New Averoigne Book and Neighbouring Poictesme

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.

THE AVEROIGNE CHRONICLES

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

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.

Night of the Walking Dead in Averoigne Part 9

Continuing my adaptation of the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead to Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne, Robert E. Howard’s Cormac Fitzgeoffrey stories, and mid-14th Century Petite Camargue region of France. Note that this post contains no “crunch” and thus is system and version agnostic. Part One can be found here.

Having finished my critical walkthrough of the module, I shall collect the ideas generated previously, refine them, and add some new ones. In this post I shall determine how to integrate the Mother of Toads and generate some additional sub-plots.

THE MOTHER OF TOADS

 Actually, I’m think less frog-like but fatter.

It is time to deal with the 800 lb. toad-mother in the room (to mangle mixed-metaphors). In Clark Ashton Smith’s short story Mother of Toads, the titular character is a witch or nymph who in her natural form appears as a large and very well endowed woman (with huge tracts of land) with decidedly frog-like characteristics who is lonely and/or sex-starved.

So this has inspired me to have a Heleionoma (wetland nymph) who is a manifestation of the locale’s flora & fauna. She appears as an almost inhumanly obese woman with features that are suggestive of frogs and toads, e.g. wide mouth, bulging round eyes, warts, clammy skin, et cetera. In order for Pierre the refugee of Tarascon to settle in this area, he must wed the mother of toads. All of their male offspring appear to be human (but with the “Innsmouth look”) whereas the female offspring are born as frogs. [In Northern French, the word for toad “crapaud” is masculine whereas frog “grenouille” is feminine.] The eldest son is always the heir to the land and must wed their mother. Yes, we are talking incest here.

Have you noticed that Jean, Marcel, and Luc are unmarried? Well, this is the reason why. Perhaps all heirs are forbidden from marrying anyone other than their mother, the Mother of Toads.

What is the Mother’s role in the story? First off, she is the witch that calls up a storm that wrecks the PC’s ship so that the PCs end up in her village to save her children. No doubt that she is upset and angry at their behavior but rather than giving up on them, she brought the PCs. Can she do anything else? If the PCs were to somehow find her and speak to her, could they persuade her to do anything? And if their persuasion were successful, what exactly could she do?

The land and her are interconnected, so she can animate any vegetation she chooses to. For example, if she were convinced to intervene then she could entangle the zombies when they attempt to ransack the village. As a life-giver, she could nurse the PCs back to health if they were injured. I am not sure what else she could do other than give advice perhaps. But her price is going to be sexual intercourse, being the sex-starved nymph that she is. This presents a fun rôleplaying opportunity for the GM to describe her in both alluring and repulsive terms, much like CAS did in his story.

What does Father Brucian think about her? At the very least he must acknowledge the reality of her existence. His seminary would have taught him to recognise her as a demon and so he would work very hard to free the Crapaud family from her embrace. However, he is not afraid to enter the wetlands and tend to Luc when the latter is convalescing there. Is it because he has faith that G*D protects him? Or perhaps he is one of those priests from the Early Middle Ages who reconciled with paganism rather than demonising everything that was not familiar? I have to suspect the latter rather than the former. The Mother of Toads is very real and has very real power. Smith demonstrates in The Colossus of Ylourgne that low-level monks with religious accoutrements (holy water & symbols) do not automatically turn undead, which of course D&D taught us as well. So Fr. Brucian has to take a pragmatic strategy and not directly oppose the Mother of Toads. Does he subtly oppose her or does he accept her and Christianise her? Given the Albigensian Crusade in the past century, could Fr. Brucian be a secret Cathar or a member of the Dominicans who served as inquistors? At the very least the memories of the crusade would still linger. Brucian as a Scotsman could have joined the Dominicans and eventually be assigned to Tolouse and somehow ended up here. In fact I think it is more likely for a Scotsman to have ended up here as a Dominican rather than for the Church to have transferred him here. While a form of Catharism did get a foothold in London, there is no evidence of it in Scotland. So as long as Brucian is a Scotsman, it makes the most sense that he is also a Dominican friar — but the fact that he is Neutral/Good also explains why he is only loosely attached (if at all) to the Ordo Prædicatorum.

