Ravenloft: Denizens of Darkness
Denizens of Darkness is a creature sourcebook for the Ravenloft setting, produced by the White Wolf subsidiary Arthaus under license by Wizards of the Coast for the Dungeons & Dragons third edition game.
A First Look
Denizens of Darkness is a 184 page hardbound book priced at $29.95. There are 8 whole pages of promotional material.
The cover of the book has a similar style to the Ravenloft Campaign Setting book: black with a reddish emblem on the front, with a stylized Ravenloft logo.
The interior of the book is black and white. Arthaus dips into the typical White Wolf bin of artists for the interior illustrations, and you may recognize some of the artwork from other titles by Sword & Sorcery Studios. Though some art is acceptable, the overall art quality is substandard, with many sloppy looking or sketchy looking pieces. I am guessing that some of this is in a vain attempt to be "stylish" or play to some abstract feel that the art director is trying to create with the book, but on the whole I find the art unappealing.
The interior layout takes the same route as the Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition Monster Manual in that it targets conserving space vice presenting each creature on its own page. The text size is moderate and the header fonts are stylish but readable.
A Deeper Look
The creatures in Denizens of Darkness are arranged alphabetically. There are no appendices; templates, animals, and vermin are sorted in with the rest of the creatures in the book. Each template is provided with one or more samples of creatures with the template applied.
The book draws from earlier editions of Ravenloft for many of the creatures. Fans will recognize creatures like the bastellus, dread elementals, dream spawn, race-specific strains of vampires, and zombie lords. Though some of these creatures are necessary for the continuity of the setting (like the dream spawn, some of these I would have happily done without (like the dread elementals).
A few creatures in the book vary only slightly from creatures in the Monster Manual, such as the dread nightmare and dread doppleganger. It seems to me as if whole new creature write-ups for these creatures was something of a waste of space.
Some of the more interesting creatures in the book are:
- Bastellus: A classical Ravenloft creature, the bastellus, or dream stalker is a shadowy undead creature that feed's off of the fear of a sleeping victim. It enters the dreams of the victim and slowly saps the victim's wisdom away, but if the victim can make a will save, the victim confronts the bastellus in the dream.
- Crimson Bones: These ghastly creatures are undead that arise after a victim has been flayed to death. The creature rises as a continually bleeding skeletal figure.
- Dhampir: In Ravenloft, it is possible for a vampire to breed with a humanoid of the same base race. The result of such a union is a dhampir. The dhampir template makes the creature into monstrous humanoid with many of the special abilities of vampires, but few of the weaknesses.
- Dread Golems: This assortment of golems are also Ravenloft classics, and includes the bone golem, doll golem, and gargoyle golem.
- Grim Reaper: In Ravenloft, the grim reaper (or death spirit) is a tangible force of death. Creatures who repeatedly have brushes of death may draw the attention of one of these horrible creatures.
- Lebentod: The lebentod is a disquieting undead creature with the ability to blend in with the living. The lebentod can detach any of its extremities and may sense and control them while detached.
- Living Tattoo: The living tattoos are non-evil spirits bound into a tattoo. The living tattoo is a template that can be applied to a creature to make it into a tattoo that can detach from the host as an animate form of the creature.
- Shadow Fiend: Another classic creature that predates Ravenloft, the shadow fiend is a demon trapped in the form of a shadow.
- Vampire Strain: These templates are applied to the vampire template to create a different strain of vampire (like chiang-shi and nosferatu) or vampire strains appropriate to specific races (like dwarves or elves). Like the rules in the Ravenloft Campaign Setting books, these strains have various ages for the vampires. I like the variant strains, but have never been fond of the concept of racial-specific vampire. Now that there is a template that can be applied to a variety of creatures, I am even less fond of race specific vampires; it seems to me as if a few variant abilities would have done the trick.
Conclusion
The creatures in Denizens of Darkness have a sinister feel about them. This caters well to the Ravenloft setting, but may make the book seem like a bit of a one note. Though there are many good creatures, some are uninspiring or too close to the core equivalents. Coupled with the price, this may not be the best purchase unless you are actively running a Ravenloft game.
Fortunately, the book's mechanics are fairly well executed. I only spotted a few rules gaffes, such as creatures with the wrong HD type. If you have a taste for the sinister creatures herein enough to warrant the price, the book should work well in play.
-Alan D. Kohler
