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[Let's Read] DM's Guild Ravenloft Sourcebooks
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8809472" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/KTg8Flf.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/360794/Ravenloft-Realm-of-the-Blood-Queen" target="_blank">Product Link</a></p><p><strong>Product Type:</strong> Adventure, Location</p><p><strong>Cos-Required?</strong> No</p><p></p><p>Realm of the Blood Queen is a 1st to 12th level adventure path set in a new Domain of Dread by the name of Wreythau (pronounced Ray-thauw). Ruled over by the slumbering vampire queen Czerina Gavranova, Wreythau is a kingdom of contrasts. Multiple factions vie for power and prestige, from the Church of the Morning Lord who has fallen far from their god’s teachings to become bloodthirsty fundamentalists, the druidic Old Faith and its beastfolk worshipers beyond the walls of civilization, the trenched-in aristocracy who owe allegiance to their sleeping ruler, and the Wreythian Merchant Consortium who owns practically every commerce save land ownership due to the remaining vestiges of noble birthright.</p><p></p><p>The overall curve of the adventure is that the PCs begin in a non-Ravenloftian campaign setting, bearing witness to the Merchant Consortium’s depredations. By tracking them down to their mist-shrouded land, the party gains the attention of the darklord Czerina, who seeks to mold the PCs into valued servants to wipe out the factional opposition and bring order to her domain. Or at least, that’s her plan before the PCs inevitably oppose her.</p><p></p><p>Realm of the Blood Queen has an interesting publishing history, or rather the lack of it. First off, in searching the author’s name of Cayce Corday, it appears that this is their first foray into self-publishing. Rather impressive, given that this book is a hefty 379 pages with a lot of professional artwork, most of it original and not WotC assets. Second off is that they have quite a bit of confidence in their work. The chapter detailing Raffenburg, the dark fantasy metropolis of the setting, <a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/373960/Chapter-5--Raffenburg" target="_blank">is Pay What You Want on the Dungeon Master’s Guild.</a> There was no fancy KickStarter or crowdfunding, and the book was initially published incomplete, split into 2 volumes with the second volume concluding the rest of the adventure path. Unfortunately this PDF has no bookmarks or index, which for a product of its size is disadvantageous for navigation.</p><p></p><p>There’s quite a bit of odes to the Strahd-centric Ravenloft adventures, and this is intentional. Czerina is obsessed with the PCs and she regularly makes her presence known throughout the campaign, much like Strahd. The PCs can come upon her personal journal to learn of her descent into villainy, much like Strahd. As darklord Czerina has an intimate tie to the land, although she is more druidic in nature in having made deals with the fey and in her eras of slumber she is aware of every slain animal, every tectonic plate shift, and every soul within the colony hive-mind of insects. Cayce also mentions that the Blood Queen was initially designed as a female version of Strahd before spinning off into her own concept.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>While I can understand taking inspiration from existing concepts, I feel that one weakens themselves when they do 1 for 1 comparisons within the text of the work. The Realm of the Blood Queen has a different feel and mood than Curse of Strahd, which I feel helps it stand out better. For one, it is still dark fantasy but of a more high fantasy feel. Nonhuman races are quite prominent and not unique travelers in the population centers. In spite of the darklord’s druidic influences much of the campaign takes place in and around major population centers, with forays into the wilderness much more brief in comparison. This adventure isn’t as open-world as Curse of Strahd: the major chapters are bottled off into individual entries and are often arranged so that PCs move on once they finish their business in the prior chapter or are unable to return. But within most of those chapters there’s a lot of freedom in how they can go accomplishing their tasks or responding to plot hooks, so it’s not exactly linear either.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/QkNz0Cm.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Player’s Guide to Wreythau</strong> outlines general DMing advice for horror and how to maintain tense atmosphere, followed up by an in-character description of this cursed land from a sailor’s not-so-tall tales. Stat generation is more generous, with a standard array of 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, and 8 or 27 point buy but with one ability score starting at 18 for free. This is due to the fact that encounters are designed to be more difficult than normal, thus the increased power for the PCs. Additionally, a more open-ended set of race generation is building off of Tasha’s Custom Lineages. New feats known as Character Creation Feats are given to be in line with broad fantasy species concepts: Flight Adept grants a character a rest-based limited fly speed, A Dash of Magic grants a free cantrip, Tough Hide gains +1 AC, etc. Sample hooks are given for every background and character class for why a PC would seek to journey to Wreythau, often tying them to some individual or faction from that realm. For instance, the Folk Hero is using herbs to delay a lycanthropic disease and learned that the Reinwald family can help cure them. While a Druid has noticed that an unnatural corruption is spreading across the wilds, with Wreythau being the epicenter.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/KdNXYhb.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Chapter 1: Welcome to Wreythau</strong> details the broader points of the domain’s history and politics along with the backstory of its darklord. Or as the book calls her, the Dark Lady. Czerina Gavranova was once the princess of the long-dead kingdom of Nostrovishte. The realm wasn’t very forward-thinking in being classically patriarchal, and her parents were angry at their inability to father a male heir as women couldn’t inherit titles and land. They named her Czerina out of spite, a variation on the name Czernobog of the monster of legend (and eventual Dark Power who would claim her as his champion), and her upbringing was a cruel and abusive one. She was trained as a warrior and mage, yet still not respected so she took out her rage by adopting the identity of a highwayman to take revenge on people who wronged her.