Starting today, I’ll be posting up installments from my 13th Hour campaign, with a new one posted every few days. Hopefully, this will inspire me to get back to writing them! What follows here in this post is just an introduction.
Back in 2007, I started up my fourth Ravenloft campaign, designed to tie together and resolve all of the storylines from the previous campaigns in one epic arc. Currently, we have had 21 game sessions so far, and after each session, I try to write down the events in story form and posted it online. At the beginning, I mostly wrote it as a summary of events, with little or no dialogue. It seems the more I would write, the more comfortable I would get with the writing, and so future entries read more like a real story. Also, the characters my players had created became more solidified in my head the more they played them, so that I was able to write things like "Cameron thought.." or come up with actual dialogue to flesh out a scene that at the gaming table may have just been summarized. As I got more of a feel for how the characters acted and said things by watching the players play them, I was able to fill in the blanks a lot better, and eventually went back and fleshed out the stories from the first few sessions. Also at the beginning, I was very prompt in getting the story recaps written before the next session, but the last year or two I have been really lapsing. I have four sessions right now that I’m still trying to finish – one from last week, one from last year, and two from the summer of 2008(!)
I had run several Ravenloft campaigns (the earliest back in ’92), but for this one, I started things much differently than I had in any previous RPG campaigns that I had ever run and spent a lot more time with character creation and background for this campaign. Also doing something different I had all the characters be from the same town, in the same country, and be brothers. We devoted a session to just character creation. Rob and Mike rolled dice and consulted tables to get their family history and number of siblings. I used a modified version of tables presented in the Cyberpunk RPG system. We all had a good time with the tables which made for some humorous moments like when we were all speculating about the 'rat queen' that Raymond must have hooked up with down in the sewers at one point in his history.
Rob’s character is Cameron D’Agostino, who is a paladin of Ezra. A paladin generally a hero who champions a particular cause. In this case Cameron is a paladin of Ezra, who is the goddess of the mists. Her church is the most prominent in the Ravenloft world, worshipped in most of the western nations. In game terms, Cameron’s status as a paladin allows him to perform the occasional miracle through his faith in Ezra.
Mike’s character is Raymond D’Agostino, Cameron’s younger brother who is also a caliban. Caliban is a term sometimes used in the Ravenloft world for one born with hideous deformities. These poor wretches are generally seen as monsters and shunned by society and often times their own families. According to folklore, when a mother-to-be is cursed by a hag or witch while her babe is in the womb, she will give birth to a caliban.
I have set their home in the country of Invidia, which is a landlocked nation bordered by the domains of Sithicus, Verbrek, Borca, and Barovia. Its primary water feature is the grand old Musarde River which flows in from Verbrek to the northwest and meanders through the country until it reaches Sithicus to the south. Invidia’s two largest settlements are Karina and Curriculo.
A Little Background on Ravenloft
Before diving into the trials and tribulations of Raymond and Cameron, I’ll give a little history of the role-playing game called Ravenloft. For the uninitiated, Ravenloft is an RPG (role-playing game) similar to Dungeons and Dragons, which I’m sure everyone has heard of. Basically, I as game-master write up the scenario based on the rules and source material written for the game, and then the players create their characters and play the game with me acting as ‘god’ by describing the action and controlling the inhabitants of the rest of the game world. Ravenloft was originally a scenario module published for Dungeons and Dragons in 1983 and written by Tracy and Laura Hickman. Its use of such a complex villain who had become a prisoner of his own hubris and who played such an active part in the scenario was very unique at a time when D&D scenarios were mostly just labyrinthine dungeons full of seemingly random puzzles, monsters and treasures. The scenario basically consisted of the players trying to free the people of Barovia from Count Strahd von Zarovich by confronting him within Castle Ravenloft. It was also noteworthy for using the plot device of the gypsy fortune telling, something that was also new to the game.
People liked it so much that in 1990 the idea was expanded into an entire game setting of its own, with the designers surrounding Strahd's Barovia with other lands, each one its own Twilight Zone in Hell episode tailored to the personality of a complex (and often tragic) villain. Over the years, dozens of game books, novels and video games have been created for the Ravenloft campaign setting. Most recently, the original Ravenloft module from '83 has been reworked and re-released as "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft", which was used (in a modified form) for sessions 2 – 6 of my current campaign.
The following sections are excerpts from the Ravenloft core rulebook which help give some background on the nature of the game world.
