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ISBN 1-58846-787-2WW15032 $24.99 U.S.

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Beware the Tales Told in DarknessChildhood legends, ghost stories and cautionary tales take on a life of their own when

surrounded by the Mists of Ravenloft. From the immortal creature destined to eternalwandering to the sinister tailor known as Scissorman, from the family whose membersall have dark secrets to a wedding night shattered by horror and the house that relives theatrocity at its core, five stories of classic terror become a setting for bold adventurers —or helpless victims.

This book revisits the old-fashioned horror story as viewed through the lens ofRavenloft and provides players and DMs with a chance to rewrite a horrific ending, orbecome part of the recurring nightmare. Techniques for turning stories into games andadapting a tale to suit a particular group offer a handbook for creating — and playing —one-of-a-kind adventures that touch upon heroes’ deepest fears.

Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons Player’sHandbook, published by Wizards of the Coast®. This product

utilizes updated material from the v.3.5 revision.The Ravenloft® campaign setting is an officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons® property.

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Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends

CreditsAuthors::

Harold Johnson (“To Inherit Eternity”),Brett King (“The Brood of Blutkalte”), Ari

Marmell (“To Honor and Obey”) SteveMiller (“The Curse of Ashington Manor”)and Ryan Naylor (“Noises in the Night”)

Developers::Jackie Cassada and Nicky Rea

Editor:Dale Donovan

Sword & Sorcery Managing Editor:Stewart WieckArt Director:

Richard ThomasLayout and Typesetting:

Ron ThompsonInterior Artists:

Talon Dunning, Marcio Fiorito, BrianLeBlanc and Claudio Pozas

Front and Back Cover Designer:Ron Thompson

©2005 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Ravenloft, Dark Tales and Disturbing Legends, D&D, Dungeons and Dragonsand its logo, the d20 System logo, and Wizards of the Coast and its logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast Inc.,a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc., in the USA and other countries, and are used by Arthaus under license.

Arthaus and its logo are trademarks of Arthaus Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Sword and Sorcery andits logo are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

PRINTED IN CANADA

Special AcknowledgementsAndria Hayday (1st ed. design)Bruce Nesmith (1st ed. design)

Tracy & Laura Hickman (originalconcept)

Additional ThanksBased on the Original Dungeons &

Dragons ® rules created by E. Gary Gygaxand Dave Arneson and the new Dungeons& Dragons game designed by Johnathan

Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams,Richard Baker and Peter Adkison.

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Introduction

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Chapter One: To Inherit Eternity 7

Chapter Two: The Curse of Ashington Manor 57

Chapter Three: The Brood of Blutkalte 89

Chapter Four: Noises in the Night 109

Chapter Five: To Honor and Obey 123

DM’s Appendix 138

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Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends

IntroductionIntroduction

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Introduction

ne of the keys to the continued successof the Ravenloft game setting is the wayits writers take horror stories we allknow and love (to dread), and putsunique spins on them. From its earliest

incarnation as a stand-alone AD&D game adven-ture, the Ravenloft setting has been about bringinghorror stories to your gaming table. We’ve drawnfrom classics in the genre (Dracula, Frankenstein, TheStrange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), from histori-cal terrors (Jack the Ripper and Vlad Tepes), fromradio dramas and movies (such as “Donovan’s Brain”from Suspense and films such as The Plague of Zombiesand Cat People).

With this book, we turn to even more prevalenttales and make them part of Ravenloft, tales thatoften formed the foundation for the novels, radioplays, and movies we drew inspiration from: thehorrific folktales and legends that exist in a dozendifferent forms the world over and which are told andretold by children and adults alike.

Everyone reading these words has either sat arounda campfire or been in a room of friends during asleepover and swapped horror stories. Everyone hasheard some variation of “The Hook” (teens sneak outfor a bit of necking and narrowly avoid falling victim to

a hook-wielding maniac… or maybe they don’t avoidbecoming victims), “The Hitcher” (where a travelerpicks up someone by the roadside, only to hear a radiobulletin about an escaped lunatic who resembles theincreasingly twitchy stranger sitting next to him), or“The Bride” (where a vengeful spirit of a woman slainis devoted to warning or killing future wives of herstill-living husband). We can add to this mix anynumber of ghost stories, vampire tales and werewolfyarns. We can probably even add more than a fewscenarios used in roleplaying games over the years.These are the stories that changed the way we thinkof the dark, and these are the stories from whichother, more elaborate and artful works intended tosend shivers down your spine have sprung.

