The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

a Ravenloft Revision for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition by Mischief

Cover

Final V1.1 by Mischief, Oct 26, 2021

 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
a Ravenloft Revision for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition by Mischief
Off with your head….
W
ith the march of time and new editions, it is
with mixed feelings we bid adieu to the old
d’Honaire and “Dementlieu”. But the Mists
are loath to relinquish the dreadful delights of the old
country. For your distinguished consideration, I
present a new dread domain built upon Dementlieu’s
detritus, Lusèvres, and at the epicenter of its vortex of
evil awaits its bloodstained Darklord…
The Vargouille Guillotine
The blade, etched with the shrieking visage of a
snake-haired gorgon vargouille, is as wicked sharp as
the day it was forged in the res of revolution.
Oppressed by an overripe sovereignty rotting from
within, Brumaire’s snowballing intellectual revolt
soon in amed into civil street war. Awakened by the
lifeblood of the rst felled, the Vargouille Guillotine
greedily stoked the revolutionaries’ rage. The mass
execution of old rule loyalists climaxed in the Four
Days of Terror. The lives of the aristocratic oppressors
were not enough; their extended families, friends,
and business acquaintances were guilty by
association. With each shriek of the blade and cheer
of the mesmerized crowd, the dark storm circling the
execution plaza narrowed like a noose. Deep fog
forced the mob to scatter. The sobered citizens of
Brumaire awoke the next day to discover the exultant
guillotine as an island in an ocean of blood and
corpses… and an unsettling pervasive mist. Ravenloft
had welcomed its newest domain of enlightenment
and cruelty, Lusèvres.
Final V1.1 by Mischief, Oct 26, 2021
Sapere aude
The Vargouille Guillotine is endishly clever but
bound unmoving to Brumaire’s Cour de Justice.
Whenever its blade liberates a head, the
decapitated’s complete life story is added to the
Vargouille’s unforgetting mental library. The
dragon’s horde of secrets and philosophy has given
the Guillotine much to ponder, but no ability to act
upon or even share its thoughts. With no intellectual
outlet, the Vargouille’s only stimulation is the splash
of fresh red blood and the suffering of victims it has
returned to a broken imitation of life after trapping a
fragment of their soul within its timbers.
The Vargouille Guillotine has complete control over
the passing of those whose necks meet its razor edge.
In a fraction of a second, the guillotine reads through
the condemned’s mind and memories and decides
their fate. Those it chooses to slay die utterly, but the
Vargouille Guillotine craves despair and spares
convicts it believes can feed it with profound misery.
At its simplest, the decapitated victim’s head goes on
living with its senses intact, completely aware of
being hoisted into the air by the executioner, shown
off to the jeering crowd, and then tossed like garbage
into the morgue-destined basket. However, the
guillotine is capable of far more subtlety. Many
executioners have dropped the Vargouille’s rope over
the years, yet the same family has mopped its blood-
soaked planks and gathered up the gruesome baskets
of severed heads and bodies to take to Brumaire’s
morgue and the secret network of charnel catacombs
below. Utter thralls to the Guillotine who have been
deprived of their intelligence by the Guillotine’s
darklord curse, the Taupin family slavishly obey the
whispers that precisely direct their rituals to breathe
half-life back into decapitated victims and resculpt
their features so they will not be recognized as
formerly condemned.
The Vargouille Guillotine unwillingly stews in its
own wasted genius, jealous of the simplest sentient
dagger at an adventurer’s hip. And it forever chases
that rst high from the Four Days of Terror; it will
never again take enough heads to satisfy it. If the
Vargouille Guillotine had its way, it would be
reforged as the side-arm of a Napoleonic conqueror
and bathe in a sea of death.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Legalese & Housekeeping
The “Dread Domain of Lusèvres” is unof cial Fan
Content permitted under Wizards of the Coast’s
November 15, 2017 Fan Content Policy. This work is
not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the
materials used are property of Wizards of the
Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
You are encouraged to adapt, x, remix, share, and
critique this work, but please credit “Mischief” and
reference this document. For questions or
comments, contact me at
yawaworhtemail+Ravenloft‹at›gmail‹dot›com.
If I am uncontactable and this document is no
longer available at any major online venue, then
you are given permission to rehost it. You may not
sell this work or put it behind any sort of paywall.
~RP
P.S. Thank you, TheGhaste, for inspecting my
French, and Max and Dark_HeartX for copyedits.
 
Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
Index
Off with your head…. ...................................... 1
Sapere aude ............................................................... 2
Legalese & Housekeeping ...............................3
Index ................................................................3
Rogue Portraits ...............................................5
Jacqueline Montarri .................................................. 5
The Headless Horseman........................................... 5
The Living Brain ........................................................ 5
La Société de Legerdemain ...................................... 6
Chancellor Johanna Deshayes ................................. 6
The Wormius family ................................................. 6
The Ghost of Wormian Museum............................. 6
Drigor ......................................................................... 6
The Madrigore family ............................................... 6
The Taupin family..................................................... 6
Detective Bernard Clousse ....................................... 7
Captain Barthélemy of The Albatross..................... 7
Council of Brilliance ................................................. 7
Dominick d’Honaire ................................................. 7
Aristide River Rats..................................................... 7
Porcelain Dolls .......................................................... 7
Domain Overview .......................................... 8
Noteworthy Features............................................... 8
Folk ............................................................................ 8
Land ........................................................................... 8
Attitudes .................................................................... 9
Leadership ................................................................. 9
Developments ......................................................... 10
Con icts ................................................................... 10
Map and Places............................................... 11
Locales....................................................................... 11
Brumaire .................................................................. 11
Rivers and Lakes .................................................... 13
Fulcanelli and Western Lusèvres ......................... 15
Vinrouge and South of the Reue .......................... 15
Primer: Mistways and Conjunctions .................... 16
Foreign Relations .................................................... 16
Timeline......................................................... 18
Amuse-gueules.............................................. 19
The Madrigorian’s Origin .......................................... 20
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Vargouille Guillotine .................................... 21
Roleplaying the Vargouille Guillotine .................. 21
Personality .............................................................. 21
Curse ........................................................................ 21
Torment and Fears ................................................ 22
Desires .................................................................... 22
Strengths ................................................................ 22
Weaknesses............................................................ 22
Roleplaying the Guillotine’s plots......................... 23
Vargouille Guillotine (Physical Form).................. 23
Vargouille Guillotine (Psychic Avatar) .................24
Vargouille Guillotine’s Lair.................................... 25
Vorpal Vargouille .................................................... 25
The Vargouille Guillotine’s Mindspace ................26
Obedients.................................................................26
Curing an Obedient ............................................... 27
Creating an obedient ............................................ 27
Obedients outside Lusèvres ................................. 27
Death by Guillotine and the Executed Reborn ... 28
The slain ................................................................. 28
The spared .............................................................. 28
Existential hollow ................................................. 28
Reborn broken memories ..................................... 28
Lusèvrien Characters ................................... 29
Renaissance Firearms .............................................29
Misty Fingerprints: Lusèvrien ...............................29
Lusèvrien Trinkets ................................................. 30
Adventure Hooks ......................................... 30
Vargouille Guillotine obedient victim ................. 30
Head games ............................................................ 30
The curious incident of dogs in the night-time .. 30
Drigor’s diabolical conundrum ............................ 30
Exhibit inquest ........................................................ 31
Lair of the white worm ........................................... 31
Prestidigitation misrepresentation ...................... 31
Rat poison ................................................................ 31
Hook, line, & linker ................................................. 31
The strange high house in the mist ...................... 31
Affaire d’Honaire ..................................................... 31
Lady in the lake ....................................................... 32
Vive la révolution .................................................... 32
The Diabologue Daily ............................................. 32
Lost contact ............................................................. 32
True art tarries not! ................................................ 32
Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
Hunted hunter......................................................... 32
Greater desecration ................................................ 32
Eel ............................................................................. 32
’ .. 33
Mysteries and Murder Methods ..................33
Tips for mysteries in a table game ........................ 33
Special mystery item: Single-use spells ...............34
Case ideas with turnabouts ...................................34
Tricks ........................................................................ 35
Items .............................................................. 37
Black Ribbon ............................................................ 37
Devil's Kaolin........................................................... 37
Charlene's Salubrity ............................................... 37
Dracsbane ................................................................ 37
Flesh Sculpting Tools ............................................. 37
Headman's bloom .................................................. 38
Hookah of Truth ..................................................... 38
Bag of Sound Holding ............................................ 38
Notebook of Sound Transcription ....................... 38
Mnemegraph .......................................................... 38
Monsters and Haunts .................................. 38
Urban Lusèvres ...................................................... 38
Rural and Forested Lusèvres .................................39
Rivers, Sewers, and Lakes of Lusèvres ..................39
Statblocks ..................................................... 39
Drac ..........................................................................39
Fog Elemental ........................................................ 40
Fog Mephit............................................................... 41
Lindworm ................................................................42
Shrieking Eel............................................................45
Paper Pest................................................................ 46
Wythersake (Huecuva) ......................................... 46
Hypnotist ................................................................ 48
Dominick D’Honaire ............................................ 49
Detective Alanik Ray ............................................... 51
Dr. Arthur Sedgwick ............................................... 53
Spells for Mysteries ...................................... 54
Auscult .....................................................................54
Bellchime .................................................................54
Deadtack ..................................................................54
Deathblood Divination .......................................... 55
Disguise Voice ......................................................... 55
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Ghost Lantern.......................................................... 55
Graft..........................................................................56
Hullabagloom ..........................................................56
Shadeshroud............................................................ 57
Shade-nap ................................................................ 57
Stovepipe Breath .................................................... 58
Vitriolic Double ...................................................... 58
Rogue Portraits
A
n adventure in Lusèvres could begin with
the player characters’ necks in the hallows,
or a player could choose post-decapitation
as their character’s dread secret. Perhaps the
Vargouille seeks to advance its own interests through
collaboration with another dreadlord. But more
likely than any of the above, visiting adventurers will
encounter the fruit of the Vargouille Guillotine’s evil
before they nd the root. (Suggested Statblocks are
rough ideas for gameplay, not indicative of narrative
or true form.)
Jacqueline Montarri. A career thief and serial
marriage scammer nally introduced to the
Vargouille Guillotine for her many misdeeds.
Jacqueline clawed from her buried cof n but was
unable to locate her red-tressed noggin in the
morgue – perhaps it was taken as a morbid
souvenir by one of her many wronged victims?
Although she has no issues surviving with nothing
but air above her neck, Jacqueline discovered she
could don severed heads and x them in place
using a magic black ribbon (see items). These
stolen heads change to match her face, but they age
quickly and eventually rot off. She must always be
on the prowl for a replacement. Jacqueline now
runs a shipping business that dabbles in
“procuring” (read stealing) rare objects and
recovery operations. Her Vinrouge-based Red
Vardo Trading Company is a front and source of
funds for her obsession to recover her true head.
(Suggested Statblock: CE Master Thief VGM)
The Headless Horseman. With head under arm, the
cloaked dullahan roams Lusèvres’ quaint
countryside. On horseback it twists the road into
an endless loop to run down terri ed travelers with
its wicked sickle. Sometimes the horseman keeps
Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
its head on long enough to disguise as one of
Lusèvres’ many carriage drivers, but its black cab is
the legendary Thundering Carriage Van Richten’s Guide
to Ghosts
made of cof n timbers that roars through the
main streets of rural hamlets dragging the
screaming riders locked inside into the night. The
lost will later reappear among the horseman’s
entourage of dancing and leaping heads. The
horseman is one of the earliest Guillotine-spared,
but the enslaved Taupins badly botched its revival
ritual. The Vargouille Guillotine deemed the mad
undead creature useless and discarded it to
terrorize Lusèvres. (Suggested Statblock: Dullahan
VRG
and infernally tacked MTF nightmare MM)
The Living Brain. Chased from Darkon by the Kargat
for being too on the up-and-up, the renowned
detective Alanik Ray now matches wits with the
bodiless lord of clever crimes: The Living Brain.
After meeting the Vargouille Guillotine, former
Lamordian Geleynse Lommel’s head was delivered
to a mad scientist testing intelligence-enhancing
serum. Shelled of his skull, Lommel’s disembodied
brain was kept alive in a briny jar until he became
strong enough to psionically crush his tormentor’s
mind. With the help of mentally-dominated
crooks, the Living Brain settled into Brumaire’s
blighted lakeside district to build a criminal empire
and fund rare mechanisms to prolong the briny
jar’s complex pumping apparatus and rebuild his
body. The Living Brain gleefully spies upon his
crime scenes using project image and an illusory
body, a trick that only a few like Alanik are aware
of. (Suggested Statblock: Brain in a Jar VRG plus
Spitting Mimic Icewind artificial body)
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
La Société de Legerdemain. Witness true magic
tricks, with no signs of sorcery what-so-ever!
“Tame” gremishkasVGM prove no deceit is afoot!
This arcane spellcaster club has a shared interest in
mundane sleight-of-hand and their hidden library
of grimoires – and one of their diabolic tomes
details the hidden history and disaster of
Fulcanelli. Among their number is a duplicitous
performer infamous for his unsolved guillotine
box. The solution is that both his head and his
lovely assistant’s have already been severed by the
Vargouille Guillotine. (Suggested Statblock:
Conjurer VGM or Bard VGM with cards and 2x Sleight of
Hand proficiency.)
Chancellor Johanna Deshayes. Meurdrac
University is renowned around Ravenloft for its
eminent liberal arts scholarship and grueling
curriculum. Nicknamed “The University of
Hanging Necks” by its students, Meurdrac is also
infamous for its stress-induced student suicides.
Tired of reborn half-existence and half-hearted
students, Chancellor Deshayes is collecting the life
energy of youthful suicide victims to power her
ascent to demilich-dom. Professors who meet her
hellacious syllabus standards have their forbidden
research overlooked. The Chancellor also keeps a
personal guard of nothicsMM and ameskullsMM.
(Suggested Statblock: NE Necromancer VGM)
The Wormius family. The Wormian Museum is
named after Olaus Wormius, translator of the
baleful Necronomicon that detailed lore, spells, and
summoning rituals for Great Eldritch Gods. His
scions took up the cause of researching and
evicting Great Old Ones and their evil cults from
their low-magic gothic earth, but their bloodline
was scarred by wars with aliens indescribable to
the human mind. A misadventure transposed “Ole
Worm’s” mansion to Lusèvres, descendants still
inside. As an act of enlightened philanthropy, the
head of house turned the private wunderkammer
into a museum of curiosities. Lord and Lady
Wormius are currently Mr. Corentin Chouan and
Dr. Camilla Wormius-Chouan, a former professor
and dean of Meurdrac whose career was
prematurely ended by Chancellor Johanna
Deshayes after a professional spat. (Suggested
Statblock: Good Warlock of the Great Old One VGM)
Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
The Ghost of Wormian Museum. An arts-and-
crafty con artist passed off one of the Vargouille’s
victims as an authentic shrunken head to the
unwitting Wormian Museum’s procurer of
curiosities. The vengeful landbound spirit must
possess the museum exhibits to interact with solid
matter. It plans to use various artifacts – some hide
dark secrets – to free itself from the building’s
boundaries. The slight shifting of the exhibits has
not gone unnoticed by the curators. Perhaps stay a
night at the museum and discover the truth?
(Suggested Statblock: Living Bigby’s Hand Icewind)
Drigor. A end investigating the disappearance of its
supreme master became trapped in Ravenloft the
night Lusèvres fell. Drigor has given up clawing at
its prison walls and now undermines the Dark
Powers, traveling extensively seeking cracks in the
dread domains. The Madrigore family is Drigor’s
idle hobby; it inspires them as a muse and seizes
control of their bodies when it feels ready to
compose yet another volume of its diabolical
Madrigorian – the ultimate history and thesis on
Ravenloft. Drigor works hard to keep its opus from
the Vargouille Guillotine, who wants to acquire the
endish loremaster’s vast interplanar wisdom and
has its proxies hunt for it. Drigor has kept its neck
by evicting human egos from their bodies and
discarding the unwitting shell when its evil deeds
catch up to its current form. (Suggested Statblock:
Blue Abishai MToF)
The Madrigore family. A Fulcanellian house of
jaundiced tie ing eccentrics infamous for their
unsettling creations and bizarre delusional
episodes. The rst af icted by the “Madrigore
Fugue” boarded off the entire top oor of the estate
in a frenzy. It now serves as the apartments of their
blood-sire Drigor when the end wearies of
traveling Ravenloft looking for ways out.
(Suggested Statblock: Warlock of the Fiend VGM)
The Taupin family. The Taupins predate Lusèvres’
fall into Ravenloft as genius morticians, and the
Vargouille Guillotine has since generationally
enslaved the entire family to serve as Obedients.
Neighborhood famous for their odd habits,
stupidity, and disproportionate violence against
vandals, the Taupins are pitied, mocked, and
feared. They are the grunt labor of Brumaire’s
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
center-town morgue and clean the guillotine,
Great Court, and the Cour de Justice after events.
Bright and kind Taupin children, not yet
Obedients, are kept locked inside their home to
cram in as much private tutoring as possible before
the Darklord chooses to lobotomize them with its
curse. Despite mercilessly executing evil revival
rituals and complete cosmetic overhauls, a few
Taupins with gentler souls remain unbroken. Their
intelligence and free will begins to rebound when
the Guillotine neglects them, so many keep secret
journals and enact slow-running plots of de ance
in their brief moments of lucidity. Taupin children
who escape are often gifted, and freed adults, who
never completely recover from grinding decades of
horror, become savants. (Suggested Statblock:
Chardalyn Berserker Icewind with intelligence 5-7
when obedient, and any NPC statblock with
intelligence 15-17 when free.)
Detective Bernard Clousse. Real name Mathieu
Montreuil, a career criminal executed by the
Vargouille woke up in the of ce with the face and
voice of the Police Captain who caught him. The
Vargouille Guillotine sends Detective Clousse cut-
out letters with orders to bungle investigations or
frame certain persons and then money if or when
he is successful. Detective Clousse wonders who
his secretive benefactor is but loves the rewards
more than answers. Unfortunately for Lusèvres’
Darklord, “Detective Clousse” is becoming more
comfortably aggressive in his role. He wants to up
his rates and sell his “services” to other criminal
patrons, and he plots a serial murder to be rid of
Bernard’s wife who has become increasingly
despondent and mistrustful of her husband. Alanik
Ray loathes Clousse as a buffoon, but hasn’t yet
gured out he is a fake as they had few meetings
before the switch.
Captain Barthélemy of The Albatross. A mutineer
sentenced to the guillotine, the weather-grizzled
mistcutter now sails in sorrowful penance, ferrying
strangers and cargo to isolated islands of terror.
His decapitated albatross familiar is well known in
the remote regions and sends word ahead that
Barthélemy brings supplies for trade and charity.
He warns passengers that all his trips are one-way.
Captain Barthélemy takes a shine to anyone brave
Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
enough to patiently poke bits of squid into his poor
familiar’s gullet. (Suggested Statblock: NG Pirate
Captain Saltmarsh and Raven MM)
Council of Brilliance. This haughty circle of
enchanters considers themselves the nouveau
intellectual premiers most suited to culturing the
new enlightened mindset and the arts. Their
preferences and social events dominate Lusèvres’
cultural scene. The circle would get guillotined if
caught: charm-enchantments are mostly illegal
and reviled. (Suggested Statblock: Enchanter VGM)
Dominick d’Honaire. The Council of Brilliance’s
narcissistic boss is a relative of Dementlieu’s
darklord and publicly a playwright, fashion-
trendsetter, and art critic. Dominick shed his
childhood home, joined La Société de
Legerdemain, and acted as a stage hypnotist for
private, rich audiences. Appetite for noble status
unful lled, he dropped the prestidigitators in favor
of his night job: using “scienti c hypnotism” to
solve the wealthy’s woes: return a straying
husband, put off a rival suitor, ensure a business
deal goes through, etc. He is cursed to never to nd
true love. (Suggested Statblock: Hypnotist see below)
Aristide River Rats. A small crime family of wererats
from Richemulot, enemies of Jacqueline Renier,
headquarter along the Reue after the Vargouille
Guillotine’s Obedients axed their attempt to move
into the catacombs. As river pirates, they have
baf ed police patrols by vanishing stolen boats
using camou aged hideouts and underwater
tunnels in the riverbank. They have also gotten
their paws into food, wine, and pharmacy
business, adulterating the goods with cheaper and
unethical ingredients. The Red Vardo Traders
compete in the countryside, and the Brain
interferes with their operations in Brumaire. The
head wererat’s family name is Aristide. (Suggested
Statblock: Swashbuckler VGM + wererat MM)
Porcelain Dolls. Crafted with a lifelike face from
Fulcanelli’s cursed clay, a child’s casual and
creative cruelty bestowed a spark of life. Shatter
the evil doll’s face, and its wicked soul hops to a
waiting replacement. The doll imprisons
craftsmen to create more of its kind to be delivered
into the homes of unsuspecting families.
(Suggested Statblock: Carrionette VRG )
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Domain Overview
Domain name. Lusèvres [Lū-Sev]
Darklord. Vargouille Guillotine [var·GWEEL]
Horror genres. Occult detective, gothic horror
Hallmarks. Decapitation, criminal masterminds,
head games, mind control, awed intellectualism,
arts, mob justice, groupthink, fads, social
instability.
Mist Talismans. Porcelainware, executed’s hood,
university acceptance letter, museum ticket, black
ribbon, page of the Madrigorian
Inspiration. Pre-5e Dementlieu, Revolutionary
France
Common origin primer. Lamordia, Mordent,
Richemulot, and Lusèvres all hail from the same
prime, a plane that advanced in technology and
alchemy to make up for the relative weakness of its
magic, and which is haunted by the tentacles of
great old ones worming their way in from the Far
Realms.
Noteworthy Features
Those familiar with Lusèvres know the following
facts:
 Lusèvres is a cloudy but productive land with
pristine lakes, large rivers, a busy overcrowded
capital Brumaire, and regional cities each with
their own strange story.
 Lusèvres government usually changes once a
decade or so, but it is usually an elected type.
Overthrow can be bloody or mostly bloodless.
 Avoid the maelstrom of conspiracy: nouveau-elite
power struggles, organized crime, and overblown
moral panics. It’s all too easy to be framed and
executed, especially outsiders.
 Criminals and conspirators are executed on a
falling blade contraption called the guillotine.
Lusèvriens keep their death device in the center of
their biggest city. Public executions are well
attended, and outsiders often nd the observers’
irreverent eagerness or indifference disturbing.
Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
 Lusèvriens consider education important. They
have excellent schools and a premier museum
with a wing on the supernatural.
 Outsiders are often welcomed but pestered with
over-curious questions about their ways of life.
 Lusèvres’ cooking is elaborate but good, usually.
Brumaire is famous for its press, Fulcanelli for
porcelain, and Vinrouge for wine.
 Mind enchanters are hated and sometimes
hunted without being given fair trials. Hypnotists
who do much the same are not because they are
“scienti c” and doctors.
Folk
Demonym. Lusèvrien
Overview. Typical fantasy demographics, slightly
enriched in humans.
Population. 360,000 with an average population
density of 90 people per mi2. Lusèvres is 50%
urbanized, most concentrated in Brumaire.
Languages. Mordentish, plus typical ancestral.
Language Primer. Lamordia, Mordent,
Richemulot, and Lusèvres share a common tongue
Ravenloftians call “Mordentish”. It sounds to our
ears like a three-way-meeting of French, German,
and English. Its alphabet is the familiar A to Z. It is
split into “high” and “low” tongues. The high form,
supposedly more romantic, is favored in
Richemulot, Dementlieu, Lusèvrien politics and
high literature, and by Mordent’s “great families”.
The low form is limber and favored by Lamordians,
Mordentish and Lusèvrien working families,
scholarly journals, newspapers, and publications
for the middle class.
Land
Date of Emergence. 580 BC [Barovian Calendar]
Land Area. 4000 habitable mi2 (Excluding faire noir
and the lakes), 5000 net mi2.
Landscape and Biomes. Rolling mountain foothills,
post-glacial nger-lakes, rocky cliff shores,
deciduous broadleaf woods, arable grassland.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Climate. Overall temperate. Cool winters with light
snow and mild summers. River fog and ne drizzle
are common. Driving snow in the northeast.
Resources. Mostly self-suf cient with rare periods
of scarcity and famine.
Attitudes
Overview. Unstable intellectual and philosophy-
driven enlightenment that seeks to remake society
after thousands of years of stagnation under a
monarchy.
Intellectual. Man's capacity for development is
unlimited; the ideal is to broadly embrace all
knowledge. Everyone should be educated so they
can participate politically. Schools and tutors are
widespread. Results are class-uneven, but literacy
is high. Public and elites alike are often caught up
in philosophical fads and pseudoscience.
Philosophy and the Arts. Libraries and archives
ourish with widespread support for preserving
and making available history, art, and the written
word for the public good – marred by occasional
book burnings and moral panics. A haughty
Council of Brilliance made up of the nouveau
intellectual elite seeks to culture the new
enlightened mindset. Results have been mixed, but
the Council generously patronizes the arts,
especially the avant-garde. The sans-culottes still
favor the Vargouille Guillotine’s bloody spectacle.
The general public is infatuated with collecting
curios from non-Mordentish-speaking domains
and lurid tales of exploration exploits.
Religious. Widespread skepticism of hierarchical
churches that meddle in secular power politics.
Surviving churches often harbor old rule loyalists.
Extremist splinter institutions proliferate,
demanding strict lifestyles and crusades against
evil creatures or moral hazards. Secularism strips
moral divinity from gods: divines and their
agendas are not above judgment by mortal
standards and worship is a contractual
relationship. Some philosophers believe in a
greater True Divinity above the gods. Fiendslayers
are particularly well represented in the Lusèvrien
pantheon, and demonic possession and exorcism,
both real and imagined, still loom large in the
Lusèvrien psyche. Tie ings face more racism than
Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
elsewhere in Ravenloft, but anti-traditional
rationalism eased bigotry, especially in cities.
Arcane. Magic is not uncommon nor especially
feared, but it is rarely used for simple
conveniences. Those who are “frivolous” with it
are regarded with suspicion. Meurdrac University
is more openminded. Enchanters are hated.
Frenzied towns accuse unliked and outsiders of
enchantments in witch-trial-like mob courts. Even
in cities, enchanters caught using mind charms are
openly persecuted, harassed by the guardsmen,
thrown out of establishments, or indicted for
sedition. Hypnotists and alienists are tolerated as
scientists and doctors of the mind even though
they do much the same.
Natural. Wild creatures serve human needs. In
monarchy times, aristocrats kept restricted royal
woods, and rural folk chafed against sheriffs who
evicted settlements and limited the access
privileges their livelihoods depended on. Nascent
industrial-scale exploitative mindsets threaten the
environment’s future. Newer philosophical
conservationists clash with traditional agrarians
who don’t want city folk to become their new land-
tyrants. Lusèvres is mostly self-suf cient. True
famine and essential resource scarcity are rare.
There is some overlogging, more overhunting, and
Brumaire’s pollution dirties the Roucou river, Lac
Roucou, and lower Reue.
Leadership
Government. Revolutionary republic, punctuated
by brief periods of monarchy.
Highest Authority. Often changes. Typically, an
elected of cial that speaks for a larger body. Rarely
a monarch.
Philosophy. Liberty, equality, and political
participation by all is simultaneously idolized and
circumvented. Law is codi ed, sort-of-
independent judiciary, sometimes juries, but mob
justice is common.
Currency. Standard coins.
Religion. The traditional church worships a variety
of saints representing virtues who are antagonized
by a nemesis-pantheon of devils and fallen angels.
They are enshrined in elaborate cathedrals built of
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
limestone with stained glass windows. Chief
among the forces of good are apotheosized former-
mortal Ezra of the Mists who sacri ced herself for
the salvation of all, carpenter Phili of stewardship,
family, fables, music, and hearth, and warrior-
maiden Markovia of the Morninglord who rose
again after falling to the forces of evil. Evils include
a cambion-like goat-headed devil of temptation
and evil enchantments who represents ends in
general, and a multiheaded ophidian mother
demon of greed and insanity who spawns
monstrosities representing evil dragons, unnatural
monsters, and elder gods. Fiend and elder-god
worshipping cults are persecuted where found.
Druids live on the margins of Lusèvrien society as
soothsayers and healers who appease nature and
elemental spirits with wicker offerings.
Religion Primer. The best attended and most
politically powerful religion from the Mordentish-
speaking continent Lusèvres hailed from
worshipped a pantheon of mortal but
apotheosized saints and martyrs embodying
virtues. The church was bureaucratic and
politically active, preaching divinely-appointed
monarchical legitimacy. Reform sects splintered off
as aristocrats challenged the church’s political
designs, sparking long and vicious wars. No matter
the sect, themes include angels, commandments,
deadly sins and divine virtues, forgiveness,
martyrs, and miracles. The religion has been
subsumed by The Church of Ezra in Ravenloft.
Trade. Exports: porcelain, printed books, glasswork,
pharmaceuticals, cheese, wine, timber, beet sugar,
grains and produce, art and ne goods. Imports:
sh, fur, salt, tropical-climate commodities, spices,
coal, gems, and re ned metal.
Flag. Usually a tricolor of misty sky, white porcelain,
and blood honorably shed. Monarchs often add
gold elements.
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Developments
Renaissance weapons. Like most Mordentish-
speaking domains, Renaissance-era weapons and
explosives exist in Lusèvres (see the DMG).
Culinary excellence. Elaborate recipes invented for
royals are served in Lusèvrien restaurants and inns.
Home cooking is lighter, without as much cream
and butter.
Literacy and printing press. The free exchange of
ideas, intrigue, and gossip depends on the easy
exchange of mass-printed circulars, magazines,
books, and manifestos.
Conflicts
Social stresses. Executing nobility did not ease
many of the divides. The new elites are a proto-
corporate capital class of merchants, bankers,
business owners, celebrities, landlords, and old-
money relicts. The wealthy have the time and
money to afford the fads and intellectual pursuits
that mark them as elites.
Sensationalism. Fads, conspiracy theories, and
rumors pulse through the nation like blood in a
beating heart. Store shelves are stocked with penny
dreadfuls, muckraking magazines, and titillating
tabloids. Resentment of elitist rationals drives a
counterculture of anti-intellectualism fed by old
rule loyalists.
Lifestyle extremes. The former nobles and royalty
lived a famously libertine lifestyle of extravagant
parties, feasts, and philandering. Countercultural
reactionary leaders try to enforce extreme
simplicity by restricting or banning simple
pleasures, all the while often debauching
themselves in secret.
Monarchists. Many despise the perpetual populist
chaos and plot for the return of a strong, reliable,
authoritarian leader. Ex-aristocrats still harbor
grudges from the four days of terror and desire the
return of their status and privileges. Cooperators
include cabals of secret pro-royal philosophers and
militias, surviving families of the falsely executed,
and immigrants from other domains who prefer
the familiarity of a monarch. Some of their number
want to destroy the Vargouille Guillotine as the
symbol of the overthrow of Old Lusèvres. A few
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
would-be Guillotine smashers are mystics or
readers of the Madrigorian who claim the
Guillotine itself is the dark force propping up
Lusèvres.
Enchanters. Lusèvriens work themselves into
hysterias over enchanters witching the minds of
whole communities. Villages hold trials and
executions of suspected enchanters. Ironically,
malevolent enchanters readily manipulate these
mobs to off rivals. Hypnotists, who counsel the
troubled as doctors of the mind, are well accepted
in cities, but slightly less so in the countryside.
Fiends. Drigor was only one of several endish
servants trapped in Ravenloft by Lusèvres’ fall. Like
Drigor, the remainder search for ways out and
recruit diabolical cults. Free of their dead master’s
discipline, they don’t hesitate to stab each other in
the back. Furthermore, items made from
Fulcanelli’s clay, such as porcelain-faced dolls,
have demonic instincts. The traditionalist Church
would like to restore its reputation by vanquishing
ends, but they are profoundly outmatched.
Feuding criminal gangs. Lusèvres’ underworld
factions frequently war. The Vargouille Guillotine
frames targets it wants memories from for heinous
crimes, seeks tools and rumors that might allow it
to transpose its consciousness into a mobile vessel,
and searches for outsiders and outlanders with
demiplanar and extraplanar knowledge. The
Living Brain needs money, rare ultrapure metals
and chemicals, and esoteric lab equipment to build
a new body, and he enjoys challenging Alanik Ray,
the Police, and other detectives as a revenge-driven
hobby. The River Rats cooperate with monarchists
and ght the Brain and the Red Vardo Traders for
criminal opportunities. Jacqueline Montarri and
the Red Vardo Traders are a wildcard – stealing key
artifacts and throwing wrenches into the plans of
others. The Counsel of Brilliance is more interested
in the ideology of art and politics, but some forge
“lost masters.”
Crowded city. Brumaire is crowded, and sooty
factories and the pulp mills congeal the air near the
lake. Diseases spread like wild re through the
stacked wooden districts. The wary public gossip
of any strange ills and shun the sick and strange.
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Secluded towns. “Progress” and “enlightenment”
have not spread evenly across Lusèvres. Small
town boredom and xenophobia is a malicious
tinder that outsiders easily set alight. At their
worst, villagers drag outsiders into unfair trials
and accuse them of foul bewitchment.
Map and Places
Locales
Brumaire
Brumaire. Population 108,000. The riverside city at
the center of Lusèvres’ geography and cultural life
is within a day-and-a-half’s ride of most places in
the domain. Urban packing approaches 25,000
people per mi2 in the densest districts and disease
cuts deeply. The center of town is the Cour de
Justice. Meurdrac University and the Wormian
Museum are a carriage ride away. The prevailing
wind blows east to west most days, sending factory
smoke over the lake, so the rich live east upstream
on the river. A downhill walk to the lake docks and
shipping yard takes one through the seedier
neighborhoods. The charnel catacombs wind deep
beneath the streets.
Cour de Justice. The administrative center of town
and heart of the public commons. The Great Court
and the Vargouille Guillotine are its centerpieces,
but the plaza hosts carnivals, exhibitions,
electioneering, speeches, weddings, funerals,
protests, special markets, and much more besides
executions. The Cour de Justice is inevitably
involved in major happenings because its location
and symbolism as Lusèvres heart are so strategic.
Central Morgue. It processes many of Brumaire’s
bodies for viewing and burial. Visitors from other
domains will be aghast to see that both executed
and unidenti ed corpses, such as those found
drowned in the river, are put on rolling tables for
street window display, nominally so passerby can
identify them. The attached gift shop sells funeral
conveniences like mourning veils and hats,
candles, wreaths, sympathy cards, jet jewelry,
charms against necromancy, etc. but those who
enjoy morbid curios can buy used headman’s
baskets and hoods. Hidden trap doors lead to the
largest charnel catacomb ossuary. A porcelain-pale
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
bowed-head bell ower called headman’s bloom
completely blankets the small garden around the
morgue.
Charnel Catacombs. A confusing tunnel labyrinth
winds under much of Brumaire. Agents of the
Darklord sneak and transport bodies unseen.
Originally quarries for a nascent Brumaire in the
Roucou canal-building days, the charnel
catacombs became an ossuary for the bones of
Brumaire’s poorest, and were later used in various
espionage plots by spies, monarchists, and
revolutionaries. The small fraction remembered in
public records are still an active ossuary
maintained by the Taupins and a records archive
for the Courts. The Vargouille Guillotine knows
their full extent. It has secretly expanded sections
under the Cour de Justice to accommodate a
dungeon, surgical rooms, laboratories, vaults, and
a notekeeping library. Brumaire is pocked with
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expertly hidden access points in public alleys and
private residences; most are unknown even to the
building owners. Only the Taupins can keep them
straight. Headman’s bloom lines the walls and
ceilings of the charnel catacombs wherever any
light is occasionally cast, sometimes pushing skulls
out of place with a loud clatter. Some tunnels ash
ood partially or wholly with water or sewage in
heavy rain.
Le Panier Citrouille. A lively, warm-wooded
downtown tavern marked by the sign of a pumpkin
in a headman’s basket. It’s a favorite haunt for
adventurers and amateur detectives because the
quest board is pruned to only the most reliable-
paying and curious requests. The live-in bartender
and manager, who doesn’t know his shut-in son in
an Obedient of the Guillotine, is the sort who could
hook up a worthy party with a certain person or
magic if given the time to work connections. The
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
tavern is just within the limit of the Vargouille
Guillotine’s blindsight, and the Guillotine via
intermediaries is effectively the owner. It ensures
the attendance of the most interesting and
important in Lusèvres with excellent but
competitively-priced fare and strategic current
rumors – the Vargouille Guillotine puppets the
shut-in son to manage the quest board, rumors,
and rewards. A basement secret passage leads to
the Charnel Catacombs, and the walls conceal
hidden hallways and ladders left over from
revolutionary plots that can be used to enter
rooms, ideal to stage a “perfect crime”.
Ray Detective Of ce and Serpentine district.
Alanik Ray’s cluttered, peeling wallpaper, and
plush couch main consulting of ce and private
laboratory is located in the better-to-do working-
class Serpentine District. The district’s landmark
feature is a canal that runs right through the
middle of the eponymous, winding cobblestone
main thoroughfare and is crossed along its length
by numerous bridges. The steep-sloped canal is a
ten-foot leap across, and at typical water depth just
wide enough for two canoes to pass.
Wormian Museum. In the wealthier Cathedral
District, the elaborately-carved limestone museum
has wings for art, history, and natural history, but
also acquires items of occult interest to neutralize
and describe in a rational and enlightened format
so that a new generation of scholars can learn to
strike back against the dark. The museum was
constructed with rare materials, odd geometries,
and hidden number patterns to defy Great Old
Ones –or worst-case-invasion scenario– act as a
magic seal to forever trap one in the museum’s
structure.
The Wormian Museum’s namesake is Olaus
Wormius, long-deceased translator of the
Necronomicon. Generations of descendants
researched and banished Great Old Ones and their
evil cults, but “Ole Worm’s” bizarre mansion was
transposed into Ravenloft to the north side of Lac
Reue in Lusèvres. The late head of household freed
his family’s curiosities from their wunderkammer,
and by his philanthropy escaped the Vargouille
Guillotine.
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The current curators are at loggerheads with the
Ulmist inquisition who wish the occult collection
destroyed (and tried arson in the past), and the Van
Richten Society who appreciate most of the
mission but fear the curators are too eager to
display certain eldritch artifacts. Some holdings
have gotten lost in the vault shuf e; Ole Worm’s
demonologies are kept by La Société de