</p><p></p><p>Czerina’s alternate identity became known as the Dark Rider, which would prove ideal when a neighboring kingdom invaded Nostrovishte. Many barons and dukes were killed during the invasion, and deciding to fight for her country the Dark Rider gathered unlikely allies from persecuted groups of the druidic Old Faith. Her leadership was effective, to the point that she was hailed as a savior. Feeling that she finally earned some respect, Czerina visited her parents yet again, giving them a magical gem as a prize taken in war that could theoretically grant one’s wish. Her mother spurned her, declaring loudly that she wished above everything to have a son.</p><p></p><p>This was the point at which Czerina realized that she would never be respected by her kin, and left the kingdom to live among the Old Faith. A royal son was born, Alexandros, who would become Tsar, and in time would protect his kingdom against the invading forces of Gulthias, the Champion of Czernobog. But Czerina slain him first, and would not repeat the same mistake as last time. She took over Gulthias’ mantle and was chosen as the champion of Czernobog. She then went to war against Alexandros, and in order to ensure victory she made a deal with the fairy Court of Night and Twilight. As part of the deal Czerina underwent a ritual to tie herself to the very land, becoming able to turn nature itself against Alexandros’ army. It was not enough, and when Czernobog offered to help her with just one more bargain she accepted. And so the land of Wreythau was torn from the Material Plane and made into a new Domain of Dread. Now, one of the Dark Powers had a champion of its own, to serve and mold as the entity saw fit. For the next thousand years the Dark Power engaged in a battle of wills with Czerina, stuck in a state of madness and pain from her fusion to the land as she bore continual witness to the countless minds that intersected the domain’s ecosystem.</p><p></p><p>We get some role-play advice regarding Czerina Gavranova. In short terms, she is basically an overconfident girlboss who sees something in the PCs, seeking out champions from across the Domains of Dread and beyond to test them. This is to make them stronger for the goal of uniting and solidifying her fractured kingdom. We also get personality traits to play up, both to show redeeming qualities (she is generous to those who serve her, is a woman of her word, is willing to accept criticism and advice if it will help make her more powerful) as well as ones that solidify her villainous status (she’s a sadist who justifies the suffering she causes as making people stronger, doesn’t value individual lives so much as they are useful to her grand plan of unification, hopes to grow as powerful as the gods to remake reality). Czerina will initially be polite and respectful to the PCs when they meet; even if they try to attack her or insult her she will still present an unflappable demeanor. But there are certain conversation topics that can get under her skin and reveal a more vicious side, such as dencouncing her right to rule or blame her for the death of Teadora (a friend from her backstory the PCs can learn about in her journal).</p><p></p><p><strong>Glimpses of Wreythian History</strong> spans a little over 2,000 years of history (half that being after it becomes a Domain of Dread) although it can be summed up briefly this way. An evil druid known as Gulthias founded a religion that would become known as the Ghul Sildreth. Its goal was to turn all of nature into apex predators, and manipulated Wreythau’s ecosystem so that even the meagerest animals were dangerous to humanoids. His followers were exiled to an island where they built a new kingdom that would threaten other lands before Czerina overthrew them. Wreythau’s dwarves were given a mountain kingdom to rule over known as Barrukhirrim, but over time grew to fear Czerina’s power and started building weapons for the purposes of slaying her. Czerina’s spies learned of this and she unleashed a genocidal army upon Barrukhirrim, causing the kingdom to be renamed the Silver Graves over what was lost.</p><p></p><p>A paladin of Lathandar known as Frey attempted to lead a rebellion against Czerina, but lost. One of his angel followers, Temelloth, was captured and tortured into insanity. He was then released back into the world by Czerina for the lulz, and the angel made a pact with an unnamed Dark Power and formed a religious movement based off of warped teachings of the Morning Lord. The Church of the Morning Lord became very popular and the only real opposition to Czerina’s power structure. They aren’t a great alternative, for they are stereotypical religious fundamentalists who start oppressing and killing anyone who doesn’t meet their strict moral standards.</p><p></p><p>Sometime later, the Wreythian Merchant Consortium was founded to manage the kingdom’s economic affairs, intended by Czerina to form a centrally-planned economy to unify her country. But it basically turned into a monopolistic megacorp which prioritizes profit over patriotism. The Consortium found ways to travel beyond the domain and to various Material Plane worlds, resorting to persuasion, money, and kidnapping over the next several centuries to get the best and brightest to immigrate to Wreythau. The Consortium's depravations will be what attract the PC’s attention and get them involved in the adventure.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XKcIYvG.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>The People of Wreythau</strong> covers the overall culture and political power players of the domain. Although a once-cosmopolitan land connected to many realms, a millennia of being trapped in the Mists has caused its people to give in to infighting without an external threat to unite them. Resources became scarce, and due to Gulthias’ influence even the most harmless plants and animals were predators harmful to its citizens. Humans are the most numerous race, although other races have long since been assimilated into the greater human Wreythian culture.