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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9480632" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CaK0a91.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/266368/Ravenloft-Gazetteer-Barovia-Volume-1" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: Adventure/LocationCoS-Required? YesWhen the original I6 module came out, the land of Barovia was very small, consisting of little more than a village, a castle, and a Vistani encampment. When it became a full-fledged setting courtesy of the 2nd Edition “Black Box,” it expanded into a proper kingdom with multiple regions and population centers. Curse of Strahd kept several of these developments, but was smaller in its non-inclusion of the Gundarakite territories and the village of Immol.Tonight’s product adds Immol back into Curse of Strahd via an adventure. In prior Editions, it was a southeastern mountain village populated by refugees from neighboring domains such as escaped slaves of illithids fleeing from Bluetspur. This product doesn’t fall far from the psionic tree, having it so that its inhabitants inherited a psychic curse making them susceptible to mental effects and eventually cause societal collapse. The cause of this was the theft of one of the gems from the Wizard of Wines ten years ago, eventually making its way into the hands of Peter. Dedicating himself to studying its powers, the gem’s magic negatively interacted with his latent psionic affinity, now becoming the Stone of Immol and warping the burgomaster’s mind and spreading to the rest of the townsfolk. By the time the PCs make their way to Immol, they will find it in the aftermath, of broken buildings, nonsensical graffiti, and villagers aimlessly wandering about while talking to themselves.The module places Immol’s location in the “shadow of Mount Sawtooth,” which isn’t a place in the default Curse of Strahd module, and this product doesn’t say where it is on that adventure’s map. In the proper campaign setting, Immol laid at Barovia’s southeastern border, southeast of the Village of Barovia and Mount Ghakis. Which if we put it in Curse of Strahd, would make it out of bounds of the map itself.There’s a page worth of random tables playing up the themes of communal madness, such as strange behavior of passersby to rumors that sound more like cryptic prophecies. House occupants can include noninteractive people trapped in their own worlds, writings in blood and charcoal foretelling terrible futures, and grisly scenes of violence that may have some Crawling Claws hiding among the disembodied limbs. Immol’s citizens use Commoner stats, but have innate spells and cantrips themed after psionics, such as Thaumaturgy and Crown of Madness. Even should the Stone’s powers be deactivated, they will still be insane, requiring Greater Restoration or more powerful magic to be cured.The only building in town that actually has useful information or advances the plot in any way is the Keep of the Red Cross. Once the base of a now-forgotten religious order, it was converted to the burgomaster’s residence and personal library. Teodorus is here, and while not hostile to the party he is far from helpful in giving them nonsensical answers and acts in a fashion similar to comedic portrayals of mental illness. Like he’s first met naked while writing on the ground, but then puts underwear on his head in order to “see clearly.” The various books are far more helpful, being perhaps the most complete collection of written lore in Barovia outside of the Amber Temple or Castle Ravenloft.  The DM can use Teodorus’ collection to inform the party of various hooks and useful information based upon the needs of the campaign, such as clarifying the meanings of Madam Eva’s Tarokka readings. Should Strahd learn of the library’s existence via spying on the party, he will send Rahadin to kill Teodorus and burn all the books.Research in the library comes at a cost by exposing readers to the ambient madness generated by the Stone of Immol, possibly inflicting Madness traits from the Dungeon Master’s Guide. There are no rules for this such as a saving throw, only vague suggestions for DM Fiat.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/gDWdqYp.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The library is further divided into seven rooms, most with one or more (usually monstrous) occupants who may or may not be hostile. Each room has a d6 table of random book results, a few of which can be directly useful such as a Tome of Understanding or serve as new book treasures in this product. The Stone of Immol is lying discarded in the corner of one of the rooms, and its residual maddening magic is a trap that plays music which causes greater damage and negative effects the longer it goes on playing. The only way to disable the trap is to somehow neutralize the music, such as via a Bard’s countersong or spells like Silence or Dispel Magic.The book ends with five new treasures. Four of them are themed spellbooks: Magiographer’s Handbook lets the reader cast Ceremony as a ritual but otherwise has no other spells written within; Hedge’s Herbal Handbook contains plant-themed spells plus Alter Self and Dust Devil; Vampyr’s Vectors focuses heavily on “black magic” and can be attuned, granting the reader Darkvision of 30 feet but Sunlight Sensitivity; and Jemmy’s Jamboree focuses enchantment and some other spells, and holding the book grants advantage on social skill checks with children but makes one inexplicably hungry around them.The Stone of Immol is our last treasure. It is an artifact that requires attunement, and has 9 charges which can be spent to cast a variety of illusion and enchantment spells, from Illusory Script all the way to Weird. It can also turn undead and fiends like an Oath of Devotion Paladin, and creatures so turned also regain the alignment and sanity that they enjoyed in life if appropriate and don’t fear the caster. However, the stone has a curse that anyone who spends 7 days attuned to it has their mind overwhelmed by constant music that drives them insane, making them obsessed with gathering secrets and suffer disadvantage on Perception checks. The Stone is incredibly easy to destroy for an artifact, with only 5 HP and a 19 AC to overcome, but it lets out a damaging psychic screech to all within 30 feet once broken.Overall Thoughts: This adventure is weak and disconnected from Curse of Strahd proper, limiting its appeal as supplementary content. First off, most PCs aren’t going to make the connection between the Stone of Immol and the missing gems from the Wizard of Wines. And if they do, they may come to the wrong conclusion that such gems are actually dangerous and shouldn’t be brought back to the Martikovs. Additionally, the adventure is rather railroady on account that there’s nothing meaningful to do or interact with in the town itself besides the Red Cross Keep. It’s closer to a carnival ride, where the PCs wander about, seeing spooky things and wonder about how things got this way but without much interactivity.The Keep has the only real risks and rewards, but is rather trivial to move about in and formulaic in the sense of “go into a room, fight or overcome the local monster/trap, roll a die to see what book the PCs find.” In regards to explicit rewards, the Stone can be powerful, but chances are most gaming groups are going to presume it’s too dangerous to keep around and try to destroy it. The rest of the treasure are books most use to Wizards and Tome Pact Warlocks. The research knowledge, which is of broadest use to PCs, instead encourages DM Fiat.Join us next time as we check out some pixel art assets in Curse of Strahd: 1995!</blockquote>

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