Legerdemain.
Meurdrac University. South across the Reue is the
Rivage District, where Meurdrac University crawls
with student slums, cramped dormitories,
underground laboratories, and steam tunnels. Its
imposing gothic towers sprawl into the sky.
Meurdrac is renowned around Ravenloft for its
eminent liberal arts scholarship and grueling
curriculum. Nicknamed “The University of
Hanging Necks” by its students, Meurdrac is also
infamous for stress-induced student suicides. New
student hazing includes learning how to properly
tie a noose to avoid prolonged and agonizing
death. Its mascot is the drac, a nature demon
responsible for river oods and other ill water
omens. The drac is depicted as a bearded man-
faced chimera with an aquatic dragon’s forebody,
webbed chicken hindfeet, and a mermaid’s tail.
Press District. The paper Brumaire’s infamously
odiferous mills produce is consumed internally by
the presses of its even more famous mass-print
industry. From novels to picture books,
encyclopedias to tabloid scuttlebutt, Lusèvriens
devour a deluge of reasonably priced information.
Many who live and work in the “Lead Letter
District”, west of the Cour de Justice and downhill
toward the lake, are poisoned by antimony and
lead melted to make molds. The canals run black
with ink. Sometimes called the “Dead Letter
District” for assassinated journalists, printers, and
blackmailers. The Strand is the largest newspaper.
Lac District. The poorest of Brumaire live lakeside,
where the belching factories, poorly-lit shipping
docks, sallow paper mills, and all their odors are
the thickest.
Rivers and Lakes
Arden River. Narrower and rockier in the eastern
half as it races downhill, it smooths after Lac
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Ophélie. From the otsam oating downstream,
the Arden is seemingly fed by glacial snowmelt in
Lamordia and ows into lower Mordent.
Reue River. Lusèvres’ shipping aorta, wider and
smoother than the Arden, the temperamental Reue
occasionally oods. The Reue’s detritus oats into
Richemulot’s Musarde.
Roucou River. Technically a canal dug in ancient
times to bridge the Arden and Reue. Its labor force
expanded then tiny town Brumaire. The
supernatural taint that turns Lac Roucou red rarely
runs far upstream.
The Skald. A trickle from Faire Noir became a river
when Kartakass formed. Foresters take their
chances with supernatural beasts and oat their
logs downstream.
Lac Roucou. Pulp mills for paper manufacture belch
ill odors over the lake, so shoreline property is
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cheap. Occasionally, the lake water turns a
frightening red orange for unnatural reasons; the
Red Omen of Lac Roucou heralds doom.
Pale Lady’s Lake. Named after a well-dressed lady
ghost sometimes seen leading her girl child on a
walk on the far side’s lake shore. The northern
misty wall begins at its northern shore, rather than
dividing it in twain.
Lac Reue. Cold and deeper than expected. The
necklace of communities at its shore are satellites
of the wealthier wine country to the south. Ole
Worm’s manor grips to a crag on its north-easterm
shore.
Lac Ophélie. The lake at the river split. The sinking
ruins of a castle stand on the southwestern
peninsula, now taken over by a lindworm.
Other Jewel Box Lakes. These nger lakes are
drained by rocky rivers into the Arden or Pale
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Lady’s Lake. The water is usually pristine and cold,
and insular farming communities jealously guard
the shing. The pastoral and forested countryside
between the lakes is dotted with the abandoned
castle-estates formerly owned by executed
aristocrats. Many still bear dead vendettas.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Fulcanelli and Western Lusèvres
Fulcanelli. Population 41,500. A warm valley city
with its own regional accent known for its
wild owers, lavender elds, quaint orange-roofed
and whitewashed houses, and scattered stone
megaliths carved with monstrous leering faces.
Fulcanelli is ancient, built on a ley line with the
stones that the previous civilization stole from
their prehistoric predecessors. Its hand-painted,
bone-white porcelain is coveted across the
Mistlands.
Madrigore House. An extremely eccentric château
of the surviving nobles of Fulcanelli. The lords and
ladies Madrigore in residence are prone to fugues
where they alternate between lying about in
melancholy or throwing themselves with feral
abandon upon anything that catches their creative
eye to produce artistic masterpieces as unsettling
as they are beautiful with no regard for convention
– the current Lady favors tattoos. The estate’s
upper oor was frenetically walled off by the
manor lord the year of Lusèvres formation, and the
stairs remain stuffed with jumbled furniture. No
one alarms at the strange music, lights, and smells
that sometimes oat down from the sealed upper
story. The oil paintings suggest the family have
been sallow tie ings for their entire existence, but
the works have been altered by a fugue-struck
family member. One Madrigore, sometimes even a
young child, is always chained to the desk of the
writing room for the safety of the rest of the
residents. The end Drigor, occasionally in-
residence upstairs, remotely puppets the chained
Madrigore to write, but the powerful evil
enchantment sometimes causes the possessed
individual to run amok.
Clay Pits. Fulcanelli’s environs have been quarried
for millennia for kaolin used in ne stoneware,
paper glossing, and whitewashing homes. The
death of an arch- end, slayed under mysterious
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circumstances, produced an enormous crater of
purest white clay called devil’s kaolin (see items
section). Devil’s kaolin makes ghostly porcelain of
unparalleled delicate beauty, but a secret recipe
easily produces infernal and sentient weapons,
poisonous trinkets, and cursed artifacts. Van
Richten and his allies failed to mystically cage
Drigor, the end haunting the Madrigore family.
The spell failure set off a bizarrely vicious magic
explosion and created a much smaller second
crater of devil’s kaolin.
Other clay-pit oddities include the night-glowing
“sick pits” mined for radium, uranium, and strange
unstable magical elements. Bluetspurian illithids
have taken interest in samples that found their way
to Mount Makab and seek the source.
Porcelain makers. The delicately painted, gold-
rimmed tea sets are prized collector’s pieces. Some
brands are experimenting with glowing radium
paints.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Vinrouge and South of the Reue
Vinrouge. Population 16,500, Lusèvres wine
production center is nestled against the pristine
and sparkling Lac Reue with scenic views of the
climbing land. The town is heavily touristed.
Businesses occupy the rst oor of tall half-timber
houses.
Red Vardo Traders’ Headquarters. The mist-
wandering criminal gang hides contraband and
secret passages in wine barrels. Their operations
use wine, fruit, and ower delivery as a cover.
Heritage Inn. A pleasant log inn surrounded by a
lovely rose garden. The sharp rose-twined
wrought-iron fence has impaled four people, all
who inexplicably fell out of the attic room window.
The spacious attic room is available, of course.
South Country. Dotted with agricultural towns, the
southeast was the playground of former nobility.
Dead chateaus that aren’t horrendously haunted
have been renovated or demolished.
Faire Noir. A dense and dangerous forest lustrum of
wolves and other predators that has resisted
colonization and logging. Ruins of civilizations
older than Old Lusèvres are locked under its mossy
root mat.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Primer: Mistways and Conjunctions
Mistways are an extradimensional pathway to
another domain localized to a particular place or
ritual. Travel is more certain than when using mist
talismans, so well-known mistways that don’t
require a major sacri ce are often monopolized by
a trade group, political power, or the Darklord.
Tolls are typically collected when feasible.
Outbound mistways close when a Darklord closes
their domain borders, but not inbound ones, unless
otherwise noted.
Lusèvrien mistways. If you choose to implement
mistways, then Lusèvres’ rivers become a reliable
trade network to other Mordentish-speaking
domains. At mists’ edge stand small ag- ying,
garrisoned forts with douaniers to collect tolls,
inspect, and tax boats and barges. Mistway failure
puts one in a random body of water elsewhere in
Lusèvres. For more sure travel, pay one of the lamp-
carrying and brown-hooded ferrymen – but
beware the headless horseman whose fell horse
can trot along the river bottom while it leads astray
its passengers in the boat.
A Conjunction occurs when two or more planes
overlap so that travel between them becomes easy.
In Ravenloft, conjunctions between two domains
usually create a land border, no mist travel or
trinkets are required at all. Opportunists trade,
raid, negotiate, and migrate before the misty
curtain closes once more. Horrors from one domain
attack the other’s unprepared populace.
Conjunctions, especially between “nearby”
domains, can be predictable or even regular. When
enough domains become stuck together for long
enough, they might be called a cluster or continent.
Darklords are dragged back from even stepping
into a neighboring domain by possessive swirls of
mist, but the thin strip of no-man’s-land where the
geographies stitch belongs to both, so old enemies
can do direct battle. Darklords may try to in uence
other domains with their special powers, but the
reigning darklord will always have the home eld
advantage. Domain closures summon a misty wall
that only blocks outbound travel.
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Foreign Relations
I
t is common knowledge Lusèvres shares the
mists with other lands. Brumaire has
cultural neighborhoods dominated by
expats from Mordent, Lamordia, Darkon, and Borca.
The public learns about other domains through
museum collections, translated memoirs, and
inaccurate retold tales. Widespread public interest in
collecting foreign curios drives over-active
imaginations and funds ill-fated exploration
ventures. Obvious foreigners get peppered with over-
curious questions.
Borca. Translocated Borcans adapt well to Lusèvres.
If they are former aristocrats, they tend to support
Lusèvres’ old-rule loyalists.
Conjunctions: ~Once in 2-5Y for long intervals,
connecting Lusèvres’ SW to Borca’s N or Lusèvres’
Reue to Borca’s Luna or Vasha.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
The Carnival. Lusèvriens are excited when it comes
to town, maybe once every year or two.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Cyre1313. Roars through the remotest Lusèvrien
countryside on the regular and inspires horrible
tales. It is often confused with the countryside
bogey-cab, the Thundering Carriage, by those who
haven’t seen it.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Darkon. Middling trade partner and regularly sends
pupils to local boarding schools and Meurdrac
University. Darkonians are considered old-
fashioned and suspicious for their casual use of
magic and tolerance of necromancy and an
unchanging king but are regarded as excellent
students. Lately, asylum-seeking caravans of
Darkonians escaping a cataclysm have attracted
concern and xenophobia.
Mistway: Lychgate. Pass through the entrance to a
graveyard at night while holding humanoid remains
and reciting a prayer for the dead – the remains of a
blood relative work best. (Reliable)
Conjunctions: ~Once a year for a couple weeks,
connecting Lusèvres’ SE to Darkon’s SW, Azalin can
predict it and sets up border checkpoints in advance.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Dementlieu. Non-existent as a goods trade partner,
but looms large in Lusèvrien imagination as the
fabulously wealthy country of a grand duchess.
Lusèvrien elite dream of being invited to see Port-a-
Lucine. Dementlieu inevitably gets Lusèvres caught
up in its fads, but long after they have passed.
Lusèvriens have absolutely no idea Chateaufaux is
fake; Saidra d’Honaire and Dementlieuse alike treat
Lusèvriens as liabilities who ought to remain on
their own side of the mists. Still, the duchess enjoys
Lusèvrien ego-feeding fantasies. She entertains the
belief that Lusèvres’ powerful are all unquali ed
commoners who admit to of ng all the real nobility
and rule as rabble, so Saidra’s position is digni ed
by comparison. She allows just enough
correspondence and trinkets to get through to keep
the popular imagination captured. The few
Lusèvriens who do visit have the wool pulled over
their eyes, realize the self-preservative wisdom of
the masquerade, or are quickly offed and their
deaths blamed on shock from amazement or
overindulgence.
Mistway: Fabler’s signpost. Where wandering
weathered signs for Chateaufaux appear at a fork in a
road, keep taking the opposite fork, turning
completely around if need be. (Excellently Reliable)
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Kartakass. Minor trade partner for furs and fruit,
Lusèvres is a goal for many Kartakan bards who
want city-sized patronage rates. Lusèvriens assume
everyone from Kartakass has learned how to play an
instrument or ve.
Conjunctions: Once in 2-5Y, connecting Lusèvres’
Faire Noir to Kartakass’ S.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Lamordia. Major goods and intellectual trade
partner for tech, ores, gems, furs, chemicals, and
literature. Lamordians are stereotyped as smart but
stuffy.
Mistway: Arden Mistway East. Boat into the mist at the
eastern terminus of the Arden River. (Very Reliable)
Conjunctions: A couple times yearly for up to months,
predictable, connecting Lusèvres’ E to Lamordia’s W.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅
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Mordent. An old neighbor and rival with history
predating Ravenloft. Major trade partner for fresh
sh, cheese, wool, salt, jet, coal, and ne glasswork.
The two nations are closely aware of each other’s
politics and harbor each other’s dissidents.
Mistway: Arden Mistway West. Boat into the mist at
the western terminus of the Arden River. (Very
reliable)
Conjunctions: Several times yearly for months at a
time, predictable connecting Lusèvres’ N or NE to
Mordent’s S.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Richemulot. Middling goods trade partner on
account of lockdowns. Source of several plague
outbreaks and wererat lycanthropy. Most
Lusèvriens disdain Renier as a noble tyrant who
ought to be overthrown, or better, guillotined;
Renier doesn’t appreciate Lusèvrien propaganda.
Mistway: Musarde Mistway. Boat into the mist at the
western terminus of the Reue River.
Conjunctions: once or twice yearly for very short
intervals, predictable, connecting Lusèvres’ Reue to
Richemulot’s Musarde.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Others. The following domains are known by name
only in Lusèvres for certain goods or features, but
are otherwise not on the public’s radar for any of
their internal happenings:
Barovia: prestige source of wine, wool, and furniture.
Conjunction: Once in 20-50Y, Lusèvres’ E to Barovia’s S
or NE.
Bluetspur: The most mysterious and odd artifacts in
Wormian museum.
Falkovnia: Belligerent, half-starving, yet nevertheless
talented raiders who sack and burn towns and kidnap
able bodied citizens. Undead attacks. Conjunction: rare
but lasts a couple months and brings undead waves with
them, Lusèvres’ SE to Falkovnia’s S or NE
Har’Akir: A desert, hot and sandy, with pyramids and
picture writing. Treasures in the Wormian museum
depict animal-headed people. Real creatures or local
gods, who can tell?
Hazlan: Oddities, chimerical creatures (chimerical
taxidermies are falsely sold as Hazlani), stories of great
magic, chocolate, sugar
Kalakeri: Spices, tea, warm weather goods.
Valachan: Safaris, hunting big game, displacer beasts,
tropical fruit, vanilla, medicinal plants, baskets.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Timeline
Ancient history
• Fulcanelli settled, henges built and tors carved
along the leyline
• Forest that becomes Faire Noire spreads over the
ruins of ancient civilizations
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Pre-monarchy (more than ~1000 pre-Ravenloft)
• Church founded
• (Other world: gothic earth) Olaus Wormius writes
the Necronomicon, his heirs purge elder god cults
• A philosopher-emperor unites the Mordentish-
speaking lands and beyond to create a great
empire. This empire fractures but the expanse
containing Fulcanelli, Brumaire, & Vinrouge is
ruled by an unbroken lineage of Mordentish-
speaking monarchs for over a thousand years.
• Drigor’s master takes an interest in the local area
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Early Monarchy
• Roucou canal dug from lac Roucou to lac Ophélie.
The workers settle in and expand Brumaire.
• Royal castle built on shores of lac Ophélie
• Nobles built chateaus in Vinrouge
• (Other world: gothic earth) Olaus Wormius’
mansion becomes a dimensional frontline in the
war against eldritch cults of far-realm gods. An
emissary from the stars is trapped in the
mansion’s structure but warps the house and
Wormius bloodline.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Later Monarchy
• Meurdrac University established
• Printing press invented
• Brumaire becomes a major city
• Lindworm egg collected and stored in royal castle
as a curiosity
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Decades leading up to the fall
• Taupins run Brumaire Central Morgue
• Red Omen of lac Roucou runs upstream along the
Roucou river all the way to lac Ophélie
• Drigor’s master slain, large devil’s kaolin pit in
Fulcanelli formed, rst infernal porcelain crafts
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Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
• Drigor transposes into the local area to nd its lost
boss
• Guillotine invented; Vargouille Guillotine built
from Fulcanelli’s porcelain red in hell re by
cultist of Drigor’s master to power its revival with
the lives of the executed.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Vargouille Guillotine awakens
Four Days of Terror, overthrow of the monarchy,
mass executions, land dragged into Ravenloft
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
After Lusèvres’ fall
• Drigor becomes patron of the Madrigores
• Native church syncretized by Church of Ezra
• V.G. creates the headless horseman, thundering
carriage legends appear
• Ole Worm’s manor transposed into Ravenloft.
• Wormian museum built in Brumaire
• Lindworm egg hatches, takes over castle ruins
• V.G. brings back Jacqueline Montarri, Johanna
Deshayes
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Roughly last half-century to present
• Dominick d’Honaire ruins his family home, moves
to Brumaire, joins La Société de Legerdemain,
learns to disguise his enchantment talents with
hypnotism, leaves La Société, joins the Council of
Brilliance, and with the backing of cerebral
vampires takes control of it.
• Johanna Deshayes forces dean Dr. Camilla
Wormius-Chouan’s resignation and becomes
chancellor of Meurdrac University.
• Detective Alanik Ray moves to Lusèvres,
establishes Ray detective of ce in Brumaire,
receives Arlène Taupin’s written help in tracking a
shape-shifting serial killer in Port-a-Lucine
• Conjunction with Falkovnia starts small war
• Van Richten and friends fail to mystically cage
Drigor, create second devil’s kaolin pit
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Near future
• The Red Omen of lac Roucou coincides with a
blood moon
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Amuse-gueules
S
overeignty beheaded, Lusèvres tries on new
forms of government like hats and feeds the
Vargouille Guillotine whoever has fallen
out of fashion. Popular thought leans democratic,
despises feudalism, and approves of separation
between church and state. The ratio of popular to
privileged participation is debated in the courts and
alleyways.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Competing diplomatic correspondences demand I
deport the convocation in exile squatting in
Lusèvres’ embassy, or insist I arrest the outrageous
pretenders blockading the mission with nightsoil
carts. All the while, breeches and tricorns battle in
the streets of Il Aluk and borrow my gallows and
pillories as they please.
My patience is extinguished.
I cut the gordian knot with a royal edict to
immediately execute every Lusèvrien ambassador
in Darkon. Thenceforth, their replacements will
too kiss the axe if I don’t receive annual
reconfirmation that they are still wanted by
whatever committee, assembly, emperor, consul,
chairman, president, or chancellor is currently
running that guillotine circus.
– Private notes of Azalin Rex
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
The longstanding Council of Brilliance has nimbly
sidestepped the blade with its ostensibly apolitical
mission to further the arts. The secret to its staying
power is simple: the leaders are all enchantersVGM
skilled in subtle mind manipulation – the most
reviled school of spellcasters in Lusèvres.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
The Living Brain is thinking of muscling in on the
lucrative center-town territory where the Cour de
Justice lies. Ignorant of the Guillotine, the Brain
nevertheless sees its machinating shadow and
understands a greater and far more frightening
intelligence than his own works through the dullard
Obedients whom he cannot bend. Brumaire may
soon become the battleground of masterminds: the
Guillotine more powerful, but the Brain more
effective and mobile, with Alanik Ray and everyone
else caught in the middle.
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┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
The puri ed plasma drawn from the eldritch ocean
of the tainted plane of water unique to Ravenloft is
the secret ingredient in quite a few local patent
medicines. Life-sustaining ichor is effective
medically and alchemically although it carries a
slight risk of corrupting the patient. The pleasant
rose-pink ichor brew called Charlene’s Salubrity
causes a peculiar dissociative identity crisis: the
drinker identi es with whoever they are observing.
Daredevil Lusèvrien sophisticates share a little swig
to enhance their viewing experience at art galleries,
concerts, and theaters. It was made illegal when a
top-billed actor played a spree-murderer and the
compelling performance seduced several users into
attacking the crowd around them. Ironically, the
tragedy only increased the popularity of Charlene’s
Salubrity in the artistic underground.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Revanchists, old-rule nostalgics, widows of the
guillotined, ci-devant nobles, counter-reform clergy,
and authoritarian philosophers secretly gather to
debate and hold orgiastic balls in elaborate mourning
costumes, saluting partners with a sharp downward
jerk of the head to imitate decapitation.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Lusèvres is the epicurean’s paradise. Elsewhere,
butchers ponder the edibility of the displacer beast;
Lusèvrien rôtisseurs argue how best to tame the
tentacles’ chewiness without overwhelming the dish
with gamy pantherine smells. Yet among the
menagerie of giant frog tongues, chimera cheeses,
twitching eel llets, and peryton ribs, a tiny, ordinary
bird perches atop the culinary pinnacle – the ortolan.
These buntings are con ned to dark cages to gorge on
millet seed before they are drowned in ne brandy.
The lucky diner shovels the entire roast bird into their
mouth, spitting out only the largest bones.
Traditionally, the attending waiter drapes a large
napkin over the gourmand’s head, supposedly to
hide the dissolute act from the eyes of the jealous
gods, but more likely to spare the table from
witnessing one’s moment of gastronomic ecstasy. -S
Please add me to the pantheon blind to your
wretched dining escapades, Little Scholar.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
The Madrigorian’s Origin
I
owe my fall to Fulcanelli, a pimple of a town
within a fen of mortality within a squirming
Space Far From. Rather than bodily cross the
aethereal expanse, I hollowed a suitable
vessel’s mind and supplanted its mortal ego with my
own. In that far-flung Crusted Sphere where the Eldest
Gods sow their eldritch eye sand, pulling the simplest
strand of magic felt as though I wore a dozen lead rings
upon my talons. My mission was personal. A Great One
to whom I had paid significant tribute saw fit to garden
malevolence within this feculent pit. My august
overlord must have had a grander, deeper scheme
because anyone else would have delegated this dreich
task to a lesser. Come harvest, my lord voyaged… and
vanished utterly. My patron’s disappearance could not
go unexamined. I must salvage my path to promotion.
Blind, I was.
I found my patron’s remains, now a grotesque crater
of fine white clay. And I found the garden. It had
overgrown. A deep echo in my chest. Foggy walls racing
overland. Breath ripped away. Metaphysical vertigo.
That is all I remember from the night of imprisonment,
the formation of “Lusèvres” – that foul lie of a name
stitched onto every tongue by the Powers That Be.
I raged against confinement. I cast every spell.
Leveraged every artifact. For Naught. My shackles are
unbreakable. Now, I must await an opportunity.
Since, I have idled away my entrapment by playing
muse to a mortal family in Fulcanelli. I have beautified
their bodies by melding my blood with theirs. I blessed
their line with my favorite alias: Madrigore. I
whispered slivers of my secrets until their fragile minds
composed delicate poems of raving insanity. Now they
comprehensively catalog the historic courses of these
dreadful demiplanes: emergence, fade, and foul
revivification. My opus on the Mists, the Madrigorian,
enlightens yet more worthies to this prison’s nature.
They will work at its seams for me. And I will capitalize.
A residence in Brumaire would suit me better, but I
would not risk my neck so near the Lifetaker, surer than
the word of death. It craves a taste of true demonic
ichor, but I shed my shell and take up another before
the mortals can hand me over to it.
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Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
Subject to the Fiendish Dogma, death ought not to be
my end. My essence should be drawn to its rightful
place in the Lower Planes to regenerate my corporeal
form. Yet I scribe these letters with my own phylactery,
a gift from the mists unbidden. I have studied this
strange quill and the fates of former fiends cut down.
My conclusion is most unfortunate:
Crush this pathetic pen, and my essence is annihilated.
Unbelievable. The inscrutable misty jailers have
accomplished that which has stymied eons of devilish
armies, demonic hordes, and scheming celestial hosts.
The Dark Wardens have defeated the Fiendish Dogma.
To my best determination, death is final and true for
any demon, daemon, devil, and demodand who loses
their gifted phylactery within this fog. This cage of a
world is a fair battlefield, possibly unique among the
multiversal infinity. The entire course of the Blood War
would be forever changed by this knowledge.
My brethren must learn of this place.
No, they must never learn of this place.
Yet, perhaps, perhaps if I had the nerve to shatter this
quill between my claws, I would reveal Their deception
that I have somehow overlooked. If the shrieking
Vargouille Guillotine was unmade, Lusèvres would
resubmerge into its natal mists. Jailhouse broken open,
my liberated soul would fly free and true to my home’s
hellfire embrace!
… Or would I become the next Lord over this prison of
“enlightened” bu oonery? Would I too dissolve into
mists if the Vargouille Guillotine returns to earth?
Exactly how fragile is my existence?
Until I am certain my own neck is free of the hallows,
I am as petrified as porcelain. All I can do is write. Write
… and plot.
Plot … and sip tea. I stained this page with the only
pleasure I will miss after I slip these bars: Lusèvres’
favorite black tea graced with lavender, vanilla, orange
peel, and bergamot, poured from the teapot I turned
with my own claws from the clay impregnated with my
patron’s essence and the ashes of Van Richten’s foolish
monster hunting party. Their chorus of delightful
shrieks tell me when the water is boiling.
Diabolic Drigor of Fulcanelli
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Vargouille Guillotine
G
uillotines were designed to make
executions more humane. Axe-men
occasionally botched the job with blunt
blades and underpowered swings. What would have
been an enlightened idea in a non-magical world
failed to appreciate the moment of death releases
incredible power, and using the same tool for the job
hundreds of times rubs off on the thing.
The Vargouille Guillotine, forged from Fulcanelli’s
endish clay and tempered in hell re, awoke to a
chaotic country poised to overthrow its thousand-
years-old monarchy. The sentient weapon’s aimless
hunger for death and new memories taken from
those decapitated by its blade soon evolved into a
scheme. The Guillotine wanted real power over its
prey – to be an emperor, conquer, and have a suitable
mobile form. To defeat men in law, science, and
strategy, it needed the greatest minds. Able to scry
across the whole land, it emotionally manipulated
rebels and monarchists, telepathically whispering
provocations until the coup d'état ignited. The
Guillotine was fed the heads of royals, intellectuals,
nobles, historians, and wizards, but these were still
not enough. It ooded everyone’s minds with
paranoia until hundreds of suspected loyalists, many
innocent, were executed in a frenzied massacre called
the ‘Four Days of Terror’. The river of wrongly-taken
blood attracted the eyes of the Dark Powers and fall
of the land into Ravenloft as Lusèvres.
Roleplaying the Vargouille Guillotine
The Vargouille Guillotine is a seen yet unseen evil
that casts a long shadow over Lusèvres. It has the
wicked brilliance of the ruined arch end whose
shattered essence comprises its structure. It draws
prey closer with its web of in uence, using intimate
knowledge, corruption, compromised people, and
artifacts. The Guillotine attacks from several angles
simultaneously, piles on misfortunes, and predicts an
opponent’s moves several steps ahead. Its mindset is
steeped in Lusèvrien philosophy. The Guillotine
seeks its own dark enlightenment, to become
something greater than a collector of memories and
a tool for death. Conquesting, multi-talented
emperors loom large in the Mordentish-speaking
historical mythos and so too the Guillotine’s ideals.
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Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
Accelerating Danger. The Vargouille Guillotine is a
relatively young evil: a bit older than 150 years if your
game takes place in 735 on the Barovian Calendar. It
taught itself via stolen memories, no mentors. It
discovered its aws and gifts as a Darklord by trial
and setback. It has only recently acquired memories
and perspectives from non-Lusèvriens with the
expansion of Ravenloft and the successes of its
increasingly subversive plots.
The Guillotine is now in its prime, con dent
enough to challenge anyone in Lusèvres, interested in
abusing other domains. It is also pushing the limits
of its Darklord curse. It is testing edge cases for
exploits and acquiring artifacts useful for future
plans. Finally, the Guillotine is theorizing about the
metaphysics of Ravenloft’s prison: that it is special,
but not alone in its shackles, and that there is a freer
and more desirable eternity beyond the mists worth
escaping to.
As its knowledge about Ravenloft and other worlds
beyond grows, its ambitions also expand. When the
players learn the secrets of Ravenloft’s true nature,
the Guillotine learns in parallel, as a dark foil to their
progress.
Personality
Personality Trait. I was born to lord over mortals.
Ideal. Knowledge is power. The worthy apply their
knowledge successfully. In icting suffering and
crushing rivals is entertaining but hedonistic, a
distraction from my enlightenment. Evil is only a
means to an end.
Bond. The blood of Lusèvriens is my drink, their
knowledge my food, and so nourished I will
metamorphose into something greater.
Flaw. Mortals de nitely cannot outthink me, so the
only explanation for why my plots fail is lack of
learned experience and resources because I am
deprived of freedom of movement and speech.
Curse
The Guillotine’s telepathy and long-range
emotional manipulation abilities were the entry toll
exacted by Ravenloft’s mists, exchanged for control
over the executed’s lives and the power to make
Obedients. It cannot communicate with non-
Obedients outside of single ponderous telepathic
utterances or confused nightmares.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Torment and Fears
The Vargouille Guillotine is locked within its own
mind, full of contemplations and ambitions it is
unable to share or effect. Although the Guillotine can
converse freely with its Obedients, it unavoidably
dulls their minds by using them. To the Guillotine,
their unsatisfying company is worse than their
mistakes.
Since the Four Days of Terror, the Vargouille
Guillotine is in mortal terror of its defenselessness. It
would be unmade if someone clever triangulated its
many evil deeds – no amount of propaganda can
break the Lusèvriens’ fear of mental manipulators.
Finally, the philosophical tide that brought the
Guillotine into existence could just as easily deem it
unnecessary. It advances as cautiously as possible,
trying to break its patterns and push popular opinion
in its favor – hampered severely by its inability to do
anything directly.
Desires
Dominance. The Vargouille Guillotine wants
intellectual and political dominance over
humanity and the pleasure of defeating and seizing
the memories of brilliant adversaries.
Freedom of Speech. The Guillotine has no
intellectual outlet for its trapped thoughts. It
desires telepathic speech with non-Obedients. Its
re-raised decapitated victims can hear the
Guillotine more clearly, but unlike Obedients are
not under its control, and none are happy with
their half-lives. The Guillotine risks the
consequences of their resentment if it reaches out
to them directly.
Mobility and Security. The Guillotine would like to
become mobile, or at least less vulnerable than a
structure in the middle of a public square at the
mercy of the mob of popular opinion.
Dark Apotheosis. The Vargouille Guillotine desires
higher power the more it learns about darklords,
domains, vestiges, and Dark Powers. The Dark
Powers’ omnipotence, creative job of frustrating
other Darklords, and the freedom to twist fates all
appeal to it. Even the drawbacks of the vestiges –
entrapment in an amber sarcophagus, limited
contact – don’t appear on the surface to be a
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Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
signi cant downside relative to the Guillotine’s
current circumstances.
Becoming an arch- end would be even better, but
the transformation would be awed because the
Guillotine is far too invested in human notions to
be a proper being of elemental evil. A true end
considers evil the ultimate end and worth their
own suffering to further. In contrast, the Guillotine
only considers it a means to achieve greater
knowledge, power, and self-satisfaction.
Strengths
The Guillotine has four great strengths beyond its
Darklord powers.
• It can carry on several lines of thought at once: it can
simultaneously direct a Taupin’s reconstructive
surgery, scry on a conversation in Le Panier
Citrouille, and plot how best to frame a politician
for poisoning as if paying full attention to each task
individually. Distracting it is a fool’s errand.
• It can awlessly recollect the memories of others
(which may themselves be awed) and record its
own memories with very little loss.
• It is a true Renaissance creature and is curious about
all topics because it weighs its own worth by
collected knowledge. The Guillotine knows a little
about nearly everything. Most of the executed are
crooks and conspirators, so the Guillotine has
several ma as worth of criminal tricks and a
revolutionary army of political savvy.
• It knows or can guess at many of the deepest,
darkest secrets in Lusèvres, and, despite being
inhuman, pick apart personalities using the
executed’s experiences as models. If someone can’t
be made into an Obedient, they can be
blackmailed.
Weaknesses
The Guillotine plans for contingencies beyond what
any one mortal mind can juggle, but no one can
foresee all possibilities, especially a player party
degree of chaos. The Guillotine’s reaction speed to
novel developments is limited by the speed it can
martial Obedient and other resources. Circumstances
outside its knowledge base also catch it atfooted
and frustrate it deeply because it despises and
obsesses over lling information gaps.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Roleplaying the Guillotine’s plots
Acquire new memories. The Vargouille Guillotine
desires foreigners’ memories, especially outlanders
and immortals. Player characters, with their unusual
backgrounds, have the experiences the Guillotine
wants to add to its library. It won’t accept being told
information – it wants to own it. The Guillotine aims
for an execution by manufacturing a conspiracy to
entrap the target and get them a death penalty. It can
also, at signi cant risk of failure, order Obedients to
execute a victim in the dead of night before the
nearby police can react.
Use Obedients. The Guillotine can turn NPC allies
into Obedients to deprive parties of help. The
Guillotine might order an Obedient to undergo
cosmetic surgery to steal a character’s face and
commit crimes.
Use the Reborn. The Guillotine can manipulate the
reborn executed under its blade with its perfect
knowledge of their habits and deepest desires and
secrets. Furthermore, none of the reborn are truly
happy with their new existence. They all have a
spiritual void to ll. By offering the right incentive,
they act as surgical scalpels where Obedients would
be too blunt.
Use other factions. The Guillotine knows how
Lommel ought to design his new body, it knows the
vaccine formula that would give the River Rats a
ghting chance against Richemulot’s Jacqueline
Renier, it knows hidden truths Alanik has been
chasing hopelessly for decades, it knows where
Jacqueline Montarri’s head went, etc. The Guillotine
also has designs for domains beyond Lusèvres’
borders and might attempt to add the most amenable
Darklords to its collection of blackmailed victims or
allies. Not even by leaving Lusèvres can characters
escape the shadow of the Guillotine’s blade.
Player perspective. Even before being framed,
player characters attacked by the Guillotine should
be relentlessly assaulted by undeserved rumors and
suspicion as accusations for this or that pile up.
Faint-hearted allies nd excuses to shirk. Even if
proven innocent time and time again, the guilty taint
sticks because "people get what they deserve”.
Coincidence should feel unfair, as if a conspiracy of
unrelated parties is trying to goad the PCs into self-
incriminating behaviors.
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Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
Vargouille Guillotine (Physical Form)
Darklord of Lusèvres
Large construct (structure)
Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 200 (Damage threshold 10)
Speed 0 ft.,
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
– – – 25 (+7) 14 (+2) 17 (+3)
Damage Immunities. acid, fire, poison
Damage Resistances. cold, lightning
Condition Immunities. blinded, charmed, deafened,
exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone
Senses. Blindsight 1800ft. (Blind beyond this radius)
Languages. All non-rare, telepathy (Range: all Lusèvres)
Challenge Rating. –
The Vargouille Guillotine’s unmoving platform is a
cube 10 feet a side. During executions, roll-away
stairs made of ordinary wood are attached. Two 15-
feet-tall beams and an ornate crossbeam guide the
falling decorated blade. The whole appears to be
made of wood, but it is non- ammable. The end
Drigor suspects the architect, who used Fulcanelli’s
clay instead of cedar, was a cultist that worshipped
Drigor’s far more powerful patron and had thought
to harvest the energy of prematurely extinguished
life to power the dead master’s rebirth.
In its blindsight radius, the Guillotine possesses
detailed awareness of the Cour de Justice,
Courthouse, half the palace/congress, Le Panier
Citrouille, the Taupin house, Brumaire’s morgue, and
the nexus of the charnel catacombs below the street.
Its psychic senses allow it to see and eavesdrop on
conversations – multiple at once – as though it were
scrying at will within the blindsight radius.
The Vargouille Guillotine has supernatural
resilience and self-mending capabilities typical of
extraordinary sentient magic weapons. Damage and
vandalism from non-magical sources disappear after
twenty-four hours. Its form is immutable. Despite
these formidable defenses, a concerted mob attack is
suf cient to pull down and destroy the guillotine’s
platform and beams, but unless the blade too is
destroyed, the Vargouille Guillotine’s consciousness
lives on and can reform the whole. The blade is 3 ft by
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
by 2 ft., has 30 hit points, an armor class of 20, with a
damage threshold of 10 hit points. It is immune to
acid, re, and poison damage and resistant to cold
and lightning damage. It weighs 200 pounds.
Existing solely as a blade, the Vargouille Guillotine
has no senses at all, and can instantly turn whomever
is touching it into an Obedient or reform the whole
guillotine back in the middle of the Cour de Justice.