</p><p></p><p>Exceptions to this assimilation exist among the anthropomorphic animal races such as Tabaxi and Tortles; a curse that began a thousand years ago caused children to be born with warped animal-humanoid forms, which caused great social upheaval. Dubbed <em>the Beastfolk,</em> the survivors of the widespread violence were forced out of the major population centers to live among the wilds, causing even more of them to die from vicious wildlife. The survivors managed to build hidden communities managed by the Old Faith, who banded together with the Beastfolk out of mutual necessity. Beastfolk are a diverse people of their own, but due to this any races with significant animalistic traits are grouped in with them and persecuted. Tieflings are similarly hated (albeit not as much) due to the Church of the Morning Lord’s influence along with being seen as no different than demons and devils.</p><p></p><p>The Inquisition of the Morning Lord is the predominant religion in Wreythau, with centers of operations in the three major population centers and their headquarters being the Abbey in Leshehoff. In addition to counting the darklord as their enemy, the Inquisition also hunts the Beastfolk, followers of the Old Faith, and anyone bearing signs of corruption. Such signs are just as much based on propaganda and inaccurate superstitions to enforce social conformity as genuine means of evil detection. We get a list of 7 sample “signs of corruption,” along with how Inquisitors can subjectively interpret them in order to harass people.</p><p></p><p><em>The Order of Blood</em> are a group of vampire knights pledged in service to the Dark Lady Czerina. Ysemgrin, its founder, was one of the warriors who turned upon Frey after doubts about his cause were manipulated by Czerina with a literal stab in the back during a momentous battle. The Order is currently experiencing a power struggle, with traditionalists seeking to honor their Vampire Queen and the tenets of strength through suffering. The renegades are a rising group who feel that the Order is acting too slowly and conservative in Czerina’s goal of national unification. Inspired by her legends as the Black Rider, they conduct acts of banditry upon travelers as well as more directly fighting the Beastfolk and Inquisition.</p><p></p><p><em>The Wreythian Merchant Consortium</em> would all but dominate their homeland’s economy were it not for the remaining laws restricting land ownership to the nobility. Most of their leading members are rich and as such grew complacent in their lot in life, and don’t do much other than to preserve the status quo and keep the wheels of trade turning.</p><p></p><p><em>The House of Reinwald</em> is a noble family of werewolves who have their roots in a tribe who received lycanthropy as blessings from the Fey. Most of these werewolves served Gulthias, but one group sided with Czerina and became the House of Reinwald. Supported by the Old Faith, they now have a prominent place in the leadership of Raffenburg, Wreythau’s largest city. They’re fond of wild parties and organizing hunts in forests which are a cover for their members to hunt down and kill people as a game of sport.</p><p></p><p><em>The Court of the Blood Queen</em> is Czerina’s inner circle of trusted advisors. They include the Tax Collector Beleroth Haar An Thell, an ancient elven bladesinger who is Czerina’s husband and hopes to find a means of freeing his beloved from Czernobog’s influence; Lady Ysemgrin, who is the leader of the Order of Blood; Isidora, wife of Czerina, artist, and architect who designed the palace known as the Cairn in which the Dark Lady now lives; and R.K. Schryer,* a vampiric poet and playwright who is the leader of the Cult of Decadence, a group supernaturally inspired by Isidora’s artwork to commit acts of evil as part of an ethos that worships suffering.</p><p></p><p>*The book also spells his surname as Schreyer, and this is more frequent in going by CTRL + F.</p><p></p><p><strong>Encounters in Wreythau</strong> cover new nature-related threats of the domain. Due to the Ghul Sildreth’s influence, nature is far more deadly. Sometimes the land itself acts to kill people, and furthering this we get two examples: Poisonous rain the color of blood can fall, causing damage to those unprotected (there are rules for waterproofing cloaks and tents via tallow, oil, and wax via the Survival skill to avoid taking damage), and Cursed Earth which manifests as random appearances of spiked pit traps. For the rain it is suggested to have it occur in outdoor battles where there is cover to be found, which serves as a convenient means of reshaping ideal movement and positioning on the spot.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/hnaU4wH.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The wildlife is similarly cursed: almost any plant can grow into huge carnivorous Assassin Vines, and Wreythian rats are Chaotic Evil and hunt in large aggressive packs. This is a problem to the point that every population center prioritizes pest control, as death by rat swarm is common in poorer and dirtier parts of communities. Even rabbits are predatory pack hunters, possessing lamprey-like mouths they use to clamp onto prey and weigh them down via sheer weight of numbers. Horses are also carnivorous hunters who hunt solitarily or in mated pairs. Although such horses can be domesticated, their temperamental attitudes cause the deaths of many stablehands each year.</p><p></p><p>We also have 2 sample encounters of a more supernatural variety: one is a festive party by fey who attempt to trick the PCs into engaging in an illusion concealing a grim reality: the wine is blood, the food are humanoid corpses, and sound from musical instruments being played are the cries of wounded animals. The other one is a troupe of undead musicians encountered on the road as part of a traveling caravan known as “Schryer’s Famous Players.” They are busy repairing their wagon and non-offensive, even calling out to the party to help lend a hand.