Untold mysteries pervade the Domains of Dread, but these truths underpin the setting:

1: Ravenloft Is Malleable. The domains of Ravenloft are disconnected demiplanes. They don™t share a world or a certain reality. Few truths connect them, and even inviolate facts”such as time or death”might change. The only constant is fear.

2: The Dark Powers Reign. Sinister forces known as the Dark Powers manipulate the Domains of Dread. Unknowable and omnipotent, the Dark Powers torment their captives for unfathomable reasons.

3: Domains Imprison Darklords. Each of Ravenloft™s demiplanes imprisons a Darklord, a villain tormented by the Dark Powers. Domains ironically twist Darklords™ desires, trapping these villains in cycles of dread and despair.

4: The Mists™ Clutches. Constant fogs known as the Mists encircle each domain and might rise anywhere within. The Mists trap individuals within domains and make travel between domains uncertain. They sometimes drag inhabitants of other worlds into the Domains of Dread.

5: Heroes Are Few. Few oppose the villainy of the Darklords. The domains don™t contain benevolent nations or untarnished heroic orders. Those who oppose evil can rely only on themselves, and they might inspire others or attract greater terrors.

6: Isolated Islands. The Domains of Dread are isolated from one another and the rest of the multiverse. Magic that facilitates travel between planes doesn™t function unless the Dark Powers allow it, and most inhabitants know little of realms beyond. Nevertheless, anything from across the multiverse might appear in Ravenloft, albeit with an unsettling twist.

7: Rule of Fear. The mysteries of the Dark Powers and the Mists facilitate frightful adventures. Whatever inspires terror and aids your horror adventures is the will of the Dark Powers.

This book explores the Domains of Dread and helps you create frightful adventures and heroes ready to confront horrors. It requires the Player™s Handbook, Dungeon Master™s Guide, and Monster Manual.

This introduction provides an overview of Ravenloft and its mysteries.

Chapter 1 presents subclasses, Предыстории, Виды, Черты, and more for characters preparing to face nightmarish adventures.

Chapter 2 details prominent Domains of Dread, along with their Darklords and adventures within.

Chapter 3 provides tools for Dungeon Masters running horror adventures, including ways to develop frightful campaigns and rules for Haunted Bastions.

Chapter 4 explores how Dungeon Masters can create their own Domains of Dread.

Chapter 5 reveals allies and enemies that might appear in terrifying tales in the Mists or beyond.

The appendix details the tarokka deck and how to use it in your adventures.

This section provides you, the DM, an overview of Ravenloft. For details on specific Domains of Dread, see chapter 2.

Every domain torments a Darklord, a villain whose depravity attracted the attention of the Dark Powers and led to their imprisonment in the Domains of Dread. A Darklord might be anyone in a domain, from a national leader to an unassuming resident. Darklords share these qualities:

Darklords Are Evil. Each Darklord is the ultimate villain of a domain and the root of its terrors.

Darklords Are Prisoners. Darklords can™t leave their domains. If a Darklord enters the Mists or uses another method to attempt escape, the Dark Powers return them to their domain. Even death rarely allows a Darklord to escape for long.

Darklords Are Tormented. Every domain torments its Darklord in an ironic way tied to their crimes, failures, or ambitions.

Darklords Influence Domains. Darklords have supernatural influence over their domains. A Darklord can close their domain™s borders (see њClosing Domain Bordersќ below) and create other effects.

Darklords Are Active. Darklords might brood over their failures, but their attempts to achieve their depraved goals fuel their conflicts with characters. Liberally use Darklords in your adventures rather than saving them for climactic plots.

Darklords Don™t Realize They™re Darklords. Darklords generally don™t realize they occupy a special place in the world. Their obsessions make them oblivious to the strangeness of their circumstances. Most don™t suspect the nature of the Domains of Dread or the Dark Powers.

Closing Domain Borders. Darklords can close the borders of their domains at will. When this occurs, the Mists become dangerous (see the Darklord descriptions in chapter 2), and no matter how far a creature travels in the Mists, it eventually finds itself back in the domain it left. This makes leaving a domain impossible until the Darklord opens the borders or is defeated.

