Messageboard Golem
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The fourth Gazetteer for Ravenloft provides a deeper look at the lands of Borca, Invidia, Verbrek, Valachan, and Sithicus, and of the sinister creatures who rule them.
Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume IV
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MDSnowman
First Post
Well the mysterious Scholar known as S has been busy. This is the 4th in the series of Ravenloft Gazetters detailing the lands of the Core in Ravenloft.
The cover is your standard fair, black with a red Jewel in the center with a slightly distorted picture inside of the lands detailed in this book. Far from awe inspiring, but they certainly make my Ravenloft books easy to find on a shelf.
Artwork is what I've come to expect from Ravenloft books, better than average in general. It includes work by the extremely talented Talon. Anyone who's been following Ravenloft since it went 3rd Edition will agree Talon's work has come to capture the feeling of the setting better than anyone has since the old AD&D days.
Reading this is a treat, the entire book is written from S's point of view as she travels the core. Throughout the book however her Patron (the Lich Azalin) annotates the book letting the reader know just what he thinks about some of S's assumptions.
Foreward:
This chapter serves the same purpose as an introduction... and suprisingly I don't hate it (See my other reviews for my thoughts on introductions). It starts by transitioning S's last set of surveys to the next and giving a very basic overview of how she generally does her job. If you've read other books in the series you can get away with skipping the latter part, but the former is always a treat. Also a special treat is an actual picture of S, something one hasn't seen until now. Having given up the "mystery" of her identity it's obvious they are moving toward something bigger.
Report I: Borca
Here S begins an exhaustive discussion of the realm of Borca. This is a venomous land of back stabbing, where poison litterly grows on trees.
We get more information on the "Home Faith" of the Church of Ezra. Much like a Medevil Roman Catholic Church thier center of power is very firmly entrenched in the politcs of thier land.
The Lords, S got a chance to meet with both lords. Its always great when you see these because S's welcome will show you how a Lord may react to your PCs. Spoiler: If you're going to Visit Ivan Dislisnya I hope you can stomach rat.
Ivana, one of the Lords has a very cool new character as a body guard, a dual blade wielding Jester called the Jongleur. supposedly he's hideously scarred underneath his bright colors.
Report II:Invidia
Like Borca Invidia is one of those domains that have been in ravenloft since the begining and has only recently begun to have things happening to it. Today it's better known for being the prison of the insidious Dukkar, a dark Anti-Christ, and his Pogrom against his Vistani Kin, than it's lord, his mother.
Meanwhile his mother has co-opted the Gundarkite war for independance by seduce it's leader, and a powerful Wolf Were by the name of Matton. The only problem is his mother, Gabrielle aderre, has a four year old Daughter and she's not sure which man is the father. If it's Matton, the child is a monster and will begin shape changing soon, if not the child will never change. Needless to say this won't end well.
If you look close you'll find stats for the formerly legendary Midnight Slasher of Invidia. Yep the original signature killer of RL is still around and still killing people in the dead of night. This section gave alot of meat to the domain of Invidia where one would need to fill in alot of blanks before.
Report III: Verbrek
Ahh Verbrek, another under valued domain. This land has a net population of 700 people. Awefully frightening eh? Well guess what, the local werewolf population is TWICE that. This is a land litterly in the grasp of werewolves. They worship the violent Wolf God and prey upon the humans of the land without much resistence. Now they are assembled by clans, and each clan has one of three outlooks on how to deal with humans. Some like hiding amongst them, others like living apart of them, and the last disdain anything human. I've been told that this mirrors White Wolf's Werewolf: The Apocolypse. After checking it out I'm inclinded to disagree. Of course a soceity of lycanthropes is going to be organized into clans and packs... it's just natural. Furthermore the clans aren't as clearly divided as in WW:TA.... those "distinctions" are just guide lines... they dont all get together and have a "ghost Howler conventions".
Added Treat of this Section?: Characters from author John W. Mangrum's own Ravenloft Campaign appear here (Orignally on the old Kargant.com site, but now lost to the mists of Yahoo). The Ex-Paladin Argent and the Fighter Celia, both infected werewolves run a sancuary for infected Lycanthropes and serve as examples of a Prestige Class that helps an infected Lycanthrope control the beast within (and if you know Ravenloft you know that's not easy.)
