Night of the Walking Dead

Ravenloft: Grand Conjunction Series #1

by Bill Slavicsek

For 4 to 6 players, levels 1st-3rd.

In a rain-soaked graveyard, a small group of men stands round a coffin bound with heavy chains.

"We are here to mourn the passing of Jean de Cardeau," intones the village priest. " Let us pray that his rest is eternal, and that he never returns."

As the pallbearers lift the coffin, something scrapes on the wood from inside. Quickly and without emotion, the attendants slide the casket into a crypt. Then they seal the door and flee.

Behind them, unheard, a dull thudding begins, growing louder with the onset of twilight.

There can be no peace for those who linger in the earthly realm after death. And there can be no sanctuary on the Night of the Walking Dead!

Set in a zombie-infested swampland, "Night of the Walking Dead" is an ideal first-time Ravenloft adventure.

Players must unravel the mystery behind a string of murders and disappearances in a village plagued by ambulant undead — and all is not as simple as it seems!

The hour of fear is upon us. Are you ready to face the Demi-plane of Dread?

This is the 1st module in the Grand Conjuction Series.

Here are the other modules in the Grand Conjuction Series, listed in the order of play:

Night of the Walking Dead - Levels 1-3
Touch of Death - Levels 3-5
Feast of Goblyns - Levels 4-7
Ship of Horror - Levels 8-10
From the Shadows - Levels 9-12
Roots of Evil - Levels 9-12

It should be noted, that many Dungeon Masters have noticed that if they run the adventures in the order written, they end up needing PCs of level 8-10 for the second sign of the Hexad, yet PCs of level 3-5 for the third sign of the Hexad (etc.).

The solution to this continuity problem is to simply change the order of the hexad to suit the levels.

Just change the order of the Hexad Verses to match this, (in the order the game modules are listed above), and you will be able to run a Grand Conjunction Campaign without this problem.

It should be noted that the Hexad and notion of the Grand Conjunction was started after the first few modules had already been published and the prophecy was retroactively applied to those.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Dungeons and Dragons, Horror, Fantasy, Gaming

36 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Bill Slavicsek's gaming life was forever changed when he discovered Dungeons & Dragons in 1976. He became a gaming professional in 1986 when he was hired by West End Games as an editor. He quickly added developer, designer, and creative manager to his resume, and his work helped shape the Paranoia, Ghostbusters, Star Wars, and Torg roleplaying games. He even found some time during that period to do freelance work for D&D 1st Edition. In 1993, Bill joined the staff of TSR, Inc. as a designer/editor. He worked on a bunch of 2nd Edition material, including products for Core D&D, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and Planescape. In 1997, he was part of the TSR crowd that moved to Seattle to join Wizards of the Coast, and in that year he was promoted to R&D Director for D&D. In that position, Bill oversaw the creation of both the 3rd Edition and 4th Edition of the D&D Roleplaying Game. He was one of the driving forces behind the D&D Insider project, and he continues to oversee and lead the creative strategy and effort for Dungeons & Dragons.

Reviews

[Benjamin]

I'm covering four early-ish Ravenloft adventures here: Night of the Walking Dead, Thoughts of Darkness, and the two-parter, From the Shadows and Roots of Evil -- all four of which close out (I think) the Grand Conjunction metaplot (where Azalin the lich tries to escape from Ravenloft).

***

Night of the Walking Dead

First, let’s give some attention to that Robh Ruppel cover, with those zombies looking slightly down on you. There’s no action here, except maybe the lightning in the background, no one depicted being menaced, but it works for me because I’m being directly addressed in that picture.

And, maybe this is largely because I read this as a kid, but this seems like a real solid adventure: you arrive in a swamp; get attacked by a crocodile, natch; get a cryptic warning from a Vistani; and then arrive at a town suffering some recent murders. The book offers some locations around the town, but the adventure is time-based: each day something happens until you uncover the murderer: someone who recently lost a brother. Then, after that threat is taken care of — twist! — a bunch of zombies attack during a storm, which is a nice little set piece, and the PCs have to hunt down the brother, who has since become a big monster that controls zombies.

It’s simple; it offers a bunch of opportunities for combat or investigation; it offers a somewhat dynamic environment during the storm; and the backstory of the villains both explains their actions and is discoverable by the PCs; and it includes a bunch of classic spooky set pieces (like the ghoul feast at the plantation).