What does the Mother of Toads think then about Fr. Brucian? She would no doubt accept him if he honoured (worshipped) her. But what if he were to attempt to proselytise her? From a Christian perspective, are nymphs in fact nephilim or angels who fell to Earth but not Hell? Do they have free will? First off, I think that the Mother of Toads as a heleionoma is probably Neutral/Neutral in alignment and intent as she is a manifestation of the land and the life upon the land. From a Greco-Roman perspective, the Mother is the daughter of Le Ròze (Fr. Le Rhône; L. Rhodanus; Gr. Rhodanós) river. Given Smith’s story as well as fairytale traditions, I think that the Mother of Toads embodies vanity, gluttony, and lust. So long as she is worshipped, flattered with praise, and gifted with food and sexual partners, she will respond in kind with her blessings. Whereas if she is denied, she will exact vengeance with a fury.

Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d.

— From the play The Mourning Bride, 1697 by William Congreve.

In other words, she is good towards her worshippers and evil towards those who do not. And given that Brucian is Neutral/Good rather than Lawful/Neutral he is going to be more flexible and pragmatic in supporting and promulgating Goodness. Combined with the reality of her power over the local area, Brucian would either martyr himself by taking a hard opposition to her or flirt with heresy in order to accomodate her.

I think then this is the key: Brucian has had to compromise his religious tenets in order to accomodate the continued presence of the Mother of Toads and he feels guilty for that. He brings offerings to her and pushes Jean to satisfy her carnal desires all the while preaching Mediæval Catholic Christianity to everyone else. The heleionoma does not care one way or another what Brucian tells the parishioners, so long as she is treated as the (very minor) goddess that she is.

So what can the PCs do for her and get in return? Once they properly present themselves to her, there is the aforementioned healing & curative magicks as well as entangling the zombies (if they run to her rather than the cemetery). She could also send an army of frogs into the rice fields to fight the zombies, or at least slow them down — this seems more fitting than entangling the zombies. She could give the PCs information on the history of the manoir, the Crapaud family, and recent events. Or perhaps she could give them a potion of frog swarm summoning. Just pour the potion on the ground and a huge swarm of frogs will arrive. I rather like the idea of distracting the zombie army with an army of frogs!

IN SUMMATION

The Mother of Toads is a minor goddess who shipwrecked the PCs in order to save her village. If they approach her appropriately, she will reward them with druid spells and a potion of frog summoning.

Frère Brucian is a Dominican (Blackfriar) preacher who has compromised his faith in order to protect the village from the wrath of the Mother. He is wracked by guilt but does his best to hide it as well as hide the cult of the heleionoma from the PCs.

 Portrait of a Dominican Friar by Peter Paul Rubens

Click here for Part X wherein I perform an autopsy on Marcel, the zombie lord!

Night of the Walking Dead in Averoigne Part 4

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.

RECAP OF PARTS 1, 2, & 3

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.

ADAPTING D&D TO AVEROIGNE

Wherever possible, I will adapt the D&D ruleset to better fit Averoigne and Mediæval folk beliefs rather than vice versa.

Races

In Smith’s stories, the protagonists are all Human. The antagonists are Human, dwarf Human, Tiefling or Half-Elven, as well as monsters (Fairy, Vampire, &c.). I think that half-orcs could be allowed if you follow the AD&D Monster Manual’s rule that PC half-orcs pass for Human. Dwarf-Humans are small Humans rather than Tolkeinesque dwarves. I suggest a -2 strength and a +2 intelligence.  Remember that it is imperative that the half-Humans do their best to pass for Human otherwise they will be hunted down as monsters.

Religion and D&D style Clerics

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.

 

Arcane Magic

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.

AD&D 2nd Edition

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.

Other Classes

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

ACTUAL PLAY

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.

IN SUMMATION

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.

