Café de Nuit

Well, i returned to play Ravenloft... and it is really a pity that it seems that the setting is dead (second time).

I am running a adventure with 6 players (divided in two groups: 3 evil and 3 good), and i plan to send them to Nidala, but i miss some information about this domain and the darklord, so my questions are:

1 - Why was Elena Faith-hold Cursed? And why the ghouls "love" her?
2 - It's still true that a evil dragon controls Castle Faith-hold dungeons?
3 - Which are the stats of Elena?


PS: don't own island of terror, neither Domains of Dread

Elena was once a paladin of Belenus (Celtic deity) on an unspecified Material Plane world, who was exceptionally fanatical in her ferocious attacks against Evil. Unfortunately, she was so extreme that after she'd exterminated every Evil being or Evil-leaning race in her homeland, she turned her armies against the morally-Neutral folk (who'd once been her allies and who'd generally done nothing wrong) and on Good faiths other than her own. The Dark Powers snapped her up at once.

Elena of course lost her paladinhood, but the DPs made sure she never actually realized this had happened. In 3E terms she'd be a blackguard, but one whose fiendish companion is equivalent to a paladin's mount, and who sincerely believes she's still Good-aligned. She regards her inability to Turn Undead as a sign she's supposed to destroy them in combat, for example. In another ironic DP-granted quirk, and unbeknownst to her, Elena's former Detect Evil sense now detects strong emotions directed at her: a terrified prisoner, a bitter enemy, or a devoted lover would all read as "Evil" to her, because she doesn't know her ability has changed.

At least as presented in the 2E products, there is no terrible dragon in her domain. Instead, Elena herself slaughters whole villages whose piety fails to live up to her impossible standards, then burns them to the ground and publicly declares that "the dragon" did it. It's all part of the propaganda she (wrongly of course) believes will help purge her people of the Evil she senses in everyone around her.

Elena's full 3E stats haven't been published AFAIK. I'm not sure where you saw a reference to "ghouls" in relation to Elena; apart from frequent dreams in which she's visited by the accusing spirits of all those she's killed and tortured in the name of her faith, she's got no connection to the undead and won't tolerate their presence in Nidala.

The ghouls probably come from that bit of fan fiction from one of the Books of S_. the reason that ghouls lover her is because they have been transformed into hideous forms by their strong emotions. Because Faithhold sees them as monsters, they become monsters.

Also, Faithhold comes from the same pime material plane as the other domains in the Avelon cluster. I think she wa supposed to be a contemporary of Lady Shadowborn.

The Dark One wrote: 3 - Which are the stats of Elena?

Check your PMs...

Now, now, you wouldn't be sharing copyrighted material, would you?

That would be wrong.

Do I have to get Socko out here?

ScS of the Fraternity wrote:The ghouls probably come from that bit of fan fiction from one of the Books of S_. the reason that ghouls lover her is because they have been transformed into hideous forms by their strong emotions. Because Faithhold sees them as monsters, they become monsters.

Actually, it's that the ghouls were created by and serve as the minions of Ebonbane, who exists to pervert and destroy Kateri Shadowborn and her entire legacy. Elena Faith-hold is herself part of that legacy, but corrupted herself. They thus see her as a kindred spirit, acting to the same end.

Admin wrote:Now, now, you wouldn't be sharing copyrighted material, would you?

That would be wrong.

Do I have to get Socko out here?

Sorry about this question, but the issue just came out and I feel curious about it:
What do you mean with "sharing copyrighted material"? I mean, if I lend my, say Champions of Darkness book with other friends, does that count as "sharing"? What are the do's and don't's about this issue? I suppose this also applies to ESDs and such files...

Thanks again and sorry for the topic change...

No, I'm not aware of any copyrighted Third Edition material that has stats for Elena. I sent TDO a 3.0 'unofficial' conversion of her, the kind that have been posted frequently over on the Wizards Ravenloft Forum, not the second edition stats from page 14 of Islands of Terror. I would hardly be inclined to share material he could buy for himself . Do you know of any recent official writeups?
I wouldn't mind if Socko came out to play, my cat Barnabus has torn through yet another little pink sock and needs a new toy.

Mangrum wrote:Actually, it's that the ghouls were created by and serve as the minions of Ebonbane, who exists to pervert and destroy Kateri Shadowborn and her entire legacy. Elena Faith-hold is herself part of that legacy, but corrupted herself. They thus see her as a kindred spirit, acting to the same end.

Thanks for ithe nfo, John. I think I asked a similar question about the ghouls back on the Goat and it burned down before I got your answer.

One thing I still don't get is how Rohmer became a ghoul. Davran says there is a better way than killing Rohmer and the next time we see him is in Elena's dungeon as a ghoul. How'd that happen? I don't think the Circle would turn him into a ghoul. Or even deliberately let Ebonbane do so. Would they?

They left him for Ebonbane to turn into a ghoul. Remember how the woods outside Ebonbane's domain were full of ghouls?

About love of ghouls: netBook of shadows

About Banemaw (evil dragon): wikipedia free on line encycloepedia.


Really a PITY that there is no more information about the shadowlands... and about copyright material: u can "share" 10% of the book (that actually for me would be the nidala section of island of terror heheh).

Well thx for the info, now i can build the end of the campaign:

"After kidnapping tara kolyana and bring her to Azalin the group will be receive order to take her with a "strange medalion" to the deep dungeons of Faithhold castle, where with the blood of the Darkness (ancient shadow dragon) they will open a ancient gate". - of course, nothing looks like it seems.

The group components : a cleric of the eternal order, a dhampir rogue (kargat), a strange red barbarian (stage I in the way of the shadow fiend), a haunted necromancer (with a miraculous eyeball as familiar), a anchorite of ezra (Ezra's choosen) and a strange mage ( slave lich which soulstone hidden be azalin).

Each one with a diferente history and different goals.

I know, a strange group in a strange land, but it's a lot of fun to see the not evil side (necro/anhorite) sleeping and making all movements with fear, and to see the old dragonlance style being implemented: evil turns against evil (lich searching the soulstone, kargat agent looking to control the cleric, and the barbarian bringing the doom to all). And nothing better to take a darklord that fits well this scheme: the wicked and weak Elena Faithhold .

DeepShadow wrote:They left him for Ebonbane to turn into a ghoul. Remember how the woods outside Ebonbane's domain were full of ghouls?

Yeah, but would they really do that? Is that the way a "good" organization deals with Traitors? Knowingly leave him to be turned into an undead?

I always got the impression that Elena simply saw him as a ghoul (ala a manifestation of her perverted detect evil power)

Can you say to me from which quote of the raven did you get this info on Nidala? I always dream of sending my PC there but i have only the RLCS as info for that domain.

The Dark One wrote:about copyright material: u can "share" 10% of the book (that actually for me would be the nidala section of island of terror heheh).

Not true, I'm afraid; there's no set proportion of a book you can legally share without violating copyright, and certainly as much as 10% could get you in serious trouble. Technically, even sharing a single paragraph could be enough to get you sued. In practice, I really doubt WotC would bother to go after someone for sharing a copy of part of an out-of-print book like that, as long as it wasn't done too publically or too widely, but they would be in their legal rights to bring suit for it.