Then, before they can finish him off, mists arise and they follow him in.
They find themselves in a strange and unfamiliar territory. Their first adventure could be to track down the badguy they followed, and exterminate him.
But then... how do they leave this place?
In my homebrew campaign, the PCs followed an Ogre Mage archenemy into Ravenloft. Afterwards, they lost their memories and resurfaced in Darkon. The first half of the campaign then required them to rediscover their memories and piece together the story of how they found their way to Darkon from Falkovnia and lost their memories. The second half of the campaign has them meeting up with the Ogre Mage (now acting as an unexpected ally).
This may not be it exactly, my memory fails me a bit, but something like that, were they're unknowingly hired to go into the domain of dread, could work well.
#1 Strange Weather Patterns of any type: the Mists don't always manifest as fog. Sometimes they are, blizzards, duststorms, aurora borealis, etc.. (Usually the weather has something to do with the domain, Duststorm for Har A'kir for example.)
#2 Conjunctions: While they haven't really talked too much about these in 3E, the idea is, all of the sudden a small piece of Ravenloft just appears on the Prime. A village, a forest, tract of swamp, etc. Usually the Conjunction displaces something that was already there. So a noble who notices that hey that small village I collect taxes from is gone, but now there is a small section of desert, would probably send someone to investigate. Conjunctions don't last forever, and if you happen to be on the spot of land while it takes a ride home you end up stuck.
#3 Portals: Like pretty much any other plane or demi-plane there are Portals to get into Ravenloft. Most likely such a portal would be considered cursed, as people go in and likely never return. (Thus no one on the entrance side would likely know where the portal actually leads.) But if your party had a good reason for using said portal, (Such as follwing a criminal that escaped or some such.) its a perfectly valid way to get someone into Ravenloft. Obviously said portals are almost always completely one way.
-- Trevorfrost
Also, the old Realm of Terror boxed set stated:
In the Forgotten Realms, there is a gate in the Greycloak hills, on the western edge of the Anauroch desert. According to rumor, a pit somewhere in these hills leads to Ravenloft.
- They are running after a villain, who opens a gate. The PCs follow, to find themselves in RL.
- The Inn. The PCs were in a FR Inn, where they stayed for a night. But the next morning, they find out the inn have been moved to a new place. None of the other patrons or Inn staff is there, just the PCs.
As if it wasn't enough, they find the Inn surrounded by a large number of hostile peasants, who are setting the Inn on fire ("it just appeared here, it must be evil, let's burn it").
So they were thrown into action and must act quickly.
Later, when they are back in FR, they found out the inn burned that night and the PCs were believed dead from the blaze.
- Have the PCs be present when an old enemy commits an act evil enough to gain a RL domain, and they got sucked in along with it (the domain was a building snatched from their world, and they were in the building when it happened). That worked quite well - they were very freaked out and had no idea what had happened, why the building had suddenly become a lot more haunted, or why their enemy had gained strange new powers.
- There are also a few domains/lords that could be able to reach into other worlds: the Headless Horseman's Road, the theater of Scaena, the Phantom Lover, and the beam from Monette's lighthouse.
- on an expedition in the Rockies, a great earthquake: the PCs plunged down a thousand feet below, to the Domain of Dread.
- an creepy option on the mists: the mists as teleporting everything they touched, but only those parts that they touched. The mists would thus maul everything with which they came in contact. Animals would be stripped of limbs, people decapitated, buildings slashed, etc. When the PC awoke, he would be whole, but also surrounded with the missing parts of animals, people, trees, ect...
- Planar rip due to spell misfunction or gate opens near the PCs.
- The PCs are lost in a swamp. They end up still lost in a swamp, but this time it's in RL Souragne (see the library in my sig for a great netbook IMHO: the FoS report on Souragne).
- There are also a the vistanis gypsies that could be able to reach into other worlds. Someone could have paid enemies to bring them to RL
, or PCs are pickpocketed by gypsies, when they give chase, they get their money back but find the road that they're on doesn't lead where it used to... - Accidently tear open a portal. Like dropping a bag of holding into a portable hole. It could be an act of self sacrifice. And instead of getting shunted into the Atral plane they get dumped into RL.
- They could be summoned by someone in RL. "A strange voice cries for aid from beyond, do you offer your assistance?"
Those are a few ideas to get in. Getting out is another matter
Joël
- There are also a few domains/lords that could be able to reach into other worlds: the Headless Horseman's Road, the theater of Scaena, the Phantom Lover, and the beam from Monette's lighthouse.