Night of the Walking Dead in Averoigne Part 2

I absolutely love this painting by Robh Ruppel! I almost hate to admit it but this painting is the primary reason I bought the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead. Up until this point in 1992, TSR had never published an illustration of zombies that looked as horrible and fearsome as this! Say what you will about the so-called “watered-down” version of D&D to placate the Satanic Panic, this picture beats everything prior to it!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am going to adapt Night of the Walking Dead to 14th century Averoigne for both my tabletop game as well as an adventure for the Neverwinter Nights videogame. In this post I am going to analyse the module as written by Bill Slavicsek to seek a thorough understanding. My philosophy is to understand the rules as written before changing them. (I didn’t start following that philosphy until the last decade of so but it serves me well today) but that does not mean I will not make note of “suggested” changes. Well… how about I make the changes tentative as I strive to understand the module…? *Sigh* I am an ‘old dog’ who learned to DM with the D&D White Box + Greyhawk rules in 1977 and have a very difficult time to learn the “new tricks” of using the Rules As Written.

INTRODUCTION

For the DM

This module is designed for 4–6 players of levels 1–3. Since my adaptation will be for a single player with three henchmen (effectively 4 players), it would seem the party should be 3rd level. That is too high level for my taste. I like to start campaigns at 1st or 2nd level. However, I do want the characters to be truly veterans and not just fresh out of “boot camp.” If they are 1st level, I will let them have maximum hit points. Regardless of whether they are 1st or 2nd level, they can have any amount of normal, non-magical equipment appropriate to 14th century Europe. If they are 2nd level, I will allow them to have access to any technology from the Old World. The one exception being gunpowder. At this point I have no desire to allow any kind of gunpowder weapons and frankly given the primitive technology of the time, I fail to see the benefit of doing so.

This adventure takes place in the Marais d'Tarascon, on the island domain of Souragne in Ravenloft. According to Google Translate, ‘marais’ is most often translated as marsh or swamp. As I mentioned in the previous post, I am placing this adventure in the historical Camargue region of France. The Camargue is the Rhone river delta that empties into the Mediterrean sea. As a river delta, it is comprised of salt marshes and brine lagoons. So rather than introducing players to Ravenloft, I will be introducing them to Averoigne.

Even though I will be placing this adventure in Averoigne, it will help us understand the design and intent of the module if we understand what Slavicsek was working from. Prior to this module, the only mention of Souragne comes from the the Realm of Terror boxed set published in 1990 by Bruce Nesmith with Andria Hayday. Here is the relevant text:

The Lord and the Law: Anton Misroi, the zombie master, is lord of this domain.

The Land: A slice of dry land covers the eastern side of Souragne, but the western two-thirds is a dark, swampy maze of waterways winding through towering cypress draped with moss. Most of the swamp region is submerged. A few solid patches of land rise out of the water, but only a handful of men know their location.

Souragne includes a sliver of ocean on its northern side. The land gives way to a band of saltwater before it meets the Ravenloft Mists a few miles offshore. A small town, Port d’Elhour, lies on the coastline east of the swamp.

The Folk: Souragnien people are very superstitious. They believe in a variety of nature gods, including the “Lord of the Dead,” who watches over the swamp. 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.

Notice that Slavicsek directly lifted ‘zombie master,’ ‘floating houses,’ and ‘the shaman entering the swamp’ for this adventure.

Story Background

Tarascon: It is very interesting that Slavicsek chose Tarascon as the family name for the rulers of the small village. Tarascon is a historical city in southern France located on the east bank of the Rhone river south of Avignon and north of Arles. Since I am placing Averoigne in the Southern portion of the Rhone river valley, Tarascon automatically becomes included. How convenient! Also of note is that the Tarasque (Latin Tarasconus) gets its name from Tarascon becuase that is where St. Martha subdued the tarasque in turn allowing people to safely kill it. Perhaps Pierre Tarascon, the progenitor of this family fled Tarascon?

Plantation: There are frequent references to the Tarascon “plantation.” First off, plantation is an anchronism. In this module, it is being used as an allusion to the plantations of the American South which combined with the name ‘marais’ evokes the 18th and 19th century plantations of Louisiana. I will change it to manour or village as necessary. This farming community is “fairly prosperous” but what are its products? As it turns out, the wetlands of the Camargue are conducive to rice and a red variety of rice (riz rouge) is native. Now what if we go one step further, and call it riz sang or blood rice? There could be an entire story of how the rice from this particular manour has the colour of blood and is rich in iron!

