Tales of Ravenloft Review

Join me as I review Tales of Ravenloft, featuring a tale set in Sithicus, Lord Soth’s domain titled The Rigor of the Game by James Lowder, live! Share your thoughts on this anthology set in the Ravenloft campaign setting. This is the tenth book in the Ravenloft series. You can pick up Tales of Ravenloft here: https://amzn.to/3m56rSu

Time Stamps:

• 3:17 The Rigor of the Game by James Lowder
• 9:43 The Crucible of Dr. Rudolph van Richten by David Wise
• 14:40 The Vanished Ones by Chet Williamson
• 18:00 The House of a Hundred Windows by Mark Anthony
• 21:27 Song Snatcher by Elaine Cunningham
• 24:40 Undefiled by James M. Ward
• 27:34 The Briar at the Window by Roger E. Moore
• 29:08 Nocturne by Allen C. Kupfer
• 31:39 The Wailing by Kate Novak
• 34:45 Von Kharkov by Gene DeWeese
• 38:35 Sight and Sound by D.J. Heinrich
• 42:07 The Judgment of abd-al-Mamat by Jeff Grubb
• 45:45 Cold, Hard Silver by Juanita Coulson
• 49:48 Objects d’Art by J. Robert King
• 53:20 The Freak by Nick Pollotta
• 59:46 The Weaver’s Pride by Elaine Bergstrom
• 1:05:04 The Glass Man by William W. Connors
• 1:08:24 Dark Tryst by Andria Cardarelle, aka Andia Hayday
• 1:13:00 Caretaker by P.N. Elrod

About Tales of Ravenloft

A vampire tale featuring Count Strahd Von Zarovich highlights this all-new collection of chilling short stories set in the RAVENLOFT world of vampires, werewolves, and other dark creatures. The stories focus on new dark domains and classic villains including Harkon Lukas, Azalin, and Hezlich.

Review

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. It is Kirinor, Gildember 6th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Tales of Ravenloft. I will be spoiling the stories, so if you don’t want to know them, stop watching now! I would like to take a moment and thank my collaborator patrons, the Heroes of the Lance, and invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel by visiting the links in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.

The Crucible of Dr. Rudolph van Richten (David Wise) Is a story about Dr. Rudolph van Richten searching for his son who was abducted by Vistani. He is an herbalist who was visited by the Vistani to assist the elder’s son. He failed and her son died. The Vistani blamed him, and he said they could have anything of value he had. When he awoke the next day, his son was gone. He strapped the dead vistani to his horse and set off after them to rescue his son when he was attacked by Constructs and nearly by zombies and Ghouls when Lord Azalin contacted him through the zombies. Van Richten explained what he was doing, and Azalin decided to help him as he hates the Vistani of Barovia and how they travel the mists into his realm of Darkon. He gives undead life to the dead vistani and has the zombies look to vna Richten for orders. Van richten travels teh mist behind the Vistani to their camp in Barovia and assaults it, demanding his son. They tell him they sold his son to Baron Metus, a vampire. She curses Van Righten to be surrounded by monsters for eternity and he curses them, unleashing the zombie horde upon them, destroying them all. He tries to stop it as he realizes what he is doing, but it is too late. He went to get his son, but he was turned into a vampire and van Richten killed him. Furious, Metus traveled to Darkon and killed van Richtons wife in retaliation, and now van Richten is searching for Metus for revenge.

The Vanished Ones (Chet Williamson) begins with Ivan Dragonov explaining how he got infected by a Lycanthrope killing it. He destroys evil, and even as a werebeast, he continues, though alone. He traveled to Dementlieu and entered a tavern. Eventually began chatting with soldiers about the missing townsfolk, even one of the soldier’s brothers, when Gabriella Feure walked in, a red headed bombshell. Her husband went missing and began sharing stories with Ivan. She asks him over for dinner, and when there, asks him to take her into his arms. He is overcome with lust, and turns into the beast, but she has turned into a giant black widow. She had lured him here to drain him. He fought her and eventually killed her. He saw the soldier watching and confronted him, explaining everything. They find the drained corpses and in the bottom of the well they find Gabriella’s husband’s corpse which bursts from the baby spiders within it. Ivan kills them all and leaves. Hedecides to try and find a cure to his lycanthropy.

