The Mists of Ravenloft in Eberron

[Klaus]

Could Strahd be actually Strahd d´Vol, a vampire elf with the defunct Mark of Death, and his rampage at Sergei's wedding dealt the final blow in exterminating the Vol bloodline (Erandis notwithstanding)?

 

[GwydapLlew]

Could Strahd be actually Strahd d´Vol, a vampire elf with the defunct Mark of Death, and his rampage at Sergei's wedding dealt the final blow in exterminating the Vol bloodline (Erandis notwithstanding)?

I like the way you think, Klaus. I was pondering something similar.

 

[DungeonMaester]

Cool idea. I was thinking of starting my Ravenloft campaign using the train to death from ff3. BTW, help me come up with ideas for my campaign please!


http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=177731


---Rusty


So yeah..I was drunk last night when I made a few post, so they didnt turn out like I had thought they would. I havn't read the book in question, so I dont know if it is or is not simmular to the train to death on Final fantasy 3.

Also, I fixed the link problem.

*Cough* Fixed *Cough*

 

[Ripzerai]

a frankenstien's monster type

Fleshforged!

 

[BOAZ]

Love me some 'Fleshforged'... I actually used the term already to tie in 'Ptolus' and 'Chaositech' to the world of Eberron. Great minds think alike...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Ravenloft could be a dimensional seal created by the dragons of old to keep the rakasha lords sleeping. And it requires the frustration and torment of evil souls to keep the greater evil of the demons contained, so Ravenloft draws in evil beings who are gradually brought to ruin here. And it abducts other people as well - to provide the evil ones with a canvas for their struggles. Yes, that means that innocents will suffer - but even more innocents will suffer if the demon lords get out.

This also explains why there seem to be no dragons to be found anywhere in Ravenloft - of course the dragons don't want one of their own to get caught in this trap! Likewise, the dragons don't want people with dragonmarks to caught up in there, since they contain parts of the draconic prophecy - and this explains why Ravenloft isn't as magitechnologically advanced as Eberron itself.

You might also wish to introduce some sort of time dilation - for example, one year passes in Ravenloft for ten years on Eberron. This explains the backwardness of many domains - the people got transferred in different historical periods. Still, in this scenario, Ravenloft is ancient, which means that many domains must have existed and vanished again before the current constellation came into being. Finding them, and learning about the implications of this, could be a nice campaign goal for higher level characters...

 

[greywulf]

Very /very/ cool thread! So many ideas to steal

- "Murder on the Orien Express" is just too good an idea. I have to run with that, right now.
- Cyre being pulled into the Mists. Yep, makes perfect sense. The Lord of Blades is in for a heck of a surprise
- Strahd and the Mark of Death. Yeh baby, yeh!
- Warforged Frankenstein's monsters, Shifter werewolves and changeling babies. It's all Ravenloft really. We've been duped! Van Helsing would love Eberron.

OK I'm just repeating what other people have said, but it's so good, it's worth repeating

Nice work, all, and thanks.

 

[BOAZ]

In my current Eberron campaign my players are about to adventure through an ancient observatory. They will find huge standing stones arranged like the plane constellations of Eberron, corresponding to an acient clockwork calender; it is there where they will come across the first clue of the demi plane of dread - a single black monolith odly out of place... Oh, yeah, they'll also find an old journal wich belonged to some guy named Van Richten....

 

[Bardsandsages]

The beauty of Ravenloft is you can run ravenloft without even telling the party you are running ravenloft. The nature of the plane of dread is that when people are pulled into it often what they experience is a darker version of their own world.

I ran a New Year's Eve game once where all the party were Red Wizards. I didn't have the Ravenloft books at the table. I had just made copies of the stuff I needed and kept with my notes. It opened with the party summoned to a surprisingly empty Thaymount, where Sza Tam informed them that something was interferring with the magical communications between the zulkirs, and the party needed to go find each zulkir and find out what was going on. They noticed that certain spells were not working normally, and the weather was oddly inconsistent (considering that the Red Wizards magically control the weather in Thay). It wasn't until three hours into the game when the party got to the border of Thay and noticed the strange mists forming an odd barrier that it clicked what I had done to them.

There was much lamenting and gnashing of teeth. Ahhh, such fond memories.

But I would just move the party to a domain that resembled the Mournlands, not have an actual connection between Eberron and the plane of dread itself. I'm a purist that way, the dread of Ravenloft is that there is zero connection to the other planes. The gods themselves have no power there. You are completely isolated from anything that could offer any hope.

 

[Nyeshet]

I seem to recall having read somewhere that after Bavaria was realm-napped by the Mists its former location held a ruined version of its former self (standing dead trees, semi-collapsed ruins of structures - seemingly due to vast age, desolate wasteland more or less). Can anyone else recall what I am writing about? I'm certain I read it, but I cannot recall wherefrom.

If this is the case, then the Mournlands are an intensely magical desolate wasteland left after Cyre was Mist-napped. I wouldn't be surprised if the Realms of Dread had a new Domain that looks almost exactly as Cyre did the moment before it vanished - at least initially. Over time alterations would build up, slowly differentiating the two realms - Dread Cyre (I wonder who its Dark Lord would be?) and the Mournlands that replaced it when it was taken.