</p><p></p><p><strong>Scaling Relics of Legend</strong> details six unique magic items which can be obtained during the early parts of the adventure path. The properties of their powers means that characters can only attune to one of them at a time, and so serve as “signature magic items” for broad character archetypes. They have a default “resting state” for their initial abilities (usually a mundane item or casting focus, can summon item to hand as an action) along with +1 to +3 enhancements which are unlocked via certain prerequisites and levels (level 6 for +2, 9 for +3). Most of the prerequisites are rather grim, such as the Sword of Slaughter’s +2 level requiring killing a helpless enemy by dismemberment or the Book of Vile Darkness’ +3 bonus requiring you to drive at least one sentient creature insane. All +3 bonuses require sacrificing 9 sentient creatures a year to maintain it at that level of enhancement. Choosing not to continue to unlock or maintain a Relic’s powers due to the grim nature of empowerment will cause the item to disappear. It will reappear in the hands of a powerful enemy in the future to be determined by the DM. There is a ritual that can be used to “put a Relic to sleep” to safely get rid of it.</p><p></p><p><em>Staff of the Old Faith</em> is for spellcasters and is nature-themed, usable only by spellcasters but not limited to druids and rangers. It acts as a quarterstaff and spellcasting focus of its current enhancement, can teach the wielder a new Druidic spell that can be swapped every level, and at +3 it increases one’s spellcasting modifier by +2.</p><p></p><p><em>Sword of Slaughter</em> can actually take the shape of any melee weapon of the wielder’s choice provided they’re proficient with it. It acts as a weapon of its current enhancement, increases Dexterity by 2 at +2 and either Dexterity or Strength by 2 at +3 enhancement, and also at +2 it heals the wielder for 2d6 HP for every enemy they kill.</p><p></p><p><em>Shield of the Dead</em> requires proficiency in shields. It acts as a shield of its enhancement, raises the wielder’s Constitution by +2 for every enhancement obtained, at +1 can redirect the damage of an ally within sight to themselves as a reaction, at +2 lets the wielder cast Life Transference without a spell slot once per long rest, and at +3 the shield can cast True Resurrection on the wielder once and refreshes upon the sacrifice of a sentient creature.</p><p></p><p><em>Dagger of Murder</em> requires the wielder to have the Sneak Attack Ability. It acts as a dagger of its enhancement, at +1 adds +1d6 to the wielder’s Sneak Attack damage and another 1d6 at +3 enhancement, increases Dexterity by 2 each at +2 and +3 enhancement, and can allow the wielder to turn invisible (no duration given) as a bonus action which refreshes every time they kill a creature, and at +3 enhancement can teleport as a bonus action every time they turn invisible. I presume that this is done as a separate bonus action than the initial invisibility-turning, as you can only do one bonus action per round.</p><p></p><p><em>Book of Vile Darkness</em> requires the wielder to cast arcane spells. At its resting state it grants proficiency in Taxidermy Tools, acts as a spellcasting focus of its enhancement, adds +2 to a character’s spellcasting modifier at +2 and +3 enhancement, and teaches one spell that you can cast from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list at +1 and +3 enhancement, and at +3 enhancement grants 1 bonus spell slot of the highest-level spell you can cast.</p><p></p><p><em>Bow of Whispers</em> can take the form of either a shortbow or longbow, and must be proficient in that weapon’s use depending on the desired form. It is a weapon of its enhancement bonus, at +1 never runs out of arrows, deals an additional +1d6 bonus piercing damage at +1 and +3 enhancement, at +2 and +3 enhancement increases Dexterity by 2, and at +2 grants a permanent Pass Without Trace to the wielder as long as they have the weapon in their hands.</p><p></p><p><strong>Dealing With Dead</strong> provides means of resurrection access in the campaign beyond the PC’s own capabilities. The first one is the archdruid Mata Yezinka, who if the PCs are allies of the Beastfolk (an easy option for most parties) can revive them as either a gift or for a favor depending on the circumstances. Czerina, once awakened from her slumber, can offer to revive fallen PCs as vampires. They don’t become true vampires initially, but have a progressive condition where growing bloodlust threatens to change them into a full vampire at which point they fall under DM control. The third option (which is rather late in the campaign) is being re-animated Frankenstein-style by the Mad Alchemist of Inbarev.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> The political setup of Wreythau is neat and full of plot hooks. The corrupted church, vampire knights, and werewolf nobles are all thematically gothic while being interesting concepts in their own right, and the addition of scaling magic items is a neat concept as well. The existence of sub-groups within most factions helps reflect the Dark Lady’s curse while giving the PCs opportunities to weaken them by empowering one group over the other.</p><p></p><p>But otherwise, I’m rather conflicted about the rest of things. For one, making all wildlife dangerous to the point that even animal domestication has a constant fatality rate stretches things to the point of disbelief. The utility of animal labor cannot be underestimated in pre-Industrial societies: oxes to plow fields, horses and mules for transportation, dogs for sentries and hunting, cattle for milk and meat, the list goes on. Wreythau is very much a medieval level of technology as opposed to a hunter-gatherer society, so it begs the question of how the domain’s denizens get around these shortcomings if they can’t even reliably hunt rabbits without the risk of death.</p><p></p><p>As for the Blood Queen herself, the parallels to Strahd are too numerous to the point that it’s hard to judge her on her own merits. Given that Wreythau has been a domain for a thousand years, this would make it the first one of its kind, predating even Barovia if we go by the canon timeline. On the other hand, Czerina has a unique role that separates her from that of Strahd: she isn’t initially hostile to the PCs, she is actually concerned with being a ruler first and foremost rather than pining over someone who will never reciprocate their feelings, and unlike Curse of Strahd there are enough big players in the domain with their own exclusive agendas that simply overthrowing Czerina isn’t enough to necessarily make Wreythau safer. In Curse of Strahd there are some villains who owe allegiance to the vampire count, but most of them do so defeating Strahd by campaign’s end should change Barovia for the better. In Realm of the Blood Queen you have a larger assortment of villains who if not necessarily darklords are effectively their own mini-Strahds who need to be taken care of for the good of Wreythau.