The Funeral Gardens and Havenhill

Below are two locations that might be explored in adventures in Sibersk:

The Funereal Gardens

On a small parcel of land in Sibersk sits the abode of Eurysa Margrave, a celebrated “sculptor,” and her famed garden of statues.

    • Eurysa is a medusa, a fact she takes pains to hide. 

    • Her sculptures are simply men and women who have been kidnapped and turned to stone under her dreadful gaze. 

    • Eurysa prefers to capture her subjects either in moments of pleasurable abandon or at the panicked heights of fear. 

    • The vampire lords and ladies of Sibersk make it a point to visit the funereal gardens to view Eurysa’s latest creations.

Havenhill

Havenhill is an orphanage located in Styrgia where foundlings, forsaken children, and parentless waifs are housed and fed. 

    • The orphanage also secretly offers a hospital wing where women who have become pregnant out of wedlock can bear their children in privacy. 

    • However, many of these women fall prey to a hantu penanggal who masquerades as a kindly nurse by day. 

    • Havenhill is haunted by the ghosts of the women who died as victims of the hantu penanggal’s hunger for the flesh and blood of the innocent and unborn.

Sins of Our Elders Review

Now that I'm running the adventures in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, I'm going to be writing reviews of them informed by my actual play experience, much as I did previously with Candlekeep Mysteries. Next up, "Sins of Our Elders." Warning for those who plan on playing these adventures: spoilers ahead!

Sins of Our Elders

Written by Stephanie Yoon

"Sins of Our Elders" does a lot right. I love a ghost story, and having the heart of the haunting in this scenario be a spirit who is angry at how she has been erased from the historical record and not given her due is a strong motivation that feels unusual and unexpected. 

I also really appreciate that the characters are given a number of leads that they can tackle in any order they want; unlike some of the adventures in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, this gives the players the room to guide their own involvement in the adventure and gives them variable ways of piecing together what's going on with the ghost, its attacks, and the strange effect of the populace not remembering the ghost's assaults on them after the fact.

Speaking of that effect, here's how it works: the angry ghost has been attacking the populace, even leaving corpses behind, but the people cannot remember the attacks after they've occurred. There's a nice symmetry there; since the ghost is angry that her good deeds have been forgotten, she is afflicting the people with selective memory loss. I'm of two minds about it in practice, however. On one hand, it's clearly a contrivance to make the scenario work, but on the other it makes the characters special since they can remember the ghost's predations. It does give the players a good reason to get involved since they're one of the few parties who can effectually investigate the haunting.

I do have a few minor criticisms of the adventure. The ghost has multiple ways of attacking the populace--appearing in its own form, manifesting gargoyles bearing the ghost's anguished face, and...giant blue tigers. The tigers feel thematically disconnected; it may not be immediately obvious how they connect to the ghost the way the gargoyles do. My solution was simple: give the tigers the ghostly woman's face too! That's both uncanny and connects all the imagery.

Additionally, I wish the "gwishin" (the name given to this particular kind of ghost) had its own original stats instead of just using the standard-issue ghost stats from the Monster Manual.

Overall, though, this was a strong adventure as written and it was a ton of fun to play. The cast of nonplayer characters is varied and interesting, and this is one of the adventures where negotiating with the villain, instead of slaying them in a climatic "boss fight," works particularly well. Because the players have to propose a solution to the ghost, rather than just talking it down from villainy, it feels more like they did something creative rather than simply succeeding at a well-timed Persuasion roll.

Sibersk: The Realm of Feudal Vampires

As promised in a previous blog post, I'm hard at work revising the Krevborna book for a second edition. I poled the folks over on my Discord about which revised region they'd like a peek at first, and "Lamashtu" was tied for the top spot. 

It's a good place to start, as this region has received some of the heaviest revisions. For one thing, it's no longer known as "Lamashtu"; it's been renamed Sibersk. For another thing, as you'll see Alcesta von Karlok is no longer the undisputed sovereign of the area. This change is fallout from events that took place in my home campaign, but the idea of Alcesta having a rival makes for a setting with more drama and more possibility for the characters in your game to get mixed up in intrigues and machinations.

Below is the overview of Sibersk.

Sibersk

A Cold Realm Ruled by Houses of Feudal Vampires

Once part of Krevborna in the era of the tsars, Sibersk was annexed centuries ago by vampires who arrived with armies of the walking dead marching under their banners. After the land was conquered and subjugated to the will of its new undead masters, Sibersk was divided into fiefdoms, each ruled by a noble house of vampires. 

