Part 5 of my adaptation of the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead into Averoigne and pseudo-historical 14th century France. Part 1 is found here.
PART I: THE SWAMP
As a working idea, I am placing this “swamp” in the Camargue of Southern France. While in Averoigne, the river Isoleil does empty into a wetland, I dermined in Part III that Averoigne itself is most likely in central France rather than southern france. However, the depiction of the swamp in this module is far closer to the Camargue than to a typical marsh. And yet, I am also working with the idea of renaming the Marais d’Tarascon to Le Village des Hiboux as that is the village in Averoigne right next to the wetlands. By the end of this series, I will resolve this conflict.
Starting the Adventure
The adventure starts in the samp, so why are they there? Back in 1994 I had the PCs on a boat tasked with delivering something (a letter perhaps?) on behalf of their lord. There was a Sea Witch on shore who raised up a storm and capsized the ship.
Obviously this scenario will not work in central France, but it works very, very well for the Camargue. The party can start off in Constantinople and be bound for Marseille which is nearby or somewhere in Spain, Atlantic France, or even Britain for that matter. The advantage of forming the party in Constantinople is that it is the most cosmopolitan city in the 14th Century. PCs can come from a variety of backgrounds (as players are wont to do) and have a reasonable chance to meet in a sterotypical dive bar. Otherwise, the party is travelling through France (possibly already in Averoigne), get caught in a terrible thunderstorm, wander off the road and end up in marshlands. The party will not be nearly as diverse or cosmopolitan but they could be related (as they were back in ’94) or childhood friends. A third choice, is to start the party in Caffa, which is the capitol of the Genoese “colonies” or trading ports in the Crimea, and have them bound for Marseille. This is my preference because that mimics the historical transmission of the Black Death which I am planning on running as a Zombie Apocalypse. It also serves as a fun easter egg. The CDC has a fascinating article entitled Biological Warfare at the 1346 Siege of Caffa written by Mark Wheelis at UC Davis. Apparently the Mongols under Janiberg were besieging the city of Caffa when they were struck with the black plague. Before they withdrew, they catapulted (using trebuchets) the plague-infested corpses over the city walls! So for Grymwurld™ and Averoigne, this becomes the Golden Horde catapulting zombies over the city walls! The PCs fled on a ship to avoid the plague of zombies! Alternatively, they got on a ship from Caffa that stopped over at Constantinople and then sailed for Marseille. This is actually more likely because all ships departing Caffa for the Mediterranean Sea must pass through Constantinople. I like this better because it sets up a scenario whereby the PCs could chat up the captain and/or the crew and discover the story of the horrible Siege of Caffa. A ‘history geek’ player could connect the dots and get one of those “oh no” moments.
So the PCs met up in Constantinople dive-bar and boarded ship bound for Marseille. Little do they know that this ship is infected with the Black Death. Before making landfall in Marseille, they got caught in a terrible storm conjured by a Sea Witch. The party wake up at night in a saltmarsh amongst some of the wreckage of the ship. They do not know if they are the only survivors or not. What they do know is that they must seek shelter. The sky is heavily overcast and the ground is foggy.
Swamp Encounters, The Crocodile, & The Giant Frogs
This being D&D, of course Slavicsek has to throw monsters at the party before moving on to the adventure. Is this really necessary? Going with the shipreck scenario, the party is not going to have camping equipment. They might be able to scrounge enough material to build a makeshift shelter. Theoretically they could build a raft and attempt to navigate the swamp but I would rather have them follow a path then float on the water. Especially since it is impossible in NWN to float a raft across water. But more importantly, the only thing that the encounters do is scream at the players “THE SWAMP IS DANGEROUS!” I think it would be far scarier to play up the sounds and movements in the corner of the eyes and even let them find partially eaten corpses of the crew instead of straight-up combat.
Also, by not letting the party build a shelter and forcing them instead to seek shelter it sets up very nicely the discovery of the Fairy camp. After all, by meeting the fairies at night only enhances the otherworldliness of the scene. Did the fairies rescue the party? What are they doing in the swamp?
The Fairy [Vistani] Camp
A band of travelling Elven Fairies have made camp for the night. The elves are distinct for their pale skin and hair as well as their pink eyes. They are albinos!
It is my personal theory that albinos are the source of elf lore. The Welsh fairy-dogs (cwn annwn) are albino. The white hart is an albino. In modern sub-Saharan Africa, albinos are thought to be inherently magical. The Alps is the legendary home of fairies. Depictions of elves are almost always of pale milky-white complexion. The words elf and the prefix alb- most likely derive from the same proto–Indo–European word.
