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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8801692" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/08Qp6oj.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Chapter 5: Bestiary and NPC Gallery gives us a whopping 24 new creatures, 13 of which have unique stat blocks and 11 of which use stat blocks of existing official monsters but with altered traits. In the latter case I will put the original stats in parenthesis. Surprisingly, a lot of the creatures are pretty high in Challenge Rating. The Two Grandmothers, the various dragons, and Kosheii the Deathless are all CR 20 or above and reflect notable figures in the domain. There’s a good amount of lower-CR enemies and creatures, too, with several faction leaders who are suitable challenges for mid-level parties, and only a few are suitable for Tier 1 play. As for the Darklord, she uses stats for a noble but has a unique soul-swap power that is touch range and has a duration of 2 to 6 months. Her nurse, Dragica Zmirna, is a green hag and an apprentice to Baba Yaga, serving as a protector of Manya when she is dormant. Manya is unaware of Dragica’s true nature, believing her to be merely a loving maternal figure.Baba Roga and Baba Yaga are two powerful fey, and the bulk of their abilities are casting spells as 18th level wizards. Roga can multiattack with a cane that can allow her to choose a forced action for a struck target if they fail an Intelligence save, while Yaga can turn ethereal and haunt people’s nightmares like a night hag. Both of them have legendary actions which are unique to each hag.Bauks are bulky creatures (ogre) who live near settlements and make clothing out of trash in failed attempts to blend in with society.The Bes is a spirit of anger that possesses living creatures to drive them into murderous rages. It is similar to a ghost in this way along with being able to see and travel in the Ethereal Plane.Doctor Bhesaj Sabittarius (enchanter) is one of the Huskkeepers of Sunny Field. As a staunch supporter of the Ulmist Inquisition, he believes that the means justify the ends (not a typo) and is willing to kill a husk resident or two from psionic overload if it would help him narrow the root cause of the malady.A chort is a minor demon (quasit but Medium and can fly) that is summoned to other planes with a specific mission in mind: to torture and ruin the life of a specific mortal. They do this via indirect means: severing their relationships, making them lose their job, burning down their homes, etc.Dragons are rare and powerful beings, and the ones of this domain are unique. Aspid dragons live up in the mountains in solitary lives, can breathe fire, and are easily distracted by all manner of things which can be used to impose disadvantage on them in combat. Azhdaya dragons are intelligent evil beings that once ruled over a nation of half-dragons and enslaved humanoids, and warred against Prince Valdimir in times long past. They have multiple heads which can regrow like a hydra’s and can breath fire and change shape. Hala dragons live in rivers, and are less dangerous conceptually in that they’re more willing to negotiate and talk with humanoids, providing protection to settlements in exchange for tribute. They have lightning breaths and can cast a small variety of weather-related spells. Pozoj dragons live deep underground, burrowing through the earth and going to the surface when a frenzied hunger overtakes them. They can cast earth-related magic, can breathe a cone of thunderous force, and go into a frenzy which grants advantage on attack rolls but disadvantage on INT/WIS checks and saves. Zmei dragons have great curiosity and wanderlust, being highly social with a desire to shapechange to live and mate with humanoids. They allied with Prince Valdimir’s wizards to aid them in battle against their ancient enemies, the Azhdaya dragons. Zmei also have hydra-like heads and two breath weapons: a fire breath and a cone of weakening gas.Drekavat are the spirits (small-sized ghouls) of Vukdolaks who died, and appear like small hairy children who ambush victims by luring them into a false sense of security.Fext are humanoids who become undead via foul magic. Isn’t there any other kind, honestly? They appear alive and are often created as generals to serve wicked armies. Fext are powerful melee-focused monsters with the ability to regenerate damage, reroll failed saves twice per day, command allies to make weapon attacks as reactions, and has a whopping +6 AC when parrying as a reaction. They can conjure black swords in their hands which deal bonus necrotic damage and permanently reduce the Armor Class of worn armor on a critical hit.Kosheii the Deathless is an immortal wizard of mercurial temperament. He