Report IV: Valachan
To my knowledge, Valachan has been one of the most under detailed domains in Ravenloft. So what do we get? We get a strange land that crossed the Verbrek's apperciation for nature, and an opressive government that rules most daily lives. The lord is the twisted baron Urik, who holds a lottery every year for a new bride and she never seems to survive more than a few months... gee I wonder why? ^_^
Everything about this section is gravy Valachan finally gets the detail it vastly needs and I'll have no problem sending PCs through there.
Added Bonus?:
The Elven vampire enforcer of Baron urik is mentioned several times. She originally appeared in Childern of the Night: Vampires. Her twisted maze still appears, but we don't get stats on her unfortunatly. T_T
Report V: Sithicus
If Verbrek and Valachan were under detailed Sithicus suffers from the opposite problem. It's the setting for two Novels (Knight of the Black Rose & Spectre of the Black Rose), an Adventure (When Black Roses Bloom), and one of the most famous Dragonlance characters ever.
[Rant] The former lord, the legendary Lord Soth, was taken out of Ravenloft at the behest of Weis and Hickman. Ultimately they simply killed off the death knight. This is a shame as he was a flat 2 dimensional character before James Lowder brought him to Ravenloft in Knight of the Black Rose. Since then, under Lowder's hand, Soth grew into a grand Anti-Hero who Ravenloft fans litterly fell in love with. He was wrenched from where he belonged and taken back to where he was just a creepy undead knight.
Of course this becomes even more desperate now that Arthas has no rights to old RL material directly related to other settings. This has spawned lots of tricks to get around it, what was the church of Bane in the Eastern Core has become the Church of the Lawgiver (whose real name is supposed to kill any mortal who hears it, or at least send them to court). No where is this process more painful than in Soth's case. His story is told in vast generalizations, and he's only refered to as the "Black Rose" or the "Undead Blackguard" [/Rant]
But Soth is history now, we have a domain run from the shadows by the convivng Inza Magdova Kulchevich. Sure the vicious Dwarven Were Badger Azreal Drak likes to pretend he's in charge, but Inza is the true Dark Lord. This section really sets the mood for PCs, if they come to Sithicus they will be outsiders.. the resident Elves (who make up the vast majority of the population)despise humans, and will refuse to even serve them in the most basic ways given the chance. The land itself seems to work against travelers. More so than any domain S has visited Sithicus evokes a feeling of dark wonder. This is the place you send your PCs if you want them to be strangers in a strange land.
Added Goodies: Ganelon, the human hero of Spectre of the Black Rose is mentioned in this chapter (but again, no stats!!!!). Furthermore a strange do-gooder seems to be traveling the land, he's called the Blessed Knight, and may very well be an idealized version of Soth that the Death Knight created, Via Illusion,to try to forget his curse.
the Appendix:
This is a grab bag, Two New feats, Two Prestige Classes, A listing of Poisons, and of course a listing of some of the Important NPCs of those five domains.
The prestige classes:
Court Poisner (5): Great for NPCs who use posion, NOT for Players.
Moonchild (8): Infected Lycanthropes who slowly begin to learn how to control thier inner beast (but never perfectly so the Dm can still screw with them.
The NPCs: because they shove 5 Domains in there this section is all about Dark Lords. Therefroe intruging characters like Ganelon and Lady Adeline go unstatted for the time being (T_T)
Final Verdict: Aside from putting so much in the book and short changing a few NPCs this is an amazing book and It does what these Gazetters were meant to inundate you with information about these domains. Can't wait to see what happens next.
The cover is your standard fair, black with a red Jewel in the center with a slightly distorted picture inside of the lands detailed in this book. Far from awe inspiring, but they certainly make my Ravenloft books easy to find on a shelf.
Artwork is what I've come to expect from Ravenloft books, better than average in general. It includes work by the extremely talented Talon. Anyone who's been following Ravenloft since it went 3rd Edition will agree Talon's work has come to capture the feeling of the setting better than anyone has since the old AD&D days.
Reading this is a treat, the entire book is written from S's point of view as she travels the core. Throughout the book however her Patron (the Lich Azalin) annotates the book letting the reader know just what he thinks about some of S's assumptions.
