Café de Nuit

I was hoping to get an opinion on the following situation.

The party was traveling through the Seelewald in Falkovnia when they saw evidence of a large ruin from the age of the Silver Kingdom. While looking for the ruins they came across a small village.

Now, with Winter approaching the villagers were having a huge party. They were all wearing masks, there wasn't a soldier in sight, and they were cooking just about everything. The players quickly found the mayor (who was hiding in his house and discovered what was going on. The Mayor explained that they had been cursed by a coven of witches for refusing to sacrifice their children, and were now dying of "joy". They were wasting their stores and they couldn't stop dancing. The Mayor claimed that he was barel able to hold back the curse and took off his mask to show just how much he was resisting.

He had bulging eyes and a huge rictus grin.

Now, although they didn't realize it, this was Toben the Many playing a trick on them. While collecting the village a few people got away to a nearby Hospice of Hala, who activated a relic to hide the temple/ruins and keep away the undead.

Anyway, the party find the place and break inside. They make their way to the remains of an ancient throne room without meeting anyone, open the door. There they see a garden growing where stones had been pulled away and a beautiful statue (like the one the Mayor described as being the source of the curse) glowed in the center. A plainly dressed young woman was bent over near the garden and hadn't noticed them.

The party monk rushed forward and attacked the woman, believing her to be a witch, beating her with a magically enhanced Quarterstaff capable of doing fire damage. After the surprise round she won initative and continued the attack. Then the party mage joined her and killed the woman with a blast of negative energy.

Things were fine until the party's caliban cleric of the Morning Lord checks the girl to see if she was alive and discovered the 13 serpents etched on her ring. The "She was a Healer!" stopped the others dead in their tracks.

Anyway, I feel that the monk and the wizard should be subject to Dark Power Checks. They attacked an unnarmed woman with their most powerful magic, without making any attempt to subdue her. I was wondering what I should set the percentage at.

To be fair, the monk has good reasons to hate witches (not the healing ones, the sterotypical ones villagers fear. they had a good realtionship with Hala worshippers up to this point), and they had been told that the village's woes were the fault of the people here.

At the same time, they took everything at face value and the woman could have been a slave the witches were keeping.

What do you think?

Right off the bat I would tack on at least 2% for Assault, grevious on a stranger. Witch or not you don't go and beat a stranger to death with out so much as a "Stand and deliver!"

I would go so far as add 3% Murder,Brutal of a Stranger as they killed someone who could just as easly been a charmed serving girl.

5% minimum.

Sounds great. This is classic powers check material - players trying to metaplay by attacking everything on site. Hit 'em with a quick one to teach them a lesson.

Thanks guys. I don't think I've ever seen them so stunned as that moment. Even when the guards came they dropped their weapons (despite obivious superior numbers).

Now Toben is lined up outside the temple, taunting them (even while a number of people inside are dying of the Grinning Sickness). They were not impressed when I decided to end the session there, I'll tell you.

Of course, the party ranger has already failed a power check. He decided to slit the throats of Falknovia captives they had. He gained the power to use Death Knell once per day, but his hands glow black for the duration power boost.

Any suggestions for results for failing these power checks? The monk acted on emotion (which she doesn't normally do), while the wizard (focused on necromancy) decided "She probably knows what she's doing" and followed her. This would be the Caress for both of them.

Hmm...that a hard one. For the monk I would send her down a terror track to becoming a werecreature of some sort (Werecat maybe?). She showed her more "beastial" side with the uprovoked emotion fueled atack and the more she lets her emotions rule her the more humanity (elfanity?) she looses.

So stage one- Pc gains darkvison up to 60' but her eyes glow in the dark like a cats giving her an OR of 1.

Is there, maybe, a raving lunatic terror track where a person who's done something like this flies into a violent, even homicidal rage while vehemently denying that they ever did this terrible thing. Or maybe if they fall far enough, they adopt another persona entirely and spend the rest of their lives hunting their former selves?

Manofevil wrote:Is there, maybe, a raving lunatic terror track where a person who's done something like this flies into a violent, even homicidal rage while vehemently denying that they ever did this terrible thing. Or maybe if they fall far enough, they adopt another persona entirely and spend the rest of their lives hunting their former selves?

Turn the party members into Malken?

Tobias Blackburn wrote:Then the party mage joined her and killed the woman with a blast of negative energy.

Negative Energy!?!? My my, if that is not an evil necromantic spell I don't know what is! That's another Power Check for casting an evil necromantic spell at 2% per spell level iirc. (1%/lvl if it's only evil or only necromantic)

As far as i understand the story, wich sounds great by the way, nothing there but the "negative energy" spell would warrant a power check!
I say this purely on MY interpretation of the dark powers. The assault iniciated by the monk was truly ugly but this happend every day in every cities of Ravenloft, i mean thug beating unsuspecting passerby to get their purses, violent brawl outside a tavern wich turn accidently into the death of someone, etc!
Those things are simply negative aspect of everyday life... not events that happend out of intense and strong dark emotion.

