A: Town Square. Simple wooden gazebo serves as the hub for Ravengro's gatherings. The town's favorite stray dog, Old River, is known to hang around here during the day.
B: Posting Poles: poles where townspeople can post all sorts of messages for the town, ranging from news to sales to advertisements.
C: The Laughing Demon: Zokar Elkarid runs this warm and friendly tavern.
D: Ravengro Town Hall: in classic small-town style, Ravengro citizens use this for virtually everything, from weddings to council meetings.
E: Temple of Pharasma: Vauran Grimburrow, the Father from the funeral, is officialy in charge of the temple, but any number of a dozen or so acolytes actually handle the day to day going-ons. The temple sells various healing and holy related items.
F: Ravengro General Store: Luthko and Marta Avanaki run the general store with their five daughters. While the store usually caters to local needs, the town is big enough and on a populated enough route to stock most simple adventuring items.
G: Ravengro Forge: Jorfa is the dwarven master of the forge. One of Ravengro's most valuable resources, she is as standoffish and quiet on her past as one would expect.
H: Jominda's Apothecary: Jominda Fallenbridge keeps a well-stocked supply of pharmacological provisions, both herbal and alchemical.
I: Ravengro Jail: a relatively small jail serves as Ravengro's home for the occasional drunk citizen. Sherriff Benjan Caller runs the jail with his four part-time deputies.
J: The Silk Purse: two moneylenders work out of this building, Luramin Taigh and Quess Yearburn. They have loans available for collateral to farmers or other potential clients. They also sell some of the items that have failed to me reclaimed.
K: The Outward Inn: board and breakfast run by Sarlanna Val. Highly reccomended, if you don't have a free place to stay that is. Local musicians and storytellers often visit for evenings of entertainment.
L: The Unfurling Scroll: Alendru Ghoroven, a retired wizard-turned-teacher teaches reading, math, and history, as well as beginning magical theory. In addition to teaching, Alendru supplements his income by buying and selling minor magic items (primarily scrolls) that he’s purchased or created.
M 1-4: Council Member's Houses.
N: The Van Richten Residence: formerly the professor's house, it is now Kendra's. And your current lodging.
O: Harrowstone Memorial: Other than the looming ruins of Harrowstone on a nearby hill, Ravengro’s most distinctive landmark is a 25-foot-tall, moss-covered stone statue that overlooks the river. The statue depicts a proud, muscular human man dressed in leathers and wielding a truncheon—a depiction of Warden Hawkran. A total of 25 names—the guards who died in the fire of 4661, as well as the warden’s wife, are chiseled into the statue’s stone base.
P: to The Restlands: a large stretch of moorland reserved for interring Ravengro's dead. Thanks to the Pharasmin church's influence in town, Ravengro's graveyard is large and well tended.
Q: Gibs Hephenus, the man who started the fight at the professor's funeral lives here.
R To Harrowstone: this reminder of Ravengro's original purpose looms over the town from atop its bleak hilltop, a constant inspiration for tall tales and bad dreams.
Sanity Rules:
Sanity Score: This is sort of like mental hit points. It’s the sum of all your mental stats (Wisdom, Intelligence, Charisma) less any damage to those scores.
Sanity Damage: this is like hit point damage done in physical combat (like a sword blow, etc), only, it affects your sanity score, not your hit points. So, if you encounter an attack on your sanity and suffer damage, you deduct that damage from your sanity score.
Losing Sanity and Gaining Madness:
When you’re faced with a monster that can do sanity damage, you have to make an immediate will save. If you save, most of the time, you will be able to ignore all Sanity damage (i.e. your mental faculties hold up) though some creatures may do damage regardless of your save (like Great Old Ones).
If you lose ALL of your Sanity (i.e. Sanity pool moves to zero), you gain a lesser madness (this is generally a temporary condition), I will not have PCs suffer more than 1 lesser madness at a time. This mechanic is for flavor not to annihilate PCs effectiveness.
If you lose ALL of your Sanity facing a Great Old One, that will trigger a greater madness. This is permanent though each PC will only ever gain a single one of these.
Losing Madness and Gaining Sanity:
Madness can be lost (and sanity restored in several ways).
1. Rest: Every 7 full days of uninterrupted rest heals sanity damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). You’re letting your own sense of self and force of personality reassert itself and mend together the tattered fragments of your tortured psyche.
2. Therapy: Tell someone else your problems (mentor, counselor, confidante, friend, family, priest, advisor, etc). At the end,, the ally attempts a Wisdom or Intelligence check (whichever is higher) DC equal to the amount of Sanity you have lost. Success means you add their ability modifier (wis or int, whichever is higher) to the amount of sanity damage you heal.