Timeline: The module does not specifiy which season or month of the year this story takes place. For my purposes, it will take place in October of 1347 which is when the Black Death arrived in Europe. When I ran this adventure in 1994, I used it as the launching for the Zombie Apocalypse replacing the historical Bubonic Plague of the 14th century. I am a bit torn between following this adventure faithfully versus using it for the start of the Zombie Apocalypse. So this is something I need to figure out. Also, it would be pretty cool if I can also link this to Hallowe'en. At any rate, the cause of this adventure begins three weeks prior to the arrival of the PCs.

Summary: Tarascon Manour is owned by the Tarascon family consiting of twins Jean & Marcel and younger brother Luc. It appears that the brothers are all unmarried because there is no mention of any wives nor betrothed for that matter, which is quite odd since wealthy families have been arranging marriages since the dawn of time. Jean plays the role of steward to the estate and thus is the de facto lord of the manour. Marcel has no interest whatsoever in practical matters, rather his interest lie in his family’s past. Wait, what?!? He spends his time doing genealogical research? And Jean is fine with that? The idea of the idle rich is also an anachronism. Traditionally, wealthy families would get the eldest son knighted and the second son into the Church. So how did Marcel end up a layabout? My thinking is that the family sent Marcel to the University of Montpellier because that is the closest one. It is also quite possible that he discovered black magic (nigromauncie) while he was there. I thought about Eustace the Monk who learned black magic in Toledo but could not justify a middle-class family sending a son there when Montpellier is so close. The bottom line is that Marcel most likely acquired a level in wizard/mage/magic-user while there and indulged his interest in the dark arts when he returned. Why else would he be facinated by his family's past?

Shortly after returning home, Marcel discovers Pierre the founder’s journal. The journal describes the early days of the farmstead which is left to the GM to define. It also mentions the arrival of Hyskosa, a famous Vistani seer. Interestingly, Slavicsek uses the term “gypsy seers” as a synonym for the Vistani. I note this because TSR had been very careful to use gypsy imagery but to never use the word ‘gypsy.’ I guess this one slipped past Andria Hayday. To continue, the journal goes on to say that the gentleman Hyskosa told Pierre the powerful revelation of the Six Signs. Apparently Pierre sumarized the prescience but we are not told what that is. Marcel is far more interested in the notation that a scroll containing the Revelation of the Six Signs was left behind and hidded by Pierre more than two centuries ago. For some unexplained reason, Marcel came to believe that the scroll contained the secrets of power and immortality. We are told that the Demiplane of Ravenloft fueled Marcel’s obsession with finding the scroll. Of course, I am unconcerned about the rôle of Ravenloft but it is interesting to note that by this time Ravenloft has swallowed up Souragne. Neither the module nor the boxed set tells us exactly when Souragne joined Ravenloft nor why. I do not think we need any dark powers to fuel Marcel’s obsession wth the scroll given that he somehow came to believe it contains the “secrets of power & immortality.”

Meanwhile we are told that the twins have a younger brother, Luc and that their mother Claudine died giving birth. [Oddly, we don’t learn her name until we get to the discovery of the Tarascon mausoleum in the new cemetery. Another editing oversight.] Luc grew up idolizing Marcel for some reason, which suggests to me that Marcel is significantly more charismatic than his twin, Jean.

Three weeks ago Luc spies a Vistani wagon and pays a young gypsy girl named Valana to tell his fortune. [Perhaps the Vistanic are a type of Gypsy?] Luc’s fortune as it turns out, are “cryptic” directions to the “Crypt of Stars” in the old cemetery. Yeah, it really says that. (Eyeroll) Luc grabs Marcel and together the push aside the stone slab with six stars, crawl through the tunnel, push the statue out of the way, wander around the old cemetery until they spot a tomb with six stars on the door, get it? All these years of Marcel searching for a scroll of six verses but he never checked the Old Cemetery. Now the brothers break into the tomb and find the scroll. But it is Luc who reads it and not Marcel, which is bizarre given how obsessed Marcel is with reading it. During the reading, they are attacked by a “ju-ju zombie” and some other zombies. For those of you who do not recall, “juju zombies” first appeared in the AD&D Monster Manual II (1983). They are created when a magic-user drains all the life out of a victim by using the energy drain spell and can only be hit by a +1 or greater magic weapon. In the AD&D Players Handbook (1978), energy drain is the reverse of the 7th level clerical spell restoration. In Unearthed Arcana (1985), it appears as a 9th level magic-user spell and mentions the creation of juju zombies. This is important to note because this ju-ju zombie who kills Marcel was created by a mage of at least 17th level! Why was there an arch-mage in the Marais d’Tarascon? Who became the ju-ju zombie? Whoever it was became the guardian of the old cemetery in general and of the Hyskosa scroll in particular.

