There does seem to be some commotion from the end of the alley you entered from, after a moment or two five armoured figures stride out of the fog.
They appear to be members of the watch though are wearing chain beneath their uniform coats, unlike the padding seen in more savoury districts.
The ranking officer among them steps up to you, a once handsome man who's nose is crooked from being broken in the past, he speaks with a touch of the aristocracy in his accent.
"Well friends, would you have a care to explain what's going on here."
Curious residents can be seen indistinct in the mists at both ends of the alley.
Your spell did not manage to form a link to the target either due to some resistance on the man's part, or perhaps he just isn't human enough...
As you move to examine the body you discover it is a young woman, her throat neatly slit, revealing bone and muscle beneath. Most disturbing is the woman's face, it is twisted in insane horror. You shiver at the implications of the woman's suffering.
How would people prefer checks done, are you all in the roll your own dice crowd, or should I roll certain checks to speed things along?
i.e. should I have just rolled Wyatt's check and give him the required info if he passes?
Should I roll up everybody's initiative/surprise at the start of a combat?
Just trying to get a feel for how the group likes to play things...
Also I don't know if anyone is actually familiar with the adventure, but I am by no means intent on making it run entirely as written (for a start it's written for 2e).
Finally in my note-splurge on here, I've not had a massive amount of experience with 5e & I'm the rules guy of my group - so I think everyone I play with tends to assume I'm doing it right, so if I do anything wrong, do feel free to call me up on it.
Wyatt fires off a lyrical spell, but it appears to have no effect on the fleeing figure Wyatt - Make an Intelligence:Arcane check
Meanwhile Dunstan attempts to chase down the figure, but by the time he reaches the other end of the Alley the carriage is receding into the mist, he can just see the carriage door shutting, and merest glimpse of the coachman looking back with a dark brooding face - long and narrow, with a drooping mustache, dressed much like the murderer himself in a black cape and top hat.
Unless you have some way of dramatically increasing your movement rate the carriage will quickly drop out of sight.
As (most of) you rush into the alleyway in chivalrous fashion with nary a care for your own safety, you see a black-cloaked figure crouched over a body.
He whirls to face you as you approach, and while shrouded in the ever-present mist you see a high top hat with a blood-spattered face beneath. The figure stares at you with wild, feral eyes, before making a superhuman leap away from you towards the other end of the alley.
Though shrouded in mist you hear the clatter of carriage wheels on the cobbled street beyond.
Act I - Murder most Foul If you're a native you can make your own reasons for being in Blackchapel at midnight, if your new to Ravenloft, then you've just been pulled here
The swirling mass of thick white fog makes if difficult to see more than a few yards in any directions, and seems to distort sounds.
Somewhere in the distance you can hear the clock chime for midnight.
Suddenly a woman's shrill cry of terror pierces the fog-shrouded night, the cry is cut short at it's peak, followed by a low gurgle.
The sound seemed to come from a nearby alleyway...
Wanderer82 Life or Light would be fine.
Healing is always good, on the other hand Light can be quite handy, especially in Ravenloft, and has a nice symbolism to it.
Jam412 Contacting certain creatures via telepathy in Ravenloft can lead to Madness checks, just to make you aware.
Looks like Derrick, Wyatt, Marco and Dunstan are natives. Wanderer82's Halfling is Faerunian and Khalid is of the Vistani.
Not seen anything that's likely to provoke issues in characters thus far.
Also opened up gameplay and discussion thread for "dotting" and discussion, respectively. Please don't start role-playing in the Gameplay thread until we're all ready to go.
If you want to hash out any pre-existing relationships etc in the Discussion thread feel free.
Consider all five of you accepted, I'll begin going over your characters for any glaring errors and potential issues. Loup Blanc if you can get the basics up, I usually allow changes to characters in the first few "sessions" in real life, so if anyone realises they need to change something even during play just mention it and I'm sure it'll be fine.
Should be starting this up on Monday, all being well.
Half-Vistani can use human stats or you can use the rules here, whichever you prefer. I've never been entirely convinced that half-vistani are different enough to need their own race, but I'll accept either.
Looks like we've got:
Completed (or close)
Marco Andrezi: Human Criminal Rogue (Assasin)
Wyatt Kyros (Storyteller Shadow): Human Sage Bard (Lore)
Dunstan Gossington-Gorth (Helaman): Human Solder Fighter (Champion)
Khalid de la Poer (Jam412): Human/half-vistani Warlock
Concepted
Emil Ludovich: Human? Barbarian
Loup-Blanc: monk?
Going to go over the submissions tomorrow, so there's about 10 hours to get at least interest posted, then I'm closing for new submissions.
I know there's been some variation, but there is some interaction between domains. It's probably more the case the officers are mounted for infantry units, as per a lot of medieval through Napoleonic era warfare, rather than Paridon having standing cavalry.
