In the Hall of the Grymlorde,™ we see through a glass darkly — a dark look at art, gaming, history, literature, music, philosophy, religion, & mixed metaphors.
In this post I will examine the various ways that D&D handles torches (flambeaux & firebrands) from Chainmail up to 5th edition as well as examining historical real-world sources. I am doing this because I have always freely took rules that I like from any game to use in my D&D campaign, regardless of what edition I ran. And as a bonus I am including original content on torch-staves and brazier-staves suitable for any Old School game.
I interrupt my almost excruciatingly detailed analysis, adaptation, and “re-mix” of the Night of the Walking Dead in order to bring news about The Averoigne Chronicles as well as my learning of the realm of Poictesme which was contemporary to Averoigne.
I do not normally promote any products or services, but in this case I am making an exception because I am genuinely excited about this book I have ordered. First off, a huge thank you to OldJoe (Jeff Hall) for alerting everyone over at the Eldritch Dark Forum. The Averoigne Chronicles was originally published by Centipede Press as a signed 200 copy limited edition hardcover which listed for $225 and is now sold out. Hippocampus Press has now released a trade paperback edition for only $20! While the book contains all of the published stories and poems it does not contain all of the fragments and earlier versions of stories which can be found over at the Eldritch Dark in the short stories section. So while I would vastly prefer a true complete collection with all of the drafts and fragments, given that there are no other Averoigne Cycle books in print, I went ahead an ordered a copy of my own.
Poictesme is the imaginary province or region in Southern France created by James Branch Cabell for his series of books, essays, and poems in the collection called Biography of the Life of Manuel. Apparently they were quite popular when they were written between 1901 and 1929. Clark Ashton Smith was certainly familiar with them when he joked about the two provinces being neighbours according to Kipling (John Hitz) at the Eldritch Dark Forum on a discussion of Averoigne vs. Zothique. You can read Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances for free at the Gutenberg Project. According to Wikipedia:
Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances (1921) is a fantasy novel or ironic romance by James Branch Cabell, set in the imaginary French province of Poictesme during the first half of the 13th century. The book follows the earthly career of Dom Manuel the Redeemer from his origins as a swineherd, through his elevation to the rank of Count of Poictesme, to his death. It forms the second volume of Cabell's gigantic Biography of the Life of Manuel.
I have not read Figures of the Earth just yet, having learnt about it a scant hour ago. Another book, Domnei: A Comedy of Woman-Worship is set in the second half of the 13th century so that makes it closer to our period (1st half of the 14th C.). Below is what Wikipedia has to say:
Domnei: A Comedy of Woman-Worship (1913) is a fantasy novel by James Branch Cabell, set in the imaginary French province of Poictesme during the second half of the 13th century.
It forms the fifth volume of Cabell's gigantic Biography of the Life of Manuel, and tells the story of Dom Manuel's daughter Melicent, and of the disastrous struggle between her successive husbands Demetrios of Anatolia and Perion de la Forêt. Carl Van Doren characterised the book as “Mr. Cabell's highest flight in the representation of the extravagant woman-worship developed out of the chivalric code,” and as being “unified and dramatic beyond any other of the Cabell novels.”
The Gutenberg Project has the story here.
This is Part VIII of my series on adapting the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead to Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne setting, Rober E. Howard’s Cormac Fitzgeoffrey’s setting, early–to–mid 14th Century France, and using the NWN/D&D 3rd edition ruleset. In this post I will be looking at the Lair of the Zombie Lord section of the module. To read Part I of this series, click here.
According to the module, this section occurs after the PCs have destroyed Jean sieur de Crapaud and crazed killer and of course have not broken into the Old Cemetery (or located the secret entrance) and dispatched Marcel. Like all good stories, the tension must recede before the epic zombie attack. The villagers are thrilled that the crazed killer is dead and throw a party for the party that night. If the PCs sneak out before the party, Luc (or his ghost) still follows them and just when they are out of sight and earshot of the village, Luc repeats a new verse:
“Look for the scroll where the old rest fine,
behind the stone where six stars shine.
The finding, however, will cause much pain,
beware the time of the falling rain.”
Whoa! Luke is lucid! I guess the adventure is not done after all. Actually I would think that crazy Luc still following the party would make that obvious but….
That night during the party at the Full Moon Inn, the clouds burst with a torrential rainfail! Concidentally, that is also exactly when Luc starts reciting the Hiscosa verses correctly (see the module).
Finally the vicar, Father Brucian comes clean and tells how Jean brought Marcel’s corpse to him, how he prayed to Our Lady for a miracle but none came, and how heartbroken Jean became.
Fr. Brucian finally connects the dots and realises that their troubles began only after Marcel died and therefore Marcel is behind it all! And it took a guy with an Intelligence of 14 and a Wisdom of 16 this long to figure it out?!? Once again, Slavicsek stretches credibility quite thin in an attempt to be dramatic.
Naturally, the very moment that the vicar completes his tale, a villager at the party keels over dead and then rises up 1d4 minutes later as a zombie and “rushes” (a zombie rushes?!? Seriously?!?) over to grab Luc. If Luc is dead, then the zombie goes for the PC holding the Hiscosa scroll or the one who wrote down Luc’s verse. Once the zombie is dispatched, Luc repeats the Fay admonition to find Marcel (see above).
“The dead are approaching the village! An army of the walking dead!”
Gremin le Bailif bolts out the door. If the PCs join him, the the following happens otherwise Gremin returns to tell everyone the following:
“At the eastern edge of the village, more than two dozen zombies are coming!”
Gremin implores the PCs to help him setup barricades. The vicar (who must have come along) urges the PCs to instead find Marcel.
“Find Marcel’s body. I am certain that it holds the key to the terrors which have befallen us.”
If the PCs head for the old cemetery, they can get there without molestation. If on the other hands, they head back for the Inn first, or if stayed at the end they must get through the zombies before the cemetery. For the Grym Zombie™ game statistics, please see the end of this post.
Why is this tunnel here? It is not like Marcel dug it out and then covered it with a stone slab and carved six stars into it. The six stars are supposed to represent the six verses of the Hiscosa prophesy, but why? And how in the world is a zombie (or anyone for that matter) going to get past the statue from below? I can understand a statue concealing the tunnel, but that makes it a one-way tunnel. It is going to be hard enough to move a presumably stone statue out of the way, but from below?!? Oh man, sometimes this module gives me a splitting headache! Hopefully I can fix this “tunnel” before I write up the inevitable pdf.
Note that I am not going to reproduce every building in the module, just the ones that merit a comment.
Ancient Gate: Two gargouille statues guard the gate. Are they just statues? Close examination reveals the name of the sculptor, Blaise Reynard (from The Maker of Gargoyles by Clark Ashton Smith). If the party is only 1st level, I would leave these gargouilles as statues but just give hints like ‘with each flash of lightning, the statues turn their gaze to you’ or something like that. If the party is higher level with enchaunted weapons, then absolutely have the gargouilles attack. And as for the heavy iron chains and padlock… this is supposed to be the Middle Ages, right? So instead of very expensive iron gate, chains, and padlock the “gate” is a heavy wooden door with a heavy wooden beam across it. The beam is swollen with moisture and stuck.
Nota bene: The following is — in my opinion — a pointless cemetery crawl because the Crapaud Tomb is quite visible no matter where the PCs enter.
Decrepit Mausoleum: The bats are not giant, they are in fact undead (thanks to Jean’s farts)!. Change the hit points to 1d3, damage is 1, and give them zombie immunities. The idea here is to annoy and slow down the PCs, giving Marcel and his gang to catch the PCs.
Flooded Mausoleum: Cool imagery but there is no way that enough rain has fallen to make a pool several feet deep. And the fact that the cemetery is built high above the water table also makes it very unlikely. And why does this mausoleum have three skeletons in it? I have to think about this one….
Tomb of Rats: For some reason a family of rats live here despite the fact that there have been no interments in a very long time. For the moment, they shall be zombie rats with 1d3 hit points, bite for 1 point of damage, and have zombie immunities.
The Crypt of Stars: Despite the fact that this is where Marcel died and Luc went crazy… there is nothing of significance at all. Just like there is no reason why a ju-ju zombie was created by an arch-mage and left here. Slavicsek!!!
“The ceiling is a glass dome, through which you can see the storm clouds parting to unleash a stream of moonlight.