The House of a Hundred Windows (Mark Anthony) is about Clarisse Harrowing, who is the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Evenore. The culture here is much like that in the middle east, where women are second class citizens at best, and have no say in who they marry. Clarissa is married off to a noblemanLord Gareff harrowing, as was the only thing her father could not achieve himself, nobility. She lived a lonely life in the house, and try as she might, could not find more than 99 windows. Her husband was distant when he was home, but would often leave, with no warning for days at a time. When he returned, he would expect his wife to be at his side. One day of absence led Clarissa to discover a red light peeking through a secret wall. She took a skeleton key when the maid was out, and entered the secret room to discover the hundredth window as a stained glass portrait. It contained a handsome man who spoke to her, telling her he was tapped there by a powerful wizard and asked if she would set him free. She looked through the window and saw a sea of humanoid creatures. He was excited and thrilled at the attention she received from the man, adn drew him out. They danced in a  ballroom as her husband came home. He called to her to back away, as the man was Dominic the goblin king. Those creatures were human and he turned them into goblins. They locked in battle and demanded that she chose one over the other. Instead, she chose none but her freedom, and freed the trapped goblins in the window to attack the two wizards. They became locked in the window, and she became known as the Lady of Evenore, master of her own fate.

Song Snatcher (Elaine Cunningham) is about the bard Larsen. He lives a life of the bard, traveling from domain to domain. He was raised in a monastery, and learned to use herbs to drug their famous mead. He would use this in pursuit of the Lhiannan Shee, a Vampiric Ghost of obsession that would drain a bard of their desire to sing as well as their life force. He had drained one before and learned many songs and instruments, and became addicted to the sensation. He travels to Kartakass to the Fireside Feeshka Inn where he meets the famous bard Quintish. He sees that Quintish is obsessed with love, and drugs him so he can follow him to the Lhiannan Shee. Quintish dies from the drug, but Larson now knows that he has a new spirit to drain. Meanwhile he starts sleeping with another resident bard Ellamir. He drugs her nightly to seek out the Lhiannan Shee and she fears he is under its spell. He then realized how fortunate he was to find another spirit and decided to turn to draining women bards instead, starting with Ellamir.

Undefiled (James M. Ward) presents Lord Tenent, a knight, and his sister Lady Larom, a mage, who were traveling near Estrangia when they were attacked by the vampire Crave. The knight fought off the vampire, but his sister was gravely wounded in the battle. Lord Tenent traveled to the city and entered the Temple of the Temple of White Hope. The knight demanded that they do something to heal his sister, and the Friar, a balding man named Whelm prayed to his god and the sister raised up, healed by weary. The Knight demanded help killing the vampire, but no one agreed to help, and the monk told them that he would not recommend fighting Crave, but if he did, he was in the cemetery nearby, guarded by traps and creatures while the vampire slept the day through. The Knight traveled and killed the minions, faced off against Crave again, seriously wounding him, but Crave was too much of a match and tore the knight apart. He fled to feed on the sister. The funeral for the knight was brief, and when the monk entered the temple, the vampire was waiting. It was revealed that Crave the vampire was the minion of the Mong, who was an even more powerful undead creature using him and feeding off the residents life force. He healed Crave and sent him away.

The Briar at the Window (Roger E. Moore) is about Lord Godefroy of Mordent, master of Gryphon Hill and Weathermay estates. He is interrupted reading a history book by a briar at the window, which he opens and grasps the plant, which dies in his hands. It is slowly revealed that Lord Godefroy is a ghost who murdered his wife and child. His wife was looking longingly at the stable boy and his rage overtook him. He faked their deaths, and none were the wiser, until that night when the ghosts came back from the grave, and consumed him. He then came back in death to relive the same tormented events nightly.

Nocturne (Allen C. Kupfer) is set in the domain of Richemulot. The Burgomeister, Klaus Nellak is retiring to bed and finds a rat perched on his stomach, and it bites his finger, then scurries off. The next day at council, he brings up the rat problem and the council decides to do something about it. Just then a piper from Hamelyn offers his services to round up the rats. The council balked at the claim, and they conceded to a test of one of theri cellars. Theyn the Nobleman Claus Renier enters and decides to follow his counsel and witness the event. His granddaughter Jacqueline is talking with one of the rats who shared the story about biting Klaus, and learns about the piper. She travels to the cellar in mist form to witness it, and many rats are burned alive. She retreats to the bog to reflect and her grandfather approaches. Asking if she wants to deal with the piper or should he? She says that she will, and proceeds to lure the piper to the bog, as he planned to lure the rats, and drove him into the water through her enchantment. Then she set the rats loose on him, tearing at his flesh. It ends with the Burgomeister investigating the Piper’s disappearance at the bog, discovering him, and running for his life.