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we begin our journey with a zombie plague in the nameless starting fantasy city, embark on a storm-swept voyage to Wreythau, and overthrow a tyrannical angel of the Church of the Morninglord!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8809472, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/KTg8Flf.png[/IMG][/CENTER] [URL='https://www.dmsguild.com/product/360794/Ravenloft-Realm-of-the-Blood-Queen']Product Link[/URL] [B]Product Type:[/B] Adventure, Location [B]Cos-Required?[/B] No Realm of the Blood Queen is a 1st to 12th level adventure path set in a new Domain of Dread by the name of Wreythau (pronounced Ray-thauw). Ruled over by the slumbering vampire queen Czerina Gavranova, Wreythau is a kingdom of contrasts. Multiple factions vie for power and prestige, from the Church of the Morning Lord who has fallen far from their god’s teachings to become bloodthirsty fundamentalists, the druidic Old Faith and its beastfolk worshipers beyond the walls of civilization, the trenched-in aristocracy who owe allegiance to their sleeping ruler, and the Wreythian Merchant Consortium who owns practically every commerce save land ownership due to the remaining vestiges of noble birthright. The overall curve of the adventure is that the PCs begin in a non-Ravenloftian campaign setting, bearing witness to the Merchant Consortium’s depredations. By tracking them down to their mist-shrouded land, the party gains the attention of the darklord Czerina, who seeks to mold the PCs into valued servants to wipe out the factional opposition and bring order to her domain. Or at least, that’s her plan before the PCs inevitably oppose her. Realm of the Blood Queen has an interesting publishing history, or rather the lack of it. First off, in searching the author’s name of Cayce Corday, it appears that this is their first foray into self-publishing. Rather impressive, given that this book is a hefty 379 pages with a lot of professional artwork, most of it original and not WotC assets. Second off is that they have quite a bit of confidence in their work. The chapter detailing Raffenburg, the dark fantasy metropolis of the setting, [URL='https://www.dmsguild.com/product/373960/Chapter-5--Raffenburg']is Pay What You Want on the Dungeon Master’s Guild.[/URL] There was no fancy KickStarter or crowdfunding, and the book was initially published incomplete, split into 2 volumes with the second volume concluding the rest of the adventure path. Unfortunately this PDF has no bookmarks or index, which for a product of its size is disadvantageous for navigation. There’s quite a bit of odes to the Strahd-centric Ravenloft adventures, and this is intentional. Czerina is obsessed with the PCs and she regularly makes her presence known throughout the campaign, much like Strahd. The PCs can come upon her personal journal to learn of her descent into villainy, much like Strahd. As darklord Czerina has an intimate tie to the land, although she is more druidic in nature in having made deals with the fey and in her eras of slumber she is aware of every slain animal, every tectonic plate shift, and every soul within the colony hive-mind of insects. Cayce also mentions that the Blood Queen was initially designed as a female version of Strahd before spinning off into her own concept. While I can understand taking inspiration from existing concepts, I feel that one weakens themselves when they do 1 for 1 comparisons within the text of the work. The Realm of the Blood Queen has a different feel and mood than Curse of Strahd, which I feel helps it stand out better. For one, it is still dark fantasy but of a more high fantasy feel. Nonhuman races are quite prominent and not unique travelers in the population centers. In spite of the darklord’s druidic influences much of the campaign takes place in and around major population centers, with forays into the wilderness much more brief in comparison. This adventure isn’t as open-world as Curse of Strahd: the major chapters are bottled off into individual entries and are often arranged so that PCs move on once they finish their business in the prior chapter or are unable to return. But within most of those chapters there’s a lot of freedom in how they can go accomplishing their tasks or responding to plot hooks, so it’s not exactly linear either. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/QkNz0Cm.png[/IMG] [B]Player’s Guide to Wreythau[/B] outlines general DMing advice for horror and how to maintain tense atmosphere, followed up by an in-character description of this cursed land from a sailor’s not-so-tall tales. Stat generation is more generous, with a standard array of 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, and 8 or 27 point buy but with one ability score starting at 18 for free. This is due to the fact that encounters are designed to be more difficult than normal, thus the increased power for the PCs. Additionally, a more open-ended set of race generation is building off of Tasha’s Custom Lineages. New feats known as Character Creation Feats are given to be in line with broad fantasy species concepts: Flight Adept grants a character a rest-based limited fly speed, A Dash of Magic grants a free cantrip, Tough Hide gains +1 AC, etc. Sample hooks are given for every background and character class for why a PC would seek to journey to Wreythau, often tying them to some individual or faction from that realm. For instance, the Folk Hero is using herbs to delay a lycanthropic disease and learned that the Reinwald family can help cure them. While a Druid has noticed that an unnatural corruption is spreading across the wilds, with Wreythau being the epicenter. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/KdNXYhb.png[/IMG] [B]Chapter 1: Welcome to Wreythau[/B] details the broader points of the domain’s history and politics along with the backstory of its darklord. Or as the book calls her, the Dark Lady. Czerina Gavranova was once the princess of the long-dead kingdom of Nostrovishte. The realm wasn’t very forward-thinking in being classically patriarchal, and her parents were angry at their inability to father a male heir as women couldn’t inherit titles and land. They named her Czerina out of spite, a variation on the name Czernobog of the monster of legend (and eventual Dark Power who would claim her as his champion), and her upbringing was a cruel and abusive one. She was trained as a warrior and mage, yet still not respected so she took out her rage by adopting the identity of a highwayman to take revenge on people who wronged her. Czerina’s alternate identity became known as the Dark Rider, which would prove ideal when a neighboring kingdom invaded Nostrovishte. Many barons and dukes were killed during the invasion, and deciding to fight for her country the Dark Rider gathered unlikely allies from persecuted groups of the druidic Old Faith. Her leadership was effective, to the point that she was hailed as a savior. Feeling that she finally earned some respect, Czerina visited her parents yet again, giving them a magical gem as a prize taken in war that could theoretically grant one’s wish. Her mother spurned her, declaring loudly that she wished above everything to have a son. This was the point at which Czerina realized that she would never be respected by her kin, and left the kingdom to live among the Old Faith. A royal son was born, Alexandros, who would become Tsar, and in time would protect his kingdom against the invading forces of Gulthias, the Champion of Czernobog. But Czerina slain him first, and would not repeat the same mistake as last time. She took over Gulthias’ mantle and was chosen as the champion of Czernobog. She then went to war against Alexandros, and in order to ensure victory she made a deal with the fairy Court of Night and Twilight. As part of the deal Czerina underwent a ritual to tie herself to the very land, becoming able to turn nature itself against Alexandros’ army. It was not enough, and when Czernobog offered to help her with just one more bargain she accepted. And so the land of Wreythau was torn from the Material Plane and made into a new Domain of Dread. Now, one of the Dark Powers had a champion of its own, to serve and mold as the entity saw fit. For the next thousand years the Dark Power engaged in a battle of wills with Czerina, stuck in a state of madness and pain from her fusion to the land as she bore continual witness to the countless minds that intersected the domain’s ecosystem. We get some role-play advice regarding Czerina Gavranova. In short terms, she is basically an overconfident girlboss who sees something in the PCs, seeking out champions from across the Domains of Dread and beyond to test them. This is to make them stronger for the goal of uniting and solidifying her fractured kingdom. We also get personality traits to play up, both to show redeeming qualities (she is generous to those who serve her, is a woman of her word, is willing to accept criticism and advice if it will help make her more powerful) as well as ones that solidify her villainous status (she’s a sadist who justifies the suffering she causes as making people stronger, doesn’t value individual lives so much as they are useful to her grand plan of unification, hopes to grow as powerful as the gods to remake reality). Czerina will initially be polite and respectful to the PCs when they meet; even if they try to attack her or insult her she will still present an unflappable demeanor. But there are certain conversation topics that can get under her skin and reveal a more vicious side, such as dencouncing her right to rule or blame her for the death of Teadora (a friend from her backstory the PCs can learn about in her journal). [B]Glimpses of Wreythian History[/B] spans a little over 2,000 years of history (half that being after it becomes a Domain of Dread) although it can be summed up briefly this way. An evil druid known as Gulthias founded a religion that would become known as the Ghul Sildreth. Its goal was to turn all of nature into apex predators, and manipulated Wreythau’s ecosystem so that even the meagerest animals were dangerous to humanoids. His followers were exiled to an island where they built a new kingdom that would threaten other lands before Czerina overthrew them. Wreythau’s dwarves were given a mountain kingdom to rule over known as Barrukhirrim, but over time grew to fear Czerina’s power and started building weapons for the purposes of slaying her. Czerina’s spies learned of this and she unleashed a genocidal army upon Barrukhirrim, causing the kingdom to be renamed the Silver Graves over what was lost. A paladin of Lathandar known as Frey attempted to lead a rebellion against Czerina, but lost. One of his angel followers, Temelloth, was captured and tortured into insanity. He was then released back into the world by Czerina for the lulz, and the angel made a pact with an unnamed Dark Power and formed a religious movement based off of warped teachings of the Morning Lord. The Church of the Morning Lord became very popular and the only real opposition to Czerina’s power structure. They aren’t a great alternative, for they are stereotypical religious fundamentalists who start oppressing and killing anyone who doesn’t meet their strict moral standards. Sometime later, the Wreythian Merchant Consortium was founded to manage the kingdom’s economic affairs, intended by Czerina to form a centrally-planned economy to unify her country. But it basically turned into a monopolistic megacorp which prioritizes profit over patriotism. The Consortium found ways to travel beyond the domain and to various Material Plane worlds, resorting to persuasion, money, and kidnapping over the next several centuries to get the best and brightest to immigrate to Wreythau. The Consortium's depravations will be what attract the PC’s attention and get them involved in the adventure. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/XKcIYvG.png[/IMG] [B]The People of Wreythau[/B] covers the overall culture and political power players of the domain. Although a once-cosmopolitan land connected to many realms, a millennia of being trapped in the Mists has caused its people to give in to infighting without an external threat to unite them. Resources became scarce, and due to Gulthias’ influence even the most harmless plants and animals were predators harmful to its citizens. Humans are the most numerous race, although other races have long since been assimilated into the greater human Wreythian culture. Exceptions to this assimilation exist among the anthropomorphic animal races such as Tabaxi and Tortles; a curse that began a thousand years ago caused children to be born with warped animal-humanoid forms, which caused great social upheaval. Dubbed [I]the Beastfolk,[/I] the survivors of the widespread violence were forced out of the major population centers to live among the wilds, causing even more of them to die from vicious wildlife. The survivors managed to build hidden communities managed by the Old Faith, who banded together with the Beastfolk out of mutual necessity. Beastfolk are a diverse people of their own, but due to this any races with significant animalistic traits are grouped in with them and persecuted. Tieflings are similarly hated (albeit not as much) due to the Church of the Morning Lord’s influence along with being seen as no different than demons and devils. The Inquisition of the Morning Lord is the predominant religion in Wreythau, with centers of operations in the three major population centers and their headquarters being the Abbey in Leshehoff. In addition to counting the darklord as their enemy, the Inquisition also hunts the Beastfolk, followers of the Old Faith, and anyone bearing signs of corruption. Such signs are just as much based on propaganda and inaccurate superstitions to enforce social conformity as genuine means of evil detection. We get a list of 7 sample “signs of corruption,” along with how Inquisitors can subjectively interpret them in order to harass people. [I]The Order of Blood[/I] are a group of vampire knights pledged in service to the Dark Lady Czerina. Ysemgrin, its founder, was one of the warriors who turned upon Frey after doubts about his cause were manipulated by Czerina with a literal stab in the back during a momentous battle. The Order is currently experiencing a power struggle, with traditionalists seeking to honor their Vampire Queen and the tenets of strength through suffering. The renegades are a rising group who feel that the Order is acting too slowly and conservative in Czerina’s goal of national unification. Inspired by her legends as the Black Rider, they conduct acts of banditry upon travelers as well as more directly fighting the Beastfolk and Inquisition. [I]The Wreythian Merchant Consortium[/I] would all but dominate their homeland’s economy were it not for the remaining laws restricting land ownership to the nobility. Most of their leading members are rich and as such grew complacent in their lot in life, and don’t do much other than to preserve the status quo and keep the wheels of trade turning. [I]The House of Reinwald[/I] is a noble family of werewolves who have their roots in a tribe who received lycanthropy as blessings from the Fey. Most of these werewolves served Gulthias, but one group sided with Czerina and became the House of Reinwald. Supported by the Old Faith, they now have a prominent place in the leadership of Raffenburg, Wreythau’s largest city. They’re fond of wild parties and organizing hunts in forests which are a cover for their members to hunt down and kill people as a game of sport. [I]The Court of the Blood Queen[/I] is Czerina’s inner circle of trusted advisors. They include the Tax Collector Beleroth Haar An Thell, an ancient elven bladesinger who is Czerina’s husband and hopes to find a means of freeing his beloved from Czernobog’s influence; Lady Ysemgrin, who is the leader of the Order of Blood; Isidora, wife of Czerina, artist, and architect who designed the palace known as the Cairn in which the Dark Lady now lives; and R.K. Schryer,* a vampiric poet and playwright who is the leader of the Cult of Decadence, a group supernaturally inspired by Isidora’s artwork to commit acts of evil as part of an ethos that worships suffering. *The book also spells his surname as Schreyer, and this is more frequent in going by CTRL + F. [B]Encounters in Wreythau[/B] cover new nature-related threats of the domain. Due to the Ghul Sildreth’s influence, nature is far more deadly. Sometimes the land itself acts to kill people, and furthering this we get two examples: Poisonous rain the color of blood can fall, causing damage to those unprotected (there are rules for waterproofing cloaks and tents via tallow, oil, and wax via the Survival skill to avoid taking damage), and Cursed Earth which manifests as random appearances of spiked pit traps. For the rain it is suggested to have it occur in outdoor battles where there is cover to be found, which serves as a convenient means of reshaping ideal movement and positioning on the spot. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/hnaU4wH.png[/IMG] The wildlife is similarly cursed: almost any plant can grow into huge carnivorous Assassin Vines, and Wreythian rats are Chaotic Evil and hunt in large aggressive packs. This is a problem to the point that every population center prioritizes pest control, as death by rat swarm is common in poorer and dirtier parts of communities. Even rabbits are predatory pack hunters, possessing lamprey-like mouths they use to clamp onto prey and weigh them down via sheer weight of numbers. Horses are also carnivorous hunters who hunt solitarily or in mated pairs. Although such horses can be domesticated, their temperamental attitudes cause the deaths of many stablehands each year. We also have 2 sample encounters of a more supernatural variety: one is a festive party by fey who attempt to trick the PCs into engaging in an illusion concealing a grim reality: the wine is blood, the food are humanoid corpses, and sound from musical instruments being played are the cries of wounded animals. The other one is a troupe of undead musicians encountered on the road as part of a traveling caravan known as “Schryer’s Famous Players.” They are busy repairing their wagon and non-offensive, even calling out to the party to help lend a hand. [B]Scaling Relics of Legend[/B] details six unique magic items which can be obtained during the early parts of the adventure path. The properties of their powers means that characters can only attune to one of them at a time, and so serve as “signature magic items” for broad character archetypes. They have a default “resting state” for their initial abilities (usually a mundane item or casting focus, can summon item to hand as an action) along with +1 to +3 enhancements which are unlocked via certain prerequisites and levels (level 6 for +2, 9 for +3). Most of the prerequisites are rather grim, such as the Sword of Slaughter’s +2 level requiring killing a helpless enemy by dismemberment or the Book of Vile Darkness’ +3 bonus requiring you