A platform of bones lies in the middle of the chamber, flanked by two flaming braziers that are fashioned from stacked skulls. Atop the platform is a finely-crafted throne.”
While this is all very evocative of pulp horror, it is not at all appropriate. First off, a glass dome is an anachronism due to the expense and difficulty of getting such quality glass and supporting steel. Second, due to the age and neglect the glass dome would be highly damaged. Third, two flaming brazier made from stacked, presumably human skulls is there because Marcel wanted a pair of braziers? Because he is cold? Or it looks cool? And where did he get the throne? Is Marcel actually an expert at crafting braziers and thrones out of bones and skulls? This scene is described like the lair of a Pulp necromancer which is cool and all except that Marcel is not a necromancer and has only had three weeks to decorate the family tomb. I cannot imagine that the family tomb was originally laid out like this. As a side point, gothic architecure was quite uncommon in the Occitan region of Southern France, and given the age of this mausoleum (more than two centuries), the architectural style is most likely going to be First Romanesque, a.k.a Lombard Romanesque.
So there can be stained glass windows revealing the moonlight, but not a glass dome. And we have to dispense with the necromancer decor because it is silly in this context.
On the 6th round of combat or just before Marcel is destroyed, the eclipse must happen. After all, the PCs are fate magnets. Yes, it is contrived but the PCs are fulfilling a prophesy here after all.
A lightning bolt shatters one of the stained glass windows and the moonlight turns crimson. Luc immediately changes his chant to:
“The light of the sky shining over the dead
shall gutter and fail, turning all to crimson.”
In spite of not knowing the Hiscosa prophesies, Marcel freaks out at the crimson moonlight and then he and his minions cower for 1d4 rounds:
“The character is frozen in fear and can take no actions. A cowering character takes a -2 penalty to Armor Class and loses her Dexterity bonus (if any).”
Note that Marcel et alia are not helpless nor paralysed, they are simply cowering.
According to the module, when Marcel is destroyed all remaining zombies wander off. Instead, I shall have the zombies who left their vaults return to them. All of the other zombies and ghouls collapse into a heap of rotting flesh (cf. The Thing on the Doorstep).
The storm has passed and the pleasant late Octobre weather of the Camargue returns. If Luc is alive, he comes out of his trance and if dead then his spirit is now at rest.
The PCs are given fresh food and supplies by the villagers. If Luc is alive, he is now the new Lord of the Crapaud Manoir and if dead, then Bailif Gremin will be the interim castellan. Fr. Brucian will contact Aigas Mòrtas to inform the council of Jean’s and Marcel’s deaths. He is not sure how to explain such deaths but will figure out some sort of explanation that will not warrant an investigation.
If Luc is alive, he will be extraorinarily grateful and offer the PCs their own plot and cottage rent-free, so long as they reside in the village.
Or is it? In the next post I am going to re-visit some of the NPCs and consider incorporating some ideas & imagery from Gothic literature, Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne, Robert E. Howard’s Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, and H.P. Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth, Statement of Randolph Carter, & Call of Cthulhu. In the meantime, here are the promised stats for Grym Zombies™.
Size/Race: Medium Undead Construct
Hit Dice: 1d12 (12 hit points)
Initiative: -4
Speed: 20 ft. (no run)
Armour Class: 6 (-4 Dex), touch 6, flat-footed 6
Base Attack: -4
Attack: 2 Slams -3 mêlée (1d6)
Space/Reach: 5 ft. / 5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Single actions only, Undead/Construct qualities, Immune to Piercing damage, 75% resistant to Bludgeoning damage, Turn resistance +3
Vulnerabilities: Divine magic (2×), Positive energy (2×)
Saves: Fortitude auto success, Reflex -4, Will auto success
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 3, Con 10, Int —, Wis —, Cha —
Skills: —
Feats: Ambidexterity, Blind-fight, Blindsight, Weapon focus (natural)
Environment: Any
Organisation: None
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment/Intent: Usually Chaotic/Evil (see note below)
Advancement: See below
Level Adjustment: —
Faction: Hostile
The Walking Dead cannot fail concentration checks.
The Walking Dead can Sense Living Creatures 120' away. This prevents living creatures from moving silently or hiding from them within 120 feet.
As Grym Zombies age, they become more powerful. Walking Dead become the Risen Dead who become Rotting Skeletons, who become Bloody Skeletons, who finally become true Skeletons. Sages speculate that skeletons eventually become some kind of spectre.
Types & Causes of Walking Dead: Animating a corpse through the necromantic spell, animate dead, is not the only way of creating the Walking Dead. A person could be cursed to walk the earth after death or have unfinished business. In which case, those zombies are free-willed and have an intelligence, wisdom, and charisma ability scores.
Nota Bene: The animation rite (spell or ability) involves either summoning the shade from the underworld to return to its corpse or to summon a lost soul (one who didn’t receive a proper funereal). From a “rationalist” perspective, the lost soul posesses the corpse only when the original shade is not in the underworld, i.e. in heaven/paradise/elysium, et cetera. However, Christianity for most part suggests that the posessing spirit is almost always a malevolent spirit — a demon. Implying that the wicked are getting punished and the nigromauncer cannot snatch those souls, therefore a demon is enslaved instead. What I like to do is have a rule is that if the nigromauncer animates the corpse within three days of death, the soul is enslaved within its own corpse; otherwise it goes on to its just reward.
Necromancy (Gr. nekromanteia, L. necromantia) is the divination from corpses (e.g. speak with dead) whereas nigromauncie (L. nigromantia) is black magick. In 3e terms, spells with the Evil descriptor is nigromauncie but not all necromancy is nigromauncie. Confused? Do not be concerned as very few non-spellcasters understand the difference either.
On a related note, maleficium is harmful magick and veneficium is venomous magick. In Roman times up through Early Modern Europe, veneficium was highly feared and incurred the consquence of the most painful deaths imaginable. The modern term ‘voodoo dolls’ is an example of veneficium — magical pain & death from an unknown source.
So we end up with speak with dead is necromantia, animate dead is both nigromantia and necromantia but neither are maleficium or veneficium. Whereas a spell such as magick jar is necromantia, nekromantia, maleficium, and veneficium because it involves the transference of a spirits (necromantia), which is evil (nigromantia), harmful (maleficium), and done secretly from a distance (veneficium).
For Part IX, click here.
This is Part VII of my series on adapting the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead to Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne setting, Rober E. Howard’s Cormac Fitzgeoffrey’s setting, early–to–mid 14th Century France, and using the NWN/D&D 3rd edition ruleset. In this post I will be looking at the Village Events section of the module. To read Part I of this series, click here.
Bill Slavicsek writes in this adventure module:
“Speed or slow the events to match the pace of your players.”
Now perhaps it is because I started with the OD&D Whitebox + Greyhawk rules that I refuse to speed up or slow down events. I believe that the game world lives independent of Player Characters. PCs can most certainly influence events, but the world does not wait for the players to act. This is Grymwurld™ and not Schrödinger’s World. In other words, ‘you snooze, you lose.’
However, I also believe that all PCs have the Lucky trait from the AD&D 2nd Edition Skills & Powers book. “Lucky” in this case is a matter of ‘being in the right place at the right time.’ But I also believe that all PCs are also Unlucky and have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One might say that the party has a ‘reality distortion field’ around them. In this module there are several encounters that almost always happen to the PCs regardless of what they do or where they are. I am perfectly fine with this precisely because of them being both Lucky and Unlucky at the same time. Weird things always happen to PCs — that is one of the things that makes them PCs.
The PCs basically have no choice but to attend the funeral simply because the entire village has shut down for this event. The way this scenario is setup, the PCs are expected to react as if the village was burying a man alive. The adventure does not explictly state that the PCs do react that way and it does describe what happens if they do not. Consider the following:
“The priest continues his liturgy, even though a muffled bang causes him a moment’s pause. The villagers flinch but quickly regain their composure. The bang sounds again from within the coffin. The coffin rocks back and forth, but the priest and the crowd ignore it.”
How can any first level characters react in that situation without metagaming? The characters are going to naturally assume that the villagers are burying a man alive whereas the players (other than truly novice ones) are going to assume that it is a zombie — especially if they know the name of the module or have seen the cover. I am very tempted to change this scenario to burying people alive rather than zombies! That of course would drastically change this module, but one of these days I will have an adventure like that just to mess with the Players!
