The Dark Site

I had downloaded some free dungeoncrawlers and construed a fairly typical one, I think. It was named 'Alamek' after one of the adventures which had a Sorcerer - Zombie as chief monster that was named Alamek. It has a nice ring to it.
Purpose of it all : teaching them how to handle the rules and giving a stereotype classic adventure.

All players did nicely. The brothers were methodical and cool during it all and the thief made some half-hearted attempts to lose his chains, which had no result. I directed them to a churchyard 'for sacrifice' and gave no other instructions, which was no problem them, but caused some doubt later on - as I wanted it to. The entered ever deeper in the dungeon, wondering where to leave the thief while I shut the door (they heard it being blew shut - no reaction) and eventually lead them to some skeletons. Panic. It took them a while to remember that clerics could turn undead. They first relied on the thief to force the door. Unfortunately, Lennard (Blue Moonray) had misinterpreted his abilities and totally neglected OL. He failed (as would become his habit). The skeletons were chased away - but the entrance was shut. Blue managed to present himself as necessary for survival and got his ties loosened, but didn't want to attack the brothers with his hidden weapons, even though I made it clear he could - he was taking risks (they should have executed him on the spot).

Shortly after, the clerics fell into a trap. The thief didn't, because he is more agile. Marvellous roleplaying, while they were negotiating for Blue's life. He eventually won, standing on higher grounds. The clerics took an oath. Abdonis, the more fanatic cleric, continuously made razor-sharp remarks. He had taken a dislike to the thief. (Adding to this frustration : I explained how his PP worked and he used it rather playfully. In all, I believe Abdonis lost his purse to him some three or four times. He did get it back though. After Blue had generously offered to loan the others money.)

They went further, got some fighting, did some spellcasting, in all they did rather nice (be it somewhat indecisive sometimes) - I can't complain.

Without having seen all, they headed for the exit, and I let them. They found the Hyskosa Scroll, unaware of its powers and took it, along with a book called 'The Universal Language', of which they also don't know the purpose - even though it's obvious. The note saying 'follow the path of no return' simply refers to the grave as an exit - but also to Ravenloft, hard to leave as it is … .

The confrontation with Alamek was painful in that they didn't fight, but tried to reason with him and recited the Scroll until he fired some magic missiles. Then they easily took him out, but not before he had critically wounded Brahman. I chose not let him die because it was the first adventure.

After defeating the Zombie - Sorcerer the group had one member critically injured. With the aid of the half-elf's infravision, they discovered a cave beneath a tombstone (the grave marks the path of no return) and followed it to a river. A quick search rendered a boat, in which they fled the dungeon. Upon exiting the cave, it was dark … and misty.

I more or less followed the adventure ; you can download it at the superb kargatane site (see links). I shall only briefly illuminate my decisions to deviate from the scenario.
Also note, that this is one my favourite adventures … I resiously recommend it anyone ! !

* It is the Hyskosa Scroll itself that brought the players to Ravenloft with its vile magic. It also contains a hideous curse : the souls of those who read it must wander the Realms until the prophecies have passed (see below).

* I had them plunging about in the swamp for a while, trying to set the mood, but only ran one encounter, this is after all Ravenloft.

* I tried to alienate them from the locals, which worked pretty well, but gave them a name in the village of a man who was of their world and came in this world the same way they did (it wasn't in the script but sounded fair to me).

* After their visit to Mordu (where they started laughing out loud when I seriously talked about a swamp monster) I decided to add pace by playing the scene in which Gremin finds another pool of blood with candy. Thief Blue managed to sneak up to him, hereby incriminating himself even further.

* At night, I bugged them somewhat with suspicious things that weren't really important.

* Mordu was expendable now, I killed him off, and they immediately figured someone was trying to make them look like the suspects, whiwh I was indeed playing at.

* Like moths to a flame, they went to the churchyard. Gremin had to rescue them with the priest. The same night, I ran the encounter when Jean strikes, and followed it up with a rather nice chase. Later, they confessed that up until then, they all agreed it could very well be Gremin who preformed the killings.

The chase led them in the direction of the Tarascon Manor (probably overkill, but I went ahead with the dinner scene. My group needs a fast pace and atmosphere was too great not to.).
By the time they had regained control after the fear check, Luc had gone back and alerted the other player. They all got surrounded, and an tense fight developed, wherein the party got beaten up and Gremin rescued them.

* At night, Marcel rose from the grave to create more zombies. Some of the players vomited the rest of the night. Others stayed in the barroom, too scared to leave each other. Because Blue had been paralysed by ghouls before, there was shortly a suspicion that he had died somehow. The innkeeper somehow got to be prime suspect now.

