Dungeon #143

[ShinHakkaider]

So the short answer is: I needed art for my blog, and I didn't want to use the offending image, so I made do.

Ah. Ok I understand. No harm no foul. I thought that you were trying to make some kind of statement as opposed to being pratical and simply removing the offending image.

 

[Shade]

Perhaps rakasta are the primitive progenitors of catfolk ... and the mysteries in the adventure will explain the origins of their race. Plus it's not like rakasta are extinct ... just vanished.

I don't have the issue yet, but the following seems to indicate that they are indeed extinct:

Tides of Dread, by Stephen S. Greer and Gary Holian - The Savage Tide continues! In this adventure for 9th-level characters, the PCs finally arrive at Farshore, on the Isle of Dread, only to find it under attack by pirates! Defeating the raiders is a short-lived victory, as they find that was only a scouting party for a much bigger fleet of pirates who will arrive soon. Now, the PCs must shore up Farshore, recruit allies among the native Olmans and phanatons, repair the Sea Wyvern, and recover caches of weapons from the Isle's extinct rakasta population...

Of course, it might just be the island's population that is extinct, not the entire world's population.

 

[Dragon Vindaloo]

Whoa... I just realized... I have a catfolk in my Savage Tide game... she's gonna get to explore the demise of the Rakasta... this is gonna be *COOL*.

whOooP! Me too! This is gonna require a whole lotta research!

 

[Dragon Vindaloo]

Perhaps rakasta are the primitive progenitors of catfolk ... and the mysteries in the adventure will explain the origins of their race. Plus it's not like rakasta are extinct ... just vanished.

I'm gonna have my players cat folk scout uncover a pit full of long dead feline (rakasta) bones and eventually discover that her ancestors were "ethnically cleansed" some generations ago, some rakasta escaped the isle and made it to the jungles of chult (where we're playing) and mixed with a human tribe becoming the catfolk they are today. Then she can get some payback against the haters later on in the campaign. Maybe I could make the Scarlet Brotherhood the guys who slaughtered the isles rakasta (their nazis right)?

 

[devilbat]

Aw man, my copy of issue #142 arrived today. I guess it's going to be another long wait before #143 shows up.

 

[James Jacobs]

James,

Thanks for those insights...but I'm still curious about this new half fiend template!

Al shed some light on this for me please?

If you're asking about the Lemorians, they're the same as normal half fiends except that they get a poison stinger instead of a bite attack, have slightly different stat mods, and their spell-like abilities are mostly enchantment spells.

As for the rakastas, yeah. The Isle of Dread tibes are gone, but as the adventure states, some of them escaped to the mainland. They're still out there somewhere. The reason I didn't want to keep them around on the Isle is simple; they didnt' really fit the theme, in my opinion (the lowlands of the isle being more Mesozoic in theme), but more to the point, there were too many intelligent races on the isle. It was too crowded. By getting rid of a few of the intelligent races (the rakasta and the ogres, for one, who were in the first X1 version), the island feels more primal and wild.

 

[Shade]

Thanks for the explanation, James. That actually makes perfect sense. I just assumed it was part of the "WotC says absolutely, positively, no rakastas" mandate that Mike mentions whenever folks ask about them.

Kudos for finding a way to include them in some manner.

 

[Wik]

I'm gonna have my players cat folk scout uncover a pit full of long dead feline (rakasta) bones and eventually discover that her ancestors were "ethnically cleansed" some generations ago, some rakasta escaped the isle and made it to the jungles of chult (where we're playing) and mixed with a human tribe becoming the catfolk they are today. Then she can get some payback against the haters later on in the campaign. Maybe I could make the Scarlet Brotherhood the guys who slaughtered the isles rakasta (their nazis right)?

I like that. I think I'm just going to have our Cat Folk come across Rakasta slaves in the Crimson Pirates... or maybe I'll break a few rules and keep the Rakasta on the Isle... as slaves. Could be fun. I'll know more when I pick up the issue.

 

[James Jacobs]

Thanks for the explanation, James. That actually makes perfect sense. I just assumed it was part of the "WotC says absolutely, positively, no rakastas" mandate that Mike mentions whenever folks ask about them.

Kudos for finding a way to include them in some manner.

Lemorian half-fiends and rakastas have nothing to do with each other. I think this confusion started earlier on when a previous poster mistakenly called them "Leonion" half fiends.

They're Lemorian half-fiends, named after Demogorgon's "capital city" of Lemoriax on his layer of Gaping Maw in the Abyss. In particular, they're half fiends that specifically work for and were initially created by Demogorgon. All of the leaders of the Crimson Fleet are Lemorian half-fiends.

As for the rakastas... WotC had no input on that matter. The choice to downplay the rakasta presence was pretty much mine alone, for the reasons I gave a few posts back.

 

[Shade]

Lemorian half-fiends and rakastas have nothing to do with each other. I think this confusion started earlier on when a previous poster mistakenly called them "Leonion" half fiends.

They're Lemorian half-fiends, named after Demogorgon's "capital city" of Lemoriax on his layer of Gaping Maw in the Abyss. In particular, they're half fiends that specifically work for and were initially created by Demogorgon. All of the leaders of the Crimson Fleet are Lemorian half-fiends.

As for the rakastas... WotC had no input on that matter. The choice to downplay the rakasta presence was pretty much mine alone, for the reasons I gave a few posts back.

Sorry for the confusion. I didn't think you meant the Lemorian half-fiends were related to the rakastas. My kudos were for the reasons you gave a few posts back (including the rakasta as an extinct civilization).

As a fiendish fan, I knew exactly what you meant with the Lemorians.