The Wailing (Kate Novak) begins as George Weathermay, a ranger in Darkon hired by a man named Soldest to retrieve his child for his wife. It was abducted by a Vistani woman. George tracks her to a mountain range and is surprised by her club, knocking him out. He awakens to see her reading Tarokka and reveals the truth about the child. Her granddaughter was seduced by Soldest and when he sent men to claim the child for his own, she died defending it. The Vistana is now bringing the child to the sad one, a drow banshee who lost her own deformed child similarly and has been accepting infants since. George tracks the Drow down, and is deformed by its grip. He realises the children are dying with the drow as she is a banshee and cannot care for living children. He steals the infant and runs away only to be caught and confronted again. He reasons with the Banshee who lets him leave and the deformed hand and the child’s body heals. He brings it to Soldest’s wife, reveals the story to her and confirms that she will care for the child. She accepts and he checks in on her and the child frequently.

Von Kharkov (Gene DeWeese) centers on Uric von Kharkov and how he is under control of other powerful creatures. He feels the death of his current master Dakovny, then the influx of a new master’s voice in his mind. These masters make him turn into a beast and kill on their behalf. He is fleeing to the mists to free himself from their influence. He barely manages to hide in the mist when it drops him in a jungle. Suddenly a female magician appears through the mist and a panther enters the area. He stands and faces off against the panther who bosh his head and turns away. But the beast within him has been awakened and as he tries to tell the female to run, he transforms into the beast. Terrified she flees from him, but is too slow and he devours her. He absorbs her soul and feels her mind and terror as he murdered her. He now feels subservient to the beast within him rather than a master. Then an old, fat wizard appears before him and memories flood his free mind. He realises he was alway sa Panther till this magician transformed him into human form and implanted false memories to control him. He finally accepts his nature and returning to his natural panther form, devours the magician.

Sight and Sound (D.J. Heinrich) is an amazing horror story about a brother who goes to rescue his sister from a madman who sloped with her. This man is accused of murdering his previous wives, so Lord Henredon is justified in trying to rescue his sister Lorel. He calls Lord Bluebeard a murderer and wants to save his sister, but Bluebeard doesn’t seem to care, only that he will not give his sister back unless he can guarantee that he will not spread the lies about him being a murderer. Lord Henredon gives him his word of honor but Bluebeard wants his tongue. If he doesnt give it, he will not see his sister again. He ultimately concedes the price and bluebeard rips his tongue out at the root. Telling him that his sister is in an adjoining room and they need to be gone by dawn or they will be Bluebeard’s playthings. Henredon passes out and wakes as it’s still dark. Finally he finds his sister but cannot speak to her and she is screaming at his touch. Dawn is rapidly coming and as the light shone on her face, he sees that she no longer has eyes.

The Judgment of abd-al-Mamat (Jeff Grubb) is a tale of contentment, wanting more and never being happy with what you have. This spells the end to Abd-al-Mamot, and ends with his coming resurrection. He started as a poor boy, then became known for his wisdom and was chosen as the vizier of a sheik. His wisdom sent the sheik and all but one son to their deaths, but the people still wanted him to lead. He taught the song of the sheik until it was time for him to rule, but them found him guilty of murder and tortured him to death. His judgements became harsher and harcher so as to affect all who lived in the now great city. Until a great storm came and tore him apart for his vile judgements. His scorn for those he ruled led to his evil nature. But he is coming back after a hundred years.