Vargouille Guillotine (Psychic Avatar)

Eye Ray. The Vargouille Guillotine casts an evil eye curse on a
target it can see within 120 ft. If it fails a DC 18 Wisdom
Darklord of Lusèvres saving throw, the target's speed is halved, and it takes a -2
Large construct penalty to AC and Dexterity Saving Throws. The creature can
repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns,
Armor Class 18 (natural armor) ending the effect on itself on a success.
Hit Points 202 (15d10 + 120) Buzz saw. Circular blades of energy slice in a line 60 feet long
Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover), swim 30 ft. and 5 feet wide, originating from a point within 60 feet of the
Vargouille Guillotine. Each creature in the line must make a
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA DC 18 Dexterity saving throw. A target takes 20 (2d12 + 7)
16 (+3) 12 (+1) 26 (+8) 25 (+7) 14 (+2) 17 (+3) force damage on a failed save.

Saving throws. Int +12, Cha +8
Skills. +5 to All
Damage Immunities. poison
Condition Immunities. blinded, charmed, deafened,
exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone
Senses. Passive Perception 17
Languages. All non-rare, telepathy (Range: all Lusèvres)
Challenge Rating. 13 (10,000 XP) Proficiency = +5
Mind Library. The Vargouille Guillotine flawlessly recalls the
full life history and memories of anyone it has decapitated.
The Vargouille Guillotine adds its Proficiency to all skill
checks.
Construct traits. The construct is immune to any spell or
effect that would alter its form, and doesn't require air, food,
drink, or sleep.
Magic Resistance. The construct has advantage on saving
throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapons. The construct's weapon attacks are magical.
Darklord's Curse. The Vargouille Guillotine cannot
communicate with anyone who is not its obedient outside of
single ponderous utterances. This curse is lifted for those in
its mindspace.
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If the darklord fails a saving
throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Actions
Multiattack. The Vargouille Guillotine can use one Eye Ray
and make four Dancing Axe attacks or use one Eye Ray and
cast its Buzz Saw.
Dancing Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 20 ft.,
one target. Hit: 11 (1d8 + 7) slashing damage.
Blood burst (Recharge 6). A floating ball of blood with a
heartbeat like thud forms at a point within 120 ft. that the
Vargouille Guillotine can see. It twists and explodes
outwards in a 60-foot-radius violent blast, dealing creatures
within range 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage and 14 (4d6)
thunder damage if they fail a DC 18 Strength saving throw,
or half as much on a successful save. Creatures in a 30-foot-
radius must succeed on a second DC 18 Strength saving
throw to avoid being knocked prone. Creatures, exposed
fires, and surfaces in a 90-foot-radius are drenched by blood
and other detritus.
On top of any active lair action, the bloodbath lair action
also takes effect, and lasts until the end of the Vargouille
Guillotine’s next turn. If the bloodbath lair action was
already in effect or comes into effect before the end of the
Vargouille Guillotine’s next turn, the ground is instead
covered by ten feet deep blood which lasts until the end of
the Vargouille Guillotine’s next turn or the end of the lair
action, whichever is later.
Legendary Actions
The darklord can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the
options below. Only one legendary action option can be
used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn.
The darklord regains spent legendary actions at the start of
its turn.
Detect Thoughts. The Vargouille Guillotine innately casts
Detect Thoughts, requiring no components.
Attack. The Vargouille Guillotine makes a Dancing Axe or Eye
Ray attack.
Teleport. The Vargouille Guillotine melts into blood, along
with any equipment it is wearing or carrying, and reforms up
to 30 feet away in an unoccupied space.

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Vargouille Guillotine’s Lair
The Vargouille Guillotine cannot be destroyed for
good until its personality is shattered by slaying its
psychic avatar. The avatar matches the blade’s
visage: a decapitated gorgon’s hideous fanged face
made of what appears to be shifting liquid metal,
with a halo of serpentine hair, three pairs of feathered
but metallic wings in angelic mockery, and weapons
held aloft in telepathic suspension.
The Vargouille Guillotine’s psychic avatar only
exists in its own mindspace, effectively a small
mental demiplane lair where its essence makes a last
stand against determined attackers. The Vargouille
Guillotine has no lair actions in the concrete world’s
Cour de Justice. The Vargouille Guillotine can use the
following actions in its lair.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), The Vargouille
Guillotine takes a lair action to cause one of the following
effects. It can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row.
Howling heads. Stone faces lift from the ground and babble
in despair. Creatures must make a DC 16 Intelligence saving
throw or be deafened until the end of the lair action by the
memories of the Vargouille’s victims mingling with their
own thoughts. Regardless, creatures can only hear speech
and noises that originate within 10 feet of them, with the
exception of truly cacophonous sounds.
Downpour of gore. A deluge of headless corpses and severed
heads rain from the sky and gruesomely splatter against the
head-stones. Creatures of the Vargouille Guillotine’s choice
must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 7
(2d6) bludgeoning damage. The guts melt into the ground
and disappear.
Bloodbath. Three-foot-deep blood floods the ground. If the
flood from bloodburst is in effect or takes effect while this
lair action is active, the blood flood becomes ten feet deep
and lasts until the end of the Vargouille Guillotine’s next
turn or the end of the lair action, whichever is later.
The Vargouille Guillotine does not ght alone. As
soon as its avatar is engaged, it begins summoning
vorpal vargouilles to ght alongside it, one or two a
round. They burst from inside the smaller rock heads
and wrench themselves from the necks of the
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Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
Vorpal Vargouille
Tiny construct
Armor Class 12
Hit Points 13 (3d4+6)
Speed 5 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover), swim 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
6 (-2) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 4 (-3) 7 (-2) 2 (-4)
Damage Resistances. cold, fire, lightning
Damage Immunities. poison
Condition Immunities. exhaustion, poisoned
Senses. Passive Perception 8
Languages. Prior decapitated victim’s languages
Challenge Rating. 1 (200 XP) Proficiency = +2
Construct traits. The construct is immune to any spell or
effect that would alter its form, and doesn't require air, food,
drink, or sleep.
Actions
Winch Jaws. (1st Stage) With a hair-raising metallic scrape,
the Vargouille gapes threateningly, its over-extended,
guillotine-like jaws unmistakably promise a vorpal-degree of
peril. It can use vorpal bite once for each time it uses the
winch jaws action in combat.
Vorpal Bite. (2nd Stage, Prerequisite: Winch Jaws) Melee
Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: If the
target is an object it takes 27 (6d8) slashing damage. If the
target is a creature, roll 1d4:
1: the target takes 27 (6d8) slashing damage
2: one leg is severed from the creature if it has any legs left
3: one arm is severed from the creature if it has any arms left
4: the creature is decapitated. The creature dies if it can't
survive without the lost head. A creature is immune to this
effect if it is immune to slashing damage, doesn't have or
need a head, has legendary actions, or the DM decides that
the creature is too big for its head to be cut off. Such a
creature instead takes 27 (6d8) slashing damage from the
hit.
(This 2nd Stage action cannot be used if the creature has not
used a prerequisite 1st Stage action.)
numerous Lusèvrien-clothed bodies strewn about.
These creatures have blades in place of jaws and
attack with no self-preservation. The Vargouille
Guillotine uses its eye ray to slow targets for their
vorpal bite.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
The Vargouille Guillotine’s Mindspace
 Attackers force their way in by damaging the
guillotine’s material structure, especially the
blade.
 Characters can touch the body of someone
already inside and use them as a conduit to arrive
at that person’s side.
 Characters’ equipment, spells, and tools function
as they would in the concrete world.
 Similar to astral projection, the material body left
behind by someone within the mindspace is
unconscious and in suspended animation.
 Characters who die physically or cognitively die
the other way. Both concrete and cognitive forms
share the same pool of hit points. Damage, spell-
effects, and cosmetic effects such as being
drenched in blood appear on both forms.
 A creature can choose to immediately leave the
mindspace and reawaken in the concrete world as
a reaction to any sort of material-world stimulus
that would rouse a sleeper or taking material
damage.
 A creature moved outside the Guillotine’s
blindsight range is forced out of the mindspace.
 The Vargouille Guillotine is unaware of anything
that happens in its mindspace, but its mindspace
psychic avatar is aware of happenings in the
concrete world and remembers intruders if they
somehow leave and return again. (This split
consciousness prevents the Guillotine from
deliberately using its mindspace to bypass its
Darklord curse against effective communication.)
 The Vargouille Guillotine can make telepathic
contact with others in its mindspace as it pleases
and can hold many conversations simultaneously.
The Guillotine will take the opportunity to cruelly
and intimately taunt its attackers.
 Other sentient weapons and artifacts can
manifest intangible, but visible forms that please
them, but they gain no especial power or ability.
 Someone trapped in the mindspace for more than
a few hours quickly becomes an Obedient,
regardless of the Guillotine’s desires.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
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The Vargouille Guillotine has always believed that
it dies when its physical self is destroyed. It does not
know it can persist as a blade alone, nor does it know
it can psychically make a last stand. Unaware that a
battle rages inside of it, the Guillotine will attempt to
summon its Obedients to nish off the unconscious
bodies of its attackers, preferably by executing them
using the guillotine. Two battles are likely to occur
simultaneously – the one in the mindspace and a
second in the Cour de Justice to protect the player
characters’ unconscious bodies from being killed.
The Vargouille Guillotine personalizes the details of
its mindspace to best unsettle its enemies. Head
games are its specialty even if it doesn’t get the
opportunity to use them often. Adventurers must
rst seek the dark core in a re-bombed hellscape of
sanguine rivers winding between screaming stone
heads as decapitated corpses hail from the sky and
splatter over the stone. The eld of battle the
Guillotine chooses will always include
interconnected tunnels of blood that drain in
whirlpools and fountain like freshly-severed arteries,
so it can dive in one and emerge from another.
Obedients
M
entally enslaved Obedients are compelled
to obey the intent of the Vargouille
Guillotine’s orders as they clumsily
understand them. Unlike other beings, the Guillotine
can telepathically converse with Obedients without
restriction and share the senses of its Obedients
anywhere in Lusèvres; however, they are dull and
frustrating accomplices because the Guillotine is
cursed to stupefy the mind of anyone it enslaves, no
matter how brilliant previously.
Worse than micromanaging frustrating minions or
their many mistakes, the Vargouille Guillotine
resents that it cannot hold a satisfying conversation
with its Obedients nor can they appreciate its
intelligence. They aren’t even useful secretaries:
composing coherent prose especially tests their
limits, never mind the spelling or penmanship.
When the Guillotine is not using them, the
Obedients act according to their underlying nature.
Some succumb to the lifetime of evil deeds forced
upon them, but many still yearn for the clarity of
mind they used to possess. While always fearful of
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
the Guillotine, the most rebellious Obedients act out
when they know it isn’t looking – and they can tell
when they are being ignored because their
intelligence springs back towards its former level the
longer the Guillotine neglects them. Temporarily-
free and mentally restored Obedients soon learn that
any escape attempt is foiled with but a single
instantaneous order, so they instead try to spend
every lucid minute being true to themselves:
spending quality time with their families whom they
rarely see or nding haunted respite in their
childhood hobbies. Others nd solace in vices,
drinking under false identities because they have
come to hate their own faces and names, taken over
by the Guillotine.
Roleplaying Obedients compassionately. Buried
inside every Obedient is a whole, innocent, and
tragic person whose life was stolen. An Obedient’s
dullness, forced upon them by a horri c curse, is
not their personal moral failing. If an Obedient has
given in to madness, apathy, or evil it is either
because they had that seed to begin with or
because they have despaired that they will never
have their freedom and clear-headedness back. If
the players become apathetic to the plight of the
Obedients, writing them off as irredeemable,
naturally stupid, or like monsters to be cut down,
pull back the curtain on their shattered and co-
opted lives through an encounter in a moment of
lucidity, or hearing secondhand tales from the
people who knew the obedient before their mind
was seized by an evil force.
  
Curing an Obedient
The link between Guillotine and obedient can be
severed by a Greater Restoration or other curse-
removing spell of equivalent power, but the caster
must defeat the Vargouille Guillotine in a contest
using their spellcasting modi er versus the
Guillotine’s (+10). The roll may be made with
advantage if the Guillotine is neglecting the obedient.
The Guillotine rolls in secret. If it prevails, it learns
the appearance of the one who attempted to free its
Obedient, and the Obedience curse resumes at an
inconvenient time in the near future. No matter how
the Guillotine rolls, the severing appears successful.
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Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
The Obedient’s full clarity might return immediately
if young or recently converted, like a heavy haze
lifting from their minds. Those enslaved for decades
may never recover fully or go mad because they can
no longer process the deluge of thoughts a mind at
full speed produces.
Creating an obedient
To create an Obedient, the Vargouille Guillotine
lays a curse on any humanoid within its blindsight
range or within sixty feet of an Obedient in Lusèvres.
The next time the individual takes a long rest, it is
attacked in a hallucination by a monster(s), such as a
vorpal vargouille or gargoyle. If the person is
dropped to zero hit points by the monster, the person
moves a step closer to becoming an obedient.
Regardless, the individual completes its long rest as
normal. Only humanoids can become Obedients. The
exact number of cognitive deaths required to convert
someone to an obedient and the intermediate side
effects are left up to the DM’s discretion. Protection
from Good and Evil, Magic Circle, and similar
warding spells block the Guillotine from cursing
someone, Remove Curse blocks the hallucinatory
attack from occurring, and Greater Restoration cures
any and all partial Obedience conversion. The Cour
de Justice is centrally situated in Brumaire, so
precautions must be taken to avoid it while traveling.
The Guillotine defeats parties protecting themselves
with spells with persistence, dispelling, splitting
groups, and sabotaging casters so they cannot cast.
The Taupin family maintains prison cells in the
catacombs below the streets within the blindsight
range so the Guillotine can order someone
kidnapped.
Obedients outside Lusèvres
The Vargouille Guillotine cannot cast the
Obedience curse on anyone outside Lusèvres. It can
still control and communicate with Obedients
beyond its borders, but the connection is weaker. The
Guillotine automatically loses the contest to
maintain control of an Obedient vs. Greater
Restoration outside Lusèvres. Obedients outside
Lusèvres are also vulnerable to narrative-driven
cures, such as being taken to hallowed ground,
exorcism, or skilled hypnotism.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Death by Guillotine and the Executed Reborn
A
t the blade-edge moment of death, the
Vargouille Guillotine reads through the
condemned’s mind and memories, stores
them in its mental archives, and decides their fate –
all in a fraction of a second.
The slain
The Guillotine is a true lifetaker. Unless the
Guillotine wills otherwise, spells from the
necromancy school and other re-animating and
resurrection-like effects fail when used on the
decapitated bodies. Even abilities or contingencies to
cheat death such as soul-leaping to a spare body or a
phylactery are not suf cient. Only the will of the Dark
Powers or a spell as great as True Resurrection can
revive someone the Vargouille has explicitly damned.
Lusèvrien leaders nd the guillotine ideal for of ng
persistent creatures and ensuring mob bosses can’t
be revived by underlings.
The spared
The Guillotine can also bestow macabre life upon
those it has decapitated. A head unattached to its
body wordlessly watches their own corpse be hauled
off to Brumaire’s central morgue. The Guillotine
often spares the interesting, deciding they might be a
worthy experiment or exploitable pawn. The Taupin
family reconnect the decapitated’s head and soul to
their bodies with a ghastly ritual deep in the Charnel
Catacombs. The stuporous re-raised are then
scrubbed of inconvenient memories, peeled of their
old skin, and surgically reconstructed as someone
else – perhaps given a stolen face. The revived may
then be given false memories, implanted with fears,
or deeply brainwashed so that a second personality
awakens with a certain trigger. Most reborn are
scarred with a physical abnormality, as subtle as a
faint line circumscribing their neck, or as blatant as a
grotesque dullahan. Despite being surgical savants
even while af icted with the Guillotine’s stupefying
curse, the Taupins occasionally err during the ritual.
The botched come half back as undead monsters or
partially undead reborn VGM. The Guillotine releases
these to terrorize the citizens at key political
moments, dispatch nuisances, or discards them.
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Final V1.0 by Mischief, Sep 24, 2021
The Vargouille Guillotine knows each reborn
victim’s deepest desires and secrets, and exactly how
to manipulate their personalities. By offering the
right incentives, the spared act as the Guillotine’s
surgical scalpels where Obedients would be too
blunt.
Existential hollow
The Guillotine’s revived are always af icted with a
gnawing void that something within them is missing
or has been taken from them. (A sliver of their soul is
indeed trapped in the Guillotine with the copy of
their memories). They xate on lling this spiritual
hollow. Some seek comfort in good deeds, dark
obsessions, in the relentless pursuit of wealth, travel
and exploration, shallow romances, research,
mystery, fame, or murder. The reborn are doomed to
never placate their existential emptiness. Tormented
so, most would gladly revenge themselves upon their
creator if they knew its true identity. The Guillotine
rightfully fears the retaliation of the uncontrollable
spared and so uses them carefully and sparingly.
Reborn broken memories
These are half-rememberings of execution that a
memory-addled reborn might eventually recall, in
reverse chronological order.
d8 Memory
Floating on your back through a tunnel of
1
skulls and pale white bell owers
2 The warm smell of a freshly woven basket
Someone yanking your hair while crowds
3
jeer
The terrible shriek of metal catching up to
4
you from behind
Bound hands and feet, and sore knees from
5
being shoved
6 Two dreadful eyes suspended in black
Stumbling forward with a white shroud tied
7
over your head
A white-wigged judge slamming down a
8
gavel with an echo of doomed nality
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Lusèvrien Characters
C
haracters from Lusèvres can be provincial or
metropolitan, but are more united in their
appreciation of ne food and tailored
fashion than skin-deep appearances. Tricorns and
other hats, trousers, stockings, corsets, vests, jackets,
and chemises are popular dress. Names take
inspiration from French and Dutch. When players
create characters from Lusèvres, consider asking
them the following questions.
Where were you during the last revolution? Did
you care about the politics? Who did you know that
got caught up in the power struggles? Did anyone you
know get executed?
What enlightenment are you seeking? Are you
chasing an elusive mystery? Untangling your past?
Are you exploring the world? Perfecting a talent? Are
you seeking something or someone? Does a great
philosophical or metaphysical question bother you?
What shadow threatens you? Were you a death-
row convict in a former life, somehow returned with
a different face and name? Is yours a hated noble
lineage? Did you make a contract with a end? Have
you double-crossed someone? Have you been framed
for crime, or did you actually do the deed and get
away with it using a clever trick? Did you cross a
Darklord elsewhere and escape to Lusèvres?
What institutions are you tied to? A criminal
organization like the Red Vardo Traders or the Brain’s
network, a place of learning like Meurdrac University
or the Wormian Museum, an industry like publishing
or porcelain, law enforcement like Ray Detective
Agency, or a philosophical outlet like the Church of
Ezra, Council of Brilliance, or a political committee?
Renaissance Firearms
Lusèvriens manufacture rearms and black powder
explosives. If you have pro ciency with a martial
ranged weapon then you also have pro ciency with
renaissance rearms (See the DMG). Instead of a
crossbow, you may own a rearm, ammunition, and
the materials for its upkeep for no additional cost.
The change is cosmetic, the weapon’s statistics
remain the same as the crossbow’s.
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Misty Fingerprints: Lusèvrien
Each domain of Ravenloft scribes a unique
signature on the souls of its born prisoners. The
following origin-speci c boons and aws are
presented to aid you in creating a avorful character.
d4 Lusèvrien Ribbon (choose 1)
Sensitive mind. If you are targeted by an
enchantment spell or similar effect that
manipulates your memories, free will, or
1 emotions, you become aware that an
attempt was made to intrude upon the
sanctity of your mind. You do not learn if it
was successful.
Credulous reader. You are partially
immune to Lusèvres’ plague of scandalous
tabloids, propaganda, and pseudo-legal
nonsense. Whenever you make a History
2 check related to the reputation of literature,
publishers, or authors, you are considered
pro cient in the skill. After you read a
written document, you have advantage on
Insight checks regarding its contents.
Worldly. You are familiar with many lands’
unique dress, craftsmanship, and styles.
Whenever you make an Intelligence check
related to the origin of an object or person
bearing their homeland’s hallmarks, you
are considered pro cient in the skill and add
3
double your pro ciency bonus to the check,
instead of your normal pro ciency bonus.
You can identify most written languages
even when you can’t read them. You are still
vulnerable to forgeries. (Ravenloft Domains
only)
Crowd Scopaesthesia. You get an acute
feeling of being watched when a creature is
attentively spying on you. A creature does
4
not trigger this ability if it is unseen by you
and all the creatures that see it are also
unseen by you.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

d4 Lusèvrien Flaw (choose 1) Adventure Hooks

Emotional contagion. You get swept up in
1 other people’s strong emotions, especially
in a crowd.
City time. You loathe inef cient use of your
2 time. People who don’t run their life by a
clock are immensely frustrating.
Paranoia. You have been burnt by betrayal.
No one and no where is ever as it seems.
3
Everyone is willing to put a knife in your
back, for the right price.
Authoritarian Contrarian. You lost faith in
a certain institution because of a terrible
experience and tend to mistrust its
4
representatives by default. Pick one:
1) politics, 2) religion, 3) law enforcement,
detectives, and judiciary, 4) academia
Lusèvrien Trinkets
d8 Trinket
An unbreakable porcelain teapot that can be
1 commanded to poison its contents with a
tasteless, very mild emetic or set itself alight
An instrument bow of nightmare horsehair
2 string and human bone gifted to you by a
dullahan for outwitting it once
A blood-splashed accessory from someone
3
decapitated by the Vargouille Guillotine
A crystal tesseract found buried in the
4 middle of a henge ring. There is a lightless
black pinpoint in its center.
The phylactery of a trapped end (Roll on
5
the gothic trinkets table for its form.)
A pocketful of lead print letters that
6 ┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
sometimes spell messages when spilled
A silk rope a depressed Meurdrac student
wizard used to commit suicide with that
crawls to you and winds harmlessly around
7 destroyed lest Drigor be either fatally unmade along
your neck when you sleep. If you lose it or try
to leave it behind, it comes back to you,
unharmed.
A magician’s (renaissance) pistol that
8
silently res non-damaging air bullets
V
argouille Guillotine victim. The darklord
is converting a victim into an Obedient. The
progressive curse rst manifested as
headaches and nightmares, and is now a thought-
slowing brain fog that deepens with each passing
night. No doctor or hypnotist can heal them. The
victim always relapses, so healers misdiagnose it as
Alzheimer’s disease, a tumor, or another unstoppable
malady. Distraught, the family and friends beg
adventurers to nd the cause and a cure.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Head games. Jacqueline Montarri tricks the party
into boarding the Thundering Carriage, hoping to
nd out if her true head is among the headless
horseman’s entourage of leaping heads.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
The curious incident of dogs in the night-time. Dr.
Arthur Sedgwick is puzzling over a body found
drowned in the Reue river that is on display in the
Central Morgue. The decadent was witnessed
running and screaming about beastly, aming
hounds (a Yeth Hound VGM pack). The police searched
at rst light and found not one canine footprint (Yeth
hounds y). Arthur hypothesizes the victim was
frightened by an enchantment or apparition but is
puzzled. Meanwhile, drownings, impalements on
display suits of armor, and fallings from windows
continue nightly until the summoning murderer’s
grudge is satis ed.
Drigor’s diabolical conundrum. Drigor cannot let
the Vargouille Guillotine get ahold of The
Madrigorian, nor can it allow the Guillotine be
with Lusèvres or be anointed replacement Darklord
(so it worries). Drigor believes the Guillotine must
never learn it is the Darklord of Lusèvres because it
will apply the wiles of an arch end to attack its cage,
destroying Lusèvres like Azalin ruined Darkon.

