Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-where does I6 ravenloft fit in on greyhawk?

Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:53 pm where does I6 ravenloft fit in on greyhawk?

ok i'm new here, first off i'm running a 2nd edition greyhawk campange so i'm wondering if anyone has any ideas where i can fit I6 RAVENLOFT IN THE WORLD OF GREYHAWK not sure if this matters but my campaigne is pre war Question

thanks for the help

Fri Jan 20, 2006 1:08 pm Perrenland

Last time we had this discussion, many people favored placing Strahd's castle in the Yatil Mountains above Exag or somewhere else in northen Perrenland. And the Rhenee filled the role of Vistani, travelling up a local river to and from Lake Quag, and from there to the Velverdyva, running errands for the count.

Another opinion was somewhere in southwestern Aerdy - I cannot remember exactly where. Wes Clough had some good ideas on this approach. Perhaps he'll share his opinion again.

I think I6 Ravenloft is an awesome adventure - one of my favorites. I think it begs to be adapted fully to Greyhawk.
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Don (Greyson)

Fri Jan 20, 2006 3:10 pm

Now that is a unique idea. I had never considered placing I6 in Greyhawk before.

Thanks for posting that answer Greyson. I've always really liked that adventure as well, but could never figure out how to shoe-horn it into GH. I'd also welcome any of Wes' ideas, just from personal curiosity.

(And no, I'm not considering adding this to the atlas, btw... I'm honestly just curious about the details for home campaign use. Smile

)
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<div>Braggi, Swain and Varlet at Large<br /></div>

Fri Jan 20, 2006 3:46 pm

I was thinking Strahd should be a Knight of the Watch who became the ruler of part of Ket (in the name of Keoland) during the reign of Tavish II.

The valley of Barovia could have been part of Ket in the Yatil Mountains. Perhaps near Molvar? Or perhaps nearer the Tusman Hills, putting him at the absolute frontier driving the Kettish armies into Tusmit.

Or he could have ruled all of Ket, for that matter, if you want to make him a really big deal.

That fits with the idea that he was a warlord similar to Vlad Tepes fighting the Turks.

From Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill:

Fri Jan 20, 2006 4:25 pm

He could also have been a second generation Keoish-Kettish lord during the reign of Tavish III, helping to "liberate" Castle Ravenloft from the Kettites who had taken it back between the reigns of the Tavishes. His vampirization might have coincided with the final retreat of the Knights of the Watch from the land.

"The Lord of Ravenloft and all his household are dead. The cause is lost!"

With the castle thought to have been cursed, the Kettites would have avoided it from that point on, and a vampire lurking in the forgotten shell might go relatively unnoticed, except of course among the locals.

It's interesting to consider that there were several generations of Keoish lords in Ket, and they might have considered the land their ancestral right before the expansionist period was over.

The Vistani would probably be the land-roving kind of Rhennee, unless you place Castle Ravenloft near the Fals or Tuflik rivers (which would be easy enough).

Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:29 pm

Here's the easy answer: WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins includes a portal to Ravenloft.

Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:18 pm

true but i really don't want to use the demi plane of ravenloft i just want to run I6 and incorprate in to the world of greyhawk ans am trying to find the best spot

Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:03 pm

I placed it in Sunndi.

The country needed some spunk...
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Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:12 pm

Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:15 pm

I would never seriously run Tomb of Horrors in a campaign and any knowledgeable players would never go there.

Wastri? Well, he hasn't done much with hordes of trogs and lizardmen yet...
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Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:15 pm

If the terrain wasn't so flat, Blackmoor would've been a great spot for Barovia, moodwise.

Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:19 pm

Actually.. I did run the "Return to" version of ToH.

That was a long time ago though, when I just ran a "hack n' slash" game with little story, heh..
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Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:45 am

I am just gathering material of how to run I6 in the best way.

Now, my first question to the original thread start would be: Do you want to insert the whole country of Barovia from the RL setting into WoG or do you want to insert just village BArovia and the castle?

- IMC, I have thought of placing Barovia as a souvereign estate into the Bandit Kingdoms or into the Troll Fenns.

The essential point about i6 IMO is that characters get a sense of *backwardness* of the land and the people. Thus, the more isolated the region is, the better.

If you own the material, Aquaria or the Chainmail setting might also be a good place to set that adventure. Smile

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Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:54 pm

hi IVID, to answer you question i just planing to insert the village of barovia and the castle and a small poration of the forest, i would like to place in an small area covered in a fog mist i want my players to know this is not a fun place to be

Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:00 pm

Here is a LINK to a thread on the WotC message boards where we talked about this (I believe it is the discusion that Greyson refers to above).

Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:43 pm

Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:00 am

I think Rasgon might be onto something with the Keoish/Ket/Bissel angle. The region has the whole Vlad Teppes/Balkan/Ottoman/Europe feel (or can have). I've always senen Ket as being fairly Ottoman in feel - a mix of the Flanaess and the Baklunish west.

Moreover, his name sounds more Suel/Keoish than Oeridian to my ear. And the link to the Keoish "crusades" into Ket is a nice touch. There would have been Keoish settlers and nobles in Ket who - like the Franks of Outremer would have regarded Keoish Ket as their home and their birthright - and they'd have fought to the last Vlad Teppes style to protect it against the encroaching "Baklun hordes".

P.

Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:07 am

To place I6 in Greyhawk, first off I would recommend toning down the eastern European, classical Dracula emphasis of the adventure. You don't need to change anything major about the adventure at all, just a few names.

First off, locate Barovia somewhere in Greyhawk. The prior suggested locations are pretty good. If you choose the Yatils, between Ket and Perrenland there is a path that might have a turn-off that leads to the "Valley of the Mists". This "Valley of the Mists" could be a shunned place, as those who enter the mist seldom return or it could also be known to locals that beyond the mists lay the lands of Barovia.

You could also set the “Valley of the Mists” in the Lortmils or the Abbor-Alz.

Next, the gypsies are NOT gypsies. They are of course a band of Attloi(?), the land dwelling cousins of the Rhennee. The Rhennee/Attloi are basically gypsies and so the name change is all that is really necessary

That is about all you need to change I'd say. The changes are more cosmetic than anything. If you want to also run the sequel, the lands of Mordentshire can simply be a neighboring valley to Barovia.
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Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:43 pm

hi,CEBRION i think your idea is the way to go i love the valley of mist idea, i would also like to thank everyone for their ideas,if anyone else would like to list a few ideas please feel free to do so i'm sure other people may find them intersting or give them some ideas, as some of the ideas gave ideas where to retro fit other modules so thank you to everyone who responded

Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:13 pm

Basically, you want somewhere remote, but with history. Somewhere that used to be connected to the world, but now is isolated...a reason for having been left alone so long. If Strahd has ruled for centuries, why isn't his realm known yet? It has to be somewhere out of the way, but somewhere that didn't use to be out of the way.

Somewhere with forest and rugged hills or mountains as well.

In addition to those places already suggested (I like the ideas of both Ket and Sunndi), I would suggest the mountains east of the Ulek states or the Suss Forest. This depends on how the DM runs the world though - are the demi-humans so numerous and so in control that such places are very well known? Or is there still a great element of mystery to them? It would only work in the latter case.

If you did put it in this region, I would make Strahd *very* old and draw some sort of connection with Vecna or the Suel Migrations. Perhaps Strahd was one of the leaders of a Suel House, one of the 12 Houses.
The quote given...

"I was the warrior. I was good and just. I thundered across the land like the wrath of a just god, but the war years and the killing years wore down my soul as the wind wears stone into sand.

All goodness slipped from my life; I found my youth and strength gone and all I had left was death. My army settled in the valley of Barovia and took power over the people in the name of a just god, but with none of a god's grace or justice."

...could describe a good Suel scion worn done by years of bloody fights with the firstcomers and the Flan. When Strahd made the pact that brought him unlife, perhaps the deal was brokered by Vecna or a minion of his. Since then the forests have grown up and claimed Barovia, much as they did the Lost City of the Suel.

I6 was greatly appreciated by my players...not fun, but intense. I was in high school but waited until my parents were away for the night. We ran it as a single, all night session with no lights in the house but candles. Since I lived out in the country there were no other houses, noises, or lights around. We started in Barovia in the afternoon, and after the party had been in the castle a while the sun set outside. After a few hours of straining to see the dice, we were hearing and seeing things in the shadows. When the party slew Strahd and the sun came up in the module, just as the real sun was coming up, it was perfect. One of the players then collapsed in a chair, purple bags under his eyes, zombified by the lack of sleep. It was a great time.
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Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:28 am

Good ideas, though Straad is raven haried, so Oeridian would perhaps be better.

As to the pact, Straad could have made a pact with Incabulos or Nerull, giving him unlife, but trapping him and all those who enter the "Valley of the Mists".

With all the dreams/nightmares(this comes later) and other such horrors, Incabulos might actually be the more suitable of the two.

Incabulos might be the reason, but no mention need be made of this during the adventure, unless you want to include some Incabulos unholy text in Straad's library, or a journal entry as an obscure clue.
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Thu Jan 26, 2006 5:30 am

That quote from Kirt really chimed with the crusading Keolander in Ket idea raised above for me - especially the ideas of a just god (which screams Heironious to me - and he's the animating god of the Knights of the Watch IIRC).

P.

Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:25 am

Although this would require quite a bit of conversion and retconning -- if I were to run the module now and in Greyhawk I think I would set the module in the Bone March and have Strahd be one of the former Knight Protectors, now a death knight.

My DM in high school placed it in Perrenland and used the Rhennee as the gypsies, which worked fairly well.

Of course there is nothing wrong with using the module as is, I had the opportunity to play this at a convention with Tracy Hickman as the DM and it was great fun. Simply a classic module.

Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:55 am

Just a note - In Oct 2006, Wotc is releasing "Castle Ravenloft" at 160 or so pages, hardbound. No details yet but if it follows suit, it will be "generic" and adaptable to all settings, GH included, in the 3E way. Hopefully, there will be setting placement sidebars or notes.
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GVD

Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:58 pm

Hello All,

I am going to place it in the once great "Grand Duchy of Geoff." Out of the way, close enough to get a Slavic feel. Dark, mysterious, surrounded by giants. Yep, a place lost to time. Smile

Stupid Ahlissians,
Dwarf from Nyrond

Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:54 pm

I'm thinking of using the setting almost wholecloth as the focal point of a campaign I'm starting. No Strahd, different names, but the town and creepy feel work for me. I may end up taking the whole realm from the demiplane, in pieces maybe.

But, I think it works as a place that's maybe, i don't know, just, not right. And that's just the feel I want the players to have when they "come home."