Innsmouth added as new Ravenloft Domain of Dread, bringing Lovecraft to D&D

Innsmouth, the iconic home of several HP Lovecraft stories, is being incorporated into Ravenloft as a new Domain of Dread. Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast revealed the contents of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, including the number of subclasses, ancestries, and new creature statblocks in the game. Wizards also revealed that 16 Domains of Dread will be profiled in the book, including the new domain Innsmouth. Assumably, its Darklord will be Cthulhu, who was previously confirmed to be in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, complete with a statblock.

Cosmic horror has long had a place in Dungeons & Dragons lore, with Cthulhu originally appearing in early copies of Deities and Demigods. Due to a licensing dispute with Chaosium, TSR removed Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian creatures from later printings of the book. Cthulhu along with Lovecraft's other creations have since passed into the public domain, thus removing any restrictions on featuring the characters in a D&D book.

Of course, Innsmouth (at least in Lovecraft's work) is supposed to be a turn of the century New England coastal town, which doesn't exactly jive with the high fantasy trappings of Dungeons & Dragons. We'll have to see how much of Innsmouth is changed to line up with D&D when Ravenloft: The Horrors Within releases later this summer.

 

[Remathilis]

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[Paul Farquhar]

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Borca is pretty much confirmed, given how its on this map set from Beadle & Grimm's!

And I do think/hope they'll make those darklords more interesting. They mentioned 16 Domains, but 17 Darklord stat blocks, which makes me think each is getting a stat block!

We have those, plus Sithicus, so that makes 6 out of 16. Ten unknowns. What I hope it where they overlap with VGR we get a deeper dive rather than the same stuff again. For example, VGR misses the obvious idea of Borca’s two very human dark lords (a product of the Grand Conjugation) playing 3D chess with the PCs as the pawns. And some more location maps in addition to the whole domain map would be nice.

 

[Deset Gled]

Lovecraft is not the narrator. His PTSD protagonist is. There is no 3rd person “voice of God” narrator in anything by Lovecraft, everything is unreliable. All the narrator in Dagon sees is a huge fish man. One of many, judging by the carvings he sees. He later tries to explain it to himself using now debunked myths about the god Dagon. Likewise, in SoI we only have Marsh’s word for the name “Dagon”, there is no indication that this is the true name of the being in question, who never physically appears in the story.

It's not quite book accurate, in that it doesn't have "prodigious claws". Curious - the narrator says it has claws on both it's hind and fore feet, but it's standing in the water, so how does he know what it's back feet are like? The wings are consistent, the text says they are "long and narrow", but doesn't specify how many pairs. Common depictions of Cthulhu give him dragon-like wings, which don't actually match the text. One would imagine that the translucent jellyfish-like skull would have been mentioned if Lovecraft had thought of it. His ghost is franticly taking notes! One detects a general Giger influence on this mini.

 

[occam]

@Thommy H-H : What I see here is essentially all negative evidence. If the question is “Must there not be any association between Cthulhu and Innsmouth?”, that’s fine. But it seems like most of us are asking if it’s required that Innsmouth be connected to Cthulhu, and does it benefit Innsmouth to be connected to Lovecraft, and I think the answer to both those is no.

“Dagon” gives us a giant deep one and great statuary suggesting more. So does one of the mythic histories in another story, IIRC. (I may not. My stress level is kind of unbelievable right now.) the Cthulhu connection in “Shadow” itself seems so tenuous that you could fit in just about any Great Old One with that level of inference and allusion. And fundamentally, I don’t think Innsmouth as a place or a story gains anything from the connection.

I'm not sure I get what you're saying. Is your position that Cthulhu isn't connected to Innsmouth? Because that would be belied by the text of the story. As the narrator begins transforming in earnest at the end of "The Shadow over Innsmouth", he gains insight into hidden truths. (As usual, the most informed characters in the Mythos stories are those who are losing their marbles or have already lost them.) And he writes:

"For the present they [the Deep Ones] would rest; but some day, if they remembered, they would rise again for the tribute Great Cthulhu craved. It would be a city greater than Innsmouth next time."