Introduction to the Realm of Dread
Beyond mortal senses, beyond your reality, there lurks a boundless plane. It permeates your world and fills the void between worlds. It is the border between the lands of the living and of the dead. There, mind and matter become one; thought and passion, fear and yearning, can become more tangible than iron. It is the Ethereal Plane, Somewhere, lurking deep within those etheric mists, a dark and nameless dimension is ruled by dark and nameless powers. Some say it is a prison for the damned; some say it is a crucible to test the virtuous. Others simply call it home. It is a land of mist and shadow, love and death, sacrifice and seduction, beauty and horror. It is a land of whispered fears made manifest. It is the Realm of Dread. Perhaps you have sensed its touch. At the bidding of the Dark Powers, tendrils of the ethereal Mists that bind this land reach out to caress the Material Plane. They stroke the skin at the back of your neck when a creaking floorboard warns that you are not alone in the dark. Their invisible fingers crawl down your spine when inhuman shadows rustle at the edges of your vision. The Mists do more than merely caress. The Dark Powers are drawn to innocence and villainy, to loathing and desire, to obsession and to despair. They seek out squandered dreams and inner demons. They savor the decay of the spirit. Their Mists snatch up fiends at the moment of their ruin and steal upon heroes in times of doubt. To what end do the Dark Powers add these souls to their tarnished collection? To torment them? To purify them? None can say, for few souls drawn into the Realm of Dread ever leave to tell the tale. Yet perhaps you will soon learn for yourself, for tonight, the Mists have come for you.
Welcome to the Land of Mists.
Welcome to the crucible of virtue and the spoils of damnation.
Welcome to the Realm of Dread.
Welcome to Ravenloft.
The Realm of Dread
To most who live there it is just a world like any other, but in actuality Ravenloft is not a real planet, but a construct; an artificial pocket dimension relentlessly prowling the trackless Ethereal Plane. The implacable Dark Powers crafted their realm from the hidden fears of the innumerable worlds of the Material Plane, and shape reality to reflect their sinister sensibilities. This section introduces the core concepts of the Ravenloft setting.
The Mists of Ravenloft
Thick fog blankets the melancholy moor of a Gothic tale, confounding travelers and washing away the world. A film of vapor seeps along the headstones of a graveyard, concealing hidden dangers. In Ravenloft, these Mists assume a life of their own. The Ravenloft Mists act as the claws of the Dark Powers. Every child in Ravenloft knows of the Misty Border, the churning walls of Mist that surround and isolate domains and clusters. A traveler who enters the Misty Border hoping to reach another domain quickly finds herself engulfed by a netherworld of obscuring white fog. Even the ground beneath her feet fades away. Direction and distance become meaningless. Unless a traveler uses a Mistway (a current in the flow of the Mists) or is escorted by the Vistani or a powerful anchorite (a cleric of a goddess said to have merged with the Mists), she has no control over where the Mists deposit her. The Mists can even rob time of its meaning. Within the Misty Border, night blends seamlessly The Mists are not limited to the netherworld between domains.
They can appear anywhere and at any time in Ravenloft, boiling up from the earth to snatch up creatures and place them where they will. Rumors also speak of more insidious appearances by the Mists. Whispered tales tell of folk who wandered lost for days in a small grove of trees, or of back alleys that became twisting labyrinths, or of a house that contained more rooms than it physically could. People who encounter this phenomenon are said to be “Mist-led.” Opinions differ on whether the Mists disorient these folk by fogging their senses or by imposing true, ephemeral changes to reality. But regardless of how the Mists manifest, when they come, no force can stop them. The Mists appear as a bogeyman in countless legends. Ravenloft’s folk blame any bad luck on the meddling of the Mists and often refer to the Misty Border as the World’s-End Mists or the Mists of Death. The Misty Border is the legendary home of countless unfathomable horrors. The Mists can stretch their tendrils into any world with ties to the Ethereal Plane, and although no one truly knows why, they sometimes draw other folk into Ravenloft as well, be they hapless bystanders or mighty heroes. Ravenloft’s insular folk call these people “outlanders,” travelers who hail from foreign domains beyond the Misty Border. On rare occasions, these stragglers may even claim to have come from lands beyond the Realm of Dread.
The Geography of Mists
Ravenloft’s inhabitants often call their world the “Land of Mists,” and for good reason: Ravenloft has an unknown size and shape. Although Ravenloft’s breadth cannot be measured, it forms a relatively small world - what some might call intimate, others claustrophobic. As new domains appear or old ones fade into the Mists, the Realm of Dread expands and contracts, like the chest of a sleeping beast. The central continent, the Core, is the largest congregation of known domains in the realm. No one knows how many domains lie within the Mists; theoretically, the total is limitless. Lacking outside references, Ravenloft’s folk see nothing unusual about the Misty Border or other eerie features of their little world.
Scattered legends of the Realm of Dread have filtered into other worlds. These tales often depict Ravenloft as a living hell, a realm of unremitting horror and misery, a place where heroes go to die. These legends are woefully inaccurate. Ravenloft is filled with natural beauty, both in its vistas and its people. Although its inhabitants are often slow to offer their trust, many folk are kind and gentle. Ravenloft’s horrors lurk just out of sight, and with simple caution, many folk live their entire lives without ever encountering these supernatural menaces. Of course, those who look for trouble soon find it.
