Vampires: the blathering

 Inspired by a comment from The Guvnor on The Gaming Tavern, I’ve been thinking about Ravenloft and The Known World aka Mystara. Although this post then rambles off in a totally different direction. Probably too much caffeine.

There are two regions in the known world where Vampires are said to be prevalent - Glantri and Karameikos. 

In both cases, the vampires seem to have been introduced in the Gazetteers. Glantri didn’t seem to have much in the way of a description before then, apart from Castle Amber and the odd mention in other modules.

However, a province ruled by vampires fits as part of the country and indeed you could easily set Curse of Strahd there with only minor tweaking.

Karameikos on the other hand is an odd beast. Vampires fit in quite well with the cod-eastern-european culture. But very few published adventures set in the country have them. There’s everybody’s favourite Goth Hobgoblin*, King Vlack in Nights Dark Terror. There may be actual vampires in other adventures but on the whole Karameikos is a bit of a low-level adventurer place for tangling with Vampires. Lycanthropes, there’s loads of, right from the original description of Threshold. vampires, not so much.

So what’s the point of this blog then? I don’t know. Except… maybe there could be a better Known World!

There are strong thematic links between Glantri and Karameikos… but they are nowhere near each other. So in a better known world they would be much closer. 

Glantri also has similarities to Darokin so that would be nearby. That’s is the Byzantine empire so that could be the other way. Just get rid of all the slavery stuff *shudder*. Ylarum and Ethangar would be beyond that.

Hmmm, so basically, I’ve come up with a plan to just put all these places in medieval Europe. Averoigne could actually be part of the known world** and all the racist bits could be lost in translation.

So anyway, I seem to have started a new series of posts on the theme: things that I like that are actually rubbish.

* go on name another 

** the known world needs more weird horror. 

NDT session 8: Bat Country

 Dymrak forest

The party had a tough fight against the vampire bats whose ability to paralyse wrecked havoc on the party’s frontline fighters.

The party finally prevailed but had no time for a breather as the bat’s owner, Vlack the hobgoblin, appeared riding a white wolf along with a few hobgoblin guards.

Aimiir remained paralysed but a moonbeam spell from Rurik and archery from Aengus and Glimmer badly wounded Vlack who attempted to flee leaving the other hobgoblins to cover his exit.

Glimmer ignored them, chased after Vlack and killed him with a single shot. Unfortunately this enraged his mount (a winter wolf) who return to avenge Vlack by using its icy breath to bring down Glimmer. The other hobgoblins fled so Aimiir, who had finally shaken off the paralysis, was able to revive Glimmer, and the party weee able to kill the wolf before it could cause more damage.

A search of Vlack turned up his nice looking Greatsword with a fine gem in the handle, some other gems in a pouch but no other useful information.

The party then decided to resume following the goblin tracks southwards through the forest.

In the second night, when Aengus was on watch he spotted a black shadowy form approaching. He was able to raise the alarm and wound the spirit but was damaged by its weakening touch. The party were hampered by its abilities to hide in the shadows but a moonbeam spell from Rurik finished it off.

DM notes: The battle against Vlack and his bats was very closely fought. Aimiir’s player kept failing his paralysis saves and Vlack would probably have brought him down if he hadn’t decided to flee instead. 

Amusingly, my most novice player, who didn’t know what the Winter Wolf was, said that it could probably bring down the badly wounded Glimmer by breathing on her, just before it did that.

On the other side of things, I rolled terribly for the Shadow’s stealth when it approach the camp, which probably saved Aengus from additional strength drain.

NDT session 7: Blood on the tracks

Sukiskyn, Dymrak forest

From questions the refugees and Droop the goblin it seemed that a number of lumber camps and homesteads had been attacked by goblins over the past few days. It seems they had been under the leadership of a hobgoblin called Vlack who kept vampire bats.

Despite the morose situation, Pyotr’s clan held a feast to celebrate the victory over the goblins, the return of the horses and also to welcome the visitors to the homestead. Glimmer played a tune on a hunting horn but the residents were more entertained by Rurik’s hilarious dancing and Aimiir’s failed magic tricks.

A morose and slightly worse-for-wear Pyotr ask the PCs to try and rescue his brother from the wolf-skull goblins offering the party half of the proceeds from the sale of the horses if they succeeded. The refugee Gregor, former lumber camp boss, also asked they the check up on Kalanos the (former) boat captain who was last seen at the camp hiding from the goblins several days ago.

The next day, a surprisingly not hungover party left the homestead to investigate other goblin attack sites to the north. They passed by one destroyed homestead where no clues or survivors were found before heading into the lumber camp. Another scene of destruction was found and standing amongst the corpses was Kalanos. He ran off screaming into the woods not responding to the party’s shouts. Fearing for his health they followed but he attacked them. The party subdued him and determined he seemed to be suffering some form of PTSD so resolved to return him to Sukiskyn where the clerics might be able to cure him. First they investigated another lumber camp which had also been destroyed before returning to Sukiskyn. 

As the last known sighting of the Wolf-skulls was at the site of their battle with the Vipers so the party headed there the next day. However, on the way they met a band of refugees from another homestead. It seemed that the busy goblins had attacked there after defeating the Vipers so the party diverted to that location. 

The party picked up the tracks of the goblins at the homestead and were led on a bit of a goose chase through the forest. At the end of the day they spotted a group of vampire bats approaching.

GM notes: I’ve lost track of the date in the game already, I’ll update when I’ve done a count-back.

Welcome to my new Blog

 Well as it's space year 2024 I've decided to start a blog

The reason I've set this up is because I've decided to be a D&D Dungeon Master for the first time in 20 years and decided to record my thoughts and progress.

There may be posts on other subjects.