Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ChaosVirus 06-11-07, 05:39 AM	Last year with Waldi of Cafe de Nuit, I started the construction of a new cluster for the demiplane of dread. After a while, I have decided to come back to it. I am looking for any help to construct this. People willing to stat darklords, or anyone willing to beef up some of the non existant fluff on some of the darklords. I posted it in the ravenloft forum, but posts are there are far and inbetween sadly. What are the plaines of Lost Innocence? Part steampunk, part wild wild west, all terror. Oh and also with alot of trains thrown in. Featuring new takes on legends like the Wendigo, and featuring cultures based on victorian england and native america, with also a culture based on the aztecs. It features a variety of new darklords, and 2 new dread elemental domains. Weapons and Technology Firearms are no exotic weapon in the Plains of lost Innocence. Guns and pistols are aviable for moderate prizes in every "civilized" settlement. Unregarding of the CL of the domain, the white settlers use always firearms as favoured ranged weapon. The natives have only few firearms (stolen or bought) and use primary bows. Crossbows are virtually unknown in the Plains (and, according to the widespread repeating firearms are not realy usefull here). Any firearm taken out of the plaines of lost innocence, is subject to the whims of that dread domains darklord, and as such most fall apart. Domains Great Domains Grand Central : The mysterious Train-Master - A sprawling metropolis based on the foundations of New Glenwich. Its leader the greedy Mayour Grubwich III and ruled of the train-master the sinister dark lord of mad steam-tech. Grand central is the centre of an expansive dessert and wasteland, which composes most of the plaines. Grand central has three unique levels, which are positioned above each other. The lowest level, is a mixture of slums, and factories, and also serves as a water collection basin. It is located just above the sewers, but alot of these open up into this layer, so disease is run rife. It is the world of the slaves and the lower class, and as such many of the grey skinned orcs and poor humans toil down here, with also many mutants and outcasts (there is also a civizilisation of drow down here, who usually live in luxury, and also organise the slaves, and also run alot of the criminal underbelly in grand central). The main food source down here is a special type of black rice made to grow in darkness, another lynchpin of there diet is fungus bread, made from flour which is composed of the various fungi which grow in this damp underbelly. Looks akin to a smog and darkness filled venice. The second level is in the daylight, and is a sprawing metropolis. It is the level most seen by visitors. It is filled with merchants, and workshops (many run by drawfs). The third is suspended by chains, and is composed of various floating gardens, and manors. It is the realm of the rich. The trainstation itself is infnite upon entering. It has an endless amount of platforms, each one taking people from all the various planes in the greatwheel, but they are always one way. Characters in Grand Central Name: Mayour Grubwich III Age: 64 Occupation: Mayor Bio: The Mayour of new glenwhich is a greedy pussball of a man, currupted and fed by the money which endlessly flows into his pockets, from taxes and from his employer and master. He runs the town for the trainmaster, provides a face, somthing to fool the poulace that they as a group have some control over the running of the city. He is Glutunnous as he is greedy, and often has food stains covering his shirt, his belly rasing obesisity new hieghts (and widths). Name: Margret Lodd Age: Unknown Occupation: Pie Maker Bio: An evil dragon daughter of Tiamat, cursed by the dark powers to a human form. She makes fine pies which are known throughtout the demiplane of dread, one may even be tempeted to be trapped in the demiplane just to taste one of her legendary pies. Rumour has it though that the ingrediants she uses are not natural. She has been said to extract peoples fears and lusts just to give her pies that little extra flavour. It is also said that her pork pies contain human flesh. They say she has baked at least one of everything in a pie at one time or another. Name: Uncle Crackerjack Age: unknown Occupation: Candymaker Bio: The self named candy cane king. An elf who has built a profitable business selling some of the finest sweets in all the land. Has a friendship with Margret Lodd, though it is unknown how deep there relationship is. Oddly the moment his shop opened, children went missing, and as popularity of his sweets continued to rise, so did the missing persons. Redwood-County : The Wendigo - The cold northern woodland-domain, haunted by a ancient and evil spirit with