Back in 2007, I started up my fourth Ravenloft campaign, designed to tie together and resolve all of the storylines from the previous campaigns in one epic arc. Currently, we have had 21 game sessions so far, and after each session, I try to write down the events in story form and posted it online. At the beginning, I mostly wrote it as a summary of events, with little or no dialogue. It seems the more I would write, the more comfortable I would get with the writing, and so future entries read more like a real story. Also, the characters my players had created became more solidified in my head the more they played them, so that I was able to write things like "Cameron thought.." or come up with actual dialogue to flesh out a scene that at the gaming table may have just been summarized. As I got more of a feel for how the characters acted and said things by watching the players play them, I was able to fill in the blanks a lot better, and eventually went back and fleshed out the stories from the first few sessions. Also at the beginning, I was very prompt in getting the story recaps written before the next session, but the last year or two I have been really lapsing. I have four sessions right now that I’m still trying to finish – one from last week, one from last year, and two from the summer of 2008(!)
I had run several Ravenloft campaigns (the earliest back in ’92), but for this one, I started things much differently than I had in any previous RPG campaigns that I had ever run and spent a lot more time with character creation and background for this campaign. Also doing something different I had all the characters be from the same town, in the same country, and be brothers. We devoted a session to just character creation. Rob and Mike rolled dice and consulted tables to get their family history and number of siblings. I used a modified version of tables presented in the Cyberpunk RPG system. We all had a good time with the tables which made for some humorous moments like when we were all speculating about the 'rat queen' that Raymond must have hooked up with down in the sewers at one point in his history.
Rob’s character is Cameron D’Agostino, who is a paladin of Ezra. A paladin generally a hero who champions a particular cause. In this case Cameron is a paladin of Ezra, who is the goddess of the mists. Her church is the most prominent in the Ravenloft world, worshipped in most of the western nations. In game terms, Cameron’s status as a paladin allows him to perform the occasional miracle through his faith in Ezra.
Mike’s character is Raymond D’Agostino, Cameron’s younger brother who is also a caliban. Caliban is a term sometimes used in the Ravenloft world for one born with hideous deformities. These poor wretches are generally seen as monsters and shunned by society and often times their own families. According to folklore, when a mother-to-be is cursed by a hag or witch while her babe is in the womb, she will give birth to a caliban.
I have set their home in the country of Invidia, which is a landlocked nation bordered by the domains of Sithicus, Verbrek, Borca, and Barovia. Its primary water feature is the grand old Musarde River which flows in from Verbrek to the northwest and meanders through the country until it reaches Sithicus to the south. Invidia’s two largest settlements are Karina and Curriculo.
A Little Background on Ravenloft
Before diving into the trials and tribulations of Raymond and Cameron, I’ll give a little history of the role-playing game called Ravenloft. For the uninitiated, Ravenloft is an RPG (role-playing game) similar to Dungeons and Dragons, which I’m sure everyone has heard of. Basically, I as game-master write up the scenario based on the rules and source material written for the game, and then the players create their characters and play the game with me acting as ‘god’ by describing the action and controlling the inhabitants of the rest of the game world. Ravenloft was originally a scenario module published for Dungeons and Dragons in 1983 and written by Tracy and Laura Hickman. Its use of such a complex villain who had become a prisoner of his own hubris and who played such an active part in the scenario was very unique at a time when D&D scenarios were mostly just labyrinthine dungeons full of seemingly random puzzles, monsters and treasures. The scenario basically consisted of the players trying to free the people of Barovia from Count Strahd von Zarovich by confronting him within Castle Ravenloft. It was also noteworthy for using the plot device of the gypsy fortune telling, something that was also new to the game.
People liked it so much that in 1990 the idea was expanded into an entire game setting of its own, with the designers surrounding Strahd's Barovia with other lands, each one its own Twilight Zone in Hell episode tailored to the personality of a complex (and often tragic) villain. Over the years, dozens of game books, novels and video games have been created for the Ravenloft campaign setting. Most recently, the original Ravenloft module from '83 has been reworked and re-released as "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft", which was used (in a modified form) for sessions 2 – 6 of my current campaign.The following sections are excerpts from the Ravenloft core rulebook which help give some background on the nature of the game world.
