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

A family patriarch making a pact for wealth and power at the cost of his family becoming increasingly inhuman, a tragic back story that can be uncovered where the big villain invited the curse upon themself, seems Ravenloft Dark Lord appropriate and was my first thought when they said Innsmouth.

Maybe the D&D Choochoo is a "retouched" or reimagined version. There is a good reason to intentionally alter it and it is because the "new" version can be protected by copyright like Disney characters from classic fairy tales.

I think the dark domains were redesigned to allow room for adventures without links to the dark lords.

There may be some pages where there is one paragraph dedicated to other dark domains.

Shadowfell domains, this means they aren't within the demiplane of dread, should be still be canon, like in 4e. Also the "pocket domains" (like the House of Lament, ruled by a demilord) and "floating domains"(like the Carnival).

Maybe Vecna moved some strings but I wouldn't be too surprised if the dark powers began to suffer troubles linked to the Far Realm. Some archinfernal lords could use the demiplane of dread like a "firewall" to stop intruders from the Far Realm.

* What if Valgavorth(Duskmourn) could create pocket domains within Ravenloft?

* What if the story of Barovia is a tragedy because Strahd is the reincarnation of the wrong soul? The original Strahd was too honest for a pact with the dark powers, but he fell in combat and his spirit was replaced by other, like in the reincarnation mangas. Then time-traveling to kill Strahd in the past would be useless because the evil reincarnated soul would agree a pact with the dark powers.

RealAlHazred said:

Not every Darklord has to be a superpowerful supernatural creature

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No, but WotC are trying to increase the number of very high CR enemies to make the game more functional at high level, when the likes of Strahd are a pushover. And punching out Cthulhu is a trope a great many players would like to take a crack at.

You know that Cthulhu's form is variable. He can exaggerate or minimize any feature of his. And as he is a god he could conceivably grow spikes, make his skull transparent, or create multiple wings.

SkidAce said:

Great mini, kudos to artist....not Chthulhu.

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TravDoc42 said:

This link mentions nightgaunts, which are from Lovecraft's works, and will probably be in Innsmouth!

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I read up and those, despite the spooky faceless appearance, I would not make them undead or fiends, I'd make them Celestials, in Lovecraftian love they serve I think Nodens, who in D&D lore lives in Arborea, they are basically a spooky version of Oneiroi from Greek Myth, they are some kind of evil murdering monsters. Gods like Noden (other Gods like the Greek Gods) are known as Elder Gods and they tend to be the ones who keep the really scary lovecraftian horrorz asleep instead of destroying humanity.

I expect nightgaunts to be considered aberrations or monstrosities due to their horrifying nature, since they're inhabitants of the Dreamlands.
I also expect at least 2-3 variants of Deep Ones, what with the domain being Innsmouth. Also, seeing what WotC did with the Gremishkas, I think they're not going to revise all the monsters from VRGR, which means more than 9 new monsters. It's likely the Star Spawns and the Brain-in-a-Jar from VRGR are out, replaced by equivalent mythos creatures.

Edit: Well, looks like Elder Things were confirmed by a screen cap.