Chapter 2 presents stat blocks for numerous Darklords. Chapter 3 explores how to use Darklords in your horror adventures, while chapter 4 aids in creating your own Darklords.

The Domains of Dread are untold numbers of individual demiplanes hidden in the Shadowfell. Some are created entirely by the Dark Powers, while others the Mists claimed from elsewhere in the multiverse and bear evidence of other worlds. Domains might change as the Dark Powers find new ways to torment their captives, with domains changing shape, merging, fading away, reappearing, and even repeating events.

The Domains of Dread share these features:

Domains Are Finite. Domains vary in size from countries or regions to a single city or structure.

Domains Are Isolated. Each domain is bordered by the Mists. Generally, domains don™t share geography, and the residents and cultures of different domains don™t influence one another.

Domains Hold Darklords. Each domain exists to contains a Darklord. Darklords exert some control over their domains, but they are tormented by their imprisonment. A domain without a Darklord has no purpose; if a domain™s Darklord escapes or is permanently defeated, it might cease to exist.

Chapter 2 describes some of the most notorious Domains of Dread, while chapter 3 explores how to use domains in horror adventures. Use the methods in chapter 4 to create domains of your own.

The Domains of Dread might seem surreal to individuals from other worlds, but for the residents of the Mists, Ravenloft™s bizarre qualities are normal parts of reality.

Shared Delusion

Domain residents don™t see incongruities in their existence. Societal pressure and soulless individuals controlled by the Dark Powers encourage inhabitants to embrace ignorance, dismiss coincidences, or doubt their senses. Residents of the Domains of Dread are no less perceptive than people elsewhere in the multiverse, but their home domains manipulate them into believing everything is as it should be, must be, and always was.

Those who call domain residents™ reality into question are likely to be dismissed, distrusted, or worse. Individuals who speak of other worlds are broadly considered to be liars or delusional. Few individuals are open-minded to such concepts.

Adventurers

Ravenloft rarely gives rise to heroes. For the inhabitants of most domains, survival is the only act of courage they pursue. Those willing to confront the terrors of the Mists are typically strangers from other worlds or domain residents jarred from their apathy by traumatic events.

Adventurers find few peers in the Land of the Mists. 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. Chapter 3 provides details on wanderers who might aid adventurers across domains.

Culture and Technology

Each domain has a distinct culture. Such cultures might be inspired by societies elsewhere in the multiverse or fantasies manufactured to torment a Darklord. Traditions are purportedly based on history, but few domains have coherent records of the past. Details of ages before a Darklord™s arrival are usually vague or absent.

Similarly, every domain has its own level of technological advancement, the details of which are up to you. In some domains, firearms and clockwork devices are common, while others might feature cutting-edge weird science.

No cultural exchange occurs between the Domains of Dread. While evidence of one domain might appear in another, such things are viewed with suspicion.

Currency

Some domains mint their own gold, silver, and copper coins. Though these currencies bear different markings, merchants aren™t particular about the designs stamped on their currency. Platinum and electrum coins rarely circulate through the domains, but they appear often enough”originating from hidden troves or ancient vaults”that no trader questions their value.

Language

Common is the shared language of the Domains of Dread. Some domains might have unique words, and speakers from different domains might have distinctive accents, but individuals from different domains are understandable to one another. Other languages from the Player™s Handbook are also known among the domains, but their rarity varies between domains as you see fit.

Religion

In many domains, residents worship stern but vague gods, and clergy have scant supernatural powers. Any deity, patron, or philosophy from anywhere in the multiverse might have followers in the Domains of Dread, though these followers™ beliefs might be unconventional. The Dark Powers also breathe power into the faith of delusional zealots. Whether otherworldly forces or the Dark Powers empower faithful spellcasters is up to you.