Assuming that the party is reasonably polite, the elves will reciprocate with generous hospitality. This is an ancient trope both for the traditional hospitality towards strangers as well as the hypersensitvity of fairies towards politeness, respect, and hospitality. After chit-chatting, a female elf will offer to tell the party about Luc as well as the party’s fortune. Once she is finished, everyone retires for the night. The party sleeps and in the morning, the fairies and all evidence of them is gone.
If the party is gruff, they will not get the fortune. If they are rude or hostile the elves will attack. In the original module, four of the Vistani are 4 HD (21 hp) and three of them are 1 HD (4 hp). They are all AC 14, Attack +3, and damage is 1d8. Alignment is Neutral/Evil. Against a party of 1st level characters, a Total Party Kill (TPK) is unavoidable. And that is as it should be because a group of 1st level characters have no business insulting or attacking a group of seven fairies. Do they elves need to be 4 HD? Probably not. If just one of them is a sorcerer with a single sleep spell, the party is toast. And do they have to be evil? I fail to understand why. I think Chaotic/Neutral or Neutral/Neutral is more appropriate.
What is even more odd, is that attacking the Vistani triggers a Ravenloft powers check. This is typical of the 2nd Edition morality. Unlike first edition of AD&D where paladins are duty-bound to attack evil whenver and wherever possible, in 2nd Edition AD&D only evil actions count as evil regardless of whether the people committing the act are already evil… in spite of the fact that Detect Evil “detects evil monsters and characters.” (AD&D 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook premium edition p.38) This led to truly bizarre situations where a party knows for an absolute fact that an NPC is evil but yet are not allowed (according to the rules) to do anything except surveil that NPC, waiting for him to be true to his nature and commit an evil act. Well this is what I told the folks back on Usenet (alt.rec.rpg.dnd?):
“Detect Evil is literally a god-given ability to detect evil! A paladin is duty-bound to his deity to destroy evil! If a person pings on the Detect Evil radar, then not only is the paladin justified to kill the evil person, he is required to do so! Paladins possess a god-given license to kill evil.”
Enough ranting, back to the analysis of the module.
The Floating House
Remember back in Part II where I found in the Ravenloft Realm of Terror boxed set the following?
“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.”
Sure enough, on the next day [the module said 4th day but talk about a railroad!] they awaken to find the fairies gone and eventually stumble across Luc’s house on stilts. There appears to be now way to climb up. And yet the GM then reads aloud the following:
“Suddenly a rope ladder drops from the doorway. No figure steps into the light to greet you, and not even a shadow passes the open door. The ladder, constructed of wooden steps and thick rope, simply rools out with a brief clatter of knocking wood. The last step hangs just above the surface of the fetid water, inviting you to climb up into the warm light.”
A magick ladder! Wait, what?!? No, Luc does not drop the ladder and there is nobody else there. I get that Slavicsek is trying to be creepy here but this kills my suspension of disbelief. This is not a haunted castle, a posessed dungeon, or the domicle of a domain lord. It is a shack on stilts in the middle of a swamp, for crying out loud!
Not only that but Slavicsek actually encourages the PCs to be “murder-hobos” in the following:
“To the right of the door, unopened boxes have been neatly stacked against the wall. An open-topped barrel sits beside the boxes.”
The unopened boxes contain fresh food…. The stores are substantial: the PCs can eat heartily. The barrel contains fresh drinking water.
Slavicsek actually expects the PCs to rob Luc of food and water in the Land of Ravenloft Power Checks?!? Could the editor, Andria Hayday not have bothered inserting a statement explaining why a Powers Check does not apply? After all, killing Luc results in a powers check.
Well I am quite happy to report that back in 1994 the paladin in the group stopped the other PCs from taking the food and drink because clearly it belonged to Luc but that Luc was not in a position to offer it to them.
At any rate, Luc now follows the PCs around like a devouted linkboy chanting the following:
“The on descend shall evil of night the land, at near is signs of hexad this when hand.”
The Gathering Storm
“As the PCs begin to leave the swamp and approach the village of Marais d’Tarascon, the sky fills with roiling black clouds.”
Wait a minute. I thought the sky was already overcast. Or is that the fog is now replaced by storm clouds?
“For the first time, lightning plays across the heavens. Still, no rain falls. The storm simply hangs over the swamp and village, occasionally sending a bolt of lightning toward the ground or letter loose a clap of ominous thunder.”
So what I can do is replace the fog with lightning. Should there be a risk of the PCs getting struck by lightning? Nowhere in the module does it mention the possibility.
Where is La Mère des crapauds?
At this point all of you Averoigne fans are wondering ‘where is the mother of toads?’ Excellent question. Just hang on and you shall see how I bring her in. As a side note, in French toads (crapauds) are masculine while frogs (grenouilles) are feminine. I wonder why Smith chose ‘toads’ rather than ‘frogs’? My guess is that he liked the sound of Mother of Toads better than Mother of Frogs.
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