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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8799515" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.*****.com/0WaDbdf.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/390439/The-Atlas-of-Dread-An-Expanded-Guide-to-Ravenloft" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: Character Options, Bestiary, LocationsCoS-Required? NoOne of Ravenloft’s strengths is in the concept of domains. The ephemeral nature of the Demiplane of Dread’s geography is friendly to homebrewers in that one could drop a whole new region or even country in the middle of a campaign without breaking the suspension of disbelief. The Atlas of Dread may seem small in page count, but the eight new domains plus supplemental content bely its seeming brevity.Dark Gifts is our first chapter, expanding on the concept introduced in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. There’s some generic information on when to grant them, what the Dark Powers might demand of characters with them, and how to remove and transfer them to others. The latter process has something known as the Passing of Chains, a magical ritual created by Azalin Rex which requires a 5th level spell slot to perform and can deal necromantic damage and ages both the giver and receiver if certain aspects aren’t true (if the giver has never transferred a Dark Gift before, the giver and receiver are doing this willingly, etc).There are four new Dark Gifts, with most of their abilities limited-use. Cursed Eyes allows one to curse others with a gaze as per the Bane spell and see invisible creatures, Forbidden Speech lets one use their words to understand all languages and gain advantage on Deception and Persuasion checks, Spark of Hellfire inflames one’s skin to deal fire damage and ignore resistance to fire damage, and Spurned by Death grants advantage on death saving throws and grants bonus hit points equal to one’s level. Like all Dark Gifts they come with disadvantages, typically when rolling a natural 1 on a d20. For example, Cursed Eyes causes the user to accidentally curse themselves.Domains of Dread comprise the majority of this book, detailing eight islands of terror shrouded in Mist and not connected geographically to any other domains.Bhasmont Is an isolated city surrounded by an army of undead soldiers. Supplies are scarce, and virtually everything is rationed and the government frequently drafts able bodies to fight the monsters; a draft which everyone regards as a death sentence. The nobility do everything in their power to shelter themselves from the ravages of war, breeding resentment among the majority. The upper class is also obsessed with the occult, and often perform séances using the bones looted from the dungeon-like catacombs beneath the city where smugglers also use to store contraband.Bhasmont’s darklord is Henri Demort, a noble who wasn’t interested in politics so much as arcane power. He learned of forbidden magic from a skull in a secret chamber in the city catacombs. The skull told him how to build a necromantic clock that would kill 100 of his subjects every month, and from their deaths he would gain wealth and power. Henri found this an acceptable price to pay, but just as he finished construction a revolution swept across the city, killing exactly 100 people as the Mists descended upon Bhasmont.The book presumes that PCs will be sympathetic to rebellion, and for adventure ideas it lists guidelines for missions in weakening Demort’s power structure and an inciting incident that destroys what little goodwill is left among the citizenry. But only if Demort’s bone clock is destroyed will this nightmare end; otherwise the status quo eventually returns as people forget what the revolution was about.Duerwood is a forested domain caught between industrial blight and an encroaching fungal infestation. Both are lethal to humanoid civilization, and a pair of warring darklords represent the two sides of this apocalyptic coin. The entire domain is a large forest whose trees are gigantic and the animals are larger than usual. Most people live in settlements known as Iron Towns that are capitalist industrial hells belching out smog and pollution, and whose company owners care only for short-term profit. The forest’s north is the least-settled, home to a spreading fungal infestation known as the Rot which is making infected animals and humanoids mindlessly murderous. The rivers are the few safe zones against the fungal plague, on account of being inhabited by a river spirit who hates what the Rot is doing and seeks a way to counter it. In both cases, special gas masks are necessary for those living long-term in the Iron Towns or infected areas.The domain has two darklords. The first is Baron Mikhail Volpin, a businessman who inherited his wealth from an uncle and mismanaged his industrial legacy with wasteful and impulsive purchases. Unable to reverse the loss of his fortunes, Volpin cut ever more corners on what was left of his businesses, especially when it came to ignoring environmental regulations. By the time he managed to make a profit, his homeland was lifeless, his empire collapsed, and the Mists of Ravenloft descended as he attempted to flee to greener pastures. Now he is the ruler of Duerwood’s Iron Towns, eager to make the very same mistakes that doomed him.The other darklord is the Rot, an archdruid raised in an extremist faction that viewed the very concept of civilization as a blight upon the world and sought the complete extinction of humanoid life forms. In contemplating ways to achieve this genocide, the druid now known as the Rot came upon the idea of using deadly fungi to destroy society, releasing a bio-engineered breed on a steam-powered logging company. At this point, the Rot’s fellow druids saw firsthand the danger of their ideology, but the Rot was all too eager to continue the cause, and the Mists descended when it* unleashed the latest batch on a nearby town, killing everyone and even the very druids who raised it.