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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8283786" data-attributes="member: 30538">This thread is designed to show off the various ways that you might change the published domains of Ravenloft to suit the campaigns that you want to have, plan to have, or are going to have.Let me lead off with Variant Falkovnia.Vladeska Drakov is acknowledged to be an odd duck among the Dark Lords of Ravenloft, since it's likely that PCs will, initially, be on board with her goals of defending Falkovnia from the zombies, until the lengths that she's willing to go and her unwillingness to even consider withdrawal become apparent. But there's more to it than that -- it's acknowledged that she has no control over the domain's borders, something not shared with any other detailed lord. Further, it doesn't seem to make sense that she can intercept spells that contact other planes (p. 63) since doing so would be seconds likely wasted.So what's going on here? One answer is this -- Vladeska Drakov is a cruel and vicious being who is well past the point where anything can redeem her ... but she's not the Dark Lord of the domain.Long ago, Drakov's forces -- notably not stated to have been she herself -- killed someone they shouldn't. For the purposes of this variant, we're calling this figure the Martyr. On their death, the Martyr was consoled by such powers as existed on their world with the fact that there would be justice for this death ... but this did not satisfy the Martyr. And so they used their remaining powers to turn every hand against the Falcon's Talons, driving them mad with vengeance. And madness is a poor substitute for clearheaded strategy, so the result was that many more people died in the name of that goal than might have, and Drakov ended up winning the war and reaching the verge of her ultimate victory. And so the Martyr pledged themselves to darkness in the name of their vengeance ... and the Mists took them both into Ravenloft.Currently, the Martyr (treat as a revenant) is the Dark Lord of Falkovnia, and is directing wave after wave of zombies and other undead creatures at their enemy, shaping them to look like people from Drakov's past. No matter what, however, the Martyr has never been able to finally defeat Drakov, whose narrow escapes are gifts of the Dark Powers. PCs who investigate the zombie armies will be able to trace their origins back to the location of the Martyr, and might think that they can stop them by destroying the revenant. But this will fail, for there is only one way that the Martyr can be permanently destroyed -- they have to be captured, tried and executed by Vladeska Drakov, in the first step towards establishing her kingdom. Once that is done, Drakov will become the Dark Lord in truth, gain all the powers -- and the torments -- of being the ruler of Falkovnia.And she couldn't have done it without you. Isn't that nice?Dedicated to the memory of Kentaro Miura</blockquote>

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