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
At the same time, Drigor wants its Madrigorian
spread around so it can encourage and capitalize on
breakout attempts. Drigor’s life is a stressful circus
juggling act: writing, plotting escapes, keeping the
Vargouille Guillotine distracted with petty affairs,
blinding other Darklords to the Guillotine’s nature,
and evicting foreign powers from Lusèvres. Drigor
breaks key prisoners out of jail to block the Guillotine
from seizing valuable memories, sometimes even
assuming the guise of a charismatic gentleman rogue
to dramatically whisk the condemned right off the
execution platform. A player scheduled for execution
by the Vargouille Guillotine could nd themselves
unexpectedly rescued by and put into debt to Drigor.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Exhibit inquest. An Ulmist inquisition VRG agent
broke into the Wormian Museum to burn down the
occult wing but was found dead under suspicious
circumstances. Despite being caught in a crime
themselves, the Inquisition nevertheless demands
justice, believing the slayer is a dangerous artifact the
curators failed to nullify. It is spreading printed
propaganda to stoke the fears of Brumaire’s citizenry.
Perhaps there is a different supernatural explanation,
a ghost?
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Lair of the white worm. Villagers complaining of
strange slime, ghost lights, low catches, and failed
orchards around Lac Ophélie have started
disappearing. Some blame restless spirits in the ruins
of a nearby mud-stricken royal castle, but they ought
to blame the Lindworm (See bestiary) that has taken
up residence in the sinking estate’s underground
oors. It hatched from an egg kept as a curiosity by
royalty guillotined during the four days of terror and
is now full sized after decades.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Prestidigitation misrepresentation. The initiation
rites of the La Société de Legerdemain include a
performance where a candidate must convincingly
imitate real magic with mundane misdirection. The
magicians rebuffed wandering mage Firan Zal’honan
for cheating with real spells. Firan is willing to make
a handsome trade if the party can put him back in
good graces with La Société or bypass the entry rites
and get a copy of certain secret materials for him via
underhanded means.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
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Rat poison. Borca’s Darklord Ivana Boritsi not only
desires Lusèvrien nery but also to plunder foolish,
old-money ex-nobles who support the Lusèvrien
monarchy. Using clergy in the Ezrite Cathedral in
Brumaire as her point of contact, she has made allies
of both the monarchists and Aristide’s River Rats. To
the monarchists she gives poisons for assassination
that will baf e detectives, and to the rats she has
promised a mass-producible vaccine to the Gnaws
that would shatter Richemulot’s Darklord Jacqueline
Renier’s rule.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Hook, line, & linker. The Dark Powers uprooted a
very thick ley line with an aneurism centered over
Fulcanelli when they sunk Lusèvres’ land into
Ravenloft. The agitated metaphysical torrent whips
haphazardly through the mists like a viper, causing
all sorts of regional magic mishaps, especially with
delicate magic. The ley line occasionally snags other
domains like a shing hook, dragging them into
conjunction (see above). This time, a bizarre domain
makes a full land conjunction and its horrors spill
across.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
The strange high house in the mist. The Priests of
Osybus VRG siege “Ole Worm’s” manor in Eastern
Lusèvres on the north shore of Lac Reue. They
demand the Wormius family’s legendary
Necronomicon, but no known copy of this tome of
eldritch lore exists in the mists… supposedly. The
Wormius family is barricaded inside a safe room and
is desperately attempting to hold the priests at bay
using the houses’ defenses against eldritch beings.
The Priests nevertheless begin knocking in walls and
prying open extra-dimensional spaces looking for
secrets, but may disturb something locked in the
house far worse than the traps.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Affaire d’Honaire. Council of Brilliance boss
Dominick d’Honaire’s evil earned the rebuke of the
Dark Powers: he is cursed to repulse his love interests,
no matter how he enchants them. He blackmails his
dear, dead auntie, Darklord of Dementlieu Saidra
d’Honaire: give me the perfect love potion, or I will
compose a standing-room-only play to unmask your
fraudulent life history to all Lusèvres and Dementlieu!
Raging Saidra can’t procure a true love brew without
putting herself hopelessly in debt to darker forces, so
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
she’s stalling, desperately pressing anyone truly
competent into her service. Assassinating Dominick
has failed so far because he is guarded by both his
organization and loyal cerebral vampires (use any
vampire statblock). Cast offs of the Vargouille
Guillotine’s failed experiments, Dominick orders the
brain-drainers to suck the creativity from promising
artists and inject it into the Council of Brilliance’s
favorites. (One plan Saidra hasn’t considered yet:
beating Dominick at his own theater.)
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Lady in the lake. The spectral namesake of the placid
but haunted Pale Lady’s Lake normally ignores local
living folk while treated likewise, but lately her
piteous wails have become especially acute.
Fishermen who depend on pan sh are driven away
from the shore by her ying sickle. Those who shove
off aren’t bothered by the lady, but a foul mist often
washes over and anyone by their lonesome is pulled
into the water with a scream and completely
vanishes. Ghost extermination bulletins have been
posted to all capable monster hunters. The Lady is
innocent, afraid of the lake herself, and unable to
directly communicate that a mist monster VRG, which
can take any misleading form and call in any
tempting voice, is now hunting there.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Vive la révolution. A coup is in progress and the
streets are rife with posters, speeches, shootings,
looting, irregular warfare, arsons, and riots.
Nevertheless, citizens try to continue their daily
routine and keep each other informed of where the
violence is brewing. The two factions are about
evenly matched, wear distinguishing cockades, and
have erected checkpoints and enormous barricades
to block major roads as they dispute Brumaire’s
districts and banlieues. Both sides question all
comers, watching for spies and recruitment
opportunities.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
The Diabologue Daily. An ancient wythersake (See
bestiary) reawakened after several hundred years. It
has taken over a print shop to proselytize and gather
faithful thralls. It hasn’t yet mastered the mass-
manufacture of its whole horri c diabologue with
supernatural payload intact, but the wythersake has
successfully printed dangerous religious pamphlets
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strong enough to awaken lesser undead and provoke
the mentally vulnerable into performing unholy rites.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Lost contact. Alanik Ray is tied up with cases, but he
is worried about a correspondent he consults on
matters of disguise and false identities who helped
him track a shape-shifting serial killer once. She is
only rarely in touch and takes forever to return
letters; but her latest card was especially strange. The
detective received a letter in a childish scrawl that
simply said she couldn’t write to him anymore, thank
you, and goodbye. Alanik looked into it. On the
surface, it would seem his secretive partner had
borrowed the identity of one unremarkable Lady
Arlène Taupin, but Alanik’s instinct for lurking
undercurrents has him believing there is more to this
than meets the eye. Find the real “Arlène Taupin”.
Lady Arlène Taupin is exactly as she appears, but
she can only act with full mental freedom when the
Vargouille Guillotine is not using her. She has
completely given up hope of escaping, but
corresponds with detectives as a hobby. She was
caught. Alanik is now in extreme danger, because the
Guillotine fears his brilliance. Saving Arlène provokes
an all-out attack by the Guillotine’s forces.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
True art tarries not! You hear screaming and the
Lady Madrigore, struck by a aming eyed-fugue, is
inhumanly carrying off a Fulcanellian to her manor
to be forcibly tattooed.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Hunted hunter. Rudolph van Richten was the only
survivor of a disastrous plan to mystically cage
Drigor. Ez de Avenir hears a rumor that the end is
seeking van Richten in revenge, but perhaps he plans
to trade the hunter to Baron Alcio Metus in Darkon
for a favor or artifact from Darklord Azalin Rex?
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Greater desecration. The Vargouille Guillotine has
employed intermediaries to acquire an artifact so
cursed even greater restoration can’t break through. It
wants to protect its Obedients from healers by
studying the potent curse.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Eel. Recover a wedding ring from the stomach of a
shrieking eel see below for a sherman minus a nger.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
’ an Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft hoped tables
The house is larger on the inside than the outside and
rooms can relocate unexpectedly. Carry your map with
you at a times. It magica y updates! Do not enter any
room that does not appear on your map.
Don’t hesitate to ask our very friendly butler Mr. Mimir
for anything you might need! He is the suited gentleman
whose head is a green sku in a birdcage. Mr. Mimir always
knows the directions and would be happy to escort you.
If something or someone from your party is missing, ask
a resident for help. Do not search by yourself.
Help yourself to the tea and snacks in the green kitchen
cupboard and to the ice creams in the ice box!
We extend our hospitality to an entity known as The Guest.
For your safety, we prefer that you do not discuss or write
about The Guest, even in private. Do not attempt to
contact The Guest.
The Guest likes to play pranks for attention. Ignore any
momentary strangeness The Guest might manifest. It
cannot harm you if you do not acknowledge it, and the
house wi return to normal quickly.
If someone is interacting with The Guest’s strangeness or
a manifestation lasts longer than thirty seconds, pu one
of the silver alarm be pu s and te Mr. Mimir The Guest
requires assistance.
The game room’s toilet chain is nicky. Tug it sharply.
Mr. Mimir wi light the dream ward crystal lamp in your
room at bedtime. Flickering is normal, but if the oil runs
low or the lamp extinguishes during the night, use the
bedside pu to ca for a re before going back to sleep.
If you prefer to breakfast in your room instead of the
parlor, te Mr. Mimir the hour you would like it delivered.
If you bathe, the red knob is for hot water, blue is cold,
and green for medicated water. You must completely step
out of the tub before pu ing the drain stopper! If
someone or something goes missing down the drain, let
Mr. Mimir know, and he wi help you nd them.
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Mysteries and Murder Methods
V
would try running mysteries in the
Ravenloft setting. I have designed Lusèvres
to accommodate mysteries of all sorts, full of criminal
minds to match wits with. In addition, common
“cheats” like mind reading aren’t well received by the
enchantment-hating Lusèvriens!
Tips for mysteries in a table game
Don’t withhold essential clues because the party
rolled badly or overindulge a high roll. Use pure role-
play for evidence and interrogation when possible.
Encourage players to overlook character stats when
they might hinder participation: battling a mystery is
a team effort.
Murder mysteries based on tricks are ‘volatile’:
groups might be stumped, chase geese, or come up
the answer before they even investigate. Avoid
relying on a single solve-or-fail trick, and instead
build your mystery more like a narrative dungeon
with social interaction, exploration, and combat.
Perspective-changing facts discovered along the way,
turnabouts, are especially effective because they
keep the mystery alive, reward intermediate
progress, and pull lost groups back on track by
refocusing their attention.
Sword-and-sorcery table games avail themselves
more to dried-blood mysteries than bleeding fresh
ones. Many of the tricks used in classic ‘detective is
present when the crime is committed’ cases depend
on the detectives acting in a certain formulaic way:
e.g. abandoning a newly-discovered crime scene to
chase down where a desperate scream is coming
from. Players are likely to behave unpredictably and
use genre-savvy spells to mark suspects immediately.
In stale mysteries, there are more opportunities for
complications, like nding and unwinding
uncooperative suspects. The culprit can believably
prepare hazards for investigators and protect
themselves from truth- nding spells. Long buried
bodies can’t be magicked into saying whodunnit. If
an anguished ghost ings the party into an ethereal
recollection of the past to witness events, then mind
reading and speak with dead will not work on
illusions.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Lastly, an NPC detective or not-too-clever assistant Anyone, spellcaster or not, can cast the spell in the
can nudge the group in the right direction by scroll or marble. The level of the spell determines its
challenging their logic or proudly announcing wrong saving throw DC and Attack bonus, as well as the
theories that need to be debunked. item’s rarity, as shown in the following table.
Spell Attack
Rarity Save DC
Special mystery item: Single-use spells Level Bonus
Unfortunately, the standard magic rules mean the Cantrip Common 13 +5
cleverest spell-based tricks will rely on a wizard 1st Common 13 +5
helping the culprit or the existence of an improbable
number of wands. To remove these limitations so 2nd Uncommon 13 +5
spellcasting won’t limit who can be a suspect, it is 3rd Uncommon 15 +7
recommended that NPCs (and players) have access to 4th Rare 15 +7
a special class of single use magic spell items via
5th Rare 17 +9
private commission or the criminal underworld.
6th Very rare 17 +9
Single use spell
7th Very rare 18 +10
A single spell is stored inside either a spell marble or
8th Very rare 18 +10
a variant spell scroll. Marble or scroll, choose the
properties which best t your clue needs. 9th Legendary 19 +11
Variant Spell Scroll. The scroll is scribed with
magic circles, shifting imagery, and squirming
shapes rather than a text-based mystic cipher. Case ideas with turnabouts
Anyone holding a variant spell scroll can cast its spell Redead. This one-two case opens with a vicious
without providing any material components by murder. Of cers take the body away to the police
speaking the command word. Once the spell is cast, morgue for autopsy after the PCs have a chance to
the gures on a scroll fade and it crumbles into dust. roughly inspect the damage. The PCs anticipate a
The spell contained in an uncast scroll might be more detailed autopsy (time of death, details of the
obvious from the images on the scroll, but can be weapon, etc.), but can question suspects and search
de nitively identi ed by someone arcanely inclined. the grounds in the meantime. The results never come,
The spell cannot be learned or copied like a regular so the party has to gure out the trick and accuse
spell scroll. someone with the evidence they have before the
A forensic arcanist can determine the school of the suspects leave.
spell by testing uncontaminated dust from a recently After the rst case concludes, the party learns the
cast scroll. reason for the autopsy delay is that a necromancer
Spell Marble. A spell marble is a tiny glass object raised all the dead in the morgue, they attacked, and
lled with a swirling rainbow of morphing blots. A the undefeated corpses ed, ruining several active
spell marble need not be held to cast the spell, but the investigations. (Some stragglers remain terrorizing
command word must be spoken aloud nearby, or it the city for the PCs to mop up) The police think case
must be shattered. Once the spell is cast, the marble interference is the motive and ask the party to help
fades to clear. The arcanely-inclined can identify the them background check a few of the dead, who might
spell inside an uncast marble with study. A spent have passed naturally and unnaturally.
marble gives off the aura of the school of the spell it Turnabout. The victim of the rst case is actually
formerly contained. An excellent forensic arcanist an undercover undead who had killed and replaced a
can determine the precise spell that was in a spent single-living person. Rather than blow their cover
marble or its shards, even after a long time passes. defending themself, they faked being a corpse with
The marble’s spell is not lost if the casting is the intent to pick up a new identity later. Their living
interrupted, unless the marble was shattered. quarters re ect their undead state – food for show, a

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
bed not slept in, etc. Unwilling to be autopsied, the
undead creature raised the rest of the bodies in the
morgue and walked out among them so the suspicion
wouldn’t fall on them alone. If the case needs to
segue into something larger, the undead can be part
of an organization, such as the Priests of Osybus or
the Kargat.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Time shift. A fresh body is discovered about a week-
and-a-half after a major event the PCs attended in the
same venue; perhaps the corpse is found while a
second event is ongoing. The players may accuse
whomever they wish, perhaps falling prey to a false
but believable murder trick the culprit planted to
implicate a scapegoat.
Turnabout. Later, arcane forensics determines that
the body was placed under gentle repose, and then
later Nystul’s magic aura was cast from a one-use
item to obscure the body from magic detection,
meaning the real time of the crime was ten days ago
around the beginning of the rst party. The culprit
wasn’t able to remove the body from the scene so
they instead planned to blame someone else using a
week’s preparation.
After the PCs recover from the suspicion and
blowback for making a false accusation, the question
becomes where a body and crime scene could have
been hidden during a very busy, crowded party with
so many witnesses.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Pyromaniac. An elusive arsonist calling themself the
red dragon has been setting structures and people
alight. Taunting letters indicate there is some sort of
pattern, and the police are desperate to gure it out
and snuff the maniac’s crime spree. Arson methods
might include …
 Reverse pickpocketing a spell marble of reball
onto a victim
 Fulcanelli’s devil’s kaolin
 a well-placed lens that focuses the sun on tinder at
a certain time of day
 white phosphorus
 a bag of highly ammable spores that spills when
someone opens a door and bit of metal stuck to the
bottom of a select victim’s shoe that sparks
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 a candle on a scale that will slowly raise as it melts
and touch to an oil-soaked rag after a delay
Turnabout. A second killer decides to hide their
crimes using the pyromaniac as convenient cover
Unfortunately, this disrupts the pyromaniac’s
pattern, sending the police off course and perhaps
causing the pyromaniac to take revenge for the
interference.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Hypnotist. Everyone is trapped at the crime scene
thanks to the murderer cutting access, but the
murder case’s culprit is implicated with de nitive
evidence. One loose thread remains: the killer’s recall
of the crime is poisoned by inexplicable amnesia.
Turnabout. The true culprit prepared the scene
and then implanted a hypnotic suggestion into every
person in attendance. No one knows what their
trigger or commanded action will be. Anyone could
suddenly become the next killer, even the children.
The hypnotist might still lurk nearby, cleverly
erasing memories to add more commands and stay
hidden.
Tricks
Lusèvrien classic. A porcelain item made of
Fulcanelli’s dread devil’s kaolin (see items) poisons
its contents or sets itself alight when its custom-set
command word or phrase is spoken aloud. If the
trigger isn’t a phrase that might be spoken
incidentally (or with strategic prompting), the vessel
can be targeted quietly and at range using a message
cantrip for an arson, spontaneous combustion, or
poisoning case. In Ravenloft, only Lusèvres’
underworld and endish cultists are familiar with
devil’s kaolin: most who encounter it learn only one
of its two properties and think it is an enchantment
or curse rather than a manufacturable craft that can
be formed into a teacup or a greatsword.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Marble run. A spell marble that takes several
minutes to cast is sent on a carefully guided trip from
caster to destination as the spell gathers its energies.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Unscribe. An ink bottle was secretly loaded with
magician’s prank disappearing ink, swapped by the
culprit, revealing the contract or dying message to be
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
a forgery. The trick pairs well with a photosensitive key in the victim’s pocket. The friction thread holes in
ink that develops in light, turning from clear to black. the loose pocket and the positioning of the body so
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄ the pocket is accessible are the clues.
Locked room tricks for barred doors. Doors are Thread tightrope tricks are easy to adapt. Keys can
likely to be barred with a beam of wood or metal rod. be dropped near a victim using a ring on a nger or a
Here are some locked room tricks for the setting. watch on a wrist to loop the thread around instead of
 Ahead of time, pull out and cut short the anchoring a pocket. Secondary crimes like break-ins to steal
bolts of the wall-mounted bar holder so the door those things can complicate the crime scene. The
can simply be pushed open which pulls out the possibility of mage-hand magic can be removed if the
mount. The mount passes visual inspection and key is discovered to be made of “antimagic anti-
can be re xed in place with no suspicion. pickpocket lead”. The trick can also be scaled up to
 A small panel can slide or be cut out of a paneled “ y” a body strung like a key on rope from a higher
door so someone’s hand, or a hook on a yarn can location to a lower one, like a zip line.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
reach in and lift the bar. Paint and plaster disguise
the seams. Mechanical teleport detector. Anyone who warps
into a small room displaces the air, creating a
 The bar is made of easily snappable, light wood like
pressure wave breeze. A pendulum with a thin
balsa which is stained and weighted with bagged
membrane knocks a precariously balanced ball
lead pellet. Similarly, a weak metal alloy might
bearing onto a noisy cymbal or other detector,
bend. Or the bar could be precut to weaken it,
potentially setting off an alarm. (Credit: Steven
leaving a clue in its not-so-messy break point.
Brust)
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Wereweapon. An ordinary object transforms into a
Dark vision greys. Darkvision is color blindness in
weapon under certain circumstances. It might
the dark. Unalike colors appear as the same shade of
change when exposed to certain light, blood, a type
grey, causing very bizarre misidenti cations that
of creature, or at a certain time. More mundanely, the
wouldn’t happen in ordinary light.
weapon’s transformation can be mechanical and
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
well-crafted to disguise as an innocent accessory.
Extra link. Chains to secure doors are too short to
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
admit a hand in the crack. By adding extra links ahead
Key on the tightrope. A locked room murder
of time, the door can be locked from the outside. If the
disguised as a suicide can be created as long as the
culprit ensures the door is shoved in to check on the
key has a hole and there is a crack under the door the
victim’s well-being, the chain pops off, obscuring the
key can slide under. The murder is committed in the
trick. The culprit can get matching chain on scene by
room, and the culprit threads a very long, ne thread
stealing some from another door.
through the base of the victim’s pocket, strings the
Variations include cutting short the nails/screws of
key on, and then once again passes the thread
the slidebar, so it pops off with little force
through the base of the pocket. This creates a long
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
loop with the key on one end, the doubly punctured
pocket in the middle, and two free thread ends. Camera dodge. A culprit might hide inside an
animated armor on patrol to slip a scry-based
The thread must be long enough that the key on the
security camera or spell that records when creatures
loop can be used to lock the door from the outside,
pass. If the animated armors statically patrol, records
while the culprit also holds the free ends, or sets them
of their passing might be separate from the receipt for
somewhere accessible from outside, like a window.
non-construct creatures, confusing the case.
The culprit then pushes the key under the door crack
and pulls both thread free ends simultaneously,
shortening the U loop the key is on until it is dragged
snuggly into the pocket. Then the culprit pulls just
one free thread end to retrieve the thread, leaving the