The Rigor of the Game (James Lowder) is a story about a gambler named Oliver Arkwright. He is traveling to Sithicus because he heard about a high-stakes game. When he arrives at the Iron Warden inn, he realizes the game is being run by a murderous gambler he has crossed paths with in Richemutol named Tisiphone. She and her bodyguard Unthar are owners of the Iron Warden. As the game begins Tisiphone explains the house rules. In this game called death’s-head dice. It’s a variation of craps. The 1’s on the dice, are death’s-head, skull icons, that still count for one. If you throw double skulls, it’s called Double Death’s-head and you immediately lose all of your money to the house. The other house rule is that if a shooter rolls a seven or eleven, the house gets a chance to kill it with a roll. If they roll Double Death’s-head, you win double the pot. All players eventually lose to the house or Oliver, and Oliver places his bet as Tisiphony seems to want to shut down the house at Lord Soth’s orders. Oliver nearly loses the roll, but ends up winning. Tisiphony cannot cover the bet and ends up handing over the deed to the Iron Warden. As Tisiphony and Unthar are leaving, Lord Soth and Azrael walk in. Lord Soth wants to play the house for the new warden to lead his skeletal troops against the torturous elves that roam Sithicus. It is here that Oliver realizes he was played by Tisiphony. She wanted to lose so she wouldn’t have to be the warden. Soth rolls double death’s head and loses to the house, but Oliver rolls seven to win. Soth tries to roll to beat him, but Oliver claims the new house rules prevent him from it. Azrael elaps across the table in werebadger form to silence Oliver, as Soth smacks him out of the air, saying he respects the house rule, then gives the warden chain to Tisiphone and Unthar. Lord Soth tells Oliver he cannot leave and will return in weeks to a month to play him again for the position, as the wardens won’t live long.

Cold, Hard Silver (Juanita Coulson) is about a warrior named Hanz who was bestowed a magical sword from a wizard. He used the sword to command troops and win himself a kingdom, only to have the mists come and take him to Barovia. There he plotted to return to no avail. He kidnapped and assaulted Vistana women, murdered anyone who stood in his way to leave. Then he learned of a Silver mine in Mount Bartok. He planned to steal the silver and buy himself a kingdom, but he didn’t count on Jezra Wagner, the Ice Queen. She is a spectre that used to reign over this land in life, who now haunts it in death, stealing the life and warmth from her victims. She came into camp one night and killed all but the enslaved Vistani and Hanz’ brother who was in love with her. They escaped and Jezra danced throughout the night.

Objects d’Art (J. Robert King) is centered around the idea of immortality, though not as we often think of it. Marquis D’Polarno is hosting an evening of art and dining. He is offering the elixir of immortality, but only to those who deserve it. Professor Ferewood of Darkon is attending and quickly learns that he must placate the artistic sensibilities of D’Polarno so that he can drink of this elixir. After dinner, the group is taken into different rooms of sculpture, fresco, and paintings that are as grotesque, violent and absurd as life. The members of the group dwindle after each room. They learn that they are in a magical area where no one really leaves but are offered a form of immortality as pieces of art themselves, alive in stone or painting. Then they reach the final room and Ferewood is offered to drink from the fountain. He does so and D’polarno tears his fletch and bone from his spirit. Ferewood can not hear, nor see nor speak nor feel, for he has no body to do so, but he lives for eternity in the room, not knowing if there are others or how long time passes. Immortality is not what he expected. He wanted mortal immortality not spiritual, and he is now trapped.

The Freak (Nick Pollotta) is about a horribly disfigured hermit. The townsfolk brutalise him and are chasing him to hang him for the death of a gypsie. The Freak is innocent, but the mob wants blood. THey catch him and as they are prepared to hang him, the landscape changes and a headless horseman comes and cuts off their heads. The freak runs to town to warn everyone and enters the bar telling his story. They all disbelieve him, blaming him for the deaths and hold him to get a writ of execution from the mayor. The two men who leave are killed by the headless horseman as well. Now the townsfolk are terrified that by harming the freak, they sign their own death warrants. SO they give him gifts and food. He wakes to see it all and thinks it is a sign of mercy, but then finds a note and realises they are doing it out of fear. infuriated at their callousness, he returns to town and finds everyone friendly to him, but clearly forcing it. Then he turns to leave and bumps into a mother and daughter. He stoops to pick up their dropped parcels and they scream and run away. The townsfolk believe he tried to attack teh child, so they throw caution to the wind and chase him to murder him once and for all. THey follow him to the forest and the horseman comes with the heads of his victims following him and they destroy every resident of the town. Fearful of why the horseman is doing this, the horseman returns to slash his ear and eye, making him even more hideous, so wherever he goes, he will find new heads to remove from hateful bodies.