placed his soul in a jeweled egg hidden somewhere within the Red City, and whoever finds it would gain great power over him. He casts spells as a 20th level wizard but he also fights with a longsword, can conjure and throw exploding orbs, and has legendary actions including a frightening gaze.Lider Anastaya Is the ruler of the Red City, with idealistic dreams of improving the land weighed down by realpolitik. In order to avoid the husking she was raised with different tutors for all manner of talents so that nobody would know the true extent of her skills. In terms of stats she is CR 13 but casts spells as a 5th-level cleric and has a powerful unarmed strike with Multiattack that can impose her choice of one of three conditions on a failed save.  Suitable for the ruler of a domain crawling with high-tier characters, she also has legendary actions and resistance.Mordia (diviner with better Charisma and Charisma skills) is an information broker and dealer in magical and rare items. She is the most well-connected person in the Red City, and if she doesn’t know the answer to something then she knows someone else who does.Norka (stone giant who can change size) are giants who prefer to eat cattle. They are averse to combat and magically shrink to avoid pursuers.Ohnivak are also known as firebirds, appearing during times of great importance due to having an innate desire to travel the world and witness unusual events. Their feathers are bright enough to light up rooms and spellcasters prize them for their alchemical applications. The monster is much like a less powerful phoenix, with fire-enhanced auras and melee attacks and explodes upon death.Rhea Anastaya is the leader of the Vukdolaks, believing that the only real way to change things in the Red City is through revolution. She is a more powerful werewolf with various Rogue class abilities and the Assassin’s assassination class feature.Vukdolak (werewolf) have no new information we haven’t already covered.Rojeran (githzerai anarch without lair actions and regional effects) is the leader of the Ulmist Inquisition’s branch in the Red City. He was trained in the psionic arts as a child, but her grandmother killed his tutor so that nobody else would know of his skills, telling him that anyone who learns of his talents must be slain.Rusalka (banshee trading out horrifying visage and wail for enchantment spells and chill touch) are the spirits of people who were murdered or drowned in a body of water. They lure victims by posing as regular people to bring them under the watery depths.Sisters of the Divine Dichotomy (war priest and gloom weaver) are twin priestesses of the Orthodox Church of Dvoynobog, representing both moral sides of their god. They each change roles twice a year, on the solstice and equinox, and like the rest of their religion they refuse to acknowledge the duality of their religion or each other.Steppe Spirits (death knight) are undead knights haunting the battlegrounds on which they died. They seek to kill and enslave others by turning them into wights, and are frequently accompanied by those monsters as well as a ghostly horse on which they ride.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/VYoR5IK.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Chapter 6: the Artifact is an adventure optimized for 4-5 characters of 3rd level. The backstory is that a woman by the name of Lucia Rumskiyava runs a curio shop known as Ded Rmuski’s Shoppe. She inherited it from her grandfather who passed away. The man made a deal with Dvoynobog to bestow magical powers on his wares, which earned him a lot of money. However, the cost was that each item bore a curse, and upon discovery of his ledger and the details within, Lucia sought to reverse the evil her grandfather wrought in the world and is dedicated to retrieving the cursed items.Through several potential hooks, the PCs come to work for Lucia to retrieve the Two-Headed Coin of Galikov, which can be used to enchant others to do one’s bidding for 24 hours. But after that duration, the enchanted people develop a murderous rage against the user. The coin passed through several hands before landing in the palms of Medin Olyanovich, a gang member whose frequent use of the coin has an angry mob hot on his trail. The first part of the adventure involves tracking down the current owner via a series of interviews with acquaintances of Medin as well as those of the former owners. Clues are separated into two types, ones which are uncovered automatically to propel the story forward and ones which grant additional information via ability checks to make the party’s job easier. By the time the PCs find Medin Olyanovich’s hideout, he will have swallowed the coin for fear of it being stolen.The second part of the adventure involves