There is also an interesting line that I bet all of us GMs have ignored or forgotten about:
“Once free, he [the zombie] attacks the party and tries to escape into the fields east of the village.”
Has any party ever let the zombie escape so as to follow him? Where in the fields does the zombie amble off to? The great house? The secret tunnel on the northeast side of the old cemetery? Here is what Slavicsek wrote:
“If at any time the PCs decide to follow a fleeing ghoul or zombie, they can easily track the undead creature to the fields beyond the Tarascon plantation. After that, the creature loses them in the rows of crops and backtracks to the passage in the side of the cemetery hill. Do not allow the PCs to discover the passage yet.”
Seriously?!? Bad game designer, bad! I really cannot believe that the party cannot follow a zombie. The ghouls are based in the manoir house and therefore would not lead the PCs to the secret tunnel. And why would the PCs discovering the tunnel early ‘mess up’ the adventure? After all, they could climb over the walls of the old cemetery!
So my ruling is thus: I will allow the PCs to follow the zombie to the secret tunnel.
No matter where the PCs are in the village, at some point they will notice Gremin the Baillif (Constable or Reeve) kneeling in an “alley.” But as I mentioned above, I am okay with this because the PCs are ‘fate magnets.’ In the midst of the blood splatter is the réglisse sanguine (blood-red liquorice). The PCs can offer to help and the Baillif reluctantly accepts (unless the PCs roll a natural 1).
Some time during the second night while the PCs are relaxing in the common room of the Hospitale de Pleine Lune, Marcel comes up the window and lets out an epic fart! No, seriously!
“…a vile stench wafts into the building. It is the odor of the zombie lord.”
All PCs must pass a Fortitude saving throw versus Poison (DC 14). However for plot reasons, nothing untowards happens if they fail. A success indicates the direction of the miasma. Whereas a Hardcore Old School GM such as myself should never use plot to save the Player Characters. Here are the rules from the module:
“…the odor of death that surrounds Marcel affects all living beings who come within 30 yards [90' radius!] of him. Characters must save vs. poison [DC 14] or suffer one of the following effects:”
Please see the module for the six different possible effects, which range from Weakness to Dying instantly & Rising as a zombie under Marcel’s control. Note that this is a continual effect! Every single round that a living creature is within 90 feet of Marcel, they have to pass a DC 14 Fortitude saving throw versus poison!
Which begs the question, ‘how is it that the entire village has not succumbed to Marcel’s foul emanations?’ The DC for a 0-level character is 16 which guarantees that within 24 seconds (4 rounds) more than 99% of the victims will fail their saving throw. Furthermore, within 54 seconds (9 rounds), 99% of the victims will die and rise up as a zombie under Marcel’s control! So all Marcel has to do is stand next to a cottage for one minute and everyone inside that huge fart will die and turn into a zombie! Over the course of eight hours, the zombie lord can enslave the entire f!@#$%g village! Am I missing something here? Or did Bill Slavicsek and his editor Andria Hayday miss something?!?
One possibility is that once “poisoned,” the victim cannot be “poisoned” again until the effect wears off. For example, if the PC fails their saving throw and rolls a 5, they will be “unable to act for 1d4 rounds due to nausea and vomiting.” But what if the PC rolls a 3 (-1 Point of Constitution)? What is the duration for that ability score loss? In the 3rd Edition rules, PCs regain ability score loss at a rate of 1/day or 2/day if having full bed rest. (I couldn’t find the corresponding rule in the AD&D 2nd Ed. DMG.) So does that mean if a PC loses a point of Con, they are immune to Marcel’s farting for 24 hours?!?
I think it is better to treat repeated “poisonings” as making the effect worse, much like getting bit by multiple venomous snakes. However, this does not solve the problem of Marcel killing off and then enslaving the entire village in one night.
While ruminating on this, we should keep in mind another of Marcel’s abilities:
“Three times per day, Marcel can cast animate dead to create zombies. By using this power on living beings, he can also turn them into zombies. In either case, the range of this innate power is 100 yards [300' range]. If a living target fails a saving throw vs. death, he is instantly slain and rises in 1d4 rounds as a zombie under Marcel’s control.”
By comparison, the AD&D 2nd Edition spell finger of death is 7th level. Only after performing a necromantic ceremony and spending 1,000 gp + 500 gp/corpse, the wizard is able to animate the cadaver as a ju-ju zombie. The range is 60 yards (180'). So Marcel’s ability is perhaps 6th level, since slay living (reverse of raise dead) is 5th level and does not create a zombie. That means, that Marcel can cast a 6th level spell three times per day in addition to all of his other abilities. But why have both the necromantic miasma as well as the super animate dead? Does he animate the dead when he does not want to get within 90 feet and/or does not want to wait the one minute (10 minutes in AD&D 2nd Ed.)?
Now recall that the zombie lord monster first appeared in the AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix in 1991 which predates this module which was published in 1992 and that
“Some of these powers have been enhanced by the Land of Ravenloft…”
In that appendix, a zombie lord’s odor of death only takes effect during the first round of combat. Did Slavicsek & Hayday intentionally remove the ‘first round of combat’ part of the effect or was it an editorial oversight? The special animate dead is only once per day in the appendix whereas Marcel has it thrice a day. I can see where changing from once to thrice per day is the Ravenloft enhancement. There is a long and storied history of D&D abilities being useable thrice per day.
In the Ravenloft 3rd & ½ Edition book Denizens of Dread (2004), the zombie lord’s emanations become the following:
“Aura of Death (Su): The first round that a living creature comes within 90 feet of a zombie lord, it must make a Fortitude save [DC 13] or be affected as if a contagion spell had been cast on it, inflicting a disease of the zombie lord’s choice. Those who fail their save by more than 10 [or roll a natural 1] die instantly and become zombies under the zombie lord’s control. This is a continuous effect that the zombie lord cannot suppress.”
So the zombie lord can choose the disease but cannot suppress the aura?!? While it retains the initial round of the AD&D 2nd Ed. rules, it loses the wild & woolly randomness quality that helps define Old School D&D.
So my ruling is thus: Marcel’s Odour of Death only takes effect during the 1st round of contact rather than be a continuous effect. The original 1–6 possible effects remain. The reasoning behind this ruling is A) too powerful if continous and B) Andria Hayday the editor probably missed this.
So does Marcel go around the cemetery and animate three zombies and then goes into the village each night? Under the AD&D 2nd Edition rules, out of the 300 inhabitants, 225 fail their saving throw the first night (0-level save vs. poison 16). Out of those 225 people, 37 or 38 die and turn into zombies! [Under the 3½ Ed. rules, 45 become a zombie each night.] Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! After three nights, 1/3 of the ‘300’ are zombies!
This has been happening for three weeks?!? That means that there approximately 5,000 inhabitants three weeks ago for the population to drop to 300!!! Obviously the village was not 5,000 souls three weeks ago, so what is the controlling factor? It must be Jean. He must have been doing a great job of appeasing Marcel to prevent him from creating zombies from the villagers… for the most part. Marcel took Gremin’s son two weeks ago and François a week ago. Perhaps Marcel must create at least one zombie each week regardless of the victims Jean brings to him? Or rather, deposits the victims at least 90' away from Marcel’s tomb. I doubt very much that Jean is immune to Marcel’s farting.
Getting back to the Full Moon Inn, Duncan the Red Shirt (d’Lute) is sacrificed to the Plot God so that the PCs can see him rising as a zombie if they check his room (why?) or merely hear of his missing the next morning. And yet, if they are in the common room, they get to see one of the patrons sacrificed to the Plot God. So why is Duncan sacrificed? When I ran this adventure back in 1994, I changed Duncan’s name to Philippe and made him a troubadour [bard] and most certainly did not kill him off because he made his saving throw (I honestly don’t recall if I fudged the die roll or not). Naturally, he joined the party afterwards because it would be completely natural for him to do so, given the imminent threat. All elite/heroic NPCs would join the PCs to fight this scourge becaues that is what they do (or run away to save their skins…!).
So my ruling is thus: Everyone in Hospitale de Pleine Lune makes their fortitude saving throw versus poison and if they fail, roll a d6 for the effect. Nobody will have plot armour nor will anyone be sacrificed to the Plot God. The story will emerge on its own!