Ezra. Mysteriously, worship of one god has its origins in the Mists. The god Ezra is depicted as a vaporous figure with dark, billowing hair and is believed to be able to manipulate the Mists. Ezra™s holy symbol is a sprig of belladonna atop a silver kite shield. Ezra™s followers across domains view the deity in contradictory ways. For some, Ezra is a stalwart guardian, while others perceive the god as a soul-stealing embodiment of the Mists. The truths of Ezra™s existence and nature are mysteries.

Time and Dates

The Domains of Dread don™t share a calendar. However, in most domains, locals measure time by њmoonsќ rather than months. Each moon begins on the first night of a full moon and lasts a full lunar cycle. A year consists of twelve moons.

Although domains don™t subscribe to a shared history, the populace of all domains inexplicably accept the current year as 735. Some local histories cleave to anomalous dates and methods of tracking years, but these are considered obsolete. No such irregularities exist in Barovia, though, where year 1 corresponds with the founding of Barovia by the von Zarovich family.

Travel

Most domain residents have little interest in domains beyond their own, and the nature of the Mists makes mercantile ventures and military conquests between domains essentially impossible. Nevertheless, rare individuals travel between the domains either at random, using Mist talismans (see њThe Mistsќ), or by engaging mist-wandering guides. Those who enter the Mists by road, river, or sea usually emerge in a new domain by the same method. This means that domains with no coastline must be reached by methods other than ship, but also that travelers following roads rarely emerge from the Mists on the sea”though they might arrive inland within a domain surrounded by water.

Some magic functions differently in the Domains of Dread. Characters who receive spells from otherworldly forces or patrons do so as normal, but the magic noted here functions in distinct ways:

Banishment. Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Fey, or Fiends aren™t transported to different planes after the Изгнание spell ends. Rather, they appear in a random different domain.

Escape. No spell allows escape from Ravenloft.

Etherealness. Magic that accesses the Border Ethereal, such as the Выход в Эфир spell, functions as normal, but a creature that enters the Border Ethereal from a domain is pulled back into the domain it left on leaving the Ethereal Plane.

Extradimensional Spaces. Extradimensional spaces function as normal, but spells cast within them are subject to the same restrictions as magic cast within a domain.

Otherworldly Contact. Magic that allows contact with beings from other planes, such as the Божественное откровение spell, functions normally, but the domain™s Darklord senses when someone in their domain casts such a spell. The Darklord can make themself the spell™s target so that they become the one who is contacted and answer as they please.

Planar Boundaries. For the purposes of spell effects that change across or are blocked by planar boundaries (such as the Послание spell), each domain is considered its own plane.

Planar Travel. Magic that allows travel to other planes, such as the Астральная проекция and Планарный переход spells, fails in the Domains of Dread. Врата can conjure beings into the Domains of Dread, but it doesn™t allow them or others to escape. Magic that creates or sends creatures to demiplanes”such as the Демиплан, Лабиринт, and Заключение spells”functions as normal.

Summoning. Magic that summons creatures or objects functions as normal, but whatever is summoned is a creation of the Dark Powers and might appear or behave in eerie ways.

Cosmetic Magic Effects

Magic effects produced in Ravenloft appear more sinister than they do elsewhere in the multiverse. For example, a creature conjured by Призыв фамильяра or Призыв скакуна might appear unnatural or deathly, or the Поиск пути spell might cause a silent, childlike spirit to guide the caster to their destination. Describe such effects in whatever way reinforces a horrific atmosphere, drawing inspiration from the domain where your adventure takes place.

Ravenloft cultivates dread in defiance of logic. Domains don™t abut one another, historians don™t record coherent pasts, and communities cloak ignorance in strange traditions. The Domains of Dread operate on the same logic as nightmares: Whatever is the most terrifying is true. The Dark Powers, the Mists, and the nature of domains are purposefully mysterious. Mundane details and the lives of domain inhabitants are constructed on illusions and impossibilities. Should characters realize the surreality of the setting, those revelations only create a stronger sense of existential dread and suggest greater questions. Ultimately, none can ever fully understand the Domains of Dread.