Monk sounds good, and as per Gazetteer, there is an order of monks/priests who believe in 'The Divinity of Mankind' which is a ascetic order dedicated to achieving divinity through mental and physical perfection.
Alternatively I'm sure there's several fighting rings, whether legitimate boxing or bare-knuckle pit-fights.
Zherisia Gazetteer has some information on Paridon (Zherisia is two linked domains, Paridon is the city above while Timor is the depths below the city.
Note that realm does not extend beyond the city, there are just mists where the countryside should be, and eerie dark roads leading to other realms.
Horses will be limited as feeding them is an issue with no farm or grasslands of note. That said the noble cavalryman is enough of an archetype that I'm sure we can make it work.
Since we're in one of the more technologically advanced domains to start with, I'd like to open up firearms a little more.
Bard and Rogues may swap out hand crossbow proficiency for pistols, Folk Hero, Sailor and Soldier backgrounds can choose pistol or musket as a proficiency.
Finally (hopefully) I've touched on this in the past, but some spells will not work all the time, particularly looking at Divination, Necromancy, Summoning and 'teleport' type spells, I am not going to disallow them, or say they never work but sometimes their effects may be... unexpected.
Ravenloft is cut off from any other planes, so anything that delves with other planes will at best, contact a Ravenloftian dark reflection of that plane. I will look through sheets before we start and if any spells raise concerns I will let you know.
Completed
Marco Andrezi: Human Criminal Rogue (Assasin)
Wyatt Kyros (Storyteller Shadow): Human Sage Bard (Lore)
Concepted
Emil Ludovich: Human? Barbarian
Leaving open until Weds 27th, then spending a few days for people to firm up characters, establish any pre-existing relationships and let me see if I need to make any further adjustments to the adventure to fit the party, hoping to start on Monday 1st Jun.
If we're short on completed submissions by Weds I might extend a little, but I'd like to start Jun 1st, even if it ends up being just the 2/3 above.
Sadly a run of bad luck and poor decisions led to Feiya dying in set 1 (& by our own table rules we don't let characters come back from the dead, dead means that character is unavailable for the rest of the Path).
Allowing pretty much anything, favoring more standard races, if it's not on one of the wotc books/pdfs then at least point me towards it.
I'm open to custom/tweaked backgrounds.
This would appear to be the D&D5E Ravenloft conversion Helaman pointed out.
Heavy Armour may give disadvantage on social rolls, depending on the situation, though you could probably get away with chainmail outdoors with a heavy enough overcoat.
Anyone that takes a race such as Half-Orc, Goliath or similar will be called a Caliban by the common folk and get Disadvantage on many social rolls. Aaracokra and Dragonborn will probably be treated as outright monsters, unless they can prove otherwise.
Purple eyes for Valyrians, or is that just Targaryns?
Anyone opposed to Naelareon? If we're Valyrian descended, it would have be dracons for heraldry surely? Something like this (just pullsed from a random image search) perhaps?
Yes, I never intended Cassondria to be heir, she just believes she should be, kind of like Cersei in a lot of ways (though I don't intend to be that close to my brother!)
Vitaliono - It would be quite nice having a PC younger brother to clash with if you'd prefer to go that route rather than cousin. Also if you're still planning on taking Blood of Valyria then I might invest in that benefit as well, give us a more "united" appearance (plus it's a rather nice bonus for any social/political character).
Need to adjust my character sheet to reflect Status of 3
Also roll Status/Coin: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 2) = 10
Are we going with Gaelinarys?
Mostly for my own Sanity trying to track who's who:
Character Rundown:
Cassondria Gaelinarys? (AlexM): Eldest Daughter
?? (Vitaliano da Riva): Cousin/Brother?
Maester Lucan (Daniel Stewart): Warrior-Maester
Marcus Stormborn (Grovo): Knight
Matthias(Gendo): Knight/Cousin
Garran Fain(Phantm888): Master of the Hunt
NPC Cast Members:
House Lord: Father or a sickly Elder brother was mentioned?
House Lady: ?
Don't know if there's any other members we need sorting?
Wow, a lot of replies in the few hours I've been out...
Hadn't actually read the House Creation rules so just trying to bring myself up to speed.
I actually wrote Cassondria assuming there was a younger male heir that she is incredibly jealous off and feels she should inherit power instead of him. That said the entire character is a placeholder until I have more of an idea of what everyone else is playing and work to fit into the whole.
Also I bought Status up to 5 on the grounds that it's easier to move points around taking it down, than try to scrounge some points together to raise it up.
Questions:
I prefer using Maps, personally, keeps things clearer in my mind (plus we've always used maps IRL, going back to 2nd ed AD&D.