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Items
Black Ribbon
Common wonderous item, aura of necromancy
When you tie the black ribbon around a single break
or tear in an object or creature's body, the ribbon
holds the broken pieces together until untied. The
ribbon can be ripped off and destroyed with a
Strength check equal to your spell save DC, or 8 +
your pro ciency bonus, whichever is greater.
You can use the black ribbon to graft a creature's
removed or severed body member ( nger, leg, tail,
and so on) or a comparable, freshly severed limb from
another similar creature to the limb's stump. While
the black ribbon is holding the severed limb to the
stump, when the creature regains hit points, the
ribbon melds into the creature's esh and knits the
limb to the stump. The limb is restored to full
usability after one minute. Over the course of weeks,
the limb slowly changes until it matches the rest of
the creature, but at the GM's discretion, vestigial
traits from its creature of origin may remain.
Devil's Kaolin
Common mineral, no aura
This ne, soft, pure-white kaolin (kā-ə-lən) is
harvested from the blighted site of a botched devil
summoning. It behaves like regular clay until a
humanoid’s cremated remains are kneaded into it;
then the clay thrashes, and screaming faces appear
on its surface like bubbling boils until it is beaten into
submission by aggressive wedging. Only then can it
be shaped or turned on a wheel. When red, the clay
screams balefully from the kiln. If red once more in
hell re, it becomes sharper and more durable than
steel. An abominable command word sets these
hell re-hardened weapons alight with
unquenchable ame and, if whispered, lls vessels
with poison. Sentient tools crafted from devil’s kaolin
are invariably evil.
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Charlene's Salubrity
Rarely sold Ichor-based Potion, 99 GP per dose.
When you drink this potion, your Charisma score is
temporarily decreased by 4 points for 24 hours or
until you complete a long rest. You fall unconscious if
this effect reduces your Charisma score to zero. While
unconscious in this way, you cannot be woken until
your Charisma score becomes at least 1 or greater, or
you are cured of poisoning, or all the potion's effects
wear off after 1d4 hours.
  You are healed 3d4 + 3 hit points. You gain 3d4 + 3
temporary hit points for as long as the Charisma
reduction is in effect. An unwilling creature may
make a DC 8 Constitution saving throw to resist all
effects of this potion (including the healing).
Dracsbane
Unique silvered trident, (requires attunement)
The blessed trident deals one extra die of piercing
damage to ends and creatures that have an innate
swimming speed. The attuned creature can use their
bonus action to speak a command word and recall
the trident to hand. Many-winged celestial eel
engravings twine up the shaft, and both prongs and
spike are styled like a eur-de-lis.
It’s part of Meurdrac’s university regalia and pre-
Ravenloft slew an arrogant drac that terrorized the
Reue river with natural disasters.
Flesh Sculpting Tools
Rare wonderous tools, aura of necromancy
Cosmetically remake an unconscious humanoid’s
surface appearance with these esh sculpting tools,
including their hair color, eye color, apparent race,
skin color, and even apparent sex. Pro ciency with
the potter’s or woodcarver’s tools confers pro ciency
in the tortuous-looking esh sculpting tools, but
failure will leave the patient horrendously dis gured.
Morticians use this enchanted toolset to rebuild
savaged corpses for public viewings. Ripped esh and
crushed bone are mended and shaped as smoothly as
wet clay. Talented cosmetic surgeons, the Taupin
family keeps many sets and a few have gotten lost
over the years.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

Headman's bloom person. Unknown words are written out

Common flora, aura of necromancy phonetically. The notebook uses the attuned
Known for its bowed head, this eerie white creature’s handwriting style and preferred language.
bell ower grows best where decapitations occur,
nourished by fear, blood, and salty cerebrospinal Mnemegraph
uids. Most of the plant mass is deep-growing, nigh- Common wonderous item, aura of psionics/illusion
unkillable taproot that tenaciously lifts pavers in city
A memory made within the last minute can be
streets, but it also sprouts in the hunting grounds of
burned into this one-inch wafer of stiff white silk.
predators that rip their prey apart. An unpleasant
The user permanently scorches their thoughts and
petal tea or incense of its essential oils plays glimpses
everything they perceived with all their senses in that
of dead memories as hallucinations. To narrow the
moment into the cloth to create a static recollection.
visions to a single creature’s experience, drink the tea
A black and white picture of the memory appears on
from the target creature’s skull or mix powdered skin
the mnemegraph. The mnemegraph can be activated
or hair with the incense.
to relive that moment in full detail. Alchemists can
copy the visual image onto sheets of paper or ne
Hookah of Truth canvas, black and white being cheaper than full color.
Rare wonderous item, aura of enchantment
After 1 minute of smoking, a creature that enters the
area of the hookah's smoke (default 15 ft. radius) or Monsters and Haunts
starts its turn there and isn’t inhaling from the
Urban Lusèvres
mouthpieces must make a Charisma saving throw
with a DC of 10 plus the smoker’s pro ciency or be Lesser, undisciplined ends would quarrel and fall
affected by Zone of Truth. The thick smoke lasts ten prey to the clever Guillotine if not for Drigor
minutes, and the magic tobacco mix costs 120 GP. collecting their phylacteries to press into its service.
Many act out when Drigor is too busy to mind them.
Bag of Sound Holding CR Monster
Common wonderous item, aura of illusion ⅛ Boggle (VGM)
This crimped drawstring bag holds up to 8 hours of
⅛ Paper Pest (See Below)
any sound or message spoken into it. The recording
ceases when it is pulled shut. The bag plays the held ¼ Fog Mephit (See Below)
sound when it is reopened or punctured. After the 1 Vargouille (VGM)
sound inside is fully played out, it will record the next 2 Nothic (MM)
time it is reopened. To prevent the sound from
playing at all, the drawstring and crimp must be 3 Bulezau ( endish leaping serial killer MTF)
destroyed. Opening the bag completely makes it 3 Hypnotist (see below)
record all ambient sounds around it. 3 Slithering Tracker (VGM)
4 Dybbuk (MTF)
Notebook of Sound Transcription
Uncommon wonderous item (requires attunement), 5 Master thief (VGM)
aura of divination 5 Cranium Rat Swarm (VGM)
An ornate embossed dustcover that ts a pad of 5 Fog Elemental (See Below)
mundane paper, the notebook converts speech and
6 Gallows Speaker (VRG)
sounds into words like good movie captions, even
describing the sounds. It transcribes speech exactly 7 Oni (MM)
as the attuned would hear and understand it, making 7 Necrichor (VRG) (Inside a wine bottle)
the same mishearings and misunderstandings that
12 Wythersake (see below)
the creature would if it listened to the conversation in

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

Rural and Forested Lusèvres Statblocks

Players might be asked to hunt animal-like
Statblocks 39

Drac (CR 7) .....................................................................39

monsters as ingredients for special Lusèvrien dishes.
Fog Elemental (CR 5) ................................................... 40
CR Monster Fog Mephit (CR ¼) ....................................................... 41
Death’s Head / Death’s Head Tree (VRG) (As Lindworm (CR 10) .........................................................42
½
Cursed Grape Vines) Shrieking Eel (CR 2) ......................................................45
½ Satyr (MM) or Satyr Reveler (CR 1 MOT) Paper Pest (CR ⅛) ......................................................... 46
2 Giant Boar (MM) Vargouille Guillotine (Physical Form) (CR -) ............. 23
2 Shadow Mastiff Alpha (VGM) Vargouille Guillotine (Psychic Avatar) (CR 13) ..........24
3 Leucrotta (VGM) Vorpal Vargouille (CR 1) ............................................... 25
Wythersake (Huecuva) (CR 12/14) ............................. 46
4 Barghest (VGM)
Hypnotist (CR 3) ........................................................... 48
5 Catoblepas (VGM) Dominick D’Honaire (CR 5) ......................................... 49
5 Hill Giant (MM) & Giant Goats (CR½ MM) Detective Alanik Ray (CR 4) ......................................... 51
6 Chimera (MM) Dr. Arthur Sedgwick (CR 5) .......................................... 53
6 Wyvern (MM)
9 Treant (MM) Drac
15 Adult Bronze Dragon (MM) (wicked) An aquatic relative of the sphinx bolstered by
endish blood, the drac is the embodiment of water’s
hazards. It capsizes boats, drowns swimmers, and
Rivers, Sewers, and Lakes of Lusèvres terrorizes riverside communities with oods,
CR Monster mudslides, and gyres. The river-green drac has a
humanoid face, n-webbed arms, and cordlike hair.
⅛ Giant (River) Rat (MM)
Its draconic body has leonine features and a powerful
¼ Giant frog (MM) shark tail. It prefers to lurk but can propel its ying
¼ Troglodyte (MM) pounces by riding leaping columns of serpentine
water.
½ Hippocamp (MOT)
For all its raw power, the drac is a subtle deceiver.
1 Choker (MTF) Misleading re ections and a soft voice lure the
1 Swarm of quippers (MM) unwary to the water’s edge where a sudden
2 Shrieking eel (see below) undertow can suck them down before they even
scream. Presented with a meal worthy of royalty or a
2 Naiad (MOT)
covetous treasure, a drac might be attered into
3 Water weird (MM) sharing oracular insight, but a drac’s nature is to
3 Merrenoloth (MTF) weave promises with betrayal like thin ice.
7 Drac (See Below)
8 Hydra (MM)
10 Lindworm (See Below)
13 Wastrilith (MTF)

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Drac
Large Monstrosity (shapechanger)
Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 136 (16d10 + 48)
Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
17 (+3) 16 (+3) 16 (+3) 12 (+1) 18 (+4) 17 (+3)
Saving Throws Wis +7
Skills Insight +7
Damage Resistances fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
from nonmagical attacks not made with silver weapons
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (water only), passive Perception 14
Languages Abyssal, Aquan, Infernal
Challenge Rating 7 (2,900 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3
Shapechanger: The drac can use its bonus action to
polymorph into water form or back into its true form. Any
equipment it is wearing or carrying isn't transformed. In
water form, the drac is invisible while fully immersed in
water. It can enter a hostile creature's space and stop there.
It can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide
without squeezing. It instantly reverts to its true form if it
leaves the water, is incapacitated, or it dies. While in water
form, it gains the following modifications to its statblock.
Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
from non-magical attacks
Condition Immunities grappled, paralyzed, restrained, prone
Languages understands its languages but doesn't speak
Actions
Multiattack (Monstrosity form only). The drac makes three
claw attacks and controls water, or makes three water orb
attacks and controls water.
Claw (Monstrosity form only). Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to
hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (3d6 + 3) slashing
damage. As part of this attack, the drac may leap up to 20 ft.
Water orb (Monstrosity form only). Ranged Weapon Attack:
+6 to hit, reach 60 ft, one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+ 3)
bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, the ball of
water winds around it and attempts to flood into the
creature’s lungs. The target must make a DC 14 Strength or
Constitution saving throw (target’s choice). On a failed save
it begins suffocating. The target can repeat the saving throw
on each of its turns, or another creature may attempt a
DC 14 Strength (Medicine) skill check to expel the water.
Control Water (Monstrosity or Water form). The drac
innately casts control water, requiring no components. Its
spellcasting ability is Charisma (+6 to hit, spell save DC
14).
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Fog Elemental
Large elemental
Armor Class 15
Hit Points 90 (12d10 + 24)
Speed 0 ft., fly 90 ft. (hover)
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 (+2) 20 (+5) 14 (+2) 6 (-2) 10 (0) 6 (-2)
Damage Resistances thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and
slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities acid, poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed,
petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses Blindsight 60ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Auran
Challenge Rating 5 (1,800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3
Fog Form. The area occupied by the fog elemental's opaque
body is heavily obscured. The elemental can move through a
space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing. A
creature that touches the elemental or hits it with a melee
attack while within 5 feet of it takes 3 (1d6) poison damage
plus 3 (1d6) acid damage. In addition, the elemental can
enter a hostile creature's space and stop there. Once per
round, the first time it enters a creature's space, that
creature takes 3 (1d6) poison damage plus 3 (1d6) acid
damage.
Actions
Multiattack. The elemental makes two slam attacks, or one
Stinking Cloud and one slam attack.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 8 (1d6 + 5) acid damage plus 3 (1d6) poison damage.
Stinking Cloud (Recharge 4-6). The fog elemental creates a
30-foot-radius sphere of yellow, nauseating poison gas
centered on itself that lasts until the end of its next turn. The
cloud spreads around corners, and its area is heavily
obscured. Each creature that is completely within the cloud
at the start of its turn must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution
saving throw or spend its action that turn retching and
reeling. Creatures that don’t need to breathe or are immune
to poison automatically succeed on this saving throw. A
wind of moderate or greater speed (at least 10 miles per
hour) disperses the cloud.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Fog Elemental Notes and Lore Fog Mephit
Small elemental
Sometimes conjurers summon a corrosive, gaseous
fog elemental instead of the air elemental they were Armor Class 11
intending, but fog elementals can also escape into the Hit Points 21 (6d6)
Material Plane wherever the planar border is thin. Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft.
Perniciously, these leaky borders form most often in
dirty, densely-packed cities, in swamps, or along the STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
5 (-3) 13 (+1) 10 (0) 12 (+1) 10 (0) 10 (0)
banks of rivers or lakes, especially near bridges,
docks, and fords where humans tread. Beware places Skills Perception +2
where dirty mist clings, or worse, natural murmuring Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Hullabagloom fog forms. Fog elementals are not Damage Resistances thunder
actively malicious, but they are drawn to voices, Damage Immunities acid, poison
preferring noisy groups. Their acidic bodies Condition Immunities poisoned
carelessly scorch and suffocate creatures they Senses Blindsight 60ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Auran
approach. In one night, a single curious fog elemental
Challenge Rating ¼ (50 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
slew over 50 people in an urban neighborhood by
slipping through walls, doors, and window cracks to Death Burst. When the mephit dies, it explodes in a cloud of
chase new voices once its current interest fell silent. noxious smog. Each creature within 5 feet of the mephit
must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or take 1d4
acid damage and 1d4 poison damage.
Fog Mephit
Composed of noxious smog, Fog mephits have
Actions
supernatural vision that pierces the obscuring gloom
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one
of their home elemental plane. Like the metropolises
creature. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) slashing damage. The creature
they often pop up in, they alternate between aimless must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be
rushing and languid plodding. Conversation with a poisoned until the end of its next turn.
fog mephit is nigh unintelligible: its babble
Stovepipe Breath. A creature within 60 ft. of the mephit that
disjointedly switches topics mid-thought, and it it can see must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving
constantly speaks over and interrupts everyone else. throw or have streams of sticky, clingy fog pour out of its
mouth, nose, ears, and tear ducts. If the target opens its
mouth, speaks, tries to cast a spell with verbal components,
or attempts to use a breath weapon, a great gout of heavily-
obscuring, clingy fog immediately surrounds its face and
blocks its vision entirely for the duration of the action. The
gout of fog persists only just long enough for the creature's
action to be penalized for effective blindness. At the end of
each of its turns, the target can remake the Constitution
saving throw. On a success, the effect ends.
Fog Breath (Recharge 6). The mephit exhales a 15-foot cone
of noxious smog. Each creature in that area must succeed
on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or take 1d4 acid damage
and 1d4 poison damage, or half as much damage on a
successful one.

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

Lindworm
Huge dragon
Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 152 (16d10 + 64)
Speed 40 ft., burrow 20 ft., swim 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
20 (+5) 17 (+3) 19 (+4) 12 (+1) 15 (+2) 14 (+2)
Saving Throws Dex +7, Con +8, Wis +6, Cha +6
Skills Perception +6, Stealth +11
Damage Immunities Acid
Condition Immunities grappled, restrained
Senses Aquatic blindsight 120ft.*, passive Perception 16 (11
for sight checks)
Languages Common, Draconic
Challenge Rating 10 (5900 XP) Proficiency Bonus +4
Near Blind. The lindworm has disadvantage on perception
checks related to sight.
Aquatic Blindsight. While the lindworm is in contact with
water, it knows the exact location of any other creature in
contact with the same body of water to a range of 120 ft.
Spider Climb. The lindworm can climb difficult surfaces,
including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make
an ability check.
Amphibious. The lindworm can breathe air and water.
Slippery and Flexible. The lindworm can move and squeeze
as though it were one size-class smaller. It cannot be
knocked prone by slipping on grease or similar.
Legendary Resistance (2/Day). If the lindworm fails a saving
throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Actions
Multiattack. The lindworm can use its Frightful Presence. It
then makes three attacks: one with its bite, one with its tail,
and one to constrict.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) piercing damage.
Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one
Large or smaller creature. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning
damage. The target is Grappled (escape DC 15) if the
lindworm isn't already constricting a creature, and the target
is Restrained until this grapple ends.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target.
Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
Frightful Presence. Each creature of the lindworm's choice
that is within 120 feet of the lindworm and aware of it must
succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or become
Frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving
throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on
itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful
or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the
lindworm's Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
Pale Breath (Recharge 5-6). The lindworm exhales an eldritch
fog of faintly-glowing, unnatural color that spreads around
corners. Each creature in a 60-foot-diameter sphere
originating from the lindworm must make a DC 16 Dexterity
saving throw, taking 27 (5d10) acid damage and 27 (5d10)
radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on
a successful one. The fog heavily obscures the area and lasts
until the end of the lindworm's next turn or until a wind of
moderate or greater speed (at least 10 miles per hour)
disperses it. Creatures that are within or enter the persistent
fog after the initial attack are not damaged. (To clarify the
attack shape, the lindworm is on the edge of the round fog
cloud, not in the middle.)
Legendary Actions
The lindworm can take 2 Legendary Actions, choosing from
the options below. Only one legendary action option can be
used at a time, and only at the end of another creature's
turn. The lindworm regains spent legendary actions at the
start of its turn.
Detect. The lindworm makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Maddening Gaze. The lindworm targets one creature it
knows the location of within 90 feet of it. The target must
succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw against this
magic or gain one form of short-term madness (See page
259 of the Dungeon Master's Guide). The target may repeat
the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the
madness on success. If a target's saving throw is successful
or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to the
lindworm's maddening gaze for the next 24 hours.
Move. The lindworm moves up to its movement speed.

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Lindworm
can take a lair action to cause one of the following magical
effects or forgo using any of them in that round. The
lindworm can't use the same effect two rounds in a row.
Slippery slime. Two 10-foot square areas within 120 feet of the
lindworm boil with greasy mucus. When the slime appears,
each creature standing in its area must succeed on a
Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. A creature that enters
the area or ends its turn there must also succeed on a
Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. The slime lasts until
initiative count 20 on the next round.
Raise puddles. Up to six 20-foot square areas within 120 feet of
the lindworm become submerged in a half-foot deep puddle
of water or lightly obscured with dimly glowing fog. Areas of
fog and water can overlap. The puddles and fog remain until
the lindworm dismisses them as an action, uses this lair
action again, or dies. A wind of moderate or greater speed
(at least 10 miles per hour) disperses the fog.
Vile swarm. A swarm of writhing snakes or lampreys fills a 20-
foot-radius area centered on a point the lindworm chooses
within 120 feet of it. The swarm spreads around corners. Any
creature in the swarm when it appears or that enters it later
must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 7
(1d10+2) piercing damage and becoming poisoned until
initiative count 20 on the next round on a failed save, or half
as much damage without being poisoned on a successful
one. The swarm lasts until initiative count 20 on the next
round.
Lindworm Notes and Lore
"The quietly loud, omnipresent slimy drip disturbs
the puddles at your feet, and re ected between the
ripples are two pale green lamps... No! They are
eyes! Tremendous eyes of baleful emerald-green
intelligence ickering behind a crust of ancient
cataract. A massive, pale white ophidian dragon-
beast with two claws and a sinuous body is nestled
into the cleft of the ceiling!"
Lindworms lair in ooded caverns, be they saline
sea, fresh alpine cave, or lthy manmade sewer. In
marshy ground where tunnels cannot be had, they
will try to take over the basements of abandoned
structures, slowly sinking them deeper into the earth.
If the lindworm could have its way, it would sink a
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Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary lindworm's lair is warped
by the dragon’s magic, which creates one or more of the
following effects:
• The land within 6 miles of the lair twists with low-lying,
thick, clingy fog that seems to glow in unnatural color nearer
to the lindworm's lair. The persistent damp keeps surfaces
moist and slick and promotes the growth of mosses,
lichens, and algae. In the coastal offshore, tangling forests of
soft red and green kelp choke the waterways.
• The earth softens and loams. Holes, deep ponds, tide
pools, and sinkholes form and vanish overnight. In ocean
areas, dangerous gyres develop instead. Buildings shift,
crack, and sink on their foundations.
• Translucent or grayish-white mucilaginous "star jelly" falls
from the sky and shrivels up in the afternoon light.
• Throngs of black snakes, newts, salamanders, and frogs
form massive nests in low-lying areas, ponds, or under
structures. These plagues will sometimes migrate as one
through hamlets in search of new ground. In the waters and
ocean, the swarms are more likely to be hagfish, lampreys,
eels, and jellyfish.
If the lindworm dies, unnatural vegetation dries and dies back
over 1d10 months, but the other effects fade over 1d10 days.
whole town, monastery, or castle underground to use
as a lair. The lindworm prefers lairs ooded with
water at least knee high that can obscure underwater
U-bend tunnels it can dive into and pop up
unexpectedly from below to ambush interlopers. Its
tunnels throng with small creatures dominated by
the lindworm; their disturbance warns the lindworm
of intruders so it can plan an ambush. The lindworm
has uncanny, translucent white skin, rough like a
ray's and capable of releasing mucus like a hag sh. Its
green glowing eyes are shrouded by a clouded lens of
permanent cataract – only the youngest lindworms
can see clearly. The lindworm is an ambush predator
that will burrow under soft grit, in still water, or cling
to ceilings of caverns and await the vibrations and life
signs of passing prey.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Unusually for a dragon, the lindworm has rear
molars, suitable for grinding crabs, roots, or bones to
a ne pulp. Algae, seaweeds, tree roots, and carrion
form a large part of its diet until it feels like it can
seize large prey without serious opposition. Near
civilized areas, it is almost impossible for a
traditional dragon to grow to adulthood before its
predatory footprint is detectable on the local
ecosystem. Not so for the lindworm which can reach
massive adulthood right below a city's cobbles. Many
lindworms develop a taste for human esh when
they feed on the bodies disposed into rivers, seas, and
wells, or buried in graveyards. It caches prey in still
water pools so they bloat with water-rot, and then
consumes them limb by limb.
Like all dragons, the lindworm seeks to amass a
treasure horde, but it has an especial love for magical
objects of wood or paper. When these inevitably
begin to rot, mold, and decay in the supernatural
damp, the lindworm takes great pleasure in
devouring them.
Should your monster-hunting players be inclined to
carve up the beast for its valuable parts...
• Haggy skin. The skin can be peeled from the
lindworm like a glove. The much sought-after
material is perfect for acid, poison, and chemical-
proof yet lightweight gloves and clothing. The haggy
skin is also excellent material for weapon grips,
boots, and other damp applications. A huge
lindworm's skin is worth 3d10 x 100 gp in good
condition but heroes are likely to get between three-
quarters to half the price because of battle wounds.
• Twitching steaks. Lindworm esh is edible, but the
muscle retains a horri c facsimile of life even days
after being slain: the steaks will writhe and spasm
when cut, salted, marinated, or tossed in the cookpot.
Although tender, the avor is a bit dull and musty. A
good cook can easily doctor it up with spice and
sauce. The tongue is the tastiest.
• Clouded lens. They can be used as a scrying focus
when lled with water, but the visions are subtly
twisted to slowly awaken envy and greed in the user.
Worth 250 x 2 gp.
• Pale mucus. Buckets upon buckets of milky white
mucus can be collected while dressing the beast.
Bizarrely, the mucus can be spun by an expert weaver
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with the right alchemy equipment into silken thread
for a glamorous moon-white fabric with an
incredible bluish sheen. 10 liters of pale mucus
produces one pound of fabric. From a huge specimen,
the PCs can hope to collect 6d10 liters, or 12d10 liters
if a ranger or someone knowledgeable of dragon
anatomy helps. The mucus is worth 10g a liter, and
the fabric is worth 700 gp a pound. A skilled spinner
will charge 350 gp per pound to make the fabric, or
keep half. 3 pounds of fabric is enough to nish a full,
fancy ball or wedding gown, or accessorize a party.
• Lindworm skull - the envy of every guild hall or royal
dining room. 1000 gp, but it has to have the teeth!
• Dragon claw - Mostly ornamental, but can be
sacri ced to destroy some cursed objects. Lindworms
have 10 claws.
• Liver of Longevity - A spoonful temporarily restores
the glow of youth and restores a magically aged
victim to its true age. Overconsumption causes fatal
poisoning.
• Dragonbone powder - Lindworm bones aren't as ne
as those of chromatic or metallic dragons, but are
useful in alchemy when ground.
• Blended dragon brain - Sharpens one's mind... and
one's greed, rage, and predatory instinct. Take with
caution.
• Black Bile - re nable into a strong poison an
assassin might like.
• Lindworm pearl - A dark emerald pearlescent orb
that forms in the gut of a lindworm - an attractive
gallstone basically. The sort of thing a party would be
sent questing after by a witch, wizard, or sage in
return for a great favor. Can be used as a magic focus.
500 gp.
Difficulty Adjustments
For a Lower CR Lindworm:
Outside lair (No lair actions). CR 9
Juvenile Lindworm. (CR 8.) Replace Attack d10s with
d8s, 5d8x2 for breath weapon. HP to 123 (13d10 +
52), and AC 17, Save DCs -1, size Large or Huge
Young Lindworm. (CR 6) Replace Attack d10s with
d6s, 4d8x2 for breath weapon. HP to 99 (10d10 +
40), and AC to 16, Save DCs -2, size Large
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

Shrieking Eel Shrieking Eel Notes and Lore

Medium beast
This slippery black and white menace lurks in
Armor Class 14 (natural armor) rivers, ponds, canals, streams, and sewers. Shrieking
Hit Points 45 (6d10+12) eels are famous for making leaping ambushes onto
Speed 15 ft., swim 40 ft. land and dragging pigeons and sherman into the
water to be drowned and devoured. Once it sinks its
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 (+3) 17 (+3) 14 (+2) 2 (-4) 12 (+1) 7 (-2)
needle-like teeth into prey, the eel’s skin mucus
makes it nearly impossible to dislodge. They
Skills Athletics +5, Stealth +5 sometimes slither overland in wet weather looking
Saving Throws Str +5, Dex +5 for new watery hunting grounds.
Condition Immunities grappled, restrained Giant eel trappers might not have enough ngers,
Senses Limited blindsight 60ft*, passive Perception 11 (6 for
arms, or legs to number off their hunting tricks, but
sight checks)
Languages —
they’ll share the following hints: 1) Always hunt with
Challenge Rating 2 (450 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2 friends and never get caught with an eel in dark or
murky water. 2) A charging eel’s shriek’s potency
Near Blind. The eel has disadvantage on perception checks only carries above or below water, not both
related to sight. simultaneously. 3) Their eyesight is bad, so they’ll
Aquatic Blindsight. While the eel is in contact with water, it charge a warm tar decoy placed on the shoreline and
knows the exact location of any other creature in contact perhaps gum their mouths, but don’t count on it
with the same body of water to a range of 60 ft. because their mucus will help them slip free. 4) Tricks
Slippery and Flexible. The eel can move and squeeze as
don’t work in the water, because their body nerves
though it were one size-class smaller. It cannot be knocked map the water and heartbeats of creatures nearby.
prone by slipping on grease or similar. Shrieking eels are delicious, requiring only a quick
blanch to peel the skin. Chefs will show the enervated
Actions
slabs still opping in the pan as proof of the
freshness. The hide can also be tanned for ne
Multiattack. The eel shrieks if able and uses its bite.
leather.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage. If the target is a Medium
or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 13). Until this
grapple ends, the eel can bite only the grappled creature and
has advantage on attack rolls to do so.
Shriek. Each non-eel creature within 60 feet of the eel that can
hear it must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or
take 3 (1d4+1) psychic damage and become frightened for 1
minute. While frightened in this way, the creature’s
movement speed is reduced by half. If a creature's saving
throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature
cannot be frightened by shrieking eels for the next 24 hours.
The eel cannot shriek if it has a creature grappled.