And then when he really starts to lose it:

"Stupendous and unheard-of splendours await me below, and I shall seek them soon. Iä-R'lyeh! Cthulhu fhtagn! Iä! Iä!"

The nature of Dagon is debatable; in the two stories discussed in this thread, we have reference to a speculative conversation between the narrator of "Dagon" and an ethnologist, and we have the musings of a cult in Innsmouth which may or may not be based on reliable information. But the identification with a huge, ancient Deep One seems pretty consistent.

As for Cthulhu, though, it's clear from the text of "The Shadow over Innsmouth" that he's the big dog behind things. It's consistent for him to be connected to Innsmouth in the upcoming Ravenloft book. And it especially makes sense considering that Dagon is canonically elsewhere (The Abyss) in D&D.

 

[Autumnal]

I’m apparently overplaying my hand a bit. I’d be better off saying I don’t think it’s an automatic gimme that only Cthulhu could be a sensible dreaded choice for Innsmouth as a domain.

 

[Remathilis]

We have those, plus Sithicus, so that makes 6 out of 16. Ten unknowns.

I feel its a pretty safe bet Lamordia, Har'Akir and Dementlieu are there. Also, a piece of art showed the Darklord of Kalakeri, so that's a pretty strong bet. That leaves six true unknowns. I'll go out on a limb and say ONE of those six has a folk-horror vibe (to go with the hollow warden) so that could be Tepest or similar. I wouldn't be surprised (again based on the art) if the Shadowlands aren't an option, and I wager there will be at least one lycanthropy-based domain (Kartakass, Valachan, or some form or Arkandale/Verbrek). Its also very possible one of the "One Paragraph" domains gets promoted the big leagues: be it Nova Vaasa, Souragne, or Invidia. Lastly, I think Odaire has a really good chance due to the Carionette seeming to get a push in artwork and in the Horrified Game.

We could be looking at something like this:

1. Barovia (gothic/vampires)
2. Borca (sociopolitical, two darklords)
3. Darkon (Apocalyptic dark fantasy)
4. Innsmouth (Cosmic)
5. Sithicus (dark fantasy/gothic)
6. Mordent (gothic/ghosts)
7. Lamorida (body horror/Frankenstein)
8. Har'Akir (mummy/dark fantasy)
9. Dementlieu (gothic, political)
10. Kalakeri (dark fantasy, non-European)
11. Tepest (or other Folk Horror)
12. Shadowlands (dark fantasy/Arthurian)
13. Odaire (gothic/dark fairytale)
14. Kartakass (or other Lycanthrope domain)
15. Souragne (or another famous classic domain reimagined)
16. Wild Card

That would be a decent mix of adding more to popular domains, a few "new" ones, and a few called up from the minor leagues for full write-ups. Defintely not a retread of VGR.

 

[Remathilis]

As an aside, I'd have LOVED a DLC that discussed Innistrad in the lens of Ravenloft as a Domain of Dread. I really feel you could do some interesting things now, especially opening the new species (dhampir, reborn, lupin, and hexblood, and possibly aasimar and tieflings) as humans influenced by the supernatural and many of the new subclasses (like shadow sorcery as ghoulcallers and reanimators and necro-alchemists) would fit great.

C'mon WotC: take my money!

 

[TravDoc42]

Shadowlands (dark fantasy/Arthurian)

I very much hope you are right with this one!! I ran a one shot in Shadowborn Manor, facing Ebonbane; it was a blast!

 

[Thommy H-H]

It would be a shame to lose Bluetspur (which also lets them update the Vampiric Mind Flayer). I feel like it's not as much of an overlap with Innsmouth as it might seem - both are cosmic/body horror, but Bluetspur has that sci-fi, alien abduction angle going for it whereas Innsmouth is a bit more gothic/folk horror with it. I also like that Bluetspur can coexist with other domains (or indeed campaigns) unobtrusively through flashbacks, dream sequences, etc.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It would be a shame to lose Bluetspur

Nothing is being lost by not including a setting, this book is not being presented as the only and definitive Ravenloft book.