Interest Check: Histhaven

[Insight]

I'm seeking interest in playing an adventure based on the "Domain of Dread: Histhaven" accessory Wizards released as part of the most recent Free RPG Day.

Here is a brief blurb from the supplement's back cover:

The domain of Histhaven has suffered long under the harsh rule of Count Artius, a rotten man haunted by his own dark nemesis. Time and again, the count suffers a coward's death in battle, yet, with each new moon, he is reborn and the terror begins anew. To save the people of this withered land, brave heroes must end Histhaven's curse and confront the one man whose hunger for vengeance can never be satisfied - the only man Count Artius fears.

This release is intended for use with the excellent boxed set, "The Shadowfell: Gloomwraught and Beyond". To my mind, it is a Ravenloft "domain of dread", cast in the 4E version of it, the Shadowfell.

I'm interested in running some sort of adventure in this setting. The supplement itself does not contain an adventure, but has some hooks from which adventures could be created. Post here if you'd like to explore this shadowy land.

 

[Walking Dad]

What level and what kind of characters would be allowed?
Will this feel like standard D&D, investigation or horror story or a combination of this elements? If it is a combination, how strong are the parts to each other (sorry, bad English)?

 

[Insight]

What level and what kind of characters would be allowed?
Will this feel like standard D&D, investigation or horror story or a combination of this elements? If it is a combination, how strong are the parts to each other (sorry, bad English)?

1. Not sure on the level just yet. Probably mid heroic tier, so 4-6. The characters are in the Shadowfell - in fact, they will not leave Histhaven at all. Whether they are native to the Shadowfell or were brought there (willfully or not) is up to the player and will not really affect the adventure. I'd prefer more of the "standard" races - humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, half-orcs, etc - just because I think the horror element is made easier to invoke if the characters are closer to "human". Weird stuff like deva, minotaurs, and shardminds don't belong in horror stories (as protagonists) IMO.

2. It would have elements of horror, but "D&D"-ish horror. I would expect more investigation than in your vanilla D&D dungeon crawl, but this is not Call of Cthuhlu. Maybe 1/3 of it would be horror-themed, 1/3 skill challenge stuff, 1/3 combat. That sounds about right to me.

 

[Goken100]

Interest and question

I'm certainly interested.

The original Ravenloft had a a town of mundane people who were afraid to go out at night due to the nearby cursed castle. I'd love if the game could have that kind of feel: maybe the Shadowfell and the real world bleed together in places. This way our characters can be ordinary folk drawn into the dark and magical realm in an attempt to set right the curse of Histhaven.

Would that be possible, or will you be sticking to the strict and more definite Shadowfell borders that is the default assumption?

 

[Shayuri]

I like that! Imagine a kind of planar overlap; every night the town 'slips' into the Shadowfell-analogue of its location on the Material plane. The stars and moon go out, and the night crawls with unearthly creatures. When the sun rises the planar overlap vanishes and the town reappears in the Material Plane.

Clearly, SOMETHING in the Shadowfell is responsible for this...but what? The answer may lie in the menacing castle that overlooks the town from atop a rocky crag...but only at night. By day the crag is there, with the ruins of an ancient castle to be found on the summit.

What has happened? Why is the castle gone here, but still exists there? Why has whatever presence that still haunts it reached out and tried to pull the town into Shadow after it?

What dark magic, and darker secrets, are at work here?

...

I'm SO interested in this, but I have so many games now. Let me assess and see if I can pull another one off...or perhaps there's one that's just not working out...

 

[Insight]

I'm certainly interested.

The original Ravenloft had a a town of mundane people who were afraid to go out at night due to the nearby cursed castle. I'd love if the game could have that kind of feel: maybe the Shadowfell and the real world bleed together in places. This way our characters can be ordinary folk drawn into the dark and magical realm in an attempt to set right the curse of Histhaven.

Would that be possible, or will you be sticking to the strict and more definite Shadowfell borders that is the default assumption?

I was thinking about how an economy would work in a town that's basically inescapable. Couple that with the fact that all of the fields are essentially barren and un-farmable. I don't know how these villagers survive. And how they trade at all. I think there has to be some element of realism, at least to explain how things work.

My initial inclination is that the following occurs:

Once you come to Histhaven, your soul is trapped there. You can leave, during the day (although "day" in the Shadowfell is kinda strange), but come "nightfall", you find yourself back in Histhaven. At "night", the land is impassible.

That would explain how the village can possibly survive, how the PCs got there, and why they care about lifting the curse (they want to leave on a permanent basis).

Perhaps it is during "the daytime" that Histhaven slips into Nentir Vale (or wherever), where it is some backwater village, but a "positive" version of the "negative" Shadowfell version of Histhaven. At nightfall, Histhaven slips back into the Shadowfell and all the nasty curse stuff starts all over again.

 

[Walking Dad]

Sounds very interesting. I totally agree on the "standard races for horror". Do you also want to restrict the class choices? Already rummaging my brain for a character idea.

 

[Insight]

Sounds very interesting. I totally agree on the "standard races for horror". Do you also want to restrict the class choices? Already rummaging my brain for a character idea.

The only class I want to avoid is the Vampire. Their "sunlight" weakness would be completely pointless in the Shadowfell, where there really isn't any sunlight.

Other than that, I don't see a good reason not to allow everything else. I'm going to take a look at the Shadowfell boxed set to see if they have any other suggestions on classes or characters.

 

[Goken100]

Sounds fun! I'm thinking about creating an investigator-professor character like Van Hellsing. Maybe Avenger could work as a character sent by the church to root out evil (but still be an investigative professor type). Artificer might work as more of a tinkering type.

 

[Insight]

Sounds fun! I'm thinking about creating an investigator-professor character like Van Hellsing. Maybe Avenger could work as a character sent by the church to root out evil (but still be an investigative professor type). Artificer might work as more of a tinkering type.

Great! Adding some investigative abilities is a good idea. Like I said, I would expect a great deal of investigation to be involved in the adventure. That's not to say that a greataxe wielding barbarian won't be useful too, but there might be times when Conan would be bored.