House von Karlok and the House of Draghul are the most powerful and prominent realms in Sibersk. They do not yet war against each other openly, but they do commit acts of espionage and venture the occasional assassination attempt. It is inevitable that Countess Alcesta von Karlok and Count Magnus Draghul engage in an overt battle for control of all Sibersk. The conflict is destined to be bloody and ruthless.

Since the coming of the vampire lords, the winters have grown longer and colder in Sibersk. Once Krevborna’s breadbasket, the people of Sibersk must now fear famine in addition to the predatory whims of their vampire overlords.

Hallmarks

The following elements and aesthetic notes define Sibersk:

    • Sibersk is a cold northern realm of defiled cathedrals and sprawling castles.

    • The mortal peasantry must pay a tithe in blood to the vampires who rule over them as feudal lords. 

    • A look of fear, resentment, and resignation is common in the eyes of the Siberskan serfs. 

    • Although they are oppressed by undead aristocrats they cannot hope to overcome, revolts among the serfs are becoming increasingly violent and dangerous.  

Suspicious Statues and a Space Mummy

Aos's Spelljammer campaign continues! The first adventure is chronicled here, the second is here, and the third is here. Here's what went down in the latest installment:

The Characters

Ted, bugbear ranger

Xastra, githyanki warlock

Professor Nefarious Jones, goblin artificer

Suspicious Statues and a Space Mummy

Although the gang had gotten sucked out the door they had opened in the last session, they did not find themselves floating in space as they feared; they were merely propelled out onto a star-shaped platform overlooking the exterior landscape. Once back inside the pyramid, Ted, Xastra, and the Professor took a rest and re-oriented themselves. At some point, they had lost track of Captain Cook, who either ran off, got captured by something, or is otherwise up to no good.

The party explored a large swath of the pyramid complex over the course of this adventure. When the group began finding a series of "mind flayer statues," Xastra became suspicious that there was a medusa or basilisk afoot when she noticed that the mind flayers had been captured in moments of fear and anger. She was also attacked by a cloaker while examining the statues, but a handy misty step allowed her to magic her way out of its murderous embrace.

Xastra was right; the group later encountered a basilisk, which caused them to retreat behind a closed door and debate whether or not they could kill it without getting anyone turned to stone. They decided to go for it, and defeated the basilisk fairly easily. They also found two basilisk eggs that they may go back for if time and safety allows.

They also encountered a mummy, that they absolutely obliterated. Also discovered in their exploration: magic jumping boots, a necklace that allows for breathing in the void of space, and a dwarven axe. Sites within the complex that have been located: aviary, reptile house, observation chamber, and an orrery. 

Exploration to continue next session!

Wages of Vice Review

Now that I'm running the adventures in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, I'm going to be writing reviews of them informed by my actual play experience, much as I did previously with Candlekeep Mysteries. Next up, "Wages of Vice." Warning for those who plan on playing these adventures: spoilers ahead!

Wages of Vice

Written by T.K. Johnson

The premise of this adventure is fine--someone is killing off the children of the most prosperous citizens of a city, that's nice and dramatic--but unfortunately it's badly let down by the execution. The central problem is that the adventure is far too linear; the characters move from point A to point B to point C, largely having the same encounter (someone innocuous attacks the child of someone of importance) until they get a big backstory loredump.

"Wages of Vice" would greatly benefit from a more open structure, and a little site-based exploration would have been appreciated too. Why not have the adventure's quest-giver point the characters in a number of investigative directions and let them choose how they tackle the leads they've been given? 

Speaking of the quest-giver, this adventure suffers from a problem common to the adventures in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel: it presumes that it doesn't strain credulity to have characters show up as strangers to a troubled location and get immediately hired by a quest-giver to sort things out. It's expedient, but as a start to an adventure it beggars belief if the residents of an imperiled site assume that the characters, who are as likely as not a motley crew, are both competent and altruistic enough to risk their lives on behalf of someone's else's issue.

The "hired on first meeting by the quest-giver" isn't the only aspect of "Wages of Sin" that feels repetitive. This adventure is the third in a row that takes place during a local festival. On one hand, I get it: on the surface, a festival is a good in-game event to express the flavor of a ficitonal place. On the other, it starts to feel like lazy shorthand when so many adventures in the book feature one.

Another repetition: The villain in "Wages of Sin" uses a poisonous substance to turn innocent townsfolk into mindless murderers...which is also more or less an idea that appeared in the earlier "Written in Blood" too. "Wages of Sin" suffers from these similarities, as they just make you think of adventures that did something equivalent, but better. 