to drive at least one sentient creature insane. All +3 bonuses require sacrificing 9 sentient creatures a year to maintain it at that level of enhancement. Choosing not to continue to unlock or maintain a Relic’s powers due to the grim nature of empowerment will cause the item to disappear. It will reappear in the hands of a powerful enemy in the future to be determined by the DM. There is a ritual that can be used to “put a Relic to sleep” to safely get rid of it. [I]Staff of the Old Faith[/I] is for spellcasters and is nature-themed, usable only by spellcasters but not limited to druids and rangers. It acts as a quarterstaff and spellcasting focus of its current enhancement, can teach the wielder a new Druidic spell that can be swapped every level, and at +3 it increases one’s spellcasting modifier by +2. [I]Sword of Slaughter[/I] can actually take the shape of any melee weapon of the wielder’s choice provided they’re proficient with it. It acts as a weapon of its current enhancement, increases Dexterity by 2 at +2 and either Dexterity or Strength by 2 at +3 enhancement, and also at +2 it heals the wielder for 2d6 HP for every enemy they kill. [I]Shield of the Dead[/I] requires proficiency in shields. It acts as a shield of its enhancement, raises the wielder’s Constitution by +2 for every enhancement obtained, at +1 can redirect the damage of an ally within sight to themselves as a reaction, at +2 lets the wielder cast Life Transference without a spell slot once per long rest, and at +3 the shield can cast True Resurrection on the wielder once and refreshes upon the sacrifice of a sentient creature. [I]Dagger of Murder[/I] requires the wielder to have the Sneak Attack Ability. It acts as a dagger of its enhancement, at +1 adds +1d6 to the wielder’s Sneak Attack damage and another 1d6 at +3 enhancement, increases Dexterity by 2 each at +2 and +3 enhancement, and can allow the wielder to turn invisible (no duration given) as a bonus action which refreshes every time they kill a creature, and at +3 enhancement can teleport as a bonus action every time they turn invisible. I presume that this is done as a separate bonus action than the initial invisibility-turning, as you can only do one bonus action per round. [I]Book of Vile Darkness[/I] requires the wielder to cast arcane spells. At its resting state it grants proficiency in Taxidermy Tools, acts as a spellcasting focus of its enhancement, adds +2 to a character’s spellcasting modifier at +2 and +3 enhancement, and teaches one spell that you can cast from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list at +1 and +3 enhancement, and at +3 enhancement grants 1 bonus spell slot of the highest-level spell you can cast. [I]Bow of Whispers[/I] can take the form of either a shortbow or longbow, and must be proficient in that weapon’s use depending on the desired form. It is a weapon of its enhancement bonus, at +1 never runs out of arrows, deals an additional +1d6 bonus piercing damage at +1 and +3 enhancement, at +2 and +3 enhancement increases Dexterity by 2, and at +2 grants a permanent Pass Without Trace to the wielder as long as they have the weapon in their hands. [B]Dealing With Dead[/B] provides means of resurrection access in the campaign beyond the PC’s own capabilities. The first one is the archdruid Mata Yezinka, who if the PCs are allies of the Beastfolk (an easy option for most parties) can revive them as either a gift or for a favor depending on the circumstances. Czerina, once awakened from her slumber, can offer to revive fallen PCs as vampires. They don’t become true vampires initially, but have a progressive condition where growing bloodlust threatens to change them into a full vampire at which point they fall under DM control. The third option (which is rather late in the campaign) is being re-animated Frankenstein-style by the Mad Alchemist of Inbarev. [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] The political setup of Wreythau is neat and full of plot hooks. The corrupted church, vampire knights, and werewolf nobles are all thematically gothic while being interesting concepts in their own right, and the addition of scaling magic items is a neat concept as well. The existence of sub-groups within most factions helps reflect the Dark Lady’s curse while giving the PCs opportunities to weaken them by empowering one group over the other. But otherwise, I’m rather conflicted about the rest of things. For one, making all wildlife dangerous to the point that even animal domestication has a constant fatality rate stretches things to the point of disbelief. The utility of animal labor cannot be underestimated in pre-Industrial societies: oxes to plow fields, horses and mules for transportation, dogs for sentries and hunting, cattle for milk and meat, the list goes on. Wreythau is very much a medieval level of technology as opposed to a hunter-gatherer society, so it begs the question of how the domain’s denizens get around these shortcomings if they can’t even reliably hunt rabbits without the risk of death. As for the Blood Queen herself, the parallels to Strahd are too numerous to the point that it’s hard to judge her on her own merits. Given that Wreythau has been a domain for a thousand years, this would make it the first one of its kind, predating even Barovia if we go by the canon timeline. On the other hand, Czerina has a unique role that separates her from that of Strahd: she isn’t initially hostile to the PCs, she is actually concerned with being a ruler first and foremost rather than pining over someone who will never reciprocate their feelings, and unlike Curse of Strahd there are enough big players in the domain with their own exclusive agendas that simply overthrowing Czerina isn’t enough to necessarily make Wreythau safer. In Curse of Strahd there are some villains who owe allegiance to the vampire count, but most of them do so defeating Strahd by campaign’s end should change Barovia for the better. In Realm of the Blood Queen you have a larger assortment of villains who if not necessarily darklords are effectively their own mini-Strahds who need to be taken care of for the good of Wreythau. [b]Join us next time as we begin our journey with a zombie plague in the nameless starting fantasy city, embark on a storm-swept voyage to Wreythau, and overthrow a tyrannical angel of the Church of the Morninglord![/b] [/QUOTE]
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