* Next morning they went back to the manor. I had to improvise a whole Carribean-style manor from scratch, so I advise anyone to give the interior some thought in advance. They wandered quite a bit, and often heard footsteps, indicating they were not alone (great atmosphere). I allowed them to find a lot of bodies and the killer's coat here. Jean has left the manor. He has a cunning plan.

* Jean went to Gremin and allowed himself to be locked in next to the innkeeper, arrested by Gremin on request of the players. Jean however possesses a key (he owns this village after all) and got out to kill the innkeeper. He then hides on the upper floor. When the others arrive, they find the cells locked but empty. They quickly search him outside. Jean comes down and killes Abdonis (player) and Luc, prior to being killed.

* I got Chicken Bone to raise Luc's spirit, gave the players a warning, and continued with the final encounter. Be aware. Marcel is indeed somewhat too strong for low-level heroes.

Ravenloft is something I've known about for quite some time before I actually got to play it. My first real insider turned out to be a classic : 'I,Strahd' , the novel by P.N. Elrod. I read some more novels, and by this time I played a rather 'common' German RPG called 'Oog des Meesters' in Dutch (and was, if I am not mistaken, into English bearing the name 'Realms of Arkania'.)
I had a rather nice group for this RPG and really got into this terrific hobby. At one time, I don't precisely remember why, I decided to offer my players another RPG. Together with the most involved player, I opted for Ravenloft, remembering its good atmosphere and critics. We set out one day, intent on looking for the 'Ravenloft: Domains of Dread Book' and evaluating its price and stuff like that.

We got so carried away, we not only bought the book, but also a campaign box… which says it all. I started digging into the 'realms of terror' a while later and I got enthousiastic about it even more. Having met The Kargatane on the Net was also a most important stimulus. These guys a simply the best. (If you haven't yet, you must visit them this very instant. After checking this site of course.) Their free adventures also made for fascinating lecture.

I started to plot and scheme. First of all, having met with well-meant harassments from overenthousiastic players in the past, I declared a total communications block on Ravenloft and AD&D, to prevent too much, if any, knowledge that could lessen the fun. They had to be kept ignorant. This worked out perfectly.
Meanwhile, I had some troubles getting hold of the basics themselves : The AD&D rules ! ! Fortunately, this was resolved after a long time, during which I decided that 'Night of the Walking Dead' was quite simply the best I had ever read in RPG, and was to introduce my players to the Mists ; and I also came upon a series of ideas I was going to incorporate. (Especially the curse you will find out about later.) I continued to feed upon my own fantasy and the Kargatane for inspiration. In a dusty and dark little hobbyshop, I accidentally came across the out of print books 'Adam's Wrath' and the 'Book of Crypts' and I bought the 'Chilling Tales'. Enough material there for years. Time to get started, because my players had come to look upon this as a 'long term project' and I was eager to begin…

I started with a classic dungeoncrawler for my characters. I quite abruptly invited them to 'come play AD&D', created their characters and got started. They cooperated nicely. (See their own account for the facts.)

Very soon, I got them into Ravenloft, ending one for them rather bizarre session (in the swamp) with the brilliant Funeral scene of 'Night of …'.
And there they were.

My characters were separated during character creation, although I had encouraged them to think about (and maybe discuss) their choice of character on beforehand. Two of them were human and chose clerics. The other, a half-elf, hesitated not to become a thief.

Their world I named Cymru, which is Welsh for … Wales. They still don't know that (at time of writing). Cymru is a country next to the Elven Kingdom and beneath the Lawless Lands in the North, where orcs and ogres and other such vile creatures reside and occasionly invade. In recent years, however, they had not and peace reigned. Cymru is a sort of Celtic - Medieval world. I decided the clerics were from an abbey in Gwynnan, and that they worshipped Cormyr (the name is also an AD&D setting or something, I just recalled the name and thought it sounded right.) Their holy symbol is of course a nice Celtic Cross. Cormyr himself is a God of 'civilisation', embodying different aspects : he is God of war, agriculture and wisdom (the three basic features for a structured society - don't be too critical I just made it up - and reason little with it. Religion is often not open to debate.) and this faith literally eliminated the nature worshipping druids of Cymru.

One day, the brothers were summoned to the Abbot (the Leader). A thief had been caught red-handed while trying to steal relics from the abbey. His sentence : death. He was to be taken to Gwyndru for execution. They got their gear and picked up the mysterious criminal (third player) … (who is a half-elf and a wanderer who has no intention of dying. They didn't know.)