Café de Nuit

Esteemed members of the Fraternity,

In our Sea of Sorrows project, here’s another stop, Ghastria!

Stezen D’Polarno wishes to show you his latest art acquisitions.

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Second edition: Domains of Dread, Darklords

Novel: Tales of Ravenloft (Objets d'Art)

Other selected interesting sources: Book of Souls (Marquis Stezen D'Polarno)

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Unknown creation date
Current status: Island located in the Sea of Sorrows.

Darklord: Stezen D’Polarno

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So post here your adventure hooks or stories. David will use your inpiring work on the Sea of Sorrows FoS report.

Reminder: This thread is not just for adventure hooks, it can also be to host short verbatim of local sayings or fireside tavern conversations, à la Gaz 1 web enhancement... or your DM thoughts about this domain.

This thread is for posting adventure hooks or comments / suggestion / improvements on another poster's hook. Other comments will be deleted.

Joël

John Baker's "The Unauthorized Biography of the Marquis Stezen D'Polarno" in the Book of Souls is a must read imho. It's a great article adding lots of detail, ideas and flavour.

Here are a few more fan articles from Alanik Ray's old site that (might) relate to Ghastria, courtesy of the wayback machine:

Portraits of the Darklords by C. Phibbs
Ralpuchio by C. Phipps
Pigments of Immortality by J.M. Baker
Juste Desserts by John M. Baker. (This describes a very interesting campaign set in Ghastria and/or on Scaena - the theater of LeMot Sediam Juste )

Why not make Ghastria into a kind of resort island, where the nobles of Darkon, Dementlieu, Lamordia, Mordent, and Richemulot go on vacation?

I mean, D’Polarno can't kill every visitor that shows up or else the domain would get a rotten reputation after awhile.

I'm picturing fox hunts, quail shoots, and croquet. It could be a destination for artists who are tired of the city, or people who need to convalesce after recovering from an illness.

Turn D'Polarno into a Willy Wonka type of mythic figure. Everyone has a story about him, but for most of the year he is locked away in his manor and never seen. This makes his once a year celebration into a grand event.

That's all I've got now. Just thought I'd throw it out there...

Imported food keeps its taste, yes? If so, I can see imported food being brought in for not only Stezen, but his guests. This stuff would be too expensive for the poor folks of the island, of course. Game animals native to Ghastria presumably have the same bland taste as the veggies grown there. That would probably affect game hunting for the pot, but not sports like fox hunting.

Jeremy16 wrote:Why not make Ghastria into a kind of resort island, where the nobles of Darkon, Dementlieu, Lamordia, Mordent, and Richemulot go on vacation?

While this should not necessarily be ruled out, it may need to be tweaked to render it plausable. A country renowned for its bland food is not an obvious jetset destination. The rich hang out in southern France and much of Italy for reasons other than just weather, which is to say the excellent food, both in terms of ingredients and preparation. A spa with imported food would not be entirely unfeasible, but would be very expensive (fresh fruit, for example, being shipped in as quickly as it is consumed/rots). Plausibly there would have to be a darkside to it to make it viable: perhaps advanced research into highly addictive hallucinogenic drugs, i.e., LSD or some such affording (artistic) inspiration.

Then again hotsprings are renowned as places where the old and creaky can be cured, and indeed invigorated, like the local lord himself. So perhaps something like Lourdes, minus the religion. Give the waters some (twisted) powers of treating (the illnesses of) aging. Really this should have been done for Borca, although perhaps its hotsprings labour under the taint of being poisonous.

An artist colony for the super rich, which in truth is as much a swingers club, is another possibility. But it might well be charged with the crime of 'modernity creep.'

Playing upon the artistic angle at least makes thematic sense, but (and I am not sure about this one way or the other) does the local lord want artistic rivals?

Giving him a court of kept artists, with their own dubious/nerferious projects, including an art school for the super rich, is another possibility.

Perhaps a smaller island -- politically a Ghastrian possession, yet outside Stezen's domain border -- could provide such a "vacation getaway". It'd be just big enough to keep the resort stocked with its own fresh-grown (and flavored) spices, fruits, and vegetables, and fish caught in its waters would likewise be palatable. Unfortunately, such harvests are so delicate that they always spoil in transit if they're imported to Ghastria.

Only Ghastria's richest residents would be able to afford a visit to this resort isle, and d'Polarno can't reach the place himself, being hemmed in by the border. Still, he could own the resort even if he can't go to it, and use it as a lure for folk he wants to prey upon through his portrait, or influential mainlanders he hopes to manipulate politically.

You could definately play into the horrors of degradation and hedonism as well as what "false beauty" is; kind of like the book, "The Torture Garden". Clara and the garden itself would fit in quite well.

In a way I could see the darklord taking the probable jealousy he has toward those that can feel by giving these bored nobles exactly what they want and taking a certain kind of joy as their hedonism enslaves, kills or makes them into shallow parodies of themselves. Which could play into the dark Wonka concept Jeremy16 had by having the occassional guest's folly be triggered by their own faults.

Yaoi Huntress Earth wrote:You could definately play into the horrors of degradation and hedonism as well as what "false beauty" is; kind of like the book, "The Torture Garden". Clara and the garden itself would fit in quite well.

In a way I could see the darklord taking the probable jealousy he has toward those that can feel by giving these bored nobles exactly what they want and taking a certain kind of joy as their hedonism enslaves, kills or makes them into shallow parodies of themselves. Which could play into the dark Wonka concept Jeremy16 had by having the occassional guest's folly be triggered by their own faults.

