque box yesterday and I came across a mention of a group called El Siete on page 108:

"[Pontanegro's] belief was that El Siete referred to a group of fiends answering directly to the Red Death. He further put forth the belief that these creatures were drawn into the world from the terrible land the Red Death called home, and they are little different from it in compostition, corruption and malignance."

So I was thinking, who are El Siete?

It says that they come from the Red Death's world, and that's widely regarded to be Ravenloft. I thought a nice take on the group would be to have ex-Lords of Ravenloft as the Seven. So far I've got:

Camille Dilisnya, living in an estate near Rome.
Bakholis, terrorising the population of North Eastern Russia.
Claude Renier, living in Paris, controlling most of the rat population.

I was also thinking that maybe Pontanegro got it wrong and that not all of El Siete came from Ravenloft, perhaps another three are:

Dracula, he is one of the Red Death's most fervent followers.
Imhotep, he brought the Red Death to the world, so logically he could be one of El Siete.
Professor Moriarty, he is a genius, and he has the intelligence to be part of the Seven.

It's the last member who I can't think of. Is there another Lord of Ravenloft that has been deposed (I was thinking of Gundar, but he is still in Ravenloft)? Or is there another NPC from Gothic Earth I could use?

I'm not so familiar with Masque (I have all 4 products, but haven't read them yet). But I remember one of the BoS framing fictions put Drigor in GE. I don't know if his move from RL was canon or not, but it might be interesting to make one of the 7 an actual fiend.

The only other "Former DL" I can think of is Nathan Timothy. (And Soth, but he's been sent back to DL and killed, and doesn't fit so well in GE, anyway.)

Good catch Drinnik! I think it's an awesome idea.

WHen I first read about the El Siete, the first thing that came to my mind was : DnD Fiends!
Maybe One type of each fiend: A Tanar'ri, baatezu, Yugoloth, Gehreleth and even a Slaad. I know 2 are missing but I bet we can think of two other nasty fiends that would make GE natives tremble in terror upon seeing them.

I suppose it could work to have Drigor as a member of El Siete, he has crossed from one to the other (even if it is non-canon).

Bakholis! From Russia? Thank you. Consider the idea stolen. I now have a good name for the werewolf that's stalking my player, who in turn hunts the werewolf. As the player knows who Bakholis is, it will probably scare him to no ends when he learns his name. Currently he only wonders who send him that taunting letter signed with "B."

Camille, yes, I could imagine her as one of the El Siete as well, does anybody here knows the Lucretia Borgia version from the Witchblade-TV-Series? Maybe she arrived in Rome's past and took Lucretias identity via some sort of transpossesion?

I will definitly have Drigor join the Siete as the story from the Book of S. nicely matches the Gazetteer.

Claude Renier, Paris, why not?

The Whistling Fiend was "destroyed" in the TSR Jam -Adventure collection, maybe he was drawn to Gothic Earth as well. Maybe he resurrfaced in Asia, attending some of the worst massacres in that continents history, to make the Siete global players.

Maybe (although he is false history) Darcalus, former wizard-king of Darkon? (his curse might be the knowledge, that he isn't real, something of a bad dream infused with reality)

I don't think that Dracula, Imhotep or Moriarity belong to this illustrious group. They have no reason to cooperate in this way. Can't really imagine them as team players. You might say the same about the ex-darklords and fiends, but they have something in common: Ravenloft.

They are called "El Siete" (The Seven) by Pontenegro, because he spoke spanish? Or did one of the members appeared in Spain or South America?

Seven, that could be connected to the seven deadly sins.

Pontanegro was Spanish, so hence the El Siete thing.

Seven deadly sins?

Envy: Camille Boritsi
Wrath: Bakholis
Greed: Claude Renier
Pride: Drigor
Sloth: ?
Gluttony: ?
Lust: ?

Who could the other three be? What about the red headed child, the one who's supposed to a seventh member of the Nightmare Court?

Lust could very well be Elizabeth Bathory. She was said to suduce the virgin females before killing and taking there blood.

It could be.

But if we go on the theory that El Siete are all taken from Ravenloft, then Lizzy Bathory doesn't come from the Mists.

Lust I see as Gundar. Lust for power and wives.

David of the Frat wrote:Lust I see as Gundar. Lust for power and wives.

But according to CotN: Werebeasts, Gundar is still hunting around the Core.

On the Gothic Earth Gazetteer map, for 1899 it has an advert for "Madame Aderre's fortune telling service." Could Isabella Aderre be another member?

Resuffled, El Siete could be:

Envy: Camielle
Wrath: Isabella
Greed: Bakholis
Pride: Drigor
Lust: Claude
Gluttony: ??
Sloth: ??

I think that claude would be a better fit for sloth or gluttony, but not lust.
What do you think about the Whistling Fiend and Darcalus ideas?

William Blackmoor wrote:I think that claude would be a better fit for sloth or gluttony, but not lust.
What do you think about the Whistling Fiend and Darcalus ideas?

Darcalus wasn't a real DL, only part of Darkon's false history. Most of the hints pointed at Darcalus being another pseudonym of Azalin.

Drinnik Shoehorn wrote:

David of the Frat wrote:Lust I see as Gundar. Lust for power and wives.

But according to CotN: Werebeasts, Gundar is still hunting around the Core.

Not a big deal, as most sources place MotRD in RL's far future. All this means is that you need a way to bring back the RL Gundar in case the PC's kill him, and unless they off the GC, too, that won't be a problem.

Oh, and I nominate Soth as "sloth," being the original potted-plant Darklord.

DeepShadow wrote:Not a big deal, as most sources place MotRD in RL's far future.

What sources are these?