Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bathnor 03-14-07, 12:13 PM	Greetings I've been a DM/player since '91. Currently I'm working on a new campaign. The short version is that Halaster is trying to slay Mystra and steal her powers for his on nefarious ends. Naturally he fails due to the players roles but the mists of Ravenloft notice his evil actions and make him a Lord of his own twisted domain. This leaves the party traped in his realm and hes not to happy because he blames them for his failure. All the lords of Ravenloft are tormented in one way or another. I've been tossing about a few ideas but I wanted to see what you would do. How would you "torment" Halaster as a darklord?
Renvale999 03-14-07, 01:26 PM	Well, his Realm should be completely outside, with no underground lairs. He should have no control over the teleportation magic in his realm. Bringing in summoned monsters should be impossible. Just do everything opposite. Ravenloft tortures you in the worst possible way and does things the exact opposite of you. And one more thing, make him completely sane.
Myssa Rei 03-15-07, 06:43 AM	Also, there is one more thing about Ravenloft that one needs to consider when formulating a 'punishment' for a prospective Dark Lord: the Mists give the Dark Lord absolutely no chance to escape their imprisonment, yet gives them just enough hope for them to think there's a chance to escape. Which is why the Mists had absolutely no effect on Lord Soth--he accepted his stay at Ravenloft because he believed he deserved punishment.
Donraj 03-16-07, 02:31 AM	Also, there is one more thing about Ravenloft that one needs to consider when formulating a 'punishment' for a prospective Dark Lord: the Mists give the Dark Lord absolutely no chance to escape their imprisonment, yet gives them just enough hope for them to think there's a chance to escape. I think you have that exactly backwards. The Ravenloft corebook, I can't remember which edition, made it clear that anyone can potentially be redeemed. They explicitly stated that it was theoretically possible for a Dark Lord to do so, even if it had never happened in the history of the demi-plane. That's part of the horror of it. They're not fiends, they have choices. They're damned willingly, and they chose to stay on that path. I'd also disagree that he should be in the exact opposite of Undermountain. Strahd's Bavaria is apparently more or less identical to the one he came from. Soth lived in a palace that taunted him by refusing to stay in one set form. Halaster's realm should resemble his old pad, albeit subtlely or unsubtlely distorted.
Khaelieth 03-16-07, 04:29 AM	Or he can have a constant Maze spell on himself, like Lossarwyn.
Borris 03-16-07, 07:01 AM	I agree with that last point. As a dark lord, Halaster should still command near-deific magic, but be constantly lost in his domain, suffering a fate not unlike the one he imposed on unlucky adventurers in Undermaountain. Halaster should retain his spells, except for those that would allow himself to teleport or ignore obstacles, such as passwall or etherealness. The maze should stay unchanged as long as Halaster has no more than a a vague idea of what is where. But as soon as he memorizes a set of rooms or puts them on paper, they'd change within the hour. Unless, of course, he wants them to change. You don't go around Murphy's law that easily. And it goes without saying that how should retain at least enough sanity to be aware of teh irony of his punishment and how close to impossible it would be to escape the mists.
Zsych 03-17-07, 06:45 AM	I don't know much about ravenloft, but I'll give it a go. Outside of Undermountain... the first thing that would happen is that he'd become sane again. I think that if he wasn't aging like crazy(like the last time he was kidnapped) he might actually appreciate being free of Undermountain. What to do to make a sane Halaster miserable... disrupt his research. I'd say killing his portal magic should be enough since that's his main forte. The lack of freedom I think should be enough to annoy him sufficiently to really **** him off against anyone else who seems to have more freedom than himself. Also, I'm not sure how a sane Halaster would deal with people. He had apprentices before he became crazy, and not all of them are actually bad. Some horrible kind of lycanthropy that if temporarily, wipes his mind. I would think that any high level wizard who values his mind would find the experience horrifying. Give him servants that he must keep near him(a cage of sorts, in that he's dependent on them). One interesting/clever, and one very annoying to him in that it disturbs his plans, but he can't get rid of it. Both of these should add some possibilities to the campaign. These servants could also be left-overs of his clones, or the other parts and possibilities of his mind that are seperated from him, when he comes out of Undermountain and becomes sane. Not all the hidden parts of his mind need be bad things, or crazy indepently.
CainJustice 03-27-07, 03:41 PM	And one more thing, make him completely sane. completely sane? that's no fun. but i guess it's needed.