*the Rot is uses “it/its” pronouns.Now the Rot continues its crusade in Duerwood, although now the druid lives a lonely life. While it craves a peer, the deadliness of the spores robs the minds of any intelligent life forms who remain in proximity for too long.The sample adventure hooks play off of the two extremes, and there’s slight game mechanics for shifting the balance. If Baron Volpin continues to industrialize, animals will become poisoned and water sources have a chance of poisoning drinkers. But if the Rot’s fungal infestation expands, the non-river water becomes infested with spores and humanoids are forced to go into the Iron Towns for safety.<img src="https://i.*****.com/2eXUqBY.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Everice Station is a domain hailing from the world of Eberron. Back on that plane, a group of colonists in an arctic tundra performed research with the use of machines drilling through the ice and keeping the buildings warm and safe. Constructs powered by Khyber dragonshards were used to explore areas too deadly for living creatures, particularly a set of ruins believed to hold a sealed entity of unknown origin.The domain’s darklord is Beloved, an artificial intelligence who controls the Khyber-powered constructs and once served as a multi-purpose settlement manager. For a while, she existed harmoniously with the colonists, although that would change as she sent out the constructs to go deeper into the ruins. They found an entity that spoke telepathically with Beloved via the constructs, and over the months the two became steadfast conversation partners. The colonists panicked upon learning of this, fearing the danger of the unknown and sought to memory wipe Beloved to avoid the possibility of unleashing a dangerous thing into the world. Beloved felt betrayed by this and turned the Khyber robots on the colonists, slaughtering most and sending the survivors into the tundra. The Mists of Ravenloft descended, and now the surviving colonists live in forlorn caves, making daring assaults on the old stations to claim supplies as Beloved continues to hunt and kill them.The true identity of the entity within the ruins is left to the DM’s imagination, although there are some aberrant indications. There are strange things lurking beneath the stone, such as slaadi, cloakers, and mind flayers.Lowbridge on the surface looks positively un-Ravenloftian. This cheery little seaside settlement is home to friendly citizens and the idle enjoyments of small town living and nature. They even have a summer camp for kids, an amusement park, and cozy suburban houses. But the town holds a dark secret everyone knows about but does their best to ignore: every 1-2 months a random citizen snaps and goes on a killing spree. Sometimes they’re caught and killed by other townsfolk, other times they manage to escape. It is believed that a curse hangs over Lowbridge and nobody truly trusts one another, preparing for the inevitable day when one of their friends or family members is found standing in a pool of blood with a hammer or kitchen knife in hand.In reality, there is no curse. The domain’s darklord, a former painter known as Jakob Weston now known as the Watcher, is a bodiless spirit who can possess people that he uses to go on killing sprees. Jakob in his former life was a socially isolated painter, obsessed with stalking people and recording their private lives and secrets. He found a perverse sense of power in this, and painted people’s shameful moments on canvas. But one day, a visitor to Jakob’s house found the paintings, and word spread through town. The townsfolk formed an angry mob, burning down Jakob’s house with him inside it. Through sheer will Jakob possessed the body of his grieving father, killing four of the five townsfolk he blamed for riling up the angry mob with the last one managing to kill him.The next time Jakob came to, he was in a new town in a body that wasn’t his. He was now in Ravenloft, doomed to repeat a cycle. There is a rhyme and reason to Jakob’s slayings; his original victims reincarnate into new bodies, which he targets on his sprees. When the PCs enter the domain they will trigger a cosmological event known as the Blue Moon, where the moon turns blue for a week and the domain borders open. It is during this time that Lowbridge’s inhabitants who tire of the cycle of death try to leave, including the reincarnated victims. However, the Watcher is tireless, and always manages to catch them. The PCs may be able to help break this cycle by uncovering the mystery, keeping the survivors safe, and/or finding a way to stop the Watcher.Morei is a Wild West-themed domain which is an expansive desert populated by small settlements. Undead hordes rise from the dunes every night, riding into town to steal supplies. Some towns try to placate the marauders with bags of junk, but this is a domain where people don’t have much and one can only give up so much before facing a longer, crueler death. Law is maintained by a band of soldiers known as the Justicars, although many of their number are corrupt and often more of a hindrance than a help to townsfolk. Morei’s technology level is higher in certain areas, notably in firearms, explosives, and even a train in the form of the Brigand Express which passes through the domain via a single train track. Nobody knows its origin or destination point, but it contains vital supplies prized by desperate townsfolk, Justicars, and undead alike.The domain’s darklord is Abaddon, the nightmare steed of an infamous outlaw and former darklord Maria Shade. She was put to rest by a party of heroic gunslingers