If the monk had been cheated or ridiculised even un-intentionnally by the priestess and his assault was purely fueled by vengeance i would have say yes... go ahead with a power check.

So my verdict is in this case only the "negative energy" spell WOULD warrant a P.C.

mu 2 cents

Barovian gravedigger wrote:As far as i understand the story, wich sounds great by the way, nothing there but the "negative energy" spell would warrant a power check!
I say this purely on MY interpretation of the dark powers. The assault iniciated by the monk was truly ugly but this happend every day in every cities of Ravenloft, i mean thug beating unsuspecting passerby to get their purses, violent brawl outside a tavern wich turn accidently into the death of someone, etc!
Those things are simply negative aspect of everyday life... not events that happend out of intense and strong dark emotion.

If the monk had been cheated or ridiculised even un-intentionnally by the priestess and his assault was purely fueled by vengeance i would have say yes... go ahead with a power check.

So my verdict is in this case only the "negative energy" spell WOULD warrant a P.C.

mu 2 cents

I would say that unthinking violence is always worth a powers check. Assault, whether a typical alley mugging or a husband attacking his wife are both worth power checks. At least they are according to the Campaign setting.

The monk wasn't passionless in her attack. When they were approaching the place (and when they had heard the story from "The Mayor"), the party rogue noticed that she seemed angry (something to do with her back story that I can't go into here in case a player decides to read it) and warned her to be cautious. The monk basically told her to back off and said that she would destroy any witch they found inside. Basically, she then attacked the priestess simply because she was female and inside the building figuring that she must be a witch.

With these new details to look at now i would say that it fits more for the monk to make a P.C.
In fact both you and i are correct in our way to define what is "passionly" enough or not!

My view about P.C. is mainly based on many (±11) years of DM`ing experience in Ravenloft, at first i was very quick on the trigger until i realised that when everybody in the party had 1 or 2 power check level everything began to look horrible and seems.. well... too much! That`s why today i look upon actions that would warrant or not P.C. with a very detached and analytic way. That said, it does`nt give me absolute thruth.

But as i first said with the new background element and the way your players behaved i think it is fair to go for a P.C. (±4%)!

I'd say the Monk most definately warrants a powers check. It is THE classic case of PC failure. Remember that several Darklords have become so out of actions that they felt they either had a right to do, or were the right thing to do.

For the effect on the Monk, I'd play on his Witchhunting personality. Remember that Powers Checks don't always have to reflect the physical action; they can also reflect the emotional cause behind those actions. Killing for the sake of pleasure, and killing for the sake of purifying 'heathans' could result in different effects.

I'd say the Monk should be at a crossroads right now. His effect should make his ability to 'witch hunt' much easier. This creates two options for your player.

Option A: He uses this power to hunt witches, his personal enemy. As he is a monk, is has a Lawful alignement, which naturally makes him at ends with the worshipers of Hala (most organized societies frown upon witchcraft). If he takes this path, he recieves more bonuses against typical 'witch' tactics, such as scrying, enchantment, polymorphing, possibility even later gaining resistance to their spells altogether. The downside should be that he looses his ability to depict others from witches, and so that wizard who helped him my one day been seen as a witch (or you could use another female ally of his). Furthermore, he looses all ability to hunt Hags, the true defilers of witchcraft

Option B: he shuns this power, thus showing that he recognizes the error of his ways. He should then be given several opportunities to use this power where someone might be considered a 'witch'. If he can overcome this temptation, then the character has also overcome a personal demon, and therefore progressed as a character in the story.

Your 'typical' failure of the powers check, the becoming beastial for acting like a beast, may be standard, but it doesn't leave much room for the player to wrestle with the character's 'witch hunting' personality.

Powers checks are more then just a game mechanic, they help develop characters. A powers check is a reflection of a character. One failed powers check might be just the warning a character needs in order to 'smarten up'. This smartening up ideally causes the character to overcome the inner demon that causes the Powers check in the first place.

well... what i could say other than you`re damn right on a lot of things!

Your view of the power checks in relation with character story-building is quite solid, wich gives you a lot of tools to put the right Ravenloft mood!

Maybe why i did`nt think as deep as you about power check is because MY Ravenloft is very much more a "Lovecraftian" Ravenloft with a lot more emphasys on things that should not be...horror and madness check quite frequent! By the way i would like to introduce everyone who might read this tread to the "Legend and lair" complement Darkness and dread wich is in my opinion wwwwwwwway ahead of the standard horror/madness rules introduced in the Ravenloft core rules!

That said i think that your grasp on power check is much more accurate than mine because of campaing style preference my friend... i will remember this kind of approach next time i would like to "put back in the straight path" a character!

Thank you everyone. You've got some nice ideas.

I think that I might allow the use of Detect "Witches" once per day, but her eyes change colour to black for the duration of its use and minutes afterwards.

Still have to find one for the mage, who seems to be a real follower.

Tobias Blackburn wrote: Still have to find one for the mage, who seems to be a real follower.

The Book of Shadows had a "Track of the Chosen One" in an article that might do. (Note, since these were pre-3e versions, they have 10 steps; modify as needed.)