Wow, now this is someone I hadn't seen here in a long time
Hello, Yaoi!

Hello back. It's nice to be here again.

Nobles of ghastria quickly befriended an exotic stranger who eventually convinced them in joining in a pagan ritual that brings wellness of both being and soul. Ritual is to drive someone insane then cannibalize them, plus the meat not bland when it is a stranger to the land




A vastani troop is stuck in ghastria, their mistwalking abilities hampered. This cause them to blame the darklord for their condition and go to great lengths to be a constant thorn in his side. Both the vastani and Stezen use strangers to wage their war against each other, but is Stezen actually to blame for why the vastani are stuck, or could it lie somewhere else, perhaps a fellow vastani or a cursed artifact?

I am not sure how many rich there are on Ghastria, but those with lots of money and with a palate are going to import flavourful food, with little attention being paid to the price. Well prices start to skyrocket as suppliers go to war with each other to corner this lucrative market. Additionally, these suppliers declare war on the taxman and the legal authorities generally. In short, we have a drug war that is actually a food war.

If I were wealthy and lived in Ghastria, I'd just emigrate to someplace with better food.


I think the native Ghastrians could use a little more description. In my mind, they are vaguely related to the folk of Mordent and Dementlieu. What about their beliefs?

The ruined church in East Riding might have been a chapel dedicated to Ezra, in that case. Since it was destroyed and the priests killed, maybe the people of Ghastria are without the benefits of clerical support? Stezen wanted to get rid of the priests- but why? Were they spies from Dementlieu? Were the spreading unwelcome ideas among his subjects?

An idea- maybe Ghastrian food, though bland and flavorless, has the advantage of being less attractive to bugs, vermin etc [it doesn't have much scent to attract such critters]. Ghastrians make lousy cooks, but they produce some excellent [if exceedingly bland] trail rations for export. Maybe Stezen owns farms and a mill that produce the hardtack- ''Ghastrian cakes.'' Quartermasters and ships' pursers love them because they are cheap and keep practically forever, and sailors and soldiers hate them because they are edible 'rocks' without even a hint of flavor.
The money from this trade all goes to Stezen and his cronies, of course.[/i]

Another question;

What the heck do people make of Ghastria and its usually flavorless food? That's pretty bizarre, when you stop and think about it. How is this explained/ Curse of the gods/ Lamordians blame it on the soil chemistry? Something else? What do the natives think about the rare crops that do have flavor- a blessing from some fickle agricultural spirits?

I'm ashamed to say that I completely overlooked this thread -- inexcusable, considering my nom de geek on the boards.

Regarding what other folks think of the reason for Ghastria's tasteless food, some abnormality in the soil would be the easiest-to-swallow explanation (no pun intended). In modern times, we'd probably say that a "high pH level" or "abnornal zinc levels" were to blame for food that was nutritious yet bland. However, if the ruined church had been a temple of Ezra (as you suggested), there are probably hardliners in the Ezra hierarchy who are happy to attribute it to Ezra's anger at her fallen Ghastrian folk.

Other Ghastria thoughts/hooks:

I've always pictured Ghastria as attracting the finest chefs in the Land, chefs who saw it as a great challenge: the culinary equivalent of drawing blood from a stone. (The money from Stezen d'Polarno helps.) And if they have to import a few non-Ghastrian spices and foods to pull off their miracle dishes, so much the better. It could even be an annual contest. Perhaps the PCs are recruited as bodyguards for one master chef who has heard dark rumors that the "winners" of past contests ended up disappearing soon after...

Before the Grand Conjunction, Ghastria bordered Valachan. When the split happened, Von Kharkov and d'Polarno were happy to be rid of each other. But recently, there have been signs in Ghastria of ... panther attacks? One of Von Kharkov's vampires was on a mission in Ghastria at the time that the split happened. Since then, he's been content to keep a low profile in the fields of Ghastria, away from his harsh master. But Von Kharkov has learned that this wayward vampire still lives, and he's not happy about it. He wants the original mission completed, followed by the removal of the vampire's heart. The PCs could be hired by an agent of Von Kharkov to hunt down the vampire ... or perhaps hired by the former minion himself for protection in exchange for information about Valachan's mysterious baron -- information that Ghastrian agents would love to acquire as well.

One of the coolest things I ever read about Ghastria was in an old post (probably on the Kargatan site) that described the closing of the borders as possibly: a) The PCs sailing across the sea ... and hitting a full-scale backdrop of the sea and sky, a la The Truman Show, or b) The PCs sailing away ... and finding themselves gradually turning into two-dimensional paintings.

By the way, this Paizo Gamemastery module could be turned into a Ghastria story with a little bit of work.

cure wrote:I am not sure how many rich there are on Ghastria, but those with lots of money and with a palate are going to import flavourful food, with little attention being paid to the price. Well prices start to skyrocket as suppliers go to war with each other to corner this lucrative market. Additionally, these suppliers declare war on the taxman and the legal authorities generally. In short, we have a drug war that is actually a food war.

Heck, throw the Boritsi and Carlyle trading companies into this stew! If rich folks are willing to pay for all sorts of luxuries, the big traders will want to sign exclusive contracts with them. Only problem is, they have each other's competition to deal with. Stezen could probably amuse himself by playing them against each other, capitalizing on their greed and sowing chaos.
And due to the conflict between the two important merchant companies, the prices actually rise ...