Introduction to the Realm of Dread
Beyond mortal senses, beyond your reality, there lurks a boundless plane. It permeates your world and fills the void between worlds. It is the border between the lands of the living and of the dead. There, mind and matter become one; thought and passion, fear and yearning, can become more tangible than iron. It is the Ethereal Plane, Somewhere, lurking deep within those etheric mists, a dark and nameless dimension is ruled by dark and nameless powers. Some say it is a prison for the damned; some say it is a crucible to test the virtuous. Others simply call it home. It is a land of mist and shadow, love and death, sacrifice and seduction, beauty and horror. It is a land of whispered fears made manifest. It is the Realm of Dread. Perhaps you have sensed its touch. At the bidding of the Dark Powers, tendrils of the ethereal Mists that bind this land reach out to caress the Material Plane. They stroke the skin at the back of your neck when a creaking floorboard warns that you are not alone in the dark. Their invisible fingers crawl down your spine when inhuman shadows rustle at the edges of your vision. The Mists do more than merely caress. The Dark Powers are drawn to innocence and villainy, to loathing and desire, to obsession and to despair. They seek out squandered dreams and inner demons. They savor the decay of the spirit. Their Mists snatch up fiends at the moment of their ruin and steal upon heroes in times of doubt. To what end do the Dark Powers add these souls to their tarnished collection? To torment them? To purify them? None can say, for few souls drawn into the Realm of Dread ever leave to tell the tale. Yet perhaps you will soon learn for yourself, for tonight, the Mists have come for you.
Welcome to the Land of Mists.
Welcome to the crucible of virtue and the spoils of damnation.
Welcome to the Realm of Dread.
Welcome to Ravenloft.
The Realm of Dread
To most who live there it is just a world like any other, but in actuality Ravenloft is not a real planet, but a construct; an artificial pocket dimension relentlessly prowling the trackless Ethereal Plane. The implacable Dark Powers crafted their realm from the hidden fears of the innumerable worlds of the Material Plane, and shape reality to reflect their sinister sensibilities. This section introduces the core concepts of the Ravenloft setting.
The Mists of Ravenloft
Thick fog blankets the melancholy moor of a Gothic tale, confounding travelers and washing away the world. A film of vapor seeps along the headstones of a graveyard, concealing hidden dangers. In Ravenloft, these Mists assume a life of their own. The Ravenloft Mists act as the claws of the Dark Powers. Every child in Ravenloft knows of the Misty Border, the churning walls of Mist that surround and isolate domains and clusters. A traveler who enters the Misty Border hoping to reach another domain quickly finds herself engulfed by a netherworld of obscuring white fog. Even the ground beneath her feet fades away. Direction and distance become meaningless. Unless a traveler uses a Mistway (a current in the flow of the Mists) or is escorted by the Vistani or a powerful anchorite (a cleric of a goddess said to have merged with the Mists), she has no control over where the Mists deposit her. The Mists can even rob time of its meaning. Within the Misty Border, night blends seamlessly The Mists are not limited to the netherworld between domains.
They can appear anywhere and at any time in Ravenloft, boiling up from the earth to snatch up creatures and place them where they will. Rumors also speak of more insidious appearances by the Mists. Whispered tales tell of folk who wandered lost for days in a small grove of trees, or of back alleys that became twisting labyrinths, or of a house that contained more rooms than it physically could. People who encounter this phenomenon are said to be “Mist-led.” Opinions differ on whether the Mists disorient these folk by fogging their senses or by imposing true, ephemeral changes to reality. But regardless of how the Mists manifest, when they come, no force can stop them. The Mists appear as a bogeyman in countless legends. Ravenloft’s folk blame any bad luck on the meddling of the Mists and often refer to the Misty Border as the World’s-End Mists or the Mists of Death. The Misty Border is the legendary home of countless unfathomable horrors. The Mists can stretch their tendrils into any world with ties to the Ethereal Plane, and although no one truly knows why, they sometimes draw other folk into Ravenloft as well, be they hapless bystanders or mighty heroes. Ravenloft’s insular folk call these people “outlanders,” travelers who hail from foreign domains beyond the Misty Border. On rare occasions, these stragglers may even claim to have come from lands beyond the Realm of Dread.
The Geography of Mists
Ravenloft’s inhabitants often call their world the “Land of Mists,” and for good reason: Ravenloft has an unknown size and shape. Although Ravenloft’s breadth cannot be measured, it forms a relatively small world - what some might call intimate, others claustrophobic. As new domains appear or old ones fade into the Mists, the Realm of Dread expands and contracts, like the chest of a sleeping beast. The central continent, the Core, is the largest congregation of known domains in the realm. No one knows how many domains lie within the Mists; theoretically, the total is limitless. Lacking outside references, Ravenloft’s folk see nothing unusual about the Misty Border or other eerie features of their little world.
Scattered legends of the Realm of Dread have filtered into other worlds. These tales often depict Ravenloft as a living hell, a realm of unremitting horror and misery, a place where heroes go to die. These legends are woefully inaccurate. Ravenloft is filled with natural beauty, both in its vistas and its people. Although its inhabitants are often slow to offer their trust, many folk are kind and gentle. Ravenloft’s horrors lurk just out of sight, and with simple caution, many folk live their entire lives without ever encountering these supernatural menaces. Of course, those who look for trouble soon find it.
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