3. Magic:
a. lesser restoration: 1d2 points once per day
b. Restoration: 2d4 points per day
c. Heal: 3d4 points/day
d. Greater restoration, psychic surgery, limited wish: all of it, if your sanity was below your edge (in other words, you still had more than half your sanity points left). Or, to 1 point below your sanity edge if you had more than half of your sanity lost.
e. Miracle and wish fix everything
Effects of Restoring Sanity:
Lesser Madness - If all of your sanity damage is healed, your lesser madness is removed entirely.
Greater Madness - If all of your sanity damage is healed, your greater madness is dormant. It will become reactivated if you again suffer a full loss to your Sanity score. A greater madness can only be fully healed with a long term psychiatric stay (1 month, which could well be played out over a downtime depending on how the chronicle proceeds) r the use of a Wish or Miracle spell (hard to come by in Ravenloft!).
Fear, Horror, and Madness:
I will NOT be using Madness rules as the Sanity rules already cover that.
Fear, Horror, and Madness saves represent the power of terror — a roleplaying tool to help players visualize the hysteria that often clouds the minds of characters in classic tales of horror.
Making the Saving Throw
Fear and Horror saves are considered Will saves in all respects. Anything that modifies a Will save likewise modifies Fear and Horror saves; anything that modifies saves vs. fear effects modifies Fear saves.
Fear and Horror saves all use the same basic mechanic: a Will save against a specified DC. Specific DCs depend on the situation and type of check being made and will be provided by me. Luck effects and resistance effects (such as those generated by a luckstone or a cloak of resistance) do not affect Fear and Horror saves; they are outside the purview of luck and are not "active" effects that would be resisted. Divine effects do aid Fear and Horror saves, however.
If a character succeeds at the Will save, then there is no effect, and she is immune to that specific source of fear or horror for 24 hours. If a character fails the Will save, then the margin of failure determines the result. Subtract the final check result from the DC; this result determines whether the character suffers a minor, moderate, or major effect.
Failure Margin Effect
1-5 points Minor
6-10 points Moderate
11-15 points Major
16+ points Major, plus additional effect.
When determining the results of failed Horror save, the player should also concurrently roll 1d4 for the DM to select a specific effect.
FEAR SAVES
A character should make a Fear save when facing overwhelming odds and/or immediate, dire physical danger.
Failure Results
Minor Effect: Shaken. The character suffers a -2 morale penalty to attack rolls, checks, and saves.
Moderate Effect: Frightened. The character is shaken and flees as well as she can. She can fight to defend herself if unable to flee. A frightened character can use special abilities, including spells, to flee; indeed, she must use such means if they are the only way to escape.
Major Effect: Panicked. The character suffers a -2 morale penalty on saving throws and must flee. She has a 50% chance to drop what she's holding, chooses her path randomly (as long as she escapes from immediate danger), and flees any other dangers that confront her. If cornered, she cowers. A panicked character may use a special ability or spell to escape.
Additional Failures: Fear effects stack. A shaken character who fails another Fear save becomes frightened. A frightened character who fails another Fear save becomes panicked.
Recovering from Fear
Fear effects last 5d6 rounds. Certain spell effects (such as modify memory or remove fear) can remove all Fear effects.
Note that as the characters level, the amount of fear checks will diminish as you confidence and power/abilities increase.
HORROR SAVES
The heroes witness scenes of terrible cruelty or behold events that simply should not be. Horror is a broader emotion than fear, and more intimate. Horror often permanently colors a character's view of the world, be it through the shock of realizing that such merciless events are possible or the paralyzing dismay of discovering some monstrous trait within oneself. Horror is the murderer of innocence. Possible examples of scenes that might require a Horror save include seeing someone torn limb from limb, watching a friend transform into a hideous monster, or learning that you slew an innocent bystander while possessed by an evil spirit.
Horror saves are typically prompted by unusual, unique situations rather than by creatures, so unlike Fear saves there's no quick formula to determine the DC. Instead, I will use my best judgment to apply a DC to the scene. As a rule, the more gruesome, abnormal and/or insane the scene, the higher the DC should be.
Failure Results
If a character fails a Horror save, the player should roll 1d4 and compare it to the effect category to select a specific symptom of Horror. If a character fails a Horror save by 16+ points, he suffers Sanity Damage on a one for one basis for each point over 16 (i.e. failing a roll by 20 would result in 4 points of Sanity Damage).
Failure Results
Minor Effect: (1) Aversion, (2) Fearstruck, (3) Frozen, or (4) Nausea.