“Late in the afternoon…”
Ah, so this even happens during dusk or twilight and not at night. (*Sigh* Insert yet another snarky comment about editors.)
While this appears as a railroad/story to knee-jerk OSR true believers, let me assure you that it is not! If I wanted to be slavishly OSR, I would create an event table and then roll each day and night to see what happens. But that is just being slavish to a preconceived notion of what Old School “truly” is (cf. No True Scotsman). The purpose of tables with random events/monsters/et cetera is to aid the GM in weaving together the events of a story and not to have a completely random adventure! Nor is this a “quantum ogre,” meaning an encounter that the PCs cannot avoid no matter which direction they take because sooner or later the party will hear a victim screaming.
On Day Two, the PCs discover the scene of the crime. Now on (Day) Three they get a chance to confront the perpetrator. This allows for the build-up of tension. The GM is free make this encounter happen sooner or later which I wholeheartedly support. A very important skill for the GM is to manage the pacing. When the game bogs down, throw in a wandering monster or in this case a murder! Likewise, the players have to catch their breath between dramatic events (e.g. combats) else the game becomes a slog. So while Jean murdering Lillin the hostler’s daughter during evenfall is in the module, the GM is free to change the timing and the victim. And or course if the PCs caught Jean in the townhouse then this event would never happen.
What I also like about this write-up is that Jean does not automatically get away with murder. If the PCs pass the GM rolled listen check (DC 10), they get to stop Jean. If they fail, they hear a second scream but by the time they get there it is too late. Had this been a railroad, the PCs would always get there too late (AD&D 2e) or just in the nick of time (D&D 5e).
However, what I do not like is that Slavicsek gives Jean plot armour. While there is supposed to be an exciting chase scene if the PCs caught Jean in the act, it is impossible for them to catch him. The reasoning is that Jean knows the village better than the PCs, he drops the sanguine liquorice to distract them, and is skilled at hiding. In other words, Jacque le Ripper. There is one problem here and that is that Jean is statted out as a 4th level fighter/Madman but the only abilities beyond that of a fighter are the following:
“Jean is a convincing actor [Skill focus (Bluff) gives +3]. If he attempts to give the PCs a false sense of security, they suffer a -2 penalty to their surprise rolls. Victims thus surprised take triple damage, as if they had been backstabbed by a 5th-level thief.”
Perhaps the Ravenloft Powers (or Anton Misroi le Seigneur du Souragne) gave Jean a +5 to his bluff, hide, and move silently checks. However, he is decked out in studded leather armour which gives him a -3 to his stealth checks. And that is assuming that he simply hides behind a rainbarrel or something. If he slips into an abandoned cottage and closes the door, the PCs might hear the door shut and then Jean is trapped inside.
So my ruling is thus: Hearing Lillin scream is a DC 5 because this encounter will only occur when the PCs are inside a building. If they catch Jean in the act, he will do his best to run away and hide but success if not automatic.
ARISTOCRAT 4 (CR 4): Chaotic/Evil Human Crazed Killer
DETECTION: Listen +2, Spot +2; Init +3; Languages: Common, French, & Occitan
DEFENCES: AC 14 (heavy maille jack), touch 11, flat-footed 14; hp 36 (4d8+4);
ACTIONS: Spd 30 ft.; Mêlée Short-spear +6 (1d6+3; 20/×2); Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.; Base Atk +3
STR 14, DEX 10, CON 12, INT 11, WIS 9, CHA 9
FORT +5, REF +1, WILL +3
FEATS: Armour proficiency (All), Combat reflexes, Skill focus (Bluff, Hide, Listen, Move silently, & Spot), Stealthy &c.
SKILLS: Bluff +9, Discipline +8, Hide +2, Move Silently +2, Parry +7, Sense Motive +6
SPECIAL ABILITIES: Sneak attack +3d6
MAGICK ITEMS: Ring of Deflection +1, Short spear +1 (walking stick), & (2) Potions of Cure minor wounds
This is not really an event per se, rather it is what happens if the PCs go to the manoir house around supper time. Note that Luc will not follow the party and stays far away. Yet I can think of no reason for Luc to avoid the house other then it reminds him of who he is but the village would do that as well, right? His traumatic event happened at the Old Cemetery so I can understand his staying away from the entire cemetery, but the manoir house? Luc must somehow know about the servants who became ghouls.
One of the things I like about the Ravenloft Ghouls is that they were once humans who became cannibals. The sin of cannibalism is what transformed them into ghouls!
The module states that Jean insisted that his servants eat human flesh, thus becoming ghouls. I think that in fact, he was much more subtle. After co-opting the local boucher, the cook was told to cook the “veal.” Once the servants had eaten the “veal” upon three different occassions, they became enamoured of it and began the descent into ‘ghouldom.’
The module further states that Jean’s motivation is to emulate his twin’s desire for rotting human flesh (and we finally learn the reason why Marcel goes hunting) yet he lacks the courage to do so. This strikes me as odd. Jean has gone mad with grief over his twin brother becoming a Zombie Lord and resorts to killing off the villagers to feed him yet also corrupts the house servants into ghouls as a twisted empathy with his brother. And yet, he will not taste the “veal”!
Lon Chaney, Sr. in London After Midnight
The way Jean is depicted in this module is a combination of Jack the Ripper and The Hypnotist from London After Midnight. In the latter, Chaney’s hypnotist is actually a vampire or a ghoul. What if Jean had in fact tasted human flesh? After all, he shares a very strong empathy if not sympathy with now–undead–twin, Marcel. And if Marcel lusts for rotting human flesh, then would not Jean feel Marcel’s hunger? Would not that hunger affect him as well? Perhaps when (or if) the PCs find Jean slaughtering Lillin the hostler’s daughter, the notice him hesitating as if to decide whether or not to taste her? Or would it be more horrible to find Jean actually tasting her instead? Perhaps there is an intermediate state between humankind and ghouldom, where the semi-ghoul has the taste for flesh but not the undead qualities of a ghoul? Perhaps a bite for 1d6 damage and two claws for 1d3 damage each but no disease, paralysis, or undead qualities? And also grant an extra hit die to represent the semi-inhuman resistance to pain and burning hunger? But in this case, does it make Jean any more powerful? He uses his cane-spear +1 which is more effective than a bite although without the cane, he gets three attacks (bite, claw, claw) with the multiattack feat. Perhaps he carries the cane during the day but at night eschews it? Something to chew on…! (Sorry, I could not resist!)
Yeah, his garb is anachronistic but man, it’s cool!
By this point, Jean is fed up… [We apologise for the bad puns in this blog. Those responsible have been sacked] with the PCs’ meddling and decides to kill Luc…? I think it more like Jean is afraid that Luc is close to dropping enough cryptic hints for the PCs to figure out that Marcel is in the ancient… crypt. [We apologise again for the fault in this blog. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.] Finally Jean pursues the party around town, waiting for an opportunity to pick them off one by one. And yet, his stealth skill is actually pretty bad because he is not a thief er rogue. But the Plot God shall not let such minor details get in the way, because it has been decreed that there will be the following dramatic moment:
The madman stands before you, completely enshrouded by a black, hooded cloak. Only the curved dagger in his pale right hand is visible. Then he tosses back the hood, revealing a face twisted by madness and eyes lit by the fire of insanity. That fire is clearly consuming him, burning away what is left of his mind and humanity.
“You should not have come to Marais d’Tarascon,” the madman hisses. “And you should not have brought that whelp of a brother with you!” he shouts, waving his dagger at Luc. “You have forced this confrontation! Let the blood be on your hands as you taste the blade of Jean Tarascon!”
With that, the madman attacks.
I have to wonder if after Jean became crazed, he approached Toma Levi and requested a ‘night-black travelling cloak’ be made? And how convenient is it that before becoming traumatised, he just happened to posess a magical dagger concealable within a walking stick?