a devouring hunger for human flesh. Prosper : Reverend Jebedia Holmes (Gold mines ruled by the Wanderer) - A small town frenzied by gold rush. It's Gold mines are haunted by the Dark Lord the Wanderer, and above ground is ruled by a false priest and the most greedy man west of the great saltflats. Aruxco : High-Priestess Azcal-Xochitl - A mexico-like domain far south plagued by the Camasotz-Cult. Its darklord a 3000 years old, seductive vampire. Currently she "works" as a tabledancer in the strange salloon "Meson Sangriento". The Wasted Huntingrounds: Warchief Black-Owl - The most part of the Plains, controlled by the bitter and fanatic native, who closed a pact with dark powers in an hopeless atempt to drive out the white man. River-Countys: Gilles de Rosceresse - A domain that looks like the east-cost-states described in Mark Twains "Tom Sawyer". Civilised villages, green fields, Steamboats on the river.The darklord is a charismatic, cultivated and completely chaotic ricean vampire who dwells in a ancient and baroque estate. He created a secret coven of ricean vampires, who recently rebelled against him and now ignores his orders. Pocket-Domains Port Illsmouth: Captain Obhed Lewis - A small city at the seaside, basicly the same as Illsmouth. Its darklord is the leader of a strange, dark cult of Illithid-Workshippers, commands a large group of reavers (Cthullu greets ;) ). Battleside of Squirrel-Peak: A place in the plains terrorized by eternal militaristic nightmares. Its darklord the collective lost souls of the fallen soldiers - died in such a horrible battle those poor souls are unable to find eternal rest. Fort Biggs : The Wolven-Lady - A fort of the white man, its dark lord a teenage halfblood-girl, who was terribly missused by the soldiers in the fort. In search for revenge she closed a strong friendship with the alpha-lycanthrope of a werewolf-pack and brought the werewolfes to siege the fort and slay all soldiers inside. The O´Leary-Gang : Ahab O´Leary - Not a location as such, but a moving pocket domain. Composed of the lost souls of gunslingers and murderers from the plaines. There leader a Lich and an outlaw known as Ahab O´Leary (the man that can´t be shot by a colt), riding his terrifying nightmare steed . Even his own death can´t keep him or his fellow undead desperados from raiding towns, robbing post-carriots and having a damn good time with stolen brandy. Serenity Gulch : Mayor Bradley Higginbothom the III - a ghost as everyone in this forgotten and deserted town in the middle of the saltflats. Perhaps it was´nt a very good idea by Mayor Brad, to found the city on an ancient holy site of the chipooka and slaying the old chipooka-medicine-man who guarded it personaly. Dark Lords The Trainmaster His only known name is Marcus Fleeting, he came to the demiplane of dread with the design for a new type of planar travel, powered by the Planar Consumption Engine. It utilises the mists to fuel is tremendous power output. Though after he went missing, anything about him soon faded into myth. Wendigo Shortly after the arrival of the whiteman, the natives were driven from there land, and there food supplies pilliged. The natives became angry and desired there land and there freedom back, so the shaman of this the snakebite tribe rallied all the tribes of the Plaines. In the hope of one last effort. This war lasted for many days and many nights. Though on the fifth it’s conclusion came to a close. Both sides where exhausted and the rotting carcasses of the fallen pulsated and festered on the battleground. The shaman had one last gambit. Though it cost him his soul. He crept into the mountains with the remainders of his followers, and an ancient ceremony was preformed. For an hour they danced, carving ancient sigils and charms into there flesh. Then one by one the followers slit there own throats over a bowl of bone and stone. He then put into the mixture ancient spices, opening vials that had not been undone for hundreds of years. Opening things which where never meant to be undone, and then he begged, he begged the spirits of nature to come to his aid, he begged the souls of his ancestors, and he begged dark gods whose names cant be written. On that night all debts that nature owed the tribes were paid, and new deals opened, as demons and gods clawed at the soul of this one man. He summoned a force great magic to transform him into a warrior for his people, and he got it. The heavens opened, and magic bleed from the skies, the lands crackled and belowed, as if reality itself had fractured. Ancient magic crawled at the enviorment like dancing serpents made of colours not found on the rainbow. Colours of magic which cannot be comprehended by the mortal mind. They flowed into the bowel, until the blood bubbled and boiled. The mixture turning black and green, then purple and red. Seething