keeping Medin safe for the next 24 hours, at which point the curse wears off. Holing up in his hideout isn’t an option, for sooner or later one of the formerly-enchanted people will set the house on fire. There are seven open-ended encounters representing threats to Medin’s life and the DM can run as many or as few as need be. All of them involve regular townsfolk trying to murder Medin in creative ways. For example, a group of fishermen will roll barrels of flaming fish oil at the party, a pair of archers and a third man pretending to have been the victim of a sniper attack will try to murder Medin while the party’s distracted or taking cover, an old lady will attempt to sic her mastiffs on Medin, etc. Each encounter has a short description of how Medin used the coin on them (getting free meals from the fishermen, telling the woman to take her dogs home forever after stepping in their feces, etc), as well as ways to adjust the encounters for weaker or stronger parties.While I can understand altruistic party members seeking to save Medin, they’re only being tasked with retrieving the coin and not in his well being, so less scrupulous characters may end up avoiding the bulk of the adventure. The authors presume the PCs will help save him, but there isn’t a strong incentive for them to do this by default. At most, they can cut it out of his body if he dies. A better idea would be that he doesn’t have the coin on his person and he offers to take them to it if they keep him alive.There is an optional final part to this adventure. The Esoteric Order of Valdimir is also on the hunt for the cursed coin, and while not aware of Lucia’s business they have managed to track the party down given their rather eventful last day. PCs can sell them the coin to a pair of their investigators, although if they refuse they will be tailed by them and robbed (the Order doesn’t intend to kill them). If the PCs instead give it to Lucia, they will get less gold but can work for her in future jobs in retrieving cursed items. We even have 10 sample cursed items along with brief backstories, a few fitting into fairy tale themes. For example, the Glass Slippers are like those of the story of Cinderella, and grant the wearer advantage on Charisma checks and saves but a horde of animals follow the wearer around and seek to serve their every subconscious whim. This will naturally escalate into chaos, such as rats robbing a bakery or crows stealing a nice-looking coat from a bystander.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/0zryeH1.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Chapter 7: A Twisted Aesthetic is an adventure optimized for 4-5 PCs of 8th level. It is a mini-dungeon crawl through the Fine Arts Museum of Krasnygorod, where a powerful Artifact known as the Timepiece of Dissolution is warping reality to turn the art rooms into dangerous, creepy displays. The Timepiece is located in a massive painting displaying five humanoids wearing wolfskin cloaks in an autumn forest, and the Timepiece is floating above them. Four pieces of the frame are missing, and three of them must be obtained in other rooms. The fourth frame is supposedly detailed in the final act of the adventure, but isn’t mentioned at all. A mysterious figure known as the Janitor is also in the museum, offering to aid the PCs and explains the situation, although his intentions are multifaceted. While he wants to end the Timepiece’s influence in the museum, he also seeks to mess with the character’s minds and tries to sow distrust between them…which may be easier said than done, given the social contract between players. He has no stats, and has the supernatural ability to disappear and reappear whenever it is dramatically appropriate.The three rooms are all puzzle-themed challenges, and parties who are impatient or try to damage the art beyond the bounds of the challenge are forced to fight monsters summoned from the artwork. They still get the frame in the latter case, so it’s more of a penalty of having to exhaust resources in avoidable fights. The first room challenge involves a warped sculpture with painfully-twisted facial features and limbs, pleading for the party to reshape her conventional beauty likely via tool checks or magic. The second room has four statues of humanoid warriors in fighting poses about to strike. They must be moved into place with nearby paintings depicting them about to strike someone else…and the PCs must take the poses of the victims. The third room is a series of eight life-sized gelatinous cube replicas portraying a progressive digestion of an elven adventurer, and its solution involves taking a disintegrating pouch from the fourth cube (artwork deals acid damage) but the fake elf grabs the character screaming to be saved (he cannot, he’s