Honestly, this whole Jean le Ripper shtick has bugged me from the very beginning. I get that Jean and Marcel have the whole ‘twins empathy trope’ and that Jean is traumatised from Marcel’s horrible undeath. I also like the desperation of Jean bringing a victim to Marcel in order to both keep Marcel “alive” and also to protect the village from Marcel’s predation. But would it not make more sense for Jean to lure the victim to Marcel instead of butchering them in the village? And turning the household staff into ghouls as a sort of twisted sympathy for Marcel yet not “courageous” enough to taste human flesh himself? I have a very hard time buying that. As I mentioned earlier, I think that Jean developing a craving for human flesh certainly ties in with the ‘my–twin–is–undead empathy’. And if Jean did indeed in that taste for human flesh, then he has become some kind of a transitional ghoul — a goule, perhaps. How about the following:
Goules are creatures who have acquired a taste for the flesh of their own kind and thus have become cursed for comitting the sin of cannibalism. Once a goule dies, it rises three days later as an undead ghoul.
Creating a Goule
“Goule” is an acquired template that can be applied to any living, sentient creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
Hit Dice: Add one additional hit die of the base creature’s type. For example, humanoids get an additional d8.
Attacks: Goules retains all the natural weapons, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon proficiencies of the base creature. A creature with hands gains one claw attack per hand as well as a bite; the goule can strike with each of its claw attacks at its full attack bonus.
Damage: Natural and manufactured weapons deal damage normally. Bite and claw attacks deal damage depending on the goule’s size. (If the base creature already had claw attacks with its hands, use the goule claw damage only if it’s better.) Exempli gratis, a medium-sized goule does claw damage of 1d4 each and a bite of 1d6.
Special Attacks: A goule retains all of the base creature’s special attacks.
Special Qualities: A goule retains all of the base creature’s special qualities.
Saves: A goule gains a +1 bonus to Fort, Ref, & Will saving throws over and above that of the base creature’s.
Abilities: No change.
Skills: Bluff, Climb, Hide, Listen, Move silently, & Spot become class skills and the goule gains 1 additional rank in each of those skills.
Feats: A goule gains the following feats — Alertness, Multiattack, Skill focus (Bluff, Climb, Hide, Listen, Move silently, & Spot), Stealthy, and Toughness.
Environment: Same as the base creature.
Organisation: Solitary.
Challenge Rating: Depends on Hit Dice.
Treasure: Depends on the base creature
Alignment/Intent: Always chaotic/ evil.
Advancement: As base creature.
Level Adjustment: None.
Size/Type: Medium Aristocrat 3/Humanoid 1 (Human)
Hit Dice: 4d8+8 (40 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armour Class: 14 (+1 ring, +3 heavy maille jack), touch 11, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+3
Attack: 2 claws +3 mêlée (1d4+2 / 20 × 2)
Full Attack: Bite +3 mêlée (1d6+2 /20 × 2) and 2 claws +1 mêlée (1d4+2 / 20 × 2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft. / 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Sneak attack (+1d6)
Special Qualities: Rise as a ghoul 3 days post mortem
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +4
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 9, Cha 9
Skills: Bluff +9, Climb +6, Hide +6, Intimidate +9, Listen +5, Move silently +6, Persuade +5, Spot +5
Feats: Alertness, Armour proficiency (Light), Multiattack, Skill focus (Bluff, Climb, Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move silently, & Spot), Stealthy, and Toughness.
Environment: Le Village des Crapauds
Organisation: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Ring of Deflection +1, (3) Potions of Cure Minor Wounds
Alignment: Always chaotic/evil
Jean prefers to use his bluff skill to lure unspecting victims and then attack them while they are flat-footed.
Nota bene: In the Neverwinter Nights videogame, the toughness feat adds +1 hit point/die rather than a flat +3.
After sitting on this for a couple of days, I am still not comfortable with the depiction of Jean. In the original module, he acquires 5 levels of thief (for all intents & purposes) over the course of three weeks. Perhaps we can hand-wave that away by calling it a gift from the Ravenloft Dark Powers. In the pseudo-historical world of Averoigne and Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, I suppose we could call it a gift from Satan — but in both of these instances, it feels like a cheap excuse. So then I created a Crazed Human Goule as an interim step between Human and Ghoul with a bite, claws, and 1st level Rogue abilities. It does not feel as contrived but it still stretches credibility a bit. So I reserve the right to change Jean’s statistics later.
Part 5 of my adaptation of the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead into Averoigne and pseudo-historical 14th century France. Part 1 is found here.
As a working idea, I am placing this “swamp” in the Camargue of Southern France. While in Averoigne, the river Isoleil does empty into a wetland, I dermined in Part III that Averoigne itself is most likely in central France rather than southern france. However, the depiction of the swamp in this module is far closer to the Camargue than to a typical marsh. And yet, I am also working with the idea of renaming the Marais d’Tarascon to Le Village des Hiboux as that is the village in Averoigne right next to the wetlands. By the end of this series, I will resolve this conflict.
The adventure starts in the samp, so why are they there? Back in 1994 I had the PCs on a boat tasked with delivering something (a letter perhaps?) on behalf of their lord. There was a Sea Witch on shore who raised up a storm and capsized the ship.
Obviously this scenario will not work in central France, but it works very, very well for the Camargue. The party can start off in Constantinople and be bound for Marseille which is nearby or somewhere in Spain, Atlantic France, or even Britain for that matter. The advantage of forming the party in Constantinople is that it is the most cosmopolitan city in the 14th Century. PCs can come from a variety of backgrounds (as players are wont to do) and have a reasonable chance to meet in a sterotypical dive bar. Otherwise, the party is travelling through France (possibly already in Averoigne), get caught in a terrible thunderstorm, wander off the road and end up in marshlands. The party will not be nearly as diverse or cosmopolitan but they could be related (as they were back in ’94) or childhood friends. A third choice, is to start the party in Caffa, which is the capitol of the Genoese “colonies” or trading ports in the Crimea, and have them bound for Marseille. This is my preference because that mimics the historical transmission of the Black Death which I am planning on running as a Zombie Apocalypse. It also serves as a fun easter egg. The CDC has a fascinating article entitled Biological Warfare at the 1346 Siege of Caffa written by Mark Wheelis at UC Davis. Apparently the Mongols under Janiberg were besieging the city of Caffa when they were struck with the black plague. Before they withdrew, they catapulted (using trebuchets) the plague-infested corpses over the city walls! So for Grymwurld™ and Averoigne, this becomes the Golden Horde catapulting zombies over the city walls! The PCs fled on a ship to avoid the plague of zombies! Alternatively, they got on a ship from Caffa that stopped over at Constantinople and then sailed for Marseille. This is actually more likely because all ships departing Caffa for the Mediterranean Sea must pass through Constantinople. I like this better because it sets up a scenario whereby the PCs could chat up the captain and/or the crew and discover the story of the horrible Siege of Caffa. A ‘history geek’ player could connect the dots and get one of those “oh no” moments.
So the PCs met up in Constantinople dive-bar and boarded ship bound for Marseille. Little do they know that this ship is infected with the Black Death. Before making landfall in Marseille, they got caught in a terrible storm conjured by a Sea Witch. The party wake up at night in a saltmarsh amongst some of the wreckage of the ship. They do not know if they are the only survivors or not. What they do know is that they must seek shelter. The sky is heavily overcast and the ground is foggy.
This being D&D, of course Slavicsek has to throw monsters at the party before moving on to the adventure. Is this really necessary? Going with the shipreck scenario, the party is not going to have camping equipment. They might be able to scrounge enough material to build a makeshift shelter. Theoretically they could build a raft and attempt to navigate the swamp but I would rather have them follow a path then float on the water. Especially since it is impossible in NWN to float a raft across water. But more importantly, the only thing that the encounters do is scream at the players “THE SWAMP IS DANGEROUS!” I think it would be far scarier to play up the sounds and movements in the corner of the eyes and even let them find partially eaten corpses of the crew instead of straight-up combat.
Also, by not letting the party build a shelter and forcing them instead to seek shelter it sets up very nicely the discovery of the Fairy camp. After all, by meeting the fairies at night only enhances the otherworldliness of the scene. Did the fairies rescue the party? What are they doing in the swamp?
A band of travelling Elven Fairies have made camp for the night. The elves are distinct for their pale skin and hair as well as their pink eyes. They are albinos!
It is my personal theory that albinos are the source of elf lore. The Welsh fairy-dogs (cwn annwn) are albino. The white hart is an albino. In modern sub-Saharan Africa, albinos are thought to be inherently magical. The Alps is the legendary home of fairies. Depictions of elves are almost always of pale milky-white complexion. The words elf and the prefix alb- most likely derive from the same proto–Indo–European word.