with power, flowing with magic. Then he drank it, waving humanity goodbye. Black lightning gathered and struck his mortal form. The dead then rose and wandered towards him, forming a cocoon of flesh and bone. The souls of the dead and nature united by one ego, for one cause. The demon then awoke. Like a giant it tore through the flesh, and upon wings composed of dead mans skin flew into the sky. It screamed with its new throat, like a banshees wail, it tore into the souls of men. It flew into the battlefield, though because of the transformation, no longer knew friend from foe. It killed as many natives as it did the enemies it was meant to kill in the first place. For nights after it ravaged the land, like an unstoppable beast. So an union was made. The remaining shamans and the wizards that the newcomers took with them joined forces, in constructing a way to contain the beast. They made a cave, between Arkendale to Redwood-County using spells from both there cultures. Calling on the might of there combined gods. The few brave warriors lured the beast to the place, and then the beast was contained. Locked deep in the cave, and sealed for all time. The place was forever known as wendigo trail. For ten years a truce was made between the two people, and for a time this was good. Though this was not the only catasphroe to befall this land. The Wanderer - Dark lord of Prosper By Manofevil The gold in Prosper was first discovered by a wandering white immigrant who entered the wilderness seeking his fortune. Starving, ill, harried by natives, He stumbled into a cave in a rainstorm and lit his last match. He discovered the walls literally lined with gold. He was rich beyond his wildest dreams....and he was dying. He managed to cobble together a torch and explore the cave until he collapsed. As he realized he was dying. He cursed and cursed. He swore that the gold was his and ONLY his and would be noone else's. He would stay there and guard it for eternity. This he swore as he expired. Later the heavy storm caused the roof above him to collapse. When the gold was later discovered and the town founded. One of the groups of immigrants to follow the stories of gold came from one of the orient based RavenLoft domains. (Sorry I can't remember their names Embarassed ) Since there were many of them and they couldn't speak the language, the greedy mine bosses put them to work round the clock for fractions of the regular wages and in very dangerous conditions. This led to hostility and later open racial violence from everyone else in the town who didn't much care for those 'chinky boys' to begin with. It was these miners who, one day unearthed the body of the wanderer in the mines. Almost the minute they did, a feeling of intense greed and resentment possessed them and they turned on the mine foremen who had been so cruel and brutal to them. Having massacred the foremen, they then turned on each other and free-for-all riot ensued. Two miners who managed to keep their heads raced for the mine entrance and caved in the mine behind them. Perhaps because they realised what was happening or perhaps because they thought it would be the easiest way to kill everyone else in the mine and claim the gold for themselves. Whatever their reasons, The other miners (at this time in it's history, Prosper is more mining camp than town) rose up to lynch the two survivors as the instigators of the riot and destroyers of the mine. Whatever the reasons had been for causing the cave-in, The two survivors were now overcome with rage. As the nooses were placed over their heads and the wagon pulled out from under their feet, they cursed the miners, the mine, and the gold. The looks of sheer raw hatred on their faces caused more than one miners eyes to widen. As their necks snapped, a gold nugget fell from one of their pockets. Several men dove for it at once and another 'greed riot', as they came to be known, broke out. The miners brutally massacred each other in the same way the ones below had. The only survivors of the riot were the ones who were lucky enough to be struck unconscious. The mine was never reopened. Other mines were opened, however, and the gold mined again. What noone realizes or refuses to accept is that the gold itself is, in fact, cursed. The greed of the original wanderer and the miners who unearthed his remains bleeds outward from that first shaft through the very gold itself. Anyone who mines it or comes into contact with it becomes obsessed with keeping it. More than a few more 'greed riots' have broken out since and noone goes into the old shaft. At least, noone whose been heard from again. History In times long ago, this was land dedicated to the worship of nature. To spirits of animals and plants, and very ancient gods. The people prospered here, and for a time it was good. The hunt always provided a bounty