A scream shatters the still gloom. Inhuman shapes slip between crumbling tombs. The shadows reach forth. Do instincts and imagination conspire against you? Or have otherworldly evils claimed you, drawing you into the mists of Ravenloft?
In hidden corners of the Shadowfell are nightmare domains that hunger for the brave and the innocent, the ambitious and the wicked. Some call this collection of eerie realms the Land of the Mists, but monster hunters know it as Ravenloft. Terror, magic, mystery, and suspense fill these fractured domains, an infinite gallery of unfolding evils, age-old plots, cursed bloodlines, legendary monsters, and immortal villains. Evildoers from countless worlds regard Ravenloft as their prison—infamous figures such as the lich-king Azalin Rex, the unscrupulous scientist Viktra Mordenheim, and the diabolical first vampire Strahd von Zarovich. These Darklords wield incredible power within their isolated domains, yet they're held captive in eternal torment as victims of malign forces known as the Dark Powers.
Ravenloft is a fundamentally magical realm, one that takes its name from its most infamous haunted location, the dreaded Castle Ravenloft in Barovia—home of the notorious Strahd von Zarovich. In this mysterious setting, the land, the passage of time, the tides, and every other reliable truth can shift unpredictably. Rather than being bound by proximity or politics, the lands of Ravenloft—also known as the Domains of Dread—are mist-bound islands drifting through the boundless gloom of the Shadowfell. Innumerable domains lie hidden within these supernatural mists, and of these secret realms, the most terrifying are those born of your nightmares and given grim life through your adventures.
Although Ravenloft is a setting of storied evils, the domains aren't without heroes. Brave souls such as the investigator Ez d'Avenir, the monster-hunting Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters, and the scholar Rudolph van Richten explore the domains' secrets. Though few in number, such adventurers represent defiant lights that shine like beacons through the darkness, and characters from all lands and worlds may be eager—or compelled—to challenge the sinister forces lurking in the shadows.
The Mists of Ravenloft are rising. What mysteries will you discover among the Domains of Dread? What nightmares will you shape? And once you enter the Mists, will you ever escape?
Using This Book
This book explores the Domains of Dread, the mysterious expanses of the Shadowfell that serve as backdrops for excitement and terror. It guides players and Dungeon Masters through the process of creating characters, domains, and stories ripe for chilling D&D adventures.
1 details how players can create characters primed for fright-filled adventures. It presents options for lineages and backgrounds that provide ominous pasts for any character as well as Dark Gifts and subclasses to shape their fates.
2 explores how Dungeon Masters can create their own new Darklords and domains, custom-made foundations for fear highlighting the creator's and players' favorite types of terror.
3 provides an overview of dozens of Ravenloft's domains, along with details on the characters and adventures found in these haunted lands.
4 offers tools for Dungeon Masters running frightening adventures, from rules for creating curses and running out-of-body experiences to advice for building safe, suspenseful campaigns. It also includes an atmospheric adventure to draw characters into Ravenloft's fearful grip.
5 details how to make any foe into a notorious terror, as well as a collection of monsters that roam the Domains of Dread and other D&D worlds.
Horror in Your Game
Ominous shadows rise beyond the campfire's light. Steps echo through the halls of a supposedly empty house. Something whispers from under the stairs. Such details fill horror tales, but what place do they have in your D&D game? As a DM, you determine what place horror has in your adventures. Consider the following topics and how this book can aid you in determining the role of suspense in your game.
Foundations for Fears
Facing frightening creatures and venturing into the unknown are staples of both D&D adventures and horror stories. This book explores how to interweave suspense and mystery with familiar features of D&D, creating gloom so your heroes' light shines all the brighter.
Genres of Horror
Horror comes in broad varieties. You and your players decide what types of horror stories are right for your group. Do your prefer gothic moodiness, mind-bending mysteries, or something else entirely? Use this book to discover your group's perfect horror experience and how to bring it to life through your adventures.
Creating Atmosphere
Threatening traps and monsters alone don't create exciting D&D adventures. This book provides techniques to help you build atmosphere, a pervading mood for your game that encourages immersion and suspense.
Thrills You Control
Like a roller-coaster, exploring frightening themes in a safe environment creates thrills without threat. Use this book to help you and your players communicate about a game's rules, plots, and other content, assuring it includes only the elements you all enjoy.
Focus on Fun
Suspenseful stories don't need to be somber or shocking. Action, mystery, and comedy can feature in your adventures to any degree. Heroes can be bold monster-hunters or bumbling mystery-solvers. Choose what elements of this book are right for your game and promise the most fun for all players.
Seven Secrets of Ravenloft
Countless mysteries pervade the Domains of Dread, but these strange truths underpin the setting:
The Land of the Mists
Although the Domains of Dread are dramatically different, certain realities underpin their terrors. The nature of domains, the influence of Darklords, the mysteries of the Mists, and the machinations of the Dark Powers present a wealth of ominous possibilities. All these elements share a shadowy uncertainty and the potential for terror to take on unpredictable forms.
The following sections are written for you, the DM, to consider and incorporate into your adventures as you see fit. If you wish to reveal the core mysteries of Ravenloft to your players and explore the Land of the Mists with shared knowledge, by all means do so. Alternatively, you can cultivate dread by leaving the fundamental truths of the world vague or defined by your group's theories. Deep shadows immerse the Domains of Dread. Whether you cast light on them or leave them an inky mystery, their potential for terror remains endless.
This section provides an overview of the dreadful forces at work in Ravenloft, elements the following chapters explore as tools for crafting horror adventures. For details on specific Domains of Dread and interactions between these realms, see 3.