Assuming that the party is reasonably polite, the elves will reciprocate with generous hospitality. This is an ancient trope both for the traditional hospitality towards strangers as well as the hypersensitvity of fairies towards politeness, respect, and hospitality. After chit-chatting, a female elf will offer to tell the party about Luc as well as the party’s fortune. Once she is finished, everyone retires for the night. The party sleeps and in the morning, the fairies and all evidence of them is gone.
If the party is gruff, they will not get the fortune. If they are rude or hostile the elves will attack. In the original module, four of the Vistani are 4 HD (21 hp) and three of them are 1 HD (4 hp). They are all AC 14, Attack +3, and damage is 1d8. Alignment is Neutral/Evil. Against a party of 1st level characters, a Total Party Kill (TPK) is unavoidable. And that is as it should be because a group of 1st level characters have no business insulting or attacking a group of seven fairies. Do they elves need to be 4 HD? Probably not. If just one of them is a sorcerer with a single sleep spell, the party is toast. And do they have to be evil? I fail to understand why. I think Chaotic/Neutral or Neutral/Neutral is more appropriate.
What is even more odd, is that attacking the Vistani triggers a Ravenloft powers check. This is typical of the 2nd Edition morality. Unlike first edition of AD&D where paladins are duty-bound to attack evil whenver and wherever possible, in 2nd Edition AD&D only evil actions count as evil regardless of whether the people committing the act are already evil… in spite of the fact that Detect Evil “detects evil monsters and characters.” (AD&D 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook premium edition p.38) This led to truly bizarre situations where a party knows for an absolute fact that an NPC is evil but yet are not allowed (according to the rules) to do anything except surveil that NPC, waiting for him to be true to his nature and commit an evil act. Well this is what I told the folks back on Usenet (alt.rec.rpg.dnd?):
“Detect Evil is literally a god-given ability to detect evil! A paladin is duty-bound to his deity to destroy evil! If a person pings on the Detect Evil radar, then not only is the paladin justified to kill the evil person, he is required to do so! Paladins possess a god-given license to kill evil.”
Enough ranting, back to the analysis of the module.
Remember back in Part II where I found in the Ravenloft Realm of Terror boxed set the following?
“None of the villagers ventures into the swamp willingly, but it is rumored that some outcasts live in floating houses deep within it. The shaman is not afraid to enter the swamp.”
Sure enough, on the next day [the module said 4th day but talk about a railroad!] they awaken to find the fairies gone and eventually stumble across Luc’s house on stilts. There appears to be now way to climb up. And yet the GM then reads aloud the following:
“Suddenly a rope ladder drops from the doorway. No figure steps into the light to greet you, and not even a shadow passes the open door. The ladder, constructed of wooden steps and thick rope, simply rools out with a brief clatter of knocking wood. The last step hangs just above the surface of the fetid water, inviting you to climb up into the warm light.”
A magick ladder! Wait, what?!? No, Luc does not drop the ladder and there is nobody else there. I get that Slavicsek is trying to be creepy here but this kills my suspension of disbelief. This is not a haunted castle, a posessed dungeon, or the domicle of a domain lord. It is a shack on stilts in the middle of a swamp, for crying out loud!
Not only that but Slavicsek actually encourages the PCs to be “murder-hobos” in the following:
“To the right of the door, unopened boxes have been neatly stacked against the wall. An open-topped barrel sits beside the boxes.”
The unopened boxes contain fresh food…. The stores are substantial: the PCs can eat heartily. The barrel contains fresh drinking water.
Slavicsek actually expects the PCs to rob Luc of food and water in the Land of Ravenloft Power Checks?!? Could the editor, Andria Hayday not have bothered inserting a statement explaining why a Powers Check does not apply? After all, killing Luc results in a powers check.
Well I am quite happy to report that back in 1994 the paladin in the group stopped the other PCs from taking the food and drink because clearly it belonged to Luc but that Luc was not in a position to offer it to them.
At any rate, Luc now follows the PCs around like a devouted linkboy chanting the following:
“The on descend shall evil of night the land, at near is signs of hexad this when hand.”
“As the PCs begin to leave the swamp and approach the village of Marais d’Tarascon, the sky fills with roiling black clouds.”
Wait a minute. I thought the sky was already overcast. Or is that the fog is now replaced by storm clouds?
“For the first time, lightning plays across the heavens. Still, no rain falls. The storm simply hangs over the swamp and village, occasionally sending a bolt of lightning toward the ground or letter loose a clap of ominous thunder.”
So what I can do is replace the fog with lightning. Should there be a risk of the PCs getting struck by lightning? Nowhere in the module does it mention the possibility.
At this point all of you Averoigne fans are wondering ‘where is the mother of toads?’ Excellent question. Just hang on and you shall see how I bring her in. As a side note, in French toads (crapauds) are masculine while frogs (grenouilles) are feminine. I wonder why Smith chose ‘toads’ rather than ‘frogs’? My guess is that he liked the sound of Mother of Toads better than Mother of Frogs.
Related to my series on adapting the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead module to Averoigne, I present my house rules for the Neverwinter Nights videogame: Grymwurld™ — NWN Edition. The reason being is that frankly, I find it tiring to juggle multiple game rules in my head. Back in 2000 when I switched to D&D 3rd Edition, I found it physically painful. I know, I know, hard to believe. But it is quite true. I literally got headaches from learning the new system. And it took some years to truly internalise the new system because it is so very different from all the previous versions of D&D. In 2002 I ended my last ongoing campaign because it was not fun for me at all. Also in 2002 the Neverwinter Nights videogame launched. What was and still is unique is that it comes with a fairly easy–to–learn toolset enabling the budding designer to create adventure modules, link them into campaigns, and even create persistent worlds! That toolset is precisely why there is still a strong and vibrant (albeit smaller) community of persistent worlds, custom content creators, and players today. I dabbled with the toolset at that time but dropped it in favour of running my soon–to–be ill-fated final tabletop campaign, Grymwurld: The Dark Ages™. In 2007 I picked up the toolset again and have been creating content ever since. Now I did try to get my kids into D&D when my eldest was in middle school but they preferred other games. This past summer I had better luck with my youngest who is in middle school now. The pandemic of course keeps everyone at home so he was bored. We played a number of times and even got the whole family in for a single session on my birthday. But now my youngest found a way to socialise with his friends online and lost all interest in playing with dad. Hopefully I can remedy that over the Christmas break but that remains to be seen. Since I cannot count on running a tabletop campaign, I have to focus on my NWN adventures. Therfore, going forward on this blog I will default to my quixotic attempt to make the third edition rules of NWN as Old School as I can tempered with my desire for a Sword & Sorcery + Weird Fiction + Mediæval Romance genre. So without further ado, below is the current draft of most of my “house rules” for Grym™ NWN:
For all difficulty levels:
Note that all other aspects of difficulty remain, e.g. fireballs damage the party on Hardcore and Very Difficult settings.
I design and test with the following options selected:
Females of all races get a bonus of +2 to their Dexterity ability score and a penalty of -2 to their Strength ability score. If you wish to play a female with no ability score adjustment, then select the large phenotype.
The only races available are the following:
Dwarf: Dwarf Humans have the same appearance as NWN Dwarves but have the following abilities: Intelligence & Wisdom +2; Strength -2. Favoured class is Rogue. Racial feats are Good aim, Small, and Weapon finesse.
Half-Elf: Half-Elves have a Charisma bonus of +2 and a Wisdom penalty of -2. Favoured class is Rogue. Racial feats are Alertness, Artist, Courteous magocracy, Nature sense, Partial skill affinity (Search & Spot), Skill affinity (Lore, Move silently, Search, & Spot), Stealthy, Trackless step, and Weapon finesse.
Oaf: Oaves are also known as hálftrollr or half-ogres. They get a bonus of +2 to Strength and a penalty of -2 to Charisma, Dexterity, and Intelligence. Favoured class is rogue. Racial feats are Epic armor skin and Weapon finesse.
Human: No changes. They still get any class as their favoured class, one extra feat and 4 skill points at character creation as well as 1 extra skill point with each level.
The following core classes are the only ones available. There are no prestige classes. Please read through them carefully as there are some significant changes especially with the cleric, druid, and ranger classes.