Expected rate of Posting: Probably 1/day, though I'm fairly easy going. Combat I'd like to keep the rate up a bit, but if you want to put a tactics post in your profile it'll help me keep you running if someone's holding things up.
Setting: Paridon will be the starting area, it's basically a semi-Victorian London/Paris setting engulfed in ever-present mist. There's an awesome netbook on the Fraternity of Shadows here, it's for 3/.5E but the only rules are at the back.
Ravenloft in general is a collection of "domains" loosely linked across a demiplane, each focusing on one particular aspect of horror or archetypical darklord.
Stat Generation: 4d6 drop lowest 6 times, if you roll appallingly you can do 27 point buy as per the PHB.
Feats and Variant Humans are both allowed.
SeekerofShadowlight is referring to rule(?) about dark magics and powerful evil acts drawing the attention of the Darklords, which I may use to a point, but I'm not putting any explicitly defined rules for it.
Toying with using Lingering Injuries, but I'll probably ask for a group consensus on that once a group is assembled.
Hi All,
I'm a relative newcomer to the boards, but long time lurker and I've been RPG'ing for over 20 years.
I stumbled across some of my Ravenloft stuff not long ago, and would love to run some stuff again.
Contemplating working up a campaign starting with Hour of the Knife, converted and fudged over to 5E.
If anyone fancies building a character the creation rules are as follows:
3rd Level
No outright restrictions on races/classes (though if it's not from one of the standard sources, point my in the direction) but I don't feel monster races fit the setting, so you'd have to convince me. Also HotK is exclusively city based, so you may want to build accordingly.
Gear: You start with normal gear (as a 1st level character), plus a single "common" magic item (which amounts to Potion of Healing, Potion of Climbing, or a Cantrip or 1st level spell scroll) or single piece or normal gear costing 250gp or less.
Religion: You can be of any religion you want (real-world or DnD world) and assume you've either a non-native of Paridon, or your family where from elsewhere at some point and have passed it down.
The only Paridon specific religion is "the divinity of mankind" which is an ascetic religion mostly practiced by monks, Priests can pick whichever domain they like and skew it as their own personal focus. Primary domains will be Knowledge & Life.
DMG Rules I'm using:
Fear & Horror:
Fear is a Wisdom save, frightened for 1 minute on fail, ending the effect on save at the end of of your turns.
Horror: Horror is a Charisma save, on a fail you suffer some kind of Madness (temporarily).
Firearms:
Renaissance Firearms & explosives are available, but rare, and are treated as Martial Ranged Weapons, stats in the DMG p268. Pistols cost 250gp so you can take one as your bonus item if you wish.
Test Character:
Cassondria is created to be sympathetic towards Rhaenyra, being in a similar position herself.
Not made a character for the system before so feel free to poke holes in it. Left some of the family details vague, can change things up depending on what anyone else wants to play as.
Spoiler:
Cassondria (family name)
Age 19 (Adult)
Goal: Power - Assert right to become House Lord
Motivation: Stability
Virtue: Merciful
Vices: Ambitious
Qualities
Destiny: 2
Attractive: Reroll two 1's on Persuasion
Charismatic (Charm): +2 to result of any Persuasion:Charm tests.
Flaw - Animal Handling
Background:
NB: Some area's a vague until a House is worked out.
Broad Concept: Cassondria is eldest child of house XX, and has grown in the knowledge that her younger brother Bertram will take the title of Lord when her father passes away, a fact that she has resented all her life.
A Brief History: Cassondria has spent most of her life shadowing her father, accompanying him on visits to his bannermen and to tourney's and other events in Kings Landing, learning all she can about the political and social arena of house lord, her brother (4 years younger) had less interest in such things, preferring more martial and hunting pursuits, and she's used her breadth of learning to ridicule him on numerous occasions.
Grudge's?: Cassondria has a severe dislike of her brother, and her normally calm, merciful attitude does not apply to him, and she will gladly take any opportunity to rile and disparage him, though she has learned to reign in these impulses in public, so as not to damage the unified appearance of the house.
Friends: Cassondria confides in her maidservant Alia, and trusts her with deepest secrets
Drawbacks/Qualities: A riding accident in her early years has left her with a severe dislike of horses and a lingering suspicion of other animals. She acknowledges their necessity but likes to keep the walls of a carriage between her and the creature where possible.
Cassondria's father is aware that she is a prize, both attractive and savvy to political concerns, he's been delaying making a match for her to try and gain the best possible advantage from it, at least that's what he tells himself, in truth much of his indecision comes from a reluctance to lose her.
Romance? Cassondria is the good noble-daughter and despite many suitors has awaited on her father to decide upon a match. Though quietly inside she rages that she will become a prize upon somebody's arm.
Okay, I've got this in my pdf libary from Drivethru, but never actually read it properly, it looks similar to the roll-and-keep systems from 7th Sea/5-Rings but with D6's?