Nightmare Logic
By the standards of what other worlds' inhabitants consider true and sane, the Domains of Dread don't make sense. The setting's domains don't neatly flow into one another, histories don't record a collectively remembered past, fictions spawn terrible facts, and sheltered villagers remain stubbornly ignorant about the world beyond. Ravenloft is a setting designed to cultivate uncertainty, mystery, paranoia, and dread in defiance of logic or common sense.
The characters in your Ravenloft adventures might be the first to inquire after obvious inconsistencies or to notice plain impossibilities. But why has no one before them sought answers to such unignorable questions? The Dark Powers, the Mists, and the nature of domains and Darklords all claim part of the answer, but ultimately they reflect aspects of the same cause: nightmare logic.
Ravenloft is inherently a vast nightmare. Most of those who experience its terrors never suspect its surreal nature; only a few gradually realize that things don't add up. Whether they do or don't, the setting's supernatural features and malicious masterminds exist to foster terror. The details described in this section are true, but truth is malleable in Ravenloft. The exact limits of the Dark Powers' influence, the Mists' reach, and the Darklords' control over their domains are purposefully vague.
As with any nightmare, the Domains of Dread aren't shackled to the laws of reality. Domains exist not to simulate a believable world, but to terrify. This flexibility provides a powerful tool to upend assumptions of safety and tailor your characters' struggles. It also encourages layers of mysteries about the nature of the setting. Is each domain unique or just one in a series of recurring nightmares? How many forms of Castle Ravenloft exist, have existed, and will yet reveal themselves in the Mists? What is truth among the Domains of Dread, and how long will that remain certain? The answers are for you to decide.
The Dark Powers
Unfathomable, hidden forces manipulate life, death, and reality within Ravenloft. These mysterious, deathless beings are the architects of the Domains of Dread, and have secreted these pockets of terror deep within the Plane of Shadow. The Dark Powers watch and influence events within their dominion. When their gaze drifts, they reach into other planes to collect heroes and villains to add to their terrifying menagerie. To what end, no one knows.
The Dark Powers don't move in the shadows of Ravenloft; they are the shadows. They're the Mists and the darkness. They're the reason water manifests as rivers and stars appear in skies divorced from universes. They are the wardens that hold the Darklords prisoner. Ever-present and inscrutable, the Dark Powers are akin to gods in Ravenloft, but they are unknown to mortals and desire no worship.
Despite the control the Dark Powers exert, these beings remain distant from the domains they manipulate. Although some of their names whisper through sinister lore—names like Osybus, Shami-Amourae, and Tenebrous—domain inhabitants know almost nothing of the Dark Powers. While some Darklords realize they're imprisoned by antagonistic entities, discourse regarding the Dark Powers remains the province of soothsayers, obsessed scholars, and otherworldly beings. Anyone who spreads tales of sinister forces manipulating reality is ignored or worse. For residents of Ravenloft, ignorance provides a well-defended shelter against unfathomable truths.
The Secret of the Dark Powers
The true nature of the Dark Powers is for you to decide. How you perceive these forces can influence your view of their actions and agendas, who they abduct into Ravenloft and why. Through your adventures, you might reveal these mysteries and use them to hint at ways to escape the Domains of Dread. Consider the following possibilities when developing your perspective on the Dark Powers:
The Mists
Known throughout Ravenloft, the Mists are manifestations of the Dark Powers' will. They divide, surround, and isolate every domain, creating fog-shrouded borders that imprison Darklords within their territories. The Mists slip through the Domains of Dread, rising to claim unwitting travelers or releasing terrors upon unsuspecting villagers. Most infamously, the Mists slither into other worlds to claim innocents, villains, or whole lands, dragging them back to become the newest prisoners of Ravenloft.
Inhabitants of the Domains of Dread know of the Mists and ascribe sinister stories to them, but they accept the Mists as a natural part of their homeland. Many who travel between domains even refer to their world as the Land of the Mists. Any supernatural happening, inexplicable disappearance, or malicious force can be blamed on the Mists, and those who interact with the Mists or who come from beyond them are met with suspicion. The Mists confound travel between domains, whether one wishes to leave a place to reach another land or to escape the realm they're in.
Beyond these truths, the Mists are your tool to establish the boundaries of your horror stories. See the "3" section in 3 for details on employing the Mists to focus your horror adventures, leading characters to engage with certain elements while cloaking others in mystery.
Domains
Sinister demiplanes known as domains constitute the realms of Ravenloft. These domains vary widely, but they share a number of common features:
Details on how to create your own domains appear in 2, while 3 describes some of the most notorious Domains of Dread.
Darklords
Central to each domain is a Darklord, the seed from which a thorny thicket blooms. The villain might be a nation's leader, a prominent citizen, a notorious monster, a mysterious recluse, or a seemingly innocuous character. Regardless of the Darklord's current role, their wickedness led to the creation of their domain and their imprisonment in Ravenloft.
Though these individuals vary widely and exceptions occur, Darklords share a number of qualities:
Adventurers
The Domains of Dread don't typically breed heroes. For the inhabitants of most domains, simply surviving the night is an act of courage. Those willing to confront the terrors of the Mists are rare, but when they do, they have one of the following origins:
Adventurers find few peers in the Land of the Mists. While there are exceptions—many of whom are illustrated throughout this book and detailed in 3—such individuals are few and their lives are often short. Guilds of adventurers and shops catering to their needs generally don't exist. As a result, the challenge of confronting evil rests squarely with a few rare souls. Read on to 1 for details on creating your own haunted heroes.