Note that all classes get Appraise, Bluff, Intimidate, Persuade, and Taunt as class skills. This is because in NWN, the PC is always the speaker unlike Baldur’s Gate I and II where you could select the most charismatic party member as the speaker. Also, this lends a more Old School feel to the game because back in the old days, how one rôleplayed was far more important than what was on one’s character sheet.
Gallowglass: In the Averoigne campaign, they hail from Norse-Gælic Britain. They are not “barbarians,” they are raging warriors. They do not spend their time hunting, they spend it in war. Their bonus 1st level feats are Barbarian Rage, Dodge, Power attack, Shield proficiency, Weapon finesse, Weapon proficiency (Exotic, Martial, & Simple). They can never take Called shot, Disarm, Improved disarm, Improved knockdown, Improved parry, Improved unarmed strike, Knockdown, or any ranged weapon feats. They make take weapon feats in the use of the Bardiche, Dalcassian axe, Great axe, and Great sword.
Troubadour: Basically NWN Bards with the following changes — Their spellcasting is limited to bonus spells and all skills are class skills. For feats, they get Bard song, Bardic knowledge, Curse song, Extra music, Lingering music, and Rogue weapon proficiencies at 1st level. Effectively they are rogues who trade sneak attacks for limited spellcasting.
Saint: Lawful/Good saints are called Eremites, Neutral/Good ones are Sarabaites, and Chaotic/Good ones are Gyrovagues. Saints have a d12 for hit point and the best saving throws. However they have no armour, shield, or weapon proficiencies. They cast spells and turn undead as D&D clerics but also have paladin abilities such as Lay On Hands. They have access to both divine and arcane spells but none that harm living creatures. [Mediæval Christian thought placed a great deal of value on ‘lawfulness.’ Thus, I was going to limit saints to Lawful/Good but then I read about sarabaites and gyrovagues which happen to line up with David Chart’s assertion that clerics and be any version of Good alignment.]
Man-at-Arms: Standard D&D fighter but with a d12 for hit points.
Cenobite: The D&D monk but with an emphasis on ascetism, self-mortification, puzzles, stealth, and traps rather than Far Eastern martial arts. [Does this class really belong? Granted there is some overlap between Clive Barker’s Order of the Gash and the flagellants but … probably best as an NPC class.]
Ranger: A warrior who ranges widely but with no spellcasting. Typically they serve as foresters and game wardens but also as bowmen and scouts during war.
Rogue: The D&D rogue but able to use bucklers (light shields) in exhange for the loss of the Use Magic Device skill.
Sorcerer: Cannot be Lawful in alignment and may not use scrolls or wands. Otherwise identical to the D&D sorcerer. Note that since sorcerers are natural talent arcane spellcasters they are at high risk of being accused of witchcraft. [Note that this is subject to change. Ideally, sorcererous spellcasting should be limited to bonus spells just like all other spellcasters. However, since sorcerers are natural talent spellcasters it just does not feel right to force them to depend on potions, scrolls, & wands like the magi.]
Magus: The D&D wizard except that they only get bonus spells due to high intelligence. They do get all item crafting feats at 1st level. These items do not have an XP cost (unless the spell has one) but the gold (material) cost is the same as the retail price.
Highly difficult traps may be detected and disarmed by anyone with enough skill rather than exclusively Rogues, e.g. Cenobites and Troubadours.
Firing into mêlée incurs a penalty of -10 to hit.
During character generation, ability scores may vary from 3 to 19.
Spellcaster’s prime requisite is raised from 10 to 14.
Armour: All armour has a 100% arcane spell failure. Dexterity bonus is capped at +6 rather than +1. Non-magical armours with an AC +9 and +10 are now available.
Helms: Great helms give a +2 and helms a +1 natural armour class bonus and both require the Armour proficiency (Heavy) feat to wear.
Multiclassing is discouraged. A such, a number of feats require class levels rather than a Base Attack Bonus or a Base Saving Throw Bonus.
Feats reclassified as epic: Point blank shot and Rapid shot
This is Part Four in my series on adapting the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead into Averoigne — the fictional province created by Clark Ashton Smith, a founding member of the Lovecraft Circle as well as the world of Cormac Fitzgeoffrey as written by Robert E. Howard.
In Part One, I explained why I am doing this as well as a bit about the first time I ran this adventure. In Part Two, I examined the introductory section of the module in detail. In Part Three, I examined the stories of the Averoigne cycle in an attempt to place Averoigne in historical France.
This post is Part Four and I shall do some analysis of the Averoigne stories and generate some ideas on what D&D rules should change to better fit not only the Night of the Walking Dead adventures but future adventures as well. The versions of D&D I will be adapting are AD&D 2nd Edition and D&D 3rd Edition as depicted in the Neverwinter Nights videogame.
I am taking Night of the Walking Dead out of Ravenloft and placing it in the pseudo-historical Earth of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard, specifically October of 1347 AD. Geographically, this adventure will take place in “Lower Averoigne” which for the time being is being modeled on the Ile de Camargue which is the largest river delta in France. I am also changing the name of Marais d’Tarascon (lit. swamp of Tarascon) to Le Village des Hiboux (the Village of the Owls) which is mentioned by Smith as being on the edge of a great marsh. The stories The Mandrake and The Mother of Toads occur in and around Les Hiboux. I intend to somehow tie this adventure into the Black Death which will become the “Black Undeath,” that is to say a plague of “zombies” instead of the bubonic plague. Some other ideas I need to flesh out are riz sang, the ‘blood rice’ grown in Les Hiboux and the mal aria (Lit. ‘bad air’) instead of malaria-infested mosquitos of the 14th C. Camargue. Shaman Brucian will be parson or vicar of The Church, the ju-ju zombie will be something else, and I may or may not allow Jean le Ripper (which I think is stupid & detracts from the story but I’m willing to be convinced otherswise). I also resolve to flesh out the NPCs by giving them Gothic motivations and conflicts.
Wherever possible, I will adapt the D&D ruleset to better fit Averoigne and Mediæval folk beliefs rather than vice versa.
The proverbial “elephant in the room.” The conventional wisdom is that it is impossible to discuss the Middle Ages or to describe a Mediæval setting without addressing religion. Although the counter argument is ‘what about Fairy Tales, Dietrich of Bern, Arthur, et alia’? But since some of the Averoigne stories have priest and monk supporting characters, we have to deal with it.
In The Colossus of Ylourgne, a pair of monks armed with holy water and crosses are unable to affect the demons and crossbows. Likewise the archbishop of Vyones is notably absent. The colossal zombie can only be stopped by Gaspard du Nord, a former pupil of the necromancer Naithaire who assembled the colossus. In The Beast of Averoigne, the bishop of Ximes and the archbishop of Vyones together send an agent to Luc le Chaudronnier, a known sorcerer, to convince him to stop the beast. Likewise none of the monks and nuns of the province are able to stop the colossus or the beast. In The Holiness of Azédarac, we learn that Azédarac while a bishop of Ximes is also a necromancer and a sorcerer which enabled his rise in the church.
What do these three stories tell us? There is a Roman Catholic Church replete with cathedrals, churches, monasteries, et cetera. Holy water and crosses in and of themselves have no effect on demonic spirits but this does not rule out D&D style turn udead which is level-dependent rather than available to everyone (as is the case in the Gothic genre). Priests, monks, and nuns are not D&D style clerics. They do not wear armour, carry maces, nor cast spells. They can turn undead but in the stories are too low-level to affect demonic spirits or colossal zombies. The Inquisition however, has a power strong enough to strike fear in the heart of sorcerers and necromancers. Smith never explains why that is though.
What then to do about D&D style clerics? First off, there is no record of ‘armoured saints’ in the history of world literature. So clerics do not wear armour nor bear arms. There are of course, a number of stories of “saints” in many religions. I am inclined to speculate that Smith thought poorly of religion and would dismiss saints of having worked actual miracles. However, I do not believe that it breaks Averoigne to allow them to either. So for now, Saints can be Lawful/Good Clerics with no weapon or armour proficiencies. To make up for the loss of arms & armour, they could be given paladin abilities (see below).
What about D&D style paladins? Just like the D&D style cleric, there is no literary record of pious warriors performing miracles. There are former warriors-turned-saints who performed miracles but only after foreswearing violence. Likewise there have and always will be pious warriors but their prayers are not more likely to be granted than any other pious person. In other words, no D&D style paladins.