Don't forget the Nightmare Court! I've used that one a couple times.
Priests of Cyric could be trying to summon a powerful demon/fiend using a statue or something then when the demon/fiend as well as the PCs arrive, it could open some kind of large portal. Then maybe a little mixture of magics and the portal turns into a vortex sucking everyone in. What do you guys think about that?
Hmmm... the "statue" (necklace / book / whatever) could actually be the physical manifestation of a devil or demon that is now trapped in Ravenloft itself. As the years have passed, it has focused its power enough to make its "reality wrinkle" extrude into the Prime Material, like a toe dipped into a lake. This arcane extrusion has taken the form of the statue/necklace/whatever in Faerun, and it bears some resemblance to the fiend.
The devil/demon is aware of this, and it believes that if its cult on Faerun can perform a ceremony to "anchor" the extrusion, it can drag itself out of Ravenloft. Ahhhh, but the Dark Powers are not so ignorant! The ceremony, rather than pull the demon out of the Mists, will drag everyone near the statue into Ravenloft ... which will be a big shock to the heroic PCs who think they just foiled the cult's plans.
Worse, the demon has been trying to keep a low profile in Ravenloft. The newly arrived PCs will know far too much about the demon, especially its true name, to be allowed to live.
--Ken
- The Inn. The PCs were in a FR Inn, where they stayed for a night. But the next morning, they find out the inn have been moved to a new place. None of the other patrons or Inn staff is there, just the PCs.
Joël
Check out the article on the World Serpent Inn in Dragon #351. This describes an Inn that has portals to places across the multiverse, including Ravenloft. It would be a suitable starting point.
Let me know if it's helpful.
75% of the population from this small port city was taken by the mists.
Inajira, who is a Arcanaloth (Gazetteer Volume 1) was getting his soul
collection back up after loosing them to Strad. This happened before Borovia
was formed in RL when Strad tricked Inajira and stole his book of souls.
The fiend is running a muck offering anyone in Shussel their hearts desire (I
used alot of inspiration from Stephen King's Needful things) for their eternal
souls which he will use to increase his power base in his home plane of
Gehenna. He finds a specific man who wishes to be a god, and has exactly a
way to meet this goal. There is always a downside to Injaria's gifts, other
than being his slave for etenity when u die, when the ritual was preformed
the man attained godhood as promised, but Ao pulled the plug and handed
him over to the Dark Powers. The newly birthed god and 75% of the
population were sucked into RL forming the new domain Vurista in the Amber
Wastes between the two domains Sebua and Pharazia.
Now, as for Shussell in Faerun . With the birth of a dark god which is an act
of ultimate darkness (Book of Vile Darkness) any living creature in the city
with low HD instantly died, all water became poisonous, all plant life withered
away, stone structures took massive damage, and all wooden items rotted.
The esentially became a ruin. I didnt use the later part of the story hook
that Mulhorandi took over the port city and made it an outpost. A ak'chazar
rakshasha from Unthalass, which is currently occupied by the Mulhorandi,
was summoned into Shussell by a person who gave up his soul for the ability
to summon monsters at will (and yes they are not under his control) and
decided to set up shop in the ruins. He sent for his mate to the south to
come on up with their trusty cauldron of zombie spewing and they are living
happily ever after. They have declared the ruins of Shussell a soviern state
and both the country of Unther and Mulhorandi still dont know what to make
of it.
opted not to take the story into Ravenloft. They dont share my love of it, so
it wouldhave been a bad move to go that much against the grain. I'm slowly
winning them over to ravenloft and they are interested in the domain I have
created in the post New Domain Concept.
Good luck with your Ravenloft campain! Ask for help anytime you need it.
If you're starting a homebrew adventure on another world, one effective tactic I've found is to have the PCs hunt down a very evil character.
Then, before they can finish him off, mists arise and they follow him in.
They find themselves in a strange and unfamiliar territory. Their first adventure could be to track down the badguy they followed, and exterminate him.
But then... how do they leave this place?
In my homebrew campaign, the PCs followed an Ogre Mage archenemy into Ravenloft. Afterwards, they lost their memories and resurfaced in Darkon. The first half of the campaign then required them to rediscover their memories and piece together the story of how they found their way to Darkon from Falkovnia and lost their memories. The second half of the campaign has them meeting up with the Ogre Mage (now acting as an unexpected ally).
Great idea!!