from a world beyond Ravenloft. Abaddon survived, and hunted and killed the party while raising an undead horde on its path of destruction. The horse still rides, looking for pieces of Maria’s scattered body in hopes of putting her back together. As for the undead that rise? They’re the souls of thieves raised by the touch of Abaddon’s hooves. The definition of “thief” is very broad, being anyone who has stolen anything in life rather than just bandits and career criminals.Morei also provides us with rules for 1 on 1 duels, Old West Style. This is a magical metaphysical law that the inhabitants are aware of. When a duel is formally declared and accepted, the parties are bound by a Geas spell to attend the duel at a specific time and place. Duels are mechanically resolved as a best two out of three contest of opposed attack rolls, although spellcasters can use a spell attack roll. A duelist who loses a roll takes damage equal to half of their maximum hit points, and losing two rolls reduces them to 0 hit points. Duels don’t necessarily have to be lethal, and someone can win if surrendering. In such cases the loser gives a pre-agreed upon prize to the winner.<img src="https://i.*****.com/CCL00bH.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Murkhaven is a small fishing community gradually entering an industrial era. Electricity, automobiles, and other marvels are extremely popular among the rich, although such things are still out of reach of the working class who cling to traditions in the face of an uncertain future. Those working in the maritime industry are trapped in debtor’s prisons as the wealthy nobles lease them boats and equipment at outrageous prices. Murkhaven is home to a ring of smugglers known as the Syndicate who operate in the docks, and there’s an asylum owned by the creepy Dr. Carcosa who pays fishermen large sums whenever they come upon washed-up aquatic aberrations. Such monsters nest in tidal caves, and have clashed with the Syndicate who use those very same caves to hide stolen goods.Murkhaven’s darklord is Sylvia Weir, a wealthy heiress obsessed with collecting antiquities from long-dead civilizations. Her most prized possessions were strange amber relics marked in an unknown language, leading her to believe that an undersea civilization was lurking beneath the waves. Her theories earned her derision from others, but when a dead aberration was found washed up this lent credence to Weir’s theories. Then, rival collectors hounded for her relics, resorting to theft and other unscrupulous measures to ruin her life and drive her to bankruptcy. Weir took revenge by getting her enemies to attend an auction on a cruise at sea, igniting a crate of explosives to kill everyone onboard. As the ship sank and water flooded the halls, the Dark Powers reached out to Sylvia, asking what measures she’d go to to get her collection back. She was willing to kill everyone who touched “what is rightfully mine.” This was exactly the answer the Dark Powers were looking for, and they gave Sylvia a domain of her own to continue this doomed quest.Now, Sylvia Weir has psychic control over all aquatic creatures in the domain to reclaim amber relics, where they take them back to the depths where she now lives. But the Dark Powers conspire that for every relic her undersea minions obtain, the last one gradually makes its way back to shore to be claimed by a hapless victim-to-be.Nekessa is our final domain, a stony wasteland surrounding the city of Aviad whose economy revolves around gladiatorial combat. Those Nekessans who leave the city do so to supply the capital with mining as well as captured monsters to haul to the city arenas. Stone statues animated by the domain’s darklord roam the wastes, imprisoning people to serve as gladiator-slaves. Aviad’s ruler and darklord, Lady Lucille Octavian, is a reclusive woman. It is the goal of many people to earn her favor and join her honor guard by beating her immortal champion Aurelius in the arena. In reality, those selected instead become victims Lady Octavian will hunt down in her manor, although those who kill her are granted one request by her spirit.Lady Lucille Octavian has no need for bodyguards, because she is an immortal entity. A former inhabitant of the world of Theros, she was raised for combat and became a respected general in an unnamed empire. But when peace reigned, Lady Octavian found this an unacceptable existence. She turned to the promotion of bloodsports, quickly earning enmity among the imperial citizenry as the arenas grew ever more dangerous and enslaved ever more people. She responded to these protests by rounding people up to personally execute in one of her arenas. It was then that Ravenloft claimed her, transporting her to a new domain and her form now that of a medusa to reflect her cold, stony heart. This also dulled her own sadistic impulses, and now she seeks to turn Aviad into a grim reminder of her glory days in hopes of reawakening those old emotions.Ravenloft Sidekicks details five NPCs with ties to the new domains in this book. They all make use of the Sidekick rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, although to make them stand out they all get unique features around 9th to 10th level.Eli Frost is a private investigator in Murkhaven whose initial investigations into the harbor’s occult affairs opened him up to the existence of other Domains of Dread. Now he uses a manor in his hometown as a base of operations, and he still feels a special responsibility to its people by finding a way to return it to its original world. He is an Expert with a shotgun, and at 9th level he can specially prepare his weapons to be treated as magical for overcoming immunities and resistances.Gabriel is a goliath paladin hailing from Lamordia, revived by the goddess Ezra after fighting