Darklords is a role playing game supplement published by Wizards of the Coast (formerly TSR, Inc) for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. The supplement provides details on new darklords and domains for the Ravenloft setting.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a PDF for $9.99 but it is also available in the original printed form from sites such as Amazon. The original printed copy is the one reviewed. The supplement has 96 pages with three being the front matter, Table of Contents and Credits.
The Introduction covers using darklords – the individuals, not the supplement – and that characters may not directly encounter them, the powers they have and how difficult it can be to destroy them, a small bit on creating new ones and Ravenloft’s mood and how it should be enhanced by not using game stats.
Ankhktepot is an Egyptian-themed darklord. Once a pharaoh, he wished to live forever, and gained his wish, after a fashion. His touch killed those around him and, after they were mummified, he controlled their mummies as well. Ankhktepot was killed, but didn’t truly die, and became a mummy himself. His domain is a small piece of desert and Ankhktepot lives in a tomb, which is briefly described and mapped, along with a mummification process.
The Banshee is a drow banshee who originated in the domain of Arak. Exiled to the surface for giving birth to a drider, she died and was reborn as a banshee. The banshee is still looking for her lost child. Everything in her small domain is dead, yet the people still go through the same motions that they did whilst alive. The major town, the City of the Dead, is mapped.
Bluebeard is based on the folk tale about the titular character, a nobleman who would kill his wives then hang them from hooks. Unlike the tale, this Bluebeard wasn’t killed by his final wife and instead his castle was taken by the Mists. Today, he is still looking for a wife but the spirits of his dead ones won’t leave him alone, even though they now behave far more adoringly than they did in life.
Ebonbane is an unusual darklord as it is a sword. It was created to be used against a paladin, and an evil planar spirit was bound to it. Although the sword did kill the paladin, her estate, spirit and the sword were all swallowed up by the Mists. The sword itself is dangerous, not only in and of itself, but for its power to control other blades, up to and including artefacts.
The Three Hags are three sisters who their mother wished to have but, after her death, their father wanted to get rid of them, but was unable to do so. The girls wanted a more luxurious life away from their farm and plotted to do so, eventually killing travellers and cooking their bodies for their father and brothers. Eventually, they were turned into hags and taken by the Mists. Now, they secretly rule the domain of Tepest.
The Headless Horseman is a darklord with an unusual domain, for it simply consists of a road, and it can appear on any road in Ravenloft. The Headless Horseman himself rides past, attempting to decapitate a victim, and is then followed by the severed heads of some previous victims.
The House of Lament is a domain of a type that would later be called a Pocket. It consists of a single house and its grounds, and the darklord is the house itself. This is essentially a haunted house, and the house is mapped. The house came this way after a young woman was bricked up inside it, although she is only a part of the evil entity. The house traps people and will not let them go without at least one victim.
Merilee is a vampire that was created from a dying child. She doesn’t rule a domain, but does stay in Lamordia. As she was created when she was a child, she is less powerful than a typical vampire, and cannot create new vampires, but is also more charming.
Monette is a lycanthrope and a former privateer whose brutality eventually caused his crew to mutiny. He was taken by the Mists and cast ashore on an island, where he has a lighthouse that lures ships and their crews to their deaths.
The Phantom Lover is a being that takes the appearance of a lost loved one, feeding off the victim’s sorrow and pain. It eventually lures them back to its tiny domain in Ravenloft, where they die. The Phantom Lover cannot take someone who is unwilling, but its power means that they are usually willing.
D’Polarno is the current ruler of Ghastria and was an ambitious aristocrat, Marquis Stezen D’Polarno, before being swallowed by the Mists. After an attempt to take power was defeated, he wound up with much of his soul inside a painting. Several times a year, he can restore his soul temporarily by feeding on others. The village of East Riding in the domain is mapped.
Tiyet is the ruler of Sebua, which is mapped. She is a mummy, although she doesn’t appear to be such, and, in life, was the wife of one of the pharaoh’s sons of her original home. Desire for power led her to arrange the death of another wife and fear of what awaited her after death resulted in her becoming undead. Tiyet now rules over a land mostly occupied by undead, from a former noble estate, which is also mapped.
Zolnik is an unusual type of werewolf who became that way due to a desire to help his family during a hard winter. He now rules over the land of Vorostokov, which is permanently in winter, and has very little game, meaning that Zolnik raids other villages for their occupants to keep his people fed. Both the domain and Zolnik’s village are mapped.
Darklords in Review
The Table of Contents is decently thorough with the chapters and subsections linked. Navigation is decent. The text maintains a two column, two colour format and the primary error noticed was the names of some of the chapters didn’t match up with their names in the Table of Contents. There are a variety of black and white illustrations and maps, up to full page in size, with many of them appearing to be custom. Presentation is decent.
This is one of the earlier Ravenloft supplements and some of the material is covered again in later supplements, even later AD&D 2nd Edition supplements, such as Domains of Dread, in varying levels of details. The darklords are notable in that they are not that high a level and often not great in combat. Being darklords, they have abilities that will make them difficult for characters to defeat, but in AD&D terms they are otherwise comparatively weak. This means that they can be a threat for lower level characters without being the immediately fatal experience of more powerful darklords.
The inspirations for the darklords are often classic tales of many types, transported to the Ravenloft setting. In each case, the primary game stats are for the darklord themselves. The descriptions of the domains concentrate more on flavour than on stats, which does have the advantage that converting the darklords to other systems, even outside D&D, will be comparatively easy. There are also a lot of maps in the supplement, which could be fleshed out more if wanted, so there are many mapped locations and domains. Darklords is a decent collection of largely iconic characters and it can be found by clicking here.
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