The Weaver’s Pride (Elaine Bergstrom) is about Welse, a guild weaver of Arbora. He is presented with some beautiful cocoon threads by a nomad in trade, and when he offers a large amount of the thread, the weaver cannot help himself but trade for it all.He then takes days crafting a bolt of cloth from the silk, and makes a silver length that is more beautiful that anything the master has ever created before. Many came and covetted it, offering immense sums of money for it, princes came offering the same, but Welse is too proud of what he created and would not trade it for anything. A thief tried to steal it and his wife ended up murdering the thief, but she claimed the cloth moved and attacked the thief. Welse didn’t believe her. He made his family pull guard duty, watching it all night on rotating shifts. In order to ensure there was other cloth to sell, one of his sons would weave and the other watch teh cloth. A thief came in trying to steal the cloth but killed his son and was in turn absorbed into the cloth. The cloth actually swallowed the thief. A wizard appeared to his other son offering a large amount to ‘look the other way’ as he stole the cloth. Seeing how dangerous and the damage the cloth has done thus far, he agreed and his father lost his mind after it was taken. Welse beat his wife, murdered his other son and went in search of the cloth that was calling out to him. He found it in a camp of the wizard, but the cloth attacked him and absorbed Welse entirely. The wizard promised the cloth he would treat it well while he had it.

The Glass Man (William W. Connors) is about Julio, a thief in Hazlan, who decides to rob the wizard Hazlik. He is unaware that the wizard is performing experiments, trying to gain access to the ether in order to flee Ravenloft. When the thief steals his treasure, he becomes yet another experiment for the wizard. At first Julio didn’t notice, and began writing in his journal about his triumphant job of stealing so many items of value. He returns to an inn in rainy weather to be looked after by the city guard. He realises he is invisible at this point. Then he decides to murder the thief leader, and is unable to have him see or hear him, even noticing the difficulty in holding objects. Finally he returns to the thieves guild where there is a summit announcing the death of the leader and how julio did it, due to a note he wrote for the leader. Julio forgot to collect it, but when he tried to snatch it out of their hand, he could not grasp it. He has fully turned ethereal and lost himself. The wizard makes note of the failure, and sets up another experiment.

Dark Tryst (Andria Cardarelle, aka Andia Hayday) is a bit of a twisted tale of lust. Mariella is a Vistana who is on the outs with her tribe. Magda, who was favorable to her, has died and she doesn’t feel like she will be welcome long. One evening a mist forms around her and a hand reaches through fire to touch her thigh. The mist returns in her bed and the name Damius comes to her mind. She says the name and he materialises taking her in lust and she loves it. She becomes obsessed with Damius who appears the next night as she wanted. The third night he isn’t there, buta storm emerges and she gets lost, falling into soft mud. She is pulled out and wakes inside a cavern with pale beautiful gypsies. Damius’ tribe. They talk about being barren and need Marialla’s help. Then Damius will invite her to the tribe. She must prick the baby with a ring. Whe reluctantly agrees, and upon return finds she is cursed with black hands, someone who has wronged the Vistani. She returns to the camp and they stone her to death, calling her a devil. When she evaporates into the ether and rematerializes in the cave with her new tribe. There is a healthy baby as well.

Caretaker (P.N. Elrod) is a short story about Strahd von Zarovich, in his avatar personae of Lord Vasili. The story is about how Strahd is the master of his domain and looks after his own, in his own way. A town is burned by bandits and Strahd goes to investigate and extinguish the fire. He finds an abandoned girl in a well and rescues her, then hunts down the bandits that murdered and burned the town. He calls on a pack of wolves and kills and feeds on them before exploding the last of them in a cave, nearly burning himself up in the process. It’s not a very long story or interesting one, just a tale to explain that he is not always a mindless monster.

This collection, while pretty good, all in all, was a bit of a chore for me to read. The only tale that I was looking forward to was the Lord Soth one, but there were others that ended up exciting me. I would not recommend this to Dragonlance fans, unless you enjoy horror anthologies. Then, hell, why not read it? My biggest takeaway from this is that I am not as much of a Ravenloft fan as I thought I was. I love horror films and Clive Barker, and Steven King novels, but I have no desire to revisit this collection, and it doesn’t make me want to read any other Ravenloft novels.

Outro

And that’s it for my review of Tales of Ravenloft. Have you read the novel? What did you think of the realm Sithicus in Ravenloft? Do you enjoy the reviews I am putting out there? Feel free to email me at info@dragonlance-saga.com or comment below. 

I would like to once again invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel, and you can pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link, all of which are in the description below. 

This channel is all about celebrating the wonderful world of the Dragonlance Saga, and I hope you will join me in the celebration. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time Slàinte mhath (slan-ge-var).

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