Foreward:
This chapter serves the same purpose as an introduction... and suprisingly I don't hate it (See my other reviews for my thoughts on introductions). It starts by transitioning S's last set of surveys to the next and giving a very basic overview of how she generally does her job. If you've read other books in the series you can get away with skipping the latter part, but the former is always a treat. Also a special treat is an actual picture of S, something one hasn't seen until now. Having given up the "mystery" of her identity it's obvious they are moving toward something bigger.
Report I: Borca
Here S begins an exhaustive discussion of the realm of Borca. This is a venomous land of back stabbing, where poison litterly grows on trees.
We get more information on the "Home Faith" of the Church of Ezra. Much like a Medevil Roman Catholic Church thier center of power is very firmly entrenched in the politcs of thier land.
The Lords, S got a chance to meet with both lords. Its always great when you see these because S's welcome will show you how a Lord may react to your PCs. Spoiler: If you're going to Visit Ivan Dislisnya I hope you can stomach rat.
Ivana, one of the Lords has a very cool new character as a body guard, a dual blade wielding Jester called the Jongleur. supposedly he's hideously scarred underneath his bright colors.
Report II:Invidia
Like Borca Invidia is one of those domains that have been in ravenloft since the begining and has only recently begun to have things happening to it. Today it's better known for being the prison of the insidious Dukkar, a dark Anti-Christ, and his Pogrom against his Vistani Kin, than it's lord, his mother.
Meanwhile his mother has co-opted the Gundarkite war for independance by seduce it's leader, and a powerful Wolf Were by the name of Matton. The only problem is his mother, Gabrielle aderre, has a four year old Daughter and she's not sure which man is the father. If it's Matton, the child is a monster and will begin shape changing soon, if not the child will never change. Needless to say this won't end well.
If you look close you'll find stats for the formerly legendary Midnight Slasher of Invidia. Yep the original signature killer of RL is still around and still killing people in the dead of night. This section gave alot of meat to the domain of Invidia where one would need to fill in alot of blanks before.
Report III: Verbrek
Ahh Verbrek, another under valued domain. This land has a net population of 700 people. Awefully frightening eh? Well guess what, the local werewolf population is TWICE that. This is a land litterly in the grasp of werewolves. They worship the violent Wolf God and prey upon the humans of the land without much resistence. Now they are assembled by clans, and each clan has one of three outlooks on how to deal with humans. Some like hiding amongst them, others like living apart of them, and the last disdain anything human. I've been told that this mirrors White Wolf's Werewolf: The Apocolypse. After checking it out I'm inclinded to disagree. Of course a soceity of lycanthropes is going to be organized into clans and packs... it's just natural. Furthermore the clans aren't as clearly divided as in WW:TA.... those "distinctions" are just guide lines... they dont all get together and have a "ghost Howler conventions".
Added Treat of this Section?: Characters from author John W. Mangrum's own Ravenloft Campaign appear here (Orignally on the old Kargant.com site, but now lost to the mists of Yahoo). The Ex-Paladin Argent and the Fighter Celia, both infected werewolves run a sancuary for infected Lycanthropes and serve as examples of a Prestige Class that helps an infected Lycanthrope control the beast within (and if you know Ravenloft you know that's not easy.)
Report IV: Valachan
To my knowledge, Valachan has been one of the most under detailed domains in Ravenloft. So what do we get? We get a strange land that crossed the Verbrek's apperciation for nature, and an opressive government that rules most daily lives. The lord is the twisted baron Urik, who holds a lottery every year for a new bride and she never seems to survive more than a few months... gee I wonder why? ^_^
Everything about this section is gravy Valachan finally gets the detail it vastly needs and I'll have no problem sending PCs through there.
Added Bonus?:
The Elven vampire enforcer of Baron urik is mentioned several times. She originally appeared in Childern of the Night: Vampires. Her twisted maze still appears, but we don't get stats on her unfortunatly. T_T
Report V: Sithicus
If Verbrek and Valachan were under detailed Sithicus suffers from the opposite problem. It's the setting for two Novels (Knight of the Black Rose & Spectre of the Black Rose), an Adventure (When Black Roses Bloom), and one of the most famous Dragonlance characters ever.