Let me mull things over a little and try making a character or two.
Quickly genned character, went Fire Genasi Wizard in the end:
Ynara Cediro
Fire Genasi Wizard (Urchin):
STR: 10
DEX: 12
CON: 13
INT: 16
WIS: 12
CHA: 14
HP: 7
AC: 11
Proficiencies (+2):
Combat: Daggers, darts, slings, Quarterstaffs, Light Crossbows
Saves: Int Wis
Skills: Insight, Medicine, Sleight of hand, Stealth
Tools: Disguise Kit, Thieves Tools
Languages: Common, Primordial
Abilities;
City Secrets: Not in combat travel between 2 locations in city at double speed.
Darkvision: dim becomes bright and dark becomes dim within 60'. Darkvision seen in shades of red.
Fire Resistance
Reach to the Blaze: Produce Flame Cantrip (Con-based)
Spellcasting (DC13/At+5)
Catrips(3):
Mage Hand
Minor Illusion (30ft range, sound or image)
Prestidigitation
1st level (6):
Burning Hands
Charm Person
Detect Magic
Disguise Self
Silent Image
Sleep
Gear:
Dagger
Arcane Focus
Explorer's Pack
Spellbook
Small Knife
Map of Magnimar
pet mouse
A coin on a leather cord
common clothes
10gp
backstory:
Ynara grew up on the streets of Magnimar, always wondering where she came from, with her hot red skin and hair that writhed like living flame. Served her little though, other street-rats threw stones at her and made signs to ward off evil, anyone above saw her as street-filth first and whatever strange race she was second.
She thought that had ended when she met him Feldis Whitelock, a minor wizard, in the scheme of things, but he needed an assistant to help him as his body started to fail and saw a glimmer of potential in the young girl, even taught her the name 'Ifrit' a reference for her species.
It lasted little however, three short years she spent in her apprenticeship, she was a quick learner, but there still seemed so much to learn, she awoke to find her master had passed on, slipped and fell in the night. Ynara panicked, packed up what she owned, took her notes of spells of what she learned and fled the city, perhaps she could pass herself off as a wizard, she kind of was, almost...
Feats:
Alert: +5 initiative, cannot be surprised, creatures do not gain advantage on attacks for being hidden.
Features:
Background:Researcher: If cannot recall a piece of lore, often know where to find out.
Pact: Great Old One
Awakened Mind: Communicate telepathically with creatures in LoS within 30ft. Do not need shared language.
Spellcasting (Save DC: 13; Spell Attack: +5; 1 slot/rest)
Cantrips (x2)
Eldritch Blast (120ft; 1d10 force ranged spell attack)
Prestidigitation (minor tricks)
1st Level (2 known)
Dissonant Whispers (60ft; target Wis save or suffer 3d6 psychic damage and use reaction to move speed away from me, on save takes 1/2 damage & no fleeing, deaf auto-succeeds).
Unseen Servant: 60ft; invisible mindless force that performs tasks for 1 hour, p284)
Equipment:
Light Crossbow (20 bolts)
Arcane Focus (amulet)
Scholars Pack
Leather Armour
3x Daggers
Blank Ink
Quill
Small knife
Letter form a dead colleague
common clothes
130gp
Backstory:
Arlen was a driven investigator, attached to the city watch, a scholar of the criminal mind and student of the arcane, however while investigating a particularly gruesome cult-related murder he ended up reading works of dire nature and found himself agreeing to be bound with a creature of alien origin and designs.
The creature has laid a heavy toll on Arlen, and in many ways he is half the man he was before, his mind is at least part-way broken, when lucid he still has his sharp intellect and wits, but is easily distracted often by things that no-one else can see or hear. The watch couldn't have such an... erratic personality on their books, and his mentor in the arcane arts found him too uncertain to teach any more and Arlen was left to find his own path
In one of his more lucid times he signed on with the Solution Society, keeping his wits together long enough to be assigned a case. It ended messily, Arlen himself couldn't recall all the details, but went south quickly and hard and people ended up dead.
Appearance
Arlen stands around 5'6", with a skinny frame, weighing in at about 115 lbs. His hair is black and eyes a grey-green.
He dresses and grooms to fastidious neatness and cleanliness, his attention often seems elsewhere, he rarely looks anyone in the eye, fixing his gaze on a point behind them, or his eyes darting with agitation.
Even with his nervous ticks and oft-jerky movement he still cuts a somewhat dashing figure, at least for short periods when he reigns it all in.
Self-wise I'm GMT (actually BST really), new to paizo boards, but I've been gaming a good 20 years or so. Currently only working part time so I should have plenty of time to post.
I know I'm a little late to the party, so I won't feel too rejected if I'm ignored.