***

Thoughts of Darkness

This cover, I’m not feeling so much. The illithid is just not menacing in s scary way and the alien landscape is too different to be relatable or scary.

And the adventure lives up to that cover. This is another one of those “there’s a bad guy whose plan is to take over from the dark lord” setups (like Touch of Death), except here: the barren land of Bluetspur is ruled by underground illithids who have to capture slaves to reproduce; and one illithid wants to become a vampire to overthrow the elder brain that controls the land; so he hooks up with a vampire and steals some artifact and… I don’t know, the whole thing gives me a real “why should I care?” vibe.

(Also, gotta love the intro that says “don’t let your players feel like they’re being railroaded.” You know what sort of adventure says that? A railroady sort.)

(Oh, wait correction: the bad guys are looking for an artifact, which was maybe stolen by some others.)

Here’s what I like about this adventure: there’s a lot of body horror from all the experimentation that the illithids do. Here’s what I don’t like: mostly the adventure seems like a dungeon crawl where you’re just fighting monsters in order to, what, make sure one monster doesn’t take over a blighted hellscape from another?

***

From the Shadows

Azalin the lich wants to speed up the Grand Conjunction in order to escape from Ravenloft. There’s a lot of backstory here, but that’s really all they need to say.

This adventure starts off telling the DM to kill the PCs in an encounter with the Headless Horseman, “even if you must cheat a few of the die rolls.” OK, fine, then they’re imprisoned and pressed into service by Azalin to observe Strahd’s past by placing their consciousness into some wedding guests — guests who vampire Strahd will soon kill. Hmmm, ok, that feels odd — like is this whole adventure going to be the DM killing the PCs over and over again — but is actually one of the fun things here, because Azalin will keep sending the PCs back until they retrieve this one magic item (with all of the actions of their past selves still taking place, sort of).

Now there’s some fun set pieces as the PCs try to get their decapitated heads back onto their bodies, but then I think they’re just going to be exploring the castle, looking for a way to defeat Azalin and escape, I guess. Except — twist — Azalin actually wants them to take his phylactery (where his life essence is stored since he’s a witch) and to kill him (so his spirit can escape.)

***

Roots of Evil continues From the Shadows’s plot: Azalin has escaped Ravenloft, and actually gone to Barovia before it became the first domain in Ravenloft, where he wants to take his revenge on Strahd. But Strahd is ready for the fight, and also there’s a demon who Strahd made a deal with a long time ago who is ready to execute on the deal. The PCs do missions for one or other of these factions — oh, and maybe the good Queen of Barovia. As the story summary unironically notes: "the struggle grows more complicated” as more players get into the game. No shit, really?

This is one of those adventures where things sort of have to turn out the same way no matter what, and while the writers make some effort to help the DM channel the players — for instance, providing notes at one juncture for “Patient,” “Impatient,” and “Sneaky Players,” the recognized three types of player — I can’t help but think that this adventure should be part of a novel about the Grand Conjunction and what that metaplot means for Ravenloft.

***

OK, so what have we learned from these four adventures? Well, I think one lesson here is “don’t worry about using the classics,” like zombies in a swamp. Maybe another is “try to give players meaningful choices” or “do better at hiding the railroad tracks.” Also, personally, I’m not a fan of the villain having a complicated plan where it turns out the PCs have been doing their bidding — or at least I’d be wary of overusing it. Also: “have recognizable stakes!”

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another 5-star module. It's a great introduction to Ravenloft as a setting. It's also got some unforgettable characters. I've run this particular module three times, and none of my players have ever forgotten the illustrious Luc.

[NeuroDicey HomeschoolLife · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat little adventure that needs some tweaking to really work. The motivations of the villains won't be clear to the players as-written because the only person who knows specifically can't speak. If you get past that, this is a fabulous Halloween season adventure with walking dead on a plantation. There's mystery to unravel, some fun red herrings, and then an explosion of walking dead horror. You could even make this work in a d20 Modern or Call Of Cthulhu session taking place in present day.

[Reflex 1973 · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introductory module to the Demiplane of Dread, a must have for any Ravenloft Campaign