So what do we do with the ju-ju zombie? Given that they are created by arch-mages, there is always a story behind each one. However, I cannot help but suspect that Slavicsek choose to include a ju-ju zombie because this is supposed to be a ‘zombie’ module and did not think anything more beyond that. The reason being, is that introducing a result of a 17th level mage energy draining a person is huge! Campaign defining huge! 17th+ level are legendary archmages and everything they do impacts the world! We are talking the most powerful wizards in legend such as Merlin, Morgana le Fey, and Maugris. Did Maugris (or Merlin or Morgana) stroll into the Marais d’Tarascon and energy drain someone into a ju-ju zombie, leaving them in the Old Cemetery to guard it? I very, very seriously doubt it. So in this particular case, rather than expanding the story to fit the module, I think it is best to replace the juju zombie with an ordinary zombie (or one of my Grym zombies I'll detail later). It also takes care of the issue that 1st level characters will not have a +1 weapon between them and juju zombies require that!

Getting back to the history, Marcel is killed by the ju-ju zombie but Luc is untouched. Conviently Jean was following them from a safe distance and comes to Luc’s rescue. Jean somehow wrests Marcel’s corpse from the ju-ju zombie and leads Luc out of the Old Cemetery. Amazingly, Jean and Luc can outrun the ju-ju zombie despite being burdened with Luc’s corpse and the ju-ju zombie moving at 9." Now Luc would be unencumbered at 12" but Jean with a corpse?!? I think 6" at best! And yet somehow they escape. Does Jean have a magic weapon? Not according to the text. Also, ju-ju zombies can shoot bows as well as climb walls like a thief (92%). So why did the ju-ju not shoot Jean or follow in the tunnel? Et cetera, et cetera. But if we replace the ju-ju zombie with normal zombies, then Jean can lead them away to the far corner, double back and take Marcel’s corpse. Yeah, I think replacing the ju-ju zombie is a really good idea!

Jean takes Marcel’s corpse to Brucian, the village shaman…. Hang on a minute, shaman? Is Brucian an AD&D 2nd Edition priest [cleric] with the savage priest kit? According to the AD&D 2nd Edition PHBR3 The Complete Priest’s Handbook (1990):

“This is a shaman of a savage tribe. This character is a member of the tribe. The tribe itself is a technoligically and culturally primitive one (by the standards & in the opinions of more “civilised” cultures), but is also one which is attuned to the natural forces of the world. The Savage Priest interprets the will of his god and acts as an advisor or leader to the members of his tribe.”

This strikes me as a bit odd, so I will peel back the layers of this onion so to speak. First off, in the Realm of Terror, recall that “the shaman is not afraid to enter the swamp.”

We have every reason to believe that Brucian is in fact the very shaman who is not afraid to enter the swamp. Slavicsek made the village priest a “shaman” precisely because he was working off the summary of Souragne found in the Realm of Terror. And remember that Andria Hayday co-created the Realm of Terror and also edited the Night of the Walking Dead. So she would have been fully aware of the connection. As an astute reader, you are probably wondering if Nesmith and Hayday were thinking of the priest kit or the AD&D shaman, given that the CPH was published the same year as the Ravenloft boxed set. Well, it really does not matter. According to the AD&D DMG, shaman are just clerics with a limited spell selection and cavemen (the only humans with shaman) shaman are not limited to 7th level unlike the humanoid shaman.