of food, they never went hungry. The waters where always pure, and so they never went thirsty. It was known as the Plaines of innocence. But internal wars within the tribes started a dominio effect which tainted the lands, and blackened the waters. It is uncertain when the plaines of innocence became apart of the demiplane of dread, but soon after peoples from the other dread domains started to immigrate to this new land, starting more wars in this allready tainted land. Then the trainmaster came. Legendary Prehistory of the Natives: - 657: First Tribes enter the still green and flourishing Plains and live there under heavenly conditions (tons of game to hunt, wild plants to gather and eat, perfect weather). -406: First tribe-wars between the brothers Two-Bears and Singing-Weasel -396: After ten years of warfare the tribe of Singing-Weasel is nearly wiped out. The surviving braves and their squaws are forced to flee southward. Warchief Two-Baers founds the warloving Chipooka-Tribe -396 to - 200: The Chipooka fight wars succesfull against nearly all other tribes. Than, in 200 they try to invade the northern woodlands and fail badly. The invading chipooka-bravea are nearly wiped out by the warriors of the mysterious Takani-Tribe The rise and fall of Aruxco: -340 to -150: The decendans of Singing-Weasel find Aruxco and rise to a higher level of civilisation. While the rest of the tribes remains in the stone-age, the Aruxco learn to work soft metals like chopper and gold, develop better agricultural techniques and invent the pueblo. -150: First of the great temple-pyramids in Aruxco is builded -30: The mysterious high-priestess Azcal-Xochitl apears in Aruxco and preaches of Camastotz. High-King Ilhuicamina is seduced by her with the promise of immortality and gives the order to abandon all other gods. -30 to -25: King Ilhuicamina becomes slowly a Vampire. All other cults in Aruxco are wiped out completely. Only Camasotz is allowed to be workshiped in Aruxco 1: Aruxco starts the first War-of-1000-Flowers to gain "material" for the blasphemous human-sacrifices at the main temple-pyramid 1 - 240: The selfproclaimed God-King Ilhuicamina starts a whole series of flower-wars against the northern tribes, while he conquers the bronze-age-citystates south of Aruxco. This is the golden age of Aruxco 240: While Ilhuicamina starts a extraordenary bloody ritual for the sake of Camasotz, strange mists surround the borders of the known lands and the climate changes dramaticly. The plains dry out and the Lake Chipoo becomes the great salt-flat. The coming of the white man 290: A first Expeditionship coming from the mysterious "Holy Empire" lands. It´s comanded by Capitan Esteban Franco. 291: Imperial troops build the first fort "Santa Lucita" (Ezras-Hold today). The contact to the natives is peacefull at first. The imperials try to spread their religion with missions. 305: Imperial ships come more frequently, Santa Lucita expands 306: the new Viceroy Franco hears for the first time about the immense rich city of Aruxco. 306-315: First contact between Imperials and Aruxco ends bloody. The Aruxco see them as new source for their sacrifice-rituals, while the Imperials intend to steal the Aruxcos gold. 315: Great Battle at Aruxco. The city is leveled nearly complete by imperial knights and musketeers. Only the great pyramid stands undamaged. Ilhuicamina is impaled and burned by imperial priests while high-priestess Azcal-Xochitl manages to flee into the desert. Aruxco is turned to the imperial religion and becomes a colony. 315 - 460: the slowly downfall of the imperial colony starts because the mistways home to the empire become more and more unsecure. Ship-traffic becomes very infrequent. 470: A ship with fleeing pilgrims from Mordent arrives at the shores of todays Redwood-County. Soon, a little colony florishes at the coast. New Glenwich is founded. 500: The town of New Glenwich prospers, and develops from town to city. 600: Mysterious man, named Marcus Fleeting and a group of engineers and builders, arrive in the city of New Glenwich, bringing plans of a new railsystem, which will revolutionise transportation in the plaines, with even rumours of inter-planar travel. 605: Building work begins on the construction of the monlithic structure known as Grand Central on the outskirts of New Glenwich. Many slaves die during construction, and many go missing. 630: Building work is completed. The Head Engineer and friend of Marcus, Filius Brown goes missing. Rumours that Marcus murdered him are few. Sure enough as the trainmaster said, transport to the dread domains is established, but trains which come from planes originating from the great wheel and others are only one way. 640: City expands around grand central till the point, grand central is considured it's centre. The building of an addition to grand central called the watchtower is started. 