Major Effect: (1) Fascination, (2) Haunted, (3) Mental Shock, or (4) System Shock
Additional Failures: Some Horror effects have outburst durations that are measured in rounds. A character can carry only a single Horror effect at a time. If a subsequent failed Horror save indicates a result of equal or lesser severity, I will use another outburst of the existing effect. If a failed Horror save indicates a result of greater severity, the existing effect is removed and there is default to the greater one instead. Horror effects do not stack.
Recovering from Horror
Minor Horror effects last one week.
Moderate effects last two weeks.
Major effects last thirty days.
At the end of this duration, the character rolls a recovery check (a Horror save). Use the DC of the original Horror save with a -2 morale bonus, since time and distance heal all wounds. If the character succeeds at this check, the Horror effect is removed. If she fails, the Horror effect persists for another duration period. A character can retry failed Horror recovery checks each time she reaches the end of a duration period. The -2 DC modifier is cumulative with each attempt.
Numerous spells and magical effects (such as modify memory or remove fear) can also remove all Horror effects.
Male Human Pharasman Cleric (Ecclesitheurge) 1/ Unchained Monk 1
Cannot recall which of the guides I was reading, But I DO have religion! So:
K: Religion:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
Bummer,
Sterling starts to look up, then his attention is apparently caught by a passage in the Guide he is perusing. He continues reading, and remains silent.
ZA Monk 2; HP: 25 ; Init +4; AC: 16, T: 16, FF: 13; CMB +4, CMD 20; Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +6 (+1 Fort vs. Attacks by Incorporeal Undead); Sanity- 36/36; Legacy- Godefroy; Perception +8
"It might be good if we bring some of the guides with us. We can always try and look up information while we are in this haunted building." Kenzo suggests.
The companions return to the home of the Doctor gear in tow. It's late enough that this time, Kendra must be up in her room sleeping. Night has indeed fallen and Theofila has yet to return from Shanda's home.
After along day on the road, it seems sensible to sleep and start fresh in the morning.
Are you seeking to have Kendra identify everything I assume? Just want to make sure! The next day, whoever has not posted in a while I am going to leave behind for the second exploration of the prison as I don't want to DMPC too many of you. Still in the game just not in the scene, at least not initially.
Having Kendra ID everything is smart, (We need to know what we're working with!) ;P
After catching himself falling asleep, despite the very interesting collection of information in his lap, Sterling rises and shuffles towards his pack and sleeping roll, to find comfortable, dry, indoor, corner to curl up in,...
HP 24/24; San 35/36; AC 10; Init +0; Fort +5; Ref +0; Will +0; 2 3
Ogre sighs, stretches and eyes up the couches, wondering if they would accommodate his bulk, or if he would be better going back to the inn. Either way, he needs sleep. "Let's ask Kendra what the rings and such do." he suggests, but by the time any answer is forthcoming his eyes are already shut. The sofa groans in a inharmonic counterpoint to his not-so-gentle snores.
Male Human Kineticist, AC 13, HP: 26/26, Temp HP 2, Sanity 38, Burn 0/8, Burn Shard 1/1, Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +1 (Second Chance 1/1) Init +3, Per +7, Hero Points 1/1
Sergei settled into a comfortable chair with the Doctor's Guide to Vampire's, and seemed like he was falling asleep, but shortly afterwards he got up and moved to Kendra's kitchen table and began shuffling Harrow cards, slowly dealing spread after spread, occasionally muttering to himself in a lilting language that sounded quite a bit like Varisian.
In the morning, Sergei is still at the table, looking rather confused at the spread of occult cards in front of him.
ZA Monk 2; HP: 25 ; Init +4; AC: 16, T: 16, FF: 13; CMB +4, CMD 20; Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +6 (+1 Fort vs. Attacks by Incorporeal Undead); Sanity- 36/36; Legacy- Godefroy; Perception +8
Kenzo goes silently to Kendra's door just to see if he can hear her inside and then retreats to his own bed for the night.
Perception:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26
Considering what happened to her father, it would be poor to find her dead in the morning, so I am going to just see if I can hear anything odd and then leave as long as there is now weird thrashing, etc.
"Well, this is an unexpected evening for me. Mostly when I host it is locals to speak about the town. Tell me, how did you know the Doctor?"
Teofila sips on her drink to make a little time to gather her thoughts on the question.
"I was a student at the University of Lepidstadt for a short time; that was a couple of years ago, after my father went missing. I took some of the Professor's classes while I was there."
"I suppose he knew me better than some of his students. I did make use of his office hours more than most of the other students, but certainly not as much as some. I can't say I was among his best or most eager students. He did know my father's occupation."
"I have to say I was surprised to receive a letter from him at all, even more so one requesting I come here to Ravengro. I don't know why he would remember me considering the short time I was at the university."
Shanda shrugs, "Perhaps knowing of your father and his "credentials" he thought it prudent to involve you in whatever he wished your assistance with here in town?