But why the choice of “shaman” instead of village priest or druid, for that matter? Surely Nesmith & Hayday and later Slavicsek intended that this priest be a Ravenloft stand-in for a voodoo priest. The imagery they evoked with Sourage is a mix of antebellum Lousiana and Haiti with bayous, zombies, and French masters.

So what we have then is that Jean took Marcel’s corpse to the local voodoo priest and that priest attempted to raise Marcel from the dead but the operation failed. Raise Dead?!? That is a 5th level priest spell! Is Brucian 9th level or higher? He is after all, the shaman of Souragne…. Yet we learn later on in the module that Brucian is only 2nd level and has a scroll with two raise dead spells remaining. So the famous shaman of Souragne is only 2nd level. Okay, I can work with that. (On a separate note, if Nesmith & Hayday envisaged the shaman as an AD&D witch doctor then Brucian should also be a 1st or 2nd level mage as well.) So Jean cries out in anguish when his twin fails to revive because he somehow knows that Marcel is now the undead and not just any undead but a Zombie Lord! Meanwhile Brucian probably thinks that Marcel failed his Resurrection % check (A CON of 10 has a 25% chance of failure). Jean goes mad, thinking that he must protect Marcel from his obsession and so he snatches the Hyskosa scroll from Luc and hides it. When Jean notices that Luc mutters mixed-up sections from the scroll, he banishes Luc to the swamp. But then…

“Jean promised to locate the scroll for Marcel, swearing to search for it as long as he drew breath. Never did he reveal to Marcel that he had hidden it, nor did he reveal to anyone what his brother Marcel had become.”

Wait, what? Jean hides the Hyskosa scroll but swears to search for it?!? I suppose what Slavicsek meant to say is that Jean made a false promise to his (un)dead twin brother to search for the scroll thinking that Marcel would believe him.

“Marcel now resides in the old cemetery, intent on creating undead servants while Jean continues to search for the scroll. For three weeks Marcel has used his powers to kill villagers; when they rise, they become zombies under his control. Though Marcel does not have the scroll, he believes that an army of undead will help him taker over this island of terror. (To date, the true lord of Souragne [Anton Misroi] has not intervened.”

How can Jean continue to search for the scroll when he knows where he hid it. Why did Hayday as the editor not change this to ‘continued to promise Marcel that he was searching for it’ or somesuch? And how did Marcel end up in the Old Cemetery? Was there a funereal? There must not have been since nobody has the key to the Old Cemetery. Did Jean drag his brother’s corpse through the tunnel or wait for Marcel to rise as the Zombie Lord and stagger there himself? Why is Jean letting Marcel kill off the villagers? I get that the shock and trauma of his twin dying and rising as an undead has caused him to go mad. I could accept that Jean locks himself up in his sanctuary and does nothing while Marcel murders the village.

“The village has to content with more than just Marcel, however. Jean has become a murderer as well as a madman. He takes victims to the zombie lord as both an offering and a sign of his growing affection for the undead.”

So Jean’s coping strategy is to become ‘Jacque le Ripper’?!? And he now has a growing affection for the undead? When I ran this adventure back in 1994, my players and I found this premise ridiculous. Twenty-six years later, I still find it ridiculous. Perhaps if the writing and editing were different, I could appreciate but…. Later on we learn that Jean forces his servants to eat the flesh of some of the victims which turn them into ghouls. That is a very interesting theme but….

This is the crux of the matter — my primary criticism of this module. There are three themes that fight to be the central theme. First we have a zombie master who goes about the village at night whose breath and/or farts are so noxious that people keel over and die on the spot only to revive moments later as a zombie slave, although sometimes their rising happens much later. Second we have Jean le Ripper murdering people also night. Third, sometimes Jean gives the corpses to his brother Marcel but sometimes he feeds them to his servants, thus forcing them to become ghouls but he is too cowardly to eat the corpses himself despite his growing affection for the undead. I think this module would be a lot less confusing and hence more enjoyable if there was a single central theme instead. Zombie Lord is a great theme for an adventure. Jack the Ripper is a great story. Crazy guy feeding corpses to his servants thus creating ghouls is a great story. Why create a mash-up? Given the limited pagecount of modules, these competing central themes prevents the exploration of the supporting cast. In every Gothic story, everyone has dark secrets. In this adventure, we have… Jean? This is Ravenloft, for crying out loud! There should have been a single central theme, e.g. Marcel as a Zombie Lord with the named NPCs all having dark secrets.