How about in actual play? As a matter of fact, I did have a player who played a pacifist priest quite successfully. I will post the rules for a Culdean sometime in the future. In the meantime, I recommend the saint from the Medieval Player’s Handbook.
If religion is the elephant in the room, then is arcane magic the rhino?!? The magic-users (ususally referred to as “sorcerers”) of Averoigne include Gilies Grenier (The Mandrakes), Luc le Chaudronnier (The Beast of Averoigne), Azédarac Bishop of Ximes & Moriamis (The Holiness of Azédarac), Nathaire & Gaspard du Nord (The Colossus of Ylourgne), Mere Antoinette (Mother of Toads), and Sephora & Malachie (The Enchantress of Sylaire). What strikes me is that none of those spellcasters actually cast spells in the D&D sense. They all possess occult knowledge, craft potions & golems, and possess magical items if not ancient artefacts. The texts suggest that most of them know various magical ceremonies and rituals as well. This is actually an excellent design decision on Smith’s part because this is what Mediæval and Renaissance folk thought how magic works. Again I recommend the Medieval Player’s Manual by David Chart for its Cunning Man, Natural Magician, and Theurge core classes.
If you do not want to go as far as Chart did, you can do what I did: Arcane spellcasters get “0” spells per day and instead cast spells based on their prime requisite bonus. For example a wizard with an Intelligence ability score of 15 normally gets a bonus of one additional first level, one additional second level spell, and no additional cantrips. Under this system, a wizard will never get to cast more than a single 1st level spell each day regardless of level unless they raise their Intelligence. Likewise, starting at 3rd level they may cast a single second level spell each day. I also extend the spell bonus to include cantrips, e.g. 1 for Int 10, 2 at 18, etc. Now before you start howling, I give the arcane spellcasters all meta-magic and item creation feats at 1st level! So while our example 1st level wizard with a 15 Int can only cast a single cantrip and a single 1st level spell each day, they can brew potions, scribe scrolls, and craft wands. So these pseudo-historical wizards are packed to the gills with wands, scrolls, and potions. I also removed the XP cost from these items but also removed all ‘magick shoppes.’
Does this work with sorcerers and bards? Eh, not really. Sorcerers are probably best represented as with the class as is but requiring the race to be Tiefling or Cambion. Fairies would also be sorcerers but fairy PCs? Perhaps as a half-fairy (treat as a D&D Elf). However, the tiefling, cambion, or half-fairy PC is going to have trouble interacting with most people. Perhaps tieflings and half-fairies can pass for Human most of the time provided that they are not subject to close inspection. In other words, rather than horns or pointed ears, perhaps they have cloven hooves or a tail that they keep hidden. Or then again, perhaps they wear their hair long and always wear a hat. Also, since sorcerers are natural talent spellcasters they should not be able to read scrolls nor use wands and staves.
For Bards, I think it is best to remove their spells entirely but give them a bonus (+3) to their Use Magic Device skill (and make that skill exclusive to Bards) or at least given them bonus spells only.
The Medieval Player’s Manual is for the d20 System (D&D 3rd Ed.). How would we go about adapting the AD&D 2nd Edition ruleset for Averoigne?
Priests: Most priest kits will work with the following provisions — Lawful/Good, no weapons or armour, d12 hit die, and no multi-classing. Obviously certain kits like the Amazon make no sense at all.
Wizards: The Scholarly Mage from HR4 A Mighty Fortress is the best fit in my opinion.
Divine & Arcane Spells: Based on the Historical Reference Campaign Series of books, all spells take longer to cast. 1 segment takes 1 full round, 1 round takes 1 turn, 1 turn takes 1 hour et cetera. Somatic and material components are required rather than optional. PCs may only cast spells of 5th level or lower. Higher level spells are available on magic items (e.g. scrolls & artefacts) but may never be learned. The fantastic news is that the durations likewise last one step greater. A 1 round duration lasts for 1 turn, 1 turn lasts for 1 hour, et cetera.
Curing Spells: The HR books state that spells like Cure Disease give the victim a new saving throw versus poison rather than automaticaly curing the disease. Furthermore only a single affliction of that type can be cured in the victim’s lifetime. If you are going to restrict your priests to be Lawful/Good pacifists then I would not enforce this rule.
Healing Spells: The HR books state that healing spells are only 50% effective. The heal spell is not subject to this retriction because it is 6th level and only available as a miracle or as part of a holy relic.
Spectacular Spells: The HR books strongly discourage the use of spells like fireball and lightning bolt since there is no literary precedent for them. Spells should be subtle.
For D&D 3rd edition, the barbarian class can be used if it is renamed the Gallowglass, fighters are called Men-at-Arms, rangers are called Foresters and have no spells, but paladins are straight out. For the AD&D 2nd Edition rules see the following:
Inappropriate Classes: Barbarian (use Clansman kit instead), Druid, Monk, Paladin (see above), and Ranger (use Forester kit instead).
The Complete Bard’s Handbook: Gallant, Herald, Jester, Thespian
The Complete Fighter’s Handbook: Cavalier, Myrmidon, Noble Warrior, Peasant Hero, Pirate/Outlaw
The Complete Priest’s Handbook: Pacifist Priest & Scholar Priest only
The Complete Thief’s Handbook: Bandit, Beggar, Buccaneer, Scout, Spy
The Crusades: Monastic Warrior, Pardoner
A Mighty Fortress: Clansman, Courtier, Forester, Picaro, Scholarly Mage, Vagabond
From 1994 to 2001, I used these rules for my Grymwurld™ 2nd Edition campaign. It was the most enjoyable campaign I ever ran and the players enjoyed it as much. There were some minor differences from these rules (pacifist priests were N/G, implicit rather than explicit Christianity, &c.) but for the most part as detailed above.
What emerged from play is that spellcasters who carefully planned ahead could be quite powerful provided that they were well-protected at all times. Casting a spell in mêlée was almost impossible due to the long casting times so there were always shield-men to protect them.
There were no dungeon expeditions per se but there were a lot of undead-infested crypts and tombs as well as werewolf-haunted woods.
Since 2007, I have been designing and playing adventures for the Neverwinter Nights videogame which is based on D&D 3rd editions rules. I have not used any of the rules from the Medieval Player’s Manual but I have used my house rules for wizards, sorcerers, and bards. So far it is working out just fine. The bard is functioning as an alternative to the rogue so as to give us a choice between a striker (rogue) or a buffer (bard) who also removes traps and picks locks. I have not played the pacificst priest much nor have had anyone try it in NWN. I think for it to work properly in a videogame requires a lot more work on the part of the designer. Because when I ran the tabletop campaign I had no issues whatsoever.
Designing videogame adventures is an order of magnitude or more greater than running a tabletop campaign for GMs like me who make up most things on the fly.
The following what I did to adapt D&D (3e & AD&D 2e) to Averoigne. Note that I have not yet tried the Medieval Player’s Manual but it looks very promising, especially the way it handles divine and arcane magic.
Races: Human, dwarf Human, or Changeling (Half-Elf, Half-Orc, or Tiefling)
Classes (3e): Gallowglass (Barbarian), Man-at-Arms (Fighter), Forester (Ranger; no spells), Rogue, Saint (Cleric with healing, good, or sun domains), Sorcerer (Non-Human; no scrolls or wands), Troubadour (Bard with bonus spell only), and Wizard (Bonus spell only; Free meta-magic feats & item creation feats).
Classes & Kits (AD&D 2e): Bard (Courtier, Gallant, Herald, Jester, & Thespian), Cleric (Pacifist Priest), Thief (Bandit, Buccaneer, Beggar, Merchant-Rogue, Pardoner, Picaro, Scout, Spy, & Vagabond), Warrior (Cavalier, Clansman, Forester, Myrmidon, Noble Warrior, Peasant Hero, Pirate/Outlaw, & Monastic Warrior), and Wizard (Scholarly Mage).
Magic: 5th level spells maximum. Healing spells are only 50% effective.
Spells: Avoid spells with spectacular effects such as fireball and lightning bolt. In AD&D 2nd Edition, this is actually quite easier because there are literally hundreds of spells to be found in the Wizard’s Spell Compendium volumes I – IV (2,174 spells in toto) and the Priest’s Spell Compendium volumes I – III.
Click here for Part V.