In the following pages, you will find fiveRavenloft takes on classic horror folktales. Westart with “The Bride” and “The Hook” and otherof the archetypical horror story foundations andbuild adventure hooks, characters, magical items,and even full-blown adventures around them. Thechapters are structured in such a way that the DMcan take the material and incorporate it into theirongoing campaigns within the Demiplane of Dread,or even use the material to add terror to otherimaginary realms of the d20 System multiverse.

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Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends

How to Use This BookDark Tales and Disturbing Legends is a

sourcebook that provides supernatural and horrorstory hooks and adventure elements for incorpora-tion into any Ravenloft campaign or any otherhorror/fantasy game. In order to gain full enjoymentof this product, you need the Ravenloft Player’sHandbook, Ravenloft DM’s Guide, and Denizensof Dread. The Ravenloft Tarokka Deck may alsoadd greatly to the usefulness of this product, but it isnot as crucial as the aforementioned books.

Each chapter in this supplement presents adifferent legend or story, followed by possible loca-tions for using the story in a campaign as well asadventure suggestions spun off from that legend. Asis the case with most Ravenloft setting material, theideas offered here can be transported from theDemiplane of Dread to any other game world that theDM wishes to infuse with a bit of darkness and terror.

Some chapters include more straightforwardadventure material, but in all cases, each chapter isrich in source material and a variety of elements thatcan be incorporated into ongoing Ravenloft games.

The Introduction provides you with an overviewand some general hints as to how to use this book.

Chapter One: To Inherit Eternity shows thatwhen a stranger proffers a gift, one should becertain it is something one really needs before

accepting. One never knows who stands to gain themost: the giver or the recipient.

Chapter Two: The Curse of AshingtonManor brings to life the story of a curse. Decadesago, a young Vistani died at the hands of a brutalnobleman. With her dying breath, she placed acurse upon Ashington Manor and all who enter it.Now, the curse is coming undone, and strangemagical energies sweep the player characters into anightmare house they may never leave alive.

Chapter Three: The Brood of Blutkalte pro-vides an intimate look at horror in an unexpectedsetting. In every community, one can find a familythat taints the well of harmony and performs fouldeeds while the people sleep. At least, one hopes sucha family can be found, for if they operate in totalsecrecy, the evil they spread may know no bounds.

Chapter Four: To Honor and Obey takesshape around the occasion of a wedding. In Souragne,marriage is a happy occasion as it is in so many otherlands. However, when dark obsessions bubble to thesurface, one particular marriage ends with murder.

Chapter Five: Noises in the Night exploresthe horrors that prey upon even the wariest peoplein the dark of the night. A Lamordian folkloristdiscovers to his regret that some tales are morerooted in fact than fiction and that their subjectsdon’t appreciate prying scholars.

The DM’s Appendix provides new rules, mon-sters and magic, spotlighting new feats and otherrules, spells, magic items and monsters that areintroduced in the previous chapters.

Chapter FormatEach chapter follows the general structure outlined

here. Some chapters are weighted more heavily towardone element or another. The appendix collects rules-related material in one place, organized by chapter.

The StoryHere you’ll find a legend—a tale told around

campfires or in taverns when the moon is dark and thewind is howling outside. Some of these tales have moretruth than others. The material that follows allows youas DM to let your storytelling abilities shine. Tell yourstory or legend as if you had an audience. Any numberof possibilities exists for starting your chapter to createthe proper atmosphere for horror.

The TruthThis section of the chapter reveals the truth

behind the legend, which is sometimes quite far

Who is This Book For?Dark Tales and Disturbing Legends

provides some excellent stories to entertainboth players and DMs. This supplement alsocontains much useful information exclu-sively for DMs, demonstrating how thesestories can be adapted for use in fantasygames. Players who are thinking about try-ing their hand at DMing can find manysuggestions in these pages, providing themwith insight into how to go about creatingan adventure from a story or folk tale. Suchplayers should make sure their DM doesn’tintend to use any of the tales within thesepages before reading it, however.

The appendix, as in most Ravenloftsupplements, contains information for theDM’s eyes only.

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