So I think this is my mission here. To take a single theme (i.e. Marcel as a zombie lord) and to flesh out the NPCs to turn this into a true Gothic story. I also wish to place the adventure in Averoigne and interject some of Clark Ashton Smith’s sardonic and ironic humour into it as well.

The Hyskosa Scroll

The proverbial MacGuffin. More than two centuries ago (late 1000s to early 1100s) a Vistani (Gypsy) seer named Hyskosa had a revelation about six events that were to take place in the distant future. He wrote down this revelation in a scroll and left at least one copy in each of the Ravenloft Domains he visited (Vistani are the only ones who can freely travel between the domains). The actual scrolls are powerless nevertheless there are some like Marcel who believe that they do contain real power.

Who are the Vistani? In this module, Slavicsek uses Vistani and Gypsy interchangeably. Throughout the Ravenloft publications, the Vistani are a stylized and sterotypical depiction of late 19th century Romani (1850–1920) given their use of the vardo (wagon). This is the image we have seen in The Wolf Man and Dark Shadows, so it should not at all be surprising to find them in Ravenloft. There are no gypsies or Romani mentioned in any of Smith’s stories set in Averoigne so we have to look to the etymology of the word ‘gypsy’ and the history behind it. According to Etymology Online it first appeared in English as a noun in 1600 and an adjective in 1620 and spelled ‘gipsy’. Interestingly it also says that in Middle French they were called ‘Bohémien’ and in Italian & German ‘zingari’ (cf. Zingara in Hyboria). Apparently in the 1400s the French either thought the gypsies came from Bohemia or confused them with the Hussite refugees (c.1419–1434). The genetics show that the Romani originated in South Asia and linguistics point to Northeast India. In 1323 they were observed in Crete and in 1360 there were Romani serfs in Corfu. According to Wikipedia they reached Bohemia by the 14th century but most likely as slaves. So it is possible, if a bit of a stretch to have Vistani as gypsies.

Wikipedia further claims that ‘gypsy’ can refer to Tinkers and Travellers, in other words all sorts of itinerate folk. However the genetic, linguistic, and historical data on the English, Irish, Scottish, & Welsh travellers shows that these groups did not form until the 1500s at the earliest. So that leaves Tinkers of which the occupation dates to the late 14th c. according to Etymology Online. I find it highly suggestive that the arrival of the tinker occupation and the gypsies to be a very similar timeframe given that historically many tinkers were thought to be gypsies. At any rate, whether they are called ‘gipsies’ or ‘tinkers’ it is a bit of a stretch but not anachronistic to describe the Vistani as a sort of tinker-gypsy so long as we leave out the vardos.

What if the Vistani were fairies? Given the rôle that the Vistani play in this module (as we shall see), they act very much like fairies. The magically appear in the swamp, offer hospitality if treated respectfully, tell the party’s fortune, and then disappear at dawn. I think that your typical person  in the Middle Ages would call them as fairies rather than tinkers!

Adventure Synopsis

In this section of the module, Slavicsek would summarise the most likely path the PCs will take, the most likely PC actions, and the appropriate outcome. Except that he does not quite do that. In fact, what he does is tell the story of what is supposed to happen. *Sigh* As others have pointed out, this adventure leans very heavily towards the “railroad” style of RPG design. The biggest nit I have with this “synopsis” is that it presumes that the PCs can break into Jean’s townhouse. Except that the locks “are of masterful quality (-60 open locks modifier).” A 1st level thief with an 18 DEX who put the maximum 30 points into open locks has a base success of 55% but versus these locks has a -5% chance of success — in other words impossible! The party is forced to break down the door or a window with a base 50% chance of being spotted or heard with bonuses for “caution and quite” as the DM sees fit. The constable will arrive in 1d6 rounds (1–6 minutes) to arrest the PCs. I can imagine that Slavicsek wanted to raise the tension of the situation by having the constable arrive and search for the PCs in the townhouse. But why not allow the thief to unlock the door? Why bother playing a thief if you cannot show off your buglar skills? After all, he will not get to backstab any zombies….