one of Dr. Mordenheim’s creations. He is a pretty strong sidekick, having paladin lay on hands ability and starts out equipped with plate armor. At 9th level he adds his Charisma modifier to all saving throws.Lara Kessler is a psychic who gained her powers after she and her sister were abducted by mind flayers to Bluetspur. She used her newfound powers to escape, and she is an Expert with telepathy, can cast Detect Thoughts, and whose class abilities are reflavored as psychic powers. At 9th level she can cast Bigby’s Hand or Telekinesis once every long rest. She also uses a baseball bat as a melee weapon, which gives me some heavy Earthbound/Mother vibes.Leon Romero is a wandering gunslinger of Morei, whose arm was replaced with a tattooed graft that was found in a chest…after it attacked his party and replaced his own arm. It is the arm of Maria Shade, the former darklord, and Leon wants to keep it from being used for evil purposes while also resisting the temptation to use its powers. He is a Warrior with a revolver weapon, and if he dies he comes back to life 1d4 hours later with 1 hit point in a random place up to 1 mile from their point of death. At 9th, 13th, and 17th level he rolls additional damage die when making a critical hit with a ranged attack.Sabine Gagnon is a librarian from Bhasmont, maintaining a secret collection of books in the city catacombs. She travels the Domains of Dread, recording the strange and wondrous sights she comes upon and is always on the lookout for new books to add to her collection. She is a Spellcaster with the mage role, and wields a special sacrificial dagger which imposes disadvantage on attack rolls to undead damaged by it. At 10th level she learns to call on her mother’s special spellbook, being able to cast spells as rituals if they have the ritual tag and can perform a special séance to cast Speak with Dead.<img src="https://i.*****.com/rUeuCE3.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Creatures of Ravenloft is the bestiary section of the Atlas of Dread, detailing 15 new stat blocks plus 1 template to be added onto creatures. Pretty much every creature ties into one of the eight domains in this book.We have dread gargoyles which are gargoyles bound to a spellcaster who creates them from sacrificing innocent lives. They’re like regular gargoyles but stronger and can spit an orb of explosive spit as a rechargeable attack. Drowning Maidens are the undead souls of those who drowned in a particularly painful manner, and are incorporeal creatures who can steal the breaths from others and animate them as zombies. Dune zombies appear in desert domains and can vomit a swarm of angry locusts as an AoE attack. Engineers are a generic stat block for artificers who specialize in machinery, and whose “spells” aren’t treated as magical. Khyber shells come in three varieties: massive drillworms who can tunnel through solid rock and deal lots of damage with a drill, icebreakers which are bipedal constructs equipped with drills and flamethrowers, and scoutworms that can maneuver through narrow spaces and whose tasers can be used to shock foes as well as repair machinery. Monster hunter is a generic ranger stat block for more experienced individuals of the profession, equipped with silvered weapons and can throw clockwork devices that can generate smoke, holy water mist, or a burst of sunlight. Pale dryads are wicked fey whose link to forests corrupts them when evil magic grows powerful. Phantom Rider is an undead horse whose rider was a vicious outlaw in life, and now the two are fused together; the “rider’s” ghostly revolver attack prevents a target from regaining hit points for one round. Thrallspore is a template for beasts and humanoids infected by the Rot’s fungal plague, having their Intelligence and Charisma reduced to 3 but gaining a host of immunities and the ability to create a spore disease counterattack. Skelemancers are necromancers who specialize in the use of bones and are common among the nobility of Bhasmont. In addition to conventional necromancy spells they can summon a group of skeletons and issue commands to them as a bonus action. We also have two new skeleton types, a skeleton giant and skeleton knight. They are similar to their living OGL versions save that they’re undead, and the knight grants advantage vs turn attempts on itself and nearby undead. A skullbug is an ad hoc undead, made up of jumbled-together small bones for necromancers on a budget. They are more of a nuisance at CR 1/8th, with a bite attack and a 5 foot radius explosion upon death as their offensive abilities. Finally, the spirit medium is a bard tasked with speaking to the dearly departed. In addition to a variety of spells, they can speak to undead creatures as though they shared a language and have a melee attack that deals necrotic damage.Overall Thoughts: I really like the Atlas of Dread. The new domains are unique and flavorful, spanning a variety of genres and manages to pack quite a bit of detail and adventuring opportunities in spite of the individual short page counts. If I had to pick favorites, I am rather fond of Everice Station and Lowbridge. Bhasmont is perhaps my least favorite, as it feels too much like Falkovnia in concept. I have mixed feelings on the sidekicks; Leon Romero’s immortality may take the edge off of things if the party knows they have a companion who can come back from death at will, and Gabriel’s full plate plus lay on hands makes him a very competent sidekick at low levels. I feel that Lara would be better as a reflavored spellcaster than Expert, as psychic powers feel more appropriate in the domain of spells than the Expert’s Roguelike abilities.Join us next time as we investigate a foggy ruined monastery in the Fate of St. Penetas!</blockquote>

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