not real). Each puzzle has an illusory element that can tip off the party to a solution, and there’s a sidebar explaining the idea of giving very smart PCs free tips to represent their acumen for deep thoughts.Once the PCs have 3 out of 4 frames, the painting comes to life, allowing them to get the Timepiece of Dissolution. The bad news is that the humanoids take the form of werewolves, and one of them is a particularly powerful specimen with 50 additional hit points. If the PCs manage to slay them, they will get the Timepiece of Dissolution, and all the creepy art in the museum returns to their original non-creepy versions.However, the Timepiece is still a dangerous item, and a cursed one at that! A PC who attunes to it can cast blur or haste with double duration on themselves as an action once per day as well as gain advantage on Stealth checks for a minute once per short rest. A cursed character is constantly distracted by whispering shadows, imposing disadvantage on Perception checks and reduces their Charisma by 2. Additionally, a PC holding the artifact (even if not attuned) must make a Wisdom save or become obsessed with being the item’s protector, and won’t even let their allies take it from them. The adventure ends with suggested future hooks, such as the Darklord taking notice of the PCs and the Timepiece, or finding a way to destroy it to keep it out of evil hands.Chapter 8: Magic Items is the final chapter of this book, giving us 24 new magic items, 11 of which are potions. Representing unique magical innovations found nowhere else in the Domains of Dread as well as natural lore taken from the wilderness, the items are reflective of the Red City’s history and culture. Some of the more interesting items include an Animated Tarokka Deck (cards can be dealt to cast divination spells as charges or turn them into a flying swarm with the effects of Spiritual Weapon), Baba Yaga’s Mortar & Pestle (can be magically enlarged into a flying vehicle-like object), Candle of Warding (when lit inside a home has the effects of the Hallow spell), Cursewarder (+1 dagger which can dispel curses on an attacked target on a natural 20 [willing targets are critted]), Tree of Wishes (magical yew trees hidden by enchantment which if touched can cast a wish spell once per century), Unitate the Sword of Valdimir (artifact longsword of the famed Prince, ignores damage resistance of a variety of creature types, sheds light that reveals a creature’s true form, doubles proficiency bonus to all Charisma checks, and is cursed to give the owner an obsession to create something positive in the world that will survive the wielder’s death), and Villafejsze (+2 battleaxe with the name of a long forgotten deity, deals 1d4 lightning and necrotic damage each, can spend charges to cast Call Lightning, and curse makes the wielder prefer to use violence to solve all disputes).The broad variety of potions can be made from harvesting plants in the wilderness surrounding Krasnygorod, and also purchased from skilled apothecaries. We also get a list of magic item prices for potions divided by rarity along with the number of workweeks to make them. Some of the more interesting potions include Raskovnik (made from a mandrake plant, if poured on a lock it opens as per the Knock spell but silently), Angelica (made from angelica flowers, casts calm emotions with a 24 hour duration), Barberry (the only legendary potion here, is meant to be drunk by 2 willing people who vastly increase the odds of conceiving a child), Belladonna (drinker gains benefits of the Divination spell but is poisoned for 24 hours), and Kudryash (grants 15 temporary hit points and adds 1d6 to attack and saves for 1 hour)Overall Thoughts: The adventures are half and half. I do appreciate their novel touches, although as I pointed out above there are some factors such as Medin’s survival and the fourth frame not accounted for in the text. The new monsters are appreciated, although the high amount of epic tier creatures feels a bit weird for Ravenloft. While I understand that the 5th Edition setting is a bit more wondrous and high magic in comparison to its predecessors, PCs who want to take on the Two Grandmothers or fight one of the mythical dragons can’t realistically expect to do this until they’re among the most powerful people in the Demiplane of Dread. And at that point, the Darklord’s attention and subsequent talent-draining may not be a big enough threat to reasonably inconvenience the party.I’m rather fond of the magic items, although I wish they put prices for the non-legendary non-potion ones. Join us next time as we engage in some frightful fun and games for Mist Talismans at the Dark Carnival and the Mirrors of Madness!</blockquote>

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