IN SUMMATION

To recap the adaptation so far, this adventure takes place during October of 1347 AD in the Camargue region of Averoigne rather than the domain of Souragne in Ravenloft. It will be for four PCs (player + 3 retainers) of 1st or 2nd level. The manour (not plantation) will be famed for its riz sang or ‘blood rice.’ Marcel was educated at Montpellier but did not enter the seminary and instead has taken up nigomauncie. Jean is the Sieur or Mesne Lord in that he is a gentleman who holds the land in tenantcy from a greater lord most likely the Abbey of Psalmody (Abbaye de Psalmody). The Vistani are actually fairies. The ju-ju zombie will be either a be a Rotting Dead or some type of skeleton (I will detail my Grym zombies & skeletons in a future post). Brucian will be a village priest or vicar rather than a “shaman” or a witch-doctor for that matter. For the time being, I am going to put the Jean le Ripper theme on the “back-burner” until I am convinced that it is integral to the success of the module. And finally, I resolve to make the NPCs more fitting for a Gothic novel or Averoigne story by introducing motivations, dark secrets, and conflicts with the other NPCs.

Click here for Part III.

Night of the Walking Dead in Averoigne Part 1

I cast raise dead on Night of the Walking Dead in Averoigne for the second time! This is my third attempt at adapting this Ravenloft module for the Neverwinter Nights videogame. Back in 1994, I ran this module for my AD&D 2nd Edition post-Crusades pseudo-historical setting using the Historical Reference Campaign Sourcebook of the same name.

RQ1 is set in the Ravenloft domain of Souragne, in the village of Marais de Tarascon. Sounds French, right? Since Grymwurld is not Ravenloft, I set this adventure in the Averoigne province of Occitania. Here is where it all ties together geographically: Marais de Tarascon is set on the edge of a swamp and everyone speaks French. The description in the module makes it sound very much like a Ravenloft version of 19th century Louisiana without the gunpowder (more on this later). On the southern coast of France is the Camargue (Carmaga in Occitanian) region which is a huge delta where the Rhône river meets the Mediterrean sea. Aha! Now I can set the module in historical France. Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) a friend of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard as well as a founding member of the Lovecraft Circle was a prolific writer and poet. For D&D fans, he is know as the author of what came to be known as the Averoigne Cycle. A set of weird fiction/sword & sorcery short stories set in the South of France during the High Middle Ages. List most of us, I was first introduced to CAS in the Expert D&D module X2 Castle Amber (which I ran using the AD&D rules). Tom Moldvay is a huge CAS fan, and incorporated many of the elements from Smith's Averoigne stories in the module as well as Averoinge itself.

So now we have a pseudo-historical weird fiction/sword & sorcery setting of Averoigne taking place in Medieval Southern France, equating the southern tip of Averoigne with the Camarque region of France, combined with Night of the Walking Dead. So far so good, right? (In a future post, I will go into details as to why I believe Averoigne fits well in the Southern Rhône river valley.) Technically speaking, the people of Southern France do not speak French, they speak Occitanian. This was especially true during the late Middle Ages but for now I am going to gloss over that detail considering that the Night of the Walking Dead module itself has numerous non-French NPC names.

So back in 1994, I ran a group of three players through the module and the result was … underwhelming. Overall the group and I found the imagery in the module evocative but the actual adventure to be a railroad with a lot of 'What the heck?!?' moments. I am going to run this adventure for my son over the Christmas break since thanks to the pandemic, he is a captive audience… and I am also developing a Neverwinter Nights version of this. So in preparation for the tabletop and videogame versions, I am going to do the following: Analyse this module to ensure I understand it the way the author Bill Slavicsek intended, figure out how to reduce the “railroadness” of the experience, and how to better incorporate the Averoigne and Historical Southern France setting. If this all works out well, I will develop an entire Mediæval Sword & Sorcery campaign. Next up is the analysis of RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead.

Click here for Part II.