[Rant] The former lord, the legendary Lord Soth, was taken out of Ravenloft at the behest of Weis and Hickman. Ultimately they simply killed off the death knight. This is a shame as he was a flat 2 dimensional character before James Lowder brought him to Ravenloft in Knight of the Black Rose. Since then, under Lowder's hand, Soth grew into a grand Anti-Hero who Ravenloft fans litterly fell in love with. He was wrenched from where he belonged and taken back to where he was just a creepy undead knight.
Of course this becomes even more desperate now that Arthas has no rights to old RL material directly related to other settings. This has spawned lots of tricks to get around it, what was the church of Bane in the Eastern Core has become the Church of the Lawgiver (whose real name is supposed to kill any mortal who hears it, or at least send them to court). No where is this process more painful than in Soth's case. His story is told in vast generalizations, and he's only refered to as the "Black Rose" or the "Undead Blackguard" [/Rant]
But Soth is history now, we have a domain run from the shadows by the convivng Inza Magdova Kulchevich. Sure the vicious Dwarven Were Badger Azreal Drak likes to pretend he's in charge, but Inza is the true Dark Lord. This section really sets the mood for PCs, if they come to Sithicus they will be outsiders.. the resident Elves (who make up the vast majority of the population)despise humans, and will refuse to even serve them in the most basic ways given the chance. The land itself seems to work against travelers. More so than any domain S has visited Sithicus evokes a feeling of dark wonder. This is the place you send your PCs if you want them to be strangers in a strange land.
Added Goodies: Ganelon, the human hero of Spectre of the Black Rose is mentioned in this chapter (but again, no stats!!!!). Furthermore a strange do-gooder seems to be traveling the land, he's called the Blessed Knight, and may very well be an idealized version of Soth that the Death Knight created, Via Illusion,to try to forget his curse.
the Appendix:
This is a grab bag, Two New feats, Two Prestige Classes, A listing of Poisons, and of course a listing of some of the Important NPCs of those five domains.
The prestige classes:
Court Poisner (5): Great for NPCs who use posion, NOT for Players.
Moonchild (8): Infected Lycanthropes who slowly begin to learn how to control thier inner beast (but never perfectly so the Dm can still screw with them.
The NPCs: because they shove 5 Domains in there this section is all about Dark Lords. Therefroe intruging characters like Ganelon and Lady Adeline go unstatted for the time being (T_T)
Final Verdict: Aside from putting so much in the book and short changing a few NPCs this is an amazing book and It does what these Gazetters were meant to inundate you with information about these domains. Can't wait to see what happens next.
frandelgearslip
First Post
I don't think mentioning Adeline and Ganelon are really added goodies, since both were mentioned in passing with no real info on who the heck they were.
Drinnik Shoehorn
First Post
I thought the Celia and Argent Easter Egg was cool too. Shame JWM is no longer on the Ravenloft line.
MDSnowman
First Post
Yeah, I used to live on the RL Message Boards... JWM may not have been the most polite person in the world, but that man certainly knew what he was doing. On an additional note go to the SSS Ravenloft Boards... I found information on why the Kargatane aren't writing for the setting anymore.... and it seems they couldn't finish writing assaignments on time to save their life. (This wouldn't be much of a suprise to anyone familar with the first three or four RL 3e books.. and their massive delays).
*I* had problems with deadlines, which I've been straightfoward about elsewhere in the past. The majority of the Kargatane never missed a single deadline, however. And, of course, deadline problems were by no means limited to our stable.
Also, and keep in mind that we *quit*.
Also, and keep in mind that we *quit*.
Drinnik Shoehorn
First Post
Which makes you question the future of the setting when people who love it as much as the K do quit.
MDSnowman
First Post
Well I've long had a love hate relationship with the Kargatane. I lvoed them to death for keeping RL alive when no one in a decision making position seemed to care, but at the same time they always came off as Elitists. And anyone who remembers the old RL boards knows that there was no shortage of those. I don't really think that I'd follow an Elitist if they thought the setting was going in the wrong direction... me, I'll run RL like I always have, I'll keep what I want, and ignore the rest.
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