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

Paper Pest anthologies, gaslighting, bawdy limericks, bizarre

ads, naughty manuscript illumination, libel, musical
Diminutive fey
composition, etc. Paper pests prefer to work unseen
Armor Class 16 and to witness reactions to their creations.
Hit Points 10 (4d4) The pest defends itself by writing rude or compelling
Speed 0 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover) words on paper or its own body and holding them up
to be read. Closing one’s eyes negates the danger, but
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
the paper pest then ees or tucks itself away into the
1 (-5) 22 (+6) 10 (0) 15 (+2) 10 (0) 13 (+1)
target’s personal effects to reappear later. Paper pests
Saving throws. Dex +8, Int +4 deviously torment enemies by forging debts and
Skills. Deception +5 liens, placing ridiculous orders in their name, altering
Damage Vulnerabilities. fire wanted posters or signposts, printing libel in a
Senses passive Perception 10 newspaper, etc.
Languages Sylvan but does not speak
Challenge Rating ⅛ (25 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Wythersake (Huecuva)
Diminutive size. The paper pest is one size class smaller than Wythersakes (Wĭ·thər-sāk) are unrisen clerics that
Tiny. The paper pest can lift objects up to ten pounds. draw power from a profaned holy symbol or
False Appearance. While the paper pest remains motionless,
unhallowed ground. Clerics who die renouncing
it is indistinguishable from a ribbon, unless an observer their deities may come back as wythersakes.
succeeds on a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check. Blasphemous devotion sustains their soul and their
Proximity Polyglot. The paper pest temporarily learns the
shriveled bodies are a temple for foul heresies. A
languages of everyone in its presence. wythersake illusorily cloaks its undead repulsiveness
in the radiant splendor of its former life to draw in
Alter document. The paper pest can magically create, alter, or
soul-searching devotees like an angler sh lures prey
erase the contents of nonmagical two-dimensional media
that it touches, including its own body. A reader with in the deep. Its enthralled congregation pressures
Truesight sees the altered document in its original form and newcomers into drinking from the wythersake’s cup
dispel magic restores the document to its original state. of diseased ichor. Victims eventually wither in the
Unusual Nature. The paper pest doesn't require food, drink,
shadows and become enslaved undead.
or sleep. Nemesis. Every wythersake is the nemesis of a
particular deity, divine domain, virtue, cause, or
Actions pantheon. They dedicate their unlife to scouring their
former patron deities’ in uence and de ling their
Vicious Mockery. One creature who can see and read the
works. A wythersake is inherently spiteful and
paper pest takes 1d4 psychic damage.
perverse. The former cleric of a fortune god might
Command. One target who can see and read the paper pest transmute all gold to lead. The wythersake of an evil
is targeted by the command spell. Its spellcasting statistic is
god that delights in mortal death will still profane
Intelligence. (Spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks).
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
life: providing healing with no pain relief, age-
Peskier Pest: +10 Hit Points and add action Suggestion. One wasting immortality, or combine mortal bodies into
target who can see and read the paper pest is targeted by the undying cancerous lumps.
suggestion spell. CR ½ (100)
Diabologue. Venerable wythersakes pour their
Paper Pest Notes and Lore soul into a diabologue of blasphemy that drowns
readers in despairing nihilism. The author can
Born from a bookmark, the paper pest resembles a reform in the body of a humanoid who falls prey to
silk ribbon 3 feet long by 2 inches wide that peels up the wythersake’s toxic text and commits suicide.
letters, inks ghost messages, and dis gures pictures. Every copy of a wythersake’s diabologue must be
Every pest has a favored jape: graf ti, slipping lies found and destroyed to ensure it stays dead for
into libraries or heresy into holy books, compiling eternity.

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

Wythersake (Huecuva) Spellcasting. A wythersake is a 15th-level spellcaster. Its

spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit
Medium undead with spell attacks). The wythersake has the following (19)
cleric spells prepared.
Armor Class 16 (breastplate, shield), 15 (natural armor)
Cantrips (at will): guidance, sacred flame, thaumaturgy, toll
Hit Points 187 (22d8 + 88)
the dead
Speed 30 ft.
1st level (4 slots): bane, healing word, inflict wounds,
sanctuary
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
2nd level (3 slots): blindness/deafness, silence, spiritual weapon
18 (+4) 11 (+0) 19 (+4) 12 (+1) 20 (+5) 16 (+3)
3rd level (3 slots): bestow curse, dispel magic
4th level (3 slots): banishment, freedom of movement†,
Saving Throws Con +8, Wis +9 guardian of faith
Skills Intimidation +7, Religion +9 5th level (3 slots): contagion, greater restoration, hallow, mass
Damage Resistances cold, necrotic, radiant cure wounds, scrying
Damage Immunities poison 6th level (1 slot): harm
Condition Immunities exhaustion, frightened, poisoned 7th level (1 slot): etherealness
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 15
† The wythersake casts these spells before combat.
Languages Infernal, Common
Challenge Rating 12 (8,400 XP) Proficiency Bonus +4
Actions
False Appearance. A wythersake is cloaked by illusions to
disguise itself as it appeared in life. Divination spells and Multiattack. The wythersake makes one withering claw attack
abilities falsely detect a wythersake as a living human, not and casts a spell.
undead. A wythersake can dispel these illusions as a bonus Withering Claw. Melee Spell Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one
action, or if it uses Deathly Radiance, drops to 30 hit points creature. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage. The target must
or fewer, or dispel magic is cast on it. A wythersake can make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save
restore these illusions after a long or short rest. the target contracts withering disease. While infected, the
Regeneration. As long as the wythersake’s unholy symbol is target cannot add its Strength or Dexterity modifier to rolls,
intact, it recovers 20 hit points at the beginning of each of its including damage rolls unless that modifier is negative.
turns. The regeneration does not function if the wythersake Deathly Radiance (Recharge 4-6). Sallow light washes out
is in the presence of an opposing holy symbol wielded by from the wythersake in a 30-foot radius and coalesces
someone of the appropriate background or alignment, or if it around its spiritual weapons and creatures with at least 1 hit
is within hallowed ground. point of its choice. A targeted creature can expend its aura to
Undead Healing. A wythersake’s healing powers can heal deal 2d8 extra radiant, necrotic, or cold damage when it hits
undead. with an attack or regain 2d8 hit points. The aura fades after 1
minute.
Unusual Nature. The wythersake doesn't require air food, or
drink. (Optional CR14) Legendary Actions

The wythersake can take 3 Legendary Actions, choosing from

the options below. Only one legendary action option can be
used at a time, and only at the end of another creature's
turn. The wythersake regains spent legendary actions at the
start of its turn.
Simple attack. The wythersake makes one withering claw
attack or casts one cantrip
Spiritual weapon. If the wythersake has a spiritual weapon
cast, it can move the weapon up to 20 feet and attack a
creature within 5 feet of it.
Deathly Radiance. The wythersake targets a creature or its
spiritual weapon within 30 feet, giving it the benefit of deathly
radiance.

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Hypnotist
Medium humanoid
Armor Class 14 (light armor), 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 55 (10d8+10)
Speed 30 .
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (0) 10 (0) 12 (+1) 18 (+4) 17 (+3) 14 (+2)
Saving Throws Int +6, Wis +5
Skills Insight +7, Medicine +5, Persuasion +4
Senses passive Perception 13
 
Languages Common, others as desired.
Challenge Rating 3 (700 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Friendly Face. The hypnotist has advantage on all Charisma
checks directed at a creature that isn’t hostile toward them.
Autohypnotic Armor. The hypnotist’s AC includes their
Wisdom modifier, included in their statblock.
Spellcasting (Psionics). The hypnotist is a 4th-level
spellcaster. Their spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell
save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). The hypnotist has
the following psion (wizard) spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): message, shocking grasp, prestidigitation
1st level (4 slots): charm person, command, sleep  
2nd level (3 slots): calm emotions, hold person, mirror image,
suggestion
Actions
Pistol. Ranged Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, range 30/90 ft., one
target. Hit: 5 (1d10) piercing damage.
Hypnosis (5/day). To use hypnosis, the hypnotist must be
able to see the target, and the target must be able to see and
hear the hypnotist. Creatures that cannot be charmed are
immune to the hypnotist's hypnosis. The hypnosis fails if
the target cannot speak one of the hypnotist's languages. A
target afflicted by one hypnosis cannot be affected by
another hypnosis listed as “mutually exclusive” with it. For
all options, the hypnotist can specify a command word or
simple stimulus (e.g., a certain sound, sight, or spoken
phrase) which will end the hypnosis prematurely. The
hypnotist can choose among the following hypnosis options:
 • Modify memory. The hypnotist casts modify memory, but
the hypnotist can affect the target's memory of an event that
lasted no more than 1 hour.  
 • False Polymorph (mutually exclusive with Idea Induction).
The hypnotist targets a creature within 30 feet of them. The
target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or
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become utterly convinced it is a creature (e.g. a bird, red
dragon, or dwarf) or a specific individual (e.g. Strahd von
Zarovich) of the hypnotist's choice for the duration of an
hour. If the target has no knowledge of the selected creature
or individual it is to act as, the hypnosis fails. The
hypnotized target's form and statistics remain unaltered.
The hypnotized target attempts to act appropriately and will
rationalize away any failures with excuses. The target may
repeat the Wisdom saving throw every time it faces
overwhelming cognitive dissonance or it is harmed as a
result of the delusion. A creature can only have one false
identity implanted at a time, and older false identities are
overwritten by new ones.
• Idea Induction (mutually exclusive with False Polymorph).
The hypnotist targets a creature within 30 feet of them. The
target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or
become utterly convinced it has a particular skill, talent, or
profession (e.g., master swordsman, king, it can speak a
certain language) of the hypnotist's choice. The hypnotized
target's statistics and skills remain unaltered. The
hypnotized target attempts to act appropriately and will
rationalize away any failures with excuses. The target may
repeat the Wisdom saving throw every time it faces
overwhelming cognitive dissonance or it is harmed as a
result of the delusion. A creature can only have one idea
implanted at a time, and older ideas are overwritten by new
ones.
• Implant Command (mutually exclusive with
Somnambulism). The hypnotist targets a creature within 30
feet of them. If the target fails a DC 14 Wisdom saving
throw, the hypnotist may command an action that can be
described in a short simple sentence and a stimulus that
triggers the subject to immediately undertake the action.
(Example: Unlock the nearest door when you hear
fingersnaps three times in a row.) The target forgets that the
hypnotist implanted the command, and the target loses
awareness of and cannot recall its actions while it executes
the command. A creature can only have one command
implanted at a time, the creature only executes the
command once by default, older commands are overwritten
by new ones, and the command cannot be directly harmful
to the creature. The target may repeat the Wisdom saving
throw if the stimulus occurs but the target cannot execute
the command because it is impossible or vague in the given
circumstances or the target would be harmed. The target
can repeat the saving throw every time it is harmed as a
result of the hypnosis or once every minute after the first it
spends executing the command. Implanted commands
expire after 1 week.
• Somnambulism (mutually exclusive with Implant
Command). The hypnotist targets a creature within 30 feet of
them. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving
throw or execute a Suggestion per the spell for the duration
of its natural sleep the next time the target falls asleep. The
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
target forgets that the hypnotist implanted the suggestion
and is unaware of and cannot recall its actions while
sleepwalking. If the target completes the suggestion, it then
attempts to return to bed as is most natural for it. The target
may repeat the Wisdom saving throw every time it is harmed
as a result of the hypnosis. The hypnosis ends if the
sleepwalking target is forced awake. A creature can only have
one suggestion implanted at a time, and older suggestions
are overwritten by new ones.
 • Zone of Truth. The hypnotist targets a creature within 30
feet of them. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom
saving throw or fall under the effects of Zone of Truth for the
duration of the hypnotist's concentration or 10 minutes,
whichever is sooner. The hypnosis ends if the hypnotist
loses sight of the target.
Hypnotist Notes and Lore
Hypnotists combine science and psionics to master
the art of mental enchantment. Hypnotists have both
soothing voices and a trademark trance-inducing
tool: a pendulum, spinning mobile, mirrors, shiny
gems, primitive projector, complex spinning
patterns, colorful juggling balls, fancy hand
movements, or even just intense eye contact.
Hypnotists often train in mundane counseling and
magical psychotherapy. These doctors of the mind
suppress or recall memories, make sense of dreams,
overcome phobias and addictions, undo
brainwashing, and instill more con dence. The most
medically-minded are alienists and psychic surgeons
that heal chemical imbalances and uproot malign
supernatural in uences corrupting the mind and
body. Hypnotists are also hired by unscrupulous
merchants to advantage their business dealings, and
nefarious hypnotists can “sell” crimes that will be
committed by a hypnotized innocent.
┄┅━━ ▫❖▫ ━━┅┄
Dominick d’Honaire
Dominick has a rogue portrait and an adventure hook.
Dominick d’Honaire is a theatrical malignant
narcissist who fancies himself a king awaiting his due
throne. Many of Dominick’s critics and enemies try to
bring him down because they are disgusted by his
grotesque nature behind the curtain. Few succeed
because Dominick is shrewd, wields signi cant
psionic power, is paranoid, and controls a nest of
hideous cerebral vampires. Unless a great atrocity
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occurs, Dominick is next in line to become Darklord
of Lusèvres if the Vargouille Guillotine falls.
In young adulthood, Dominick used his
enchantment talent to lead a gang of school boys,
drove a girl who rejected him to suicide, sexually
abused dozens, and escaped the consequences of his
actions by sabotaging his parents’ careers to force
them to move from Mordent to Lusèvres. His dreadful
acts captured the attention the Dark Powers. They
sabotaged his desires by empowering the spark of
magic within him, but added an exploit to ensure he
would repulse any would-be victims. Anyone
Dominick has more than a passing romantic affection
for becomes attuned to his dark thoughts. Even the
stone-cold oblivious are overcome with intense and
horri c dread whenever Dominick so much as casts a
moment of attention their way. Dominick’s targets
are somehow completely sure of his designs, not only
for them, but also his non-romantic ambitions. Most
ee before they are forced to risk rejecting Dominick
directly, and many tip off Dominick’s would-be
professional victims on their way out.
Dominick’s curse is entirely self-in icted. If he ever
set aside his vanity and unsel shly cared for another,
then the attuned love interest would detect those
positive feelings instead.
Dominick joined, used, and discarded the Société de
Legerdemain, and then conquered the Council of
Brilliance by manipulating cerebral vampires.
Adult Dominick xates on two imperfections: his
lack of romance and lack of noble prestige. Dominick
is insanely jealous of his distant aunt Saidra whose
life story he knows through family. It wounds him
that she made it by faking it. He seeks revenge and his
ultimate desire by demanding she procure a love
potion in trade for keeping Saidra’s false title secret.
Dominick plans to betray her anyway for sheer
vicious joy.
Dominick d’Honaire’s traits
Ideal. My light alone will guide Lusèvres… no, all of
Ravenloft to true enlightenment!
Bond. In the natural order of society, I am the
pinnacle, whether those below know it or not.
Flaw. My immediate personal needs are the most
important.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

Dominick d’Honaire Actions

Medium human
Pistol. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 30/90 ft., one
target. Hit: 7 (1d10 +2) piercing damage.
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 78 (12d8+24) Rapier. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Speed 30 . Hit: 6 (1d8 +2) piercing damage.
Powerful Hypnosis (5/day). Please prefer to the Hypnotist’s
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
action options above and use a DC15 Wisdom saving throw.
10 (0) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 18 (+4) 17 (+3) 19 (+4)
When Dominick implants a hypnosis with an expiration, it
does not expire, and he can target creatures immune to
Saving Throws Int +7, Wis +6
being charmed.
Skills Deception +7, Insight +9, Performance +10, Persuasion
+10 Reactions
Tool Proficiencies. disguise kit
Senses passive Perception 13
Instinctive Charm (Recharges after Dominick casts a
Languages Common; Mordentish.
hypnosis or enchantment spell of 1st level or higher).
Challenge Rating 5 (1800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3
Dominick tries to magically divert an attack made against
him, provided that the attacker is within 30 feet of him and
Friendly Face. Dominick has advantage on all Charisma visible to him. Dominick must decide to do so before the
checks directed at a creature that isn’t hostile toward him. attack hits or misses. The attacker must make a DC 15
Autohypnotic Armor. Dominick’s AC includes his Wisdom Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the attacker targets
modifier and a +1 bonus, included in his statblock. the creature closest to it, other than the enchanter or itself. If
multiple creatures are closest, the attacker chooses which
Powerful hypnotist. Dominick abilities ignore immunity to one to target.
charms, with the exception of creatures affected by his curse.
Curse. Dominick can cast his first level spells at will and
implant hypnotic suggestions that don’t expire, but anyone
he is attracted to becomes immune to his spells, hypnoses,
and enchantments. For as long as Dominick is attracted,
that individual has supernatural insight into Dominick’s
thoughts and motives and automatically succeeds on Insight
checks against Dominick.
Spellcasting (Psionics). Dominick is an 11th-level spellcaster.
His spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 15, +7
to hit with spell attacks). He has the following psion
(wizard) spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): message, shocking grasp, prestidigitation
1st level (at will*): charm person*, command*, sleep*
2nd level (3 slots): calm emotions*, hold person*, mirror
image, suggestion*
3rd level (3 slots): charm monster*, confusion*, enemies
abound*
4th level (3 slots): dominate beast*, hallucinatory terrain, locate
creature
5th level (2 slots): dominate person*, hold monster*
6th level (1 slot): mass suggestion*
*Enchantment spells

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Detective Alanik Ray
Medium high elf
Armor Class 13 (leather armor), 15 (for wheelchair half cover)
Hit Points 84 (13d8 + 26)
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 (+2) 14 (+2) 12 (+2) 20 (+5) 19 (+4) 15 (+2)
Saving Throws. Dex +4 in wheelchair, Int +9, Wis +8
Skills. Arcana +9, History +9, Insight +8, Investigation +13,
Nature +9, Perception +8, Religion +9
Tool Proficiencies. disguise kit, thieves’ tools, instrument
(violin)
Senses. Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages. Common, Draconic, Elvish, Thieves’ Cant; Balok,
Darkonese, Mordentish
Challenge Rating. 4 (1100 XP) Proficiency Bonus +4
Fey Ancestry. Alanik has advantage on saving throws against
being charmed, and magic can’t put him to sleep
Sharp eye. Alanik can add 9 additional base damage to one
damage roll he makes against a creature that he used his
Search bonus action on in the same turn.
Jack of all trades. Alanik adds +2 to any ability check he
makes that doesn’t already include his proficiency bonus.
Reliable Talent. Whenever Alanik makes an ability check that
lets him add his Proficiency Bonus, he treats a d20 roll of 9
or lower as a 10.
Gunner. Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t
impose disadvantage on Alanik’s ranged attack rolls. Alanik
ignores the loading property of firearms.
Spellcasting. Alanik’s spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell
save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). Alanik may replace
one of his at will wizard cantrips with another after a long
rest. Alanik has the following Wizard spells prepared:
At will (cantrips): mage hand, minor illusion, prestidigitation
1/day each: auscult *(see spells below), identify
Alanik Ray’s traits
Ideal. “Logic is a guide but also an illusion. Order and
reason don't supersede what is right.”
Bond. “I have the perspective to see depravities
others can't. I use my insight to reveal wickedness
and make the world a better place.”
Flaw. “Most people are dangerous, manipulative
liars and not to be trusted.”
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Actions
Multiattack. Alanik makes two weapon attacks in any
combination.
Pistol. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 30/90 ft., one
target. Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) piercing damage
Rifle. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one
target. Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) piercing damage (reflavored longbow)
Goldenfang (+2 Shortsword). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit,
reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) slashing damage
Bonus Actions
Search. Alanik makes a Wisdom (Perception) check or an
Intelligence (Investigation) check.
Bardic (Dis)Inspiration. One creature within 60 feet of Alanik
who can hear him adds or subtracts 1d4 from an attack roll,
skill check, or saving throw of Alanik’s choice before the start
of Alanik’s next turn. Alanik have his violin to use this
feature.
Special Equipment
Wheelchair Gadgets. Using non-magical technology, the
wheelchair replicates the following spell effects using
Alanik’s statistics. Alanik’s activation action matches the
casting time of the spell. The chair has 30 hit points, an AC
of 17, is immune to poison & psychic damage, with a
damage threshold of 5. It grants Alanik half cover while he
sits in it.
At will: feather fall*
3/day each: burning hands, expeditious retreat, fog cloud†,
grease†, levitate*
1/day each: fly*, pyrotechnics, shield
* On the chair only
† Casting range is 10 ft.
Song of Rest (Violin). Alanik and any friendly creatures who
can hear him regain an extra 1d6 hit points at the end of the
short rest if they spend one or more hit dice.
Silver Bullets. Alanik may prepare and load silvered bullets.
Arthur Sedgwick's traits
Ideal. “The sicknesses of the world are vast, but I can
help others nd the medicine they need.”
Bond. “I can't withhold care, no matter how ill a soul
might be.”
Flaw. “I focus so much on others that I often don't
see what's af icting me.”
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Alanik Ray
A cunning child with a strong sense of justice set to
inherit a merchant empire, Alanik revealed his father,
Ardal Ray, to be a boss of a vast black market and drug
cartel ooding Neblus and greater Darkon with
horribly addictive chemicals. Disinherited after
confronting his father, Alanik opened a consulting
of ce in Neblus and began hunting the cartel to
extinction. Now a century old after bringing his
father to justice and settling his estate, he bonded
with the young physician and Lamordian expat
Arthur Sedgwick.
Alanik’s incorruptible success as a private detective
caught the attention of Martira Bay’s baron, and he
accepted the offer to become chief constable. Alanik
was immediately embroiled in the intrigues of
Martira Bay's nobility and ran afoul of Azalin’s
Kargat. Several high-pro le public exposures later,
Azalin Rex’s embarrassed secret police nagged the
king into permitting them to run Ray out of Darkon
with deadly assassination attempts.
Detective Duo
The couple relocated to Dementlieu’s Port-a-Lucine
to freelance once more. The shapeshifting serial killer
“Hag of Chateaufaux” stymied Alanik until the
written help of a Lusèvrien expert in disguises
cracked the case open. The nal pursuit also cracked
Alanik’s back with a fall off a roof, rendering the elf
wheelchair bound.
The unrelenting storm of Dementlieuse lies ground
Alanik’s psyche thin, so Arthur encouraged his now
husband to relocate to Ludendorf where they could
construct a handicap-accessible detective of ce and
better wheelchair. After handling a vexing problem
for Dr. Viktra Mordenheim, Alanik narrowly escaped
her insistent surgical offer to repair his spine. He was
instead rewarded with various wheelchair upgrades
and a high-ef ciency gyrocore. Alanik’s improved
wheelchair can glide up and down stairs, blast gouts
of re, and even rocket into the sky on folding and
completely collapsible engines. The duo packed up
once more for Mordentshire when a cloaked woman
warned them Viktra planned to kidnap and extract
their brains. In Mordentshire-by-the-sea, they
happily reacquainted themselves with Van Richten
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Arthur Sedgwick
Child Arthur was apprentice to a local Valachani
healer treating victims of Urik von Kharkov’s white
fever when he led a doctor on an ill-fated plant
collection expedition deep into the heart of Valachan.
Impressed by his deep love of herbal lore, the doctor’s
last words were to encourage Arthur to publish his
knowledge. When Urik was deposed by Chakuna,
Arthur advanced into the misty border clutching a
textbook and emerged in snowy Lamordia. Arthur
Sedgwick attended medical school in Ludendorf, but
ed to Darkon after his heart could take no more of
the organ theft and unethical experimental trials he
was required to perpetrate to stay in the hospital’s
good graces. Arthur then became Alanik’s partner
and saved the detective’s life countless times. He
authored The Casebook of Alanik Ray and The Life of
Alanik Ray for additional adventuring funds,
kickstarting Alanik’s reputation as “The Great
Detective”.
and became godfathers to the Weathermay-Foxgrove
- twins. Flush with book royalties and tokens from
wealthy clients, like a Hookah of Truth from Kalakeri,
the couple chase mysteries and elusive rogues from
domain to domain.
Echoes of Alanik’s rst case drew him to Lusèvres: a
ma a based in Brumaire is ooding Ravenloft with
bizarre and deadly drugs. Its boss, alias The Living
Brain, has a personal axe to grind with Ray and
Sedgwick: it offers its criminal support to unrelated
citizens with killer grudges and spectates as the duo
struggle to uncover the truth. The brain often gets the
last laugh by hypnotizing innocents to murder the
cornered culprit before justice can be served. Arthur’s
heavy heart suspects the Brain’s mania ties to mutual
history in Ludendorf. He isn’t yet ready to discuss
that hunch with Alanik because he would rip open
old and shameful wounds about the malpractice he
and his then-friends willingly perpetrated, among
other secrets he had hoped to leave behind in the
snowy mountains.
The second story private detective of ce in the
Serpentine District overlooks the gondolas sliding
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres

Dr. Arthur Sedgwick Special Equipment

Medium human
Armor Class 14 (Chain shirt)
Hit Points 104 (11d10 + 44)
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 (+4) 12 (+1) 19 (+4) 12 (+1) 16 (+3) 15 (+2)
Saving Throws. Con +8, Wis +7
Skills. Athletics +8, Insight +7, Intimidation +6, Medicine +11,
Nature +9, Survival +11
Tool Proficiencies. herbalism kit, tinker’s tools
Senses. passive Perception 17
Languages. Common, Elvish; Darkonese, Mordentish
Challenge Rating. 5 (1800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +4
Gunner. Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn't
impose disadvantage on Arthur’s ranged attack rolls. Arthur
ignores the loading property of firearms.
Tandem Tactician. When Arthur Helps an ally attacking a
creature, his Help action range is increased by 10 feet.
Additionally, Arthur can help two allies targeting the same
creature within range when using the Help action in this
way.
Spellcasting. Arthur’s spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell
save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). He has the
following (5) druid spells prepared.
Cantrips (at will): druidcraft, mending
1st level (2 slots): cure wounds, detect magic, detect poison
and disease, longstrider, purify food and drink
Actions
Multiattack. Arthur makes three longsword or one
blunderbuss attack.
Silvered Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5
ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage or 9 (1d10 +
4) slashing damage when used with both hands.
Blunderbuss. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, all targets in a
30 ft cone. Hit: 7 (2d6) piercing damage, or double that if
the target is within a 15 ft. cone of the blunderbuss.
Bonus Actions
Help. Arthur uses the Help action as a bonus action.
Silver Bullets. Arthur may prepare and load silvered bullets
Copy amulet of Ravenkind. Arthur wields an amulet
resembling the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind.
under the dozens of bridges of Canal Way. Passerby
might catch a whiff of sweet tobacco, wince at
shattered glass from a tinkering mishap, or grind
their teeth at Alanik sawing away at his violin to test
his biorhythm disruption theories. Arthur discovered
a well-hidden secret passage in the closet under the
stairs by following the roots of a white ower
sprouting in a oorboard gap. He investigated the
rst few hundred feet of the tunnel network it linked
to before deciding it was too dangerous to continue
alone. He erased his traces and thoroughly bricked off
the access to the house, but worries about the old
signs of foot traf c he observed. Alanik and Arthur
would pay to have the tunnels mapped, if possible,
and to know if a criminal organization is using them.
There is another entrance behind an over ow intake
grating in the canal that Arthur left as is which could
be used for entry.
In investigations, Arthur Sedgwick acts as coroner
and gossips with witnesses and law enforcement for
hints of intrigue. He has a lifetime of experience
treating patients mauled by tropical and snowbound
horrors, so he can guess a beast’s features and
unnatural powers by examining its victim’s wounds.
Alanik bounces ideas off Arthur when the two
commiserate over their ndings. In battle, Alanik
supports Arthur’s frontline counterattack with
sharpshooting. The wheelchair, which can carry
Arthur’s weight too, is saved for hasty exits.
On trips out of town, the two pack an accoutrement
of monster hunting equipment and helpful chemicals
in addition to detective gear: holy water, potions,
salt, vials of acid, and alchemist’s re. Alanik brings
his father’s enchanted knife Goldenfang, and Arthur
wears a copy of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind under
his chain and frequently posts letters via the network
of wereravens. Arthur’s “spellcasting” is more
mundane talent and prepared reagents than true
magic.

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 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Spells for Mysteries
Reprinted here are an updated mystery-oriented
selection of spells from my 2019 “Ravenloft's
Elemental Planes: 43 original spells for 5e”
document.
Auscult
2nd-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V*, M (Ear hair from a beast with keen
hearing)
Duration: Concentration, up to 30 minutes
Available For: Bard, Druid, Ranger, Warlock, Wizard
You quietly blow air at a willing creature and its hearing
sensitivity increases. It gains +5 to Wisdom (Perception)
checks related to hearing. By focusing on a location it can
see, the eavesdropper can ignore loud, distracting
background noise and clearly hear a conversation spoken
in whispers from the range of 120 feet, at normal volume
at 300 feet, and very loud volume at 1200 feet (a quarter
mile). For the spell's duration, the enchanted creature has
vulnerability to thunder damage and automatically fails
any saving throws to avoid deafness.
Lenore chattered angrily from Nichia's shoulder as she
and the Kargat officers all trundled into the cramped
office that hid the stairs down. She sighed, "Another
basement briefing? It's so stuffy down there. Those of
us who are slightly less dead would appreciate a little
breeze… and to smell each other a little less." She got
a chuckle out of one of the weres.
"Stuff it, or I'll make you slightly more dead," Master
Bralkain hissed at the woman and her chiding crow,
"There's no use warding the place against divination if
any big-eared freak can listen in through the windows."
Bellchime
1st-level abjuration (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (A silver bell)
Duration: 24 hours
Available For: Bard, Cleric, Ranger, Wizard
Choose an object that is Large or smaller or an area that
can fit within a range no larger than a 10-foot cube. Until
the spell ends, whenever a Tiny or larger creature touches
or enters the warded area, the silver bell used as the
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material component chimes. When you cast the spell, you
can designate creatures that won't set off the alarm. You
can also designate times or simple, obvious circumstances
when the bell will not chime (e.g. do not ring between 6pm-
8am, ignore anyone who presents a silver badge). If you
cast this spell on the same space or object every day for 30
days, placing the same effect on it each time, the ward lasts
until it is dispelled.
  At Higher Levels. At 5th level, the spell becomes
permanent and the silver bell cannot be used as the
material component for another Bellchime spell.
Dispelling the ward or the bell instead suppresses the
chime for 10 minutes.
The hidden silvering sanctuaries and aeries that teach
devil-slaying arts are not uncommon, but their ruins
are even more common, victims of the greed of fellow
man more often than monster. Needless to say,
silvering schools do not advertise. If you wish to learn
the silver arts or hire their services, you may have luck
finding a contact among the smiths who silver blades,
but you would do better to seek the artisan who
enchants the silver bells used to alert shop owners to
customers and thieves. – VR
Deadtack
3rd-level abjuration (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Touch
Components: S, M (Two lead spikes, Optional: valuable
gemstones)
Duration: Until dispelled
Available For: Cleric, Paladin, Wizard
The casting of the spell enchants the two lead spikes that
are the material component of the spell with a powerful
ward against necromancy. The two lead spikes must have
been carefully and artistically engraved with a target
creature's name or likeness prior to the casting.
Alternatively, if you are familiar with the target, you may
instead prepare gems worth the target's level or CR
multiplied by 100 GP which the spell consumes. Cast with
these extra components, the spell artistically engraves two
blank lead spikes with the target creature’s likeness.
When you drive both spikes into the target creature's
inanimate dead body, spells from the Necromancy school
and other re-animating and resurrection-like effects fail
when used on the creature. The spikes do nothing if they
have not been engraved or are used on any creature other
than the one matching the engravings.
After both spikes are planted, one of the lead spikes may
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
then be pried from the body and taken with you or hidden
elsewhere, but it cannot be used as a material component
for another Deadtack spell. The removed spike is a magical
object with the durability of lead. The spike that remains
becomes permanently affixed in the body, resists
dispelling, reforms instantly if destroyed or defaced, and
cannot be removed by any means short of divine
intervention or using a spell slot of at least 8th level to cast
Dispel Magic, Antimagic Field, or Wish. Separating the
tacked body into pieces does not end the spell. Reviving the
creature or destroying the removed spike ends the spell.
True Resurrection overpowers any Deadtack spell. A
second Deadtack spell fails if used on an already-
Deadtacked body.
"The deadtack utterly blocks all but the vilest
necromancers from animating rightfully interred
remains or draining dire secrets from the skulls of the
deceased. Unfortunately, assassins also use deadtacks
to guarantee their wealthier victims remain as corpses.
Tracing the deadtack caster's dweomer, fingerprinting
artistry, and even the providence of the lead has thus
become something of an art among private
investigators who are urgently hired to seize the
murderer's paired spike before the body rots beyond
actionable revival." – Dr. Arthur Sedgwick, husband
and medical advisor to Detective Alanik Ray
Deathblood Divination
2nd-level divination (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (Powdered vampire fang or nail)
Duration: Instantaneous
Available For: Druid, Ranger, Warlock
You taste a dead creature's spilt lifeblood and, in a
moment, experience the last 18 seconds (3 rounds) of the
victim's life from their sensory perspective, excluding the
victim's thoughts. If the victim has died more than once,
you experience their most recent death.
"The victim's body was thrown in the Musarde river to
make it look like a boating accident. In truth, she was
drowned in her own home's kitchen sink several hours
prior. The murder was likely unintentional, and the
culprits her father and mother. They disapproved of her
fiancé, a man of lower standing, and were attempting
to coerce her with violence into calling it off with him."
– Inspector L. Alexandre's case briefing to Richemuloise
officials on the death of an heiress in Pont-a-Museau.
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Disguise Voice
1st-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: S
Duration: 1 hour
Available For: Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard
You touch your throat and make yourself sound different
until the spell ends or until you use your action to dismiss
it. You may imitate an accent with your illusory voice, but
this spell doesn’t grant you fluency in languages you don't
know. A creature that uses its action to listen to your voice
can determine that it is an illusion with a successful
Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save
DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, it can
hear your true voice and the illusory voice sounds faint and
hollow.
Wise travelers on Lusèvres' highways ignore the
pleading screams of desperate women and children
from beyond the treeline or behind boulders. The
cloven-hoof leucrottas, keen imitators of pained human
cries, have wet their jaws with the lifeblood of many a
sentimental fool lured from the path. And with each
new kill, the intelligent beasts add a new dying scream
to their repertoire.
Ghost Lantern
3rd-level necromancy (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 150 feet
Components: V, S, M (a source of natural flame no larger
than a 5 by 5-foot-square such as a brazier, lit lantern,
torch, or candle.)
Duration: 1 hour
Available For: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard
The natural flame you cast this spell upon becomes
unnatural, eerie pyreflame and deals cold damage rather
than fire damage. Creatures cannot benefit from invisibility
within the fire's bright light. If an inanimate corpse is
within the range of the bright light, a silent ghostly shape
appears beside it. The incorporeal, mostly-transparent,
wispy shape is a very low-resolution image of how the
creature appeared in life, but even a thorough investigation
of the shape usually cannot reveal its race, gender, or age,
much less its precise identity.
  Ghost Lantern's pyreflame may be pushed into a silent
ghostly shape. The pyreflame detaches from its source and
floats in place. Its animating energy allows the ghostly
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
shape to speak in a voice that sounds like your own (or a
neutral tone if you are mute). You may ask the ghostly
shape one question with the same limitations described in
the Speak with Dead spell. (The corpse knows only what it
knew in life, including the languages it knew. Answers are
usually brief, cryptic, or repetitive, and the corpse is under
no compulsion to offer a truthful answer if you are hostile
to it or it recognizes you as an enemy. This spell doesn’t
return the creature’s soul to its body. Thus, the corpse can’t
learn new information, doesn’t comprehend anything that
has happened since it died, and can’t speculate about
future events.) Corpses previously used for this spell, the
speak with dead spell, or similar within the last 10 days do
not create silent ghostly shapes and cannot be asked
questions. The spell ends immediately after the question is
answered.
  When the spell ends, the pyreflame is extinguished.
  Ghost lantern cast on campfire causes it to cool the
surroundings and chills food rather than cooking it.
Many a clever amateur spellcaster suffering in the
muggy summer swelter has thought to cool their offices
by lighting their hearths with pyreflame. The brighter
ones think to use a brazier surrounded by a magic
circle. The smartest sweat, because they know the
wandering haunts on our side which are drawn to
ghostfire like moths are just as fearsome as any that
might try to crawl out.
Graft
5th-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M* (Thread, ointments, and distilled
essence of troll worth 150 gp which the spell consumes)
Duration: Instantaneous
Available For: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Warlock, Wizard
You hold the creature's removed or severed body member
(eye, finger, leg, tail, and so on) or a comparable, freshly
severed limb from another similar creature to the stump or
socket, and the spell causes the limb to knit to the stump
and restores it to full usability. Over the course of weeks,
the limb slowly changes until it matches the rest of the
creature, but at the GM's discretion, vestigial traits from its
creature of origin may remain.
  Optional Rejection Rules. If the grafted limb is not the
creature's original limb, the GM secretly rolls a d20 and a
d6. If the d20 roll is greater than your best spell attack
bonus, plus your proficiency or Medicine skill bonus, plus
the graft-receiver's constitution modifier, then the graft is
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rejected and unexpectedly fails or falls off during a bout of
strenuous exertion 1d6+1 days later. Grafting that limb to
the same creature automatically fails thereafter.
"The Vistani believe pieces of a body still carry a
fraction of its vital source – Scrying wouldn’t work so
strongly otherwise. A wicked or resentful soul can
poison yours, so my kin refuse to graft any limbs but
the original or a trusted friend's willingly given.
Contracting lycanthropy's a risk, too." – Ez d'Avenir on
why she uses a prosthetic leg.
Hullabagloom
2nd-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M (A handful of peas)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Available For: Bard, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
You create a 30-foot-radius sphere of sticky, clingy fog
centered on a point within range which disguises the
voices of those within it. The sphere spreads around
corners, and its area is heavily obscured. It lasts for the
duration or until a wind of moderate or greater speed (at
least 10 miles per hour) disperses it. For the duration of
the spell, you give each target in the spell's area that you
choose an illusory voice. The illusory voice is cosmetic and
may not interfere with the target's ability to communicate
or cast spells as it normally would. (You may change a
creature's accent or even add a speech tic, but you may not
change its language, render it unintelligible, or silence it.)
An unwilling target can make a Charisma saving throw,
and its voice is unchanged if it succeeds. Unless you will
otherwise, a target hears its own voice naturally and
cannot tell if it succeeded or failed on its saving throw.
  The fog is the voice-transforming medium, so outside
creatures hear the illusory voices from within, but hear an
affected creature speak with its natural voice when it
leaves the boundary. Creatures within the fog hear an
affected target outside the fog speaking with its illusory
voice.
  You may use your bonus action to create illusory sounds
at a location within the fog that last up to the duration. The
sound can be any volume and noise and can continue
unabated for the duration, or you can make sounds at
different times.
  A creature can use its action to listen and make an
Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save
DC. If it succeeds, it can hear everyone's true voices and
the illusory noises sound faint and hollow.
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
  At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell
slot of 3rd level or higher, the radius of the fog increases
by 10 feet.
The tainted elemental plane of fog is an endless mire of
sticky, smoggy, industrial-era pea-soup fog and steam
cling between the trees of swamps. It splits the
difference in environments by embodying both the
mire's poisonous drudgery and the muddled city's
confusing vox populi. Gates to Fog and its diseased,
acidic, and poisonous denizens have an alarming
tendency to appear in the middle of urban areas in
addition to swamps or rivers.
Shadeshroud
3rd-level conjuration (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Touch
Components: S, M (an obsidian point or black blade
worth at least 25 gp)
Duration: 8 hours
Available For: Bard, Ranger, Warlock, Wizard
You slit a shadow or a surface in an area of dim light or
darkness that can accommodate a 5-foot-radius circle.
That area of shadow lifts like a sheet. If you crawl
underneath, you enter into an extradimensional space
bordering the Plane of Shade. The interior of the
shadeshroud is magically dark, muffles sounds produced
inside to a whisper, and the atmosphere is comfortable and
dry regardless of the weather outside. Creatures under the
shadeshroud cannot affect or be affected by anything
outside the shadeshroud as if they were fully incorporeal
and cannot be targeted by any divination magic or
perceived through magical scrying sensors. Creatures
underneath the shadeshroud can see and hear 60 feet
outside into your current plane, regardless of the magically
dark interior.
  You and two other medium-sized or smaller creatures
can fit underneath the shadeshroud. The shadeshroud's
contents cannot be seen from your current Plane, but
creatures that can see into the Ethereal Plane clearly see
the shadeshroud's interior.
  Creatures must be prone to enter or exit the space under
the shadeshroud and must remain prone for the duration
or else take 1d4 force damage and be shunted outside the
shroud, lying prone. You can unseal and seal the edges of
the shadeshroud to permit or deny creatures entry.
  The spell ends when you no longer touch the
shadeshroud, there are more than three medium-sized or
smaller creatures underneath the shadeshroud, a creature
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underneath or partially underneath the shadeshroud
makes an attack or casts a spell, or the area of the
shadeshroud or its interior is illuminated by bright light.
Creatures or objects under the shadeshroud are shunted
outside the shroud, lying prone, when the spell ends.
You are to patrol with a bulls-eye lantern and cast its
light upon on all dark corners and shadows as you
move from room to room. Do not rely on your
darkvision. Just before sundown, gently turn over the
large rug in the main hall and cast your lamplight on
the floorboards below. – instruction from the Wormian
Museum's training manual for overnight security
personnel.
Shade-nap
2nd-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action
Range: 60 feet
Components: S, M (A glove)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Available For: Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
  Choose a Large or smaller creature within shadow, dim
light, or darkness in the spell's range to transport. An
unwilling creature must be incapacitated, restrained,
sleeping, dying, or dead. You cannot transport a target
illuminated by bright light, one that is grappled, one that is
securely restrained to a surface or larger object, or one
wearing or carrying more than a pound of lead.
  Shadows silently engulf the creature and any equipment
it is wearing or carrying and teleport it to a dark or dimly
lit space of your choice within the spell's range that need
not be within line of sight. For the spell's duration, the
creature is invisible to everyone but you. The spell and
invisibility end if the creature is moved, uses its movement,
makes an attack, casts a spell, or is illuminated by bright
light.
  At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell
slot of 3rd level or higher, the spell creates a silent illusory
duplicate of the target at its original location. The illusion
vanishes if illuminated by bright light. A creature that uses
its action to examine the duplicate can determine that it is
an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation)
check against your spell save DC.
"A retriever is a wolf taught to bite more softly." –
proverb from a scroll found in an abandoned Zytian
Shadow Way monastery.
s
 The Dread Domain of Lusèvres
Stovepipe Breath
2nd-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (A lump of coal, or a tobacco pipe)
Duration: 1 minute
Available For: Bard, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
Choose one creature that you can see within range to make
a Constitution saving throw. If it fails, streams of sticky,
clingy fog pour out of the target creature's mouth, nose,
ears, and tear ducts. If the target opens its mouth, speaks,
tries to cast a spell with verbal components, or attempts to
use a breath weapon, a great gout of heavily-obscuring,
clingy fog immediately surrounds its face and blocks its
vision entirely for the duration of the action. The gout of fog
persists only just long enough for the creature's action to
be penalized for effective blindness. At the end of each of
its turns, the target can make a Constitution saving throw.
On a success, the spell ends.
  At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell
slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target one additional
creature for each slot level above 2nd.
"Respiratory distress and premature death associated
with 'Green Lung' are the smoke-blowing entertainer's
most common occupational hazard. A lesser-known
danger is that daily use of the smoke-making spell risks
converting one's bronchi into a permanent gate to the
Elemental Plane of Fog. Smoky wheezing, corroded
teeth, and malodorous breath then become the least of
the entertainer's worries; a creature from planar fog
may discover the path and attempt to materialize in
the unfortunate's chest. This is merely gruesomely fatal
should the interloper be a typical fog elemental
composed of corrosive and toxic gases. More solid
denizens which are usually significantly larger than the
volume of humanoid lungs appear with a grotesque
splattering deflagration of the unwitting conduit's
whole head, neck, and torso." — Clipping from a
Paridon medical journal found along with Van
Richten's notes for an unpublished guide to
supernatural afflictions
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Vitriolic Double
2nd-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (A pinch of sulfur)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes.
Available For: Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard
You are briefly obscured by a harmless smoky puff and
create a silent double of yourself composed of acidic fog
adjacent to yourself in your space. You may move the
double up to your remaining movement speed, and your
full movement speed on your subsequent turns. The
double is insubstantial and effectively weightless, but looks
and behaves like you. It can mimic your actions and
attacks, albeit harmlessly. Commanding it requires no
action on your part. A creature that does not succeed on a
Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check
cannot tell you apart from your double.
  The vitriolic double is dispersed if attacked or if it
collides with a Tiny or larger object. You can also choose
to crash the double into a creature or object by moving it
into that target's space. The target that dispersed it must
make a dexterity saving throw if it was within 5 feet of the
vitriolic double, taking 3d6 acid damage on failure or half
on success. A creature that was not aware the double was
an illusion automatically fails the save. When the vitriolic
double is dispersed or the spell ends, every creature in a 5
foot-radius of the double also takes 1d6 poison damage.
  At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell
slot of 3rd level or higher, the acid damage increases by
1d6 for each slot level above 2nd. The poison damage
increases when the spell slot used reaches 3rd level (2d6),
6th level (3d6), and 9th level (4d6).
During the choreographed exchange of partners, one
pair of ballroom dancers disappeared in an acrid puff
of smoke to the collective gasp of the salon. The party-
goers innocently thought the smoke to be the vanishing
lady's harmless prank, and the man now lying upon the
floor a victim of too much good wine. A well-meaning
socialite attempted to turn over the facedown
gentleman so he could gracefully recover his wits away
from the dance floor and thus discovered the corpse's
face had been scoured clean off.