The inhabitants of the Domains of Dread fall into these categories:

Soulless Shells. Some domain inhabitants are creations of the Dark Powers. These beings are indistinguishable from normal creatures, living unremarkable lives and existing to reinforce whatever status quo the Dark Powers impose. At the will of the Dark Powers, these inhabitants might reappear in a domain even after being slain.

Bright Souls. Some beings are like those who populate other worlds in the multiverse. Some live unremarkable lives, while others awake to their homes™ wrongness and fight their domains™ evils.

Strangers. Those whom the Mists abduct from other worlds likely suspect the surreal nature of the Domains of Dread. These individuals often seek ways to escape the Mists and return home.

Death and Rebirth

The spirits of those who die in the Domains of Dread or the Mists don™t travel to the afterlife. Those magically returned to life after being dead for at least 24 hours return with the grim realization that they™re trapped within the Mists.

The souls of those who die and aren™t returned to life are trapped within the Domains of Dread. The Dark Powers might eventually reincarnate these souls. Individuals who inherit a soul often look like their predecessor and might recall memories of their past lives.

The Dark Powers are faceless, godlike forces that manipulate reality within the Domains of Dread. Few even suspect their existence. These enigmatic forces help you create horror adventures and serve two complementary roles:

Narrative. The nature and goals of the Dark Powers are mysteries behind the scenes of the setting. Most adventures won™t engage with these forces, but that doesn™t prevent characters and Darklords from seeking to learn about them, particularly as a means to escape the Domains of Dread.

Practical. The Dark Powers provide a narrative veneer for DM intervention. They are why characters appear in Ravenloft, why the Mists can™t be escaped, and why reality-defying strangeness occurs. The desires of the Dark Powers correspond with your needs in creating horror adventures.

The Mists of Ravenloft appear without warning and move with eerie intention. Areas within the Mists are Heavily Obscured. No amount of wind can disperse the Mists.

The Mists serve the following roles:

Dark Clutches. The Mists serve the Dark Powers. They might steal residents of other worlds or entire locations from elsewhere in the multiverse and trap them in the Domains of Dread. Whether the Mists ever return what they claim depends on the whims of the Dark Powers.

Domain Borders. The Mists surround and isolate every Domain of Dread, preventing easy or predictable travel between them.

Transportation. The Mists can appear anywhere, claim individuals, and spirit them elsewhere in the Domains of Dread.

Mysteries of the Mists

The inhabitants of the Domains of Dread ascribe sinister stories to the Mists but accept the Mists as a natural part of their homeland. Those who travel between domains refer to their world as the Land of the Mists. Any supernatural happening or malicious force might be blamed on the Mists. Those who interact with the Mists”or who come from beyond”are typically met with suspicion.

So long as a Darklord hasn™t closed their domain™s borders, creatures that enter the Mists might travel to other domains. When characters without a Mist talisman enter the Mists surrounding a domain, they emerge elsewhere after 1d6#hours hours of travel. Roll on or take inspiration from the Wandering the Mists table to determine where the Mists relocate characters.

Блуждание в Туманах

Блуждание в Туманах

	Characters Emerge from the Mists ¦
1-20	В домене по вашему выбору.
21-40	После блуждания ещё 1d6 часов и повторного броска по этой таблице.
41-65	В 1d100 футах от места входа.
66-75	В миле от места входа в полночь следующей ночи.
76-85	Внутри строения в домене, который они пытались покинуть, возможно, пещеры, склепа, сарая или чулана.
86-95	После встречи с существами в Туманах. Бросьте любую кость. Если выпало чётное, появляется испуганный Простолюдин. Если нечётное — Туманный ужас (см. главу 5). Бросьте снова по этой таблице.
96-99	Туда же, где вошли, но домен изменился. Возможно, кто-то из знакомых персонажей исчез, и никто его не помнит.
100	На мир Материального плана. Через 1d6 часов Туманы вновь сгущаются вокруг них и возвращают в покинутый ими домен.