I never made him aware of my own past, perhaps if he knew he would have come to me with whatever it is he believed he needed your help with, but perhaps not.
Many of the locals saw him as an eccentric. He spent much time away from his family leaving them here, instead of taking them with him to wherever he lived. While I understand the sentiment, keeping them at arm's length to protect them, most people here believe that keeping the family close is the way to protect them.
His sudden death as you saw created some strife. I am certainly glad you and those who arrived are here to assist Kendra, she is a wonderful young Lady".
Kendra wake up early and begins cooking breakfast. As the group begins to stir, Sergei is seated at the kitchen table and staring at a lay out of a deck of cards, they appear to be fortune telling cards from the Doctors chest. She stares at the spread on occasion but doesn't say much.
As she is serving eggs and potatoes, with a heap of blueberries she smiles. "So odd to have such a full house, I don't think we have had this many people here at once since I was a child and my Mother allowed me to have all of the children in the village over at once!
Kenzo asked me to identify the items that you retrieved, I can do that after breakfast no problem. So what is the plan for the day?"
HP 24/24; San 35/36; AC 10; Init +0; Fort +5; Ref +0; Will +0; 2 3
Ogre nods with Cole. "We eat, you tell us about these items, just in case we run into what ever it was that your father worried about in there... and then we go check out the old prison."
ZA Monk 2; HP: 25 ; Init +4; AC: 16, T: 16, FF: 13; CMB +4, CMD 20; Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +6 (+1 Fort vs. Attacks by Incorporeal Undead); Sanity- 36/36; Legacy- Godefroy; Perception +8
"You should be careful while we are away though. It does seem like your father had gained the attention of some enemies that might still be in the area. It would be bad if they turned their attention on you." Kenzo says with a frown.
Kendra looks nervous at Kenzo's statement, "So you believe that he may have indeed been murdered? That these strangers that have been sighted could have been the culprits..."
"Many of the locals saw him as an eccentric. He spent much time away from his family leaving them here, instead of taking them with him to wherever he lived. While I understand the sentiment, keeping them at arm's length to protect them, most people here believe that keeping the family close is the way to protect them."
"I know that routine very well myself. It's strange I never realized before now how similar Kendra and I are alike in that regard. But then it seems there is a difference as well. Professor Van Richten appears to have shielded Kendra from much of his work and research, at least in its specifics. I certainly wasn't. In the later years especially his latest exploits would be the newest additions to my curriculum.
[b]"I'm not complaining, just observing that the Professor seemed to have wanted Kendra to follow a different path than his own."
"His sudden death as you saw created some strife. I am certainly glad you and those who arrived are here to assist Kendra, she is a wonderful young Lady".
"Yes, I hope we can figure out what's happened. Although I'm beginning to think we won't be able to unless we can find out what is happening now, and what might be coming. The dark-clad people that have been seen around have me concerned, and may be our best clue so far."
Teofila squirms a little in her seat, before admitting "I had hoped the Professor's summons would mean some decently compensated work. I could really use some at present. Keeping up the house in Ardis has drained me. It's falling apart faster than I can fix things. Selling it, even if I were willing, is practically impossible. It's worthless since the capital moved to Caliphas, like pretty much every property in Ardis now. The time may come when I simply have to walk away."
"But obviously Kendra must be helped pro bono publico. Asking her for payment wouldn't be right."
Teofila is willing to make small talk longer, but she did accept Shanda's invitation for a particular purpose. As soon as she finds a point where it doesn't seem rude to do so, she brings up her burning question.
"Earlier as we were walking, you mentioned knowing my mother or having met her? What could you tell me about her?"
Male Human Kineticist, AC 13, HP: 26/26, Temp HP 2, Sanity 38, Burn 0/8, Burn Shard 1/1, Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +1 (Second Chance 1/1) Init +3, Per +7, Hero Points 1/1
"Does anyone know how to read Harrow cards?" Sergei asked clearly baffled. "This may be important, but I know nothing of fortune telling."
Male Human Pharasman Cleric (Ecclesitheurge) 1/ Unchained Monk 1
Sterling gives Kendra a small but genuine smile.
"We're just being cautious. Hopefully overly-so. It does seem that the professors' demise seems to be, convoluted, with some things we found in his notes last night. I sincerely hope that his unfortunate passing was merely the result of a full, and very eventful, life. But we do advise caution until we can verify one way or another."
The cleric looks almost embarrassed at having said so many words together. He looks down at his plate of food, his long bangs falling over his eyes.
Sergei wrote:
"Does anyone know how to read Harrow cards?" Sergei asked clearly baffled. "This may be important, but I know nothing of fortune telling."