645: Watchtower is finished, and the city is renamed Grand Central. 745: Trainmaster not seen in a 100 years, rumoured dead. How to get to the Plaines from existing domains The Path of the Hopeless A travel route by sea from Mordent Loa-Lines Inc. A mist way of excellent reliability from Souragne to the south of the Plains (There is regular steamship-traffic) The Wendigo Trail A oneway-mistway of poor reliability from Arkendale to Redwood-County Mist way Express 666 The strange, mysterious train station that can appear randomly all over Ravenloft and takes you to Grand Central. Theoretically all domains have a station, though they are not always visible, due to the politics of the mist domains and the poor relationships beetween dark lords. Therefore trainstations are hidden within the plane, and to discover it one must will to see it. For example one may see an old broken down house, which may look like nothing, can in reality be a station, to see it one must take a will test. If you pass your belief that it is there will make the place reveal itself. If you fail you must find an alternate route. Necorpolis Railway The funeral train, harder transportation then the mistway express, but is one of the only ways to get to both the plaines of lost innocence, and the dread elemental plane of graves. Elemental Plaines of Rot & Rust The Elemental plane of Thorn & Rot – Sometimes called the fields of thorn. Its very form is a perversion of nature. A place of dark necromancy, and plants which devour men whole, in this place there is no ground, but thorns and vines that endlessly grow in all directions. It is unknown why it exists, as it is not based on a normal elemental plane, though some say it is based on the little known plane of wood. Thorn Elemental by Watchdog_of_Hades Thorn Elemental Medium Elemental (Augmented plant) Hit dice: 16d8+80+16 (168 hp) Initiative: +8 Speed: 40 ft. Armor Class: (), touch , flat-footed Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+18 Attack: Claw +19 melee (2d6+6 slashing and piercing) Full attack: 2 claws +19 (2d6+6 slashing and piercing) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Impale, engulf, the embrace of roses... Special Qualities: Elemental traits, conflagrate Saves: Fort +15, Ref +11, Will +11 Abilities: Str 22, Dex 18, Con 20, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 18 Skills: Profession (gardener) +30* Feats: Improved initiative, Improved toughness, Iron will, Lightning reflexes, Improved natural attack (claw), Weapon focus (claw) Environment: Forests Organization: Solitary of gang (2-5) Challenge Rating: 12 Treasure: Solitary Alignment: Usually neutral Advancement: 17-27 HD (Medium); 28-39 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: - From the brush to the side rises a humanoid figure. It seems to be made of brambles, roses and other thorned plants, stinking of rotten vegatation and the bodies impaled on its thorns. It shambles towards you, rustling and scraping as it comes. Thorn elementals are creatures composed of plants with thorns, usually created when such a mass is exposed to very strong transmutation magic. They claim the nearby forest as their own and begin growing thorned plants, uprooting non-thorned ones whenever possible. Beyond that, they are enigmatic. Whether they have goals or wishes, nobody knows. Combat Impale (Ex): A thorn elemental can shake itself wildly at opponents, launching a volley of barbs at them. As a standard action, it can spray a 30-foot cone of thorns, dealing 8d6 damage (Reflex DC 22 half) to any creature caught in it. After using this ability, a thorn elemental cannot use it again for 1d4 rounds, during which time the damage from Engulf and Embrace of Roses is halved (round down). This regrowing of thorns is supernatural, and so is suppressed by an Antimagic Field. Engulf (Ex): A thorn elemental is a mass of thorns, and its constant movement rips and tears at anything unlucky enough to be caught within it. With a successful grapple check against an opponent of Medium size or smaller, it can shove the enemy into itself, gouging it with thorns every round for 4d6 damage, A creature can escape with a successful grapple check made once a round. The embrace of roses... is full of thorns. Yes, I shamelessly stole that line from the Rose and Thorn Stylist class. Every round a creature is grappling with a thorn elemental, it takes 2d6 damage. This ability is extraordinary. Conflagrate (Ex): Yes, a thorn elemental catches fire, but often it is not worth it to set it alight. Whenever a thorn elemental takes more than 10 points of fire damage, its body becomes one giant inferno. It takes 3d6 a round, but whenever its claw attacks hit a target's touch AC (though the claws have to hit the normal AC to deal their damage), the enemy takes 1d6 fire damage. Elemental Traits: A thorn elemental has darkvision 60 feet, immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, flanking, and critical hits, and can only be resurrected by Limited Wish, Wish, Miracle, or True Resurrection. A thorn elemental does not breath, eat, or sleep. Skills: Thorn elementals have a +8 racial bonus on Profession (gardener) checks involving thorned plants. This bonus is taken into account in the number given. The Elemental plane of Rust & Blades – Known to some as the final hell for constructs, the domain of rust and blades. The effects of this plane vary, in some cases all metal on the person rusts in an instant, though in rarer cases, the victim is forged to there armour, there vary weapons becoming as much a part of there body as there eyes and ears. It is said that it is where all armour and weapons end up, and is rumoured to be a perversion of the elemental plane of minerals. Rust Elemental by Fuzzball Rust Elemental Medium Elemental Hit dice: 4d8+12 (30) Initiative: 0 Speed: 20 ft. Armor Class: 18 (+8 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 18 Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+8 Attack: Slam +8 (1d8+5) Full attack: 1 Slam Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Metal Morph, Rusting Touch, Blade Dance, Slam of many edges Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft, Elemental Traits Saves: Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +4 Abilities: STR: 20 DEX: 10 CON: 17 INT: 4 WIS: 11 CHA: 11 Skills: Listen 3, Spot 4 Feats: Cleave, Power Attack Environment: Scrapyards Organization: Solitary of gang (2-5) Challenge Rating: Treasure: Solitary Alignment: Usually neutral Advancement: Level Adjustment: A humoined being composed of rusted swords and forsaken armors edges towards you. A Blade elemental is a corruption of the plane of metal, and is composed of the weapons of war that are left at the end of the battle. It is a walking momument to that graveyard of fury. Combat Metal Morph – Due to the elemental’s multiple metal nature its slam attacks count as silver, cold iron, and adamantine for the purpose of overcoming DR. Rusting Touch - any metal object that touches the rust elemental is immediately rusted and crumbles. Magic items that touch the elemental are entitled to a Fortitude save equal to 10 + ˝ the elemental’s HD rounded down. Any metalic creature that fails its save takes 1d6 points of damage per age category of the elemental. Blade Dance – As a standard action the elemental may make a touch attack against any melee weapon. The weapon becomes a dancing weapon under the control of the elemental. If the weapon is held, the wielder is entitled to a Will save equal to 10 + ˝ the elemental’s HD rounded down. The weapon remains under the elemental’s control until the effect is dispelled (dispel magic, limited wish, miracle, or wish), the elemental releases it, or the elemental is destroyed. An elemental may have up to one half its HD in weapons under its control at any time. Slam of many edges – Due to the elemental’s composition its slam attacks count as slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning for the purpose of overcoming DR. Views of non human race in the plaines Especially in grad central racism runs rife. Orcs have evolved to be grey skin in the plaines, and are bred and used as nothing more then slaves. Even elves have become nothig more then sex workers in some areas of grand central. Of course there are exceptions, but usually they are viewed with contempt. Drawfs are seen lower then humans, but seen higher then orcs, and usually hold businesses in crafts. Ideas which need expansion Mist extraction plants The powersource of grand central. These massive contructs churn away in all areas of the plaines. They pump the mists and convert it into power.
ChaosVirus 06-15-07, 01:58 PM	Anyone got any ideas?
valinorbob 06-15-07, 02:48 PM	Wow, that sounds awesome. I've never had the opportunity to play in a western setting, and this really makes me want to. I can't really add anything as I'm not too familiar with the domains of dread or westerns, but I could easily imagine things like construct stage coaches that drive themselves, undead piano players that never stop playing, REAL ghost towns, etc. Good luck with this idea.
Sliversun 06-17-07, 04:40 AM	Nice. Keep up the good work!
ChaosVirus 07-29-07, 07:44 AM	Thanks =), though making the darklords is getting irritating =P. Any other suggestions anyone. =)?
ChaosVirus 07-31-07, 10:54 AM	Any one? What other stuff do I need?
Forfeit 07-31-07, 11:21 AM	Some kind of movies. You know, like those made by George Melies or the Lumiere Brothers. Also, there must be something related to crossroads. Maybe there is a crossroad where you call the devil, a big chain comes down, and there is a train that rides in this chain and that takes you to another plane.