As written, I think this is the weakest adventure in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel so far. We had a decent time with it, but the adventure didn't do itself, or us, any favors.

To the Black Pyramid

 

Aos's Spelljammer campaign continues! The first adventure is chronicled here and the second is here. Here's what went down in the latest installment:

The Characters

Ted, bugbear ranger

Xastra, githyanki warlock

Professor Nefarious Jones, goblin artificer

To the Black Pyramid

Ted and Xastra recruited Professor Nefarious Jones to help repair their recently acquired scorpion ship, which has been christened The Al Waxman. While repairs were underway, the crew was approached by a mysterious one-legged figure in a space suit, his face obscured by a helmet. The man introduced himself as Mister Cook, but Xastra immediately dubbed him Captain Cook. Cook produced a map to an area that Xastra had a keen interest in: it showed the location of the black pyramid from her dream!

Cook claimed that he wanted to travel to black pyramid because it held the promise of a way to magical heal the burns that covered his body. (Which is why he kept his helmet on at all times, supposedly.) He also said that the pyramid contained heaps of treasure, so that was enough to convince the party to take him there on the Al Waxman's maiden voyage.

The trip to the black pyramid was uneventful, but as the Al Waxman flew into range of the structure its crew saw a disheartening sight: an illithid nautilus craft was parked nearby. Deciding that a little discretion was called for, the Al Waxman touched down amid a field of monoliths that hid it from view.

The party explored the pyramid, and it quickly became apparent that there were two factions already striving against each other within it. They encountered no mind flayers, but they did get into a few scrapes with gnoll janissaries wearing illithid livery. They also encountered several groups of neogi, one of which was large enough to convince them not to engage. Professor Nefarious did sabotage a door (which a little help from Xastra's invisibility spell) that maybe kept them contained to one part of the complex.

The group did manage to score some solid loot in their exploration, including a skull amulet that fires magic missiles and two scrolls.

Their most interesting encounter in the black pyramid was with a flesh golem who was occupied holding up the ceiling in one of the pyramid's chambers. The golem didn't seem to have any self-knowledge about his origins, but he sure was holding the roof up like a champ.

The adventure ended on a cliffhanger when the party opened a door and suddenly they were all sucked into...space? An anti-gravity field? Something. We'll find out next time.

Horror Movie Marathon 2022: The Final Chapter

The last installment of October's horror movie rush:

Dracula's Fiancee

Dracula's Fiancee is a late-era Jean Rollin film, which in some ways is a true testament to his obsession with certain images and themes because it is very much in tune with his earlier, more celebrated vampire films. As it typical of a Jean Rollin film, Dracula's Fiancee doesn't make a ton of sense; it's a dreamlike tale about vampire hunters pursuing Dracula through his minions and the nuns who have been driven insane imprisoning the vampire's secrets. Nice to see Brigitte Lehaie as one the vampire lord's compatriots, and also nice to see that they let her ride a horse for this role.

The House of the Dead

The House of the Dead is an anthology film, with four segments and some frame narrative bits to hang it all together. The segments include: a mean schoolteacher is terrorized by something or someone in her house when she thought she was alone, a creep who likes to film himself killing women, an American detective and a British detective battle it out for the title of Next Top Detective, and a man find himself trapped in an abandoned building that has been converted into a torture chamber. Each of the tales has a moral bent to them, exposing a particular foible imagined to be over-present in the American psychological makeup. 

One thing I found interesting is that this movie was directed by a woman, and an important woman at that as she would be the first woman to win the Director's Guild of America Award, and yet I've never seen this movie listed with the usual suspects on any of those "horror directed by women" lists. Overall, The House of the Dead is pretty fun for what it is!

X

I was honestly surprised by how much fun X was. There's a fine line between homage and pointless exercise in nostalgia when a horror movie tries to present a retro experience, but thankfully X is much more the former than the latter.

The plot of X is 1970s-tastic: a group rents out a guest house on a farmer's rural property so they can cash in on the porn boom and film a skin flick on the cheap. Of course, there's something deeply fucked up on the farmer's land and they end up being hunted one-by-one.

Knife For the Ladies

Although Knife For the Ladies has a name that feels like it should belong to a giallo, it's actually a strange mash-up of slasher flick and Western. On paper, those are two genres that should work really well together given their native propensities to ponder mortality, the unsettling competition between the civilizing impulse and the dark heart of mankind, and the cheapness of life in general, but the combination doesn't always work in Knife For the Ladies. There's nothing glaringly wrong with the movie, and it's entertaining enough for what it's attempting, but it does sometimes feel like two movies competing for space on the reels.